Kenneth J. Meier

Based on the 1,800 largest school districts in the United States over a decade, The Politics of African-American Education documents the status of African-American education and the major role that partisanship plays. The book brings together the most comprehensive database on minority education to date that centers around three arguments. First, partisanship permeates African-American education; it affects who is elected to the school board, the racial composition of school administrators and teachers, and the access of African-American students to quality education. Second, African-American representation matters. The effectiveness of African-American representation, however, is enhanced in Democratic districts while representation in Republican districts has little influence. Third, political structures matter, but they are not determinative. Two different structures - election rules and the independent school district - create the rules of the game in US education politics and policy but do not limit others from using those rules to change the outcome.

Based on the 1,800 largest school districts in the United States over a decade, The Politics of African-American Education documents the status of African-American education and the major role that partisanship plays. The book brings together the most comprehensive database on minority education to date that centers around three arguments. First, partisanship permeates African-American education; it affects who is elected to the school board, the racial composition of school administrators and teachers, and the access of African-American students to quality education. Second, African-American representation matters. The effectiveness of African-American representation, however, is enhanced in Democratic districts while representation in Republican districts has little influence. Third, political structures matter, but they are not determinative. Two different structures - election rules and the independent school district - create the rules of the game in US education politics and policy but do not limit others from using those rules to change the outcome.

How effective are public managers as they seek to influence how public organizations deliver policy results? How, and how much, is management related to the performance of public programs? What aspects of management can be distinguished? Can their separable contributions to performance be estimated? The fate of public policies in today's world lies in the hands of public organizations, which in turn are often intertwined with others in latticed patterns of governance. Collectively, these organizations are expected to generate performance in terms of policy outputs and outcomes. In this book, two award-winning researchers investigate the effectiveness of management in the public sector. Firstly, they develop a systematic theory on how effective public managers are in shaping policy results. The rest of the book then tests this theory against a wide range of evidence, including a data set of 1,000 public organizations.

Here, Kenneth J. Meier and Laurence J. O'Toole Jr. present a timely analysis of working democracy, arguing that bureaucracy-often considered antithetical to fundamental democratic principles-can actually promote democracy. Drawing from both the empirical work of political scientists and the qualitative work of public administration scholars, the authors employ a "governance approach" that considers broad, institutionally complex systems of governance as well as the nitty-gritty details of bureaucracy management. They examine the results of bureaucratic and political interactions in specific government settings, locally and nationally, to determine whether bureaucratic systems strengthen or weaken the connections between public preferences and actual policies. They find that bureaucracies are part of complex intergovernmental and interorganizational networks that limit a single bureaucracy's institutional control over the implementation of public policy. Further, they conclude that top-down political control of bureaucracy has only modest impact on the activities of bureaucracy in the U. S. and that shared values and commitments to democratic norms, along with political control, produce a bureaucracy that is responsive to the American people.

"Compelling arguments, supported by both anecdotal and empirical evidence to convince readers that school choice does nothing to improve the quality of education. ... Solidly researched and written, Smith's and Meier's effort should sway those still undecided on the issue". -- Publishers Weekly

"Compelling arguments, supported by both anecdotal and empirical evidence to convince readers that school choice does nothing to improve the quality of education. ... Solidly researched and written, Smith's and Meier's effort should sway those still undecided on the issue". -- Publishers Weekly

This work demonstrates the value of a multi-method approach to public policy analysis, arguing that descriptive historical studies, quantitative historical studies and cross-sectional quantitative studies are essentially compatible.

This work demonstrates the value of a multi-method approach to public policy analysis, arguing that descriptive historical studies, quantitative historical studies and cross-sectional quantitative studies are essentially compatible.

This text discusses and compares men's and women's career patterns in state government. It is based upon newly conducted original research surveys in six states. From this research, generalisations are made concerning commonalities and differences between men's and women's experiences in public adminstration at the state level. This is a new area of research: while much has been done at the federal level (and there is a federal database to work from) until now little work has been done and little data is available for the states.

This text discusses and compares men's and women's career patterns in state government. It is based upon newly conducted original research surveys in six states. From this research, generalisations are made concerning commonalities and differences between men's and women's experiences in public adminstration at the state level. This is a new area of research: while much has been done at the federal level (and there is a federal database to work from) until now little work has been done and little data is available for the states.

This is the first comprehensive study of the history, politics, and economics of the insurance industry in the United States. It is designed as a theoretical challenge to the conventional wisdom in political economy which says that regulation benefits the regulated. In fact, Meier shows that because the insurance industry is far too divided to impose its will on the regulatory system, the political economy of regulation is actually the product of a complex interaction of industry interests, consumer groups, insurance regulations, and political elites. Using both historical and quantitative approaches, the author examines a variety of insurance issues including the development of insurance regulation; the impact of regulation on the availability and price of insurance; the stringency of state regulation; and the product liability insurance crisis of 1985-86. The book concludes with a series of recommendations for reforming the regulation of insurance.