The "Compleat" Policy Analyst: A Top 10 List

In this article, the authors provide a list of the top 10 ways to become a "compleat" policy analyst, drawing on lessons from their own experience as policy analysts. The authors make no claims that their list is unique. However, they suggest the items included within it are supported in the academic and practitioner-oriented literature. Counting down from number 10—"The compleat policy analyst knows how to skip steps"—the authors present and comment on the items in turn. The authors suggest the number one concern for practitioners is "to live with uncertainty." Other items on the list include eating crow, loving numbers, and acknowledging values and politics in the analytical process.     

Foie gras: animal cruelty or tasty delicacy? An exploration of firm responses to restrictive regulatory change

The authors propose a conceptual framework that highlights the process firms pursue in response to externally imposed changes in the regulatory environment. The study adapts three theories to better understand this phenomenon: sensemaking, the affect infusion model, and cognitive appraisal theory. Using the context of bans on the production and sale of foie gras, the authors present a series of propositions that delineate the process through which firms innovate in response to changes in their regulatory environment. The authors suggest that cognitive processes utilized to make sense of restrictive regulation represent strategic responses, resulting in innovations that expand an existing market, or create a new one. Alternatively, affectively infused reactions result in less innovative responses, or even non‐compliance. The authors present examples of firms' innovations as support for the conceptual model. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The economy of qualities

The aim of this paper is to highlight the main characteristics of what the authors call 'the economy of qualities'. The authors show that qualifying products and positioning goods are major concerns for agents evolving within the 'economy of qualities'. Competition in such an economy is structured through two basic mechanisms. The first is what the authors propose to call the process of singularization of products. The second is the mechanism whereby consumers are attached to, and detached from, goods that are proposed to them. At the heart of these logics, one can find multiple socio-technical devices that are designed by economic agents, which ensure the distribution of cognitive competencies, and which constantly and finely tune supply and demand. Relying upon Jean Gadrey's work, the authors claim that the economy of qualities is nowhere more effective than in services providing activities, and especially in those sectors that invest heavily in New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Finally, the authors suggest that, in the economy of qualities, the functioning and the organization of markets are issues that are shared by scholars and actors. In these highly reflexive markets, a collaboration between them is needed.     

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.     

Reflections on Critical Thinking: Lessons from a Quasi-Experimental Study

In a pre/post quasi-experimental study assessing the impact of a specific curriculum on critical thinking, the authors employed a critical thinking curriculum in two sections of a U.S. foreign policy class. The authors found that the interactive and scaffolded critical thinking curriculum yielded statistically significant critical thinking increases for students scoring below average on the pretest. Within a discussion of the overall need for strengthening critical thinking in higher education, the authors demonstrate that the study’s findings support the developmental process of acquiring critical thinking, and illustrate that early jumps in critical thinking can be achieved within one semester. Additionally, the results point to the need for more long-term approaches to assess larger increases for those scoring above average.     

Place,Time, and Philanthropy: Exploring Geographic Mobility and Philanthropic Engagement

America is a nation of movers, and this has implications for public and nonprofit managers who rely on donations and volunteers to increase the capacity of nonprofits and to strengthen local communities. This article explores the impact of time and place on philanthropic engagement, focusing on how three aspects of community—sense of belonging, social connections, and regional culture—are related to volunteering and giving to local organizations. The authors find that geographic mobility affects philanthropic engagement. Drawing on a survey of active older Americans, the authors find that three community factors —sense of community, social networks, and regional cultures— are related to one or both types of philanthropic behavior. The authors conclude by offering thoughts for future research and practice.     

Environment-shaping: An Alternative Approach to Applying Foreign Development Assistance

Development assistance has a chequered past, in large part because planning for development assistance is historically such a fractured enterprise internally, and so disassociated from development assistance recipients’ assets and needs. The authors of environment-shaping offer an alternative development programme planning methodology that highlights above all else the ever-important relationship between development assistance and the environment into which it is offered. The authors employ an asset-based, rather than a traditional deficit-based, approach to assessing the environment for which development assistance will be formulated. The authors then highlight the power of perceptions in the creation of policy programming and in identifying and reinforcing opportunities for positive feedback loops within the recipient environment as critical to truly ‘sustainable’ development.     

The Civic,Economic, and Political Consequences of Pentecostalism in Russia and Ukraine

In contemporary Russia and Ukraine, Pentecostalism carries with it commitments to civic engagement and democracy, strong bonds of social capital, and the embracing of an entrepreneurial spirit. In this article, the authors analyze the origins of Pentecostalism in Russia, Soviet methods of repression, and Pentecostal survival strategies. Continuing, the authors examine the political efficacy of Pentecostals, their civic commitments, their embracing of the free market, and the strength and nature of social capital among them. While the authors conclude that it is too soon to conclude that Pentecostalism will bring about democracy, civil society, and free markets in Russia and Ukraine, they argue that Pentecostalism is proving itself a popular choice in the contemporary religious marketplace and that choice is not without significant civic, economic, and political consequences.     

Designing and Implementing Cross‐Sector Collaborations: Needed and Challenging

Theoretical and empirical work on collaboration has proliferated in the last decade. The authors’ 2006 article on designing and implementing cross‐sector collaborations was a part of, and helped stimulate, this growth. This article reviews the authors’ and others’ important theoretical frameworks from the last decade, along with key empirical results. Research indicates how complicated and challenging collaboration can be, even though it may be needed now more than ever. The article concludes with a summary of areas in which scholarship offers reasonably settled conclusions and an extensive list of recommendations for future research. The authors favor research that takes a dynamic, multilevel systems view and makes use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, especially using longitudinal comparative case studies.     

Long–Serving City Managers: Practical Application of the Academic Literature

The authors identified 146 city managers who have served in the same city for the past 20 years and asked them to complete a survey to determine the factors leading to their long service. As a part of the survey, the city managers were invited to express, in their own words, the reasons they had stayed in the same city for such an extended time compared to the average tenure for city managers. In the article that follows, the authors quote from the academic literature statements pertaining to practical issues of concern to city managers and the elected officials for whom they work, giving credence to the applicability of the academic literature to today's city management profession. Following the quotations from the literature, the authors present the heartfelt reflections of these senior city managers on their long careers in public service.     

Small group insurance reform: how are state programs measuring up?

In the past decade, states have responded to the health insurance needs of small businesses by launching a number of reforms. According to authors Michael Morrisey and Gail Jensen, more than 30 states have implemented "bare-bones" policies that seek to make minimum-benefit, affordable coverage available to small employers. Almost all states have enacted legislation modifying the underwriting practices that insurers may use with respect to such things as pre-existing conditions and occupational exclusions. Other states have provided tax or employer subsidies. But despite the efforts of the states, the authors found the state policies have had little success. Drawing from a survey found that the few employers who were aware of the programs found them to be unappealing. In discovering what doesn't work, the authors are able to suggest remedies for the states' small group insurance ills, such as offering long-term instead of short-term subsidies.     

基于作者共被引的公共行政研究状况图谱分析——以《Public Administration Review》为研究对象

一门学科的发展离不开优秀专家学者的倾力支持，在公共行政学的形成和发展过程中，同样有一批优秀的公共行政学者推动了公共行政不同分支领域的衍生与发展。运用作者共被引和信息可视化方法，对权威期刊《公共行政评论》（Public Administration Review）于1975--2008年间发表的论文引文中被引频次前50名的学者进行分析。研究结果展现了公共行政领域的主要学术流派，并验证了公共行政研究确实是在沿着范式转移的轨迹更迭交替着。而这种变迁是相对的，大部分时间内，不同范式之间以及和其他学术流派之间是共存、互动甚至交融的。研究还发现，网络化治理正凭借其多中心和网络化的组织基础以及服务治理的先进理念迅速崛起，它将成为公共行政新的研究范式，而基于网络理论的公共行政理论大整合也将很有可能成为公共行政未来的研究热点。此外，实证结果与公共行政范式分类的高度相似性也充分表明了作者共被引和信息可视化方法的科学和有效，它的确为学科范式研究提供了一条定量研究的新思路和一个宏观分析的新视角。     

Knowledge Construction in Public Administration: A Discourse Analysis of Public Value

Public administration is a relatively young field with a growing academic community. Against the background of enduring discussions about theory and increasing research output and diversification within the field, the authors apply the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse that combines discourse theories and a social constructionist tradition to the exemplary case of “public value” research. The authors scrutinize 50 articles from 12 journals over 18 years to trace the development of public value as a concept in public administration research. Drawing from this exemplary case, they develop propositions and propose a framework for knowledge construction that is uniquely characterized as public administration. From the anchor points of manageability, economization, and democratic accountability, the authors develop a framework for analyzing and investigating knowledge development in other concepts such as network governance, representative bureaucracy, and coproduction.     

社会保障供款征缴体制国际比较与中国的抉择

对世界各国社会保障供款征缴的"分征""代征""混征"这三个模式进行了实证分析,并利用第一手资料对每个模式做了案例研究;在此基础上对社保部门、税务部门和私人部门三个不同征缴主体在三个不同征缴模式中的职能作用与协调配合问题做了考察;对中东欧转型国家征缴模式的改革取向及其原因做了分析.针对中国目前存在的社保部门和税务部门"双重征缴"体制的现状,认为,中国面临着二元化经济结构和统账结合制度特征的现实国情,由此决定了社保制度扩大覆盖面工作的长期性和艰巨性.中国国情的特殊性是任何发达国家和中东欧转型国家都不具有的,这就要求社保制度要不断进行自我完善,适应社会经济既定条件,以完成十六届六中全会提出的到2020年基本建立覆盖城乡社保制度的目标,否则,就难以实现这个目标,或即使实现了也是一个碎片化的社保制度,而不利于构建和谐社会.指出:中国选择征缴模式的替代方案应以分征模式为最优,代征模式不利于实现2020年的目标,目前存在的"双重征缴"体制不利于实现这个目标,并提出了征缴体制转型的"两步走"的改革设想.     

Family recomposition and agrarian transformations. Two African cases and a Mexican one

"The authors discuss the role of the demographic regime, and particularly its changes, in agrarian transformations [using one Mexican and two West African case studies]. The hypothesis that guides this research...is that the factor of demographic structure explains the workings and reproduction of several social formations. The authors are specially interested in rethinking the debate over the role of innovation in the relation between population and production changes." (EXCERPT)     

Crossing the Organizational Void: The Limits of Agency Theory in the Analysis of Regulatory Control

This article critically examines the key assumptions of the positive theory of political control. The authors argue that the key assumptions of the theory are flawed and that these flaws seriously limit the importance of much research in the field of regulatory studies. The authors develop a set of new assumptions which would reorient the regulatory studies and force researchers to give greater attention to the role of the bureaucracy in political-bureaucratic relations.     

Mexican households and family networks in the United States: several life histories,one family history

"The authors analyze the Mexican household in the United States, emphasizing its complexity...as well as...its changes over time. The authors seek to understand the composition of relatives within exiled families, their life-cycle evolution, and the interaction of civil and migratory calendars. They also consider household changes related to the migratory process, changes in marriage and birth civil calendars, changes produced by work or marital events, and the type of migratory decisions developed within families." (EXCERPT)     

B: THE NORMATIVE/IDEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF POLICY FORMATION FAMILY POLICY: HAS THE UNITED STATES LEARNED FROM EUROPE?

"Family Policy" is a term that is used increasingly in the U.S. to describe policies affecting children and their families. In this article, the authors focus on whether societal learning has occurred across the Atlantic with regard to family policy and what, if anything, the U.S. has learned or borrowed from Europe. The authors conclude that there has been some borrowing, albeit modest; currently, some of that learning is reflected in an expanding child policy debate.     

Metropolitan areas in Mexico, 1980

Urban trends in Mexico from 1960 to 1980 are analyzed using multivariate analysis techniques. The authors note that the total number of metropolitan regions has increased from 12 to 26 during this period. Differences between the stage in urbanization reached by the Mexico City region and other urban centers in the country are noted. In Mexico City, the authors observe a decline in the population of the central city region coupled with rapid growth in the surrounding municipalities. (SUMMARY IN ENG)