Articles tagged with government

Tired of the same old political cronies, Berliners have voted in the Pirate Party — Internet open-source activists who hope to use online systems to improve democracy.

The Research Works Act would prevent publicly funded research from automatically being available to the public for free. Private publishers back the bill, while open-access partisans are appalled.

How far can the FCC go in regulating blue language and nipple slips on broadcast media? Three decades since tackling the seven dirty words, the Supreme Court is poised to answer that question again.

Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, similar to America’s FBI, isn’t doing its job against all the threats its homeland faces.

In the most comprehensive report yet to look at wartime contracting, a three-year study has found that national security cannot be about the profits of war.

As our correspondent in Libya has learned, rushing to the ballot box might be the biggest mistake there is.

Between budget cuts and suggestions that the Navy and Air Force have their pulse on the future, do the U.S. Army and Marines face bleak prospects?

A new report finds that Washington’s recent — but still limited — interest in rigorously evaluating government programs is both encouraging and unprecedented.

Like the homemakers in the book “Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay,” the bureaucrats running Germany’s financial house are saying enough is enough.

As the U.S. Congress prepares to weigh a new round of massive budget cuts mandated by this summer’s deal on the deficit, some odd bedfellows offer a suite of suggestions for saving green by being green.

Welfare reform, 15 years old this week, was designed to get the structurally poor into jobs. What happens when there are lots more poor and lots fewer jobs?

Opinion: The widening circle of cheating scandals on standardized tests should fuel the movement to reduce the stakes these exams have on public education in the U.S.

While saving the world’s threatened languages may seem informed more by nostalgia than need, federally funded researchers say each tongue may include unique concepts with practical value.

Program to bring an entrepreneurial approach to social problems doles out some more money from its small kitty.

Research confirms that increasing fuel economy standards does cost lives on the road. But economist Mark Jacobsen explains how that doesn’t have to be the case.

Academics and advocates are asking if there were lots more women in the U.S. government whether the debt-ceiling debacle would have been allowed to develop.

Opinion: Let’s make lobbyists — and anyone else wanting to influence the U.S. government — post their intentions on a public website.

China has had its share of high-profile failures (and successes) of late, but a recent high-speed rail crash has shaken the people’s confidence more than past mishaps.

A group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with PTSD in a class-action lawsuit settled with the U.S. government to increase their disability benefits.

A panel ranging from liberals to libertarians suggests turning the mortgage interest deduction, a sacred cow of the U.S. tax code, into hamburger.

And that’s why keeping the larder stocked for safety-net programs such as food stamps may keep people fed and fit.

If Americans saw exactly how their specific tax dollars were being allocated, would it change the substance or tenor of discussions on, say, the debt ceiling?

Could you say that in English, please? The Plain Writing Act of 2010 asks the U.S. government to better talk the talk of its constituents.

In a little remarked upon sign of the times, U.S. government health surveys will start asking Americans to check a box about their sexual orientation in 2013.

The smart grid being discussed for the United States would bring a world of wonders but also would push a very observant eye into the life of everyone using it.

America’s very successful freight train system will have to make some compromises to accommodate high-speed rail, but those needn’t be the end of the world.

Efforts to bring decent-quality Internet service to out-of-the-way corners of America often founder from private companies claiming they can’t handle competition from public utilities.

In the wake of some spectacular instances of corporate evildoing, the SEC is wondering about offering serious cash to entice people who want to come forward.

“Scientization of politics,” not just politicization of science, weakens scientific integrity.

With the backing of numerous scientific studies and provincial health authorities, Insite will fight for its life against the Canadian federal government in court.

The United States is putting its take on human rights, say, in Ivory Coast or on internet freedom, onto a new State Department human rights website, although it’s leaving criticism of itself offline.

Passports, park admissions and poo are among Miller-McCune’s list of 10 things that will be affected if the budget-less U.S. government shuts down this weekend.

Efforts to roll back the federal budget to 2008 levels may have the unintended consequence of gutting spending aimed at fostering government transparency.

A national infrastructure bank for the United States would offer a way to fund projects that improve competitiveness and economic vitality and not just please local constituents.

A Texas representative wants to lay off naming taxpayer-funded programs or projects for sitting members of Congress until after they leave the Hill.

Efforts to defund public broadcasting arrive as the commercial model of broadcasting shows its qualitative seams.

The U.S. government has an awkward relationship with social media, praising its use in Egypt and suing in its use for WikiLeaks.

In an open letter to the organizers of Egypt’s uprising, international studies professor (and ethnic Egyptian) Nivien Saleh suggests a tool for crafting real democracy.

A welter of tax credits, breaks and incentives help Americans out in ways they don’t understand or appreciate. This ignorance could have real consequences in debates about tax reform and deficit reduction.

Every five years, the U.S. government bravely tries to nudge Americans toward a healthier diet while not ticking off purveyors of less-desirable foods.

New research suggests the superficial appeal of governing by light touch founders in the health arena where so many “unhealthy nudges” are already in place.

A UCLA researcher argues that rather than assuming people are basically selfish, government could more profitably encourage pro-social behavior.

Despite this year’s bitter politics, the government found some new ways to encourage nonpartisan innovation and transparency.

USA.gov has tapped guidance from across government agencies to help you keep that New Year’s Resolution to manage your debt better, or quit smoking, or drink less alcohol.

Yale’s Bruce Ackerman, a constitutional scholar, warns that unilateralism in the “most dangerous branch” of government is setting the stage for a tragic future.

Before the ideological war over entitlement reform begins, Congress should look to the ways technology can reduce the cost of government. All trillion of them.

State governments are using nonprofit organizations to conduct research that will guide future policy without being tainted by it.

Arguing that while government may not be the answer, it can be part of the answer, the newish Office of Social Innovation leverages issue-oriented entrepreneurship with federal dollars.

There’s likely one area of agreement for both the main political parties in Washington, D.C.: We expect to get little done in the next two years.

New research suggests that when faith in government decreases, belief in an all-powerful deity rises.

Hating government and dismissing its work force as incompetent has become second nature, much to the chagrin of a work force that doesn’t share those opinions.

Even with rocket ships and cuddly critters on the screen no one comes to federal movie night. But a privately run effort is flicking open the door to the movie trove.

After a decade stored away in the basement of the White House, a new commitment to rooting out toxic messes dumped on poor communities has begun.

How exactly is the U.S. federal government leading by example on reducing greenhouse gas emissions? A collection of reports lists a zillion specific items, from double-sided printing to thousands of solar panels.

An unprecedented 10-year study’s surprising verdict: The real outcome of most lobbying is … nothing. Until the right party or person comes to power.

On-again, off-again federal support cripples emerging industries in the United States, America’s pre-eminent wind energy pioneer believes.

The U.S. government opts takes an easy step toward reducing — in a small way — global warming and energy use.

If Americans don’t want the dubious comforts of a full-fledged nanny state, then they can’t come running for comprehensive succor when some milk, or oil, spills.

Tens of thousands of ‘Purple People’ — named after the traditional color of Italian mourning — march in Rome to protest a legendarily bombastic, allegedly corrupt prime minister. Is the country finally ready to say basta?

The passing year has brought some technology and good ideas that just may improve the delivery of government services in the United States.

The Obama administration’s tech czar wants a Silicon Valley value transplanted to the Beltway: customer experience design.

How the government can make us better at self-government.

The U.S. House of Representatives has been at 435 members since 1911, when the country was a third of its current population. Research suggests that districts may now be getting too big for adequate representation.

The health plan wonderland of middle Europe has some issues of its own that Americans might factor into their own debate.

Health insurance watchdogs in Oregon say the way regulators and the industry have analyzed administrative costs for decades are wrong. Will Obama and Congress listen?

When sick people change health plans, it can muck up the insurance market. A new paper suggests ways for fixing it.

As the Germans and French have shown, a ‘public option’ for health insurance needn’t give government a socialistic monopoly.

The Obama administration talks a lot about making policy based on evidence rather than politics. A basic question remains unanswered: Which evidence?

Prediction markets aren’t just for forecasting election outcomes, argues a law professor. They actually might be quite useful for all kinds of political and business decisions.

Two professors explain why small government, loose regulations and an over-reliance on markets eventually cost taxpayers.

A call on the professorial classes to help check abuses of governmental power. And to start confronting the Alberto Gonzaleses of the world — before they wreak havoc.

The government provides billions of dollars in child care subsidies to help move welfare recipients into the work force. Here’s the catch: To get the subsidies, people transitioning off welfare need to have a job already.

The U.K.’s Freedom of Information Act used to pry the lid off a festering document horde from Britain’s own version of Project Blue Book.

In Europe and elsewhere, governments are using ideas from the new science of well-being to try to make citizens more content. Will America follow their lead?