Analysing managerial perceptions of when and how to structure public involvement in public-private partnerships

Previous research highlights what managers perceive to be the purposes of public involvement in public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the need for addressing stakeholder concerns unique to PPPs. Yet, we have little evidence of how particular modes of participation benefit particular goals of participation in this context. Through canonical correlation analysis (CCA) of survey data collected in the U.S., this study examines the modes and sequencing of 14 public involvement activities in respect to 10 goals of public involvement in this context. The results indicate that selections among modes of participation are contingent upon when they are introduced. Respondents prefer widening stakeholder involvement early in the project development phase and during the contract implementation phase, but not during the later phases of contract design. Respondents also assign more value to engaging local citizens than their respective political leaders, particularly at mature stages of the PPP’s implementation phase.     

Gender-responsive budgeting: A budget reform to address gender inequity

In recognition of gender inequities, more than 80 countries have applied a gender perspective to their budget process, initiatives referred to as gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). Research on GRB initiatives has focused on whether they reduce gender inequities. However, if it is to have a lasting effect, GRB must reform the budget process and become integral to government administrative routines. We examine the experiences of several countries with GRB initiatives and identify the key factors explaining implementation success or failure. We find that these factors are similar to those that explain the success of earlier budget reforms focused on efficiency and effectiveness. While the equity objective of GRB differentiates it from other budget reforms, these factors provide the context for understanding GRB initiatives. Although gender parity is just one dimension of social equity, the success of GRB initiatives shows that governments can use their budgets to meet social equity objectives.     

Arrested development? Sub-Saharan Africa in the stratified world economy 1965–2015

ABSTRACT

The central concern of this paper is with Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) standing in the stratified world economy. Country standings are determined for the period 1965 through 2015, based on the Arrighi and Drangel method of calculating world-system position. We find that the region as a whole remained in the bottom of the global economic hierarchy and was particularly sensitive to macroeconomic-historical changes and pressures. Of note too is the clear link between the SSA countries that are performing well in the semiperiphery of the global economic hierarchy and those with a concentration of natural resources.     

An STR forensic typing system for genetic individualization of domestic cat (Felis catus) samples

A forensic genotyping panel of 11 tetranucleotide STR loci from the domestic cat was characterized and evaluated for genetic individualization of cat tissues. We first examined 49 candidate STR loci and their frequency assessment in domestic cat populations. The STR loci (3-4 base pair repeat motifs), mapped in the cat genome relative to 579 coding loci and 255 STR loci, are well distributed across the 18 feline autosomes. All loci exhibit Mendelian inheritance in a multi-generation pedigree. Eleven loci that were unlinked and were highly heterozygous in cat breeds were selected for a forensic panel. Heterozygosity values obtained for the independent loci, ranged from 0.60-0.82, while the average cat breed heterozygosity obtained for the 11 locus panel was 0.71 (range of 0.57-0.83). A small sample set of outbred domestic cats displayed a heterozygosity of 0.86 for the 11 locus panel. The power of discrimination of the panel is moderate to high in the cat breeds examined, with an average P(m) of 3.7E-06. The panel shows good potential for genetic individualization within outbred domestic cats with a P(m) of 5.31E-08. A multiplex protocol, designed for the co-amplification of the 11 loci and a gender-identifying locus, is species specific and robust, generating a product profile with as little as 0.125 nanograms of genomic DNA.     

How and why capitalisms differ

Abstract

The variety of capitalism school (VOC) and regulation theory (TR) are both analyses of the diversity of contemporary national economies. If VOC challenges the primacy of liberal market economies (LME) and stresses the existence of an alternative form, i.e. coordinated market economies (CME), TR starts from a long-term analysis of the transformation of capitalism in order to search for alternatives to the Fordist regime that emerged after the post-Second World War era. Both approaches make intensive use of international comparisons, challenge the role of market as the exclusive coordinating mechanism, and raise doubts about the existence of a ‘one best way’ for capitalism. Finally, they stress that globalization does deepen the competitive advantage associated with each institutional architecture. Nevertheless, their methodology differs: VOC stresses private firm governance, whereas TR considers the primacy of systemic and macroeconomic coherence. Whereas for VOC there exist only LME and CME, TR recurrently finds at least four brands of capitalism: market-led, meso-corporatist, social democrat and State-led. VOC seems to consider that the long-term stability of each capitalism can be challenged only by external shocks, but TR stresses the fact that the very success of a regulation mode ends up in a structural crisis, largely endogenous.     

Women in the American Society for Public Administration: Another Decade of Progress But Still a Way to Go

During ASPA's first fifty years (1939–1989), the role of women in the Society evolved from virtual invisibility, to token representation, to major participation. In the 1990s, women's role in ASPA continued to expand. They achieved just about full partnership with male colleagues in the organization's governance and they increased their contributions to ASPA's efforts to support the improvement of theory and practice in public administration through research and scholarship. However, women have not yet achieved parity with their male colleagues in scholarly output. For women to achieve full equality with men in ASPA, they must be better represented in contributions to literature and knowledge in the profession.     

Childbearers as rights-bearers: feminist discourse on the rights of aboriginal and non-aboriginal mothers in Australia, 1920–50

Abstract

In the post-suffrage era in Australia, feminists invoked maternalist arguments in support of the idea that mothers were political subjects with rights and they extended their campaigns to press for recognition of the rights of Aboriginal women. This article examines the claim made by post-suffrage feminists that ‘the common status of motherhood’ entailed a range of social, economic and civil rights. They argued in Royal Commissions, election campaigns, and the press that all mothers, working class and middle class, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, who wished to retain the custody of their children should have the legal right and economic ability to do so. In New South Wales the campaign culminated in the staging of a play called Whose Child? This article explores some of the tensions between Women's claims as mothers and as independent citizens and the difficulties encountered when feminists attempted to have mothers' rights defined as human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.