The EU and Multidimensional Forms of Power: Critical Moments and Change in Actorness and Power

This article introduces a framework for studying the European Union (EU) as power by focusing on what EU does rather than what EU is. Conceptualizing EU as a regional international society, EU is constituted along multidimensional lines. While a code of conduct limits internal and external practices, critical moments are important junctures for practitioners to reinterpret norms and rules, leading to the reproduction of EU as power. The practice of minority rights illustrates how a lack of intersubjectivity limits the EU’s power. It is first through practitioners’ engagement with norms and rules that new practices are established.     

The code of conduct against harmful tax competition: open method of coordination in disguise?

The European Union is experimenting with new, non‐binding policy instruments in business taxation, namely a voluntary code of conduct among member states against harmful tax competition. This article raises the question to what extent can the code be considered a manifestation of the open method of coordination (OMC)? Is an open method (based on guidelines, peer review, best practice, benchmarking, learning and diffusion of shared beliefs among policy‐makers) emerging as a new governance architecture in tax policy? If so, what can the code achieve in terms of policy learning and convergence? There are similarities between the code and the open method of coordination – especially with reference to guidelines, peer review, timetables and the identification of ‘worst practice’. However, the political logic of the code does not fit in well with the OMC aims of participatory governance and social learning. In terms of achievements, the code has contributed to the creation of a community of discourse and the diffusion of shared beliefs about what constitutes ‘acceptable’ and ‘harmful’ tax competition. Convergence at the level of discourse, however, should not be confused with convergence of actual tax policies in the member states.     

Occupational Logics and Political Commitment: American Artists Against the Iraq War

This article analyzes the political commitment of American artists, belonging to various art worlds, against the recent war in Iraq. Through the construction of three types of trajectories, I distinguish several mechanisms of commitment and forms of political involvement. I show how artists' heterogeneous professional identities structure their political commitment throughout the protest, how occupational logics shape the possible forms of action, in the artists' eyes. In the second part of the article, I focus on what is changing, in this context, in the relationships between the artistic and the political spheres, and what is revealed about their ordinary functioning. As a result of the increasing differentiation and specialization of the spheres of action in our societies, it has become more and more difficult and illegitimate for artists to fuse their artwork and their political positions. At the same time, individuals with strong resources of notoriety, especially in the film industry, have demanded a new role of public representation, challenging the exclusive political legitimacy to represent people.     

Mobilising volunteer activists in political parties: the view from central office

The role of volunteer activists in the success of election campaigning has undergone somewhat of a renaissance in the last decade or so. It is now becoming increasingly evident that having a strong volunteer activist base is central to winning elections, especially when the campaign is a close run affair. This then raises the important question of how to raise the volunteer armies necessary for such work. Indeed, there is a reasonably long standing literature on what might incentivise people to become active in political parties. However, there is relatively little work done on what party managers are able and willing to offer members as incentives for activism. Using new data from extensive interviews with professional party managers working in the central offices of political parties, this article explores the ways in which such party managers have worked to incentivise volunteer activists. From this data, it offers a new framework for encouraging volunteer activism through inclusive party organisations.     

Talking about death: patterns of lay and professional change

For the past thirty years, researchers have surveyed attitudes of providers and patients to the disclosure of the diagnosis and prognosis to the dying cancer patient. Though the lay population has expressed the wish to know over time, a change in provider attitudes is apparent: physicians are now more likely to inform their dying patients of the truth than before. This trend is viewed against a number of precipitating factors: changes in perception of the impact of disclosure and changes in the basic ethical norms related to disclosure with new cohorts of younger physicians reflecting these changes. These correlate with changes in underlying social structure brought about in part by the shift to chronic disease as the paradigm for medical care. With increasingly bureaucratized health care delivery, the physician must collaborate with others who may hold different judgments about what ought to be disclosed. Some nurses not only find it right to disclose, but also in their professional interest. In such settings, honesty may be necessary to avoid conflicting messages to the patient. These shifts may signal underlying shifts in the sick role and in the medical professional role with the patient more active and more knowledgeable in medical decisions and the physician serving as a source of information and counsel.     

Can Information Change Public Support for Aid?

Donor country publics typically know little about how much aid their governments give. This paper reports on three experiments conducted in Australia designed to study whether providing accurate information on government giving changes people’s views about aid. Treating participants by showing them how little Australia gives or by showing declining generosity has little effect. However, contrasting Australian aid cuts with increases in the United Kingdom raises support for aid substantially. Motivated reasoning likely explains the broad absence of findings in the first two treatments. Concern with international norms and perceptions likely explains the efficacy of the third treatment.     

INDIVIDUALS AND THE DYNAMICS OF POLICY LEARNING: THE CASE OF THE THIRD BATTLE OF NEWBURY

In recent years, the phenomenon whereby key individuals introduce effective ideas into policy processes has been identified as a vital agent in the redefinition of policy issues. In turn, this raises the basic question of how these individuals themselves undergo processes of learning and change. The article examines three models of policy learning in order to analyse what they may tell us about the dynamics of individual learning: the advocacy coalition framework; the process of learning by means of ‘development’; and issue redefinition through processes of punctuated equilibria. The models are examined in the context of the learning dynamics of three key individuals within the salient anti‐bypass group the ‘Third Battle of Newbury’. The article’s conclusion identifies three apparent paradoxes in individual learning dynamics and attempts to answer these with particular reference to the concepts of frame reflection and regulation by means of norm setting.     

DOING BUSINESS IN THE TEMPLE? MANAGERS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICES

Quality' is now high on the policy agenda for many of our major public services. This article raises the question of what are the respective roles in securing quality of, on the one hand, professional service deliverers and, on the other, managers. It reviews a range of possible roles for managers and concludes that some of these are likely to be illegitimate and ineffective. Even the more appropriate roles will, however, often prove difficult to establish in practice. The article concludes with an examination of some possible key design features for successful relationships between managers and professional service deliverers. These are examined against the background of specific changes currently underway in the health care and education sectors.     

The Struggle for Human Rights in Africa

This article seeks to explore the recent changes that have occurred in Africa’s human rights landscape. It argues that struggles for, recognition of, and the practice of human rights have grown and expanded in recent years in the midst of continuing challenges and widespread human rights violations by both state and civil society actors. The complex and contradictory tapestry and trajectory of human rights is analyzed in the shifting contexts of democratization, globalization, regionalization, and militarization, which collectively have structured African political economies since the 1990s. The question of human rights discourse in Africa is also examined by revisiting some of the debates about the generations and hierarchy of rights. Furthermore, the article looks at the role of the state and society in developing or undermining human rights norms.     

Is sextremism the new feminism? Perspectives from Pussy Riot and Femen

As Pussy Riot has changed the face of political protest in Russia, to the south, Ukraine has seen the emergence of Femen, famous for their topless protests against everything from sex tourism and trafficking to hot water shut-offs in Kyiv to sexism in the Ukrainian government to Putin's visits to Ukraine. Their concurrent appearance in the post-Soviet sphere encourages a discussion around the mobilization of sexuality as protest in the region. Both groups appropriate sexual language and imagery as well as physical sexuality in protest of their current regimes. This article engages the question of similarities between the two groups’ efforts and considers what differences structure their political goals and philosophies. What potential does the global visibility of these groups have to influence an emerging women's movement, and, more generally, how can sexuality be harnessed as a unifying force in anti-government activism in post-socialist Russia and Ukraine?     

Ministers and Top Officials in the Dutch Core Executive: Living Together,Growing Apart?

This paper reports the results of a comprehensive, qualitative (100 interviews; 9 interactive workshops) study among Dutch ministers and top departmental officials. Its key question is how both groups conceive of their respective roles and working relationships. This question became a high‐profile issue in the late 1990s after a series of overt clashes between senior political and bureaucratic executives. To what extent does the old, Weberian set of norms and expectations concerning the interaction between politics and bureaucracy still govern the theories and interaction patterns in use among ministers and top officials within the core executive? What new role conceptions are in evidence, and how can we explain their occurrence and diffusion in the Dutch core executive?     

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.     

Human rights and Nubian mobilisation in Egypt: towards recognition of indigeneity

How are global human rights localised in authoritarian societies? How and what human rights discourses are mobilised by indigenous peoples to further their demands? Building upon original fieldwork among Nubian activists in Egypt, this article explores the complexities regarding human rights framing through a discussion of recognition of Nubian indigeneity. The article finds that the history and political experience of Egypt’s Nubians bring about diverging opinions and also limitations as to how, and what, human rights frameworks rights claimants and their supporters are to employ. It argues that Egyptian nationalism not only affects how Nubian activists mobilise in general, but also helps explain the very limited appeals to a global discourse of human rights.     

The internal and external constraints on foreign policy in India: exploring culture and ethnic sensitivities

The main argument of this contribution is that the distinction between internal and external is at best blurred and in reality does not make much sense in the case of India’s foreign policy. It may start and end at the border and be determined by negotiations, diplomacy or brute force but there is no conclusive evidence in the literature to decide what determines what. There are important dynamics and interplays across the thin line between the domestic and international spheres, especially in terms of understanding the reciprocal challenges related to how factors of culture and ethnicity relate with the legitimacy of the state. The aim of the paper is to serve four purposes. To unpack and give a critical overview of the debates concerned with the internal and external aspects of India’s foreign policy; to situate the literature dealing more specifically with domestic issues related to culture and ethnicity and outline the main approaches involved; to give an overview of how external factors impact foreign policy conduct and relate to India’s role in defining international norms and regulations; and, finally, to give some theoretical markers, suggestions and concluding remarks.     

Question order bias revisited: A split‐ballot experiment on satisfaction with public services among experienced and professional users

Public decision‐makers increasingly rely on satisfaction surveys to inform budget and policy decisions. Yet, our knowledge of whether, and under what conditions, this input from public service users provides valid performance information remains incomplete. Using a preregistered split‐ballot experiment among government grant recipients in Denmark, this article shows that the ordering of survey questions can bias satisfaction measures even for highly experienced and professional respondents. We find that asking about overall satisfaction before any specific service ratings lowers overall user satisfaction, compared to the reverse order, while the correlations between specific ratings and overall satisfaction are relatively stable. Also, the question order effect outweighs that of a large‐scale embezzlement scandal, which unexpectedly hit the investigated government agency during the data collection. Our results support rising concerns that subjective performance indicators are susceptible to bias. We discuss how practitioners should approach satisfaction surveys to account for the risk of question order bias.     

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AND FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS PROVIDING HOME CARE SERVICES FOR THE ISRAELI FRAIL ELDERLY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The article presents a longitudinal study on the behavior and functioning of voluntary nonprofit organizations (VNPOs) and for-profit organizations (FPOs) providing home care services to frail elderly persons in Israel according to the Long Term Care Insurance Law, which was implemented as of 1988. The study examined differences and similarities in the strategic, structural, administrative, and human behavior of VNPOs and FPOs over a 10-year-period. The main findings point to blurring distinctions between organizations in both sectors, which can be attributed to their high dependence on governmental resources, adoption of similar service technologies, and transmission of professional norms. In light of the above, the article seeks to shift the focus of research from the question who provides to how services are provided and what structural and organizational properties may contribute toward improving service effectiveness.     

Sovereignty,bare life and the Arab uprisings

Five years after people took to the streets in protest at political organisation across the Middle East, the consequences of these actions remain. As the protests gained traction, states began to fragment and regimes sought to retain power, whatever the cost. While a great deal of focus has been upon what happened, very little attention has been paid to the role of agency within the context of the fragmenting sovereignty and political change. This article contributes to these debates by applying the work of Giorgio Agamben to the post-Arab Uprisings Middle East, to understand the relationship between rulers and ruled along with the fragmentation of the sovereign state. The article argues for the need to bring agency back into conceptual debates about sovereignty within the Middle East. It concludes by presenting a framework that offers an approach building upon Agamben’s bare life.     

MANAGING CITIZENS' EXPECTATIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Citizens' expectations of public service performance influence their attitudes and behaviour towards services, including satisfaction, choice of service and political voice about them. However, there has been little research on what sets expectations. This paper assesses the effects of prior service performance and information about prior performance on two forms of citizen expectations, positive expectations of what performance will be and normative expectations of what performance should be. In an observational study, prior performance is positively related to expectations of what performance will be. Prior performance is positively related to high normative expectations but is unrelated to low normative expectations. The resilience of normative expectations suggests that poor performance will trigger dissatisfaction and citizen response rather than lowering expectations creating passive acceptance. In a field experiment, performance information effects are found for positive but not normative expectations. Providing information about excellent performance raises positive expectations and providing information about poor performance lowers positive expectations; negativity bias is evident with information about poor performance having a larger effect. Performance information that is credible to citizens can be used to manage citizens' positive expectations but their normative expectations are less amenable to influence by this route.     

The State and Human Rights: Governance and Sustainable Human Development in Yemen

International Relations theory has had difficulty explaining the global spread of human rights norms, and in particular the spread of human rights norms in the non-Western world. An exploration of Yemen's integration of human rights-based approaches to economic development into its policymaking gives the empirical foundation to examine the interplay of both norms and self-interest and external and internal pressures in framing such policies. In the case of Yemen, at least, each of these contrasting pairs is to a large degree mutually constituted. Conceptualizing norms and self-interest and external and internal pressures as mutually constitutive differs from the usual contrasts painted between these pairs in international relations theory, but is an important step in moving beyond an impasse among realist, liberal, and constructivist theories and toward a usefully integrative approach.     

DOES PERFORMANCE INFORMATION ABOUT PUBLIC SERVICES AFFECT CITIZENS' PERCEPTIONS,SATISFACTION, AND VOICE BEHAVIOUR? FIELD EXPERIMENTS WITH ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

We evaluate a theory of the effects of publishing performance information on citizens' collective voice to local providers about public service performance and the perceptions and attitudes that influence their voice. Field experiments show that information about low absolute and relative performance of local government household waste recycling services lowers citizens' perceptions of performance, and information about high absolute and relative performance raises perceived performance. Relative information makes citizens judge local providers as being more responsible for outcomes in the case of high performance, suggesting that systems for comparative performance reporting increase local accountability for outcomes. Negativity bias is evident, with information about low absolute performance reducing citizens' satisfaction but information about high performance not raising satisfaction. Information about low performance did not trigger collective voice protest behaviour as hypothesized, suggesting that providers who need citizens' collective voice the most do not get it.