Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Postmortems On The Affordable Care Act (Book Review), Rick Mayes

Political Science Faculty Publications

Nearly two years after the Affordable Care Act became law, books are appearing by Washington insiders who detail how the legislation came about. The two reviewed here discuss and dissect topics related to the health reform law from decidedly different points of view.

Mixed Agendas And Government Regulation Of Business: Can We Clean Up The Mess?, Tom Arnold, Jerry L. Stevens

Finance Faculty Publications

The history of regulation in the U.S. economy shows a cumulative growth of government involvement in private enterprise that has helped business at times and has been at odds with business at other times. The wavering views on how much regulation is warranted change over time and cut across political and philosophical ideologies. For example, in the first two years of President Barack Obama's administration there was a push for new and large increases in regulation of healthcare and financial markets along with intervention into public markets with massive spending to bailout automakers and financial institutions.

Now, in the second …

Pay-For-Performance Reimbursement In Health Care: Chasing Cost Control And Increased Quality Through "New And Improved" Payment Incentives, Rick Mayes, Jessica Walradt

Political Science Faculty Publications

Pay-for-performance (P4P) reimbursement has become a popular and growing form of health care payment built on the belief that payment incentives strongly affect medical providers' behavior. By paying more to those providers who are deemed to deliver better care, the goal is to increase quality and, hopefully restrain cost growth. This article provides a brief explanation of: (1) how previous P4P plans in the U.S. have fared, along with their special relationship to primary care, and (2) how England's experience with P4P and newer versions of these kinds of plans being pursued in places such as Massachusetts might provide valuable …

Public Policy, Human Instincts, And Economic Growth, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Alfred Marshall famously insisted that economics is more like biology than physics. Societies are organic ecologies that evolve and produce organized but unplanned complexity (Hayek 1979). Although no public policy reliably produces economic growth across all ecosystems, a key element unites diverse institutions and policies that do seem to work: they all are reasonably compatible with human instinct. Institutions that build on the basic instinct for self-betterment (as in markets) have a much easier time in achieving success than institutions that oppose it (as in communism). Instincts, like gravity, are a force of nature. Adam Smith theorized, for example, …

The Way It Was In Health Policy, And Probably Will Be: Learning Lessons By Rashi Fein (Book Review), Rick Mayes

Political Science Faculty Publications

Learning Lessons by Rashi Fein is an enjoyable memoir from a scholar and policy adviser unlike any other. Fein’s influential involvement in health care policy dates back to John F. Kennedy’s administration, and his career as a leading health economist paralleled the significant growth in the political influence of health economists following the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Now an emeritus professor of the economics of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Fein writes here about the lessons he learned in medicine, economics, and public policy. His view of the policy process, as a way of coming to …

Jane Addams: Spirit In Action By Louise W. Knight, Mari Boor Tonn

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The common temptation to perceive greatness as imprinted at birth, however, is skillfully disabused in Louise Knight’s meticulous, insightful,and often poignant biography, Jane Addams: Spirit in Action, which traces the complicated odyssey of a well-heeled idealist—initially conflicted by her material privilege, disappointed by gender-codes confining her ambitions, and haunted by familial ghosts and duties—into the pantheon of U.S. political idols. Of particular interest to rhetorical scholars, Knight weaves into Addams’s arresting tale her early baptism into public speaking, writings that shaped her expression in public forums, rhetorical strategies she employed, and platform failures as well as successes. A prolific speaker, …

Mujeres Y Bienestar: Un Estudio Comparativo De Chile Y Uruguay, Jennifer Pribble

Political Science Faculty Publications

Es ampliamente reconocido por economistas, cientistas políticos y sociólogos que las mujeres constituyen una proporción muy alta de la pobreza mundial. A pesar de las marcadas diferencias de género entre los pobres latinoamericanos, los análisis de los Estados de bienestar de Ia región se han concentrado primordialmente en explicar las diferencias en los niveles del gasto socialo total. Este enfoque ha dejado de lado una variable importante en los regímenes de bienestar latinoamericanos: el carácter de género en las políticas sociales. Este trabajo pretende cubrir esa brecha. Mediante un análisis comparativo de Chile y Uruguay, las páginas que siguen exploran …

Justice, The Public Sector, And Cities: Re-Legitimating The Activist State, Thad Williamson

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The assault on egalitarian social justice in the United States over the past forty years has also been an assault on the legitimacy of vigorous public action to forward substantive goals. This is no coincidence: egalitarian conceptions of social justice invariably assume that the state will be the principal mechanism for establishing just social arrangements and rectifying inequalities (Rawls 1971; Dworkin 2000). In contrast, neoliberal conceptions of governance aim to both straitjacket the public sector and stymie efforts toward meaningful egalitarian redistribution. Given this strong internal connection between attractive conceptions of social justice and the idea of an active, competent …