Public Administration Commons^™

Political Economy Of Policymaking In Paraguay, Robert Andrew Nickson

Robert Andrew Nickson

The main objective of this chapter is to analyze the public policymaking process in Paraguay, particularly with regard to the formulation and implementation of policies that affect the generation of remunerative employment. Concretely, the chapter addresses how the broad institutional (i.e., political, administrative and legal) environment influences—both negatively and positively—the potential for formulating and implementing a medium-term employment strategy for poverty reduction in Paraguay. The main policymaking focus of the employment strategy will be on the private sector. However, the potential contribution of an employment strategy for the public sector itself towards poverty reduction is also considered.

The formulation and …

The Defense-Growth Relationship: An Economic Investigation Into Post-Soviet States, Bruce D. Mcdonald Iii, Robert J. Eger Iii

Bruce D. McDonald, III

An important question stemming from the collapse of the Soviet Union is how defense spending has influenced the economic performance of the 15 member states since their establishment as market economies. This study furthers the understanding of the relationship between defense spending and economic growth using data from the states of the former Soviet Union from 1992 to 2007. A nonlinear production function was used for direct effects, and models of investment and employment were employed for indirect effects. Contrary to expectations, the findings show that continued reliance on the defense sector in post-Soviet states has helped overall economic growth. …

Clackamas County Alternate Work Week Pilot Project, Masami Nishishiba, Jana Bitton, Dennis Kurtz, Charlene Zil

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

In November 2008, Clackamas County, Oregon began a one-year pilot program: switching employees to an alternate four-day work week, with 10-hour workdays (typically 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday). About 828 of Clackamas County's 1,800 employees were affected by the program, which does not extend to emergency service providers.

This report summarizes the evaluation of Clackamas County’s alternate work week pilot project based on the data collected between November 2008 and July 2009.

Leadership With Grace, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University, Susan Gooden, Nakeina E. Douglas

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

A remarkable lady of incredible talent and vision, Dr. Grace Edmondson Harris had a unique experience with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). A native of rural Halifax County in southern Virginia, she was denied admission to graduate study at VCU (then Richmond Professional Institute), a large public university in Richmond, Virginia. Ironically, later in 1967, Dr. Harris became the first African American female faculty member in the School of Social Work at VCU and ascended the ranks to become Dean of the School of Social Work, Provost, and Acting President prior to her retirement in 1999. Although Dr. Harris has strong …

Tunisia–The Imprisonment Of Fahem Boukadous (Part One Of A Series), Rob Prince

Human Rights & Human Welfare

To most Americans with the exception of those few who, for whatever reason, have an attachment to the North African country of Tunisia, the name Fahem Boukadous, foreign to American ears, means nothing. It means a good deal more to "Reporters Without Borders” and to the US State Department that actually issued a statement (half way down the page) on his behalf, to the US intelligence agencies and military that have carefully followed the Spring, 2008 uprising in the Tunisian region of Gafsa–deemed the most extensive and militant social protest in that country’s history in the past quarter century.

© …

Bill 150: The Green Energy Act: An Analysis Of Green Energy Politics In Ontario, Peter Markvoort

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the Green Energy Act (GEA) and the economic circumstances that enabled the bill to become law in Ontario. An analysis of electrical power research, planning, and recommendations over the past forty years was conducted. The findings reveal that a variety of changes led to the approval of the GEA, including an environmentally conscious value shift and the economic recession, and the coincidence of these factors allowed forty years of government funded energy research to culminate in a publicly supported piece of legislation.

Disability Preparedness: Availability Of Ada Compliant Emergency Shelters Across Pennsylvania, Lisa J. Peterson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since the events of September 11th and Hurricane Katrina, the field and research associated with emergency preparedness have grown substantially. Despite the positive contributions of research, problems relating to the use of emergency shelters during the disasters have surfaced. Through anecdotal evidence and subsequent research, it was soon discovered that the needs of those with disabilities were not adequately addressed at many sites. Many potential residents were turned away at shelters due to their disability, or if allowed in, were forced to live in sites with barriers that could hinder activities of daily living.

To address concerns, emergency management officials …

Review Of “Sisters Outside: Radical Activists Working For Women Prisoners, By Jodie Michelle Lawston”, Lisa A. Leitz

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

Book review of Jodie Michelle Lawston's "Sisters Outside: Radical Activists Working for Women Prisoners".

Public Higher Education Governance: An Empirical Examination, Jacob Fowles

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Public higher education is a large enterprise in the United States. Total state expenditures for higher education totaled nearly $152 billion dollars in FY2008, accounting for over ten percent of total state expenditures and representing the single largest category of discretionary spending in most states (NASBO, 2009). The last three decades have witnessed the introduction of hundreds of pieces of legislation across states which make structural changes to state higher education governance systems (Marcus, 1997; McLendon, Deaton, and Hearn, 2007). Despite the ubiquity of state higher education governance change much remains unknown, both in terms of why states choose to …

A Case Study Of Relative Satisfaction With Justice In State Courts: Perceptions Of Access And Fairness Among Hispanics/Latinos And Whites, Christopher George Bleuenstein

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous studies have neglected to focus on the generalized affective satisfaction (diffuse support) to state level courts among Hispanics/Latinos. A western US county was selected for this case study to test a racial and ethnic theory of procedural justice in a region with a large Hispanic/Latino population. Differential experience theory was used as a theoretical foundation and posits that people determine their level of satisfaction with the courts based on their own actual experience with the courts. The main research question was whether Hispanics/Latinos have a different level of satisfaction with their access to, and fairness in, the court when …

Reinventing Maine Government: How Mainers Can Shape A Sustainable Government And A New Prosperity, Alan Caron, David Osborne

Maine Policy Review

In this commentary the authors highlight the challenges Maine faces. They suggest areas where the state could spend less, based on national comparative figures. They discuss what they call the “three ticking time bombs” in the state: the aging workforce, unfunded pension liabilities, and escalating costs of healthcare, and review what they consider to be inefficient structures in government at all levels. They argue that new thinking and new approaches are needed, and make a number of recommendations for “reinventing government” in Maine.

Federal Recognition Politics And Collaborative Archaeologists: The Need For A Cultural Consensus, Alexandra Grace Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Presidential Management Fellows Program: Has The Implementation Of A Standardized Assessment Test Altered Student Selection?, Graham Drake

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program aims to attract high-performing graduate students into federal service. Given the measured performance of past participants, or Fellows, many Federal agencies use the PMF Program as a cornerstone of their succession planning. Since its inception in 1977, the PMF Program has used a variety of selection mechanisms to identify and assess candidates. The most recent alteration in the PMF Program‟s selection mechanism in 2007 has raised questions of efficiency. While the implementation of a single standardized test has reduced costs and allowed more candidates to be evaluated, it is unknown if this assessment test …

Preventing State Budget Crises: Managing The Fiscal Volatility Problem, David Gamage

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Forty-nine of the U.S. states have balanced budget requirements, and every state acts as though bound by such constraints. These constraints create fiscal volatility - the states must either cut spending or raise taxes during economic downturns, while doing the opposite during upturns. This paper discusses how states should cope with fiscal volatility on both the levels of ordinary politics and of institutional-design policy. On the level of ordinary politics, the paper applies principles of risk allocation theory to conclude that states should primarily adjust the rates of broad-based taxes as their economies cycle, rather than fluctuating public spending. States …

Fair Treatment, Job Involvement, And Turnover Intention Of Professional Employees In Government : The Importance Of Organizational Identification As A Mediator, Shahidul Hassan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although organizational justice is a critical issue for effectively managing employees in government agencies, it has been neglected in previous public management research. Further, the limited amount of research that has examined the consequences of organizational justice in government agencies did not clarify the underlying psychological process through which perceptions of organizational justice may influence public sector employees' work attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, previous research did not examine any indirect effect that employees' perceptions of organizational justice may have on their attitudes and behaviors in government agencies. To fill this gap, this dissertation examined the role of organizational identification as …

Fiscal Decentralization In Taiwan : A Case Study Of The Centrally-Allotted Tax Revenue Program And Local Financial Accountability, Nai-Ling Kuo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Fiscal decentralization has generated enormous interest in the past two decades. Despite some remaining skepticism regarding fiscal decentralization, many countries have adopted various forms in an effort to improve public service quality. The primary objectives of this dissertation are to understand fiscal decentralization in unitary countries, to gain information about the role of the equalization program in local finances, and to investigate local financial accountability issues in a unitary country. Three independent but linked studies were conducted to achieve the above objectives. They employ case studies on Taiwan's equalization transfer program, the Centrally-Allotted Tax Revenue (CATR) program, and local financial …

A Multiple Cue Threshold Learning Model Of Selection And Detection : Balancing Judgmental Accuracy With Threshold Learning, April M. Roggio

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Selection and detection problems represent some of the most challenging decision making tasks, especially in the fields of health and medicine. In a population of pregnant women, who is a candidate for a cesarean delivery? Does this mammogram indicate the presence of cancer? Should antibiotics be prescribed for this illness? We must judge

Barriers To Implementing A ‘Secured By Design’ Program For The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Brent Burchett

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Officers from the Lexington Division of Police have begun planning the implementation of a popular United Kingdom crime prevention program, Secured by Design, in Lexington, Kentucky. Many municipalities in the United States operate crime prevention by design programs, focusing on how the built environment affects criminal behavior. Secured by Design, a specific crime prevention by design program privately owned by the U.K.'s Association of Chief Police Officers, partners with U.K. police and urban planning departments to encourage adoption of building and design practices believed to prevent crime. Lexington would be the first U.S. city to have a Secured by Design …

Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling: An Analysis Of The Households Participating In The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program In Louisville, Travis Weber

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Problem Statement

Since 2006 the number of housing foreclosures has increased significantly. This increase is taking a toll on many communities across the nation, including Louisville, Kentucky. The percentage of delinquent mortgage loans in the Commonwealth of Kentucky has risen sharply, jumping nearly 3.5% since 2006, while the percentage of delinquent loans entering foreclosure has risen just as sharply according to the Kentucky Office of the Courts. The number of foreclosed properties proceeding to Master Commissioner sale has more than tripled between 2002 and 2008, to over 3000 foreclosures scheduled to take place. The number of foreclosures is negatively impacting …

International Idealism Meets Domestic-Criminal-Procedure Realism, Stephanos Bibas, William W. Burke-White

All Faculty Scholarship

Though international criminal justice has developed into a flourishing judicial system over the last two decades, scholars have neglected institutional design and procedure questions. International criminal-procedure scholarship has developed in isolation from its domestic counterpart but could learn much realism from it. Given its current focus on atrocities like genocide, international criminal law’s main purpose should be not only to inflict retribution, but also to restore wounded communities by bringing the truth to light. The international justice system needs more ideological balance, more stable career paths, and civil-service expertise. It also needs to draw on the domestic experience of federalism …

Presidential Power In Historical Perspective: Reflections' On Calabresi And Yoo's The Unitary Executive, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

On February 6 and 7, 2009, more than three dozen of the nation’s most distinguished commentators on presidential power gathered in Philadelphia to explore themes raised by a book authored by Steven Calabresi and I co-authored reviewing the history of presidential practices with respect to the unitary executive. The conference honoring our book and the special journal issue bringing together the articles presented there provide a welcome opportunity both to look backwards on the history of our project and to look forwards at the questions yet to be answered.

Aging In Perspective And The Case Of China: Issues And Approaches, Sheying Chen

Sheying Chen

No abstract provided.

President Obama, Public Participation, And An Agenda For Research And Experimentation, Thomas Bryer

Thomas A Bryer

The Obama Administration has offered citizens and onlookers from other nations a host of innovative efforts to make the United States federal government more open, participatory, and collaborative. In this issue of the International Journal of Public Participation, a set of invited authors consider the varying levels of success of this work demonstrated thus far and raise important research and practical questions for the Administration and others who might learn from the Administration’s experiences. In this introduction, some of these questions are reviewed and notable practices are summarized. Ultimately, it is concluded that, though the Administration is still young, there …

Attending To The Forgotten: The Elderly, Collaborative Practice, And Evacuation, Pam Jenkins, John Kiefer, Shirley Laska

John J. Kiefer

No abstract provided.

Public Engagement In The Obama Administration: Building A Democracy Bubble?, Thomas Bryer

Thomas A Bryer

Following the Bush Administration, the Obama team enhanced access for citizens to participatory venues. Extending and enhancing access gives citizens opportunity to develop their citizenship skills, potentially influence policy, and potentially become better connected to community life. The Administration can be applauded for participatory innovations, but the Administration needs to proceed strategically to ensure the innovations do not produce more harm than good and to ensure that the real change they are producing is not whisked away in the next Administration as rapidly as an information cascade infects the citizenry. This article develops the idea of a democracy bubble as …

Organizational Pathology Compared To What? The Impacts Of Job Characteristics And Career Trajectory On Perceptions Of Organizational Red Tape, Branco Ponomariov, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

The original studies of organizational red tape (Waldo 1946, Kaufmann 1977) emphasize that worker perceptions of organizational rules and procedures are dependent on workers’ frames of reference. However, most subsequent study has not accounted sufficiently for how these reference points vary across workers, even if they work in the same or similar organizational context. While the effects of contemporaneous worker attitudes on perceptions of red tape have been considered in numerous studies, unexamined is how perceptions of organizational rules and procedures as red tape are related to workers’ prior work experiences. This seems an important omission, since variable norms and …

Private Sector Imprinting: An Examination Of The Impacts Of Private Sector Job Experience On Public Managers’ Work Attitudes, Craig Boardman, Barry Bozeman, Branco Ponomariov

Craig Boardman

What are the attitudes of public managers who have had full-time private sector work experience? Public managers with private sector work experience report different perspectives when compared to their counterparts who have spent their entire careers in the public sector. Though private sector work experience negatively correlates with job satisfaction, it only does so for the “new switcher,” whose last job was in the private sector. As careers advance, the negative impact seems to wane, leaving a public sector workforce that, in part as a result of their private sector work experience, are relatively more intrinsically motivated and involved in …

Managing And Valuing Diversity: Challenges To Public Managers In The 21st Century, Andrew Ewoh

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Accepted for publication at Public Personnel Management.

Living Democracy In Theory And Practice: Getting Dirty In A Local Government Incorporation Process, Thomas Bryer

Thomas A Bryer

Poinciana, Florida is a growing community in Central Florida. The master homeowners association contracted for an incorporation feasibility study to determine whether Poinciana could survive as a city. This article describes the public participation process designed and implemented as part of the feasibility study and articulates the goals, principles, and venues of the design, the challenges or barriers confronted, and suggestions for revisions to statutory guidelines for incorporation are described with the purpose of moving towards the institutionalization of public participation as a cultural norm.

Strengthening Capacity For Sustainable Livelihoods And Food Security Through Urban Agriculture Among Hiv And Aids Affected Households In Nakuru, Kenya, Nancy Karanja, Fiona Yeudall, Mary Njenga, Samwel Mbugua, Gordon Prain, Donald Cole, Aimee Webb, Jennier Levy, Christopher Gore, Daniel Sellen

Christopher D Gore

The promotion and support of urban agriculture (UA) has the potential to contribute to efforts to address pressing challenges of poverty, under nutrition and sustainability among vulnerable populations in the growing cities of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This may be especially relevant for HIV/AIDS-affected individuals in SSA whose agricultural livelihoods are severely disrupted by the devastating effects of the disease on physical productivity and nutritional well-being. This paper outlines the process involved in the conception, design and implementation of a project to strengthen technical, environmental, financial and social capacity for UA among HIV-affected households in Nakuru, Kenya. Key lessons learned are …