Lobbying and policy capture

Author(s):  
David Miller ◽  
Claire Harkins ◽  
Matthias Schlögl ◽  
Brendan Montague

This chapter examines how policy is captured and aims to show how the capture of the other domains examined in this book relate to the ultimate prize of policy capture. Notable, however, policy can be captured variety of ways. The chapter considers two dimensions of policy capture—upstream and downstream. ‘Downstream’ refers to attempts to influence particular policy measures that might directly affect the industry concerned. ‘Upstream’ refers to influencing the agreed procedures by which decisions on particular matters will be taken in years to come. After that we turn to a relatively recent innovation in policy making that challenges the very categories adopted in policy studies. Partnership governance breaches the seemingly clear conceptual split between interest groups and government. We examine some key UK and EU examples in the addictions field, asking about the implications for public health and corporate power.

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Fischer ◽  
Karin Ingold ◽  
Pascal Sciarini ◽  
Frédéric Varone

AbstractPolicy actors tend to misinterpret and distrust opponents in policy processes. This phenomenon, known as the “devil shift”, consists of the following two dimensions: actors perceive opponents as more powerful and as more evil than they really are. Analysing nine policy processes in Switzerland, this article highlights the drivers of the devil shift at two levels. On the actor level, interest groups, political parties and powerful actors suffer more from the devil shift than state actors and powerless actors. On the process level, the devil shift is stronger in policy processes dealing with socio-economic issues as compared with other issues. Finally, and in line with previous studies, there is less empirical evidence of the power dimension of the devil shift phenomenon than of its evilness dimension.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie White ◽  
Philippe van Basshuysen

AbstractAt the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, high hopes were placed on digital contact tracing. Digital contact tracing apps can now be downloaded in many countries, but as further waves of COVID-19 tear through much of the northern hemisphere, these apps are playing a less important role in interrupting chains of infection than anticipated. We argue that one of the reasons for this is that most countries have opted for decentralised apps, which cannot provide a means of rapidly informing users of likely infections while avoiding too many false positive reports. Centralised apps, in contrast, have the potential to do this. But policy making was influenced by public debates about the right app configuration, which have tended to focus heavily on privacy, and are driven by the assumption that decentralised apps are “privacy preserving by design”. We show that both types of apps are in fact vulnerable to privacy breaches, and, drawing on principles from safety engineering and risk analysis, compare the risks of centralised and decentralised systems along two dimensions, namely the probability of possible breaches and their severity. We conclude that a centralised app may in fact minimise overall ethical risk, and contend that we must reassess our approach to digital contact tracing, and should, more generally, be cautious about a myopic focus on privacy when conducting ethical assessments of data technologies.


1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
J. F. Montague

Medical communications have particpated in the recent development and expansion of the broad field of communications. There are two distinct areas of interest in the field of medical communications—namely, that of academic writing, tailored to the needs of the medical profession and more recently the needs of public health and the other technical medical writing—geared to the needs of the pharmaceutical and medical advertising professions. Both areas have special needs and special techniques for solving these needs. One recent innovation in medical writing has been that of health books written in interview fashion for the general public. Some typographical aids to readers are also suggested in this paper.


2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
LOTTE ROGG ◽  
PETER KJÆR GRAUGAARD ◽  
JON HÅVARD LOGE

Objective: Optimal clinical practice depends upon a precise language with common understanding of core terms. The aim of the present study was to examine how Norwegian physicians understand the commonly used but poorly defined term “terminal.”Methods: A questionnaire was mailed to 1605 Norwegian physicians, representative of the Norwegian medical community. Nine hundred and sixty-eight responded and defined “terminal” in expected weeks left to live. The effects of gender, age, specialty, and experience with prognostication toward end of life on the estimation of “terminal” were investigated.Results: Norwegian physicians on average expect a “terminal” patient to have 3.6 (± 3.5SD) weeks to live with expectation ranging from 0 to 26 weeks. The majority (83.5%) defined “terminal” as less than 5 weeks' survival; 15.0% as 5 to 12 weeks' survival and 1.5% as more than 12 weeks' survival. No difference between genders was observed, whereas the youngest physicians (27–39 years) held shorter definitions than the other age groups. Physicians in internal medicine, surgery, and anaesthesiology held significantly shorter estimations of “terminal” than did physicians in general practice, public health, and psychiatry.Significance of results: Our study shows that the majority of Norwegian physicians restrict “terminal” to the last 2–4 weeks of patients' lives. A life expectancy of a few days compared to several weeks should lead to different clinical actions. Efforts should therefore be made to come to a common definition of the term. In our opinion the use of “terminal” should be limited to when death is expected within a few days.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249398
Author(s):  
Chipo Chimamise ◽  
Stephen Peter Munjanja ◽  
Mazvita Machinga ◽  
Iris Shiripinda

The advent of Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected many programs worldwide, public health, including programming for obstetric fistula were not spared. Obstetric fistula is an abnormal connection between the vagina and the bladder or the rectum resulting from obstetric causes, mainly prolonged obstructed labour. Zimbabwe has two obstetric fistula repair centers. Because the program uses specialist surgeons from outside the country, the repairs are organized in quarterly camps with a target to repair 90 women per quarter. This study aimed at assessing the impact of restrictions on movement and gathering of people brought about by the Cocid-19 pandemic and to characterize participants of the camp which was held in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic at Mashoko Hospital. Specifically it looked at how Covid-19 pandemic affected programming for obstetric fistula repair and characterized participants of the fistula camp held in November to December 2020 at one of the repair centers. A review of the dataset and surgical log sheets for the camp and national obstetric fistula dataset was conducted. Variables of interest were extracted onto an excel spreadsheet and analyzed for frequencies and proportions. Data were presented in charts, tables and narratives. The study noted that Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected performance of fistula repairs greatly with only 25 women repaired in 2020 as compared to 313 in 2019. Ninety women were called to come for repairs but 52 did not manage to attend due to reasons related to the restriction of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Two thirds of those women suffered from urinary incontinence while the other third had fecal incontinence. The successful repair rate was 92%. This study concluded that the pandemic greatly affected programming of fistula repair in the country and recommended the Ministry of Health and Child Care to institute measures to resume programming as soon as the situation allows.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinay Chauhan ◽  
Sushma Kaushal

Environmental scanning yields greater anticipatory management that provides important inputs for aquitision and use of information for planning and designing organization strategies. Apart from this, effective environmental scanning activities are likely to deal with threats and grasp the opportunities to finally link with enhancing organizational effectiveness. In fact this relationship matrix has led the researchers to conduct an environmental scanning through an examination of the existing status the components of the macro-environment vis-a-vis their relationship with the organizational effectiveness. There are a number of approaches, which describe the macro-environment, of which PEST analysis is regarded as the most common approach for considering the external business environment. Thus, the present study applies PEST analysis to scan the existing business environment. Jammu and Kashmir due to its peculiar political, geographical, economic, and socio-cultural features, had led its cost mountain economy become a distinctive identity. Despite the fact that the state has rich endowments, international relations with its neighbours vis-a-vis its impact on political environment also pose developmental challenges for the business units operating in the state. This has provided valid rationale for conducting the present. The environmental scanning is done through the perception of the select entrepreneurs operating MSMEs in the state of J & K. An impact analysis of environmental factors (PEST) on the organizational effectiveness is also done in the study. The findings of the study show that the political environment of the state that is not favourable for entrepreneural development whereas the rest of the other drivers of PEST i.e. economic environment, socio-cultural environment, and technological environment show a favourable response of the entrepreneurs. In terms of cause and effect relationship, it is found that the first two drivers of the PEST i.e. political and economic dimension impacts OE positively whereas the other two dimensions namely socio-cultural and technological impacts OE negatively but it is pertinent to mention that the impact is very less and is insigninificant. The study also suggests some of strategic options for developing and creating an enabling environment for successful entrepreneurial development to achieve integrated development of the state.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumari Kumkum ◽  
R. N. Singh ◽  
Yogershi Rajpoot

There may be so many negative consequences of stress for human beings and dissatisfaction among employees happens to be one of the major problems. It indicates negative feelings that individuals have regarding their jobs or its facets. On the other hand, social support is assumed to be mitigating the relationship between negative aspects of the work environment and job satisfaction. Job stress is said to be associated with job dissatisfaction as well as experience of strain. In view of the above, this study examined the role of job stress and social support in job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 30 school teachers from different school of Varanasi (U.P.). The job stress, job satisfaction and social support scales were administered on the participants. The responses of the participants were converted into scores for statistical analyses. The scores of participants on the scales were correlated. The findings revealed that job stress led to increased job satisfaction. It is against the proposed hypothesis and it appears as if the social support received by the participants is a factor behind it. Two of the four dimensions of social support were found to exert positive impact on job satisfaction but the other two dimensions were not found to be correlated with it. The findings are thoroughly discussed and interpreted.


2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Cole

Many outcome variables in developmental psychopathology research are highly stable over time. In conventional longitudinal data analytic approaches such as multiple regression, controlling for prior levels of the outcome variable often yields little (if any) reliable variance in the dependent variable for putative predictors to explain. Three strategies for coping with this problem are described. One involves focusing on developmental periods of transition, in which the outcome of interest may be less stable. A second is to give careful consideration to the amount of time allowed to elapse between waves of data collection. The third is to consider trait-state-occasion models that partition the outcome variable into two dimensions: one entirely stable and trait-like, the other less stable and subject to occasion-specific fluctuations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Martin Čadek ◽  
Stuart W. Flint ◽  
Ralph Tench

Abstract Objective: The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is a mandatory initiative delivered in England to children in reception and year 6. To date, no research has explored the methods used to deliver the NCMP by Local Government Authorities (LGA) across England. Design: An online survey was administered between February 2018 and May 2018 to explore the delivery of the NCMP across the 152 LGAs in England and disseminated using non-probability convenience sampling. Setting: LGAs received an anonymous link to the survey. Participants: A total of 92 LGAs participated in the survey. Results: Most LGAs who responded provide result feedback (86%), a proactive follow-up (71%) and referrals to services (80%). Additionally, 65% of the authorities tailor Public Health England specimen result letters to suit their needs, and 84% provide attachments alongside. Out of 71% of LGAs who provide proactive follow-up, 19 (29%) provide the proactive follow-up only to upper weight categories, and only 4 (6 %) include Healthy Weight category with other categories in proactive follow-up. Regarding the service availability for children, out of 80% of LGAs who indicated that services are available, 32 (43%) targeted solely upper weight categories while the other 42 (57%) offered services across all weight categories. Finally, most LGAs (88%) commission providers to manage various parts of the NCMP. Conclusions: The results show that LGAs in England localise the NCMP. Further guidance regarding standards of best practice would help LGAs to find the most suitable localisation out of various options that exist across other LGAs.


Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
S. J. Blodgett-Ford

The phenomenon and ethics of “voting” will be explored in the context of human enhancements. “Voting” will be examined for enhanced humans with moderate and extreme enhancements. Existing patterns of discrimination in voting around the globe could continue substantially “as is” for those with moderate enhancements. For extreme enhancements, voting rights could be challenged if the very humanity of the enhanced was in doubt. Humans who were not enhanced could also be disenfranchised if certain enhancements become prevalent. Voting will be examined using a theory of engagement articulated by Professor Sophie Loidolt that emphasizes the importance of legitimization and justification by “facing the appeal of the other” to determine what is “right” from a phenomenological first-person perspective. Seeking inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, voting rights and responsibilities will be re-framed from a foundational working hypothesis that all enhanced and non-enhanced humans should have a right to vote directly. Representative voting will be considered as an admittedly imperfect alternative or additional option. The framework in which voting occurs, as well as the processes, temporal cadence, and role of voting, requires the participation from as diverse a group of humans as possible. Voting rights delivered by fiat to enhanced or non-enhanced humans who were excluded from participation in the design and ratification of the governance structure is not legitimate. Applying and extending Loidolt’s framework, we must recognize the urgency that demands the impossible, with openness to that universality in progress (or universality to come) that keeps being constituted from the outside.


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