Federal Financial Management Reform and The Chief Financial Officers Act

This study analyzes the development of financial management reform in the federal government. A series of reform initiatives culminated in passage of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act that prescribes a wide spectrum of changes in federal accounting, budgeting, and financial reporting. The CFO Act may well be the most significant executive branch federal financial management reform since the adoption of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921.     

Implementation of the Federal Chief Financial Officers Act

The Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 proposes to rationalize the many financial practices and systems of the federal financial establishment. Due to the significant number and magnitude of the changes required by the Act, those involved in implementing the Act are encountering unanticipated practical problems and issues. This article addresses some of the surfacing difficulties, including, the qualifications of CFO's; implementation costs, standards, and authority; content of financial statements; and the scope of audits including performance measurement.     

The transition to junior high school: Beliefs of pre- and posttransition teachers

The beliefs of 107 teachers who students have for mathematics the last year of elementary school are compared to the beliefs of 64 teachers the same students have for mathematics the first year of junior high school. As hypothesized, posttransition teachers trust students less, believe more strongly in controlling and disciplining students, and have a weaker sense of teaching efficacy than do pretransition teachers. There are no significant differences in beliefs about the nature of ability as a fixed trait. It is suggested that societal stereotypes about early adolescents may flourish in school settings that are exclusively for that age group, so that teachers believe these students are unlikely to make much academic progress and must be controlled.This research was made possible by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31724) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD17296) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles, and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8510504) to Jacquelynne S. Eccles and Allan Wigfield.Received Ph.D. in Education from the University of Michigan. Research interests are adolescent development, middle years education, teacher beliefs, and classroom processes.Received M.A. in Education from the University of Michigan. Research interests are adolescent development, classroom environments, and supporting beginning teachers.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Research interests are development of self-concept, subjective task value, interests, and activity preferences, especially during early and middle adolescence. Also investigating the impact of school and family experiences on these constructs.     

Population and development: fact,fancy and politics

Massive population growth is an accepted fact in developing countries at a time when developed, Western countries, i.e., the U.S., have become increasingly disenchanted with foreign aid. The gap between the very rich and very poor becomes wider and sharper. Most people live either in countries where the per capita income is below $320 or above $1,280. Lowering fertility rates would be favorable to economic conditions in the long run but with little short-run effect, population control is not a high priority government activity. The theme of the 1974 Bucharest Conference was that if development were encouraged, fertility would take care of itself. Programs which directly influence fertility rates are needed to improve development. Family planning programs are low cost compared to other development policies, and they improve maternal and child health. Women cannot be educated or employed unless they have the freedom of choice not to have children or when to have children. Western enthusiasm for fertility control has been met with suspicion in many devleoping areas. Western attitudes should be balanced by restructuring world trade and constructing relationships which would hasten economic development.     

Pricing public sector services: The tuition gap

The large gap between the tuition charged by public colleges and universities and private ones is likely to cause severe disruptions to the private sector institutions of higher education. If it continues, private sector institutions may once again become bastions for students who can afford their services, rather than for those who merit them, and these institutions will diminish in size and diversity as well. Public sector institutions will become relatively stronger - not solely for reasons of effectiveness, efficiency, or equity - but because of the competitive advantage that the tuition gap affords them. This paper explores the feasibility and desirability of the three methods of correcting this problem, using real cost and demand data from the University of Massachusetts for illustrative purposes. It concludes the subsidization of students (rather than institutions) and raising public sector tuitions are two possible alternatives to the present tuition gap.     

Party Government in Presidential Democracies: Extending Cartel Theory Beyond the U.S. Congress

Cartel Theory (and partisan theory more generally) expertly explains the functioning of the U.S. Congress. However, as a theory originally developed to study a single legislature where the institutional context differs greatly from that found in other presidential democracies, its applicability to these democracies has been questioned. Between one extreme represented by the United States (where legislators control their own political future) and the other represented by centralized party systems (where the national party leadership controls legislators' future) exists an intermediate group of democracies where subparty bosses are the key actors, controlling the future of subsets of a party's legislative delegation. We analyze one of these intermediate democracies, Argentina, and demonstrate the general applicability of Cartel Theory to an institutional context that differs notably from that found in the United States. We highlight how the theory can be adapted to a political system where subparty bosses, not individual legislators, are the most relevant political actors .     

Mediation as Parallel Seminars: Lessons from the Student Takeover of Columbia University's Hamilton Hall

The author and a colleague served as co-mediators of the 1996 student takeover of a Columbia University building. The building takeover was the culmination of a year-long debate at Columbia over the inclusion of Ethnic Studies in the curriculum. The student protestors and university administration agreed to a settlement folllowing four days of mediation. Among the lessons learned in this case, the author cites: mediation is a process that generally involves a series of parallel seminars involving the parties and their constituents that takes place throughout the process; trust building isa task of singular importance for the mediator; a mediator sometimes may have a personal stake in the outcome that pushes the process toward settlement; it is crucial to consider the role of the media, particularly in high-profile cases; and food (or the lack of it) often affects the performance of the mediation participants.     

Gender,ethnic group,and grade differences in psychosocial functioning during middle adolescence?

Prior research has found significant differences between ethnic groups in identity formation. However, most investigations have either failed to include or adjust for SES level differences. To reassess possible differences in psychosocial development between African American, American Indian, Mexican American, and White American 10th–12th grade male and female adolescents (n=123), ethnic groups were compared according to passive-active dimensions delineated in identity, sex role orientation, and locus of control. A series of analyses of covariance (using education level of father and mother as covariates) were computed using ethnicity, grade, and gender in the factorial model as main effects. Consistent with previous research, White adolescents scored significantly lower than the other groups on ideological foreclosure. Overall, however, more similarity than differences between the four ethnic groups were found. Older students were observed to be more psychosocially mature, and males scored higher than females on identity diffusion. Marginal support was gained for the proposed passive-active delineations of the dependent variables.Partial support for this project was provided to Gerald Adams through funding from the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station, Logan, Utah, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Ottawa, Canada.Received Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Department of Psychology, Utah State University. Research interests: identity formation, ego strength and psychosocial maturity in adolescence, interfaith dating and courtship, and ethnic contexts of development.(Visiting Professor, Division of Family Resources, West Virginia University, 1994–1995 academic year.) Received Ph.D. in human development and family studies, Pennsylvania State University. Research interests: personality and social development in adolescence, identity formation, parent-adolescent relationships, and adolescent social problems.     

Limits to power: a study of the influence of mayors and caos on municipal budgets in Ontario, 1977–1990

Abstract: The degree to which leaders can influence organizational outcomes has long been a matter of controversy in the theoretical and empirical literature. This issue is especially complex in government organizations where both political and administrative leaders can influence policy and its implementation. The power of administrators may potentially exceed that of their political “masters,” particularly in municipal government in Canada where the typical structure combines a weak mayor, non-partisan elections and a chief administrative officer (cao). Annual data on municipal budget allocations, turnover of mayors and caos in forty-nine Ontario municipalities were examined over a fourteen-year period in order to assess the relative impact of changes in these two leadership positions on variations in expenditures for six categories of services, as well as two income variables. Our methodology replicated and expanded on the analysis of variance approach used by Salanick and Pfeffer (1977) in a study of the influence of mayors on municipal budgets in the United States, and by Lieberson and OConnor (1972) who studied the impact of presidents and board chairs on financial indicators in 167 US. manufacturing corporations. Our analysis, like these two previous studies, shows that leadership turnover has an insignificant influence on variation in municipal income and budget allocations, while the decision-making environment - the city itself and the year - accounts for most of the variation. Although neither mayors nor caos have a significant influence on municipal budget allocations in Ontario, the results suggest that the power of caos is somewhat greater than that of mayors. Our concluding discussion explores implications of this limited study for debates about the power of leaders in organizations, and about the relative influence of politicians and administrators in local government in Canada. Sommaire: II y a longtemps que règne la controverse, dans la littérature théorique et empirique, pour savoir dans quelle mesure les leaders peuvent influer sur les résultats d'une organisation. Cette question est particulièrement complexe dans les organismes gouvernementaux, où des leaders tant politiques qu'administratifs peuvent influencer les politiques et leur mise en oeuvre. Le pouvoir des administrateurs risque de dépasser celui de leurs maîtres politiques, particulièrement au niveau des gouvemements municipaux au Canada, dont la structure type combine un maire faible, des élections non partisanes et un directeur administratif (DG) à la tête de l'administration. On a examiné sur une période de 14 ans les données annuelles sur les allocations budgétaires municipales et le roulement des maires et des DG de 49 municipalités ontariennes; notre but était d'evaluer l'impact relatif qu'avaient les changements survenus dans ces deux postes de direction sur la variation des dépenses dam six catégories de services, ainsi que sur deux variables de revenu. Notre méthodologie a repris et élargi l'analyse de variance utilisée par Salanick et l'feffer (1977) dans une étude concernant l'infiuence des maires sur les budgets municipaux aux États-Unis, et par Lieberson et O'Connor (19721, qui ont étudié l'effet qu'avaient les présidents et les présidents des conseils d'administration sur les indices financiers de 167 sociétés manufacturières américaines. Comme ces deux études précédentes, notre analyse indique que le changement de chefs n'a pas d'effet significatif sur ia variation du revenu et des allocations budgétaires municipales, tandis que le contexte décisionnel (c'est-à-dire la ville elle-même et l'année en cause) est à l'origine de la plus grande partie des variations. Bien que ni les maires, ni les DG n'aient une influence significative sur les allocations budgétnires, les résultats suggèrent que le pouvoir des DG est quelque peu supérieur à celui des maires. La conclusion explore les conséquences de cette étude séctorielle sur le débat concernant le pouvoir des leaders dans les organisations et concernant l'influence relative des politiciens et des administrateurs au niveau des gouvernements locaux au Canada.     

Public Finance Issues and Problems in Switzerland

Switzerland is regarded as a bastion of financial conservatism, yet the Swiss federal government presently faces annual budget deficits of the highest magnitude in recent history. This article provides an overview of measures instituted in Switzerland to control the growth of the public sector and public spending. Recent efforts to raise new tax revenues are also discussed. To place the fiscal dilemma in perspective, an introduction to the structure of Swiss national government and the budgetary process is included. In analysis of Swiss budgetary politics, particular emphasis is given to the influence of the public referendum process on the political dynamics of resource decision making. The authors also analyze the area of the Swiss budget that is growing most rapidly—mandated entitlements—especially payments for unemployment compensation. A prolonged economic recession in Europe has created high unemployment and, consequently, high demand for unemployment compensation and other social "safety net" programs and spending. The most prominent feature of the Swiss political system is that it is headed by a stable coalition government in which leadership does not alternate between different political parties. This system confronts social and policy problems in a slow and deliberate manner due to the necessity for consultation and compromise in a multi-party coalitional government. The advantage of this system is stability and prudence, the disadvantage is perhaps short-term unresponsiveness to budgetary and policy dilemmas of the type now faced in Switzerland. Parallels are drawn between the Swiss budgetary problem and that faced by the U.S. executive and Congress.