A Crime Against Humanity

The German Red-Green coalition has declared unlimited solidarity with the US government in its response to the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Yet, very few questions have been raised by the mainstream media, and any 'inopportune' comments that have worked their way into the press, questioning the legitimacy of the response, have been declared scandalous. This article argues that the time may have come to deal with long-term developments and potential consequences of today's politics and policies and perhaps it may even be possible for us to begin to understand what is going on--a possibility that should not be ignored out of an archaic thirst for revenge.     

Advance Australia fair? Anatomy and pathology of an 84‐year trade dispute

• This paper examines the very long‐running trade dispute between Australia and New Zealand concerning a ban on the importation of apples on the basis of fire blight disease present in New Zealand. This particular example illustrates the more general case of the frequent conflict between science and politics in regard to technical trade barriers. This same issue of fire blight disease in apples became the subject of a protracted World Trade Organization dispute between the USA and Japan, with New Zealand a third party to the USA, and Australia a third party to Japan. The World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body, and subsequently the World Trade Organization Appellate Body, ruled in favour of the USA (and thus New Zealand) on this issue. Despite this ruling, Australia has continued its ban on New Zealand apples and the issue has become highly politicized in Australia.
• This case highlights the need for World Trade Organization rules to be changed to ensure that its rulings become binding on third parties and other World Trade Organization members. This would ensure that once an issue is decided through the full World Trade Organization conflict resolution process, the principles established should become generally applicable to other instances of the same scientific issue.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

American Militarism and Blowback: The Costs of Letting the Pentagon Dominate Foreign Policy

"Blowback" is a CIA term first used in March 1954 in a report on the 1953 operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. It is a metaphor for the unintended consequences of covert operations against foreign nations and governments. The suicidal attacks of September 11, 2001, on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were instances of blowback from American clandestine operations in Afghanistan. They have greatly accelerated tendencies toward militarism in the United States, which is defined as the phenomenon in which a nation's armed services come to put their institutional preservation ahead of effectiveness in achieving national security or a commitment to the integrity of the governmental structure of which they are a part.     

Atomised Terror and Democratic Citizenship

This essay connects the 2103 Boston Bombings to the dynamics of a highly individualist, modern society. The perpetrators (Tsarnaev brothers) represent an atomized stratum of Americans, disconnected from communal institutions and organizations; socially insignificant men, ready to commit publicized, albeit isolated, acts of violence. With the exception of the World Trade Center, major terrorist attacks in the past two decades have been perpetrated by asocial, isolated individuals. An expansive security and welfare state is an inadequate response to atomized terror and is potentially problematic for our liberties. An approach more consistent with security and freedom is to nurture the rights and responsibilities of democratic citizenship.     

Drivers and Consequences of Citizen Satisfaction: An Application of the American Customer Satisfaction Index Model to New York City

Using data from two telephone surveys of New York City residents conducted during 2000 and 2001, this article employs the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) model to examine the drivers—and behavioral consequences—of overall satisfaction with local government services. While the ACSI model has been widely used to analyze customer satisfaction in the private sector and, more recently, in the federal government, it has not been tried in a local government context. Applying the ACSI model to New York City, we find the perceived quality of public schools and especially the police, as well as road conditions and subway service, are the most salient drivers of satisfaction, but the significance of each service varies across income, race, and geography. For all groups in the city, overall satisfaction drives both trust in local government officials and intentions to move out of the city. Advantages and limitations of using the ACSI model to assess the quality of local government services are discussed.     

The American Right and the Framing of 9/11

On September 11th, 2001, 2 hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. The Bush administration's response, both in regard to civil liberties at home and the launching of military action abroad, has been the subject of considerable controversy. As we might expect, the Bush administration's framing of events met with acclaim among many on the American right But here, as elsewhere on the political spectrum, how to understand and react to 9/11 was also the subject of bitter dispute, a dispute that sheds new light on the ongoing arguments among American conservatives in the aftermath of the Cold War.     

Minerva: An electronic town hall

This paper presents the specifications for an electronic technology that will allow masses of citizens to have discussions with each other, and which will enable them to reach group decisions without leaving their homes. Specifications of the components needed are enumerated and a concrete system suggested. Possible variations and other uses of the system are explored.This study, supported by the National Science Foundation, project # GI-29940, is being carried out under the auspices of the Center for Policy Research. Dr. Stephen H. Unger is co-principal investigator with the author. Papers by Dr. Unger and other team members are available from Center for Policy Research, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, New York.     

Shifting Boundaries between the Public and Private Sectors: Implications from the Economic Crisis

What are the differences between the public and private sectors as well as their interrelationships in light of the recent financial crisis? Has the global economic crisis fundamentally shifted the boundaries between the two sectors? This essay examines the nature and extent of the shift. The authors present an analysis of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to highlight the massive transformations that are taking place and to introduce lessons for future policy initiatives. Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy—26 percent—than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government. If you take out a car loan or run up your credit card, the chances are good that the government is financing both your debt and that of your bank. —Edmund Andrews and David Sanger, New York Times, 2009     

Generational change: regional security and Australian engagement with Asia

The rhetoric of US foreign policy since the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001, would suggest that there has been a fundamental shift in US foreign relations. This is often summarised as a shift from multilateralism to unilateralism and, in the context of the war on terrorism, concomitantly a shift from geo-economic to geopolitical priorities. The rhetoric of the fight against the ‘axis of evil’, however, may simply cloud underlying continuities in US relations with Asia. Nevertheless the process of coalition-building by the Bush administration in the ‘War on Terrorism’ has impacted on the distance Asian countries have been able to maintain in relation to the United States. The case studies presented in this special issue raise a number of important issues concerning perceptions and the practice of US hegemony and the complex links between leadership and ‘followership’ at the inter-state level. They also draw out the impacts engendered by US–Asia relations on the wider phenomenon of regionalisation in the Asia-Pacific region.     

Reviews

Jean‐Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié. BEN LADEN: LA VÉRITÉ INTERDITE (Paris: Denoël, 2001).

Leo Panitch, RENEWING SOCIALISM: DEMOCRACY, STRATEGY, AND IMAGINATION (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001).

The global question in an Urban World*

David Harvey, SPACES OF HOPE (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000).

Liberatory Urbanism vs. Control of Public Space

Jeff Ferrell, TEARING DOWN THE STREETS: ADVENTURES IN URBAN ANARCHY (New York: Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 2001).

Jamie Peck, WORKFARE STATES (New York: Guilford Press, 2001).

Patrick Colm Hogan, THE CULTURE OF CONFORMISM: UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL CONSENT (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001).

Regin Schmidt, RED SCARE: FBI AND THE ORIGINS OF ANTICOMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES (University of Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000).

DOKUMENTE ZUR GESCHICHTE DER KOMMUNISTISCHEN BEWEGUNG IN DEUTSCHLAND [Documents on the History of the Communist Movement in Germany]. Reihe 1945/1946, 6 vols. Edited by Günter Benser and Hans‐Joachim Krusch, K.G. Saur Verlag, Munich 1993–1997.

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Werke, Artikel, Entwürfe Januar bis Dezember 1855. Hans‐Jürgen Bochinski, Martin Hundt et al. (eds.), GESAMTAUSGABE (MEGA) Sec. I, Vol. 14 (Berlin: Akademie‐Verlag, 2001).

Frank Rosengarten, THE WRITINGS OF THE YOUNG MARCEL PROUST (1885–1900): AN IDEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE (New York: Peter Lang, 2001).

Three short works on Cuba

1. Lilah Rosenblum, A TIME FOR CHANGE: RETHINKING US‐CUBA POLICY (Washington Office on Latin America [WOLA], Washington, D.C. 2002). 75pp

2. WORKERS’ RIGHTS IN CUBA. Report of the United States Delegation to the 2002 Exchange Between U.S. and Cuban Labor and Employment Lawyers, Neutrals, and Trade Unionists. Sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild Labor and Employment Committee [c/o Eisner & Hubbard, P.C., 113 University Place, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003] and the U.S. Health Care Trade Union Committee. 32pp.

3. Debra Evanson, WORKERS IN CUBA: UNIONS AND LABOR RELATIONS (The NLG/Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice, Detroit, 2002). 105pp.     

The Loss of Governance Capacity through Corruption

Corruption manifests itself in many ways and at different levels. Corrupt behavior causes outrage to victims and those who value civil society, it impedes good government and administrative practice. The policy challenge in reducing corruption is to identify the component parts of corrupt behavior and the risk–reward profiles of offenders. This exploratory article begins this process by reporting data from 100 successfully prosecuted cases from New York City. The article analyzes data on varying degrees of corruption in service provision in New York City. The loss to the city is much more a loss of governance capacity than it is a monetary loss.     

Budgetary Practices in Smaller Units of Government

Budgetary practice in smaller units of local government has not been the subject of systematic examination. A survey of 122 towns, villages, and cities less than 25,000 population in upstate New York was conducted in spring 1987. This survey indicates that most key policymakers are satisfied with current practices and have been involved with budgeting for more than three years. Budgetary innovation has affected smaller governmental units, and the actual application is related to the educational levels of the official charged with budget preparation.     

Adopting new technologies

John Carey is director of Greystone Communications, a telecommunications research and planning firm in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He also serves as consultant to the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University and is an affiliated research fellow at Columbia’s Center for Telecommunications and Information Studies.     

Can the Use of Recommended Procurement Practices Save Money?

Procurement is an essential business function of government. Despite the importance of effective procurement practices to government efficiency, very little is known about what local governments do in practice, and how procurement practices affect government spending. This paper reports the results of a survey on procurement practices used by New York State school districts. To examine the potential costs savings from adoption of particular procurement practices, the authors estimate cost models for materials, supplies, and equipment spending. Results from the cost model indicate that the use of competitive bidding, purchasing calendars, central warehouses, and bidders lists are associated with significant cost savings.     

Positivism,pragmatism, and everyday life

Steven Ross teaches philosophy at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.     

Public Pension Funds and Operating Budgets: A Tale of Three States

This article provides a normative framework for understanding the important link between public pension fund management and government operating budgets. Three aspects of pension fund management are discussed that have a significant impact on the operating budget: pension contribution, investment strategy, and the funding of pension liabilities. Three cases concerning West Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City are discussed to illustrate these three important aspects. The normative framework and the case studies demonstrate two important principles in prudently managing public pension funds: ensuring intergenerational equity and protecting the long-term health of government budgets.     

Foreign trade and investment in Guangxi: A comparative analysis

Guangxi’s geographical location in the Southwest region of mainland China has resulted in its delay of economic modernization until 1992, compared to those coastal provinces in the southeast. In order to stimulate its economic development, Guangxi has to enhance its foreign trade, including border trade, with neighboring countries and to introduce and utilize foreign direct investment from abroad for its infrastructures and manufactures. In analyzing the case of Guangxi, this paper tries to make a comparison between Guangxi on the one hand and Guangdong and Yunnan on the other, and then to find the different patterns in the process of their economic development in terms of their structures of foreign trade and foreign direct investment. This paper also addresses the issue of central-local relations by explaining the disruption of a planned economy in mainland China and the decline of central government in regulating local economic activities. She received her MA degree from The City University of New York. Her major research interest is in provincial and regional economic development in mainland China. Currently she is working on a project of state-owned enterprises in mainland China. Her recent publications include “The Pattern of Guangdong’s Foreign Trade: An Analysis,” Mainland China Studies, Vol.41, no.2 (February 1998) and “Regional Economic Integration and Yunnan’s Foreign Trade,” Mainland China Studies, Vol.41, no. 5 (May 1998).     

The state of public affairs after 11 September

There is a curiously subtle relationship between the public affairs function and the political world which it seeks to influence. A shock to the political system of the magnitude of the attack on the World Trade Center has effects on the practice of public affairs. Some of these impacts are obvious. Others will only become apparent with the passage of time. In its 15 years of existence the European Centre for Public Affairs has sought to be a ‘safe space’ in which the elements of the political world could meet and discuss in an independent manner and with a degree of academic rigour. From the moment of our founding, we rejected the idea of a world divided between government and lobbyists. It has always been our view that journalists and the media, lobbyists, both from civil society and from the corporate sector, and ministers, members of parliament and civil servants all form part of one seamless political world. They have the same fascination with power and with process. They are intimately and umbilically linked. With this holistic view of the political world, it is natural for the ECPA to be interested in assessing the impact of the events of 11 September on the practice of public affairs. Jointly with The Journal of Public Affairs and The Public Affairs Newsletter, we created a seminar at Chatham House on 9th January, 2002 entitled ‘Public Affairs and the World Crisis: What has changed since September 11th?’ Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

THE POLITICS OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE USSR

Book reviewed in this article:
Nathan Leites, The Soviet Style in Management (New York: Crane Russak, 1985).
Bruce Parrott, Politics and Technology in the Soviet Union (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1985).
Bruce Parrott, Trade, Technology and Soviet-American Relations (Bloom-ington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985).     

Squaring the Virtuous Circle: Exploring the Potential of the ‘Five Cs’

During his May 2014 visit to Australia Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the World Trade Organization, urged ‘public institutions, civil society, and global businesses’ to forge ‘creative coalitions’ for the purpose of engaging constructively and positively with the complex problems standing in the way of achieving social and economic sustainability. Lamy's visit was but the first of several occasions during 2014 in which intense public discussion erupted about the need for government, business, and civil society to pool their capacities in boundary‐spanning efforts to address complex policy problems. This article investigates whether the public discussion portends a heightened policy focus on the ‘five Cs’: co‐production, co‐design, corporate social responsibility, collective impact, and Lamy's creative coalitions.