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Research in Policy, Collaborative and Fiscal Networks in the Public Sector

This program of research focuses on the ways and means by which policy is made and implemented through policy, collaborative, and fiscal networks. The primary lens through which we view these questions is social network analysis – the study of social connection between persons and organization.

Studies in this program of research seek to:

(a) understand the factors that lead persons and organizations to persistently participate in policy networks focused on broadly defined policy domains;

(b) examine the factors that make collaborative networks effective alternatives to hierarchical or market-based provision of public goods and services;

(c) the relationship between policy networks and central fiscal “loop” networks that help to adjudicate competing claims on public resources; and

(d) the connections and exchanges that occur between all three types of networks.

R. Karl Rethemeyer
Program Director

Projects/Publications:

Mapping the Nets: State-level Policy Networks in the Age of Internet
Project examines the composition and nature of policy networks in state-level policymaking and the effect the Internet has on the structure and operation of those networks. Using internal funding to: (a) re-survey of two networks originally examined as part of the dissertation project, making these data sets longitudinal; (b) generate a new case study in a geographically “expansive” state; and (c) collect new case data from a domain that focuses primarily on regulation of private activity.

Networks and Terrorism
Project is developing data and methods to analyze relational patterns between terror groups and the correlation between those patterns and outcome variables of interest, such as the propensity to undertake mass casualty attacks, the ability to propagate terrorist methodologies from one group to another, and the likelihood of choosing a particular civilian or military target (with Victor Asal)

By the Numbers: An Empirical Investigation of Quantitative Preparation in Ph.D. and DPA programs in Public Administration, Public Policy, and Public Management
Project examines the range of quantitative methods taught in “Top 50” doctoral programs in public administration, public policy, and public management and their fit to the public affairs literature. Work now focusing on assessing use of quantitative methods in public affairs literature.

Assuring Quality in Nursing Homes: A Financial, Clinical, and Network Approach
New project aimed at understanding the relationship between fiscal and clinical performance in terms of resident and family networks and their influence on management choices in public, private, and non-profit nursing homes (with David Schwarzkopf, Bentley College).

Research in Policy, Collaborative and Fiscal Networks in the Public Sector

Studies in this program of research seek to:

Projects/Publications:

Center for Policy Research

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy