Search

A neglected aspect of policy research has been the systematic analysis of policy impacts. This paper presents a research strategy for measuring policy impacts based upon the principles of experimental design methodology. The strategy is illustrated through the application of a multivariate factorial design to the area of air pollution control. The overall approach is discussed in terms of its general utility for policy impact analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study which evaluated the formal methods of criminal rehabilitation in the courts and correction in the United States. Evaluation of volunteer programs; Analysis of the rehabilitation program structure; Reliability and validity of the measurement procedures; Utility of evaluation results for policy relative to decision-making.

The article focuses on the relationships of information and personal characteristics to vote choice. This paper discusses one aspect of an electoral campaign, a campaign debate, by which information about candidates and their stands on political issues are communicated to the voter. A political campaign permits candidates to communicate to voters. In the process of communicating, the candidates attempt to project favorable images, discuss the issues most helpful to themselves, and manipulate symbols to elicit voter support. The media links candidates to publics by serving as a conduit for informational exchanges. As a conduit the press relies primarily on information provided by the candidates, seeing itself as mirroring events, with the result that the public is provided a bland, uniform, filling, but not satisfying diet of campaign information. In dealing with the supply of information, the usual psychological and sociological variables may be included as modifiers of informational exchanges.

An efficiency study could provide a manager with much valuable information. The study could determine how much time employees are spending on various aspects of the program, and if such time commitments are commensurate with the relative importance of the function. The study could provide a cost breakdown on operations, it could reveal how many people are receiving services, that is, how many households with retarded members are reached by mailing lists, how many people are taking advantage of people are being serviced by chartered buses, could help immeasurably in future decision making to streamline the operation.

The article presents a study which aims to describe the use of small group context as a technique for experimental research for the testing of hypothesis applicable to political scientists' principal concerns. It states that social background characteristics and personality of individuals who are engaged in leadership position were examined. Results show that the perceived leadership described by the participants nearly represent behavioral leadership.

The results reported in this article are part of a larger study which entailed an evaluation of the extant research literature on the effectiveness of citizen Volunteer Programs in the area of Courts and Corrections. The focus in this paper was narrowed to a specific measure of program effectiveness: Recidivism. The research literature was first screened in terms of its technical quality, and those research reports which met acceptable methodological standards were then analyzed in terms of their policy relevant findings on the recidivism measure. Several conclusions were discussed in the paper. Primary among these is that the overall research on the topic of recidivism is inconclusive as to the effectiveness of Volunteer Programs relative to non-Volunteer (e.g., regular probation) program alternatives. The research to date is, simply put, too thin to reveal any clear research trend. This conclusion is discussed within the context of evaluative research in the area of criminal justice as a whole. The reader is reminded of the lack of clear-cut research trends within the general area of criminal justice research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on public participation in the criminal justice system. Volunteerism as a form of public participation in the social and political system of the U.S., has become increasingly widespread in recent years. The voluntary movement in the criminal justice system traces its history back to 1841 when a Boston shoemaker, John Augustus, became the first probation officer in U.S.' history. The establishment and operation of a volunteer program raises a host of potential research issues. These issues relate to both the administrative/managerial aspects of the program and the extent to which the program is successful in meeting its goals or objectives, i.e., program effectiveness.

The article proposes an experimental design in policy impact analysis. Economists, sociologists, psychologists and even political scientists have argued that experimental design methodology offers the greatest opportunity for determining what, if any, causal linkages exist between policy action and policy impact. This opportunity rests on the main characteristic of experimental research: prior control by the researcher over the components of his research design. This control is manifested in several ways particularly relevant to impact analysis. Concomitant with this feature of control is the ability to assess the interactive, as well as independent, effects of policy action. This is crucial for impact analysis. Despite various advantages, the acceptance of experimental design methodology is not universal within the area of policy evaluation. The primary criticism centers on the following points: the impracticality of introducing experimental procedures within an applied research setting; the inability of experimental design procedures to evaluate the total policy process; and the limited generalizabiity of experimental results to non-experimental settings.

In this paper, the authors will critically examine a central, though neglected, aspect of political socialization research--the learning concept. Following a discussion of the current status of the learning concept, they propose a research strategy towards the operationalization of the concept in political socialization research and exemplify the approach with a specific learning paradigm adopted from experimental psychology. In a field such as psychology which evidences a long history of research in the study of learning as a general concept, there is a sharp disagreement as to what precisely is meant by "the learning process." Since psychologists differ with regard to the learning process, the unqualified utilization of the concept within political socialization research is highly questionable. Moreover, the failure to explicate clearly the meaning of the learning process in political socialization research has precluded the establishment of the "empirical import" of the concept. Inclusion of the term "political learning" as an integral element in a synthetic mode of discourse requires that the empirical import of the term be established.

This study was an experimental investigation of the relationship between leadership, personality, and decisional environments. Two categories of decision-making contexts were analyzed: (a) an open or nonconforming environment where dissents were freely permitted, and (b) an environment where strong pressures for conformity were exerted. It was found that the nonconformity environment encouraged the participation of different types of personalities in the leadership role. On the other hand, the conformity decisional environment seemed to favor the emergence of high dominant personalities as group leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the current opportunities for political science research funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Two reasons for optimism about NSF political science research funding; Success of the Political Science Program at NSF; Long-range prospects; Opportunities for NSF funding not yet fully exploited by political scientists; Descriptions of specialized programs and intiatives; List of recently-funded political science projects; More.

The article reports that the intention of editing this symposium issue on "The Methodology of Policy Studies," in the December 12, 1973 issue of the "Policy Studies Journal." The intension of editors was to organize manuscripts around the key questions which invariably confront the policy researcher pursuing the investigation of public policy. The article also mentions several questions dealing with the conceptual work within which the research is located, and the selection and measurement of relevant variables.

This paper discusses several of the problems inhibiting policy evaluation at the state and local levels, as well as the prospects for overcoming them and recommendations for facilitating tasks. Ironically, the very condition demanding program evaluation is the same one negating it, scarce resources. Scarce resources demand that critical decisions are necessary regarding service delivery and cost effectiveness, yet the very data gathering and analysis activities and trained personnel that can inform these decisions are considered too costly to be regular program features. Thus, the most general and pervasive problem surrounding program evaluation is this scarcity of resources. It affects all aspects of evaluation, from the most basic activities of data collection to its measurement and the quality and training of evaluation personnel. State and local program field offices are facing continual dilemmas of denying services to clients or reducing their own administrative costs. The administrative costs are the first to be realized and this de-emphasizes research and development activities for program evaluation. Projects are begun with no evaluation component. If evaluation is later requested, data collection becomes a complicated affair.