Voices for Children: Rhetoric and Public Policy

The United States spends more on programs for the elderly than it does on programs that enhance child development and improve child welfare. Why has public policy neglected the development phase of young Americans' lives not only in substantive dollars spent, but also in program design and implementation? Noted child care and education policy expert William Gormley highlights the portrayal of children's issues in both the mass media and in public policymaking to explain why children have gotten short shrift. A key explanation is the limited mass media coverage of strong arguments in support of children's programs.
 After documenting changes in rhetoric on children and public policy over time and variations across policy domains and government venues, Gormley demonstrates that some "issue frames" are more effective than others in persuading voters. In two randomized experiments, he finds that "economic" frames are more effective than "moralistic" frames in generating public support for children's programs. Independent voters are especially responsive to economic frames. In several illuminating case studies, in Connecticut, Utah, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, he finds that strong rhetoric makes a difference but that it is sometimes eclipsed by even stronger political and economic constraints.
 Voices for Children offers a fresh perspective on raging debates over child health, child poverty, child welfare, and education programs at the federal and state levels. It finds some hopeful examples that could transform how we think about children's issues and the kinds of public policies we adopt.

Business & Money

Gormley, William T.

Economics

Brookings Institution Press

Nearly two-thirds of American women with children under age six are in the labor force. It should be no surprise that child care is one of the most serious and widespread concerns of parents today. They worry constantly, wondering if they can afford a particular arrangement, dreading that their favorite provider will quit, and, mostly, questioning whether or not they're doing the best they can for their children. Although these concerns are usually considered a private headache, William Gormley argues that child care is a social problem of critical importance, aggravated by weak institutional supports, and that there are compelling reasons for government intervention.
 In this important new book, Gormley offers a balanced and comprehensive analysis of the market, government, and societal failures to ensure available, affordable, high-quality child care in the United States. Unreliable child care, he says, contributes to family stress and undermines efforts to achieve educational readiness, welfare reform, and gender equity. Neither regulators nor family support agencies distinguish sharply enough between good and bad child care facilities. Meanwhile, government and businesses provide inadequate financial and logistical support. Children suffer as a result, as does society as a whole.
 Gormley presents evidence on how different states and communities have responded to child care challenges and he prescribes the roles to be played by federal, state, and local governments, for-profit and non-profit child care providers, churches, schools, and family support agencies. Gormley recommends a number of reforms, including information sharing, flexible enforcement, targeted subsidies, and family-friendly workplaces. He contends that different levels of government and societal institutions must work together to achieve the goals of efficiency, justice, choice, discretion, coordination, and responsiveness.

Everybody's Children: Child Care as a Public Problem

Nearly two-thirds of American women with children under age six are in the labor force. It should be no surprise that child care is one of the most serious and widespread concerns of parents today. They worry constantly, wondering if they can afford a particular arrangement, dreading that their favorite provider will quit, and, mostly, questioning whether or not they're doing the best they can for their children. Although these concerns are usually considered a private headache, William Gormley argues that child care is a social problem of critical importance, aggravated by weak institutional supports, and that there are compelling reasons for government intervention.In this important new book, Gormley offers a balanced and comprehensive analysis of the market, government, and societal failures to ensure available, affordable, high-quality child care in the United States. Unreliable child care, he says, contributes to family stress and undermines efforts to achieve educational readiness, welfare reform, and gender equity. Neither regulators nor family support agencies distinguish sharply enough between good and bad child care facilities. Meanwhile, government and businesses provide inadequate financial and logistical support. Children suffer as a result, as does society as a whole.Gormley presents evidence on how different states and communities have responded to child care challenges and he prescribes the roles to be played by federal, state, and local governments, for-profit and non-profit child care providers, churches, schools, and family support agencies. Gormley recommends a number of reforms, including information sharing, flexible enforcement, targeted subsidies, and family-friendly workplaces. He contends that different levels of government and societal institutions must work together to achieve the goals of efficiency, justice, choice, discretion, coordination, and responsiveness.

Everybody's Children: Child Care As a Public Problem

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Brookings Inst Pr

The Politics of Public Utility Regulation

Politics & Government

Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Break with convention - An original look at policymaking Policymaking is a messy business. It entails more than the traditional policy cycle discussed in most textbooks. And it involves more than presidents and members of Congress. 
Judges, bureaucrats, corporate leaders, journalists, and voters all influence and participate in the process, and at all levels of government. Each group practices a different kind of politics, which very often results in different policies and outcomes. By looking at six distinct, yet connected, policy domains, your students will see a more comprehensive and realistic view of policymaking: 
Boardroom Politics - decisions by professional and business leaders Bureaucratic Politics - rule-making and adjudication by administrators Cloakroom Politics - lawmaking by legislators Chief Executive Politics - decision making by presidents, governors, mayors, and their advisers Courtroom Politics - rulings by judges Living Room Politics - opinions expressed by and through the mass media, grassroots movements, political activists, and voters 
Policymakers are faced with tough choices. With this text, students are better prepared to evaluate their leaders' performance given the book'ss unique framework linking how policies are chosen with what policy is chosen. 
Thoroughly updated to reflect the issues of the early 21st century, this new edition also incorporates new and important scholarship. 
Recommended for classes in: Public Policy and American Government

Politics and Public Policy

Van Horn, Carl E.

Baumer, Donald C.

Cq Pr

It is nearly impossible to look at the implementation of any policy―from testing at an elementary school to testing of a pharmaceutical drug―and avoid seeing the impact and influence of public bureaucracies. Given the importance of their work, and the accountability they owe to the American public, the performance of public bureaucracies must be assessed in a systematic manner. Working through four key perspectives―bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory―Gormley and Balla give students the analytic power needed to comprehensively evaluate performance, or the give-and-take between decision makers, managers, elected officials, organized interests, and individuals. In addition to updating the book to account for recent developments and new scholarship―from the No Child Left Behind Act and presidential appointments to the Program Assessment Rating Tool and changes to the rulemaking process―the authors apply their working theories in a new chapter on the politics of disaster. With in-depth coverage of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the avian flu, students can learn important lessons from looking at similar events and crises through the same analytical lenses.

Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance

Balla, Steven J.

CQ Press

Given the influence of public bureaucracies in policymaking and implementation, Steven J. Balla and William T. Gormley assess their performance using four key perspectives―bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory―to help students develop an analytic framework for evaluating bureaucratic accountability. The new Fourth Edition of Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance provides a thorough review of bureaucracy during the Obama and Trump administrations, as well as new attention to state and local level examples and the role of bureaucratic values. ? New to this Edition: <ul>
<li>Interviews with two new cabinet secretaries―Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge―with insightful quotes from them throughout the book. </li> <li>Added material on the battle over regulations, a battle that will loom large during the Trump administration, including midnight regulations and the Congressional Review Act.</li> <li>New examples demonstrate the activity and influence of constituencies of different kinds including the placing of women and minorities on US currency, a vignette that features the musical Hamilton, and the political protests surrounding the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.</li> <li>A new discussion of the privatization of roads, the pros and cons.</li> </ul>

About the Author 
Steven J. Balla is associate professor of political science, public policy and public administration, and international affairs at George Washington University. He is also a research associate at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, and a member of the International Working Group on Online Consultation and Public Policy Making.\nWilliam T. Gormley Jr. is University Professor and professor of government and public policy at Georgetown University. He is the author of several books, including Organizational Report Cards, with David Weimer and Everybody’s Children: Child Care as a Public Problem.\nCornelius M. Kerwin is currently the provost of American University and a professor of public adminstration in American University′s School of Public Affairs. Dr. Kerwin served as the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) for the 1998-1999 term. Additionally, he worked as a consultant for several organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.\nScott R. Furlong is Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at SUNY Oswego as of July 2017, after serving ten years as dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. His areas of expertise are regulatory policy and interest group participation in the executive branch, and he has taught public policy for over twenty years. He is the author or coauthor of numerous book chapters and coauthor of Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Laws and Make Policy, 5th ed. (2019), with Cornelius M. Kerwin. His articles have appeared in such journals as Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Administration and Society, American Review of Public Administration, and Policy Studies Journal.

BUNDLE: Balla: Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance, 4e (Paperback) + Kerwin: Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy, 5e (Paperback)

Furlong, Scott R.

Kerwin, Cornelius Martin

Break with convention - An original look at policymaking
Policymaking is a messy business. It entails more than the traditional policy cycle discussed in most textbooks. And it involves more than presidents and members of Congress. 
Judges, bureaucrats, corporate leaders, journalists, and voters all influence and participate in the process, and at all levels of government. Each group practices a different kind of politics, which very often results in different policies and outcomes. By looking at six distinct, yet connected, policy domains, your students will see a more comprehensive and realistic view of policymaking: Boardroom Politics - decisions by professional and business leaders Bureaucratic Politics - rule-making and adjudication by administrators Cloakroom Politics - lawmaking by legislators Chief Executive Politics - decision making by presidents, governors, mayors, and their advisers Courtroom Politics - rulings by judges Living Room Politics - opinions expressed by and through the mass media, grassroots movements, political activists, and voters 
Policymakers are faced with tough choices. With this text, students are better prepared to evaluate their leaders′ performance given the book′ss unique framework linking how policies are chosen with what policy is chosen. 
Thoroughly updated to reflect the issues of the early 21st century, this new edition also incorporates new and important scholarship. 
Recommended for classes in: Public Policy and American Government

Politics and Public Policy (Paperback)

Given the influence of public bureaucracies in policy implementation, Gormley and Balla assess their performance using four key perspectives―bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory―to help students develop an analytic framework for evaluating bureaucratic accountability.

CQ Press College

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gormley, William T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gormley, William T.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gormley, William T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Voices for Children: Rhetoric and Public Policy

Everybody's Children: Child Care as a Public Problem

Everybody's Children: Child Care As a Public Problem

The Politics of Public Utility Regulation

Politics and Public Policy

Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance

Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance

BUNDLE: Balla: Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance, 4e (Paperback) + Kerwin: Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy, 5e (Paperback)

Politics and Public Policy (Paperback)

Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance