In developing countries, an increasing number of civil society organizations (CSOs) engage in independent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of government programs and policies. Most CSOs rely on a range of M&E tools in combination with advocacy strategies to hold government accountable and improve the implementation of programs and policies.…

In this paper, I examine whether generalized trust and education, as well as social security policies of welfare state institutions matter for cross-national differences in subjective well-being (SWB), because knowledge on this issue is still lacking. For this purpose I integrated the insights of two sociological theories: Social Function…

The problem with the study of the concept of electronic government (e-Gov) is that scholars in the field have not adequately explored various dimensions of the concept. Literature on e-Gov is replete with works on the form of government to consumer e-Gov. Much less work had been done on the government to government (G2G) e-Gov. This qualitative…

Public policy and the popular press advocate for the use of data driven decision making by administrators in order to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and avoid No Child Left Behind sanctions. Requirements such as State Senate Bill 1 and the Student Achievement Gap Elimination (SAGE) school improvement process also emphasize data driven…

In this article, Edward Zigler, interviewed by Barbara Beatty, talks about a turning point in the history of Head Start that reveals how policy choices, bureaucracy, and science came together when he was told to phase out the program in 1970. New to Washington, Zigler learned that President Richard M. Nixon's domestic policy advisor Daniel Patrick…

The Lifelong Learning Imperative (LLI) project was initiated to assess current practices in lifelong learning for engineering professionals, reexamine the underlying assumptions behind those practices, and outline strategies for addressing unmet needs. The LLI project brought together leaders of U.S. industry, academia, government, and…

This report on a statewide telephone survey describes child care use in Minnesota among households with children 12 and younger. Minnesota has an estimated 908,000 children ages 12 and younger; 24 percent are ages 0 to 2, 24 percent ages 3 to 5, 30 percent ages 6 to 9 and 23 percent ages 10 to 12. Of the nearly 500,000 households with one or more…

There are now nearly four million children born in the United States who have undocumented immigrant parents. In the current debates around immigration reform, policymakers often view immigrants as an economic or labor market problem to be solved, but the issue has a very real human dimension. Immigrant parents without legal status are raising…

Context: The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) created prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries through a new Part D program, the single largest addition to Medicare since its creation in 1965. Prior to program implementation in January 2006, concerns had been voiced as to how independent…

Professional behavior during the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) present era of oversight can best be understood by reviewing the audit types that populate village life in the GAO and the repertoire the office uses in conducting program evaluation audits. (Author/LMO)

In this interview, John Carr, the executive director of the 1980 White House Conference on Families, discusses some of the conference participants and proceedings and some of its major recommendations and intended follow-up activities to promote a "family perspective" in government and industry policymaking. (SJL)

An interview with Charles Moskos and David Evans, active in the drafting of legislation for establishment of a youth public service corps tied to federal student financial aid provision, addresses the rationale, objectives, costs, and implications of such a program. (MSE)

It is argued that both economic concerns and political factors can be synthesized within a new framework to improve city policymaking. This approach is based on a systematic empirical study of policymaking in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Baltimore (Maryland) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Numerous government documents and extensive interviews with…

Anecdotal information has recently suggested that families of infants and toddlers with disabilities in Nebraska were seeking early intervention services from providers not affiliated with the free, state-sanctioned "Early Development Network" and children's "Individualized Family Service Plans" (IFSPs). The purpose of this…

When interviewed in spring 2003, officials in 16 states with a demonstrated commitment to job training provided data on 30 state-financed programs in their states. An analysis of the data yielded the following findings: (1) when recent, long-term, and projected declines are considered, funding is declining for 22 of the 30 programs studied; (2) in…