Suchergebnisse

Public interest in evaluation research is increasing, largely due to a general frustration with the functioning of public agencies. A major difficulty in measuring the performance of an agency is in judging its output & its effect upon community conditions. Presented is a model of the public service production process as applied to police service delivery. The model specifies a "production flow" through which organizational arrangements, or decision-making rules for producing services, structure inputs into outcome-producing activities. In this way, components of the production process can be identified & their impact traced. In the police organization, arrangements would include the DofL, size, internal authority structure, & extent of citizen access & control, among other variables. 2 Tables, 1 Figure. Modified Author Summary.

The coal severance tax of Western states has become a major source of revenue in recent years. This tax depends primarily on the possibility of tax exportation to coal-consuming states. For this to be possible, state governments must have market power. Such taxes pay substantial parts of state expenses in Mont & Wyom, but large parts also go to meet special needs associated with coal production. Such taxes have substantial impact on the use of coal as a power source; this impact may, however, be welcomed by state residents to whom coal development is a source of ambivalence. 3 Tables, 1 Figure. W. H. Stoddard.

A major need in teaching policy analysis is to build awareness of the needs of policy analysis clients. One way of doing so is the creation of internships. Another method is to involve students in community based research projects. Community based research projects, some experiences with which are reviewed, offer certain advantages over internships, but also such disadvantages as a highly politicized environment & the difficulty of large classes in reaching agreement. W. H. Stoddard.

Examined are arrest patterns for criminal offenses in US cities (N = 40) with populations between 300,000 & one million. At issue is the question of why some police departments have a tendency to invoke the criminal process more frequently than others; this tendency cannot be accounted for solely by different levels of criminal behavior among communities. Influences on police discretion are investigated, using an open-system framework suggested by James D. Thompson (Organizations in Action, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967). This approach focuses on the interdependence between an organizational unit & its environment. Among hypotheses tested in this context were the following: (1) that arrest rates will be higher for both violent & property crimes (Part I) than for victimless & order-maintenance crimes (Part II) in cities where the environment is associated with higher levels of crime; (2) that communities where citizens have a high degree of public consciousness will show higher arrest rates for Part II offenses; (3) that arrest rates for Part II offenses will be higher in Southern cities; & (4) that communities with more business group membership will have higher arrests for property crimes. Influences on discretionary aspects were evident but not consistent; hypotheses were weakly supported for regional & economic interests. 2 Tables. Modified Author Summary.

Appeals of criminal prosecutions have resulted in establishing rules for police practice under both federal & state regulations. Two US Supreme Court cases, Mapp v. Ohio (1961) & Miranda v. Arizona (1966), have had considerable impact. Miranda established that a warning procedure must be followed with suspects prior to questioning; Mapp ruled that evidence illegally gained could not be used in a prosecution. Most police officers find these rulings a deterrent to effective criminal investigation on ideological grounds; in practice they seek to minimize the effect of the rules on their pursuit of evidence. Trial judges tend to uphold the use of challenged evidence in ambiguous cases, which are frequent. The implications of both Supreme Court rulings & state appellate court rulings upon police incentive & practice are discussed. Both state & federal effects must be more fully investigated, although the potential of state rulings may be greater. Modified Author Summary.

A study is made of changes within Congress which have affected policy related to agriculture. Areas under investigation include: (1) the rapid decline since the 1950s of the number of members in Congress associated with agriculture or other Ru occupations, (2) the effect of the congressional reforms of the 1970's which have led to fragmentary action by a variety of committees & subcommittees, & (3) the impact of new congressional budget procedures which make budget considerations an integral part of the policy-making process rather than an after-thought to be dealt with by a budget committee removed from the context of agriculture. M. Cain.

Policy studies courses often face the conflicting demands of concern with how policy is made & concern with the impact of policy. The teaching work of E. Ostrom & others at Indiana U illustrates an alternative to this dilemma. The basic idea is that policy alternatives represent competing premises as well as competing conclusions. The approach suited to dealing with this is the method of multiple working hypotheses developed by T. C. Chamberlin ('The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses,' Science 1890, reprinted Science 1965, 148, 7 May; 754-759) which seeks to eliminate one hypothesis after another by a series of critical experiments. The main need is for students to have access to the literature of debate over policy issues. The theses of such articles are analyzed into propositional form, allowing the understanding of issues basic to policy disputes & developing the skill of locating such issues. W. H. Stoddard.

Described & illustrated is an application of the Guided Design instructional method in policy studies. Guided Design provides policy studies instructors an alternative to hierarchical learning implicit in the lecture-discussion method by emphasizing small group decision making/problem solving. Various ways of using the Guided Design method in policy studies courses are suggested. AA.

The definition of politics as getting suggested by H. Lasswell (Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, New York: Meridian Press, 1958) offers an analytical framework for energy issues. Energy has led to boom growth in a number of Rocky Mountain states towns. Concern with environmental issues, the presence of impact analyses, difficulties & friction of growth, & social maladjustments have produced a demand for federal aid. Federal royalties & other payments have been among the funds demanded by these towns. This represents a standard American habit of seeking benefits while obscuring costs or imposing them on others. W. H. Stoddard.

Distributive politics, in which resources are parceled out with no one losing to benefit others, is often condemned as a source of water allocation inefficiencies. Water supply & use in the Colo Basin is reviewed, revealing overallocation of water resources. Energy development programs need substantial amounts of water, & are likely to increase the strain on water resources far enough for overallocation to become visible. Voters are generally in favor of energy development, but not to giving up other water uses for it. The ethic of unlimited water rights, however, is actually advantageous, in forcing debate over water for energy industries to take place on a nonmonetary basis which would not be available if water were seen as a commercial resource. 2 Tables. W. H. Stoddard.

An analysis of police-community relations (PCR) programs concludes that it would be useful to determine which types of PCR training are most appropriate for particular types of cities; the effect of PCR training could vary with certain city & police department characteristics. A comparison of survey data from 14 high-PCR & 12 low-PCR cities suggests the wisdom of the arguments of early advocates of PCR programs. PCR training may be a means of both humanizing the provision of law enforcement services & reducing the incidence of crime in US cities, of maintaining order while advancing the values of democracy. 1 Table, 1 Figure. Modified Author Conclusion.

In Sept, 1976, Saint Louis U established a multidisciplinary PhD program in public policy analysis & administration, review of which illustrates some problems in developing such programs. Objectives included understanding of the nature of the individual & society, ethical commitment to the public good, development of analytical & decision-making methodologies, facility in multidisciplinary approaches, competence in research methods, & ability to work as a member of a decision-making team. The curriculum includes six required core courses & an area of concentration. Problems include faculty role & development, interdepartmental coordination, jurisdictional disputes between the policy program & the graduate school administration, & program identity in the University. W. H. Stoddard.

Two policy proposals for the bulk electric power supply industry, the reliability bills of the late 1960s & proposals for a national grid, are analyzed. The context is one in which interconnections have grown up according to the needs of private firms, with some public policy support. Proposals for reliability legislation led firms to set up their own regional councils for reliability efforts. The growth of interconnections, which appears likely to produce a national grid, has led to proposals for a federally-owned power grid corporation to coordinate this growth. This prospect of federal intervention, however, has led to increasing private interconnections. Alternatives to the proposals already advanced include making mergers easier for power companies, maintaining the status quo, establishing common carrier rules for power companies, rate reform & regulatory improvement, & establishment of organizations based on recognition of the diseconomies of scale & seeking decentralization. Little rigorous analysis exists in this area. W. H. Stoddard.