Suchergebnisse

In this highly original and meticulously researched comparison of public and private standards-setting, Ross E. Cheit questions the old maxim that government-set safety standards are too severe while those set by the private sector are too lenient. Identifying the comparative institutional advantages of each arrangement through four paired case studies of grain elevators, woodstoves, aviation fire safety, and gas space heaters, he finds instead that some private standards are surprisingly strict, while government is better positioned to survey real-world experience and sponsor research likely to improve standards-setting. Setting Safety Standards challenges those political scientists who argue that only public institutions can advance the public interest in the controversial field of health and safety. Cheit draws attention to such little-known organizations as Underwriters Laboratories and the National Fire Protection Association, private-sector alternatives to the government regulation so frequently criticized as time-consuming, inflexible, and unreasonable. These organizations, he shows, play a far more significant role in regulation than most federal agencies, even though the standards they develop are widely—and often mistakenly—assumed to be less concerned with due process than government standards and often unduly lax. This study should be widely read by public policy and regulation experts in both the public and the private sectors as well as by academics in the field. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990

In From Earth to Oblivion: The Passing of Humankind, Dr. Ross E. Goodrich, a geographer, describes the ultimate human predicament: our population is growing, our living space is increasingly overcrowded, and our sources of life support are rapidly vanishing. He explains why we cannot control the size of our population, and that correspondingly we cannot abolish poverty, achieve world peace, or establish a sustainable existence. He asserts that our predicament is preparing our population for a crash that is likely to begin the extinction of humanity. The author discusses the very nature of humans' expectation of survival-our belief that we have the ingenuity or the exalted position in the eyes of Mother Nature or a Divine Creator to be the exception, the one species who will avoid the inevitable. To the contrary, this treatise provides a clear roadmap and several informed predictions that illustrate the path and the events that are propelling the human species to oblivion.

Child sexual abuse became part of the public discourse in 1984 with a series of high-profile criminal cases involving day-care centres, many of which were eventually seen as 'witch-hunts'. Under this view, the charges were the result of suggestive interviewing, over-zealous prosecutors, and a gullible press. This is the first scholarly book to challenge that view. Based on fifteen years of original trial court research, it argues that the evidence for the witch-hunt narrative is weak at best, in many cases ignoring significant evidence of abuse and in others ignoring complexity.

How can social scientists assess the reliability of the measures derived from tests and questionnaires? Through an illustrative review of the principles of classical reliability theory, Ross E Traub explores some general strategies for improving measurement procedures. Beginning with a presentation of random variables and the expected value of a random variable, the book covers such topics as: the definition of reliability as a coefficient and possible uses of a coefficient; the notion of parallel tests so as to make possible the estimation of a reliability coefficient for a set of measurements; what to do when parallel tests are not available; what factors affect the reliability coefficient; and how to estimate the.

The rise and fall of government regulation challenges both sides in the debate over the proper role of government and business in protecting people against various risks. Leaving business to its own devices is suspect for reasons suggested by horror stories such as the exploding Ford Pinto. The "failures" of the free market are well recognized. Consumers frequently lack information. Businesses often lack the incentive to internalize "external costs" such as pollution. The costs of organizing collective interests can be prohibitive; and without the watchful eye of regulatory inspectors, the unscrupulous lack a powerful reason for self-restraint. But, as the revolt against regulation reveals, government regulation has its own serious shortcomings.