SCIENCE IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY

In recent years a number of important science policy issues have rentered on questions about the social utility of science. The field of knowledge systems accounting has evolved as a special form of social impact assessment to observe and measure the impact of science on society. A system of social impacts of science (SIS) indicators has been developed as an attempt to represent these complex patterns and relationships. In the final analysis, the causal relevance of science to social performance depends on our capacity to link the complex knowledge system of modern science to the achievement of social goals.     

INTRODUCTION: WATER RESOURCES AND PUBLIC POLICY

Research in water resource policy historically has reflected more general trends in public policy analysis. This symposium focuses more narrowly upon a sample of some contemporary issues.     

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AS IMPLEMENTORS OF PUBLIC POLICY

This study expands the growing literature in comparative public policy that examines welfare services. By now, it is accepted that a combination of economic, social, and political factors are influential in the delivery of these services by the 60 states. This paper finds that similar factors are also operating at the county level in New York state. Most notably, political factors affect the distribution of welfare benefits–despite federal and state mandates that require distribution to be based solely on need. This raises a number of issues. concerning the nature of political influence and the autonomy of local bureaucracies, which require further exploration.     

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Increasingly, the nations of the world are becoming more interdependent among themselves. This is true not only in an economic sense, but in a political sense as well. The field of public administration has become internationalized, presenting a new challenge to both teachers and students of the discipline. The article argues that special attention should be given to teaching students how to manage policy interdependency. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary approach is advocated as a method of broadening students' perspectives in public administration. In concluding the article, the author offers several recommendations for improving public administration programs.     

ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC POLICY

Comparative State Policies. Edited by B. GALLIGAN (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1988, 303pp).
From Fraser to Hawke: Australian Public Policy in the 1980s. Edited by B. HEAD and A. PATIENCE (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1989, 525pp).
Hawke and Australian Public Policy: Consensus and Restructuring. Edited by E. JENNETT and R. STEWART (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1990, 422PP).