From the editors

We wish to take this opportunity to thank David J. Webber for his years of service to the Policy Studies Journal as Reviews/Essays Editor. David is succeeded in this role by Evan Ringquist, a longtime member of the PSJ Editorial Board and an active participant in the Journal''s decisionmaking. That

We are delighted to inform you that many of the initiatives undertaken by David Webber will continue under Evan's guidance. In addition, new efforts will be undertaken to expand the scope and visibility of the Reviews/Essays section of the Journal. Please join us in thanking David for his past efforts and in welcoming Evan to this new role.

We invite you to send ideas for new initiatives you would like to see in the Reviews/Essays pages of the Journal, and by contributing your own scholarship and stimulating others to submit their work to this section.

In This Issue

This issue contains four articles addressing four very different aspects of domestic public policy in the United States. The first article, "The Role of Public Input in State Welfare Policymaking," by Greg Shaw, reports the findings from a national survey of state legislators, social service agency directors, and senior advisors to governors involved in public assistance policymaking during the 1990s. Topics addressed include the impetus for welfare reform, methods for gauging public preferences, and sources of policy ideas. The study shows that there are various forums for gathering public input and constituency contacts regarding welfare reform, but little direct electoral challenge on welfare issues.

Marie Mora's "English-Language Assistance Programs, English-Skill Acquisition, and the Academic Progress of High School Language Minority Students," uses results from surveys compiled between 1988 and 1992 from the Restricted-Use National Education Longitudinal Study. She finds that, compared to their peers, language minority students who received English-language assistance programs beyond the third grade had lower levels of English-skill acquisition and made smaller academic progress in high school. Although the type of high school English-language assistance program (e.g., bilingual education) affected scholastic outcomes, students in such programs did not do better on average than students in monolingual-English classes.

"Trust and Understanding in Participatory Policy Analysis: The Case of the Vermont Forest Resources Advisory Council," by David Haight and Clare Ginger, addresses positivist and postpositivist perspectives on participatory policy analysis as a means for a better-informed policy process and for enhancing citizen participation in government decisionmaking. The focus of the article is on the ability of participatory policy analysis to overcome challenges and to improve levels of trust and understanding, as essential for democratic governance. Haight and Ginger evaluate a stakeholder form of participatory policy analysis, as exemplified by a case study of the Vermont Forest Resources Advisory Council. They find that process design and the roles of science and social values in decisionmaking affected trust and understanding among participants and in the decisionmaking process.

Marcia Godwin and Jean Schroedel, in "Policy Diffusion and Strategies for Promoting Policy Change: Evidence from California Local Gun Control Ordinances," extends the study of policy innovation and diffusion from the state government level to an attempt to understand how momentum for policy change can be generated by local governments. This is done through a case study of gun control policymaking in California, which illustrates how local government characteristics, regional associations, and interest groups interact to effect policy development and diffusion. The authors identify how linkages among interest groups, focusing events, and the redirection of policy debate provide strategies for successful policy change.

In contrast to the domestic policy dimensions considered in the articles included in this issue, the symposium, "The Changing Faces of Ireland," edited by William Crotty, provides a comparative and international perspective on policy studies. The introduction, by Crotty, embeds the study of the Irish experience into the broader crossnational examination of public policy. Other articles examine internationalization and patterns of political change in Ireland (David Schmitt), economics and the reinventing of a nation (William Crotty), the politics of income taxation in Ireland (Niamh Hardiman), religious identity and the future of Northern Ireland (Ronald J. McAllister), and the Ulster Unionist Party and the role of the United States in the peace process in Northern Ireland (Andrew J. Wilson).

The issue concludes with a set of book notes compiled by William B. Perkins.

Mack Shelley

Uday Desai