Symposium: Policy analysis for congress. Policy analysis for congress: Lengthening the time horizon

Policy analysis for the Congress is a timely subject. Several policy initiatives have emerged recently from the “first branch.” Others have demonstrated an independent capacity for analysis that is impressive by historical standards. This article introduces a practitioner symposium of three related works on policy analysis for Congress, with appropriate commentary by a distinguished veteran. It argues that because timing is crucial in the congressional policy process, anticipation and advance preparation are central to the effective use of analysis. The other articles illustrate the stages of advance preparation—of the policy analyst, the congressional environment, and the Member for voting—in the form of case studies.     

The congress for cultural freedom in Denmark

The Danish section of the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was established in 1953 by Arne Sejr, a former wartime resistance leader. The Society for Freedom and Culture was formed as a part of Sejr's private anti-communist intelligence network, called the Firm. But Sejr did not understand the methods or goals of the CCF's work, since he was more concerned with political propaganda and information rather than cultural issues. During its early years the special circumstances of the Danish branch were ignored by the Congress HQ, but in 1957 Jorgen Schleimann, a Danish employee at the Congress office in Paris, set out to reform the Danish Society's work. Denmark's experience with the CCF provides a good example of the tension that could exist between the universal agenda of the Congress and particular national conditions. It also demonstrates the limitations of the CCF's purpose and therefore also the ‘boundaries’ to Cold War cultural manipulation in the West.     

Public support for private R&D: The case of the research tax credit

The U.S. government has long included in its tax code various special provisions designed to stimulate industrial R&D. In 1981, those provisions were substantially augmented by a special R&D tax credit, and various proposals are now under consideration to relax the antitrust statutes in order to encourage research through joint ventures. The case for any of these measures is difficult to establish, being based on assumptions that are not readily tested in objective terms. Nevertheless, one point is fairly clear: As between stimulating industrial R&D by individual firms and stimulating R&D joint ventures of such firms, the joint venture approach appears superior in its likely results.     

Public support for coercive diplomacy: Exploring public opinion data from ten European countries

Scholarship has increasingly acknowledged the importance of public attitudes for shaping the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy. Economic sanctions emerged as one of CFSP's central tools. Yet despite the emergence of sanctions as a popular instrument in the EU foreign policy toolbox, public attitudes towards sanctions are yet to be studied in depth. This article explains public support for EU sanctions, using the empirical example of sanctions against Russia. It looks at geopolitical attitudes, economic motivations and ideational factors to explain the variation in public support for sanctions. The conclusion suggests that geopolitical factors are the most important, and that economic factors matter very little. Euroscepticism and anti‐Americanism play an important role in explaining the support for sanctions at the individual level.     

Science,technology, and congress

James E. Katz is a sociologist and a member of staff at Bellcore, the research and engineering arm of the regional telephone companies. Among his books are Presidential Politics and Science Policy;and Congress and National Energy Policy.He has served as a Senate staff member. Research for this article was supported by the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government.     

The absent Dutch: Dutch intellectuals and the congress for cultural freedom

During the 1950s and 1960s the Congress for Cultural Freedom was one of the main stages for anti-communist American and European writers and intellectuals to discuss the communist threat to the freedom of intellectual and cultural life. Most Western European countries were represented at CCF conferences and had their own national CCF branches, but the Netherlands was an exception. Dutch intellectuals participated very rarely in the conferences, and all efforts to establish a Dutch branch of the CCF failed. Possible explanations (the socially isolated position of some intellectuals, no strong tradition of political engagement among Dutch writers or artists, no lively climate of public debate, and an ambivalent perception of American culture and society) for this absence of Dutch intellectuals show clearly how national traditions can play a decisive role in determining the development of international networks.     

Government effectiveness and support for democracy

Diffuse support for democracy, as captured in mass surveys, tends to be treated as impervious to regime performance. Such a finding is often presented as confirmation of the basic distinction between ‘diffuse’ and ‘specific’ support as proposed by David Easton. This study argues that this line of argument stems from an incomplete reading of important aspects of Easton's theorisation about the relationship between system outputs and diffuse support. Using multilevel models, evidence from more than 100 surveys in close to 80 countries, and different measures of democratic support, it is shown that government effectiveness is the strongest macro‐level predictor of such support. In democratic regimes, government effectiveness, understood as the quality of policy‐making formulation and implementation, is linked to higher levels of support for democracy. Furthermore, in non‐democracies, effectiveness and support for democracy are, under some model specifications, negatively related.     

State Lotteries for Public Revenue

Lotteries, the state fiscal gimmick of the eighties, operate in jurisdictions encompassing substantially more than half the nation's population and enjoy considerable public acceptance. The revenue they generate is small, rarely more than two percent of state general revenue, it is subject to major year-to-year swings, and it is very expensive to generate, particularly when vendor commissions are recognized as part of cost. Furthermore, lotteries bear a high implicit excise tax rate and, because of the pattern of play across income classes, appears to worsen the overall equity of the revenue system. Their economic impact appears to be that of an internal transfer, although states with major lottery equipment suppliers have most to gain, particularly if they do not operate their own lottery. Lotteries are not destined to become mainstays of government finance, although their spread is likely, even with the fiscal questions they raise.     

Public policy for dangerous inventions

This study explores the relationship between dangerous invention characteristics and US local, state, and federal government safety policy-making patterns and effectiveness. When an invention prototype appears and its existence is recognized, an initial policy direction is established quickly if the invention is treated by society as being similar to a previous way of doing things. In this case the invention's dangers will be regulated within the established legal and administrative framework. If an invention is perceived as being entirely new, its introduction tends to be followed by governmental inaction for years or even decades. When government finally responds it is likely to be at the federal level.     

人大问责:现实反思与制度建构

在我同的官员问责体系中,人大问责作为一种异体问责,虽然具有同体问责和其他异体问责难以具有的优势.但还存在诸多问题:人大问责的认知误区;制度安排的缺乏、偏差;问责文化的相对滞后等.要促进我国人大问责,就必须改善党的执政方式,强化人大异体问责功能;制定人大问责法规,完善人大问责机制;营造人大问责氛围,推进人大问责行为.     

Gauging support for innovative farmland preservation techniques

Given growing concerns about the loss of farmland in the US, governmental and nonprofit groups are seeking innovative, cost-effective methods to preserve lands that will elicit additional landowner participation. This article describes four innovative farmland preservation techniques and derives implications for the policy process through interviews of key stakeholders: program administrators, lawmakers, and landowners. Experts on farmland preservation were also interviewed to ensure stakeholder perceptions substantively inform the policy process. Four techniques were selected for assessment from approximately 30 novel techniques. Reactions to these policy options reflect stakeholder perceptions of a baseline condition; the perceptions help evaluate which options are likely to survive the policy process and what attributes will lead to their acceptability because few of these techniques have yet become policy. Although the stakeholders may have more limited experience with the policy process, land preservation experts validated many of the results and the possibility of success in the “rough and tumble” of the policy process. Of the four investigated techniques rights of first refusal was the most favored, although respondents thought effective implementation would require careful targeting and a dedicated funding source. Experts agreed this technique was most likely to survive in the political arena. Agricultural conservation pension was also viewed favorably, though it was considered administratively difficult to implement. Several experts thought that, though inchoate, the pension plan could potentially be more cost effective than rights of first refusal. Land preservation tontines were perceived to be an interesting concept, but confusing, difficult to implement, and ill-defined. Term conservation easements were viewed unfavorably because they did not preserve land permanently.

Rethinking Leadership for the Public Sector

Leadership and management are best thought of as a matter of competencies. Or are they? The paper challenges the current orthodoxy in Australia on this question, and suggests that leadership and management need to be regarded as reflecting opposing values. The paper also distinguishes between charismatic and collective forms of leadership, and proposes the latter as likely to be of greater value in a public sector context. A challenge for public sector organisations is how to strike and maintain a suitable balance between management for ongoing operations and leadership for deep–reaching change. Strategies for developing collective leadership capability are suggested.     

公共基础设施项目的混合开发模式研究

虽然BOT模式已广泛用于公共基础设施项目的开发,但是,经济效益不佳的项目很难直接采用BOT模式;对于投资规模巨大的项目,采用BOT模式也难以获得竞争性投标。为了扩大BOT模式的应用范围,利用项目的可分解性,从理论上探讨了项目的混合开发模式。按照项目的不同分解方式,把混合开发模式分为双合同策略混合开发模式和多合同策略混合开发模式两大类。通过北京地铁四号线和宜泸渝高速公路项目的案例分析,不但剖析了混合开发模式的优缺点,而且证明了混合开发模式比单纯的BOT模式具有更大的灵活性、更广的应用范围,可以克服BOT模式的局限性,具有广阔的应用前景。     

论我国人民代表大会的行动逻辑

人民代表大会制度是我国的根本政治制度,但由于实践中某些因素的存在,在人民代表大会中出现了某些实现的困境。为进一步健全和完善人民代表大会制度,该文以奥尔森的集体行动逻辑为立论基础,探讨了在现行情况下我国人民代表大会的行动逻辑。