Russia and Cuba: “doomed” comrades?

In 1991 Vitaly Churkin, a Soviet Minister for Foreign Economic Cooperation, stated that economic links between Russia and Cuba were “doomed” to continue. This gave a very negative impression of the relationship, but quickly he appeared to be incorrect because by the end of 1992 little seemed to remain of the 30-year relationship. However, as the 1990s progressed, the relationship continued to function and then improve. Fundamental to this were the principles of the realist paradigm of International Relations, which has been vital since the relationship’s inception in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, in conjunction with a long-term legacy. The outcome is that Russia and Cuba are indeed “doomed” comrades.     

Implementing Regional Policy in Poland: A New Era?

In 2010, Poland launched a new national strategy for regional development which is seen as an assertion of Poland's domestic regional development vision, informed by, but distinct from, EU cohesion policy which has dominated Polish regional policy since accession. A key question is whether a new model of policy implementation is emerging. The strategy includes a commitment to a place-based regional policy model. This implies spatially sensitive policy implementation capable of mobilising the potentials of all territories. However, the concept is vague. Moreover, in Poland this agenda is being launched in a context of entrenched territorial disparities, traditionally constrained policy implementation capacity and institutional change. What are the defining characteristics of place-based implementation systems? What are the challenges to the institutionalisation of the place-based model? Are these evident in delivery frameworks being developed in Poland?     

New Bourgeoisies?

Indonesia: The Rise of Capital. By Richard Robison. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986. Pp.425. £11.95. ISBN 0 04 909024 0.

Government and Private Sector in Contemporary Mexico. Edited by Sylvia Maxfield and Ricardo Anzaldúa Montoya. San Diego: Center for US‐Mexican Studies, University of California, Monograph Series 20, 1987. Pp.148. $12.50.

The African Bourgeoisie: Capitalist Development in Nigeria, Kenya, and the Ivory Coast. Edited by Paul M. Lubeck. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, UK distributor Eurospan, 1987. Pp.414. £24.95. ISBN 0 931477 86 7.

Entrepreneurship, Equity and Economic Development. By E. Wayne Nafziger. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, UK distributor Eurospan, 1987. Pp.xxiv + 308. £44.95. ISBN 0 89232 711 1.     

‘New’ nations: resource-based development imaginaries in Ghana and Ecuador

Recently there have been increasing instances of the return of the state as the central agent of development in resource-rich nations globally. Characterised by both a rhetorical and substantive commitment to increasing control over national resource revenues, this so-called new/neo-extractivism has attracted a debate concerning the extent to which it offers a viable alternative to the imperatives of neoliberal resource extraction. Using two examples, this paper analyses the ways in which the Ghanaian and Ecuadorean states discursively imagine such structural transformations. It highlights the value in analysing the politics of language for strengthening studies of neo-extractivism.     

Public Participation and Public Service Modernization: Learning from New Labor?

The public participation agenda is a significant element of public service reform in Europe and beyond. This article examines how citizen participation in local public services was conce ived and enacted under successive New Labor governments in the UK during the period 1997–2010. It is suggested that the emphasis on public participation was central to the ethos of New Labor. This accounts for the persistence of the participation agenda even in the face of scant empirical evidence that specific engagement and empowerment initiatives were successful. Significantly, there was no single New Labor participation narrative. There were instead several distinct strands, drawing variously from the Party's received traditions of State welfarism, corporatist central-local relations, municipal socialism, Blairite managerialism, and, lastly, mutual cooperativism. The article assesses the legacy of New Labor and public participation in the UK before drawing wider conclusions relating to international experience.     

Public Sector Reforms: New Public Management without Marketization? The Danish Case

Is it possible to imagine New Public Management without marketization? In Denmark the present liberal-conservative Government has, throughout its 10 years in power, designed and implemented more than 15 major management reforms in the public sector. Although most of the reforms are rhetorically firmly rooted in neo-liberal ideologies they have, in practice, promoted tools and mechanisms of the “traditional,” or Old, Public Management. Based on an empirical study of the reforms, we suggest that the notion of “pragmatic” New Public Management is introduced to enhance the current understanding of New Public Management in the Western industrialized societies.     

The Black European Women's Council: ‘thinking oneself into the New Europe’

With the continuous political shift to the right in many European countries, exclusivist constructions of the nation and concepts related to national identity – issues which are immersed in and often conflated with biology and culture – the necessity for mobilization and political activism among women, migrants, and minorities in Europe has become all the more acute and timely. Organized within the framework of the ‘European Year for Equal Opportunities 2007’ and initiated by Béatrice Achaleke, AFRA (International Centre for Black Women's Perspectives in Vienna, Austria, and co-organized by Helen Felter, Director of Tiye International (The Netherlands); the Black European Women's Congress (26–29 September 2007) culminated in the formation of the Black European Woman's Council (hereafter BEWC). Employing a mix of discourse analysis, social movement and intersectional theory, I address the issues of Black female subjectivity, political agency, and strategies in relation to the socio-political empowerment of Black women across Europe. Based on qualitative data, I argue that the cross-border network of the BEWC exhibits the potential to serve as a structured political force not only on local and national levels, but also within the sphere of the European Union; and to possibly assist Black European women activists with the task of ‘thinking themselves into the New Europe’.     

牧童遥指×××

这个时代造了一个新词，叫做城中村。官方资料说，这里城市化进程相对滞后，人口密度大，外来人员集中，违法建设、违章建筑和私搭乱建严重，市政基础设施匮乏，房屋破旧，环境脏乱，社会管理混乱，公共安全隐患多，已成为困扰城市化进程的“痼疾”。     

PUBLIC POLICY NETWORKS AND ‘WICKED PROBLEMS’: A NASCENT SOLUTION?

The last two decades have seen a shift in public services organizations from hierarchies to networks. Network forms are seen as particularly suited to handling ‘wicked problems'. We make an assessment of the nature and impact of this shift. Using recent evidence from the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS), we explore the nature and functioning of eight different public policy networks. We are also interested in whether there has been a radical transition – or not – from hierarchical to network forms.     

A replication of “Contracting out: For What? With Whom?”

In the 1980s, governments around the world adopted New Public Management ideas about inserting competition into government as a way to improve the performance of public organizations. In many nations, contracting out was one method of making governments more businesslike. Yet, there have been few studies of how government contracting behaviors have changed since the early 1980s. We replicate Ferris and Graddy's classic 1986 study of local government production and sector choice to assess how public procurement has changed over the past 35 years. Our findings show that today, contracting out is more commonly used across 25 local government service areas. In contrast to the original study, much of the growth has been in government-to-government contracts. For profit firms are also winning more contracts for high transaction cost work, while nonprofits are receiving fewer government contracts in nearly every service area. Our analysis suggests that contracting out remains of the highest importance in 21st-century governance and that additional research is needed on how to manage contracts to achieve the best value.     

Governmental Corruption and Social Change in New Zealand: Using Scenarios, 1950–2020

New Zealand has long enjoyed a reputation as a country with a corruption-free state sector, and ranks very highly on the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (meaning its corruption levels are perceived to be extremely low). However, there is prima facie evidence to suggest that this situation may be changing, not dramatically but significantly. While the state sector changes of the 1980s and early 1990s may be having some impact on this shift, it also has to be understood in the context of wider societal changes, which are probably more decisive. After some brief conceptual clarification, the article presents three scenarios sketching past (1950s/1960s), present (1990s–2006) and future (2006–2020) social and governmental conditions thought to be relevant to corruption levels.     

O·J·辛普森获罪

由上级工会向基层工会委派法律顾问，把工会法律援助由被动咨询变为主动参与，事后救助变为事前控制，使职工法律援助真正地融入到劳动关系协调的全过程。9月26日，这一全国首创的新举措在四川省泸州市启动。     

EXIT AND VOICE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECONSIDERED: A ‘CHOICE REVOLUTION’?

Market‐based public management reform has introduced customer choice among competing providers of public services. Choice entails exit, an option which Albert Hirschman famously reserved for the market, while voice is the key mode of communication in political life. Based on elite and mass surveys, the article studies how exit is perceived by citizens and local political and administrative leaders in Norway and Sweden, and how the two strategic options relate to each other. Citizens are more positive towards customer choice and exit than are leaders, albeit with some variation across different public service sectors. Political and administrative leaders are positive towards customer choice models as a strategy to empower clients but more critical in terms of the potential loss of accountability and control that contracting out services may entail.     

为民·务实·清廉

春节前，中央纪律检查委员会召开第三次全体会议，胡锦涛同志在会上发表了重要讲话，全会要求全党同志紧密联系加强和改进党和国家的各项工作，大兴求真务实之风。     

新招·高招·实招

前不久，北京市工会十一大胜利闭幕。这次大会，认真总结了市工会十大以来首都工人运动和工会工作的基本经验，研究确定了今后五年工会工作的指导思想和目标任务，选举产生了新一届市总工会领导机构。大会指出，要以与时俱进、求真务实的精神，开创工会工作的新局面，团结动员全市职工为实现“新北京、新奥运”的各项目标而努力奋斗。     

百姓·洋人·官

小时候，每当得到了一样只能由一人享受的好东西而我们是两个人时，就要做个小游戏来决定谁是幸运者。如你所知，这种把戏叫做“石头、剪子、布”，这三种东西循环相克，你出其中某一样，正好被别人克住，就失败了。这种游戏有个古老的名称，叫做“百姓、洋人、官”，我相信这名称是清末民初流传下来的，当时洋人怕中国的老百姓，中国的官又怕洋人。