Conducting the elections in Zimbabwe 1980

The Zimbabwe elections in 1980 presented unusual administrative difficulties. They were conducted in some haste, during a cease fire in the civil war, and when stable administration was not established over the whole country. Further, the political settlement and re-establishment of an internationally recognized government hinged on popular and international acceptance of the elections as having been fairly conducted. The problems faced in the administration of the elections went beyond what are discussed in standard works on elections and the article describes what the main problems were in conducting the elections and facilitating effective supervision of them.     

Leading learning and change from the middle: Reconceptualising strategy's purpose,content, and measures

When implementing a transformational global vision and mission, three problems typically confront international NGOs: aligning different levels of planning and strategy; balancing global analysis and priorities against local realities; and identifying measures that both indicate progress and promote and encourage innovation. This article reports on the efforts of CARE International's Latin America Regional Management Unit to address these problems by introducing 'reversals' to common strategic planning principles and processes. It shows middle managers in NGOs how they can lead 'from the middle', and considers 'the region' to be the nexus enabling an organisation to change and learn across multiple hierarchical levels.     

The Role of the National Security Advisor and the 2006 Iraq Strategy Review

According to the honest broker model, when national security advisors press for specific policy outcomes, they compromise their ability to focus on improving the quality of the decision- making process. That model is tested here in the case of the 2006 Iraq Strategy Review. It found that national security advisor Stephen Hadley was able to act as honest broker, and that this did in fact improve the quality of the decision process. At the same time, he was able to act as a policy entrepreneur, connecting existing problems to alternative policy ideas. Consequently the two roles were not incompatible. Moreover, he was able to do both primarily because he acted as a credible agent of the president. The implication is that the national security advisor must be first and foremost an effective presidential agent, if he or she is to play any constructive role—including that of honest broker.     

Family,property and relations of production in Western Europe

This paper addresses itself to a number of problems involved in the theorisation of family structures. A variety of existing sociological and historical approaches are criticised for methodological and conceptual inadequacies, and for their neglect of property relations as a crucial factor in constituting family structures. The paper develops the contention that family structures and their transformation can be understood only in relation to property rights and to the social relations of production. This theoretical orientation is explored with reference to changes in family organisation in western European history, paying particular attention to inheritance practices which are seen as mediating in a key way between the social relations of production and familial and kinship forms.