The King of Farum—A Danish Corruption Tale

With the background knowledge that Denmark is one of the least corrupt nations in the world, this article explores the case of a mayor who for eight years worked ‘miracles’ for ‘his’ municipality but was later revealed to have built this community on circumvention of control mechanisms and laws. For this (and for his overwhelming consumption of expensive wines at the taxpayers’ expense) he was later sentenced to four years of imprisonment. He was not driven by personal economic gain, but more likely by a mixture between creating a municipality of his dreams and the almost absolute power that he ended up with just before the scandal hit the headlines. The case was revealed by two journalists from a yellow newspaper, but very soon police and other authorities as well as his fellow politicians followed up on the revelations, and his former political friends turned their back on him. It is not the story of a mayor who was bribed – but of a mayor who turned out to be ‘corrupt’ in a wider sense of the word.     

Regime interplay in Arctic shipping governance: explaining regional niche selection

Distinctive institutional features can make a regime particularly suited for conducting one or more generic tasks of governance: building knowledge, strengthening norms, enhancing problem-solving capacity, or enforcing rule compliance. Each of those governance tasks constitutes a potential “niche” that a regime can specialize in within a larger institutional complex. Applying this niche-oriented approach to the case of Arctic marine transport helps to explain the emerging division of labor between regional and global institutions in an issue area marked by rapid change. Drawing on earlier regime-effectiveness research, the article examines the potential of regional institutions, especially the Arctic Council, to contribute to strengthening the international governance system for shipping, based on the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO). Although the Arctic Council is not well positioned to regulate regional shipping activities, it may facilitate regulatory advances in the IMO, in part by knowledge-building and in part by helping Arctic states to find common ground on matters of controversy. The Council is also well equipped to enhance regional maritime infrastructure, like capacities for responding to oil spills, and search and rescue operations. Should binding region-specific international rules on Arctic shipping be adopted, Arctic institutions could play a role in coordinating port-state enforcement measures—but existing institutions with broader participation are better suited and will probably remain dominant. The larger question of achieving cross-institutional interplay that can promote effectiveness is relevant in any region or issue area, because efforts to solve specific problems usually involve more than one institution.     

Leadership and Meaningful Work in the Public Sector

There have been many important studies on leadership in the public administration discipline; however, scholarly inquiry still lags behind related disciplines such as psychology and business administration. This article helps fill that gap by analyzing the role that public leaders play in making work more meaningful for their employees, which, in turn, has a positive influence on employee job outcomes. Specifically, the authors analyze the mediating role of work meaningfulness in the relationships between leader‐member exchange and organizational commitment, work effort, and work‐to‐family enrichment. Samples from education, health care, and local government are used. Results show that leadership strongly influences work meaningfulness, which, in turn, influences job outcomes. In addition, the impact and extent of leadership and work meaningfulness are higher in health care and education than in local government. The results emphasize the importance of leadership and meaningful work in the public sector.     

Informale Gestattungen und §§ 327, 325 StGB

Informalit?t ist eine allt?gliche Erscheinungsform des Verwaltungshandelns. Informales Verwaltungshandeln in Form von informalen Gestattungen wird in der rechtlichen Diskussion jedoch nur undifferenziert unter dem Stichwort der Duldung daraufhin untersucht, ob diese trotz des Fehlens einer expliziten formalen Gestattung zur Straflosigkeit führen kann. Der konturenlose Sammelbegriff der Duldung kann aber die verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen informaler Gestattungen nicht erfassen. Die vorliegende Abhandlung will dem Ph?nomen informalen Verwaltungshandelns in Form der informalen Gestattungen eine eigene Struktur verleihen und untersucht im Anschluss daran deren Auswirkungen auf das Umweltstrafrecht. Bei der vorliegenden Abhandlung handelt es sich folglich um eine „Zwei-S?ulen-Betrachtung“ an der Schnittstelle zwischen (besonderem) Verwaltungsrecht und (Umwelt-)Strafrecht, so dass es sich um einen interdisziplin?ren Beitrag handelt.     

European governance and the transfer of 'new' environmental policy instruments (NEPIs) in the European Union

This article examines the use of 'new' environmental policy instruments (NEPIs), particularly market-based instruments (for example, eco-taxes) and voluntary agreements, in the European Union (EU). It focuses on the actor motivation behind the recent increase in the adoption of new and innovative instruments in EU (and member state) environmental policies while also taking account of the external international arena. The article assesses whether new ideas put forward by policy entrepreneurs, such as member governments, EU institutions, expert groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), are the main motivation behind the EU adoption of NEPIs, or whether market and harmonization pressures are the main driving forces. It concentrates on eco-taxes, voluntary agreements and eco-labels, using the following three theoretical perspectives: (1) policy learning and transfer/ideational; (2) garbage can; and (3) institutional approaches.     

Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Public Sector: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

This article presents a systematic literature review of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the public sector. The findings show that although OCB is gaining more attention in the public sector, research often does not take specific public sector characteristics or concepts into account. Based on the available evidence, the authors develop a framework of antecedents, outcomes, mediators, and moderators of OCB. Three areas for future research are recommended: (1) regarding theory: link OCB to public sector concepts such as bureaucratic red tape, public leadership, and public service motivation; (2) regarding research designs: use stronger survey designs, experiments, and case studies and devote more attention to cross-sectoral and cross-country differences; and (3) regarding the consequences of OCB: address the gap in our knowledge of how OCB has an impact on public organizations, including negative impacts.     

Minimally invasive postmortem telebiopsy

For the past 10 years, medical imaging techniques have been increasingly applied to forensic investigations. To obtain histological and toxicological information, tissue and liquid samples are required. In this article, we describe the development of a low-cost, secure, and reliable approach for a telematic add-on for remotely planning biopsies on the Virtobot robotic system. Data sets are encrypted and submitted over the Internet. A plugin for the OsiriX medical image viewer allows for remote planning of needle trajectories that are used for needle placement. The application of teleradiological methods to image-guided biopsy in the forensic setting has the potential to reduce costs and, in conjunction with a mobile computer tomographic scanner, allows for tissue sampling in a mass casualty situation involving nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, in a manner that minimizes the risk to involved staff.