Political influence on historical ESA listings by state: a count data analysis

We use count data analysis to examine the influence that a state’s congressional subcommittee representation (with oversight of the US Fish and Wildlife Service) has on the number of species that are added to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) list in each state each year (1973–2004). Explanatory variables include: (1) ecological—species type, NatureServe’s “at-risk” assessment, federal land area, rainfall, and coastal location; (2) demographic—population density, hunting/fishing participation, and farming area; (3) political—League of Conservation Voters’ environmental scores and party affiliation. “Pro-environment” (“pro-development”) representatives appear to have increased (reduced) ESA listings in their states.     

IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR FEDERAL WILDLIFE POLICY

This article is one of the first efforts to describe and assess the environ- rricntal impact asscssmcnt process iri the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The FWS environmental impact assessment process has evolved from a procedural requirement limited to biological concerns to a more c o m p r e 11 ensi ve pro ce ss i nvol vi n g soc i a 1 and economic consider at i ons. 7'h i s historical overview describes changes in agency actions. Recent FWS en- vironmental impact assessments are examined that concern translocation of the Southern Sea Otter in California; master planning efforts related to thc heavily-visited Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge; use of steel shot for hunting fowl; antf comprehensive use plans for Alaskan national wildlife refuges.     

Frames of Influence: U.S. Environmental Rulemaking Case Studies

The purpose of this article was to question whether interest group actions during the pre‐proposal stage of U.S. federal rulemaking influences the language proposed in natural resource agency rules. The influence of interest groups during this stage was examined across three case studies: (1) the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) critical habitat designation for Nebraska's Salt Creek tiger beetle, (2) the USFWS critical habitat designation for the Utah/Arizona Shivwits and Holmgren milk vetch, and (3) the USFWS delisting of the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population from the endangered species list. To analyze these three cases, a frame analysis approach is used and offers evidence to support the proposition that the instructive, expertise, and fiscal feasibility frames that stakeholders used during the pre‐proposal stage can shape the language of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. These cases suggest the rich potential for careful study of the earliest stages in the regulatory and administrative rulemaking process in the United States and beyond.     

The Wisdom of Which Crowd? On the Pathology of a Listening Government

This article considers the claims made by members of the current UK Coalition government to adopt a new style of listening, consultative politics based upon the so‐called wisdom of the crowd. It considers how these claims have—and could have—been acted upon, focusing upon two central policy proposals; the funding of higher education and the reform of the National Health Service.     

Priority setting in agricultural research: beyond economic surplus methods

The article examines the issue of priority setting in Third World agricultural research organizations, for those research sectors and topics which—mainly because of the difficulty of quantifying benefits—are outside the domain of economic surplus and benefit/cost techniques. The issue is redefined as one of processing ill‐structured decisions, i.e., decisions in which there is no unique, identifiable, objectively optimal solution. The implications of this for the concept of rational action in this field are explored, and the results used to define a practical approach. This centres on a radical review of the possible options and criteria in priority setting, using four techniques (challenge groups, repertory grid, creativity techniques and flow charting). The final section of the article examines the decision‐making aspects of these techniques in three priority‐setting contexts of increasing difficulty: within a department, where the issue is essentially one of technical choice between competing research lines; within a major institute or research sector, where there is substantial competition for resources; and in an institute or sector which is facing a crisis of resources or relevance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why the BBC Matters: Memo to the New Parliament about a Unique British Institution

The new Parliament will be asked at some point to make critical decisions about the BBC's future at a time when it is facing full‐frontal assaults from competitors who view the BBC as a major barrier to their own advancement. Whether it be newspaper groups seeking to monetise their online activities, commercial children's channels, terrestrial competitors or the owners of music radio stations, media conglomerates rail against the BBC's size and public funding with increasing regularity. Our aim is to remind our legislators of the vital contribution this institution makes to British life: from a journalism inscribed with values of fairness, integrity and impartiality—and valued throughout the world for its professional engagement with foreign affairs—to its creative commitment to British story‐telling, music, comedy, arts and children's programmes, the BBC's contribution to our democratic and cultural welfare is immense. It is a beacon for Britain, which provides social glue for its citizens at a time of fragmenting audiences and identities, within a uniquely non‐commercial space, accountable to both Parliament and its licence payers. It may distort the market, much as the National Health Service distorts the market for health care, but is held in high esteem by the British public and is admired throughout the world. This article explains why the BBC is a national treasure that underpins our creative economy as well as our cultural vitality, and argues that it must be protected from those who argue self‐interestedly for its diminution.     

Implementing GASB 45: Recommended Best Practices in Local Government

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued Statement No. 45—Accounting and Financial Reporting by Employers for Postemployment Benefits Other Than Pensions in 2004, requiring local governments to actuarially determine their annual required contribution to fund other postemployment benefits (OPEB) and to account for the unfunded amount as a liability on annual financial statements. This article discusses best practices on the implementation and management of this accounting standard, including actuarial practices, funding decisions, and benefit changes. It also presents how Phase I cities and counties in North Carolina implemented Statement No. 45 for further explanation. The hope is that these best practices will serve as a guidepost for making OPEB policy decisions, especially among smaller local governments, on the criteria of financial accountability and sustainability.     

Policy planning in HM Customs and Excise Customs Policy Directorate. A trainer's perspective

Following the creation of flatter management structure, HM Customs and Excise reviewed the way they carried out the development of policy advice to decision takers. They wished to create a procedure to give an assurance of the quality of the work in the development of policy. With the aid of consultants, they identified a set of management tools and techniques to ensure that planning for policy development is carried out efficiently and effectively. These tools are: stakeholder analysis, to identify the key players and their interests in the policy to be developed; a policy family tree analysis to establish where a policy fits within wider government policy objectives; a project management checklist to enable decisions to be taken on resource allocation; an assessment of the priority to be assigned to the policy and its development; a high level assessment of the cost implications for business of complying with the policy; and the development of an evaluation plan to assess the success of the policy in delivering the policy objectives. HM C and E commissioned a successful training programme with the Civil Service College to help them deliver the quality in policy work they sought. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Public Admin. Dev. Vol. 17 : 223–234 (1997). No. of Figures: 4. No. of Tables: 0. No. of Refs: 0.     

A Question of Morality: Artists' Values and Public Funding for the Arts

In 1989, the combination of art, religion, homosexuality, ana¹ public dollars set off an explosive two-year battle and a decade of skirmishes over funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. To promote artistic freedom and to avoid political controversy, federal arts policy delegates specific funding decisions to private donors and arts professionals. In an era of morality politics—hot-button issues driven by deeply held beliefs rather than by expertise—that strategy no longer works. Artists, donors, and arts audiences diverge widely from the rest of the American public in their attitudes toward religion, sexual morality, and civil liberties, as General Social Survey data show. Delegating funding decisions to them has naturally led to some subsidies of art offensive to important segments of the population.     

The politics of bureaucratic competition: The case of natural resource policy

Many concerned with how government functions consider creating competition between bureaucracies an attractive option. Others are skeptical of what impact rival agencies have when they are operating within a political context. Reflecting these discrepant viewpoints, some scholars believe that regulators will compete vigorously for resources and responsibilities; others assert that agency members will act passively as they attempt to protect their autonomy. To assess these contrasting perspectives and determine why competitive agency structures might exist, the following analysis examines one of the classic situations where agencies can serve as functional substitutes: the relationship between the United States Forest Service and the National Park Service. The results demonstrate that agencies put far more weight on autonomy than competition. The principal advantage of functional rivalry for politicians—at least where federal lands are concerned—is to expand the choice set of alternatives available to them.     

‘An Internal Housekeeping Matter’:1 Whitehall and the BBC Monitoring Service

For over 65 years the BBC Monitoring Service has been providing Whitehall and its diplomatic, intelligence and security communities with a rich seam of ‘open‐source’ information mined from the word's media. However, while the continued importance of this work remains undisputed, in 2003 the future of the Monitoring Service was brought into serious doubt as a result of a proposed major reduction in its government funding. The source of this problem was a decade old dispute between sponsoring government departments over where the burden of responsibility lay for the costs of the service. The ensuing deadlock led the Intelligence and Security Co‐ordinator, Sir David Omand, to commission a Review of BBC Monitoring by Sir Quentin Thomas whose recommendations formed the basis of a new funding and governance regime for the Monitoring Service. This is the story of that dispute and the means used to achieve its eventual resolution.     

The Pork Barrel Politics of the Towns Fund

The article reviews the selection of towns in England under the Town Deals scheme, a funding scheme set up in the summer of 2019. Under the scheme, 101 towns in England were selected from a long‐list of 541 towns to bid for funding to improve local infrastructure. The findings show that Conservative‐held areas (and in particular marginal Conservative‐held areas) were much more likely to be selected for the scheme, and that this association remains—even when controlling for the ranks that civil servants awarded towns on the basis of qualitative and quantitative criteria. The findings call into question ministers’ commitment, under to the Nolan principle, to take decisions ‘impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias’.     

Bringing home the bacon: an empirical analysis of the extent and effects of pork-barreling in Australian politics

Which electorates receive targeted funding, and does targeted funding swing votes? To answer these questions, I analyze four discretionary programs funded by the Australian federal government during the 2001–2004 election cycle. Controlling for relevant demographic characteristics of the electorate, those electorates held by the governing coalition received a larger share of discretionary funding, and a larger number of program grants. Among government seats, funding does not appear to have been directed towards those that were more marginal. More discretionary funding—particularly on road-building—was associated with a larger swing towards the government in the 2004 election.     

Decentralization, Local Priorities, and the Community Development Block Grant Program in Milwaukee

This article analyzes the geographic distribution of CDBG fundsacross twenty-three neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, bycomparing federal, city, and neighborhood responses to localneed and by testing the impact of these responses on the finalfunding allocations. In Milwaukee, decentralizing decisionmakingto the city improved the program's responsiveness to local need.However, the funding decisions made by local officials did notalways direct funding exclusively to the most extreme need;nor did they distribute funding proportionately with respectto need, even though the city's targeting mechanisms were closelyrelated to the measure of need used in this analysis. We concludethat Milwaukee's program results were obtained through a mixtureof targeting rules and political competition over program decisions.     

How Can Local Governments Address Pandemic Inequities?

COVID-19 is exposing a nexus between communities disproportionately suffering from underlying health conditions, policy-reinforced disparities, and susceptibility to the disease. As the virus spreads, policy responses will need to shift from focusing on surveillance and mitigation to recovery and prevention. Local governments, with their histories of mutual aid and familiarity with local communities, are capable of meeting these challenges. However, funding must flow in a flexible enough fashion for local governments to tailor their efforts to preserve vital services and rebuild local economies. The authors argue that the Community Development Block Grant and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant programs are mechanisms for providing funds in a manner that is adaptable to local context while also focusing on increasing social equity. Administrators must emphasize the fourth pillar of public administration—social equity—in framing government responses to the pandemic.     

How Credible Is the Evidence,and Does It Matter? An Analysis of the Program Assessment Rating Tool

This research empirically assesses the quality of evidence that agencies provided to the Office of Management and Budget in the application of the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), introduced in 2002 to more rigorously, systematically, and transparently assess public program effectiveness and hold agencies accountable for results by tying them to the executive budget formulation process and program funding. Evidence submitted by 95 programs administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the PART assessment is analyzed using measures that capture the quality of evidence and methods used by programs and information on characteristics of agencies that might relate to program results and government funding decisions. The study finds that of those programs offering some evidence, most was internal and qualitative, and about half did not assess how their performance compared to other government or private programs with similar objectives. Programs were least likely to provide externally generated evidence of their performance relative to long‐term and annual performance goals. Importantly, overall PART and results scores were (statistically) significantly lower for programs that failed to provide quantitative evidence and did not use long‐term measures, baseline measures or targets, or independent evaluations. Although the PART program results ratings and overall PART scores had no discernible consequences for program funding over time, the PART assessments appeared to take seriously the evaluation of evidence quality, a positive step forward in recent efforts to base policy decisions on more rigorous evidence.     

Superfund expenditures and cleanup priorities: Distributive politics or the public interest?

Using data on all final National Priorities List (NPL) sites, this study employs an integrated model of distributive and public interest politics to determine whether the overall pace of cleanup efforts and funding of the 8.5 billion Superfund program over the past eight years reflects self-interested congressional influence or public interest objectives. Despite the fact that both EPA and Congress have substantial incentives to promote the Superfund program, the results indicate that once a site is on the final NPL, there is little committee-based congressional influence over the distribution of site cleanup or funding, although evidence exists that legislators can hasten a site's transition from proposed to final status on the NPL. The chief determinants of cleanup pace and level of funding are the site's Hazard Ranking System (HRS) scores, whether federal funds are financing the cleanup, and whether the site is designated as a state priority.     

A Global Ranking of Political Science Departments

Rankings of academic institutions are key information tools for universities, funding agencies, students and faculty. The main method for ranking departments in political science, through peer evaluations, is subjective, biased towards established institutions, and costly in terms of time and money. The alternative method, based on supposedly 'objective' measures of outputs in scientific journals, has thus far only been applied narrowly in political science, using publications in a small number of US-based journals. An alternative method is proposed in this paper – that of ranking departments based on the quantity and impact of their publications in the 63 main political science journals in a given five-year period. The result is a series of global and easily updatable rankings that compare well with results produced by applying a similar method in economics.     

Taken for Granted? Managing for Social Equity in Grant Programs

Managing for social equity performance has long been a goal without much guidance for public managers. We examine social equity performance in the context of indirect governance through the administration of grant programs and, more specifically, the matching of policy responses (grant funding) to social needs. Grant program managers must allocate funding to match needs while also ensuring accountability, but common administrative models that rely on competition can undermine social equity performance. We develop a unique framework to analyze the relative social equity performance of four models of grant administration in general. These models are defined by whether competitions or formulas are used to select grantees and to allocate funding. We test the implications of the framework in an analysis of funding distributions from the nonentitlement Community Development Block Grant program in four states. Our findings suggest that social equity in grant programs is better served when grantors do not rely solely on competitive grant contracting in the selection and distribution of grant funds, which is typical in grant administration. However, policy makers and managers can design institutional arrangements that utilize competition, but in a manner that does not create a bias against more socially equitable funding decisions.     

The Limits and Possibilities of Volunteering: A Framework for Explaining the Scope of Volunteer Involvement in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Despite popular rhetoric concerning the benefits of volunteerism for public and nonprofit organizations, the use and management of volunteers to assist in the delivery of services is uneven: some organizations rely heavily on volunteer labor for this purpose, while others circumscribe volunteer contributions or eschew volunteer involvement altogether. This article introduces eight dimensions of volunteer involvement—four involving organizational decisions and four regarding volunteers’ decisions—that make up the overall scope of volunteer involvement in an organization. Based on a review of the literature, the article presents a conceptual framework and several research propositions concerning how organizational characteristics, volunteer management, and environmental factors affect the overall scope of volunteer involvement in an organization.