Studies in Public Policy - Böcker

This edited collection assembles cutting-edge comparative policy research on contemporary policies relevant to gender and workplace issues. Contributors analyze contemporary gender-related employment policies ranging from parental leave and maternity programs, sexual harassment, and work/life balance to gender mainstreaming. Gender and Work in Comparative Perspective thoroughly illustrates the richness of understanding that can be gained through the juxtaposition of a variety of research methodologies focused on a common theme. The side-by-side presentation of single case studies on countries such as Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan allows readers to compare and understand a wide range of policy options, thereby integrating what are usually separate bodies of research on the role of gender in welfare state developments, employment transformations, workplace policies, and work experience. An essential tool for scholars in many fields, this volume clearly illustrates how national approaches to gender and workplace policy form a spectrum of alternatives that, while rooted in the historical and social cultures of individual nation-states, are also subject to similar international global and economic forces.

Why, in the last decades of the twentieth century, did industralized nations witness recurring vast public deficits, even in times of peaceful international relations and economic growth? The essays in Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy chart answers sought by economists, political scientists, and government officials. This groundbreaking book looks at states within five industrialized federations—Canadian provinces, Swiss cantons, Belgian regions, German länder, and American states—as case studies of variation in budget balances since 1980. The work’s conclusion compares deficit levels between the federations studied. Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy sheds new light on the role of such factors as spending and taxation levels and electoral and partisan cycles within the budget balancing process. Neatly written and theoretically grounded, this volume contributes greatly to our understanding of public finance and public administration.

Americans today recognize and celebrate leadership genius in the management of private companies. At the same time, the American public remains deeply skeptical of government's ability to address real economic and social challenges. The contributors to this timely and important volume increase our understanding of the potential incentives for and barriers to creative problem-solving in the public sector. Drawing on case studies of state and local government, as well as theoretical literature on private sector management, these scholars reveal both the problems and the possibilities in governmental decision-making.

Israel's current policy-making capacity is not sufficient to meet the challenges the country faces. This volume presents a framework for understanding the fractured decision-making process in a politically divided Israel. In a nation that lacks consensus on the very nature of the state, and where policy making is heavily controlled by partisan politics, policy implementation capabilities are crucial for the very survival of Israeli society. Contributors discuss the role of public policy making on Israel's large public sector, electoral reform, the question of immigration absorption, and wartime planning, and they consider the extent to which the Israeli Supreme Court has become involved in the policy-making process in the wake of the collapse of political mechanisms for conflict regulation. This book provides essential information for students of political science and public policy seeking a clearer understanding of the political challenges facing the twenty-first century Israeli state and a blueprint for the radical reform of Israel's policy-making system.

Foreign Policy Toward Cuba examines the disagreement between the foreign policy-making communities of the United States and Canada and that of Cuba and the Caribbean region. The book contrasts the differing Cuban foreign policy positions taken by the United States and Canada, contrasting them in turn with Caribbean and Cuban positions on North America. The book uses a wide range of perspectives, paying particular attention to the way the Western Hemisphere understands Cuba and the approaches of Cuban and Caribbean foreign policy toward North America. Of interest to students of Latin America, Cuba, and foreign policy and international relations, the book provides a clear interpretation of the complex foreign policy between nations.

Until 1989 most Soviet Jews wanting to immigrate to the United States left on visas for Israel via Vienna. In Vienna, with the assistance of American aid organizations, thousands of Soviet Jews transferred to Rome and applied for refugee entry into the United States. The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics examines the conflict between the Israeli government and the organized American Jewish community over the final destination of Soviet Jewish émigrés between 1967 and 1989. A generation after the Holocaust, a battle surrounded the thousands of Soviet Jewish émigrés fleeing persecution by choosing to resettle in the United States instead of Israel. Exploring the changing ethnic identity and politics of the United States, Fred A. Lazin engages history, ethical dilemma, and diplomacy to uncover the events surrounding this conflict. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of public policy, immigration studies, and Jewish history.

Local Government Reforms in Countries in Transition explores the impacts that the end of the Cold War and increased globalization have had on government around the world. The decentralization of national governments has led to a greater role for local governments; public administration and democrative representation are the new arena of local governments the world over. Focusing not only on countries from the former Soviet Union, but also on Israel, China, South Africa, and Egypt, the contributors to this volume present a truly global investigation of countries experiencing governmental transformation.

Local Government Reforms in Countries in Transition explores the impacts that the end of the Cold War and increased globalization have had on government around the world. The decentralization of national governments has led to a greater role for local governments; public administration and democrative representation are the new arena of local governments the world over. Focusing not only on countries from the former Soviet Union, but also on Israel, China, South Africa, and Egypt, the contributors to this volume present a truly global investigation of countries experiencing governmental transformation.

As the world is changing, many scholars, analysts, and policy makers agree that even as governments need to confront external threats, creating sustainable domestic environments is imperative as a policy priority. As events surrounding September 11, 2001 continue to remind us, marginalized sections of the population can become breeding grounds for dissatisfaction, disenchantment, and eventually, targets for terrorist groups. Throughout the cold war period, South Asia served as a strategic region in the bilateral rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union, coupled with China's careful scrutiny. In the post cold war period, several bilateral conflicts, the nuclear tests of 1998, the post 9/11 world in which South Asia has become a breeding ground for terrorists, entwined with an embattled, albeit a shared history, continue to make India and Pakistan a pivotal region to study.A timely analysis which starts with traditional approaches and combines them with new thinking within a human security policy framework, this book will contribute to a deeper and more holistic understanding of policy priorities of major players in a pivotal region of the world. It begins by analyzing security policies of India and Pakistan that have emerged in the context of geo-political concerns based on realist calculations. It also looks at the policies of the two governments in key areas such as the economy, education, public health, and safeguarding against gender-based violence. Concern with human security prompts analyses such as the one adopted in this book to argue that governments should empower and protect their citizens from serious threats to their survival. Home to a fifth of the world's population, large numbers of whom are reeling in poverty, where terrorism continues to be a concern, along with ongoing border disputes, India and Pakistan will find it imperative to make careful evaluations of this multipronged challenge to security. While it has relevance for regional policy priorities, this analys

As the world is changing, many scholars, analysts, and policy makers agree that even as governments need to confront external threats, creating sustainable domestic environments is imperative as a policy priority. As events surrounding September 11, 2001 continue to remind us, marginalized sections of the population can become breeding grounds for dissatisfaction, disenchantment, and eventually, targets for terrorist groups. Throughout the cold war period, South Asia served as a strategic region in the bilateral rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union, coupled with China's careful scrutiny. In the post cold war period, several bilateral conflicts, the nuclear tests of 1998, the post 9/11 world in which South Asia has become a breeding ground for terrorists, entwined with an embattled, albeit a shared history, continue to make India and Pakistan a pivotal region to study.A timely analysis which starts with traditional approaches and combines them with new thinking within a human security policy framework, this book will contribute to a deeper and more holistic understanding of policy priorities of major players in a pivotal region of the world. It begins by analyzing security policies of India and Pakistan that have emerged in the context of geo-political concerns based on realist calculations. It also looks at the policies of the two governments in key areas such as the economy, education, public health, and safeguarding against gender-based violence. Concern with human security prompts analyses such as the one adopted in this book to argue that governments should empower and protect their citizens from serious threats to their survival. Home to a fifth of the world's population, large numbers of whom are reeling in poverty, where terrorism continues to be a concern, along with ongoing border disputes, India and Pakistan will find it imperative to make careful evaluations of this multipronged challenge to security. While it has relevance for regional policy priorities, this analys

In this book, Harel-Shalev analyzes public policy and governmental features in procedurally democratic states that govern deeply divided societies. The book traces the political formula that enables such states to survive while sustaining a democratic process in the face of religious, ethnic, and national conflicts. It investigates citizenship discourses, analyzes the mechanisms political regimes use to give rights to minorities while simultaneously limiting their power, and illustrates how this unique political formula can be applied in two case studies of vastly different countries-Israel and India. The analogous conflicts in India and Israel that threaten the survival of democracy-the ethno-religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India and the ethno-national conflict between Jews and Arab-Palestinians in Israel-are analyzed in depth. In addition, the core cases of India and Israel, states in which democracy has survived for over sixty years, are compared with two additional countries where democracy was short-lived. This issue is especially pertinent to the world today, as many young nations currently in the process of state building are coping with the challenges inherent in building democratic institutions in plural and polarized societies. The book explores the inherent tension between the conflicting logics of democracy, citizenship, and nation-state, and suggests enhanced tools for investigating societies in which this tension exists.

This edited collection assembles cutting-edge comparative policy research on contemporary policies relevant to gender and workplace issues. Contributors analyze contemporary gender-related employment policies ranging from parental leave and maternity programs, sexual harassment, and work/life balance to gender mainstreaming. Gender and Work in Comparative Perspective thoroughly illustrates the richness of understanding that can be gained through the juxtaposition of a variety of research methodologies focused on a common theme. The side-by-side presentation of single case studies on countries such as Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan allows readers to compare and understand a wide range of policy options, thereby integrating what are usually separate bodies of research on the role of gender in welfare state developments, employment transformations, workplace policies, and work experience. An essential tool for scholars in many fields, this volume clearly illustrates how national approaches to gender and workplace policy form a spectrum of alternatives that, while rooted in the historical and social cultures of individual nation-states, are also subject to similar international global and economic forces.

Protecting the environment is often not the primary objective of businesses. As the world has become more environmentally aware, the necessity of environmental regulations becomes apparent. Voluntary Environmental Programs: A Policy Perspective examines different approaches to environmental protection in business. Environmental improvements on the part of industry often result from government regulations that command certain action on the part of industry and then control how well they perform. An alternative approach is Voluntary Environmental Agreements (VEA), where firms voluntarily commit to make certain environmental improvements individually, as part of an industry association, or under the guidance of a government entity. For example, many new initiatives targeted towards climate change originate from companies that voluntarily commit to reduce their carbon output or "footprint." Voluntary Environmental Programs (VEP) provides an overview of current research on VEPs, looking at issues such as what motivates firms to participate, how a VEP structure affects a company's efficiency and credibility with stakeholders, and who monitors compliance of participants. This current work examines how a firm's environmental performance over time compares with VEP commitments. This book also discusses the particular considerations for VEPs in developing countries, where information flows and regulatory oversight capacities differ from the U.S.