Organization and Management of Executive Departments: Executive Summary

From the adoption of the Constitution in 1787, the executive department has been the primary vehicle through which the government of the United States has administered its programs. Their organization and effectiveness are therefore matters that demand constant attention.     

Long-term success in mediation

This article reports the results of a study of the antecedents of long-term success in community mediation. Seventy-three mediation sessions were recorded and content analyzed. The participants were interviewed at two points: immediately after mediation and 4 to 8 months later. No relationship was found between the quality of the agreements—i.e., the extent to which they solved immediate problems- and long-term success as measured by compliance, improved relations between the parties, and the absence of new problems. On the other hand, joint problem solving by the disputants was related to complainant perceptions of improved relations with the other party. Also respondent perceptions that the mediation had been fair and that all the problems had come out were related to all aspects of long-term success in the eyes of the complainant. The latter results support a procedural justice analysis of mediation and underline the importance of mediator attention to the respondent.     

Price v. Time Revisited: The Need For Medium-Neutral Shield Laws In An Age Of Strict Construction

Journalists were alarmed when, in 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied shield-law protection to Don Yaeger, an investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated, in a libel suit by fired football coach Mike Price. Yaeger is a journalist, and Alabama's shield law offers absolute protection even when a journalist is a party to a case. The court's decision turned on the fact that Alabama's seventy-three-year-old statute does not include the word “magazine.” This article shows that this hole in the “covered medium” language of Alabama's statute is not uncommon among the nation's thirty-six shield laws and that the Eleventh Circuit's strict reading of the statute's text is not at odds with current trends in statutory interpretation. Those two facts, combined with the rise of the Internet as an important vehicle for journalism, suggest the time is ripe to scrutinize and modernize shield laws, some of which have been on the books for more than a century.     

Distributional effects of dollarisation: the Latin American case

Over the past two years Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala have adopted the US dollar as a legal currency in their countries. Several other Latin American countries, including Argentina, are currently discussing dollarisation. In this policy paper we look at the existing evidence for answers to two basic questions. First, under what general circumstances might dollarisation make sense? Second, are there clearly differentiated winners and losers from dollarisation and, if so, can we identify them, so that policy can take these political economy factors into consideration? Our review of the evidence demonstrates that there are consistent patterns of distributional effects, both positive and negative, from the choice of exchange rate regime. These effects are presently not considered in exchange rate policy decision making, but should be. While the effects are not as pronounced as those from major trade liberalisation agreements, they are significant. Ways to cushion the effects of exchange rate regime choice should be considered in the future by policy makers. Moreover, we find that dollarisation is embedded in the politics of the region. Dollarisation is often sold as a substitute for the deeper institutional reforms needed to improve economic performance and distribution in Latin America.     

At work in the temple of science: theory-building in the university

This paper develops a metaphor that shows academia as a temple of science where acolytes and priests devote themselves to building and developing an arcane lore that supports their faith. Though a somewhat strained metaphor, its heuristic value will become clearer when illustrated by lessons drawn from the sociology of knowledge. Through these lessons, I will attempt to demonstrate that the university setting has inexorably influenced the theories that have developed there, particularly in contributing to the perception of a gap between theory and practice that an applied, problem-solving field such as public administration can ill afford.     

Republicans in the South

This article explains the failure of the Republican party to reproduce their dominance of the South in presidential elections at lower electoral levels. First, the foreign policy and social issues that have benefitted Republican presidential candidates have lower salience in state and congressional elections. Second, sustained Republican control of the White House has exposed the party to recurrent mid-term setbacks at lower electoral levels. Third, deficiencies of local party organization and a paucity of identifiers deprives the Republicans of candidates in sufficient quantity and quality to be competitive with Democrats.     

Programme and performance budgeting in Malaysia

This paper reviews the evolution of programme and performance budgeting (PPB) in Malaysia from its beginning in 1969, through the in-depth implementation phase which began in 1972, to the present day. It outlines the system in the Ministry of Health, where PPB has been extensively developed and comments on the systems established in other in-depth ministries, in several of which little appears to have been achieved. In 1981 all other agencies were asked to adopt PPB in their budget submissions. Compliance has been superficial. The paper explores the constraints to the further development of PPB. These range from difficulties of securing appropriate staff, lack of top-level commitment and information problems, to the inherent difficulties of programming and performance measurement. In seeking to evaluate the success of PPB the paper adopts two approaches. The first, involving a small questionnaire survey amongst those involved in PPB, reveals rather guarded opinions concerning its usefulness and progress. The second, which explores the use made of PPB, reveals little use by legislators, budget officers or line managers, and no link between PPB and the planning process. However the audit department expresses considerable interest in relation to performance auditing. In summary the achievements of PPB have been modest.     

Sudden death in an infant resulting from torsion of the uterine adnexa

A 2-month-old infant girl died suddenly as a result of torsion of the uterine adnexa. The infant was found unresponsive in bed and was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival at a hospital. There were no antecedent signs of illness. At autopsy, the right ovary and right fallopian tube were twisted and were dark purple, swollen, and necrotic. The right ovary was enlarged by a follicle cyst 4 cm in diameter, which likely precipitated the torsion. The mechanism of death was unclear but may have resulted from the release of cytokines produced in response to necrotic adnexal tissue. Fatal uterine adnexal torsion has been reported rarely in infants; in all those cases there were antecedent symptoms. Torsion of the uterine adnexa should be included in the differential diagnosis of sudden death in infancy.