The heart of NYU Wagner's programs is our faculty. An amalgam of full-time, clinical/research/visiting, and adjunct professors, they are outstanding teachers, expert researchers and committed practitioners.
The heart of NYU Wagner's programs is our faculty. An amalgam of full-time, clinical/research/visiting, and adjunct professors, they are outstanding teachers, expert researchers and committed practitioners.
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2010
Kersh, R. The Politics of Obesity: A Current
Assessment and Look Ahead. Milbank Quarterly.
Abstract
Context: The continuing rise in obesity rates across the United States has proved impervious to clinical treatment or public health exhortation, necessitating policy responses. Nearly a decade's worth of political debates may be hardening into an obesity issue regime, comprising established sets of cognitive frames, stakeholders, and policy options.
Methods: This article is a survey of reports on recently published studies.
Findings: Much of the political discussion regarding obesity is centered on two "frames," personal-responsibility and environmental, yielding very different sets of policy responses. While policy efforts at the federal level have resulted in little action to date, state and/or local solutions such as calorie menu labeling and the expansion of regulations to reduce unhealthy foods at school may have more impact.
Conclusions: Obesity politics is evolving toward a relatively stable state of equilibrium, which could make comprehensive reforms to limit rising obesity rates less feasible. Therefore, to achieve meaningful change, rapid-response research identifying a set of promising reforms, combined with concerted lobbying action, will be necessary.
Obesity burst onto the U.S. national policy agenda in 2000/2001, initially fuelled by a widely disseminated set of maps by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) depicting sharply rising obesity rates nationwide, followed by the surgeon general's warning that obesity had become a "new national epidemic" (Mokdad et al. 2003; Oliver 2006; Satcher 2001). A snapshot of responses since then would include alarmed reactions from medical, media, and policy actors alike. The health establishment has rushed to devise medical treatments, from surgical to pharmaceutical, for obesity and its manifold health effects. Surging media attention to obesity and overweight features reports ranging from dire health alarms ("the current generation may be the first to live shorter lives than their parents-and obesity is to blame"; Belluck 2005, p. A1; see also Daniels 2006; Olshansky et al. 2005) to economic warnings (over $120 billion lost annually to obesity-related illnesses; see e.g., Bhattacharya and Sood 2006) to "lifestyle" stories of coffins, airplane seats, and hospital beds all made larger to suit the "supersizing of America" (St. John 2003, p. A13). Public officials at all levels have decried the "epidemic," although statutory reforms have been concentrated in a few energetic local and state polities; the federal government has been noticeably slow to act. All the while obesity rates continue to rise, with thirty-seven states reporting significant year-to-year increases from 2007 to 2008, with none reporting a decrease (TFAH 2008).
This article explores obesity politics as it has evolved in recent years. First I discuss the sustained struggles over framing the topic now that public agendas have begun to solidify into an "issue regime" around obesity. Then I examine popular local and state policy options and review approaches that could have an impact on soaring obesity rates, along with an assessment of the likelihood of their widespread adoption. While promising policy approaches exist, the opportunity to take action may be closing fast. On most public health issues, policymaking features a bustle of activity followed by a period of quiescence as a regime coalesces-even when the underlying problems continue to mount. Antiobesity advocates who face declining interest from lawmakers will therefore need to devise creative ways to sustain a focus on this topic.
2008
Kersh, R. & Monroe, J. Anti-Fett Politik: Ubergevicht und staatliche Interventionspolitik in den USA. in H. Schmidt-Semisch & F. Schorb, eds., Kreuzzug gegen Fette [Political Crusade Against Fat]. Translated from original. Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag / Springer Publishing.
Abstract
Der Aufruf des Surgeon Generals 2 beginnt dramatisch: „Übergewicht und Adipositas haben epidemische Ausmaße erreicht...." (Satcher zit. nach Mokdad 2001). Wissenschaftler, Regierungssprecher, Medienexperten, Journalisten und Lobbygruppen stimmen zunehmend lauter in diesen alarmistischen Chor ein. Im Gegensatz aber zu vielen anderen Public-Health-Problemen ist Adipositas zu großen Teilen individuellen Verhaltensweisen wie Essen und Trinken geschuldet. In den Vereinigten Staaten mit ihrer starken Kultur des Individualismus wird Privates oft als Tabuzone für staatliche Interventionen betrachtet: „Die Regierung sollte sich aus den persönlichen Entscheidungen, die ich treffe, heraushalten", schreibt der Washingtoner Universitätsprofessor Robert Rüssel, „meine bzw. deine Essgewohnheiten rechtfertigen nicht, dass mir die Regierung in den Kochtopf guckt" (zit. nach St. Louis Dispatch: 21.03.2002).
2006
Kersh, R. Lobbyists & the Provision of Political Information. Interest Group Politics, edited by Burdett Loomis & Allan Cigler, 7th ed. Congressional Quarterly Press.
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Abstract
Interest Group Politics presents a broad spectrum of scholarship on interest groups past and present. In a time of partisan parity, when control of Congress is always within reach of the minority party at the next election, interest groups have every incentive to keep the pressure on. And they do. But the imbalance of influence that tilts toward moneyed interests is one of the cornerstones of the political system.
What does this mean for equal representation? In nineteen chapters, noted political scientists explore the role of money, technology, grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy advertising, and much more in interest group influence. Students will learn how the National Rifle Association has become one of the most effective lobbying groups in America, what opportunities the openness of the American political process has offered ethnic groups both within and outside the United States, how the role of interest groups in elections has changed (including 527's), what effect religious organizations had in the 2004 elections, and how interest groups affect Supreme Court nominations.
Kersh, R. Interest-Group Lobbying in New York State. Governing New York State, 5th ed. Edited by Jeffrey Stonecash, SUNY Press, .
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Abstract
New York State, because of its great diversity, has more extensive social and political conflict than most states. Governing New York State: Fifth Edition provides expert assessment of how these conflicts are organized and represented, and how the political process and political institutions work to seek to resolve them. This newly updated fifth edition contains significantly revised material and covers more topics than the prior edition.
The contributors examine conflicts between New York City and the rest of the state, and between federal, state, and local governments. The role of major political parties in organizing and representing broad coalitions of different groups is reviewed, along with the role of third parties, interest groups, and the media. Political institutions that shape the political process-the governor, the legislature, the courts, and the public authorities-are discussed, along with how these institutions affect the representation of responsiveness of various groups. Finally, Governing New York State investigates the major policy areas of the state: the economy, taxes, local education, higher education, health care, welfare, transportation, and the environment.
Kersh, R. Ten Myths About Health-Care Lobbying. J. Morone, ed., Health Politics & Policy.
Abstract
The fourth edition of Health Politics and Policy examines the political arena in which United States health care policies are made, and provides a framework for understanding how the process works. This book conveys the excitement of health care politics and covers the issues facing the American health care system. Factors that shape health policy are discussed in detail, including values, private players, and government, as well as the resulting dynamic of these forces. A comparison of the U.S. system to others offers a foundation for understanding our system within an international context.
2002
Kersh, R. The Well-Informed Lobbyist: Information and Interest-Group Lobbying. Interest Group Politics, 6th edition CQ Press, .
Abstract
Interest Group Politics presents a broad spectrum of scholarship on interest groups past and present. In a time of partisan parity, when control of Congress is always within reach of the minority party at the next election, interest groups have every incentive to keep the pressure on. And they do. But the imbalance of influence that tilts toward moneyed interests is one of the cornerstones of the political system.
What does this mean for equal representation? In nineteen chapters, noted political scientists explore the role of money, technology, grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy advertising, and much more in interest group influence. Students will learn how the National Rifle Association has become one of the most effective lobbying groups in America, what opportunities the openness of the American political process has offered ethnic groups both within and outside the United States, how the role of interest groups in elections has changed (including 527's), what effect religious organizations had in the 2004 elections, and how interest groups affect Supreme Court nominations.
2001
Kersh, R. State Autonomy & Civil Society: The Lobbyist Connection. Critical Review 2001, Volume 14, Number 2.
Abstract
The much-noted decline of state autonomy theories owes partly to external challenges to state power, such as globalization, supranational regimes, and the like. But advanced democratic states have also long been seen as threatened from within, especially by powerful private interest groups.The extent of private-interest influence on policy making depends in important part on corporate lobbyists, a group whose activities are chronicled in this essay. Lobbyists exercise considerably more autonomy from the private clients who hire them than has previously been acknowledged. This portrait ultimately suggests that the national state and civil society may be mutually supportive rather than strictly separate spheres.
1994
Walters, J. Saving our own lives - Black AIDS Institute. .
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Abstract
| Past Events | Date |
|---|---|
| An Evening with Robert Kaiser of The Washington Post | 09/22/2009 |
