STATE ENERGY POLICIES: FEDERAL FUNDS FOR PAPER PROGRAMS

Taking their policy cues from the federal government, the states have done little to effectively deal with energy problems. In fact, their programs could be styled "federal funds for paper programs." inasmuch as the state programs have been written to conform to federal language, but not to attack energy problems in a serious fashion. There is great variation among the states in energy program expenditures, but these are not related to economic or political structures. However, the more urbanized, economically growing, and energy "rich" states spend the most on energy problems.     

ECONOMIC MOTIVES FOR "SOCIAL" PROGRAMS: THE NEW FEDERAL DIRECTION

The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), passed by Congress in 1982, is significant federal employment and training legislation for a number of reasons. Most noticeably, it substantially enhanced private sector and state government roles in the administration of such programs. In order to understand both the programmatic impact of JTPA and its likely consequences on subsequent federal employment and training initiatives, it is necessary to look at the politics of the legislation-especially those interests that are strongly represented through its implementation and those that are not. By doing this, one obtains a better sense of the dimensions of conflict around future employment and training legislation. General guidelines within which Congress should act in subsequent legislative activity are laid out.     

THE POLITICS OF ROAD FUNDING: REMOTE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES AND FEDERALISM IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Abstract: This paper illustrates how remote Aboriginal communities shape rural road classification and funding policies in three Western Australian shires. The Australian federal system is characterised by a complex range of commonwealth and state governmental agencies competing for political space within different localities. Because Aborigines are constituents of the commonwealth and the state, a distinction is drawn between local government political activity, and politics that occur within the locality of a shire.
Success in influencing policy-making processes throughout the federal system stems from the participants' ability to exploit the system. The Aboriginal impact on road policy-making within remote localities is linked to electoral, bureaucratic, and sectional interest politics. These are features of governing and they provide a conceptual framework for the organisation of political activity by commonwealth, state, and local agencies, and Aboriginal communities.     

PERFORMANCE PAY AS A COORDINATING MECHANISM IN THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SERVICE

Abstract: Public sector management is in a state of flux. Pressures for greater efficiency and a stronger customer service orientation have led to changes to the structures and planning and reward systems of public sector organisations. In the milieu of reform, performance pay for managers has been given prominence in a recent critical report by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration which recommends a return to a more standardised approach to management salaries in the APS. I argue instead that performance pay should be considered as a third-or fourth-order coordinating mechanism and linked to the strategies of individual departments in the APS. A policy for greater decentralisation of the design, implementation and management of performance pay schemes in APS organisations is presented.     

NEW DIRECTIONS IN EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING POLICY: A FEDERAL PERSPECTIVE

The U.S. Department of Labor's "Work Force 2000" project has identified long-term trends that will affect future employment and training policy. These include demographic trends such as a decline in the pool of young labor market entrants and an increase in women, minority, and immigrant workers; the continued shift from goods-producing industries to the service sector; and continued technological innovation in response to increased international competition. These projected changes in the labor market and workplace present a national challenge and an opportunity to tackle the longstanding problems of disadvantaged workers. Cooperative public and private programs to eliminate illiteracy and increase job skills and competencies, ease labor mobility and provide retraining, and attack underlying social problems that support the cycle of welfare dependency and unemployment are needed to provide the workforce America needs for the future.     

RECONSTRUCTING ABORIGINAL HOUSING POLICY FOR REMOTE AREAS: HOW MUCH ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE?

Abstract: This article applies Schaffer's 1984 critique of the "sectoralism" of mainstream public policy practice and discourse to Aboriginal housing policy in Australia. It analyses the approaches and programs of the Aboriginal housing policy sector and the priority given to them over the years. It then identifies the dominant agenda of Aboriginal housing policy defined in terms of massive statistics of nationwide Aboriginal housing need. An alterative agenda defined in terms of appropriate non-conventional housing and facilities for remote areas is also identified and its struggle for recognition traced. The final sections of the article suggest reasons why this alternative agenda has remained on the margins of the Aboriginal housing policy sector and examine its prospects for becoming less marginal in the future.     

RESPONSES TO GROWTH IN THE SUN-BELT STATE: PLANNING AND COORDINATING POLICY INITIATIVES IN QUEENSLAND

Abstract: Queensland's population growth phenomenon has demanded responses from the state government for greater intervention in planning land use and resources utilisation. Planning, especially regional planning, represents an area of traditional policy neglect in Queensland, explained in part by the division of powers such that local authorities, rather than the state, have the major responsibility for land-use development and physical services. Local government jurisdiction in planning poses a challenge for the state government in how best to strategically manage regional growth, while at the same time respecting local authority autonomy in planning decision-making.
Over the last three years, the Goss government has undertaken both administrative reforms and a comprehensive and innovative planning exercise to shape urban development in south-east Queensland, the area of greatest population density and growth. In particular, it has adopted a model of corporate government as a framework for the planning process. The corporate model promotes a "whole of government" approach to strategic planning, emphasising efficient and effective outcomes for clients. The model's client orientation has elevated and formalised the role of community input in decision-making, and provided a process for negotiation between the players in planning policy development. In an intergovernmental environment, consultation with local authorities is important but the managerialist aspects of corporate government are likely to encourage central control of the planning policy agenda. Both are necessary for improved urban outcomes, yet it remains to be seen how these potentially conflicting processes can be reconciled in practice.     

FEDERAL INTERVENTION IN TROUBLED INDUSTRY: LESSONS FROM THE NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES

The United States government has provided a range of assistance to help troubled industries. Such aid is of particular interest in debates over in- dustrial or competitiveness policy and in thinking about how effectively American government intervenes in the "micro economy." The experience of aid to one industry, the New England fisheries, suggests that programs fail to achieve their ends for three major reasons. First, industry spokesmen and government officials have difficulty understanding the cause of in- dustry problems. Second, programs fail when they are inappropriate ap- proaches to solving the problems. Third, many programs have implementation difficulties. Findings on other industries suggest that the same kinds of problems interfere with the success of other programs. If government efforts to help industries often fail in ways that are somewhat predictable, then Congress and federal agencies should make the assistance more effective by taking specific steps. These efforts to improve programs, however, are problematic themselves and will not ensure success.     

MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: RISKS AND POTENTIAL BENEFITS FOR COMMUNITIES LARGE AND SMALL

Communities of all sizes are investing in minor league stadiums to attract or retain a minor league baseball team. The promise of economic development benefits is often put forward to justify these multimillion dollar investments. Local officials should be aware of the risks that accompany hosting professional sports teams and understand that minor league teams will not be economic growth engines. The decision to invest in a minor league stadium is a public policy decision and can be “worth it” if accompanied by a development logic. This article identifies three approaches that have been successful in making stadiums a community asset.     

THE USE OF RISK ANALYSIS IN FEDERAL REGULATORY AGENCIES: AN EXPLORATION1

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the role of risk analysis in seven federal agencies concerned with health, safety, and environmental regulation. Interviews with key decision-makers suggest that the use of risk analysis has increased in recent years, but that its employment in risk management decision-making varies considerably both within given agencies and across agencies and policy areas. Despite methodological and institutional constraints, risk analysis is likely to play a greater role in the future as demands for comparative assessment of technological risks increase.     

FEDERAL POLICY IN LOCAL CONTEXT:PUZZLING THROUGH THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PARADIGMATIC POLICY REFORM

Although comprehensive reform programs (CRPs) have been influenced by theories of government failure, they pose some puzzles for these theorists. My purpose is to address puzzles that relate to observed characteristics of the timing, radicalism, implementation, rhetoric and democratic consequences of reforms. The long period of paradigm stability which typically precede them is explained in terms of the institutional and political risks associated with radical policy reform while the reforms themselves are explained in terms of factors that generated opportunities for new sources of policy leadership. This leadership was collectively supplied by a network that sought to break the hold of a fragmented structure of policy communities over the policy process.