New occupations,old demands: The public regulation of paraprofessionals

Like doctors, lawyers, and architects before them, many new paraprofessionals occupations are rapidly being defined and regulated, raising the time-worn questions regarding the virtues of free labor markets versus those of regulated labor markets. The trend to regulation is growing rapidly as the paraprofessionals increase in number. The new regulation may improve the quality of services that paraprofessionals provide. But the costs threaten to exceed the benefits. There are less costly ways to deal with the problems that have given rise to the demands for regulation. The success of these demands is due in part to inadequate consideration of their implications.     

The power not to tax: A search for effective controls

Although the primary purpose of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was to gain greater congressional control over federal spending, the act also represented a small but significant step toward controlling the substantial financial commitments made through the numerous exclusions, deductions, and credits in the federal income tax. In the Budget Act Congress, for the first time, recognized and defined these “tax expenditures” and adopted procedures for reviewing them. But tax expenditure budgeting has not had the beneficial effect that some had hoped, mainly because the 1974 effort failed to take adequate account of the organizational structure of Congress and of the political character of its decision-making. But these weaknesses can be overcome.     

IMPACT OF PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS ON MUNICIPAL PERFORMANCE

Recently, a challenge to the use of traditional productivity and performance measurement tools has emerged. The focus of this debate i s whether such tools are instrumental for making critical trade-off decisions or program changes. In a nationwide survey of municipalities on this subject, the authors found that performance measurement systems are used across a number of service-related functions. While their perceived contribution to overall municipal performance tended to diminish for Individual worker productivity and morale concerns, the respondents–on balance-viewed the returns from performance measurement systems as worth the costs. The work concludes with several implications for possible adoption.     

Advocacy coalitions and the practice of policy analysis

Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (above) have presented a framework for describing the processes by which public policies change over time, and Heintz and Weyant (above) have provided an array of case studies illustrating and elaborating those processes. This article will focus explicitly on the manner in which the advocacy coalition framework bears on the practice of policy analysis, both from the perspective of the manager of analytical resources, and from the perspective of the practicing policy analyst.     

Long economic cycles and the criminal justice system in the U.S.

Long cycles in capitalist development have been utilized as an analytical tool for political economic theory¹ and to explain major shifts in the social structure within capitalist political economies.² However, the potential impact that these massive changes in the political economy have on the historical development of criminal justice institutions and policies is an area not addressed within the literature. This article explores the relationship between long cycles of capitalist development and the historical formation of criminal justice policy in the United States.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at meetings of the American Society of Criminology (1984, 1986) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (1986).