Editors' notes.(Editorial)

This issue of the Policy Studies Journal includes an excellent set of articles, focusing on a range of theoretical aspects of public policy. The lead paper, by Jeffrey Wenger, Laurence O'Toole, & Kenneth Meier challenges the conception of public managers as functionaries forced to "trade off" goals such as speed and accuracy when objectives appear to conflict. The authors argue that shifts in management strategies may permit simultaneous improvement in both goals, and provide evidence from the US unemployment insurance program. Management strategies, as opposed to alternative policies, thus become a critical (and oft often neglected) aspect of the policy process. Christopher Mooney & Richard Schuldt challenge the characterization of "morality policies" (those that generate conflicts over moral values, face difficulties in achieving compromise, and are highly salient, and technically simple) as different in kinds from other policy problems. Using data from two very interesting surveys of policy scholars and the mass public, morality policies are demonstrated to be truly different, buttressing the claims of morality policy researchers. Elizabeth Graddy & Michael Ye focus on policy termination, asking whether local decisions to terminate policies (in this case, closing public hospitals) are driven primarily by the ideology of decision makers or fiscal efficiency. Using a TSLS model, data from local hospital services programs are used, demonstrating that both kinds of factors matter. Challenging the argument that homeland security expenditures in the US are primarily a form of political pork, Tyler Prante and Alok K. Bohara use data on 2004-2006 Homeland Security Grants to test competing hypotheses about allocation. Their reassuring finding is that that security considerations--not political ones--explain funding patterns. Daniel Nohrstedt uses the case of Swedish nuclear energy after the Chernobyl disaster to explore how policy learning occurs in a crisis. His findings partly reinforce, and in part demand reconsideration, of the propositions of the Advocacy Coalition Framework concerning policy change under crisis. Turning to the matter of agenda setting, Saule Bakenova traces the fascinating history of water export policy in Canada from 1960-2002. She shows that those who succeed in raising an issue to the formal agenda may regret their success. And finally, Joshua Cowen uses compiler average causal effect (CACE) to model the selection bias in utilization of education vouchers. Using data from a one-year field trial of vouchers in Charlotte, NC, Cowen uses maximum likelihood CACE estimates to show that estimated contributions of vouchers to educational attainment (in math) may be inflated.

The Policy Studies Organization, jointly with the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association, has issued a call for proposals for the next editor of the Policy Studies Journal. The Committee established for review will be accepting proposals. As the current editors, we hope to see an excellent pool of proposals. For that reason, we reprint the call for proposals here:

Call for Proposals: Editors of the Policy Studies Journal

The position of editors is open ...