Crossing Boundaries: Action Networks,Amalgamation and Inter-Community Trust in a Small Rural Shire

Local government reforms introduced throughout the mid-1990s radically altered the face, institutional form and structure of local government in the state of Victoria, Australia. In rural areas, where shire boundaries often reflected deeply ingrained notions of communal interest and identity, the forced merger of previously independent and fiercely parochial councils into larger unified political and administrative units was particularly contentious. Drawing on a survey of 649 residents from the rural Shire of Buloke, this paper examines attitudes towards local government amalgamation, levels of inter-community trust and reciprocity, and how these vary across different parts of the municipality. Social network analysis is then used to explore the relationship between these attitudes and trust levels and the structure and orientation of respondents’ inter-community networks. The paper finds that despite the passage of more than a decade, significant residual resentment surrounding the impact of the forced amalgamations remains evident across most communities in Buloke Shire. There is a widespread perception that the reforms have undermined rather than improved the operation of local government across the municipality, and that post-amalgamation political structures have largely failed to effectively reconcile the diverse and sometimes disparate interests of Buloke's constituent towns and communities. The network analysis also suggests that much work remains to be done to develop a meaningful sense of community based on the new administrative boundaries, with very little evidence of cross-community cooperation, coalition building or issue-based interaction detected.     

Expertise and Bias in Political Communication Networks

Citizens minimize information costs by obtaining political guidance from others who have already assumed the costs of acquiring and processing political information. A problem occurs because ideal informants, typically characterized by the joint presence of political expertise and shared viewpoints, are frequently unavailable or rare within the groups where individuals are located. Hence, individuals must often look beyond their own group boundaries to find such informants. The problem is that obtaining information from individuals located beyond their own groups produces additional costs. Moreover, the availability of ideal informants varies across groups and settings, with the potential to produce (1) context‐dependent patterns of informant centrality, which in turn generate (2) varying levels of polarization among groups and (3) biases in favor of some groups at the expense of others. The article's analysis is based on a series of small‐group experiments, with aggregate implications addressed using a simple agent‐based model.     

Indonesia and bilateral trade agreements (BTAs)

Abstract

This paper analyses the perspectives of Indonesian state and non-state actors towards their country's increasing tendency to use bilateral trade agreements (BTAs) as part of its foreign economic policy. Unlike the other original members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Indonesian government has been rather slow in pursuing a BTA policy with non-ASEAN member countries. Nevertheless, due to the proliferation of BTAs in other ASEAN countries' foreign economic policies, it was inevitable that Indonesia would pursue similar agreements with its non-ASEAN major trading partners. Despite this, it remains questionable whether Indonesia's participation in such trade agreements will produce such positive results for Indonesian economy. The attitude of the majority of Indonesian domestic constituents to date remains sceptical to this type of agreement. This is not only because BTAs create specific obligations on a range of issues, from trade and investment regimes, this trade strategy also involves deeper and more comprehensive commitments that those agreed at the multilateral level.     

Use of trusts by Eastern European clients: practical issues

In order to get a more sophisticated understanding of the useof trusts by the clients from Eastern Europe (primarily fromRussia), it is worthwhile describing the procedure for settingup a trust with a typical representative of the ‘new wave’Eastern European business; painting a collective portrait ofRussian businessmen in 2007, and identifying the most commontypes, their specific features and the possible difficultiesof working with this sort of client. This modest unsystematicreview will help trust professionals to break through a cultureshock produced by the contact with a recent extraterrestrial,and now a demanding client. This article provides an insightinto most frequent queries and examines psychological aspectsof behavior, business practice and, if possible, to dispersestereotypes.     

Forced to make mistakes: Reasons for complaining about Bebchuk's scheme and other market-oriented insolvency procedures

Bebchuk's proposal for bankruptcy reform is analysed, in particular his claim that using options is fair and prevents justified complains. However, the proposal has a systematic bias against junior creditors and former shareholders because they have to pay for unavoidable mistakes in estimating the company's value, may lack the financial resources to exercise their options and lose by a day of reckoning. A market solution will be specified that is simpler and at least as fair as Bebchuk's scheme according to his own standards. However, a complete solution to these problems may have to be a non-market one. JEL Classification G33 · K39 · K22     

Die Bewirtschaftung der genetischen Ressourcen des Tiefseebodens – Ein neues Seerechtsproblem?

Die genetischen Ressourcen des küstenfernen Tiefseebodens rücken angesichts ihrer besonderen biochemischen Eigenschaften zunehmend in den Vordergrund des wirtschaftlichen und wissenschaftlichen Interesses. Vorliegender Beitrag befasst sich mit der Frage, inwiefern eine nachhaltige Bewirtschaftung dieser Ressourcen vom geltenden See- und Umweltv?lkerrecht erfasst wird. Er legt den Schwerpunkt auf die Durchsetzung der einschl?gigen Hohe See-Bestimmungen und erteilt rechtspolitischen Forderungen nach einer Ausdehnung des Meeresbodenregimes eine Absage.     

Is Judicial Review Democratic? A Comment on Harel

Law and Philosophy -     

Ethics, values and behaviours: comparison of three case studies examining the paucity of leadership in government

Three societies with similar initiatives for public service re-configuration and reform – the UK, Canada and Australia – are examined to highlight the many-faceted issues of public service ethics and the different approaches these governments have taken to re-building public trust and enhancing public service ethics in times of rapid change. These efforts for re-building an ethical public service are scrutinized according to four criteria for effectively leading change. Changes of public service values are also analysed as well as their implications for public servants.
Effectively, applied leadership is identified as the pillar of ethical practice – emphasizing the need for quality leadership development through on-the-job experience. Although legislation and codification are seen as necessary for building an ethical infrastructure that can help employees out of encountered dilemmas, the way forward is seen as nurturing an environment of trust and vigilance in which ethics are promoted through exemplary behaviour of leaders and employees alike.