Supplemental Benefits Under Medicare Advantage: Recent Public Policy Changes and What They Mean for Consumers

This article examines the historical role of marriage and wedding rituals in Vietnam, and how they have changed during Vietnam’s transition to the market. The authors focus on how changes reflect the society’s increasing dependence on the market, how this dependence impacts consumer well-being, and the resulting implications for public policy. Changes in the meanings, function, and structure of wedding ritual consumption are examined. These changes echo shifts in the national economy, social values, social relations, and gender roles in Vietnamese society during the transition. The major findings show that Vietnamese weddings are reflections of (1) the roles of wedding rituals as both antecedents and outcomes of social changes, (2) the nation’s perception and imagination of its condition relative to “modernity,” and (3) the role of China as a threatening “other” seen as impeding Vietnam’s progress toward “modernization.”

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Strategic Issues Management: Organizations and Public Policy Changes. Robert L. Heath, Sage Publications, London, 1997, ISBN 0-8039-7035-8, 402pp, £46.00 (cloth), £22.00 (paper).

Strategic Change ◽

10.1002/(sici)1099-1697(199905)8:3<185::aid-jsc404>3.0.co;2-# ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 185-186

Author(s):

Paul Joyce

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Issues Management ◽

Policy Changes ◽

Strategic Issues

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Methodological Problems and Policy Implications in Vietnamese Refugee Research

International Migration Review ◽

10.1177/019791838602000218 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 483-501 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Elena S. H. Yu ◽

William T. Liu

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Ethnic Minorities ◽

Ethical Dilemmas ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Policy Changes ◽

Vietnamese Refugees ◽

Methodological Problems ◽

Per Se ◽

Research Recommendations

This article is written with two objectives: First, to describe some of the critical methodological problems encountered in our research with Vietnamese refugees in San Diego, California, about which few studies have been conducted previous to their arrival in 1975. Second, to discuss the policy implications of research beset with these difficulties, some of which are unique to studies of refugee populations per se, while others are common to research on small ethnic minorities in general. This article focuses on four major issues: the quality of refugee studies; the purpose and functions of such research; the ethical dilemmas of studying refugees; and public policy implications of refugee research. Recommendations are offered to resolve some of these issues which would call for policy changes both in the ways refugee research are conducted, and in the training of researchers themselves.

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Predicting Policy Change in the House: A Longitudinal Analysis

British Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0007123400003008 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 375-384

Author(s):

Patricia A. Hurley

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Public Policy ◽

Policy Change ◽

Longitudinal Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Policy Changes ◽

Number Of Factors

If one were asked to describe the process of policy change in the United States in one word, that word would surely be ‘incremental’. Students of the Congressional process can point to a number of factors which account for delay in changes of policy; it is only recently that they have begun to examine the occasional departures from Congressional intractability in matter of public policy. This paper seeks to further our understanding of how internal legislative conditions can produce or inhibit policy change. While the first scholars to call attention to this phenomenon noted that policy changes followed critical realignments, others have made a more general case for the ability of Congress to pass important legislation, arguing that Congressional potential for policy change depends largely upon the interactive effects of both majority and minority size and unity. Policy changes have been enacted by those Congresses with large and/or cohesive majorities and small and/or disorganized minorities. These conditions often follow realigning elections, but occur at other times as well.

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Diagnosing Consumer Information Problems: An Investigation of Deception in the Mail-Order Video Camcorder Market

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing ◽

10.1177/074391569201100204 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 37-44

Author(s):

Richard W. Easley ◽

James A. Roberts ◽

Mark G. Dunn ◽

Charles S. Madden

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Credit Cards ◽

Electronics Industry ◽

Consumer Information ◽

Mail Order ◽

Consumer Education ◽

Policy Changes ◽

Marketing Environment ◽

Consumer Markets ◽

Widespread Acceptance

Changes in the marketing environment of mail-order retailing (e.g., widespread acceptance of credit cards, increased sales of technologically complex high ticket items, and the increasing use of toll-free numbers for inbound calls) have increased sales substantially in this retailing channel. Consequently, opportunities for deception abound. Bloom has provided a model that is useful for diagnosing information problems in consumer markets and suggests potential courses of response action contingent upon form of deception. The authors report an investigation of deception in the mail-order electronics industry and use the Bloom model as a framework for interpreting the results. The findings indicate that, in addition to consumer education about forms of deception in the market, public policy changes are needed to protect many affected publics in addition to consumers.

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