William Robertson: Exemplar of Politics and Public Management Rightly Understood

William Robertson, director of the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Street Services, is profiled here as an exemplary public administrator. The authors suggest that Robertson practices politics appropriately in his role in order to achieve great outcomes for his bureau, the citizens with whom he works, and the city as a whole. To adequately define the ways in which Robertson uses politics, Sherry Arnstein's "ladder of participation" is reconceptualized as a circle of participation in which Robertson uses multiple strategies of interaction with citizens, elected officials, employees, and peers. Lessons for public administrators are offered based on Robertson's example.     

Waging Lawfare: Law,Environment and Depoliticization in Neoliberal Australia

ABSTRACT

When environmental NGOs in Australia successfully sued the nation’s environment minister in August 2015 to temporarily withhold environmental approval for Australia’s largest coal mine, the ruling Coalition government accused environmentalists of waging “lawfare.” Through a critical discourse analysis of Parliamentary debate and media coverage, this article explores the lawfare battles fought in Australia in 2015, arguing that these were a site of depoliticization, in Mouffe’s (2005, Mouffe, Chantal. 2005. On the Political. Abingdon: Routledge) sense of the term. By exploring how the question of legal regulation of coal mining was rationalized, moralized, and stripped of significant political or ideological differences, this seeks to add to our understanding of processes of depoliticization by considering metadiscourses concerning “the law.”     

Organizational loyalty and personal ethics: The moral priorities of Chinese cadres

The ethical norms of senior cadres in the Peoples Republic of China are examined with respect to personal ethics, organizational loyalty and social responsibility. The extent to which one of these sets of norms may take priority over the other is investigated using survey research. The personal ethical values of the 46-50 age group are found to be unusually acute for a group of middle-aged administrators, much closer to those of the younger cadres. Also, they demonstrate exceptional homogeneity in their responses as compared to other age groups. However, they appear to have little independence of conscience when confronted with concrete decision making situations. Loyalty to the organization is found to be particularly dominant over personal ethics and responsibility to the larger society among these 46-50 year-old cadres. Lacking a moral anchor in any foundational philosophy or ideology, these cadres are highly vulnerable to control by the bureaucracies in which they are employed. Further research is suggested to explore the possibility that the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 may have impacted this particular generation of cadres in ways that severed their ties to Marxism and traditional Chinese values rooted in Confucianism.     

The impact of tax structures on deficits: tax elasticity and fiscal illusion in sixteen oecd countries

This paper represents the first systematic attempt to link revenue structure to deficits cross-nationally. Recent analyses of the causes of increased budget deficits in the industrialized countries have focused on the factors that influence government spending, ignoring the possibility that chronic deficits might also be caused by shortfalls in revenue. In this research, using data from sixteen OECD countries during the period 1959-1990, we test hypotheses regarding the linkage between a country's revenue structure and its experience with deficits. We find evidence that countries heavily dependent on direct taxes had more difficulty keeping spending and revenues in line, particularly during times of high unemployment. We find no evidence, however, of a “fiscal illusion” impact on deficits.     

Negotiating chile's entry to nafta: trade and investment issues

In December 1994, the United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed in principle to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to Chile at the Summit of the Americas. This paper examines Chile's accession to NAFTA with special reference to key issues in the negotiations. It discusses the rationale for extending NAFTA to Chile from the U.S. and Chilean perspectives. The study also examines how NAFTA negotiators may address issues such as trade and investment rules, technical standards, dispute settlement obligations, intellectual property rights, phase-in periods, and labor and environmental standards.     

Inpatient aggression by mentally ill offenders: a retrospective case-control study

A retrospective case-control study was conducted examining relationships between patients’ socio-demographic, clinical and admission characteristics and inpatient aggression. Patients aged 18–64?years with a recent offence episode, who were admitted to a regional acute mental health unit, were included as cases (N?=?82), while controls comprised the next available admission, matched for age and gender (N?=?82). The prototypical patient was a young, single male, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a history of substance use and previous psychiatric admissions. The majority of cases had a history of aggression and recent offences against public order. They also revealed a higher likelihood of involvement in ‘less serious’ aggressive incidents (e.g. verbal threats or demands) during the index admission. Clinically, knowledge of each patient’s recent offence history, arrival mode and observed characteristics on admission (including any verbal aggression) may be important in the management of subsequent inpatient aggression.