Public Policy Commons^™

The Tea Party, The Constitution, And The Repeal Amendment, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Given that the Tea Party is a right-of-center movement, it does not take an empiricist to know that most Tea Partiers hold right-of-center views on a variety of issues. This does not mean, however, that the Tea Party movement is about immigration policy or social issues like abortion, any more than the gun-rights movement is about any other beliefs that may be held by a majority of gun-rights advocates. Instead, the Tea Party movement is about two big subjects: first, the undeniable recent surge in national government spending and debt, and second, what Tea Partiers perceive as a federal government …

Against Flexibility, David A. Super

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Contemporary legal thinking is in the thrall of a cult of flexibility. We obsess about avoiding decisions without all possible relevant information while ignoring the costs of postponing decisions until that information becomes available. We valorize procrastination and condemn investments of decisional resources in early decisions.

Both public and private law should be understood as a productive activity converting information, norms, and decisional and enforcement capacity into outputs of social value. Optimal timing depends on changes in these inputs’ scarcity and in the value of the decision they produce. Our legal culture tends to overestmate the value of information that …

Mujeres Y Bienestar: Un Estudio Comparativo De Chile Y Uruguay, Jennifer Pribble

Political Science Faculty Publications

Es ampliamente reconocido por economistas, cientistas políticos y sociólogos que las mujeres constituyen una proporción muy alta de la pobreza mundial. A pesar de las marcadas diferencias de género entre los pobres latinoamericanos, los análisis de los Estados de bienestar de Ia región se han concentrado primordialmente en explicar las diferencias en los niveles del gasto socialo total. Este enfoque ha dejado de lado una variable importante en los regímenes de bienestar latinoamericanos: el carácter de género en las políticas sociales. Este trabajo pretende cubrir esa brecha. Mediante un análisis comparativo de Chile y Uruguay, las páginas que siguen exploran …

Environmental Migrants And The Future Of The Willamette Valley: A Preliminary Exploration, Alison Wicks

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report reviews existing data and research on predicted impacts of climate change in the Northwestern United States, and specifically focuses on the level of preparedness to accommodate new population growth due to climate migration in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Climate change impacts in Oregon are predicted to be less severe than in other areas of the country. Generally, models project warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers in the Willamette Valley and other areas west of the Cascade Range. This will likely make the Willamette Valley a more desirable place for environmentally displaced people to locate. This report considers how …

Structurally Unbalanced: Cyclical And Structural Deficits In Arizona, Matthew Murray, Kristin Borns, Susan Clark-Johnson, Mark Muro, Jennifer Vey, Brookings Mountain West, Morrison Institute For Public Policy

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Though the Great Recession may be officially over, all is not well in Arizona. Three years after the collapse of a massive real estate “bubble,” the deepest economic downturn in memory exposed and exacerbated one of the nation’s most profound state fiscal crises, with disturbing implications for Arizona citizens and the state’s long-term economic health. This brief takes a careful look at the Grand Canyon State’s fiscal situation, examining both Arizona’s serious cyclical budget shortfall—the one resulting from a temporary collapse of revenue due to the recession—as well as the chronic, longer-term, and massive structural imbalances that have developed largely …

Hastening The Wheels Of Change: International Cold War Pressure And Civil Rights Reform During The Truman Presidency, Caley A. Robertson

Honors Theses

In the early Cold War arena, international pressure on the United States to live according to its ideological rhetoric enabled the Truman Administration to set a precedent for federal engagement in domestic civil rights reform. As the United States led the march to institutionalise human rights as the standard of moral legitimacy in the global arena, the country’s grisly record of racial oppression and violence invited foreign and domestic criticism alike. This paper intends to prove five discrete points. First: Cold War tensions brought questions of moral legitimacy to the forefront of the U.S. national agenda. Second: during the Truman …

Actualizing Empowerment: Developing A Framework For Partnering With Families In System Level Service Planning And Delivery, Kathleen Ferreira

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The engagement of families of children and adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) as full partners in individual treatment, organizational, and system level decision making has become an important focus for systems of care (SOCs) serving youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. SOCs typically include cross-agency partnerships with mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and education for the purpose of providing services and supports for youth with SED who have multi-agency needs. Implementation of a federal mandate requiring family driven care (FDC) within systems of care funded through the Children's Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) has revealed that most system of …

Massachusetts State Public Worker Retirees: How Are They Doing?, Ellen A. Bruce, Lauren A. Martin

Gerontology Institute Publications

Although much has been made of the Massachusetts State Retirement System’s funding and abuses, little has been written about the benefits it provides. A retirement system should be judged first on whether it meets its goal of providing for workers in retirement.

The Elder Economic Security Initiative™ Program: The Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index For Washington, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Wider Opportunities For Women

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report addresses income adequacy for Washington’s older adults using the national WOW-GI National Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index) methodology. The Elder Index benchmarks basic costs of living for elder households and illustrates how costs of living vary geographically and are based on the characteristics of elder households, including household size, home ownership or renter status and health status. The costs are based on market costs for basic needs of elder households and do not assume any public or private supports.

O My Sons And Daughters, How Do I Immiserate Thee: Let Me Count The Ways, Kenneth M. Casebeer

Articles

No abstract provided.

On Tax Increase Limitations: Part I -- A Costly Incoherence, David Gamage, Darien Shanske

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this essay, the first of a series, we explore the theoretical implications of one particular type of fiscal limitation on state legislatures - namely, special rules limiting tax increases. In this first essay we will explore the analytic soundness of these tax increase limitations (TILs). In future essays in this series we will analyze some of the consequences of TILs and in particular how they can be 'evaded.' We will argue over the course of this series of essays that because there is no meaningful content to the term 'tax increase' as it is used in TILs, legislative majorities …

Essays On Applications Of Behavioral Decision Making In Public Management And Policy, Navid Ghaffarzadegan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This is a three-essay dissertation on examination of behavioral decision making phenomena in the contexts of public management and policy analysis. I study how policymakers, government employees, and citizens behave, make decisions and learn from decision outcomes. I move toward prescriptive analysis and offer solutions that can improve government performance.

Business As Usual : The Nonprofit Sector In The U.S. National Elite Network, Scott Vincent Dolan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research on the structure and distribution of power in the United States has focused mostly on the relative power of business, and has largely neglected the nonprofit sector. This is despite evidence that points to the emergence and growth of large-scale, bureaucratic, and elite-led nonprofit organizations. When the political role of the nonprofit sector has been examined, it has come predominantly from two sets of literature: the civic engagement/social capital tradition or the interest group tradition. I argue that both sets of literature, however, start with faulty assumptions about the nature of power and politics, and thereby fail to situate …

Metropolitan Fragmentation Vs. New Regionalism And The Evolving Nature Of Metropolitan Governance : An Analysis Of Growth Politics And Policy In The Capital Region Of Upstate New York, Paul Thomas Knudson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Development in the urban and metropolitan context continues to be a vibrant area of scholarship and debate in the social sciences. This study continues and augments this research by examining two overarching issues: first, how development at the local level is impacted by fragmented political structures and inter-municipal relations, and second, the extent to which local, non-profit organizations and state agencies whose policies involve land-use planning and environmental conservation, are addressing issues of uneven- and parochial-centered development as a by-product of political fragmentation.

Residence Restriction Legislation, Sex Crime Rates, And The Spatial Distribution Of Sex Offender Residences, Kelly M. Socia

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Residence restrictions are one of the most recent, and most controversial, public policies seeking to protect community members from registered sex offenders (RSOs) reentering society following incarceration. Residence restriction policies prohibit RSOs from living within a given distance of certain places where children might gather (e.g., schools, daycares, parks, and playgrounds). In doing so, the expectation is that RSOs will have a harder time finding and approaching young children whom they can sexually assault, thus driving sexual recidivism rates down. These policies, first passed in 1995 at the state level and in 2005 at the county and local level, have …

Addressing Nonsystematic Factors Contributing To The Underrepresentation Of Minorities As Jurors, Elizabeth Neeley

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of criminal defendants to “a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” An “impartial jury” requires the jury be selected from a representative cross-section of the community. But how is a fair cross-section determined? In Duren v. Missouri, the Supreme Court outlined a three-pronged test defendants must satisfy to establish a prima facie violation of the fair-cross-section requirement:

(1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a “distinctive” group in the community; (2) that the …

Faith-Based Organizations In A System Of Behavioral Health Care, Mark Dekraai, Denise Bulling, Nancy C. Shank, Alan J. Tomkins

Nancy Shank Publications

Through community service activities, and ministries to members within their congregations, faith communities will encounter individuals with behavioral health needs. This article suggests that faith communities have inherent resources that can enhance the reach and effectiveness of behavioral health systems. A framework is presented that will create a bridge of understanding about how behavioral health can leverage faith organization assets and how faith organizations can actively assist adults, children and families with behavioral health needs within the context of their faith and their community.

Statedata: The National Report On Employment Services And Outcomes, John Butterworth, Allison Cohen Hall, Frank Smith, Alberto Migliore, Jean Winsor, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Daria Domin

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Policy shifts over the past 20 years have created an agenda for sustained commitment to integrated employment for individuals with disabilities. But despite these clear intentions, unemployment of individuals with disabilities continues to be a major public policy issue. Labor force statistics for December 2010 indicate that 28 percent of working-age adults with disabilities are employed, compared with 70 percent of people without disabilities. Labor force data also indicate that workers with disabilities have experienced significantly higher levels of job loss and hardship during the recession of the late 2000s. For people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), the disparity …

Community-Based Operations Research: Introduction, Theory And Applications, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

Community-based operations research is the name of a new sub-discipline within operations research and the management sciences. CBOR synthesizes previous practice and research traditions within OR/MS to address problems within the public sector that are often of a localized nature, that address the concerns of citizens affiliated through characteristics of race, ethnicity and class and other ties and that are solved using diverse qualitative and quantitative methods. Solutions to these problems are developed and implemented by formal and informal organizations, and embody a critical perspective towards traditional notions of decisionmakers, stakeholders and analytic methods. The most proximate antecedents of CBOR …

Outcomes, Adaptations And Performance: A Local Evaluation Of Shelter Plus Care, Sloan R. Herrick

Wayne State University Theses

Individual outcomes and barriers to program implementation for Shelter Plus Care are presented in an exploratory study investigating the impact of a permanent supportive housing program - Shelter Plus Care - in Detroit, a city that faces unique challenges and complicated needs. Individual outcomes including improved housing stability, increased income and reports of enhanced self-sufficiency suggest the program is achieving the goals projected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Despite positive outcomes for individual consumers, barriers to program implementation emerged as thematic problems for organizations running the program. The study provides recommendations that may increase the …