Reports Canada. What is Policy Resistance. John Sterman, System dynamics Group Leader at MIT's Sloan School of Management, in his Business Dynamics (page 5 - 14) discusses policy resistance.
Here are some revealing excerpts: "Policy Resistance, the Law of Unintended Consequences, and the Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems "And it will fallout as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others... ---Sir Thomas More The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft a-gley.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. We have met the enemy and he is us. "From Thomas More in 1516 to Pogo in the mid 20th century it has long been acknowledged that people seeking to solve a problem often make it worse. From "...the late biologist and essayist Lewis Thomas (1974, p. 90): "But how can one come to understand the whole system? "Causes of Policy Resistance "Figure 1 Event-oriented view of the world "Figure 2 The feedback view. Why Policy Matters in Politics. There are a shocking number of people involved in the political process who firmly believe that policy doesn’t matter.
That, at best, it distracts from, and at worst it impedes, successful political campaigns. Obviously, readers of my blog (not to mention those who know me) know that I am a big believer in the power and importance of public policy specifically and ideas in general. So I’ve been feeling nicely bombarded with confirming evidence that substantive policy – as opposed to simply style or spin – really is at the heart of political success.
Making Policy Public: Vendor Power! Six pairs of sunglasses, five hand bags, two scarves, seven books, one DVD, six magazines, two hats, two umbrellas, one necklace, three photographs, one wallet, four t-shirts, one notebook, three pairs of ear muffs, eight pairs of slippers, one watch (that I still wear after five years), and countless hot dogs, pretzels, noodles, biryani, crepes, falafel, halal, dosas, rice wraps, roasted nuts, bagels, and coffee: these are some of the things I’ve consumed thanks to New York City’s 10,000+ street vendors. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I realized how much drama they have to endure to make an honest living.
I’m a big fan of CUP and when they posted an open call to designers and advocacy groups to work together through their Making Policy Public Program, I happily applied. Sean Basinski (The Street Vendor Project), Rosten Woo (CUP), John Mangin (CUP), and I collaborated for five months to translate NYC’s complex vending regulations into an accessible fold-out poster. Policy Monitor Canada. » New ways of thinking about cities and policy making.
“Every time you do something in the city, don’t just do it, do it beautifully.”
A seemingly simple statement made by Joe Berridge at IPAC‘s recent Cities and Public Policy Conference, speaks volumes about how we see planning and urban design policy making in Toronto. It summarized much of the talk during the two days and over 40 speakers, who included politicians, academics and management. A common thread of the speakers was the need for us to change the way we think about cities and urban design. The conference opened with Mayor David Miller and Toronto’s role in Canada and among other global cities. He spoke about Toronto being a city that people choose to live in because of its diversity, culture and economic opportunities. Harper manipulating the scientific process. The fate of Vancouver's medically supervised safer injecting facility, known as Insite, hangs in the balance as three B.C.
Court of Appeal justices weigh arguments by the Harper government aimed at overturning an earlier ruling that provided the program a brief respite from the Tories' efforts to close it. In that ruling, Justice Ian Pitfield weighed the science and concluded: "I cannot agree with the submission that an addict must feed his addiction in an unsafe environment when a safe environment that may lead to rehabilitation is the alternative. " As someone involved in the evaluation of Insite, I have seen first-hand how the Conservatives continue to score major political points as a result of their determination to close the program. Early concerns about the Conservative party's policies under Stephen Harper emerged in the areas of reproductive technology and stem cell research.
With Insite's future in doubt, the decision now before the B.C. Science in retreat : Article : Nature. Nature 451, 866 (21 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/451866a; Published online 20 February 2008 Comparisons of nations' scientific outputs over the years have shown that Canada's researchers have plenty to be proud of, consistently maintaining their country's position among the world's top ten (see, for example, Nature 430, 311–316; 2004).
Alas, their government's track record is dismal by comparison. When the Canadian government announced earlier this year that it was closing the office of the national science adviser, few in the country's science community were surprised. Science has long faced an uphill battle for recognition in Canada, but the slope became steeper when the Conservative government was elected in 2006. The decision in 2004 by the then prime minister Paul Martin to appoint a scientist for independent, non-partisan advice on science and technology was a good one — in principle. But his new office was destined to fail. What's to be done?