Administrative Styles in the OECD: Bureaucratic Policy-Making beyond Formal Rules

As we know from comparative public policy, bureaucracies contribute to a considerable degree to the contents and the ways of policy-making. One important driver of administrative policy-making are their specific “styles” or “cultures”. “Administrative styles” are understood here as the standard operating procedures and routines that characterize the behavior and activities of administrative bodies in initiating, drafting and implementing policy. In this article, we convey the concept of Administrative Styles to the level of International Organizations (IOs) and apply it to the Organization for Economic Development and Co-Operation (OECD). The article proceeds in three steps: First, the concept of administrative styles is introduced and refined. Drawing on expert interviews with OECD staff, we secondly show that consideration of OECD administrative styles significantly advances the literature’s understanding of the organization. Finally, we give an outlook on new research avenues and the relevance of our findings for the study of International Public Administrations (IPAs) more generally.     

Measuring and managing ‘state fragility’: the production of statistics by the World Bank,Timor-Leste and the g7+

Indicators are currently being widely used in international policy making to substantiate analyses and justify decisions on the basis of their alleged scientific objectivity. This article analyses the role of indicators and statistics in the labelling and managing of ‘fragile states’, examining the powerful consequences of these classifications but also discussing the untraceable nature of numbers and the difficulties in attributing ownership of numerical claims and assigning responsibility for their many unforeseen impacts. Focusing on the education sector in Timor-Leste and on the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (cpia) programme, the article shows how accountability and ownership are negotiated within the context of the g7+ group of self-labelled ‘fragile states’, encouraging an examination of the power relations involved.     

Conflicts of customary land tenure in rural Africa: is large-scale land acquisition a driver of ‘institutional innovation’?

This study combines legal and anthropological approaches to investigate how the establishment of a large-scale biofuel agro-industry is reinterpreting and potentially transforming customary institutional arrangements in rural Sierra Leone. The contractual relationships established between land acquirers and local authorities can be seen as an ‘institutional innovation’ that aims at interpreting and overcoming the limits of the national land regime. However, by formalizing customary land tenure structures through land registration, such innovations are exacerbating pre-existing social inequalities. We identified four categories of resulting conflicts: interlineage, intervillage, interfamily and intergenerational conflicts. Taken together, these conflicts question the current land-based sociopolitical structures of rural Sierra Leone and could be drivers of societal change.     

Pitfalls of Computed Tomography 3D Reconstruction Models in Cranial Nonmetric Analysis*

Many studies in the literature have highlighted the utility of virtual 3D databanks as a substitute for real skeletal collections and the important application of radiological records in personal identification. However, none have investigated the accuracy of virtual material compared to skeletal remains in nonmetric variant analysis using 3D models. The present study investigates the accuracy of 20 computed tomography (CT) 3D reconstruction models compared to the real crania, focusing on the quality of the reproduction of the real crania and the possibility to detect 29 dental/cranial morphological variations in 3D images. An interobserver analysis was performed to evaluate trait identification, number, position, and shape. Results demonstrate a false bone loss in 3D models in some cranial regions, specifically the maxillary and occipital bones in 85% and 20% of the samples. Additional analyses revealed several difficulties in the detection of cranial nonmetric traits in 3D models, resulting in incorrect identification in circa 70% of the traits. In particular, pitfalls included the detection of erroneous position, error in presence/absence rates, in number, and in shape. The lowest percentages of correct evaluations were found in traits localized in the lateral side of the cranium and for the infraorbital suture, mastoid foramen, and crenulation. The present study highlights important pitfalls in CT scan when compared with the real crania for nonmetric analysis. This may have crucial consequences in cases where 3D databanks are used as a source of reference population data for nonmetric traits and pathologies and during bone-CT comparisons for identification purposes.     

From environmental policy concepts to practicable tools: Knowledge creation and delegation in multilevel systems

The problem‐solving capacity and problem‐generating potential of multilevel systems entail the need for the delegation of authority. When the problem concerned is about how to put an abstract policy concept into a practicable policy tool, the choice of the respective delegation trajectory depends on the policy models or the policy‐relevant knowledge that the respective political levels can supply. When regarding the European Union (EU) level as the starting point of knowledge creation and delegation trajectories, and concentrating on transaction costs, policy knowledge and models generated at the international level provide the most cost‐effective solution. Only when the international level is not able to provide further policy knowledge and innovation does the EU delegate its definitional authority, first downward to the member states and then sideways to EU agencies. We illustrate the plausibility of our dynamic understanding of multilevel governance by using Environmental Policy Integration as an example.     

新生产力观与可持续发展

可持续发展观是针对传统发展模式的弊端而提出的新发展战略。它要求经济发展与人口、资源和环境相协调,实现人与自然相和谐。新生产力观是可持续发展战略的必然要求,它强调以人为本,人是生产力发展的最终目的,在生产力发展过程中实现人与自然的统一。同时新生产力观也为可持续发展提供智力支持和观念保证。     

Experimental Study of Bite Mark Injuries by Digital Analysis

Abstract: This study was based on a morphometric analysis of bite marks starting from the quantitative definition of the anterior teeth by the geometric acquisition of the “injuries,” using bite marks impressed on pig skin and plastic. Each mark was photographed and acquired. A dedicated program automatically supplied the values of the shape factors and the areas of the pattern geometric figures. The values obtained for the homologous samples were compared to the heterologous values. Statistical comparison was made of the sets by linear regression, determining the correlation coefficient and the determination coefficient for each value. Results showed only 4.8% and 2% of overlap between homologous and heterologous values. This study was carried out in attempting to quantitatively define the anterior teeth of the human dentition and the procedure described and the results obtained support the advantage of morphometric studies and computer‐aided programs in this study of bite marks.