Letter from the Editor
Greetings. Publication of this issue of Policy Currents brings to fruition a number of changes that have been underway to
expand and revamp the policy section’s webpage. You will notice that Policy Currents itself is now available both
in html format and as a pdf file. This
gives you the choice of reading the newsletter on your screen in html or
downloading it as a finished, published document using Acrobat’s pdf format. You will also notice that the archive of
back issues of the newsletter has been greatly expanded. If by any chance, you happen to still have a
copy of one of the newsletters that is not archived, please let me know. We’d like to scan it and add it to the
archive.
You will also notice that there are now three bulletin boards for you
to use. One is for announcements that you would like to make. This can be used for anything that you think
will be of interest to other members of the section. Another is for ongoing discussion of issues. It is my hope that the ideas and arguments
that are provoked by essays that are published in the newsletter will be
discussed in depth on this bulletin board.
Finally, there is a bulletin board for posting working papers, data
sets, and useful resources.
Instructions for the use of each bulletin board can be found at the
top of the respective screens when you log in to them. The bulletin boards are not moderated; they are for your use. I am excited about having these bulletin
boards available. My sense is that they
constitute an important mechanism for “democratizing” the flow of information
and interactions among members of the policy section.
Every member of the Policy Section should have received by email and/or
postcard a userid and password that will allow access to the bulletin boards.
If you have misplaced this information or did not receive it, let me know. Also notice that when you log into each of
the bulletin boards for the first time, you can set your computer to remember the
userid and password so that you don’t have to go through the login procedure
thereafter.
Let me turn now to the contents of this issue of Policy Currents. We have several terrific essays in this issue. The first by Ray Tatalovich and T. Alexander Smith is a thought-provoking effort to understand what is distinctive about moral policies. In trying to explain why policies as diverse as school prayer, women’s rights, and gun control become controversial in particular ways, they move beyond “interests” to “status.” Their argument is that morality policies are the product of the politics of competing status claims. In their terms, values–not economics–lie at the heart of these disputes.
The second essay is by Peter deLeon and Katie Kaufmanis, and argues that the policy stages framework continues to hold substantial merit in organizing the way we think about the policy process. This framework has come under attack in recent years, but deLeon and Kaufmanis make a spirited case for how and why it should be used and taught. No doubt, this argument will provoke a number of responses. If you’d like to write an essay taking issue or elaborating on the topics discussed in this essay, please contact me. Or alternatively, you might start a discussion on the bulletin board around this topic.
The third article in the newsletter is by Lawrence Mead. This one will no doubt stimulate a great deal of discussion that I hope will spill over into the discussion bulletin board. It is a reprinted version, with a few small changes, of the response that Mead wrote to the final report of the APSA Strategic Planning Committee. Mead is critical of the direction of the APSA in several respects. The parts that many of you no doubt will find particularly interesting is his discussion of the marginalization of the policy field, especially as it pertains to what we as a profession are currently offering to improve the practice of public policy.
Finally, you will find the second of four articles that Brian Shoup is writing on the policy field based on the web-based survey of members of the Public Policy section early last fall. This article deals with the hiring prospects within the policy field, focusing in particular on the research and teaching areas that departments are seeking to address when hiring specialists in public policy.
In
conclusion, I hope you will let me know your thoughts about the newsletter and
the webpage. Most importantly, if you have suggestions or comments, please
do not hesitate to contact me with them.
My email address is kbickers@indiana.edu
or you can call me at 812-855-4198.
Best regards, Ken Bickers
Associate Professor
and Co-Associate Director,
IU
Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
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