MANAGING IN NETWORK SETTINGS

The focus of this article is on managing networks. A network knowledge base is developed from the authors' studies of city government involvement in economic development, management within rural enterprises and the evaluation of a rural strategic planning project. Other public management network analyses are also incorporated. Management in network settings is not based on central authority and cannot be guided by a single organizational goal as is the case in the classical management approach. Management involves managing flexible structures toward collective efficiency. The ability to manage is related to the internal condition of the manager's primary organization. It involves technical, legal, political and cost dimensions. It requires different capacities, skills and knowledge from that of single organization management. The next steps in the research would include the development of the skills needed, an analysis of the role of organizational power and the operational variables of networks, the issue of network cohesion, and the question of loss of control or difficulty in assessing network accountability.     

Rapid Identification of Synthetic Cannabinoids in Herbal Incenses with DART‐MS and NMR

The usage of herbal incenses containing synthetic cannabinoids has caused an increase in medical incidents and triggered legislations to ban these products throughout the world. Law enforcement agencies are experiencing sample backlogs due to the variety of the products and the addition of new and still‐legal compounds. In our study, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was employed to promptly screen the synthetic cannabinoids after their rapid, direct detection on the herbs and in the powders by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART‐MS). A simple sample preparation protocol was employed on 50 mg of herbal sample matrices for quick NMR detection. Ten synthetic cannabinoids were discovered in fifteen herbal incenses. The combined DART‐MS and NMR methods can be used to quickly screen synthetic cannabinoids in powder and herbal samples, serving as a complementary approach to conventional GC‐MS or LC‐MS methods.     

Public Opinion and Collective Obligations

This article attempts to identify the general principles that underlie public reasoning about collective obligations and that help explain when political parties can create new obligations or defend existing ones. I use these principles to President Clinton’s unsuccessful attempt to create government health-care plan and attempts by President Bush to privatize Social Security. The success of a party in selling – or defeating – an obligation depends upon what people believe about the competence and capacity of government and the value of autonomy – choices made by each citizen; whether people perceive the obligation as providing floors or establishing ceilings by limiting choice or otherwise restricting opportunities for the better-off; and whether the program is more like insurance or more like welfare. A party’s ability to maintain credibility with voters also depends upon whether party leaders can suppress issues that threaten intra-party elite pacts. When attempts to suppress “taboo” issues like “stem cells” or “black crime” fail, the party loses credibility with its voters and attempts to defend or sell obligations fail.

Avoiding blame,doing good,and claiming credit: Reforming Canadian income security

Abstract: This article examines federal legislation, An Act to Amend the Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Security Act (Bill C-36), from the vantage point of the contemporary politics of welfare state reform. Government decisions on the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) made in the 1990s noticeably generated political and administrative feedback to the policy agenda and policy development processes. Bill C-36 was the response by policy-makers to solve these issues and use the occasion to make other changes they had been contemplating. The legislative reforms contained the imposition of specific losses for one group; the introduction of benefits for another group, both geographically diffuse clienteles; and, for all covered by these programs, modest improvements in service provision. Inside the federal public service, officials responsible for the CPP Disability program acted effectively as policy entrepreneurs, making use of a window of opportunity, and the necessity of amending the legislation, prompted by the focusing event of a critical audit report.