The work of crafting sustainable solutions to complex policy problems requires decision makers and implementers to secure buy-in from a diverse set of stakeholders. Those stakeholders operate in policy ecosystems that span public, for-profit, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial sectors. This increasingly complex landscape requires schools of public…

This article examines the transition in Romanian child welfare policy from a paternalistic attitude of taking responsibility for "abandoned" children to a capitalist orientation of reinstating responsibility for "abandoned" children to the private sphere. While this shift in child policy is often seen to reflect a withdrawal of…

The principal findings from a 1988 study of the effects of privatization--the transfer of traditional government activities to the private sector--in 28 cities and counties are the following: (1) jobs created by firms taking over a public function constituted about 80 to 90 percent of the jobs lost in the public sector; (2) only about 7 percent of…

The legislative trend seems to be toward providing limited opportunity for public employees to strike, and court reluctance to enjoin such stoppages increases. (Author)

Public policy programs at universities are continuing to define and defend their institutional niche, influenced by new quantitative approaches of cost-benefit analysis and more analytic decision making. At least 50 institutions offer master's programs in public policy leading to jobs in government and industry. (DB)

This paper analyzes the distribution of power in street-level bureaucracies that deliver public services and critically examines the sources of this power. The mechanisms and political environment which allow street-level bureaucrats to make public policy are discussed in detail. (EB)

Transferring public services and public assets to private ownership is not an entirely new idea. Governments at all levels in the United States have for years contracted out many services. However, under the recently coined label "privatization," such policies now come recommended as a more comprehensive approach to the problems of…

This study argues for the use of public service employment (PSE) as a portion of an anti-recessionary fiscal policy package to include public works and tax cuts. Keynesian economics, deficit spending in this case, serves as the study's underpinnings. Chapter 1 reviews public service employment's current low status as an anti-recessionary measure.…

The National Commission for Manpower Policy assesses the effectiveness of public service employment (PSE) programs. Reports on numbers of jobs created, types of PSE workers, and the amount and effects of job displacement caused by the policy of "fiscal substitution" in local jurisdictions. Recommendations include strengthening PSE…

A field study examined the Public Service Employment (PSE) Program's intergovernmental effects. Addressed during the study were such questions as whether the program creates jobs in local government, whether local governments give preference to disadvantaged persons, and what kinds of services are provided. To collect these data, a network of…

An undergraduate curriculum in public affairs is proposed that is multidisciplinary, rooted in the liberal arts, and that emphasizes development of conceptual, analytical, and interpersonal skills required for public policymaking and implementation. Questions addressed would include such issues as the definitions of public and national interests.…

Compares federal job creation efforts of the 1970s to the Work Project Administration (WPA) program in the 1930s. Traces the development of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and stresses the need to unite public and private resources to achieve both balanced economic growth and full employment. (SK)

Authors assert that public service employment (PSE) is one form of macroeconomic policy and compare PSE to tax reduction, federal subsidies, and other forms. They propose a design for an ongoing federal employment program and conclude that a PSE program aimed at the structurally unemployed creates more jobs per GNP dollar than other policies. (SK)

This paper examines various aspects of public employment programs designed to reduce unemployment in Western industrialized countries. The historical context in which these programs emerged and the forms such programs might take are discussed. Public employment is considered in terms of special public service jobs, public works, and training and…