A POLICY OF OUR OWN: LOCAL FEMINIST NETWORKS AND SOCIAL SERVICES FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN

This article examines the ways in which a feminist family policy agenda has led to significant political action and change within American cities. Feminist groups, during the past fifteen years, became a part of emerging local women's rights policy networks that effected changes in several services for women and children: libraries (programming for women and non-sexist children's literature acquisitions policies); public education (gender equit under Title IX); social welfare (child care and displaced homemaker services); and criminal justice and health (the treatment of the victims of rape and domestic violence). This policy success stems not only from the workings of traditional interest group politics and policy networks but also from the astute use of political symbols, bureaucratic norms, and the federal system.     

The political process and the use of debt financing by state governments

Empirical evidence offered in this study suggests that decisions by state government officials to effect debt-financed spending depend in part on the state's gubernatorial election cycle. More specifically, the results reveal relative increases in state debt issues in anticipation of elections, and furthermore, they reveal that such increases are more significant for states characterized by high interparty political competition. While theoretical limitations preclude a definitive explanation for these results, the evidence is consistent with a view of state political markets where incumbent parties manipulate public policy so as to enhance the probability of success in pending elections. This insight is significant in that it suggests a relationship between public policy decisions and election cycles in a context heretofore unexplored.     

TEACHING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: EDUCATION OR TRAINING?*

Abstract: There is an ambivalence in attitudes to public administration as a field of study among both academics and practitioners in Australia. Teachers, researchers, students, public servants seeking training and managers have differing interests and expectations. Disagreements about the field have contributed to the lack of a unified framework of concepts, while the field has fragmented into public administration, public policy and public management, aside from other divisions such as "old" versus "new" public administration. "Education" and "training" have taken diverging paths and academics and practitioners have drifted apart. There needs to be a closer dialogue that can only be based on a generally agreed paradigm for Australian Public Administration as a field of study.     

The Effects of Cash Management Assistance by States to Local Governments

In 1985 North Carolina's Local Government Commission (LGC) began a program to evaluate the percentage portfolios of the funds invested and the diversity of the investment governments and public authorities. The LGC established state's local five evaluation criteria and notified the governments and authorities of deviations from the five investment norms. This article discusses what was reported to the LGC and changes in invested funds occuring after LGC's evaluation. Principal findings include: cities over 10,000 population and counties in general are investing a high percentage of their funds; small-sized cities and public authorities tend to avoid the higher yielding, but more complex to purchase, instruments: and most governments and authorities experienced a considerable increase in the percentage of funds invested after review by the LGC. Based on the marked increases in funds invested, other states should consider helping local governments and public authorities with cash management.