RHETORIC AND REALITY IN THE REFORM OF JUVENILE JUSTICE POLICY

In the 1960s and 1970s dissatisfaction with the administration of juvenile justice led to a reform movement which advocated "diversion, deinstitutionalization," and the decriminalization of status offenses as strategies to reduce the harmfulness of official contacts. This paper argues not only that these reforms have not been successfully implemented, but also that the traditional system has been maintained and extended. Explanations for the failure of these reforms are offered and a new direction is suggested.     

THE BIOTECHNOLOGY OF SEX PRESELECTION: SOCIAL ISSUES IN A PUBLIC POLICY CONTEXT

Sex preselection is the ability to select the sex of one's offspring prior to conception. After a discussion of the potential methods of sex preselection, this paper explores the possible diffusion of sex preselection biotechnologies within sociopolitical systems. Ethical aspects are discussed w i t h i n the context of broad social issues, family considerations, social class effects, crime, religion, and medical services. The article concludes with an examination of the public policy choices that might confront decision makers should sex preselection become a reality.     

B: THE NORMATIVE/IDEOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF POLICY FORMATION FAMILY POLICY: HAS THE UNITED STATES LEARNED FROM EUROPE?

"Family Policy" is a term that is used increasingly in the U.S. to describe policies affecting children and their families. In this article, the authors focus on whether societal learning has occurred across the Atlantic with regard to family policy and what, if anything, the U.S. has learned or borrowed from Europe. The authors conclude that there has been some borrowing, albeit modest; currently, some of that learning is reflected in an expanding child policy debate.     

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.     

SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES AND POLICY RESEARCH: THE CASE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

It has been argued that social science disciplines influence their members policy research via theoretical focus, methods, norms, and system maintenance mechanisms and that these forces inhibit the usefulness of policy research for policy-making. Political science is found to influence substantially its members policy research output and to decrease its policy usefulness, primarily by promoting explanations of policy, although the extent of influence and lack of usefulness are less than studies of other disciplines suggest. Whereas highly useful outcome analyses are produced less frequently than many advocates of policy research would hope, a sub-stantial body of policy research undertakes objectives that when satisfied, particularly in the area of problem definition, provide moderately useful output to decision makers. In addition, policy research output is remarkably diverse substantively, but less so in terms of the purposes it serves.     

EFFICIENCY VERSUS SOCIAL LEARNING: A RECONSIDERATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

In a complex society committed to democratic norms a social learning perspective on the implementation process is more useful and appropriate than an efficiency, productivity perspective. The norms and assumptions underlying the efficiency emphasis to the implementation process are not applicable; nor do they exist in reality. An alternative set of assumptions based on a social learning approach to implementation is offered.     

UTILIZATION IN THE POLICY CYCLE: DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH*

The study of policy utilization has been unnecessarily confined to one policy stage and to one group of policymakers-high ranking civil servants. This article suggests to broaden research concerns by including the various stages of the policy cycle and the various policymakers. Utilization plays different functions in different stages and the incentives of policymakers in each stage are guided by self-interest and political-bureaucratic efficacy.     

HEALTH CARE POLICY IN THE GERMAN SOCIAL INSURANCE STATE: From Solidarity to Privatization?

Statutory health insurance is a centerpiece of the German welfare state, which considers itself to be a “social insurance state.” At the same time, due to a large volume of interpersonal redistributions that occur in health insurance, it is the most ambitious branch of the country's social insurance system. The stability of the health scheme thus depends on a “culture of solidarity” to maintain the legitimacy of these redistributions. This article analyzes recent changes in the legislative framework of the statutory health insurance. It asks whether these changes which predominantly aim to contain employers’ nonwage labor costs by making the insured bear a larger share of total health care spending, are possibly weakening the moral infrastructure of the welfare state. To this end, findings from qualitative interviews with insured persons are evaluated in view of recently approved and currently proposed legislative changes to the health scheme. The analytical focus is the question whether the two equity principles of this scheme, delivering health care according to medical need and financing it according to the “ability‐to‐pay,” are becoming endangered.     

POLICY RESEARCH AS SOCIAL SCIENCE: OUTFLANKING THE VALUE DILEMMA

Social scientists fear that policy research compromises their objectivity. As a result, policy science is becoming a separate discipline which is accorded lower status that other fields of social inquiry. However, the history, sociology and psychology of science show that the elaboration of robust social theory would be aided by a more intimate relation between policy research and academic social science than currently obtains. The traditional canons of value freedom, which have been invoked to justify the independence of social science from policy, misrepresent the relation between facts and values in science. Objective knowledge is consequent on dispute and triangulation by a many-valued community of fallible social scientists; but it does not eventuate from consensual value neutralism. Social knowledge interacts with social values to change phenomena our theories represent. This self-restructuring characteristic of social events warrants singular attention by social scientists. Policy researchers are in a particularly opportune position to provide that attention.     

SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION IN AUSTRALIA: THE NEED FOR A PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION

There appear to be two current, opposing misconceptions concerning the nature of social administration. On the one hand there is the belief that it constitutes "no special or definite study but a part of that general mass of things which every earnest young man or woman should know" and, on the other hand, it is "often assumed without question to be concerned with administrative practice"¹.
The domain of the subject of "social administration" is the social service industry in all its parts, its relationship with the industrial and commercial world, and its relationship with primary groups such as families, friends, and neighbours².
Narrowly defined, social administration is the study of the development structure and practices of the social services. Broadly defined, it is an attempt to apply the social sciences — including philosophy — to the analysis and solution of a changing range of social problems³.