Evaluating Democratic Performance: Methodologies for Assessing the Relationship between Network Governance and Citizens

Network governance can enhance democratic practice by furnishing new routes for actors to deliberate, make, and execute public policy. But it is hindered by a lack of political oversight, limited democratic competence of new organizational forms, and informality of operation. Little research has been conducted on the democratic performance of governance networks, and the methodology is poorly developed. Quality-of-democracy studies of national governmental and political systems offer a starting point. Their criteria-based method is useful in accessing the democratic "hardware" of formal entities, such as partnerships and hybrids, but it does not enable data to be gathered on democratic "software"—the informal day-to-day practices of actors in networks. Interpretive approaches offer a way forward. Narrative analysis, qualitative interviews using a criteria-based instrument, and Q-methodology provide routes into democratic software. They enable the researcher to move beyond the analysis of institutional nodes and to understand the democratic performance of the wider governance network.     

The Public Governance of Collaborative Spaces: Discourse, Design and Democracy

This article investigates the relationship between democratic practices and the design of institutions operating in collaborative spaces, those policy and spatial domains where multiple public, private and non-profit actors join together to shape, make and implement public policy. Partnerships are organizational manifestations of institutional design for collaboration. They offer flexibility and stakeholder engagement, but are loosely coupled to representative democratic systems. A multi-method research strategy examines the impact of discourses of managerialism, consociationalism and participation on the design of partnerships in two UK localities. Analysing objective measures of democratic performance in partnerships and interpreting the discursive transition from earlier practices in representative democratic institutions we find that institutional designs for collaboration reflect different settlements between discourses, captured in the distinction between club, agency and polity-forming partnership types. The results show how the governance of collaborative spaces is mediated through a dominant set of discursively defined institutional practices.     

2D Barcodes: A Novel and Simple Method for Denture Identification

Several methods of denture marking have been described in the literature. However, most of them are expensive, time‐consuming, and do not permit the incorporation of large amounts of information. We propose a novel and simple method incorporating 2D codes which has several advantages over the existing methods. A 2D code was generated in the dental office and inserted into a maxillary denture. The code was then read using software downloaded into a mobile phone giving access to the website containing details about the patient. The denture was also subjected to durability tests, which did not hamper the efficacy of the 2D code. 2D coding for dentures is a simple, less expensive method with the potential of storing a large amount of information that can be accessed on‐site by the forensic investigator, thus allowing quick identification of the denture wearer.     

Do impact fees raise the price of existing housing?

Abstract

This article uses 1991–2000 data on single‐family housing sales from King County, WA, to provide new evidence relating to the effects of impact fees on housing prices. The hedonic regression method is used to examine the effects of these fees on existing housing as well as their differential effects on price as determined by housing quality.

Impact fees raise existing home prices by about 83 percent of the amount of the fee. The increase is 103 percent for high‐quality homes and is not statistically significant for low‐quality homes. The owners of high‐quality homes realize capital gains from impact fees. However, such fees do not raise the price of low‐quality homes. To the extent that low‐quality housing is more likely to be owned by low‐ and moderate‐income households, which are often composed of racial and ethnic minorities, this finding has significant policy implications for the supporters of impact fees.     

Work participation,gender and economic development: A quantitative anatomy of the Indian scenario

This article analyses forces which influence the degree of participation of population in economic activity in a developing economy. In the first stage the relationship between economic development and work participation is examined. The core of the analysis is based on a cross‐sectional study of 306 districts of India, using a composite index of development. The entire analysis is conducted separately for males and females on the one hand, and the rural and urban segments on the other. The oft‐referred‐to inverse relationship between female work participation and economic development emerges to be true in initial stages of development in the rural segment, but not so in the case of the urban segment. In the second stage the role of key socioeconomic and demographic factors, in addition to that of development, has been investigated using a recursive multi‐equation regression model. Finally, keeping in mind the crucial role of education in this context, work participation is analysed in terms of ten disaggregated educational categories.