FAMILY POLICY IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE: THE CONNECTICUT AGENDA

In 1987 the Connecticut General Assembly made the first attempt in the nation's history to pass a comprehensive family policy. A total of 16 of 26 proposed bills were approved at a total cost of nearly $35 million. Included in the package was aparental and medical leave bill for state employees, a pilot program for displaced homemakers, and a bill to improve access to child day care. This study emphasizes the importance of strong party leadership, the need for comprehensive proposals that appeal to a variety of constituencies, and the importance of the right political and economic timing in enacting family-oriented legislation.     

A NEW DEFENSE POLICY FOR COSTA RICA: CONSTRUCTING REALITY AND THE POLICY AGENDA

This paper examine5 the policymaking progress in Costa Rica, specifically the creation of a new item for the governmental agenda. This new agenda challenges the traditional Itno army" policy of Costa Kica. Following a brief historical overview of the traditional policy, the paper considers the role of specific factors that promote structural conduciveness for the new "defense" policy and the attendant transformation of political symbols and definitions. The impact of the definitional and organizational changes on the implementation stage of policy is explored. This article suggests the importance of studying the role of hegemony in the construction and transformation of political and cultural definitions, an explication of deci- sionmaking as well as nondecisionmaking processes, and the influence of external and internal threats on nation-state dependency.     

NEW ISSUES IN POLICY ANALYSIS—OR AN OLD AGENDA?

The logic of policy analysis in Grover Starling's critique of my article was but a vehicle for his real concern, which is a scathing attack on the Nicaraguan revolution. His criticism that I didnlt use comparative data confuses levels of analysis since my study does not focus on the national level. His argument about the contras not operating in the cotton region fails because the Sandinistas were active and successful there. tie also is mistaken in equating contra aggression with the activity of the Sandinistas against the people of the Atlantic Coast; Sandinistas have committed little in the way of human rights violations. The contras are not llrebels" but really dominated by followers of Somoza. The need for honest and open dialog about Nicaragua is not served by Starlingls veiling of his political agenda within a methodological analysis.     

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY HEALTH POLICY AND THE STATE: A CASE STUDY OF SUDAN

Medical anthropologists have frequently limited themselves to studying cultural factors in illness, curing or resistance to the acceptance of modern Western medical services. This prevailing "socioculturalist" approach has serious analytical shortcomings resulting from underestimating the importance of the social formations in which cultural factors occur. Consequently, the policy recommendations produced in medical anthropology are often crippled by theoretical limitations. It is argued that the historically specific constellation of social relations governing production and the appropriation and distribution of the economic surplus-commonly embodied in the functions of the state-have profound effects on the pattern of health and illness as well as on the availability of health services. In underdeveloped countries an analysis of the role of the state in health is especially important, since the organs of state power play a stronger role in health care than in countries with well developed markets for medical services.
In the case of Sudan, the interests of the state in colonial and postindependence periods required a development strategy involving large-scale irrigated agriculture utilizing seasonal migrant labor. The labor and health policies aimed at economic productivity and political stability are analyzed here in relation to the adverse health effects and serious maldistribution of health services which resulted.     

COORDINATION IN STATE ADMINISTRATION: A CASE STUDY

Abstract: "Coordination is one of the perennial concerns of public administration, and has been a particular problem of State-level policy-making in Australia. This paper describes a policy initiative under the Dunstan government in South Australia which was necessarily an exercise in State administrative coordination. The story illustrates the complexity of a multi-Departmental program aimed at producing an innovative, flexible and decentralized policy. While it shows the awkwardness of conventional administrative and policy-making procedures in such a situation, it also provides examples of constructive cooperation among and readjustment within departments. The general policy "parameters" inspired by the Dunstan government are regarded as a significant influence on the outcome of the program.     

DELEGATION: A CASE STUDY

• 1 Whether to delegate or not to delegate has been an active issue in the New South Wales Public Service since 1960.
• 2 There has been considerable delegation of personnel authority to department heads during the period 1960–68, and the benefits of this programme have been significant.
• 3 The following rules seem to govern the selection of areas ripe for further delegation:

The “monopoly” rule: Where a department has a virtual monopoly over a particular occupational group in the Service, it should have authority to employ members of that group. The “rubber-stamp” rule: Where the rate of approval to departmental submissions approaches 100 per cent in any area, delegation of authority should be considered. The “guide-line” rule: Where the Board finds it possible to formulate guide-lines for the making of decisions within its own office, these guide-lines should be communicated to the departments, together with authority to make the appropriate decisions. The “no-harm” rule: Whenever authority can be exercised in a department without breaching any general or departmental limitation, delegation should be considered.

• 4 The following limitations to delegation of further personnel authority are seen to exist:

The “size” limitation: The small size of many departments limits the scope for further delegations of authority. The “geographical” limitation: The geographical dispersion of departmental staff is a factor that limits the scope for further delegations of authority. Regional decentralization, paradoxically, often leads to centralization of personnel authority. The “uniformity” limitation: The need to achieve uniformity in the Service, from one department to another, limits the scope for further delegations of authority. The ideal of uniformity, however, has probably been over-emphasized in the past because of the early history of the Public Service Board, and the centralized system of arbitration within which it operates. Other limitations: Factors unique to individual departments, such as historical influences and lack of competence in personnel administration, impose specific barriers to further delegations of authority.     

PRODUCTIVITY BARGAINING IN THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR: A CASE STUDY

Abstract: Standard hours of work have been relatively uniform throughout the work force in Australia. Reductions have occurred only after careful consideration by the industrial tribunals and/or the parliaments. Provision of special treatment in this matter for particular groups of employees has been limited. The use of productivity bargaining techniques to secure reduced standard hours of work for a relatively small proportion of the work force — as occurred in the public sector in the mid-1970s — represented a significant departure from previous practice. This is a study of the first of these cases which, in effect, set the ground rules for a series of similar cases conducted later within the Commonwealth public sector. It sets out the steps which were necessary to have the productivity agreement accepted and points out novel features which arose in the application of the productivity bargaining technique.     

THE COMPARATIVE POLITICS OF AGENDA SETTING: THE EMERGENCE OF CONSUMER PROTECTION AS A PUBLIC POLICY ISSUE IN BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

This article compares the emergence of consumer protection as an issue on the public policy agendas of Britain and the United States in the 1960s. Similar forces caused the emergence of consumer protection in both cases. Governmental responses to consumer protection issues also have been similar, but distinctive features of each country's political system are evident as well. The analysis draws upon existing consumer protection literature for each country as well as the author's interviews with a number of Britons involved in this policy area. The principal conclusion is that consumer protection gained each country's policy agenda as a discretionary item. Events of the past few years demonstrate that it is not yet a durable agenda item in either case.