Exporting democracy: German political foundations in Central‐East Europe

In the liberal political tradition, representative government, civil society and some form of market are widely regarded as indispensable ingredients of democracy. The first two are essentially ‘home grown’, embedded in the enduring, albeit not immutable, political culture of a given society if they are to have substance as well as form. None the less, western democracies have been actively engaged in transplanting organizations to bolster civil society, along with political institutions, constitutions, and legal codes to Central‐East Europe (CEE) since 1989 as part of their democratization assistance.

This article examines if, and how, external assistance can intervene constructively to promote the development of democracy. A brief discussion of western assumptions about post‐communist society in CEE is followed by a review of the roles assigned to culture and institutions in the transition literature which undergird these assumptions. The comparative cultural advantages of the United States and Germany ‐ the two primary western actors in the region ‐ are outlined, coupled with a more detailed examination of German political foundation engagement in CEE.

The German political foundations were selected to anchor the study empirically because in terms of method and strategy, resources and level of engagement, they do everything right according to studies critical of western democratization assistance. In addition, their home political culture is very similar to that of the host societies in CEE. In short, their operational conditions present a best case scenario.

None the less, the study shows that in some of their highest priority, politically motivated projects, the foundations have not made much of an impression on the CEE landscape. New parties and labour unions they supported have failed or are terminally ill. Many new non‐governmental organizations have been set up but their sustainability is open to question. Projecting donor preferences onto CEE is integral to the problem. The greatest risk is to fabricate the appearance of deep‐rooted democracy by focusing on form at the expense of content. The proliferation of parties and nongovernmental organizations per se tells us little about their ability to integrate the public actively and constructively into the new systems.     

Web-Based Accountability in the Nonprofit Sector: A Closer Look at Arts,Culture, and Humanities Organizations

ABSTRACT

Web-based accountability continues to be an important consideration for nonprofit organizations. This research examines the impact of certain variables on web-based accountability in the arts, culture, and humanities sector. A content analysis of eighty nonprofit organizations was performed and multiple statistical analyses were used. Findings indicated that regulatory measures, including the prosecution and a detection index, are the most significant variables for determining web-based accountability for this group of nonprofit organizations.     

“Executing the Powers With Which it is Intrusted”: Justifications,Definitions and Limitations of Government Speech

Federal, state and local governments have realized that an effective way to counter an undesirable private message is to swallow it up within the government's own speech. So far, the Supreme Court of the United States has acquiesced, including its February 2009 opinion in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum. This article explores the roots, definition and limits of government speech through a close examination of not only Summum but two other recent Supreme Court opinions granting the government a right to communicate even when others contend that the speech conflicts with their own messages. The article concludes that the government speech doctrine needs further explanation with regard to its justification and contours. The rational basis test and political process may not be sufficient to contain government speech within desirable bounds; instead, government speech should be subjected to judicial scrutiny to ensure it remains germane and proportional.     

The social foundations of global production networks: towards a global political economy of child labour

The resilience of the problem of child labour in the global economy has been amply documented, but, we suggest, the reasons for this situation have not yet been fully captured in the associated debates. Our aim is to advance a way of thinking about those forms of child labour which occur in the context of global production networks (gpns), and to contend that greater attention must be paid to the organisation and functioning of gpns, and the social foundations on which they rest, if we are to grasp more fully the conditions and processes which facilitate the persistence and evolution of child labour. The way of thinking we propose is rooted in the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’ in the global economy, which we develop by drawing together currents in gpn analysis and poverty research to explore the commercial and social dynamics in gpns which give rise to these forms of labour exploitation. We illustrate our arguments with reference to the garments industry in New Delhi, India.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Turner's turn with the CIA

Stansfield Turner: Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1985,304 p., $16.95.

007s Analysis of KAL's Flight 007

Alexander Dallin: Black Box: KAL 00 7 and the Superpowers University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985, 130 p., $14.95

Oliver Clubb: KAL Flight 007: The Hidden Story The Permanent Press, Sag Harbor, N.Y., 1985, 132 p., $14.95

Knowing who's who

Ernest May: Knowing One's Enemies Princeton University Press, 1985, 561 p., $29.50

British intelligence from A To Z

Anthony Read and David Fisher: Colonel Z: The Secret Life of a Master of Spies Viking, New York, 1985, 264 p., $17.95

Setting the record straight

Nigel West: A Thread of Deceit: Espionage Myths of World War II Random House, New York, 1985, 285 p., $16.95

Unreliable Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War In England: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1984, 275 p., £8.95.

The catcher in the lie

Paul Ekman: Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage W. W. Norton &; Company, N.Y., 1985, 320 p., $17.95

The cat's meow

William M. Leary: Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia. The University of Alabama Press, Birmingham, Ala., 1984, 281 p., $22.50

Proceed with caution

Ernest Volkman: Warriors of the Night William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1985, 434 p., $17.95

Beyond what the facts will bear

Walter Laqueur: A World of Secrets: Uses and Limits of Intelligence New York: Basic Books, 1985, 404 p., $21.95     

Unintended consequences: social policy,state institutions and the ‘stalling’ of the Malaysian industrialization project

Abstract

This paper examines the relation of particular forms of social and labour market policy to economic development. Taking the history of Malaysian industrialization as its empirical case, the paper assesses the unintended consequences of redistribution policy, on the one hand, and migration policy, on the other, for the limited upgrading of the country's electronics industry. It argues that, while the former has been central to social harmony in Malaysia's multi-racial society, it has contributed to the underdevelopment of small and medium-sized firms capable of linking with the TNCs on the basis of knowledge-intensive and higher value-added operations. Migration policy, on the other hand, has allowed manufacturers to have continued access to supplies of low-cost, lower-skilled labour that have released the pressures that would otherwise have been there for technological and skill upgrading in the electronics industry. Only in Penang, where regional state institutions have intervened to encourage SME upgrading, has the national picture been moderated. Malaysia's industrialization project emerged at time when export competition in manufactured commodities was less intense than it is now. Largely as a result of federal government priorities and for other reasons explored in the paper, advantage was not taken of this ‘window of opportunity’. As a consequence, the country's industrialization project – exemplified by its electronics industry – is now ‘stalling’ in the sense that it remains locked into low- to medium-technology operations. With the rise of China as a manufacturing exporter, this is a dangerous situation for a country's principal industry to be in.     

Should forum-shopping be a basket case?

Most intellectual property litigants have a tough time. Thesettlement of any legal dispute consumes hours that can be betterused on other things and costs money that is better spent onother things. What's more, a dark cloud of uncertainty hangsover the disputants' business plans until it is lifted by thedispute's resolution. In IP disputes, the situation can be evenmore fraught: the outcome of a dispute may be