Policy Coherence and Component-Driven Policymaking: Arctic Policy in Canada and the United States

This research extends theorizing about the implications of political environments to the content of policy areas. We consider the case of Arctic policy in Canada and the United States as an example of what we label as component-driven policymaking. We show how the lack of a clear constituency and the lack of a stable policy subsystem for the Arctic create a policy environment for which the politics of particular issues dominate Arctic policymaking. The result is a policy space labeled Arctic policy that lacks policy coherence. We suggest that similar features of component-based policymaking help explain limited policy coherence for a variety of policy areas such as policies for children, families, rural areas, urban areas, and women in the United States.     

The Localism Principle in Communications Policymaking and Policy Analysis: Ambiguity, Inconsistency, and Empirical Neglect

Localism long has been a central guiding principle in communications policymaking, yet its specific meaning and objectives have not been well articulated by policymakers. This article attempts to bring greater clarity to the localism principle, through an examination of how the Federal Communications Commission has defined local programming. Policymakers have failed to establish a clear and stable definition of what constitutes local programming, which has contributed to the sense of ambiguity, uncertainty, and inconsistency that long has characterized localism policymaking. If localism policies are to reflect the rationales upon which they are based, the definition of local programming must be expanded to account not only for a program's point of origin, but for the nature of a program's content as well.     

Understanding Local Policymaking: Policy Elites' Perceptions of Local Agenda Setting and Alternative Policy Selection

Despite the increasing interest in policy agenda research in recent years, very few studies have focused their attention on the relevant processes at the local level. Drawing on agenda-setting research, particularly Kingdon's multiple-streams framework, this study examines the key forces and factors, as well as their relative importance, in local agenda setting, problem identification, and alternative policy selection. Data are collected from 271 in-depth interviews with local policy stakeholders in three U.S. Gulf Coast areas. Interview materials are coded using a protocol focused on capturing stakeholders' perceptions of the key elements and forces in local policy dynamics. Our interview data indicate that (i) governmental actors and various interest groups have relatively more influence in shaping local agendas than the general public, experts, and election-related actors, while the mass media are found to have little agenda-setting power in local policy processes; (ii) budgetary consideration and various forms of feedback to local government are more important than objective problem indicators and focusing events in setting local policy priorities; (iii) policy alternatives that are deemed compatible with existing policies and regulations are more likely to be selected than those relying on other criteria such as technical feasibility, value acceptability, and future constraints; and (iv) consensus and coalition building is perceived as the most important political factor in local policy processes. Limitations of our study and recommendations for future research are discussed in the concluding section.     

The Politics of Crisis Policymaking: Chernobyl and Swedish Nuclear Energy Policy

Public policy scholars often accentuate the key role of crises in explaining policy change; however, much empirical work still remains to be done in order to explain crisis‐induced policy outcomes. This article explores the prediction of the Advocacy Coalition Framework that stable coalitions and impediments to learning reduce the likelihood for policy change after a crisis. Strategic action is emphasized as a supplementary variable focusing on the role of political motivations in post‐crisis policymaking. Sweden's decision not to accelerate the nuclear power phaseout following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster provides a case study to assess the utility of these explanations. Findings corroborate theoretical expectations about stable minority coalitions, cast doubts over the presumed rigidity of policy core beliefs, and emphasize strategic action and cognitive heuristics as important motivations for policy choice. The article concludes by outlining three sector‐specific variables (ideological salience, level of conflict, and previous crisis experiences) that add to the explanation of crisis‐induced policy outcomes.     

Public Opinion and Policymaking in the States: The Case of Post-Roe Abortion Policy

Whether public opinion should be expected to play a role in the shaping of abortion legislation in the states is a debatable question. Representation is a difficult task, especially if legislators receive mixed cues from the public, activists, and the political parties. In this study, we find that grass-roots activism and public opinion tend to match, and both are reflected in state abortion policy. In addition, more Pro-Life policies are found in states with a tradition of conservative policies in other areas, Republican majorities in the state legislature, more Catholic residents, and fewer women legislators. These patterns hold true for a composite index of abortion policies and for the specific policy area of government funding of abortions. Slightly different patterns occur for parental consent laws, though these statutes also tend to reflect general preferences on abortion and interest group activity in a state.     

Law,Courts, and the Judicial Process

Abstract

In I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe explores how precarious the pursuit of happiness is in our liberal society, which provides insufficient moral support for individuals to resist following popular opinion in their pursuit of happiness. For Wolfe, the first step of the pursuit of happiness requires the courage to resist popular opinion and to seek an answer to what happiness is for oneself. As Wolfe shows, our universities are neglecting their task to prepare individuals with a liberal education to guide them on how to live as politically and morally free beings who are responsible for pursuing happiness. Despite appearing to be proud and independent, Charlotte Simmons's education fails to provide her with the moral courage to resist peer pressure. At her university, she adopts scientific viewpoints that undermine political and moral liberty and teach her that her superior intelligence and education are tools of domination. Charlotte puts them in service of gaining popularity. Instead of bringing her happiness, her pursuit of popularity leads to discontentment. Since liberalism provides incomplete moral guidance, Wolfe turns to ancient thinkers to find support for the courage to use political liberty to think about what happiness is and how it is to be pursued. In contrast to Charlotte, Jojo, a star basketball player, turns toward the pursuit of a liberal education to live as a free being and to seek happiness.     

The Federal Budget: Policy,Process, and Politics

Fiorina, Morris. Divided Government. New York: Macmillan, 1992. Pp. xi, 138. $13.00 Paperback.

Jacobson, Gary C. The Electoral Origins of Divided Government: Competition' in U.S. House Elections, 1946-1988. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990. Pp. xvi, 152. $15.95.

Mayhew, David R. Divided We Govern: Party Control, Lawmaking, and Investigations, 1946-1990. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. Pp. viii, 228. $25.00 Hardback.     

Judicialization and Health Policy in Colombia: The Implications for Evidence‐Informed Policymaking

The existence of the tutela mechanism and the endemic weaknesses of the legislative and executive branches of the Colombian state have led to a de facto judicialization of health policymaking. The objective of evidence‐informed policy is to identify effective policy approaches and legitimize policy decisions. Questions arise about the basis on which judges take decisions with significant policy and budgetary consequences, and the forms of evidence they use to inform these. This article focuses on the extent to which courts take account of research evidence in judgements and assesses the implications for health policy in Colombia. We place these discussions in the context of a broader analysis of the ongoing reforms to the Colombian health system and the most recent literature on evidence‐informed policymaking. The judicialization of health policymaking offers a suboptimal means to achieve the objective of evidence‐informed policymaking. The emergence of a range of evidence advisory bodies in recent years is an attempt to address the issue of judicialization alongside the other constitutional and political weaknesses Colombia faces.     

Activism, Restraint, and the Debate about Judicial Policymaking

Books reviewed in this articles:
Richard A. L. Gambitta, Marlynn L. May, and James C. Foster (eds.), Governing Through Courts
Stephen C. Halpern and Charles M. Lamb (eds.), Supreme Court Activism and Restraint
Gary L. McDowell, Equity and the Constitution; The Supreme Court, Equitable Relief, and Public Policy     

Comparing Climate Change Policy Adoption and Its Extension across Areas of City Policymaking

Public policies increasingly address complex problems such as climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation that require forging connections across existing areas of policy activity. Despite the emerging prominence of these types of policymaking challenges, more research is needed to understand policy responses to them. In this paper, I use survey responses from 287 cities and a hurdle model to comparatively examine the factors that underlie the adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation as issues influencing city policymaking and their extension across areas of city policymaking. I find evidence that while social change, crisis, and conditions supporting nascent coalitions were associated with adoption, extension across areas of policymaking was associated with the city?s prevailing political economy as well as the resources for expanding communities of interest. In the process, I offer empirical evidence for existing similarities and differences in cities? considerations about climate change mitigation and adaptation; particularly that the number of policymaking areas influenced by mitigation was associated with financial factors while the number influenced by adaptation was associated with socioeconomic ones.     

The Strategic Planning Component in the Policymaking Process for Municipalities in Canada

Canadian municipalities are the products of precedent and the statute law of their respective provinces. Their nonpartisan politics have focussed on the servicing and enhancement of the interests, largely related to property, of a long-dominant commercial elite. Contrary priorities have been subverted by provincial conditional grant programs and other administrative guidance. Even in the largest cities, the realities of fiscal austerity beginning in the 1980s encountered structures and practices unable to manage imaginatively under conditions of stress.     

The National Competition Policy: A Study of the Policy Process and Network

In his recent work on the Australian political system, Ian Marsh argues that interest groups and issues movements should be treated as 'potential partners and collaborators with government' (1995, p. 1). He suggests that the traditional two-party system with its inherent reliance on adversarial relations may need to mutate to cope with the demands which stakeholders are placing on the policy process and a changing political culture. This paper examines evidence that collaborative and cooperative modes of interaction are developing in Australia as a feature in the strategies used by both government and non-government players.     

Stumbling Towards Union: Policymaking in the EU

Desmond Dinan (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the European Union .
Pierre-Henri Lament and Marc Maresceau (Eds.), The State of the European Union
John McCormick, The European Union: Politics and Policies .
Stelios Stavridis, Elias Mossialos, Roger Morgan, and Howard Machin (Eds.), New Challenges to the European Union: Policies and Policy-Making .
Helen Wallace and William Wallace (Eds.), Policy-Making in the European Union .     

Explaining Gun Deaths: Gun Control,Mental Illness,and Policymaking in the American States

Seeking to test two commonly proposed solutions to gun deaths in the United States, we examine the extent to which (1) tougher gun control laws, (2) greater access to mental health services, and (3) a combination of both approaches affect the rate of gun deaths in American states. We find that tougher gun control laws, as well as a combination of both approaches, are associated with a lower overall rate of gun deaths, and with a lower rate of nonsuicide gun deaths, while only tougher gun control laws are significantly associated with a reduction in the rate of gun-related suicides. Our findings serve as an initial guide to policymakers seeking to reduce the rate of gun deaths in their states.