scholarly journals Soul of a new machine: Self-learning algorithms in public administration

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lasse Gerrits
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Self Learning ◽  
New Machine

Big data sets in conjunction with self-learning algorithms are becoming increasingly important in public administration. A growing body of literature demonstrates that the use of such technologies poses fundamental questions about the way in which predictions are generated, and the extent to which such predictions may be used in policy making. Complementing other recent works, the goal of this article is to open the machine’s black box to understand and critically examine how self-learning algorithms gain agency by transforming raw data into policy recommendations that are then used by policy makers. I identify five major concerns and discuss the implications for policy making.

scholarly journals Social Networking on Climate Change

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Molinari
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mission Critical ◽  
Preparatory Action

This paper reports on the deployment of a multilingual Social Networking Platform in three Regions of Europe (Catalonia, Poitou-Charentes and Tuscany), in the context of an EU-funded Preparatory Action on eParticipation dealing with the issue of climate change and energy policy making at the level of the European Parliament. The US (“Obama”) approach and a novel (“European”) usage of social networks in political online discourses are compared. A recommendation to policy makers is that social networking can be useful whenever the topics under discussion are limited in scope, but also wide in implications, so that they require moving forward from “one-off” and “ad-hoc” participation experiments, towards the permanent coverage of “mission critical” Public Administration functions.

scholarly journals Muers, Stephen (2020). Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making. An Insider's Guide. Bristol: Policy Press.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2021) ◽  
pp. 232-234
Author(s):  
Werner Jann
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Technical Solutions ◽  
Policy Problems ◽  
Blind Spots ◽  
Administration Programs

This book is a forceful and entertaining argument why culture and values should be taken much more seriously, both by policy makers, but also in the curricula of modern Public Policy and Public Administration programs. The author is not a fundamental sceptic of managerial politics and administration, but he shows the inherent limits, contradictions, and blind spots of this kind of policy making. He succeeds particularly well because he can draw on many years of experience as a civil servant in different British ministries, in the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. The book adds little to the conceptual and theoretical discussions of cultural factors in policy making, but it does provide many interesting examples of their significance and why it is dangerous to ignore them. It should be read by students in advanced public policy and public administration programs, who should find it helpful to see the technical solutions to all sorts of policy problems in a somewhat more realistic light.

scholarly journals Machine Learning Algorithms for Analysis of DNA Data Sets

2012 ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Yearwood ◽  
Adil Bagirov ◽  
Andrei V. Kelarev
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Local Alignment ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Applications Of Machine Learning ◽  
New Machine

The applications of machine learning algorithms to the analysis of data sets of DNA sequences are very important. The present chapter is devoted to the experimental investigation of applications of several machine learning algorithms for the analysis of a JLA data set consisting of DNA sequences derived from non-coding segments in the junction of the large single copy region and inverted repeat A of the chloroplast genome in Eucalyptus collected by Australian biologists. Data sets of this sort represent a new situation, where sophisticated alignment scores have to be used as a measure of similarity. The alignment scores do not satisfy properties of the Minkowski metric, and new machine learning approaches have to be investigated. The authors’ experiments show that machine learning algorithms based on local alignment scores achieve very good agreement with known biological classes for this data set. A new machine learning algorithm based on graph partitioning performed best for clustering of the JLA data set. Our novel k-committees algorithm produced most accurate results for classification. Two new examples of synthetic data sets demonstrate that the authors’ k-committees algorithm can outperform both the Nearest Neighbour and k-medoids algorithms simultaneously.

Connecting research to policy: Understanding macro and micro policy-makers and their processes

First Monday ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd Levine
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Research To Policy ◽  
Policy Engagement

This article provides a real-time blueprint for connecting academic research and expertise to the policy-making process. While some academic research exists on how researchers in various social science fields can use their professional expertise to inform policy, it is not voluminous, and what does exist contains significant gaps. In reviewing the literature, much of the existing research excludes input from those engaged in the policy-making process. Further, the research often applies models retroactively to policy in general. Instead of describing the process of policy engagement, most research looks at policy broadly with hindsight and tries to apply a theoretical model to describe what has happened. This article combines academic research with an autoethnographic approach and addresses the difficulty of identifying the correct policy-maker, translating complex research findings into digestible policy recommendations, and then communicating those findings to policy-makers. The research applies to multiple disciplines and provides researchers with tools and a systematic process that can be employed in real-time to convert research and expertise into policy.

Dirk J. Wolfson. Public Finance and development Strategy. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1979. Pp. xiv+264.

1982 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-257
Author(s):  
Zafar Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Council

The world in its politico-economic aspects is run by policy-makers who have an academic background in law or public administration or other related social disciplines including economics. Only rarely would a majority of the policy-makers be trained in economics. In the making of economic policy, the basic choices before the policy-makers are political and they transcend the narrow concerns of economists regarding optimal use of resources. These considerations in no way downgrade the relevance of economic analysis in economic policy-making and for the training of policy-maker in economics. Policy-makers need economic council to understand fully the implications of alternative policy options. In this book, Wolfson attempts to educate policy-makers in the areas of public finance and development strategy. The analysis avoids technicalities and is kept to a simple level to make it understandable to civil servants, law-makers and members of the executive branch whom Wolfson refers to as policy-makers. Simplicity of analysis is not the only distinguishing mark of this book. Most other books on public finance are usually addressed to traditional public finance issues relating to both the revenue and expenditure sides of the budget and neglect an overall mix of issues dealing with the interaction of fiscal policy with economic development. Wolfson in this book explicitly deals with these issues.

Prioritizing Strategic Factors of Creative Tourism Industry in Iran by Analytic Network Process (ANP)

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-565
Author(s):  
Reza Kiani Mavi ◽  
Hamed Gheibdoust ◽  
Ahmad A. Khanfar
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Analytic Network Process ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Business Support ◽  
Network Process ◽  
Strategic Factors ◽  
Strategic Policy ◽  
Strategic Policies

Nowadays, it is obvious that creative tourism industry has become very essential for countries and societies; therefore, governments work on constituting policies in order to develop this industry. To be successful in improving creative tourism industry, governments should identify the influential factors and focus on ones that are more important rather than investing a bit on many different factors. Because of the interrelations among factors, this research is aiming to prioritize factors that influence strategic policies of creative tourism industry in Iran using analytic network process (ANP). Data were collected during the period of May 2017 to February 2018. Participants in this research are 13 tourism experts with more than 10 years' experience in the field. Results show that the most influential criterion is "business support" and the most influential subcriterion is "supporting midsize businesses." This study helps policy makers to improve creative tourism by emphasizing on those factors that have high priority from the viewpoint of strategic policy-making.

Sentencing Policy as a Force for Social Cohesion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sentencing Policy

This chapter sets out the case for adopting a normative approach to conceptualizing the social reality of sentencing. It argues that policy-makers need to comprehend how sentencing is implicated in realizing state values and take greater account of the social forces that diminish the moral credibility of state sponsored punishment. The chapter reflects on the problems of relating social values to legal processes such as sentencing and argues that crude notions of ‘top down’ or ‘bottom up’ approaches to policy-making should be replaced by a process of contextualized policy-making. Finally, the chapter stresses the need for sentencing policy to reflect those moral attachments that bind citizens together in a relational or communitarian sense. It concludes by exploring these assertions in the light of the sentencing approach taken by the courts following the English riots of 2011.

scholarly journals Science Informed Policies for Managing Water

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Loucks
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Information Policy ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Multiple Impacts ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Science Policy Interface ◽  
Management Policies

Water resource management policies impact how water supplies are protected, collected, stored, treated, distributed, and allocated among multiple users and purposes. Water resource policies influence the decisions made regarding the siting, design, and operation of infrastructure needed to achieve the underlying goals of these policies. Water management policies vary by region depending on particular hydrologic, economic, environmental, and social conditions, but in all cases they will have multiple impacts affecting these conditions. Science can provide estimates of various economic, ecologic, environmental, and even social impacts of alternative policies, impacts that determine how effective any particular policy may be. These impact estimates can be used to compare and evaluate alternative policies in the search for identifying the best ones to implement. Among all scientists providing inputs to policy making processes are analysts who develop and apply models that provide these estimated impacts and, possibly, their probabilities of occurrence. However, just producing them is not a guarantee that they will be considered by policy makers. This paper reviews various aspects of the science-policy interface and factors that can influence what information policy makers need from scientists. This paper suggests some ways scientists and analysts can contribute to and inform those making water management policy decisions. Brief descriptions of some water management policy making examples illustrate some successes and failures of science informing and influencing policy.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: “Get a £10 Free Bet Every Week!” – Gambling Advertising on Twitter: Volume, Content, Followers, Engagement and Regulatory Compliance

2021 ◽  
pp. 074391562199967
Author(s):  
Raffaello Rossi ◽  
Agnes Nairn ◽  
Josh Smith ◽  
Christopher Inskip
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Volume Content ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Policy Makers

The internet raises substantial challenges for policy makers in regulating gambling harm. The proliferation of gambling advertising on Twitter is one such challenge. However, the sheer scale renders it extremely hard to investigate using conventional techniques. In this paper the authors present three UK Twitter gambling advertising studies using both Big Data analytics and manual content analysis to explore the volume and content of gambling adverts, the age and engagement of followers, and compliance with UK advertising regulations. They analyse 890k organic adverts from 417 accounts along with data on 620k followers and 457k engagements (replies and retweets). They find that around 41,000 UK children follow Twitter gambling accounts, and that two-thirds of gambling advertising Tweets fail to fully comply with regulations. Adverts for eSports gambling are markedly different from those for traditional gambling (e.g. on soccer, casinos and lotteries) and appear to have strong appeal for children, with 28% of engagements with eSports gambling ads from under 16s. The authors make six policy recommendations: spotlight eSports gambling advertising; create new social-media-specific regulations; revise regulation on content appealing to children; use technology to block under-18s from seeing gambling ads; require ad-labelling of organic gambling Tweets; and deploy better enforcement.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document