Stephen H. Linder

Coming to Terms With the Public-Private Partnership A Grammar of Multiple Meanings

This essay critically examines the multiple meanings that the term, public-private (P-P) partnership, assumes in contemporary discussions. A brief deconstruction of this term not only clarifies these meanings, but also exposes to scrutiny their underlying premises and ideological commitments. Six distinct uses of the term are identified and linked to their respective meanings in neoconservative and neoliberal ideologies. Instead of focusing on partnerships conceptual definition, the terms strategic uses by political actors are attended to, consistent with the authors interest in partnership as a political symbol and policy tool. Accordingly, the claims of these actors about partnerships receive primary attention here. Their actual partnership practices and the distributional effects that partnering has on power and resources are left for others to consider.

Two Decades of Research Comparing For-Profit and Nonprofit Health Provider Performance in the United States

This article reports on a systematic review of data-based, peer-reviewed scientific assessments of performance differences between private for-profit and private nonprofit U.S. health care providers published since 1980. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Comparative Assessment of Air Pollution-Related Health Risks in Houston

Background Airborne emissions from numerous point, area, and mobile sources, along with stagnant meteorologic conditions, contribute to frequent episodes of elevated air pollution in Houston, Texas. To address this problem, decision makers must set priorities among thousands of individual air pollutants as they formulate effective and efficient mitigation strategies. Objectives Our aim was to compare and rank relative health risks of 179 air pollutants in Houston using an evidence-based approach supplemented by the expert judgment of a panel of academic scientists. Methods Annual-average ambient concentrations by census tract were estimated from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National-scale Air Toxics Assessment and augmented with measured levels from the Houston monitoring network. Each substance was assigned to one of five risk categories (definite, probable, possible, unlikely, uncertain) based on how measured or monitored concentrations translated into comparative risk estimates. We used established unit risk estimates for carcinogens and/or chronic reference values for noncarcinogens to set thresholds for each category. Assignment to an initial risk category was adjusted, as necessary, based on expert judgment about the quality and quantity of information available. Results Of the 179 substances examined, 12 (6.7%) were deemed definite risks, 9 (5.0%) probable risks, 24 (13.4%) possible risks, 16 (8.9%) unlikely risks, and 118 (65.9%) uncertain risks. Conclusions Risk-based priority setting is an important step in the development of cost-effective solutions to Houston’s air pollution problem.

From Social Theory to Policy Design

Little attention has been given in policy analysis to the creative process of designing solutions to public policy problems. There are a number of difficulties in applying macro-level theories – whether from economics, sociology, philosophy or macro-systems theory – in the policy process. Any macro-level theory will tend to provide inadequate guidance in one or more of three aspects of policy-making: a model of causation, a model for evaluating alternatives and outcomes, and a model of how interventions operate. Our current knowledge about which policy strategies work best under which conditions is at best rudimentary. Academic disciplinary perspectives focus on a narrow repertoire of policy instruments. What is required is a design focus which draws on instruments associated with a range of disciplines and professions. A design perspective involves both a systematic process for generating basic strategies and a framework for comparing them. Such an approach will require at least the following elements: (1) the characteristics of problems (scale, collectiveness, certainty, predictability, independence); (2) characteristics of goals (value-laden, operational, process of goal-setting); (3) characteristics of instruments (suitability of different instruments).

Enforcement costs and regulatory reform: The agency and firm response

Influenced by models of optimal law enforcement, several authors have recently revised the work on efficient levels of regulatory control to accommodate the realities of underenforcement and imperfect compliance. However, most of these efforts have centered on either the enforcement agency or the firm and have largely ignored the decentralized nature of the enforcement process. This paper extends these results by modelling both the firm and the local agency and by incorporating detection uncertainty and concealment activity. Each model is then evaluated with respect to the alternative regulatory regimes of direct controls and emission taxes.

Cumulative risk assessment for combined health effects from chemical and nonchemical stressors.

Cumulative risk assessment is a science policy tool for organizing and analyzing information to examine, characterize, and possibly quantify combined threats from multiple environmental stressors. We briefly survey the state of the art regarding cumulative risk assessment, emphasizing challenges and complexities of moving beyond the current focus on chemical mixtures to incorporate nonchemical stressors, such as poverty and discrimination, into the assessment paradigm. Theoretical frameworks for integrating nonchemical stressors into cumulative risk assessments are discussed, the impact of geospatial issues on interpreting results of statistical analyses is described, and four assessment methods are used to illustrate the diversity of current approaches. Prospects for future progress depend on adequate research support as well as development and verification of appropriate analytic frameworks.

Policy formulation and the challenge of conscious design

Abstract Concern with the selection of appropriate instruments to reach objectives is an important element of policy analysis. Too often the selection of instruments results from unconscious processes based on presumptions about the qualities and adaptability of favored instruments. Biases in instrument selection can not only make policy ineffective, but also blame the failure on the process, rather than on a favored and presumably infallible instrument. This, in turn, makes error correction difficult and learning faulty. This paper is a plea for more conscious consideration of instruments and the criteria used to appraise them. The analysis assumes a design perspective on policymaking with attention on the underlying features of the substantive policy — the instruments employed and the implicit tradeoffs represented. The implications of a design perspective, however, extend beyond simple enumeration and matching of instruments to problems. That may be potentially as misleading as relying on unconscious patterns of choice. We should attend to the underlying attributes of instruments and criteria for choice that must be determined before any hope of successful matching can be undertaken. Therefore, this paper does not present a simple remedy for fashioning instrument-to-problem matches, but a careful diagnosis of the potential pitfalls and a prescription for rehabilitation.

The Role of Cumulative Risk Assessment in Decisions about Environmental Justice

There is strong presumptive evidence that people living in poverty and certain racial and ethnic groups bear a disproportionate burden of environmental health risk. Many have argued that conducting formal assessments of the health risk experienced by affected communities is both unnecessary and counterproductive—that instead of analyzing the situation our efforts should be devoted to fixing obvious problems and rectifying observable wrongs. We contend that formal assessment of cumulative health risks from combined effects of chemical and nonchemical stressors is a valuable tool to aid decision makers in choosing risk management options that are effective, efficient, and equitable. If used properly, cumulative risk assessment need not impair decision makers’ discretion, nor should it be used as an excuse for doing nothing in the face of evident harm. Good policy decisions require more than good intentions; they necessitate analysis of risk-related information along with careful consideration of economic issues, ethical and moral principles, legal precedents, political realities, cultural beliefs, societal values, and bureaucratic impediments. Cumulative risk assessment can provide a systematic and impartial means for informing policy decisions about environmental justice.

Contending discourses in the electric and magnetic fields controversy: The social construction of EMF risk as a public problem

The issue of adverse health effects from electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) has been brewing for the last decade or so. While the epidemiological evidence persists in linking proximity-to-powerlines to a few forms of cancer, exposure and dose remain undefined, and no clear mechanism of action has been identified. Despite this scientific ambiguity, there are frequent calls for governmental action; and yet, there is no unanimity on what action is appropriate, even among those asserting that something ought to be done. This article analyzes the various ways that the EMF problem has been socially constructed through distinctive forms of public discourse and the sources of contention among these different forms. It should appeal to ‘interpretive’ policy analysts and to those interested in the valuative assumptions behind policy claims. Those oriented exclusively to the technical side of EMF may find the interpretation offered here somewhat unsettling, however, since it relativizes many of the ‘factual’ claims surrounding the issue. Attention is also given to the ways that multiple EMF discourses are accommodated in the absence of scientifically conclusive evidence.

Cashing-in on Risk Claims: On the For-profit Inversion of Signifiers for ''Global Warming'' 1

International environmental groups and a few Western governments have invested considerable resources in the social marketing of risk claims about global warming and climate change. These claims appear in novel forms of public service adverts that combine images and text in dramatic narratives of warning, natural disaster and moral responsibility. Although a few narratives mention governments regulatory role in mitigation, most speak to individuals’ personal culpability and assign responsibility for remedial actions (such as energy conservation) to them, rather than to industrial sources. These campaigns appear to be working. Opinion polls show public awareness increasing and some willingness to adopt recommended measures. The more compelling consequence, however, has been the commercial appropriation of this discourse, and its ironic reprise to promote greater consumption, the opposite of its sponsors’ original intent. The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to analyze selected exemplars of the social marketing campaigns that have given global warming and climate change their cultural content, reframing them as public problems; second, to investigate how this content, once formed, is appropriated by private advertising for commercial ends; and third, to examine how the deployment of parody then inverts the original message to reinforce the values that the message had challenged. A sample of both visual and print media will be analyzed for evidence of these effects and to suggest a syntagmatic pattern that tracks the conversion of scientific messages of public concern into for-profit parody. Implications for the fate of risk messages in advanced commercial cultures will be considered.International environmental groups and a few Western governments have invested considerable resources in the social marketing of risk claims about global warming and climate change. These claims appear in novel forms of public service adverts that combine images and text in dramatic narratives of warning, natural disaster and moral responsibility. Although a few narratives mention governments regulatory role in mitigation, most speak to individuals’ personal culpability and assign responsibility for remedial actions (such as energy conservation) to them, rather than to industrial sources. These campaigns appear to be working. Opinion polls show public awareness increasing and some willingness to adopt recommended measures. The more compelling consequence, however, has been the commercial appropriation of this discourse, and its ironic reprise to promote greater consumption, the opposite of its sponsors’ original intent. The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to analyze selected exemplars of the s...