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In 1999, the governor of Illinois mandated strategic planning in all state agencies, the creation of an Office of Strategic Planning (OSP) and the formation of an academic advisory council to guide it. This article discusses how agencies responded, while focusing on the behavior of the various actors involved: agency staff, top management officials and the organizations themselves. It covers key interim agency results, and general outcome indicators for the eight state strategic issues. The State is now at the crossroads. It has a newly elected governor from a different political party and the OSP and academic advisory council no longer exist. Will a new movement of strategic planning and performance metrics make a real difference to the citizens of Illinois?

This chapter argues that neoliberal governmentality in immunization relocates the Turkish state's position regarding vaccine and immunization policies. Neoliberalism is often discussed in the context of privatization, performance, and effectiveness separately. However, more attention should be paid to the set of strategies that are employed in public policy processes to manage populations in terms of immunization, while intertwining power with knowledge. Following Foucault's concept of governmentality and taking it further within the context of biopolitics, this chapter focuses on different knowledge practices regarding vaccine and immunization policies in Turkey. In doing so, this case study applies a post-structural analysis to examine vaccine production, vaccine know-how, and immunization policies inscribed in policy documents as a form of knowledge practice. The analysis sheds light on the reflexive transformation of the concept of biopolitics, which is moving from state-oriented knowledge practices toward a neoliberal governmentality of immunization.

Over the last decade, new governance-style, collaborative approaches to environmental management have increased exponentially. What is not well known is how the structure of these partnerships, particularly the policies that foster their development, may contribute to theʼ ability to achieve either procedural or substantive policy goals. Our study investigated efforts in the States of Washington and Oregon to encourage the development of collaborative watershed management institutions. Thirtyfive watershed partnerships were examined to understand how the planning groups implement policy objectives and how partnerships are creating or modifying institutions for planning and implementation. Our findings suggest that both States face similar challenges in important respects. Challenges include obtaining adequate participation, developing and sustaining organizational capacity, and planning implementation. Together, these findings demonstrate that new governance strategies are not a panacea for water management.

Extensions/applications/revisions of the Marxian vision of socialism can broadly be categorized into two polar strands: the centralized and the decentralized strands of socialist economic systems. Explores the main postulates of a decentralized version of a socialist economic system as provided by Kautsky, Luxembourg, Bernstein, Bukharin and Lange. The centralized strand of socialist economic systems has been elaborated drawing mainly from the writings of Lenin, Trotsky, Dobb, Sweezy and Baran.

The purpose of this paper is to examine US state strategic plans for e-government (or information technology), identify their strengths and weaknesses, and presents best practices for both practitioners and scholars interested in improving state strategic plans for information technology.

The research analyzes the e-government strategic plans, based on a content analysis using a rubric consisting of 15 questions.

The findings suggest that of the state information system plans reviewed – Michigan, Virginia, and Massachusetts are the most comprehensive. Overall, the state plans were effective in developing strategies and core beliefs, and assessing their strengths and opportunities, while less successful in recognizing weakness and threats.

This study builds on existing research examining strategic information systems plans in US states and assesses the extent to which each plan addresses established criteria for developing strategic plans. This study also attempts to fill the need for more data and empirical evidence in the development of literature in strategic planning and performance measurement.

The research employs a public sector approach to strategic planning, and while the process is not specific to information systems it is comprehensive in its approach, grounded in literature, and offers guidance to public sector leaders in planning for investments in information systems and technology.

The conclusion offers suggestions for both public administration practitioners and scholars interested in improving state strategic plans for information technology.

This chapter discusses some issues of diversity in hazard mitigation when just recovery is considered or not. Justice in hazard mitigation becomes crucial considering unequal distribution of resources, systemic racism, and social vulnerability to hazards. While there has been research on just recovery, there is little or no evidence of research that examines the issue of equity and justice in hazard mitigation, This chapter discusses what hazard mitigation is, the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 focusing on the planning process, public involvement in the planning process, some planning theories on vulnerability, and building the case for achieving and striving for justice and equity in promoting diversity in hazard mitigation. The chapter makes some recommendation on how to achieve diversity in hazard mitigation.

Over the last 30 years, despite immense and increasing expenditures by the federal government for disaster preparedness and relief, both catastrophic and chronic losses from natural hazards have continued to increase at an alarming pace. Although earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes account for the largest portion of these natural hazard losses, wildfire increasingly represents significant disaster losses of well over a billion dollars annually. There is considerable concern that losses from wildfires will only increase in the U.S. as some of the highest growth rates in the nation, both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan types of growth, are projected to continue in states with extensive wildland fire hazard areas. The land development patterns associated with that growth are problematic because so much of the development in the last 30 years (and that is still occurring) is not being steered away from the highest wildfire hazard settings, nor are adequate steps being taken to ensure that when development occurs in high wildfire hazard zones appropriate mitigation is used to reduce the vulnerability of people and property to loss. Fortunately, those anticipated future wildfire losses have a great potential to be reduced provided state and local governments take the initiative to create partnerships to ensure “safer” and “smarter” patterns of land development occur in and near wildland–urban interface areas. This chapter explores wildfire mitigation planning as an integral component of “safe smart growth” for wildland–urban interface communities.

Peter Boettke and I had taken Don Lavoie's graduate Comparative Economic Systems course during the Fall of 1985. Lavoie had just published Rivalry and Central Planning (Lavoie, 1985b) and National Economic Planning: What is left? (Lavoie, 1985a), and was at the cusp of establishing himself as a major player in the comparative systems and contemporary critique of socialist planning literature.¹

A meta-evaluation is an assessment of evaluation practices. Meta-evaluations include assessments of validity and usefulness of two or more studies that focus on the same issues. Every performance audit is grounded explicitly or implicitly in one or more theories of program evaluation. A deep understanding of alternative theories of program evaluation is helpful to gain clarity about sound auditing practices. We present a review of several theories of program evaluation.

This study includes a meta-evaluation of seven government audits on the efficiency and effectiveness of tourism departments and programs. The seven tourism-marketing performance audits are program evaluations for: Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Australia, and two for Hawaii. The majority of these audits are negative performance assessments. Similarly, although these audits are more useful than none at all, the central conclusion of the meta-evaluation is that most of these audit reports are inadequate assessments. These audits are too limited in the issues examined; not sufficiently grounded in relevant evaluation theory and practice; and fail to include recommendations, that if implemented, would result in substantial increases in performance.