Cherry‐picking participation: Explaining the fate of proposals from participatory processes

What happens to the proposals generated by participatory processes? One of the key aspects of participatory processes that has been the subject of rare systematic analysis and comparison is the fate of their outputs: their policy proposals. Which specific factors explain whether these proposals are accepted, rejected or transformed by public authorities? In this article contextual and proposal‐related factors are identified that are likely to affect the prospect of proposals being implemented. The explanatory power of these factors are tested through multilevel analysis on a diverse set of 571 policy proposals. The findings offer evidence that both contextual and proposal‐related variables are important. The design of participatory processes affects the degree of implementation, with participatory budgeting and higher quality processes being particularly effective. Most significant for explaining outcomes are proposal‐level, economic and political factors: a proposal's cost, the extent to which it challenges existing policy and the degree of support it has within the municipality all strongly affect the chance of implementation.     

DESIGNING CONTRACTS FOR COMPLEX SERVICES

In this article, we employ transaction cost economics and the contingency stream of organization theory to answer two related questions. First, when contracting for complex services, do governments design contracts for flexibility? Second, is the contingency perspective relevant to understanding contract design? Examining 130 professional service contracts awarded by state government agencies in the USA, we find that task complexity and task unpredictability, two dimensions of task uncertainty, increase the probability of flexible governance. This research highlights for managers the important fact that the potential for opportunism and task complexity are different sources of uncertainty that pose different challenges and call for different governance solutions. The study enriches our understanding of transaction costs by probing the conditions under which task uncertainty matters most (and least), and further shows the utility of integrating transaction cost economics with contingency theory to better understand contract governance.     

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES: CONTRACTING FOR SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES IN THE US

Government contracting with private service organizations has grown rapidly in the United States in the last 25 years. Advocates of contracting hope that it will spur competition among service agencies, lowering costs and improving service quality. In practice, however, contracting departs significantly from this competitive model. Instead, government and private agencies develop long-term relationships which can be considered regimes governed by specific norms and expectations. These regimes profoundly influence the delivery of services and the politics of contracting. This article analyses these regimes in the context of the contested nature of public authority. The article concludes with suggestions for reforming public policy to improve the performance and effectiveness of contracted services.     

FROM POLICY COMMUNITY TO ISSUE NETWORK: SALMONELLA IN EGGS AND THE NEW POLITICS OF FOOD

In the last two years the issue of food has been subject to increasing political controversy with firstly salmonella in eggs and later listeria and BSE becoming the focus of conflict and widespread media attention. This is an important change. In most of the post-war period food policy was conducted within a relatively closed policy community where issues concerning food policy were largely treated as routine technical decisions. The significance of the salmonella in eggs affair is that it is indicative of wider changes in the making of food policy. The increased activity of interest groups, the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy and changes in the retail economy have combined to transform the food policy community into an issue network.     

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES IN THE IMPACT OF CHILD MALTREATMENT ON LATER DELINQUENCY AND DRUG USE*

Developmental psychopathology emphasizes the impact that early childhood maltreatment has on adolescent and early adult development. The life‐course perspective, however, emphasizes more proximal events—adolescent maltreatment, for example—as developmentally disruptive. Prior research suggests that childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for adolescent delinquency and drug use. However, the results appear to depend on a loose definition of childhood. This study utilizes a four‐category maltreatment classification—never, childhood‐only, adolescence‐only, and persistent—to re‐examine the maltreatment‐delinquency relationship. Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, we find no relationship between childhood‐only maltreatment and adolescent delinquency or drug use; yet, we do find a consistent impact of adolescence‐only and persistent maltreatment on these outcomes.     

CHANGING AGENDAS AND POLICY COMMUNITIES: AGRICULTURAL ISSUES IN THE 1930s AND THE 1980s

Pluralists have argued that the political agenda is relatively open. If a group or party apply enough pressure then new issues should have access to the political arena. However, the theories of policy communities and the third dimension of power suggest that issues can be kept off the political agenda. Agriculture seems to provide an example where for forty years new issues did not emerge. Yet in the 1930s and 1980s pressures to change the agricultural agenda have existed. This raises the problem of how, if the agenda is controlled, new issues are debated. Traditionally, agenda change has been explained through the activities of pressure groups but this paper argues that this view is inadequate where a policy community exists. Therefore it suggests that agendas change when structural factors change perceptions and the dominant beliefs of the policy-makers no longer match reality.