Policy Decisionmaking Models in Practice: A Case Study of the Western Australian "Sentencing Acts"

While there is an extensive body of literature on a range of policy decisionmaking models, there is a lack of supporting case studies about the lived experiences of policymakers and the usefulness of various decisionmaking models in practice. This article examines two traditional models of decisionmaking, namely crisis theory and the rational comprehensive model, to assess their strengths and limitations in explaining the introduction of the controversial Western Australian Crime (Serious and Repeat Offenders) Sentencing Act 1992 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1992 (the "Sentencing Acts"). We argue that the "Sentencing Acts" cannot easily be reduced to, or explained through, a single policy analysis model, as significant aspects of policy remain hidden. Finally, we contend that to understand the emergence of the Sentencing Acts requires an approach that can account for the interconnection between structural, agenda-setting, and decisionmaking levels of analysis.     

The Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Policy Process Analysis: The Case of Smoking Control in Japan

This study examined the process of smoking control policymaking in Japan, employing the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and the Policy Process Analysis (PPA). In the view of the ACF, changes in policies and policymaking are explained as resulting from the emergence of, and the competition among, two advocacy coalitions, either protobacco or antitobacco. On the other hand, the PPA conceives of the process of policy change as a set of processes and gives a closer look into the important aspects of policymaking that the ACF does not well examine.     

The Temporal Diffusion of Morality Policy: The Case of Death Penalty Legislation in the American States

The social learning theory of policy decisionmaking provides clear expectations for the temporal diffusion of policy through the American states (Gray, 1973; Rogers, 1995; Walker, 1969). But the diffusion of morality policy, with its technical simplicity, potential for high salience, and debate over basic moral values, may be driven by nonroutine decisionmaking. We hypothesize that morality policy will diffuse in patterns that depend on the purity of the morality debate surrounding it and the distribution of citizen values regarding it. We identify three distinctive temporal diffusion patterns for state death penalty policies that vary on these characteristics. We conclude that political decisionmaking driving some morality policy diffusion involves less policy learning, and more concern about majority public opinion, than does nonmorality policy.     

Institutional and Policy Responses to Uncertainty in Environmental Policy: A Comparison of Dutch and U.S. Styles

Uncertainties regarding problem definition and policy response are an endemic pan of environmental decisionmaking. Some standard responses to uncertainty in decisionmaking are analyzed and then used to suggest the importance of learning-oriented policy processes in open, flexible, and adaptive institutional environments. The institutional and policy responses to both types of uncertainties are explored in two different institutional settings: the consensus-oriented setting of the Netherlands and the more adversarial and pluralistic context of the United States. The examination displays tensions accompanying learning-oriented environmental policymaking and the complex impact of institutional environments. Conclusions sketch implications for how to accommodate learning-oriented environmental policy processes.     

Procedural and Substantive Fairness in Risk Decisions: Comparative Risk Assessment Procedures1

The issue of fairness often is central within environmental policy debates. The recent proliferation of state and local comparative risk projects for informing the selection of environmental policy priorities offers an appropriate setting to explore the issue of procedural fairness in risk-based decisionmaking. This paper describes and evaluates the process by which one of the initial state comparative risk projects, Washington's “Environment 2010,” attempted to include a broader range of participants in identifying, assessing, and generating preferred management strategies for a wide range of environmental hazards. The Washington case study suggests that comparative risk projects can be fairer procedurally, but that significant barriers remain. Noting that greater procedural fairness does not necessarily produce greater substantive fairness, the paper concludes that more attention needs to be directed at the process by which comparative risk projects translate their consensus upon risk priorities into subsequent actions.     

The Modern Presidency and Theories of Accountability: Old Wine and Old Bottles

This study attempts to reconcile two apparently conflicting characteristics of congressional voting–stability in congressional decisionmaking and efforts to influence change in congressional voting decisions–by developing a concept and measurement of congressional voting response to short-term forces. The analysis indicates that congressional members do occasionally deviate from established policy positions on a subset of votes in response to the President of their party. In general, congressional members are more likely to deviate from their general policy positions when the policy area is characterized by change.     

论巴西军人政权时期的技术专家

在巴西军政权中,存在着军人和技术专家的联盟。军人在政治决策中起着关键的作用,技术专家在制定经济发展政策时扮演着关键的角色。技术专家的兴起主要是由于巴西政府基本政策优先顺序的转变、平行官僚机构的迅速增长、以及实现行政改革的长期努力使得精英集团内部发生的变化。在经济观点上,技术专家主张注重积累,抑制分配的“生产主义”。     

Elite and Participatory Policymaking: Finding Balance in a Case of National Forest Planning

In recent years many theorists and practitioners have called for more public involvement in policymaking and for greater citizen input in decisions. The move toward participatory and community-based approaches in policymaking can be seen as a backlash against more elitist technocratic, top-down models of decisionmaking. Using a case study of a successful National Forest planning exercise, this research investigated whether a participatory or elite model characterized the decisionmaking process. The findings indicated that neither an elite nor participatory model of decisionmaking dominated in the planning process; rather, both forms of aecisionmaking contributed to important elements in formulating this successful National Forest plan.     

Cooperation without Trust: Overcoming Collective Action Barriers to Endangered Species Protection

Mutual trust among individuals is frequently cited as an important factor in encouraging collective action, particularly in environmental policy settings. Yet the precise role of trust in the collective action process remains uncertain. This article explores the hypothesis that trust is overrated as a cause of cooperation. It initially tests this hypothesis through two case studies of voluntary collective action in a new context: the creation of multiactor Habitat Conservation Plans to protect endangered species. The two cases suggest that institutional mechanisms and political leadership can play an important role in encouraging collective action without relying on trust among cooperators. Besides their theoretical implications, the results suggest policymakers might spend more energy on creating incentives and assurance mechanisms to encourage collaboration, rather than the potentially fruitless task of building of social capital among rival stakeholders.     

Rationality and Decision-making in Australian Federal Government

The predominant view is that decision-making in Australian government is based on politics rather than rationality. This paper argues that while decisionmaking continues to exemplify incremental analysis, it does not for the most part exemplify incremental politics, that is, acts of negotiation, compromise and bargaining or 'partisan mutual adjustment'. This is the case for three reasons: decision-making conforms to models of rationality; the technical nature of most policy issues is amendable to rationality; and relationships between departments have grown more consensual since the 1970s.     

The Effects of Risk,Beliefs, and Trust in Education Policy Networks: The Case of Autism and Special Education

There are multiple theoretical accounts of how actors address problems of collective action in policy networks, but the two most prominent hypotheses are the risk and belief homophily hypotheses. The risk hypothesis claims that relational structures (e.g., bridging, bonding) depend on the benefits actors receive from uncooperative behavior, while the belief homophily hypothesis claims that relational ties form around shared policy beliefs. This study incorporates the case of autism and special education policy, a subsystem best characterized by Berardo and Scholz's (2010) conceptualization of a low-risk environment, to test hypotheses about the influence of risk, policy beliefs, and trust on the formation on relational ties in education policy networks. Utilizing data from a 2016 network survey of public and private special education stakeholders in Virginia, results from exponential random graph models provide support for the effects of bridging structures, beliefs related to the medical model of disability, and social trust on strong (collaboration) and weak (information/advice) relational ties in policy networks. The findings reinforce the importance of using policy networks to understand how actors build connections across multiple jurisdictions and policy sectors to mitigate problems of coordination in policy decision making and implementation.     

The Foreign Policymaking Role of Congress in the 1990s: Remote Sensing Technology and the Future of Congressional Power

In the midst of a period of Congressional assertiveness on foreign policy, a new technology has emerged for commercial use with the potential for enhancing Congress' information-gathering processes and agenda-setting role. The effect may alter the balance of power in the relationship between Congress and the President. Congress' access to news media stories of imagery may provide an independent information source on U.S. or foreign military installations and activities. Such a source could be utilized to assess issues such as Pentagon appropriations, treaty compliance, and foreign aid funding. The thesis of this article is that when interest groups and the news media use remote sensing imagery on foreign policy issues, the foreign and national security policymaking process will be transformed by enhancing the information status and the public agendasetting role of previously excluded segments such as interest groups, the news media, and the general public. The expanded role of these groups will decentralize decisionmaking by fragmenting power and likely restructure the relationship between the Congress and the executive over these policy areas during the 1990s.     

Rivers of dreams: on the gulf between theoretical and practical aspects of an upland river restoration

This paper is concerned with development and application of a conceptual model of the river restoration process and, through a specific case study, a demonstration of the challenges that arise when combining ecological and geomorphological principles with social and economic issues. Thus, it demonstrates the difference between the ideal goals of river restoration and the practical determinants of the nature of a river restoration that derive from individual and community goals. It begins by exploring theoretically what a river restoration project might involve. It then introduces the options developed for restoration of a particular case study river and the associated decisionmaking process. As a result of strong community involvement, institutional and financial regulations, the location of the restoration site in a National Park, and the influence of governmental and non-governmental organizations, the actual decisionmaking process resulted in a practical river restoration that departed significantly from the idealized goals of a restoration defined in purely scientific terms. It is argued that these practical limitations are likely to remain the dominant influence upon the nature and scope of river restoration projects.     

Policy Design and the Acceptability of Environmental Risks: Nuclear Waste Disposal in Canada and the United States

This article examines the controversial process of developing high-level nuclear waste disposal policy in Canada, with some comparison to experience in the United States. It argues that a policy design perspective can assist in understanding the difficult social and political issues associated with waste disposal and the environmental and health risks that it poses. I examine several critical questions related to such an endeavor and link them to long-term goals of building a sustainable society. Success in formulating and implementing a nuclear waste policy in Canada will depend on the nation's capacity to create requisite processes of public participation. Particularly important are those actions that can help the public understand and assess environmental risks, including related ethical and social issues, and build public trust and confidence in the siting processes and the implementing agencies.     

Congress and Back Seat Driving

Few pieces of legislation in the realm of foreign policy decisionmaking have greater potential effect or are more controversial than the War Powers Resolution. The Resolution was intended originally to create greater leverage for Congress over executive use of military force. In this effort, it is widely believed that the Resolution has been ineffective. This paper uses an information theoretic model to examine the War Powers Resolution. Results of the modeling process allow for two general assertions. First, the model suggests that the Resolution is an optimal choice of procedure by the legislature. In other words, the War Powers Resolution is better for Congress than its alternatives. Second, the information theoretic approach used here seems to coincide with an anecdotal history of the war powers debate better than do alternative explanations. Indeed, the analysis helps to explain why war powers legislation was not considered seriously sooner. Though criticism of the War Powers Resolution has its merits, claims for a variety of alternative procedural systems may be open to challenge. Those wishing to establish mechanisms for curtailing executive adventurism abroad may find it more rewarding to focus efforts on the budgeting process or on the reduction of military force structures.     

基于社会资本理论的产业转移研究:江苏南北共建开发区模式解析

将社会资本的理论嵌入产业转移研究,拓展了传统产业转移研究的视野。阐述了基于社会资本的产业转移新内涵,认为产业转移是一个涉及主体、客体和载体的动态网络化过程;提出了基于社会资本结构维度、关系维度和目标维度的产业转移分析新框架;解析了江苏省南北共建开发区模式产业转移的典型经验,构建了企业、政府、开发区与规范、信任、网络的产业转移与社会资本互动的"三角模型",探讨了计量解析的方法;提出了相应政策建议。     

Paved With Political Intentions: The Impact of Structure on the National Park Services of Canada and the United States

The structural allocation of decisionmaking power between political authorities and career civil servants influences agency policy behavior. I propose and examine this argument in the context of the national park service agencies of Canada and the United States. Centralization of power to political authorities increases agency attention to electoral concerns such as visitor service. Empowerment of careerists enhances attention to long-term agency goals such as preservation of natural resources.     

Boundary making in anti-corruption policy: behaviour,responses and institutions

Boundaries are an increasing focus for academics and practitioners seeking to understand public policy dynamics. In anti-corruption policy how these boundaries are established and by whom has far-reaching implications for public trust. Drawing on interview data, this paper explores the enduring tensions and administrative conflicts at play in three key aspects of the anti-corruption boundary making process: behaviour, responses and institutions. The evidence presented demonstrates that these boundaries are unstable and unresolved. While some tensions, such as those between morality and the law, are enduring, many of the administrative conflicts indicate a sensible and purposeful balance between the important considerations of accountability and responsiveness on the one hand, and efficiency and effectiveness on the other, is yet to be achieved.     

The spatiality of trust in EU external cross-border cooperation

This paper argues that effective cross-border cooperation (CBC) networks closely interrelate with the building of ‘trust’ between actors. The aim is to contribute to the CBC literature by investigating the different forms of trust, their spatial attributes and impact on actor relations in the context of the Finnish–Russian European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) of CBC. The paper applies a specific spatial approach by identifying the territorial and relational aspects of four different forms of trust: rational-personal decisions, social-cultural understanding, general-personal interactions and the historical–institutional environment. The analysis, based on policy documents and semi-structured interviews with relevant Finnish ENI CBC actors, shows that the study of transnational cooperation networks benefits from a conceptualization of trust recognizing its spatial characteristics. The study concludes that sub-national actors are key agents in the formation and maintenance of trust. These actors negotiate with socio-cultural differences through the development of personal relationships which increase social capital in the actor–network. However, the cooperation network is vulnerable towards geopolitical circumstances affecting foreign relations. The paper demonstrates that Finnish ENI CBC actors are operating in a transnational network in which their activities are challenged by territorial constraints such as national border-crossing regulations.     

TRUST IN THE TECHNICAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY INTEREST GROUPS: THE VIEWS OF LEGISLATORS, ACTIVISTS, EXPERTS, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC

The timely provision of information is crucial to the success of interest groups seeking to influence policymakers, the public and their own members. This paper examines the extent to which legislators, citizens, and policy area experts and activists trust the information provided by specific interests in the water resources managment area. It is shown that citizens and policy area activists are less trusting than are legislators and experts, and that they also discriminate more among information sources than either of those types of actors. On the individual level, multiple regression analysis is employed to investigate the extent to which partisanship, ideology, environmentalism and degree of informedness influence the level of trust accorded particular interest groups among citizens, legislators, activists, and experts.