Books Received

abstract

David Wilkinson. Environment and Law. Routledge, New York. 2002. 312 pp. Hard cover, $80.00. Paper, $25.95 *

Tim W. Clark. The Policy Process: A Practical Guide for Natural Resource Professionals. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 2002. xii + 215 pp. $35 (hard cover), $18.50 (paper)

George M. Woodwell. Forests in a Full World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 2001. xxii + 231 pp. $30.00 (hard cover), $15.00 (paper)     

Public CFO competencies – A National Defence case study examining the balance between financial and strategic priorities

The role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the public sector is relatively new. Prior research on private sector CFOs identified that CFOs tend to focus on either financial or strategic issues. In this study, we examined if these same tendencies exist within the public sector. Using the Department of National Defence as a case study, we asked Comptrollers to compare a set of 8 roles to determine if a bias towards financial or strategic roles exists. We found that some bias exists within National Defence; however, we also found most recognize that you cannot focus exclusively on either role.     

Political Recentralisation and the Diffusion of Solar Energy in China

Abstract

This article uses principal–agent theory to examine the governance of solar energy in China and question the notion of ‘fragmented authoritarianism’ in Chinese governance. It demonstrates that the governance of solar energy in China operates on two levels, with ‘police patrol’ control and monitoring mechanisms at the meso- or sectoral level combined with ‘fire alarm’ modes of political control at the micro-level. Drawing on original interview material, we argue that this two-level model and distinct set of supervisory institutions have allowed China, as a relatively late entrant into the solar energy sector, to address the growing environmental emergency within China and catch up technologically with the West.     

Practice and research in managing human systems—Four problems of relationship

Academic disciplines, it is argued, have structural reasons for remaining separate from each other. Professional schools, on the other hand, having a built-in test of relevance, draw what they need from different disciplines and are better equipped for inter-disciplinary work, even though they have problems in bridging professional boundaries. But the professions which manage human systems (management, government, planning, policy making) have no such support from the social sciences as, for example, medicine and engineering draw from the natural sciences. They have evolved powerful means of modelling complex human systems but they lack any adequate source of the assumptions needed for such models, since these are culture-determined and historically determined variables, far more dependent on specific time and place.The paper raises for discussion questions related to (a) the inter-relation of the social sciences; (b) their relation to the professional fields in which they might be applied; (c) their relation to the management sciences; and (d) the scope for an all-embracing general systems theory.     

Britain and Ghana's Economy

This talk was given by the British High Commissioner in Ghanaat a meeting of the Royal African Society and the Royal CommonwealthSociety on June 6, 1963. General Sir Frank Simpson, G.B.E.,K.C.B., D.S.O., D.L., adviser to the West African Committee,took the chair     

The median voter model across levels of government

The median voter model provides a method of aggregating individual voter's demands to obtain community demand. Although higher level governments are often assumed to be less responsive to voters than lower level governments, it remains an open question whether or not the median voter model, which has been found to apply to the lowest tier of the federalist system, extends to higher level governments. We use the Cox specification test to find that the ad hoc model dominates the median model for counties and states. The county results are sensitive to the time periods, budgetary structure, and degree of urbanization.