Competition and Choice in New York City . Social Services

Privatization is intended to improve public services by introducing competition and choice. Does privatization of social services result in competition? To answer this we studied New York City's experience with contracts for three services: shelters for homeless adults, home care, and employment training. A total of 132 contract awards to nonprofit agencies were examined. The evidence suggests the procurement procedures were competitive and followed good practices. There was significant competition in terms of the number of announcements issued, the number of requests for proposals distributed, and the number of proposals ultimately submitted‐an average of 2.48 proposals per award. Contracting for homeless shelters has produced a voucher‐like system with desirable features. Vouchers are also used for some employment training and could be used for home care. Such systems can introduce even more competition and choice for clients of social services. Problems of contracting with nonprofit agencies are reviewed.     

群体分化与政治整合

社会群体的形成及其分化是以市场经济体制为取向的改革以来社会结构演变的基本逻辑。由于市场机制的作用以及改革本身的不均衡特性,使得社会逐步形成了群体结构,不同的群体通过有形无形的组织形态,向社会提出了一定的利益诉求并影响着社会的政策制定,同时也引发了一些利益矛盾和社会危机。有效整合不同社会群体的利益诉求,对于提高党的执政能力、对于实现社会和谐与政治稳定,均具有重要的意义。     

Social movements and political opposition in contemporary Thailand

Abstract

There is an underlying optimism in much of the literature that considers the emergence of social movements as being associated with deepening processes of democratization. The expansion of civil society is seen to expand political space. This paper takes a critical lens to this perspective, using recent political events in Thailand as a case study of the political strategies and alliances of social movements. We examine the debates that saw many social movements and their leaderships initially support elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai Party only to see this support drain away as these same movements called on their followers to bring down the government. More importantly, we examine how these movements came to ally with conservative forces associated with the palace and military. Based on the Thai case study, we suggest that these seemingly unlikely outcomes result from the very nature of social movements. Leadership by middle-class activists, the need for alliances, the development of networks, and a focus on single issues and identities leads social movements to make substantial political compromises. The consequences can be negative for democratic development.     

Social status,political priorities and unequal representation

Researchers on inequalities in representation debate about whether governments represent the preferences of the rich better than those of less affluent citizens. We argue that problems of high- and low-status citizens are treated differently already at the agenda-setting stage. If affluent and less affluent citizens have different priorities about which issues should be tackled by government, then these divergent group priorities explain why government favours high- over low-status citizens. Due to different levels of visibility, resources and social ties, governments pay more attention to what high-status citizens consider important in their legislative agenda and pay less attention to the issues of low-status citizens. We combined three types of data for our research design. First, we extracted the policy priorities (most important issues) for all status groups from Eurobarometer data between 2002 and 2016 for 10 European countries and matched this information with data on policy outcomes from the Comparative Agendas Project. We then strengthen our results using a focused comparison of three single country studies over longer time series. We show that a priority gap exists and has representational consequences. Our analysis has important implications for the understanding of the unequal representation of status groups as it sheds light on an important, yet so far unexplored, aspect of the political process. Since the misrepresentation of political agendas occurs at the very beginning of the policy-making process, the consequences are potentially even more severe than for the unequal treatment of preferences.     

Portugal's administrative elite: Social origins and political attitudes

The primary purpose of the research reported in this paper was to determine if the purge of high‐level civil servants associated with the Salazar‐Caetano dictatorship carried out after the Portuguese Revolution of 25 April 1974 was actually effective in changing the social origins and political attitudes of individuals composing this elite group. Using an abbreviated version of a questionnaire developed at the University of Michigan to study administrative elites in Western Europe, data on careers and political attitudes were gathered. Statistical analyses of these data revealed, inter alia, that there has been some, but not overwhelming, change in recruitment patterns of high‐level civil servants and some change toward greater tolerance for democratic politics and less elitism.     

New Federalism Modified: Jobs and Highways in New York

The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 (JTPA) and the SurfaceTransportation Assistance Act of 1983 (STAA) were intended inpart to stimulate the American economy out of recession. Eachlaw embodied a different approach to that goal and, hence, poseddifferent implementation challenges to the states. JTPA wasintended to decentralize decisionmakingand administration tothe states, and to in volve the private sector in state andlocal decisionmaking processes. Moreover,the level of federalaid was reduced below that available under its predecessor,the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). STAA wasintended to inject increased federal funds for rebuilding roadsand highways. Its stipulation that states bring their standardsfor truck dimensions and routes into line with new nationalstandards was a centralizing feature of the legislation. Inexamining responses of the states in 1983 to these laws, particularlyNew York, decentralization appeared to be on track in the earlyimplementation of JTPA. The level of involvement of governorsand, to a lesser extent, legislatures was higher than underCETA. The implementation of STAA revealed both decentralizingand centralizing features at work. Participation of the NewYork legislature in deciding how the increased highway fundswere to be spent was much higher than before STAA, but conflictsbetween the national and state governments over the new nationalstandards were resolved in favor of the national government.     

Local Government and political development in Papua New Guinea

The paper examines the history of local government in Papua New Guinea and prospects for it, and offers some comparisons with Commonwealth Africa, particularly East Africa. The P.N.G. system of local government was influenced by that of Tanganyika but grew to greater proportional significance. Although challenged by the rise of nationalism, as in East Africa, local government has played a much greater role in political development. A significant anti-council movement challenged the new system, but mirrored its forms. The regional nature of these protests accompanied by a weak nationalist movement, led to strong pressures for decentralization after independence. The 1976 constitutional settlement has established provincial governments with complete control over local government and has posed fundamental questions about the future shape of local government in P.N.G.     

Social crisis and political decay: The contemporary American malaise

Abstract

By the 1990s American society had become more depoliticized than at any time in recent history, with the vast majority of the population increasingly alienated from the political system. This has occurred, ironically, at a time when deepening social problems—environmental degradation, homelessness, eroding public services, civic violence, threats to privacy—require extensive and creative political intervention. Further, it has taken place during a period of accelerated growth of higher education, informational resources, and communications. Most people seem to have lost hope for remedies to social problems within the existing public sphere. The political system has atrophied, with differences between the two major parties narrower than ever; citizenship is in drastic decline, as reflected in lower voter turnout, collapsing sense of political efficacy among ordinary citizens, and declining knowledge about the social and political world. This triumph of anti‐politics is not a matter of failed leaders, parties, or movements, nor of flawed structural arrangements, but mirrors a deeper historical process—one tied to increased corporate colonization and economic globalization—that shapes every facet of daily life and political culture. Depoliticization is the predictable mass response to a system that is designed to marginalize dissent, privatize social relations, and reduce the scope of democratic participation.     

Social science mandarins: Policymaking as a political formula

This article strongly suggests that the customary sequence of events starting with science and terminating with policy-making lacks empirical confirmation; that in fact, the actual sequence of events is primarily determined by policy stances and terminates with some form of scientific investigation, geared however to legitimation rather than explanation. Four empirical case studies are examined: Brown v. Board of Education; Project Clear; Project Camelot; and the Moynihan Report. In each case it is evident that the causal model most appropriate is one that recognizes the legitimation role of social science as dominant. The article concludes with an examination of key factors in the present structure of government and science that makes the teleological model central; it also points out that such a model is neither better nor worse than the customary ways of viewing the relationships; only different in implication and explication.     

Social media and political communication in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament

Social media play an increasingly important part in the communication strategies of political campaigns by reflecting information about the policy preferences and opinions of political actors and their public followers. In addition, the content of the messages provides rich information about the political issues and the framing of those issues during elections, such as whether contested issues concern Europe or rather extend pre-existing national debates. In this study, we survey the European landscape of social media using tweets originating from and referring to political actors during the 2014 European Parliament election campaign. We describe the language and national distribution of the messages, the relative volume of different types of communications, and the factors that determine the adoption and use of social media by the candidates. We also analyze the dynamics of the volume and content of the communications over the duration of the campaign with reference to both the EU integration dimension of the debate and the prominence of the most visible list-leading candidates. Our findings indicate that the lead candidates and their televised debate had a prominent influence on the volume and content of communications, and that the content and emotional tone of communications more reflects preferences along the EU dimension of political contestation rather than classic national issues relating to left-right differences.     

New York autopsy law and religious concerns

Changes in New York's autopsy law meet the requirements of Orthodox Jews yet do not violate constitutional principles.     

Social movements and the changing structure of political opportunity in the European union 1

To the extent that European integration results in the decline in the importance of the nation‐state as the exclusive seat of formal political power, we can expect attendant changes in those forms of interest aggregation and articulation historically linked to the state. This article suggests that a polity characterised by multi‐level governance is emerging in Europe and that this poses a set of new constraints and opportunities for groups that wish to influence political decisions. We argue that group strategy in response to this is a function of: (1) the structure of political opportunities facing a group in the EU; and (2) inherited institutions and ideologies that constrain the capacity of a group to exploit those opportunities. We use this framework to analyse the effect of European integration on four groups: the labour movement, regional movements, the environmental movement and the anti‐nuclear movement.