THE NEED FOR FEDERAL OVERSIGHT OF ALTERNATIVE BOND SYSTEMS UNDER SMCRA

The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) requires mine operators to post reclamation bonds before mining begins. The Federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has approved alternative bond systems in seven states. These systems, rather than requiring bond amounts at the full cost of reclamation, require operators t o submit only a flat rate, acreage specific bond. Additional reclamation costs should be covered by a supplemental fund composed generally of permit fees, taxes, or penalties.
In many cases, alternative bond systems fail to ensure that funds will be available to reclaim coal mined land in the event of operator default, as required by SMCRA. OSMRE needs to take a more active role in oversight of existing state alternative bond systems to ensure that reclamation occurs.     

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH CARE REFORM: THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE MICRO-COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Microcomparison, or single‐component analysis, of health care systems offers a potentially better basis for reform than traditional macrocomparison analysis of aggregate elements. Using macroanalysis, available evidence shows that Germany provides cheaper but more effective hospital care than the United States. To find the causes for this outcome, we developed a microanalytic model of hospital administrators’ perceptions, financial ratios, medical outcomes, and pharmaceutical costs. However, only data on pharmaceutical costs were available and similar in both countries. Our significant outcome was development of a microcomparative model that gives world medical care providers new criteria for analyzing and improving cost to care rafios.     

THE INFORMATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE REGULATORY REVIEW: AN ANALYSIS OF THE EPA LEAD STANDARD

The shortcomings of the EPA lead standard were largely determined by the requirements of the Clean Air Act. EPA's analysis was inadequate since the underlying risks were modelled in terms of critical thresholds irrespective of the particular probability of the adverse health outcome associated with the exposure. The informational requirements for meaningful review are compared with the actual benefit and cost data provided by EPA.
The misplaced EPA approach prevented the generation of appropriate information on which to base a policy decision and hampered the subsequent review efforts by the White House oversight group. It is doubtful whether any oversight effort can be fully effective without a major change in the Clean Air Act.     

COMMUNICATION IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: THE NEED FOR SKILL-BASED EDUCATION

This article notes the tremendous significance of communication skills for public administrators with the authors examining the attention that has been given to teaching these skills in MPA programs. The authors hold that basic communication skills are the essential building blocks on which more advanced skills (i.e., qualitative skills and computer skills) are constructed. This article considers the various skills of communication that are most essential to public administrators and the manner in which courses addressing these skills are handled in MPA curriculum. In concluding the article, the authors offer several options for teaching communication skills to students of the discipline.     

SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION IN AUSTRALIA: THE NEED FOR A PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION

There appear to be two current, opposing misconceptions concerning the nature of social administration. On the one hand there is the belief that it constitutes "no special or definite study but a part of that general mass of things which every earnest young man or woman should know" and, on the other hand, it is "often assumed without question to be concerned with administrative practice"¹.
The domain of the subject of "social administration" is the social service industry in all its parts, its relationship with the industrial and commercial world, and its relationship with primary groups such as families, friends, and neighbours².
Narrowly defined, social administration is the study of the development structure and practices of the social services. Broadly defined, it is an attempt to apply the social sciences — including philosophy — to the analysis and solution of a changing range of social problems³.     

A REGIME FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS: COOPERATION AND RECONCILIATION OF FEDERALIST IMPERATIVES

The diffusion of authority characteristic of federal governance challenges national leadership and complicates even the implementation of policy that promises mutual gains. To explore the problems of implementing national policy in a federalist context, this paper proposes a new approach to analysis, t h e implementation regime framework. From the regime perspective, the essential task of the implementation process is to create a context in which implementors are likely to cooperate to achieve policy goals despite the absence of dominating authority. Drawing upon the literature on international cooperation, the regime framework outlines the contextual conditions and elements of policy design that are likely to lead to cooperation in collective decision making.     

TRANSLATING THE PROBLEMS OF THE ELDERLY INTO EFFECTIVE POLICIES: AN ANALYSIS OF FILIAL ATTITUDES

This paper examines the political implications of current decision making efforts that underpin recent cost-cutting measures of federally supported programs serving the elderly. Current policy changes that favor the private sector (e.g., shifts of the cost of care to other levels of government and to elderly individuals and their families) have also generated a renewed interest in the policy of mandating family responsibility. The paper also examines attitudes concerning filial responsibility, such as multigenerational living. The inadequacy of current policy analysis that has encouraged the disestablishment of the current long-term care system and the shifting of care costs to the private sector, especially to the individual and the family are also examined.     

THE USE OF TAX INCENTIVES FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT AS A SUBSIDY ALTERNATIVE

The objective of this paper is to propose a positive means of encouraging the use of public transit, through the creation and utilization of incentives aimed at stimulating demand. A tax incentive is proposed and examined as a form of revenue source subsidy which can be coupled with a congestion tolllgasoline tax policy to accomplish this demand stimulation, and is examined in light of the associated public policy issues. Taken into account are the typology of subsidy, the justification for subsidy, the sources of subsidy and the impact of different types of subsidy on economic factors, such as price and cost.