POLICY INNOVATION AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION*

This article argues that fragmented and decentralized policy making structures can generate major Policy innovation as well as can centralized structures. The fragmented committee structure of Congress is shown to facilitate innovation in the example of federal water pollution control legislation. Thorough consideration of four dimensions of costs and benefits strengthens the case for disjointed Innovation since it “promotes entrepreneurship, encourages competition, minimizes the costs of change, and promotes legitimacy….”     

Reviews

My Uncle Napoleon, Iraj Pezeshkzad, trans. Dick Davis, Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1996, 512 pp., $29.95.

Les textes vieil‐avestiques, vol. I: Introduction, text et traduction, Jean Kellens and Eric Pirart, Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1988, 195 pp.

Reading Nasta^cliq: Persian and Urdu Hands from 1500 to the Present, William L. Hanaway and Brian Spooner, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1995, 278 pp.

Az Nima ta Ruzagar‐e Ma: Tarikh‐e Adab‐e Farsi‐ye Mo^caser (From Nima to Our Time: History of Contemporary Persian Letters), Yahya Arianpur, Tehran: Zavvar, 1374 (1995), 638 pp. + 48 pp. of photographs, title‐page reprints, etc.

The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz, trans. Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., with an Introduction by Daryush Shayegan, Ashland, Ore.: White Cloud Press, 1995, x + 170 pp.

The Hafez Poems of Gertrude Bell, with the original Persian on the facing page, Bethesda, Md.: Iranbooks, 1995, 176 pp.

Iran und Turfan: Beiträge Berliner Wissenschaftler, Werner Sunder‐mann zum 60. Geburtstaggewidmet, ed. Christiane Reck and Peter Zieme, Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1995, viii + 296 pp., photographs.

The History of al‐Tabari, vol. XXXIII: Storm and Stress Along the Northern Frontiers of the ^cAbbasid Caliphate, trans. and annot. C. E. Bosworth, Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies and Bibliotheca Persica, State University of New York Press, 1991.

Tales of Two Cities, Abbas Milani, Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1996, 263 pp., $24.95.

Avicenna and I: The Journey of Spirits, Manouchehr Parvin, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1996, 284 pp., $26.95 (cloth).

In A Voice of Their Own: A Collection of Stories by Iranian Women Written since the Revolution of 1979, trans. Franklin Lewis and Farzin Yazdanfar, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1996, 153 pp.     

Policy Issues: License Renewal for Older Drivers-Analysis of the Iowa Experience in Reexamination of High-Risk Drivers

Loss of a driver license places an older person in the unhappy role of a transportation dependent. This dependence weighs heavily on that person' s family; if family members are nearby, they become either the sole or primary source of transportation for their transportation-dependent parent(s). If there are no family members nearby, as occurs often in today's highly mobile society, then a major concern of that family may be their parent(s)' lack of mobility, with the parent becoming effectively restricted to home due to lack of access to adequate transportation facilities.
Most of those who are involved in the issue of driver license renewal favor keeping older drivers on the road as long as possible, rather than arbitrarily denying them the privilege to drive. But there is legitimate concern about the presence of impaired drivers on the road and accompanying safety risks. Many states address this concern by devising license renewal procedures that will cause at least some potentially unsafe drivers to be flagged and referred for reexamination.
This study evaluates the bases for referral and reexamination currently used in the state of Iowa and assesses the validity of referrals. The results of our analysis indicate that the current referral process works quite well in identifying at-risk drivers, resulting in a high percentage of suspensions or imposing additional restrictions on an existing license. Results also support policies instituted by some states using age as a criterion for more frequent license renewal–which would allow examiners to test and observe driver behavior more frequently. The choice of age 75 as a threshold is supported by these results.     

Watching the Bombs Go Off: Photography, Nuclear Landscapes, and Spectator Democracy

This study examines the role of photography in the Atomic Energy Commission's representation of nuclear weapons testing during the 1950s. Pictures of fireballs and mushroom clouds functioned as part of an explicit AEC strategy to reduce the public to spectators. These photographs were designed to take the place out of the landscape — unlike the contaminated places near America's nuclear proving grounds, the pages of popular magazines were not subject to radioactive fall out. The seemingly neutral observations of the camera obscured the morphologies it appeared to represent. These arguments are developed primarily in terms of the militarization of space in Nevada, including a new geography of nuclear armament; the "story" of bomb testing produced though interaction of popular media with AEC objectives; and the social-theoretical context of photography, representation, and spectacle as politically malleable processes.     

Non‐profit economics and planning science

This paper assesses three sets of contributions made by planning: to economic research on the non‐profit sector, to management of non‐profit organizations, and to public policy toward the non‐profit sector. The focus is primarily on the US, but it also includes references to the literature from other areas: Western Europe, the ex‐socialist countries and the Third World.