Europe's Constitutional Engagement

Abstract.  That the European Union is in a state of constitutional engagement speaks both to an obvious and urgent truth and to a less obvious but ultimately even more significant possibility. Patently, and of immediate import, with the process of national ratification in full flow following the signing of the Constitutional Treaty in Rome in October 2004—the fruit of the deliberations and negotiations of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002–3) and the Intergovernmental Conference (2003–4)—the new union is presently in the pre-nuptial phase, and displaying many of the signs of pre-nuptial tension. Notwithstanding the legal convolutions of some of the engagement's most ardent supporters, the marriage cannot take place unless and until all twenty five member states have signalled their consent in accordance with national constitutional requirements. These requirements are diverse, and in ten cases have been interpreted as involving either a binding or an advisory referendum. And following the reaction of the June 2005 European Council to the French and Dutch "ho" votes, we will have to wait until at least 2007 for the marriage to be solemnized. As with so many engagements, therefore, there is however a strong possibility that the whole thing will be called off at the last minute. The consequences of failure would be not insignificant for the European Union, but perhaps not as significant as some fear and others hope. In what follows, by investigating instead the deeper meaning and the longer-term ambition of Europe's constitutional engagement, I seek to demonstrate that, although clearly an important variable, the ratification of this particular Treaty at this particular moment is neither necessary to nor sufficient for the realization of the EU's full constitutional potential, but that the secular process which such an initiative reflects is of vital significance.     

伙伴关系特征、网络行为与公共性： 有关可持续发展项目绩效的证据

摘要: 本文探索在复杂的可持续发展政策领域内的伙伴关系特征、网络行为与公共性之间的关系。本研究以香港为背景,该城市正在从命令—控制的政策手段逐渐转向对伙伴关系 和利益相关者参与的运用。本文认为,承诺、平等、相互性和信任等网络伙伴关系特征和网络行为会在公共性程度上有所不同,但它们总体上对于可持续发展项目的绩效具有正面的贡献。本研究的数据来自于28个可持续发展的咨询委员会或代表性组织的成员(57%的回应率),最后得到53个可持续发展项目的可用数据。分析结果显示在可持续发展项目中的政府、企业和公民社会成员并不认为在伙伴关系特征与感知到的项目绩效间存在很大的分别,但认为伙伴关系特征与网络行为存在很大的分别。多重回归分析显示信任有助于促进感知到的项目绩效,私人部门和公民社会团体人员的网络行为特征也有相同效果,尽管对于公民社会团体人员来说,网络行为与项目绩效存在负面关系。文章的结论讨论了这些研究结果对于香港以及其他地区的可持续发展项目的意义。     

VERTICAL STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICE PERFORMANCE

We report the results of a study examining the effects of vertical strategic alignment (that is, the degree to which strategic stances are consistent across different organizational levels) on public service performance. Longitudinal multivariate analysis is undertaken on a panel of public organizations over four years. We find that alignment on a prospecting strategy leads to better performance, but that no such effect is observed for a defending strategy. We also find that high levels of prospecting alignment produce stronger positive performance effects in centralized organizations and when environmental uncertainty is high. The implications of these findings for research and practice are considered in the conclusion.     

Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Split Bond Rating in States

Bond ratings on state-issued debt provide a signal to credit markets that help them charge an appropriate interest rate, based on the risk of payment default. Though actual default may occur only in extreme circumstances, observed differences in ratings and interest costs across states and time demonstrate that a sound economy, strong financials, and stable policies matter. When data on the factors that presumably affect ratings is public and easily accessible, making sense of differences of opinion between bond rating agencies is difficult. We suggest that such differences—observed as so-called split bond ratings—are often ephemeral. Utilizing a simulation method to uncover the latent credit risk presented by each state, we show that split ratings on state bonds are often due to the fact that presumed category overlap between rating agencies is absent when evaluated on a common latent scale. Most observed state bond rating splits from 1997 through 2006 can be explained by this category mismatch. Our approach has broad implications for pricing state debt, as well as pricing rated debt in other capital market sectors.