Negotiating Values: Implementing Change in the Allocation of Transplant Organs

In the United States stakeholders make rules for the allocation of deceased-donor transplant organs. More than 110,000 Americans are currently awaiting transplants and more than 1,200 die annually before they get transplants; more than 1,700 leave the waiting list annually because they've become too sick to receive transplants. Contributing to better organ transplantation policy is thus socially valuable with life and death consequences. In Negotiating Values, David Weimer deals with this important policy issue. He considers how well stakeholder rulemaking, an example of constructed collaboration, taps relevant expertise and he exploits the unusual opportunity it provides to study the implementation of a substantial planned organizational change. He also explores the implications of “street level” responses for the operation of systemwide allocation rules. Most broadly, Weimer contributes to our understanding of complex multigoal decisionmaking by explicating the interplay between values and evidence in responding to a demand for substantial policy change.

Table of Contents:
1. Rare opportunity: transparent implementation of organizational change; 2. Origins of the continuous distribution initiative; 3. Managing the implementation of organizational change; 4. Varieties of expertise; 5. Public (Community) participation in policy making; 6. Evidence and values in continuous distribution design; 7. Organ acceptance and continuous distribution; 8. Constructed collaboration: advantages and challenges; Appendix A: cited committee meetings.

About the Author :
David L. Weimer is the Edwin E. Witte Professor of Political Economy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His contributions to public policy scholarship have been widely recognized, receiving the Policy Field Distinguished Contribution Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis. He is Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Review :
'Dave Weimer is one of the most penetrating voices on public policy. With Negotiating Values, he engages with critical questions: how do institutions make life and death decisions? How do they convert public values into organizational rules? How can democracy and professional expertise co-exist? These questions have never been more important, and Weimer answers them with extraordinary insight.' Donald Moynihan, Harris Family Professor, Ford School of Public policy, University of Michigan Negotiating Values extends David Weimer substantial contribution to the study of policymaking by exploring 2018 reforms to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which determines the allocation of deceased-donor organs for transplants. Typically, what happens inside organizations is difficult to study. Weimer leveraged the shift to virtual meetings to expand our understanding of policy implementation, in real time. The book is a rich and important study of the role of evidence in policymaking. The book breaks new ground by detailing the use of machine learning and by analyzing the nature of 'explicit, tacit, and interactional expertise.' Negotiating Values informs our understanding of stakeholders in complex areas of policymaking and Weimer makes a compelling case for expanding how we understand public involvement as 'community participation.' Miriam Laugesen, Associate Professor, Columbia University