A Comparison of State Traditions and the Revival of a Nuclear Power in Four Countries

Abstract

The British, American, French and Finnish governments are seeking to promote investment in a new generation of nuclear power plants. Nuclear power programmes are delivered through networks of international companies through which government must manage. This is consistent with the concept of governance. Governments can advance their policy goals by using a variety of policy instruments to shape and organize governance networks. This is known as metagovernance. The paper considers the extent to which the selection and deployment of the policy instruments used to metagovern is informed by the prevailing tradition of government. The paper examines how the British, American, French and Finnish governments have tried to metagovern. It is shown that whilst governing traditions do inform the selection and deployment of the policy instruments used to metagovern, the composition of the network, and the nature of the policy problem also plays a role in shaping government action.     

The oregon plan: Toward a model for the future of health care financing

The State of Oregon has proposed a new method of financing health care services for its citizens. Oregon proposes to fund only the most cost-effective services. But in addition to narrowing the offering of health services funded by the State, Oregon proposes to fund all of the State's poor for services, no matter the family status. This broadened number of poor (everyone at the federal poverty level and below, single or married, children or not) will provide health care for more than 200,000 additional Oregonians. The supplementary legislation, SB 534 and SB 935, combined with broadened health care coverage for the poor (SB 27) will cover an additional 478,000 Oregonians. Nearly 95 % of its citizens will have some form of health insurance in Oregon.     

The Importance of Europe in the Global Campaign Against Terrorism

ABSTRACT

Terrorism and how to respond to it looms large in the current transatlantic debate, with the Europeans often being accused of failing to recognise terrorism as the major strategic issue of the early twenty-first century and thus putting their own security as well as that of others at risk. This is both true and false. It is true in the sense that fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, the Europeans still lack a global strategic vision, never mind how the threat from terrorism might impact upon it. But it is false in the sense that it understates what the Europeans can and are doing to reduce and manage terrorism on a global scale. The article is structured into four sections. The first examines terrorist activity in Europe post-9/11. The second deals with how the Europeans responded to 9/11 collectively within the EU. The third section focuses on what are termed the “outreach” activities of the Europeans via the United National Security Council, G-8, OSCE, NATO, and the European Union. And finally the article concludes that it is this outreach by the Europeans that holds the most promise for effectively countering international terrorism, that the Americans are dependent on this activity, and that the Europeans have to modify their strategic vision in order to deliver more effectively.     

Building a liberal-local hybrid peace and state in Bougainville

Abstract

There has been an increasing attempt to theorise the emergence of a liberal-local hybrid approach to state-building, which recognises the coexistence and interaction of liberal and local socio-political institutions. There has not yet been a sustained attempt to understand what occurs when a liberal-local approach is adopted from the outset of a state-building operation. This article seeks to fill this gap by applying the literature to the state-building process in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea.