Views of public health leaders in English local authorities – changing perspectives following the transfer of responsibilities from the National Health Service to local government

This paper reports on the findings of a research project that examined the changes to the public health system in England introduced in 2013. Drawing on case study research and two national surveys the findings explore the impact of organisational change on the composition and role of public health teams. Views and experiences were obtained from public health leaders involved in the transfer of staff and functions from the National Health Service in England to local authorities. National surveys at two points in time aimed to compare and contrast views on the evolving changes. The new organisational and managerial arrangements had enabled public health professionals to widen their work and influence, and public health skills and budgets were welcomed by those in local government. Initially, in some areas, directors of public health were less certain of the benefits of the transfer to local government compared to high levels of confidence expressed by elected members, but perspectives changed over time and moved closer together. National headline figures were found to mask high levels of turbulence and churn being experienced by individual authorities identified in the case study research, and the trend of reducing capacity through cuts to staff, budget and services was a cause for serious concern.     

Is local authority procurement supporting SMEs? An analysis of practice in English local authorities

The UK coalition government wishes to improve the access of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to public procurement, in recognition of their importance to the economy and for the benefits they can bring to public procurement and the wider public sector. Local government provides a significant opportunity for small firms, spending £84 billion of the total procurement spend of £230 billion. However, about two-thirds of both small businesses and local authorities think that SMEs face barriers in successfully accessing public procurement. This paper examines how councils are supporting SMEs in the procurement process by analysing 67 entry forms to the ‘Best Councils to do business with’ competition. This unique data source has provided insight into councils’ attitudes and procurement practices, and demonstrates that although a wide range of supportive actions are being employed there is considerable diversity across councils. Ambiguities and tensions in policies, between local and central government, have also emerged.     

The Rise and Transformation of the Radical Right Movement in Denmark, 1980–2015

This article examines the rise and subsequent development and transformation of the new radical right movement in Denmark from 1980–2015. The Danish radical right emerged from xenophobic subcultures as a reaction to increasing immigration during the 1980s and evolved into a social movement of nationalist associations, militant skinheads, and neo-Nazis that attempted to conquer the streets. This attempt was met by an antiracist countermovement, which built up a coalition of left-wing militants and moderate political organizations that put a temporary end to the radical right as a social movement during the second half of the 1990s. However, from 2001 national and international circumstances offered new opportunities for the Danish radical right both in the streets and as a parliamentary voice.     

Big change,little change? Punctuation,increments and multi-layer institutional change for English local authorities under austerity

This paper draws on new institutionalist theories to consider how we might characterise the process and outcomes of change occurring in English local government as a result of the UK’s austerity policies. It uses national and local empirical data to argue that changes are best understood as multi-layer processes, whereby radical ‘punctuated’ shifts in national funding can be mitigated to incremental adjustments in service delivery at a local level. However, the paper also suggests that the incremental appearance of change may be temporary, and that diminishing institutional resilience and emergent discursive shifts potentially prefigure a paradigm change in local governance.     

Does the longer tenure of local government heads affect the performance of local governments? The Korean case

The relationship between the length of tenure of elected heads of local governments (HOLG) and performance of local governments remains ambiguous, with few empirical studies on it. Korea presents a compelling case in that it has limited HOLG to serve only three consecutive terms based on the untested belief that longer tenures have a negative effect on local governments. To address these gaps, this study applies the fixed effect panel model, using the Korean government data from 2008 to 2014. Our findings reveal a negative relationship between tenure length and efficiency, particularly among local governments demonstrating a low level of efficiency. The relationship between the length of tenure and integrity is also negative, especially among local governments with low levels of integrity. However, given that these relationships disappear when factors specific to local governments are controlled, our findings should be interpreted cautiously.     

The tying of aid and the problem of “local costs”

Son preference has persisted in the face of sweeping economic and social changes in the countries studied here. We attribute this persistence to their similar family systems, which generate strong disincentives to raise daughters – whether or not their marriages require dowries – while valuing adult women's contributions to the household. Urbanisation, female education and employment can only slowly change these incentives without more direct efforts by the state and civil society to increase the flexibility of the kinship system such that daughters and sons can be perceived as being more equally valuable. Much can be done to accelerate this process through social movements, legislation and the mass media.     

Modernization of Terror: The Transformation of Stalin's NKVD, 1934–1941

A defector's Russian barbecues

Edward Lee Howard: Safe House: The Compelling Memoirs of The Only CIA Spy to Seek Asylum in Russia. National Press Books, Bethesda, Maryland, 1995, 299 pp., $23.95.

The Comintern's U.S. legion — I Stalin's American division

Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov: The Secret World of American Communism. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1995, 348 p., $25.00.

Arcane no more

Roy Godson: Dirty Tricks and Trump Cards: U.S. Covert Action and Counterintelligence. Brassey's, Washington, DC, 1995, 337 pp., $24.95.

Chiang's aide keeps mum

Sidney H. Chang and Ramon H. Myers, eds.: The Storm Clouds Clear Over China: The Memoir of Ch ‘en Li‐fu. The Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Calif., 1994, 359 p., $24.95.     

Don’t push too hard. Examining the managerial behaviours of local authorities in collaborative networks with nonprofit organisations

In recent years, collaborative networks have been at the forefront of theoretical, empirical and practical research into local governance. Nevertheless, the managerial behaviours local managers should employ in order to improve the performance of these networks are unclear. Following scholars' examinations of governance and the complementary relationship between government bodies and nonprofit organisations, we empirically examined – so far as we know for the first time – the relationship between local authority managerial behaviours towards nonprofit organisations, and the performance of collaborative networks. We found that above and beyond micro- and macro-level factors, the more the local authority employs inclusive governance and financial support behaviours towards the nonprofit organisation, the higher the performance of the collaborative network. In addition, the more the local authority employs monitoring-controlling behaviours, the lower the performance of the collaborative network. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are developed in the context of local governance.