Political Competition and State Government Size: Do Tighter Elections Produce Looser Budgets?

We test implications of politicalcompetition theory concerning government size, usingdata from U.S. states. We find that greaterpolitical competition in the race for governor actsas a check against bigger government. Evidence onthe effectiveness of legal limits on expendituresand/or revenues growth is mixed. The DemocraticParty is associated with bigger government, but onlywhen party representation in both the governor'shouse and the legislature is strong. The flypapereffect of grants is found to be strong. Our resultshave implications for models of fiscal illusion.     

Introduction: Changing Public Sector Industrial Relations in the Australian State

During the last two decades, governments have restructured their public services. Public administration has been largely replaced by public management, reflecting a more market oriented approach. In line with this pattern of change, the Australia public services at both state and Commonwealth levels, since the early 1980s, have undergone significant change. The aim of this symposium is to explore the dimensions, detail and impact of these developments, tracing the implications of public service reorganisation and operations for public sector industrial relations. The contributions therefore focus on government policies, management and industrial relations and implications for collective organisation and action. Changes in five states and one territory are considered as well as those at the Commonwealth level.     

A PARTNERSHIP FOR REGIONAL COLLABORATION

Urban policy is out of alignment with domestic problems arising from the global economy, sprawling metropolitan regions, and distressed neighborhoods. A new urban policy, grandly conceived and dramatically announced and implemented, is needed. Our article maps out a new urban policy framework, with new roles and responsibilities for agencies and institutions, using innovative tools and improved management, with alternative adaptation strategies. Such a policy must be agile and diverse—characteristics not common in federal policy generally.     

Transport Policy Paradigms at the Local Level: The Norwich Inner Ring Road

It has been claimed that transport policy in the UK, once a quiescent area, has been opened to battle between competing advocacy coalitions and that the late 1980s and early 1990s saw a policy paradigm shift. This article examines one detailed historical case study, the plans to complete an inner road in Norwich and the subsequent collapse of the scheme. The aim is firstly to examine the complex decision making processes and subsequent politics of this scheme and secondly to relate the local issue to the idea of a paradigm shift in national roads policy. The complexity of decision making in a multi-actored arena, where sovereignty is located locally but is circumscribed by central government 'guidelines', suggests that the assertions of those who argue in terms of a paradigm shift in policy may be exaggerated.     

Party identity change in post-communist politics: the cases of the successor parties in Hungary, Poland and Russia

In recent years much has been written on the communist successor parties. Although much of the existent work focuses on the electoral performance of these parties or has described, in great detail, the development of single parties, this paper evaluates the utility of theories of party identity change in application to the successor parties. As an initial exploration we investigate the successor parties' programs before and after the initial competitive parliamentary elections in Hungary (in 1990), Poland (in 1991) and Russia (in 1993) to determine the extent to which poor electoral performance in initial competitive elections compelled the successor parties to alter their political identities.     

Unemployment, Economic Theory, and Property Crime: A Note on Measurement

Drawing on rational choice theory, this study considers how best to measureunemployment within the context of the unemployment–property crimerelationship. Specifically, we use ARIMA techniques to examine the relativeefficacy of using the conventional Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)unemployment rate and two alternative measures of the demand for labor aspredictors of monthly counts of U.S. property offenses for the years 1982through 1996. The bivariate time series analyses indicate that while theBLS unemployment rate exhibits null effects, the number of individualsunemployed for 15 weeks or more and the capacity utilization ratesignificantly affect the level of property crime. The implications ofthese results are discussed.     

The creation of neo-liberal corporate bias in transnational medicines control: The industrial shaping and interest dynamics of the European regulatory state

Abstract. Drawing on the political theories of corporatism, neo–liberalism and pluralism, and on comparative empirical research in Brussels, Germany, Sweden and the UK, this article conceptualises the nature of Europeanised medicines regulation. It argues that a marketisation of regulation has been established in the European Union as a result of competition between national regulatory agencies for 'regulatory business' from the pharmaceutical industry. In the pharmaceuticals sector the Europeanised regulatory state is a product of three key factors: (a) the European Commission's commitment to an 'efficiency' regime which would meet the political objectives of a single European market and the commercial agendas of transnational pharmaceutical companies, (b) the endemic corporate bias associated with medicines regulation in the most influential member states, and (c) the considerable success of neo–liberal politics across a number of major member states, including Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.