Which ethics for science and public policy?

The problem of inaccurate, misapplied or fraudulent scientific data could be addressed by government regulations, or by self‐regulation from within science itself. To many, self‐regulation implies the grounding of research activities in some “neutral”; standard of “ethics”; acceptable in a “pluralistic”; society. Yet, there is no such thing as a “neutral ethics”; and many “contemporary”; theories contain such serious theoretical deficiencies and contradictions that they are practically inapplicable. As a viable alternative to these theoretical and practical problems, an objectively based realistic framework of ethics is considered, and used to ground both the individual scientific and the collective public policy decision making processes. This is an ethics of properly integrated relationships. It is then applied to an analysis of many of the causes of incorrect scientific data, as well as of many of the internal and external pressures and abuses often experienced by scientists today. This approach respects the integrity of each decision maker as a human being and a moral agent—which in turn better insures the integrity of the protocol, the data, and the public policy decisions which follow—and ultimately, the integrity of the scientific enterprise itself. The alternative is government regulations.     

Good value for public money? The case of R&D policy

This paper evaluates the role of public R&D support on Italian manufacturing SMEs’ innovation activities, focusing on innovation output rather than innovation input. Combining information from EPO records and the Capitalia survey, the new data set enables a counterfactual assessment of R&D policy from 2001 to 2003 (2009 is the final year of the post-treatment period). We find that publicly supported firms have higher R&D expenditure regardless of their characteristics, confirming a strong additionality effect of public policies on innovation inputs. However, this additional spending does not increase firms’ probability of patenting or the number of patents in comparison with privately financed R&D.     

Control or influence? Conflict or solidarity? Understanding diversity in preferences for public participation in social policy decision making

Participatory policy making is a contested concept that can be understood in multiple ways. So how do those involved with participatory initiatives make sense of contrasting ideas of participation? What purposes and values do they associate with participatory governance? This paper reflects on a Q‐method study with a range of actors, from citizen activists to senior civil servants, involved with participatory initiatives in U.K. social policy. Using principal components analysis, supplemented with data from qualitative interviews, it identifies three shared participation preferences: participation as collective decision making, participation as knowledge transfer, and participation as agonism. These preferences demonstrate significant disagreements between the key informants, particularly concerning the objectives of participation, how much power should be afforded to the public, and what motivates people to participate. Their contrasting normative orientations are used to highlight how participatory governance theory and practice frequently fails to take seriously legitimate diversity in procedural preferences. Moreover, it is argued that, despite the diversity of preferences, there is a lack of imagination about how participation can function when social relations are conflictual.     

What has happened to Australia's public housing? Thirty years of policy and outcomes, 1981 to 2011

This paper uses the release of the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census results and other recent and historical data sets to explore how Australian public housing has changed over the period 1981–2011. It summarises the contextual factors that have influenced housing provision and consumption in Australia over the past thirty years. The overall supply trends by tenure for Australia and each capital city are set out, followed by analysis of the demographics of public housing tenants, including age, household type, income, mobility, and workforce participation. Issues identified in the paper include insufficient stock and increasingly targeted households, representing a social and financial problem for housing agencies. The current stock is ill‐adapted to tenants' needs; if housing agencies re‐profile the housing to meet such needs, then they risk creating inflexible stock. The paper concludes with reflection on the future of public housing in Australia.     

All for one or one for all? Authorship and the cross-sectoral valuation of credit in nutrition science

The passionate pursuit of authorships is fuelled by the value they represent to scholars and scientists. This article asks how this value differs across scientists and how these different processes of valuation inform authorship articulation, strategies, and publication behavior in general. Drawing from a qualitative analysis of authorship practices among nutrition scientists employed at universities, contract research organizations, and in food industry, I argue that two different modi operandi emerge when it comes to authorship. These different ways of working produce different collaborative approaches, different credit distribution strategies amongst collaborators, and different value placed upon (the pursuit of) authorship. These different valuation processes are neither explicit nor recognizable to those reading (and judging) author lists. As a consequence, in the politics of authorship, the names standing atop a scientific publication in nutrition science represent different types of value to both the individuals and employing organizations.     

Does proximity matter? Plant location,public awareness,and support for nuclear energy

Does geographic proximity to nuclear power plants influence public attitudes toward nuclear energy? Utilizing a statewide survey of North Carolina residents, this research considers whether proximity to a nuclear facility – measured by residence in a 10 or 50 mile Emergency Planning Zone – influences citizen awareness, support, and perceptions of safety concerning nuclear energy. The results suggest that while geographic proximity to generating sites does lead to increased levels of awareness, it does not appear to impact overall attitudes toward the use and perceived safety of nuclear energy.     

Are good governance principles institutionalised with policy transfer? An examination of public–private partnerships policy promotion in China

This article explores the following question: To what extent are good governance principles being institutionalised in China as a result of public–private partnerships (PPP) policy transfer? Since 2013, China has been pursuing PPP and applying aspects of related good governance drawing from Western experience despite its radically different fragmented authoritarian regime. This makes China a unique case to observe the extent to which good governance principles can be institutionalised in very different contexts. This article assesses the degree of institutionalisation of three good governance principles that guide PPP policy elsewhere: transparency and accountability, willingness to collaborate and equity between partners. It argues that while the PPP policies have been applied extensively in recent years, these good governance principles have been institutionalised to varying degrees as they have had to be adapted and compromised to fit with existing power relations in authoritarian China. The findings aim to add value to the literature regarding PPP policy transfer and good governance, by revealing the challenges of institutionalising good governance principles through PPP policy transfer in an alien context.     

Eldercare and employed caregivers: a public/private responsibility?

The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP, 2004) have reported that 21% of the U.S. population provides family caregiving services to someone over 18 years old. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of these caregivers provide care for someone aged 50 or older. The majority of caregivers work full or part-time, and nearly two-thirds of employed caregivers make work-related adjustments in order to provide care (NAC & AARP, 2004). This article examines eldercare issues of employed caregivers, identifies current public and private policies addressing caregiver needs, presents a process model to assist organizations in creating family-friendly workplaces, and suggests social work roles that support family caregiving.     

Support for Reidenbach and Robin’s (1990) eight-item multidimensional ethics scale

Re-analyses of data from two independent studies using samples (N=216 and 247) of Canadian management undergraduates showed support for Reidenbach and Robin’s [J. Business Ethics 7 (1988) 871] eight-item ethics scale derived from their full 38-item scale. The principal component analyses of ethics scores from the three scenarios used in each study supported the three constructs, Moral Equity, Relativism, and Contractualism. Importantly, scores were independent of social desirability scores. This short ethics scale, comprising three construct scores and a total score, can be recommended when administration time is limited. It should be noted that this short scale does not include any items from the egoism and utilitarianism ethics theories reflected in the full scale.     

Does financial development cause economic growth? Implication for policy in Korea

The causal relationship between financial development and economic growth is examined, utilizing the superexogeneity methodology. We use annual data for Korea during 1971–2002, during which Korea has experienced both phenomenal economic growth and a variety of financial liberalization and reforms. In our tests for superexogeneity, we find that financial development control causes economic growth, but the reverse is not true. Our empirical results provide evidence in favor of the ‘finance causes growth’ view for the case of Korea while rejecting the ‘growth causes finance’ view. The policy implication is that Korea should give policy priority to financial reform rather than economic growth, because only a decisive and accelerated pace of financial restructuring can ensure a sustainable growth in the medium or long term.     

Social care and migration policy in Australia: Emerging intersections?

Migrants are important both as providers and users of paid care services in Australia, yet migration has rarely featured in Australian strategies to grow and sustain the paid care workforce. Correspondingly, Australia is rarely mentioned in the international scholarship on care and migration that has burgeoned since the 1990s. This article shows the ways that service providers, consumer advocates, unions and scholars have begun to bring migration into debates about workforce growth in two of Australia's most significant areas of paid care: aged care and childcare. Drawing on submissions to national enquiries in both areas, we identify the actors who have sought to adjust Australia's migration settings to respond to growing demand for care, and explain the rationales – which differ between the sectors – underlying their advocacy for change.     

Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries

Esser I, Palme J. Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries Int J Soc Welfare 2010: ??: ??–??© 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. Mortality rates suggest that elderly people in the advanced welfare democracies have experienced dramatically improved health over the past decades. This study examined the importance of public pensions for self‐reported health and wellbeing among retired persons in 13 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2002–2005. New public pension data make it possible to distinguish between two qualities of pension systems: ‘basic security’ for those who have no or a short work history, and ‘income security’ for those with a more extensive contribution record. For enhanced cross‐national comparison, relative measures of ill‐health and wellbeing were constructed to account for cultural bias in responses to survey questions and heterogeneity among countries in the general level of population health. Overall, better health is found in countries with more generous pensions, although the results are gendered; for women's health, high basic security of the pension system appears to be particularly important. Women's wellbeing also tends to be more dependent on the quality of basic security.     

Which Champions,Which People? Public and User Involvement in Health Care as a Technology of Legitimation

This paper concerns two practices, public consultation and user involvement, whose adoption has been urged upon the UK National Health Service in recent years. Public consultation is a local attempt to seek the views of a broad constituency of persons. User involvement is a local attempt to include organized groups of service users in the planning, and occasionally the management, of such services. The paper has four objectives. First, it locates the topic in the context of several related current debates. Second, it outlines the main findings of a recent empirical study of public consultation as they relate to the above debates. Third, it summarizes the relevant findings of an empirical study of user involvement. Finally, it examines these two practices as technologies of legitimation which can be seen as a means by which managerial legitimacy is maintained in the context of an increasingly pluralistic policy arena.     

Local elected officials and environmental policy: Does rural matter anymore?

A survey was mailed to elected officials (mayors and city council) from a sample of 52 rural communities in Idaho and all 7 communities with populations above 20,000 to examine whether there is a relationship between environmental policy issues and various independent variables such as economic type, age, gender, rural/ urban, political ideology, and percentage of life lived in the current community. One-hundred and fifty-five (155) out of three hundred twenty seven (327) respondents returned the survey for a response rate of 47%. The findings reveal that while the rural/urban dichotomy consistently predicted for questions on “trust of information sources,” overall economic base was a better predictor of attitudes toward environmental issues and policy.     

Ideas and actors in policy processes: where is the interaction?

Several influential frameworks in the field of policy analysis explicitly acknowledge that the role of ideas is as important as the role of actors in analyzing and understanding policy and policy change. An issue of principal interest in this body of literature concerns the interaction between ideas and actors. This article argues that, regardless of important contributions from previous research, the literature can be enriched by new analytical tools that further our understanding of the complex interplay between ideas and actors in policy-making. The article outlines a dynamic approach to policy analysis, which has proven fruitful in producing high quality empirical research in a Swedish case of policy on prostitution. Three new analytical dimensions are specified and operationalized: (1) the political institutionalization of frames, analyzing how the influence and content of ideas change over space and time in policy-making; (2) the mechanisms of institutionalization and assignment of jurisdiction through which ideas become part of the political context and work restricting and enabling for actors; and (3) risk-taking and limitation as unintended consequences of actors' involvement and strategic action in the construction of meaning.     

Sickness and disability benefit programmes: What is driving policy convergence?

In this paper we explore the reasons for the apparent convergence in sickness and disability policies across the OECD, asking whether and to what extent policy convergence should be seen as a product of policy learning. We conclude that convergence is the result of policy imitation more than policy learning and that learning (from past mistakes) is more likely within countries than across borders. Given limited evidence on what really "works", when it comes to designing policies that both provide adequate income security and still encourage labour-force participation, governments look abroad or to bodies like the OECD for possible models and ideas to underlie a reform. However, translating those ideas into workable policies requires great sensitivity to the institutional and political-economic context — especially the role of the social partners and the nature of policies in existence. When it comes to policy implementation, such contextual learning may be crucial.     

Students‘ perceptions of professional social work ethics and the need for the development of competence-based ethics standards in undergraduate training program in Vietnam

As a newly recognized profession in Vietnam over the last two decades social work has undergone significant development, both in training and practice. However, there are many challenges in its professionalization, in which ethics plays a key role. This article presents the key findings of a study about students‘ perceptions of ethics and developing competence-based ethical standards in social work programs. It first analyses the students‘ attitudes and understanding of professional ethics. Second, it clarifies the situation of ethics education in training institutions. Finally, it provides suggestions for the implementation of social work competence-based ethical standards for Vietnam and beyond.