Russia's Energy Future and Northeast Asia1

Since about 2000, Russia became increasingly interested in a swift expansion of its oil and gas industry to the eastern regions, aiming primarily at the domestic development needs and new markets of Northeast Asia. Eastern Siberia and the Far Eastern areas contain up to 50 percent of Russia's estimated oil reserves. In this context, the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline is attracting attention as a mega-project important not only for Russia, but also for its neighbors. This pipeline will facilitate the development of new oil fields in the remote eastern areas. There are also plans to build oil refineries connected to the pipeline, including the one planned on the Pacific coast. Indeed, Russia needs an access to the neighboring markets not only in the field of oil, but also natural gas and electricity. In this regard, long-term shared interests should drive new energy projects, and governments could greatly facilitate business interaction. Moreover, specific measures dealing with the long-term energy policies are required at the national, bilateral and regional levels, including practical and project specific initiatives tailored to the needs of the economies of Northeast Asia, considering their large markets, geography, technological potential and an interest in building institutions.     

The lost generation: How the government and non-governmental organizations are protecting the rights of orphans in Uganda

Millions of Ugandan children have become orphaned over the last two decades, the primary cause being the increasing HIV/AIDS epidemic. This phenomenon has prompted the government to institute numerous legal reforms. These internal reforms, implemented in a legal environment based on English common law and increasingly, international standards, greatly influence the legal inheritance rights of Ugandan orphans and their chances for prosperity. In many regions, however, the traditional local mores trump both national and global standards, meaning that while Ugandan parents may own appreciable property upon death, their children rarely receive it, but rather fall victim to “property grabbing” or mismanagement by relatives. The key impediments to solving this problem and to Uganda’s adoption of a more egalitarian system of inheritance include the ineffectiveness of local councils, the inadequate enforcement of the Children Stature, and the heavily centralized and cumbersome structure of the national government. Therefore, significant reforms are needed, including the pronouncement of a national policy regarding orphans, the reduction of national reliance on NGOs, and the restoration of a national legislative effort to codify orphans’ property rights.     

Presidential Party,Incumbency, and the Effects of Economic Fluctuations on House Elections, 1916–1996

There is little professional consensusregarding the effect of economic conditionson House Elections. We argue that recentwork still uses the paradigm of Party toorganize their data and tests. Given thatrecent developments in the theory ofcongress emphasize the paradigm ofIncumbency, we investigate the empiricalrelevance of that competing paradigm. Weshow that (1) Incumbency matters in a purePresidential Party Model of HouseElections, (2) Presidential Party mattersin a pure Incumbency Model, (3) Once bothParty and Incumbency are accounted for,economic conditions exert a highlysignificant and temporally stable influenceon House elections, (4) Return Rates aremore affected by economic fluctuations thanare Vote Shares, and (5) Not allPresidential Party incumbents face the samedegree of electoral accountability foreconomic fluctuations.     

American Public Administration and Impacts of International Governance

Increasingly, public administration in the United States operates in a densely interconnected international system in which local decisions and actions may trigger global repercussions—and vice versa—and the fate of communities in one region is bound to the choices of decision makers elsewhere. Administrative actors have become enmeshed in a complicated, interwoven pattern of governance in ways that shape actions, issues, and opportunities for influencing administrative agencies at national, state, and local levels. These developments call for a critical reappraisal of our inherited notions of governance, management, and accountability. Terrorist tragedy and responses to it call attention to these themes, but they apply broadly across the spectrum of governance challenges. To demonstrate this point, we analyze some implications of transnational governance for the institutions and practices of U.S. public management, with particular attention to another subject: environmental policy and management. A conclusion is that the public administration community must adjust traditional practices to facilitate the effective management of the global processes that, in turn, reshape the world.