Federal Grants, Earmarked Revenues, and Budget Crowd-Out: State Highway Funding

This paper examines the potential for budget crowd-out in state highway financing. Highway projects are funded primarily through state earmarked tax revenues and federal highway grants. Theoretically, these two sources of revenues could crowd-out state general funds, freeing up these funds for other uses. Previous studies of highway funding show little evidence of significant crowd-out, providing support for the "flypaper effect." The empirical model of this paper better controls for the endogeneity of federal highway grants and state earmarked highway revenues than previous studies and results suggest little to no crowd-out. Also, our study concludes that state budgeting decisions in the post-Intermodal Surface and Transporation Efficiency Act era still support the "flypaper effect."     

Trustworthiness: the Commentators

Mark Thompson deplores the decline in the public trust of government and of public service institutions such as the BBC. But there has also been a decline in another form of trust: government's trust in the ability of professionals such as doctors and teachers to deliver high quality public services. And, unlike Thompson's type of trust, this decline was inevitable, because it was based on untenable assumptions concerning professional motivation. The author discusses the importance of trust in an unwritten constitution, including trust in the use made of public resources, trust that appointments are being made on merit, trust that the civil service is ‘speaking truth unto power’ behind the scenes and ultimately trust that it retains the ability to serve future governments. In a world where trust in institutions is diminishing, there are still surprising levels of trust in the world of private philanthropy. The public are only too ready to give donations without seeking to question, especially in the wake of major disasters. Yet the nature of aid agencies has changed dramatically in the past thirty years into major global enterprises with sophisticated media and marketing operations. In this case a greater degree of scepticism from those who donate and paradoxically less trust might actually result in better outcomes from aid and better use of funding. Trust is critical to the mission of the FCO. The public needs to trust the competence and sound judgment of the professional diplomats. The diplomats themselves need to be able to rely on the commonsense of their fellow colleagues. Ministers and diplomats need to trust each other. And other governments need to have confidence in the discretion of their British counterparts. This is an increasing challenge in the world of instant news. Trust can be quickly lost by indiscreet or self‐serving revelations. But the key is to be as open and transparent as possible about the processes of diplomacy. A new survey commissioned by the British Journalism Review demonstrates that public confidence in journalism has collapsed over the last five years. This is particularly true for the commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 4, whose journalism has traditionally commanded as much public esteem as the BBC. Trust in the BBC and print journalists has also declined, and journalism suffered more than any of the other 16 occupational groups being assessed. This is partly due to the cumulative effect of various “fakery” scandals that have afflicted broadcasters over the last 18 months and partly down to a more widespread cynicism directed at those in authority.     

MODELING COURT DELAY

Quantitative modeling using operations research and related techniques has much less promise for mitigating court delay than proponents anticipate. Results to date have been discouraging, largely because trial court process is exceptionally difficult to model. There is no consistent sequence or path, and critical discretionary decisions are made by professionals based on individualized criteria that are hard to code. Also, participants (litigants and lawyers) are not part of the organization in any normal sense: Their very purpose is conflict, and they are as likely to try to subvert the court operation as support it. Manipulating court incentive structures is a more promising management approach.     

STRUCTURAL COVARIATES OF U.S. COUNTY HOMICIDE RATES: INCORPORATING SPATIAL EFFECTS*

Spatial analysis is statistically and substantively important for macrolevel criminological inquiry. Using county‐level data for the decennial years in the 1960 to 1990 time period, we reexamine the impact of conventional structural covariates on homicide rates and explicitly model spatial effects. Important findings are: (1) homicide is strongly clustered in space; (2) this clustering cannot be completely explained by common measures of the structural similarity of neighboring counties; (3) noteworthy regional differences are observed in the effects of structural covariates on homicide rates; and (4) evidence consistent with a diffusion process for homicide is observed in the South throughout the 1960–1990 period.     

REFORMING THE POLICE: RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CHANGE*

While the literature has extensively documented popular discontent with various types of police misconduct, little is known about popular support for corrective measures. Such information, however, would be valuable for public policy and has the potential to enhance public confidence in the police. This article, using data from a recent national survey, reports public attitudes toward several specific reforms in policing. Findings indicate, first, that race is a predictor. Blacks and Hispanics are the most supportive of reform. Second, support for reform is strongly affected by the perceived frequency of police misconduct in one's city and neighborhood and by exposure to media reports of police misconduct. Respondents who believe that police corruption, unwarranted stops, and verbal and physical abuse of citizens are common are more likely to favor reforms. The same is true for those who are frequently exposed to news media coverage of incidents of police misconduct. The findings are consistent with the group‐position theory of race relations.     

Electricity Deregulation: Kilowatts for Nothing and Your BTUs for Free

Historically, the electric power industry has been viewed as a natural monopoly that could best be managed through governmental regulation. This article traces the evolution of deregulation in the electric power industry and the intellectual, political, and economic trends and forces that modified this traditional view. It concludes that, despite policy change, retail competition of electricity remains a difficult concept to implement in part because electricity is basically a commodity. Customers must be provided with sufficient incentives to shop between electricity providers and there must be supply incentives for more efficient production. Competition also requires technological advances such as affordable “smart” meters that make it possible for customers to specify tradeoffs between price and consumption, even to the extent of programming apliances to turn on or off in response to price signals. Mature wholesale markets and open access to transmission and distribution are also neede.     

CHANGES IN POLICE NOTIFICATION FOR RAPE, 1973–2000*

We use data from the National Crime Survey (NCS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to explore changes in the likelihood of police notification in rape incidents. The findings indicate that during the 1970s and 1980s there was a significant increase in police notification by third parties and by victims raped by non‐strangers. During the 1990s the increase in rates of police notification in rape incidents accelerated and broadened in scope. In addition, differences in police notification between stranger and non‐stranger incidents diminished during the 1970s and 1980s and, by the early 1990s there was no significant difference.