Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Indian Gaming and Tribal Revenue Allocation Plans: Socio-Economic Determinants of Policy Adoption

Thaddieus W. Conner et al. — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:12:58 PDT

As the Indian gaming industry has experienced unprecedented growth over the past two decades, tribes have pursued different paths regarding the utilization of gaming revenues within parameters established by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Since 1993, more than 100 tribes have received approval through the Department of the Interior to distribute revenues directly to tribal members through per capita payments governed by a Tribal Revenue Allocation Plan (RAP). This paper improves our understanding of nations with payment plans by exploring whether socio-economic tribal features are associated with the successful adoption of a RAP. We find that tribes who gained approval of a RAP in the 1990s have higher per capita incomes, while also having smaller populations and lower levels of educational attainment. Population is the strongest predictor of RAP adoptions in both the 1990s and 2000s, with the impact of other tribal features being less meaningful in explaining adoption in the second decade.

Canada–US Border Communities: What the People Have to Say

Leslie R. Alm et al. — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:36:22 PDT

This paper investigates the Canada-U.S. borderlands relationship along the two geographic corridors as bounded by Lake Superior: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario–Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Thunder Bay, Ontario–Duluth, Minnesota. Borderland communities—driven by their shared cultural characteristics (ethnicity, language, religion)—are said to challenge the border as a dividing device and undermine the very essence of international borders. Moreover, borderlands regions are dynamic and overlapping, providing the ﬁrst point of contact and interaction between nations. We use interviews of over 200 people living in these borderlands regions to investigate the cross-border relationships of Canada-U.S. border communities. We ﬁnd that despite the challenges of crossing the border, these communities retain a strong sense of shared values.

When the Music Stops: Succession is More than Filling Seats

Elizabeth Fredericksen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:51:39 PDT

State and local governments are handling budget challenges brought on by a major recession and exacerbated by goods- and manufacturing-based taxation systems, increased demands for services, and spiraling costs associated with entitlement programs such as Medicaid. Because personnel expenditures are a large proportion of the budget for any public organization, decision makers must look closely at staff reductions. The aging of the public-sector workforce in addition to anticipated staffing reductions, however, suggests that state and local governments are at a tipping point (Pitt-Catsouphes 2007). These governments already face a dearth of qualified employees who can succeed the estimated 25 percent of the 166.9 million adults in the workforce who will be at least fifty-five or older by 2018 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). Without strategic action to address these workforce issues, even well-intended decisions by high-level elected and appointed officials made to address immediate budget shortfalls will strain the capacity of state and local agencies to provide needed services.

Are Telecommuting and Personal Travel Complements or Substitutes?

Pengyu Zhu — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:47:14 PDT

Whether telecommuting and personal travel are complements or substitutes is a key question in urban policy analysis. Urban planners and policy makers have been proposing telecommuting as part of travel demand management (TDM) programs to reduce congestion. Based on small samples, several empirical studies have found that telecommuting has a substitution effect (although small) on commute travel, and have thus argued that policies promoting telecommuting might be promising in reducing travel. Using data from the 2001 and 2009 National Household Travel Surveys (NHTS), this study involves two large national samples to try to more accurately identify the impact of telecommuting on workers’ travel patterns. Through a series of empirical tests, this research investigates how telecommuting influences workers’ one-way commute trips, daily total work trips, and daily non-work trips, and tries to provide some answers to a question that has been discussed for some years—namely, whether telecommuting and personal travel are complements or substitutes. The results of these tests suggest that telecommuting has been an important factor in shaping personal travel patterns over the 2001–2009 period, and that telecommuting indeed has a complementary effect on not just workers’ one-way commute trips, but also their daily total work trips, and total non-work trips.

Oil Politics and Indigenous Resistance in the Peruvian Amazon: The Rhetoric of Modernity Against the Reality of Coloniality

George Stetson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:33:57 PST

In June of 2009, indigenous protest over the Peruvian government's natural resource policies erupted, tragically, in a violent confrontation where 33 Peruvians lost their lives. Conflicts over natural resources are bound to increase, especially in developing countries, as governments development ambitions collide with indigenous peoples’ territorial claims. This article, within the context of Peru's natural resource development agenda, examines the government's hydrocarbon development policies against indigenous resistance and protest. Turning to an alternative theoretical framework, modernity/coloniality, I argue that the government’s development logic misrepresents indigenous perspectives on development, undermines indigenous territorial rights, and suppresses indigenous participation in Peru’s natural resource agenda. A more complex reading of indigenous perspectives reveals a more sustainable approach to development, one that does not reject modern development, but does challenge the Eurocentric predilections of development.

Managing Undocumented Students: Do Undocumented Students Hinder Student Performance?

Gregory Hill et al. — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:51:30 PST

Illegal immigration is a salient topic for policy makers and for local units of government who are responsible for implementing policies. One particularly relevant policy topic is to what extent undocumented students affect performance in public schools, and if undocumented students do have an impact on performance, what can be done about it? Using Texas as a case study, this analysis finds that, surprisingly, undocumented students have only a marginal effect on the overall performance on standardized exams. Among Latinos, however, there is a statistically negative effect. Furthermore, evidence suggests that managerial skills can mitigate those negative effects.

Scientists’ Perceptions of Objectivity and Advocacy: Making the Linkage of Science to Environmental Policy

Leslie R. Alm — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:21:55 PST

There is no question that science plays a profound role in American public policymaking and that scientists are critical actors in the environmental policymaking process, serving as entrepreneurs, introducing, popularizing, and elevating environmental ideas onto national and international agendas. This article uses interviews with scientists to investigate the complexities of linking science to environmental policy, with special attention given to how scientists view the concepts of advocacy, objectivity, and the separation of science and policy. Because of the importance of scientists to the environmental policymaking process, it is worth exploring what they have to say about linking science to policy. Interviews of scientists in 1997 and again in 2009 illustrate the fact that scientists remain committed to the ideal of objectivity, struggle with the trend toward advocacy by scientists, and are distrustful of the way science is used in the environmental policy-making process.

Bureaucracy in the Twenty-First Century

Kenneth J. Meier et al. — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:39:08 PDT

Although numerous pundits claim the eminent demise of bureaucracy (Lane 2000; Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Handler 1996; Kanter 1989), in this chapter we argue that bureaucracy will not only survive in the twenty-first century but will flourish. The core of the argument is that the large-scale tasks that government must perform - national defense, a social welfare system, political monitoring of the economy, etc. - will remain key functions of governments in the twenty-first century and that bureaucracies, likely public but possibly private, will continue to be the most effective way to do these tasks. Bureaucracy has weathered other calls for its demise before (Bennis 1966; Marini 1971; Thayer 1973); current efforts are likely to meet similar fates. After a brief discussion of definitions and the meaning of bureaucracy, the major sections of this chapter will deal with six challenges to bureaucracy. Some of these challenges are intellectual; others are part of real-world ongoing reform efforts in a variety of countries.

The Effects of Managerial Succession on Organizational Performance

Gregory C. Hill — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:36:28 PDT

Boyne and Dahya (2002) posit that the means, motives, and opportunities available to top managers will affect their ability to impact organizational performance. In this analysis, I test the theory posited by Boyne and Dahya and expand the model by exploring whether the performance effects of executive succession differ between an internal promotion and an external hire. Using Texas school superintendents as the managers in question, I use pooled, time-series data to test both the immediate and the long-term effects of managerial succession on performance. The findings reveal that an immediate, negative effect of executive succession is present only in the case of an externally hired replacement and that the long-term effect of managerial change on organizational performance is positive. These findings suggest that public managerial succession does influence organizational performance.

Identifying and Cueing Network Membership

Elizabeth Fredericksen et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:00:24 PDT

Innovations in service delivery require due attention to the accountable implementation of public policy in a manner compatible with the public interest. Network scholarship has emerged to describe and prescribe a variety of management mechanisms, political implications, and policy outcomes dealing with the multi-actor implementation models that have emerged with collaborative public, nonprofit and private sector efforts to address the public interest. The multiplicity of conceptualizations during the past three decades of what/who comprises a network makes it difficult to compare what scholars learn about networks between policy areas and different jurisdictions or levels of government and grow our understanding of networks. To bridge the substantial, multi-disciplinary body of scholarship dealing with networked implementation, the paper reports on an initial test review of twenty-five network-related articles published since 1980 in Public Administration Review. Findings from this initial review will hone a comprehensive analysis of network-related articles in terms of network and network membership definition from the top 15 U.S. policy, administration, or management journals related to public administration since 1980.

Investing in Community Consensus: Implications for Conflict Management Training and Community Leadership

Patricia J. Fredericksen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:55:25 PDT

Don’t Ask - Don’t Tell: Legal Issues and Management Strategies in the Development and Implementation of Binational, Municipal Environmental Agreements

Patricia J. Fredericksen et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:53:34 PDT

Sustaining Community Through Collaboration: The Value of Conflict Management Training for Community Leaders

Patricia J. Fredericksen et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:51:22 PDT

Many Americans seem fearful that all is not well in their world despite material abundance and a prolonged period of uninterrupted economic expansion. A great deal of discussion occurs in coffee shops, classrooms, office corridors, and on factory floors about signs of civic deterioration and loss of confidence in public institutions. We see this discussion echoed in the popular media and in research efforts by academics alike. Concerns are articulated about a decline in civility¹, a disconnect between citizens and their government², social values which erode social and ecological sustainability³, the shrinking of wilderness areas, and the scarcity of serene public places⁴. Farmlands and families are giving way to spreading subdivisions.⁵ Young people are facing threats in their lives that might have been stuff of stock fiction only a decade or so ago. Co-workers, families, and friends too often lament drive-by shootings, drug abuse, road rage, domestic violence, human predators, ethnic and racial bigotry, political corruption, poor educational performance, and the often intense pressures associated with balancing family and workplace demands in the contemporary high-stress work environment. A wave of publications and workshops reflect a profuse hunger for greater simplicity, social stability, and a sense of connectedness.

Employee Attitudes Toward Benefit Packaging: The Job Sector Dilemma

Patricia J. Fredericksen et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:48:45 PDT

Increasingly, public sector organizations are creating flexible and innovative benefit packages to augment low salaries. While it is commonly perceived that the public sector has had an edge in benefit packaging, little research has been done to determine the level of importance that employees assign to various benefits and to the putative differences existing between the public and private job sectors. Using survey data from a sample of employees from public and private sector organizations in El Paso, the authors explore the perceptions public sector and private sector employees hold about the importance of various benefits in a compensation package. In contrast to conventional wisdom, the perceived importance of different benefits does not differ dramatically between public and private sector employees in this study, though some differences are notable for merit or incentive benefits and convenience benefits

Disconnect in the Hollow State: The Pivotal Role of Organizational Capacity in Community-Based Development Organizations

Patricia Fredericksen et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:43:51 PDT

Partnerships between government and community-based development organizations (CBDOs) have proven to be central to long-term neighborhood revitalization in many settings. These successes, coupled with the political popularity of community-driven projects, have stimulated further reliance on this approach. Unfortunately, scant research has been done on the organizational capacity of local community-based development organizations to administer these projects. It may be that many of them do not have the capacity to do the job. This article examines elements of organizational capacity in CBDOs developing affordable housing in a United States-Mexico border community. Evidence of capacity was limited, raising serious questions about the implementation of public policy in the hollow state. In their haste to contract with not-for-profits to create affordable housing, government officials may not be considering the serious possibility that CBDOs do not have the capacity to deliver services or effectively administer projects over time.

Does Service Learning Make a Difference in Student Performance?

Patricia J. Fredericksen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:39:35 PDT

Fredericksen employs a useful shift in analysis to consider performance indicators assessed by the instructor rather than the student. Considering service learning outcomes in terms of traditional performance indicators such as exams and quizzes offers utility for communicating about service learning to the university's external stakeholders.

Accountability and the Use of Volunteer Officers in Public Safety Organizations

Patricia J. Fredericksen et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:34:33 PDT

Government programs increasingly depend on volunteers to compensate for lagging fiscal support while engaging the citizenry in public service. However, the use of volunteers may raise important questions of accountability in the delivery of public services. We consider accountability in the use of volunteers in the special case of reserve police officers. Reserve officer management provides an especially valuable prism for understanding the larger issues of accountability in public organizations' use of volunteers. The mission of policing agencies requires special attention to citizen rights, the proper use of discretion, and agency accountability. Using Romzek and Dubnick's model of accountability relationships, we examine reserve officer use in selected jurisdictions in the western United States. We find that police departments vary greatly in the methods employed to ensure accountability for reserve officers and that existing legal standards offer a great deal of latitude to departments in the use of reserves. We argue that the inconsistent application of mechanisms to ensure accountability in public-sector volunteer venues such as reserve office programs offers no guarantee about whether these programs enhance the capacity of public organizations to deliver services.

Building Sustainable Communities: Leadership Development Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Patricia J. Fredericksen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:30:31 PDT

Much attention to revitalization in central urban neighborhoods focuses upon economic development and the infusion of economic capital. Throughout the United States, many organizations and communities have sent their "best and brightest" representatives to various types of leadership training programs. Leadership training, through promising as an investment in human capital, warrants greater attention as a catalyst for social capital. This study explores the potential for social capital development in an ethnically diverse community facing rapid growth, high levels of poverty, unemployment, severe economic disparity and serious environmental threats. Will individuals identified as community leaders, if exposed to general leadership skills training and substantive information about current problems facing the community, develop consensus over goals and a unified a commitment to work together to addressed community problems? Although preliminary results suggest orchestrated cohorts may play less of a role in evolving value consensus than previous personal affiliations like ethnicity, participants reported enhanced relationships.

Scientists, Politics, and Environmental Policymaking: The U.S.-Canadian Acid Rain Debate

Leslie R. Alm — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:48:34 PDT

The culmination of separate and bilateral acid rain policies in Canada and the United States was marked in March 1991 by the signing of the Agreement Between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United State on Air Quality (commonly referred to as the Air Quality Accord). The signing promised cleaner air and a healthier environment for both Americans and Canadians, as well as "a new era of environmental cooperation between the United States and Canada" (Progress Report 1994: 5). These words of optimism are in stark contrast to the long and difficult process needed to bring about the agreement to reduce cross-border pollution. Both Canada and the United States experienced contentious policy debates within their own nations as well as a very long and often acrimonious debate across their respective borders.

Scientists and Environmental Policy: A Canadian-US Perspective

Leslie R. Alm — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:45:17 PDT

For this research project, both natural scientists (33 each from the United States and Canada) and social scientists (32 from the United States and 31 from Canada) were interviewed by the author from March through November, 1997.(f.28) The natural-social science dichotomy was used because previous research has suggested that differences exist between how natural scientists and social scientists perceive the science-policy linkage.(f.29) For instance, in their work at The Udall Center at the University of Arizona, Helen Ingram et al. point out that in dealing with the formation of environmental policy, natural scientists often portray themselves as outside the political process and as poorly understood by politicians, while social scientists believe that natural scientists wield a great deal more influence than they admit to having.(f.30) Other scholars have noted differences in training and expertise between natural and social scientists(f.31) and have argued that a gap "often divides the social sciences and humanities from the physical and biological sciences"(f.32) such that social scientists are not accorded the same status as natural scientists.(f.33)

It is important to note that United States natural scientists do not share the majority view that science has had a large influence on our present-day environmental policies. In fact, there is a statistically significant difference between United States natural and United States social scientists and also between United States natural scientists and Canadian natural scientists, with a much smaller percentage of United States natural scientists (48.5%; as opposed to U.S. social scientists = 68.8%, Canadian natural scientists = 63.6%, and Canadian social scientists = 58.1%) perceiving that science is having a large impact on present-day environmental policies. Along these lines, United States natural scientists were much more apt to describe the development of environmental policy in terms of the science being overcome by politics and special interests, During the interviews, five times as many United States natural scientists as United States social scientists, Canadian natural scientists, or Canadian social scientists referred to the influence of politics over science. One United States natural scientist felt that when you were looking at the science-policy linkage and thinking in terms of equity and fairness, then:

The purpose of this study is to enhance what we know about the articulation of science with respect to the policy making process leading to the establishment of the Canada-United States Air Quality Accord. In particular, the focus is on how United States and Canadian scientists (both natural and social) viewed several key aspects of the transborder air pollution policy debate, including the influence of science (and scientists) in resolving that debate. Previous research, as noted earlier in this essay, has documented both the importance of science to environmental policy making and the pivotal role that scientists play in formulating such policies. However, studies have also highlighted the chilling effect that politics can sometimes have on the scientific community. Furthermore, scholars have previously documented marked differences between how natural scientists and social scientists and between how United States scientists and Canadian scientists approach the environmental policy making process. Along these lines, several findings from this study stand out.