Public policy and quality of community life in american cities: a search for linkage

The purpose of this research is to identify and examine linkages that exist between public policy and quality of life in American cities. A review and analysis of public policy research and social indicators research over the past twenty years is included. Social indicators are further defined into both objective and subjective indicators. The developing confluence of the two areas of research constitutes the basis for the remainder of the paper.

The data for this study are derived from a nationwide survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., in late December, 1977 and early January, 1978, for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Interviews were conducted for a sample of 7,074 adults, asking them about their perceptions on the quality of community life, government services, social problems, and future possibilities. The findings are analyzed through use of a frequency distribution of the quality of life measures and the quality of public service variables.

The pattern of statistical relationships indicates that the nine public service variables are sharply divided into two groups. One, seven variables (police, garbage, street lighting, fire, public schools, parks and playgrounds, and road and street maintenance) are all highly inter-correlated. The correlation coefficients among them range from a high of .411 (police and fire) to a low of .218 (garbage and public schools). The other, public transportation and public health service are also closely inter-correlated, but their relationships with the other seven are all uniformly weak.

These two groups of public services have distinct political and policy implications. The first group of services tends to represent those traditionally well-established public services that are considered “vitally important” for the well-being of the general public. The second group, in contrast, tends to represent those public services that are relatively new and serving primarily the needs of low income or minority groups in the community whose political influence is most likely to be marginal.

A few generalizations may be drawn from the statistical relationships. First, the general indicators of community life quality such as feelings about the overall community and neighborhood are more strongly correlated with the quality ratings of public services than the quality indicators of specific life domains. Second, some of the strongest relationships are found between specific public services and specific domains of life quality that might be expected logically to have close association such as police and safety (r=.317) and public schools and child raising (r=.427). Third, those public services that are considered part of mainstream local services and important for the daily life of the general public (such as police, fire, public schools, parks and playgrounds, etc.) tend to be very strongly correlated with the measures of community life quality. Fourth, in contrast, those services that are primarily affecting underprivileged groups in the community and not considered part of the mainstream of local services are poorly or insignificantly correlated with the measures of community life quality.     

Catastrophe theory as a paradigm for development administration

Catastrophe theory, a field of applied mathematics developed by Rene Thom and others in the 1970s, offers some promise as a paradigm for the study of developmental administration. The dynamic and qualitative nature of this approach can lead to various insights that some current and previous models lacked.

The application of catastrophe theory to the political situation in Malaysia in the early 1960s demonstrates how such a theoretical approach can be fitted to specific political systems and situations.

The author concludes by suggesting other national political settings where catastrophe theory might be fruitfully applied in the study of development and comparative administration.     

Minnowbrook: the search for a new reality

The search for a public administration reality begins with issues of theory as a substitute for reality. These illusions of theoretical construct have not corrupted public administration, in part because of Minnowbrook I. In a time of national crisis the papers of Minnowbrook I set out an ethic and perspective seriously informed by the reality of the 1968 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) and in 1988, Minnowbrook II is informed by the Commission on the Cities (a twenty year update of the Kerner Commission Report). The Minnowbrook I papers are an example of the whole being more important than the sum of its parts. Both conferences as well as the papers they produced are grounded in reality, in a shared commitment to making democratic self-government work, and in achieving sensible notions of effectiveness, equity, human dignity, and trust free from the corrupting effects of theory.

What can we possibly say that would in any pertinent way bridge the gap of time that would persuasively relate 1968 to the present day? The kindest comment would seem to be that, thus far at least, compared to 1968, we enjoy a degree of relative tranquility. Consider for a moment the sequence of spasmodic convulsions which relentlessly shocked virtually all segments of our society in 1968 with such numbing intensity that even the gentle September solitude of the Adirondacks could only soothe but not erase the emotional impulses that were generated by those who attended the 1968 Minnowbrook Conference in upstate New York.

To mention just a few of the traumatic events of that fateful year one might begin in February when the Kerner Commission report was released. The tone of the report was as bleak as its temper; America faced a domestic crisis situation of major proportions. In March, the political system was given a severe jolt when Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection as President in the November 1968 general election. This set into motion multiple political machinations within the Democratic party, all of which seemed to blur into a surrealistic nightmare as a result of the assassinations of, first, Martin Luther King in April, and then, Robert F. Kennedy in June. But the real shock waves were yet to come. Hardly thirty days had passed following the assassination of Robert Kennedy when the nation and the world were hit with the debacle of the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the release of the Papal encyclical, Humane Vitae.

It was within this context that a group of conferees gathered together at Minnowbrook in September to discuss and reflect on, figuratively speaking, what it meant to be a democrat in a global society in which the party of Jefferson, the followers of Marx, and the apostles of Christ all seemed to embrace the “Iron Law of Oligarchy” as a categorical imperative of the first magnitude. Whatever the original intention of those who planned the 1968 Minnowbrook conference, the tone and temper which surfaced at the onset, and never receded, were a seemingly unconscious testimonial to the German sociologist, Robert Michaels. Writing in the last 1920s, Michaels argued that,

It is organization which gives birth to the domination of the elected over the electors, of the mandatories over the mandators, of the delegates over the delegators. Who says organization says oligarchy.⁽¹⁾

Michaels concluded that all existing organizations, when faced with the demands for bold, aggressive innovations, must respond with defensive, even reactionary decisions to retain their power. “That which is oppresses that which ought to be.” But this time-worn trope is much too simplistic to explain the complex intricacies of the current public policy process and organizational behavior. Certainly no one was more aware of this than the conferees at Minnowbrook in 1968, as well as anyone else who has followed the ebb and flow of our political and policy systems to the present day.     

Exploring agency as a basis for ethical theory in American public administration

This articale argues that agency, the normative theory associated with the “acting for” relationship in society, has had a profound, but often unrecognized affect on ethics in public administration. Accordingly, it seeks to provide a brief review of agency theory as it applies to contemporary American public adminis- tration. The review provides an overview of agency theory, gives an example of how deeply it influences American public administration, shows how it facilitates ethical action in administration and reviews some of the major obstacles to employing agency theory in the modern American administrative state.     

With friends like these: foreign policy as personal relationship

Governments are run by humans who have sympathies and moods. The study of leaders' personalities, albeit not widespread, is an important tool for foreign policy analysis. Plus, friendship is a feeling that decision-makers like to express for each other. This paper analyses the activity of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's three times premier, who has made ‘friendship’ a central tenet of his personal foreign policy. Three cases are considered, namely, Berlusconi's relationship with George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin. The paper concludes that his friendship-based foreign policy has somehow worked; but, because he decided to ignore Italy's structural constraints in the international arena, he ended up wasting opportunities and resources.     

State economic development strategy: Designing a tool for evaluating policy

In 1987, the new governor of Pennsylvania introduced a plan designed to protect “old” jobs while encouraging public and private investment in targeted “growth” industries. Recognizing that “targeting growth opportunities” was, at best, an uncertain enterprise, the Department of Labor and Industry suggested a program be implemented that would monitor these “key” sectors. To be cost-effective, this evaluation effort would need to be sufficiently timely and sensitive to allow for mid-course corrections. In this paper, we describe an effort to design and implement such a program.     

Exorcising the ghost of the politics-administration dichotomy: an institutional theory of administration policy making

This article takes implementation theory one critical step further. It argues that administrative policy making is a separate, distinguishable process, not a stage in or component of the legislative policy-making process. In addition, it argues that the institutional setting for policy making has a major influence on policy ideas, choices, and actions. Administrative agencies form a distinct institutional setting for policy politics, and setting influences policy outcomes. The implications of the institutional perspective for understanding policy making, policy analysis, and the legitimacy of public organizations are examined.

The ghost of the politics-administration dichotomy haunts implementation theory. Although numerous scholars have declared the dichotomy dead,⁽¹⁾ administrative policy making is still seen as a component or step in the policy process that is dominated by elected officials. For example, Kelman recently examined the different institutional settings of policy making.⁽²⁾ Elected officials, in his view, are and should remain the primary source of policy ideas and choices while administrators remain responsible for translating these ideas and choices into practice. Other scholars underscore the lack of effective control by legislators and elected executives. But even those who acknowledge administrative initiative and autonomy see administrators as servants, however weak their masters.

This article takes implementation theory one critical step farther. It argues that administrative policy making is a separate, distinguishable process—not merely a stage in or component of legislative policy making. Policies can and do originate in administrative agencies. These innovations gather supporters and critics, are tested and refined, and can become part of the routine with little, if any, involvement by elected officials or political appointees. Legislation and executive orders commonly ratify existing administrative policies rather than initiate administrative involvement.

In addition, the institutional setting for policy making has a major influence on policy ideas, choices, and actions. Administrative agencies form a distinct institutional setting for policy politics. The institutional setting, it is argued, influences policy outcomes. Administrative policy making is not, however, an entirely discrete process. It intersects with legislative policy making at important and predictable points. The two policy processes, legislative and administrative, are loosely and variably coupled.⁽³⁾ The central distinction is that administrative policy making is dominated by the ideas, norms, routines, and choices of nonelected public employees, whereas legislative policy making is dominated by the perspectives of elected officials. Administrative policy making can occur in the bureaucracies of the President or of Congress.

The argument that these two processes—legislative and administrative—are distinct does not, however, deny their essential overlap. The overlap between these two fundamentally different policy settings has fostered the delusion that there is only one policy setting with legislative and administrative components. Clearly elected officials influence administrative policy making, and, just as clearly, administrators influence legislative policy making.⁽⁴⁾ Nevertheless, their interaction remains obscure without a clearer perception of the profound differences between the two settings. As stated, the importance of administrative policy making seems obvious and uncontroversial, but its implications are strongly resisted.⁽⁵⁾

Public administration and implementation theories have not adequately recognized the importance of administrative policy making in modem welfare states.⁽⁶⁾ Before more fully developing these ideas, four examples of administrative policy making are briefly reviewed.     

Designing a secure Iraq: a US policy prescription

The third Western attempt at regime construction in Iraq is now underway. Western plans to rebuild the Iraqi state will fail again if they ignore the real roots of Iraqi insecurity: its geopolitical weakness. The preoccupation with designing a new constitution ignores the historical evidence of the 1930s and 1950s that it is bound to fail. Surrounded by far larger powers such as Turkey and Iran, Iraq desperately needs long‐term commitments of arms and allies. While de‐garrisoning is a vital part of the regional peace puzzle, an insecure Iraq destabilises politics in Baghdad and fuels arms competitions. Thus the USA and UK must intercede on Iraq's behalf and help to resolve the long‐standing disputes over the unfair division of the Shatt al‐Arab with Iran, and access to sea arrangements with Kuwait. If Iraq is permitted to drift away a decade after reconstruction, its regime will again fall.     

Recent state initiatives: The governor as policy leader; the governor as chief administrator

Innovative accomplishments of governors are a vehicle for analyzing state governors' performance as policy leaders and as chief executives. Analysis of survey data describing state innovations reveals governors fostering an almost even mix of programs (initiatives directly serving clienteles) and administrative innovations (changes in internal procedures), with innovations tending to be reported from agencies where the governor is involved in selection of the agency head. The implications are that governors interested in instituting and institutionalizing innovation can do so through their appointments and that the appointive power can be a vehicle for change as well as control. Program initiatives tended to concentrate in various functional policy areas, such as economic development or education. Management innovations, on the other hand, tended to be system wide in that they were reported in agencies that serve the entire state bureaucracy or they emanated from the governor's office.1     

Implementing evidence-based policy in a network setting: road safety policy in the Netherlands

In the early 1990s, in order to improve road safety in The Netherlands, the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) developed an evidence-based "Sustainable Safety" concept. Based on this concept, Dutch road safety policy, was seen as successful and as a best practice in Europe. In The Netherlands, the policy context has now changed from a sectoral policy setting towards a fragmented network in which safety is a facet of other transport-related policies. In this contribution, it is argued that the implementation strategy underlying Sustainable Safety should be aligned with the changed context. In order to explore the adjustments needed, two perspectives of policy implementation are discussed: (1) national evidence-based policies with sectoral implementation; and (2) decentralized negotiation on transport policy in which road safety is but one aspect. We argue that the latter approach matches the characteristics of the newly evolved policy context best, and conclude with recommendations for reformulating the implementation strategy.