<p> Beginning with the notion that the dominant economic ideology in society is in a position to direct and serve the public interest, it is reasonable to ask if the public interest is well served by that ideology. That is the objective of this dissertation. In contemporary America, the dominant economic ideology is neo-liberalism, an evolutionary form of capitalism with its foundation in market fundamentalism, and characterized by an acute focus on profit and material acquisition and minimal involvement of government in the economy. The prefix <i>neo</i> derives from the ostensible return of liberalism to those free market values after a detour in the mid-20th century when it appeared that state intervention in the economy would result in redistributionist social welfare policies. </p><p> This dissertation examines the research questions: Does neo-liberalism serve the public interest? If not, what alternatives to neo-liberalism exist that better serve the common good? Answering these questions requires the subject to be parsed into a number of additional questions, each of which is explored in an independent essay. The essays discuss the nature of the public interest and role of self-interest in forming neo-liberal values. In addition, the essays examine the institutional responses to neo-liberalism through business as manifested by the corporate social responsibility movement and through government as manifested by welfare capitalism and, in particular, social democracy. </p><p> The conclusion drawn is that neo-liberalism is not conducive to the public interest and that social democracy offers a structure for a more economically efficient and morally just society. Policy prescriptions and arguments favoring social democracy are offered.</p>

<p> Aaron Belkin argues that military men must navigate "binary oppositions" of masculine and anti-masculine or feminine behaviors, mostly of a physical nature, to be considered good soldiers/good men. Embracing these polar behaviors of strong and weak, expressing the masculine aggressiveness expected of them hand-in-hand with the non-masculine submissiveness of obedience to superiors, creates "double binds," he argued. This study expands on and challenges Belkin's theory by identifying how soldiers' navigation of conflicting gendered discourses may extend beyond the body and the barracks. The study identified physical/psychological toughness and leadership and duty/respect as core masculine military discourses consistent with the literature. It also uncovered soldiers'/veterans' conflicting expectations around the expression of emotions, particularly in how they must navigate a military community of practice that breeds deep bonds and affection among men yet conditions them to defer or compartmentalize expression of emotions about their comrades. This conflict between the subjugation of the individual and the deferral of emotions may create more contradictory discourses when combat soldiers re-enter mass culture and its expectations of self-made masculinity. The study's findings raise interesting questions about how participants experience and articulate "being a man" both in the military and civilian worlds and may contribute to better understanding the difficulties some veterans face, including psychological/mental health issues, upon their return to civilian life. The study has potentially important ramifications for policy at many levels, particularly around how the military and society at-large facilitate and ease re-entry and re-engagement of veterans.</p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: Masculinity, public policy, military, veterans, communication, mental health</p>

This dissertation evaluates national programs in the United States and Rwanda that aim to strengthen maternal care and promote healthy child development, which remain significantly policy challenges globally. Chapter one analyzes the impact of Rwanda’s national pay-for-performance (P4P) program on rewarded maternal and child health services, multitasking and health outcomes. In a difference-in-differences analysis using the Rwanda Demographic and Health Surveys, we find that P4P significantly increased the output of several rewarded maternal health services, but had no significant impact on other rewarded services or health outcomes. There was little evidence of multitasking. We also find mixed effects of P4P by baseline facility quality. Our results highlight the opportunities and challenges in implementing P4P in resource-limited settings. Chapters two and three examine Head Start, the largest federally funded child development program in the US. In chapter two, using experimental data from the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) I compare the effects of Head Start on child development relative to two distinct groups: children who received home care, and children who attended other non-Head Start centers. Relative to home care, I find that Head Start achieves larger gains across a range of developmental outcomes; relative to other centers, Head Start’s impacts are smaller and restricted to improved behavior and access to health care. Compared to either group, gains from Head Start largely dissipate within one year of leaving the program. These findings suggest that Head Start enhances child development in the short-term, particularly in comparison to home care – but also raise questions about longer-term impacts. Chapter three examines efficiency and equity trade-offs of targeting strategies that seek to increase Head Start’s average impact by prioritizing enrollment of children with larger expected treatment effects. I identify child and family characteristics that predict variations in Head Start’s impacts in the HSIS data, construct targeting strategies based on these characteristics, and simulate their effects on cumulative program impacts and equity measures. I find that prioritizing enrollment of 4 year-olds otherwise likely to receive home care achieves the largest efficiency gains, but increases racial disparities in access to Head Start. Further prioritizing the enrollment of children from the most disadvantaged households, however, can eliminate these disparities while maintaining efficiency gains.

<p> Since it was first identified in the early 1980's, HIV/AIDS has become one of the world's most devastating epidemics, disproportionately affecting people in developing countries, particularly in Africa. A number of domestic and international efforts emerged to address the epidemic, including the creation of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003, which brought a huge surge in U.S. funding for global HIV/AIDS programs. Given the historical, political and public opposition to increasing funding for foreign assistance programs, this sudden spike in U.S. spending on global HIV/AIDS raises questions over how the policy process resulted in broad bipartisan political support for the creation of PEPFAR. While some previous literature focuses on various components of the politics surrounding the creation of PEPFAR, there has been little academic research which attempts to provide a complete picture of the policy making process that led to PEPFAR. In particular, previous research has not adequately addressed certain aspects of the policy making process, or provided a comprehensive explanation of the interests and events that shaped the policy process. In addition, previous research has not utilized existing theories of policy making or agenda setting. </p><p> This dissertation used punctuated equilibrium theory and the advocacy coalition framework as complementary lenses to explore the political processes and identify the key factors that generated and reinforced the emergence of PEPFAR. This research utilized a detailed case history, which drew on a range of primary and secondary sources, and was supplemented by analysis of quantitative data. The overarching research question, which guided this dissertation, was: how did the politics of global HIV/AIDS and the process of policy formation result in the creation of PEPFAR? Additionally, this dissertation examined the interests and events that shaped the policy process leading up to PEPFAR; issue framing as well as public and congressional attention to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic leading up to PEPFAR; and the political agreements that were negotiated to satisfy the competing interests of various stakeholders. </p><p> My findings highlight a number of key elements of the policy process which enabled PEPFAR, including the importance of: both congressional and presidential leadership on global HIV/AIDS leading up to PEPFAR; the formation of broad coalitions resulting from activism among a range of interest groups; successful use of humanitarian rationales by Congress and the President to justify the program; and the evolution in the framing of global HIV/AIDS away from prevention and sexual behavior toward treatment and innocent victims. This dissertation builds on previous literature on the influences on decision-making around U.S. foreign assistance programs and contributes to research on policy change. By better understanding the process that led to a major change in one particular area of foreign assistance, academics, policymakers, and advocates can gain greater insight into how such factors can be employed to build potential political support for future large-scale humanitarian endeavors.</p>

<p> Hacktivist activity is becoming increasingly prominent within the cyber domain and society. The boundaries between cyber terrorism and hacktivism are becoming more unclear. Hackers are becoming more skilled and involved in socio-political matters, not only in the U.S. but also internationally. Terrorist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have found a venue to voice their ideals and recruit via social media. Furthermore, terrorist groups have partnerships with hacktivist groups such as Cyber Caliphates. This practice has pointed particular inclinations that characterize different hacker groups with different events. For this reason, computer security has become a matter of national security in the U.S. and research regarding political and socio-economic trends as stimuli for the increment on hacktivist activity must be conducted. This research explored the issue of profiling hacktivist groups, departing from the analysis of the hacker&rsquo;s motivation as a product of a political and socio-economic environment. As comparative angles of analysis, the literature exposed empirical and factual information that integrated U.S. and international hacktivist events. The final research analysis proposed that U.S. political and socio-economic trends promoted hacktivist activity. Moreover, the research exposed that the existent relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic stimuli with political and socio-economical stressors (i.e., misrepresentation, restriction of freedoms, frustration and aggression) promotes hackers to act as hacktivists. <i>Keywords:</i> Psychological profiling; Professor Riddell, Hackers; Hacktivist; Hacktivism; Political Hacktivism; Socio-economic Hacktivism; Extrinsic stimuli; Intrinsic stimuli; Cyber Diplomacy; Cyber Constitution; Cybercrime Awareness Normalization Unit.</p>

<p> Los asesinatos de j&oacute;venes varones en Puerto Rico son alarmantes y aunque existe temor por la alta criminalidad, esta coexiste con la indiferencia e insensibilidad ante la mayor&iacute;a de las v&iacute;ctimas. El discurso oficialista, acogido por la poblaci&oacute;n en general, categoriza a las v&iacute;ctimas del crimen, entre v&iacute;ctimas &ldquo;culpables&rdquo; y v&iacute;ctimas ''inocentes'', de acuerdo al grupo social de procedencia de las v&iacute;ctimas. Vemos, como unos asesinatos de personas consideradas de bien, atraen la atenci&oacute;n de la mayor&iacute;a de la gente hacia el problema de la criminalidad. Asesinatos que por lo general son resueltos y convictos sus victimarios en un tiempo relativamente r&aacute;pido, mientras otros que ocurren en mayor proporci&oacute;n, no parecen indignar a la mayor&iacute;a de las personas. Esto constituye un ejemplo de este manejo diferenciado en el que <i>unos muertos valen m&aacute;s que otros.</i> El presente trabajo de investigaci&oacute;n pretende provocar una reflexi&oacute;n cr&iacute;tica en torno a los discursos valorativos respecto de los asesinatos en el pa&iacute;s y su cobertura en la prensa, a partir de la forma en que diferentes sectores valoran unos asesinatos sobre otros, de acuerdo con el nivel socioecon&oacute;mico de procedencia de las v&iacute;ctimas. Para esto, utilic&eacute; como estudio de caso del asesinato de la joven Nicole Mu&ntilde;iz Mart&iacute;nez, ocurrido en el mes de agosto de 2003. Esto fue comparado con las experiencias de cinco familiares de varones asesinados y se complement&oacute; con un an&aacute;lisis de contenido de las noticias sobre asesinatos un mes antes y despu&eacute;s del asesinato de Nicole Mu&ntilde;iz. Finalmente, el an&aacute;lisis se realiz&oacute; a partir de la teor&iacute;a de la complejidad. </p>

Networked arrangements have moved from the periphery to the centre of public policy making and now occupy a position alongside of government as key mechanisms for social and organisational integration. Despite the current prominence of networked arrangements, little is known about how networks are actually formed and what explains their structure, operation and management strategies. Moreover, despite the pivotal position as the architects, administrators and facilitators of the network reform process, the role of central agencies of government in networked environments has yet to be fully determined. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the variation in networked arrangements and its effect on design and management and, in doing so, uncover the emergent role of central agencies of government. Using a mixed research design of case study and network analysis, this thesis 'unpacked' three exemplars of cross-sector networked arrangements within the Queensland human services arena. The research produced a number of findings. First, it provided empirical evidence to support the previously largely descriptive proposition that networked arrangements are differentiated. Second, through the synthesis of two parallel integration literatures, a framework to guide the design of networked arrangements was produced. Third, it identified a set of network management strategies and demonstrated that these horizontally oriented strategies were different to those currently utilised within government. Finally, the research developed a set of general and specific roles to guide central agencies' operation within the current networked environment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Planning and Public Policy." Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-187).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Planning and Public Policy." Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-342).

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.