Public Input in Toxic Site Cleanup Decisions: The Strengths and Limitations of Community Advisory Boards

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Laurian
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contaminated Sites ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advisory Boards ◽  
Community Advisory Boards

Toxic sites worldwide expose millions to environmental and health risks. In response, public agencies in Western Europe and the United States have begun to identify and remediate contaminated sites. Public participation in cleanup decisions is a critical part of this process. US agencies increasingly rely on Community Advisory Boards (CABs) to facilitate long-term participation. CABs are intended to inform and consult the public and integrate citizens' input in cleanup decisions. Recent research, however, finds that participatory processes often fall short of their objectives. This paper examines the performance of CABs in involving the public in toxic sites cleanup decisions in the United States. The research (1) develops a conceptual framework and a quantitative methodology to assess CABs; and (2) uses this methodology to assess whether CABs achieve successful participation. The analysis targets CABs at five toxic sites in Tucson, Arizona, and builds on the content analysis of eighty-one CAB meeting minutes, twenty-seven interviews with CAB members, and a survey of eighty residents around three of the sites. The key findings are that, although CABs successfully diffuse information from agencies to CAB members and (to a lesser degree) gather feedback from CAB members, they fail to inform the general public and provide community feedback to the agency.

scholarly journals 2018: A watershed year for psychedelic science

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205032451987228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob S Aday ◽  
Christopher C Davoli ◽  
Emily K Bloesch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ballot Initiatives ◽  
The Public ◽  
Psychedelic Drugs ◽  
The Status ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Public Sphere

While interest in the study of psychedelic drugs has increased over much of the last decade, in this article, we argue that 2018 marked the true turning point for the field. Substantive advances in the scientific, public, and regulatory communities in 2018 significantly elevated the status and long-term outlook of psychedelic science, particularly in the United States. Advances in the scientific community can be attributed to impactful research applications of psychedelics as well as acknowledgement in preeminent journals. In the public sphere, Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind was a commercial hit and spurred thought-provoking, positive media coverage on psychedelics. Unprecedented psychedelic ballot initiatives in the United States were representative of changes in public interest. Finally, regulatory bodies began to acknowledge psychedelic science in earnest in 2018, as evidenced by the designation of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to “breakthrough therapy” status for treatment-resistant depression by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In short, 2018 was a seminal year for psychedelic science.

scholarly journals The 1949 sterling crisis and British policy towards European integration

1985 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Newton
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact

Most commentators on the 1949 sterling crisis have viewed it as an episode with implications merely for the management of the British economy. This paper, based on the public records now available, discusses the impact of the crisis on British economic foreign policy. In particular it suggests that the crisis revealed deep Anglo-American differences, centring on the nature of the Marshall Plan, on the international value of the sterling area, and on the proper relationship between the United Kingdom and Western Europe, Ultimately the British succeeded in resolving these disagreements: but this triumph ironically implied both the defeat of British aims in post-war European reconstruction and a long term delusion that great power status could be maintained on the basis of a special relationship-with the United States.

Beyond Belief?

2019 ◽  
pp. 313-329
Author(s):  
Julie Hollar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
The World

This chapter analyzes the expansion of same-sex marriage around the world, its causes and its consequences. It argues that the domestic and transnational factors shaping a country’s adoption of same-sex marriage depend crucially on both time and place, encompassing the domestic and the transnational. It further suggests that the effects of same-sex marriage are likewise context-dependent, in most cases producing mixed results for LGBTQ people and movements. Incorporating cases outside of western Europe and the United States, this study urges a broader lens and a new focus on the short-term and long-term political effects of pursuing marriage equality.

Part III: New Perspectives on International Migration to Europe: International Comparisons and International Relations: North American Free Trade and the European Situation Compared

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 506-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Weintraub
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
International Comparisons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Treaty Of Rome ◽  
Trade Preferences ◽  
The Right ◽  
European Situation

While both the EC and NAFTA are designed to provide trade preferences to the member countries, the two groupings differ markedly in other respects. The Treaty of Rome, establishing what is now the EC, consciously used economic means to foster political cohesion in Western Europe; whereas, the NAFTA negotiations seek free trade rather than more comprehensive economic integration precisely to minimize political content. The EC contains many social provisions absent from the NAFTA discussions, the most important of which is the right of migration from one EC country to another. However, migration between Mexico and the United States, both legal and undocumented, is more extensive than between any of the EC countries. This migration is unlikely to diminish in the near to medium term because of the great disparity that exists in the levels of income of the two countries. However, a reduction in the pressure to emigrate from Mexico over the long term requires sustained economic growth there, to which free trade with the United States can contribute.

Bank for International Settlements

1956 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-340
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
The United States ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Credit Policy ◽  
Bank Deposits ◽  
United States Economy ◽  
Bank For International Settlements

The twenty-fifth annual report of the Bank for International Settlements was made public in June 1955. In reviewing the period April 1, 1954—March 31, 1955, the report noted that 1954 had been a fundamentally prosperous year; in most countries of Europe the volume of production had continued to increase during 1954, and in the United States and Canada output had begun to rise again in the second half of the year and had continued to increase in the early months of 1955. The progress had been all the more notable since it had been achieved concurrently with an unusual degree of over-all price stability and without any resurgence of major balance-of-payments difficulties; in these respects the conditions prevailing in 1954 had been a continuation of those of the two preceding years. In discussing the 1953–1954 recession in the United States and the recovery which had taken place in the United States since the autumn of 1954, the report outlined the forces and policies which it felt had enabled the recession to be halted effectively and fairly rapidly: 1) the great wealth and liquidity of the United States economy; 2) the operation of various “automatic stabilizers”, such as income tax and unemployment insurance, which had not been dependent upon new policy decisions, but had come into operation of their own accord; 3) other factors conducive to stability, such as long-term borrowing, the insurance of individual bank deposits against loss to the depositor up to $10,000, and the system of margin requirements which had been introduced in 1934; 4) special steps taken by the authorities in the field of fiscal and credit policy; and 5) the continued economic expansion in western Europe.

Management consultants and the United States’ public sector

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bessma Momani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Management Consultant ◽  
The Us ◽  
Strategic Advice ◽  
Different Levels

Management consultants provide strategic advice to public sector agencies and departments throughout the US, contributing to what some scholars call the “hollowing out of the state.” What ideational frameworks underlie these public -private relationships? Findings from a survey of management consultant show that they believe that they are contracted because they provide knowledge that is unavailable inside the public sector and that their ideas are more innovative. This study helps to explain management consultants’ perceptions of their services contracted by US public sector. By gauging the perspectives of management consultants, this research will potentially help academics and practitioners to better understand public agencies’ contracting of management consultants. This article provides preliminary steps towards better understanding and analyzing the use of management consultants by different levels of the US public sector.

Don't Blame the Bureaucracy!

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Brinton Milward ◽  
Hal G. Rainey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
The United States ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Special Interest Politics ◽  
Public Bureaucracy

ABSTRACTPublic agencies and public employees are increasingly berated as inept and inefficient. We argue that the public bureaucracy in the United States is more valuable and effective than generally recognized. Where public agencies do perform badly, the problem is often due to external factors. We discuss the oversimplified calls for more businesslike efficiency in government, the value complexity which complicates evaluation of the public bureaucracy, and the higher standards imposed on the public sector. We also discuss the challenges imposed on public agencies by special interest politics, an overload of highly complex assignments, and adverse public stereotypes. The danger of overlooking these issues is that we will continue to have a huge, active public sector, and decisions about its role and management must not be determined by oversimplification and stereotype.

Leaps of Faith

Dead Ringers ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shehzad Nadeem
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Offshore Outsourcing ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Impact

This chapter considers how the offshore outsourcing of white-collar service work set off something of a moral panic in Western Europe and the United States. Some believed that such outsourcing was salubrious in the long term and consistent with broad trends of economic restructuring. To others, it heralded a new era of job loss and economic vulnerability. The chapter explains how, in both cases, the international trade in services became a synecdoche for the promise and peril of increasing global interdependence. It examines how offshoring has crept into the service sector and tackles questions that nobody seems prepared to answer: about concession bargaining, about the denial of workers' rights in Export-Processing Zones, and about the impact on wages and working conditions in the United States. Finally, it discusses the offshore outsourcing of service work from the Indian perspective.

Legitimating Power: The Domestic Politics of U.S. International Hierarchy

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Lake
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Distributional Consequences ◽  
Regime Types

The United States has maintained international hierarchies over the Western Hemisphere for more than a century and over Western Europe for nearly seven decades. More recently, it has extended similar hierarchies over states in the Middle East. How does the United States exercise authority over other countries? In a world of juridically sovereign states, how is U.S. rule rendered legitimate? Hierarchy has interstate and intrastate distributional consequences for domestic ruling coalitions and regime types. When the gains from hierarchy are large or when subordinate societies share policy preferences similar to those of the United States, as in Europe, international hierarchy is possible and compatible with democracy. When the gains from hierarchy are small and the median citizen has policy preferences distant from those of the United States, as in Central America, international hierarchy requires autocracy, and the benefits of foreign rule will be concentrated within the governing elite. In the Middle East, the gains from hierarchy also appear small, and policy preferences are distant from those of the United States. As a result, the United States has backed sympathetic authoritarian rulers. Although a global counterinsurgency strategy might be viable over the long term, the costs of establishing effective hierarchies in the region imply that the United States is better off retrenching “East of Suez.”

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