A threat-centered theory of policy entrepreneurship

Policy Sciences - We know relatively little about the conditions that encourage people to jump into the political fray as policy entrepreneurs, advocates who devote substantial time, energy, and...     

Decentralized planning in Kenya

In 1983 the Government of Kenya embarked on an accelerated programme of decentralization known as ‘District Focus’. This exercise in devolution is aimed at promoting more effective and efficient use of scarce domestic resources through efforts to strengthen planning capacity at the district level, improve horizontal integration among operating ministry field agents, and expand authority to district heads of operating ministries for managing financial and procurement aspects of local project implementation. Given the importance of this initiative to the economic growth of Kenya and the current search for administrative reforms that could help accelerate rural development in Africa, District Focus merits close attention by development experts. This article reviews the historical background, content, and implementation progress of District Focus.     

西方国家跨界治理的内在动力、典型模式与实现路径

随着经济全球化日渐深入,单个国家内的跨界问题日趋凸显。为应对此种跨界问题,西方学术界对跨界治理展开了颇具深度的理论分析。新区域主义学派认为跨界治理的内在动力在于经济发展,随着区域经济的发展,跨界问题会随之消失。但实践并未如此,跨界问题反而突出,于是跨界治理的内在动力在于政治驱动的学术观点开始出现,此种观点认为只有地方政府之间达成实质性的契约关系,将跨界问题提到公共议程上,才能有效地加以解决。以区域经济发展为基础目标的跨界治理典型模式中,主要有伙伴关系模式、行政性合作模式和碎片化模式等三种。在此基础上,西方学者还对跨界治理的实现路径进行了研究,具体包括公私伙伴式和新葛兰西式两种迥异的实现路径。     

Designing policy for the long term: agency,policy feedback and policy change

Policy Sciences - Policy feedback research faces a potential pivot point owing to recent theoretical and substantive advances. Concerted attention now spans new scientific communities, such as...     

Prospects for communication policy

At stake in communication policymaking is control and use of technologies central to the process of governance in society. Future policies must admit a broader range of social goals than present ones. Defining such goals will require shifting conceptual approaches from regulation to investment, from information goods to communication resources, and from consumerism to politics. Persons engaged in communication policy research and planning had best avoid traps of being blinded by the technology, underestimating the political process and making easy assumptions about goals and values.David Grey, Edwin Parker and Donald Dunn of the faculty of Stanford University were especially helpful in the preparation of this article.     

Mechanisms for policy (dis)integration: explaining food policy and climate change adaptation policy in the Netherlands

Policy Sciences - Recent years have witnessed increased political interest to the challenge of organizing policy integration to govern societal problems that crosscut the boundaries of traditional...     

Lessons from institution building in Kenya

Participant observation of institution building in a public sector organization in Kenya provides a basis for a critical discussion of key facets of the institution-building process. Problems identified include: flawed needs assessments; overambitious project designs; poor selection and briefing of consultants; and countervailing vested interests on the parts of external agents. Recommendations include narrowing the gap between development rhetoric and reality; more careful project formulation; greater emphasis on in-house training; more careful selection of project team leaders; and the provision of funding for post-project sustainability evaluations.     

The factors influencing knowledge entrepreneurship in Malaysian manufacturing companies

Established firms that continuously and systematically implement entrepreneurial initiatives exhibit behavior that corporate entrepreneurship researchers label as ＂sustained regeneration＂. A prime example of sustained regeneration is new product development activity in industries such as computers, electronics, and textiles where the introduction of new products is on-going and firm＇s creativities have important implications to its performance. On the other hand, knowledge entrepreneurship describes the organizational ability to respond to learn to capitalize on an opportunity, or to protect against a threat by adopting an innovation. Successful adoption of innovation requires an organizational ability to manage the process within the organization that deals with new or newly interpreted knowledge and under conditions of uncertainty and in the face of controversy, develop and initiate a plan of action to respond with goal-oriented organizational behavioral changes. Knowledge entrepreneurship connotes a ＂drive to implement change, to accomplish this goal, and to adopt an innovation＂. Knowledge entrepreneurship involves a motivated pursuit of competitive advantage, using knowledge as a means of developing sources of advantage similar to those described in the market orientation and absorptive capacity literatures. It describes a driven effort to utilize knowledge through innovation. This article is identifying knowledge entrepreneurship, and determining which factors may affect the nature of this concept. The selected criteria have been assessed according to their relative importance by utilizing analytical hierarchy process （AHP） approach and expert choice software program.     

Health policy for the elderly

also director of the human development program at his university. He is the author of The Decision-Makers: The Power Structure of Dallas; The Aging Enterprise; Long-Term Care of the Elderly,and Political Economy, Health, and Aging.     

Ten commandments for policy economists

The incorporation of economic approaches into policymaking requires special skills on the part of the economist. This article examines the use of economics in government as illustrated by the experience of the natural resources agencies. It presents ten guiding rules for the practicing policy economist: (1) be economical about the use of economics; (2) discount for political demand; (3) dare to be “quick-and-dirty”; (4) think like a manager; (5) analyze equity as well as efficiency; (6) know your market; (7) pay your organizational dues; (8) profit from action-forcing events; (9) do not oversell economic analysis; and (10) learn policy economics by doing it.     

Public policy for dangerous inventions

This study explores the relationship between dangerous invention characteristics and US local, state, and federal government safety policy-making patterns and effectiveness. When an invention prototype appears and its existence is recognized, an initial policy direction is established quickly if the invention is treated by society as being similar to a previous way of doing things. In this case the invention's dangers will be regulated within the established legal and administrative framework. If an invention is perceived as being entirely new, its introduction tends to be followed by governmental inaction for years or even decades. When government finally responds it is likely to be at the federal level.     

Public opinion for sale: The role of policy marketers in Greater Yellowstone policy conflict

This article develops a macro-level theory of framing to explain the intractable or ‘icked’ nature of environmental policy. Using conflict in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) as a case study, we review how proposed solutions – technical, scientific, and economic – and cultural issues often lead to inadequate policy solutions. We then propose that interest groups, the media, and elected officials do not act solely as linkage mechanisms, but, rather, as policy marketers who market public opinion to citizens. The macro-level trends of a marketing culture in tandem with the rise of consumerism are explored in the context of GYA politics. Finally, we describe how our proposed macro-level theory of framing points to a rich research agenda for empirically testing questions about issue framing, policy marketers, and public opinion formation in environmental policy conflict.     

A local regulator's rewards for conformity in policy

This note is an empirical investigation of the benefits that accrue to local building departments for a regulatory policy that conforms to the relative strength of local interest groups. The study uses an interest group model and applies it to data for building departments in 1100 municipalities. It finds that material benefits in terms of budgets and salaries go to building agencies which set a strictness of regulation that reflects the balance of interest group strengths in the locality.