REGULATORY POLICY DESIGN: COOPERATIVE VERSUS DETERRENT MANDATES

Abstract: Two forms of regulatory policy design—"cooperative" and "deterrent" designs—are considered in the context of intergovernmental regulation of floodplains. Both types of design entail efforts by higher-level governments to induce local-level regulatory efforts. However, the approaches differ in terms of their underlying philosophies and in the extent to which they address local regulatory commitment and capacity. The contrast between the United States and New South Wales policies, and changes over time in the New South Wales policy, illustrate key points about the two types of policy design. The broader significance of this discussion concerns lessons for intergovernmental regulatory policy design.     

INTERGOVERNMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION OF BUILDING CODES WITH LATERAL FORCE PROVISIONS

Building-code revisions and land-use planning are recognized as potential solutions to the threat posed by hazardous structures in seismically active regions. Their implementation, however, is problematic and several Impediments to action on building codes are analyzed. The authors recommend a system of incentives to overcome these barriers including federally subsidized insurance, low interest loans, and joint state-local policy ventures with technical assistance provided by federal agencies.     

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.     

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.     

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING POLICY IN A NEW ERA: THE IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL FORCES

Basic forces are influencing the American economy and significantly effecting employment and training policy. States need to take responsibility in solving the problems created by these trends. The implications of these trends-the technological revolution, internationalization of the American economy, and labor market and demographic changes-are examined. The first implication is that the United States cannot have effective economic policies unless monetary-fiscal policies are supplemented by selective labor market policies which can deal with specific labor market problems. Second, policies must be measured in terms of their effects on the competitiveness of American industry in the areas of wages, management systems, and technology. Finally, there is a need to recognize the importance of education in responding to the economy's problems and to combine employment and training with other human resource development activities.     

INTERGOVERNMENTAL ROLES IN LOCAL ENERGY CONSERVATION: A RESEARCH FRONTIER

This article examines a frontier research area: local energy conservation and intergovernmental relations. The vast potential for financial and energy savings by local governments through energy conservation is contrasted to a significant lack of meaningful programs by reviewing current local programs through examination of research efforts, intergovernmental trends in assistance and the legal foundation for local energy roles. Several items for the energy conservation research agenda are offered, especially a call for more research on the relationship between rising energy prices and development of energy programs. Other research foci are the impacts of intergovernmental technical assistance, organizational structures for incorporating energy conservation concerns into local government, state-local program coordination, citizen demand for conservation programs and the information dissemination networks in energy policy.     

STATE-LOCAL RELATIONS AND THE AMERICAN JAIL CRISIS: AN ASSESSMENT OF STATE JAIL MANDATES

Years of neglect, combined with the recent development of a “hands on” judicial policy have resulted in a jail crisis in America. States, recognizing their contribution to this situation, have begun to develop policies designed to assist local jail officials in operating safe, humane, and constitutional facilities. These state efforts are a form o f mandating, and primarily concern minimum operating standards and inspections programs. In this research we investigate three questions related to state mandating of local jail operations: (1) what is the extent of state involvement, (2) what factors are associated with state involvement, and (3) what is the impact of state involvement? Our findings indicate (1) states have been active in developing and administering jail mandates, (2) state involvement is associated with state-level corrections policy, and (3) jail standards and inspections programs have a substantial impact on local jail performance. We conclude with a discussion of how state and local governments may proceed in the process of developing standards, inspections, and enforcement procedures.     

CONSUMERISM AND THE REGULATORY SYSTEM: PARADIGMS OF REFORM

The problem of protecting consumer interests in the regulatory process is viewed from the free enterprise, progressive, and pluralist paradigms. Berman considers the characteristics of each paradigm, the ways reformers have sought to implement each, and how they interact and shape the nature of the regulatory system. The greatest conflict lies between the free enterprise and progressive paradigms on the need for regulation. The author concludes, however, that the regulatory system can best be viewed as a blend of the different paradigms–unstable though that blend may be.     

A TYPOLOGY OF IMPLEMENTATION BEHAVIORS OF STREET-LEVEL BUREAUCRATS

The role of the individual implementer in the process of policy implementation deserves more attention. This paper focuses on the behaviors of individual implementers at the street-level. A typology of fourteen compliant and non-compliant behaviors is introduced and i t s application in studies of micro-implementation is discussed.     

DISPUTING AND REGULATORY POLICY: THE EXAMPLE OF A STATE PUBLIC UTILITY AGENCY

The literature on policy making has largely ignored the formulation and implementation of policy when governmental agencies process citizen disputes. In this essay we provide an initial exploration of the dimensions of agency policy making and policy implementation during dispute processing. Using a case study of dispute processing by a state public utilities regulatory agency, it appears that dispute processing contributes to evolutionary policy formulation and implementation by providing a context for the incremental adjustment and legitimation of continuing policies, by sponsoring negotiations leading to the serial adaption of existing policies to new circumstances, and by screening disputes and sharpening the issues in disputes so they are amenable to policy development through agency adjudicatory procedures. The findings of the case study suggest that processing of citizen complaints flowing into the "bottom" of an agency is potentially as important as the politics of the rule making and licensing procedural contexts in the conduct of regulatory policy.     

REGULATORY POLICY ANALYSIS: WORKING IN A QUAGMIRE

The authors review five "definitions-in-use" that characterize regulatory policymaking and policy analysis. They survey these contradictory meanings and argue that the common use of all five has adversely affected efforts to reform and study government regulation.     

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.     

THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN REGULATORY REFORM: THE CASE OF ELS

Abstract: The effects of the Electronic Lodgment Service on relations between tax agents and the Australian Taxation Office provide evidence for both the value and limitations of integrating information technology innovation with regulatory reform strategy. IT innovations such as ELS can promote cooperative regulation. The limitations of this achievement are largely limitations of regulatory context and strategy.     

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT PROGRAM*

Abstract: This article reports on the implementation of youth policy. It examines the literature on policy implementation and finds the literature pessimistic, especially in regard to federal programs locally delivered. It then reports on the Participation and Equity Program as designed by the Australian federal government and as implemented in TAFE Colleges in Western Sydney. The article ends by suggesting a model by which implementation may be judged.     

THE COURTS AS A SOURCE OF REGULATORY REVITALIZATION: EXTERNAL AGENDA SETTING AND EQUAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The authors examine the relationship between the courts and HEW's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), to illustrate the effects of legal efforts to generate more vigorous agency enforcement. Opponents of racial and sex discrimination in public schools won a series of suits against OCR after it had ceased to effectively implement anti-discrimination legislation. As a result of court decisions, OCR has had its discretion over how it will carry out its legislative responsibilities curtailed.     

A DESIGN PERSPECTIVE ON POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: THE FALLACIES OF MISPLACED PRESCRIPTION

Implementation has been used to try to explain too much, particularly that policy formulation should be oriented around implementation. The concentration on implementation has added little to our theoretical understanding of policymaking. Implementation studies have taken either "The Horrors of War" or "The Search for Theory" views. The latter has four major views, none of which is adequate. The best approach is to treat implementation as only one of a number of conditions which must be fulfilled for successful policymaking. The design perspection, explained in the paper, is the best approach for this.     

INTERGOVERNMENTAL IMPACTS ON POLICY VARIATIONS WITHIN STATES: EFFECTS OF LOCAL DISCRETION ON GENERAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

Variation in state policy outputs is often a function of the level of inter governmental involvement in policy decisions by the federal government. This study examines comparable impacts of intergovernmental involvement by states on variations of welfare policy outputs within the states. The analysis of the effects of state-level involvement on General Assistance payments indicates that state delegation of policy discretion in this program leads to significantly higher levels of variation of policy effects within states.     

A REGIME FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS: COOPERATION AND RECONCILIATION OF FEDERALIST IMPERATIVES

The diffusion of authority characteristic of federal governance challenges national leadership and complicates even the implementation of policy that promises mutual gains. To explore the problems of implementing national policy in a federalist context, this paper proposes a new approach to analysis, t h e implementation regime framework. From the regime perspective, the essential task of the implementation process is to create a context in which implementors are likely to cooperate to achieve policy goals despite the absence of dominating authority. Drawing upon the literature on international cooperation, the regime framework outlines the contextual conditions and elements of policy design that are likely to lead to cooperation in collective decision making.