Explores what difference the tightness or looseness of language makes in a policy's actual implementation. Applies three policy language categories (philosophical, professional, and prescriptive) to several uses (purpose, evaluation, discretion, responsibility, and relationship) to explain the importance of wording battles to policymaking…

Analyzes the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) assignment of renewal expectancy to existing broadcast licensees within the framework of the Commission's ongoing inquiry into the comparative renewal process. Discusses and analyzes the rationales given by the Commission to justify its current policy. Finds only the criteria of excellent…

Offers a rationale for including counterplan arguments in non-policy debates. Discusses the nature and burdens of counterplan arguments in non-policy debate. Addresses whether non-policy debate should include counterplans and suggests ways in which the non-policy debate community might deal with this issue. (MS)

Provides an opportunity for Canadian Home Economics Association (CHEA) members to discuss and formulate a position on environmental issues that will present the position of the association. Indicates the need for home economists to have extensive dialogue and serious reflection regarding the mission of CHEA. (JOW)

Suggests that artificial neural networks (ANNs) exhibit properties that promise usefulness for policy researchers. Notes that ANNs have found extensive use in areas once reserved for multivariate statistical programs such as regression and multiple classification analysis and are developing an extensive community of advocates for processing text…

Home economists have a legitimate role in shaping public policy. Much has been said about how to influence the policy development process; this extends to the realm of analyzing policy that has already been developed. (JOW)

Examines the significance and uses (for a company) of a vision statement, how to set one, and what to include. Illustrates this by discussing the visions for Xerox Cooperation over the last 40 years, and John F. Kennedy's national vision of landing a man on the moon. (SR)

Discusses the problem of alcohol use and abuse by camp staff. Describes alcohol policies of two different camps. Camp Highlands allows responsible drinking but not intoxication. Camp Olympia requires total abstinence from alcohol. A policy that clearly expresses the camp's philosophy toward alcohol and spells out all expectations and results is…

Reviews paralysis of U.S. social policy. Notes that, although federal government has implemented new social programs, programs either are provided on condition of willingness to work or are modest in scope. Linking paralysis with literature on government ineffectuality, traces origins of ineffectuality of political/economic policies of past 20…

Presents five theoretical approaches to interactive policy making: (1) self-referentiality; (2) instrumental thinking; (3) communication as transmission versus construction; (4) the individual as the target of change; and (5) collectivist, liberal, and republican views of democracy. (SK)

Discusses the typical response to incidents of hatred and prejudice on campuses, which is often seen as reactive and brief. Advocates the creation of a critical incident team (CIT) on campuses, created for the purpose of dealing with incidents of hatred. (GCP)

Discusses privacy issues related to use of the Internet. Topics include data gathering functions that are built into applications of the World Wide Web; cookies that identify Web site visitors; personal identity information; libraries and privacy, including the need for privacy policies; protecting your privacy; and developing privacy literacy.…

Family and consumer sciences professionals can encourage citizen participation in local, state, and national government. The public deliberation model developed by the Kettering Foundation's National Issues Forum is designed to engage citizens in the deliberation process. (JOW)

Sweeping changes to the Medicare program embodied in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), including a new prescription drug benefit, changes in payment policies, and reform of the Medicare managed-care program, have major implications for rural health care. The most efficient mechanism for research to…

Development of education policy in Central and Eastern Europe is a specific type of educational transformations. Though almost all the countries in the region began their reforms from a similar starting point--the Soviet-type education system--eventually they moved towards different educational models. As a result of the full EU membership of the…