Policy Studies Journal 23:1

From the EditorsThis issue inaugurates the twenty-third year of publication of the Policy

Studies Journal. Several aspects of the field of policy studies are evident from theaccumulated record of policy research that has been highlighted in this joumal. Manyof these are apparent even more clearly from the far more extensive and broader historyof the study of public policy that extends back over many decades and across manyfields of the scientific study of social phenomena. Among the most serious questionsthat arise from this overview concem the foundations and methods of policy research.

Prompted by our recent conversations with Matthew Holden, a member of thePSJ Editorial Board, we are including in the Notes section at the end of this issue a Callfor Papers for a future special symposium to be published in PSJ. Stated most broadly,the theme of these essays is the intellectual foundations of contemporary public policyresearch. Articles submitted for consideration to be included in this special issue willbe subjected, of course, to the usual process of extemal peer review and evaluation. Weenvision a collection of first-rate essays, addressing various aspects of what could becharacterized as the intellectual underpinnings of policy studies. Anyone who isinterested in submitting manuscripts to this endeavor should contact the PSJ co-editors,and Professor Holden, at the earliest possible opportunity. Please see the Call forPapers announcement in this issue for further information.

In This Issue

The individually-contributed articles in this issue share a common theme of theinterplay between economics and politics. Shaoguang Wang's essay on thetransformations that are underway in Clhina's economy emphasizes the role played inthat process by policy debates over altemative future directions to be taken by what hasbecome one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world. A centralconclusion from Wang's research is the sharp and as-yet-unresolved nature ofdisagreements among high-level policymakers and academics. Vemon Ruttan examinesthe relationships that have arisen between the operations of multilateral developmentbanks and policy decisions taken by the United States govemment. He emphasizes theinterrelationships that exist between domestic political vicissitudes and the activities oftransnational institutions. Kathleen Rehbein discusses the causes and consequences ofdomestic campaign contributions by firms that are owned by foreign sources of capital.Collectively, these three articles provide impressive evidence regarding important anddifferent, yet related, aspects of contemporary political economy.

The current edition of the Policy Studies Journal features a symposium onenvironmental health policy, edited by David R. Graber and James J. Johnson. Thiscollection of peer-reviewed essays addresses various aspects of this important aspect ofthe study of public policy. It includes articles on the parameters of risk characterizationand risk assessment procedures, economic considerations of environmental standards thatare justified for their health consequences, hazardous waste disposal, meta-analysis, leadcontamination, the Chemobyl nuclear power plant disaster, and the hazards associatedwith benzene, dioxins, and formaldehyde.

Review essays by Scott Ward on competing views regarding the feasibility ofbalancing the United States federal budget, and by Lawrence Mead on current literatureelucidating United States policy toward combating poverty, are accompanied byindividual book reviews by Ross Talbot of A Modern Guide to the European Parliament(by Martin Westlake), and by Charles Menifield of Marilyn E. Lashley and Melanie

DesailShelley: From the Editors

Njeri Jackson's African Americans and the New PoUcy Consensus: Retreat of theLiberal State.

As always, the PoUcy Studies Journal is open to articles and essays addressingany aspect of public policy. Please feel free to contact either of us, or David Webber,regarding ideas you may have for publishable public policy research articles, symposia,and review essays.

Uday Desai Mack Shelley