Groundwater contamination is a growing problem that is receiving increasing attention on the national scene. There is recognition that federal, state, and local, programs for the protection of the nation's groundwater lack coordinated, integrated policy. Consequently, much of the responsibility for groundwater protection in rural areas falls upon local elected officials and public administrators who may be ill equipped to deal with technically c01nplex issues that are becoming increasingly germane and costly for many communities. This dissertation examines a rural county in Virginia (Clarke County) noted for its progressive groundwater protection policies, with the intent of the examination to improve the knowledge base of the dynamics of the groundwater protection process in rural areas. Case study methodology, implementation theory, and ethnographic techniques are used to determine what factors and forces play the greatest role in initiating and influencing groundwater protection outcomes in a rural setting. Answers are suggested for questions such as: (1) why does Clarke County display a different attitude towards groundwater protection than many of its neighbors in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; (2) how was Clarke County able to initiate and institute groundwater protection plans; and (3) is there a special role for the public administrator in the rural groundwater protection policy process? / Ph. D.

This dissertation is about policies and attitudes toward emigration and return migration. It explores these topics in two parts. First, it asks what policies states employ to regulate emigration and what might explain the adoption of these policies and what form they take. It presents a variety of emigration-encouraging and -discouraging policies along with a rich set of examples of countries that have adopted them across the world. Using the UN World Population Policies database, it then shows how policies vary by region, with emigration-encouraging policies being more common in Asia and emigration-discouraging policies more present in Latin America. Moreover, it finds that having larger populations, receiving more remittances, being less democratic and having less state capacity are attributes of states that correlate positively with the adoption of emigration policies. Likewise, being more populous, receiving more remittances and having a lower share of the population that intends to migrate are characteristics of states that positively correlate with the adoption of policies that are more emigration-encouraging. The second part asks how social identity and economic concerns affect people’s attitudes toward emigration and return migration policies, respectively. By analyzing multiple survey experiments that were embedded in an original large-scale phone survey in The Gambia, it finds some support for the centrality of economic as well as ethnic concerns in the formation of attitudes toward emigration and return migration. These findings are in line with the main arguments developed in the dissertation. On the one hand, it argues that individuals hold other-regarding preferences, are concerned with the political demography of their country and receiving remittances when it comes to ethnicity. Which of these mechanisms is the strongest depends on the context of migration. On the other hand, people are concerned with the labor market effects of emigration in their country and therefore support policies encouraging the emigration of people with the same occupation as themselves and oppose policies encouraging their return. Regarding interaction effects, it finds some suggestive evidence that low-skilled people are more concerned with the economic dimension of migration policy than high-skilled people are. This dissertation makes essential contributions to the existing literature and policy debates as it advances our understanding of policies and attitudes toward less frequently studied areas of migration, including emigration, return migration and migration in the Global South.

Do citizen volunteers, sitting on legislatively created local historic architectural review boards, represent a part of the American governance tradition? This study examines the relationships between public board members, citizen interests, career public administrators and the elected appointing authorities. This research involved a national survey of over 1200 members of boards of historic architectural review. In addition, four town or county case studies are presented in detail. These case studies are Jonesborough, Tennessee; Lynchburg, Virginia; Cobb County, Georgia; and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. These case studies are examined through an ecological perspective. Within the context of this study, boards of historic architectural review are very much a part of the urban/town/county governance model. They are highly professional in their composition, highly egalitarian, and deeply committed to furthering highly individualistic notions of community. Although some national community studies suggest a malaise in communitarian ideals, this research suggests just the contrary. The failure of citizenship falls more upon the legitimacy accorded to citizens as public administrators rather than an apathy toward manifesting that citizenship. Historic preservation itself is in a national state of disarray. Its ethos is poorly defined, and the national wellspring for preservation impetus to the local community is strained. Most communities find themselves struggling to fit a nostalgic, sentimental vision of the preserved environment into a well articulated economic model. This research suggests that local historic architectural review boards need to draw upon themselves to create better opportunities through self-study and formal certification programs. By enhancing their natural reserves of professionalism and commitment, they will advertise what they already do very well: administer in the public interest. By joining with like-minded community-based public boards this new coalition promises a energy and direction for municipal governments. The key is to foster an open environment of dialogue and debate centered on furthering good, responsive government. / Ph. D.

The U.S. dairy industry is heavily regulated. The federal government established the first milk regulation under the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933. Subsequently, Congress passed the Act of 1935, the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, and the Agricultural Act in 1949. The 1937 and 1949 pieces of legislation have been the basis for milk regulation until now. The federal government regulates the dairy industry by two programs: (1) the federal milk marketing order program, and (2) the federal price support program. These two programs regulate prices received by farmers. Some states also regulate retail prices for milk. This paper examines the retail milk markets in three areas: (1) the impact of government milk regulation on retail prices for both fluid and manufacturing milk; (2) the impact of government milk regulation on consumers’ surplus, producers' surplus, and deadweight loss; and (3) the support prices for surplus manufacturing milk. It was found that government dairy regulation tends to contribute to: (1) providing market stability in terms of minimum price variability and sufficient milk supply for consumers; and (2) guaranteeing high and uniform income for dairy farmers. These benefits, however, are at the expense of the consumers and taxpayers who are paying higher than pure competitive prices for all milk products. Some welfare transfer from the taxpayers to social programs is taking place under current government regulation. Net consumers' surplus is uncertain. This thesis provides evidence which supports aspects of both the capture theory and market failure theory of the dairy industry in the United States. / Master of Arts

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil.)--Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, 2002.

Public water policy decision making tends to be too complex and dynamic to be described fully by traditional, rational models. Information intended to improve decisions often is rendered ineffective by a failure to understand the process. An alternative, holistic description of how such decisions actually are made is presented here and illustrated with a case study. The role of information in the process is highlighted. Development of a Regional Recharge Plan for Tucson, Arizona is analyzed as the case study. The description of how decisions are made is based on an image of public water policy decision making as 1) a structured, nested network of individuals and groups with connections to their environment through their senses, mediated by their knowledge; and 2) a nonlinear process in which decisions feed back to affect the preferences and intentions of the people involved, the structure of their interactions, and the environment in which they operate. The analytical components of this image are 1) the decision makers, 2) the relevant features of their environment, 3) the structure of their interactions, and 4) the products or outputs of their deliberations. Policy decisions analyzed by these components, in contrast to the traditional analysis, disclose a new set of relationships and suggest a new view of the uses of information. In context of information use, perhaps the most important output of the decision process is a shared interpretation of the policy issue. This interpretation sets the boundaries of the issue and the nature of issue-relevant information. Participants are unlikely to attend to information incompatible with the shared interpretation. Information is effective when used to shape the issue interpretation, fill specific gaps identified as issue-relevant during the process, rationalize choices, and reshape the issue interpretation as the issue environment evolves.

This research analysed four main themes – role of government, globalisation, foreign direct investment (FDI), and industrial clusters in the context of Chinese automobile industry. The aim was to explore how these four elements were brought together to achieve industrial development and modernisation in the Chinese automobile industry since 1949. In particular, the globalisation process, speedily driven by the world economy, has been shaping the automobile industry in a profound way. With this mega trend, China was able to initiate a set of policies undertaken by the government to develop its own automobile industry in several regional clusters across the country, which in turn hastened the progress of modernisation. Moreover, FDI has been critical for remaking a once backward automobile industry into one that has large-scale assembly capacity, comprehensive local supply networks, and a new generation of indigenous car brands and models. The overall methods adopted for this research are semi-structured face to face interviews and case studies. In order to accomplish the research aim, 11 interviews have been carried out with key personnel drawn from the Chinese automobile industry. Participants have been chosen because of their expertise on this topic. In addition, three case studies were developed on the performance of three different types of firms operating in China: private (Geely), state-owned (Chery), and joint venture (Beijing Hyundai). Three cases were analysed in-depth in order to gain a rich understanding of the context of operation in the Chinese automobile industry. The key conclusions are both the role of government and FDI by multinational firms have been crucial to the development of the automobile industry in China and will be so for many years to come.

No description available.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / Using the case of an environmental monitoring service envisaged by the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), this research represents a comprehensive systematic approach to strategising for and justifying the adoption and implementation of a technical service by a public entity. The conceptual design of the research followed the strategic triangle for public management. Strategic analyses applied the Internal-Market-External (IME) model to understand the current and future business contexts of SAEON. Schemas for a generic business cycle and a value chain for the environmental research sector were developed. These new schemas aided strategic thinking about environmental research as a line of work within the public sector. Key findings were that competition is prevalent in the publicfunded environmental research sector and the key competitive force driving the sector is the availability of resources, which is largely determined by political financiers. A survey of the potential market has provided sufficient evidence that a market for environmental monitoring services does exist. This market was described in terms of market segmentation, drivers of decision-making, specific requirements of service providers, perceptions about current service providers and preferences for the type of service provider organisation. The results of the survey elucidated the public value and legitimacy of an environmental monitoring service and should have meaning beyond just South Africa in the context of the International Long-Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER). Analyses of the external environment of the proposed service confirmed that rising environmental pressures and uncertainty are globally concerning governments, society and the business sector. Since the service will eventually have to be fully paid for, the most powerful competitive force will be the clients. Conversely to the high competition of the public funded environmental research sector, current market failure was identified in the environmental monitoring services market since all the market segments expressed their general dissatisfaction with the services they received from a range of service provider categories. This leaves the door wide open for SAEON to enter the environmental monitoring market legitimately to deliver on the market’s expectations as a form of Blue Ocean Strategy in the public sector. The research found that the service will be an extension of SAEON’s core competencies, but should apply a low-cost strategy. Application of business tools such as business model design and key success factors provided clear guidelines on how the service should be implemented. Evidence was found that key theoretical constructs and management tools abstracted from commercial enterprises may be usefully applied, either individually or in combination, in the context of the public sector, albeit with some modification. The research demonstrated how core business tools such as the Five Competitive Forces, the Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Mapping can be made amenable to the public sector by replacing ‘profitability’ with ‘public value’ as the key objective for a public entity.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy