Case-wise policy information systems: redefining poverty

Problem definition and program adaptation are difficult tasks in policy analysis. In the analysis of social welfare policy, for example, there are tendencies (1) to ignore many of the factors necessary to distinguish the truly needy, resulting in the misdirection of resources; (2) to focus on individual programs, resulting in unintended consequences arising from program interactions; and (3) to overlook evolutionary changes in the target populations, resulting in obsolete programs. Conventional techniques that simplify data by variables exacerbate these and related problems of analysis. Unconventional techniques that simplify by cases might help resolve them. This paper develops the rationale for case-wise policy information systems, using the measurement and definition of poverty as an example.     

Teaching and assessing leadership courses at the John F. Kennedy school of government

The development of leadership courses aimed at usefulness in practice requires new theory and pedagogy, as well as a hard look at assessing course effectiveness: How useful do students find the course materials for analyzing their past professional experience? How relevant and effective do students find the courses for understanding and intervening into politics and organizations after rejoining professional life? A summary is provided of the setting, theory, and methods for these courses, as well as the results of a survey of students after they had resumed their careers. The authors conclude with a brief discussion of the risks involved in teaching leadership.     

Restructuring for resilience: The NASA model

Two decades of incremental decisions have locked in a vision of human space exploration through an interdependent civil space program centered on the Shuttle and the Space Station. The program lacks the resilience necessary to contain cost overruns, schedule slips, and capability cutbacks. The result is overcommitment, which makes it difficult to sustain the program in a budget-constrained environment. Coping with overcommitment through budget cuts in space science, applications, and technology could split the post-Apollo coalition and jeopardize NASA as an institution. Alternatively, terminating the Space Station could eliminate overcommitment, strengthen NASA's political base, and facilitate restructuring toward a resilient program that is sustainable. A restructured NASA might once again become a model for other agencies.     

Life underWainwright v. Witt: Juror dispositions and death qualification

The current standard for determining juror qualification in cases in which the prosecution is seeking the death penalty was formulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 inWainwright v. Witt. This standard differs importantly from its predecessor, and requires that prospective jurors be dismissed if their views would prevent or substantially impair their ability to perform their functions as jurors. We assessed respondents according to the criteria imposed byWitt. We also measured independently prospective juror's abilities to perform the various specific tasks of a capital juror and their disposition to impose the death penalty automatically upon defendants convicted of murder punishable by death. Data from 148 respondents, selected randomly from juries on previously tried felony cases, indicated that 28.2% of those includable by theWitt standard would automatically impose the death penalty. Considering all respondents who would be erroneously included or excluded, a total of 36% of the sample showed inconsistencies with theWitt criterion. These findings are discussed in terms of jurors' difficulties in anticipating their roles as capital jurors.     

Technology transfer in snow control engineering

The design and construction of a complex snow fence system, the development and implementation of a visual range monitoring system, and the development and use of a snow profile prediction model for highway design, are used as examples of successful technology transfer. Contributing factors include a strong imperative and commitment to solving an urgent problem; the availability of knowledge, the direct involvement of scientists and engineers working together throughout the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages; and a synergetic relationship between research and application.