Winning the Peace: Australia's Campaign to Change the Asia‐Pacific

Winning the Peace: Australia's Campaign to Change the Asia‐Pacific. By Andrew Carr (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2015), pp.viii + 336, AU$59.99 (pb).     

Congressional certification: How firms use former Congress members to lobby on their behalf

This paper models the effect of firm-level profitability (earnings before interest and taxes and return on sales) against certification by former members of the U.S. Congress. Although some scholars have studied certification, none have studied certification in the public policy market as is done in the current work. Likewise, although scholars have studied the effects of lobbying and political connections on firms' outcomes, none have studied lobbying through former Congress members specifically. The findings confirm that, after controlling for numerous factors, firms can use former Congress members to effectively lobby and certify their intentions. Both firm-level earnings before interest and taxes and return on sales were significantly associated with prior lobbying efforts by these former elected federal officials in several different estimation techniques employed in the study.     

THE ANTI-CORRUPTION STRUGGLE IN XI JINPING’S CHINA: AN ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL NARRATIVE

The fact that the extensive anti-corruption struggle that has consumed China since 2013 is highly political is widely accepted and understood. But the question is precisely what political strategy it is directed at – that of bolstering the position of the current supreme leader, Xi Jinping. Or for the preservation of the Party itself. There is a huge difference between these. The first simply means in effect the replacement of one corruptible elite by another. The second means a titanic struggle to change the Chinese communist party culture of power, and to make it enduring and sustainable.     

Rethinking accountability in complex and horizontal network delivery systems

This paper revisits the conventional notion of accountability rooted in bureaucratic and hierarchical structures of government and advances an alternative conceptualization more useful for analyzing complex horizontal network delivery systems. Although such systems are increasingly prevalent, they often exacerbate the problem of accountability in the public sector. By examining regional economic development policy implementation in Manitoba, this article illustrates the prospects and challenges of adapting conventional constructs of accountability to horizontal network delivery systems.     

The Tradition Industry: Hofstadter and Santayana on Politics,Culture and Capitalism

Richard Hofstadter’s provocative interpretation of what he called The American Political Tradition has long interested students and scholars. Often read as a response to the crisis times of the depression 1930s and interventionist 1940s, the book’s origins are actually rooted in deeper cultural changes in the United States. This paper argues that George Santayana’s earlier essay, “The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy” (1911), anticipated several key aspects of Hofstadter’s argument and proved to more accurately foresee the ideological course of twentieth century American politics.     

Ideology in the Era of Xi Jinping

Journal of Chinese Political Science - After 1978, Maoism as a living mass ideological and social force in the People’s Republic of China largely died away. The Party state’s legitimacy...     

Bringing the PDS into the coalition equation

This article is intended to be a contribution to the study of the politics of the Anglo‐German relationship, and to the politics of NATO enlargement, seen purely within this context. It is not concerned with the validity of any strategic arguments concerning enlargement, the organisational or the financial problems stemming from this policy, or the wider strategic issues raised by this policy. From 1992 until 1 May 1997 the bilateral Anglo‐German relationship exhibited ever deeper fissures in policy on European integration, and on monetary union in particular. Yet, Anglo‐German policy in respect of NATO's eastern expansion and its relations with the new Russia, which reflected an integrating Europe from a different perspective, was characterised by fundamental agreement. This paradox, it is suggested, indicates that policy on Europe suffered more from ideological conflict on European integration within the governing Conservative Party during the period under review than from an inherent or necessary conflict of national interest between Britain and Germany.     

INCLUSIVE APPROACH

<正>Global integration strategy can address Africa’s infrastructure and employment woes The Silk Road Economic Belt and the21st-Century Maritime Silk Road,better known collectively as the Belt and     

The implementation of case formulation by probation officers: service user and carer views

Background: The recent UK Government strategy on high-risk offenders with personality disorders (PD) proposes improved identification of this group, assessment of their treatment needs through case formulation (CF) and the subsequent provision of treatment pathways. Little is known about service user and carer views on this strategy. Aims/Hypotheses: This study sought to identify the views of personality-disordered (PD) offenders and carers on the proposed role of Probation staff in CF. Methods: Three focus groups were carried out, two with service users and one with carers, with a total of 10 participants overall. Results: Five themes emerged: ‘power’, ‘conflicting roles’, ‘trust’, ‘building a relationship through consistency of care’ and ‘hope and possibility’. Conclusions/Practical implications: Offenders and carers were sceptical regarding the proposed role of Offender Manager (OMs) in CF and this could pose a potential barrier to the successful implementation of the strategy.