INTERGOVERNMENTAL AND INTERSECTORAL TENSIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL OLICY IMPLEMENTATION: THE CASE OF HAZARDOUS WASTE

Superfund—the federal government's program to clean up toxic waste sites—was designed to promote cooperative interaction between levels of government and w ith the private sector. Implementation of the program has, produced a web of tensions instead. The tensions have been intergovernmental and intersectoral. As this examination of the cleanup of four South Carolina sites reveals, these tensions have served to delay and distort the implementation process.     

SITE CONTROL OF HAZARDOUS WASTE FACILITIES

Although it controls disposal of hazardous wastes, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 leaves the details of site selection and control to the states.
Twelve states have passed site selection laws, but their implementation shows that there are problems still to be worked out. Georgia's law, which goes beyond those of many other states by providing for eminent domain, still has not fully resolved difficulties of state-local relations, liability, and representation of the public.     

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL REGULATION

The emphasis of this paper is on the development of a framework for analyzing the impacts of governmerit intervention on issues of public health and safety. Government policies are classified into three general strategies: regulatory, fiscal, and educational. In most issues, governments pursue policies in all three categories. The authors explain how the effects not only of specific policies, but also of these general policy types can be assessed over the range of social issues. The conceptual framework is tested with regard to a particular issue–alcohol-related traffic accidents–across the American states from 1979-1 984. The results suggest that fiscal and educational policies had little effect, but certain of the regulatory policies tended to be related to traffic fatalities involving alco- hol. The empirical analysis demonstrates the utility of the conceptual framework presented.     

THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION'S WELFARE RETRENCHMENT POLICY: TERMINATING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR THE DISABLED

Large numbers of the permanently and totally disabled have had benefits terminated since 1980 as a result of a determined effort towards that end by the Reagan administration. This is an example of the process by which a major change in political ethos is translated into important changes in welfare benefit entitlement rules. It is also interesting since it seems to be the first instance of a large scale conscientious attempt of the executive branch to reach into and narrow the basic entitlement policy of the Social Security Administration. This normally would be done through joint executive, congressional and legislative action. This article presents the policy background of these events and reviews and analyzes the data about their consequences.     

WELFARE IDEOLOGY, THE MARKET AND SOCIAL SECURITY: Towards a Typology of Market-Oriented Reform

The global shift towards the market in the provision of social security is typically associated with the values of the New Right, but we take issue with this view. An examination of the main welfare ideologies that have influenced the development of contemporary social security systems suggests that the market and individualism have a role to play in a range of approaches to reform. Whilst some approaches unreservedly endorse the market – in a way which accords with the ideas of the New Right – other approaches adopt a pragmatic orientation based on a recognition of two public policy dilemmas, “market failure” and “state failure.” This attempt to define a middle way typifies many of the recent social security reform initiatives. Drawing upon Esping‐Andersen's recent work on de‐commodification, we construct a typology of normative approaches to the provision of social security which may be used to contextualise market‐oriented social security reform initiatives. This we argue is necessary to avoid the over‐simplified dichotomy between individualism and collectivism which is typical of so much recent work on social security reform.     

IDEOLOGY AND POLICY RESEARCH: THE CASE OF MURRAY'S LOSING GROUND

Ideology and policy research are intertwined in many ways; an example is Murray's Losing Ground which uses “science” to justify racial, sexual, and class discrimination. Murray is utterly faithful to the neoconservative version of how liberalism went wrong in the 1960s. He says an intellectual elite shifted the blame for poverty, crime and low achievement to “the system” destroying individual responsibility. But his argument is not supported by evidence. Data are bent tofit foregone conclusions. He argues that more people are becoming dependent on government support, but his method of counting who receives assistance is a fiction. Nevertheless his argument has wide appeal among Americans. Why? His argument touches the self-interested Social Darwinist in almost all of us.     

REGULATION OF THE FREE-ADVERTISING AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

The "new" line between communications that have full First Amendment protection and those that are subject to regulation is still in the process of being delineated by the Supreme Court; legal and mass a communication scholars are proposing a plethora of tests for future cases. Rather than proposing yet another test, this article starts from the premise that future advertising regulation cases will be based on legal philosophy and judicial "world view" as well as law and precedent. First Amendment law and advertising regulation concerns have historically been based on two different concerns and perspectives that have only recently been seen to interact. This article charts a perspective on the differences in the legal, philosophical and historical roots of these two areas, shows how and why they are now seen as interrelated and attempts to give some insight into possible future legal directions in this area.     

REGULATION AND THE THEORY OF AGENCY1

The major arguments of this paper are that there is a need for an integrating framework for the study of regulation, including the design of regulatory institutions, and that the theory of agency may provide such a framework. The paper provides a brief overview of this approach. The theory of agency is a general theory of social relationships of “acting for” that is now under development in several disciplines, particularly economics and accounting. Regulation is seen as a generic relation observed widely in social behavior, and as a particular type of agency relationship. The problems of agency relations–e.g., the problems of principals in controlling agents and of agents in acting according to the principals' desires–have their counterparts in regulation.     

论网络思想政治教育

全球网络信息化深刻地改变着思想政治工作的环境,并以其独有的特点和优势改变着传统意义上思想政治工作的机制和体系。伴随着信息时代的到来,互联网给思想政治工作上水平提供了一个现代化的重要手段。在新的条件下,我们必须努力掌握互联网这个新的认识工具、新的交流工具,特别重视互联网里的思想政治教育,抓住互联网给当前思想政治教育带来的种种机遇,在互联网中融入思想政治教育,提高受众的思想政治素质。     

ACCOUNTABILITY AND CREDIBILITY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF COMPLEX HAZARDOUS TECHNOLOGY

The requirements for dependable management of complex hazardous technologies include multiple barriers against serious failure, clear accountability for errors, and credibility for the decision-making process. Unfortunately, these requirements are in direct conflict. These conflicts can undermine the public's assurance that their health and safety concerns are being properly addressed. These conflicts can be reduced by the adoption of policies that enhance information exchange and evaluation, thereby, complementing the current policies based on physical safe guards and adversarial processes.     

CARTER, REAGAN, AND THE QUEST FOR LEADERSHIP

Books reviewed in this article.
Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., and David deF. Whitman, The President as Policymaker: Jimmy Carter and Welfare Reform
Anthony King (Ed.), Both Ends of the Avenue: The Presidency, the Executive Branch, and Congress in the 1980s
Fred I. Creenstein (Ed.), The Reagan Presidency: An Early Assessment