Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 07 - December 19, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 06 - December 9, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

Public Policy And The Missing Link: A Progress Report On The Design And Implementation Of The Massachusetts Linked Deposit Program, Jim T. Campen

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

The idea underlying the Massachusetts Linked Deposit Program (LDP), which has been operated by the Treasurer since 1978, is that a portion of the money in the state's General Fund is deposited in Massachusetts banks, with the amounts awarded to individual banks linked to their performance in serving the people and communities of Massachusetts. Bidding banks must offer a required minimum interest rate and must furnish specific information on the composition of their loan and investment portfolios. This information is used to compute a "linked deposit score" for each bank, which provides a basis for linking the awarding of public …

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 05 - November 13, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 04 - October 25, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 03 - October 11, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 02 - September 20, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 04, No. 01 - August 31, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

Getting Power Back: Court Restoration Of Executive Authority In Boston City Government, Marcy M. Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article chronicles some of the events that occurred when a state and a federal court attempted to disengage from active jurisdiction over two Boston public systems: the public schools and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA). It makes three proposals which, if enacted, would help to keep the courts out of day-to-day management of municipal operations. It also makes some generalizations about the court-agency interplay which are relevant to the postremedial phase of institutional reform litigation. The author uses the term restorative law to describe this court-controlled process of returning power to the executive branch.

Urban Public Services: What The Future Holds, Robert Morris

New England Journal of Public Policy

Health and welfare are usually considered secondary or peripheral concerns of modern society. The article considers how questions about the provision of social welfare are imbedded in the economic, social, moral, and political fabric of contemporary America and New England. Underlying trends of economic, social, and attitudinal change are outlined, and implications for the future are considered. The article also considers the role of universities in equipping the next generation of citizens to cope more effectively with the complex issues that are forcing a restructuring of urban services.

Teaching--From Occupation To Profession: A Response, Robert S. Peterkin

New England Journal of Public Policy

Educational reform must go beyond a restructuring of the teaching occupation. A realistic approach would include strengthening the principalship, reestablishing the primacy of education as the focus of public schools, improving the physical plant, increasing parental participation in the decision-making process, and aligning schools with the external communities — especially the business and university communities.

Book Reviews: The Endangered Metropolis, Richard A. Hogarty

New England Journal of Public Policy

Reviews of books by Anne Whiston Spirn, Jane Jacobs, George Gallup, Jr., Gary Gappert, and Richard V. Knight.

What all of these books have in common is the futuristic glimpse they give us into urban life in the twenty-first century. In approaching such a milestone, one can be either an optimist or a pessimist. These authors present a balanced mixture; they bring tidings of good news and bad news. As one of them aptly puts it: "In the present lies not only the nightmare of what the city will become if current trends continue, but also the dream of what …

Teaching--From Occupation To Profession: The Sine Qua Non Of Educational Reform, Bernard R. Gifford

New England Journal of Public Policy

Many problems have been blamed for the crisis in public education. This article argues that the teaching occupation as it currently exists is one problem whose solution promises to yield significant consequences in terms of pupil learning. That solution, according to the author, is to restructure the teaching occupation to bring about a greater appreciation of and respect for teaching as a high-level activity that supports self-evaluative behavior — a professional consciousness that encourages teachers to see themselves as evolving practitioners capable of learning from errors, rather than as nonreflective paraprofessionals armed with a set of error-proof teaching methods applicable …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Central to the evolution of public policy, since all subsequent processes flow from it, is the question of problem identification — or, more broadly, the question of definition. The importance of definition derives not only from the need to address the "right" problem but from the often greater need not to address the "wrong" one, since the subsequent misallocation of resources can alter the nature of the problem itself. More is not always better, whether in reference to federal largesse, nuclear power generating capacity, or the length of the school day. In fact, as the articles in this issue of …

Fiscal Paternalism And New England Cities: A Policy For The Year 2000, Mark S. Ferber, Elizabeth A. Ferber

New England Journal of Public Policy

The following commentary explores the future of urban public finance by focusing on the fiscal ills of New England's major cities. The impact of general revenue sharing, categorical grants, federal tax policy, state aid, and own-source city revenues is assessed in light of a city's ability to support itself. The authors conclude that a pattern of "fiscal paternalism" — the past and present policies for annual financial assistance to narrow the expenditure-revenue budget gap — must be altered if cities are to enter the twenty-first century as fiscally stable governments capable of providing the necessary services for a varied constituency.

Dismal Science Meets Dismal Subject: The (Mal)Practice Of Nuclear Power Economics, Charles Komanoff

New England Journal of Public Policy

Electric utilities, reactor designers and builders, and the federal government have badly underestimated the costs of new nuclear power plants over the past fifteen years. Although not all of the increases were readily predictable, particularly those caused by rapid general inflation, nuclear advocates failed to foresee most of the sixfold growth in real costs resulting from new reactors' greater complexity, scope, and regulatory surveillance.

This review recounts the methods used by nuclear power proponents to convince policymakers, the public, and themselves that new nuclear plants would be competitive with other energy sources, long after conclusive contrary evidence was available. It …

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 14 - June 12, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 13 - June 7, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

Boston's Recurring Crises: Three Decades Of Fiscal Policy, Joseph S. Slavet, Raymond G. Torto

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

The word "deficit" has dominated the most recent 35 years of Boston's fiscal history. This report probes the experience and lessons of this history in order to propose a more permanent resolution of Boston's financial difficulties.

Three deficit categories are identified and analyzed: appropriation deficits, revenue deficits and overlay deficits. Over the past 35 years, the City has had 12 years of appropriation deficits, 19 years of revenue deficits and 28 years of overlay deficits. In each year the City's budget was certified as in balance. Deficits became a way of life. Fortunately the overlay deficit problem, except for the …

Community-Based Housing: Potential For A New Strategy, Rachel G. Bratt

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

While the housing problem in the United States has changed since Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed that "one-third of the nation is ill-housed," it has by no means disappeared. For most low-income people, and to a lesser extent for moderate income people, housing still presents formidable problems.

Academics and housing analysts recognize four major aspects of the housing problem: affordability (ratio of housing costs to income), adequacy (including quality and overcrowding), neighborhood conditions, and availability. Over the past decade, the nature of the country's housing problem has undergone some important transformations.

Until ten years ago the phrase "housing problem" conjured up …

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 12 - May 17, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 11 - May 11, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 10 - April 16, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

John W. Mccormack, Paul M. Wright

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

A short biography of Boston native and United States Congressman John W. McCormack, prepared for the dedication of John W. McCormack Hall at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, April 26, 1985.

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 09 - March 22, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 08 - February 25, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 06 - February 08, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

In Search Of An Operational Definition Of Social Creativity, Constance J. O'Brien

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Having argued for the existence of social creativity as observed in daily life, I will proceed in chapters two through four with a selective review of the psychological literature on social cognition, empathy, and social intelligence to determine whether any of these concepts can adequately account for the behavior cited. I will proceed to identify the connections between these concepts and creativity. Examining the concepts, their relationships to each other, and the degree to which any of these concepts alone can account for imaginative social problem solving will demonstrate the need for a new [...]

News & Views - Vol. 03, No. 07 - January 17, 1985, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1983-1991, News & Views

No abstract provided.

Private Banks And Public Money: An Analysis Of The Design And Implementation Of The Massachusetts Linked Deposit Program, James T. Campen

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

In March 1978, in accordance with the unanimous recommendations of two special commissions, the Treasurer of Massachusetts established a "linked deposit program." Under the terms of this program, a portion of the approximately $400 million available for short-term investment from the state's General Fund was to be deposited with in-state banks and thrift institutions, selected on the basis of their performance in promoting the economic and social welfare of Massachusetts citizens and communities through their lending and related activities.

Six years after its inception, the Massachusetts linked deposit program (LDP) has grown to become a sizable and stable part of …