Browsing by Author "Jensen, Laura S."

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Access to Autism Spectrum Disorder Services for Rural Appalachian Citizens
    Scarpa, Angela; Jensen, Laura S.; Gracanin, Denis; Ramey, Sharon L.; Dahiya, Angela V.; Ingram, L. Maria; Albright, Jordan; Gatto, Alyssa J.; Scott, Jen Pollard; Ruble, Lisa (2020-01)
    Background: Low-resource rural communities face significant challenges regarding availability and adequacy of evidence-based services. Purposes: With respect to accessing evidence-based services for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), this brief report summarizes needs of rural citizens in the South-Central Appalachian region, an area notable for persistent health disparities. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data during focus groups with 33 service providers and 15 caregivers of children with ASD in rural southwest Virginia. Results: Results supported the barriers of availability and affordability of ASD services in this region, especially relating to the need for more ASD-trained providers, better coordination and navigation of services, and addition of programs to assist with family financial and emotional stressors. Results also suggested cultural attitudes related to autonomy and trust towards outside professionals that may prevent families from engaging in treatment. Implications: Relevant policy recommendations are discussed related to provider incentives, insurance coverage, and telehealth. Integration of autism services into already existing systems and multicultural sensitivity of providers are also implicated.
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    "Call Me Bill": Social Justice and the Administrative Jurisprudence of William Brennan, Jr.
    Faulkner, Brandy S. (Virginia Tech, 2012-04-25)
    This study examines former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr.'s opinions on the following administrative law topics: civil rights, civil liberties, human resource management, due process, and privacy. The purpose of this examination is (1) to apply Rohr's regime values framework to Brennan's case law, (2) to determine the usefulness of Brennan's regime values to discretionary decision making, and (3) to consider the effectiveness of these regime values as a pedagogical approach to ethics. A purposive sample of 25 cases was selected for the study. Case briefing and discourse analysis were the primary research methods used. I found eight regime values in Brennan's opinions: freedom, accountability, flexibility, equity and equality, unconstitutional conditions, property, and social justice. Social justice was his dominant regime value and is the basis for all of his jurisprudence. Brennan's regime values reconcile two approaches to ethics, the low road and the high road, by emphasizing a Constitutional basis for the latter. Brennan's values may help administrators learn how to think through the important decisions they make daily by providing both a foundation and justification for their choices. Public administrators can be taught how to use the regime values method to extract additional values.
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    The Effects of State Constitutional Design of Gubernatorial and Legislative Authority in State Budget Policy
    Keeney, Michael Stewart (Virginia Tech, 2012-03-23)
    Each of the fifty U.S. state constitutions establishes a fundamental framework for governmental operations within the state. Described by previous scholarship as the state's political technology, state constitutions delineate formal gubernatorial and legislative authority. Extant literature has focused on gubernatorial and legislative relations from the standpoint of the contemporary contextual political factors associated with individuals serving in the respective offices. Although useful, this focus limits a deeper understanding about how state constitutions, as a point of departure, might affect the way in which governors and legislators interact in the policy process. Specifically examined by this research is how variation in design might impact the ability of governors and state legislatures to achieve preferred policy alternatives. This is addressed through the divergence between the governor's proposed budget and the state legislature's enacted budget. To analyze potential influences of this divergence, state budgets from 27 U.S. states over a recent period of eleven years were collected and coded according to policy areas. Data were used to test hypothesized effects of state constitutional design of formal authority. Based on Tobit model estimation and predicted values of divergence derived from alternative constitutional design scenarios, some state constitutional factors affect the ability of governors and state legislatures to achieve preferred policy alternatives. Salient constitutional variables include gubernatorial and legislative budget authority, institutional control, and duration in service factors. The empirical focus of this research contributes to a more enriched understanding of state constitutions as political technologies. In essence, the design of state constitutional authority has the potential to affect how governors and state legislatures interact in the policy process. In addition to contributing to state constitutional theory, these findings enrich the understanding of the design of authority by reformers and citizens.
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    From Vandals to Vanguard: Vanguardism through a Neoinstitutional Lens: Case Study of the Sandinista National Liberation Front
    Telleria, Gabriel Martin (Virginia Tech, 2011-04-06)
    The Sandinista Revolution is arguably the most significant event in Nicaraguan history. Because of its historical importance and distinctive socio-cultural context, the Sandinista Revolution offers significant opportunities for scholarly inquiry. The literature on the Sandinista Revolution is substantial. However, little is known about the organization Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and how it evolved into the leader of the movement which sought to overthrow the 45-year Somoza dictatorship. In revolutionary literature, the concept of revolutionary vanguard or vanguard party is common. However, the notion of vanguardism as a process and what constitutes a vanguardist organization is yet to be explored. This study aims to provide such an investigation, through an examination of the insurrectional period (1974-1979) leading up to the Sandinista Revolutionary Victory in 1979. Grounded in Scott's (2008) institutional framework, this study describes the evolution of the FSLN into the vanguard of the anti-Somoza movement, identifying relationships between institutional elements involved in the FSLN's institutionalization process and progression into "leader" of the movement. Data from interviews, newspaper articles, and video documentaries were scrutinized in search of answers to the question: How do mechanisms, carriers, and agency as elements of institutions explain vanguardism in the case study of the FSLN? This research reveals critical mechanisms, carriers and agency in the vanguardism of the FSLN, and explains how these elements supported this process. In this sense, this research reveals distinctive characteristics in vanguardism as an institutional process, which differentiate vanguardism from other processes. This research presents an opportunity to learn about the FSLN-a vastly unique politico-military organization. Additionally, there is an opportunity to broaden our observational lens, taking a neoinstitutional approach, to illustrate new ways in which organizations evolve, change and adapt to their environments. Lastly, this study hopes to pave the way for future studies in organizational vanguardism.
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    Front-Line Participatory Behavior in the Era of Networks
    Bland, James Travis (Virginia Tech, 2011-11-28)
    In recent years, the network concept has become a central component of administrative scholarship. One cannot ignore the increased use of networks as both an explicit policy choice and a condition of public funding. This trend suggests that the network concept now represents an approach to governance. Regardless, active participation in these multi-organizational, multi-governmental, and multi-sectoral relationships has outpaced empirical description and theoretical explanation. Making the important case that network management has become a critical activity in public administration, researchers have neglected the relationship between front-line participatory behavior and the use of the network approach. As a result, the vocabulary and the imagery needed to describe and theorize about the specific front-line participatory behaviors that accompany the use of the network approach does not exist. Due to the limitations of past research, there is little understanding of the front-line participatory behaviors that could help make this happen. This study refers to these types of behaviors as network behaviors. Relying on surveys and elite interviews with participants from thirteen social welfare networks throughout the state of Virginia, this study addresses two primary research questions: What are the front-line participatory behaviors that accompany the use of the network approach? And, how do these behaviors differ along with variations in the network approach? Through examining 14 hypotheses, the study relates a framework of four degrees (variations) of the network approach (cooperation, coordination, consolidation, and collaboration) to three categories of behavior (knowledge management, communicative behavior, and commitment/identity). The findings support the underlying rationale for this study that variations in the network approach may shape front-line participatory behavior differently, and vice versa. Ultimately, by exploring this relationship and integrating the literature on networks with the literature on front-line work, this study may serve as the foundation for future efforts to establish a theory or rationale for developing and choosing among variations in the network approach.
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    Switch: A Case Study of Voter Turnout following Electoral Change in a School Board Election
    Costa, Patrick John (Virginia Tech, 2011-02-21)
    This paper attempts to shed light into the realm of school boards, a frequently overlooked topic in political science literature. This study examines the relationship between a school board electoral structure and voter turnout levels. In particular, the author hypothesizes that ward-based elections due to their inherent smallness have higher voter turnout levels than at-large elections. In crafting such a relationship a mixed-method approach was used combining elements found in case studies with an intervention analysis. The paper describes voter turnout levels from 1989 to 2007 for a single, medium-sized school district in Illinois that had switched its style of elections from at-large to ward. It was found that following the switch to ward elections turnout actually decreased. However, the results were not statistically significant. The variable of competitiveness was also tested as it was thought that the more competitive elections were the more voter turnout increases. Here again, the author found no relationship between competitiveness and the election structure in ward and at-large elections. In concluding, the author states that some unseen intervening variable such as information costs may be influencing the relationship and significance between voter turnout and election structure.
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    Urban Core vs. Suburban Fringe: Asymmetrical Fiscal Effects of Tax and Expenditure Limitations in Metropolitan Areas
    Eremin, Dmitry V. (Virginia Tech, 2009-09-25)
    This dissertation assesses the effects of tax and expenditure limitations (TELs) on principal items of revenue, largest components of expenditure and the levels of public debt of local governments serving urban cores and suburban fringes of the largest metropolitan areas in the US. The first part of the dissertation consists of 4 chapters. Chapter 1 examines the formal aspects of TELs; Chapter 2 explores historical evolution of fiscal limits between 1800 and 2009; Chapter 3 examines substantive nature of TELs; and Chapter 4 reviews the extant research on TELs. The past research suggests that TELs are associated with increased centralization, diminished government responsiveness, and suboptimal outcomes of the entire local public sector. The second part of the dissertation, Chapters 5-6, presents the empirical study of the asymmetrical fiscal effects of TELs on different geographic segments of metropolitan areas. The study employs the quasi-experimental multiple comparison group time series research design and measures fiscal outcomes associated with the imposition of TELs. It relies on a standard fixed effects dummy variable OLS model with constant slope coefficients and variable intercept. The sample (N = 166,530) contains 7 periods of observation at 5 year intervals of 745 metropolitan counties from 270 metropolitan areas. The unit of analysis is the metropolitan county area. The study found that in the urban cores and suburban fringes of metropolitan areas: 1) overall fiscal effects of TELs follow general asymmetrical trends identified by past research; 2) specific fiscal effects varied by comparison group, type of TEL imposed, and measure of fiscal outcome; 3) local governments in the urban cores are more adversely affected by TELs; 4) general revenues and expenditures declined in all comparison groups but urban core local governments experienced larger declines; 5) in all comparison groups own source revenues declined, intergovernmental revenues increased, spending on public education and public safety declined with larger declines in the urban cores; 6) long-term debt (especially non-guaranteed) has been rising more quickly in the urban core segments of metropolitan areas; and 7) in general, the effects of TELs were more negative and more pronounced for local governments experiencing fiscal stress.