Cycles and instability in politics. Evidence from the 2009 Danish municipal elections

Social choice theory predicts that political processes are prone to instability or outright chaos, yet the evidence that actual politics is dominated by the phenomena identified in the literature is somewhat anecdotal and widely contested. In order to systematically assess the degree to which politics is affected by cyclicality or chaos as predicted by social choice theorists we study the outcome of the 2009 municipal elections in Denmark. This yields a total of 97 cases, which allows for a systematic assessment of the frequency of cycling through a large-n study. Evidence of four cyclical results is presented.     

Lost in Translation: A Multi‐Level Case Study of the Metamorphosis of Meanings and Action in Public Sector Organizational Innovation

This paper explores the early implementation of an organizational innovation in the UK National Health Service (NHS) – Treatment Centres (TCs) – designed to dramatically reduce waiting lists for elective care. The paper draws on case studies of 8 TCs (each at varying stages of their development) and aims to explore how meanings about TCs are created and evolve, and how these meanings impact upon the development of the organizational innovation. Research on organizational meanings needs to take greater account of the fact that modern organizations like the NHS are complex multi‐level phenomena, comprising layers of interlacing networks. To understand the pace, direction and impact of organizational innovation and change we need to study the interconnections between meanings across different organizational levels. The data presented in this paper show how the apparently simple, relatively unformed, concept of a TC framed by central government is translated and transmuted by subsequent layers in the health service administration, and by players in local health economies, and, ultimately, in the TCs themselves, picking up new rationales, meanings and significance as it goes along. The developmental histories of TCs reveal a range of significant re‐workings of macro policy with the result that there is considerable diversity and variation between local TC schemes. The picture is of important disconnections between meanings, that in many ways mirror Weick's (1976) ’loosely coupled systems’. The emergent meanings and the direction of micro‐level development of TCs appear more strongly determined by interactions within the local TC environment, notably between what we identify as groups of ’idealists’, ’pragmatists’, ’opportunists’ and ’sceptics’ than by the framing (Goffman 1974) provided by macro and meso organizational levels. While this illustrates the limitations of top down and policy‐driven attempts at change, and highlights the crucial importance of the front‐line local ’micro‐systems’ (Donaldson and Mohr 2000) in the overall scheme of implementing organizational innovations, the space or headroom provided by frames at the macro and meso levels can enable local change, albeit at variable speed and with uncertain outcomes.     

Verbesserter Verbraucherschutz beim Timesharing: Das Teilzeitnutzungsgesetz 2011

Am 23. Februar 2011 ist das Bundesgesetz über den Verbraucherschutz bei Teilzeitnutzungs- und Nutzungsvergünstigungsverträgen, BGBl I 2011/8, in Kraft getreten. Der nachstehende Beitrag erläutert das Regelungsanliegen der neuen ?Timesharing“-Richtlinie (RL 2008/122/EG), zu deren Umsetzung das TNG erlassen wurde, und gibt einen Überblick über den Regelungsinhalt der RL sowie der österr Umsetzung.     

Analysis of current account reversals via regime switching models

The analysis of sharp and persistent reductions of current account deficits, which can be characterized as the transition from an unsustainable to a more sustainable level of current account balance, relies often on ad hoc criteria for identification of reversal episodes. Within this paper, an empirical framework in terms of a regime switching approach is presented allowing simultaneous identification of current account reversal episodes and their determinants. Additionally, this approach is extended towards analysis of the impact of a reversal on the path of economic growth. Empirical investigation of a panel containing developing countries suggests a different timing of reversals compared to timing delivered by ad hoc criteria. However, several determinants of reversals discussed in the literature remain valid. Our estimates of costs implied by the occurrence of a current account reversal amount to a severe reduction of economic growth, where output costs are found to vary largely across countries.     

Regime change and public administration in East Germany ‐ some findings from a research project in Brandenburg and Saxony

After the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic, the transfer of institutions and personnel from the west to the east, especially the transformation of a ‘cadre‐administration’ into a modern western‐type public administration ranked very high on the political agenda. This article presents some findings from a research project on ‘Administrative Culture in East Germany’, conducted in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. The questions to be addressed are whether one could speak of a total replacement of eastern and western élites during the process of unification. What are the results of élite transfer from the west? What is the composition of the new administrative elites in the east German Länder? Are there significantly different political perceptions by ‘easterners’ and ‘westerners’ of the problems confronting public administrators?     

Sovereignty at Sea: States and Security in the Maritime Domain

The oceans present a variety of perils to both states and private actors, ranging from smuggling to direct attacks on vessels. Yet, a disconnect exists between states’ maritime power and sovereign fleets due to the emergence of open shipping registries in the 20th century. How have great powers like the United States responded to threats generated by transit of the oceans for legitimate and illicit purposes? The nature of peacetime security threats that states confront at sea has shaped divergent responses. The main maritime powers draw a distinction between threats aimed at states and threats to commerce. Where perceived threats to the state are concerned, great powers have sought to revise understandings of the protections sovereignty provides—specifically, by seeking expanded interdiction rights—to further their own security goals. When maritime powers perceive that international commerce is under threat, they delegate the sovereign protection function both upward to internationally sanctioned maritime coalitions and outward to private security firms. These policies are responses to the security challenges that result from the decoupling of sovereign power and the merchant fleet that followed the emergence of open shipping registries.     

The external-domestic interplay in democracy promotion: a case study on public administration reform in Croatia

In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between external and domestic actors in democracy promotion. We first propose a typology of the instruments and means used both by external and domestic actors to influence reform outputs and then trace these instruments' effects on outcomes, thereby expanding the existing concepts of domestic agency. Although democracy promotion continues to be a rather asymmetric relationship between the “donors” and “receivers” of aid and advice, domestic actors employ a wide array of instruments to manage external demands for reform, including diplomacy, take-over, slowdown, modification, resistance, and emancipation. The article draws on a case study of European Union democracy promotion within two reform initiatives in the field of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Croatia.