1,721,091 research outputs found
Preface:Drought, Risk Management, and Policy: Decision-Making under Uncertainty
No full textThe relationship between science—and indeed all forms of expertise—and policy development has been the subject of a wide range of research from the science and technology studies tradition, which is strongly sociological in orientation, to the knowledge utilisation literature associated with policy sciences/public policy. Science/policy relationships can be problematic, particularly in democracies where policy making is somewhat of a balancing act between competing societal values. In open and competitive policy communities, much to the frustration of some scientists, expert advice is only one voice around the policy table and often is not decisive in the decision-making process. Yet aspirations to bring order and evidence to policy processes persist, so as Harold Lasswell (1951, 3) asked over 60 years ago, What are the most promising methods of gathering facts and interpreting their significance for policy? How can facts and interpretations be made effective in the decision-making process itself
Trends in National Party support
No full textThe National Party of Australia is under challenge. Will it be able to adapt and survive or will it become increasingly irrelevant in Australian politics? With population growth in some coastal and hinterland areas and decline in inland agricultural areas, the face of rural and regional Australia is changing. As a result, the National Party's traditional support is being eroded. Within the long-standing Coalition, the influence of the Nationals appears to be in decline, yet they continue to resist amalgamation with the Liberal Party
The National Party: Prospects for the Great Survivors
No full textAfter a decade of declining votes and marginalisation within the Coalition, the future of National Party is uncertain. Will its insistence on its agrarian identity lead to its demise, will it amalgamate with federal and state Liberal parties across the country, or will it continue to be the great survivor of Australian politics? The National Party of Australia is under challenge. Will it be able to adapt and survive or will it become increasingly irrelevant in Australian politics? With population growth in some coastal and hinterland areas and decline in inland agricultural areas, the face of rural and regional Australia is changing. As a result, the National Party's traditional support is being eroded. Within the long-standing Coalition, the influence of the Nationals appears to be in decline, yet they continue to resist amalgamation with the Liberal Party. The authors describe a small party, with a strong agrarian identity, surviving amongst major parties that are deeply rooted in an increasingly dominant urban political landscape. They consider the policy and political options and potential electoral strategies for survival and perhaps, renewal. 'Comprehensively brings up to date the assessments of the past performance of, and future prospects for, Australia's second oldest political party - essential reading for students of politics, those interested in politics, and National Party practitioners.' - Paul Davey, former federal director of the National Part
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
From state direction to community self-efficacy: the devolution of responsibility for regional development in Australia
Full text linkThis chapter examines the movement from direct and centralised government efforts to promote regional development in Australia to a situation where greater responsibility for that development falls on local government, communities and individuals. It is argued that Australian governments have generally though not entirely moved away from direct support for regional development in favour of enabling industries and communities to 'help themselves'. Second, regional development policies have largely been an extension of industry policy, especially agricultural and manufacturing industry policy except to some extent in relation to the provision of communication, transport, health and social services in rural areas and occasional interest in decentralisation as an extension of urban policy. I also argue that a form of post-productivist industry policy is emerging whereby governments resume certain rights to the use of natural resources which will have a significant impact on regional development in Australia. This discussion will describe the different approaches to regional policy and then consider the evidence for these overarching directions
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