Exploring the dynamics of policy interaction: Feedback among and impacts from multiple,concurrently applied policy approaches for promoting collaboration

The prisoner's dilemma and stag hunt games, as well as the apparent benefits of collaboration, have motivated governments to promote more frequent and effective collaboration through a variety of policy approaches. Sometimes, multiple kinds of policies are applied concurrently, and yet little is understood about how these policies might interact with each other. This study uses a simulation approach to examine one such case, when policies focused on increasing collaboration competence interact with those that motivate parties to collaborate based on payoff and non‐payoff incentives. Theoretically, our findings suggest seven testable hypotheses for future, rigorous research. Practically, our initial findings suggest that increasing competency generally improves the performance of incentive‐based policies, but not always. Exhortation policies can go too far and may be more prone to doing so when the target population's competency is higher. This means that decision makers are more at risk of applying too much exhortation effort, especially if they are also concurrently applying a competency‐building approach. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The traffic in garbage and hazardous wastes: an overview

The traffic in garbage and hazardous wastes is a huge illicit transnational business that involves a wide array of criminals, including private entities, corrupt public officials, and organized crime groups. The traffic in CFCs and radioactive materials and the chemical by-products of illicit crop cultivation and production are related problems with significant negative environmental and social consequences. Inelastic demand, price differentials among industrialized and developing nations, corruption, incongruent international regulations, a lack of political will, and the emergence of waste brokers are all factors that drive the illegal trade and inhibit law enforcement. While regulatory and criminal justice efforts have been mostly ineffective, technological innovations that reduce waste and the costs of safe disposal may limit opportunities for waste traffickers. The right mix of subsidies and taxation as well as monitoring and compliance at the local level could make legal disposal more attractive, and thus further inhibit criminal opportunities.     

BEST PRACTICES FOR MEDIATION TRAINING AND REGULATION: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

This article makes recommendations as to “Best Practices” for the training of mediators in court‐connected settings. The authors’ findings cover issues including the design of training programs, the importance of experiential learning through role‐plays, teaching methods for adult learners, class size and length, training ethical mediators, suggested trainer qualifications, and recommended regulatory practices for administrators. Data comes primarily from an assessment of mediation training and regulation in Florida, but the findings hold insights for court‐connected mediation programs throughout the United States. Additionally, the authors highlight the benefits of a collaborative assessment approach involving all stakeholder groups and facilitating smooth implementation of any needed changes.     

Agrarian Reform in Post-Soviet Russia

A leading American specialist on Soviet and Russian agriculture examines the politics and economics of agrarian reform in Russia. Coverage includes institutional reform, finance, local privatization, and interest group activities. Based on six extended visits to Russia during 1992-1994, participant observation, interviews and documentary materials, the author concludes that any successful reform must craft economic measures that will avoid recreating a unified rural bloc in opposition to reforms. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers P32, Q15, Q18.     

Drugpeace

A society’s conceptualization of “human nature” determines both how its people behave and their perceptions about justice. This paper contrasts societies that see humans as naturally competitive and selfish and requiring behavioral training (Skinnerian approaches to social control) with societies that see humans as naturally pro‐social and cooperative, striving to contribute (the premise of the prophets of major religions). Whereas the former rely mainly on rewards and punishments, and utilize retributive forms of justice, the latter rely more on apology, forgiveness, and restitution, with restoration of harmony as the goal of justice. The paper evaluates these two approaches in light of an image of human nature (recently developed by the author) that identifies three evolutionarily selected psychological needs that we all share: for acceptance, autonomy, and meaning. When any are denied, we tend to respond in anti‐social ways. Societies where that happens – particularly punitive authoritarian hierarchies – serve human nature less well, and are inherently unstable. Smaller, more egalitarian communities tend to evolve dialogic processes for resolving social rupture, a psychologically preferable process to coercion and shame.     

基于B/S与C/S混合架构的交通管理自助服务远程监管平台

针对自动设备管理水平和使用效率低、管理成本高以及对自助设备故障报修反应慢的问题,设计了采用B/S与C/S混合架构的交通管理自助服务远程监管平台.该平台是以公安网为依托,终端采集子系统为基础,面向公安交通管理部门管理人员、自助设备管理操作人员、呼叫中心座席、维护服务商等提供符合标准的、安全的自助设备监控管理服务功能.     

Assessing strategies for improving law enforcement / security relationships: Implications for community policing

Though much has been written about law enforcement agencies developing partnerships with citizen groups in the context of community policing, very little research has addressed the role of private security as a viable partner in law enforcement. The basis for developing working relationship is sharing common goals as well as having mutual respect for each other. A further important ingredient for developing sound relationships includes the presence and fostering of positive perceptions and attitudes toward each other. In this paper we examine a sample of 284 police officers and 236 security professionals in a Midwestern state to assess their perceptions on strategies to improve police/security relationships. Implications for developing partnerships are discussed.     

The new international financial architecture and Caribbean ofcs: Confronting financial stability discourse

This article examines the role and force of international finance in contemporary capitalism and the norms being established by international financial governance structures. More than the matter of exclusion, the article argues that financial stability discourse girding issues related to the nature of capital market liberalisation, terrorist financing, money laundering and tax evasion attempts to suture over, erase and/or render illegitimate ideational resistance—particularly by offshore financial centres (ofcs) of the global South. The ongoing experience of the English-speaking Caribbean ofcs is discussed as local operatives have long been simultaneously framing as well as resisting Anglo-American insistence on a new configuration of market ethics, norms and sociality in the virtual world of ‘shores’ and high finance. This adds to the emerging body of work seeking to discursively unpack financialisation.     

White Paper Prepared for The Secretary of Defense Task Force on DoD Nuclear Weapons Management: Tradeoffs and Paradoxes: Terrorism,Deterrence and Nuclear Weapons

This article was written at the request of the Secretary of Defense Task Force on DoD Nuclear Weapons Management. While this analysis suggests that certain types of terrorists can be deterred from certain types of attacks, it is less optimistic about the use of nuclear weapons in a terrorist deterrent strategy. A broad approach to deterrence may be effective against certain types of terrorist groups and attacks, making it crucially important to disaggregate the terrorist threat when setting policy. The article goes on to address two types of terrorist groups with a “global reach” that pose a serious threat to the United States: non-state actors driven by doctrines permitting catastrophic attacks and state-sponsored groups capable of carrying out catastrophic attacks. The analysis reveals a number of previously unappreciated tradeoffs and paradoxes associated with the deterrence of terrorists.