Wege der Korruptionspolitik

Ohne Zusammenfassung Rezension Aktuell zu: Jens Borchert/Sigrid Leitner/Klaus Stolz (Red.): Politische Korruption, hg. v. Zentrum für Europa- und Nordamerika-Studien (Jahrbuch für Europa- und Nordamerika-Studien 3, 1999), Opladen: Leske + Budrich 2000, 251 S., DM 48,-.     

Sectoral change and labour productivity growth during boom,bust and recovery in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper assesses the extent of structural or sectoral change and its importance for aggregate productivity growth during times of boom, bust and recovery. The analysis covers 10 EU countries from Central and Eastern Europe over the years 2001–2012. The reallocation of labour across sectors was substantial during the boom, very extensive in 2009 at the depth of the crisis and modest in the subsequent recovery period. The contribution of sectoral change to aggregate productivity growth is computed using various decomposition methods. Changes in labour productivity within sectors play the dominant role for aggregate productivity growth, while reallocation of labour between sectors is less important. This pattern is found through most of the sample period despite large differences in the extent of sectoral change during the boom, crisis and recovery.     

Female recidivists speak about their experience in drug court while engaging in appreciative inquiry

Eleven female drug-court participants looked at current and past experiences to assess their program and envision future program innovations. From these women's perspective, the strongest component of drug court was being surrounded by staff dedicated to their progress and recovery. Graduated supervision and accurate drug testing were appreciated rather than resented when the participants were not humiliated and were treated with respect. Wraparound services, resources, and referral; treatment facilities that accepted children; and individualized treatment plans and therapy with offenders who are ex-addicts, and preferably females, allowed for greater involvement and active participation in recovery. Progressing through three phases, acquiring skills, a job, and visitation rights to see their children or regaining custody, increased these women's sense of self-efficacy perception and confidence in their ability to lead a drug-free, meaningful life. Findings show the importance of qualitative criteria in evaluating drug-court participants' progress and the process of recovery.     

The Risk of War in Nuclearized South Asia

Abstract

How did the introduction of nuclear weapons impact the security of the two South Asian rival states India and Pakistan? In this article, the author explores this question by looking at three books written by key experts in the field. The works explore this core question from three different angles, each of which represents an important strand in contemporary research on South Asian nuclear security. The article addresses three specific aspects in detail. First, it challenges the current trend to adopt structuralist explanatory models, which are unable to adequately appreciate the complex dynamics of the nuclear competition. Second, it explores the relationship between nuclear policy making and regime type. Third, it assesses the relevance of the Kargil conflict as test case for the existence of deterrence stability in South Asia.     

COOPERATIVES FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: A PROSPECTUS

The author describes research that addresses the problem of organizational change associated with the use of new information and communication technologies. The author focuses on the change processes associated with the use of the World Wide Web by cultural heritage organizations: archives, galleries, libraries, and museums. This research note outlines the research problem and the theoretical perspectives and research methodologies to be used in the research.     

The Push and Pull of Ministerial Resignations in Germany, 1969–2005

When and why are cabinet ministers forced out of office? We argue that ministerial resignations cannot be understood as mechanistic consequences of serious personal or departmental errors as the classical responsibility hypothesis implies. Rather, they follow a systematic political logic. Cabinet ministers have to resign whenever the prime minister perceives the political costs of a minister staying in office to be higher than the benefits of keeping the status quo. We test this argument with resignation events in Germany in the period 1969 to 2005. Based on detailed data collection, we find 111 resignation events, i.e. serious public discussions about a cabinet minister's future, 14 of which ended in resignation. These data are analysed employing statistical as well as Qualitative Comparative Analysis based on Boolean algebra to detect patterns of ministerial resignations.     

Public–Private Partnershipping as a Tool of Government: Exploring its Determinants Across German States

Despite considerable public and scholarly interest in public–private partnerships (PPPs) as a tool of government in Germany, there is no quantitative empirical study exploring the motivations behind policymakers' decisions to (not) use this type of privatisation policy. This article contributes to filling this gap by investigating the extent and determinants of the PPP activities of the 16 German states' governments over the period 2002–09. For that purpose, a PPP Activity Index is constructed which not only includes official PPP project figures but also state governments' programmatic, institutional, and advisory activities regarding PPP. Using this index, we statistically analyse whether fiscal stress, government partisanship, and other factors can help to explain the considerable differences between Länder governments' PPP activities. Among other things, it turns out that partisanship only matters if Socialists are part of a coalition government, and that fiscal transfers have a negative impact on a state's PPP activity level.     

Explaining and Justifying Authoritative Decisions: The Case of Controversial Facilities for the Homeless in Rotterdam

Abstract

This article analyses the ways in which local executive leaders rendered account for the decisions taken on where to locate 19 controversial facilities for the homeless in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Despite the non-participatory nature of the decision-making process, executive leaders acquired a remarkable level of authority for their decisions. The analysis suggests that the accountability strategies employed by local executive leaders contributed substantially to this success. Specific ways of rendering account for the decisions made concerning the locations enabled local executives to develop the political repertoires necessary to make the authoritative decisions they deemed indispensable. Most important among these ways were the executives' recognition of the importance of forming direct, informal accountability relationships with local residents, the proactive rendering of account and the executives' partial control over the forums to which account was rendered. The author concludes that an authoritative ‘Decide - Announce - Defend’ approach may not yet be out of fashion in modern local governance. The findings suggest that we will better understand the practice of public accountability if we supplement the existing conceptual frameworks for analysing and assessing public accountability arrangements with an alternative conception of accountability that focuses on the strategic aspects of rendering account. ^{1 1.}?An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2009 EGPA Permanent Study Group Local Governance and Democracy, in the section themed New Forms of Local Democracy. The author thanks two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the article.