Structural change and the policy process in the Department of National Defence: military perceptions

Abstract. During the middle and late 1960s the Department of National Defence underwent substantial structural changes as a result of the reorganization of the Canadian armed forces. It can be hypothesized that members of the armed forces will resist change if vested interest or service identity are threatened, but will accept increased rationalization of the policy process. To test the hypotheses perceptions of senior officers who retired during reorganization have been employed as a data base. Wile the majority of the respondents objected to the loss of service identity, structural change per se was not resisted. Furthermore, it was perceived that the new organizational structure would result in more effective policy decisions within the Department, but a significant majority of the senior military objected to the manner in which the Defence Minister utilized the reorganized structure, and thus there were considerable civil-military tensions during this period. Sommaire. Vers la mi et fin de 1960, le Département de la Défense a subi des changements structuraux substantiels provenant de la réorganisation du Service militaire canadien. Il est hypothétique que les membres des établissements militaires résisteront au changement si les droits acquis ou service d'identité sont menacés, mais ils accepteront les plus grands principes raisonnables de méthode politique. Pour mettre à l'essai cette hypothèse, les perceptions des officiers de grade supérieur qui ont pris leur retraite durant la réorganisation ont été employées comme données de base. Pendant que la majorité des répon-dants s'objectait à la perte du service d'identité, un changement structural par lui-même n'a pas été résisté. De plus, on a pu percevoir que la réorganisation résulterait des décisions politiques Plus efficaces dans le Département, mais une majorité siMcative du militaire de grade supérieur s'est objectéà la manière dont le ministre de la Défense a utilisé la structure réorganisée, de sorte qu'une considérable tension civile-militaire existait durant cette période.     

Collaborative Governance: Integrating Management,Politics, and Law

Scholars have engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the relationships among management, politics, and law in public administration. Collaborative governance presents new challenges to this dynamic. While scholars have made substantial contributions to our understanding of the design and practice of collaborative governance, others suggest that we lack theory for this emerging body of research. Law is often omitted as a variable. Scholarship generally does not explicitly include collaboration as a public value. This article addresses the dialogue on management, politics, and law with regard to collaborative governance. It provides an overview of the current legal framework for collaborative governance in the United States at the federal, state, and local levels of government and identifies gaps. The institutional analysis and development framework provides a body of theory that incorporates rules and law into research design. The article concludes that future research on collaborative governance should incorporate the legal framework as an important variable and collaboration as a public value.     

The road home: an examination of the successes and challenges of housing non-profits in New Orleans since Katrina

Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of nearly 1000 Louisiana residents and damaged about 80% of the building stock in New Orleans. Unequal protection from the hurricane and uneven recovery patterns have left some communities (predominantly low-income and black) with few options to rebuild their homes. These factors have created a high demand for housing non-profits specializing in new construction as well as low-cost home repairs. Drawing from interviews with a number of stakeholders including non-profits completing home repairs and new construction for low-income residents, this article identifies the type, amount and target areas for work done by housing non-profits in post-Katrina New Orleans. Additionally, it identifies the challenges for future work and limitations in the non-profits’ ability to address housing inequity in New Orleans.     

Injustice in School and Students’ Emotions,Well-Being,and Behavior: A Longitudinal study

School can be regarded as an important factor in the development of children’s values and attitudes. Given this great importance of justice experiences for students’ development, this study aimed at examining the influence of perceived injustice in school on students’ emotions, well-being, and behavior with an experimental longitudinal design. In total, 196 students participated in this study and came to the university with their classes to receive extra teaching once a week for six consecutive weeks. To manipulate justice perceptions, a scenario of arbitrary privilege was chosen to lead students of the experimental group to experience injustice from a beneficiary perspective. We found that students in the experimental group reported higher well-being and a higher appreciation of the opportunity to learn than the control group did. Additionally, they showed an increase in justice-related negative emotions over time; that is, they expressed more of a bad conscience and stronger feelings of anger the more they became aware of their privilege. This study shows that even subtle experiences of injustice in school can have an impact on students’ outcomes. These results are discussed with regard to practical implications.     

Reunification in Intrafamilial Child Abuse Cases: A Model for Intervention

In response to a growing number of requests to help reunify parents and children separated by allegations of child abuse, we developed a model for intervention informed by clinical experience, feedback from clients and professionals, and insights from a growing body of interdisciplinary literature. This article presents a retrospective analysis of 29 intrafamilial cases describing the intervention, outcomes, and problems presented by these challenging situations. The safety and protection of the child was the paramount consideration in determining success, whether or not reunification was achieved. Using informal follow‐up data, 24 of the 29 cases were categorized as successful, 21 resulted in full or partial reunification, and 3 cases resulted in the voluntary or court‐ordered withdrawal of an accused father believed to pose a risk to the child. In 5 cases, the nonaccused parent thwarted efforts at reunification, and the case returned to the court of relevant jurisdiction.     

The Relationship Between Child Maltreatment,Intimate Partner Violence Exposure,and Academic Performance

This article presents a longitudinal examination of the association between children's experiences of child maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence (IPV), alone and in combination, with children's academic performance. Integrated, administrative data from the Minnesota Departments of Education and Human Services were used to obtain a sample of 2,914 children. Data provided an opportunity to study comparisons of single (CM or IPV) and combined experiences (CM-IPV), longitudinally observe the impact of these experiences on academic functioning, and make comparisons to the general population. Results revealed significant differences in school attendance and math and reading performance by adverse experience. Children exposed to CM and IPV, individually or in combination, underperformed at school. IPV-exposed children had the poorest outcomes. Findings highlight the need for dedicated screening for adverse childhood experiences, particularly IPV exposure, and devoting greater educational and social service resources as a means of promoting future school achievement and adult functioning.