Partnership and public administration: conceptual and practical considerations

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a proliferation of partnerships involving public organizations. The use of partnerships has evolved from an ad hoc response to particular problems to a general approach to problem-solving and to improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness of public organizations. Partnerships are also used to empower individuals, groups, and organizations outside government by enabling them to make a genuine contribution to government decisions affecting them. It is important, therefore, to explain the meaning and types of partnership, to examine their purposes, benefits, and participants, and to assess their political implications. In-depth evaluative studies of partnerships are scarce, but there are enough data on partnerships and enough sufficient and theoretical materials on inter-organizational relations in general to formulate hypotheses about the requirements for successful partnerships. Sommaire: Au cours des dernieres annees, on a assiste a une proliferation des partenariats impliquant des organismes publics. Leur utilisation a evolue, passant de la simple reponse concue pour un probleme particulier a une approche generate visant a resoudre les problemes et a ameliorer l'efficacite et la receptivite des organismes publics. Cette forme d'association sert aussi a deleguer davantage de pouvoirs aux particuliers, aux groupes et aux organismes non-gouvernementaux en leur permettant de contribuer vraiment aux decisions gouvernementales qui les touchent. II importe done d'expliquer la signification et les differents types de partenariats, d'examiner leurs objectifs, leurs avantages et leurs participants, et d'evaluer aussi leurs repercussions politiques. Les etudes sur ce sujet sont rares, mais il existe a cet egard suffisamment de donnees et de materiel conceptuel et theorique sur les relations interorganisationnelles en general, pour pouvoir formuler des hypotheses sur les elements qui garantissent la reussite d'une association en partenariat.     

Prevention science,drug abuse prevention,and Life Skills Training: Comments on the state of the science

There has been tremendous growth in the field of prevention science over the past two decades. The defining features of contemporary prevention science are high quality empirical research using rigorous and well-established scientific methods, careful hyphothesis testing, and the systematic accumulation of knowledge. One area where substantial progress has been made is in our understanding of the etiology and prevention of tobacoo, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse. In this paper, we review the growth in prevention as a scientific enterprise, discuss advances in drug abuse prevention research, and review the effectiveness of one approach to the problem of adolescent drug abuse, the Life Skills Traning (LST) program, and the methodological strengths of the LST evaluation research. In addition, we provide a response to criticism regarding two types of data analysis in evaluation research, and show that these analyses can help address a number of important research questions with implications for theory and practice. First, the analysis of high fidelity subsamples can address research questions about the importance of program implementation fidelity; and second, composite measures of concurrent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use (i.e., polydrug use) are useful in testing research questions about program effects on more serious levels of drug involvement. With an increasing number of ramdomized controlled trials underway, the field of prevention science is contributing to a new generation of evidence-based approaches and policies that, if widely utilized, offer the potential of reducing the mortality and morbidity associated with a number of major health and social problems.     

The Horizons of the Constitution: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Politeia</Emphasis>, the Political Regime and the Good

How do we think about the word politeia when this involves a reaching back to the past? The response, pursued in this paper, is that in the classical understanding of politeia there is a significant connection between the question of the ‘good’ and the constitution; a connection which has become occluded or obscured by modern constitutional thought. In support of this understanding of politeia it must be acknowledged that what is meant, in this paper, by ‘good’ is very different from that conventionally found in contemporary constitutional, legal or political theory. In an effort to disclose how politeia unravels this novel sense of ‘the good’ the paper will closely consider the philosophical work of Hans-Georg Gadamer on Plato. The paper claims that this largely neglected work is of importance to contemporary constitutional philosophy, particularly in so far as it focuses, as in this paper, on classical traditions or origins within constitutional thought.