The University of Massachusetts Amherst

Category: Governance

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Badgett Authors New York Times Op-Ed About Workplace Discrimination

CPPA Director M.V. Lee Badgett (economics) has penned an editorial published in the Feb. 7, 2012, edition of the New York Times. The op-ed, titled “What Obama Should Do About Workplace Discrimination,” highlights how presidents dating back to Franklin D. Roosevelt have used executive orders to strengthen anti-discrimination standards for workers employed by federal contractors.

In addition to heading the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Badgett is the research director at UCLA’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy. The New York Times op-ed comes on the heels of a study Badgett just released titled “The Impact of Extending Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Requirements to Federal Contractors.”

According to the study, between 14.3 and 15.3 million additional workers could offer health care benefits to their same-sex domestic partners if federal contractors were required to provide coverage for same-sex partners. Badgett points out, however, that employers would not likely incur large increases in their health care costs, as “only 40,000 to 136,000 of these employees would sign up a same-sex partner for coverage, and they would be spread out across tens of thousands of federal contractors.”

The New York Times piece appears in the wake of recent news that defense contractor DynCorp International changed its policies and now bans discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Read Badgett’s full piece here.

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Events Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Policy Viewpoints

Fountain Keynoter at GovCamp Singapore

Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy, will give the keynote address on November 18th, 2011, at GovCamp Singapore.  The conference will assemble leading thinkers from government, academia, industry and citizen organizations to share ideas about how to improve citizen engagement and government services in Singapore through technology.

The conference is based on the international GovCamp model that applies a government context to evolving Web 2.0 technologies.  GovCamp rests on three central pillars–transparency, collaboration and participation in government.

Additional information about the event, and to follow the Twitter and other real time streams, visit the GovCampSG website.  You can also visit the GovCampSG Facebook page.

 

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Science, technology & society

Future of Government Report Launched in Vienna

Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy, hosted a dinner on June 7, 2011, in Vienna, Austria at which the World Economic Forum launched its new report, The Future of Government: Lessons Learned from around the World.

Fountain chaired this year’s World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government, which includes 15 innovative experts and leading government practitioners from around the world.

The report documents the best (and worst) governance practices for enhancing global innovation, including those that depend on social media and other new information and communication technologies.

About the report, Fountain states, “As the world moves forward amid economic and political change, the future of government has catapulted to center state as one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. On behalf of the Council, I am pleased to present this collection of lessons learned drawn from some of the world’s most interesting and rapidly developing settings, and from a remarkable and seasoned group of experts.”

The report will be used at the World Economic Forum’s Middle East Summit in Jordan this coming fall and throughout the next year as the Council expands its focus and work.

Fountain will move next year into the role of Vice Chair for the Council, and Karl Bildt, former finance minister of Sweden, will take over as Chair.  At UMass Amherst, Fountain also directs the National Center for Digital Government and the Science, Technology and Society Initiative.

A press release about the Future of Government Report, which contains links to the report and a video about the Council’s work, is available here.

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Faculty Research Governance Policy Viewpoints

Mednicoff Leads Workshop in Spain’s Basque Region

David Mednicoff (public policy) led a workshop from May 26-28, 2011, in Oñati, Spain on “Comparative Sociolegal Processes of Secularization: Political Variations on the Theme of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age.”

The workshop, co-led by Shylashri Shankar of India and co-sponsored by the International Institute for the Sociology of Law and Princeton University, assembled a cross-national group of scholars to develop a common analytical approach to the comparative analysis of secularism, law and politics in global perspective.

The workshop was conceived as a follow-up to two earlier workshops on secularism, law and politics. The Oñati meeting used Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age as a jumping off point to consider whether and how secularity has become integrated into legal and political institutions in a wide range of cases outside the scope of Taylor’s North Atlantic focus.

Cases included China, Egypt, Indonesia, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal and Turkey. Participants included authors of papers concerning the topic and several prominent discussants.

Proceedings from the workshop will appear in a forthcoming volume co-edited by Mednicoff.

The Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law was established in 1988 to create academic links and collaborations between European and non-European universities.  Since then, it has developed into an important base for the global network of scholars who work on law and social science issues.

Additional information about the Institute, which is located in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa,  is available here.

Prof. Mednicoff holds a B.A. from Princeton, and an M.A., J.D. (international law) and Ph.D. (political science) from Harvard.  He is a specialist on contemporary Middle Eastern politics and U.S. foreign policy in Arab states.

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Faculty Research Governance

Mednicoff Speaks at Singapore Conference on Democratization in the Gulf

Professor David Mednicoff (public policy) will present his research on the Persian Gulf region as part of an international conference in Singapore on May 19-20, 2011.

The conference, “Whither the Gulf? Accomplishments, Challenges, and Dangers,” was organized by the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, and will feature 40 distinguished scholars hailing from across the globe and representing a variety of disciplines.

The purpose of the conference is to assess current political, economic and social developments in the region comprising the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council states, Iraq and Iran.

Mednicoff’s presentation is part of a session titled “Governance: The Challenge of Democratization,” and will focus on the rule of law in contemporary Arab societies.

Additional information is available through the conference program.

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Events Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Science, technology & society

Fountain Presents Keynote at UN Conference on e-Government in Seoul, Korea

Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy, and director of the National Center for Digital Government and the Science, Technology and Society Initiative, gave the keynote address at the United Nations Conference on e-Government in Asia and the Pacific held in Seoul, Republic of Korea on May 11-13, 2011.

The keynote address, “National Development in the Digital Age,” set the tone for the overall Conference deliberations from the national perspective by depicting the overall picture of national developments in e-Government globally as well as key issues and challenges to be considered by policymakers.

The Conference was organized by the United Nations Project Office on Governance in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Korean Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Conference speakers included the Chief Information Officers and other government experts, including parliamentarians, from several countries in the region including Korea, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Japan.

The purpose of the Conference was to provide a forum to discussion regional e-Government issues and exchange country experiences while also exploring potential for cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region thereby building policymaking capacity.

While in Seoul, Fountain was interviewed about e-Government and the role of youth as global citizens, by Focus News Network, one of Korea’s largest newspapers.  She delivered a lecture, “Digitally Mediated Institutions: the Case of the European Commission Office of Harmonization of the Internal Market,” at Yonsei University, the oldest private university in Korea.

Fountain is currently the Chair of the World Economic Forum, Global Advisory Council on the Future of Government, a high-level international group of senior government, business and academic leaders from around the world.  The Council’s report on the Future of Government will be released at the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia to be held in Vienna on June 8-9, 2011.

The National Center for Digital Government is a research center that has hosted several doctoral and faculty fellows from Asia and the Pacific, as well as from a host of other countries.  The Science, Technology and Society Initiative, a multi-disciplinary research, education and outreach program of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences is based in the Center for Public Policy and Administration.

National Center for Digital Government: www.ncdg.org

Science, Technology and Society Initiative: www.umass.edu/sts

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Faculty Honors & Awards Faculty Research Governance Policy Viewpoints

Fountain Featured on Davos/YouTube Video

Jane Fountain, professor of political science and public policy, is featured on a recent video taped at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  In response to the question, “What keeps you motivated?,” Fountain notes the importance of using new media to bring the voice of the people to governance.  For more, go to the YouTube link.