Suchergebnisse

The social construction of target populations has emerged as an influential framework for understanding the public policy process. In particular, target populations have been shown to shape the allocation of benefits and burdens by political elites. However, existing studies focus on the elite level, which overlooks whether public preferences are aligned with the allocation of policy benefits and burdens by political elites. Moreover, many studies treat social constructions as homogenous, which this paper calls into question. Using a nation‐wide survey experiment, I investigate variation in public support for affirmative action policies with randomly assigned target populations. The findings indicate that the public formulates policy preferences on the basis of perceived deservingness of target groups similar to political elites. In addition, the findings uncover heterogeneity in the effect of targeting on public opinion based on ideology and racial/ethnic group identity.

Oonark was born in the area around Garry Lake and the Back River about 1906. She was married very young, as was customary among the traditional Eskimos, and had many children, eight of whom survived. Her husband died . (around 1952). At that time there was a famine in the Garry Lake region and Oonark and one of here daughters were starving. They were rescued by a Government Forces plane . and were taken to Baker Lake . She was introduced to drawing by some school teachers, and some people from the Wildlife Service who gave her pencils and paper. . Her drawings were first exhibited in the form of prints (executed by other Eskimo craftsmen) in 1960. . Oonark also does sewn felt wallhangings, a number of which were recently exhibited in Toronto. . When I met Oonark and her interpreter, Ruby Angoateegota Arngnaknark, on the occasion of her exhibition of drawings at the Canadian Guild of Crafts in Montreal, Quebec, we talked about what significance here drawings had for her. I asked whether they meant anything specific for her and whether she hoped other people would learn something from her pictures. Ruby replied that Oonark probably didn't think about such things because "they are not in the Eskimo language" . Much of Oonark's drawing seems to be done to please the prospective buyer or the crafts officer (for whom the artists have great regard). . Oonark doesn't have any of her drawings in her house - as Ruby explains there was no notion of "art" in Eskimo life. They view their art primarily as something to sell, in order to be able to buy what they need or want. .

Maya spirituality serves as a locus of enunciation for the ongoing negotiation between local expressive culture and a changing globalized society. In recent years the Mayas of Guatemala have subversively used the global market provided by tourism to survive economically, recover their cultural property, and reclaim their heritage. Lacking voice and representation in an environment that has historically threatened their way of life, they assert their heritage in order to valorize their culture. They employ public knowledge and experience of natural disasters to demonstrate not just the accuracy of the 2012 prophecies of change at the end of the Maya calendar's long count, but also the value of the knowledge systems that produced them.La espiritualidad maya sirve como un lugar de enunciación de la negociación en curso entre la cultura local expresiva y la sociedad cambiante y globalizada. En los últimos años los mayas de Guatemala han utilizado subversivamente el mercado global provisto por el turismo para sobrevivir económicamente, recuperar su patrimonio cultural, y recuperar su patrimonio. Careciendo de voz y representación en un ambiente que históricamente ha amenazado su modo de vida, han afirmado su patrimonio con el fin de valorar su cultura. Ellos emplean el conocimiento público y la experiencia de los desastres naturales para demostrar no sólo la exactitud de las profecías del 2012 del cambio al final de la cuenta larga del calendario maya, sino también el valor de los sistemas de conocimiento que los produjo.

Abstract
Persistent disparities in program access jeopardize social equity and erode a key pillar of democratic governance. Scholars have uncovered the causes of these disparities, including administrative burden and front-line discrimination, but less attention has been devoted to identifying tools for reducing disparities. We build on this work by arguing that reducing street-level bureaucrats' workload may be a key lever for reducing disparities. We also argue that workload reductions will be especially effective at advancing equity when administrative burden is expanded and complexity in client cases could otherwise create room for racial discrimination. We leverage data on all high schools in Oklahoma from 2005 to 2014 (n = 4,155) to estimate the causal effects of a state policy that mandates a counselor-student ratio in a regression discontinuity design. In line with our hypotheses, we find that decreasing workload corresponds to an increase in access for intersectionally minoritized students—low-income Black, Native American, and Hispanic students. Moreover, we find that effects were concentrated in the years after administrative burden was expanded. Together, our findings suggest that reducing workload can alleviate longstanding disparities in program access.

Extant literature highlights how socially constructed target populations shape the distribution of benefits and burdens, focusing on political elites. In this article, we examined how linked fate, intersectionality and identity complexity shape the impacts of socially constructed target populations on public support for affirmative action in the US. In our nationally representative survey experiment, we randomly assigned respondents to evaluate either a socioeconomic or race-based affirmative action policy and tested the influence of linked fate and partisanship on policy support. First, we found support for our linked fate hypothesis – low-income and non-White respondents were more likely to support socioeconomic or race-based affirmative action, respectively. We also found that the intersectionality of identities – sex, income and race – predicted support for race-based and socioeconomic-based affirmative action. Second, we found that partisanship moderated the effect of linked fate. When interacted with Republican Party identification, the effect of linked fate on support for affirmative action among low-income and racially minoritised respondents disappeared. These findings demonstrate the importance of integrating social identity theory and intersectionality in policy design theory. In this way the article makes a clear contribution to the scholarship on policy design studies.

Utilizing a statewide survey and administrative data, we explore how state-imposed burdens are translated by street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) into frontline practices that may alleviate or exacerbate onerous experiences of the administrative state. First, we find that SLBs' role perceptions shaped not only uses of discretionary power—as either a force of client empowerment or disentitlement—but also program access. Second, we find that the local agencies with the largest proportions of income-eligible clients often had the least capacity for alleviating administrative burden, suggesting decentralization may be a mechanism by which administrative burden perpetuates structural inequality.

Abstract
The authors utilize the two latest ICMA Profile of Local Government Service Delivery Choices surveys to investigate whether the service provision and delivery arrangement information reported in the surveys accurately represents reality and, if not, what factors contribute to generating incorrect or unreliable survey responses. Interviews with practitioners are used to better understand both the accuracy of the survey responses and improvements that could be made to the survey instrument. Results suggest that the ICMA ASD survey data are highly erratic, with more than 70 percent of the cases (N = 70) investigated containing some inaccuracies. A qualitative analysis shows that the majority of the errors appear to be caused by the lack of a clear definition of service provision or by the service titles being too vague or too broad, both of which likely lead to discretion in interpreting survey questions and thus inconsistent answers by individual respondents over time.

AbstractBureaucratic rulemaking is a key feature of American policymaking. However, rulemaking activities do not occur uniformly, but fluctuate throughout the year. We consider three mechanisms to explain these changes in rule volume, each of which produces unique expectations for rulemaking during periods of divided government and legislative recess. To test these expectations, we leverage an original dataset including all rules proposed by bureaucratic agencies in three U.S. states from 2004 to 2013 matched with data tracking periods of divided government and legislative recess. We find that state bureaucracies publish significantly more proposed rules during periods of divided government or a split legislature and are most productive in the months immediately following legislative recess. These results underscore the importance of bureaucratic policymaking and improve our understanding of the balance of power between branches of state governments.