The Game of Meanings

‘The cabin crew will be circulating in a few minutes to serve drinks and snakes.We only ask that you keep your seatbelts fastened and observe the‘No Smoking’sign."With a few nervous titters heard among passengers,I wondered if the person behind the voice actually knew what some of us found so amusing.A common error had occurred when the word"snakes"had been used     

Future Shock or Future Stability?: Generational Change and the Australian Party System

The stability of the Australian two‐party system has been a long‐running feature of Australian politics. But a question outstanding in the literature is how different generations of Australians contribute to the stability of the Australian two‐party system and how this has changed over time. In answering this question, this article sheds light on generational effects and party system change that better informs us about the sources of voting patterns over a long period of time. Further, this article draws on and builds on the international literature on generations and party systems.     

Sage Advice

正Living in an age when world leadership seems to increasingly operate with an absence of conscience,the wisdom of the wise sage,Confucius,provides a foundation of values that is well worth the study.The book,Confucius From the Heart,written by Professor yu Dan and published in 2009 by Zhonghua Book Co.,is a remarkable presentation of how the words of the ancient sage can serve as a buoy for those lost at sea in a world of tumultuous decision-making.     

Estimating Environmental Costs

A database of environmental remediation costs is described as the response cost database (RCD). The database, which contains both capital and operating costs, includes 220 entries for complete activities ranging from studies to remedy components, such as caps, dredging, and pump and treat systems. Information and data sources for the RCD included actual costs from the literature, construction handbooks, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved software such as RACER. Costs were compared to benchmarks, such as from actual projects, when possible. Guidance on assumptions and scaling is provided with unit costs. The database was developed by environmental engineers experienced in the activities included and thus represents insightful estimation. The RCD may be useful for valuation of environmental portfolios or projects for planning, financial reporting, project management, financing, or mergers/acquisitions.     

How Capital Budgeting Helped a Sick City: Thirty Years of Capital Improvement Planning in Cleveland

During the 1970s, Cleveland's capital improvement plan (CIP) was scorned as a bad joke, and the city's roads, bridges, and public buildings fell into disrepair. The city's default on its fiscal obligation in 1978 seemed to cap the city's infrastructure problem; there was no comprehensive strategy for capital spending and in a bankrupt city, no money to spend in any event. Yet, during the 1980s, with support from the administration, the business community, and the innovations of a small group of dedicated urban planners, the CIP was restructured and hundreds of millions were systematically invested in public infrastructure. By the 1990s, most of the innovative changes of the 1980s seemed to be institutionalized, but there were ominous clouds on the horizon.     

The Contours of “Cap and Trade”: The Evolution of Emissions Trading Systems for Greenhouse Gases

This article documents the evolution of “cap and trade” as a policy response to global climate change. Through an analysis of 33 distinct policy venues, the article describes how the cap and trade policy domain has developed along spatial, temporal, and institutional dimensions. This discussion demonstrates that following initial discussions of cap and trade in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, the idea quickly spread to other policy venues, creating a complex system of multilevel governance, where many questions about how to govern emissions trading remain contested. The analysis contextualizes recent questioning of emissions trading as an appropriate mechanism for controlling GHG emissions, as well as the ongoing debates about who should govern cap and trade and how it should be carried out. The findings highlight the value added of a domain‐level perspective and suggest the need for future research on the sociopolitical nature of cap and trade policy debates.     

Anarchy as a Model for Network Governance

This article centers on two interconnected ideas that have garnered increasing attention in public administration: (1) a shift away from centralized institutional authority structures and (2) the concomitant rise of networks in the public sector. While network theories have been viewed as ushering in a new paradigm for understanding governance, they remain rooted in the language and framework of hierarchical bureaucratic systems. The author suggests that embracing an approach not grounded in a centralized institutional perspective may clarify network theories in public administration. Specifically, the author argues that anarchism has much to add to our understanding of networks and illustrates how an anarchist perspective may advance our understanding of networks in three areas—network formation, network stability, and accountability in networks—in which the hierarchical perspective has generated persistent questions.