RISING WITH THE TIDE WITHOUT FLIPPING THE BOAT — ANALYZING THE SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES OF FISCAL CAPACITY BUILDING IN CHINA

While many developing countries experience a short period of economic boom and then spiral quickly into periods of deficit, currency fluctuation, and indebtedness, China has been able to sustain rapid economic growth and maintain solid fiscal capacity for the past 30 years, even during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and the global recession in the beginning of the 21st century. This article examines three key strategies behind China's fiscal success — its flexibility in adapting tax policies to the changing economic and social conditions, its success in realigning the intergovernmental fiscal relationship in 1994 and forcing subnational governments to become more entrepreneurial in revenue generation, and its pursuit of institutional reforms since the mid‐1990s to improve the government's capacity in budgeting and financial management. The article evaluates the implications of the Chinese experience for other developing countries and discusses the future challenges of fiscal reforms in China. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DEVELOPMENT ON MY TERMS: DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS AND KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Consultants are an integral component of development aid. Their involvement is based on an assumption of the transferability of knowledge to clients and beneficiaries. However, this role, its efficacy and the concept of knowledge transfer have all been questioned. Although research has shown interest in northern development consultants in recent years, detailed processes and practices of southern consultants' engagement with knowledge production are less analysed. Drawing on debates about knowledge, power and managing development interventions and on extensive fieldwork exploring a Bolivian consultancy company's assignments for northern development agencies, we analyse the ‘knowledge engagements’ between clients, consultants and beneficiaries. The results suggest a novel theorisation: knowledge engagements are shaped by power relations exercised through discourses and financial aid on one hand and shared and unshared lifeworlds and backgrounds of actors on the other. They are also characterised by collusive behaviour with the discourses and practices of aid on the part of consultants and beneficiaries, which in turn influences outcomes. Southern consultants, although aware of these issues, are in a difficult position to challenge these relationships. A greater recognition of the tensions could lead to a new role for consultants if collective action were to renegotiate their terms of engagement and aim for a new mutuality. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global norms in domestic politics: environmental norm contestation in Cambodia's hydropower sector

Policymakers in many developing Asian countries have commonly relied on investment incentives as a major policy instrument to attract foreign investment. Using comparative case studies of Asian transnational corporations (TNCs) in Southeast Asia, this paper argues that investment incentives per se are ineffective in attracting foreign investment. The paper first examines the role of government incentives in the inflow of foreign investment, with particular reference to the Southeast Asian region. It then provides a comparative study of Hong Kong and Taiwanese investments. Hong Kong TNCs are shown to have invested in Southeast Asia because of market or market‐related reasons, not investment incentives per se. To these firms from Hong Kong, investment incentives are more a kind of post hoc rationalization of their decision making. For the Taiwanese investors in Malaysia, government incentives are less important than the existence of market access and the friendly host country environment. The paper also suggests some implications and specific policy recommendations for policymakers in host country governments. Instead of over‐reliance on investment incentives, host country governments should be more concerned with: 1) a commitment to internationalization through the promotion and marketing of international images; 2) the upgrading of domestic resources through continuous training and development; 3) a more efficient allocation of resources; 4) supra‐national coordination and promotion.     

Scotland,Renewable Energy and the Independence Debate: Will Head or Heart Rule the Roost?

Political support for renewable energy development, especially offshore renewables, is particularly conspicuous in Scotland and is a centrepiece of SNP policy. However, this is built on something of a paradox because, put simply, without the subsidies paid by electricity consumers in the rest of the UK, the Scottish Government's ambitious targets for renewable energy would be politically unachievable. We argue in this paper that if Scotland does move towards independence, then there could be little reason for the UK to continue paying (much) of the subsidies since the resulting renewable generation would no longer contribute towards UK renewable energy targets. We suggest that the potential scenarios, and their implications, needs to be far better considered in the arguments around the Scottish constitutional position and the broader aims of UK energy policy.     

The Portuguese parliament during the first two decades of democracy

This article sets out the main stages in the development of the Portuguese parliament over the past two decades. This development has been characterised by the growing rationalisation of the internal operation of parliament, notably through an increased role for committees, and the greater importance attached to parliamentary scrutiny of the executive. Recently, the Portuguese parliament has taken important steps in strengthening its links with society and in responding to public concerns. Some of the measures discussed in this context have helped to support the legitimation function of parliament; but parliament will need better developed resources if it is to act an effective check on the government.     

Implementation and Validation of the Teleshake Unit for DNA IQ™ Robotic Extraction and Development of a Large Volume DNA IQ™ Method

Abstract: Automated platforms used for forensic casework sample DNA extraction need to be versatile to accommodate a wide variety of sample types, thus protocols frequently need modification. In this study, DNA IQ? methods previously developed for the Biomek^® 2000 Automation Workstation were adapted for the Teleshake Unit using normal volumes and all deepwell extraction, and a large volume DNA IQ? method developed. DNA purification without detectable contamination of adjacent reagent blanks is reported in the extraction of tissue samples containing several micrograms of DNA. Sensitivity and contamination studies demonstrated similar performance with the manual organic extraction method for bloodstain dilution samples. Mock casework samples demonstrated the effectiveness of the Teleshake and Teleshake large volume methods. Because of the performance and increased versatility of the DNA IQ? extraction with these modifications, the Teleshake Unit has been implemented in both normal and large volume automated DNA extractions at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science.