The Impact of Presidential Speeches on the Bureaucracy*

Objective. Scholars have long held that presidents use various tools to control the federal bureaucracy. Yet, despite their importance to presidents in achieving their policy goals in Congress, few scholars have examined the impact of presidential speeches on bureaucratic activity. This article analyzes the impact of both positive and negative policy signals on civil rights policy in the bureaucracy. Method. I test this hypothesis using speeches coded from the Public Papers of the Presidents and their impact on criminal cases filed by the Civil Rights Division over time. Given heteroskedasticity in the dependent variable, log‐linear time‐series methods are appropriate. Results. The president's positive speeches increase the number of criminal civil rights cases filed in U.S. District Court. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also has had a significant, positive impact on bureaucratic activity. Conclusions. In part because bureaucrats have discretion to resist presidential preferences that oppose an agency's core task, negative signals do not affect the implementation of civil rights policy. Yet, positive presidential speeches are available to presidents who may wish to influence the bureaucracy.     

How Policy Conditions the Impact of Presidential Speeches on Legislative Success*

Objective. Although the impact of the president's rhetoric on public opinion remains unfound, it appears to increase the president's success in Congress. This article argues that instead of moving public opinion, presidential speeches act as informational cues for legislators and holds that the impact of the president's public speeches in Congress is conditional on the salience and complexity of the policy voted on by Congress. Method. I use probit methodology to examine the effect of presidential rhetoric on the likelihood of presidential success on House roll‐call votes from 1989–2000. An interactive model assesses the conditioning impact a policy's salience and complexity have on the relationship between presidential rhetoric and legislative success. Results. Presidential rhetoric increases the president's legislative success on votes pertaining to policies that are both salient and complex. Conclusion. Presidential rhetoric matters to the president's relationship with Congress, despite the limited impact it appears to have on public opinion.     

Do flexible work schedules reduce turnover in U.S. federal agencies?

Agency theory suggests that when agencies adopt flexible work schedules, employees will be more likely to remain with the organization, because these programs demonstrate that the organization cares about their well-being in that flexible work schedules give them more flexibility regarding when, where, and how they perform their work. To test this proposition, cross-sectional panel data at the agency level were obtained from two federal government sources: Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and FedScope. Furthermore, transfers and quits were the two forms of turnover examined. After lagging the independent variables behind turnover over several years so as to provide a robust test of causality, the results show only limited support for agency theory. Specifically, teleworking was found to lower quits. However, teleworking was not found to reduce transfers or turnover, in general. Furthermore, alternative work schedules were not found to have an impact on quits, transfers, or turnover generally.     

State of the Union addresses and presidential position taking: Do presidents back their rhetoric in the legislative arena?

Politicians and presidents are routinely criticized for the mismatch between their policy statements and their legislative actions. While a few studies explore presidents’ support for policy commitments made during their election campaigns, no study systematically examines this relationship for presidents throughout their terms. To determine whether presidents follow through on their policy statements, I examine presidential mentions of three policy areas in State of the Union addresses from 1953 to 2000 and presidents’ subsequent positions on floor votes in Congress. The results indicate that rhetorical attention to economic policy and foreign relations in these speeches increases the chances that presidents will take positions on legislation in these same areas, but there is a disconnect between the rhetoric and their actions on health and social welfare policy. I suggest that this difference can be attributed to their anticipation of success in each policy area because presidents do not want to attach themselves to legislative defeats.     

The Timing of Presidential Cinema*

Objective. Researchers have examined the social meaning of political cinema; however, little research places film into its contemporary political and economic context. Therefore, I examine the timing of the production and release of presidential cinema. Methods. The data are comprised of major motion picture releases from the years 1953–2004 that include a U.S. president as a character. Regression analysis is used to determine how the temporal release of movies featuring a president corresponds to social realities. Results. I find that the release of presidential cinema is correlated with the party that controls the actual White House and with the number of consecutive terms that the same party has been in the White House. More films with presidents are released during Democratic administrations than during Republican administrations and more films with presidents are released during first rather than second terms. This appears more acute during presidential election years. The state of the national economy affects the release of presidential cinema as well. Strong economies lead to the release of more films with presidents. Conclusions. This suggests that popular film content is affected not only by filmmaker whim and creativity, but also by measurable contemporary political and economic conditions. Future studies investigating film content should account for how national trends affect popular entertainment.     

Political economy and the adoption of everyday environmental policies in the American states, 1997: an exploratory analysis

The political economy model has been widely and effectively used to explain and predict adoption rates of highly salient and/or controversial policies in the American states. However, use of this model to predict policy adoption in noncontroversial domains has been limited. This article tests the extent to which the model is successful in explaining the adoption of less-salient, everyday policies intended to improve environmental quality among the American states. The addition of conditional terms related to the model's political and bureaucratic components resulted in explaining 57% of the variance in commitment to everyday environmentalism among the American states. In sum, the number of everyday environmental policies adopted by state governments is a function of economic considerations, legislative accountability and professionalism, bureaucratic commitment, political culture and previous levels of policy adoption. Alternately—and unlike more controversial environmental policy domains—partisanship, ideology, party control of government and interest group forces do not have an impact on adoption of everyday environmental policies.     

Citizenship Lessons from the Past: The Contours of Immigrant Naturalization in the Early 20th Century*

Objectives. What were the determinants and patterns of naturalization in the first two decades of the 20th century? Low levels of citizenship acquisition among contemporary immigrants are frequently contrasted to the assumed rapid naturalization of prior European migrants, but in truth we know little about the earlier period. Historic data are well suited to investigate four explanations for naturalization: individuals' resources and skills; regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to citizenship; relative costs and benefits of citizenship; and the degree of political mobilization directed to immigrants. Methods. I use U.S. Census microfile data to run logistic regression models, and documentary material to examine the contours of immigrant naturalization in the early 20th century. Results. I find that while individual attributes matter, place of residence could be even more important; in 1900, where an immigrant lived influenced naturalization more than birthplace, ability to speak English, or literacy. Residence effects seem linked to a state's relative openness to immigration and local political mobilization. Over time, however, residence effects attenuate as the 1906 Naturalization Act and establishment of a federal naturalization bureaucracy appear to make citizenship patterns more uniform across the country. Conclusions. These findings suggest that historic and contemporary explanations of immigrants' naturalization should focus as much on the context of reception as the presumed quality of immigrants.     

Closing pathways: refugee-background students and tertiary education

Abstract

Recent changes to policies and funding for tertiary education are exacerbating an already difficult situation for refugees aiming to earn university degrees. No one intended to create the barriers that the refugee-background community faces; government agencies continue attempts to improve educational outcomes for those who arrive as refugees. The root causes of this situation are the complexity of the refugee situation and a lack of holistic knowledge about this diverse group of New Zealand residents among policy makers and educators. In addition, the complexity of interactions among policy changes and refugee situations has prevented any single agency from predicting outcomes of its policies for refugee-background students. In this paper, I discuss how new policies interact with a range of existing barriers faced by refugees pursuing degrees and how, without urgent attention, this will constrict or close pathways into and through university study. I further suggest that the strongest foundation for an effective program to provide equitable access to university education is including refugee-background students among those groups who receive equity consideration.     

‘We’re Civil Servants’: The Status of Trauma-Informed Care in the Community

ABSTRACT

Trauma-informed care (TIC) in social service organizations means that the organizations operate with the understanding that everyone involved has possibly experienced trauma in their lifetime. This qualitative study examined local service organizations’ usage of the 5 main principles of TIC: safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and choice (as developed by Fallot & Harris, 2006). Ten focus groups (n = 69) and 6 individual interviews (n = 6) with employees from administration through management were interviewed such that almost all facets of each agency were represented. The participants were asked about their agencies’ policies and practices for utilizing the 5 principles of TIC. The results suggest that the vast majority of organizations in this study implemented many of the principles of TIC with clients, though they had not labeled their practices as “trauma-informed.” However, although clients were receiving TIC, some of the principles were neglected as they pertain to staff, such as choice and empowerment. The findings of this study suggest that agencies are unaware of the relevance of TIC as it relates to staff. It is recommended that future research examine whether the use of TIC in agencies prevents “burnout,” high turnover rates, and vicarious traumatization of staff.     

Policies,Procedures, and People: Sources of Support for Government?

Objective . Many have written about the public's low opinion of the federal government; however, the theoretical sources and consequences of political trust have been empirically elusive. Drawing on the procedural justice framework, this study investigates the structure and consequences of people's mistrust of the federal government. Methods . Using data from various years of the National Election Study (NES), this research investigates the relationship between policy, procedural, and personal concerns and support of government. Results . Judgments about policy outputs, the process by which these policies develop, and the people involved in this process are shown to be sources of governmental trust, and certain aspects of trust are shown to have important behavioral consequences. Conclusions . These findings help to explain the failure of previous research into the causes and consequences of political trust. The various policy and process judgments that the NES Index combines play important independent roles in explaining political trust itself and its relationship with political behaviors and other attitudes.     

Conflict and cooperation in environmental administration

Cleavages exist between agencies on the implementation of environmental policies and the management of environmental programs. Although these cleavages are not deep enough to cause an agency immobilisme, they slow down the pace of pollution control. Within the agencies, much time is wasted when environmental specialists quibble on regulatory matters, when relationships between environmental scientists and resource managers are strained, and when regional units suffer from the stultifying effect of divided loyalties. To compound the problem, cooperative programs that are supposed to maximize the outcome of environmental protection leave much to be desired. In light of these problems, the time has come to re-invent the whole spectrum of environmental bureaucracy and recharge the entire subsystem of environmental policy making.     

Determinants of presidential position taking in Congress, 1949–1995

In this paper we seek to explain the activity presidential position taking on roll call votes in the House. Position taking may help presidents pursue their policy agendas, but time and available resources constrain their ability to take positions. Even though position taking is a discretionary presidential action, it occurs in the legislative arena and, thus, presidents must consider elements in both institutions as well as outside conditions when making this decision. Accordingly, we posit a multiple perspectives approach to explain the number of presidential positions on votes in the House. Our multivariate two-stage least squares regression reveals that variables from all three environments (executive, legislative and exogenous) within our multiple perspectives approach are necessary to adequately explain presidential position taking overall and when divided according to domestic and foreign policy positions.     

The Coingate effect: The impact of scandal on attitudes toward,state and federal political actors

What happens when a major, well publicized state-level scandal occurs? Do opinions of federal politicians improve because of relative comparisons to state politicians caught in the scandal? Do attitudes toward all politicians suffer? Little work has been done to investigate about how scandals related to one level of government affect attitudes about political actors at other levels. We investigate what happens when a major and well publicized state-level scandal occurs. Using individual-level public opinion data collected during the summer of 2006, we analyze the impact that a state-level scandal had on citizen approval of state and federal political actors, considering the mediating impact of exposure to media coverage of the scandal. Overall consumption of news coverage of state governors boosts approval of the governor relative to the president. At the same time, however, citizens exposed to negative scandalous news coverage of their governor show a decline in relative gubernatorial approval.     

Conceptualising disability: A critical comparison between Indigenous people in Australia and New South Wales disability service agencies

The lack of culturally appropriate services contributes to the low participation rate of Indigenous people in disability services. Understanding how disability is conceptualised is essential to developing culturally appropriate disability services. This study aimed to critically compare the conceptualisation of disability between Indigenous people and NSW government and non‐government disability service agencies. Indigenous and policy sources were obtained from purposive and snowball sampling. The Indigenous conceptualisation of disability was understood through representations by Indigenous spokespeople in journal and newspaper articles and audiovisual materials. The disability service agency conceptualisation of disability was represented through the annual reports and programme guidelines of the NSW government agency and seven non‐government disability agencies. The occupational justice framework guided critical analysis at the cultural interface. Four themes were identified: power and self‐determination, eligibility, otherness, and identity and labels. Data showed disability agencies promote self‐determination for Indigenous people and conceptualise disability as impairments affecting functioning, when assessing service access eligibility. Most Indigenous people do not self‐identify as disabled and are categorised as culturally different within policies. Indigenous people experience marginalisation due to their cultural identity. Indigenous people are required to conform to the conceptualisation of disability proffered by agencies to access services. To develop culturally appropriate services, agencies must collaborate with Indigenous communities.     

Office of Economic Opportunity: U.S.A.

The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), was created at the height of Lyndon Johnson's “Great Society” anti-poverty programmes. It represented a degree of radical activism that reached its culmination in the 89th Congress (1965-66) and indeed has never been repeated: that Congress was perhaps the only genuinely left-liberal one this century (outside the New Deal era, at any rate). The OEO's social policies were tied to a particular theory of public and social administration: that a “rival” federal agency to the existing ones (Health, Education and Welfare, now Health and Human Services; Housing, and Urban Development, et al) could escape their conservative norms. Both at the federal level and in the “field” agencies it spanned to implement its programmes, the new approach to social administration was to by-pass traditional channels. This short, illustrative rather than definitive article, examines how such an approach was undermined by both the U.S. political structure and by traditional “politics as usual”. It is but a snapshot of the era. However, it hints at the general problems that such approaches to “by-passing” traditional agencies and attempting to develop a new autonomy in social reform may have in many countries, especially those with decentralized political structures. For, while decentralized politics provides opportunities as well as barriers to reformers seeking to by-pass traditional elites (which themselves tend to be decentralized, mirroring political structures), it is suggested here that the balance sheet will tend to be negative from the viewpoint of reformist social administration.     

“官场+市场”与中国增长故事

本文运用和拓展了“官场+市场”理论,重新解析中国独具特色的经济增长机制以及政府与市场的互动模式。地方官员之间围绕着辖区经济发展的官场竞争嵌入在不同辖区企业之间的市场竞争之中,而辖区企业参与的市场竞争又嵌入在官场竞争之中。作为一种分析框架,“官场+市场”的理论贡献在于揭示了政府与市场的良性互动、政企的有效合作必备的三个条件,即内部的政治激励（“把事做对”）、外部的市场约束（“防止做坏事”）和必要的信息反馈（“做对的事”）。中国“官场+市场”的增长模式在总体上提供了这三个关键条件,在最积极的意义上实现了辖区内政治企业家与民间企业家精神的结合,政治精英与经济精英的结合,中国历史悠久的官僚政治传统与西方国家市场经济传统的结合,为我们揭示中国增长之谜开辟了新的视角。     

The role of federal regulations in assuring research integrity

The federal government has a proper interest in research integrity. Regulations have had effects on scientists and institutions; some appear to have been beneficial, such as recent educational efforts; others have augmented bureaucracy and sowed divisiveness. The federal oversight bureaucracy should be subject to the sunset provision.

Participation by the community is essential to the development of effective regulations, but ethical issues should be dealt with by professional standards, not laws. It is argued that the scientific community had begun to respond to public concerns when change was accelerated by regulation, and that change from within is most effective.     

Poverty,Government Policy and Public Opinion in Britain and Israel: A Comparative Analysis

What are the effects of public opinion on social welfare policies? To what extent is increased financial strain associated with stronger support for anti‐poverty policies? This article tests welfare state theory by comparing poverty, government policy and public opinion on poverty in the UK and Israel, based on rich and detailed comparable survey data on the conditions of the poor in both countries. The results show that, despite similar levels of income poverty and inequality, the poor have a considerably lower standard of living in Israel than the UK. There is considerably greater public support for the poor in Israel but limited government action to end poverty, whereas in the UK there is more limited public support for the poor but significant government action on poverty and exclusion. In both countries there appears to be only a limited connection between social solidarity with the poor and the political elite's rhetoric and action.     

Social Inclusion and Place‐Focused Initiatives in Western Sydney: A Review of Current Practice

This paper presents a review of the range of policies and programs that currently direct resources to disadvantaged communities in New South Wales, with a specific focus on the western Sydney region. These ‘place‐focused initiatives’ are the main sources of funding for community renewal from a range of government agencies at federal, state and local government levels. The research on which this paper is based identified thirty‐six programs administered or managed through thirteen government agencies or departments with a combined budget in excess of $163m in 2000/2001. It is argued that this diverse range of programs, while important, is highly fragmented, lacks a coherent spatial targeting framework, is poorly related to either local social or physical planning processes, and is poorly integrated in terms of its local outcomes. Moreover, beyond the public housing estates, existing policies lack the capacity to address the poor housing market conditions that generate local concentrations of disadvantage. A number of alternative policy ideas are presented that, if developed, might offer a better framework for the delivery of integrated policies to address the problems of social disadvantage and exclusion at the local level.     

Assessing the influence of regional Environmental Protection Agency offices on state hazardous waste enforcement decisions

In assessing the influence of regional Environmental Protection Agency EPA offices on the state management of hazardous waste programs, we focused on the extent to which federal administrative decisions affect levels of enforcement activity by state environmental agencies and whether these effects vary over time. Our results indicated that state enforcement actions were affected by state program capacity variables such as primacy and the strength of existing hazardous waste policies as well as one federal-level factor—the distribution of grant monies. The impact of federal oversight decisions was minimal.