Tesi sul tema "Social sciences -> political science -> public policy"

Efforts are currently underway in the US federal context to improve and strengthen evaluation practice and increase the use of evaluation results to inform policies and programs. However, these efforts remain unrealized, due partly to the lack of a comprehensive theoretical framework that views evaluation and related organizational processes and institutions as part of a larger system. Early intuitive theoretical taxonomies of evaluation policy suffer from the lack of connection to specific examples and instances, and are missing clear classification criteria that would allow practical application. To generate a grounded taxonomy of evaluation policy, this study surveyed members of the American Evaluation Association in 2009, asking them to generate examples of evaluation policy, and then to sort and rate these suggested policies. Results are analyzed using the concept mapping method of Trochim (1989), which first translates aggregate sorting decisions into conceptual “distances” on a two-dimensional dot map, then uses hierarchical cluster analysis to generate groupings of ideas. These groupings become the foundation for categories in a theoretical taxonomy. Findings reveal several different dimensions by which participants grouped evaluation policies, including the dimensions of “value” and “policy mechanism.” A values-by-mechanisms taxonomy and instructions for its use in an evaluation policy inventory process are proposed.

This dissertation provides an analysis and evaluation of factors influencing states to enact inpatient health care transparency laws between 1971 and 2006 inclusive, using event history analysis. The primary research question investigates "What factors influence a state legislature to enact a health care transparency law?" To narrow the scope of study, I focus on factors influencing states to enact health care transparency laws to collect and publicly report inpatient data.

The Unified Model of State Policy Innovation, developed by F.S. Berry and W.D. Berry (1990, 1999), provides the framework for the study hypotheses and the analysis of inpatient health care transparency law enactments by states. The Unified Model of State Policy Innovation posits a unified explanation for state policy adoptions. The model unifies the internal determinants and regional diffusion approaches of analysis for state policy adoption.

This study tests eight hypotheses using event history analysis (EHA). EHA is an analytical technique that allows for the testing of a state government innovation theory that incorporates internal determinants and regional influences on state policy adoption. Although there are numerous methods to conduct event history analysis, this study uses the Cox proportional hazards model (also known as Cox regression). Cox regression is a popular method for studying time-to-event data for policy adoption and diffusion studies. This study's quantitative analysis provides support for legislative ideology and unified party control of state government acting as factors influencing inpatient health care transparency law enactments by states. Additionally, the health care crisis and neighbors variables were statistically significant, but in an opposite direction than predicted.

The findings of this research suggest that state adopters of an inpatient health care transparency law are more likely to enact an inpatient health care transparency law when the state government is increasing in liberalism and when unified political party control of the governor and the governorship of both houses of the state legislature is increasing.

To generate new insights into the enactment of inpatient health care transparency laws, I conduct a case study of a national health care data professional association using several techniques, including telephone interviews. The qualitative analysis provides support for professional associations and policy champions as diffusion agents for inpatient health care transparency law enactments by states.

This dissertation supports variables traditionally used in policy adoption research including legislative ideology and unified political party control in state government. However, it will be interesting to see whether internal determinants such as professional associations gain traction over the traditional regional diffusion influences such as states sharing borders as factors influencing state policy adoption. Meanwhile, as evidenced in this study, there continues to be support for a model incorporating both internal and regional influences to explain policy adoption by states. The theory of policy innovation and diffusion to predict the factors influencing the spread of policies and the use of Berry & Berry's (1990, 1999) Unified Model of State Policy Innovation prosper as their applicability to numerous public policy areas, including health care, are continually demonstrated. Similarly, event history analysis and specifically the Cox regression method continue to gain support as their value as analytical methods and appropriateness for use in public policy studies is repeatedly demonstrated.

The outlook for the future of the health care transparency movement looks promising. The health care transparency movement promotes improved access to information, patient empowerment, improved patient safety and quality of care, improved provider accountability, and lower health care costs. This movement is not a fad, but rather a permanent change being implemented in all health care settings across the United States. Improved health through reliable, accessible data and data-supported decisions is increasingly becoming the norm and less an idealistic scenario to be realized in the distant future.

This dissertation examines how state policymakers develop, evaluate, and select tax policy options, based on case studies of tax policy decisions in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia from 2007 to 2010.

States have been the main locus of tax policy change in the U.S. in recent years, varying widely in their choices of which taxes to raise or cut, and whether to adjust tax rates or the tax base. Because public finance and budgeting research has focused largely on appropriations, as well as tax decisions at the federal level, the dissertation seeks to expand the knowledge base about state tax policy formulation. This is a critically important policy area because state tax systems are threatened by the growth of services, the advent of electronic commerce, capital flows that cross state and national borders, and the aging of the population.

Based on a mixed-methods research strategy involving documentary evidence as well as interviews with 10 to 15 key policy participants in each state, the dissertation found that the three states vary widely in their capacity to generate and refine tax policy options, reflecting ideological and institutional differences. Nevertheless, the states were very similar in one respect: each state made only tangential efforts to expand its tax base and curtail tax expenditures during the worst fiscal crisis in decades. This pattern suggests that it will be difficult for states to carry out the reformers' mantra to broaden tax bases and lower tax rates, a conclusion that is supported by national data.

The case study states also relied heavily on "selective parity" – aligning their tax rates and tax bases with at least some neighboring jurisdictions or comparable states – in making tax policy choices. This practice suggests that states will avoid the gridlock that has marked federal tax policy, because the widespread use of benchmarking provides a rationale for tax increases as well as cuts, while still serving as a moderating factor that pulls states toward regional or national means. States are picking spots on a spectrum of service levels and tax burdens that reflect voter preferences but are also constrained by national and regional norms.

A general hierarchy of taxes constructed from the case studies and also reflected in national data shows that narrowly-targeted levies (such as health facility taxes) and "sin" taxes (such as cigarette taxes) were the most likely to be increased, while broad-based taxes with the strongest revenue performance (such as the personal income tax) were the least likely to be increased. This pattern reinforces the conclusion that states are neglecting the long-term revenue capacity of their tax systems, a finding that is reinforced by a continuous stream of small tax cuts granted in each state, interrupted periodically by larger tax increases – a pattern of "punctuated incrementalism".

A significant number of Liberian ex-militants are unemployed and underemployed despite the job skills, formal education, and entrepreneurial training they received as participants in the Formal Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) program that was established to reintegrate combatants into civilian society at the end of the two civil wars in Liberia in 2003. The purpose of this study was to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the vocational training offered by the DDR program. Informed by the theories of Human Capital, Peace Building, and Bronfrenbrenner, the research questions for this study assessed the benefits of the educational component of DDR. A phenomenological study design was employed with a purposeful sample of ex-militant participants that included 12 ex-militants and a focus group of 6-ex-militants drawn from the 12 who completed vocational training at the Monrovia Vocational Training Center in Monrovia (MVTC). All data were inductively coded and analyzed using a constant comparative method. Data analysis uncovered five textural themes: motivation for disarmament, hope to rebuild lives through vocational training, dissatisfaction with reintegration, perception of reintegration, and perception of future combat participation. Findings support human capital, peace building, and ecological systems theories in that ex-militants perceived the benefit of education in their transition to peacetime endeavor, but consider themselves only partially reintegrated since all consider themselves unemployed with no means to survive economically. This study is significant because it provides recommendations to policymakers on how such a program can improve the vocational training offered and provide follow-up life-skills counseling.

Should the power to address the socio-cultural and political issue of alcohol consumption and regulation lay in that of the legislators or, the legislated? I propose that when alcohol legislation and regulation - The Botswana Alcohol Tax Levy are formed without invested cooperation from the general population, often the policy is non-sustainable and subject to change. The sustainability of the policy is primarily measured on its efficiency and effectiveness at addressing alcohol consumption and abuse. The failure to both reduce alcohol consumption and fund alcohol preventative care brings forth the conversations regarding needed change. My analysis provides the local and global implications alcohol consumption and regulation has had in Botswana, the United States, and the United Kingdom with an in-depth Policy Analysis Matrix directly discussing the Botswana Alcohol Tax Levy. The Tax Levy and other regulations created by the government have often overlooked the ground-level realities of the social issues regarding alcohol consumption, at the expense of the general populace overall health. The traditions and cultural heritage of alcohol, in regards to the Botswana people, cannot be under-mined. From my analysis, most of the issues arising from legislation stem from the discrepancies found between European Western Developmental practices and Botswana Traditional practices and law. The analysis highlights that the current position the government is taking in regards to alcohol consumption and regulation is ill informed. The current Alcohol Tax Levy neither lessens the consumption patterns of the population. Nor, does the Levy help to alleviate the current social problems excessive alcohol consumption is having in Botswana.

Ghana?s democracy has been hailed by scholars, practitioners, and the international community in recent years as a shining example in the West African subregion as a result of the country?s record of organizing successive elections with minimal or no violence. However, the evaluation of Ghana?s democracy has predominantly focused on the elections and disproportionately captures the views of the political elite; conspicuously missing is the perspective of the ordinary Ghanaian. This presents an incomplete picture of Ghana?s democracy, given the relevance of citizens? participation in democratic societies. To address this gap in knowledge, this qualitative case study explored the practice of democracy in Ghana under the fourth republic from the perspective of the citizenry. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with purposefully sampled ordinary Ghanaian citizens (n = 15), observation, and documents review. The data were then subjected to thematic and content analysis to reveal themes, categories, and patterns. The results revealed that the participating Ghanaians had dichotomous views, opinions, and experiences of democracy. Their experiences and opinions of the electoral system were generally positive, while their experiences and opinions of governance in the intervening years were generally negative. The study?s results should inspire a paradigm shift in the responsiveness of government to citizens and how the government engages with citizens on policy formulation and implementation. This study?s results can encourage positive social change with respect to the manner in which democratic performance is evaluated in Ghana by scholars, practitioners, and the international community.

Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goals embody Smart Growth in their effort to revitalize urban areas, finance environmentally responsible transportation systems, provide housing options, and protect natural resources; yet the State defers to its municipalities to implement this planning framework. This research focuses on Goal 14 (Urbanization), linking most directly to Smart Growth Principle 7 (Strengthen and Direct Development toward Existing Communities). It assesses Eugene’s, Keizer’s, Salem’s, and Springfield’s growth management policies that specifically target infill development of single family homes against this Goal and Principle. Though these municipalities must demonstrate consistency with the same Goals (see Supplemental File 1 for this context), this research questions whether sufficiently different policy approaches to curtailing sprawl yield significantly different results. The primary analytical method is a logistic regression that uses parcel-level data to understand how administration affects development by isolating these policies’ direct effects on observed outcomes (see Supplemental File 2 for this theory).

From 1990-2010 ecoterrorist attacks by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF) created an anomaly in the U.S. with millions of dollars in property destruction. Interestingly, in a post 9/11 era, the FBI warns that the number one threat to U.S. national security is not religious terrorism, but rather environmental-group terrorism. When examining this topic further, there is a void in analysis between examining ecoterrorist attacks and U.S. public policy. Is there a statistical significant relationship between terrorist attacks by ALF/ELF and U.S. public policy towards terrorism? Is per capita income an influence on the attacks occurring in specific states?

This study seeks to analyze such relationships through an exploratory analysis and case study approach. I conducted a trend analysis on attacks by ELF/ALF from 1990-2010 and the subsequent adoption of U.S. public policy towards terrorism. I analyzed per-capita income by region and its relationships to attacks occurring. I performed chi

2 hypothesis testing in order to determinethe statistical significant relationships between ELF/ALF attacks/U.S. public policy and per capita income by State.

The findings of this study suggest that the definition of terrorism is ambiguous and can lead to alternative interpretations, which can affect U.S. public policy towards terrorism. Attacks by ALF/ELF are not deterred by U.S. public policy. Also, a majority of attacks by ALF/ELF are most likely to occur in states that rank in the top 20th percentile regarding per capita income and occur mainly on the west coast. The statistical significance of the relationships between ELF/ALF attacks and U.S. public policy demonstrate that these two entities are mutually exclusive. Per capita income levels by states and ELF/ALF attacks are also mutually exclusive. This study creates an improved understanding of what constitutes terrorism and an understanding of the radical elements in the environmental movement and its place in a post 9/11 America. The significance of this study is to provide a model for analysis of terrorist attacks and government responses and provide a framework of inquiry for the fields of terrorism,public policy and conflict studies.