Politics or Technical Criteria? The Determinants of Infrastructure Investments in Brazil

To what extent do public infrastructure projects respond to political pressures or developmental imperatives? Do these projects reflect a technical strategy aimed at upgrading economic productivity or the political distribution of public goods that rewards certain voters or political actors? This paper analyses the Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento (PAC), an $817 billion-dollar Brazilian infrastructure programme with a multi-method research design pairing in-country interviews and analysis of an original, municipal-level dataset. I conclude that my case study reflects a mixture of political and technical factors, which mirrors the competing influence of technocratic bureaucrats and politically-driven politicians during the project selection process. Despite explicitly targeting larger municipalities with infrastructure deficiencies, the programme still rewarded core-voting districts supporting the winning PT (Workers Party/Partido dos Trabalhadores) presidential candidates. A secondary result finds older municipalities with greater bureaucratic capacity were better positioned to successfully submit projects for federal funding.     

Neither public nor private: The efficacy of mixed model public service delivery in two Canadian municipalities

The New Public Management emerged in the 1980s, and with it, alternative service delivery (ASD) mechanisms, which removed service delivery from the public bureaucracy and separated policy making from policy implementation. Most western governments implemented measures including privatization or contracting out of service delivery to the private sector. By the mid‐1990s, many governments started reversing ASD policies and sought new ways to deliver services, leading to a mixed model approach to service delivery, which combines the benefits of the public and private sectors. We examine the adoption of the model in the Canadian municipalities of Hamilton and Ottawa to determine if and how it enhances competition, cost‐savings, efficiency, effectiveness, and good governance in the delivery of public services, during an era of fiscal constraint. Our findings indicate the model is better in enhancing the five variables when compared to solely public or private services delivery.     

The Implications of the Lyons Report into Local Government in England for Structural Reform in Australian Local Government

The Lyons Inquiry into English local government presented its Final Report in 2007. It has significant implications for local government jurisdictions beyond England. This article considers the import of the Lyons Inquiry for reform to Australian local government. It is argued that the Lyons Inquiry adds weight to other work that questions the traditional reliance on amalgamation as the chief instrument of Australian local government reform. In particular, the “place-shaping” thesis developed in the Lyons Inquiry shows that the Australian emphasis on structural reform has been misdirected. Further, the Lyons Report offers a range of policy options besides municipal amalgamation.     

Two sides of a coin? New urbanism and gated communities

Abstract

Contemporary residential building trends reflect concerns about privacy, traffic, and managing difference. Despite the radically different premises behind New Urbanism and gated communities, I find on closer inspection that they both respond to similar perceived crises in our cities. New Urbanism answers urban challenges with bold efforts to recapture the strengths of older communities and to supplant unwanted suburban patterns with those believed to have greater resilience and public purpose. Gated communities reveal popular skepticism about the potential for improving urban conditions and a consequent desire to retreat to protected compounds.

In both cases, the new suburbs generally provide housing primarily for the most affluent among us and represent the ascendance of private over public interests. By examining the Canadian urban context, this article explores some ways in which New Urbanism and gated communities differ, while also highlighting the characteristics and dilemmas they share.     

Understanding the factors that affect the severity of juvenile stranger sex offenses: the effect of victim characteristics and number of suspects

Understanding factors that affect the severity of a juvenile-stranger sexual assault has implications for crime prevention, and potentially, the assessment and treatment of juvenile sex offenders. This study investigated how victim characteristics and the number of suspects affected the use of physical violence and weapons and the occurrence of penetration in 495 allegations of sexual assault committed by juveniles against strangers. Statistically significant interactions between victim age and gender were found for occurrence of penetration and use of violence. Differences in offense characteristics were also found between offenses with varying victim-suspect age differences. When comparing the rate of penetration in the presence and absence of violence, little change was observed for lone suspects. However, the rate of penetration increased significantly for groups in the presence of physical violence, suggesting that violence in this context may be more expressive than instrumental. Theoretical explanations and practical implications are considered.     

THE ATTEMPTED MERGER BETWEEN GENERAL ELECTRIC AND HONEYWELL: A CASE STUDY OF TRANSATLANTIC CONFLICT

The thwarted merger of General Electric and Honeywell standsout, so far, as the only merger between US companies to be derailedsolely by the European anti-trust authorities, while being clearedby the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and 11 other jurisdictions.In this paper, the authors examine the European Commission'sdecision, and the theories underlying it and compare the Commission'sapproach with that followed by the DoJ. They observe that theCommission and the DoJ had a different assessment of broadlysimilar facts, and attempt to understand the source of the divergence.The authors find that (1) the horizontal effects identifiedby the European Commission rely on a particular perspectiveof market definition, which is debatable (and leaves some questionsunanswered); (2) the anticompetitive effects in the bundlingand Archimedean leveraging theories are not sufficiently robustthat they could be presumed (Accordingly, their likelihood shouldbe supported by strong evidence, but the evidence presentedby the Commission was far from compelling); (3) the deal mayhave involved significant efficiencies that were overlooked.These observations raise the suspicion that the Commission'sdecision may have been affected by bureaucratic capture, suchthat civil servants did not follow the mandate that had beenassigned to them. We find that the procedure enforced at thetime was vulnerable to capture and that the Commission had anincorrect perception of the standard of review that the Courtwould apply to its decision in the context of an appeal. Theaccountability to which the Commission felt subject was thusbiased downwards and enlarged the scope for capture. In addition,some (admittedly casual) evidence regarding the actual unfoldingof the procedure, as well as subsequent reforms of process andprocedure undertaken by the Commission, would support the viewthat significant problems arose in this area.