Remembering JPAM's first editor,Raymond Vernon

Raymond Vernon, the founding editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, died on August 26, 1999, at the age of 85. He was Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs Emeritus at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the time of his death, having served on the faculties of various schools at Harvard since 1959. He will be remembered for his contributions to a number of public policy areas. For example, in the late 1950s he led a research team that produced a study of the future of the New York metropolitan area, regarded as a landmark in the field of urban planning. In the last two decades he wrote extensively on the phenomenon of multinational corporations. His last book appeared in 1998 and was awarded a prize in 1999 by the Academy of International Business.     

How policies become contested: a spiral of imagination and evidence in a large infrastructure project

This article investigates how framing processes lead to polarization in the public debate on a large infrastructure project. Drawing on an analysis of newspaper articles about the “Oosterweel connection” in Antwerp (Belgium), it concludes that imaginative framing (appeals to emotions via symbolic language) and framing through evidence (appeals to rationality via factual language) mutually reinforce each other. Because of the mutual reinforcement, we talk of a spiralling motion. When evidence backs up appeals to the imagination, such as when facts back up metaphors, these appeals are endowed with authority and hence legitimacy. While this strengthens appeals that have been “proven” to be true, it also makes actors backing these appeals increasingly frustrated with other parties that still refuse to accept them. Because of their frustration, the former are spurred to launch new imaginative appeals conveying their anger and to seek new evidence to substantiate these new appeals. Going back and forth between imaginative appeals and appeals to evidence, all parties in a conflict develop their own vision of the contested issue and their own evidence base for the policy position. Over time, their tolerance for ambiguity decreases and the debate polarizes.     

L'effet des rapports financiers sur la dynamique fédérale: la qualité médiative du fédéralisme suisse

The article examines the horizontal and vertical fiscal relations as explanatory factors of the interaction dynamics between levels of government in Switzerland. It presents the intergovernmental financial relations in Switzerland, comparing them to those in other federal countries and outlining the current reforms of the equalization system and the distribution of tasks. The author analyzes the effect the fiscal relations have on the intergovernmental interaction dynamics and discusses the potential implications of the current reforms for Swiss federalism. She demonstrates that the interaction dynamics that result from the financial relations are characterized by compensation, multilevel coordination and more rarely by unilateralism. The transformation of the financial relations that result from the current reforms, in particular the weakening of existing coordination structures, may lead to increased unilateralism and thus reduce the mediative capacity of Swiss federalism. Yet, the reform process also shows how durable the complex coordination structures are, which should be eliminated by the reforms.     

„Selbstbewusst“ und „stolz“. Das außenpolitische Vokabular der Berliner Republik als Fährte einer Neuorientierung

The article sketches a newly developed analytical approach (“vocabulary analysis”) inspired by philosophy of language. Without engaging in the debate as to whether Germany’s foreign policy is best characterised either in terms of continuity or change, the article reconstructs the development of the German foreign policy practice between 1986 and 2002 on the basis of the foreign policy elite’s discourse. In an exemplary fashion it illustrates the use of the key concepts Germany, Europe, power, responsibility, self-confidence and pride. We conclude that vocabulary analysis reveals astonishing shifts in the semantic web of which German foreign policy discourse is “woven” — shifts which will also leave traces in Germany’s foreign policy identity.     

Technological Strengths in Mature Sectors--An Impediment or an Asset for Regional Economic Restructuring? The Case of Multimedia and Biotechnology in Baden-Wurttemberg

Baden-Württemberg's innovation system, which is characterised by a high degree of institutionalisation as well as a predominance of incremental innovations and medium technology finds itself in a profound process of transition. The paper discusses whether Baden-Württemberg's strength as an industrial district dominated by mature industries is an impediment or rather an asset with regard to developing new promising technological sectors in the region. The paper focuses on two newly emerging sectors: multimedia and biotechnology. Because of the strong orientation of actors in Baden-Württemberg to established companies in the core industries and the dominance of established organizational networks there is a lack of stimuli for developing new industries. Thus, institutional innovation and new networks are required to speed up the growth of the new industries. Baden-Württemberg can be expected to cope with the transition to the extent that it builds a close connection between its existing sectoral strengths and the new growth industries.     

Reimbursement schemes for hospitals, malpractice liability, and intrinsic motivation

We develop a simple multi-task principal-agent model to analyze the interplay between optimal reimbursement schemes for hospitals and liability rules (basic model). We then extend our model and assume that the hospital is intrinsically motivated to exert positive effort for quality and cost reduction. This effort, however, is biased towards quality. Moreover, the intrinsic motivation may be crowded out by monetary incentives. In such a setting, we find that a pure prospective payment system (PPS) that has become widespread in recent years can only be optimal in the unlikely case where malpractice liability holds hospitals fully responsible for expected harm. For other cases, we confirm the prejudice that PPS may lead to inefficiently low quality. Then, the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) system is superior if the intrinsic motivation is high and relatively little biased towards quality, whereas mixed systems should be chosen otherwise. Our model sheds light on why countries like the USA with a tough liability system haven been less reluctant to switch from FFS to PPS than Germany, for instance.     

Privative clauses in special education legislative schemes: are they constitutional under the Canadian Charter?

This paper suggests that privative clauses in the enabling statutes (Education Acts) governing provincially appointed special education appeal tribunals (SET) are unconstitutional under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is suggested that ‘final and binding’ SET decisions about children's designation as special needs and their educational placement infringe upon the Charter rights of both parent and exceptional child. The standard for judicial review of SET decisions, given a privative clause, is whether the decision is ‘patently unreasonable’ while ‘correctness’, according to case law, is the appropriate standard when finally determining fundamental rights. Parents of exceptional children in practice have recourse to the courts regarding only procedural rather than substantive issues regarding SET decisions due to the high deference the courts afford any administrat ive tribunal protected by a privative clause. The very high judicial review standard of ‘patently unreasonable’ rather than ‘correctness’ is not consistent, furthermore, with the child's ‘best interests’ or in meeting international obligations to disabled children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.