Suchergebnisse

Both local governments & federal & state legislation have created growth-management policy concerns in local areas. One particular technique being evolved is development district zoning; another is the requirement that developers pay for added public facilities which will be needed; environmental impact statements are also often required. The choice of strategies is determined partly by the decisionmakers involved, different types preferring different strategies; ie, local officials who are dissatisfied with present strategies are most favorable to state & regional involvements. Implementation of development strategies is often a problem especially when local support has not been mobilized; local groups may take court action to block planning & regulation. W. H. Stoddard.

A review of the relation of the telephone to transportation shows a number of complex directions of causality: the telephone 'facilitated better coordination of trains, traffic, & deliveries' resulting in more reliable, prompter service & an increase in 'remote marketing of perishable goods;' it changed 'the pattern of Ur settlement toward a megalopolitan structure'; it encouraged the scattering of business districts; & it facilitated a diffusion of residences to the suburbs. The problem of examining the short run vs long run effects of the communications/transportation tradeoff is discussed. Three types of studies in this area are reviewed: (1) office traffic studies, (2) futurist experiments, & (3) econometric studies. A model of the communications/travel relationship is presented & an agenda for future research is suggested. 2 Figures. G. Simpson.

An examination of the history of airline regulation & of recent efforts to reduce the scope of regulation in this field is presented in an attempt to reveal several themes: (1) competition suppression has been the primary thrust of economic regulation in transportation, (2) some regulations impose heavy costs upon both shippers & passengers while providing few benefits, (3) regulated industries, their labor unions, & regulatory officials have been primary opponents of regulatory relaxation, (4) three Presidents, several Congressional committees, & leading consumer advocates have supported the regulatory economists, despite the latters' supposed lack of a political audience, & (5) air transportation regulation is currently the main target of deregulatory effort. While in the past the trend was toward regulation expansion & additional competition constraints, more recently air transportation regulation has relaxed. At the same time, trucking & railroad regulatory reform remains stagnant. Several factors account for this development: (A) the Congressional & media attention to air fares as consumer prices, (B) the slowdown in air travel growth which affected airline load factors, (C) increasing airline costs leading to frequent request for fare increases, & (D) 'the development of a highly cogent critique of existing regulation, together with an alternative prescription (free competition) by the regulatory economists during the 1960s & 1970s.' G. Simpson.

During the past fifteen years birth rates in industrialized nations have fallen to replacement level or below & in several European countries the population is declining. Governmental responses to this demographic trend are varied. A number of countries have already adopted pronatalist policies & others appear to be moving in a similar direction. Still others, notably the US, show no sign of concern. In contrast to the assumption implicit in the literature, there is only a weak relationship between population policy & demographic variables. It is contended that the response of a society to its demographic condition will depend on the way in which political elites perceive & interpret the consequences of low population growth for national power & the economic welfare of the society. In addition, the role & functions of the state will be critical in determining the adoption of a pronatalist policy. Many features of the US' experience-its continental position, natural resources, superior technology, & the quality of its people-loom larger in US perceptions of national power & economic welfare than population size. Discussed are political, ideological & institutional factors that will tend to inhibit the formation & adoption of a US population policy. AA.

Statistical evidence is presented for the economies & diseconomies both of Ur size & of Ur growth rates at various levels. While size is associated with higher local government spending per capita, growth is associated with lower spending. Closer examination of the data, however, suggests that other variables may be responsible for these characteristics. Factors other than size & growth have still more important effects on municipal population; the most important factor is the number of functional responsibilities handled by the city government. Restrictions on growth have particularly bad effects on the poor & the Wc. 1 Figure, 4 Tables. W. H. Stoddard.

The influence of environmental concerns, `clout', & statutes on the Dept of Transportation (DOT) & its programs are examined. Focus is on the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), & the issue of transportation noise is also considered. Environmental decisions for DOT have involved choices between environmental protection objectives concerning the promotion of transportation, the conservation of economic resources, & economic growth, local development, & job creation. The discussion of the controversy over the retrofit/replacement rule reveals this conflict of objectives. One problem area in the decision-making process 'is the lack of any consistent approach to making tradeoffs between competing environmental values & between environmental & nonenvironmental values.' Competing groups add to the adversary process. A major difficulty lies in translating policy into action. NEPA has enhanced the government's decision-making abilities through its procedural requirement of an environmental impact statement which analyzes impacts & alternatives, & opens the issue to public scrutiny. Likewise, DOT's Assistant Secretary with environmental responsibilities improves the decision-making process within DOT. G. Simpson.

Zero population growth emerged as a movement largely from the frustrations of young Ms in the 'baby-boom' generation. Many formulations adhered to by this movement were simplistic & inaccurate; a correct definition of 'zero population growth' would be a population with a stable age structure as well as numerical stability. If the current growth of the US population actually ceased, the age structure would shift until the median age was about 37, creating numerous political & social problems. Little attention is currently given to the optimal level of population; in fact, there is little indication that the American population is anywhere near to being excessive. Hostility to immigration, which is associated with this movement, also ignors the many benefits brought to the US by immigrants, legal or illegal. 1 figure. W.H. Stoddard.

The major policy questions concerning government action in relation to handicapped individuals are reviewed. The terms 'handicapped' & 'disabled' are defined & four broad categories of handicapped are detailed. In total, the handicapped comprise approximately 20% of the population, or 41.4 million people. Included in the discussion are such topics as attitudes toward the handicapped, technology, transportation, architectural barriers, employment, housing, recreation, & education. These factors are examined in terms of specific policy areas concerning the needs of handicapped people. Other policy foci include health screening & prevention of handicapping conditions, & patient & civil rights. The effects of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are described. G. Simpson.

Labor reform has been a much debated question in recent years in the US. Under discussion are such issues as: (1) the development of a national full employment program, (2) improvement in labor standards, (3) development of public employee unions, (4) the questions of permitting or prohibiting common-situs picketing, & (5) the problem of determining whether good-faith bargaining has occurred in collective bargaining negotiations between labor & management, as required under the Wagner Act of 1935 & the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Should national policy deal with the threat of foreign labor competition? Labor, previously supportive of a relatively 'free-trade policy,' at least as early as the Trade Reform Act of 1962, appears to favor a more restrictive tariff program as it fears loss of jobs to foreign competition. Modified AA.

Three questions are addressed concerning announced plans of several governments to build new international airports & the opposition to these plans: (1) Why were so many airport projects planned at the same time in so many different places? (2) Why has there been so much difficulty in achieving them? & (3) Is there a particular pattern of protest which cuts across diverse political & cultural systems? In the decade since 1962, air passengers have increased fourfold, aircraft have become faster, larger, & noisier, & the number of aircraft has increased. It seemed that more longer & stronger runways & bigger terminals were needed. However, by the early 1970s, some common miscalculations were made, ie, the forecasting of rising demand & the need for larger planes. Competing institutional perceptions of the public good arose, & three sources of objection surfaced: (A) agencies responsible for other than air transportation, (B) agencies, on a national level, whose responsibilities often compete with transportation, & (C) non-national agencies (regional, metropolitan), resistant to national management of the local environment. More opposition arose from aviation interests & private citizens. Alternative solutions to various problems of construction & the opposition to it that have been offered are described. National experiences are compared; differences & similarities are detailed. Technology can resolve the conflicts, particularly those involving values. G. Simpson.

Government sponsorship of the development & demonstration of specific innovative technologies, one approach to stimulating innovation, is examined. 'Demonstration' is defined as a mixture of 'experiment' & 'example.' These principles are described in a discussion of several cases of innovation: the diesel locomotive; Dial-A-Ride; The Shirley Highway Express Lanes for High Occupancy Vehicles; & the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). Demonstrations must 'contain the attributes & advantages that potential adopters are willing to pay for, & be perceived to contain those attributes & advantages' in order to promote the adoption of a new product or process. Private sector demonstrations extend the innovation process from research & development into field testing & marketing. In the public sector, marketing function & demonstration's role is misunderstood. There has been a failure to distinguish 'between experiments which test the innovation's worth & examples which display it to induce adoption.' Morgantown PRT is an example. 'Government innovators failed to understand the differences between demonstrating a new product (or service) & demonstrating a new process innovation.' It is suggested that government-sponsored research & development results be assessed, particularly transportation innovations, & that a guiding doctrine for government innovators be developed. 2 Figures. G. Simpson.

Two approaches to analysis of the criminal justice system are considered: (1) the formal modeling approach & (2) the systematic application of ethical intuition. The formal modeling approach looks at the impact of policies on criminal decision making. Criminal activity is modeled as an enterprise, to understand why the rate of return to criminal activity is perceived by some to be so persistently high. One of the direct effects of felon processing technology is its impact on this perceived rate of return. The formal modeling approach, however, can do little to assess the desirability of alternative corrections processes. The systemic application of ethical intuition, on the other hand, may provide considerable insight into the desirability of correctional alternatives. This second approach involves an analysis of the effects of the felon processing technology on widely subscribed values or "primary social goods." B. Hubinger.

A policy typology is discussed, based on the work of T. J. Lowi ("Four Systems of Policy, Politics and Choice," Public Administration Review, 1977, 298-310). Three main types of policy shape the political pattern: distributive, regulatory, & redistributive. These three policy types are defined & discussed, & consideration is also given to a category referring to reforms & changes in governmental structure. The policy types have three different aspects: (1) the disaggregational aspect, or the extent to which there is a joint supply or benefits provided, (2) the extent to which policy determines actual allocation of benefits as opposed to the establishment of standards, & (3) the extent to which policy asks where the resources will come from, who will pay the pay, etc. A distinction is made between individual & collective goods, & direct & indirect allocation. Hypotheses are advanced on the connection between policy content & the prominence of the bureaucratic element. The politics of policy formation are still characterized primarily by individual benefits. It is suggested that structural policies of goods, involving minimum joint consumption rather than standardization of purely individual benefits, strengthen the bureaucratic element & tend to encourage smaller political forums. 1 Table. B. Hubinger.