Tamilnadu housing board

Social welfare administration

Microfinance programs

Jayaprakash Narayan

<p>Climate scientists predict increases in frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events over the next century. I used the policy change and policy learning theoretical frameworks--predominantly the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) and the focusing event literature--along with the literature on stakeholder participatory processes, to analyze what policy change occurs and what is learned as a result of experiencing extreme and damaging events. I analyze change in response to catastrophe by examining the response of national and local governments to a series of extreme floods (1998-2002) in a newly democratizing nation, Hungary. I used both qualitative analysis--examination of case studies based on data collected in semi-structured interviews with key informants in the flood and water policy domain--and quantitative analysis--based on a survey of mayors of towns (n=141) in two river basins that had experienced varying degrees of flooding. From these analyses I conclude that the experience of extreme and damaging floods alone was not sufficient to produce policy change and learning. But, a number of factors in concert with the extreme events enabled policy change to occur: (1) The process of democratization allowed alternative voices to be heard in national-level flood policy discussions. (2) A coalition of individuals and organizations espousing an ecological alternative to traditional engineering approaches to flood management that coalesced to press for policy change after the floods occurred. (3) Key policy entrepreneurs, both inside and outside of government, enabled a radical shift in flood management toward the ecological approach. and (4) Scientific information gathered by local environmental activists facilitated in-depth discussions about flood management alternatives. In 2003 Hungary enacted a more comprehensive flood management plan that included economic development and environmental protection goals, but only the flood protection aspects of the plan had been implemented by 2007. At the local level, towns and cities adopted new policies in response to the extreme floods, but these changes focused on emergency response and flood protection policies. These findings suggest that while it may be comparatively easy to adopt new policies, changing long-held beliefs and practices about how rivers and floods should be managed is a much more difficult task.</p> / Dissertation

The theoretical argument of this dissertation contains a set of conditions under which professional personnel systems serve as political tools to make government efforts to implement public policies credible and reliable, and thus to protect democracy. The dissertation includes two empirical applications, which constitute critical cases for the theoretical argument. The first is a case study of the new merit system for the higher echelons of Mexico's federal public administration. It is based on Mexican academic literature, elite interviews conducted in November 2007, and quantitative analysis of personnel data. The second is a test of the hypothesis that officers operating under merit system protections create stability, using panel data on English local governments in the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on analysis of a panel covering budget shares and political party control. Overall, the findings from both empirical applications lend support to the theoretical argument.

This dissertation explores the impact of internal management on the performance of public organizations. This research descends from the management matters research agenda and uses the Meier/O'Toole model to present the organizational process. I identify five types of internal management: goal setting, human resource management, structure (delegation), budgeting and technology (use). Additionally, I identify multiple indicators of performance: efficiency, outputs, service outcomes, responsiveness and democratic outcomes. The development of measures of internal management and the use of multiple performance indicators will allow for the development of a strategic guide for management.

Colleges and schools in today??s competitive marketplace must not only be cognizant of student and faculty recruitment, but also of their positioning in rankings. This thesis seeks to determine how the use of strategic communications can play a role in increasing student applications, the quality of student applications and funding resources; thereby, increasing their rank as determined by the U.S. News and World Report. It is believed that an in-depth strategic communications plan committed to paper, and resourced properly, can increase each of these areas. Specifically, this research examined the top 50 ranked schools in public affairs to determine the relationship between top ranked schools and their communications departments and each of their uses of strategic communications as defined as the long-term planning, implementation and research of the use of public relations, marketing, and advertising.

The public interest is the highest standard for bureaucratic action in American government. While the importance of this standard ebbs and flows in the literature, the eminence of it remains unquestioned as the North Star for the American ship of state. As the highest standard in American politics and policy, this standard must be formed democratically. In this dissertation, I examine the formation of the public interest standard through the lens of citizen-bureaucratic communication, using the theory of communicative action advanced by the contemporary German social and political philosopher, Jürgen Habermas. I support the use of such a theoretical framework in America by examining the importance of communication for the American pragmatist philosopher, John Dewey. I examine the ramifications of communication in the American democratic state as foundational for the formation and continued expression of the public interest throughout the institution of the American executive branch.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.