How Does Public Management Affect Government Performance? Findings from International Research

Despite the growing importance of public management reform aroundthe world, relatively little scholarship evaluates the contributionsof public management to government performance, that is, tothe character and consequences of service provision by publicagencies. One study (Hill and Lynn 2005) evaluated over eighthundred American empirical studies that address issues of publicmanagement effectiveness in a wide variety of fields, subfields,and disciplines. In this article we employ the analytic frameworkof Hill and Lynn—a polycentric "logic of governance"—toevaluate 193 research articles published in English that usenon-American, or what we will term international, empiricalevidence. Our evaluation reveals more similarities in Americanand non-American public management research, and in the determinantsof government performance, than one might expect, given thedistinctiveness of the American politico-administrative system.These similarities may be deceptive, however. Internationalinvestigators exhibit somewhat different modeling strategies,tending, for example, to favor more linear managerialist hypotheses—changesin structure lead to changes outcomes, for example—thanAmerican research, which is more concerned with intragovernmentalcomplexities. The fact that the use of a polycentric logic ofgovernance revealed highly suggestive similarities and differencesin the determinants of performance in public organizations suggeststhe potential value of this kind of analytic strategy in bothsingle investigations and in meta-analyses of public managementreform.     

Social class and social liberalism

The relationship between social class and politics has been a central concern of political sociologists over the years. Recently various scholars have contended that the last twenty years have witnessed the emergence of noneconomic or social issues (e.g., equal rights, personal freedom) and of a middle class liberalism, especially on these social issues. In fact, it was claimed that this privileged radicalism has led to an inversion of the traditional relationship between class and political ideology, as now it is the middle class which is more supportive than the working class of liberal positions on the important social issues of the day. In this paper we subject these claims to a rigorous empirical test using 1973–1982 NORC data. Our findings indicate that there is little support forclass differences in social liberalism, and that most of the apparent differences are due to education. Furthermore, affluence does not have a consistent effect on social liberalism. Finally, we discuss the implications of our analyses for the nature of class differences in American society.     

The Politics of Ideals of Care: Danish and Flemish Child Care Policy Compared

Most European welfare states today have said farewell to themale breadwinner–female caretaker model. Still, childcare policy has a different pace and shape in each country.This article studies the (late) origins as well as the diversityin Danish and Flemish (Belgian) child care policy. In Denmark,a universal child care provision was made possible because ofthe advocacy coalition of women with social pedagogues. Theypromoted the ideal of professional care. To combat the idealof full-time motherhood, the Flemish Catholic women’smovement strived for subsidizing childminders—the idealof surrogate motherhood—supported by the Christian DemocraticParty. Both strategies led to comparatively high levels of childcare provisions, but also to very different contents and shapes.In short, one of the factors that shaped child care policy isthe promotion of different (moral) ideals of care by the women’smovement, together with other—often more powerful—allies,and backed up by parental preferences.     

A social world of sociology in Japan

This article discusses the characteristics, problems, and future direction of sociology in Japan. The core problem of the discipline is the disparity between theories and empirical studies. That is, sociologists in Japan are not yet accustomed to the practice of integrating both conceptual inquiry and empirical methods—which has resulted in futile research that is unable to influence social policies. This article explores this problem by surveying historical and institutional circumstances that have surrounded sociologists since the founding of the discipline. The issues discussed include: the birth of the discipline, the rule of the academy by prominent universities, the system of funding, and the practice of recruitment. By suggesting problems that should be dealt with by today’s sociologists, the article indicates the road that sociologists must follow to rise above their “TV commentator” image and take on more influential social roles as professional experts.     

Rethinking the policy influence of experts: From general characterizations to analysis of variation

This paper first surveys the four principal positions in the debate about the policy influence of professional experts — technocracy, extensive mandates, limited mandates, and servants of power — and finds none entirely satisfactory. While the limited mandates position is the best general characterization of the policy influence of experts, many instances reveal more extensive influence. The papers argues for shifting the discussion from general characterizations to the systematic analysis of variation in the extent and significance of professional influence. A framework for analyzing this variation is proposed. The framework highlights the importance of depoliticization, the framing of issues as narrowly technical or involving the protection of a central cultural value, political situations that encourage the informal capture of power by professional experts or the delegation of power to experts, and the differing level of legitimacy enjoyed by professional occupations, based on their centrality in social regulation.     

Informing family policies: The uses of social research

Like the topic of family policy itself, research informing family policies is difficult to characterize. This article discusses how ideology and values influence research agendas and then describes three types of studies informing family policies: research defining social issues, evaluation research, and research about the policy-making process. Two case studies illustrate how social research informs family policy: in promoting gender equality in Scandinavia and in reforming child support in the United States. Values of individualism and the sanctity of the family have traditionally focused policy makers' and, hence, researchers' attention on individuals, not families, as the units of analysis. But dramatic shifts in family structure and functioning along with renewed public concern about family disintegration are placing families high on the policy agenda. Both “basic” and “applied” family scholars can contribute to a research agenda examining the factors promoting strong, effective families. She conducts research on gender and the life course, as well as on aging, families, and social policy. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests in stratification, social policy, gender, and the life course include sex segregation in occupations, fertility, and work decisions and family policy.     

The Polls--Review: Public Opinion Research and Support for the Iraq War

Professors Peter Feaver, Christopher Gelpi, and Jason Reifler'stheory of the determinants of public support for war has receiveda great deal of attention among academics, journalists, andpolicymakers. They argue that support for war hinges on initialsupport for military action and the belief in the success ofthe war. In this review, we take a critical and constructiveview of their work, focusing on methodological concerns. Wediscuss the dependent variable used by the authors—individualcasualty tolerance—and argue that it is an insufficientmeasure of war support. We also make the case that their independentvariables of interest—initial support for war and evaluationof war success—may, in fact, be best understood as indicatorsof latent support for the war more generally. Finally, we discussthe need for more research into the determinants of supportfor war, focusing on core values and elite rhetoric as potentialvariables for continued and future study.     

American sociology in chaos: Differentiation without integration

American sociology is a chaotic discipline. There is disagreement on foundational issues that give disciplines coherence. For example, sociologist disagree on the appropriateness of a scientific orientation, the role of activism and ideology in inquiry, the best methodologies to employ, the primacy of microversus macro-levels of analysis, the most important topics to study, and many other contentious issues. The recent call for a “public sociology” in which four wings of the discipline—policy (applied), professional (scientific), critical (ideological), and public (civic engagement) sociologies—are to be integrated is less of a remedy for what troubles sociology than an admission that we are a discipline divided (Burawoy, 2005). Among the social sciences, economics is the most coherent, with the other social sciences revealing varying degrees of incoherence or chaos. Sociology is probably the least integrated of the social sciences, although cultural anthropology has increasingly become much like sociology. In this paper, my goal is to offer an explanation for how sociology came to it present state and what, if anything, can be done to integrate the discipline. Let me begin by outlining what makes a discipline coherent. Jonathan H.Turner is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. He is primarily a theorist, and his substantive interests include the history and structure of American sociology. He can be reached at jonathan.turner@ucr.edu.     

Implications of Recent Research on Eastern European Adoptees for Social Work Practice

Social workers engaged in preparing and supporting families that adopt non-infants and sibling groups from Russia and other Eastern European countries need to be well-versed in: (1) the issues that affect this population of adoptees and adopters; and (2) the recent research on both. They also need to expand the model of adoptive families that drives their work. The authors identify three areas of risk to successful older-child adoptee and adoptive family functioning, explore the consequences of detrimental adoption policies and practices on the micro and macro-levels, and make recommendations for needed changes. The changes the authors identify are framed through an investigation of recent research on international adoptees and their adoptive families. The authors use adoptive parents’ own words to make the issues they discuss more concrete. Implications for social worker training and practice, and expanded roles for social workers, are identified.     

Good & evil in the crusade of care. Social constructions of mental disorders.

Forensic nursing is a product of medicalized criminality, where social and moral issues are managed within a psychiatric ideology. The narrative accounts of nursing staff reflect a tension between scientific and lay interpretations of offending behavior. A nonprofessional discourse about "evil" presents a challenge to the structural and clinical credibility of forensic practice.     

Planning for Medical Progress through Education. By Lowell T. Coggeshall,M.D. Evanston,Illinois: Association of American Medical Colleges, 1965. 107 pp. $2.00

Abstract

A 1980 study using the Delphi technique identified field instruction issues and research priorities. In this article, the author reports the findings of a study undertaken to determine if the issues and priorities have changed in the past decade. Twelve national experts reached a consensus on 29 of 61 statements/issues and on three research priorities for the next decade. As in 1980, the study participants viewed the Delphi technique as having strength in gaining consensus, allowing dialogue between geographically separated experts, and serving as an effective means of learning for participants. The prioritized research agenda developed by the experts in 1991 includes the need for empirical analysis of outcomes related to field education; models to ensure quality of field instruction; and processes to help field instructors assist students, especially in integrating classroom and field instruction.     

Ideology and the Affective Structure of Whites' Racial Perceptions

The present study tests the hypothesis that deviations from"affective bipolarity" in the relationship between the positiveand negative dimensions of whites’ stereotypes of blacks—suchas racial ambivalence—should be stronger among conservatives.Across two different data sets (the 2000 National Election Studyand the 1991 National Race and Politics Study) and three differentmethodologies (heteroskedastic regression, confirmatory factoranalysis, and a regression analysis of attitude-ambivalencescores), this hypothesis was supported. Further analyses indicatedthat the relationship between conservatism and ambivalent perceptionsof blacks was mediated by conflict between humanitarian andindividualistic concerns in the racial context, but not in theabstract.     

Strategic Appointments

This article develops an institutional spatial theory of presidentialappointments to administrative agencies that falls within thespirit of a recent line of theoretical research toward an institutionaltheory of the presidency. We show that when bureaucrats implementpolicy that results from negotiation with constituents, theally principle—appointing political allies—holdsonly as a knife-edge condition. Presidents are better servedby appointing administrators whose preferences partially offsetthe influence of organized interests. The incentives describedhave implications for the selection of a whole range of bureaucraticpersonnel at various levels, generating significant implicationsfor the study of public management on issues such as personneladministration, representative bureaucracy, and the devolutionof administrative authority.     

The Compassion Strategy: Race and the Gender Gap in Campaign 2000

Recent studies have shown that social "compassion" issues, andnot those directly linked to women’s interests, seem todrive the gender gap in presidential vote choice. Some of thesecompassion issues are associated with the plight of racial minoritiesin the media and in the minds of average citizens. Drawing ontheories of gender role socialization, we predict that traditionalpartisan stands on racial issues may help to explain the gendergap. Specifically, we hypothesize that the gap emerges becausemen and women react differently to cues about how compassionatecandidates are toward vulnerable social groups. In one experiment,we manipulate news information regarding George W. Bush’scommitment to blacks versus women. The gender gap is maximizedwhen Bush takes the traditional Republican stance, while itis reduced significantly when Bush espouses a more moderateposition. The gender gap is unaffected by variation in the positionthat Bush takes on women’s issues. In another experiment,we also find that the gender gap emerges when traditional partisanappeals are racialized. Finally, exposure to the 2000 RepublicanNational Convention, with its message of racial inclusion, boostedevaluations of Bush among women but not men.     

Sexuality,child care and social work education

Whilst it is important to acknowledge the holistic nature of sexuality and its relevance in all areas of social welfare and service provision, this paper is specifically concerned with lesbian, gay and bisexuality and child care. The issues discussed will be common to all service user groups but the insidious nature of the 'contamination or corruption' theories of homosexuality are particularly inflammatory for those working in the child care field and the young people with whom they work. This paper argues that the needs of lesbians and gay men, particularly young people, will continue to go unmet unless lesbian and gay issues are addressed explicitly in social work education and in a way which does not oversimplify what is an extremely complex task. Anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice are central features of the academic and practice curriculum; however, it is not simply a matter of adding lesbian and gay issues to the ever-increasing list of oppressions. The ideology of heterosexism and a legal framework which endorses the discrimination of lesbians and gay men create additional challenges to working with this group of people. As social work education becomes increasingly government and agency led, with a competency model of assessment ruling the day, the realities of what social workers can achieve need to be acknowledged if we are not to be accused of perpetuating meaningless rhetoric; playing into the hands of those who refer to political correctness.     

Does Paid Work Enhance Women's Access to Welfare? Evidence from Selected Industrializing Countries

Citizenship has become increasingly associated—both symbolicallyand programmatically—with a person's capacity to performpaid work. For feminists this raises a key question: can women'sparticipation in paid work become the basis for their inclusionin welfare settlements? The question is examined here by exploringthe extent to which women's absorption into export-orientedmanufacturing industries has created the conditions for theirsocial citizenship in three industrializing countries (SouthKorea, China, and Mexico). The social rights considered arelimited to pensions and health care.     

Robert M. Teeter, 1939-2004

Robert M. "Bob" Teeter—political pollster, key strategistin the campaigns of every Republican president from 1968 to1992, co-director with Peter Hart of the Wall Street Journal/NBCPoll, board member and consultant to major corporations—diedof cancer at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on June 13. Hewas 65. "Teeter’s work with Hart evoked respect on both sidesof the political aisle," said Tim Russert, NBC News’sWashington bureau chief and host of Meet the Press. "You could always take Bob Teeter’s     

IDEOLOGY, FOUNDATIONALISM, AND SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

The issue of foundationalism and the growing irrelvance of sociological metatheorizing to the understanding of contemporary society is considered from the perspective of postmodernism. Foundationalism is treated as a form of ideology. Changes in the analysis of ideology are discussed briefly and the postmodern approach to the critique of grand narratives, or logocentrism, is introduced. Two meta-narratives, neofunctionalism and conflict theory, are criticized as illustrative examples of logocentrism. The postmodern critique is then applied to the issue of foundationalism as recently articulated in the "Seidman controversy." which is exposed as containing hidden foundationalist implications of its own. The critique of foundationalism raises three issues that are discussed: the possibility of a deontological social theory, narrative as social inquiry, and the social role of academics as intellectuals.     

Violence in the name of god? A framing processes approach to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

Since summer 2014, the insurgent group ‘Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’ (ISIS) has become a major concern for international politics and global security due to its rapid territorial gains, violent operations and the propagation of Salafi-jihadist ideology. This study aims to enhance the academic understanding of ISIS by demystifying the ideological reasoning behind its use of violence. It therefore investigates the link between structural factors that served ISIS’s evolution, its ideological outlook and the significance of this ideology to legitimize violent action. As its theoretical basis, the study employs framing processes within the study of social movements. Methodologically, discursive frame analysis serves to explore the relation of ISIS’s ideology to structural events and experiences to better understand how the group justifies violence. Therefore, the study draws on audio speeches and issues of the magazines Dabiq and Dar al-Islam published by ISIS, which are examined on the rhetoric of othering, collective identity and justifying violence. It is argued that ISIS constructs a collective action frame which creates a social reality that bestows the group with a rationale for action. ISIS’s ideology, based on Islamic symbolism, presents an interpretative lens which assigns meaning to the structural environment of ISIS’s emergence. In this context, violence is justified as a necessity to defend Islam and as an obligation for the true Muslim believer. The discussion concludes that ISIS’s ideology legitimizes the very existence of the group and conceals its mundane struggle for power, territory and wealth through reference to divine authority.