U.S. SOUTH AFRICA POLICY IN THE 1980s: CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT AND BEYOND

In this article no attempt is made to defend the Reagan administration's six-year-old policy of constructive engagement toward the Republic of South Africa, for to all but a few diehards the policy is indefensible. Instead, my response to Beres contains three components. First, I take issue with his dismissal of constructive engagement as no more than a ruse by which "to make apartheid palatable" to the American people, and argue that the purpose of the policy was to enable the Reagan administration to take credit for achieving a Namibia independence settlement. Second, I show that Beres' plea for popular opposition to an unjust policy comes too late, for a large number of Americans, during the past two years in particular, have been doing his bidding. Finally, I conclude with an assessment of the nature of the policy debate over South Africa that such popularity has prompted, in which direction U.S. South Africa policy now appears headed, and what issues, if any, remain to be resolved.     

VALUE TRADE-OFFS AND PRODUCTIVITY: THE TRANSPOLITICIZATION OF THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

The political values in the American public sector are presented through the case of the postal system and i t s reorganization In 1971. This change (from the Post Office Department to the United States Postal Service) reflected an attempt to '8depoliticize11 and professlonalize postal operations. The article suggests that the results have been the TRANSpoliticization of the postal system to a corporate model of behavior and political influence, and have led to the limitation of any broadly considered public role. This i s evident in the consideration of employment and the emphasis on productivity. The corporate model undermines the public nature of the post office, and the connection between postal service and public benefits.     

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ROLL CALL VOTING IN THE U.S. CONGRESS IN 1975 AND 1979

This article argues that the energy and environmental policy areas in Congress are no longer considered components of the government management dimension. The two policy areas have separated from the government management dimension constructed by Clausen and are now distinct and autonomous Congressional policy areas. The models of roll call voting for energy and environment issues are very different. Energy is tied more closely to technical considerations while environmental issues are more emotional and more closely tied to quality of life concerns.     

POLICY COMMUNITY,POLICY NETWORKS AND SCIENCE POLICY IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract: The policy community approach to policy analysis has been developed from ideas expressed by Richardson and Jordan in 1979. The approach is increasingly used to identify the key actors and groups of actors who make policy decisions, to analyse the interactions between the groups and to hypothesise about the types of outcomes achieved. The approach aids analysis in policy contexts which cut across the boundaries of individual organisations in the policy process, across the public and private sectors, and beyond national boundaries. This paper evaluates several expositions of the approach with reference to an analysis of science policy in Australia and suggests typological refinements which enhance its explanatory capacity.