THE
RECORD
OCTOBER 19,1976
NO. 29
LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
EDITOR Hoyt H. Purvis
Two films produced in
conjunction with Policy Research Projects at the LBJ School in 1975-76 have now
been completed. They were shown at the "First LBJ School Film
Festival" in the East Campus Lecture Hall on October 13.
The world-premier
double-feature billing featured "Meals From Space" and "The
Magic Valley."
The first of the
documentaries deals with the Meals Systems for the Elderly Project, a
cooperative venture involving the LBJ School, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), the United Action for the Elderly, and the Texas
Research Institute for Mental Sciences (TRIMS).
The 20-minute film
includes interviews with officials from NASA, the LBJ School, and other
participants as well as senior citizens who participated in the field
demonstrations to test the meals systems. The documentary traces the design,
implementation, and evaluation stages of the projects and includes scenes of
the meals being delivered and prepared and the reactions of the participants.
The film was produced
for NASA by AV Corporation.
A detailed report on
the Meals for the Elderly project is now being prepared and will be published
by the LBJ School in November.
"The Magic
Valley" is a 28-minute film developed by the Policy Research Project on
the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The film depicts the
vivid contrast between affluence and poverty in the area, and also includes
interviews with various government officials who discuss the problem and
efforts being made to improve conditions.
In particular, the
film focuses on the colonias
of Cameron and Hidalgo Counties.
Colonias are unincorporated, rural settlements, whose
residents are primarily farm worker families. The colonias generally lack public facilities and social
services and few have sewer and water systems or other amenities. Housing is
generally substandard and flooding is a recurrent problem. Residents of these
communities have difficulty in gaining access to educational and health
facilities. In addition to describing the conditions in colonias, the film focuses on the problems of these
unique communities, and in particular the issues of land use control, water
supply, and sewage and drainage facilities, as they relate to the overall
economic, social, and political situation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The film was produced
by Cary White and Ron Policy.
Further information
about the films and their availability may be obtained from Acting Dean Jurgen
Schmandt (Meals for the Elderly) or Professor Jared Hazleton (Lower Rio Grande
Valley).
Professor Michael S.
Voslensky discussed "Peaceful Coexistence and Soviet Decision-Making in
the Field of International Policy" at a schoolwide seminar on October 6.
Voslensky, who has
held important academic and journalistic positions in the Soviet Union and
represented the U.S.S.R. at a number of international conferences, said
"there is often erroneous understanding in the West" of Soviet
policies and how they are made.
He said that some
Westerners believe that peaceful coexistence is not consistent with
Marxist-Leninist ideology. "Revolution is also possible by peaceful
means," Voslensky said. "Actually you don't find world revolution
mentioned anymore; instead it is a 'worldwide revolutionary process.' "
He said that the
Soviets are prepared for decades of coexistence if necessary. Socialism does
not need wars to be victorious over capitalism. This can be achieved through
peaceful coexistence."
Voslensky commented
that peaceful coexistence is an aspect of the "international class
struggle—the political struggle between Western and Eastern nations."
According to
Voslensky, peaceful coexistence means "no hot war and a rather high amount
of cooperation in economics, trade, science, and technology."
There are, however,
limits to peaceful coexistence, Voslensky said. Three areas where it cannot exist
are:
. Ideology
. The national
liberation struggle (He said developments in Angola were not considered by the
Soviets as affecting peaceful coexistence or detente.)
. The social
liberation struggle.
He said,
"Peaceful coexistence will last only as long as there is need for
coexistence—until there is one system. Then there will no longer be an
issue. The Soviet Union has never concealed this."
Voslensky pointed to
several myths he said exist in the West in regard to Soviet policy:
There are "no grounds
for believing that there are 'hawks and doves' in the the Kremlin." He
said no journalist has ever precisely identified or defined who they might be.
"Soviet foreign
policy is generally misunderstood by Western journalists," Voslensky said.
"They believe that Brezhnev makes a decision and that is done. This is not
even a caricature. The Soviet Union is not ruled like Idi Amin. It is a party
state, as all Communists states are."
He then discussed the
role of the Politburo and the Central Committee. He described this as a
"huge apparatus" and said, "There is always a vote, not just
Brezhnev's decision. You may say it is a bureaucratic decision, but it is very
well and thoroughly prepared. Soviet policy is extremely predictable."
Voslensky also commented,
"It is believed that the Soviet press merely contains propaganda for home
consumption—that it doesn't contain important information and statistics.
This is wrong. Propaganda is considered necessary in a Communist society. It
reflects 100 percent the position of the Soviet Union."
Voslensky is in the
United States under the auspices of the Center for International Strategic
Studies at Georgetown University. His visit to the LBJ School was arranged by
Dr. Henry David.
Voslensky was formerly
associated with the Institute of World History, Academy of Sciences of the
U.S.S.R. In recent years he has been a visiting professor in West Germany and
Austria.
. Austin Mayor Jeff
Friedman is scheduled to speak at a brown-bag luncheon in the Student Lounge on
Tuesday, October 19 noon. Friedman, who was elected in 1975 to his first term
as mayor, has not announced whether he will seek re-election in 1977. At 31, he
is one of the nation's youngest mayors.
. Robert H. Nooter,
assistant administrator for the Bureau for the Near East of the Agency for
International Development (AID), will speak at a schoolwide seminar at the LBJ
School on Wednesday, October 27 at 4 p.m. Mr. Nooter's topic will be
"Development Trends—An Overview." He has been with AID and the
State Department since 1962.
. Kenneth E. Boulding,
the Distinguished Visiting Tom Slick Professor of World Peace, spoke October 14
at the UT Faculty Center. "Grants Economy" was the topic of
Boulding's lecture, which was sponsored by the Center for Social Work Research.
He examined the role of income transfer systems, including public assistance
and social insurance as economic factors in the national economy of the United
States.
. Plans are underway
for a Legislative Pre-Session Conference to be held at the LBJ School November
22-24. The conference will focus on issues to be deal with in the 65th Texas
Legislature, which will convene in January, 1977. This will be the fourth such
conference to be held at the School, each of the previous conferences having
also preceded regular biennial sessions of the Legislature. Further details on
the conference will be announced in future issues of The Record. Plans are being coordinated through the
School's Office of Conferences and Training.
. Joe Morin and Steve
Stubbs are the two second-year students who have been elected to serve on the
Faculty Recruitment Committee for 1976-77. The committee is chaired by Dr.
Sidney Weintraub.
. Dr. Beryl Radin is
serving as a member of the National Task Force on Urban Policy for the
Carter-Mondale Presidential Campaign.
. Dr. Marlan Blissett
of the LBJ School spoke on "Energy Conservation Through State Purchasing
Policies" under the sponsorship of the UT Center for Energy Studies on
October 6.
. Woody Bowman, who
recently won the primary for the Illinois state legislature on the northside of
Chicago against the Daley-backed candidate, spoke at a brown-bag luncheon in
the Student Lounge at noon April 12. Bowman spoke on Chicago politics after an
introduction by Professor David Warner.
Dr. Beryl A. Radin of
the LBJ School is scheduled to testify before the Subcommittee on Oversight of
the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on October
20.
Dr. Radin will testify
on problems involved in the administration of the Supplemental Security
Income (SSI) program,
Based on the
experience of the SSI program and in view of the need for new oversight
methods, Radin will suggest that "something approximating an administrative
impact statement be developed by the administering agency after a new program
has been passed by Congress."
In a summary of her
views, Dr. Radin said:
"As the first
federalized welfare program, SSI was initially viewed as a step toward
guaranteed income. As I read the limited Congressional debate on the program,
the decision to federalize the adult welfare programs and to turn the
administration of the effort to the Social Security Administration was a
departure from past practices .... It seems to me that Congress did not ask for
a federal program that was a giant state-styled welfare effort. A number of...
state officials have complained that SSI is not continuing the old programs in
the style and substance of the past. I would ... remind the subcommittee that
SSI was established because there was dissatisfaction with the state-run
programs.
"The difficulties
of the SSI experience indicate that administrative issues affect the substance
of a program more than many people originally realized. While there are a
number of problems in the SSI implementation that are probably unique to this
policy, it does indicate the complexity and probable obstacles which block the
establishment of a smooth operation for a large scale social program... The SSI
experience highlights a series of implementation questions that must be
considered before the details of a new program are devised.
"Congressional
difficulties in getting a handle on the implementation problems associated with
SSI indicate that new oversight methods must be developed in social programs. I
suggest that something approximating an administrative impact statement be
developed by the administering agency after a new program has been passed by
Congress. This statement would be submitted before the first appropriation
process and would trigger the initial oversight procedure.
"It seems to me
that oversight should occur early enough in the implementation effort to allow
Congress and the agency to do several things. First, to identify areas of
potential problems. Second, to make sure that adequate resources are available
to the agency to carry out the legislative mandate. These might be political as
well as fiscal resources. And third, to pinpoint areas where legislative
changes may be necessary to facilitate a smooth implementation effort. This
process should occur before the agency develops its sets of regulations for the
program."
An article by Dr.
Radin entitled, "The Implementation of SSI: Guaranteed Income or
Welfare," has been reprinted in a volume, Social Program Implementation, edited by Walter Williams and Richard Elmore
and published by Academic Press.
She recently received
a University Research Institute research grant to continue her work on SSI.
Citizen Surveys for
City Government is the title
of the most recent publication issued by the LBJ School.
The report by Peter
Lemonias, a 1976 graduate of the LBJ School, resulted from a Student
Independent Project and was part of a larger study on municipal productivity
conducted for the Texas Municipal League through the School's Office of
Research.
The study focuses on
the use of survey research as a tool for informing policy decisions. It is a
handbook intended for both elected and appointed city officials in both small
and large cities.
In his preface,
Lemonias said, "The purpose of this report is to provide city officials
with a primary source document on the subject of citizen surveys, their use,
misuse, advantages, and drawbacks. While the report does not provide all the
information needed to carry out a survey, it will enable city officials better
to decide whether or not they need or want a survey."
"If they decide
to implement one, this report will provide information on the decisions that
have to be made to initiate a survey, the types of surveys that can be used and
their costs, the funding sources that may be tapped, the methodology that must
be followed, some of the problems that should be expected, the pitfalls that
should be avoided, and the types of information that can be expected."
Included with the
report is an appendix which contains fact sheets and questionnaires from seven
different citizen surveys, thus providing examples of surveys that already have
been undertaken.
Preparation of the
report was funded by a grant from the Office of Education of the U.S.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The grant was locally
administered by the Office of Community Services of the Coordinating Board,
Texas College and University System.
Copies of the
publication are $3.50 each and are available in the Office of Publications.
Dr. Charls E. Walker,
former deputy secretary of the Treasury who now heads a Washington consulting
firm, will visit the LBJ School November 15-17. He will speak to a schoolwide
seminar during his say.
Dr. Walker served as
deputy secretary of the Treasury in the first Nixon Administration. Prior to
joining the Treasury in 1969, he was for eight years executive vice president
of the American Bankers Association.
Walker is a Texas
native and graduate of The University of Texas (BBA, 1947; MBA, 1948). He
received a Ph.D. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Details of Walker's
schedule will be announced later. Plans are being coordinated by Dr. Jared
Hazleton.
Jim Hightower, new
co-editor of the Texas Observer, is scheduled to speak at a brown-bag luncheon in the Student Lounge at
noon on Tuesday, October 26.
Hightower, 33, served
as national campaign coordinator for the Fred Harris for President Committee.
Before that he founded and directed the Agribusiness Accountability Project, a
Washington-based public interest organization focused on the impact of
corporate power in the food economy. He has written two books, Eat Your
Heart Out and Hard
Tomatoes, Hard Times.
He also worked as a
legislative assistant to former Senator Ralph Yarborough and as a researcher
for the Library of Congress. He received a BA in government from North Texas
State University, where he was student body president, and studied
international affairs at Columbia University.
Professor Henry David
of the LBJ School has participated in a number of national and international
events in recent months.
He was a participant
in the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Conference in
Vienna, Austria, and then served as a consultant to the Director of IIASA,
which is located in Laxenburg, Austria, during the early part of the summer.
Dr. David has been associated with IIASA in several previous occasions.
Following his stay in
Austria, he traveled to Scandinavia where he gave three seminars in the science
policy area. One, at the University of Lund, Sweden, was on "U.S. Social
Research and Development." The second, given for the Norwegian Research
Committee in Oslo, was on "Norway's Science Policy for the Social
Sciences." The third, also given in Oslo for the Norwegian Research
Institute for Science and Higher Education, was on "The Federal Government
and Social R & D."
More recently, on
October 12, Dr. David addressed the Bicentennial Conference of the National
Advisory Council on Vocational Education in Minneapolis. His subject was
"On Thinking About Vocational Education Policy."
Dr. David has been
appointed as a consultant to the Office of Technology Assessment of the United
States Congress. That appointment will be effective at the end of October.
He has also been
re-elected chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute for the Future, a
nonprofit futures research organization located in Menlo Park, California.
The LBJ Birds finished
their finest intramural football season by bowing to the Forepoints 28-9. The Birds'
record for the 1976 season stands at four wins and one loss. The Birds have
never had a losing football season.
Led by the passing and
running of Bob Nicholson, the 1976 LBJ Birds team members are: Chris Dobbs,
Tony Grigsby, Gery Weller, Wayne Roberts, Crawford Bunkley, Don Preston, Albert
Hawkins, Richard Hare, Bob Palmer, Frank Garza, Larry Levitz, Juan Aguilera,
and Marc Huber. Special thanks to defensive stand-out, Steve Morgan, who
functioned as team captain, manager, and organizer.
Preparations are
continuing for the international conference on Conflict, Order, and Peace in
the Americas to be held November 10-12 under sponsorship of the LBJ School.
The gathering of
social scientists, peace researchers, and present or past government officials
from the U.S., Latin America, and Europe is the first to be planned as part of
the School's endowed Distinguished Visiting Tom Slick Professorship in World
Peace.
Professor Kenneth E.
Boulding, a nationally known economist who this year is the first recipient of
the annual Slick Professorship.
In general, the
conference will be concerned with problems of economic and social development
in Latin America and with the elimination of violence—all viewed within
the context of U.S.-Latin American relations.
Among primary issues
to be addressed will be intervention and violence in the Americas, the slowed
development in Latin America, and the roles of dependency and interdependency
in fostering hemispheric peace.
Professor Boulding
says Latin America provides an interesting arena for those who seek to
understand the conditions of peace, for, in his opinion, Latin America is not
part of the developing Third World per se but rather of what he calls the
"Two-and-a-half-World" —not totally part of the rich nor part
of the poor worlds.
All conference
sessions will be open to the public.
The opening general
session, at 4 p.m. November 10 in the Lyndon B. Johnson Auditorium, will
feature a keynote address by Helvi L. Sipila, highest-ranking woman official in
the United Nations, where she holds the position of assistant secretary general
for social development and humanitarian affairs.
Of special interest
will be a series of "dialogues," to be held each evening in the LBJ Auditorium,
between prominent figures of divergent views.
Just how divergent
those views can be expected to be is exemplified by the November 10 dialogue on
"Intervention and Violence in the Americas," which will pit William
Colby, former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, against Jacques
Chonchol, former agriculture minister under the late Salvador Allende, whose
Chilean government was overthrown by the military in 1973. Mr. Chonchol is now
an adjunct professor at the University of Paris.
The dialogue planned
for November 11 will be devoted to "The Roots of Maldevelopment,"
which will be concerned with what Professor Boulding calls Latin American
"development gone awry." Discussants will be Arnold Harberger,
chairman of the economics department at the University of Chicago and a
consultant to several Latin American governments, and Enrique Iglesias of
Santiago, Chile, executive secretary of the UN's Economic Commission for Latin
America.
The third and
concluding evening dialogue, November 12, will be between Professor Boulding
and Johan Galtung, a Norwegian scholar who holds the Chair in Conflict and
Peace Research at the University of Oslo. Their topic will be "Dependency
and Interdependence as Determinants of Hemispheric Peace."
During the daytime
sessions of the conference, scholarly papers will be presented in the East
Campus Lecture Hall.
The invited papers
include:
—"The Roots
of Dis-development in the Southern Cone" by Hugh Holley of London,
economist with the Bank of London and South America.
—"Culture
and Conflict in the Latin American Experience" by Marina Bandeira of Rio
de Janeiro, joint secretary of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace
in Brazil.
—"Distributive
Inequity in Latin American Development" by Bruce Russett of Yale
University, editor of the Journal Of Conflict Resolution.
—"The Image
and Reality of Violence in Latin American History" by James E. Petras,
sociology professor from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
—"Women and
Development in Latin America" by Ximena Bunster, former University of
Chile sociologist and anthropologist now a visiting professor of anthropology
at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.
—"The
Military Role in the Developmental Process: Reflections and Self-Reflections"
by Irving Louis Horowitz, Rutgers University sociologist-political scientist
who is editor of Society.
—"Democracy
as a Social Value in Latin America" by Enrique Dussel of Mexico City,
Secretariado Social Mexicana.
—"Contemporary
Violence in Latin America" by Gonzalo Arroyo, director of the Study Group
on Agriculture and Development in the Third World, University of Paris at
Nanterre, and founder of the Christian Socialist Party in Chile.
—"Education
and Social Structure in Latin America" by Ernesto Schiefelbein of
Santiago, Chile, International Labor Organization's regional employment program
for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Two books are
scheduled to be published from the conference. One, for a general audience,
will consist of the public dialogue sessions. Another, for scholars, will be
composed of the research papers presented.
A faculty-staff group
which includes Acting Dean Jurgen Schmandt, Associate Dean Keith Arnold, Lynn
Anderson, Barbara Lezar, Tish Scudday, Jean Graeber, Sidney Weintraub, and
Angel Leshikar, Hoyt Purvis, and Laura Eisenhour have been working with
Boulding on conference arrangements.