Religious marketing: reflections from the other side of politics

This paper critically examines the idea that politics and religion occupy adjoining berths in the extended marketing camp. Following a brief review of contemporary religious marketing, a comparison is undertaken of religion and politics to determine whether they conform to a common marketing framework for non‐business environments. The idea that marketing in faith environments is validated by the ‘religious economy’ theory is critically examined, significant objections to the adoption of marketing principles and methods by the religious community are explored and some limitations of the exchange concept in a faith context are identified. Some implications are considered for both political and mainstream marketing, in terms of recent attempts to broaden the scope of marketing. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

‘Old’ un peacekeeping principles and ‘new’ conflicts: Some ideas to reduce the troubles of post‐cold war peace missions

The European Union (EU) has declared its European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) operational. It has put the institutional structures in place to manage the political aspects of security and defence policy and the member-states have pledged a range of military capabilities, which the EU may call upon. However there are significant issues that need to be resolved for the ESDP to be a truly effective and credible policy. On the whole, these issues revolve around military capabilities, defence spending and a strategic concept. Without investing in critical military capabilities and without a clear direction, ESDP will become a policy without substance.     

Emergency medical preparedness

This research note explores aspects of the demand for terrorism using data from the Pew Research Center. With these data from 7,849 adult respondents persons within 14 Muslim countries, this article explores who supports terrorism. It is shown that females, younger persons, and those who believe Islam is under threat are more likely to support terrorism. Very poor respondents and those who believe that religious leaders should play a larger role in politics are less likely to support terrorism than others. Because these affects vary throughout the countries studies, it is argued that interventions must be highly tailored, using detailed demographic and psychographic data.     

Russia and NATO expansion: The uneasy basis of the founding act

Much of the debate since the formation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy has focused on the political will, or lack thereof, as the principal obstacle to a successful European security policy. However, even if a cohesive will to develop a clear and operational foreign and security policy exists, the lack of military capabilities within the EU would make the implementation of that policy difficult, if not impossible, for the foreseeable future. The emerging political will to develop a CFSP needs to be paralleled by significant improvements in the force projection capabilities of the EU member states in order for a CFSP and future Common Defence Policy to be credible.     

Monitoring deliberate self-harm presentations to general hospitals

Monitoring of deliberate self-harm (DSH) presentations to hospitals (and in other settings) is receiving increased attention in many countries. This is due to greater recognition of the size of the problem and awareness of its relevance to suicide prevention policy initiatives, because of the strong association between DSH and suicide. A system for monitoring all DSH presentations has been in place in the general hospital in Oxford for 30 years. Based on our experience, in this paper we describe procedures for monitoring, including case definition and identification, linkage of persons and episodes in order to investigate repetition of DSH and other outcomes (including deaths), and data protection and ethical issues. We also provide details of how to carry out monitoring, including different models of data collection, and what data to collect. Finally we consider the potential uses of the data for both clinical and research purposes, including evaluation of national suicide prevention initiatives.     

Government aid to industry: a private sector perspective

Abstract: The real world is that of an increasingly competitive marketplace which espouses free trade but implements a wide variety of policies and practices in pursuit of industrial stimulation. The number and variety of such interventions are so great that the policy issue becomes not whether there should be a rationale for government aid but what that rationale should be. The acceptable rationale is that government support is valid if it recognizes and nourishes private enterprise as the engine of the economy. All industrial policies should be consciously and rigorously measured by this criterion. Other principles of industrial policy follow. Government “aid” should be redefined as an economic contract between government and industry. Such a contract should be limited in time, and be viewed in a sectoral context. At the end of the contract the company or sector should either survive based on market support or be allowed to fail. Current instruments and programs relating to industrial policy are fragmented and lack a strategic framework. The most significant institutional issue, however, is that of the proliferating crown corporations which inevitably restrict private operations. They should be time-limited, with plans at the outset to return the function performed to the private sector. Sommaire: Le monde, vu de façon réaliste, est un marché de plus en plus compétitif qui se veut libre tout en mettant en oeuvre une grande diversité de méchanismes politiques et pratiques dans le but de stimuler l'industrie. Le nombre et la variété de ces interventions sont tels que la question n'est plus de décider si l'aide gouver-nementale est justifiée, mais plutot d'en comprendre le fondement. Il est acceptable de considérer l'aide gouvernementale comme valable si elle reconnaît et alimente l'industrie comme étant le moteur de 1'économie. C'est le critère qui devrait êre appliqué sciemment et avec rigueur à toutes les politiques industrielles. D'autres principes de politique industrielle en découlent. “L'aide” du gouvernement devrait être redéfinie comme représentant un contrat entre le gouvernement et l'industrie. Ce contrat devrait êre limité dans le temps et envisagé dans le contexte du secteur concerné A l‘échéance, la société industrielle ou le secteur devrait pouvoir survivre avec la seule assistance du marché ou faire faillite. Les instrumeats et programmes actuels de politique industrielle sont fragmentés et manquent de cadre stratégique. La questiori la plus grave du point de vue des institutions est, toritefois, celle de la prolifération des sociétés de 1e couronne qui restreignent inévitablement les opérations privées. Elles devraient être limitées daris le temps avec, dès le début. des plans pour rendre au sectenr privé la fonction qu'elles remplissent. “We made it with government assistance — what's so bad about that?— Lee Iacocca, chairman, Chrysler     

Popping the cultural bubble of violence risk assessment tools

Violence risk instruments are administered in medico-legal contexts to estimate an individual’s likelihood of future violence. However, their ostensible limitations; in particular their mono-cultural and risk-centric composition, has drawn academic attention. These concerns may facilitate erroneous risk evaluations for certain non-white populations. Yet it remains unaddressed how cultural differences will be appraised in a risk assessment framework and which specific cultural factors should be considered. Provisions under the Canadian Criminal Code allow for Gladue Reports, to be sought by judicial officers prior to sentencing Indigenous people. Gladue Reports provide insights into an Indigenous person’s unique circumstances that may have led to their offending as well as community-based options for rehabilitation. We proffer that there may be value in augmenting the risk evaluation with culturally relevant Gladue style considerations identified by relevant Indigenous people to provide a more holistic account of an Indigenous individual’s circumstances.     

Is it really performance that is measured？ A reflection of the South African Government＇s performance management system

The institutionalisation of performance management in the South African public service is a post-1994 intervention necessitated by the need to counteract the legacy of poor performance in public service institutions. Performance management as an integrated system is not a standalone intervention, but has direct links with other organisational processes. At both the micro- and macro-levels, PMS （performance management system） recognises institutional performance relationships between individuals＇, teams＇ and departments＇ performance contributions for attaining government performance targets. These institutional performance relationships in the South African public service have attracted excessive attention, whilst their performance impact in communities has been overlooked. In addition, the interdependence between the dichotomies of PMS： institutional performance relationships and performance impact have also been overlooked. In the South African context, this condition creates a disparity in terms of which government employees are rewarded for outstanding performance, whilst targeted beneficiaries express dissatisfaction, often with violent protests, over government＇s performance in the delivery of basic services. The protestors cite poor service delivery in prioritised key performance areas of the South African Government. The granting of performance rewards to government employees is an expression of performance excellence, which should translate into quality service delivery. Such delivery should not only meet the levels of service delivery expectations of targeted communities, but should also result in their total satisfaction. The article is founded on the basis that any disparity between targeted beneficiaries＇ service expectations and level of satisfaction can be linked directly to government progress in PMS implementation.