Development administration in the context of world economic recession: Some ideas on service provision in southern Sudan

This papers brings together several strains of thought around an outline suggestion for reform of education administration and finance in the Southern Sudan. Administration has to be seen in terms of incentives and disincentives to action. The administration of the Southern Sudan constitutes the largest part of the elite of that part of the country and consumes most public funds as salaries. In political interactions with sections of the public there is a more pressing need to respond to the demands of educated youth for salaries than to make adequate provision for non-salary expenses of services to the public. But the system is not in a stable state and the full contradictions of the situation, for politicians, bureaucrats and public, are revealed by the financial restrictions enforced as a result of national debt and international recession. Politically leaders in government service and disaffected leaders in military opposition in the bush both continue to demand a fairer distribution of central resources. But the possibility of generating, at the grass-roots, both the resources necessary for non-salary costs and the necessary influence to demand services, is something which could be further explored in the interests of all parties. This is a potential new direction for reform in development administration.     

Understanding the Implications of Government Ties for Nonprofit Operations and Functions

This research explores the implications of nonprofit leaders’ government ties for nonprofit operations and functions. Based on 81 survey questionnaires completed by civic environmental NGOs (eNGOs) in China and interviews with executives from 33 eNGOs, the authors examine the personal backgrounds of eNGO leaders and find that most Chinese civic eNGOs are connected with the government in one or more of three ways: political ties, service organization ties, or personal ties. Personal ties, or good guanxi with government officials, are positively associated with a higher level of funding stability and a more developed management system. Environmental NGOs with leaders who are current government officials or legislative body members are more likely to be engaged in policy advocacy. Service organization ties facilitate eNGOs’ efforts to be engaged in legal services and to scale up to work on environmental issues at the national level. Moreover, an eNGO’s policy advocacy engagement is associated with its ties with the nonprofit community.     

Keeping the left at bay: Delegate selection system choice in US Democratic presidential nominations

In the modern era of US presidential nominations, every election cycle we witness around 20% change in delegate selection system types. This variance remains unexplained and for the most part unexplored. At the same time, prior formal and empirical models offer contradicting expectations of party leader behavior in their choice of system. This paper looks to bridge this divide. We argue state party leaders use delegate selection systems to select candidates favorable to their own ideological position. When the median partisan is ideologically left relative to the position of state Democratic leaders, the leaders of the Party will open up the delegate selection system to dilute the voices furthest on the left. We employ maximum likelihood estimation as a method to show that left positioning of citizens relative to state Democratic leaders increases the likelihood the state Democratic Party will use a primary system as opposed to a caucus.     

奥运契机与中国志愿服务的发展

志愿服务在构建和谐社会过程中具有举足轻重的作用。当前,中国的志愿服务还非常落后,而2008年奥运会在中国的举办恰恰可以为中国志愿事业的发展提供一个千载难逢的契机。为此,作者建议,国家应该借助奥运良机,推动公众对志愿服务的认知、推动公民的志愿行动、培养志愿服务的种子与领导人才、促进志愿服务法律法规的完善。     

Double Bind: Governing the Economy in an ICT Era

The recent financial debacle was preceded by a long complex evolution in the way firms created value and organized. The fragmentation of production, intense global competition, and the information and communication technology (ICT)‐enabled transformation of services are all part of a story that was framed by, and in turn further framed, ideologies of deregulation and self‐regulation. In the aftermath of the crisis political leaders worldwide find themselves in a heightened double bind. On one side, the demands for rules allowing experimentation and innovation are sharpened as growth and job creation are needed; on the other side, the demands are heightened for the state to act and regulate markets to prevent future crisis. The article focuses on the development of ICT, the main general‐purpose technology of our time, and how the the ways it allows value to be created interacted with the politics regulating uses and defining the winners and losers.     

The Political Economy of State Failure: A Social Contract Approach

By employing the contract approach of state theory, this article provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of state failure phenomena which puts the emphasis on structural conditions as the root cause of state fragility and state failure. The article argues that the deep social fragility of some post-colonial societies, augmented by self-serving external interventions by foreign powers, is at the heart of their failure. Deep social fragility makes societies unable to cooperate and thus renders them powerless to discipline their leaders. Meanwhile, by linking leadership survival to the decisions and policies of a self-serving foreign power, intervention provides flawed incentives to the state leaders, which increases their predatory behaviour. In such situations, state leaders, rather than strengthening formal state institutions, again intensify the collective action problem and increase social fragility as mechanisms for survival.     

Traditional Leaders and the Culture of Governance in South Africa

The global neoliberal economic and political order impregnated the emergence of democracy in South Africa. One of the hallmarks of this order is that the capacity of the state to transform society is constrained, particularly in the rural hinterlands. The incapacity of the state to extend its grip, both economically and politically, has provided traditional leaders with an opportunity to both recast themselves as intermediaries between state and society and elevate themselves to decision makers on behalf of large communities. The article examines the way in which traditional leaders have repositioned themselves in the new democracy, what their source of support is, and why the African National Congress government has come to support these efforts.     

Stakeholder approach and the impact of brand image within higher education in the Middle East: Student and staff perspective

Higher education institutions should take into account the needs of stakeholders in the planning and development of quality educational services. In general, the stakeholders are divided into two categories: internal and external stakeholders. This study aims to explore the diverse basic needs of the university internal stakeholders (students, academic staff, and employees) and the impact of the services on the brand image of the educational institutions. Consensus has been built that an organization's image can only be or assessed by its stakeholders or constituents. Utilizing the qualitative approach through empirical semi‐structured interviews, data were collected from both Benghazi University in the country of Libya and Yarmouk University in the country of Jordan. To gain an in‐depth understating of the basic services, interviews were conducted with 41 university internal stakeholders (students, academic staff, and employees). The findings have a remarkable impact on the education services quality and the perception of brand image of both institutions, which subsequently affects the Libyan and Jordanian economy. The paper explores the differences between the needs of the three groups. This study is of value to educational leaders as it serves as contribution to the well designing of comprehensive plans of the university, by providing the decision makers with information on the needs of the university internal stakeholders. Managements can develop policies, which will improve the safety of customers and staff and increase collaborations with both universities stakeholders, etc. Accordingly, the results provide a foundation on which future research can be built.     

Decommodification and the Workfare State

Two related concepts have been used to understand the welfare state –'decommodification' and the 'workfare' or the 'competition' state, as it relates to processes of 'recommodification'. I show how these related literatures may be integrated in order to enhance our understanding of current labour market policies. Applying these concepts to an analysis of the ideas and policies of New Labour leads to the conclusion that state welfare services are being reconfigured to serve more effectively the needs of the market, through a process of 'administrative recommodification'.     

Health-Care Reform, Managed Competition, and Subnational Politics

"Managed competition" is Congress' likely response to health-carereform. At the center of managed competition are regional healthinsurance cooperatives or alliances. In some states, these allianceswill face daunting numbers of uninsured and underinsured peopleand a hostile reception from business leaders and state governmentofficials. In other states, alliances may be welcomed as a logicalextension of current efforts to expand access to health care.Uneven support for alliances among the states will affect theimplementation of reform, as is typically the case in federallyorganized programs. However, the visibility, power, and financialresources of alliances will also affect state governments. Henceforth,American federalism may include three centers of power, notjust two, and the impact on state politics could be profound.     

Puerto Rico: Climates for investments∗

How do we determine what are the motives of US leaders when they intervene in other countries either directly with US armed forces or indirectly with surrogate forces? Rather than accepting the policymakers' claims at face value, we can look for patterns of intervention: what kinds of governments and political movements do US leaders support? What kind do they oppose and seek to destroy? And what socioeconomic goals do they pursue upon successfully intervening? Rather than seeing US policy as befuddled and contradictory, we observe that it is often remarkably consistent in services rendered on behalf of transnational corporate global domination. Other policy considerations do come into play during times of intervention, but there is no reason to treat them as mutually exclusive of economic motives.     

Jump-Starting Collaboration: The ABCD Initiative and the Provision of Child Development Services through Medicaid and Collaborators

Many policy problems require governmental leaders to forge vast networks beyond their own hierarchical institutions. This essay explores the challenges of implementation in a networked institutional setting and incentives to induce coordination between agencies and promote quality implementation. It describes the national evaluation of the Assuring Better Child Health and Development program, a state-based program intended to increase and enhance the delivery of child development services for low-income children through the health care sector, using Medicaid as its primary vehicle. Using qualitative evaluation methods, the authors found that all states implemented programs that addressed their stated goals and made changes in Medicaid policies, regulations, or reimbursement mechanisms. The program catalyzed interagency cooperation and coordination. The authors conclude that even a modest level of external support and technical assistance can stimulate significant programmatic change and interorganizational linkages within public agencies to enhance provision of child development services.     

Party as Linkage

Abstract Until recent years, two major trends in European politics-the growth of State services and increased political participation-have complemented the central role of parties. This paper argues that this complementarity may have started to come unstuck, and questions the future viability of the mass party as a result of a shift in the balance of perceived advantages of the mass party by both leaders and members. The paper discusses several potential costs and benefits of party membership for leaders and members. Using membership statistics and survey data the reasonableness of these arguments is explored.     

Development of the Natural Resources of the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies: Economic and Legal Aspects

The path of gradual commercialization of current space applications, such as launch services, satellite communication services, direct broadcasting services, satellite remote sensing and navigation services, and satellite weather monitoring services, will most likely be followed by future activities of use of space resources. Ventures, like mining the natural resources of the Moon and asteroids, are likely to become technologically feasible in the near future. The question is what would be the most appropriate approach to address the future needs of exploitation of space resources: should it remain the exclusive province of state governments; should the private sector take over such space activities; or should a public-private partnership type of venture be encouraged? As state governments are becoming constrained by budget deficits, an increased reliance on private sector involvement in space activities involving the extraction and use of space resources is to be expected. When deciding whether to invest in commercial ventures of resource use exploitation, any potential private investor will be faced with the issues of economic costs, risks, and perceived regulatory barriers. This study argues that the perceived regulatory barriers, i.e., the licensing requirement, the “common heritage of mankind” principle of international space law, and protection of intellectual property rights, are not obstacles to economic development. Governments should provide both policy and regulatory incentives for private sector participation in the area of space natural resource use by funding basic research and development and by sponsoring liability insurance for private ventures among other incentives.     

Competition ruins the good life

Abstract. Leadership practices in political parties reflect the necessity of delegation as well as the desire by the rank-and-file to control their leaders. Norwegian political parties have traditionally divided their leadership functions between two or even three offices, whose powers have varied between as well as within parties. Non-socialist parties have vested more power in their parliamentary leaders, and socialist parties more in their organizational chairs. The electoral process is in principle open, but contested elections have traditionally been rare. In recent years, however, contested elections have become more common, parliamentary leaders have lost much of their autonomy, and leadership tenure, at least in some parties, has gone down. Heightened electoral competitiveness seems to be driving many of these changes.     

African chiefs: comparative governance under colonial rule

This paper analyzes how British colonial rule altered the club-like and competitive features of chiefdoms and weakened the incentives of political leaders to be accountable to citizens. Political institutions in late pre-colonial West Africa aligned the incentives of the chiefs such that they were responsive to their people. Alignment arose because of a high degree of competition between governance providers and because political leaders were effectively the residual claimants on revenues generated from providing governance services. I identify the mechanisms by which colonialism severed the link that aligned the incentives of government with those of its citizens. British indirect rule did that by reducing political competition and softening the budget constraints of the chiefs. Toward the end of colonial rule, chiefs became less accountable to their people as evidenced by the widespread corruption and extortion by the chiefs and by their unprecedented constitutional violations and abuses of power.     

National Competition Policy and the Australian Taxi Industry

This article outlines the Australian Taxi Industry Association's (ATIA) perspective on the development of the National Competition Policy (NCP). The ATIA has been actively involved in the issue since the establishment of the Hilmer Inquiry into National Competition Policy in 1992.
The Australian taxi industry is regulated by state and territory governments. Taxi industry regulations are designed to facilitate the provision of high-quality and comprehensive taxi services to the community and disadvantaged groups. One element of this regulatory structure involves the sale, or lease, of taxi plates by state and territory governments as a revenue-raising measure.
This revenue-raising by governments produces two different effects. On the one hand taxi plate owners having purchased taxi plates from the government (or leased) have an interest in the value of the plate, as well as in continuing to provide quality services. On the other hand some observers see taxi plate values as inherently unacceptable and needing to be reduced, or abolished, by allowing unrestricted access to the taxi industry.
These competing views have provided much of the impetus for the debate associated with the taxi industry and the NCP. The industry believes that NCP has the potential to impact adversely on taxi 'markets' and consumer interests.     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE POWER THEORY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STATE DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES*

The ability of state leaders to influence economic growth and diversity within their states is a disputed issue within the literature on state economic development policy-making. This research contributes to this debate by developing comparative measures of state development agency power drawn from the emerging theory on organizational power. If state policy leaders have independent control over the economic performance of their states and if that influence is exercised through the administrative unit responsible for that activity, states which have supplied their agencies more resources and freedom in using those resources should outperform those states which have not.