Public Policy Commons^™

Stakeholder Perspectives: Implementation Of Local School Wellness Policies In The Kent Intermediate School District, Adrienne A. Wallace

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes and perception of stakeholders (teachers, principals, nutrition service directors, nutrition service supervisors, school nurses, nutrition specialists and administrators) toward the implementation of the local school wellness policy in public schools within Kent County, Michigan. The subjects of interest were stakeholders from more than 300 schools and 20 public school districts within the Kent Intermediate School District. Subjects responded to a survey assessing their perspectives regarding the implementation of the local school wellness policy pursuant to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 an Obama-era policy, the results were then examined using …

The Clean Power Plan: A Legal Analysis Of The E.P.A.'S Final Rule, Robert Paul

Honors Theses

The consensus among scientists is that climate change and its consequences are upon us as the result of human activity. The necessary reductions of emissions of greenhouse gases to mitigate these consequences have long been identified. The continued failure of the United States Congress to pass any national legislation directly addressing climate change has led President Obama to pursue executive action, through the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act section 111(d). Collectively known as the Clean Power Plan, the heart of this action is the carbon dioxide emissions Final Rule …

Language Policy In Turkey And Its Effect On The Kurdish Language, Sevda Arslan

Masters Theses

For many decades the Kurdish language was ignored and banned from public use and Turkish became the lingua franca for all citizens to speak. This way, the Turkish state sought to create a nation-state based on one language and attempted to eliminate the use of other languages, particularly Kurdish, through severe regulations and prohibitions.

Firstly, this thesis traces the language planning policies in the 20th century which resulted in the invisibilization and denial of Kurdish through an attempted linguicide. Through decade long oppressions which resulted in mass killings, arrests, re-location of Kurds, monopolization of education in Turkish and eventually the …

National Quality Awards In Healthcare And Actual Quality In U.S. Hospitals, Beth M. Beaudin-Seiler

Dissertations

This study examined performance outcome data from the Medicare Compare Hospital database for differences in performance between national award-winning hospitals and non-national award-winning hospitals. Specific variables examined were related to clinical care and were identified in literature as well as professional medical associations and societies as being quality indicators. National award-winning hospitals were defined as those having received the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in Healthcare or the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence. The characteristics of highly reliable organizations were also used to align the indicators of excellence for Malcolm Baldrige and Healthgrades recipients. Finally, a closer examination of data …

Gay Marriage Laws In Europe Compared To The United States, Megan Stamm

Honors Theses

The issue of same-sex marriage has been the hot social issue of the decade, even of the generation. This social issue has been debated to and fro in countries around the world. Each country has differing policies towards same-sex marriage. Certain countries in the Middle East hold same-sex relationships as crimes punishable by death. Some countries in Europe hold same-sex marriage as completely equal to heterosexual marriage. Each country is different. Each country is made up of different cultures and this plays a huge role in the debate. This thesis will compare and contrast European countries with the United States …

A Study On Generic Prescription Substitution Policy As A Cost Containment Approach For Michigan’S Medicaid System, Khandaker Nayeemul Islam

Dissertations

Increasing health care costs have made management of Medicaid services to provide low-income families through Medicaid programs critical in the recent times. The number of Medicaid beneficiaries in Michigan has increased over the years mainly due to the downsizing of auto sectors. Currently, states spend almost 16% of their budget for Medicaid, making it the second largest item in the budget for most (Kaiser Foundation, 2010). Prescription drugs are a significant part of Michigan’s Medicaid costs. Higher costs caused a tremendous fiscal burden on Michigan in administering the program and providing prescription drugs for its patients. Michigan has implemented several …

Exploring Collaborative Governance: Case Studies Of Disruptions In Coastal Zone Management Collaborations And Resulting Effects Upon The Collaborations And Outcomes, Roselyn Zator

Dissertations

This study examined disruptions in collaborative governance in four state coastal zone management commissions or councils in California, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. The comparative case study used qualitative analysis of pre- and post- disruption conditions. The disruption was defined as a chain of events that started with a loss or diminished level of public trust in the decision-making of the commission or council. The loss of public trust led to changes in the external environment meta-variable (political action) that affected (disrupted) the institutional design and relationship dynamics meta-variables of the commissions or councils.

To better understand the …

Three Essays On Financial Markets And Monetary Policy, Abeba Siraj Mussa

Dissertations

The global financial crisis triggered by fallout from the sub-prime mortgage market in the U.S. has led economists to focus attention on the role of monetary policy in the crisis. The question of how monetary policy affects the financial sector is the key to the current debate over the role financial stability should play in the monetary policy decisions. As a contribution to this debate, my dissertation examines the link between monetary policy and three main financial sectors - the banking sector, the stock market, and the housing market.

The first essay examines whether the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) …

Coping With Disaster: Lessons Learned From Executive Directors Of Nonprofit Organizations (Npos) On New Orleans Following Hurricane Katrina, Steven L. Smith

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the issues and challenges that nonprofit organizations (NPOs) contend with as a consequence of a large-scale disaster, in this case, the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. Through interviews with 10 executive directors of small and medium-size nonprofit, community-based NPOs in New Orleans, this study examines how their organizations coped with the consequences of the storm and the devastating aftermath. The critical issues and coping strategies the executives identified, and the lessons they learned offer insights into (a) nonprofit organizational responses to a catastrophic event, and (b) executive leadership that helped the nonprofit to survive.

This research project …

Important Or Impotent? Radical Right Political Parties And Public Policy In Germany And Austria, Marcella J. Myers

Dissertations

Across Western Europe throughout the 1990s radical right political parties emerged and gained some electoral success. Since that time, particularly in the face of the popularity of the National Front in France and the Freedom Party in Austria, many studies have been conducted examining the voting behavior, party membership and ideologies of these parties, and what the parties mean to democratic governments. Largely unexamined are the effects of radical right political parties on public policy. This study attempts to evaluate the effect of radical right parties on public policy by using a most similar, case study research design, relying heavily …

Evaluating The Effectiveness And Benefit-Cost Of Michigan Background Check Program Using Crime Opportunity Theory, Judith Brown Clarke

Dissertations

Elderly persons in long-term care settings are exceptionally vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and exploitation necessitating special protective measures by criminal justice, social services, and health care agencies. In 2006, 28.6% of Michigan households with a family member in long-term care reported that person having experienced one or more forms of abuse including physical, caretaking, verbal, emotional, neglect, sexual, and exploitation (Post, 2006). Criminal justice agencies were scrambling to identify programs aimed at reducing elder abuse in long-term care. Michigan was selected as one of seven states designated as a federal pilot test site. As a result, the Michigan Background Check …

Nongovernmental Program Replication And Implementation: What Can Community-Based Programs To Support The Uninsured Learn From Other Communities?, Raymond J. Higbea

Dissertations

This research study evaluated the replication and implementation of Project Access (a nongovernmental, structured program providing physician and health care services to the working-poor) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A mixed methodological approach was used and included quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The qualitative method used was a self-administered mailed survey of all Project Access enrollees. This survey evaluated the enrollee's perceived health and lifestyle function, access to physician services, access and adherence to prescribed medication regimen, and barriers to physician services during the year pre- and post-enrollment in Project Access. The survey also evaluated the amount enrollees were able or willing …

The Challenges Of Implementing Privatization Reform Program Of State-Owned Enterpreises (Soes) In Kenya 1979 To 2002, Peter Kiiru Kariuki

Dissertations

Before any more sales o f public stakes in parastatals are carried out, we need a robust public debate. We also feel that the interests o f Kenyans, whose taxes built those parastatals, should be recognized. A new policy, which gives Kenyans the first right to buy parastatals, is needed. (Editorial-Daily Nation, Nairobi Publication, Retrieved 9/17/2006 http://www. nationmedia. com/dailynation)

This study reviews the progress and challenges of implementing privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reform program in Kenya during the period 1979- 2002 as part of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). The impetus for implementing privatization reform program has two sources: …

A Heuristic Study Of The Decision To Privatize Local Government Service, David L. Rich

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of local government decision making. Six Michigan cities, selected from respondents to an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) privatization survey, are the basis of this multi-case study examining the decision to privatize public services.

Classical decision-making theory is used to identify six foundational elements from which to analyze the privatization decision: (1) identification of theproblem(s) that triggered the decision to consider privatization; (2) the solutions considered; (3) the processes or mechanisms used to make the decision; (4)the environment in which the decision was made; (5) the identification of the key …

Unintended Consequences In Public Policy: Formulation And Implementation Of Michigan’S Safe Delivery Of Newborns Law, Anne Julie Hacker

Dissertations

It is generally believed that social policy is the result of careful research and planning on the part of officials. Yet there often exists a gap between theformulation and implementation of many social policies. This gap brings with it conflict, which in turn may result in unintended consequences. Theseconsequences may be so antithetical to the formulators' original intent as to make the policy implementation paradoxical.

This qualitative research study examines the ambiguities, challenges, or boundaries that policy formulators placed on practitioners responsible for implementing Michigan's Safe Delivery of Newborns Act and that ultimately created unintended consequences indicative of a public …

Providing Uninsured Adults With Free Or Low-Cost Primary Care: Does It Influence Their Use Of Hospital Emergency Departments?, Anne G. Zahradnik

Dissertations

This study analyzes one component of the health care safety net to determine whether or not being enrolled in a free or low-cost primary care physician access program subsequently affects emergency room utilization by uninsured adults ages 18 through 64. Those individual decisions are analyzed from both public goods and rational choice schemas. Additionally, physician access programs of different formats (a low-cost physician referral program and a freewalk-in clinic) are analyzed and compared for relative effectiveness. The study is a quantitative analysis of more than 40,000 individual patient records rather than relying on qualitative patient recall or on analyzing broad …

Electronic Government Accessibility For People With Blindness Or Low Vision Who Utilize Assistive Computer Technology, Robert J. Sobie

Dissertations

Citizen access to electronic government information and services continues to enjoy an expansionary phase in local government. This expansionary phase holds a prominent place in service delivery strategic planning as governments address on-going operational challenges caused by increased fiscal pressures and greater accountability to the citizenry for their actions. Since the advent of the World Wide Web, in the mid 1990s, static information and interactive applications are available on government websites to facilitate information dissemination and citizen interaction.

The presence of electronically delivered information and services may not address the accessibility needs of people with blindness or low vision who …

An Empirical Study Of Fiscal Decentralization Of Local Governments In China, Jianfeng Wang

Dissertations

The world is experiencing dramatic fiscal reconstruction in the socialist and (former) socialist countries and of continuing and fascinating evolution of government structure elsewhere. Being one of the fastest growing economies over the past nearly three decades, China seems deeply embracing this global mantra of power devolution in her effort to energize local economy that was suffocated in the highly constricted state-planning system. The literature of the Chinese central-local studies suggests that fiscal decentralization from the central government to provincial governments is a key institutional factor to explain Chinese economic success. However, the literature misses various lower levels of government …

Collaboration Through Partnerships: A Review Of Six Michigan Communities, Cheryl Kay Sibilsky-Soule

Dissertations

The federal government supports the use of collaborative service planning for many federally funded programs. While there are anecdotal studies supporting community collaboration, its use has not been adequately evaluated. This study provides exploratory information regarding the relationship between successful collaboration and outcomes for children and families.

Data were collected from six Michigan communities using a survey tool sent to all members of the six community Family Coordinating Councils. The tool was designed to measure eight factors seen in successful collaboration. The respondents evaluated their own collaborative council on these eight factors.

Three of the communities were thought to be …

Child Welfare And Devolving Federalism: An Analysis Of The Effects Of Federal Funding Schemes On Selected Child Welfare Outcomes In Michigan, Timothy J. Kangas

Dissertations

Child abuse and neglect has become a pervasive problem across the United States. Between 1985 and 1995 the foster care population in the United States grew by 79%, with costs soaring into the billions. During the mid-1990s, in an effort to address this issue, the federal government shifted from using a funding scheme identified with a traditional model of federalism to one identified with devolving federalism. In Michigan, the focus of this research, this shift in approaches occurred through the issuance of block grant funding for child welfare programming. The intent of this shift was to decentralize elements of the …

A Comparative Study Of Factors Related To Adoption, Management, And Impact Of Police Consolidation And Amalgamation In Norfolk, County, England, And Kent And Ottawa Counties, Michigan, United States, Terry Lee Fisk

Dissertations

The evolution of law enforcement in the United States has created a circumstance where thousands of smaller communities are served by a police agency, some of which may not have the capability or resources to provide adequate police service. Many of these are agencies operate within a geographical area where they are joined by common boundaries, yet each operates as an autonomous police force. One possible solution to this quandary is to consolidate those existing agencies experiencing difficulties in the provision of police services into single, larger departments with combined resources.

The purpose of this research was to determine what …

An Analysis Of The Level Of Union Membership In The United States Since The Implementation Of Nafta, David D. Westcot

Dissertations

Union membership in the United States has been in a state of decline over the last two decades and international trade has been cited as one of the reasons. As such, U.S. labor unions perceived the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as an assault on organized labor. This perspective is based on the belief U.S. capital and jobs would move jobs south in an effort to take advantage of Mexico's low-wage differentials. With this in mind, the objective of this research was to determine if the percentage of union membership in any of the 22 …

Drug Courts: A Study Of Retention And Suspension In The Kalamazoo County Drug Court Program, James H. Houston

Dissertations

This is a study of the Kalamazoo County Drug Treatment Court Programs. Participants in the court programs are men and women who reside in the county and are charged with drug-related non-violent felonies. These participants, along with judges and administrators of the program, were interviewed for the study. The interviews were held in face-to-face meetings: participants on neutral ground and court functionaries in their offices.

The study sought to determine what factors contributed to the success or failure of drug court participants. It asked to what extent program requirements are perceived by the participants to be coercive, and how this …

Cost Sharing Under Complex Federalism: Welfare Reform Cost Neutrality Calculations, Robert G. Lovell

Dissertations

The American system of welfare for families with children is a partnership between the federal and state governments. Under this partnership, the federal government establishes the basic eligibility policies for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the principal program providing cash assistance to poor families. States determine payment levels and administrative policies. Costs are shared through a formula reflecting each state’s ability to pay.

To encourage policy experimentation by the states, a section of the act creating the AFDC program allows the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to waive some provisions. This became …

Crises In The Regulation Of Long-Term Care, Randall Earl Phillips

Dissertations

This study reviews the history of the legislative process that led to the passage of the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 and the implementation of the regulations. The analysis uses the model of Masmanian and Sabatier to identify the variables and assess their impact on the implementation process. The content of the regulations in terms of various statutory and nonstatutory variables is assessed, and an estimate is made of their effect on the program.

Three aspects of the regulations are examined. First, the relative importance of how compliance is to be determined--subjectively, objectively, or clinically. Second, the design and …