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]]>Over the next three years, Allen and his team will travel the globe conducting qualitative interviews with military personnel, local activists and local government officials to get their perspective on the dynamics of having U.S. troops stationed in key areas. The team also will be collecting data and using geographic information systems, most often referred to as GIS, to map U.S. troop-based criminal activity in other countries.
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]]>The post The Politics of Human Well-Being appeared first on The Blue Review.
]]>Political factors play a particularly important role in influencing well-being of the citizenry. A prominent indicator of human well-being that is commonly used in the political science literature is infant mortality, which refers to the number of infant deaths per thousand live births. Not only does infant mortality capture infants’ health but it is also indicative of well-being of the poorer strata of society, where infant mortality rates are especially likely to be higher.
My recently published book accounts for these disparities by assessing the role of domestic political determinants (political representation and governance) and international political determinants (globalization and conflict) in influencing human well-being outcomes such as infant mortality. In my book, I test the effect of the four political determinants on well-being through statistical analyses on a global sample of countries supplemented with several case narratives, with the results showing how the impact each of these determinants has on a range of well-being outcomes. Below I provide brief discussions about each determinant, in turn.
I conceptualize political representation to capture the extent to which different groups within society are able to influence policy-making. Political representation in this context refers to the presence of multiple political parties where a country with a higher number of political parties is more representative in nature compared to a country with fewer political parties. I argue that countries with higher levels of representation are more inclusive and more competitive in nature and are associated with better well-being outcomes. A more inclusive political system with multiple parties enables diverse swaths of society to convey their needs and preferences to the decision-makers and policies formulated in such a society are better able to encompass the interests of different groups. Moreover, it also creates an environment of negotiation, compromise, and cooperation among political parties to work together.
A less representative system with fewer parties, on the other hand, is not as inclusive and may only represent the interests of select groups within society. Consider the case of Sweden. Sweden has a multiparty system and has one of the lowest levels of infant mortality in the world with an infant mortality rate of 2 in 2016. Sweden has a large welfare state, which incorporates the needs of multiple segments of society. For instance, allowances are given to families with children, there are programs for mothers through subsidies, parental and paternity leaves are available that extend benefits to both parents, and adequate childcare support is provided by the government, among others. These policies benefit the populace at large and are difficult to dismantle today given the vast support for the policies among the people. The Social Democrats played an important role in building the welfare state in Sweden and they have been able to do so in a multiparty system environment working with other political parties.
A better-represented system with multiple parties also signals the presence of a more competitive system, which provides incentives for all representatives to perform better to ensure their political survival. In less competitive systems incumbents may lack the motivation to perform well in office if they do not face alternative challengers who could potentially replace them. One could argue that too much representation could hamper the decision-making process where alternative representative groups may take an intransigent stand, making it difficult to formulate important policies that could improve welfare outcomes. Indeed, at conflict are two competing objectives: better representation versus prompt decision-making. However, the advantages of a better-represented society could outweigh the potential adverse consequences of too much representation because the electorate can replace poor-performing incumbents who fail to satisfy the most basic health needs of their supporters.
Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, photo by Arild Vågen, Wikimedia CC.
Governance primarily refers to the way authority is exercised by government officials who play an important role in pursuing developmental objectives as they are involved in the formulation and implementation of a variety of welfare policies. I conceptualize governance through three fundamental attributes: bureaucratic quality, corruption, and rule of law where “good governance” refers to high quality bureaucracy, low levels of corruption, and a strong rule of law. I argue that good governance collectively improves societal well-being.
High quality bureaucracy embodies meritocratic recruitment and political autonomy of bureaucrats, ensuring selection of capable individuals who are able to perform their tasks without interference from political officials. Japan’s bureaucracy serves as a good example of high-quality bureaucracy, which is based on meritocratic recruitment and an autonomous bureaucracy. Both these features can be traced to the Meiji era, which was initiated in the 1860s and remain prevalent in contemporary times. Japan has achieved commendable levels of human well-being as indicated by a low infant mortality rate of 2 in 2016. The bureaucracy has been especially proactive in improving well-being outcomes where the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Labor played an important role. The Ministry of Health and Welfare took the initiative and sent policy-makers to western countries to adopt and adapt welfare policies to domestic needs. They initiated the Angel Plan, which had similarities with policies in the EU and included better maternity and parental leaves, better support for workers with children, and raising the age for universal child care from 3-7 years in 2000 to 15 years in 2009, among others.
Corruption, on the other hand, refers to the pursuit of personal interest by government officials and can have a detrimental effect on human well-being. One plausible way public officials can indulge in corrupt practices is by influencing the price of government goods and services; either driving up the price of welfare provisions for the citizens or by stealing the provisions from the government – both forms of corruption may adversely affect human well-being by reducing the availability of essential health provisions and making them more expensive. For instance, in Tanzania, bribes extracted from the health sector reduced the availability of health care for the poor as it drove up prices, depriving individuals of essential welfare provisions.
Finally, rule of law refers to impartiality or equal applicability of law to all. In so far as the rule of law is impartial, it ensures a vigilant system that holds the violators of law accountable, including government officials. A strong rule of law can minimize corrupt behavior and enhance responsiveness and accountability among government officials. Good governance is a holistic concept such that high quality bureaucracy, low levels of corruption, and a strong rule of law collectively present an environment that is associated with better human well-being outcomes.
Japanese Diet and Tokyo skyline photo by Daderot, Wikimedia CC.
I assess the effect of three aspects of globalization on human well-being outcomes. Economic globalization refers to increased flows of capital, goods, and services across international boundaries. Social globalization refers to the spread of ideas, norms, and cultures across borders as well as greater informal interaction among the states through international tourism, media, and other forms of information exchange. Lastly, political globalization refers to the extent to which states are engaged with the international community, as evidenced by actions such as joining international organizations, participating in UN missions, entering into international treaties, and establishing embassies in foreign countries. The consequences of globalization have been a contentious issue among scholars where each of these three aspects of globalization have contradictory effects.
The consequences of globalization, however, can be varied depending on the outcome of interest. I argue that all three aspects of globalization improve well-being outcomes. One of the aspects of economic globalization is greater trade and trade in essential drugs can improve health outcomes by increasing their accessibility to those in need around the world. Social globalization can educate people in ways that can improve human well-being. The role of the media is especially significant since it strongly facilitates the transmission of information about the latest developments in health-related medicines and services, such as knowledge about vaccines, antibiotics, and other related research. A particularly striking example is the way that Pasteur’s discovery of germs in 1873 led to a 20th century revolution in health as states and societies increasingly understood the importance of clean water. One of the aspects of greater political globalization is association with international organizations that are more unequivocally a positive force for human well-being, namely the United Nations and its subsidiary organizational bodies such as the UNDP, UNICEF, the World Food Program, and many others that primarily focus on the promotion of human well-being. It is noteworthy that these international organizations also play a high-profile role advocating on behalf of developing countries.
Conflicts can adversely influence human well-being in many different ways. Existing research demonstrates that conflicts may drive states to divert resources away from productive areas that enhance human well-being, adversely affect the economic performance of countries embroiled in conflicts, deteriorate the quality of infrastructure, and hamper trade between countries. All these mechanisms could adversely affect the quality of human lives by reducing the availability of resources that are necessary to improve human well-being outcomes. Conflicts can be especially harmful for one of the most vulnerable segments of population, children. For instance, Burundi’s civil war adversely influenced health outcomes among children specifically.
Conflicts often displace large proportions of population within countries. As of 2015, over 38 million people had been internally displaced due to armed conflict and violence and almost 77% of IDPs (internally displaced people) live in 10 countries, namely, Syria, Colombia, Iraq, Sudan, DR Congo, Pakistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Turkey. IDPs often live in a precarious environment and may not have access to basic necessities such as housing, food, clean water, health services and provisions, which are necessary to maintain a standard quality of life.
Conflicts can also adversely affect neighboring states in the form of a refugee influx. Consider the ongoing conflict in Syria where as of January 2nd, 2018, the total number of registered Syrian refugees is about 5,481,262, which includes 2 million registered refugees in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, 3 million in Turkey, and over 30,000 in Northern Africa. An inflow of refugees often puts pressure on host governments’ resources. Funding that could be diverted to address health, education, and other general welfare needs of the citizens may need to be diverted to address the immediate concerns of the refugee population. This may adversely affect well-being of the populace in the host states as well as the refugee population.
Syrian children outside temporary home in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Photo by DFID – UK Department for International Development.
This article addresses the three opening questions. It identifies some of the factors that can account for existing disparities in human well-being. Both domestic and international political determinants play an important role. Political representation and governance help us understand the political dynamics within countries while globalization and conflicts shed light on the political dynamics between countries and well-being outcomes. This research has important policy implications as it can help us identify some of the ways in which we can improve human lives.
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]]>Notably missing among these forms of tax relief, however, is any reduction or elimination of the state’s tax on groceries. A dust-up over tax relief occurred at the end of the previous legislative session, when Governor Otter vetoed a bill that would have repealed the grocery tax. Intriguingly, that bill originally sought to reduce income taxes, before a Senate amendment “radiator capped” the language and turned it instead into a grocery tax bill. The controversy continued when the governor’s veto was later challenged, albeit unsuccessfully, in court by a group of legislators, shaping up a much-anticipated battle over which kind of tax relief Idahoans have in store.
A half-year after the judicial system ended grocery tax advocates’ crusade for reform, the table was set for the conflict to play out again, this time more directly, in the 2018 legislative session. As each side drafted their preferred legislation and prepared for another potential showdown, an essential question remained unanswered: what were the preferences of regular Idahoans? And, perhaps more importantly, what shaped those preferences?
For three consecutive years, the School of Public Service at Boise State University has included questions about attitudes toward state taxation and spending on its annual Idaho Public Policy Survey. Across those surveys, attitudes toward the state’s fiscal picture have remained consistent – a plurality continues to believe the state’s budget should stay generally the same and nearly two-thirds think the state’s current tax burden is about right. This year, results show that two-thirds are also generally content with the state’s current tax system, thinking it either works fairly well as it is now or that only minor changes are necessary.
Overall, Idahoans seem basically satisfied with the status quo in this area; or, at least, there is no major demand for significant reform. That said, nearly half of the 2018 survey’s respondents said they would support lowering taxes in Idaho, even when reminded that doing so often means fewer resources available to pay for state and some local government services. So, even as Idahoans appear content with the state’s current approach to taxing and spending, there also seems to be at least some appetite for tax reduction. The question, then, is which type.
In order to try to understand not only what type of tax relief Idahoans prefer, but also why, we inserted an experiment in the 2018 Idaho Public Policy Survey conducted by the School of Public Service at Boise State University. Tax reform is a challenging issue to receive citizen feedback on due to the complexity of potential reform alternatives, the uncertainty surrounding the different likely effects of those alternatives, and nature of the tradeoffs that exist. To reflect this complexity, we broke our sample into three groups and randomly assigned them to receive different descriptions of the tax reform and the tradeoffs that could occur if a policy was adopted. Respondents in the first group (n=310), which we call our baseline since they do not receive any extra information, were simply asked if they had their choices of eliminating either the sales tax on food or reducing the income tax rate, which they would prefer. Respondents in this group expressed a decided preference for eliminating the sales tax on food (59%) compared to reducing the income tax (28%). Only a small percentage wanted neither (11%), or did not know (2%).
With this preference for the grocery tax in mind, we wanted to know how extra considerations and tradeoffs that are factors in this debate might alter citizen preferences. Specifically, we wanted to know how people would weigh information about the individual benefits of the cuts against the consequences for the state government’s budget. If the income tax is reduced, Idahoans will likely save substantially more money than they would by eliminating the grocery sales tax, but that also means that the state will have less revenue for services and might have to reduce them. We presented the second group of respondents (n=325) with this information and then asked them about their preferences for reducing the income tax or eliminating the sales tax on food. If we were to observe sizeable differences from the baseline question it would suggest that when presented with these considerations, citizens were adjusting their preferences. If we saw responses move in favor of the income tax it would mean that when citizens were informed about the magnitude of the tax savings for them, they shifted their preference despite the consequences for the state budget. This is the utility of the approach we have taken – rather than giving voters no information, or just a positive or negative piece of information, we are exposing them to the complexity of these kinds of policy choices and observing how the additional tradeoffs influence attitudes. The figure below shows Idahoans’ preferences for tax relief given the tradeoffs described above.
We see that preferences do shift, but not dramatically. There is a 10% reduction in the number of citizens who would eliminate the tax on food, but this option is still the most popular response with almost half of individuals selecting it. This is notable, as people are still opting for this form of tax relief even after being told it is not the one that will put the most money in their pockets. With that said, we do see a small increase in the percentage who prefer an income tax reduction (+5%), and an identical increase in the percentage who do not know which they would prefer (+5%). Although we are not able to say why so many citizens stick with a preference for eliminating the grocery tax – it could be either the effect of being told that state revenues would fall, or it could be a belief that necessities like food should not be taxed – we are able to say that when given more complete information involving the complex policy tradeoffs that follow tax reform, this more informed group still prefers to focus on the grocery tax, though less decidedly so than the group that was simply asked about its baseline preference.
As a final test of citizen preferences, we added one more informational wrinkle – information about potential future impacts. The third group of respondents (n=365) was presented with the same information as the previous ones, but was also told that income tax cuts might make up for lost revenue with future economic growth, though this growth was not guaranteed. The preferences for this final group appear below:
A similar pattern emerges. Half of the respondents opted for eliminating the tax on food, essentially unchanged from the previous question wording. Introducing the possibility of growth making up for lost state revenue in this version does not significantly alter support. If anything, this extra piece of information should make the income tax more appealing as we have not only told respondents that they will personally save more money, but also that there is a chance that state revenues will not suffer. The fact that we still observe such a consistent preference for the elimination of the grocery tax is striking, and suggestive of a consistent belief that, in principle, taxes on food are less desirable than income taxes. The other notable observation we have is that the percentage who respond that neither form of tax relief should be pursued has risen (+5%) in this version. We speculate that when exposed to the multiple layers of complexity and uncertainty on the matter, citizens may become ambivalent and opt for the status quo.
By including this experiment in the 2018 Idaho Public Policy Survey, we have been able to test what happens to opinions on tax reform as knowledge of the complex considerations becomes more complete. This is useful as citizen preferences on complicated policies are often not made with full information, which can result in survey responses that are not the best reflections of attitudes. In this case, we observed relatively consistent results across all of the informational considerations and policy tradeoffs that we presented, demonstrating a stable majority (or near majority) level of support for eliminating the sales tax on groceries.
The results tell us that grocery tax relief remains more popular than income tax relief, though the gap in support between the two alternatives varies in size. This suggests that how the issue is framed to citizens can make a difference, though perhaps not dramatically so. Our survey does not allow us to assess the extent to which such framing might matter, however. Nor does it tell us what is perhaps the most important thing in any policy choice – which alternative is empirically the best deal for the state and those who reside in it. After all, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry recently released an economic impact report, authored by two Boise State economists, that shows income tax reductions would significantly benefit all Idahoans, especially those in the lower income brackets; another white paper the business advocacy organization put out shows how difficult it would be for low-income families to “break even” if proposed grocery tax elimination took effect.
Determining which reform alternative to choose, if any, remains the responsibility of those who have been elected to represent their fellow Idahoans each day in both the state legislature and the governor’s office. The role public preferences play in determining policy outcomes has historically varied; the extent to which it will drive decision making on this matter in this legislative session remains to be seen.
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]]>Library support for the collective good has been a given for tax-funded public libraries since their founding in mid-19th century America. At that time library missions were generally focused on the betterment of the locals through free access to educational materials. After World War I this gentle form of information activism gradually morphed into a more political movement. By the 1990s libraries were intervening on behalf of their patrons in relation to freedom of information, privacy rights, and equitable access to digital resources. This activism gained more strength after 9/11 in response to the Patriot Act when librarians started collaborating with the ACLU on the Library Freedom project to help patrons understand their rights to digital privacy.
While libraries continued to rally behind issues related to civil liberties, they also began acting as civic agents, creating opportunities for patrons to learn about and debate complex political issues. The 2016 election provided excellent motivation for unprecedented librarian outspokenness in relation to the importance of well-reasoned civic discourse and participation in democratic processes. These days, public and academic libraries promote constructive public deliberation of government matters by providing community spaces, programming, resources, instruction in media literacy and, above all, library staff with the values and training to facilitate constructive conversations about potentially divisive issues.
Libraries are natural spaces in which to engage in conversations on civic matters, supporting patrons by providing not only equitable access to information, but also safe spaces in which to do so. During times of unrest, libraries are havens; Ferguson Public Library stayed open and offered resources to help patrons during the Black Lives Matter protests. Libraries are also places to seek common ground. Sitting Bull College Library offered information to Dakota Access pipeline protestors and visitors as well as hosting a forum for the public.
Further, libraries foster informed participation in civil discourse through educational programming such as presentations on local issues or participation in national initiatives like the American Democracy Project. Libraries often collaborate with civic or educational organizations in creating programming; recently academic libraries have been partnering with the 1000+ strong coalition of the Campus Compact to foster conversations on college campuses on political issues. Locally, Albertsons Library worked with the Marilyn Shuler Human Rights Initiative to host Teach-Ins on topics such as Russian interference in the presidential election and the racist history of Idaho.
Libraries also support a deliberative democracy by fulfilling their basic, ongoing mission, ensuring equitable access to information. From their founding, tax-supported public and academic libraries have been regarded as trusted civic institutions essential to the support of an “informed and participative citizenry.” Even in this age of fake news, alternative facts, and hacked social media networks, library users believe in the institution’s ability to provide facts about their government and more. In fact, Americans trust libraries above other institutions, including the military, police, and the church according to a Pew Report.
Libraries provide not only the facts needed to understand and form sound opinions on government and other matters, but also assistance in parsing information for its usefulness and credibility. Media literacy is an essential skill in wading through the info-glut of our society, and libraries have taken on the task with gusto. Librarians work under a Code of Ethics which helps ensure their neutrality when assisting library users with information searches and other questions. Even when a library user is searching for information that is demonstrably false, such as denial of the Holocaust, a professional librarian will guide the user to question the assumptions underlying that opinion rather than judge the library user for that information need.
While librarian neutrality is essential when working at the reference desk as well as in library work managing space, programming and resources, recent research asserts that this work is, at its heart, deeply political. With their dedication to intellectual freedom, equitable access to information, and civil liberties, librarians are advocates for the common good, which, in some ways, puts them in opposition to some current government policies and politicians.
As part of their growing advocacy, librarians are also functioning as facilitators for civil discourse in the public sphere. In 2010 the American Library Association’s Center for Civic Life was created to help libraries foster civic engagement generally, as well as offering training for librarians to help their communities navigate public deliberations of political issues in a civil manner. This training for facilitators has been developed by the National Issues Forum, an organization known for its National Issues Framework and issue guides, which outline differing viewpoints. The facilitators’ training is part of a free learning series, Libraries Transforming Communities, organized by the ALA in collaboration with the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation because “our divided nation needs conversation more than ever.”
In multiple and meaningful ways libraries continue their dedication to the transformative possibilities inherent in an informed and engaged citizenry. Libraries are promoting their activism through campaigns such as #LibrariesTransform, which aims to alter the image of libraries from “nice to have” to essential to a democracy. No longer the bespectacled shushers of popular media, librarians are outward facing collaborators, creating the means for their community members to engage with each other civilly across gaps in ideology, considering what the “common good” means to them, and how we all might come together to support it.
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]]>Fry has done considerable research on chronic homelessness and the associated financial and social costs incurred in the emergency medical, emergency shelter, and criminal justice systems. In Ada County, Idaho, the costs associated with 100 people experiencing chronic homelessness is about $5.3 million in a single year. However, evidence shows that by providing those same 100 people with a home and supportive services the community could avoid costs of nearly $2.7 million annually. This research has spurred a number of positive community impacts.
In fall of 2017, a cross-sector partnership broke ground on New Path Community Housing, a Housing First program that will provide a 40 residential units and supportive services for some of the Ada County’s most vulnerable people. Projected outcomes for clients in the program include a reduction in emergency room visits, reduced interactions with the criminal justice system, and an increase in overall well-being.. Fry and the Idaho Policy Institute are now assisting in the evaluation design for New Path.
Missoula City Council Member Julie Armstrong invited Fry to present at their meeting and provide expertise on the opportunity for a similar Housing First initiative in Missoula. While in Missoula Fry also toured an emergency shelter and also met with two local hospitals, researchers at University of Montana, and other entities involved with housing and homelessness initiatives.
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]]>We will focus on assessing the forecasts from the quantitative election forecasting industry, as we want to determine the numerical forecasting error. Thus, we will not consider here the more subjective, and thus not replicable, election forecasting efforts of, for instance, The Cook Political Report (final forecast leaning toward Clinton), Allan Lichtman’s Keys to the White House (Trump victory), Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball (leaning toward Clinton), and The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report (leaning toward Clinton), though these too were generally off the mark in their final forecasts.
Instead, we will examine a dozen quantitative election forecasts, as they are in theory replicable, meaning that outside analysts can take the data and models the forecasters use and arrive at the same results using the same analytical techniques. Rather than replicate these forecast models, we will compare their forecasts and assess their error in forecasting the final election result.
Before discussing the relative accuracy of the various 2016 election forecasts, it makes sense to clarify what is meant by that term. By election “forecast”, I refer to three basic elements: accuracy (the forecast accurately predicts the final election result), parsimony (models use as few independent variables as necessary in order to make the election forecast), and lead time (the forecast is made at a time point substantially prior to the election).
There were two types of quantitative election forecasting during the 2016 elections. The first type is based on polling aggregation, with the guiding idea that the averaging of polling results will lead to the most likely election result. These daily forecasts were eagerly consumed by the media and public. Polling aggregators use thousands of state and national polls, and some also account for “election fundamentals”, to publish an average and comprehensive daily forecast. Polling aggregators had their start in the 2008 presidential elections, with Nate Silver becoming the industry leader with his FiveThirtyEight data journalism operation. The polling aggregators for this election cycle include the following efforts, paired below with their lead forecaster and final forecasted probability of victory for Hillary Clinton in 2016:
As we can see, the forecasters were rather confident in their belief that Clinton would win the election, though Silver was notably less confident than his colleagues.
How do the polling aggregators work? They use an averaging methodology that takes repeated public opinion snapshots of the voting public, enough to paint a daily picture of the electorate in all of its vicissitudes, yet discounts polling results from more distant time periods. The daily forecasts are expressed in probabilities of the major presidential candidates winning the general election. These probabilities became popular with the public, and the probabilities were even compared to probabilities of other common events taking place. (For instance, The New York Times Upshot tended to compare the likelihood of a Hillary Clinton victory to that of a National Football League placekicker converting a field goal attempt from a relatively short-to-moderate yardage on the field.)
The second type of quantitative election forecast is termed single-point estimation, issued by academic teams of researchers, and receive less publicity than do the polling aggregators. How do the single-point estimation forecasters work? They lay out a theoretical rationale for voting and specify independent variables to reflect that theory in equations to be estimated using readily available time-series data that exist well prior to the election date. The preferred statistical technique is regression analysis, which yields an easily interpretable equation. These forecasters make their forecasts relatively early in the election campaign, based on the parameters of their estimated equations and plugging current values of their independent variables into their models to arrive at a single forecast of the major two-party vote for the White House incumbent party (in this election, Hillary Clinton). These forecasts are not updated, unlike those of the polling aggregators: the forecast remains in place throughout the campaign season and on Election Day.
This modeling began in earnest in the early 1980s, with guiding principles that place an emphasis on predicting as a fundamental scientific enterprise that should be on equal footing with that of seeking explanations for voting behavior. The media do report on these forecasts, but since they are issued at one time point, they quickly lose media interest. The single-point models for the 2016 elections were summarized in the October 2016 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics:
Common to these models are independent variables that measure economic conditions at the national and state level such as GDP growth and leading economic indicators, and political conditions such as presidential popularity, primary results, and trial heat polls. All variables are measured well in advance of the election date, sometimes nearly a year prior, as in Helmut Norpoth’s primary model. The intent is to forecast based upon models built using solid voting behavior theory, estimated with non-trivial lead time, and distinguished by the high predictive power of the final result.
Our task is to compare the results of these different approaches. A reasonable head-to-head comparison between the polling aggregators and the single-point forecasters is to analyze their closeness to the final result on the day that the single-point forecasters make their forecast. The only polling aggregator that made a forecast comparable to the dependent variable of choice for the single-point forecasters, the percentage of the two-party vote won by the incumbent party presidential candidate, is Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight website. (The popular vote percentage forecasts that FiveThirtyEight published were for all candidates running. Thus, I used the law of proportions to convert the FiveThirtyEight percentages to two-party popular vote forecasts.)
I tracked the forecasts that FiveThirtyEight made on each release date of the predictions made by the single-point forecasters. I subtracted their forecasts from the final election result, listed in the column “Forecast Error” and compared the deviations to the “Silver Polls-Plus Forecast Error”. The Polls-Plus forecast is meant to be the most comprehensive of the FiveThirtyEight forecasts, and thus should be of an equal power to the single-point forecasts. In addition, I take the absolute values of these deviations (switching negative numbers to positive) to arrive at an average absolute deviation so as to compare the average deviation from all eleven single-point forecasters to the eleven forecasts by FiveThirtyEight on those forecast dates.
Average Absolute Forecast Error 1.2 0.7
* Bold indicates the most accurate forecasts head-to-head (“Forecast Error” versus “Silver Polls-Plus Forecast Error”), based on the day of the forecast. The Lewis-Beck & Tien forecast tied with the Silver Polls-Plus forecast
** Silver’s forecasts compared to Norpoth’s forecasts were for the first day the FiveThirtyEight model was operational (6/8/16).
Of the eleven single-point forecasts, six were closer to the final election result than were the FiveThirtyEight Polls-Plus forecasts on the days the single-point forecasts were released with one tie (Lewis-Beck and Tien and Silver at 0.1 percent error in absolute terms). The closer forecasts were Campbell (Convention Bump) at 0.1 percent error, Campbell (Labor Day) at 0.4 percent error, Lockerbie at 0.7 percent error, Erikson and Wlezien (Pre-Convention) at 0.8 percent error, Erikson and Wlezien (Post-Convention) at 0.9 percent error, and Jerôme and Jerôme-Speziari at 1.0 percent error. Of the four single-point forecasts that were farther off from the FiveThirtyEight forecasts, two of them, Abramowitz’s forecast at 2.5 percent error and Norpoth’s forecast at 3.6 percent error, predicted that Donald Trump would win the majority of the popular vote. The other two, Holbrook at 1.4 percent error and PollyVote (a type of aggregation of forecasts) at 1.6 percent error, overestimated the popular vote for Hillary Clinton.
Overall, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given the high degree of publicity for the polling aggregators (the FiveThirtyEight website was accessed more than 92 million times during October 2016 according to its press release), the single-point forecasters proved that their models provided a parsimonious yet rich and extremely close prediction of the vote, well before the election date, with relatively low data demands, as opposed to the heavy data consumption of the polling aggregators. It is also remarkable that there is such agreement between the forecasts, with the range of forecast errors for the single-point forecasters being from -3.6 percent to 1.6 percent of the two-party voteshare, and the range for the FiveThirtyEight polls-plus forecasts being from 0.1 percent to 1.3 percent of the two-party voteshare. The average absolute errors are also quite small: 1.19 percent for the single-point forecasters, .69 percent for the FiveThirtyEight polls-plus forecasts. By any standard, these forecasts are reliable.
However, these models were all forecasting a constitutional irrelevancy of American government: the two-party popular vote for president as opposed to the electoral vote for president. No matter how close these forecasts were for the popular vote, only two of them forecasted the correct winning candidate, Donald Trump: Abramowitz and Norpoth. (Interestingly, at no point did the FiveThirtyEight polls-plus popular vote forecast ever show Donald Trump in the lead.)
These results raise an important question: should we give as much consideration as we do to the election forecasting industry if it cannot point us in the direction of the eventual winning candidate? Normally, the common response is to state that the two-party popular vote is highly positively correlated to the electoral vote, meaning that they should both track very closely. Indeed, the Pearson correlation between the winning two-party popular vote and winning electoral vote is .92 between 1948 – 2016. Yet the correlation has not always been so high, historically speaking: between 1920 – 2016 the correlation is .75, and between 1824 – 2016 the correlation is .67. These lower correlations remind us that close tracking is not perfect tracking, witness this fourth instance of the electoral vote not corresponding to the known public vote since 1828, and the second instance in the five most recent presidential elections.
Many reasons are given for these two recent abnormalities, though a version of the “stalled electorate” moniker first used to analyze French elections seems appropriate to explain the frequent modern occurrence of the discrepancy. A bicoastal Democratic Party domination of presidential elections is mirrored by an equally dominant interior Republican Party domination, with about a dozen swing states in the interior determining the eventual winner.
While, in the end, the election forecasting industry was heavily critiqued by the media for getting their forecast wrong, the quantitative forecasters who focused on two-party popular vote were largely on target. By the date of the electors of the Electoral College meetings in the 50 states and the District of Columbia on December 19th, 2016, Hillary Clinton led by more than 2.86 million voters nationwide, or 51.1 percent of the two-party vote. That margin of popular vote victory is larger than the margin in such recent elections as 2000, 1960, 1968, and 1976. The single-point forecasters and the polling aggregators largely foresaw this margin, and if anything, the single-point forecasters were slightly more prescient than their flashier polling aggregator cousins in modeling the voteshare. More broadly, if “the acid test of a science is its utility in forecasting”, then the forecasting industry as a scientific enterprise must continue, and based on these close forecasts of the actual vote, the efforts are encouraging indeed.
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]]>Gone are the days when talented employees would endure hiring delays and a mind-numbing application process to get an entry-level government job. Gone, too, are the days when talented employees would accept slow but steady advancement through towering government bureaucracies in exchange for a thirty-year commitment. In the midst of a growing labor shortage, government is becoming an employer of last resort, one that caters more to the security-craver than the risk-taker.
At the heart of these issues is a core question: why do employees choose the public sector? Or, possibly more importantly, why do employees not choose the public sector?
These are question that have long interested public officials, political commentators, and academics. Typically, employee motives for choosing jobs are grouped into two categories: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivators encourage employees through externally created rewards (i.e., pay or job security) and represent key tools used to recruit, retain, and manage employees. Intrinsic motivators, on the other hand, rely on employees encouraging themselves to work through internally created incentives that are inherent to the job itself (i.e., personal fulfillment). In essence, extrinsically motivated employees work to obtain rewards and intrinsically motivated employees work because of a passion for the job. While organizations use extrinsic motivators to make employment more attractive, intrinsic motivators are part of the job itself and not entirely created by management. As such, no job offers only extrinsic or intrinsic motivators; rather, every job offers a different mixture of these motivators which allows employees to seek out positions that best meets their preferences.
Four decades of research into how the public sector compares to the private and nonprofit sectors, in terms of recruiting and retaining human capital, has yielded two key observations. First, the private sector is the best at providing extrinsic incentives, followed by the public sector and then the nonprofit sector. This pattern exists across a variety of extrinsic motivators, including retirement and health benefits, job security, employer networks, and career advancement opportunities, but is most obvious when it comes to salary differentials.
Second, the opposite pattern exists between these sectors when it comes to intrinsic motivators, with the nonprofit sector being the most adept and the private sector the least. In the public sector, we most commonly refer to this as public service motivation (PSM), where some individuals have a desire to serve the public interest or others that motivates them to public service through psychological incentives. However, intrinsic motivators can be broader than this and include doing “interesting” work, job responsibilities, dedication to organizational missions, or having an impact either on individuals or society as a whole.
For both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, decades of research tells us that the public sector consistently sits somewhere in the middle between the private and nonprofit sectors, with those sectors providing better opportunities for one set of motivators but not both. These trends are the result of a long-standing cross-sectoral competition for human capital, which has been exacerbated by workforce shortages in highly trained and skilled employees. Traditionally, intrinsic rewards associated with public service delivery were a key public sector strategy for recruitment of highly skilled workers, along with promises of job security and retirement benefits. However, the public service has changed in recent decades with contracting out to private and nonprofit organizations, an emerging social responsibility ethic in business practices, and a growing nonprofit sector. Consequently, public service is now accomplished with cross-sectoral collaboration, where the public sector still maintains leadership but private and nonprofit organizations are highly engaged in delivering public services.
The changing nature of public service has blurred the lines between economic sectors by intermingling public, private, and nonprofit sector missions, and made it easier for employees to balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivators by seeking employers positioned along a continuum that balance their interests. As such, there is increased pressure for all economic sectors to recruit and retain the best and brightest as no sector monopolizes job tasks or functions, and employees choose career paths that may include employment in any economic sector.
Analyzing trends in employee motives between sectors is difficult as employee responsibilities, backgrounds, and training differ significantly. One profession, however, provides a particularly interesting case to examine. Attorneys make an intriguing and useful case for comparison because educational qualifications and job functions are comparable between sectors, while intrinsic and extrinsic motivators fluctuate widely and attract employees to different types of organizations. To examine these trends, we use data from the first wave of the American Bar Foundation’s After the JD survey, a nationally representative dataset of lawyers in the United States who first passed the bar exam in 2000. We categorized respondents into their economic sector of employment: private, public, and nonprofit. Then, we grouped a series of questions asking respondents about the factors that determined their choice in employment into two constructs: intrinsic and extrinsic. Respondents rated each question on a seven-point scale, from not important at all (1) to extremely important (7). Intrinsic motivators included: substantive interest in a specific field of law; opportunity to develop specific skills; potential to balance work and personal life; and, opportunity to do socially responsible work. Extrinsic motivators included: medium-to-long-term earning potential; salary to pay off law school debts; prestige; and opportunities for mobility.
Figure 1 displays percentages of respondents rating importance of intrinsic motivators as a 5, 6, or 7 (i.e., moderately, very, or extremely important). A similar pattern emerges across all four items, where public sector respondents rated items as more important than private sector respondents but not as important as nonprofit sector respondents. The biggest gap between public and private sector respondents and between public and nonprofit sector respondents is for doing socially responsible work. The smallest gap between public and private sector respondents is for substantive interest in the law, and for public and nonprofit sector respondents is opportunities to develop skills.
Figure 1. Responses to Intrinsic Motivator Items
Figure 2 displays percentages of respondents rating importance of extrinsic motivators as a 5, 6, or 7 (i.e., moderately, very, or extremely important). Again, a similar pattern emerges across all four items, where public sector respondents rated items as more important than nonprofit sector respondents but not as important as private sector respondents. The biggest gap between public and private sector respondents is for medium-to-long-term earning potential. On the hand, prestige is the smallest gap between public and private sector respondents and is the only item rated as more important by public sector respondents than private sector respondents. Interestingly, prestige is also the item with the biggest gap between public and nonprofit sector respondents. The smallest gap between public and nonprofit sector respondents is for salary to pay off law school debts. It is worth noting that there appears to be a much larger gap in extrinsic than intrinsic motivators between economic sectors, which suggests many attorneys share intrinsic motives but extrinsic motives are an important point of departure in career decision-making.
Figure 2. Responses to Extrinsic Motivator Items
In order to investigate these trends further, we created a single score for intrinsic and extrinsic motivators by taking the averages of items in each category. Additionally, we created a combined measure of motivators by subtracting intrinsic from extrinsic, that ranges from employees completely motivated by intrinsic factors (-7) to those completely motivated by extrinsic factors (+7). These findings are displayed in Figure 3 with box plots. As the box plots indicate, the same patterns emerge here that do in figures 1 and 2, where the public sector is positioned between the private and nonprofit sectors in terms of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. The combined measure of motivators in the last box plots highlights this relationship well. Additionally, it is noteworthy that there appears to be much more divergence in extrinsic than intrinsic motivators in the first two box plots, which again suggests extrinsic motivators are an important aspect of career decision-making for attorneys.
Figure 3. Distribution of employee motives across economic sectors
The public sector faces many significant challenges in the 21st century, and almost all are exacerbated by a human capital crisis where the best and the brightest are no longer choosing to serve their country through employment with federal, state, or local governments. Although public sector jobs were once highly coveted, many employees today find that they can better satisfy their extrinsic or intrinsic motivations through the private or nonprofit sectors, respectively. These trends have been compounded by a shift of public services outside of the public sector, where employees can now provide public services without public employment. As such, the public sector is stuck in between the private and nonprofit sectors, where employees with predominant extrinsic or intrinsic motivations are seeking work in other respective sectors. Consequently, recruiting and retaining human capital in the public sector is more difficult today than ever before.
However, these findings can be seen as an opportunity, rather than another shortcoming of the public sector. For many, public sector employment is the best of both worlds, where they can enjoy good salaries and benefits while serving their communities. Although private and nonprofit sectors may do a good job of providing extrinsic or intrinsic rewards, respectively, neither does as good as the public sector in providing both. For those who want both, the public sector should be their top choice. Unfortunately, that message has been lost in the bureaucracy bashing rhetoric of modern America. Nevertheless, attracting the best and brightest into the public sector can be a solution to many of the challenges of modern governance by creating a high functioning bureaucracy, and a benefit to many employees who want to enjoy both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards from their careers. As such, we need to think deeper about the human capital crisis in the public sector and what it means for both our government and job seekers.
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]]>The full article is available on eScholarship.
Original Source: Boise State Update
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]]>For more information visit The Nevada Independent, Oregon Public Broadcasting, or Here & Now.
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]]>The post Nisha Bellinger Authors New Book appeared first on Political Science.
]]>Bellinger also delivered a presentation as part of the Migration and Mobility conference at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) titled “Human Security and Forced Migration in Africa” in Accra, Ghana last October.
Read more in Boise State Update.
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]]>In recent years, a social media presence has become a staple for any political figure, whether national or local. While only a decade ago studies still showed gaps in what kinds of politicians utilized new media technology, the near-total embrace of these kinds of resources today has resulted in a shift from analyses about who uses new media tools to how they are used. Meanwhile, public adoption of social media has also increased enormously. In 2005, when the Pew Research Center started to track social media adoption, only 5% of adults in the United States used at least one social media platform; by early 2017 that figure had increased to 69 percent. Furthermore, members of the press, who often provide essential filter and linkage functions between political elites and the masses, have also adjusted to this new media landscape.
Clearly, from the perspective of politicians and other political elites, in a world where much of the electorate is engaged online and much of what the media says and does also functions online, there is great incentive to use new media tools – and, in particular, social media – in ways that systematically increase the likelihood of achieving goals. However, as Farrar-Myers and Vaughn note, “merely having such a presence is hardly sufficient to ensure that one’s message is reaching its intended audience, not being drowned out – or, worse, distorted – by competing messages.” The fundamental point being made is that making use of social media technology is only half the battle; using social media to meet goals is what matters. In an era where everyone has easy access to multiple social media accounts, those who use them with discipline, skill, and precision are the most likely to fare the best. After one year in the White House, how has Trump fared? In our attempt to answer that question, we turn to the field of strategic communication.
Strategic communication is fundamentally focused on utilization of resources and management of techniques, often across a wide and complex range of divisions, for the purpose of achieving identified objectives. As the communication space becomes increasingly digitized, so too do the ways strategic communication efforts are deployed. Our particular interest is in how political elites utilize strategic communication techniques as they seek to achieve their political and policy objectives. We are not alone in this interest, though much of the work focusing on strategic political communication – especially in the digital sphere – emphasizes either descriptive discussions of new opportunities for strategic communication or analyses of how strategic communication efforts functioned, with an underlying impulse to document how elites can better communicate in order to get what they want. For example, much of the literature on presidents ‘going public’ exist to documents which factors ‘work’ in shaping public opinion. The emerging consensus here suggests that presidents who want to lead in this way are best advised to stay on message, get out of Washington D.C., work local and regional media opportunities rather than national outlets, and deploy surrogates widely while ensuring they are each echoing the president’s message
The bulk of research that exists on social media and strategic communication has developed in a similar fashion; the implicit theme of this work is that new technology can be harnessed in effective ways, if approached wisely and strategically. What this work largely leaves unsaid, however, is the danger technological proliferation also presents to political elites’ prospects for goal achievement. That is, in their rush to document which factors work and when and why, not enough light is shed on what we call the dark side of strategic communication. That is, just as new media technologies present diverse and dynamic opportunities for political elites to control the message, they also present myriad opportunities for misuse, whether inadvertent or willful, to undermine the strategic narrative they are trying to establish. By analyzing instances of new media-driven strategic communication failure, we can augment and enhance our understanding of the current and future strategic communication environment.
Mika Brzezinski photo by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia; DACA protest by Pax Ahimsa Gethen; Senator Mitch McConnell official United States Senate photo; President Trump signing Executive Order 13769 by Staff of the President of the United States. All images Public Domain, Wikimedia CC.
We argue that new media-driven strategic communication failure can manifest in the policy making process in four distinct but important ways. First, in ascending order of severity, non-strategic use of new media can distract desired public attention from key agenda items. Second, it can confuse or muddy the policy agenda. Third, non-strategic communication via social media can alienate potential coalition partners. Finally, non-strategic use of new media can directly derail policy goals by providing evidence to others in powerful positions of negative consequences and/or unacceptable motivations. To support this four-part argument, we identify and contextualize specific situations from the first year of Donald J. Trump’s presidency.
One harmful effect of Trump’s tweets is that they have distracted from his legislative agenda as well as Republican policy victories, arguably thwarting momentum and obstructing public good will. According to reporting, in late June 2017 the Trump White House was set to usher through two conservative immigration bills. However, the agenda was derailed after Trump fired off a couple of bizarre and vulgar tweets directed at MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-anchors, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Early on Thursday, June 29, Trump tweeted:
I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came.. (June 29, 2017; 7:52am)
…to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! (June 29, 2017; 7:58am)
Trump’s criticism of Brzezinski and Scarborough drew an immediate response, even from fellow Republicans. Later that day, when asked about the tweets, Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-WI), stated, “Obviously I don’t see that as an appropriate comment. What we’re trying to do around here is improve the tone, the civility of the debate. And this obviously doesn’t help do that.” On Twitter, other Republicans added their disapproval. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) all condemned the president’s tweets, while Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) indirectly criticized the president’s tweets.
Although Trump’s administration and party were set to move forward on immigration issues, Republicans were forced to answer questions from the media about the president’s comments on Twitter and to address their constituents’ concerns over whether such language is appropriate, demonstrating how Trump’s tweets distract from his party’s legislative agenda and derail a focus on substantive issues for days at a time.
In the fall of 2017, Trump’s use of Twitter contributed to widespread confusion and criticism surrounding the federal program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), hindering Trump’s own Justice Department. At a press conference on September 5th, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would be ending the Obama era policy on the enforcement of undocumented immigrants. In the announcement, Sessions explained that the policy would be phased out in around 6 months. However, just hours later, Trump sent off a tweet that would call into question the deadline, and his White House’s commitment to dismantling DACA, leading to confusion over the administration’s plans, and around 800,000 affected individuals unsure of their fate. Trump’s tweet read:
Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can’t, I will revisit this issue! (September 5, 2017, 7:38pm).
Further muddying the water, on September 7th, Trump tweeted:
For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about – No action! (September 7, 2017, 8:42am).
Here, Trump issued reassurance to DACA recipients, again offering a contrast to the official position of his administration as laid out by his own Justice Department, suggesting he had not solidified his personal position on this issue. While historically, presidents have had to make tough policy decisions that conflict with their own personal judgment, it is rare for those presidents to make public their disagreements once a formal administrative position has been taken up. However, Trump’s decision to use Twitter for his personal musings, and on the fly, opened the door for just such an occasion, as the battle over positioning on DACA demonstrates.
Trump has also used Twitter to alienate members of his own party, in an attempt to displace blame and exculpate his own administration. For example, in July 2017, after Senate Republican’s failed to pass their “skinny repeal” healthcare plan, Trump used Twitter to credit the bill’s failure to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after McConnell made a statement that attempted to shift some of the blame from Congress to the President.
Memorably, in July 2017, the Senate brought to a vote their version of a new health care act. However, to everyone’s surprise, the bill failed to pass after Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME) and John McCain (R-AZ) voted no.
In the aftermath Trump used his Twitter account to blame the Senate filibuster, and implicated McConnell, by calling on McConnell to dismantle the filibuster:
The very outdated filibuster rule must go. Budget reconciliation is killing R’s in Senate. Mitch M, go to 51 Votes NOW and WIN. IT’S TIME! (July 29, 2017, 6:28am)
In this tweet, Trump did not blame McConnell for the bill’s failure, but instead for the rule that likely led to its failure. However, a few days later McConnell defended Congress and the unsuccessful vote by reminding his audience, a Rotary group in Kentucky, that legislation takes time. In his remarks, McConnell blamed the president for unrealistic expectations, noting that “Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before…” and “I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.” Clearly reacting to these remarks, about a day later, Trump tweeted:
Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done? (August 9, 2017, 1:14pm)
The piling on continued into the week:
Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!” (August 10, 2017, 5:54am)
This particular feud culminated with Trump retweeting Fox and Friends, a daily Fox News program, that speculated openly whether McConnell should step down as Majority Leader.
This scenario demonstrates that Trump is unafraid to go after members of his own party, especially when those members target his own political competence. Although past presidents have been known to feud with members of their own party, Trump’s Twitter account makes these feuds public, and thus intraparty fissures more difficult to deny.
Trump’s tweets have also directly thwarted his administration’s expressed policy goals. On January 27th, less than a week after his inauguration, President Trump signed Executive Order 13769, “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.” The order limited the entry of citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries (Libya, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) into the US. After this order was blocked by the courts, the Trump White House drafted a new order, Executive Order 13780, by the same name that the President signed on March 6, 2017. Unlike the first order, 13780 removed language that could allow for preferential treatment of Christians from the banned countries, which the courts ruled had violated both current statute and the Constitution. However, similar to the first order, it was met by criticism, and quickly challenged in court. The challenges drew in evidence outside of the specific language of the order, which included Trump’s Twitter record.
In particular, the majority opinion of the 9th Circuit, which was against the Executive Order, published June 12th, cited a specific tweet from Trump that supported the argument that the order discriminates on the basis of nationality:
That’s right, we need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people! (June 5, 2017, 6:20pm).
From the decision by the 9th circuit mid-June:
Indeed, the President recently confirmed his assessment that it is the “countries” that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the President’s ‘travel ban.’
Thus, the court used Trump’s tweets as evidence of the discriminatory nature of the executive order. The choice by a federal court to cite a tweet from the president drew a lot of attention, and demonstrates an instance where the president’s own words on Twitter undermined his stated policy agenda.
Politicians’ use of social media can both hurt and help their electoral and policy goals. Here, we focused on several examples of when social media use did not advance but rather undermined the strategic message and interests of a single case, the early months of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. By focusing on the counter-productive consequences of these examples, we hope to broaden the conversation about the use of social media by politicians to include more discussion of how social media is used and to what effect. To be sure, social media can be used successfully in the furtherance of a president’s policy agenda, particularly if its use is disciplined and part of a broader, multi-media strategy. However, as the cases we briefly discussed in this essay point out, non-strategic use can derail a policy agenda in a variety of ways.
If President Trump wishes to experience more policy success in year two of his presidency than he did in year one, he would be wise to listen to the growing chorus of critics, including many in his own party, that he take a more disciplined approach to his Twitter account, and to communication in general. The answer is not necessarily for him to simply stop tweeting, but to start doing so in ways that are more consistent with achieving his policy goals.
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]]>The post Food Provisioning Strategies among Agricultural Workers in Southwestern Idaho appeared first on The Blue Review.
]]>We began conducting ethnographic research with Idaho agricultural workers In December 2016. We wanted to learn more about the challenges farm workers face in maintaining their well-being, paying particular attention to household food security and the labor of food provisioning. What we learned was illuminating.
The southwestern part of the state has seen an increasing agricultural focus on the production of hops in recent years. Driving the shift is consumer demand for craft micro-brew beer. According to the National Brewers Association, craft beer sales in the United States (U.S.) were up by 12.8 percent in 2015 (Brewers Association 2016). Interestingly, the production of hops is highly concentrated, and over 99 percent of total hops production takes place in just four counties spread across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, including Canyon County (Lowe et al. 2016). While craft brewing has become an important part of the cultural landscape in the Northwest, it is also an important component of the regional economy. Idaho hops production in 2015 was valued at $30.8 million. Importantly, the production of hops is a highly labor intensive crop that requires precision. Thus labor needs are high.Interestingly, the production of hops is highly concentrated, and over 99 percent of total hops production takes place in just four counties spread across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, including Canyon County.
Photo credit: Wikimedia CC
According to the US Department of Labor National Agricultural Worker Survey 2013-2014, sixty-eight percent of hired farmworkers nationally were born in Mexico, while 27 percent were born in the U.S.. The number of US citizens working in agriculture has been steadily increasing throughout the past two decades. Since 2001 the rates of citizens working in agriculture has increased from 21-33 percent. In other words, fewer farm workers are migrating in the traditional sense (e.g. travel back and forth to Mexico on a seasonal basis).
These numbers make sense. Border crossing became much more difficult and dangerous in the early 1990s as a result of “Prevention through Deterrence” border security policy. As a result, we have a situation today where farm workers have “settled” in rural communities (defined by the USDA as working at single location within 75 miles of their home).
Indeed, rural Idaho would be in population decline were it not for Hispanic communities: from 2010 to 2014: rural Idaho’s Hispanic population grew by 9%, while its non-Hispanic population decreased by 1%. Twelve percent of Idaho residents today identify as Latina/o. In Canyon County, however, where the majority of hops production is located in the state, the population is 25% Hispanic, (primarily of Mexican origin) the highest of any county in the state. And in the area with the greatest concentration of hops production, the Hispanic population is actually closer to 75%. For example, in the town of Wilder, which is surrounded by hops fields, the vast majority of Latina/o families moved into the area prior to the 1990s. Today, Wilder is the first city in Idaho to elect an all Latino City Council. Indeed, rural Idaho would be in population decline were it not for Hispanic communities: from 2010 to 2014: rural Idaho’s Hispanic population grew by 9%, while its non-Hispanic population decreased by 1%. Statewide, most of Idaho’s Hispanics (70%) were born in the U.S., and the vast majority (79%) are U.S. citizens.
Meanwhile, there also appears to be a gender transition occurring among Idaho’s agricultural workers. Women represent an increasingly large percentage of the agrifood labor force in the U.S. and beyond, which is sometimes referred to as the feminization of agriculture. At the national level, men make up 72% of the crop labor force. But the high proportion of men in agriculture does not match our initial observations of labor in the hops industry. During data collection we observed that women make up approximately half of the hops workforce. We have observed and talked with women at multiple levels of hops agriculture, ranging from planting, repairing wires, driving tractors and processing ripened vines of hops cones. When asked about the presence of women in the hops fields, it has been expressed that women possess many of the qualities that make for good agricultural workers, including strong work ethic, reliability, and the ability to perform high-level precision-labor.
The feminization of agricultural labor in Idaho raises a number of interesting questions regarding farm worker well-being. For example, are there different ways that women farm workers need social support—things like child care, grocery store access and flexible working hours? Do women agricultural workers face additional challenges in providing food for their families? Below we discuss initial findings related to food provisioning.
Multiple reports have found that the rate of food insecurity among U.S. farm workers ranges between 20 and 93 percent. In our pilot research, we found that a majority of our respondents had experienced some degree of food insecurity (71%). Even more reported that the high cost of food influenced their ability to get the food they would like to have, and that they lacked sufficient money to get the food they would like to have (79%).
Risk of food insecurity, as well as a range of other factors, may complicate the labor of food provisioning for farm workers and their family members. Food provisioning refers to the labor involved in planning meals, procuring food, preparing meals, and cleaning up after meals. Below, we describe some of the factors that may influence food provisioning among farm workers, building on previous literature as well as initial data we have collected. We also discuss strategies that farm workers are using to deal with the constraints they face in their food provisioning.
The majority of farm workers we have interviewed live at least 20 miles from a large supermarket. Photo by TeroVesalainen, Pixabay CC
There are a range of strategies that farm workers may utilize to address the constraints they face in providing food for themselves and their families. Below we briefly highlight some of the strategies discussed by our research participants.
Headstart
Most of our research participants are in some way connected with a local Headstart program geared for farm working families. The children who attend the school get breakfast and lunch at the school, which is a great benefit to Latina farm workers in their food provisioning labor. One respondent mentioned that breakfast is key for kids of farm workers. They have to report to the fields so early in the morning, that is a great relief to know they can drop the kids off and they will get breakfast at school.
SNAP, WIC, and Food Banks
Nationally, 50 percent of the farm workers reported that they or someone in their household uses at least one type of public assistance program. The programs most commonly utilized were Medicaid (37%), WIC (18%), and food stamps (16%). This data was reflected in our own findings; among those we have interviewed, all have reported utilizing supplemental food programs or knew of other family members utilizing these programs. Among our survey respondents, just over 50 percent reported utilizing SNAP and WIC.
School Meals
According to data from the Idaho Department of Education, 98 percent of families in Wilder, which is the main town in the heart of hops country in Idaho, qualify for free or reduced priced lunches. This is compared to 50 percent of children statewide. The school district in Wilder has been able to become a Community Eligibility Provision school district. This means that all children are provided free school meals, regardless of eligibility. Our data suggests that this program, which can also include preschools, is a great benefit to women working in Idaho agriculture.
Food Sharing
During our initial fieldwork, we observed a great deal of food sharing among rural families. These informal networks (for example, farm owners sharing crop harvests with their worker) are important to the women farm workers we interviewed. People also report sharing food with neighbors and extended family, as well as receiving food from the farms where they are employed.
USDA photo by Bob Nichols.
Our research is motivated by a desire to understand the transitions in farm labor occurring in Southwestern Idaho. Due to geographic, cultural, and economic isolation, concerns about the health and well-being of farm workers are often overlooked. Focusing on food provisioning allows us to connect with women who might otherwise be passed over in scholarly research on farm labor. We find that many of the challenges the women face are related to intersections between socioeconomic status, which includes certain characteristics of farm work, family dynamics and race and ethnicity.
Acknowledgments:
Pilot Research has been supported by the receipt of a small research grant program from The School of Public Service, Boise State University. Research has also been supported by Casita Neptanla and the College of Arts and Sciences at Boise State University. The authors also thank Clariza Arteaga and Anna Zigray, (Boise State undergraduate students) for their research assistance.
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]]>“Something that might be kind of interesting to watch is if Barack Obama’s post-presidential ambitions change as he sees his presidential legacy dissolve,” said Vaughn. “Every day it seems that President Trump manages to erase a little bit more of what Obama accomplished as president.”
For the full article visit The Guardian.
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]]>Freemuth is quated saying that the trial “sets back a lot of work,” and noted the roll personality and personal relationships between ranchers and managers had on this case.
You can read and listen to the story here: Boise State Public Radio
Original Source: Boise State Update 1/5/18
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]]>While at University of Bonn, Vaughn delivered a lecture titled “Presidential Greatness: How Americans Think about It and How Political Scientists Measure It” as part of the Current Issues in North American Studies and Cultural Studies lecture series.
He also spoke on the American presidency and democracy at Geothe University in Frankfort and Freie University in Berlin.
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]]>The post How Universities Train Artists as Makers, Creators, and Doers appeared first on The Blue Review.
]]>Higher education institutions are part of a national and global movement to leverage the arts to achieve economic development and community growth (AED) through innovative policies, programs, and investments. State economic development agencies and municipal arts and culture departments across the United States are experimenting with artist tax incentives, film/design production tax breaks, entrepreneurship business loans, creative districts, maker spaces, artist/live/create zoning, cultural tax sharing programs, and a variety of other people and place-based investments to support AED. Colorado, in particular, is seen as an AED leader, thanks in part to its Colorado Creative Industries, a division of the State’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade.
Photo by Kristen McPeek
Public sector investments typically align with five policy motivations, each with its own historical trajectory towards city building and urban revitalization. The first is arts tourism, which signaled by large entertainment clusters and districts that attract out-of-town visitors who then spend money on restaurants and hotels as the case. An excellent example of this is LA Live!. The second vein treats artists and their bohemian lifestyles as an amenity to attract knowledge workers or college educated people; Wicker Park in Chicago and the Pearl District in Portland are common examples (as well as cautionary tales of gentrification). Third, communities incentivized by the National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) Our Town grant program experiment with creative placemaking strategies that value the aesthetics of streets, building design, and architectural preservation to draw consumers, developers, and residents. Fourth, individual neighborhood organizations invest in incremental organic cultural activity and smaller physical infrastructure improvements to encourage neighborhood stabilization, historic preservation, and equitable development, largely through neighborhood cultural districts epitomized by Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District and Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District.
Finally, municipal and state agencies are studying, mapping, promoting, and incentivizing for-profit creative industries and occupations, including film, graphic design, architecture, publishing, and gaming, rather than focusing on the typical traditional nonprofit arts organization and cultural activity in music, performing, and visual arts. In support of these increasingly coveted industries, developers adapt vacant manufacturing buildings into creative campuses for fashion design companies, film studios that support local talent, artist/live/create spaces to enhance idea incubation, and artisanal manufacturing centers and micro-breweries to grow specialty industries. In other cases, cities like Seattle are measuring and assessing their creative economies through the popular Creative Vitality indexes and marketing their role as a UNESCO City of Literature. Similarly, Boise conducted a regional artist workforce development study to highlight how artists are experiencing different career ladders and facing roadblocks.
Bike rack in Portland’s Pearl District by Lylafoggia, Pixabay CC. Wicker Park, Chicago photo by Andrew Jameson, Wikimedia CC.
Despite the plethora of knowledge about AED practices and a desire to know more about how creative and cultural industries and occupations function, there’s been little research on the role of the university in strengthening artist workforce development even though universities are widely recognized as anchor institutions or rooted economic engines as employers, land developers, patent-builders, and most importantly as workforce trainers.
When scholars and popular media cover this connection, their focus lies primarily on facility building, a more traditional but outdated understanding of AED that overlooks the connection to artistic workforce development and regional growth. After all, universities are the hubs where most emerging artists receive their artistic training and skills. Yet, while there are academic and policy studies that highlight the role of the university in supporting and training STEM workers, there’s less attention on how universities anchor arts economic and workforce development. In part, this is unsurprising given that many universities are prioritizing STEM education and reacting to sharp criticism in the popular media and from politicians of traditional liberal arts education. Yet, tech entrepreneurs, including Google, call liberal arts degrees the hottest ticket and highlight the ways that liberal arts graduates are the best employees because of their critical thinking, communication, and analytical skill sets. These debates raise questions about whether and how universities should train and support their arts students and arts faculty.
In generations past, emerging artists honed the artistic skills that they’d been developing since early childhood in their undergraduate and graduate educations, and then they learned how to put these foundational but arts-specific skills to work strategically if and when their careers evolved. Some parents, politicians, and pundits have lost patience with the time this process takes. They have pressured universities to monetize the value of their arts programs by tallying the starting salaries of their graduates while also calling for better articulation of skills sets to increase career opportunities. Their critique is that, for example, theatre students learn acting methods but not how to translate production skills into team building and program management outside the arts. In response, the Strategic National Arts Alliance, administered by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, works with universities to collect information about where their graduates work and what they make to promote a positive vision of the outcomes of arts educations.
As Creativity Connects notes, as more artists work in non-arts contexts, by choice or necessity, they also need heightened ability to improvise, collaborate, and transverse disparate domains. This requires that artists and educators think more about the distinctive creative capacities that are rooted in arts practice, and articulate those skills in ways that can be understood by people outside of the arts. For example, in the regional artist workforce study mentioned above, few artists have been able to take advantage of the growing interest in creativity and design-thinking in the business and public sectors because they often have been unable to articulate the value of what they bring to non-arts contexts.
Far from just making products “pretty” and marketing jingles catchy, when artists leave the academy they take their unique approaches to need identification, problem definition, iterative thinking and action, empathy, sensitivity to issues of social justice and equity, and skills in building human connection to audiences, markets, and communities with them. Additionally, most working artists do not just make a career working for arts organizations but use their artistic skills in other industries. A SNAAP survey revealed that 90 percent of art school alumni work outside the arts at some point in their careers, suggesting that being able to apply art-based skills in cross-over contexts would be broadly useful for artists in diverse disciplines. A continuing aversion to “instrumentalizing” the arts in some fine arts training programs also creates a barrier for artists who wish to use their skills in non-arts contexts. Or, in other words, this powerful critique is that universities should support arts for arts sake alone.
Photo credit: Boise State University Photographic Services
Our 3-year study, funded by the NEA, examines how universities are grappling with their role in training art students for the workplace. In particular, we are studying innovative models for arts integration and how these models promote sector agility or the ability for art students to move between for-profit, nonprofit, and community sectors in different industries. We’re researching how faculty, university administrators, and university arts organizations are creating and/or adapting new systems, programs, structures, and incentives to implement workforce strategies. Overall, we’re identifying and categorizing several university models for artistic workforce development that attempt to smooth their graduates’ transition to the workforce and spur economic development in their home cities and regions. We’ll highlight three models providing examples below.
First, universities are integrating arts programs with skills, curriculum, and faculty expertise from outside their traditional practices. Arts Entrepreneurship (AE) minors, and certificates are increasingly popular. Students couple their arts training with courses on business development, entrepreneurship preparation, venture coaching, marketing and promotion, and budgeting in hopes of creating future arts innovations and successful self-employed creative entrepreneurs. While there is debate about how to define and measure what AE means, there are several studies that document the breadth and depth of curriculum offerings in art/design schools, liberal arts colleges, regional entities, research universities, community colleges, and vocational schools. Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts has one of the most well-known arts entrepreneurship programs in the country stemming from the PAVE incubator to test, develop, and finance performing arts ventures through experiential learning and has attracted significant private philanthropy from the Kauffman Foundation. While these programs are popular, there has been very little research about whether they have been successful in promoting sector agility or helping artists translate their skillsets outside of the arts.
Many universities are also offering Arts Management undergraduate and/or graduate degrees. Colorado’s LEAP Institute or Ohio State’s Department of Arts Administration, Education, and Policy require classes from business and public service faculty on nonprofit training, fiscal budgeting, grant writing, and more where the goal is to train artists to work as leaders and advocates in for-profit and non-profit arts organizations. While these entrepreneurial and management programs are the darlings of many universities and draw healthy flows of students, there is also some concern that they don’t prepare students to articulate their skills sets outside of the arts industries, that the instruction is disconnected from their artistic practice, and that the broader contemporary arts context is marginalized. When classes focus entirely on skills, whether those are arts-related (e.g. how to write a play) or entrepreneurial (e.g. how to write a grant to support the production of a play), students are left on their own to discern the role of the artist in the 21st century and how creative industries and occupations have changed over time.
Second, transdisciplinary arts integration programs are emerging where arts and design thinking is embedded into other disciplines. The most common of these are the STEM to STEAM programs that merge the arts with computer science, digital media, and other technologies. In tandem with these efforts, some universities are also situating the arts in their broader entrepreneurial ecosystems that may include maker spaces, incubators, and venture competitions. The Rhode Island School of Design leads this movement with goals to place Art + Design at the center of STEM, to encourage integration of Art + Design in K–20 education, and to influence employers to hire artists and designers to drive innovation. They place a team of student research assistants in the Office of Government Relations to apply their firsthand knowledge of Art + Design to explore and test new STEAM ideas where they work with Sesame Street, the Institute of Play & Misson Lab, and the Blue School. There are also new STEAM-centered undergraduate and graduate programs, including the University of Utah’s Entertainment Arts and Engineering, with curriculum around gaming and computer science but less on the inclusion of traditional or contemporary art. In general, these students are not arts students but computer scientists and engineering students.
Auditorium, Rhode Island School of Design. Photo by Daniel Penfield, Wikimedia CC.
Third, universities are connecting student artists and arts activists to social justice and public policy through social innovation models. This is a smaller set of universities that offer creative placemaking certificates, arts public policy degrees, or supplemental experiential learning opportunities within the arts departments themselves. Arts, policy, and planning faculty deepen the anchor institution concept by nurturing community-university partnerships that go beyond typical “scholarship of engagement” frameworks through service learning, technical assistance, or policy guidance. The University of Chicago’s Place Lab is a grassroots effort that did not start with the university but with a sculptor and civic entrepreneur, Theaster Gates, who convinced the university to become an arts developer by connecting the institution to its community neighbors in the disinvested Southside. The partnership resulted in the rehabilitation of three abandoned properties and is now a thriving arts cluster housing the university’s Place Lab, which brings urban scholars and policy makers together with Gates’s artistic team in an effort to translate the principles working well in Chicago to other places like Akron, Detroit, and Gary, Indiana. In another example, the NH Institute of Art is launching a new online Certificate in Creative Placemaking program, to be offered starting this year in partnership with the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking, which gives graduate credit or professional development credit so that “Civic artists can learn more about the inner workings of communities and local economies. And, urban planners and public policy professionals will understand better how to engage and support the arts and artists.”
As these artist workforce programs become increasingly common, more research will be needed to examine their effectiveness in increasing sector agility, resilience, and skill development so that students are able to pursue their creative ambitions and make a living. It’s a part of a broader question about whether the prediction of John Vaughn, the Executive Director of the Association of American Universities, holds that universities will follow the example of American cities when it comes to “recognizing the arts as a key asset.” Part of this prediction relies on university leaders turning their attention to maximizing the economic and cultural impact of their artistic assets and the role they play in creating specific conditions that nurture, train, and support the regional artistic labor force.
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]]>The post Congratulations to the Fall 2017 Master’s of Public Administration Capstone Class! appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>Capstone classes represent the culmination of graduate work. Idaho Policy Institute (IPI) Assistant Research Professor, Dr. Cheong Kim, supervised projects assigned to this semester’s Master’s of Public Administration students. Students worked independently on the research, which included a review of current Idaho policy impacting the subject, data collection from similar cities with like concerns, phone interviews and/or surveys. The approach to data collection varied by project and in each case, the students included relevant data in a final report to their respective city.
Each report also included a summary with recommendations. These recommendations derived from the data students collected and included the pros and cons inherent in action. Students were responsible for every aspect of report production but interacted regularly with Dr. Kim for guidance on research design and analysis.
Kim joined Boise State in 2014 and this is his first experience directing the Capstone class. “I really enjoyed overseeing the class,” said Kim, “The students were impressive – they were excited about doing research that has the potential to make a positive impact on the real world. Seeing their excitement was very fulfilling.”
Emily Burns, Melinda Gauthier-Baderman, Aaron Gunderson, Summer Hirschfield, Kevin Holmes, Haley Robinson, Gabriel Stephens and Angie Zirschky presented their projects to IPI Assistant Director Vanessa Fry December 6 and will be forwarding their final reports to the cities by mid-December.
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]]>The post Civility in the Space Between Us and Them appeared first on The Blue Review.
]]>As a teacher, I find this disconcerting. When I discuss contemporary issues with freshman college students, a common theme arises. Recognizing the contentiousness of public dialogue, some simply choose to exclude themselves from the public sphere. Ostensibly this is for lack of knowledge of the issues at hand but is just as often for uncertainty about the rules and aims of dialogue in the first place. The lines have already been drawn, and what remains to be decided is what side one is on. One either chooses a side or, if disenchanted by the available options, simply opts out.
There are multiple reasons for what amounts to acceptance of an environment of incivility. One is certainly our changing means of communication. As Sherry Turkle has noted, younger generations—and, increasingly, older ones—have turned to technology as a silent mediator of the misunderstandings and different perspectives inherent in social life. People have a tendency to be uncivil, the implicit narrative would seem to run, but we can mitigate that incivility through text. Technology gives us the ability to carefully craft our social worlds. We can usually avoid being challenged by views that exist in tension with our own. By itself, this appears to many as an antidote to incivility. Everyone retreats to their corners; you do your thing and I’ll do mine. But our worlds continue to interact. And in the programming of our daily lives to fit self-selected parameters we are losing our ability to empathize, to catch a glimpse of what it’s like to live life in someone else’s bubble. Contrary to our belief, then, we contribute to incivility by avoiding it. At least one study has shown people are more willing to correct uncivil behavior when it is addressed positively and directly then when it receives a negative—uncivil—reaction. Yet we either avoid confrontation or unleash the vitriol that faceless communication facilitates without any of the immediate repercussions.
Due in part to an endless supply of information of varying credibility at our fingertips, we are also increasingly unable to imagine a world in which we—the groups with which we identify—are wrong. As Tom Nichols has argued, we conflate being mistaken with being stupid. Society is no longer something that imposes itself upon me; instead, with the help of technology I can craft the world I belong in. This provides the promise of a buffer against the world, but makes us less willing to listen to contrary voices, even the most reasonable ones. And when something goes wrong, we blame it on the inability of others to conform to the realities of our world.
But the root of the problem is not technology. Technology simply provides the tools that we use to reinforce our natural tendencies to smooth the rough edges of our existence. The constant threat to civility lies in our tribal nature, as Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene puts it. The survival of our genes is enhanced by groups that work cooperatively, and we work cooperatively when we have similar underlying worldviews and motivations. This works well in groups of 100 or so, but is less effective in groups of a few thousand or a few billion. It is less effective because most of these worldviews, ideologies, and religions function most efficiently not as one means of cooperation, but the exclusive foundation of cooperation. It is no surprise, then, when the implied solution for lack of cooperation across groups is the same as that prescribed for within-group tensions: the reinforcement of a single belief structure. This is understandable when the object is to bring one deviant individual back in line with the rest of the group. It encounters greater resistance when the object is to persuade many thousands of others to adopt your way of looking at things.
Civility is impacted by this biological mandate to divide the world into us and them. We do not feel the same obligations of civility to those who are not like us (and in most of our past we wouldn’t have had to deal much with them anyway). The limits of this arrangement are tested, however, when society is designed to incorporate a multitude of ‘tribes.’ Our default means of navigating the public sphere is to bring our tribal identities to bear upon it, to privatize it. We attempt to assert our own values, to elect our own leaders, to promote our own morals in the name of all. The public ‘good’ is defined by whose voice is the loudest.
Thus, as noted, calls for civil discourse run the danger of protecting the interests of dominant (white, male, straight, able-bodied, Christian) groups. However, even those with the most pluralistic commons in mind fall into the same trap of shouting down contrary voices, as reactionary as those voices may be. The practical impact of this shortcut is visible in debates over speech that have played out on college campuses in the last few years. Many institutions of higher education have attempted to support calls for increased diversity and inclusion among their population. They have had more trouble navigating the discussion of ideas that represent challenges to diversity. The protest of Charles Murray’s lecture at Middlebury College earlier this year epitomizes incivility, rooted in an inability to countenance contrary perspectives and thus a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the public sphere. Being wrong is insufficient criteria for being denied a voice. We have confused a willingness to hear other voices with a compromise of moral principles, and the result is that ill-founded ideas become even more entrenched as they battle to be heard.
If we desire civility, then, we have to be willing to challenge deeply-ingrained notions of us and them. My fellow citizens are not only the people who think like me, but also and especially the people who challenge my values. I must entertain their ideas, even the seemingly most ridiculous among them, because we share the same right to, and obligation to, the public good. This public sphere is fragile because it is not static; it must constantly be renegotiated on the basic of interests that are in endless flux. But the rules that govern it need not be as fragile as it might seem. We just need to be willing to commit to them even when things don’t go our way.
This may not seem like a winning strategy; instead, it may feel like advocating a strategy of non-violence when the opposition takes no prisoners. And it is much easier to suggest a strategy of humility and willingness to compromise in principle than it is to practice. This approach may lose before it wins, because absolutist rhetoric is more appealing and easier than critical thinking and balancing multiple interests. It will succeed in the long run, however, because it matches uncompromising principles with equal protection for the common space that allows us to express them.
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]]>The post Dr. Kettler Quoted by Idaho Public Radio appeared first on Political Science.
]]>Jaclyn Kettler, Assistant Professor
Jaclyn Kettler was extensively quoted in an Idaho Public Radio report on the proliferation of Idaho political Twitter parody accounts. In the article, “Here’s What #idpol Twitter Parodies Tweet,” Kettler suggests the snarky and often critical accounts could be providing some levity in the serious political environment following the national election and leading up the Idaho gubernatorial race.
“It’s a great time for parody accounts in Idaho politics,” said Kettler. “Of course, having the upcoming election with competitive primaries – [with] politicians being pretty active on Twitter, I think helps.”
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]]>The post Russia’s 2018 Presidential Election appeared first on The Blue Review.
]]>The original concept of the Potemkin village was to avoid speaking truth to Russian power. Today, Russia’s presidential elections are Potemkin horseraces, meant to convince the world that the country is a functioning modern democratic state. In a recent episode of the Power Vertical Podcast, Russia watcher Brain Whitmore explained that the most important thing to keep in mind while watching Russian presidential elections is not the competition, but the idea that it is all a piece of Kremlin theater. To best critique this play, first we must meet the cast:
Vladimir Putin in Sevastopol, May, 2014. Photo by Kremlin.ru.
Current president Vladimir Putin can stand for his fourth term thanks to some clever constitutional gymnastics. Previous versions of the constitution limited a president to two four-year terms. Putin interpreted this as two “consecutive” terms and endorsed Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency from 2007-2011. He then considered the slate wiped clean and that he was eligible to return to power. Under this logic, and with presidential terms extended to six years, his potential time in office reaches until 2024. Earlier this year, he noted that he would like to hold office until he dies.
Putin is legitimately popular by every measure. He rescued Russia from chaos in the 1990s, and has kept the right people rich and powerful. If he stood in a free and fair election with an open media, he would likely still win. His political party did lose municipal seats in Moscow this year, but these are meaningless in the Russian power structure when their work can be undone by the Kremlin at a moment’s notice. The real center of Russian power still unequivocally rests with him.
By far the biggest surprise in the campaign is the announcement that socialite and journalist Ksenia Sobchak will run as an independent candidate. She is young, more liberal, and embraces Western ideas in her politics and lifestyle. She was a prominent figure in the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protests following Russia’s parliamentary elections. However, she is also Vladimir Putin’s goddaughter and very close, at least socially, to the inner circle of the Kremlin.
If the Russian election is theater, is she being cast as a false antagonist? Is she in the race to offer a false sense of competition and to show the world that pro-Western candidates do have a space? If so, she would be the perfect actor to play the role. If this was an independent move by Sobchak, however, she could be trying to give a new face to Russian opposition. Despite attracting several prominent political operatives, she has few policies to speak of, save for being anti-corruption. This is a logical stance for a Russian opposition leader in the time of Putin, but in reality it is just a platitude. Putin himself is anti-corruption, but the issue has become one of tribalism. More often, anti-corruption figures are seen only as advocates for “their brand” of corruption. If this candidacy is indeed legitimate, it needs policies that speak to local issues Russians face, such as poor public health and the lack of potable drinking water. If this is where the operatives take her, and if this is not a Kremlin cutout, Sobchak’s candidacy could potentially be a curve ball for Putin.
Ksenia Sobchak (far right) at the funeral of St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, her father and Vladimir Putin’s mentor.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky photo by A. Sdobnikov
These two men are mainstays in Russian presidential elections. Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a Russian nationalist firebrand straight from central casting. One can find a laundry list of his extreme positions, but perhaps none more evocative of his radicalism than when he called on Putin to drop a nuclear bomb on Istanbul in retaliation for Turkey downing a Russian fighter jet over Syria. He is a favorite of the minority of Russians who actively seek a new overt empire and disapprove of Vladimir Putin because he is not hawkish enough.
Gennady Zyuganov photo by Kremlin.ru
As for Gennady Zyuganov, there is perhaps no better connection to Russia’s Soviet legacy than he and the Communist Party. He had a real shot at becoming president instead of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. Now he and his cohort have a tacit understanding with Putin’s circles that they can proclaim nostalgia for the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union in exchange for marching lock-step with Putin’s policy agenda with their votes in the Duma. These two candidates are in every election, but nothing more than showpieces.
Photo by Evgeny Feldman / Novaya Gazeta
Russian law, like many other countries with developed legal systems, states that convicted criminals cannot run for elected office. Such a law is only effective when the country has an independent judicial system, which Russia lacks. On February 8th, Navalny was convicted of embezzling money through an obscure deal on timber purchases with a state-owned Siberian company. We will never know if this was a setup or if Navalny is actually guilty of petty corruption, but if the truth comes out, neither outcome should be surprising. However, the court decision did end his presidential campaign before it started.
Navalny is the perfect window into the state of the Russian opposition. They are scattered, incompetent, and an effective argument for the Putin regime with the Russian people. Navalny’s primary mission is to get Putin and his cohort out of office. Few details have been offered in terms of what his theoretical government would look like, and his grasp on issues leaves a lot to be desired.
Western Observers must learn to de-couple their analysis of Navalny the politician and Navalny the activist. As an activist, he is incredibly effective. The most recent round of protests were thanks to Navalny’s work flying drones over the mansions of the Russian elite to show what they have bought with the money garnered from their graft. Navalny would be best served by muting his personal electoral ambitions and continue to keep hitting Putin from his peripheries. Doing so would be an ironic but potentially effective way to change the status quo in Russia.
Alexei Navalny at a Moscow rally, March 2012. Photo by Bogomolov.
With the play cast, we must next look at the set and the props. We can count on Western institutions to call out the legitimacy of the vote as they did in late 2011. Yet, polling shows that Putin is on sure footing even if the vote were to be allowed to go forward without interference.
One of the most useful windows into Russian politics is the independent think tank and polling company, The Levada Center. Their work has stood the test of Western peer review and offers valuable insight into broad-based public opinion across Russia. As of their most recent polling, Vladimir Putin should feel confident in both his chances for a fourth term and the level support of his agenda. 57% of respondents want to see Putin continue to serve as President, while 11% want someone new who will continue Putin’s agenda. Only 18% of Russians want Russia to go in a new direction with a new leader.
Without referencing individual candidates, a separate line of questioning asked respondents about the government’s policies. 42% wanted policy to remain the same as it is now, while 34% wanted the government to be “tougher” towards the West. Only 12% wished the government would become more liberal and more Western. This is not good news for Navalny and Sobchak. The majority of those who do disagree with Putin only want to see someone more hawkish in leadership. These numbers offer a sobering note for those who hope for a future liberal Russia. Part of this public opinion is undoubtedly driven by the Kremlin and its media narrative; after all, Putin’s consolidation of Russian media and its narrative continues to ensure his popular support. Given the polling numbers it is not provocative or without basis to call Putin the “moderate” candidate in these elections, even if his policies, by global standards, are anything but.
Levada Center poll asked “If the Russian Presidential poll were to be held next Sunday, would you vote? If so, who would you vote for?”
The United States recently had a presidential election where one candidate had a similarly substantial lead in the polls. This therefore begs the question: Could the West potentially intervene the same was that Russia did in 18 elections in previous years. While it is unlikely that Western intelligence agencies would make such a provocative move, it makes for an interesting thought experiment.
Putin himself would say that this has already happened, only the West called it “democracy promotion.” Putin has labeled Western NGOs as “undesirables” and passed laws against foreign funding on non-profits in Russia while openly blaming them for discord. It is these groups that Putin points to as the cause for protests in 2012 and likely the genesis of the idea to intervene in America’s 2016 presidential race.
In terms of intervening in the Russian 2018 election, The United States, NATO, and Five Eyes all have the capability to run sophisticated influence campaigns and intelligence operations abroad. If a hawkish Westerns leader were to pull the trigger on Twitter trolls and botnets, could we see similar discord this March? In short, no.
A major hindrance in a potential campaign against the Russian 2018 presidential election is that there are no ports of entry for such an operation to take hold in the country’s political discourse. There is no Russian equivalent of something like Russia Today, where Washington can insert its desired narrative directly into the Russian media market. Also, Russia has passed rather draconian laws governing information, requiring the onshoring of social media data on Russian servers, and forcing any blogger with 3,000 or more followers to register as a media outlet, and thus subject to censorship.
With no thought given to personal freedom or civil liberties, defending against influence campaigns is easy, and Putin has built a nigh impenetrable wall around Russia’s information spaces. Even if the United States were to deploy the best cyber warriors and Twitter trolls, it would be unlikely to have any effect on the election outcome.
Vladimir Putin voting in the 2015 Moscow mayoral election. Photo by office of the President of Russia.
Viewing the Russian election as a Potemkin horserace lets us dispense typical political analysis that would normally go with election observation. However, it does not make discussion of this event in Russian history any less fruitful. Modern Russia is a surreal and cynical counter-example to the notion that large-economy states need to also advance democracy and social justice. The country is the instrument of its leader and Putin is incredibly effective at using its institutions to achieve his desired personal ends. It may be attractive for Western observers to try and predict Putin’s downfall or the neutering of his power, but any who presume to do so should read media from 1989-1990 and see just how many people predicted the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In short, Putin will win another six-year term as president of Russia. He will continue to pose a threat to Western institutions and encourage radical populism from the people of Europe and the United States. There is no calculus that can form a coalition to push Putin to a more sympathetic position towards the West.
Watching the Russian elections will likely be akin to going to see the next Marvel superhero movie: a stunning set piece with incredibly dynamic characters and a wholly predictable ending. It will not win any Oscars for original screenplay, but it will be fun to watch nonetheless.
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]]>The post Kettler’s New Article Published by USAPP appeared first on Political Science.
]]>Jaclyn Kettler, Assistant Professor
Jaclyn Kettler’s article titled “How Democrats can build on their 2017 victories to win in 2018” was recently published by USAPP, the LSE Centre’s daily blog on American Politics and Policy. In it she reflects on Democrats’ recent gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia, and discusses the possibility for continued success in 2018. Read her full article here.
Kettler also recently presented at a conference titled “Good Reasons to Run: A Conversation Between Advocates and Academics” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work, along with other conference participants, will become part of an edited book.
Originating Sources: Boise State Update 11/28/2017, USAPP 11/10/2017
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]]>The post Sun Valley Economic Development appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>Prior to joining Boise State University, Fry was a Blaine County resident and a co-founder of Sustain Blaine (now Sun Valley Economic Development). As a co-founder, Fry focused on creating a regional economic development strategy for all of Blaine County. Fry’s current work and research at IPI focuses on the role of multi-sector, evidence-based solutions in addressing persistent social, environmental, and economic issues.
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]]>The post Boise and IPI Discuss Pay For Success appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>Other cities are taking notice of Boise’s efforts. The National League of Cities invited Fry and Boise’s Director of Community Partnerships, Diana Lachiondo, to present the community’s work at a recent webinar, “Cities Leading: A Closer Look at City-led Efforts to Improve Social Outcomes Through Innovative Financing Approaches.” Other presenters included Harvard’s Government Performance Lab, The Urban Institute and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Over 150 people from cities across the country attended the webinar.
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]]>The post News: Boise State Political Science Senior Selected to Serve on National Council appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Eva Rodriguez, a first generation Latina student at Boise State University, has been selected to serve on the prestigious Student Advisory Council (SAC) for the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Rodriguez will travel to Washington, D.C. in early November where she will attend a leadership retreat and meet the nine other students chosen from throughout the country to serve on the 2017-2018 council.
Rodriguez is a political science major in her senior year and plans to attend graduate school. Her goal is to work in Regional and Urban Planning. She was a participant in the National Education for Women’s (NEW) Leadership Idaho in 2017 and is active in Alpha Pi Sigma, a sorority founded to support the Latino community.
SAC members advise AAUW on issues of importance to collegiate women, represent AAUW in their communities and serve as peer leaders at the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL) held in May. NCCWSL attracts close to a 1,000 college students a year from around the country and features a variety of speakers ranging from advocates Chelsea Clinton and Lily Ledbetter to artists, athletes, and entrepreneurs. As a peer advocate, Rodriguez will have an active role in helping to plan and lead the 2018 event.
Boise State Professor Lori Hausegger nominated Rodriguez for the position. “Eva engages fully in everything she undertakes,” said Hausegger.” She has overcome many challenges, pushed herself out of her comfort zone and excelled in her pursuit to further her interests and her community.”
Research suggests that women are just as likely as men to be elected when they run for an office; however, they are considerably less likely to run. Women typically need to be asked multiple times before they will seek public office so programs such as AAUW’s Student Advisory Committee are instrumental in ensuring more women participate.
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]]>The post Brian Wampler In Action appeared first on Political Science.
]]>The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
The posts are available at: opengovpartnership.org/people/brian-wampler.
The post Brian Wampler In Action appeared first on Political Science.
]]>The post Engaging the Public Through Public Policy Centers appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>CUMU was formed in 1989 in response to the unique challenges facing urban and metropolitan universities. These entities often do not fit the model of more traditional colleges. CUMU is now an international affiliate and partners with organizations focused on supporting public policy initiatives that impact urban and metropolitan universities and the communities they serve.
The post Engaging the Public Through Public Policy Centers appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>The post Data Released on Youth Experiencing Homelessness in Ada County appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Boise State University’s Idaho Policy Institute, within the School of Public Service, teamed up with the City of Boise, Ada County and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago for Voices of Youth Count, a first-of-its-kind national effort aimed at ending youth homelessness.
Ada County was one of 22 counties from across the United States to participate in the program.
Among homeless or unstably housed youth who were surveyed in Ada County, the findings showed:
From 3:30-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, Ada County and the Idaho Policy Institute will co-host a public event to present and discuss the research findings. The event will take place in the first-floor public hearing room at the Ada County courthouse.
Dozens of community volunteers, including young adults who had experienced housing instability, carried out youth-led counts and surveys of young people and providers to collect information about the number and characteristics of youth experiencing homelessness and the services available to them.
“Evidence shows that in order for youth to reach their full potential they need access to school, work and stable housing,” said Vanessa Fry, Boise State’s research lead and assistant director of the Idaho Policy Institute. “This research provides information specific to Ada County’s youth in regards to both current access and available supportive services.”
“It is our hope that the people of Ada County, who work so hard to serve homeless young people, will find important evidence in this research that will accelerate solutions,” said Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. “Together we are building an unprecedented foundation on which to create policies, programs, and practices to respond to and ultimately end youth homelessness.”
Voices of Youth Count comes at a critical time for communities and Congress. Reliable data, new strategies and direct engagement have accelerated the nation’s progress in preventing and ending veterans’ homelessness. But efforts to end homelessness among young people, whose circumstances and needs are very different, have lacked the focus that strong data can bring to resource decisions and coordination across communities.
As findings emerge, Chapin Hall will place data and evidence in local and national context, make purposeful connections between existing and new knowledge and policy, and provide decision makers at national and local levels with recommendations for action.
“When the Ada County commissioners were invited to participate in the Voices of Youth Count, we were intrigued with the concept,” said Commission Chairman David Case. “But really unaware of the extent of our homeless youth population. After reaching out to the three school districts in the county, we were shocked at the extent of the problem and highly motivated to help find solutions.”
As the community moves forward to address the findings from the Voices of Youth Count effort, project partners will continue to meet regularly to discuss solutions and next steps. “We are grateful for the opportunity to be part of this innovative program alongside our local partner agencies and for the Idaho Policy Institute’s continued work to provide analysis and research for this effort,” said Corey Cook, dean of the School of Public Service.
“We look forward to the opportunity of taking the next step and answering the question of how we, as a society, will meet the needs of our most vulnerable youth, get them into safe environments and help them reach their full potential as they move toward adulthood,” said Case.
Voices of Youth Count is made possible with generous financial support from Arcus Foundation, Ballmer Group Philanthropy, Campion Foundation, Casey Family Programs, Chapin Hall, Inger Davis, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Melville Charitable Trust, Raikes Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Chapin Hall is solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations in Voices of Youth Count publications. Such statements and interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the government or any of Chapin Hall’s other partners.
The 22 county locations were selected using a rigorous sampling methodology to ensure diversity of region, population density, and the availability of services for homeless youth. All counties participated voluntarily and local organizations contributed their time and expertise to the research.
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago is a policy research center that provides public and private decision-makers with rigorous data analysis and achievable solutions to support them in improving the lives of society’s most vulnerable children, youth and families.
The Idaho Policy Institute at Boise State University’s School of Public Service is an independent source of research and analysis for decision makers in Idaho. Idaho Policy Institute’s work enables public, private, and nonprofit leaders to develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges.
About Boise State University
A public metropolitan research university with more than 23,000 students, Boise State is proud to be powered by creativity and innovation. Located in Idaho’s capital city, the university has a growing research agenda and plays a crucial role in the region’s knowledge economy and famed quality of life. In the past 10 years, the university has quadrupled the number of doctoral degrees and doubled its master’s degree offerings. Learn more at www.BoiseState.edu.
Original Source: Boise State Update
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]]>The post IPI Assistant Director Shares Results of Pre-K Research appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Boise Mayor Dave Bieter and Boise School District Superintendent Dr. Don Coberly with a group of Vista Pre-K students
The evaluation, authored by Ms. Fry, IPI Research Associate Sally Sargeant-Hu and IPI Graduate Research Assistant Lance McGinnis-Brown, found that students who attended Vista Pre-K were more likely to achieve benchmark scores on the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) than their peers who didn’t attend the program. In fall 2016, 86% of Vista Pre-K students attending kindergarten at Witney and Hawthorne achieved benchmark or higher on the IRI while only 53% of their peers achieved benchmark. Across the entire Boise School District 64% of kindergarteners achieved benchmark on the fall 2016 IRI.
Boise Pre-K Program Evaluation Report
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]]>The post Pre-K Research Shows Achievement in Benchmark Scores appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>Boise Mayor Dave Bieter and Boise School District Superintendent Dr. Don Coberly with a group of Vista Pre-K students
The evaluation, authored by Ms. Fry, IPI Research Associate Sally Sargeant-Hu and IPI Graduate Research Assistant Lantz McGinnis-Brown, found that students who attended Vista Pre-K were more likely to achieve benchmark scores on the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) than their peers who didn’t attend the program. In fall 2016, 86% of Vista Pre-K students attending kindergarten at Whitney and Hawthorne achieved benchmark or higher on the IRI while only 53% of their peers achieved benchmark. Across the entire Boise School District 64% of kindergarteners achieved benchmark on the fall 2016 IRI.
Boise Pre-K Program Evaluation Report
The post Pre-K Research Shows Achievement in Benchmark Scores appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>The post West Central Mountains Housing Solutions appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>The Idaho Policy Institute is currently advising Boise State graduate students in the MPA Capstone Class who are analyzing the impacts of the short-term rental market on the City of McCall.
The post West Central Mountains Housing Solutions appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>The post Dr. John Freemuth is quoted in the Conversation appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>Original source: The Conversation US, 9/27/17; Boise State Update, 9/27/17
The post Dr. John Freemuth is quoted in the Conversation appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>The post Dr. John Freemuth was quoted in the Lewiston Morning Tribune appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>Original source: Lewiston Morning Tribune, 9/27/17
The post Dr. John Freemuth was quoted in the Lewiston Morning Tribune appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>The post The Blue Review post, “Lessons Learned”, by Chris Birdsall appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>Original Source: The Blue Review, 9/25/17
The post The Blue Review post, “Lessons Learned”, by Chris Birdsall appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>The post IPI Research Serves as Catalyst for “Housing First” appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>New Path Community Housing broke ground on Sept. 20 as Idaho’s first “Housing First” development. This project will provide housing and wrap around services for 40 people experiencing chronic homelessness and reduces the barriers of entry to housing.
In 2016 Idaho Policy Institute’s (IPI) assistant director Vanessa Fry and research associate Sally Sargeant-Hu assessed the community costs associated with chronic homelessness. They found 100 people experiencing chronic homelessness incur annual community costs of over $5.3 million. However, implementing a permanent supportive housing program with a housing first approach would cost $1.6 million and result in savings and cost avoidance of $2.7 million. This research contributed to the community’s efforts to launch New Path Community Housing.
IPI is providing technical assistance to recommend goals and outcomes for the program and to develop an evaluation framework for Housing First. IPI will also be conducting the long term evaluation of the program. School of Public Service Dean Corey Cook said the Idaho Policy Institute’s work on this project is an example of the school’s commitment to being engaged in the community. “Many individuals and organizations are working together to help solve some very difficult problems and help our neighbors in need. We’re grateful to be a small part of this important work.“
Vanessa recently gave a TEDx talk and wrote an article in the Blue Review on using Pay for Success Financing to address persistent social and environmental issues.
Sally Sargeant-Hu, with her colleague Carl Anderson, co-authored a Blue Review article on housing first and permanent supportive housing.
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]]>The post John Freemuth was quoted in an titled “Forest Service, Idaho work to boost logging on federal land.” appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>Forest Service, Idaho work to boost logging on federal land
… you don’t compromise environmental values,” said John Freemuth, a Boise State University environmental policy professor and public lands expert.
“The article discusses agreements for logging and restoration projects on federal land in what officials say could become a template for other Western states to create jobs and reduce the severity of wildfires.”
Original source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/22/17, Associated Press, 9/22/17 and the Boise State UPDATE 9/24/17
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]]>The post Urban Studies Professor of the Practice Honored for Excellence in History appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Stevens has been a professional historian for nearly 25 years and is the principal and president of Stevens Historical Research Associates. She joined Boise State in Fall of 2017. Her work focuses on environmental history, land, water and transportation history, urban planning, U.S. business history and commemorative events. She serves on Boise’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and has served on the City’s Historic Preservation Commission.
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]]>The post Suzanne McCorkle and Melanie Reese, published 2nd edition of “Personal Conflict Management” appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>Origination source: Boise State UPDATE, 9/15/17
The post Suzanne McCorkle and Melanie Reese, published 2nd edition of “Personal Conflict Management” appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>The post John Freemuth Quoted by High Country News appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>Original source: Boise State UPDATE 9/13/17; High County News 9/11/17
The post John Freemuth Quoted by High Country News appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>The post President Kustra to Moderate Politics of Protected Areas Forum appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>The forum, titled “The Politics of Protected Areas: National Parks, Monuments, and Wilderness,” will focus on the politics of monuments such as Craters of the Moon and Bears Ears, as well as other protected areas such as national parks and wilderness. The speakers will discuss challenges and opportunities related to federally protected areas, including the role of the American people and how they interpret and engage with these places.
“The passing of Cecil Andrus and the celebration of his public lands legacy illustrate the importance of our national parks monuments wilderness and protected areas. Some of these lands appear to many to be under assault today; this forum will explore their status and the issues surrounding them,” said John Freemuth, a Boise State professor of environmental policy and executive director of the Cecil D. Andrus Center for Public Policy.
In addition to Freemuth, the forum will feature University of Illinois professor of political science Robert Pahre and Idaho Conservation League executive director Rick Johnson.
Learn more and register to attend on the Idaho Environmental Forum website.”
Original source: Boise State UPDATE 9/2/17
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]]>The post MPA Alumni and IMGMA Executive Director, Steven Sumter, Announces 2017 MGMA Conference appeared first on Department of Public Policy and Administration.
]]>This year, Idaho MGMA is hosting it’s 2017 Annual Conference at Boise State University on September 20th-22nd. In partnership with the Boise State School of Public Service and Department of Community and Environmental Health, MHS and MPA program students may attend the educational portion of this event September 21-22 at no cost. The conference is a fantastic educational and networking opportunity. Idaho MGMA is still in need of volunteers if interested.
Student conference registration includes program materials and meals for participation during the educational portion of the conference. Registration DOES NOT include admission to Wednesday Golf Tournament, Wednesday Evening Reception, or the Thursday Evening Dinner/Entertainment. In accordance with university policy, students are prohibited from participating in these activities.
REGISTRATION
If you are currently enrolled in Boise State’s MHS or MPA program you may register here. Students must register prior to September 8.
SPEAKER SCHEDULE
Click here to view the tentative conference schedule. Schedule is subject to change without notice.
QUESTIONS?
Contact Steven Sumter, Idaho MGMA Executive Director, by phone at (208) 344-7888, or via email at idahomgma@gmail.com.
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]]>The post School of Public Service Saddened by Passing of Governor Cecil D. Andrus appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Governor Cecil D. Andrus
The School of Public Service is saddened to learn of the passing of Governor Cecil D. Andrus, who passed away Thursday evening.
Governor Andrus, called “Idaho’s Greatest Governor” in a recent biography, made innumerable contributions to the State of Idaho and to our nation. His list of accomplishments includes serving as Idaho Governor for fourteen years, the most in our history. He also served as United States Secretary of Interior, becoming the first Idahoan to serve in a United States cabinet position.
Governor Andrus was well-liked and respected, even by many who disagreed with his policies. Despite his patience, competence and commitment to bipartisanship and compromise when possible, Governor Andrus cared passionately about issues and worked tirelessly to pass important legislation. He was perhaps most known for his commitment to preserving and protecting our natural resources and public lands. He was also dedicated to public education and to empowering leaders from underrepresented communities.
While Governor Andrus’ legacy is immeasurable, the School of Public Service is particularly grateful for his work establishing the Andrus Center for Public Policy. The Andrus Center advances his legacy by championing wise use of our environmental resources and public lands, proper funding of education for our children and the cultivation of leadership from all segments of our society.
A permanent exhibit honoring Governor Andrus will be housed in the Andrus Center in the new School of Public Service building. The building is currently in planning stages.
School of Public Service Dean Corey Cook said, “The issues that Governor Andrus worked on as a governor and member of the cabinet are just as relevant today as they were during his time in office. His rare combination of passion and civility serves as a model for current and future leaders. Governor Andrus got things done and he got things done the right way.”
Read more about Governor Andrus in the Idaho Statesman.
In memory of Cecil D. Andrus, Idaho’s four-term governor, U.S. Interior secretary, and champion for the environment, public lands, and education, the Andrus family requests memorial gifts be made to the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, which is dedicated to furthering his life’s work and legacy.
The Cecil Andrus Center Chair for Environment and Public Lands
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]]>The post Connecting the Dots appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>There is something here. This is not random. There is a reason that I was contacted by both colleagues and community members expressing concern and outrage about an update from one of the campus departments, which shared an article, that one of their faculty members has recently produced. Folks that contacted me were concerned about the content of the article that they characterized (I think correctly), as derogatory of feminists, the LGBT community and people generally concerned with issues of justice related to gender. This issue arose just the day before the tragic events in Charlottesville, Va. became a national moment of attention. There is a reason that these things happened in succession and their proximity in my attention is no accident.
The article that folks were referring to is a piece written by a tenured professor at Boise State University, Dr. Scott Yenor, entitled, Transgender Activists Are Seeking to Undermine Parental Rights. Dr. Yenor’s ties to the Heritage Foundation should shed some light on the general “culture war” tenor of the piece, in which he posits, basically that feminism’s ultimate aim is something slightly less than cultural Armageddon, in which the real end to the march of progress that saw gay marriage as a victory, is a social order in which neither children nor parents have any rights protection with respect to one another in a sort of stalemate of gender sovereignty. His piece is easy enough to dismiss on logical grounds, but serves as a very telling peek into the pathetic fear of change gripping those that patronize such sources as the Heritage foundation.
It is also, however, the seed of a dangerous idea; the dangerous idea that those different from you are not just different than you, but that they actually have nefarious ends and seek to destroy you and everything you cherish. It is this dangerous idea that is the very same seed that, when nourished and allowed to grow, becomes the kind of hatred and intolerance that we saw on Display in Charlottesville. The anti-defamation league’s pyramid of hate (available on the anti-defamation leagues’ website) visually depicts the relationship between this kind of seed and its ultimate end. It is a meaningful graphic that brings into sharp relief the evolutionary relationship between behind closed-door cultural alienation as an individual and how those lonely individuals seek out like-minded others and eventually foster a sense that these fear based and misguided ideas should spur some action. The pyramid depicts a process which builds from bias to individual acts of prejudice that ultimately produce discrimination, bias motivated violence and build to a genocidal end. It is a powerful graphic that cites history as its ultimate author.
There is a direct line between these fear fueled conspiratorial theories and the resurrection of a violent ideology which sees the “other” as a direct threat to existence and therefore necessary to obliterate. It is not an absolute succession and it is not a line without potential breaks or interruptions. Not every person who agrees with Yenor’s piece is likely to become an espoused Neo-Nazi, but likely every Neo-Nazi would agree with the substance of Yenor’s piece. It is this troubling truth that should move us to more critically and forcefully call this connection out in a clear and plain way. Yenor’s piece includes a seed of hate that needs to be labeled for what it is, the spirit of an ideological animal called supremacy; supremacy of male over female, of straight over gay and of our way over yours. Supremacy is the root of genocide and this is a seed that we must label as clearly and plainly as possible as “toxic”, and a danger to all those that would handle it. I realize that some would call me alarmist for identifying such an association at all, but as someone that has grown up in the rural west, I just don’t know how you can deny the logic that reducing the impact of toxic seeds by identifying them helps us to ultimately control the character of what we will inevitably have to sow.
Francisco Salinas
Director, Student Diversity and Inclusion
The post Connecting the Dots appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>The post IPI Director Greg Hill Presents at Association of Idaho Cities Annual Conference appeared first on Idaho Policy Institute.
]]>Launched in 2016, the Idaho Policy Institute provides objective research and analysis to aid in informed decision making and engage the public. To date, IPI has engaged in over 20 projects across the state of Idaho on issues such as economic development, transportation, housing, and public defense.
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]]>The post Brittany Sundell Joins School of Public Service appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>“Brittany’s rich experiences over the years as an advisor and resident hall director make her ideally suited for our advising team in the School of Public Service,” said School of Public Service Associate Dean Andrew Giacomazzi. “Brittany has the skills and abilities to foster student success in a growing college. We are excited that she is joining our team!”
Prior to arriving at Boise State, Sundell served as Hall Director for St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. She holds a Master of Organizational Leadership from St. Ambrose and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology/Sociology from Plymouth State in New Hampshire.
The School of Public Service will begin offering three new undergraduate majors in Fall 2017. Global Studies and Urban Studies and Community Development are new Boise State degree programs. Environmental Studies is joining the School from the College of Arts and Sciences.
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]]>The post Are Students Hungry? appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Over forty percent of Boise State students have experienced some form of food insecurity. Food insecurity, the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food, is a growing but often invisible problem on college campuses nation-wide. Food-insecure students report that hunger can negatively impact their academic performance and their ability to complete their studies. Recent studies have indicated the alarming scope of the issue nationally and a new study by the Idaho Policy Institute quantifies the issue among Boise State students.
MPA students gained hands-on experience through a service-learning project and offered a plan for improving food security among students. The PUB 500 class investigated Boise State student food insecurity throughout the spring semester and recently shared their findings, discussed challenges and made recommendations for tackling the problem in a public presentation on Boise State’s campus.
The class taught is taught by Wendy Jaquet and consists of six students from various majors, including PPA. Jaquet thinks that grappling with real issues impacting students is an important part of the learning process. “I try to make sure that my students experience working on an issue that is close to home,” says Jaquet. “I believe that this prepares them for the practice of public administration in the real world.”
The presentation began with Dr. Matthew May of the Idaho Policy Institute discussing IPI’s findings on food insecurity at Boise State and how it compares to national trends. In general, Boise State students experienced higher rates of high food security, lower rates of low food security and a one percent higher rate of very low food security than the national average. Other key points included:
Public Administration students continued the presentation, noting that while Boise State students have slightly above-average food security than the nation on the whole, providing services for food-insecure students has proved a challenge. Drawing on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they discussed the difficulties in maintaining academic performance while their physiological needs are not secure.
Left to right: Danielle Taylor, Tammy Perkins, Alexis Pickering, Ana Costa, Ryan McGoldrick, Graham Reed
Through this service-learning experience, students identified several obstacles that make overcoming food security on campus a challenge. Among them are a negative stigma about being food insecure, a gap in student involvement, a lack of collaboration and communication between stakeholders, and a sense that a level of hunger is a character-building rite of passage for college students.
The students analyzed food security efforts at other Idaho universities as well as the strengths and weaknesses of current hunger alleviation efforts at Boise State before making recommendations. The group’s primary recommendation was the launch of a campus food pantry. This effort would require increased communication and collaboration from various campus stakeholders and service providers as well as greater student involvement. The class presented a detailed model of what such a panty would need to be a success and outlined potential roles for existing service providers and students.
A note about survey methodology:
The Idaho Policy Institute surveyed all Boise State University Foundation 200 students during the Spring 2017 semester (N=1,138). The questionnaire included 33 questions collecting 74 data points on each respondent. A total 257 usable responses were collected, for a 23% response rate. Modeled after a national study, it utilized the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “U.S. Adult Food Security Survey Module: Three-Stage design, With Screeners” scoring methodology to score the respondent’s level of food security.
The survey was administered online via Qualtrics and was open for three weeks (1/24 thru 2/14). IPI’s Dr. Matthew May adds, “Because the population was limited to UF200 students, plus the low response rate, generalizability is limited but the results do serve as a starting point for assessing how Boise State students compare with the national numbers.”
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]]>The post Wendy Jaquet Honored at Sun Valley Film Festival appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>[BOISE] – Wendy Jaquet, long-time Idaho state representative and current School of Public Service adjunct faculty member and PhD candidate, has been honored for her political leadership. The award was given by Zions Bank at their annual Grande Dame Brunch and Women’s Leadership Celebration at the Sun Valley Film Festival. Academy-Award winning actress Geena Davis, this year’s Sun Valley Vision Award recipient and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, presented the awards.
Zions Bank recognized eight Idaho women for leadership in business, public policy, culture and education. The honorees were chosen by Idaho First Lady and Idaho Women in Leadership CEO Lori Otter, along with Zions Bank President Scott Anderson.
Tracy Andrus of the Andrus Center for Public Policy says that Jaquet’s honor is well-deserved. “Wendy has a long history of providing positive and collaborative political leadership in Idaho. From her days at the helm of the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce to her 18 years as a state legislator to her service as House Minority Leader to her work with students at Boise State University, Wendy’s leadership has enriched the lives of countless Idaho residents.”
Dr. Stephanie Witt of the Boise State Department of Public Policy and Administration agrees. “Wendy is an asset to the School of Public Service not only because of her academic preparation but also her lifetime of public service in the Legislature and her community. She is dedicated to lifelong learning, is an enthusiastic teacher, and a powerful role model for our students.”
The event took place on March 19 in Ketchum as part of the Sun Valley Film Festival.
Andrus Center Board Member Aimée Christensen was recognized for Public Policy Leadership at the ceremony. “Aimée has spent the last 25 years driving breakthrough public and private enterprise policies focused on protecting our natural resources, expanding the use of clean energy, and helping to build healthy communities,” says Tracy Andrus. “We are fortunate she brought her substantial skills back to Idaho, founding the Sun Valley Institute with a commitment to ensure a better, more resilient future for local communities, our state, and her global clients far beyond.”
Aimée Christensen , Tracy Andrus and Wendy Jaquet
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]]>The post Pathways Internship Experience Program (IEP) appeared first on School of Public Service.
]]>Visit USAJOBS to start the online application process and view the following vacancy announcement numbers.
Please note the cutoff point for these positions: These vacancy announcements will be open from February 27 to March 3, 2017 or when 100 applications have been received. The vacancy will close on whichever day the first of these conditions is met. If the application limit is reached on the same day the announcement opened, the open and close date will be the same. Candidates are encouraged to read the entire announcement before submitting their application packages.
Vacancy | USAJOBS Links |
---|---|
Program Analyst (Student Trainee) GS-0399-05/07/09 | Grade 05: HRSC/PATH-2017-0012 Grade 07: HRSC/PATH-2017-0013 Grade 09: HRSC/PATH-2017-0014 |
The Internship Experience Program (IEP) allows for non-temporary appointments that are expected to last the length of the academic program for which the intern is enrolled. IEP participants, while in the program, are eligible for noncompetitive promotions. This program allows for noncompetitive conversion into the competitive service following successful completion of all program requirements. Veteran’s preference applies.
Student Trainees work closely with the U.S. diplomats and Civil Service professionals who carry out America’s foreign policy initiatives. To witness and participate in U.S. foreign policy formulation and implementation, consider a Pathways internship with the U.S. Department of State.
U.S. citizenship is required for all positions. If you have any questions or would like to search for topics of interest, please contact HRSC@state.gov or visit our forums orFAQs at careers.state.gov.
We appreciate your interest in a career with the U.S. Department of State.
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]]>