THE USE OF RISK ANALYSIS IN FEDERAL REGULATORY AGENCIES: AN EXPLORATION1

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the role of risk analysis in seven federal agencies concerned with health, safety, and environmental regulation. Interviews with key decision-makers suggest that the use of risk analysis has increased in recent years, but that its employment in risk management decision-making varies considerably both within given agencies and across agencies and policy areas. Despite methodological and institutional constraints, risk analysis is likely to play a greater role in the future as demands for comparative assessment of technological risks increase.     

MANAGING IN NETWORK SETTINGS

The focus of this article is on managing networks. A network knowledge base is developed from the authors' studies of city government involvement in economic development, management within rural enterprises and the evaluation of a rural strategic planning project. Other public management network analyses are also incorporated. Management in network settings is not based on central authority and cannot be guided by a single organizational goal as is the case in the classical management approach. Management involves managing flexible structures toward collective efficiency. The ability to manage is related to the internal condition of the manager's primary organization. It involves technical, legal, political and cost dimensions. It requires different capacities, skills and knowledge from that of single organization management. The next steps in the research would include the development of the skills needed, an analysis of the role of organizational power and the operational variables of networks, the issue of network cohesion, and the question of loss of control or difficulty in assessing network accountability.     

FEDERAL COURT INVOLVEMENT IN THE APPLICATION OF SURFACE MINING LAW

This article surveys 122 federal cases reported in the Surface Mining Law Summary from the earliest legislation under SMCRA to the end of 1987. The analysis distinguished between cases in which all OSMRE regulations or applications of SMCRA were upheld by the federal courts, and those in which one or more regulations/applications were overturned. The analysis further classifies the cases according to whether the decisions were favorable to industry (or, conversely, to environmental/citizen groups), according to whether the issues involved were primarily of narrow private right (or, conversely, of broad public policy), and according to state-of-origin. Finally, separate examination of those cases in which OSMRE's discretion in the enforcement of SMCRA was restricted is provided. The author concludes t h a t both the federal courts and OSMRE have been reasonably even-handed in their application of SMCRA, contrary to the earlier expectations of some proponents and opponents of surface coal mining regulation in the United States.     

MANAGING TRANSPORT INTEGRATION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Abstract: By 1970 the transport portfolio in South Australia consisted of over a dozen government departments and statutory authorities of differing sizes and varying degrees of independence from the State Government. Each organization, by inclination or statutory requirement, tended to carry out its modal responsibilities without reference to the others, with the result that matters which did not fall clearly into the jurisdiction of one or another remained undone and transport problems remained unresolved. The development of area-wide land use planning in the 1960s and integrated economic planning in recent years were hindered by the inability of the transport portfolio to respond to such plans, or to enunciate a single transport policy for a given planning or developmental scenario. Since 1970 successive South Australian governments have pursued a policy of gradual integration of the transport portfolio. This paper reports on the progress achieved after ten years, problems confronted during this period, and prospects for further integration. Comparisons are made with other Australian States and the Commonwealth Government's transport administration.     

GOING COMMERCIAL IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES*

The Department of Administrative Services of the Commonwealth government (DAS) was created in its present form as part of the July 1987 restructuring of Commonwealth departments. Functions came from nine hitherto separate departments, with the bulk of them transferring from Local Government and Administrative Services, Housing and Construction, and Science. The number of affected staff totalled 18,600: they were previously organised into 19 quite distinct groups with very little in common except that they were providing a service of some kind, predominantly to Commonwealth organisations.