Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fiscal Transparency And Fiscal Outcomes: Is There A Connection?, Merlene Patrice Quispe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

FISCAL TRANSPARENCY AND FISCAL OUTCOMES: IS THERE A CONNECTION?

This dissertation answers whether a connection exists between an American State Government’s (ASG’s) level of fiscal transparency and attainment of improved fiscal outcomes. Improved fiscal transparency is normatively positive and expected to be rewarded by bond rating agencies with better ratings resulting in lower borrowing costs. Likewise, improved fiscal transparency is expected to lead to lower levels of debt. Yet, no empirical evidence exists to bolster such assertions.

Specifically, two interrelated research questions are addressed. Research Question one focuses on why some states have greater levels of fiscal transparency? This question …

Agile Adoption In Information Technology Departments At Research Universities, Sofia C. Trelles

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes Agile methods and how they are adopted by Information Technology (IT) departments in research universities. Existing literature has focused on Agile adoption in private and public sectors. This study fills a knowledge gap in the research literature on Agile adoption in university contexts. Three research questions guide this study: What are the uses of Agile methods in research universities? What are the specific factors that affect adoption of agile methods in research universities? Why do research universities adopt (or not adopt) Agile methods? By answering these questions, the present study contributes to the growing literature on the …

Clubhouse And Voice In Public Affairs, Laila El Baradei

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Mediating Effects Of Foster Care Experiences On Employment And Educational Outcomes In Aged Out Former Foster Youth, John Campbell

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The economic well-being outcomes of youth who are removed from foster care status due to reaching the age of ineligibility (i.e., age out) is an important issue in public health and social work. This study investigated the interrelation between simultaneously embodying both a sex and race/ethnicity (i.e., intersectional identity), circumstances experienced through age 19 (i.e., foster care experiences), and economic well-being indicators at age 21, using secondary administrative data from a 4-year longitudinal study (N = 4657). In terms of intersectional identity, findings indicated that intersectional identity was directly related to employment and postsecondary education outcomes. In terms of foster …

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. …

Systematizing Confidence In Open Research And Evidence (Score), Nazanin Alipourfard, Beatrix Arendt, Daniel M. Benjamin, Noam Benkler, Michael Bishop, Mark Burstein, Martin Bush, James Caverlee, Yiling Chen, Chae Clark, Anna Dreber Almenberg, Timothy M. Errington, Fiona Fidler, Nicholas Fox, Aaron Frank, Hannah Fraser, Scott Friedman, Ben Gelman, James Gentile, Jian Wu, Et Al., Score Collaboration

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Assessing the credibility of research claims is a central, continuous, and laborious part of the scientific process. Credibility assessment strategies range from expert judgment to aggregating existing evidence to systematic replication efforts. Such assessments can require substantial time and effort. Research progress could be accelerated if there were rapid, scalable, accurate credibility indicators to guide attention and resource allocation for further assessment. The SCORE program is creating and validating algorithms to provide confidence scores for research claims at scale. To investigate the viability of scalable tools, teams are creating: a database of claims from papers in the social and behavioral …

Democracy And Bureaucracy Of Smart Place: Coral Gables, Fl And The Role Of Aspirational Content In Local Governance, Ramon Trias

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role aspirational content on democracy and bureaucracy for governance of place in the United States. Place is a fundamental concept for municipal democracy and bureaucracy, as it defines the physical qualities of a community and their effect on people and quality of life. Smart Place would update theory and practices for local governance. Research reviewed process and content for the implementation of place, a gap in public administration theory. Literature review, historical research on 20^th century planning and zoning, research on 1920’s best practices on architecture and archival, qualitative findings and quantitative data on Coral …

Use Of Diverse Online Resources Amongst Politically Active University Students Fosters Civic Knowledge Integration, Joanne M. Muellenbach

Jay Sexter Library Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Life She Deserves: Medical Marijuana In The United States, John Hudak, George Burroughs, Maritza Bermudez

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Brookings Mountain West offered an event titled, "The Life She Deserves: Medical Marijuana in the United States on Monday, November 5, 2018. This event featured a viewing of the film, and was followed by a panel discussion with John Hudak, George Burroughs, and Maritza Bermudez. “The Life She Deserves” is an intimate portrait of Jennifer Collins and her family’s struggle to find a treatment to control her debilitating epilepsy. Because her legal pharmaceutical treatments cause severe side effects, Jennifer and her mother move across the country to access medical marijuana. The therapy provides Jennifer and her family with the relief …

The 2018 Midterm Election: Nevada And The Nation Post-Election Analysis, John Hudak, Robert E. Lang, Rebecca D. Gill, David Damore

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Brookings Mountain West, in partnership with CSUN, was pleased to present part two of a two-part analysis on the 2018 Midterm elections. The 2018 Midterms included elections for all 435 members of the House of Representatives, including four seats in Nevada. In the U.S. Senate, 34 seats were up for election, including one seat in Nevada. Across the United States, 36 states elected governors, including the State of Nevada. The Democratic Party sought to flip a minimum of 24 seats to become the majority party in House and 2 seats to become the majority party in the Senate. Two Mountain …

The 2018 Midterm Election: Nevada And The Nation Pre-Election Analysis, John Hudak, Robert E. Lang, Molly Reynolds, David Damore

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Brookings Mountain West, in partnership with CSUN, was pleased to present part one of a two-part analysis on the 2018 Midterm elections. The 2018 Midterms included elections for all 435 members of the House of Representatives, including four seats in Nevada. In the U.S. Senate, 34 seats were up for election, including one seat in Nevada. Across the United States, 36 states elected governors, including the State of Nevada. The Democratic Party sought to flip a minimum of 24 seats to become the majority party in House and 2 seats to become the majority party in the Senate. Two Mountain …

Election Administration Within The Sphere Of Politics: How Bureaucracy Can Facilitate Democracy With Policy Decisions, Nicholas S. Martinez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public bureaucracy finds itself in a strange place at the intersection of political science and public administration. Political science finds that, within representative democracy, discretion granted to bureaucrats threatens the nature of democracy by subverting politicians who represent the will of the people – bureaucracy vs democracy. At the same time, public administration holds that, in the interest of promoting democracy, bureaucracy should be objective in its implementation of policy in a way that eliminates the influence of politics from decision-making – politics vs bureaucracy. Those positions are seemingly contradictory in nature. From one perspective, bureaucracy is undemocratic because it …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Paf 1250 (Citizenship And Public Affairs), Aaron M. Zack

Open Educational Resources

This course is a critical introduction to American political institutions and behavior. Attention is given to constitutional theory and principles, the constitutional system, political institutions (congress, the presidency, the judiciary, the bureaucracy), and political participation (public opinion, the mass media, elections, political parties, groups and interests.)

How Civility Works, Keith Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

Is civility dead? Americans ask this question every election season, but their concern is hardly limited to political campaigns. Doubts about civility regularly arise in just about every aspect of American public life. Rudeness runs rampant. Our news media is saturated with aggressive bluster and vitriol. Our digital platforms teem with expressions of disrespect and trolls. Reflecting these conditions, surveys show that a significant majority of Americans believe we are living in an age of unusual anger and discord. Everywhere we look, there seems to be conflict and hostility, with shared respect and consideration nowhere to be found. In a …

Lobbying In The Sunshine - Hiding Behind Transparency?, Albert Veksler

Articles

Lobbying in Israel was unregulated for 60 years. Scholars have decried the fact that high value is attached to the written decree, but implementation does not necessarily follow: quite a few laws have remained at symbolic level in Israel. There were two unsuccessful bills submitted to legislate lobbying regulation: first by Knesset Member (MK) Merom in 1993 and the second one by MK Naot in 2001. The bill submitted by MKs Yechimovich and Sa'ar in 2007 resulted in passing the Israeli lobbying regulations in 2008, but the Lobbyist Law displayed unexpected characteristics, and there was a 500% growth in lobbyist …

Guide To The 1948-1990 Archive Of The Inter-University Case Program, Edwin A. Bock

Public Administration - All Scholarship

Between 1948 and 1990, the Inter-University Case Program (ICP)—named during its early years “The Committee on Public Administration Cases” (CPAC)—published five case books and 170 individual studies of government policy-making and administration. The Program was created by educators who had spent over three years working in Washington wartime agencies. They wanted to show their post-war university students an aspect of public administration that was largely ignored by prewar textbooks: namely, the civil servant’s role in the making and carrying out of public policies. And they wanted to demonstrate to professors of public administration who had not had personal experience at …

Snap: An Evaluation Of How Families In A Low Socioecnomic Bracket Decide What To Eat., Kate-Marie Roycroft

Public Affairs Capstones Collection

The purpose of this research paper is to look at the major factors that influence how SNAP recipients make decisions about food purchases. The secondary purpose of this paper is to touch upon whether or not SNAP recipients suffer disproportionally from food insecurity and obesity-related chronic diseases. Three sets of interviews helped to inform this study: interviews with employees at the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), interviews with researchers who have studied SNAP recipients extensively as part of their work, and interviews with nonprofit coordinators that work with SNAP recipients after they are approved for their benefits. Additional data was …

Challenges Facing Massachusetts Agencies, Richard Ferrari

Public Affairs Capstones Collection

For many residents of Massachusetts corrections is a part of the public sector that remains hidden behind tall walls topped with barbed wire. These walls do not just keep the inmate population on the inside, but keep the public out. This capstone provides a view from inside the walls of our corrections facilities. Interviews with high ranking corrections administrators throughout Massachusetts give an insiders perspective into the challenges facing Massachusetts corrections agencies. Over a billion dollars is spent on corrections in Massachusetts alone. This capstone looks at how that money is spent and the policies that dictate how our corrections …

How Will Public Health And Primary Care Come Together In Massachusetts?, Javier Crespo

Public Affairs Capstones Collection

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims to place public health and prevention practice closer to the clinical care delivery system by mandating basic preventive services and creating a national prevention plan. The Massachusetts health care system has a number of elements that can help foster closer linking of public health practices in the primary care setting. This research set out to examine whether the current healthcare system in Massachusetts will enable public health and primary care integration as intimated upon by the Affordable Care Act. This study will assess the current connection between public health and primary care …

Chief Executive Structure In Massachusetts Towns: The Relationship Between Authority Levels And Leadership Opportunities, Maureen A. Thomas .

Public Affairs Capstones Collection

Throughout Massachusetts towns and cities there are various organizational and chief executive structures that dictate levels of authority and leadership opportunities. Drawing mostly from the literature on city forms of government, this research explores the authority-level variations among town administrators and town managers in Massachusetts and examines how authority levels relate to leadership opportunities. A mixed methods approach is used via a survey instrument to the 215 Massachusetts town administrators and town managers, 7 in-depth interviews, and secondary data review. Levels of chief executive authority and leadership were found to vary widely among the 94 survey respondents. While quantitative results …

Financial Aid Administration: Effect And Innovation, Brendan Williams

Public Affairs Capstones Collection

As college costs continue to rise, the importance of financial aid to create equitable access to higher education has also risen. This increase in importance of financial aid has coincided with an increase in the complication of the financial aid process. This paper explores challenges of financial aid administration, the effect of financial aid, and potential innovations in the field. Through one-on-one interviews with administrators, students, college access organization employees and a college access researcher the common themes are explored highlighted. The qualitative analysis of these interviews revealed the financial aid process to be complicated and burdensome for everyone involved, …

A Case Study Of The Regulations Imposed Upon Massachusetts' Prescription Monitoring Program, Meredith Rodman

Public Affairs Capstones Collection

This case study focuses on the effectiveness of the recent regulations imposed upon Massachusetts’s prescription monitoring program. Abuse and/or misuse of prescription opioids is becoming increasingly problematic within the United States and as a result many policy makers are looking for ways to combat the problem. In Massachusetts, the OxyContin and Heroin Commission was established to investigate the impact of both OxyContin and heroin on the state. The Commission delivered recommendations that eventually led the state legislature to make changes to Massachusetts’s prescription monitoring program. This study targeted five major stakeholder groups and asked a series of questions through interviews …

Community-Based Analytics: Big Data And Decision Making For Community-Based Organizations, Michael P. Johnson

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

Community-based organizations face significant challenges in identifying data needs, and assembling data resources for service provision, strategy design and advocacy. We develop principles by which CBOs can develop and share large datasets in order to formulate and solve decision problems that improve the well-being of localized, often marginalized or distressed communities. We illustrate these ideas using field research from Boston, MA.

The Influence Of Hope Vi Public Housing On Public Schools, Donna A. Comrie

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, public school enrollment is typically organized by neighborhood boundaries. This dissertation examines whether the federally funded HOPE VI program influenced performance in neighborhood public schools. In effect since 1992, HOPE VI has sought to revitalize distressed public housing using the New Urbanism model of mixed income communities. There are 165 such HOPE VI projects nationwide. Despite nearly two decades of the program’s implementation, the literature on its connection to public school performance is thin. My dissertation aims to narrow this research gap. There are three principal research questions:

(1) Following HOPE VI, was there a change …

Nonprofit News, News Industrial Subsidies, And The Rise Of Citizen Journalism, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In this article three important policy questions are suggested in light of signs of recent growth of nonprofit news and the possibility of a great deal more similar growth in the future: 1) Does nonprofit news production pose a plausible solution to the economic troubles of the U.S. news industry? 2) Would industrial subsidies of nonprofits, like those for “welfare state” health and human services co-production offer a potential solution to the economic problems of the U.S. news industry? 3) Can the currently evolving internet-based system of news production by volunteer citizens be sustainable in the long run?

Social And Technological Innovation In Teaching Public Affairs: Introduction To The Symposium, Thomas A. Bryer, Angela M. Eikenberry

Public Administration Faculty Publications

Technology can be defined as “the social, material, or cloud/cyberspace tools used to manipulate human behavior to achieve a specified objective.” In the classroom, teachers use a variety of technologies to elicit desired student response or output and ultimately to achieve a level of learning appropriate for particular students. For example, decisions to use a chalk/white board versus PowerPoint during a lecture are often made based on the nature of engagement desired with the students. Arranging seats or desks in a classroom in a lecture format, an open circle, or an open square generates different types of engagement among and …

Introduction: Symposium On China Studies, John R. Bartle, Yonghong Wu, Zhirong Jerry Zhao

Public Administration Faculty Publications

To meet the increasing scholarly interest in China, this symposium provides a forum for scholars in public budgeting and finance to exchange research on China-related issues. There have been new initiatives to reform China’s public fiscal system in the past two decades. The papers in this symposium examine advances and associated issues in fiscal decentralization, local budgeting, and urban infrastructure financing. The papers not only analyze the existing issues, but also make recommendations on how to develop an accountable local budgeting system, how to finance sustainable urban infrastructure, and how to pursue a more balanced approach to fiscal decentralization in …

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, …

A Road Made By Walking: Participatory Evaluation And Social Change, Janet Rechtman

Student Articles, Chapters, Presentations, Learning Objects

Key Points · This article describes how participatory evaluation was used in a Ford Foundation–funded project to promote mixed-income housing in Atlanta.

· The project resulted in an increase in mixed income housing, but also in social outcomes such as increased knowledge about housing issues.

· Validity and reliability of the findings are demonstrated through feedback from the community members, rather than through statistical methods.

Why There Should Be An Independent Decennial Commission On The Press, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

In 1947, the Commission on Freedom of the Press chaired by Robert M. Hutchins, published its report entitled "A Free and Responsible Press:" Sharply criticized by the media when published, the Hutchins Commission Report (as it has come to be known) seems to have assumed only minor status within the history of freedom of the press in this century, as well as among reports on social problems generally. In this article, I will consider whether the Hutchins Commission Report deserves a different fate. Given the media's usually astounding self-preoccupation, the fact that the Report was about the "press" would lead …