Negotiated Case-ending Settlements: Ways of Speeding up the (Court) Process

The subject of this article is a special type of fast-tracked case-ending decisions called “negotiated case-ending settlements”. Those proceedings are based on a kind of agreement between the parties, end with a real conviction of the offender and their legal consequence is a true but mitigated punishment. They can be found in six of 11 countries studied, namely, in England & Wales, Croatia, France, Hungary, Poland and Spain. The English guilty plea procedures, the French appearance before a court after prior admission of guilt and the Polish prosecutor’s application for a conviction to be rendered without a trial as well as the voluntary submission to penalty are examined more closely here. The comparative study focuses on the stage, where the negotiation is made, the conditions for the use of these settlements and the PPS’s role therein.     

The policy process in developed and less developed political systems

The author argues that we do not really know how different the policymaking systems of developed and developing nations are. In his view, policymaking in less developed regimes is different from that which occurs in more affluent countries. However, the differences are frequently overstated. After analyzing several problems of the policymaking process, Peters concludes that the differences are larglely those of degree rather than of fundamentally different types of policy problems and processes. He concludes that what may matter is the degree of difficulty governments encounter in policymaking, and in some ways the less developed countries may actually enjoy some real advantages. At the same time, however, they have more informational, financial and ideological barriers that impose political limitations on policy learning.     

Geopolitical change and congressional committee governance: The Case of the US House armed services committee

This article examines the Armed Services Committee of the United States Houses of Representatives (HASC) at the beginning of the post‐cold war era. Utilising Fenno's 1973 framework, the article traces HASC's evolution through three periods: the ‘textbook’ period (1947–70); the transition period (1970–89); and the post‐cold war period (since 1989). It explores how changing environmental constraints and member goals have shaped its strategic premises, in Fenno's terms. Reporting on recent trends at HASC, I consider whether, in the post‐cold war era, HASC may be said to operate on the basis of any strategic premises at all. The article concludes by considering two key questions about Fenno's framework. Is it time bound? And, can it explain change?     

National styles of regulation: Child care in three countries

An analysis of child care regulations in Germany, Sweden, and the United States reveals distinctive national policy styles. A ‘social constructionist’ perspective, with its emphasis on variable problem definitions, helps to explain such differences. However, a full understanding of regulatory differences requires attention to regulatory solutions as well. By disaggregating the concept of regulation, we are able to demonstrate rather different rank-orderings of our three countries in their regulatory solutions. We attribute these differences to cultural, institutional, and political characteristics of the three countries.