Australia's New Federalism: Recipes for Marble Cakes

In July of 1990, the prime minister of Australia announced aprogram to achieve a closer partnership between the three levelsof government. His concern was the degree of bureaucratic overlapin the Australian federation and the hindrances to mobility,portability, and uniformity which made the Australian economymore balkanized than Europe post-1992. The announcement capitalizedon dissatisfaction with Australian federalism that had beengrowing in the 1970s and 1980s, and its timing coincided witha range of catalysts making the current climate favorable forchange. The new federalism unleashed a process of review andreform across some forty program or subprogram areas over aneighteen-month period with a prime objective to attain roleclarification for the three levels of government in shared functionalareas, somewhat akin to the German horizontal model of federalrole allocation. The process survived a political challengethat toppled the prime minister, aspects of the new federalismforming a key element of that challenge. Constitutional changeis also part of the agenda and already the Australian experienceholds a number of lessons for other federal systems.     

The identification of Linda Agostini. The significance of dental evidence in the Albury ‘Pyjama Girl’ case. A case report

The discovery in 1934 of the badly burned, pyjama clad body of a young woman protruding from a roadside culvert near Albury, N.S.W., led to one of the largest investigations in the history of Australian crime. Two simple errors, made by a local dentist with no previous experience in forensic odontology called by the police to examine the teeth of the victim, resulted in a delay in identification for 10 years. This paper examines the background of the odontological evidence which ultimately led to the identification of the victim and the conviction of the offender.     

Health maintenance insurance: Toward an optimal HMO

The financial incentive structure of today's health maintenance organizations addresses certain problems attributed to fee-for-service medical care, but at a theoretical level it does not induce optimal provider behavior. Health maintenance insurance—a combined package of medical, morbidity/disability, and life insurance—encourages providers to compete for the health dollar, and not simply the medical care dollar, thereby remedying deficiencies in prepayment and promoting true health maintenance. The principle underlying health maintenance insurance emphasizes the need to search for effective means of preventing disability, morbidity, and premature death.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C., October 30–November 3, 1977.     

An approach to studying local government autonomy: the Ontario experience

Abstract: This study examines the issue of local government autonomy through the study of municipal policy-making. After a brief review of the debate over local autonomy, local government policies are grouped into four categories — developmental, allocative, redistributive and constitutional. The evidence examined derives from Ontario during the period from 1968 to 1988. Some increase in autonomy is found in the last three categories but not in that of developmental policy. The fundamental sources of municipal autonomy are found in the politicization of issues at the local level and in the behaviour of the provincial government, which may or may not see benefits to be derived from changes in local autonomy. Sommaire: Cet article étudie la question de l'autonomie des gouvernements locaux à travers leur processus d'élaboration des politiques. Après un bref aperqu du débat entourant l'autonomie locale, les politiques des gouvernements locaux sont groupées en quatre grandes catégories — développement, attribution, redistribution et constitution. Les données utilisées sont tirées de l'expérience de l'Ontario de 1968 à 1988. Elles permettent de constater une amélioration de l'autonomie dans les trois dernières catégories, mais pas dans celle de la politique de développement. En outre, il appert que les sources fondamentales d'autonomie municipale se trouvent dans la politisation des probèmes au niveau local et dans le comportement du gouvernement provincial, pour lequel des changements dans l'autonomie locale peuvent ou non présenter des avantages.