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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley Sep 1996

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In a paraphrase of Yogi Berra's immortal words, we came to a fork in the road and we took it. Which is all in the way of introducing this issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy. The articles featured here, while spanning a very broad spectrum of public policy, have several unifying themes. They are all case studies in one way or another of the incompetence that is an essential feature of the public policy process in a democratic culture, of the constraints in the way of making change, no matter how obviously desirable or in the …


Umass Chooses A Political Executive: The Politics Of A Presidential Search, Richard A. Hogarty Sep 1996

Umass Chooses A Political Executive: The Politics Of A Presidential Search, Richard A. Hogarty

New England Journal of Public Policy

Horace Mann, the father of American public education, had served as president of the Massachusetts Senate prior to becoming the state's first secretary of education. Since then, as reformers succeeded in removing politics from the sacred groves of academe, appointing a politician to head the state's educational system fell into disfavor. Relatively recently, however, there have been two abortive attempts by politicians to reach the executive pinnacle of public higher education. Both James Collins, in 1986, and David Bartley, in 1991, were defeated in the quest to achieve this goal. Historical understanding of these battles is necessary to comprehend what …


The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff Sep 1996

The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the November 8, 1994, state election, Massachusetts voters approved a question placed on the ballot by initiative petition passing a law that effectively outlawed rent control throughout the commonwealth. This law had its most dramatic effect in Cambridge, where a stringent rent control system had been in effect since 1970. The success of the petition was realized primarily through the grassroots efforts of a coalition of small-property owners in Cambridge who felt aggrieved by the city's rent control system. The use of a statewide vote on an initiative petition to enact a law with predominantly local effect created for …


The Trouble With Connecticut, Kenneth J. Long Sep 1996

The Trouble With Connecticut, Kenneth J. Long

New England Journal of Public Policy

The problems of Connecticut, this author believes, parallel those of Nigeria, which are described by Chinua Achebe in The Trouble with Nigeria. Both places may be considered dirty, callous, ostentatious, and dishonest. The causes of these and other defects are also similar: unusually large disparities in living standards, high cost of living, localism, and lack of leadership. In Connecticut, gross inequities in taxation seem to intermingle with and reinforce all these roots of unpleasantness.


Understanding Latino Ethnic Identity Development: A Review Of Relevant Issues, Azara Rivera-Santiago Mar 1996

Understanding Latino Ethnic Identity Development: A Review Of Relevant Issues, Azara Rivera-Santiago

New England Journal of Public Policy

One of the most promising areas in cross-cultural psychology is the development of identity among various ethnic groups in the United States. This article has a twofold purpose. First, it offers the concept of ethnic identity as defined and studied within the social sciences — sociology, anthropology, and psychology — including a review of some of the recent work on ethnic identity development proposed by leading investigators in the field of psychology. The author discusses their generalizability across ethnic groups. Second, it presents a number of dimensions considered important in conceptualizing and studying Hispanic ethnic identity development. These include acculturation, …


Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley Mar 1996

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

This issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy is devoted to further consideration of the public policy implications of specific topics that are of concern to the Latino community and in need of urgent redress. This must be a priority if the United States is not to find itself hopelessly mired in the ramifications, blithely ignored at the end of the twentieth century, of the complexities the changing ethnic composition of the country will create in the opening decades of the twenty-first century.