What About Syria?

The following is the edited text of the presentations at the September 30, 1999, meeting of the Sadat Forum at Brookings, cohosted by Richard Haass, vice-president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chairfor Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.     

Women in the public service - a thirty-year perspective

Abstract: Over the last thirty years, there has been a substantial improvement in the representation of women throughout the federal public service. The expectations of and about women in the workplace have also changed immeasurably. However, there are still important differences in the way men and women deal with their environment. The different ways in which men and women are socialized continue to have an impact on women's experience in the workplace. There are still too many places in the public service where a traditional “competitive” (some would say “male”) approach to management prevails. The contrasting “integrative” style of management, which values team-building, participation, responsiveness, and the ability to integrate various points of view, more closely reflects the way in which many women have been socialized and behave in the work environment. It is also the style valued in “well-performing organizations.” In addition, there are important differences in the way many men and women communicate. These differences can lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding, and, in a culture where “toughness” is valued, this can sometimes result in men underestimating the competence and effectiveness of women. What is required is for management to move beyond employment equity, where the emphasis is on increasing the representation of women and minorities, to a focus on valuing and managing the diversity that women and minority groups bring to the workplace, so that full advantage can be taken of the variety of perspectives, skills and abilities of all employees. Sommaire: Au cours des trente dernières années, la représentation des femmes dans la fonction publique fédérale a connu une amélioration considérable. Ce qu'on attend des femmes sur les lieux de trevail anisi que leurs propres attentes ont grandement évolué. La manière dont les hommes et les femmes réagissent à leur milieu resrte cependant assez différente. La socialisation différente des hommes et des femmes continue à se répercuter sur l'expérience des femmes au travail. Encore aujourd'hui, de nombreux secteurs de la fonction publique font appel à une gestion «compétitive» classique (certains diraient «masculine»). Par contre, le style de ges tion «intégrateur» qui met l'accent sur l'esprit déquipe, la participation, l'ouverture d'esprit et la capacité d'intégrer divers points de vue, reflète de plus prè la manière dont de nombreuses femmes ont été socialisées et dont elles se comportent au travail. D'ailleurs, c'est aussi le style que préfèrent les «organisations performantes». De plus, la manière dont communiquent les hbommes et les femmes peut différer considérablement, ce qui risque de mener à des malentendus et à des mauvaises interprétations; dans une culture ouG l'on admire la «poigne», les hommes en viennent parfois à sous-estimer la compétence et l'efficacité des femmes. La hommes en viennent parfois à sous-estimer la compétence et l'efficacité des femmes. La gestion doit main tenant aller au-delà de l'équité en matière d'emploi, qui met l'accent sur l'augmentation de la représentation des femmes et des minorités, pour gérer la diversité que les femmes et les groupes minoritaires apportent au miliey du travail afin de profiter pleinement de la variété de perspectives, de talents et d'aptitudes de tous les employés.     

The agency role of the physician in Ireland,Britain, and the USA

The USA and Britain have medical care delivery and financing systems which are polar opposites. The Irish system incorporates important features of both. Using original household survey data of medical care utilization in Ireland, and published data and studies of the USA and Britain, the effect of the incentive structures in the three systems on physician behavior, especially on the so-called agency role, is examined. We conclude that the incentive structure is of the utmost importance to policy makers concerned with health costs and economic rationality of medical care systems.     

Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Citizens of South Africa are confronting a painful past through the new nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or TRC, which thus far has heard thousands of reports (many televised) about murders, torture, and other human rights abuses that took place during the apartheid era. South Africa's TRC is grounded in a constitutional commitment to the African concept of ubuntu, or humaneness. Amnesty is available on a conditional basis to alleged perpetrators. The author assesses the potential restorative power of truth-telling; the significance of sympathetic witnesses; and the tasks of both perpetrators and bystanders in the TRC process. Aspirations for justice are considered along with restoring dignity to victims, offering a basis for individual healing, and promoting reconciliation of a divided society.     

A "politically robust" experimental design for public policy evaluation, with application to the Mexican universal health insurance program.

We develop an approach to conducting large-scale randomized public policy experiments intended to be more robust to the political interventions that have ruined some or all parts of many similar previous efforts. Our proposed design is insulated from selection bias in some circumstances even if we lose observations; our inferences can still be unbiased even if politics disrupts any two of the three steps in our analytical procedures; and other empirical checks are available to validate the overall design. We illustrate with a design and empirical validation of an evaluation of the Mexican Seguro Popular de Salud (Universal Health Insurance)program we are conducting. Seguro Popular, which is intended to grow to provide medical care, drugs, preventative services, and financial health protection to the 50 million Mexicans without health insurance, is one of the largest health reforms of any country in the last two decades. The evaluation is also large scale, constituting one of the largest policy experiments to date and what may be the largest randomized health policy experiment ever.