William W. Vosburgh

Evaluating Emergency Programs

Emergency programs, which often call for exceptions to ordinary rules and procedures and flexible, short-term, reactive activities that preempt attention from overall ends, pose special problems for both process and goal-attainment evaluations. An emergency is defined as: (1) a change in life circumstances so that individuals who could ordinarily cope can no longer do so without additional resources, and (2) a situation from which life-threatening or dangerous consequences are thought to flow. Relaxed standards are suggested in areas of targeting and coverage, equity, and efficiency. Such important secondary gains as development of community resources, establishing and reinforcing service networks, problem identification, and advocacy should be included in any general evaluation.

Review Essay : The AIDS Disaster: The Failure of Organizations in New York and the Nation, by Charles Perrow and Mauro F. Guillén. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990. 160 pp.,

Charles Perrow’s substantial contributions to the field of organizational analysis ensure that any fresh book of his will command attention. Spiced as his work has been with incisive social criticism and a willingness to lay it on the line, a new book also carries the promise of cold comfort for the bungling, the pompous, and unclad emperors of all sorts. The present work meets all expectations. .

25.00 cloth,

The complexity of rights of recipients as a subject has been increased by the accelerated pace of change in the last decade. Because progress made in one area is quickly transferred to others, it is even difficult to talk about different groups or classes of recipients in isolation. This paper cannot trace the evolution of the rights of recipients in detail nor even catalogue, except in a general way, what those rights may be. Nor will it review the series of court decisions which have done so much to assert and establish