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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Local government > Local government policies
States are the key to contemporary government reform efforts in the United States, but we know very little about their relative effectiveness at resource allocation and their actual capacity to absorb additional fiscal and managerial responsibilities. This path-breaking study examines state budget offices as institutional actors, with special attentio to the role of budget examiners. Drawing on empirical findings from field studies of eleven states in the American heartland, the authors demonstrate how budgeting at the state level has become more policy-oriented, requiring complex decision making by budget analysts. The incrementalist model of budgetary decision-making thus gives way to a multiple rationalities model. The authors illustrate the decision-making model with the story of two office examiners who have distinctly different orientations as they begin their work, and contrast the different decision nationalities that come into play for them at different points in a typical budget cycle. The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of historical and modern writings on state budgeting operations, activities, and decision-making; state budgeting cycles; and the state-level policy development process.
Written in an accessible, case study format, this groundbreaking work explores the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of family leave policy in the United States, from its beginnings at the state level in the early 1980s, through the adoption of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and beyond to the present day. With a political economy perspective, the book identifies the major economic and social forces affecting both the family and the workplace. And drawing on original primary research, it examines how the political system has responded to this evolving issue with various policy initiatives.
This new book focuses on John Quincy Adams's extensive role in foreign policy, including his years as secretary of state and as president. Brief but thorough, John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union analyzes Adams's foreign policy accomplishments during key moments in American history, including the Rush-Bagot Agreement, the Transcontinental Treaty, the recognition of the Spanish-American republics, and the Monroe Doctrine. At the same time, the book shows that Adams was far less successful than many historians suggest. John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union focuses on Adams's ideals of the centrality of the union to American happiness, the necessity of federal action to protect the union, and the indivisibility of foreign and domestic concerns. This book's examination of these three points casts new light on the logic behind many of Adams's accomplishments and also exposes the sources of some of his failures. This is the first study to examine how Adams's views ultimately led to his failure as a policymaker. This book is ideal for courses in diplomatic history, American history, and American political history.
This timely book explores the often stormy French-U.S. relationship and the evolution of the Atlantic Alliance under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle (1958 1969). The first work on this subject to draw on previously inaccessible material from U.S. and French archives, the study offers a comprehensive analysis of Gaullist policies toward NATO and the United States during the 1960s, a period that reached its apogee with de Gaulle s dramatic decision in 1966 to withdraw from NATO s integrated military arm. This launched the French policy of autonomy within NATO, which has since been adapted without having been abandoned. De Gaulle s policy often has been caricatured by admirers and detractors alike as an expression of nationalism or anti-Americanism. Yet Frederic Bozo argues that although it did reflect the General s quest for grandeur, it also, and perhaps more important, stemmed from a genuine strategy designed to build an independent Europe and to help overcome the system of blocs. Indeed, the author contends, de Gaulle s actions forced NATO to adapt to new strategic realities. Retracing the different phases of de Gaulle s policies, Bozo provides valuable insight into current French approaches to foreign and security policy, including the recent attempt by President Chirac to redefine and normalize the France-NATO relationship. As the author shows, de Gaulle s legacy remains vigorous as France grapples with European integration, a new role within a reformed NATO, and relations with the United States.
"Hispanics in the United States" represents a collective exploration providing a basic foundation of the information available to understand Hispanics in the United States and create an effective policy agenda. Hispanics are projected to be the largest minority group in the United States in the twenty-first century. The contributions define an agenda which will be useful for students, scholars, service practitioners, political activists, as well as policy makers. The opening essays define the diversity of the Hispanic experience in America and put each of the other essays within a larger context. This edition adds a new introduction by the editors incorporating and evaluating the implications of the results of the national 2000 census. The book is organized into two sections: the first establishes the historical, demographic, religious, and cultural context of Hispanics in the United States. The second describes the major issues facing this population in the American social structure, specifically the areas of health care, the labor market, criminal justice, social welfare, and education. The work concludes with a discussion of the role played by Hispanics in the political life of the nation. The contributors, all of whom are scholars with demonstrated competence in the areas, include: Teresa A. Sullivan, David Maldonado, Melissa Roderick, Barry Chiswick, Michael Hurst, Zulema Suarez, Alvin Korte, Katie McDonough, Cruz Reynoso, and Christine Marie Sierra, as well as David Engstrom and Pastora San Juan Cafferty. Together they have produced a book which will be extremely useful to anyone developing public policies and creating social interventions at either the national or local levels during the coming decade. This new edition is a valuable contributor to discussions about the issues defining the population that will be the largest minority group in the United States in this century. Pastora San Juan Cafferty is professor, in the School of Social Service Administration, and a member of the Center for Latin America Studies at the University of Chicago. She is co-author of the "Dilemma of American Immigration: Beyond the Golden Door" and "The Politics of Language." She has written extensively on issues of race and ethnicity in America. David W. Engstrom is associate professor in the school of social work at San Diego State University and the author of "Presidential Decision Making Adrift." He has published in the areas of immigration, health care, and program evaluation.
This is the prosperity volume in a three-volume set on peace, prosperity and democracy. The author uses specific issues such as goods exchange, immigration policy, volunteerism in technical assistance, international exchange of factories, and monetary exchange rates to construct a polyvalent framework of analysis. In this examination of economic and technology policy from both a domestic and international perspective, Stuart Nagel has created an important and lasting contribution to the field of public policy studies.
How do the foreign policy priorities of Latino Americans relate to U.S. foreign policy in general and U.S. policy toward Latin America in particular? Public policy elites and the general U.S. public doubt the depth of Latino patriotism, suspecting Latinos of representing their homelands' interests over and above those of the U.S. Through a series of studies surveying Latinos throughout the U.S., this book demonstrates that Latino Americans are more like other Americans with respect to foreign policy than is popularly assumed. At the same time, differences between and among various Latino communities (e.g., those with ties to Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Mexico) exist, and may be a source of growing Latino political power perhaps more relevant to domestic politics than to foreign policy.
On the 14th June 2017, a fire engulfed a tower block in West London, seventy-two people lost their lives and hundreds of others were left displaced and traumatised. The Grenfell Tower fire is the epicentre of a long history of violence enacted by government and corporations. On its second anniversary activists, artists and academics come together to respond, remember and recover the disaster. The Grenfell Tower fire illustrates Britain's symbolic order; the continued logic of colonialism, the disposability of working class lives, the marketisation of social provision and global austerity politics, and the negligence and malfeasance of multinational contractors. Exploring these topics and more, the contributors construct critical analysis from legal, cultural, media, community and government responses to the fire, asking whether, without remedy for multifaceted power and violence, we will ever really be 'after' Grenfell? With poetry by Ben Okri and Tony Walsh, and photographs by Parveen Ali, Sam Boal and Yolanthe Fawehinmi. With contributions from Phil Scraton, Daniel Renwick, Nadine El-Enany, Sarah Keenan, Gracie Mae Bradley and The Radical Housing Network.
In this study, the author explains the inequalities that exist between U.S. states with respect to child social well-being outcomes by demonstrating that state level characteristics (which are structural in nature) can predict child social well-being outcomes. Child social well-being outcomes are quite variable in the United States. Children in states like Connecticut, Minnesota, and Vermont experience relatively good outcomes, while children in states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama experience poor outcomes. Although these inequalities suggest the need for strong federal child welfare policies to raise the well-being of all children to a minimum standard, such policies remain absent from the child welfare policy agenda. Using data from the U.S. census and various child welfare and social welfare organizations, the study demonstrates that economic, population, and child welfare policy characteristics of states influence indicators of child social well-being, including child poverty rates, infant mortality rates, and out-of-home placement rates.
The microenterprise strategy --helping people start small businesses --has generated attention among policymakers and the media as a way to create jobs and help lift people out of poverty. Through extensive interviews and case studies of five diverse microenterprise programs in different U.S. regions, Lisa J. Servon examines the potential and limits of these programs. In the late 1980s, the microenterprise strategy came to the United States from less-developed countries such as Bangladesh, where the Grameen Bank flourishes. Since then over 200 programs have opened their doors in nearly every state. This book identifies the current discourse on microenterprises, discusses how this approach represents a departure from traditional economic development and social welfare strategies, and examines the wide range of results. Boot "strap Capital tel"ls the story of both the programs and the people who use them. One program, Women's Initiative, targets very low income women in the San Francisco Bay Area and requires all clients to undergo three months of training before they can apply for a loan. Some of the participants are true entrepreneurs; others pursue self-employment because the mainstream economy has failed them. Servon finds that microenterprise programs combat the problem of persistent poverty by serving a broad socioeconomic group and by focusing on the goals of empowerment, economic literacy, and community organization. She shows that microenterprise programs do more to help those who exist at the margins of the mainstream economy than those who are completely cut off from it. She calls for a rethinking of expectations for this strategy, based on the experience of programs and entrepreneurs in this country. This book provides the basis for reframing policy support for these programs.
In an attempt to strengthen the legitimacy of European Union (EU) policy-making, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty strengthened the principle of parliamentary control in EU affairs. This pertains to parliaments at all levels ranging from the regional to the supranational level. This book analyses the potential of regional parliaments - the parliaments closest to the citizens - to engage in EU affairs and to fill the perceived legitimacy gap. Eight member states have a total of 73 regional parliaments with legislative powers, and there are further trends towards decentralization in Europe. On its quest to understand the role that regional parliaments can plan in the EU multi-level parliamentary system, the book addresses key questions: What are the formal powers and functions of regional parliaments in EU policy-making? How do they use their powers in practice? How active are they in EU politics, and what do they try to achieve? What factors can explain their degree of (in-)activity? The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.
Despite the growing academic interest in the development policy of the European Union (EU) and the booming literature on Europeanisation, the impact of Europe on national development policies has largely been overlooked. By exploring Member State interactions with and through the EU level across a number of different issues, this volume looks to herald a new research agenda. The picture emerging from the empirical evidence is that of modest degrees of Europeanisation. Resistance to Europe can be attributed to different factors, some operating at the domestic level (e.g. established cultural and normative structures, different types of veto players) and others related to the existence of several groupings with alternative policy prescriptions (e.g. Nordic donors, like-minded countries, former colonial powers). Even where there are signs of convergence (or divergence) between the development policies of the various Member States, they may be due to other influences rather than pressures coming from the EU. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Politics and Society.
The capacity to conduct international disease outbreak surveillance and share information about outbreaks quickly has empowered both State and Non-State Actors to take an active role in stopping the spread of disease by generating new technical means to identify potential pandemics through the creation of shared reporting platforms. Despite all the rhetoric about the importance of infectious disease surveillance, the concept itself has received relatively little critical attention from academics, practitioners, and policymakers. This book asks leading contributors in the field to engage with five key issues attached to international disease outbreak surveillance - transparency, local engagement, practical needs, integration, and appeal - to illuminate the political effect of these technologies on those who use surveillance, those who respond to surveillance, and those being monitored.
Braithwaite's argument against punitive justice systems and for restorative justice systems establishes that there are good theoretical and empirical grounds for anticipating that well designed restorative justice processes will restore victims, offenders, and communities better than existing criminal justice practices. Counterintuitively, he also shows that a restorative justice system may deter, incapacitate, and rehabilitate more effectively than a punitive system. This is particularly true when the restorative justice system is embedded in a responsive regulatory framework that opts for deterrence only after restoration repeatedly fails, and incapacitation only after escalated deterrence fails. Braithwaite's empirical research demonstrates that active deterrence under the dynamic regulatory pyramid that is a hallmark of the restorative justice system he supports, is far more effective than the passive deterrence that is notable in the stricter "sentencing grid" of current criminal justice systems.
Reissuing works originally published between 1952 and 1991, this collection presents a wide-ranging set of excellent texts across economics, geography, urban studies, planning, politics and industrial studies. Addressing problems and policy, development and demographics, these books together form a wealth of research and debate. Some volumes address specific areas such as industrialization, housing, property, city-systems, de-centralization, employment or rural resources. Other volumes present case studies in Australia, Britain, underdeveloped countries, South Africa and the USA while some are fully international in representation. Given the recent economic shifts around the world, this timely collection is an incredibly useful resource.
Public Sector Reform in South Africa 1994-2021 is an examination of specific public sector reforms in three core Public Administration areas in the democratic South Africa: political-administrative relationships, the delegation of authority to senior managers and performance management. Comprehensively spanning a critical period from 1994 to the current day, this collection constitutes the first systematic study of public sector reform in the gamut of the democratic era in the country. The author traces developments of policy following a rapid political shift, shedding light on previously unexplored evolving structures and systems. The Public Policy and Governance series brings together the best in international research on policy and governance issues. Books within the series are authored and edited by experts in the field and present new and insightful research on a range of policy and governance issues across the globe.
This textbook explains the complexities of the policy-making process in a refreshingly clear way for students who are new to this subject. It explains:
The text is fully illustrated throughout with a broad range of national and international case studies on subjects such as the banking crisis, the creation of unitary authorities and global environmental policy and regulation. Combining both a clear summary of debates and theories in public policy and a new and original approach to the subject, this book is essential reading for students of public policy and policy analysis.
History is replete with examples of scientists and social scientists working under the yoke of oppressive regimes. In The Closed World of East German Economists, Till Düppe tells the story of a generation of economists whose entire careers coincided with the forty-one-year existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In a micro-historical fashion, he examines the world of East German economists through the formative episodes in the lives of five different economists from this “hope†generation. Using both the perspective of the actors as expressed in interviews and archival material unknown to the actors, the book follows East German economics from the early days of the acceptance of Marxism-Leninism through to its interaction with Western economics and its eventual dissolution following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It is fascinating insight into the challenges faced by economists in a unique period of European history.
Why and how do some acts of protest trigger mass mobilization while others do not? Using the cases of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, Mekouar argues that successful mass mobilization is the result of a surprise factor, whose impact and exceptionality is amplified by the presence of influential political agents during the early phase of protest, as well as by regime violence and unusual media coverage. Together this study argues that these factors create a perception of exceptionality, which breaks the locally available cognitive heuristic originally in favor of the regime, and thus creates the necessary conditions for mobilization to occur. This book provides a unique dialectical picture of mobilization in North Africa by focusing both on the perspective of those who mobilized against their local regimes and members of the security forces who were responsible for stopping them. Moreover, it offers a first-hand account of the tumultuous days preceding authoritarian collapse and explains the mechanisms through which political change occurs.
The rise of the Islamic State has dramatically forced a recalculation of political order and security in the Persian Gulf and broader Greater Middle East by the United States and its allies and adversaries, including, most notably, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Since the Arab Spring of 2011, the Islamic State has altered the military balance in the Syrian intra-state conflict and captured significant territory in Iraq. Its military successes has attracted foreign fighters from more than 100 countries, drawn in some cases by a sophisticated recruitment strategy that effectively combines a jihadist message with a social media outreach program targeting vulnerable Muslim populations in the region and the West. The Islamic State has prompted renewed American and allied military intervention in Iraq and Syria, and complicated the US relationship with its Iranian adversaries. The New Islamic State examines the rise of the religious extremist organization from the ashes of al-Qaeda in Iraq to its current efforts in Syria and Iraq and is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the Islamic State, its effects on the Persian Gulf and Greater Middle East, and the response of both regional and great powers. The book is suitable for academics, policymakers and the general public.
Why are some subnational governments more likely to lobby the national government than others? Extant research in social sciences has widely discussed lobbying dynamics in the private sector. However, governments lobby governments, too. In the United States, lobbying is a popular strategy for state and local governments to obtain resources from and influence policies in the federal government. Nevertheless, extant research offers limited theoretical analysis or empirical evidence on this phenomenon. This Element provides a comprehensive study of intergovernmental lobbying activities in the United States and, in particular, an institutional analysis of the lobbying decisions of state and local governments. The study findings contribute to public administration, public policy, and political science literature by offering theoretical and empirical insights into the institutional factors that might influence subnational policymaking, fiscal resource management, intergovernmental relations, and democratic representation.
Drawing on classical and emerging research perspectives, this comprehensive book provides an up-to-date review of local government in Europe. Featuring an impressive range of contributors from both eastern and western Europe, the book addresses three main topics: territorial reforms, democratic empowerment of citizens and the role of local leadership, as well as new trends in local finances. Acknowledging their inherent diversity, the book examines the ways that local governments have responded to shared challenges, such as climate change, increasing populism and democratic deficit in order to identify both the variety and communalities between the country-specific features. In doing so, it provides a rich picture of the latest trends in local government, as well as pointing the way for future developments.
The book critically examines the high growth trajectory in India, particularly since the late 1980s, a period which is characterized by increasing inequality. Through various studies from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh -- a state more populous than Brazil and with a GDP comparable to Bangladesh -- it sheds light on the link between growth and inequality in emerging economies. The slow pace of any upward movement in terms of various development indicators in low-income Indian states is due to a number of factors, including their historical disadvantages. Over a period of time, this has resulted in widening disparities, both between different regions of these states, and between these states and other more prosperous Indian states. The book provides a holistic, yet critical, region-wise analysis of the achievements of Uttar Pradesh compared to other states and to India as a whole, in the context of indicators of inclusive development, namely, growth, employment, poverty, infrastructure, agriculture, industry, education and health. Based on the latest data and sophisticated analysis methods, it assesses inequality and development disparities, clearly identifying three major challenges that poorer states face in redressing poverty and expanding inclusive growth - increasing economic opportunities, empowering poor and marginalised groups to avail new opportunities in a rapidly changing world, and ensuring an effective safety net to reduce vulnerability. The book suggests strategies for promoting high and sustained economic growth, and highlights the significance of broadening social inclusiveness through greater and more rapid access to economic and social opportunities, and building strong social safety nets to protect the chronically poor and mitigate their risks and vulnerabilities with the help of good governance and institutions. With contributions from leading scholars from the region, it is a valuable resource for researchers working in the area of growth and inequality, as well as for policy makers from developing economies around the globe.
The workings of multi-level governance -- institutional choices concerning centralisation, decentralisation and subsidiarity -- are widely debated within European public policy, but few systematic studies assessing the effects of changing divisions of power for policy-making have been carried out. This volume offers an assessment of the workings of multi-level governance in terms of social welfare policy across different clusters of European states -- Nordic, Southern European, Central and East European. This book reports on a major comparative study at the European Centre for Social Welfare policy and Research, which included partners from univerisities in Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. It reports on three particular policy areas: social assistance and local policies against poverty; activation and labour market policies; and care for the elderly. The authors describe different starting points, strategies and solutions in European countries which are facing similar challenges and could thus learn from each other. They explore the differences between European welfare regimes in terms of territorial responsibilities, the changes that have taken place over the past few years and their effects. The book is distinctive in highlighting comparative transversal and transnational issues of multi-level governance in social welfare policies, rather than presenting country reports.
The politics of building dams and levees and other structures are just part of the policies determining how American rivers are managed or mismanaged. America's well-being depends upon the health of those rivers and important decisions go beyond just dam-building or dam removal. American rivers are suffering from poor water quality, altered flows, and diminished natural habitat. Current efforts by policymakers to change the ways American rivers are managed range from the removal of dams to the simulation of seasonal flows to the restoration of habitat, all with varying degrees of success. Efforts to restore American rivers are clearly delineated by William Lowry in "Dam Politics" as he looks at how public policy and rivers interact, examines the physical differences in rivers that affect policies, and analyzes the political differences among the groups that use them. He argues that we are indeed moving into an era of restoration (defined in part as removing dams but also as restoring the water quality, seasonal flows, and natural habitat that existed before structural changes to the rivers), and seeks to understand the political circumstances that affect the degree of restoration. Lowry presents case studies of eight river restoration efforts, including dam removals on the Neuse and Kennebec rivers, simulation of seasonal flows on the Colorado river, and the failed attempt to restore salmon runs on the Snake river. He develops a typology of four different kinds of possible change -- dependent on the parties involved and the physical complexity of the river -- and then examines the cases using natural historical material along with dozens of interviews with key policymakers. Policy approaches such as conjunctive water management, adaptive management, alternative licensing processes, and water marketing are presented as possible ways of using our rivers more wisely. "Dam Politics" provides a useful and systematic account of how American waterways are managed and how current policies are changing. American rivers are literally the lifeblood of our nation. Lowry has written a lively and accessible book that makes it clear as a mountain stream that it matters deeply how those rivers are managed. |
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