"In Essence still a British Country": Britain's withdrawal from East of Suez

In the summer of 1967 Harold Wilson's Government announced the withdrawal of British forces from East of Suez. This article examines how Australian politicians and commentators responded to their changing geo-strategic environment and how Britain's withdrawal was seen as a crucial moment in the development of Australian nationhood. It shows that the dismantling of the links with Britain did not allow a dormant Australian national idea to (re)surface. While Australians emphasised the need to think harder about forging a distinctive Australian civic identity as the ties with Britain were finally dismantled, very few could define precisely what that might mean, except that it should somehow be "independent" and "new". The question, at a time when it was apparent that the British connection could have no practical meaning, remained whether being Australians meant something radically different from being Australian Britons. The strong emotional ties with Britain were not easily cut, even at a time when it had become fashionable to argue for a cool and practical relationship between the two countries. Thus, Prime Minister Harold Holt could maintain that, despite all the changes, Australia remained "in essence" British.     

Looking for Sustainability: Environmental Coalitions across the State-Society Divide

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully.     

The Discourse and Practice of Counter-Terrorism in Liberal Democracies

This article examines the post-Cold War tendency to broaden the counter-terrorism mandate to include other phenomena such as organised crime, drug-trafficking and illegal immigration. This redefinition has important implications for democracy, both at the level of discourse and at the level of practice. At the level of discourse, the plasticity of the word "terrorism" and its application to a wide variety of phenomena is a form of claims making activity by a variety of agencies fighting for budgetary allocations in an era of cost-cutting and deficit reduction. At the level of practice, the counter-terrorism mandate is being expanded to include the range of phenomena covered in the widening discourse and this, in turn, has led to a blurring of boundaries between internal and external security, police and military models of control, and public and private sectors. All this has an impact on the openness of government, the accountability of agencies of social control, the adherence to the rule of law in the fight against terrorism and related phenomena, and the possibility of informed consent by a public made fearful by the claims-making discourse as it is disseminated through the mass media.     

Public Opinion Surveys and USA Foreign Policy Towards Latin America in the Second World War

In this paper, the roles of public opinion polls and agency in foreign policymaking are examined. Based on documents uncovered from the National Archives and Rockefeller Archive Center, this paper presents a more comprehensive picture of the history of public opinion surveys and the shaping of US bureaucracy in their relation to foreign affairs. Further, the paper contends that policymakers are interested in public views pertaining to foreign policy issues, but that private interests (serving their own interpretations of national interest) shape public views, using new techniques as guiding tools.     

(Un?)Healthy Politics: The Political Determinants of Subnational Health Systems in Brazil

How does political competition shape institutions that govern the expansion of social policy subnationally? Brazilian states have shown a surprising variation in the design of their public health institutions, which regulate the distribution of health resources and citizen access to public health care. While many states have experienced fragmentation, some have remained highly centralized and discretionary, and only a select few have established a coordinated system based on power sharing and rules‐based distribution. Accounts that link public health care expansion to federal government imposition, the presence of the public health care movement, and leftist parties cannot fully explain this variation. Instead, in the three Brazilian states examined here, the nature of subnational political competition triggered different institution‐building strategies. The findings indicate that plural political competition yielded incentives for limiting state‐level discretion and for sharing power with municipal governments, while political concentration reinforced the attraction to centralized and discretionary policymaking.     

Police reform in Russia: the policy process in a hybrid regime

Do hybrid regimes have policy processes distinct from other regime types? This article explores this issue through a case study of police reform in Russia, focusing specifically on the adoption of a new Law on the Police from 2009 to 2011. Drawing on concepts from the comparative policymaking literature, the study traces the policy enactment process and shows how the public parts of the process were largely (but not entirely) a façade behind which the real policy process took place.     

‘Municipal entrepreneurs’: local politicians and the delivery of urban sanitation in Kumasi,Ghana

ABSTRACT

The municipal government in Kumasi has been the focus of numerous reforms to improve local policymaking and delivery of public goods to the city’s dwellers. Yet, the reforms have spurred strategic reactions from local actors who exploit institutional ambiguities to pursue their interests. This paper draws on empirical data on the city’s sanitation franchising to show how ordinary local politicians exploit reform ambiguities; they establish themselves as local entrepreneurs to deliver urban sanitation services and also contest the municipal executive. The manipulations do not only undermine reforms proffered by the regime and external actors but the municipal government’s promise to deliver efficient public services also becomes problematic. Management of urban sanitation is a contested arena between bureaucrats and political actors all vying for their interests. The sanitation reforms are eventually subsumed under the ‘local politics as usual’ logic.     

Interests groups in Parliament: Exploring MPs’ interest affiliations (2000‐2011)

This research note presents an innovative dataset of Swiss MPs’ interest ties between 2000‐2011. The longitudinal analysis shows that the average number of interest ties per MP has more than doubled: from 3.5 in 2000 to 7.6 in 2011. Since the mid‐2000s, public interest groups have accounted for approximately one out of two ties between MPs and interest groups, showing the strongest increase during the period. However, when looking at the most present individual groups, important business groups dominate and appear well connected with the governmental parties of the political right. Finally, interest groups are also able to forge themselves a strategic presence within the parliamentary committees that are the most relevant for their policy issues. Next research steps include the assessment of the (un)biased access of interest groups to the parliamentary venue and their policy influence.     

Corporate raiding and the role of the state in Russia

To what extent are Russian state agencies involved in predatory behavior, and what are the determinants of their activities? Analyzing a novel data-set comprising 312 cases of illegal corporate raiding (reyderstvo) between 1999 and 2010, this article identifies a shift both in the regional and sectoral distribution of raids over time, as well as an increasing participation of state agencies in criminal raiding attacks. Using panel regression analysis to look at the determinants of increasing state involvement, this article shows that election results for the ruling president and his party, as well as the degree to which elections are manipulated throughout Russia's regions, are significantly and positively correlated with the number of raids in a given region, while regions with governors that have stronger local ties are characterized by a smaller number of attacks. A potential interpretation of these findings is that the federal center may tolerate a certain degree of predatory activities by regional elites, as long as these elites are able to deliver a sufficiently high level of electoral support for the center, with the effect being weaker in regions where the governor is interested in the long-term development of the regional economy.     

Fifty Years of the OECD and Forty Years of Australian Membership

The Country Party leader Jack McEwen said that Australia would join the OECD “over my dead body” and it did not do so until 1971, the year he retired from politics. Since then Australia has taken part in what is a complex “network of networks” linking over 40,000 senior public servants from many of the most influential states via some 200 committees spanning a wide range of policy areas. Yet Australian scholars have paid little attention to the OECD and to its effect upon Australia. Our essay is a first step in remedying this gap. Using both archival sources and interviews with public servants, we examine Australia's reasons for taking up OECD membership and assess its impact on policymaking since, the most obvious of which has been upon policy learning. We also ask about Australia's impact on the OECD.     

Environmentalism in the USSR: The Opposition to the River Diversion Projects

The opposition to the Soviet river diversion projects is analyzed in order to explore the nature of environmentalism in the USSR. Three groups are distinguished: (1) utilitarians, who concentrate upon economics and argue for the more rational use of natural resources and freer specialist participation in policymaking; (2) populists, who argue that nature also has noneconomic value and advocate broader public participation; and (3) Russian nationalists, who argue that economic development has destroyed the spirituality of modern Soviet man, and wish to reverse this process in order to return to the traditional values of the Russian village. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 720.     

What Have We Done Wrong? The Responsibilities of the Rich

This paper surveys hostile reactions to claims that the 11 September attacks were understandable in terms of the actions of the west towards poor parts of the world and the rich countries' own public commitments to democracy and affluence at home. The paper argues that domestic resentment is likely to continue to foment because concerted institution-building commensurate with the rich countries' material capacities has been neglected. Much responsibility for the global discontent can be attributed to policies advocated by the west and imposed on both rich and poor countries alike by policy-elites within the rich countries. Intellectuals have a role in re-activating the sorts of high-minded state-building and policymaking capacities that preoccupied them in the immediate post-1945 period.     

论"反美主义"的客观现实根源

当前在整个世界蔓延的"反美主义"作为一种客观现象已引起美国甚至整个西方理论界的普遍关注和争论.但美国国内大多数政客和理论家仍然在"反美主义"形成的原因问题上制造种种偏执的理论来误导美国民众和国际舆论.这不仅不利于美国自身的反省,也元助于美国化解由于它自身的错误而导致的遍及世界的反美情绪.笔者在此对"反美主义"形成的历史和客观现实根源作一番分析,以澄清事实的本来面目.     

泰国宏观经济政策决策分析

泰国经济政策市场上的供给方包括权力精英、专家官员、国会和政党 ;需求方则包括公众选民、经济性质的压力集团或利益集团、大众传媒和专家学者。经济政策正是多个供求方相互作用 ,讨价还价并达成妥协的结果。作为公共物品的经济政策是国家经济正常运转所必不可少的 ,但市场本身却缺乏提供充足的公共物品机制。从泰国的经济政策决策机制上看 ,除行政机构和国会外 ,市民合作机构的参与是该国经济决策机制的一大特色。此外 ,还有外部因素的干预。     

Local Democracy and the Transformation of Popular Participation in Chile

Structural reforms, institutional arrangements, and the dominant mode of political party-base linkage all militate against effective popular participation in Chilean local democracy. Structural reforms have constrained local leaders' resources as well as their policymaking prerogatives; institutional arrangements limit public officials' accountability to their constituents and citizens' opportunities for input in decisionmaking. The parties of the center-left Concertación have reinforced this vicious cycle by pursuing a mode of linkage with civil society designed to promote their electoral success with only minimal organization and participation by their grassroots constituents. Such conditions fit well with the desire of elites of the Concertación and the right to depoliticize civil society in order to preserve macroeconomic and political stability. Yet they leave in doubt the efficacy of popular participation and the strength of local democracy in Chile.     

New Public Management in Latvia: Variations in openness to customer requests in public agencies

Abstract

The transformation of public administration in Latvia represents a commitment to continuous modernization. New Public Management (NPM) has under different names, such as “reinventing government” been proffered as an improvement of productivity and quality in relation to traditional public administration characterized by bureaucracy. In addition to adopting managerial systems from business, advocates of NPM include promises to alter the relationship between public services and the individual. Commitments to transparency and service declarations customarily follow in the wake of new forms of governance marked by privatization and contracting out of public services. This article reports on an empirical investigation of responsiveness to customer requests in a sample of Latvian public agencies at the national and local level. The survey included requests for basic information about the agency regarding the budget, expenditures, staffing, information services, and complaint procedures. In analyzing the findings, it is hypothesized that variation in service levels will correlate with agency type and the language spoken by the client.     

Political Entrepreneurs and Neoliberal Reform in Mexico: The Salinas Requisa of the Port of Veracruz

This essay extends the discussion on the politics of reform by identifying specific political strategies that allow policymakers to implement difficult economic reforms in the context of an increasingly democratic and contentious policymaking environment. Analyzing the policymaking strategy of Mexican president Carlos Salinas (1988-94) in his efforts to reorganize the Port of Veracruz, it identifies the element of political entrepreneurship as essential to the long-term success of Salinas's port policy. When compared with the mixed record of many of Salinas's other reforms and the authoritarian manner in which they were implemented, the port policy stands out both for its successful outcome and for Salinas's concerted political efforts to implement it. Even in the context of an authoritarian policymaking regime, an effective political strategy is an important element in achieving the long-term goals of market-based reforms.     

Burkina Faso: Between Taiwan's active public diplomacy and China's business attractiveness

Burkina Faso and Taiwan restored official relations in 1994, after which Taipei's aid has been generous. Taiwan's approach to official development assistance has remained largely traditional, closely linking its public diplomacy to its foreign policy objectives. Trade between both countries has remained very modest. In the same period, because of mainland China's rise and active strategy of ‘going out’, Burkina Faso has developed a robust trade and business relationship with China. As a result, the pull to establish official ties with China (and thus end ties with Taiwan) has become a domestic political issue. After the ousting of President Blaise Compaoré in 2014, a failed coup and then the return to democracy as seen in the November 2015 elections, this debate has become more public. While Burkina Faso has remained faithful to Taiwan and continues to publicly appreciate its assistance, there is no certainty that the political values that both Burkina Faso and Taiwan share will prevent a Burkinabe move towards China.     

Competitive Institution Building: The PT and Participatory Budgeting in Rio Grande do Sul

In the late 1990s, the Workers' Party (PT) government of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul introduced participatory budgeting, a process in which citizens establish annual investment priorities in public assemblies. This innovation was one of several attempts by incumbent parties to structure political conflict using budget institutions. The character of participatory budgeting is most evident in its policymaking processes and policy outcomes. The process circumvented legislative arenas where opponents held a majority, privileged participation by the PT's voter base, and reached into opposition strongholds. The outcomes favored the interests of potential supporters among poor and middle-class voters. The political project proved vulnerable to its own raised expectations: it failed to sustain the image of clean government; brought tax increases along with fiscal insecurity; and left unfulfilled the participants' expectations for targeted investments. This article highlights the role of participatory budgeting, indeed all budgeting, in partisan actors' institutional choices.     

Neoliberalism and Academia in Morocco

This article analyses the impact of international aid flows and the process of global market integration in Morocco on the role of academia—meaning research, teaching and intellectual debate conducted largely, but not solely, through publications and conferences—in social and political change. Drawing upon interviews and analysis of secondary sources, the article suggests that international development agencies working in Morocco and national policy strategies to further globalisation have had consequences for academic research and outputs as well as on intellectual debate in general. The first effect is to support the cultivation of an academic elite in the social sciences and humanities whose research agenda is often connected to national and international policy agendas and, likewise, to limit the evolution of a broader-based national or regional academic debate based on independent research. The second is to raise the importance of private higher education, which is focused for the most part on teaching and not on independent research. The impact of both has been to undermine the status of the academic profession and the role of higher education in pushing forward public debate on critical issues beyond programmatic concerns, for instance illiteracy or migration; and to address more fundamental questions, such as adherence to neoliberal policies or the pervasiveness of political and social alienation in Morocco. More importantly, the decline of public higher education has symbolic significance in that it reflects disassociation of the state from supporting a connection between craft, identity and citizenship. Taking into account the consequences of the impoverishment of higher education for training, research and critical analysis, the article ends by calling on aid agencies to regard academic research and public universities as means to reinvigorate public debate and new thinking around national and local development issues.