On Soviet‐German relations: The debate continues—A review article

Aleksandr M. Nekrich, Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German‐Soviet Relations, 1922–1941. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, xiv + 308 pp., £28.00.     

MANY YEARS AFTER THE PARENTAL ABDUCTION

Little longitudinal data are available on what happens to families in which there has been a parental abduction. This article reports on information on 48 families who have been followed for a number of years after the recovery of a missing child. It focuses on questions relevant to the courts: the use of mediation services preabduction, contact between the abductor and the children and the abductor and the searching parent, the payment of child support and restitution for the search, the legal ramifications to the abductor, and the preparations parents took to prevent another abduction.     

Women prisoners and the law: Which way will the pendulum swing?

Women prisoners have had avenues to legal assistance open to them for several years. Even though it has been possible for them to seek recourse in the courts, many barriers to this help remain in place. This article focuses on how women prisoners and women's prisons can change through litigation.     

The Enactment of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857: The Campbell Commission and the Parliamentary Debates

Rather surprisingly none of the existing accounts of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 considers the mechanics of reform which brought about the legislation in any great detail. Yet this subject as much as the final legislation merits attention in its own right. The nineteenth century in England was a significant period of law reform and the legislation provides a vivid illustration of the inner workings of the process. The passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 was not entirely smooth. The fact that it succeeded at all makes it an ideal case study in Victorian law reform. This article considers the pressures for divorce reform, the working of a Royal Commission, the debates in Parliament, and ultimately how reform was finally achieved through a series of compromises between those who wanted more radical change and defenders of the status quo.     

Book notes

Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective (Second Edition), Ferrel Heady, Marcel Dekker Inc., 1979, pp. 429, price unknown.

Programme Evaluation at H.E.W., Research versus Reality: Part 2, Education, James G. Abert (Ed.), Marcel Dekker Inc., 1979, pp. 395, price unknown.

Public Sector Decision Making, David Pearce (Ed.), Special issue of OMECA, The International Journal of Management Science (Vol. 7, No. 5, 1979), Pergamon Press, pp. 101, £9.00 paperback.

Why Policies Succeed or Fail, Helen M. Ingram and Dean E. Mann (Eds), Sage Publications, 1980, pp. 312, £12.50 cloth, £6.25 paper.

Supplementary Benefits and the Consumer, Eric Brigg and Anthony M. Rees, Occasional Papers on Social Administration No. 65, Bedford Square Press, 1979, pp. 172, £5.95.

More Bad News, Glasgow University Media Group, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980, pp. 483, £17.50.

The Road and Christ Church Meadow: The Oxford Inner Relief Road Controversy 1923–1974 — A Study of the Relationship between Central and Local Government, Roland Newman, Oxford Polytechnic, 1980, pp. 71, £1.00.

Planned Safety Management: A Guide to Action, A. Stevenson, Alan Osborne and Associates, 1980, pp. 116, £4.50 paperback.

Public Policy Research: A Review of Qualitative Methods, Ken Young and Liz Mills, Social Science Research Council, 1980, pp. 43, £1.00.

The Practice of Urban Economics, Alfred J. Watkins, Sage Publications (Vol. 107 of Sage Library of Social Research), 1980, pp. 247, £11.25 hardback, £5.50 paperback.     

Public administrators and policy analysis: beyond political science

This article proposes using an analytical techniques approach to teaching policy analysis in public administration programs. It is organized using questions raised by journalists: who, what, why, where, when, and how. Although most attention is devoted to the content of such an approach, the initial portion of the article provides a rationale for taking that approach. The initial portion of the article concludes with a rejoinder to those who might be tempted to dismiss the argument out of hand because the proposed view of policy analysis is not a political science one.

It is desirable to go beyond a political science view of policy analysis in teaching public policy in public administration programs to a broader conception of policy analysis. Then, public policy can be fully integrated into public administration programs.

The antithesis is heard in required statistics and research methods courses where students complain that the material is irrelevant to their degree programs and career goals when the uses of statistics and research methods are not related to the practice of public administration. Integrating public policy into a public administration curriculum is most feasible in the area of policy analysis. Presentation of this argument follows the categories journalists use to ask questions and write stories: who, what, why, where, when, and how. Most attention is directed toward what.