Social Capital and Political Support: A Reassessment of the Putnam Thesis in East and West Germany

A sizeable scholarly literature has generally uncovered weak, statistically trivial connections between social capital and political support, in spite of its logical appeal. Much of this research, however, has adopted an overly restrictive research design. It has overwhelmingly focused on the impact of social trust on political trust, from which broad inferences about the utility of the social capital perspective have been made. Rarely, however, has the impact of social capital been systematically assessed on indicators of political support which are more diffuse in character. Using data drawn from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS), the present study analyses the impact of different measures of social capital on political support in the Federal Republic of Germany. The results strongly support the conclusion that social capital influences diffuse support.     

Financial Discrepancies in Political Party Funding by Indonesian Local Government Authorities

Through different forms of decentralization variables, this study investigates Indonesian local government authorities' 2006 financial accountability reports in terms of local government authorities' contributing funds to political parties. Audit results by the Supreme Audit Body reveal that many articles were violated by these authorities in regard to the distributing, administrating, and reporting of assistance funds from them to political parties. Each rupiah committed by the 221 local government authorities involved in this study violated, on average, 1.8 articles, indicating a low level of compliance.

Critically, the study finds that administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization decreases discrepancies. The less administratively decentralized provincial authorities, where decision making is a level of government farther from the people, are more likely than non-provincial local government authorities to make discrepancies with political party legislation and regulations. Fiscally decentralized local government authorities, who earn a higher fraction of their revenue from local sources, also tend to have fewer discrepanciesFinally, politically decentralized authorities with a higher percentage of elected officials from the decentralized supporting ruling coalition, also have fewer discrepancies.     

Japanese corporate groupings (keiretsu): A reconnaissance of implications for the future

Four trends presage a possibly somber scenario for the United States at the dawn of the 21st century. American business managers face growing shares of global markets held by foreign business, diminishing U.S. industrial capabilities, and pressure to compete in Japan for Japanese markets. And U.S. policymakers are experiencing operational difficulties, simultaneously influencing and influenced by U.S. industry performance. Thus, the U.S. political business system appears out of alignment with the emerging global competitive environment.

Many explanations and antidotes have been offered, each with its element of truth. The aim is not to deny them, rather it is to explore the significance of corporate grouping structures for Japanese and by implication world business. Long practiced habits of cooperation, mutually sustained competitive advantage, and interlocking ownership appear to be the major ingredients in the glue holding corporate groupings together.

If corporate groupings are as important as some Japanese scholars suggest then a new paradigm may be necessary for understanding their implications for the global political business environment. Thus, significant changes --in philosophies, perspectives, approaches and strategies-- may loom ahead for U.S. managers and policy makers who want to compete successfully in the 21st century.

Arguably, the most competitively potent and successful enterprises in the world are Japanese. Less visible, but of critical importance to this success, are inter-organizational support networks -- Japanese corporate groupings -- which bolster group members with capital, expertise and markets. This article is a reconnaissance for managers, scholars and policy makers detailing future implications of Japanese corporate grouping structures. The first and second sections establish four important trends and summarize popular and scholarly understandings of the corporate grouping phenomenon. If corporate groupings are as important as some Japanese scholars maintain, then perhaps we need a new paradigm which clearly identifies "strategic coupling" as a critical success factor in the new global political business environment. The third and final sections develop a framework for understanding some of the economic, institutional, organizational and strategic implications of Japanese corporate groupings.     

Uncovering Discrimination: A Comparison of the Methods Used by Scholars and Civil Rights Enforcement Officials

The responsibility for uncovering discrimination falls on bothscholars and civil rights enforcement officials. Scholars askwhether discrimination exists and why it arises; enforcementofficials ask whether particular firms are discriminating. Thisarticle investigates the points of commonality and divergencein these two lines of inquiry. We demonstrate a need for moreresearch focusing on discrimination as defined by the law andfor more enforcement building on the methodological lessonsin the research literature. We also show that disparate-impactdiscrimination cannot be identified with current enforcementtools but could be identified with methods in the scholarlyliterature.