Cameron in China

British Prime Minister David Cameron's fast official visit to China in November had two objectives.One was to lead one of the largest trade delegations ever accompanied by a UK prime minister to an increasingly important market.The other was for him to meet,and get to know,the Chinese leadership and key figures in the government.     

The internal development of the Ukrainian parliament

At the time of independence, parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union were highly underdeveloped institutions. Since that time, many parliaments have begun the process of building legislative capacity in order to participate more fully in the process of governance. One aspect of building legislative capacity is the internal structure of the parliament. This article examines the internal development of one of these parliaments—the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine—focusing on the legislative process, the budget process, the committee system and faction organization. The article identifies where progress has been made in each of these areas, and points to key aspects that require critical attention in order to ensure future progress. Finally, it discusses how one development project—the Parliamentary Development Project—has used a ‘comparative action research’ approach to aid key decision makers in the Verkhovna Rada in building legislative capacity.     

INNOVATION,PUBLIC POLICY AND PUBLIC SERVICES DELIVERY IN THE UK. THE WORD THAT WOULD BE KING?

This paper explores the dialogue about innovation in public services currently found within public policy and creates an interaction between research and practice about its strengths and limitations. It argues that this dialogue is a flawed one, often both at odds with the existing evidence and lacking a holistic understanding of the nature of innovation and its distinctive policy and managerial challenges. It therefore synthesizes existing research to challenge current public policy thinking about the role and determinants of innovation in public services. It concludes by offering five lessons towards effective policy‐making and implementation that would provide a more sophisticated and evidence‐based approach to the encouragement and sustenance of public service innovation – and four key areas for further research.     

Theory and Practice of Regulatory Enforcement: Occupational Health and Safety Regulation in British Columbia*

Data about the activities of occupational health and safety officials in British Columbia is utilized to explore competing explanations for the overwhelming prevalence of persuasion over punishment in regulatory enforcement. By plotting the compliance histories of individual firms, this study demonstrates that many offenders repeatedly commit the same infraction. Few of these repeat offenders are punished. These findings suggest that the very limited use of penalties is not a result of the vast majority of firms being good apples induced to comply by mechanisms of social control other than punishment. Rather, there appears to be institutionalized tolerance of widespread violations. The enforcement deficit may be partly explained by such aspects of regulatory structure as the ongoing relationship between regulated firms and field officers who are the gatekeepers of the penalty process.