Governance in the European Union: A Policy Analysis of the Attempts to Raise Legitimacy through Civil Society Participation

Abstract

The article focuses on two flagship initiatives – the open method of co-ordination and online consultations – in which the European Union aimed to improve democratic legitimacy through collaborative governance. Offering an analytical framework to scrutinize the large body of existing theoretical and empirical research, the article concludes that not only were the high expectations on the effects of applied governance disappointed, the results also hint at larger, more general implications for the governance concept that, in contrast to the high expectations, appears to be indeed strongly dependent on government-like conditions to operate successfully.     

The viable future of Mexico and latin America: a new business paradigm

The objective of this special issue of the International Journal of Public Administration I understand is to focus on the shift we see in Latin America toward what is described as free market policies, and political democracy, and how this is coming about through a process of critical thinking about their future and their special role in the world economy. This is a laudable objective and one which hopefully will result in gaining deeper understanding for the highly developed countries of the realities of Latin America as well as their genuine needs for their long term viable development.

This initial article will diverge from the regular format of learned articles in this special issue, as it will summarize some of the main points of a book from which it is extracted. The purpose is to give a perspective which often goes unnoticed, that is, a vision of economic development from the perspective of the countries of South (Latin America) looking North (highly developed countries). This perspective takes into account as well as sociocultural/ecological considerations and exposes a number of long term concerns which the conventional economic approach to development of the North has not as yet been successful in incorporating. The purpose is to provide food for serious thought regarding our present concept of progress and development for Latin America in the long term and to consider how this approach is closely tied to the role of international business and government policy in the region.     

Collaborative Innovation: A Viable Alternative to Market Competition and Organizational Entrepreneurship

There are growing pressures for the public sector to be more innovative but considerable disagreement about how to achieve it. This article uses institutional and organizational analysis to compare three major public innovation strategies. The article confronts the myth that the market‐driven private sector is more innovative than the public sector by showing that both sectors have a number of drivers of as well as barriers to innovation, some of which are similar, while others are sector specific. The article then systematically analyzes three strategies for innovation: New Public Management, which emphasizes market competition; the neo‐Weberian state, which emphasizes organizational entrepreneurship; and collaborative governance, which emphasizes multiactor engagement across organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. The authors conclude that the choice of strategies for enhancing public innovation is contingent rather than absolute. Some contingencies for each strategy are outlined.     

Political participation and parliamentary careers: Women's quotas in West Germany

Drawing on a survey of women candidates and parliamentary handbooks, this article examines the effects of women's quotas in West German political parties. Since the mid‐1980s, the number of women members in Land parliaments and in the Bundestag increased sharply, in particular for the SPD and Greens. In the CDU and SPD, women require a track‐record of office‐holding before their nomination, while the party organisation carries little weight in FDP and Greens. CDU and FDP women tend to link political success to personality while women in the SPD and Greens look for an end to a male‐dominated party culture. The focus on women appears to favour the academically qualified, especially in the Greens and in the SPD.     

Forensic Paleontology: A Tool for “Intelligence” and Investigation

Paleontology and facies analysis proved to be useful tools in activities of intelligence and investigation on some criminal cases, as well as in in‐court activities, thus defining the “forensic paleontology” area of study. The definition was given by analyzing its possible specific applications and excluding some marginal activities. The reliability of forensic paleontology was then assessed in light of the results achieved in some actual cases and in an ad hoc simulation. The investigated cases concerned intelligence and ordinary law enforcement activities. Special attention was paid to crimes against the cultural heritage. Ex post re‐examination of the cases substantiated the value of this scientific branch in investigations, while stressing the possible difficulties in explaining its results to lay persons. Therefore, careful preparation of technical and linguistic preliminary notes for judges, prosecutors, and lawyers as well as a special training for consultants are recommended before presenting results as exhibits in in‐court cross‐examinations.     

Empathy as a predictor of recidivism among young adult offenders

This longitudinal study examined the role of empathy in predicting recidivism among young adult offenders. During their prison terms, 748 male offenders between the ages of 15 and 28 were administered the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI; Davis, 1980). Official criminal records were used to determine general as well as violent recidivism during the (on average) five years following release from prison. Cox regression models of reoffense rates were calculated using IRI scales as explanatory variables while controlling for age, socioeconomic status, duration of imprisonment, and intelligence. The global empathy score and the subscales of perspective taking and empathic fantasy, but neither empathic concern nor personal distress, contributed to the prediction of recidivism. Furthermore, empathy did not contribute significantly to the prediction of violent reoffending. However, comparing offenders whose index crimes were violent versus nonviolent, violent offenders scored lower on the IRI and recidivated more often with a violent offence than did nonviolent offenders.     

From absent to present pasts: civil society,democracy and the shifting place of memory in Brazil

This article takes Alexis de Tocqueville’s concern with the emotional life of citizens as a cue for exploring the role of collective memory within ‘the self-organizing sphere’ and asking how the invocation of memory affects progress towards democracy. The article hones in on the Brazilian experience, re-assessing Brazil’s amnesiac past as well as its much-lauded ‘turn to memory’. Against common assertions that Brazil’s ‘turn to memory’ will enhance the country’s democratic credentials, this article argues that the move from an ‘absent’ to a ‘present’ past in Brazil in fact bodes rather mixed prospects for the country’s democratic deepening.     

Life Satisfaction in Early Adolescence: Personal,Neighborhood, School,Family, and Peer Influences

Drawing from an ecological assets framework as well as research and theory on positive youth development, this study examined the relationship of early adolescents’ satisfaction with life to trait optimism and assets representing the social contexts in which early adolescents spend most of their time. Self-reports of satisfaction with life, optimism, and ecological assets in the school (school connectedness), neighborhood (perceived neighborhood support), family (perceived parental support), and peer group (positive peer relationships) were assessed in a sample of 1,402 4th to 7th graders (47% female) from 25 public elementary schools. Multilevel modeling (MLM) was conducted to analyze the variability in life satisfaction both at the individual and the school level. As hypothesized, adding optimism and the dimensions representing the ecology of early adolescence to the model significantly reduced the variability in life satisfaction at both levels of analysis. Both personal (optimism) and all of the ecological assets significantly and positively predicted early adolescents’ life satisfaction. The results suggest the theoretical and practical utility of an assets approach for understanding life satisfaction in early adolescence.     

“I Got Your Back”: Friends’ Understandings Regarding College Student Spring Break Behavior

Behaviors that pose threats to safety and health, including binge drinking and unprotected sex, increase during a week-long break from university. Understandings with peers regarding these behaviors may be important for predicting behavior and related harms. College students (N = 651; 48% men) reported having understandings with their friends regarding alcohol use (59%) and sexual behavior (45%) during Spring Break. These understandings were to engage in behaviors characterized by risk (e.g., get drunk [23.5%], have sex with someone new [5.2%]) and protection (e.g., drink without getting drunk [17.8%], use condoms [15.8%]). After controlling for previous semester behavior and going on a Spring Break trip, Get Drunk Understandings predicted a greater likelihood of binge drinking and alcohol-related consequences; No/Safe Sex Understandings predicted condom use; and Sex Understandings predicted not using condoms. Understandings with friends regarding Spring Break behavior may be important proximal predictors of risk behaviors and represent potential targets for event-specific prevention.     

Are Secondary Variants of Juvenile Psychopathy More Reactively Violent and Less Psychosocially Mature Than Primary Variants?

There is growing support for the disaggregation of psychopathy into primary and secondary variants. This study examines whether variants of psychopathy can be identified in a subsample (n = 116) of juvenile offenders with high scores on the Youth Version of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:YV). Model-based cluster analysis of offenders’ scores on the PCL:YV and a measure of anxiety suggested a two-group solution. The derived clusters manifested expected differences across theoretically relevant constructs of abuse history, hostility, and psychiatric symptoms. Compared with low-anxious primary variants, high-anxious secondary variants manifested more institutional violence, greater psychosocial immaturity, and more instability in institutional violence over a 2-year period, but similar stability in PCL:YV scores.