Jump-Starting Collaboration: The ABCD Initiative and the Provision of Child Development Services through Medicaid and Collaborators

Many policy problems require governmental leaders to forge vast networks beyond their own hierarchical institutions. This essay explores the challenges of implementation in a networked institutional setting and incentives to induce coordination between agencies and promote quality implementation. It describes the national evaluation of the Assuring Better Child Health and Development program, a state-based program intended to increase and enhance the delivery of child development services for low-income children through the health care sector, using Medicaid as its primary vehicle. Using qualitative evaluation methods, the authors found that all states implemented programs that addressed their stated goals and made changes in Medicaid policies, regulations, or reimbursement mechanisms. The program catalyzed interagency cooperation and coordination. The authors conclude that even a modest level of external support and technical assistance can stimulate significant programmatic change and interorganizational linkages within public agencies to enhance provision of child development services.     

Understanding the Policy Process: The Work of Henry Mintzberg

Do Henry Mintzberg's writings make an enduring, invaluable contribution to our understanding of the contemporary public policy process? Mintzberg argues that organizations display eight structural configurations and corresponding coordinating mechanisms. Such structural configurations are shaped by a variety of contingency factors, especially power and environmental ones. Using Mintzberg's work, eight policy modes, corresponding to structural configurations within government organizations and political systems, are identified and placed on a matrix that comprises two dimensions: standardization and centralization. Six polarities in the policy process arise from this matrix. Mintzberg's work, the paper argues, remains of enduring value because it provides a seminal framework for a richer understanding of the current policy process, by offering a contingency theory of structures and policy modes, as well as by frank acknowledgment of the protean nature of the policy process.     

Genetic analysis of suicide: a sample study in Tuscany (Central Italy)

Many studies have examined the genetic contribution to suicide. However, data on suicide in the Italian population are scarce. We therefore aimed to address this gap by investigating a cohort of 111 Italians for whom a verdict of suicide had been declared in court in Florence, Italy between 2007 and 2017. This cohort included 86 men and 25 women. DNA samples were obtained from tissues or blood, and 22 genes from multiple neurobiological pathways previously shown to be associated with the pathogenesis of suicide were analysed. Next-generation sequencing was used to compare these gene sequences with those from a large, normal population. In this study, we identified 19 gene variants that were present at significantly lower frequencies in our Italian cohort than in the general population. In addition, four missense mutations were identified in four different genes: Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA), 5-Hydroxytryptamine Receptor 2 A (HTR2A), Sodium Voltage-Gated Channel Alpha Subunit 8 (SCN8A), and Nitric Oxide Synthase 3 (NOS3). Our study identified several potential genetic links with suicide in a cohort of Italians and supports a relationship between specific genetic variants and suicidal behaviour in this population.     

A Systematic Evaluation of Restorative Justice Practices: School Violence Prevention and Response

ABSTRACT

Despite its increasing recognition and use in U.S. schools, a limited amount of research has evaluated the effect of restorative justice (RJ) for school violence prevention and response. To date, there is no standardized method for RJ implementation. Therefore, this systematic literature review investigates peer-reviewed studies on the application of RJ practices in K-12 school settings. Ten articles were included in the review. Results of the review indicate a high degree of variability regarding the implementation and evaluation of RJ practices in schools. However, the majority of studies reported positive outcomes, including improved social relationships and reductions in office discipline referrals. The utility of RJ as a school violence prevention and intervention approach are discussed, along with future research directions.     

Interlocal Collaboration and Local Fiscal Structure: Do State Incentives Matter?

Interlocal collaboration is considered an important tool for cost-saving. States, therefore, have incentivized interlocal collaboration in different ways. To understand the budgetary consequences of interlocal collaboration and state incentives, we examine counties in Nebraska where the State uses two incentive mechanisms—resource restrictions and additional access to restricted revenues granted to counties with collaboration. This study finds that county expenditures are lower when they spend more through collaboration. While this lower spending is related to lower revenues in counties less constrained by state restrictions, the results for counties more constrained are unclear. State incentive structures may matter for such variations.     

Who loves input controls? What happened to “outputs not inputs” in UK Public Financial Management,and why?

Why do frequently criticized input controls survive in the management of public spending while apparently more enlightened output/outcome controls come and go? The question matters, because output/outcome controls are often assumed in public financial management and related literature to lead to superior policy performance as compared with input-focused approaches. We tackle the question by applying qualitative push–pull analysis to compare one key type of input controls (administration cost [AC] controls) with one much-discussed form of output/outcome controls (performance targets linked to spending allocations) in one major country case, the United Kingdom, over two decades. Drawing on documents and in-depth interviews with 120 key political and bureaucratic players, we conclude that bureaucratic inertia at most only partially explains the survival of input AC controls in this case. The push/pull factors associated with the politics of blame and credit made the political players fair-weather output controllers but all-weather input controllers.     

Local Expenditure Interaction in Italian Municipalities: Do Local Council Partnerships Make a Difference?

This paper investigates interdependence among local councils in Italy in their public spending and distinguishes between possible sources of this interdependence. We find significant positive interaction among neighbouring local councils in regard to both spending at the level of total expenditure and spending on different sub-categories. Attempts to identify the source of this horizontal interaction seem to reject the yardstick competition hypothesis. Addressing the role that local council partnerships may play in internalising fiscal externalities, we suggest that expenditure interaction may be driven by spill-over.     

Preparing public service agencies for strategic planning

This paper examines the reasons why public sector organizations may not be ready for traditional private sector strategic planning techniques and suggests a typology for diagnosing the CBO's position in relation to planning efforts. It identifies the need for interventions appropriate to the organization climate and begins to explore mechanisms which can be used to facilitate the strategic planning process in public service agencies.