THE PLURALITY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING POLICYMAKINC: SCHOOL REFORM LEGISLATION IN THE AMERICAN STATES, 1982–84

This paper attempts to explore recent efforts of American state legislatures to improve the quality of public schools. Which state legislatures have passed school reform legislation? At what aspects of public education is this reform legislation aimed? Are there significant variations across states in such reform legislation? What has contributed most to the passage of such legislation? Is it the socioeconomic characteristics of individual states or the structural and procedural characteristics of their legislative branch that better explain school reform legislation? Analysis of data from the 50 states reveals greater variation in legislative results that reform public schools. The regional locus of most reform was the south. Most importantly, school reform legislation was found to be influenced by the interaction of a multitude of divergent forces. This finding suggests that researchers interested in the determinants of legislative action must move beyond analysis of whether economic or political forces shape legislative outcomes to inquire how economic, political and other forces interact when a given reform effort reaches the legislative halls of the states.     

Is Television Bad for Your Health? Behavior and Body Image of the Adolescent “Couch Potato”

This article examines the potential health effects of television. A survey of 1035 Flemish 17- and 18-year-olds shows that eating snacks and drinking regularly accompany viewing. Television was also shown to influence sleeping and family meals. Heavy viewers did not, however, appear to be more passive than lighter viewers. Their indulgence in sports did not differ, but content-specific relationships with going out appear to exist. In this group no link between viewing and obesity was found, but viewing was significantly related to various aspects of people's self assessments regarding their weight, their ideal weight and their looks. Particular attention was given to those television programs that portray idealized bodies. Generally, a distinction was made between men and women because many body-, weight-, and health-related factors may be culture and gender specific.Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders)     

When is 100% inspection not enough? An analysis of three pickup truck front wheel assembly failures

The loss of a cotter pin in the front wheel assembly of cars and trucks has been a problem for several years. This is shown by the fact that the automobile manufacturers have been committed to a 100% inspection of the process for installing them on cars and trucks. In this paper, three accident cases are presented, along with a method by which the forensic engineer can determine if a cotter pin has ever been installed on the front wheel assembly. Testing was done to show what the spindle would look like if the cotter pin had been installed properly and forcibly removed. Photographs show both the accident and test spindle for comparison.     

The Case for Supply-Side Economics Revisited: The Effect of Time Preference

Despite some legitimate criticisms that are acknowledged, the basic idea behind the Laffer curve analysis of the 1980s is theoretically sound. Some of the fallacies and flaws that subsist in standard accounts of the general effects of taxation can be related to the fact that time preference is not taken into account. The primary significance of time preference has been insufficiently recognized in the mainstream literature. Apart from Buchanan's refinements of the Laffer curve analysis and besides the widespread recognition of the phenomenon of time preference by economists of the so-called Austrian school, amazingly little attention has been paid to it. This article constitutes an attempt to help remedy this situation. Moreover the Austrian analysis provides valuable insights concerning the problem of the incidence of taxation that haven't received proper recognition either.     

Mother-and-child reunion

Big-city hospitals have developed inventive programs to solve the tragedy of abandoned babies.     

Luther gulick,public administration and classical management

The late Luther Gulick (1892-1993), often known as the dean of U.S. public administration, left behind him an enormous and wide-ranging literary corpus, but no single systematic work. This essay presents both a personal and an intellectual portrait of Gulick. The personal portrait is accomplished primarily through Gulick's own words derived from relevant published works, autobiographical fragments, and a series of interviews with the author. The intellectual portrait concentrates on a single stream. of thought--classical organization theory and design--and outlines the evolution of Gulick's thought through time, with comments here and there.     

From Public Sociology to Public Philosophy: Lessons for Law and Society

The late Philip Selznick's final book, A Humanist Science, examines the role of values and ideals in the social sciences, including the study of law and society. Throughout his academic career, Selznick was committed to what he called “legal naturalism,” a sociological version of the natural-law perspective, while his critics continue to adhere to various forms of positivism. But the age-old opposition between natural law and legal positivism today may be giving way to the quest for public sociology—a sociology that promotes public reflection on significant social issues and thus functions as a moral and political force. A Humanist Science ends with a strong plea for public philosophy. Public philosophy overlaps with public sociology but is a much stronger concept. Selznick's message of public philosophy may be another of his enduring contributions to the field of law and society.     

The Importance of Subjective Data for Public Agency Performance Evaluation

Evaluating public agency performance has typically been based on objective measurements. However, some researchers contend that evaluation is not complete without considering client perceptions of agency performance. This study supports combining subjective client perceptions with objective data in the evaluation process. Survey results and internal performance data are examined for a state agency charged with investigating citizen disputes with utility companies. Regression analyses show that the factors that most influence the client’s satisfaction with agency performance are the client’s perception of how long it took to resolve the dispute, based on survey results, and whether the case was decided in the client’s favor, from the agency’s internal records. The “real” resolution time recorded in the agency’s information system was not significant. These results indicate that subjective data provide valuable information for evaluating agency performance.