Symposium on Implementing Public Policy: Learning from Theory and Practice

The initiative for this symposium issue arose out of a series of five ESRC seminars called 'Implementing Public Policy: Learning from Each Other'. The aim of the seminars was to revitalize interest amongst public policy researchers about implementation studies, to advance the development of ideas about public policy implementation and to assess the relevance of academic models of public policy implementation to those who deliver public services.     

Understanding public agency communication: the case of the Swedish armed forces

This article suggests a diagnostic framework of public communication intended to capture new communication strategies used by Armed Forces across Europe to legitimize new tasks and recruit new personnel. Three distinct communicative models that impact differently on democratic values and public support are suggested: an Old Public Administration (OPA) model influenced by bureaucratic values, a New Public Management (NPM) model fuelled by market values and a deliberative model labelled ‘New Public Service’ (NPS) that is largely influenced by proponents of ‘e‐democracy’. A case study of the communication of the Swedish Armed Forces identifies a lingering bureaucratic (OPA) ideal. The market ideal (NPM) however clearly dominates. The article concludes that communication along market purposes, principles and practices risks distancing Armed Forces further from society. Yet, an embryonic deliberative ideal (NPS)—much fuelled by the use of social media such as blogs—was also identified. This growing ideal holds the potential of infusing deliberative vigor into the organization and presumably facilitates the bridging of the gap to society. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public's and police officers' interpretation and handling of domestic violence cases: divergent realities

The public's and police officers'interpretation and handling of realistic hypothetical domestic violence cases and their stereotypic views about domestic violence are discussed. A sample of 131 experienced officers, 127 novice officers, and 157 adult laypersons were randomly assigned to read a domestic violence case. Experienced officers were more likely to arrest only the husband than were laypersons or rookie officers even when respondents inferred that the husband was primarily responsible or had used violence before. Experienced officers considered their stereotypic beliefs about battered women's propensity to use self-defense in arriving at their arrest decision whereas laypersons and rookie officers did not. These findings indicate that the public and police officers have not adopted the feminists' message that arrest is the best response to handle all domestic violence cases. Policy implications are discussed.     

Effects on academia-industry collaboration of extending university property rights

Several recent studies show European university scientists contributing far more frequently to company-owned patented inventions than they do to patents owned by universities or by the academic scientists themselves. Recognising the significance of this channel for direct commercialisation of European academic research makes it important to understand its response to current Bayh-Dole inspired reforms of university patenting rights. This paper studies the contribution from university scientists to inventions patented by dedicated biotech firms (DBFs) specialised in drug discovery in Denmark and Sweden, which in this respect share a number of structural and historic characteristics. It examines effects of the Danish Law on University Patenting (LUP) effective January 2000, which transferred to the employer university rights to patents on inventions made by Danish university scientists alone or as participants in collaborative research with industry. Sweden so far has left property rights with academic scientists, as they also were in Denmark prior to the reform. Consequently, comparison of Danish and Swedish research collaboration before and after LUP offers a quasi-controlled experiment, bringing out effects on joint research of university IPR reform. In original data on all 3,640 inventor contributions behind the 1,087 patents filed by Danish and Swedish DBFs 1990–2004, Difference-in-Difference regressions uncover notable LUP-induced effects in the form of significant reductions in contributions from Danish domestic academic inventors, combined with a simultaneous substitutive increase of non-Danish academic inventors. A moderate increase in academic inventions channelled into university owned-patents does appear after LUP. But the larger part of the inventive potential of academia, previously mobilised into company-owned patents, seems to have been rendered inactive as a result of the reform. As a likely explanation of these effects the paper suggests that exploratory research, the typical target of joint university-DBF projects in drug discovery, fits poorly into LUP’s requirement for ex ante allocation of IPR. The Pre-LUP convention of IPR allocated to the industrial partner in return for research funding and publication rights to the academic partner may have offered more effective contracting for this type of research. There are indications that LUP, outside the exploratory agenda of drug discovery, offers a more productive framework for inventions requiring less complicated and uncertain post-discovery R&D.

Exploring application of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behaviour to self-injurious behaviour among women prisoners: Proposing a new model of understanding

The current study examines the application of capacity, psychological distress, coping and personality to an understanding of self-injurious behaviour, with a specific focus on testing the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behaviour (IPTSB). One hundred and ninety women prisoners took part, completing a history questionnaire and measures of personality, coping styles and psychological distress. It was expected that self-injurious behaviour would be predicted by higher levels of emotional functioning difficulties, by an increased capacity to engage in such behaviours, by previous self-injurious behaviour, decreased levels of emotional stability and increased levels of emotional coping behaviour. Results supported the capacity component of the IPTSB, indicating that an increased history of self-injurious behaviour and of engagement in reckless behaviour were particular predictors. Increased psychological distress in some domains was also a predictor although the exact domain varied across the type of self-injurious engagement Increased levels of extraversion and decreased emotional coping predicted increased self-injurious engagement, although emotional coping only related to threats and cognition. The results point to the applicability of Interpersonal-Psychological Theory to understanding self-injurious behaviour and the importance of developing a revised model. The paper presents this in the form of the Integrated Model of Self-Injurious Activity.