Ethics and Public Policy or Child Soldiers in Africa

Ethics and Public Policy: Mehtod and Cases

Author: William Bluhm

This book presents three systematic methods for analyzing public policy issues: utilitarianism, deontology, and prudent pragmatism. It argues for the superiority of prudent pragmatism to the other two approaches.  These are described in Part One, together with substantive American values which form the assumptons of ethical analysis. Part Two contains an historical discussion of six public policy areas and presents two detailed case studies in each area. Each case is analysed from the standpoint of utilitarian, deontological, and prudent pragmatic ethics, and an effort is made to show why prudent pragmatism produces the most satisfying results

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Introduction	3
Ch. 2	American political culture : core values	6
Ch. 3	A framework for ethical public policy analysis	22
Ch. 4	Prudent pragmatism and consensus : case ethics in Monist and in pluralist society	39
Ch. 5	Prudent pragmatism and democratic polity : citizen, representative, and policy analyst	49
Ch. 6	National healthcare policy	74
Ch. 7	Criminal justice	104
Ch. 8	Social welfare policy in the United States : conflicting principles of distributive justice	130
Ch. 9	Biotechnology and humanity	150
Ch. 10	The natural environment and human well-being	173
Ch. 11	Ethical defense	194
Ch. 12	Conclusion	226

Books about: Broken Promises Broken Dreams or George Washingtons Expense Account

Child Soldiers in Africa

Author: Alcinda Honwana

Young people have been at the forefront of political conflict in many parts of the world, even when it has turned violent. In some of those situations, for a variety of reasons, including coercion, poverty, or the seductive nature of violence, children become killers before they are able to grasp the fundamentals of morality. It has been only in the past ten years that this component of warfare has captured the attention of the world. Images of boys carrying guns and ammunition are now commonplace as they flash across television screens and appear on the front pages of newspapers. Less often, but equally disturbingly, stories of girls pressed into the service of militias surface in the media.

A major concern today is how to reverse the damage done to the thousands of children who have become not only victims but also agents of wartime atrocities. In Child Soldiers in Africa, Alcinda Honwana draws on her firsthand experience with children of Angola and Mozambique, as well as her study of the phenomenon for the United Nations and the Social Science Research Council, to shed light on how children are recruited, what they encounter, and how they come to terms with what they have done.

About the Author:
Alcinda Honwana is Professor and Chair in International Development, The Open University

Presidential Praise or Saving Energy Growing Jobs

Presidential Praise: Our Presidents and Their Hymns

Author: C Edward Spann

"Presidential Praise: Our Presidents and Their Hymns offers the most comprehensive coverage ever written of the influence of hymns on the lives and administrations of America's presidents. Each chapter begins with Michael Williams's concise presentation of each president's path to the White House and his accomplishments and failures as president. C. Edward Spann then introduces how each president regarded music, whether or not he was musical, and music in the White House during each president's administration. These hymns may be related to developments in the life of the president, including his spiritual journey, major decisions he had to make as president, or even his selection of the inaugural Scripture." Spann then tells the story of how the hymn was written, both the words and the music. Presenting this scholarly material in an inspiring manner is part of the delight of the book. In doing so, the book covers a panorama of hymnody from 1614 to the 1980s. After an interpretation of the words, it is demonstrated why the chosen hymns were meaningful to each president. The format of each chapter reveals this special emphasis that can't be found elsewhere.

New interesting textbook: Youll Never Nanny in This Town Again or The Money Book for the Young Fabulous Broke

Saving Energy, Growing Jobs: How Environmental Protection Promotes Economic Growth, Profitability, Innovation, and Competition

Author: David B Goldstein

The idea that we must choose between a healthy environment and a healthy economy is a myth, says David Goldstein. Not only do well-conceived environmental regulations create more jobs, in the long run they contribute to more efficient designs and less expensive products. Standing between us and a cleaner, more prosperous society is the resistance of economic incumbents and a misplaced ideological opposition to any kind of regulation, even though it might prove beneficial.

Publishers Weekly

Challenging the myths that aggressive environmental protections necessarily undermine the American economy and that corporate America must oppose progressive environmental policies, MacArthur ("genius award") fellow Goldstein aims for the middle ground in this pragmatic, heavy-going effort. The energy program director for the National Resource Defense Council, Goldstein favors didactic analysis and footnote-buttressed assertion over illustrative anecdote-though a paragraph about his kitchen redesign, which used reflected rather than directed light to make reading cookbooks easier while cutting energy use by 95%, does add a personal touch. For general readers, the book's most accessible section recounts the success of energy efficiency mandates and technological advances, such as light-emitting diodes used in traffic and Christmas tree lights; smaller, more efficient air conditioning units that comply with 1992 nationwide standards; and refrigerator redesigns forced by regulations starting in 1977 that have cut the cost of a new fridge in half. "If business and environmentalists work together... we can improve competitiveness and growth while we make the world a place we can leave to our grandchildren with a sense of pride," Goldstein concludes. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kristin Whitehair - Library Journal

These three works argue that economic success is not at odds with environmental interests. Streever, formerly a research ecologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, takes readers on-site to nine ventures where environmental interests are economically succeeding, including a Georgia carpet plant and the New Orleans water system. This approach offers limited background and contextual information about the overall environmental movement. Throughout the text, Streever clearly identifies the major obstacle to a green economy: the fact that environmental costs are not internalized. However, no solution is offered.

Economist Henderson and journalist Sethi, the producer and host/scriptwriter of Ethical Markets, respectively, feature numerous profiles of companies and individuals who are leading the environmental movement. Following each chapter is a brief interview with a leader in the area addressed by the chapter. Just as in Streever's book, the numerous quotes from various individuals here fail to provide background information and analysis supporting arguments advanced by the authors.

Goldstein (energy program director, Natural Resources Defense Council) effectively takes an alternative approach through three main areas, further dissecting the subject by citing examples and data regarding national and international trends. Moving beyond Streever's and Henderson and Sethi's scant analysis, Goldstein offers in-depth discussion of the economic situation and government regulations. Additionally, he readily acknowledges problems of the "real world" and offers workable solutions to address these problems. Although all three works make the same argument and are intendedforpublic and undergraduate libraries, only Goldstein's lays a sound foundation for this contention and provides substantial evidence and historical examples to support it; only his book is recommended.

Table of Contents:

Foreword   Senator Olympia J. Snowe     xiii
Preface     xvii
Acknowledgements     xxiii
Introduction     xxviii
Energy Efficiency and the Economy     1
The Critical Role of Energy Efficiency in the Economy     4
Energy Use Reduction
Environmental Policies Generate Cost Reductions
Opposition to Energy Efficiency
Establish More Competitive Markets
Direct Success in Energy Efficiency     27
Early Resistance to Energy Efficiency
The Refrigerator Story
Other Energy-Efficiency Opportunities
How Far Can We Go with Efficiency?
Enhanced Innovation-Energy Efficiency's Unexpected Success     63
Nonenergy Benefits
Innovation, Process Improvement, and Cost Reduction
Overcoming Barriers to Innovation
National Economic Development Policy and the Environment
Environmental Protection, Economic Barriers, and Economic Development     97
Economic Fundamentalism-The Use of Economics as a Religion Rather Than a Science     100
What Is Economic Fundamentalism?
How Economic Theory Serves as a Political Force
How Critical Assumptions of Economic Theory Are Violated in Practice
The Need for Regulation
How Markets Actually Work
Lessons from California's Failed Experiment in "Free Markets" for Electricity     135
The Road to Failure
What Actually Happened-Myth Versus Reality
The Consequences of the Restructuring Experiment
The True Causesof the California Energy Crisis
How Markets Fail     154
What Prevents Expected Results
Market Barriers
Market Failures
Human Failures
Institutional Failures: Trade Associations and the Politics of Environmental Protection
Factors for Market Success
The Politics of Environmentalism     183
Myths of the Anti-Environmentalists     186
The Myth of Independent Objective Analysis
The Myths about Environmentalists
The Consequences of the Anti-Environmentalist Myths
Myths of the Environmentalists     206
The Greedy Corporation Myth
The "Bad People" Myth
The "Small Is Beautiful" Myth
Legitimate Concerns of Business and Environmental Interests     217
Business's Concerns About New Regulation
Reasons Why Business Distrusts Environmentalists
Environmentalists' Concerns About Business
The Need for Better Communication
What Truly Motivates Anti-Environmentalists     231
A Story of Energy Efficiency and Global Warming
The Influence of Economic and Ideological Incumbency
Who Writes the Regulations
Government Versus Private-Sector Regulation
Well-Designed Environmental Policies     247
Current Environmental Policies
Future Environmental Policies
Where Do We Go from Here?     266
Environmental Policy Promotes Economic Growth
Current Barriers to Environmental Policies
How to Transform the Political Debate
Incentives and Regulation
Myths and Realities in California's Experiment in Electricity Restructuring      283
Huge Growth of Demand for Electricity
Environmentalists and State Bureaucrats Blocked New Power Plant Construction
Greedy Utilities Used Restrucuting as a Plot
The Flaws of Restructuring Were Clear to All
Restructuring Did Not Go Far Enough
The "Genius of the Market" Will Solve Everything
Notes     308
Bibliography     319
Index     326