Privatization of public-sector services in theory and practice

The last ten years have seen a marked increase in the analysis and implementation of private-sector alternatives to the production of public-sector services. The impetus for privatization has two sources: (1) opposition to further growth of the public sector, and (2) the belief that the private sector would be a more efficient producer. Yet as privatization moves beyond the acquisition of intermediate goods and services (payroll processing and housekeeping services, for example) to more complex public outputs (such as education, social security, public safety, the postal system, for example), it is subject to increasing challenge on both efficiency and equity grounds. Nonetheless, private alternatives to public production are finding increased acceptance.     

"Out With The Old, In With The New": The New Federalism, Intergovernmental Coordination, and Executive Order 12372

An important New Federalism initiative of the Reagan administrationhas been the effort to ease the burdens of intergovernmentalregulation, and in particular to alter the system of intergovernmentalcoordination. The issuance in 1982 of Executive Order 12372,to replace OMB Circular A-95, triggered spirited controversyand intensive negotiations among major institutional actorsin intergovernmental coordination. The year 1983 ended withseveral key issues largely settled, but with other questions(e.g., the continuing role of OMB, and a number of proceduralconcerns) still unresolved.     

Comparing Legislators and Legislatures: The Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock Reconsidered

Lawrence S. Rothenberg Department of Political Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627 e-mail: lrot{at}mail.rochester.edu (corresponding author) Although political methodologists are well aware of measurementissues and the problems that can be created, such concerns arenot always front and center when we are doing substantive research.Here, we show how choices in measuring legislative preferenceshave influenced our understanding of what determines legislativeoutputs. Specifically, we replicate and extend Binder's highlyinfluential analysis (Binder, Sarah A. 1999. The dynamics oflegislative gridlock, 1947–96. American Political ScienceReview 93:519–33; see also Binder, Sarah A. 2003. Stalemate:Causes and consequences of legislative gridlock. Washington,DC: Brookings Institution) of legislative gridlock, which emphasizeshow partisan, electoral, and institutional characteristics generatemajor legislative initiatives. Binder purports to show thatexamining the proportion, rather than the absolute number, ofkey policy proposals passed leads to the inference that thesefeatures, rather than divided government, are crucial for explaininggridlock. However, we demonstrate that this finding is underminedby flaws in preference measurement. Binder's results are a functionof using W-NOMINATE scores never designed for comparing Senateto House members or for analyzing multiple Congresses jointly.When preferences are more appropriately measured with commonspace scores (Poole, Keith T. 1998. Recovering a basic spacefrom a set of issue scales. American Journal of Political Science42:964–93), there is no evidence that the factors thatshe highlights matter. Authors' note: Thanks to Sarah Binder and Keith Poole for furnishingdata used in our analysis and to Chris Achen and Kevin Clarkefor advice. All errors remain our own. Online appendix is availableon the Political Analysis Web site.     

Urban land-use models: The determinants of adoption and use

This paper delineates the conditions under which computerized land-use models have been adopted and used in the activities of a number of regional planning agencies. Our discussion is based on intensive case studies of planning agencies and the group includes both model adopters and nonadopters.We find that the presence of advocates of model adoption and of persons interested in their continued refinement and use are of paramount importance in the decision to adopt a model and in its subsequent incorporation into the life of the planning agency. However, although the presence of an advocate is by-and-large sufficient for model adoption, the continued interest of agency staff is necessary but far from sufficient in determining how and to what extent the model will in fact be exercised. At this stage both political and organizational factors become important. Moreover, it is at the use stage, rather than at the consideration of adoption, that the characteristics of the model receive more careful scrutiny and shortcomings become more important.This research has been supported by a grant from the Research Applied to National Needs Division, National Science Foundation (SSH74-19323).     

Book Reviews

The Vital Probe . By I.S. Cooper, M.D. (W.W. Norton & Co., New York) (1981) 346 pp.
Medical Ethics and the Low_: Impactions for Public Policy. Edited by Marc D. Hiller, Dr. P.H. (Ballinger Publishing Co., Cambridge, Mass.) (1981)471 pp.
Forensic Radiology . By K.T. Evans and B. Knight (Blackwell Publishers, London, distributed by C.V. Mosby, St. Louis) (1981) 212 pp.