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AbstractDoes citizens' voting behavior influence government policy? Conventional models of democratic representation assume that issue voting by citizens induces government responsiveness to citizens' preferences. However, existing research has not tested whether voting behavior makes any difference to responsiveness. We present a theoretical model of issue voting and policy responsiveness. We leverage Swedish election study panels and a corresponding dataset on policy implementation to empirically evaluate the influence of issue voting on the adoption by governments of popular policies. We find that parties that enter government are more likely to implement popular policies if supporters of a policy shift their votes towards those parties. Thus, issue voting can lead to government responsiveness as long as it does not force parties to be inconsistent with their prior positions.

PO questions on the US gov information policy asked from 1935-1971 & their findings are collected & presented. Questions are presented on the Pentagon papers, people's ideas on their right to know, the extent to which they have learned everything they felt they should know, & their opinions on the credibility of individual chiefs of state. In an addendum tangential to these data, one question is presented asked by the US Information Agency on the reliability of pronouncements of the US gov on world affairs. Modified AA.

A natural outgrowth of technological development-manmade hazards-fall into two classification systems: (I) context (occupational, product, general environment), & (2) agent (chemical, mechanical, radiological). Of agents, radiation presents unprecedented dangers in terms of its potential scale & persistence. Control of man-made hazards is based on certain unsupported assuptions or myths (eg, occupational hazards are statistically more severe than risk to the environment, risks & benefits are accrued at a proportional rate). Complicating the process are the political issues which evolve from a need to translate highly specialized information into nonpartisan advice useful to government officials charged with policy-making, together with questions of ethics & public accountability. Western governments have recently demonstrated increased concern & effort toward control. Of the differing approaches adopted in Britain (closed), Sweden (open consenual) & the US, the latter is more responsive to citizen initiative. In light of the risks, however, adequate public & governmental involvement has yet to develop. P. Hoye.

While the numbers of young people who become parents in their teenage years is declining, there remains a stigma associated with young parenthood. Young parents disrupt socially constructed ideas of the family and challenge ideals of childhood. It is common for young parents to have experienced social exclusion and poverty as well as to have relatively low educational achievement prior to parenthood. Less common, though, is the idea that becoming a parent in late teenage years may enable the development of aspiration, promote maturity and responsibility, and potentially lead to enhanced life chances for these young people. This article draws on interview data with 10 young women and 5 young men who were parents and aged between 16 and 19, along with findings from interviews carried out with a range of professionals working in the field of teenage pregnancy. Young people describe the transformative effect of parenthood on their young lives, and challenge accepted views of the negative impact of becoming a young parent.

Different members of coalition governments typically have responsibility for different aspects, or dimensions, of policy. Such responsibilities are allocated as portfolios to government members. Given a distribution of such portfolios, final government policy is derived as the accumulation of individual members' decisions in regard to their respective responsibilities. We develop a portfolio allocation model of government formation and policy decision in multiparty legislatures. In particular, we focus on stable portfolio allocations, where a stable allocation is one that yields a policy that no legislative coalition is willing or able to overturn. Several notions of stability are considered and related to the usual concept of the core. Among the results are that although stable allocations are not guaranteed, such allocations can exist with minority governments; and that final policy outcomes associated with stable governments need not be "centrist."

Countries worldwide are reforming their port operation systems. For instance, Canada established the "Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative" and is implementing logistics policies, including railway/road modes under the powerful leadership of the national government and through efforts of both the public and private sectors. In addition, the national governments of Denmark and Sweden established Copenhagen Malmö Port, which integrally manages the formally competing cross-border Port of Copenhagen and Port of Malmö. By contrast, in Japanese port operation systems, the management and operation of all ports are fully under local public authorities, and the involvement of the national government is limited to allocation of port development budgets. The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 paralyzed the functions of local public authorities, and it became apparent that port management/operation by these local authorities was limited. The authors analyzed the cases of port operation system reform conducted and verified the significance of leadership provided by the national government. As a result, a huge gap of international competitiveness and disaster response capability between ports in Canada and Denmark/Sweden was found, where national government policy affects the operational system significantly, and those in Japan, where all port operation is left to local public authorities and the government only exercises its leadership in the distribution of port development budgets. From the aspects of international competitiveness and enhancement of the disaster response capability, port operation requires powerful leadership of the national government.

ABSTRACTThis essay contrasts the careers of Robert Ball and Wilbur Cohen, two American public administrators who have devoted fifty years to America's social insurance institutions, with other types of public actors, especially the in and outer rising spirally across departments, policies and administrations. America's separation of powers and federalism reward with influence those who combine entrepreneurial energy, long-term program commitment, and managerial skill; other political structures provide different patterns of opportunities and constraints. It then applies this perspective to Ball and Cohen's participation in three periods of American social policy history: the formation of federal social insurance policy (1935 to 1950); the expansion period (1950–1970); and the turbulent period of stagflation and fiscal stress (1972 to the present).

In what follows the concept of sustainable development is revisited in the context of the need to protect national assets − economic, environmental and human − and the potential conflict between them. This is done in the light of national and international trends.