Aesop With Variations: Civil Service Competency as A Case of German Tortoise and British Hare?

Among the most widely used stereotypes in the contemporary literature on public management reform is to portray German administrative policy as that of a slow-moving 'tortoise' in contrast to the fast-moving reform 'hare'. Taking civil service competency as a point of analysis, this article questions the validity of these widely held assumptions. It does so in three steps. Following a brief comparative narrative of competency initiatives in the German and British higher civil services, the article explores to what extent the observed 'Aesop with variation' pattern can be explained. It suggests that the variations can only to a limited extent be explained by 'civil service competency exceptionalism' and that there therefore seems to be something wrong with the way that Germany and the UK are conventionally categorized in the international public management reform literature.     

Out of Africa: The human trade between Libya and Lampedusa

Smuggling and trafficking in persons is ipso facto illegal. Is this criminal activity organised or diffuse? Recent objective indicators show that between 2000-2005 the reported incidence of people trafficking and smuggling from North Africa to Europe has escalated. The article examines the nature of criminality involved in people smuggling and trafficking with specific reference to the sea route between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa, 180 miles north of the Libyan coast. In 2006 almost 19,000 illegal migrants arrived on this small island. Recent major operations conducted by the Italian anti-mafia unit and the state police suggest transnational criminal organisation of the trade. The networks involved in this trade, however, do not conform to mafia-like hierarchical organisations but rather smaller, more complex and fluid criminal networks. The article aims to cast light on how people are smuggled and trafficked. The background to the rise in illegal immigration from Libya is sketched underlining the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors involved in the human trade. The article’s chief objective is to provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved in smuggling/trafficking. A better knowledge of the processes involved is vital if domestic, regional and international authorities and bodies are to counter the practice and/or to formalise it.     

Cabinet Government in the Twentieth Century

This paper examines the main features of the cabinet system as it had emerged during the twentieth century, and which Jennings did so much to crystallize in his pioneering study on Cabinet Government. It then assesses the main changes that have occurred over successive administrations since the late 1970s, and concludes that even if cabinet government seemed to return in 1990 and 2003, it was without the cabinet system that had underpinned and made it effective in the past.     

The Working Alliance in Intervention for Partner Violence Perpetrators: Recent Research and Theory

The working alliance consists of therapist and client agreement on the goals and tasks of therapy, and the therapeutic bond. Measures of the working alliance, assessed during the course of therapy, have consistently predicted positive therapeutic change across various client populations and treatment approaches. This paper reviews recent research highlighting the importance of the working alliance with respect to treatment compliance and outcome in interventions for perpetrators of partner violence. The common promotion and use of confrontational intervention tactics in these interventions and the potentially negative impact of confrontational tactics on the working alliance is also discussed.     

Dean Acheson, the JCS and the 'single package': American policy on German rearmament, 1950

Historians have largely accepted Dean Acheson's claim that, in preparation for the 1950 New York conference, the Joint Chiefs of Staff forced him to adopt the so-called 'single package' tactic: the Americans would only increase their military presence in Western Europe if the Europeans agreed to rearm West Germany. However, the documentary record reveals that it was Acheson and the civilians of the State Department who controlled decision making on this issue. While this case should provide political scientists with more evidence that civil-military relations in the Truman administration followed a 'traditional administrative' model, it should also lead historians to revise their understanding of American foreign policy making from 1949 to 1953, particularly Dean Acheson's reputation as a cautious statesman who managed the Western alliance as a democratic partnership.