Based on a case study of a participatory photography project with a Salvadoran adult literacy program, this article explores some of the challenges and risks that arise when people use cameras to document their lives. The article examines the unanticipated problems the author and participants encountered (i.e. suspicion, timidity, and ridicule), and elucidates how historical and sociocultural f…
Using an example from the health-care sector, we illustrate consequences of implementing knowledge-based decision making relating to the exercise of political control. The Swedish Pharmaceutical Benefits Board decides the subsidization status of prescription pharmaceuticals. Building on a study of the agency's work, we explore the effects of institutional arrangements stemming from rationalisti…
The global neoliberal economic and political order impregnated the emergence of democracy in South Africa. One of the hallmarks of this order is that the capacity of the state to transform society is constrained, particularly in the rural hinterlands. The incapacity of the state to extend its grip, both economically and politically, has provided traditional leaders with an opportunity to both r…
Power-sharing agreements have been widely used in Africa as paths out of civil war. However, the research focus on conflict mitigation provides an inadequate guide to recent cases such as Kenya and Zimbabwe. When used in response to flawed elections, pacts guaranteeing political inclusion adversely affect government performance and democratization. Political inclusion in these cases undermines …
Studies of transgovernmental activities have enhanced our understanding of changing global politics, but their claims have not been fully investigated with respect to the security realm. Therefore, this article first acknowledges a gap between the practices and capacities of nonstate entities creating transnational threats and those of state-based agents of response. States' ability to respond …
Qualitative studies suggest that the spread of privatization of public utilities is due to a change of the economic paradigm and institutional isomorphism pressures. However, current quantitative studies mostly account for domestic factors. These factors can explain differences in national privatization trajectories but cannot explain the large trend. Based on a quantitative analysis of privati…
This article explores the supposed shift from New Public Management (NPM) to a new era of “post-NPM” by looking at one critical case, New Zealand. It finds limited evidence of such a shift, suggesting that the wider literature needs to move to a more careful methodological treatment of empirical patterns. To contribute to such a move, this article applies a three-pronged approach to the study o…
This article uses archival research to analyze the role of the New York School of Philanthropy as a precursor to the Bureau of Municipal Research (BMR) Training School, which is generally considered the first professional public administration program in America. The article argues that the two organizations had similar curricula and aspirations in the early Progressive period, particularly fro…
Given the service- and community-oriented nature of organizational goals in the public sector, it is not surprising that public management scholars have highlighted the potential of the missions to be an asset of public organizations. To date, however, little empirical research has investigated ways in which these benefits can be cultivated. The present study of mission valence—based on a sampl…
Relying on a sweeping review of the literature on interest group influence in health care policy making, we propose a basic definition and a typology of interest groups in provincial health care policy making. Then, using Milbrath’s communication framework, we analyze organized interests’ strategies for influencing policy making. This article is a modest attempt to cross-fertilize the group the…
This article argues that from 1918 through 1927 prominent social scientist and reformer Mary van Kleeck (1883-1972) pursued an alternative theory of public administration enunciated by women reformers in the early 1900s. van Kleeck continued to support the theory through her idea of industrial citizenship, through which labor and capital would work as equals. Two new forums for her idea—the Int…
This study determines the effectiveness of strategic planning as an effective tool of strategic management in public transit agencies. It finds that an effective strategic planning requires top managers’ active roles in defining the strategic direction of the organization and creating an environment that recognizes strategic planning as a tool of strategic management. Also, it requires good wor…
In “Into the Woods,” Karen Evans describes an increasingly hollow public administration environment that is shaped by a misplaced quest for efficiency. She looks to the pragmatism of John Dewey as a way to remedy the situation. This article extends her analysis by linking pragmatism to reflective thought, inquiry, nonlinear dynamics, and communication theories. Finally, a few suggestions for ho…
Answering the question, “Should public administration adopt pragmatism?” requires some agreement on what pragmatism means and what that adoption might entail. This article argues that such agreement does not currently exist and, without it, calls by administrative theorists for adoption will not receive their intended responses.
Modern theorists often use Immanuel Kant's work to defend the normative primacy of human rights and the necessity of institutionally autonomous forms of global governance. However, properly understood, his law of nations describes a loose and noncoercive confederation of republican states. In this way, Kant steers a course between earlier natural lawyers such as Grotius, who defended just-war t…
The present study complements current firm—nongovernment organization (NGO) literature by emphasizing the influence of managerial cognition on organizational behavior. In particular, I find that NGOs confront or seek to collaborate with other NGOs or with firms to appear as legitimate actors before selected third parties and as a way to access various sources of funds. By contrast, firm manager…
To allow appropriate allocation of prevention and care funding, HIV/AIDS surveillance data must include risk factor information, currently available for less than 70% of cases reported in the United States. The authors evaluated an intervention consisting of provider training and materials to improve risk factor reporting. Facilities were matched prior to randomization to intervention or contro…
The study dealt with a research environment in which the treatment effect is heterogeneous, and in which individuals use their assessments of the treatment effect to decide whether or not to enroll in an intervention program. In this article, a new methodology is proposed for examining the validity of the specified research environment in a given intervention program and database. The methodolo…
Although widely available, little is known about the effectiveness of youth cessation treatments delivered in real-world settings. The authors recruited a nonprobability sample of 41 community-based group-format programs that treated at least 15 youth per year and included evidence-based treatment components. Data collection included longitudinal surveys of youth participants (n = 878); posttre…
The authors examined a strategic policing initiative that was implemented in a high crime Nashville, Tennessee neighborhood by utilizing a mixed-methodological evaluation approach in order to provide (a) a descriptive process assessment of program fidelity; (b) an interrupted time-series analysis relying upon generalized linear models; (c) in-depth resident interviews. Results revealed that the…