From nation to class: The changing social role of the Hungarian nobility

Presented at the Conference of Social Stratification and Mobility in Comparative Perspectives, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, May 1986.     

Traditions of governance: interpreting the changing role of the public sector

The role of the state is changing under the impact of, for example, globalization. The changes have been variously understood as the new public management (NPM), the hollowing–out of the state and the new governance. This special issue of Public Administration explores the changing role of the state in advanced industrial democracies. It focuses on the puzzle of why states respond differently to common trends.
This introductory article has three aims. First, we provide a brief review of the existing literature on public sector reform to show that our approach is distinctive. We argue that the existing literature does not explore the ways in which governmental traditions shape reform. Second, we outline an interpretive approach to the analysis of public sector reform built on the notions of beliefs, traditions, dilemmas and narratives. We provide brief illustrations of these ideas drawn from the individual country articles. Finally, we outline the ground covered by all the chapters but we do not summarize and compare their experiences of reform. That task is reserved for the concluding article.     

变化中的国际社会软环境

国际社会软环境包括国家软实力影响、世界体系、意识形态等及国际关系变化的最敏感层,反映了国家实力较量、综合国力竞争和国际力量对比等实质性问题.2005年国际社会软环境发生显著变化,这是冷战结束以来国际形势阶段性发展的趋变点,对于推动解决和平与发展问题,特别具有方向性的重要意义.     

The changing roles of local government in education

This article explores the ongoing debate about the changing roles of local government in education in Britain. It focuses on research evidence from Scotland, especially issues associated with devolving management to schools and reorganising local government. These findings are compared with the debate and evidence about the changing role of local government in education in England and Wales during the past decade. It is suggested that while there has been substantial reform of education and local government throughout Britain, the policies have differed in nature and outcomes north and south of the border.     

Global capitalism and major corporations from the Third World

Most major transnational corporations (TNCs) are domiciled in the First World and are owned and controlled largely by citizens of these countries. On the basis of an analysis of the largest corporations outside the USA by revenues published annually by Fortune magazine since the 1950s, this paper demonstrates that there have been major corporations from the Third World for decades. Most of the literature on Third World TNCs concentrates on the large number of relatively small companies that have operations abroad in low technology sectors. The argument of this paper is that systematic study of major corporations from the Third World is important for debates about the national bourgeoisie, comprador capitalism and the controversy that currently surrounds the contentious concepts of the developmental state and globalization.     

Russian hegemonies: historical snapshots, regional security and changing forms of Russia's role in the post-Soviet region

The broad purpose of this study is to exemplify changing forms of hierarchical rule manifested in post-Soviet Russia's varying provision of regional security related to military conflicts. Russia's regional role varies in form and in thickness. Although the endurance of Soviet legacy can be observed in four major areas (stabilising borders, economic interest, unification of fellow Slavs and fluctuating alliances), there is enough variance to suggest that over-deterministic theories about Russian regional foreign policy do not account for conjunctural factors that can contribute to change. Instead, we can view the Soviet and post-Soviet regional dynamic as one that is on a fluid anarchy–hierarchy spectrum.     

Change,changes and changing: The views of public manages

As the traditional policy levers of the nation state are shaped by the forces of globalization, the proper role of government is increasingly being questioned. Governments at all levels are struggling to respond to the burgeoning demands for more effective policies and programs. In 1989, the federal government of Canada launched Public Service 2000 (PS 2000), a major organizational renewal cffort of the federal public service, aimed at revitalizing the institution in preparation for the challenges of the year 2000.

This article contends that despite the profile associated with its inception, PS 2000 has lacked an overriding implementation focus toward fundamental behavioral change. This deficiency has thwarted the progress of the initiative, and the transformation desired has not been achieved to this point in time. It is recommended that Total Quality Management (TQM) is a more suitable strategy for refurbishing departments and agencies as it directly focuses on continuous quality improvement. This approach is a significant shift in emphasis from PS 2000, and is more likely to encourage the immense management and organizational culture changes sought by renewal.     

Multinational corporations and the diffusion of world standards: A theoretical exploration

Studies in Comparative International Development -