TQM in the courts: Maybe so,maybe not

Courts are prime candidates for the application of Total Quality Management (TQM) but also difficult settings in which to implement it. The leadership structure of courts discourages strong leadership but also requires negotiation and mediation to install new programs, so an effective chief judge can bring most of the governing body--the other judges--along when a decision is made to adopt TQM. As turnover on the bench is slow, the governing body remains throughout the period needed to institutionalize TQM. Courts already have a valuable and useful tool for thinking about “customers” and using data effectively in the Trial Court Performance Standards. Courts have been slow to adopt TQM to date, but there is growing interest and several leadership courts using TQM to improve various court functions. Courts' work mostly is processed in assembly-line fashion; using TQM's principles can help courts improve productivity, recognize and respond to customer needs more readily, and generally be better able to obtain taxpayer support. The courts are at once prime candidates for Total Quality Management (TQM) and a setting in which TQM is a hard sell. This article will explore why both elements of this statement are true. Acknowledging the difficulties, this article nonetheless concludes that TQM can and should be sold and that the courts will be better for the effort. Most Americans do not understand how courts work.(') Even less do they understand how courts are managed or why courts should involve any different management issues from other public agencies. To understand both the difficulties in having TQM accepted in courts and the fertile ground they offer, it may help to explore briefly the management context.     

Constitutional Dynamics in the European Union: Success,Failure, and Stability of Institutional Treaty Revisions

ABSTRACT

Despite high institutional hurdles for constitutional change, one observes surprisingly many EU treaty revisions. This article takes up the questions of what determines whether a treaty provision is successfully changed and why provisions are renegotiated at subsequent Intergovernmental Conferences. The article presents an institutionalist theory explaining success and renegotiation and tests the theory using all core institutional provisions by means of Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The causal analysis shows that low conflict potential of an issue is sufficient for successfully changing the treaties. Furthermore, high conflict potential of an issue and its fundamental change are sufficient for it to be renegotiated.     

Why we are so bad,and what we can do about it: On the state and civic virtue

The ‘80s were the decade in which scholars in such diverse fields as ethical philosophy, political science, and public administration rediscovered the importance of character in public life: what another generation called civic virtue. The ‘90s, I hope, will be the decade in which this insight passes from academic journals into the legislative and administrative arenas. Why is the subject so urgent? Reason one. As even James Madison, the theorist of “pitting ambition against ambition,” knew and admitted - and as recent ethical disasters in public life have reminded us - it is simply impossible to design an administrative system that will run both justly and efficiently without any need for civic virtue on the part of the people who run it. Reason two. It is one thing to talk about civic virtue; it is another to do something about it. The practical difficulties are enormous, and need to be both deeply studied and widely discussed. After all, civic virtue is a scarce commodity. To what extent can it be cultivated? And to what extent can it be supplemented with such administrative devices as “pitting ambition against ambition” without, in the end, undermining it? This article addresses both questions, but especially the second, giving particular attention to the unanticipated consequences of state intervention in the development of civic virtue.     

时代向前发展理论不断创新——纪念邓小平逝世10周年

世纪伟人邓小平留给我们的精神财富非常丰富,最可贵的就在于他的理论创新精神.在新世纪,世界风云变幻莫测,国际关系错综复杂.在新世纪,中国面临战略机遇期,改革开放和现代化建设进入转折时期,机遇与挑战并存.理论的力量在于创新.以胡锦涛为总书记的党中央紧紧把握时代发展方向,在建设有中国特色的社会主义伟大事业的实践中,创造性地发展了邓小平理论.     

Something Funny Happened on the Way to Reform Success: The Case of Budget Reform Implementation in Ghana

Abstract

The current article discusses experience with budgeting and financial management reforms in Ghana and is particularly focused on the development of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) between 1998 and 2002. Evidence shows that this reform began well but faltered after an initial period of progress. A number of factors are referenced in trying to explain why reform implementation was derailed, including reform ownership and political will, organizational integration and organizational incentives, and strategic capacity. All of these factors are commonly presented as influences on reform implementation. The Ghanaian experience provides detail as to how such influences could work.     

“中国共产党执政实现了惊人的成功”——专访莱索托民主大会总书记莫泰乔阿·梅辛

记者：中国共产党和莱索托民主大会于2002年正式建立外交关系。您对这些年来两党关系的发展有何评价？对进一步发展两党之间的交流与合作有何设想？     

老骥骨奇心尚壮青松岁久色愈新——采访俄共主席久加诺夫

根纳季·久加诺夫是当今俄罗斯政治舞台上十分活跃的资深政治家.苏联解体前夕,他参与了1990年苏维埃社会主义联邦共和国共产党的组建,于1995年担任该党中央委员会主席至今.长期以来,久加诺夫高度重视俄共同中国共产党的友好交往,并多次访华.2006年12月13日至17日,久加诺夫第五次率俄共代表团访华.此访的目的是加深两党友谊,增进相互了解,扩大两党合作.     

冷眼向洋看世界,乱云飞渡显从容--2004年国际形势盘点

2004年,虽然国际形势总体稳定,但国际安全饱受恐怖主义和地区热点的严重冲击,国际社会中的单边与多边力量进行了激烈较量.美国大选和伊拉克局势是观察今年国际形势特点的焦点和主线.面对风云变幻的国际时局,中国外交努力为现代化建设保驾护航.