Environmental governance in federal systems: the effects of capital competition and lobby groups

We argue that centralized and decentralized environmental governance yield equivalent environmental regulations. We model worker, environmental, and capital owner lobby groups that seek influence by offering political contributions. Worker lobbying in the decentralized case has an effect on environmental regulations identical to that of capital owner lobbying in the centralized case. This is because the aggregate effects of environmental regulations on income are equivalent under two institutional designs. Whereas workers carry the full burden in the decentralized case when capital competition occurs, the burden is shared with the capital owners in the centralized case. We present evidence consistent with our theory.     

Shipping in crisis: A trial run for ‘live’ application of the hypergame approach

Hypergame analysis has been developed recently as an aid to the understanding of complex situations in which several parties are in conflict. Until now, the approach has been applied successfully to a range of post hoc case studies. In this paper, we describe an attempt to take the approach one stage further, by applying it to a current problem with some involvement with one of the parties concerned. In this case the problem studied was a crisis in the shipping world. The original analysis was performed two years ago. Having outlined the analysis itself here, we discuss retrospectively its accuracy and usefulness in the light of further developments of the crisis. It is concluded that the approach performed a valuable role in helping to build up an understanding of the problem. As a result of this exercise some comments are made about the way in which we believe this sort of analysis should be used in practice by analysts to give help to their clients.     

Measuring uncertainty

The decision analysis approach to problem solving is widely documented. A range of articles and books have considered ways for analysing problems under uncertainty and also methods for formalising an individual's attitude towards risk in terms of cardinal utility measures. In order to carry out such analyses the uncertainty in any problem has to be explicitly quantified in probabilistic terms. The present article reviews procedures for assessing probabilities and proposes practical guidelines indicating those methods which, in the authors' opinion, are most fruitful for executives to use.     

Midwifery in Colorado: A case study in the politics of professionalization

This paper uses documentary evidence, interviews, and participant observation to examine the professionalizing activities of lay midwives in Colorado. It shows that professionalization for midwives is primarily a political process. In order to gain state recognition and professional autonomy, lay midwives were forced into the political arena, where they encountered resistance from economic competitors. I argue that medical dominance over childbirth practices and professional segmentation between lay midwives and certified nurse midwives were the primary reasons Colorado lay midwives failed to achieve professional status.I would thank the Colorado midwives for their cooperation in this study. My thanks also to the reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts.