The Effect of Household Wealth on Fertiliser Use in the Presence of Uncertainty

Previous studies of wealth effect on fertiliser use have produced mixed results on the direction of the impact. Our article looks at this issue from a different perspective by considering the presence of doubts, such as about the true content or general effectiveness of fertiliser. We show theoretically that there could be different responses between the high-wealth and low-wealth farmers. We analyse also the wealth effect empirically using household panel data from the Hebei province of China. The results indicate that the direction of wealth effect does indeed change across the different levels of farmers’ wealth.     

The Threat and Management of Terrorism in Cyprus

This article aims to challenge the dominant view that the expressions of terrorism since the last decade of the twentieth century are fundamentally new. It questions the new aspects of terrorism, such as the transnational nature of the perpetrators and their organizations, their religious inspiration and fanaticism, their use of weapons of mass destruction, and their indiscriminate targeting. It points out essential continuities with previous expressions of terrorist violence, such as the national and territorial focus of the new terrorists, their political motivations, their use of conventional‐ weaponry, and the symbolic targeting that is still aimed at achieving a surprise effect. The article calls for more thorough historical investigations in order to appreciate truly new aspects of terrorism.‐     

Active resistance to democratic diffusion

Recent research on the international diffusion of democracy has focused on demonstrating how diffusion can change regime outcomes. Although there is still debate within the field of democratization over how important democratic diffusion is relative to domestic factors, autocratic leaders believe that democratic diffusion can be a threat to their rule. It is clear that some countries, such as North Korea, prevent diffusion by severely restricting interactions with foreigners and forbidding access to external sources of information. The more intriguing question is how the states that have economic, diplomatic, and social linkages with democratic states prevent democratic diffusion. In other words, what methods do globally-engaged, autocratic governments use to limit exposure to and reduce receptivity to democratic diffusion?In addition to using coercion and economic patronage, autocratic states utilize two non-material mechanisms to prevent democratic diffusion: 1) restricting exposure to democratic ideas and 2) developing alternative narratives about democracy to reduce local receptivity to democratic diffusion. Sophisticated autocratic leaders can limit receptivity to democratic diffusion if they convince citizens that those ideas are “foreign,” will cause “chaos,” or if they believe they already have their own form of democracy. I explore these methods of establishing firewalls to prevent diffusion by examining the cases of China and Kazakhstan, two countries where a high level of economic linkage coincides with a successful continuation of autocratic rule, despite the global spread of democratic norms. China has developed extensive methods to restrict access to foreign ideas about democracy while Kazakhstan has mainly focused on developing an alternative narrative about democracy. This article contributes to the literature on authoritarian persistence and democratic diffusion by investigating the internal methods autocratic leaders adopt to ensure that democratic diffusion does not threaten their rule.     

The Implications for Officers of New Political Management Arrangements

This article explores the impact on officers of new political management arrangements introduced to English local government during 2001-2002. By analysing the literature that exists on this subject it concludes that the literature is, as yet, unable to provide a categorical answer to the question of whether the unitary officer structure will be sustainable over time. On this issue, the literature tends to suggest that the jury is still out. While some authorities have accepted the fact that that some degree of split is inevitable, for many more deciding how to deal with 'twin-hattedness' is very much a live issue.     

The New Public Management And A New Accountability

There has long been a disparity between the practice and the neo-Diceyan doctrine of accountability in British central government. This article shows that the New Public Management (NPM), while not itself the root cause of such disparity, has nevertheless both exacerbated and further exposed existing fault-lines. This much is evident from an examination of NPM's theoretical bearings and from brief case studies of the Child Protection Agency and the Prison Service. Reflecting broad and deep-seated forces, the NPM is unlikely to disappear. Thus although there are certain attractions in retaining neo-Diceyan assumptions, it may be more appropriate to reconstruct the formal doctrine. Drawing upon Spiro's notion of 'multicentric' accountability and within the context of calls for wider constitutional reform, the article sketches the basis for a new doctrine, having regard to relevant moralities and practicalities.     

Perceptions Of Federal Management In The Clinton Era

This article examines aspects of planning, budgeting and reorganization in order to evaluate what improvements have been undertaken during the Clinton presidency to improve government performance in the United States national government 1 . The authors develop a model of government reform based upon a series of escalating steps. These are: (1) internal government improvements; (2) fundamental restructuring and reorganization of agency operations; (3) programme reforms, driven by internal management; (4) programme reforms – driven by policy and political change; (5) reform of the political system itself. The authors conclude that while the National Performance Review and Government Performance and Results Act are the centre-pieces of this effort, reform will continue in the US after NPR
and GPRA wither away because the time is right for reform for a variety of reasons discussed in the article. The findings are then focused in a broader context in terms of their applicability to western democracies which could result in smaller more successful governments in the twenty-first century.     

Active in Not Being Active (AINBA): how East Asian powers accept R2P

This article explores and compares the positions of two major powers in East Asia—China and Japan—towards the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) norm. R2P calls for collective international responsibility in the event that states are unwilling or unable to protect their people. Evaluating the mainstream argument in the literature that China and Japan have recently been welcoming the R2P norm, we ask the following questions: To what extent have China and Japan aligned themselves with R2P? How do international and national factors play out to influence their R2P stance? To summarize our findings up front: unlike what much of the current literature says, China and Japan's acceptance and practice of the R2P norm are largely pro forma. We argue that they both appear active in participating in the debates but only in order to remain inactive. In other words, they are active participants in the debates and discussions on R2P, but their aim is not to further its usage but to contain its effects. Their current stance on R2P is characterized by what we will call ‘Active in Not Being Active’ (AINBA). The article discusses the key sources and rationale for their AINBA policy with regard to R2P.     

The Implementation Effectiveness of Trash Management in Ambon,Maluku: The Influence of Socialization,Coordination and Control to the Effectiveness of Trash Management

Principally, the policy is made to change the situation to be the desired one. The policy implementation in management context is in the terms of socialization, coordination and the control. This research is focused in the result process of public policy related to the trash management. The joint influence between the socialization, coordination and the control through the implementer and society behavior to the effectiveness of trash management in Ambon is being considered. The structural equation modeling (SEM) and Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) 20 is used to analyze the data in this research.