Federal labor relations 2000: Introduction to the symposium

Numerous problems confront federal labor management relations as we approach the year 2000. The legal structure, Title VII of the CSRA of 1978, is under heavy fire from the unions and other quarters. The perennial federal fiscal crisis has regularized retrenchment strategies and damaged the economic standing of unions and their members. The highly restricted scope of bargaining with most of the federal sector and the continuing push for contracting out also grieves the unions. Yet change comes slowly, if at all. This symposium addresses the calls for reform of the legal framework for federal labor relations.     

Policing the homeless

Research Summary Police officials across the United States are increasingly relying on place-based approaches for crime prevention. In this article, we examine the Safer Cities Initiative, a widely publicized place-based policing intervention implemented in Los Angeles's “Skid Row” that focused on crime and disorder associated with homeless encampments. Crime reduction was the goal. The police division in which the program was undertaken provides 8 years of time-series data serving as the observations for the treatment condition. Four adjacent police divisions in which the program was not undertaken provide 8 years of time-series data serving as the observations for the comparison condition. The data are analyzed using a generalized additive model. On balance, we find that this place-based intervention is associated with meaningful reductions in violent, property, and nuisance street crimes. There is no evidence of crime displacement. Policy Implications This study provides further evidence that geographically targeted police interventions can lead to significant crime prevention benefits, with no evidence that crime is simply displaced to other areas. Criminologists and the media have given the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) little credit for major reductions in crime that have occurred during the past 5 years following a number of major policy reforms. We suggest that researchers should look more closely at the targeted interventions the LAPD has undertaken for evidence-based examples of effective policing. Importantly, this work suggests that crime associated with homeless encampments can be meaningfully reduced with targeted police actions. However, law enforcement actions do not address the roots of homelessness nor most of its consequences. Getting tough on the homeless should not be confused with policies or programs that respond fundamentally to the social and personal problems that homelessness presents.     

Prudent constitutionalism: hamiltonian lessons for a responsible public administration

Alexander Hamilton's career provides much insight about responsible public administration. This article emphasizes his linking of character and competence in public administration to our American constitutional form and values. His “prudent constitutionalism” yielded a normative theory of action that remains relevant though largely unexamined.     

Swedish Corporatism in Social Welfare Policy, 1986–1994: An Empirical Examination

Recent literature suggests that Swedish politics is decorporatizing. This article reports on the results of a survey of Swedish interest groups active in social welfare policy, administered in 1986 and 1994. The results cast considerable doubt on the decorporatization thesis. Little change is discernible between the two surveys on indicators of key corporatist behaviours on the part of interest groups and government. The immediate goal of the article is to provide evidence that the Swedish system is not, in fact, decorporatizing to the extent cited in recent literature. A larger aim, however, is to push the study of corporatism in a more empirical direction. The value of the theory will be enhanced if researchers are more precise about what it means and what behaviours should follow from it.     

An International Environmental Regime for Population?: from Bucharest to Cairo

The problem of over population has been the subject of much debate since Malthus's 'Essay on the Principle of Population' in 1798. This debate has taken on a new sense of urgency, however, during the last 25 years, as the global implications of rapid population growth have became apparent. Attempts by the international community to establish a regime to deal with the problem have led to the convening of three conferences, Bucharest (1974), Mexico City (1984) and Cairo (1994) But despite propitious signs of consensus during the run up periods to each of these conferences, no international regime has been created This article examines the reasons for both the initial consensus and the eventual dissensus in each case, and concludes that several pre-conditions must be met if a regime is to be established in the future.