Democratising development: NGOs and the state

Many NGOs are moving beyond conventional project work, with its emphasis on 'doing', and are attempting to enhance their impact through 'influencing'. There are four interconnected approaches: Project Replication, Grassroots Mobilisation, Influencing Policy Reform, and International Advocacy. Each calls for a more strategic relationship between NGOs and governments. For NGOs to move to an effective 'influencing' mode, new skills and a new relationship between Northern and Southern NGOs are required. The Technological Age, with its emphasis on physical projects, must give way to an Information Age, whose 'software' comprises access to official information, decision makers, and networks; and access to skills in communication, lobbying, and research. Northern NGOs must recognise that these requirements are becoming more important to their Southern counterparts than funds. If they do not, they will find their relationships becoming out of date, and their former counterparts will seek more appropriate allies — for example, among pressure groups in the North.     

Fools Suffer Gladly: The Use of Economic Sanctions in International Crises

A number of recent international situations have raised again questions regarding the usefulness of economic sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy. Sanctions continue to be applied in a variety of contexts, yet we have not developed a sufficient understanding of the processes involved to determine when, or even if, sanctions can "work." While a great deal has been written on the subject, there have been neither attempts to subject the theoretical arguments to empirical testing nor efforts to provide systematic theoretical explanations for the empirical results that have been produced. In this article, we attempt to address this shortcoming in the literature. We propose a theory of sanctions effectiveness that is based on the spatial model of bargaining in international crises and use this theory to derive a number of hypotheses regarding when sanctions should produce favorable policy outcomes. We then subject some of the derived hypotheses to an empirical test based on a large number of international disputes. The model suggests that while sanctions will not work in many cases, they can have a slight effect on the distribution of expected outcomes if the costs of the sanctions are sufficiently high relative to the values at stake. The available evidence appears to support these expectations.     

Margaret M. deGuzman and Valerie Oosterveld (eds.), The Elgar Companion to the International Criminal Court,Elgar, Cheltenham/Northampton, 2020, 431 pp

Criminal Law Forum -     

Steady Progress and Future Focused

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has set China's course for the next fi ve years and beyond. China's focus on stability is welcome at a time when much of the world is unsettled due, for example to North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Brexit, continuing problems in the Middle East, and a lot more.     

Social Protest and Policy Attitudes: The Case of the 2006 Immigrant Rallies

Do protests sway public opinion? If so, why and how? To address these questions, we examine the impact of the 2006 immigration protests on immigration policy preferences. We use the 2006 Latino National Survey coupled with protest data to examine whether temporal and spatial exposure to the protests are associated with policy preferences. Our findings lend evidence that protest activity influences Latinos’ immigration policy preferences. However, the findings suggest the effect of protest on immigration policy preferences is not uniform across the population, but rather contingent on generational status and the intensity of protest activity at the local level.     

Rated Parental Guidance

<正>Foreigners living in China agree that Chinese students of all ages are filial:very respectful to their family and elders.My friend Linda Liu explained to me that filial piety remains alive in modern China.This behavior is learned at a very early age,as children learn to read."A book,called The Classic of Filial Piety,dates back to some 2,000 years ago,"said Linda."This book offers outstanding behavioral examples to children."     

Advising for impact: lessons from the Rae review on the use of special‐purpose advisory commissions

Abstract: Ontario's recent Postsecondary Review, led by former premier Bob Rae, was dramatically more successful than previous reviews by special‐purpose advisory commissions on postsecondary education conducted in Ontario. The authors argue that the success of special‐purpose advisory commissions ‐ defined as the extent to which a commission's recommendations are implemented in a timely way ‐ is dependent on environmental variables (such as the economy, fiscal situation and political cycle), process variables (such as reporting relationships, characteristics of the commissioners and stakeholder strategies) and the political acuity with which the commission develops recommendations that can command broad public support. The Rae review benefited from political conditions that favoured stronger investments in postsecondary education, despite a difficult fiscal situation. The report also benefited from a stakeholder community that was able to put aside most internal differences for the sake of a perceived common good. Within this environment, the review created a highly focused process that involved extensive consultation, the support of expert panel members and frequent interaction with decision‐makers. The review developed recommendations that were sensitive to long‐standing patterns of public opinion, articulated new public goals, recognized the important role to be played by each major stakeholder and proposed a new institution to entrench positive change in the long term. This experience offers lessons for governments, stakeholders and future commissions on how to manage special‐purpose advisory commissions in a way that maximizes their policy impact. Sommaire: La récente étude de l'éducation post‐secondaire en l'Ontario, menée par l'ancien premier ministre provincial Bob Rae, a remporté beaucoup plus de succès que les études antérieures entreprises en Ontario par des commissions consultatives spécialisées en éducation post‐secondaire. Les auteurs prétendent que le succès des commissions consultatives spécialisées ‐ défini par la mesure dans laquelle les recommandations d'une commission sont mises en œuvre de façon adéquate ‐ dépend de paramètres environnementaux (tels que l'économie, la situation financière et le cycle politique), de paramèrres de traitement (tels que les rapports hiérarchiques, les caractéristiques des commissaires et les stratégies des intervenants) et de l'acuité politique avec laquelle la commission élabore des recommandations qui peuvent susciter une forte adhésion du public. l'étude Rae a bénéficié d'un contexte politique favorable à de solides investissements dans l'éducation post‐secondaire, malgré une situation financière difficile. Le rapport a également tiré parti d'une communauté d'intervenants qui ont pu mettre de côté la plupart de leurs différences internes au profit de l'intérêt commun. Dans ce contexte, l'étude a donné lieu à un processus hautement focalisé qui a comporté de nombreuses consultations, l'appui des membres d'une commission d'experts, et de fréquentes interactions avec les décisionnaires. l'étude a mis au point des recommandations sensibles aux tendances ancrées dans l'opinion publique, a formulé de nouveaux objectifs publics, a reconnu l'importance du rôle à jouer par les principaux intervenants et a proposé qu'une nouvelle institution garantisse des changements positifs à long terme. Cette expérience offre des leçons aux gouvernements, aux intervenants et aux futures commissions sur la manière de gérer les commissions consultatives spécialisées afin de maximiser l'impact de leurs politiques.