Merit Goods Determined By Society Value Judgments Political Implications For Public Participation

When behavioral results repeatedly fail to be explained by the assumption that people act as homines economici, these stable response patterns have to be analyzed by a different approach. The concept of merit goods offers one explanation.In this book prevailing misconceptions about merit goods are unveiled and the legitimation and political relevance of the merit good argument when based on society value judgments are demonstrated. Society value judgment in this context means that citizens prefer to decide according to society's best interest rather than in their personal interest. Governmental intervention interfering with individual preferences, however, is often considered as interfering with consumer sovereignty. In this book, participation is proposed as the missing link between the merit good concept and its compatibility with consumer sovereignty. The book also considers what reasonable participation could look like.Thus, being a 'merit good' is not a characteristic, but must rather be seen as the estimation of the people determined by history, values, culture, current situation, knowledge, etc. and must therefore be analyzed as this. In this book, merit goods will be determined and useful participation pointed out using ecological goods from a case study of a result-oriented agri-environmental program as example.

When behavioral results repeatedly fail to be explained by the assumption that people act as homines economici, these stable response patterns have to be analyzed by a different approach. The concept of merit goods offers one explanation.In this book prevailing misconceptions about merit goods are unveiled and the legitimation and political relevance of the merit good argument when based on society value judgments are demonstrated. Society value judgment in this context means that citizens prefer to decide according to society's best interest rather than in their personal interest. Governmental intervention interfering with individual preferences, however, is often considered as interfering with consumer sovereignty. In this book, "participation" is proposed as the missing link between the merit good concept and its compatibility with consumer sovereignty. The book also considers what reasonable participation could look like.Thus, being a 'merit good' is not a characteristic, but must rather be seen as the estimation of the people determined by history, values, culture, current situation, knowledge, etc. and must therefore be analyzed as this. In this book, merit goods will be determined and useful participation pointed out using ecological goods from a case study of a result-oriented agri-environmental program as example.

First published in 1999, this book applies formal economic measures to the passenger and taxpayer benefits of public transit service in the United States under a public choice analytical framework. Approximately 400 local transit budgets have been renewed annually for more than 25 years. These budgets epitomize Braybrooke and Linblom’s concept of 'disjointed incrementalism' and Buchanan’s concept of 'Public Choice' since local legislators funded transit despite constant academic criticism of transit performance. On the other hand, Braybrooke and Lindblom and Buchanan show that local budgets capture benefits that traditional planning analysis does not grasp. This is borne out in analysis in the book. Indeed, far from draining society, transit returns five dollars in benefits for each one dollar of public subsidy. After explaining the analytical framework in Chapter 1, four chapters are devoted to measuring the value of transit benefits. The concluding chapter draws out the implications of this approach and of benefit measurement for policy and planning.

I jumped at the chance to shepherd this collection. This was personal for me. In the past, when I had prepared to teach courses on political leadership, I had come up with a dearth of recent scholarly attention to the topic. Perhaps my perspective on politics and leadership exacerbated the difficulty of my search. I had in mind a politics that touched all aspects of power and authority in our lives (not just government), encouraged the moral imagination, and affirmed human agency that could make the future better than the present. I searched with limited success for material that would explain how all of us shape and are shaped by politics. My perspective on leadership may have also hindered my search. I had in mind the simple notion of taking initiative on behalf of shared values. I found too little material about leadership that extended beyond the spectacle of authority and its assumption of hierarchy. I wanted to explain that each of us, regardless of our place in a hierarchy, has a calling to lead - to act on behalf of our moral imagination. Editing this volume permitted me the chance to develop the material I sought. I (as well as other teachers) no longer have a shortage of material relating politics and leadership with each other. From the Introduction

Because the original and essential value of spatial data ' data that refer to specific geographical locations or areas ' lies in environmental decision-making, such data mostly originate in the public sector and are made available to people,

From various vantage points the authors consider the topic of judgment and decision in policy formation. Richard Lamm, governor of Colorado, describes the problem of utilizing scientific knowledge in the context of political survival. Joseph Coates, assistant to the director, Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, explores the nature of public policy issues. Kenneth Hammond, director of the Center for the Study of Judgment and decision in Policy Formation at the University of Colorado, describes the competence of thought that can he brought to bear on public policy issues. Paul Slovic, Decision Research Inc., addresses the problem of risk assessment in policy formation from the point of view of a cognitive psychologist. Ward Edwards, director, Social Science Research Institute, University of Southern California, describes the general manner in which decision theory may be applied to policy formation. Kenneth Boulding, program director, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, provides an overview of judgment and decision in policy formation. Eillel Einhorn, professor of industrial psychology, University of Chicago, shows the consequences of fallible judgment for social policy formation. Kenneth Hammond and Leonard Adelman provide an example of the application of judgment analysis to a public policy issue.

Now in its third edition, Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy remains the definitive source for article-length presentations spanning the fields of public administration and public policy. It includes entries for: Budgeting Bureaucracy Conflict resolution Countries and regions Court administration Gender issues Health care Human resource management Law Local government Methods Organization Performance Policy areas Policy-making process Procurement State government Theories This revamped five-volume edition is a reconceptualization of the first edition by Jack Rabin. It incorporates over 225 new entries and over 100 revisions, including a range of contributions and updates from the renowned academic and practitioner leaders of today as well as the next generation of top scholars. The entries address topics in clear and coherent language and include references to additional sources for further study.