Capacity Development for Good Governance in Developing Countries: Some Lessons from the Field

Good governance is essential for sustaining economic transformation in developing countries. However, many developing countries currently lack the capacity, as opposed to the will, to both achieve and sustain a climate of good governance. This article addresses, from a practitioner's field perspective, the fundamental objectives, principles, and key areas that need to be addressed for developing capacity for good governance. These frameworks are now beginning to be recognized as both governments and donor institutions attempt to take advantage of the current demand and opportunities for addressing governance deficits. In pursuing capacity development for good governance, developing countries must ensure that such initiatives are comprehensively designed to be simultaneously related to change and transformation at the individual, institutional, and societal levels and be owned and controlled locally.     

The Formation of Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons from Nine Transport Infrastructure Projects in The Netherlands

Despite high expectations, in The Netherlands the formation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the field of transport infrastructure is stagnating. This article addresses the question of why this is the case. On the basis of a comparative analysis of 9 case studies concerning the building of partnerships, 3 patterns are identified. The first is the successful formation of partnerships resulting in enriched projects. The second pattern is that of early interaction resulting in ambitious proposals for which there is no support. The third pattern shows ineffective market consultations followed by unilateral public planning, leading to stagnating contract negotiations.
These patterns are coherent and are caused by a number of generic factors. An important explanation for stagnation is the lack of interaction. As a result, public and private parties will fail to reach a common understanding, will be unable to contribute to the enrichment of the project content and will fail to develop mutual trust. If parties engage in early interaction, the lack of embeddedness of their efforts may result in an uncritical piling up of ambitions and an absence of the capability to realize trade-offs and generate support. These explanations are related to the absence of conscious and systematic attempts to manage and arrange interaction processes aimed at the formation of PPPs. On the basis of these findings the author formulates a number of suggestions to improve the quality and effectiveness of these processes.     

Using Crowd-Sourced Data to Study Public Services: Lessons from Urban India

As cities throughout the developing world grow, they often expand more quickly than the infrastructure and service delivery networks that provide residents with basic necessities such as water and public safety. Why do some cities deliver more effective infrastructure and services in the face of rapid growth than others? Why do some households and communities secure better services than others? Answering these questions requires studying the large, politicized bureaucracies charged with providing urban services, especially the relationships between frontline workers, agency managers, and citizens in informal settlements. Researchers investigating public service delivery in cities of the Global South, however, have faced acute data scarcity when addressing these themes. The recent emergence of crowd-sourced data offers researchers new means of addressing such questions. In this paper, we draw on our own research on the politics of urban water delivery in India to highlight new types of analysis that are possible using crowd-sourced data and propose solutions to common pitfalls associated with analyzing it. These insights should be of use for researchers working on a broad range of topics in comparative politics where crowd-sourced data could provide leverage, such as protest politics, conflict processes, public opinion, and law and order.     

Lessons for the West from Asian Capitalism

As the global financial crisis emanating from the United States shuts down world markets, can globalization survive? Will the resurgent intrusion of the state—and thus politics—into the market lead to protectionism and collapse, as was the case in the early 20th century? Or will the new interconnectivity of climate change and mutual economic dependence—especially between China and the US—deepen global links? The former mayor of Shanghai, legendary Nobel economist Paul Samuelson and Third Way guru Anthony Giddens ponder those questions in this section.     

Chainbuilding: A New Building for the New New School

Until a souring national and local economy led them to scale back their plans in 2008, The New School in New York City had been designing a new, 500,000-ft² “signature building” intended to embody what administrators were calling The new New School, a university committed to progressive, interdisciplinary, urban, global education. The building was to offer glimpses of the horizon of academic infrastructure and media and their potential impact—structural, pedagogic, and symbolic—on the university and its communities. Although the building will not be realized in the form presented to the public in spring 2008, the design deliberations that generated that proposal offer valuable insights into how a university might reembody its ideals in a time of intense globalization and mediatization. Complementing Robert Kirkbride’s paper on the pedagogical practice of chainmaking and its historical relationship to learning spaces, we examine in this paper how media can be instrumental in wayfinding, how they can help to organize a building into various “processual” paths that reflect different approaches to learning, and how their presence in learning spaces can enhance teaching and learning. We also discuss how the building can serve as a mediator within the community, reflecting the institution’s identity and its pedagogical philosophy.

试论中国特色外交理论建构的三大使命

未来十年既是中国与国际体系关系确立的关键十年,也是中国特色外交理论建构的关键十年。中国特色外交理论既要抓住当前国际体系转型的机遇创新发展,又要把握历史演进中的恒久因素合理坚持中国外交的既有理论成果或及时与时俱进地加以更新。这样,未来十年中国特色外交理论建构便具有三大使命,即理论传承、理论更新和理论创新。其中,理论传承很大程度上是对中国特色外交理论的总体思想的坚持;理论更新和理论创新则更多集中于中国特色外交理论的战略思想和政策思想。     

智利反腐倡廉的经验及其启示

20世纪90年代以来,拉美地区发生了多起腐败大案要案,在拉美地区和国际社会都引起了强烈震动.然而,智利却是拉美地区少数几块净土之一.自1995年透明国际设立"腐败印象排行榜"以来,智利是拉美地区惟一进入相对清廉前20位的国家(1996年、1997年和2005年曾列第23位和第21位).     

Crooked Lessons from the Indian Wars

One aim of this article is to chide the U.S. military—and Americans overall—for not paying sufficient attention to our historic relations with American Indians. After all, American Indians are the non-Westerners we Americans should know best. A review of American Indian history can shed important light on our current encounters with tribal peoples elsewhere. At the same time, however, great care needs to be taken. Instead of just citing similarities—as analogies lead us to do—we must also take note of differences, which we can best do by using history as a foil.     

Japan's Lessons for China

The United States accuses China of subsidizing its entire export economy through artificially undervaluing its currency. China accuses the United States of fiscal profligacy while flooding the world with easy credit to keep its economy afloat. This dispute reflects the reality that the world's two largest economies are built on opposite dynamics of production and savings vs. consumerism and debt. In Europe, the wages of unsustainable debt that financed the welfare state have also come due. Rebalancing the global economy in this context is not only a matter of fixing exchange or interest rates and extending the retirement age. It must also involve a recalibration of democracy in both East and West. Two Nobel economists, the Greek prime minister, a ranking Chinese economist and the former chief economist of the IMF address these issues.     

建设社会主义新农村的若干理论思考

改革开放以后,我国农村经济和农村面貌发生了翻天覆地的变化,但制约农业、农村、农民的一些深层次问题日益凸现。例如,农业基础薄弱,农业综合生产能力低,农业结构不合理,农村基础设施和社会事业发展滞后,农村体制机制不健全,发展的内在活力不强,农民增收难,城乡收入差距持续拉大等。这些问题和矛盾如果得不到切实解决,全面小康和加快推进现代化的目标就不可能实现。建设社会主义新农村是党中央从建设中国特色社会主义全局出发提出的重大历史任务,是为实现全面建设小康社会的目标、加快推进现代化所作出的重大战略决策,也是一个需要长期艰苦奋斗的实践过程。     

Swiss Lessons for European Federalism

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

Multidimensional Poverty in Crisis: Lessons from Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe experienced an acute social, political, and economic crisis from 2001 to 2008 and is now on a recovery path. This paper explores changes in poverty between 2001, 2007, and 2011–2012 using an Alkire–Foster multidimensional poverty index. Results indicate a large increase in poverty across multiple dimensions of household wellbeing between 2001 and 2007 (the start of the crisis peak), followed by a decrease in poverty between 2007 and 2011–2012, during the recovery period. Decomposition of the index shows significantly different trends in poverty dimensions over time with implications for short- and long-term social assistance policies.     

Fighting Networked Terrorist Groups: Lessons from Israel

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States faced “networked” adversaries: insurgent groups that communicated and coordinated their political and military campaigns without a central command. The rise of networked groups is a direct result of the preponderance of U.S. military power. Consequently, this article asks: What strategies have been most effective in defeating networked groups? To answer this question, the article examines Israeli operations against Palestinian groups during Operation Defense Shield in 2002. It argues that the most effective strategy to defeat networked adversaries is to use networked strategies. In Israel, this meant establishing multiple units to penetrate Palestinian urban areas, swarm together from several directions, and kill or capture militants.     

外国政党运用媒体创新党建的做法及启示

当前,现代传媒迅速发展,广泛介入政党政治,对政党自身建设带来冲击,导致一些政党的思想感召力下降,传统的组织运作方式难以为继。但同时,现代传媒也为政党建设带来前所未有的机遇。