Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons^™

Silicon Rivalry: Understanding The U.S.-China Ai Competition In Southeast Asia, Daniel Christopher Kent

Master in Public Policy Theses

In the rising global strategic competition between China and the United States, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken on a special significance given its potentially transformative impact upon economics and security. Yet while the dialogue around the “AI race” is typically centered on foundational model capability enhancement, application in security contexts, and chip design and manufacturing, there is much less attention paid to its impact on geopolitics. In particular, AI diplomacy—the work of a state to spread its model of AI governance, evangelize its AI companies, and develop critical AI interdependencies and linkages around the world—is far less studied. Nowhere is …

Global Health Financing Of Diagonal Interventions: Building Resilient And Sustainable Health Systems In Sub-Saharan Africa, Lucy Kim

Master in Public Policy Theses

Background: Global health financing has historically prioritized disease-specific “vertical” programs over broader “horizontal” strengthening of general health systems. Vertical programs in HIV have led to unprecedented reductions in mortality worldwide, but HIV remains a significant public health threat in sub-Saharan Africa, where vertical strategies have long been criticized for creating fragmented health systems. In response, global health strategies have shifted towards combining vertical investments with broader horizontal activities, commonly referred to as “diagonal” programming. While evidence suggests that diagonal programming has the potential to create more resilient and sustainable health systems, evaluating its value for money is challenging due to …

Beyond The Ban: Chhaupadi Abolition And The Governance Of Menstrual Autonomy In Western Nepal, Nikita Paudel

Master in Public Policy Theses

This thesis examines how two decades of efforts to abolish chhaupadi have shaped the everyday conditions under which women and girls experience menstruation in western Nepal. Chhaupadi, commonly understood as menstrual seclusion, has been addressed through Supreme Court directives, national policy, criminal law, municipal implementation instruments, hut demolition campaigns, public health programming, and rights-based advocacy. Yet the practice has persisted, adapted, and in some cases moved into less visible spaces. Rather than treating this as a simple gap between law and practice, this thesis asks how abolition efforts themselves have become part of the regulatory regime through which menstruation is …

Florida Local Public Administrator Perspectives On Decentralized Wastewater Treatment, Jude Hagan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Decentralized wastewater treatment (DWT) systems, such as onsite greywater recycling and septic systems, have been demonstrated to be a potentially more sustainable, cost-effective, and disaster-resilient alternative to traditional centralized systems by treating wastewater at or near the source. However, many barriers exist that have prevented the widespread implementation of DWT, such as public opposition, lack of resources, government regulations, public health concerns, and capital costs. In this study, local emergency managers, urban planners, and utility/wastewater managers in Florida were surveyed to determine their perceptions and levels of knowledge on DWT. The results of this study were inconclusive due to a …

On The Indispensability Of Natural Law On The Moral Theory Of The State, David W. Bolton

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

Natural Law is widely regarded as a set of universal moral standards in which the acknowledgement of the differences between right and wrong are inherent in people, not created by society or lawmakers. It is based on the consistent nature of man as opposed to varying cultural standards and is unchanged by time or circumstance. Many thinkers throughout history have offered their educated opinions on the matter of Natural Law and the moral theory of the State. The Social Contract theory of the Modern Secular thinkers of the 17^th century was considered a break with classical and traditional Christian …

Community Conversations, John S. Watson Institute For Urban Policy And Research, Barbara George Johnson, Karl Weiskopf

Center for Urban Policy Research

In the winter and spring of 2023, the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research at Kean University, in partnership with New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus, under the leadership of the Honorable Assemblywoman Shavonda E. Sumter, hosted a series of community conversations to bolster the statewide urban policy agenda on collaborative, evidence-informed solutions to prevent and reduce violence in urban centers and for all New Jerseyans.

These conversations were held at Kean University in Union Township and in four member cities of the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA): Atlantic City, Bridgeton, Camden, and Trenton. Additionally, we facilitated …

Hungry For Student Food Security: A Comparative Analysis Of University Food Pantry Policies, Anastasia Jones-Burdick

Honors Theses

This undergraduate research thesis aims to explore the relationship between public institutions of higher education and the operational policies of their university food pantries. The increasing rates of nontraditional students entering public universities correlate to an increasing population of students facing food insecurity, placing strain on institutional interventions, especially university food pantries (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015; Nazmi et al., 2019, p.2). This research conducted a qualitative comparative case analysis of university food pantry policies and semistructured interviews with pantry informants through a USDA-adapted evaluative framework to understand the evolution of public universities’ interventions (Barale et al., 2017). The …

Space And Defense Journal Spring 2023 Vol. 14 Issue 1

Space and Defense

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor...................................................................................................................... 5

by Dr. Michelle Black

Articles

A Great Nuclear Rejuvenation: What China can do with an Expanded Nuclear Arsenal................................................................................................. 7

by Grant Van Robays, SrA Chloe Reynolds, Lieutenant Will Jackson, and Major Tom Hammerle

Technology: The Air and Space Force's Barrier to

Innovation................................................................................................................... 22

by William F. Cosgrove

Addressing the American Approach to Emerging Technologies: Utilizing the AI Arms Race to Highlight the Need to Develop Public-Private Partnerships in C4ISR and 5G............................................................................................... 44

by Hugh Harsono and Nick Ondovcisk

Special Correspondence

Dr. Kori Schake Keynote Address................................................................................................................... 54

2022 U.S Strategic Deterrence and Assurance …

The Effect Of Lockdown Repeal On Socialization: Bayesian Multilevel Difference-In-Differences Approach, Hyunwoo Jung, Yiling Li, Jeonghye Choi

Asia Marketing Journal

The COVID-19 lockdown has had an unprecedented impact on people in various ways. This study evaluates the effect of lockdown repeal from both marketing and public-policy perspectives. Combining the Bayesian multilevel model with the difference-in-differences design, we find that a lockdown repeal has had a negative impact on socialization. Furthermore, the results show that those who have a low level of risk perception are less affected by lockdown repeal. Also, the negative effect of lockdown repeal varies depending on past socialization behaviors; that is, the lockdown-repeal effect is attenuated for those who socialized more than others in the past. Our …

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 …

Policy Strategies To Solve The U.S. Recycling Crisis, Flavia M. Scotto D'Antuono

Student Publications

Following China’s Operation National Sword in 2018, the politics and economics of recycling have increasingly come under scrutiny as many examine whether it remains a worthwhile endeavor. Differences across municipalities, changing prices of goods, contamination, mislabeling, and involvement by the plastics industry has further confused the issue. This paper examines to what extent a national recycling policy would be effective and what form it may take using several case studies - whether it be mandatory recycled content minimums, extended producer responsibility, or allowing the industry to phase out completely,

Michigan Municipal Manager Perceptions On Lgbtq+ Inclusion: A Narrative Policy Framework Case Study, Christopher R. Surfus

Dissertations

This study explores the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) of municipal managers regarding the LGBTQ+ community in three Michigan cities—Grand Rapids, Holland, and Kalamazoo. The purpose is to understand managers’ beliefs and attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and how policies are implemented and enforced to reduce discrimination. The specific research questions deal with how the beliefs and attitudes of public managers reflect an understanding of and competency on LGBTQ+ issues, how they are affected by the presence of LGBTQ+ staff members, and how they differ from the actual policy provisions affecting the LGBTQ+ community. These questions are examined in the …

Nevada’S Secret Killer: Opioid Deaths, Vanessa Marie Booth

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Emerging Scholars Winner

Presented in this study is an analysis of the Nevada opioid crisis and how a viable solution can impact its severity. It does so in a public policy environment while synthesizing outside sources to support the presented claims. The scope of this study is to present a problem, cause, solution scenario on how to solve this policy problem. This study also takes into consideration Nevada’s current economic state amid the coronavirus (COVID-19). In addition, this analysis also addresses the history behind the opioid epidemic across the United States and how it is impacting Nevada in present times. …

Awareness Of Sex Offender Registration Policies And Self-Reported Sexual Offending In A Community Sample Of Adolescents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Sex offender registration laws are widely implemented, increasingly restrictive, and intended to serve both specific and general deterrent functions. Most states have some form of policy mechanism to place adolescents on sex offender registries, yet it remains unclear whether adolescents possess the requisite policy awareness to be deterred from sexual offending. This study examined awareness of sex offender registration as a potential sanction and its cross-sectional association with engagement in several registrable sexual behaviors (sexting, indecent exposure, sexual solicitation, and forcible touching) in a community sample of 144 adolescents. Results revealed that many adolescents were unaware that these behaviors could …

Implementing A New Performance Management System In The Egyptian Civil Service / تطبيق نظام جديد لإدارة الأداء في قطاع الخدمة المدنية في مصر, Reham Mohamed Yousef, Samar Roushdy, Yara Abo El Waffa, Yasmine Mohamed Badr

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

The policy paper discusses the recently ratified Civil Service Law (CSL) No. 81/2016 with a special focus on the potential implementation pathways regarding the performance management system ofgovernment employees. In an attempt to combat the inefficiencies in state bureaucracy to achieve more economic growth, the CSL comes as a legislative instrument within an ambitious national agenda for administrative reform in Egypt seekinga better performance of the public sector institutions.

An Assessment Of The Sharing Economy And Its Policy Solutions Through The Lens Of Sustainability, Chloe An

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the promise of sustainability of the sharing economy, its shortcomings from this positive potential, and possible policy solutions to help it reach its fullest, positive potential. At its core, the sharing economy enables shared access to goods and services that would otherwise sit in idle or underutilized capacity – popular platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and craigslist all fall within the sharing economy. By enabling affordable and convenient access to goods that would otherwise sit idle, the sharing economy encourages maximal use of a good that already exists rather than seeking out …

Crowdsourcing: A New Tool For Policy-Making?, Araz Taeihagh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Crowdsourcing is rapidly evolving and applied in situations where ideas, labour, opinion or expertise of large groups of people is used. Crowdsourcing is now used in various policy-making initiatives; however, this use has usually focused on open collaboration platforms and specific stages of the policy process, such as agenda-setting and policy evaluations. Other forms of crowdsourcing have been neglected in policy-making, with a few exceptions. This article examines crowdsourcing as a tool for policy-making and explores the nuances of the technology and its use and implications for different stages of the policy process. The article addresses questions surrounding the role …

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

LSU 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 …

Public Participation In Public Policy: Case Studies On Egypt’S Right To Information Draft Law And National Plan, Yasmin Khodary

Political Science

In multiple international conventions, such as the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, public participation was emphasized as a genuine and inseparable human right. However, public participation should not be only perceived as a human right, but also as a precondition and a necessity for an all-inclusive, informed and sustainable development. This research reviewed two public participation processes that were carried out in Egypt post to the 25th of January Revolution. While utilizing participant observation as one of the most important research methods, this research described and assessed the strengths and weaknesses …

From Tools To Toolkits In Policy Design Studies: The New Design Orientation Towards Policy Formulation Research, Michael Howlett, Ishani Mukherjee, Jun Jie Woo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A roadmap for `new policy design' studies now exists in the orientation which has emerged in recent years towards the formulation of complex policy mixes.The new design orientation focuses on bundles or portfolios of tools and the interactive effects which occur when multiple tools are used over time in policy packages designed to address multiple goals, and upon more complex multi-policy and multi-level design contexts.This review article examines the differences between the `old' instrument orientation and the `new' design one, setting out the current research agenda in this field and its rationale.

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 …

Policy Design And Non-Design: Towards A Spectrum Of Policy Formulation Types, Michael Howlett, Ishani Mukherjee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Public policies are the result of efforts made by governments to alter aspects of behaviour—both that of their ownagents and of society at large—in order to carry out some end or purpose. They are comprised of arrangements of policygoals and policy means matched through some decision-making process. These policy-making efforts can be more,or less, systematic in attempting to match ends and means in a logical fashion or can result from much less systematicprocesses. “Policy design” implies a knowledge-based process in which the choice of means or mechanisms throughwhich policy goals are given effect follows a logical process of inference from …

The Elements Of Effective Program Design: A Two-Level Analysis, Michael Howlett, Ishani Mukherjee, Jeremy Rayner

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Policy and program design is a major theme of contemporary policy research, aimed at improving the understanding of how the processes, methods and tools of policy-making are employed to better formulate effective policies and pro-grams, and to understand the reasons why such designs are not forthcoming. However while many efforts have been made to evaluate policy design, less work has focused on program designs. This article sets out to fill this gap in knowledge of design practices in policy-making. It outlines the nature of the study of policy design with a particular focus on the nature of programs and the …

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

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

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.

Advancing A Qualitative-Based Research Construct: Methods And Applications, Chien-Tsung Lu, Jennifer Kirschner, Brent D. Bowen, Erin E. Bowen

Aviation Technology Faculty and Staff Publications

A research framework, or construct, provides researchers with generally accepted guidelines to organize scholarly efforts and foster methodological rigor. Over time, many qualitative research frameworks have become fully vetted and recognized, including action research, grounded theory, and phenomenology, among many others. The Policy Research Construct has also evolved over the last decade into a refined framework for use in qualitative and mixed method studies. This paper continues to define the PRC and includes a meta-review of multiple applications of the PRC to examine policy-related research questions, as well as organizational change and program effectiveness research.

Barriers And Facilitators To Prenatal Care For Pregnant Latina Women In Cobb County, Georgia, Carol Holtz, Annette Bairan

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This research study seeks to identify factors that serve as barriers and/or facilitators to prenatal care for Latina women and to provide data to assist health care providers, health care agencies, and policy makers in developing programs that maximize access to prenatal care for Latina women. In addition, other groups may also find this data useful, such as scholars in Latin American studies, immigration, cultural diversity, minority health care, and health care in general. The research questions consist of the following: (1) What do indigent pregnant (or recently delivered) Latina women believe about prenatal care? (2) What are the barriers …

Future Of Criminal Justice In America, Andrew Karanikolis

Senior Honors Projects

Throughout history, a civilization’s attitudes toward the law, crime, and punishment have served as indicators of its morality and commitment to progress. What then, I wonder, will history say about the American Civilization? Might they ask why the wealthiest nation in the world also has the highest incarceration rates?

This is but one of the critical questions I was left with after my internship at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. America currently houses over 2.5 million inmates in state and federal prisons across the country. Despite the noticeable decline in crime (particularly violent crime) over the past decade, prison …

System Analysis Of The Uri Hurricane Preparedness Plan, Rebecca Harlow

Senior Honors Projects

If a hurricane were to hit URI in the upcoming fall semester what would happen? This project is a thorough evaluation of the current URI plan, how it works, how it doesn’t and who has the answers. The project is framed from an information systems perspective. The analysis of the system is based on where vital information is stored, how it is communicated when needed and who is involved. To find the answers to these questions, in depth interviews were conducted with key emergency personnel. Among them are URI’s Director of Safety and Risk, J Kevin Culley, Major Baker of …

Public Policy And Market Reality: Analyzing The Unfunded Liability In The Kentucky Non-Hazardous Employees' Retirement System, Kelly Dudley

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In 2006, an issue of serious concern to state legislatures was the long-term security of the defined benefits that state and local public pension plans promise to current and future retirees (Snell, 2006). Public pension systems are growing in terms of members and the benefits they offer to their members. Part of this group includes the estimated 77 million baby-boomers who will be living the next 20 to 30 years in retirement (Wharton, 2006). These dynamic changes are raising the burden public pension plans place on government operating budgets. Expecting a large number of their employees to retire, public administrators …