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Environmental policy is one of the most regulated & one of the most Europeanised policy areas. This article analyses the concept of Europeanisation, discusses its mechanisms, the mediating factors that lead to change & its possible outcomes. It explores the relationship of specific mechanisms & mediating factors to policy convergence, inertia & divergence. The particularities of environmental policy are presented & a distinction between substantive & procedural policies is made. It is argued that a tendency to convergence of national environmental policies that goes beyond the borders of the EU & further than the "hard" mechanisms of Europeanisation can be observed. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Research has identified a wide range of factors that influence the health of children and their health as adults. Key among these are early childhood conditions, care, and education, housing security and income security. A number of indicators have been developed to measure the health of children such as the incidences of infant mortality and low birth weight. In international comparisons with other rich countries, Canada ranks poorly. These health outcomes are not inevitable but are shaped by the quality and distribution of a wide range of social determinants. Public policies shape access to and quality of the social determinants of children's health (SDCH). Because the SDCH are amenable to public policy, it is important to understand public policy and the public policy development process in order to promote policy change. Yet few health practitioners who work with children consider or understand how the public policy development process works. This article examines three models of public policy development: pluralism, policy paradigms, and political economy. It will be argued that of the three models, political economy, with its focus on the role of political ideology and power distribution, provides the most compelling explanation of the public policy development process and provides means to bring about policy change to improve the health of children.

Environmental policy is one of the most regulated and one of the most Europeanised policy areas. This article analyses the concept of Europeanisation, discusses its mechanisms, the mediating factors that lead to change and its possible outcomes. It explores the relationship of specific mechanisms and mediating factors to policy convergence, inertia and divergence. The particularities of environmental policy are presented and a distinction between substantive and procedural policies is made. It is argued that a tendency to convergence of national environmental policies that goes beyond the borders of the EU and further than the "hard" mechanisms of Europeanisation can be observed.

"Government agencies respond to increasingly complex problems and a rapidly changing political environment which creates new priorities, forcing agencies to respond to unanticipated situations, often with little knowledge or preparation, creating instability in the policy making process. Epp argues that agencies vary in the complexity of the problems they face, whether they maintain a level of expertise and capacity to analyze complex problems, and how they make decisions."--Provided by publisher

THIS PAPER SUGGESTS THAT THE POLICY MODEL ASSUMED BY MOST WRITERS ON POLICY ANALYSIS NEGLECTS THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE FACT THAT MOST "NEW" POLICIES IN CONTEMPORARY WESTERN POLITICAL SYSTEMS ARE IN FACT REPLACING OLD POLICIES, AND THAT THIS IS INCREASINGLY LIKELY TO BE THE CASE. SIMILARLY, THE RECENT INTEREST IN "POLICY TERMINATION" IS PARTLY MISPLACED SINCE IT FAILS TO FOLLOW THROUGH ADEQUATELY THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE FACT THAT MOST POLICY TERMINATIONS LEAD TO POLICY SUCCESSION. ACCORDINGLY, THERE IS A NEED TO STUDY AND ANALYSE THE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN POLICY SUCCESSION. THIS PAPER PLACES POLICY SUCCESSION IN THE CONTEXT OF POLICY CHANGE, SKETCHES A MODEL WHICH DESCRIBES THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE POLICY SUCCESSION PROCESS, OUTLINES THE VARIOUS KINDS OF POLICY SUCCESSION WHICH OCCUR, AND DRAWS OUT SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY MAKERS RESULTING FROM THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF POLICY SUCCESSION.

Presents a framework for analyzing the policy impact of whistleblowing; utilizes two case studies from the 1980s; US. Hugh Kaufman and the Environmental Protection Agency; Hal Freeman and the San Francisco Office for Civil Rights.