Informating policy and administration a comparative perspective on terrorism

The cliche that ‘one man's terroirist is another man' freedom fighter’ represents the major dilemma of anti-terrorism policymakers and administrators. The conceptual confusion is further complicated by the ideological orientations and policy interests of the observers. The comparative study of terrorism, however, has provided a conceptual underpinning and does provide the tools for sorting out the biases. This article compares the six principal models of political terrorism and suggests that each in fact describes a distinct form of political violence depending upon the perspective of the observer. Each of the forms of terrorism, moreover, may require a unique set of remedies. Using the widely publicized TWA bijacking during the summer of 1985 as an example, the analysis examines the differences in the American, Israeli, and Lebanese government perspectives and how those differences influenced policymaking.     

民族主义政党的发展历史、政策调整及前景

在亚非拉地区的广大发展中国家,民族主义政党是主要的政治力量.民族主义政党晚于西方资本主义政党的产生和发展,大多以民族主义为旗帜,以寻求民族独立解放、民族发展富强为宗旨目标.民族主义政党产生的历史背景、发展轨迹与西方国家近现代政党有很大不同,即使在民族主义政党之间,意识形态和政策主张也千差万别.     

Innovations in performance measurement systems: a comparative perspective

The common emphasis in recent performance measurement systems is that they focus on achieving results by changing the incentives for managers and organizational cultures across the entire public sector or some segment of it. This is done by introducing quasi-market mechanisms and incentives similar to those found in the private sector. This paper examines some of the theoretical and other influences that have shaped the design of performance measurement systems across cultures.     

Profit sharing and job anxiety: moving public policy toward a win-win solution

Interest in profit sharing as a form of flexible pay is part of a larger interest in more flexible personnel practices. The interest in flexibility, in turn, reflects a perceived increase in product-market uncertainty. Where in the past employers have offered job security - due to legal mandate or practice - increased product market uncertainty makes such job “insurance” more costly. Job security protections can be viewed as an employee option to sell labor at the going wage, even when its value to the firm has dropped. As is true of financial options, the cost increases with the variability of the value of the underlying asset. Recent political trends in the U.S. suggest that there are social costs to the flexibility in American labor markets about which mainstream politicians have little to offer.     

Structural budget deficits in the federal government: A theoretical perspective

Survey data show managerial motivations and behaviors are statistically linked to numerous aspects of computer use in public agencies. Motivations to enhance service quality and work environments seem to be particularly influential in using technology to enhance productivity. Empirical research in public administration should be attentive to individuals’ perceptions regarding the impacts of computers. Normative deliberation, however, is needed to determine the appropriate role of managers.     

Japanese aid to Africa: Patterns,motivation and the role of structural adjustment

This article presents estimates of capital flight from 25 low-income sub-Saharan African countries in the period 1970 to 1996. Capital flight totaled more than $193 billion (in 1996 dollars); with imputed interest earnings, the accumulated stock of flight capital amounts to $285 billion. The combined external debt of these countries stood at $178 billion in 1996. Taking capital flight as a measure of private external assets, and calculating net external assets as private external assets minus public external debts, sub-Saharan Africa thus appears to be a net creditor vis-à-vis the rest of the world.     

Reinventing the politburo: central mechanisms for policy formulation and coordination in russia and hungary

In most economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe, the senior organs of the communist party—the Politburo, the Central Committee Secretariat, and the Central Committee apparat—played a critical role in the formulation and coordination of government policy. Government ministries served a largely instrumental role in implementing decisions that were arrived at by the party. The collapse of these structures has left a vacuum that countries have attempted to fill in various ways. In many respects, Hungary and Russia represent the opposite ends of the spectrum. After some trial and error, the Hungarians have developed a system that—although not perfect —does a reasonably effective job in vetting proposals for decision and resolving issues efficiently and effectively. At the other extreme, with the exception of the areas of defense and foreign policy, the process of intergovernmental coordination has virtually broken down within Russia. This paper chronicles the efforts of both countries to develop alternative mechanisms for policy formulation and implementation, highlights their existing strengths and weaknesses, and concludes with some observations regarding the reasons behind their relative success or failure.     

Membership in voluntary organizations and democratic performance: European post-Communist countries in comparative perspective

The article challenges the hypothesis that there is cohabitation of civic engagement and democratic institutions and practices. While valid at a general level, the relationship is not confirmed once it is scrutinized thoroughly and heterogeneous categories are disaggregated. For the European post-Communist cases, the pattern of the relationship between the regime type and the propensity to associate closely resembles the one in Latin mature democracies and non-authoritarian countries, provided that voluntary associations are chosen as measurements of vitality of social capital and robustness of civil society. A possible consequence of this provocative finding would be re-evaluating the well-established concepts in social sciences.     

Policy networks and policy change in organic agriculture: a comparative analysis of the UK and Ireland

This paper takes a comparative case–study approach, located within the literature on policy networks, to organic agriculture policy in the United Kingdom and Ireland since the late 1980s. An examination of policy development for the organic sector focuses primarily on regulatory arrangements. The core of the analysis applies some prominent themes in the policy network literature to the organic sector: the debate about sectoral and sub–sectoral networks, the relationship between networks, context and outcomes, and the role of the state and ideas in promoting policy change.