SOCIAL PROGRAM INNOVATION AND DISSEMINATION: A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PROCESSES

The dissemination of social program innovations that have been demonstrated to be effective through rigorous evaluation is an important issue. The classical dissemination framework emphasizes the position that programs implemented with fidelity to the original model are most likely to produce the positive outcomes demonstrated in the model's evaluation phase. However, critics suggest that local programs that are extensively modified are more likely to meet local goals and, therefore, are more likely to be sustained within the organization. The present research examined the implementation, effectiveness, and routinization of seven innovations replicated in a nationwide sample of organizations. The innovations were diverse in both content and implementing context and were located in a variety of sites, including schools, courts, prisons, police departments, and social service agencies. The results suggest that the innovations were replicated with acceptable levels of fidelity to the disseminated program models, and that higher-fidelity implementations tended to be more effective than those implemented with lower fidelity. The implications of the findings for social program dissemination policy are discussed and the authors propose an expansion of Berman's contingency model of innovation dissemination.     

POLITICS, TOTALITARIANISM AND FREEDOM: THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF HANNAH ARENDT

FEW contemporary political thinkers have attempted as much as Hannah Arendt has in the course of her effort to formulate a philosophy capable of comprehending every important aspect of the human condition. Her endeavours have not indeed passed unnoticed; on the contrary, each of her major works has been extensively reviewed and the originality of her thought readily acknowledged. And yet, surprisingly, little attention has been paid to her work considered as a whole;' the complex of ideas which gives her essays their unity as a body of writing on political philosophy has been neglected. In the present paper an attempt will be made to rectify this state of affairs by directing attention away from the trees to the wood.     

THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF RICHARD CUMBERLAND: SOVEREIGNTY AND THE ESCAPE FROM THE SEARCH FOR ORIGINS

Abstract. Much of what seventeenth-century writers and preachers had to say about allegiance was framed in terms of deference to the past: subjects owed obedience now because they were heirs to some ancient obedience rightfully exacted. Patriachalists and contractualists alike supposed that questions of legitimacy were best resolved by examining what they took to be the origins of human society. Eventually it became possible to construct a utilitarian political theory which instead judged a given system in terms of the needs it met; Richard Cumberland's De Legibus Naturae (1672) marks an important stage in this process. His cosmology is Christian and his political theory shares many trappings with those of his contemporaries, but from an examination of human interdependence he succeeds in establishing an unequivocally utilitarian account of sovereignty.     

THE EXTENT OF SOCIAL REGULATION: HAZARDOUS WASTE CLEANUP AND THE REAGAN IDEOLOGY

Social regulation resolves the conflict over who will bear the costs of production-related harm to public health, safety, and the environment. The extent of social regulation reflects the political power of affected interests, the economic consequences of control, and the prevailing regulatory ideol- ogy. In this paper, I analyze the impact of the Reagan deregulatory ideology on implementation of the Superfund program to cleanup hazardous waste sites. Itesolution of the conflict over enabling legislation is examined to gauge the relative political power of Superfund Act supporters. Resolution of the ronflict over implementation is examined to determine the extent to which these same political forces limited the success of the Reagan ideology in promoting regulatory inaction.