Public Policy Commons^™

Citizenship And Virtue’ Are Requirements For Maintaining Liberty, Timothy P. O'Brien

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

In the twenty-first century, the United States of America has been caught in a time of increased polarization, the Republic has been fraying as the sense of community has cracked, where fanatics on the extremes of the political spectrum have contributed to the disruption of normal political order driven by normative agendas. The underlying political theories on which the nations was founded emerged from the ancient Greek philosophers and passed through the early Christian philosophers to the Framers of the Constitution of the United States of America. This article explores the foundations of citizenship and virtue as it applies to …

The Development Of Health System Resiliency: How Kenya's Experience With Malaria Impacted Its Reaction To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zoe A. Ward

Baker Scholar Projects

Public health scholars have recently focused on health system resiliency to explain how previous experiences dealing with public health crises impact the healthcare sector, public behavior, and policy response to novel crises. However, it is unclear how resiliency develops. This study contributes by testing whether a health system’s experience with a health emergency and significant interventions impacts the response to a novel crisis. This research asks, “How has Kenya’s experience with malaria impacted its response to COVID-19?” Using the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS), I develop a malaria adherence score to measure county-level compliance …

Integrated Or Excluded: The Effects Of French Integration Policies On Immigrant Communities From 2000 To 2020, Johanna N. Soleil

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Few issues are as important to European politics as integration, though research into the actual effect of integration policies on immigrant communities is sparse in Europe and especially in France. This paper examines through the data available to researchers how immigrant communities compare to native populations in terms of cultural, health, and economic characteristics. To this end the paper is organized as follows: the first section introduces the French political context and the cultural attitude towards immigrants. Next, the various methods of analysis are presented, and each of the previously mentioned attributes is analyzed in the French context as well …

Not Just The Flu: The Impacts Of Asiaflucap Influenza Policy Recommendations On Southeast Asia During The Sars-Cov-2 Pandemic, Rebekah Huber

Honors Projects

During 2008 to 2011, a multi-year influenza pandemic study (ASIAFLUCAP) took place in six Southeast Asian countries: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, and Laos, to analyze their healthcare system capacities and determine appropriate policy recommendations in order that they might be better equipped for future influenza pandemics. This research expands upon that project to see if the countries that implemented higher numbers of ASIAFLUCAP policy recommendations prior to or in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic fared better than those countries which did implemented fewer recommendations. It finds that results are mixed across the sample, with no clear association between a country’s adoption …

A Culture Of Institutional Racism: Housing Policies During The New Deal, Breyonna J. Bowen

Capstone Showcase

There currently exists a distressed relationship between African Americans and housing due to previously enacted policies. In looking at this issue, I aim to use the theory of institutional racism to explain how past housing policies that enforce and perpetuate discrimination have impacted this current relationship. Through the method of policy analysis, I attempt to pinpoint where past housing policies have failed to provide housing to many African Americans. I find that there are several policies that were enacted during 1930s and 40s, specifically the New Deal Era, that inflicted discriminatory housing policies on African Americans. The findings indicate that …

The Deregulation Deception, Cary Coglianese, Natasha Sarin, Stuart Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

President Donald Trump and members of his Administration repeatedly asserted that they had delivered substantial deregulation that fueled positive trends in the U.S. economy prior to the COVID pandemic. Drawing on an original analysis of data on federal regulation from across the Trump Administration’s four years, we show that the Trump Administration actually accomplished much less by way of deregulation than it repeatedly claimed—and much less than many commentators and scholars have believed. In addition, and also contrary to the Administration’s claims, overall economic trends in the pre-pandemic Trump years tended simply to follow economic trends that began years earlier. …

Bipolaridad De Las Políticas De Movilidad Del Valle De Aburrá: Análisis Desde Los Instrumentos De Gestión De La Demanda Implementados Entre 1999 Y 2019, Viviana Tobón Jaramillo

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Medellín and the Aburrá Valley are internationally recognized for their capacity to design bold projects regarding transportation and sustainability. However, the city's mobility dynamics show a different reality: the number of vehicles has grown steadily over the last 20 years. The metropolitan inhabitants spend 44% more time mobilizing in the city than 12 years ago and air quality has become the main challenge on the city's environmental agenda. The purpose of this article is to understand, from the analysis of public policies, the reasons why no progress has been made in the implementation of policies that effectively discourage the use …

Transformative Constitutionalism And The Adjudication Of Elections In Kenya, Carl Bevelhymer

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The judicialization of politics has been an ongoing and expanding global phenomenon for decades. In Kenya, the record number of cases brought before courts prior to and following the 2017 elections is evidence of the continued growth and spread of the judicialization of politics, and more specifically elections; it is also the result of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, which introduced a new form of governance, expanded the number of elective seats and mandated judicial and electoral reforms. One of the most remarkable events of the 2017 election period was the Supreme Court’s nullification of the presidential election due to electoral irregularities. …

High-Tech Development In Late Developing States: Taiwan's Semiconductor Success, Owen Farley

Honors Theses

This paper examines the development of Taiwan's semiconductor industry and the differing narratives on the factors contributing to the industry's success. The paper argues that both State-led policies and public institutions, as well as the experience and networks of returnee entrepreneurs, together facilitated the development of Taiwan's semiconductor industry, specifically the pureplay-foundry. Significantly, we argue that State-led policies were often tailored to attract the human capital as well as financial capital these returnees possessed and then incorporate their technical skills, managerial know-how, and knowledge of industry trends within State institutions. This paper analyzes specific State policies and inputs, like the …

Finding Foreign Friends: National Self-Determination And Related Norms As Strategic Resources During The Biafran War For Independence, 1967–1970, Christopher Brucker

New England Journal of Public Policy

The study analyzes how the government of the Republic of Biafra used international norms to win foreign support during its 1967–1970 campaign to secede from Nigeria. Secession conflicts occur at the intersection of international and domestic politics. For independence movements, support from outside is crucial. But, as Bridget Coggins has asked, how can secession movements find “friends in high places”? International support for unilateral secession attempts is strictly prohibited. Domestic and international asymmetry are limiting secessionist foreign policy instruments to intangible means. Legitimacy is a central concept to illuminate the phenomenon. In international politics, legitimacy depends on the external perception …

America's War On Drugs: Applying A Supply And Demand Framework For The Opioid Epidemic Through The Lens Of Federalism, Cari Librett

Senior Theses and Projects

For the past fifty years, American drug policy has been manipulated and enforced in a way that made it possible for drug epidemics to occur and has exaggerated their negative consequences on society. The War on Drugs policy initiatives first implemented in the 1970s created a drug law enforcement structure that has criminalized addiction and made it difficult for addicts to receive treatment. The United States is currently facing it's worst drug epidemic in history due to these policies. However, unlike previous epidemics, the opioid crisis is particularly unique not only because of the unparalleled nature of the issue, but …

Article Critique: “Shifting Winds: Explaining Variation In State Policies To Promote Small-Scale Wind Energy”, Luke Eastin

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

This paper is a review of Tomas Koontz and Joshua Wiener's case study analysis that considered the extent of variance among three states in regard to their particular small-scale wind energy policies. Through this critique, the author provides both the benefits and difficulties with the research, along with the future prospects for research in this area of policy studies.

El Análisis De Políticas Públicas: La Evolución De Una Disciplina Y Su Relevancia En Colombia, Carlos Andres Olaya

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

For several decades, the so-called public policy turn has become more relevant in the context of Latin America in general, and Colombia in particular. Both in the political and academic spheres, research projects or intervention have been put forward which, directly or indirectly, relate to a vague and general notion of "public policy." However, the advances in the specific field of the policy theory are timid. Therefore, it is necessary to deepen and energize the proper disciplinary debates of public policy, beyond the study of any policy in particular. Thus, this article explores the historical development of policy studies as …

Environmental Advocacy: Insights From East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

Editor's Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Such is the unpredictability of Trump’s streaming executive orders that much of what I write may be irrelevant by the time this issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy goes to press. But the articles in this issue will not lose their pertinence, no matter what the administration does. Indeed, given its predilection for “alternative facts,” they assume a greater relevance and consequential significance.

This issue of the journal has three parts. The first part had its origins in a conference on extremism held at the Center for Study of Intractable Conflicts (CRIC), Harris Manchester College Oxford in …

White Cat, Black Cat Or Good Cat: The Beijing Consensus As An Alternative Philosophy For Policy Deliberation?, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

The Unmaking Of An Embargo: How Policy Entrepreneurs At The Individual, State, And National Levels Are Creating New Paths For Policy Change In Modern United States-Cuba Relations, Kyle C. Griffith

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the Cold War antagonisms of the twentieth century, the United States (US) championed greater global economic cooperation and an embrace of free market principles to encourage economic growth. Post World War II, passage of the Bretton Woods Agreement institutionalized this political agenda effectively establishing the rules of global commerce. The result has been increased economic participation and trade liberalization. One of the last remaining vestiges of Cold War hostility and impediments to trade is the US economic embargo of Cuba, in place since 1960. Increasingly seen as a policy failure, the US has taken steps in the past two …

Editor's Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Along with two literary essays, the articles in this issue of the journal address local, national, and international public policy questions. On the literary level, one article discusses whether arguments from an older era over a white writer’s presumption that he can accurately articulate black voices and experiences, itself an unconscious bias, can throw light on racial issues roiling college campuses and other arenas of public discourse today; the second, more mellow and reflective, ponders the incongruities and congruities that surface when the author explores how the meaning of the word home depends on one’s personality as he prepares to …

Agenda-Setting In The Regulatory State: Theory And Evidence, Cary Coglianese, Daniel E. Walters

All Faculty Scholarship

Government officials who run administrative agencies must make countless decisions every day about what issues and work to prioritize. These agenda-setting decisions hold enormous implications for the shape of law and public policy, but they have received remarkably little attention by either administrative law scholars or social scientists who study the bureaucracy. Existing research offers few insights about the institutions, norms, and inputs that shape and constrain agency discretion over their agendas or about the strategies that officials employ in choosing to elevate certain issues while putting others on the back burner. In this article, we advance the study of …

A Comparative Case Study Of Georgia Delegations At The 2012 National Party Conventions, Carolyn S. Carlson, Jeff R. Dewitt, Kerwin Swint

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

From August 26 to September 8, nine political science students and four supervising faculty traveled from Kennesaw State University to the 2012 Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention as part of special topics course on a course titled “Party Conventions Field Study”. While in Tampa and Charlotte, the students and faculty immersed themselves in a “real world” educational environment and in doing so gained extraordinary first-hand exposure to a fundamental, yet not well understood, part of the American political process. Students directly engaged with convention proceedings and participants, primarily the Georgia state party delegations, and implemented pre-approved research …

Touched By Fire: Readings In Time Of War (1991), Shaun O’Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

In "Touched by Fire: Readings in Times of War," Shaun O'Connell draws us into the eerie atmosphere that pulled this country into itself in the late fall and early winter, when thoughts of war provoked hard questions and when, for a time, doubt became the stuff of eloquence.

The works discussed in this article include: Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War, by Sidney Blumenthal; Millie's Book, as dictated to Barbara Bush; An American Life, by Ronald Reagan; The Civil War: An Illustrated History, by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns; …

Editor's Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this edition of the journal several articles address a range of important, and in some cases too often overlooked policy issues, too broad in scope for their conclusions and recommendations to be encapsulated adequately in a brief paragraph. Their diversity, however, highlights a key characteristic of the New England Journal of Public Policy – that of being open to publishing articles that have insightful bearings on how public policy is addressed, not only in the New England states, but throughout the country and in the international community – a community of nations increasingly interdependent with constraints on national sovereignty …

Twelve Years Later: Afghan Humanitarian Aid Workers On War On Terror, Emmanuel C. Ogwude

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Using narrative research study founded in social constructionism, I explored the lived experiences of thirty Afghan humanitarian aid workers in Kabul, Afghanistan, to discover how they experienced the war on terror. Ten participants were individually interviewed and their stories, personal experiences, perceptions, and voices have been presented in this study. I also facilitated a focus group of twenty Afghan NGO directors, and their views are echoed in the study. The participants represented a diversity of different humanitarian service specialties that cater to Afghan individuals, communities, and government agencies in areas such as education, human rights and good governance, food and …

Measuring Happiness To Guide Public Policy Making: A Survey Of Instruments And Policy Initiatives, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

This author examines subjective indicators of well-being as they relate to the happiness movement, a global effort to create a new economic paradigm. The essay focuses on the prominent international institutions that are developing happiness metrics as well as agencies exploring the use of happiness data for crafting supportive public policy. A definition of happiness metrics, based on international institutions, identifies the primary questions that compose perceived happiness and how this data can be used.

Paid Family Leave, Rachel-Lyn Longo, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Senior Honors Projects

Paid Family Leave policies are rare in the United States. Around the world, one hundred and eighty-two countries provide some form of paid maternity leave, and seventy countries also offer paid paternity leave. It is estimated that only 36 percent of U.S. employees have access to paid leave if they get sick, a policy that is almost universal in other developed countries, and only 12 percent of employees have access to paid family leave. Presently, just three states have implemented Paid Family Leave (PFL) to help offset the cost of time taken off of work to care for a newborn …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Sustainable Governance Indicators. Country Report The Netherlands, 2014, Robert Hoppe, Henk Woldendorp, Nils Bandelow

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Negotiated Bodies : Institution Building And Participatory Policymaking In Mexico's Public Health Sector, Katherine Truby

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the relationships between the state and civil society organizations within the context of HIV policy in Mexico. The Mexican context is important in this analysis: Mexico has relatively recently transitioned to a more democratic form of governance, including expanding institutional opportunities for civil society organizations to participate in processes of policy development and implementation. Further, Mexico has an HIV epidemic that is concentrated in the most at-risk communities. These communities typically face political and social exclusion. The extent to which civil society organizations advocating on behalf of these marginalized communities successfully negotiate the creation of new policy …

Interest Group Scorecards And Legislative Satisfaction: Using Ratings To Explore The Private Bias In Public Policy, Daniel E. Chand

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite their importance to our system, the study of interest groups has produced few concrete findings compared to other actors such as administrative agencies and political parties in the policymaking process. The absence of generalizable findings is partly explained by the unpopularity of the topic, but is primarily due to a deficiency of easily accessible data and lack of agreement over how to operationalize important concepts. In the following dissertation, I employ interest group "scorecards" (ratings of members of Congress) as an approach to examining interest groups in a generalizable manner. Specifically, I use scorecards to test the pluralist assumptions …

Center For Rebuilding Sustainable Communities After Disasters: Partnerships In Teaching And Research, Adenrele Awotona, Center For Rebuilding Sustainable Communities After Disasters, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

CRSCAD assists local, national, and international agencies as well as the victims of disasters to develop practical, sustainable, and long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental consequences of disasters.

We also host international conferences and workshops at UMass Boston to provide a space for partners to network, exchange ideas, and share best practices.