The Middle East: A region without regionalism or the end of exceptionalism?

In terms of regionalisation the Middle East appears to exemplify the region's status of being the 'exceptional' case, eternally out of step with history and immune to the trends affecting other parts of the world. This article will analyse whether recent trends of economic liberalisation might give an impulse to regionalisation. This is done by focusing on the 'double assignment' of the bourgeoisie: curbing state autonomy and acting as the 'championing social class' whose specific interests coincide with the prospect of a larger unified market. The article concludes that we can not expect Arab regional economic integration to be spurred on.     

The Legacy of the Northern Way?

Abstract

The Northern Way (NW) was a pan-regional, multi-level initiative between three English northern regions, set up to promote economic growth and close a £30 billion output gap. Some limited research on progress prior to 2006 exists, but hardly anything about achievements between 2008 and closure in 2011. This paper redresses the limitations with data from existing evaluations and key stakeholder interviews. Findings reveal that partners developed good collaborative working, gathered robust data on critical economic and social issues, and learnt much during 2004–2008. Between 2008 and 2011, activities were refocused on a narrower set of critical priorities and partners developed real policy learning and became a credible voice for the Northern regions. After closure, it became evident that NW left a ‘vacuum’ as an effective coordinator of evidence and views from three Northern regions. Many issues that it sought to address remain as critical today as they did when it was created.     

The New Governance of French Education?

This article contributes to ongoing debates in comparative public administration through exploring the governance paradigm in the unfavourable empirical terrain of French education. After identifying potentially relevant features of governance, we investigate changing patterns of policy-making in French education at macro, meso and micro levels. Extrapolating research findings from extensive interviews and participant observation at ministerial meetings, we conclude the existence of a French-style governance that operates within distinctive ideational and institutional environments and interest structures. The article emphasizes the importance of historical and institutional traditions in framing the available pathways of governance.     

The Rise of the Resilient Local Authority?

The term resilience is increasingly being utilised within the study of public policy to depict how individuals, communities and organisations can adapt, cope, and ‘bounce back’ when faced with external shocks such as climate change, economic recession and cuts in public expenditure. In focussing on the local dimensions of the resilience debate, this article argues that the term can provide useful insights into how the challenges facing local authorities in the UK can be reformulated and reinterpreted. The article also distinguishes between resilience as ‘recovery’ and resilience as ‘transformation’, with the latter's focus on ‘bouncing forward’ from external shocks seen as offering a more radical framework within which the opportunities for local innovation and creativity can be assessed and explained. While also acknowledging some of the weaknesses of the resilience debate, the dangers of conceptual ‘stretching’, and the extent of local vulnerabilities, the article highlights a range of examples where local authorities – and crucially, local communities – have enhanced their adaptive capacity, within existing powers and responsibilities. From this viewpoint, some of the barriers to the development of resilient local government are not insurmountable, and can be overcome by ‘digging deep’ to draw upon existing resources and capabilities, promoting a strategic approach to risk, exhibiting greater ambition and imagination, and creating space for local communities to develop their own resilience.     

The Upliftment of South African Local Government?

Theoretically, South Africa has one of the most advanced systems of local government in the world with its powers and functions being constitutionally entrenched. Two different conceptual models of local government were used to assess how autonomous this local government system is in practice. The autonomous model views local government as a clearly separated sphere of government, while the integrationist model sees greater functional interdependence between the various spheres of government. The article concludes that there are different views of decentralisation within the state. On the one hand there are local government reform measures by the state to position itself within the global economy that reflects a more integrationist view of local government. On the other hand there are elements of the autonomous model such as attempts to empower local government through the promotion of local democracy.     

Power relations? What power relations? The de-politicising conceptualisation of development of the UNDP

The UN′s Sustainable Development Goals agenda points far into 2030, which shows that its post-war development endeavour is not functioning effectively. This article implements a discourse analysis of the UN Development Programme′s (UNDP) Human Development Reports (HDR) and exposes their internal contradictions. This analysis enables a critical reflection on the UNDP′s political position: its reports conceal the political causes of underdevelopment. By concealing the antagonistic/conflictual dimension of social issues – poverty, inequality, and exclusion – the UNDP naturalises the actual neoliberal order. The HDR turns political problems into technical issues; according to this approach, no power relations have to be changed in order to overcome underdevelopment.     

The Voice of Professionals—Lost in Evaluation?

Based on the merger of two Swedish university hospitals, this article examines the relationship between professionals and policymakers in public sector reform. Data from a survey to 663 physicians show that only 2 percent of physicians experienced a working dialogue in this relationship. The relationship with the hospital management was considered equally poor. The article seeks to understand why the voice of professionals was ignored. Results indicate that managers and policymakers collaborated—rather than competed—to avoid blame, by consequently ignoring the professionals’ feedback and attempts at whistle-blowing. This blame-avoidance strategy differs from that traditionally described in the agency literature. More studies in this area are encouraged.     

Can crop insurance work? The case of India

This article assesses the performance of the Indian Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme from 1985 to 1993 in relation to a recent critical literature which argues that comprehensive agricultural insurance is subject to insuperable moral‐hazard obstacles. The Indian scheme has made heavy financial losses; on the benefit side, sample data from Andhra Pradesh suggest that some farmers have converted to yield‐raising techniques as a result of the presence of the insurance scheme, but that the scheme has not brought about any improvement in loan repayment performance, even though that was the scheme's explicit objective. We conclude that, to work properly, the scheme requires an increase in premiums and a reduction in the range of risks covered. A possible alternative design, in which individual farmers are insured directly against drought rather than against a shortfall in yields, is sketched out.     

Reconciliation through Sports? The case of South Africa

Abstract

Can sports—and if so how—serve as a vehicle for reconciliation and increased social cohesion in countries wrecked by civil conflict? This article analyses the case of South Africa and its experiences in the sports sector since the fall of apartheid, in an effort to explore the processes necessary to understand the potential sports may hold for peace building. By identifying initiatives in South Africa employed at the national, community and individual level of analysis, the article outlines the possible effects of sports on reconciliation in divided states. Through linking experiences from state policies, ngo activities and donor projects with social identity and reconciliation theory, the article outlines the possible positive and negative aspects of sports. Finally, important avenues for further research to uncover how to turn sports into effective political tools for post-conflict peace building are suggested.     

The threat of autocracy diffusion in consolidated democracies? The case of China,Singapore and Australia

The majority of today’s authoritarian regimes have little hope of promoting autocracy beyond their own borders, let alone to consolidated democratic countries. However, China and Singapore are two prominent examples of non-democratic countries whose soft power arsenals have given them some global appeal beyond that enjoyed by most authoritarian regimes. But to what extent has China’s and Singapore’s power of example influenced consolidated democracies in terms that the latter wanting to replicate some political practices or even norms in these non-democratic regimes? In this article, we engage recent works to examine this question in relation to how Australians perceive the political example offered by China and Singapore. Focusing our analysis on several prominent polls conducted recently by the Lowy Institute for International Policy, we suggest that at present there is little evidence of a causal impact of the rise of authoritarian powerhouses such as China and Singapore on how Australians view democracy at home. Through these case studies, this article sheds some light on the theoretical as well as practical questions about the inherent impediments of authoritarian diffusion in consolidated democracies.     

The Globalization of Nationalism and the Future of the Nation?CState

The state is a specific form of government, distinguished from others by its impersonal character and the recognition on the part of the office holders that they represent the will of the people. This form of government is an implication of nationalism. Thus, every state is a nation?Cstate. Since nationalism is the cultural framework of modernity in all its expressions, every state is also a modern state. The future of the nation?Cstate depends on the future of nationalism. The recent globalization of nationalism into the formidable civilizations of South-East Asia has opened a new era for the latter. Therefore, the future of the nation?Cstate at present looks brighter than ever.     

The Evolution of the Market of the Hungarian Printing Industry after 1989: The End of a Success Story?

This article examines a case study of one industry in order to explore the factors influencing changing performance levels in the industries of post-socialist economies. It explores the influence on industrial performance of a number of once-only non-repetitive factors of market development that were typical of the transition period and compares them with longer term aspects of the market economy. The case that we discuss here is the development of the market for products of the Hungarian printing industry since the late 1980s. During the transition phase, privatisation, deregulation, the abolition of administrative distribution, and radical cuts in subsidies were all among the factors affecting this industry. Its supply chains also changed radically. However, these lost their importance after the transition had been completed and the long term processes of technical development and consumer behaviour became the main determinants of the behaviour of the printing companies.