Local politics, national policy, and the taxpayer-payback of manufacturing extension

Expansion of the manufacturing extension system, and consequent diversification of center models and services, suggest the evaluation system may need to expand its focus to take into account diverse program features and outcomes and the need to use evaluation data in different state political economy contexts. In the Wisconsin environment detailed here, demonstrating hard “taxpayer-payback” and shaping the politician's view of manufacturing extension as an “investment,” rather than as an “expenditure” item, may be important requirements for future in-state manufacturing extension funding. This article attempts to demonstrate empirically the taxpayer-payback outcomes to manufacturing extension activities, using representative corporation financial balance sheet data, along with field-credible scenarios about simulated extension service impacts on the balance sheets, and actual program service costs and fee levels. The implications of the analysis are explored both for program evaluation and the broader economic and political justification of manufacturing extension at state and national levels. the views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect official policy of the National Institute for Standards and Technology. The author would like to thank Philip Shapira, Jan Youtie, Betsy Bury, Dan Luria, and participants at the 1996 NIST/Georgia Tech workshop on manufacturing modernization, for their comments and assistance.     

Interacting with Consumer Advocates

This article explores the role of consumer advocacy. Those involved in public policy formation and administration – regulators, governments and other public policy makers – share an interest in effective consumer advocacy. Those who make our laws, as well as those who are custodians of its adjudication, compliance, monitoring and enforcement, share a common position with many consumer advocates – they all work to advance the long‐term interests of consumers.     

Hybrid Warfare,International Negotiation,and an Experiment in “Remote Convening”

The authors are leading a multinational effort to understand the effects of “hybrid” warfare on international commercial negotiation. The start-up process is itself essentially a negotiation, among about forty individual practitioners and scholars with very diverse backgrounds, over whether and how they will work together. In a pandemic, a key risk is that the necessary cooperation and trust will be harder to build, particularly among professionals who are dealing with security-sensitive issues and who have never met each other. This article discusses the current necessity of replacing the in-person model for eliciting such cooperation which the authors had developed previously for large collaborative projects, and describes a “remote convening” replacement process.     

The influence of collective bargaining on large police agency salaries: 1990–2000

Collective bargaining between police management and unions is an important process that determines many aspects of police work, particularly the monetary benefits for line officers like salary and fringe benefits. Working with limited budgets, police administrators who engage in collective bargaining are obligated to negotiate with union representatives over wage benefits while attempting to maintain adequate financial resources toward other police operations. Though students of policing learn that police unions try very hard to increase economic reward for their members there is limited research on the effectiveness of their efforts. Since economic benefits are the primary focus of police unions, it is important; therefore, to evaluate the impact that collective bargaining has on salaries earned by police personnel. This study examines this issue by combining four waves of the Law Enforcement Management and Administration Statistics for the period 1990–2000. Pooled time series analyses reveal that large organizations that engaged in collective bargaining had higher minimum wages for officers during the period. As predicted, collective bargaining did not affect minimum chief’s salaries.     

Representing the state? School and teacher in post‐Sendero Peru⋆

The school and the teacher give rise to different images and sets of meaning. Locating schools is a technique of government and teachers are supposed to act as mediators between state and society. But teachers are also local intellectuals and have actively engaged in discourses of dissent and challenges to the state. This article explores the changing identity, situation and representation of provincial schoolteachers in post‐conflict Andean Peru. It draws on material from Tarma province to debate the extent to which the former racist “social order”, upheld by school and teacher, has been destabilised and superseded.