The Dictator's New Clothes: The Relationship Between E-Participation and Quality of Government in Non-Democratic Regimes

It is often assumed that the development of e-participation and e-government initiatives aimed at stimulating citizen participation in the political process and fostering more efficient governmental services harbors a great potential for improved control of corruption and government performance. Thus, it is often argued that e-participation is an efficient instrument for increasing transparency and quality of government in non-democratic and developing countries. However, this article argues that these assumptions should be questioned on theoretical, empirical, and methodological grounds. The results of the empirical time-series cross-section analyses show that positive development in terms of e-participation in non-democratic countries does not lead to corresponding positive effects in terms of control of corruption and quality of government. Rather, in many cases the Internet offers political elites new opportunities in their quest for remaining in power.     

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IN JAPAN: Mainstream Perspectives and an Alternative View

Various explanations have been proposed for Japan's deepening economic crisis: (1) the country's “anticapitalist” economic institutions, (2) the failure to clean up bad bank loans and bankrupt companies, (3) a deflationary liquidity trap, (4) upward pressures on the value of the yen, and (5) balance-sheet adjustments instigated by the collapse of the 1980s “bubble economy.” Our critical survey suggests that the kernel of truth in all these perspectives lies in their common (mostly unstated and unconscious) implication that Japan faces a crisis of capitalist maturity involving a worsening trade-off between economic stagnation and the exploitative, wasteful, and destructive utilization of productive capacity. This dilemma can only be overcome through an explicit rejection of capitalist priorities and a movement toward a more worker-community-centered economy.     

The place of corporate ownership and management in local government anti‐poverty strategy in Britain

Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government policy documents. On the basis of a series of interviews with government officials and their counterparts in the Welsh Local Government Association we find evidence of important tensions in the Welsh approach. While the emphasis on the citizen has worked in building a ‘political rationality’, the evidence from our interviews suggests that it works less well as a ‘government technology’.     

‘You're Just Treating Us as Informants!’ Roles,Responsibilities and Relationships in the Production of Children's Services Directories

Local authorities in England are required to make directories of services available to practitioners working with children and young people. This is against a background of continuing reforms intended to ensure that services are joined-up around the needs and choices of children, young people and their families. There are high expectations that more of these services will be delivered by organisations from theVoluntary and Community Sector (VCS), especially services for groups or communities that public sector agencies find hard to engage. This article reports and comments upon a regional study focusing on the production of children's service directories involving service providers and commissioners, as well as the producers of directories, in a series of facilitated workshop activities. The study highlights tensions between local authorities and service providers around how information about services is controlled, edited and accessed. We argue that current approaches to the provision ofdirectories are unlikely to have the transformational effects predicted by policy makers. This is partly because local authorities' traditional position (supported by the prevailing technologies) has meant that they have tended to monopolise the roles and responsibilities which in turn maintains their control of directory content. They do so in the face of increasing dissent from new and established providers. Moreover, current models of service directories fail to meet the emerging information needs of a range ofstakeholders including service providers, service commissioners and service users. Inconclusion we propose some questions to improve visibility and governance in the creation and maintenance of service directories.     

Current film policy in South Africa: the establishment of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa and its role in the development of a post-apartheid film industry

Abstract

The author aims to discuss the historical process which led to the establishment of the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), its strategies and vision for a post-apartheid film and video industry, and its potential role in policy formulation beyond the borders of South Africa. It is not an attempt to provide an insider's critique and/or analysis of current film policy, but aims to highlight the role of the NFVF in the policy-making process.     

Controlling Local Government Spending: The Implementation and Impact of Capping Council Taxes

The level of local fiscal autonomy is widely regarded as an important indicator of the state of central-local relations and the capping of council tax increases has proved to be one of the most contentious of all of the constraints placed on local authorities by UK central government. Over the last decade the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales have moved away from capping in favour of a more consensual approach. This decision reflects the difference in scale and nature of their policy communities and appears to have been at least as successful in controlling increases in local taxes as the more directive, top-down strategy favoured by policymakers in England. The current UK government's proposals to promote local referenda rather than ministerial diktat as the means of controlling council tax levels represents a potentially important new but as yet unproven approach.     

Book reviews

Amir Taheri, Holy Terror: The Inside Story of Islamic Terrorism. London: Century Hutchinson; Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1987. Pp.313. £12.95/$19.95 (hardback); £3.95 (paperback).

Robert O. Slater and Michael Stohl (eds.), Current Perspectives on International Terrorism. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. Pp. 288. £29.50/$39.95 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback).

Juliet Lodge (ed.), The Threat of Terrorism. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books; Boulder, CO.Westview Press, 1988. Pp. 280. £35/$33.50 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback).

Edward F. Mickolus with Peter A. Flemming (compilers), Terrorism, 1980–1987: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988. Pp. 314. £49.50/$55.     

The red air force in Italy, 1944: A case study in the formation of British Policy to the Soviet Union in world war II

In March 1944, the Soviets requested permission to base some aircraft in southern Italy. As the area was under Anglo‐American control, this raised some significant issues concerning wartime cooperation with the Soviets. Once it was set up, the base (at Bari) was used to send an unannounced mission to the Communist part of the Greek resistance movement. This paper considers the development of British attitudes towards these Soviet activities and demonstrates how the issue throws light on the making of British policy towards the USSR at this time: the conflicting views in different departments concerning the best method of handling the Soviets and the strategic significance of Soviet activities in the Balkans and the Mediterranean.