BEYOND THE RATIONALITY PROJECT: POLICY ANALYSIS AND THE POSTPOSITIVE CHALLENGE

Peter deLeon. 1988. Advice and Consent: The Development of the Policy Sciences
Deborah A. Stone. 1988. Policy Paradox and Political Reason
John S. Dryzek and Davis B. Bobrow. 1987. Policy Analysis by Design     

SOCIAL COST MINIMIZATION: A NATIONAL POLICY APPROACH TO THE PROBLEMS OF DISTRESSED ECONOMIC REGIONS*

This paper makes a distinction between output maximizing and cost minimizing approaches to national economic policy. The paper argues that because the benefits of economic activity and its cost are frequently conferred upon distinct groups in society, it is not automatically true that output maximization is the best strategy, as is presently assumed. This result is especially true when the problems of distressed economic regions are the focus of our concern. The national and multi-national firms which make decisions pertaining to the economic life of local communities make those decisions not on the basis of the costs and benefits to the community, but with regard to their private balance sheet. As a result, it frequently happens that communities of individuals must bear social costs far in excess of the private gains to the firms in question. From a policy standpoint, this is not an efficient use of our social and economic resources. In the absence of any type of comprehensive economic planning a rational market-oriented economic strategy would be one which seeks to minimize social costs.     

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL POLICY: ROLES OF THE APPLIED RESEARCHER*

Research on policy impact has increasingly focused on the practical application of social science research. This paper outlines four roles—substantive expert, information processor, change agent, and scholar—which have helped to increase the potential usefulness of our research while maintaining linkages to the academic community. This paper suggests the general nature of these roles and suggests specific implementation strategies, which need to be pursued as an early and continuing aspect of the research enterprise. Balancing these multiple roles presents several analytical and ethical difficulties, but helps to establish credibility in both the scientific and policymaking communities.     

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND COMPETITIVE STRUCTURE: IMPLICATIONS OF THE HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) assigns the Environmental Protection Agency responsibility for protecting the public from hazards created by industrial wastes. The Agency has understandably used its mandate to construct cradle to grave regulation of waste substances that pose health hazards. The regulations, however, are likely to hike costs of legal disposal by increasing the demand for disposal sites, while at the same time reducing the supply. The higher cost of disposal may give an advantage to larger, existing firms, may deter entry of new firms to both waste generating and disposal industries, and promote illicit disposal. RCRA therefore may have the paradoxical result of increasing public exposure to hazardous wastes.     

PURPOSEFUL WEATHER MODIFICATION ACTIVITIES IN CANADA: RESPONSES TO AN ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNIQUE

T he last decade has witnessed a growing awareness and concern for man-environment interactions, particularly western man's adopted role as master over natural processes. Belief in the need to protect the sanctity of the life-support system has promoted a considerable body of legislation to that end. Not only has there been innovation in terms of the content of legislation, e.g., emission controls, but also innovation in the intent of legislation, as the traditional mode - of regulation after the fact — evolves into a new role which attempts to anticipate and control before the potentially undesirable event. In the reformulation of our attitudes to the environment, geographical knowledge has both much to offer and much to gain.     

CONTRADICTIONS ALONG THE COMMODITY ROAD TO ENVIRONMENTAL STABILIZATION: FORESTING GAMBIAN GARDENS

In the past decade a shift in ecological politics has set off a scramble to “protect” and “defend” putatively pristine ecosystems in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. This aggressive program bespeaks a new sense of manifest ecological destiny among environmental organizations and donors and has given rise to a “politics of stabilization” characterized by new forms of property and labor relationships. This paper traces the impact of ecological policies on commodity production in Gambia where communal market gardens run by women's groups are being converted into privatized orchards managed by male landholders in a state-directed, donor-funded initiative designed to meet stabilization goals. The zealous pursuit of commercial objectives has come at the expense of critical food entitlement and livelihood strategies which currently form the basis of the rural Gambian political economy. The paper uses this evidence to urge reconsidering the politics of environmental intervention.     

FROM COMPLEXITY TO SIMPLICITY: MORE ON POLICY THEORY AND THE ARENAS OF POWER

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