Policy Alienation of Public Professionals: The Construct and Its Measurement

Currently, there is an intense debate on the pressures facing public professionals during policy implementation. Frequently, professionals have difficulty identifying with new policies, resulting in diminished policy performance. The author examines this problem using the concept of “policy alienation” and develops and tests a scale for its measurement. Policy alienation is associated conceptually with five subdimensions: strategic powerlessness, tactical powerlessness, operational powerlessness, societal meaninglessness, and client meaninglessness. A policy alienation scale was using a survey of 478 Dutch health care professionals implementing a new financial policy, diagnosis related groups. The resulting 23‐item policy alienation scale demonstrated good psychometric qualities. A reliable and valid policy alienation scale can help in understanding and enhancing policy performance.     

Evaluation of the cognitive intervention programme ‘A New Direction’ targeting young offenders in Sweden

The treatment of offenders has changed from focusing on risk management to also emphasizing salutogenic experiences as a protective factor. The programme ‘A New Direction’ involves cognitive intervention combining the above-mentioned approaches to treat young criminals and young persons at risk of developing a criminal lifestyle. In evaluating this programme, 61 participants from the Swedish social services and youth care facilities were divided into two treatment groups and two control groups. All participants were subjected to pre- and post-measurements using two questionnaires: the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and the Sense of Coherence (SOC-13). The two treatment groups followed the programme during one week and 9–30 weeks, respectively, with the control groups measured at approximately the corresponding time intervals. The results show reduced PICTS from high to low levels and increased SOC only for the multi-week treatment group. Although the recidivism analysis revealed a greater reduction of convicted offences in the multi-week treatment group compared with the control group, the finding is tentative because of small sample sizes. To conclude, cognitive intervention shows promise for reducing criminal thinking patterns and increasing sense of coherence, which may have beneficial effects on the behaviour of young offenders.     

Deaths after intravenous misuse of transdermal fentanyl

Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid used as a general anesthetic and analgetic. Fatal outcome from intravenous misuse of transdermal fentanyl is rare, and there are few such reports in literature. Here we report two cases of fatal intravenous injection of the content from fentanyl patches. Both were male drug addicts, found dead within a one week interval in the same apartment. Post-mortem femoral blood was screened for amphetamines, cannabinoids, cocaine, and opioids with immunological methods (EMIT II) and further with headspace gas chromatography for alcohol and with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for different drugs, including fentanyl. Confirmatory analysis of fentanyl and morphine was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In the first case, the toxicological analysis revealed fentanyl (2.7 ng/mL), morphine (31.4 ng/mL), and ethanol (1.1 g/L) in postmortem blood and amphetamine, cannabinoids, morphine, and ethanol (1.4 g/L) in postmortem urine. In the second case, the analysis revealed fentanyl (13.8 ng/mL), 7-aminoclonazepam (57.1 ng/mL), and sertralin (91.9 ng/mL) in postmortem blood and a small amount of ethanol (0.1 g/L) in postmortem urine. Police investigation revealed that both the deceased had bought the patches from the same source. The present cases demonstrate the possibility of intravenous misuse of transdermal patches and the risk of fatal outcome.     

Age calculation using X-ray microfocus computed tomographical scanning of teeth: a pilot study

To correlate dental age with an individual's chronological age based on the calculated volume ratio of pulp versus tooth volume measured, an X-ray microfocus computed tomography unit (microCT) with 25 microm spatial resolution was used to non-destructively scan 43 extracted single root teeth of 25 individuals with well-known chronological age. Custom-made analysis software was used by two examiners to obtain numerical values for pulpal and tooth volume. The ratio of both was calculated and statistically processed. No significant intra- or inter-examiner differences were found. In fact, a very strong concordance correlation coefficient was found. Linear regression analysis showed a coefficient of determination (r) of 0.31 which suggests that there is a rather weak correlation between the volume ratio of pulp versus tooth and biological age. Although rather time consuming, this technique shows promising results for dental age estimation in a non-destructive manner using X-ray microfocus computed tomography.     

Voters AS A Hard Budget Constraint: On the Determination of Intergovernmental Grants

Recent empirical literature has shown that the determination of intergovernmental grants is highly influenced by the political bargaining power of the recipient states. In these models federal politicians are assumed to buy the support of state voters, state politicians and state interest groups by providing grants. In this paper we provide evidence that the fiscal referendum reduces the reliance of states on matching grants received from the central government and thus the possibility of interest groups and state bureaucrats to obtain more grants. If referendums are available, voters serve as a hard budget constraint.     

The Local Party Organization and Its Members: Between Randomness and Rationality*

In this article we shall argue the importance of approaching the relationship between party organizations and party members by analyzing the interaction between characteristics of the national party system, the party organization as a more or less open or closed system, and the resources of individuals particularly conducive to party membership. We shall mainly discuss the organizational level, taking as a starting point different models from organizational theory: the rational behaviour model, the survival model, the bureaucratic model, and the symbolic action model. We apply these models in our search for how political parties seek to mobilize members. Examples illustrating the relevance of the different models are a warning to those who wish to develop a general theory of party organization.     

Public Policy and Behavior Change

Changing behavior is often necessary to tackle societal problems, such as obesity, alcohol abuse, and debt problems. This article has two goals. First, it aims to highlight how governments can try to change the behavior of citizens. Government can use policy instruments to do so, including incentives, bans and mandates, information campaigns, and nudges. However, the government should not be a manipulator that applies policy instruments without societal support. Therefore, the second goal of the article is to provide a conceptual framework that helps analyze whether public policies to stimulate behavior change are effective and supported by key stakeholders. This conceptual framework has five criteria indicating the extent to which there is effective and supported behavior change: the policy is (1) effective and (2) efficient, and there is support for the policy among (3) politicians, (4) implementing organizations, and (5) citizens. The article ends with suggestions to study public policy aimed at behavior change.