Local Government Modernisation in England: A Critical Review of the LGMA Evaluation Studies

New Labour has subjected English local government to an unparalleled period of reform. This article reviews the Local Government Modernisation Agenda evaluation studies commissioned by central government. The review identifies valuable insights from the studies into the contemporary state of English local government, central government and central–local relations. However, the studies also illustrate the need for research on public service reform to include analyses of the political origins of reform policies and the political–bureaucratic issues involved in their implementation. It is also argued that future research needs to rediscover the value of studying local politics ‘in the round’, the impact of socio-economic and non-local factors on local policy outcomes and the role of new sources of policy influence in the channels of central–local relations.     

The Implications of the Lyons Report into Local Government in England for Structural Reform in Australian Local Government

The Lyons Inquiry into English local government presented its Final Report in 2007. It has significant implications for local government jurisdictions beyond England. This article considers the import of the Lyons Inquiry for reform to Australian local government. It is argued that the Lyons Inquiry adds weight to other work that questions the traditional reliance on amalgamation as the chief instrument of Australian local government reform. In particular, the “place-shaping” thesis developed in the Lyons Inquiry shows that the Australian emphasis on structural reform has been misdirected. Further, the Lyons Report offers a range of policy options besides municipal amalgamation.     

Accounting Reform in Italy and Perceptions on the Local Government Consolidated Report

The article aims to explore the perception of local government (LG) financial officers on the users, the uses, and the utility of the consolidated financial report in Italy, since it was one of the first countries to expressly provide for compulsory adoption. A questionnaire was sent to a statistical stratified sample of LG, collecting 133 responses (response rate 17%). The results, tested through the structural equation model we observe that social legitimization pressure rather than accountability patterns or performance analysis drive more the adoption process. The evidence indicates that the report is perceived as a potential tool for pursuing performance assessment strategies in a group context. However, this potentiality depends on the coordination effort made by the LG. The article finds out the rise of the topic of the public governance and the role of coordinating the local public group.     

A First Draft of the History of America's Ongoing Wars on Terrorism

This research note attempts to map the Al Qaeda movement's trajectory from the 11 September 2001 attacks to the stunning events of 2014—which saw the continued rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), its expulsion from the Al Qaeda movement, followed by ISIS's stunning thrust into Iraq, its declaration of a caliphate, and the re-engagement of American military forces in this region. It attempts to place in context the Al Qaeda movement's evolution to explain why the United States under President Barack Obama, despite hopes and expectations to the contrary, is still enmeshed in the war on terrorism proclaimed by George W. Bush over a decade ago.     

近距离观察美国民主、共和两党全国代表大会

每四年召开一次的美国民主党和共和党全国代表大会，是美国总统大选中的重头戏。在各自的大会上，两党分别推出本党的总统候选人，通过竞选纲领；党内精英和积极分子全面介绍候选人并阐述本党政策主张，候选人接受提名演说则使大会达到高潮。前不久，笔者应美方邀请全程观摩了2008年民主党和共和党全国代表大会。亲历大会热烈场面，切身感受美国选战，实为观察美国选举政治的一次好机会。     

From Borderland to Heartland: The Discourse of the North-West in Early Republican China

Abstract

The issue of the North-West, its developmental potential and significance as a national place, gained great attention in early and mid-1930s China. Early twentieth-century Chinese understandings of the North-West as a geographical region derived from Qing imperial order in the Inner Asian frontier lands of the empire but the term became more complex semantically in the Republic and by the 1930s it had gained a range of different meanings. Such complexity bespoke some of the tensions involved in conceptualizing the relationship between former Qing Inner Asian frontier lands and the Chinese heartland within the new territorial form of the Chinese Republic. This article traces changing meanings and uses of the term from the late Qing into the 1930s. It identifies and examines key areas of its discursive content and reveals the growing centrality of ideas of the frontier and North-West in Chinese nationalist discourse. This research highlights the importance of the frontier in post-imperial Chinese visions of the nation.