Nudging the Neoliberal Agenda: Administrative Opportunities in the Deregulated State

The current climate of neoliberalism in the executive branch is attended by active deregulation and distrust of the administrative state. As protections are rolled back, there is concern that individuals may be susceptible to information asymmetries that will influence their decision making, leading to detrimental outcomes for both their own and the general welfare. Behavioral public administration—the bureaucratic conception of “nudge” theory—offers ways to counter the pitfalls that come with greater freedom of choice, as promoted by the neoliberal agenda. Public administrators may employ alternative mechanisms, such as choice architecture, to help people make better decisions in the absence of explicitly protective regulations. After laying out the argument for a behavioral approach, this article analyzes several neoliberal agenda issues with potential nudge responses for practical implementation, as well as a justifiable call for action to protect the public welfare in the absence of policy guidance.     

Jurist in Context: William Twining in Conversation with David Sugarman

This discussion derives from extended conversations between William Twining and David Sugarman in which William talks about his latest book, Jurist in Context: A Memoir (JIC). JIC recounts the development of William's thoughts and writings, addressing topics central to his life and research. The dialogue conveys and extends the arguments on a selection of the topics addressed in the book, engaging with issues of particular interest to readers of this journal. Here, William adds a more personal commentary to his formal publications. The conversation facilitates reflection on issues such as law teaching and legal scholarship; the meaning, use, and limitations of ‘law in context’; and the role and character of jurisprudence. It also offers a fascinating window on the development of, and the struggles surrounding, legal education and academic legal thought over the second half of the twentieth century and the early part of the twenty-first.     

Navigating the dilemmas of politically smart,locally led development: the Pacific-based Green Growth Leaders’ Coalition

Abstract

Iterative approaches to development under banners such as ‘thinking and working politically’ and ‘doing development differently’ build upon decades-old commitments to fostering locally led and -owned development. These approaches are increasingly popular with academics and development practitioners. In this paper we argue that outsiders seeking to deliver locally led, politically smart programmes need to either accept that competing priorities, results and values will work to limit the extent of true local ownership, or be sufficiently committed to true local leadership to accept that this may well cut against organisational imperatives. Using the example of the Pacific-based Green Growth Leaders’ Coalition, we discuss how politically tricky partnerships challenge tenets of local leadership and ownership.     

Britain Returns to the Indian Ocean?

This article considers how far the UK is returning to an ‘East of Suez’ role in the Indian Ocean. A threefold structure is taken based on past, current and future aspects of this role. The first section (‘past’) considers the Indian Ocean as a British Lake and the announced withdrawal from East of Suez that was announced in the early 1970s. The second section (‘present’) looks at the various bases, facilities and partnerships that the UK has around and across the Indian Ocean with Bahrain, Oman, Gulf of Aden, Somaliland, Diego Garcia (and the United States), India, Malaysia and Singapore (including the Five Power Defence Agreements), Australia and China. The third section (‘future’) considers likely post-BREXIT decisions facing the UK in the Indian Ocean with regard to its projected naval assets and political choices across the region. It finds there is some substance behind the rhetoric on a British return to the area.     

Metropolitan government in Vancouver: the strategy of gentle imposition††

Abstract. The creation of a metropolitan government in the Greater Vancouver urban region was a deliberate policy adopted by Municipal Affairs Department strategists in the mid-1960s even though for several years the Minister publicly argued that the regional district was not a metropolitan government. The policy was essentially to create a local federation variety of metropolitan government. The strategy was to gently impose an administrative structure without any functions at 1st so as to not unduly compel the local leaders or predetermine those matters on which inter-municipal cooperation was to be based. In time, the local leaders themselves became aware of the potential of this innocuous regional district. The province remained ready to impose an integration of those functions more efficiently performed at the regional level in the event of any recalcitrance developing within established bureaucracies or local political units which was inimical to the provincial policy. The uniqueness of the experiment in BC had two main features: the low-key initiative of the province and the basic flexibility of the new form of government which permitted adaptation to the forces for metropolitan functional integration coming from both the provincial level and the local level. The success in launching regional overnment in British Columbia was to a large extent a result of the heeding, by the strategists, of the experience in the United States, in other places in Canada, and an earlier attempt in the late 1950s in Vancouver. Sommaire. La création d'un gouvernement métropoIitain dans la région urbaine du Grand Vancouver a été une politique préméditée qui a été adoptée par les stratèges du Ministère des Affaires municipales am environs de 1965, bien que le Ministère ait affirmé publiquement pendant longtemps que le “district régional” n'était pas un gouvernement métropolitain. La politique a été essentiellement de créer un genre de gouvernement métropolitain ressemblant à une fédération de municipalités. La stratégie à consisté d'abord dans l'imposition d'une structure administrative sans aucune function faint de be pas forcer la main aux chefs Iocaux ou de ne pas déterminer à l'avance les questions qui serviraient de base à la collaboration intermunicipale. Plus tard, les chefs locaux se sont rendus compte du potentiel de ce “district régional” inoffensif. Le gouvernement provincial de son côtéétait prêt à imposer une intégration régionale des fonctions qui s'exécutent mieux à ce niveau advenant le cas oú une résistance se développerait au sein des bureaucraties ou des cons& municipaux, des oppositions qui iraient à l'encontre de la politique provinciale. Les deux traits principaux de cette expérience en Colombie-Britannique furent: l'initiative discrète de la province et f flexibilité de base de ce nouveau genre de gouvernement qui ont permis une adaptation aw forces locales et provinciales pour une intégration métropolitaine des fonctions municipales. Le lancement du gouvemement régional en Colombie-Britannique fut un grand succès dûá l'attention que les stratèges ont porté aux expéiences américaines et canadiennes ainsi qu'à la tentative antérieure faite à Vancouver entre 1957 et 1960.