Linking program implementation and effectiveness: Lessons from a pooled sample of welfare‐to‐work experiments

This paper addresses the question: How does implementation influence the effectiveness of mandatory welfare‐to‐work programs? Data from three large‐scale, multi‐site random assignment experiments were pooled; quantitative measures of program implementation were constructed; and multilevel statistical modeling was used to examine the relationship between program implementation and effects on short‐term client earnings. Individual‐level data were analyzed for 69,399 sample members and group‐level implementation data were analyzed for 59 local programs. Findings indicate that, other things being equal, earnings effects are increased by: an emphasis on quick client employment, an emphasis on personalized client attention, staff caseloads that do not get too large, and limited use of basic education. Findings also show that mandatory welfare‐to‐work programs can be effective for many types of people, and that focusing on clients who are especially job‐ready (or not) does not have a consistent influence on a program's effectiveness. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

The Ombudsman: What's in a Name?

The role of the ombudsman is perhaps the least well understood inthe field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). This essay introducesreaders to the differing conceptions of the role; the sometimes fractiousdivide that has existed in the past between classical andorganizational ombudsmen; and a collection of essays by four well-known practitioners that shed lighton what it is ombudsmen do; the kinds of disputes they deal with and howthey operate; how they view their role (and how others view it); and boththe possibilities and limitations of the ombuds function.     

Federal tax reform and the financing of state and local governments

Although the Reagan Administration tax reform proposals would reduce federal income tax liabilities for most taxpayers, federal tax reform would also create strong pressures on state and local governments to cut taxes and public services. These pressures would arise primarily because itemizers would no longer be able to deduct state and local taxes in determining their federal income tax liabilities. In New York City and Boston, it is likely that the Administration's tax reform would induce cuts in spending that range from 2.5 to 7.5 percent. While the elimination of state and local tax deductibility may promote allocative efficiency in the provision of local public goods, the cost would be a decline in the degree of redistribution through the state and local public sector, and a reduction in local public services for the poor.     

Antecedents of deviant responses: Predicting from a general theory of deviant behavior

A statement of a general theory of deviant behavior asserts that four factors or processes intervene between the development of self-rejecting attitudes and adoption of deviant patterns. An earlier report demonstrated a relationship between antecedent negative self-attitudes and subsequent increases in seven variables that reflected these four factors. The present paper tests hypotheses that these seven variables are in turn related to the subsequent adoption of each of 22 deviant responses. Subjects were seventh-grade students (N=4694) who responded to questionnaires at T₁ and T₂ (a year later). The seven independent variables were measured by scale scores based on subject responses at T₁. Adoption of deviant responses was defined in terms of subject's selfreports of performing each of 22 deviant acts between T₁ and T₂ after having denied performance of the deviant act during a specified period prior to T₁. The results were interpreted as supporting the hypotheses, although relatively few exceptions were noted. These findings together with those of the earlier analysis were thus congruent with the theoretical position that the relationship between antecedent self-rejection and subsequent deviant responses is mediated by the subjective association of membership group experiences with feelings of self-rejection, the genesis of contranormative attitudes, the inability to satisfy the self-esteem motive through normative response patterns, and awareness of deviant alternatives to these normative patterns that in the past have failed to permit development of self-accepting attitudes.Received his Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1958. Current research interests are social psychiatry and, more specifically, the reciprocal relationship between self-attitudes and the adoption of deviant response patterns.     

COMPARING LOCAL GOVERNANCE: TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS

COMPARING LOCAL GOVERNANCE: TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS
Bas Denters and Lawrence E. Rose (eds)
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, xiv + 293 pp., £18.99 (pb) ISBN: 0333995562     

The calculus of piratical consent: the myth of the myth of social contract

Is a genuine social contract mythical? I argue that pirates created genuine social contracts that established a system of constitutional democracy based on the same decision-making calculus and with the same effects that Buchanan and Tullock’s contractarian theory of government describes in The Calculus of Consent. Pirates’ constitutional democracy is the “holy grail” of social contract theory. It demonstrates that the contractarian basis of constitutional democracy is more than a mere analytic device or hypothetical explanation of how such a government could emerge. In pirates’ case, Buchanan and Tullock’s social contract theory describes how constitutional democracy actually did emerge.     

Toward a quantitative typology of burglars: a latent profile analysis of career offenders

Burglary is a serious, costly, and prevalent crime but prior typologies of burglars are mostly speculative and based on qualitative data. Using a sample of 456 adult career criminals, the current study used latent profile analysis to construct a methodologically rigorous quantitative typology. Four classes of burglars emerged: young versatile, vagrant, drug-oriented, and sexual predators. All groups demonstrated significant involvement in varied forms of crime, but the sexual predator group was the most violent and had the most serious criminal careers. Connections to the criminal career literature are offered and suggestions for further empirical study of offender typologies are discussed.