Health care expenditures: international comparisons, 1970-80

This article is based on the findings of a study developed to compare health care costs in the United States during 1970-80 with those of six other industrially advanced countries--Canada, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Although health care expenditures in the United States have traditionally been relatively high, as a share of gross national product, they were exceeded in 1980 in West Germany and Sweden and equaled by the Netherlands. All the countries experienced increases in health care spending that outpaced inflation in other sectors of the economy. For the decade as a whole, the United States encountered a slower rate of growth than most of the other countries, both in terms of actual expenditures and when adjusted for inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. As the decade progressed, however, most of the other countries succeeded in slowing their rate of increase to a greater degree than did the United States. The data also suggest that wage inflation was less of a factor in raising the cost of health care in the United States than was the case in most of the other countries.     

The 2020 U.S. presidential election: A litmus test

This paper provides an overview of what lies ahead of the United States in the event that Donald John Trump either lost or won a reelection bid. The uncertainty of the election outcomes is what we refer to as a litmus test. In this paper, we reflect on the ongoing events shaping the United States ahead of the 2020 presidential election and their implications on the United States. We suggest that the election provide a litmus test in shaping the politics of the United States in answering numerous questions raised in the current Trump administration. We deduce that the election could give birth to the new form of Brexit in the form of “U.S. exit” in the event the United States ignores processes that foster institutional legitimacy and civic engagement to build lost “trust” in the Americanized system.     

Public Enterprise as an Instrument of Development

This is a paper presented on 6th October, 1966 by the author at the tenth session of the Working Party on Economic Development and Planning, United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), which was organized by ECAFE with the co-operation of the United Nations Public Administration Branch and held in Bangkok, Thailand, 3-10 October, 1966. The author is the Head of the United Nations Public Administration Branch and concurrently the Senior Deputy Director of the Bureau of Technical Assistance Operations. The views expressed herewith are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations.     

Utilitarian Multilateralism: The Implications of 11 September 2001 for US Foreign Policy

The 11 September terrorist attacks have led the United States to reassess its foreign policy. The overwhelming priority is the defeat of terrorism and to further this end the United States is prepared to engage with states, regardless of their democratic credentials, willing and able to help the United States on the terrorist front. There is little sign, however, that the new-found interest in promoting multilateral co-operation to deal with terrorism is spilling over into other policy areas. The United States shows no sign of modifying its opposition to a number of international treaties and agreements – such as Kyoto, CTBT or the ICC – all of which its closest allies support. The US approach may be described as 'utilitarian multilateralism'.     

The Street‐Level Bureaucrats of Elections: Selection Methods for Local Election Officials

The 2000 presidential election and the recount battle in Florida focused attention on local election administration in the United States. The Help America Vote Act , passed by the federal government in 2002, requires wholesale changes in voting equipment and other election procedures. However, the law did not address the selection of individuals who manage elections: both state and local election officials play a great role implementing federal and state election laws. Recently, several election reform advocates have argued for shifting to nonpartisan election administrators in the United States. Others, particularly associations representing election officials, have not endorsed that position. To inform this debate, we provide data on the selection methods and party affiliations for all local election officials in the United States (more than 4,500 individuals or commissions). We find considerable variation in the methods used to select state and local election officials in the United States.     

United States' Narco-Terrorism Policy: A Contingency Approach to the Convergence of the Wars on Drugs and Against Terrorism

In recent years, terrorist organizations have become increasingly dependent on drug trafficking as one of several primary sources of revenue to fund terrorist activities. In response, the United States’ security and intelligence efforts against narco‐terrorism have increasingly merged into one unified policy approach. Moreover, the convergence of United States policy wars against terrorism and illicit drugs have produced complex and dynamic contingency factors. As a result, a relatively coherent nexus now exists between the United States’ antinarcotics and antiterrorist policies. The objective of this article is to explain and assess the contingency factors and implications resulting from this convergence and to provide policy scholars with an analytical perspective into the implications of the United States’ narco‐terrorism policy. It is believed that this article is significant to both policy practitioners and policy scholars concerned with the domestic impact of the United States’ narco‐terrorism policy.     

解放思想与高校统战工作创新

新时期高校统战工作出现了许多新形势、新情况，在创新时代的情况下，通过什么推动新形势下统战工作？本文在诠释高校统战工作创新的内涵，解放思想转变思维观念，坚持科学发展观指导等方面进行了一些探索和思考。     

Health care expenditures in nine industrialized countries, 1960-76

This article reports the findings of a study developed to compare health care costs in the United States with those of eight other industrially advanced countries over the period 1960-76. All of the countries studied were found to share with the United States the problem of increased health care spending that has outpaced inflation in other sectors of the economy and continues to consume a growing share of national resources. The American growth rate in these expenditures has, in fact, been lower than that of all other coutries. Though U.S. health care expenditures have traditionally been relatively high when measured as a share of gross national product, Canada outspent the United States in this respect during the 1960's. In most recent years, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden have devoted a larger share of GNP to health care than has the United States.     

Scandinavian Corporatism in a Trans-Atlantic Comparative Perspective

Although the concept of 'neo-corporatism' has been around for 30 years, it has many different meanings. Nonetheless, evaluations of the level of corporatism in different countries turn out to be remarkably similar despite differences in the theoretical meaning of 'corporatism'. That the Scandinavian countries are among the most corporatist countries and the United States the least is thus shared conventional wisdom among different corporatist schools. The conventional wisdom and its underlying conceptual pragmatism are challenged in this research. Empirically, it is demonstrated that the level of corporatism in the United States comes close to the level in Denmark if the Scandinavian 'boards and commissions' variant of the concept of 'corporatism' is applied. It can even be argued that the pattern of interest groups' participation in boards and commissions in the United States is more in line with the corporatist idea that interest group involvement varies with the saliency of issues of the boards and commissions to interest group than it is the case in Denmark. The empirical findings of the study conflict with deeply rooted perceptions of the presence of corporatism in the United States and Scandinavia. How to make sense of similar levels of 'Scandinavian' corporatism in the United States and Denmark is discussed in the conclusion of the article.     

In the Eye of the Storm? Societal Aging and the Future of Public‐Service Reform

One of the principal motivations for the reinvention of many central governments over the last two decades is the need to deal with chronic budget deficits. As budget surpluses reappeared at the end of the 1990s, the pressure to restructure seemed to ease in some countries. However, observers suggested the relief was only temporary, and aging populations would soon put more stress on government budgets, creating a need for further retrenchment. This article assesses the vulnerability of three central governments—the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States—to aging-related fiscal stress. Because of institutional differences, the U.S. government is likely to be hit hardest by this demographic change. This may imply that public-sector reform will take a different path in the United States than it will in the United Kingdom or Canada.     

Testing Rival Decision–Making Theories on Budget Outputs: Theories and Comparative Evidence

This study demonstrates the link between the degree of economic rationality and budgetary decision–making outputs for Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Three empirical models are derived with low, intermediate, and high degrees of economic rationality, namely, "garbage can," incrementalism, and rational choice budgeting, respectively. The methods used are time series analyses on real disaggregated national government budget outputs for the post–World War II period for Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. There was some support found for budgetary incrementalism, and the most consistent support for rational choice budgeting. There was no support for garbage can budgeting.     

Export Controls and United States Space Power

This article assesses the impact of export policy on 21st century United States space power. The efficacy of current export controls in preventing the proliferation of space technologies and maintaining United States advantage is evaluated. The study finds that space launch technology has been and remains highly globalized; the United States has lost significant international communications satellite market share, but it maintains a tangible lead in position, navigation, and timing systems; and the recent growth in foreign imaging systems, both radar and optical, have eroded any advantage the United States once enjoyed. Furthermore, export controls have not appreciably slowed the internationalization of space and breaking dependency on the United States is a common underlying theme. The paper goes on to highlight the unintended consequences stemming from current policy, including limiting access to advanced technology of foreign origin, limiting access to foreign-born expertise, and adding “fog” and “friction” to the execution of programs that include foreign content. This paper finds current export control policy is incongruent with 21st century space power programs and initiatives, such as Operationally Responsive Space, Coalition Space, and “Soft” Space Power. Export control reform is suggested herein on the basis of developing a trusted community of trading partners.     

Organizational Characteristics and Funding Environments: A Study of a Population of United Way–Affiliated Nonprofits

This study examines a population of United Way–affiliated nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts (1) to test hypotheses generated by previous research on relationships between government funding and specific nonprofit organizational characteristics, (2) to compare differences in organizational characteristics between nonprofits receiving higher percentages of revenues from the United Way and from government sources, and (3) to explore associations between government funding and United Way and underexamined characteristics, including use of commercial income and racial diversity of organizational membership. The study supports previous research on the relationship between government funding and nonprofit characteristics, with one notable exception—less administrative complexity was associated with higher percentages of government funding. The study also finds differences in organizational characteristics between nonprofits with higher proportions of government funding and those with higher percentages of United Way funding, including organization size, number of board members, administrative complexity, use of volunteers, and the racial diversity of boards, staff, and volunteers.     

Federalism and Political Recentralization in the Russian Federation: United Russia As the Party of Power

This article analyzes trends in Russian federalism by examiningthe rise of United Russia as a party of power. For the firsttime in post-Soviet history, a pro-presidential party of powerhas been successfully established, both reflecting and facilitatingpolitical recentralization. This article traces United Russia'srole in this recentralization process and examines the factorsthat have allowed United Russia to succeed as the central government'sinstrument for deepening and consolidating political centralizationwhere other attempts have failed. The impact of political recentralizationhas changed the face and nature of Russian federalism in a veryshort period of time and raises concerns that the politicaltrajectory of Russia is away from a federalist structure andtoward a unitary state.     

The stability of international coalitions in United Nations voting from 1946 to 1973

The stability of outcomes under democratic decision-making is a significant issue in public choice. Several factors might make U.N. voting blocs less stable than blocs in national legislatures. Nevertheless, the data suggest that from 1946 to 1973 United Nations voting blocs were relatively stable. Nations that leave their blocs tend to vote with nearby blocs rather than making large ideological shifts, and tend to return to their old blocs. There does not appear to be cycles in United Nations voting blocs. Furthermore, the blocs can be ranked on a stable single-dimensioned continuum, lending further evidence that United Nations voting blocs are stable.     

Terrorism and affinity of nations

Public Choice - This article investigates whether a country’s political proximity to the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom exposes the country to terrorist attacks. We...     

Policy Changes on Canada's Rivers: Different but not Isolated

I address two questions in this article. First, how do policy changes in Canada differ from those in the United States? Second, are such changes isolated from American influence? I argue that Canadian policy changes will be more driven by subnational bureaucrats, more dependent upon fortuitous alignments of interests and institutions, and less quickly emulated by other jurisdictions than policy changes in the United States. I will also argue that policy changes in Canada are not completely isolated from those in the United States, not given the ability of ideas to cross international borders to change the framing of issues. I examine these arguments in the context of changing river management policies in British Columbia and Ontario.     

Regulating Rule‐Making via Impact Assessment

In their attempt to promote “better regulation,” governments have ended up with increasing regulation of rule‐making. Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is a manifestation of this trend. This article draws on the positive political economy hypothesis that RIA is an administrative control device. Rational politicians—positive political economy argues—design administrative requirements to solve problems of political uncertainty. This is a rather abstract hypothesis but with clearly observable implications. Empirical analysis on Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the EU shows that the modes and level of control vary, with almost no evidence supporting the positive political economy hypothesis in Denmark and Sweden and more robust evidence in the other cases, especially the United States and the United Kingdom. The EU scores high, but control has both a political component and an infra‐organizational dimension. In between the extremes I find modest levels of political control in Canada and the Netherlands.     

美国宪法“正当法律程序“原则的经济效应分析

本文通过分析美国宪法“正当法律程序”的演变过程 ,并结合美国宪政变迁的实际历程 ,以及“正常法律程序”与美国经济发展的内在关联 ;对传统的宪政理论中的“经济决定论”进行认真反思 ,并初步提出自己的看法     

U.S. Initiative to Place Weapons in Space: The Catalyst for a Space-Based Arms Race with China and Russia

The United States must ensure sustainability and stability in space by protecting its satellites to safeguard national security and economic vitality. Concerns for obtaining this security are mounting, as U.S. satellites are increasingly vulnerable to developing threats from adversaries. This article proposes that the United States will eventually initiate the weaponization of space to defend its space systems and supporting infrastructure. The consequence for such an initiative will manifest a pronounced counteraction from China and Russia, the key spacefaring adversaries of the United States. Such a counteraction will consist of a space-based arms race, as each nation will jockey to position itself as the dominant power in space.