A Long‐term Study of the Association between the Relative Poverty Rate and Suicide Rate in Japan

The annual number of suicides in Japan totaled around 23,000 in 1997 and abruptly increased to around 31,000 in 1998. This figure has remained high since then. This abrupt increase in the number of suicides was primarily due to an increase in suicides occasioned by economic concerns. The association between various economic factors and suicide must be studied in detail and over the long term in order to ascertain the association between economic concerns and suicide. This study examined the relative poverty rate and the suicide rate in Japan over 30 years and discussed the association between those two rates. The results suggest that the relative poverty rate may be associated with the suicide rate for both sexes. This association is true for men in particular. The organizations and professionals involved in implementing suicide prevention measures should be cognizant of the current findings and consider formulating additional specific measures.     

Permanent war? The domestic hegemony of the New American militarism

Although there is an expanding body of excellent work on 9/11 and the War on Terror, and the changing forms of war‐making, militarism and imperialism, this literature lacks a sufficient critical synthesis of the historical and conjunctural events of 9/11 and its aftermath with the structural and systemic forms of US militarism and the military‐industrial complex. This article attempts a broad, critical‐theoretical analysis of the increased domestic hegemony of militarism in the US since 9/11. The article examines the complex social‐systemic interlocking of militarism with other historical, political, institutional, economic, cultural and psychological forces which tend to reinforce the hegemony of militarism and aggressive, preemptive foreign policy in the current period.     

Manager's matter: news from the laboratory

Advancing Public Management: New Developments in Theory, Methods and Practice. Edited by jeffrey l. brudney, laurence o'toole jr. and hal g. rainey. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2000. Pp. xi, 304. Transforming Government: Lessons from the Reinvention Laboratories. By PATRICIA w. INGRAHAM, JAMES R. THOMPSON and RONALD SANDERS. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. 1998. Pp. xxi, 266. The Stakeholder Society. By bruce ackerman and anne alstott. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1999. Pp. xi, 296.     

Building horizontal coordination in Sri Lanka

Horizontal coordination is a focal topic in contemporary public management. However, greater attention has been given to developed states while developing countries struggle to improve the quality of public service delivery amidst skills shortages and siloed organisations. This article presents a foreign‐funded training programme designed to promote horizontal coordination at the most local level of government in a developing country, Sri Lanka, and analyses the factors that contributed to its success. Using data collected through participant surveys, focus groups, and programme‐related projects, the article shows how the formation of a “locally directed, donor‐supported” programme aligned with national development priorities that enabled the country‐level partner institution to deliver a programme that improved horizontal coordination and enhanced delivery of public services. Although findings confirm the importance of contextualising programme design, content, and delivery for achieving aid effectiveness, a novel conclusion was that the participation of elected officials alongside career public servants greatly contributed to the programme's success by creating new levels of trust and facilitating more productive working relationships between key stakeholders, culminating in improved outcomes for local communities. This suggests that elected officials can play a key role in building horizontal coordination in developing nations.     

Citizen political knowledge and accountability: Survey evidence on devolution in Kenya

Devolution complicates citizens’ ability to assign responsibility for the provision of public goods and services to different tiers of government. Misattribution of responsibility limits the effectiveness of electoral accountability in the nested principal–agent relationships comprising voters, politicians, and bureaucrats. This raises two important questions. First, how do citizens learn about the functions of different tiers of government under devolution? Second, how do levels of political knowledge condition citizens’ evaluations of subnational governments? Using cross‐sectional and panel survey data from Kenya (2014–2018), this article shows that voters accumulate knowledge through exposure to government services, and that gender and partisanship mediate knowledge accumulation. In addition, exposed citizens are more likely to give positive evaluations of subnational politicians, despite the fact that such exposure may reveal subnational governments’ low capacity, ineffectiveness, and governance gaps. These findings advance our understanding of the dynamics of political accountability under devolution.     

The Square of Intimate Citizenship: Some Preliminary Proposals

This exploratory paper suggests some emerging arenas of public debate across the personal life‐from 'test-tube babies' to 'lesbian and gay families'‐which when taken together may be captured by the term 'intimate citizenship'. This suggests a plurality of public discourses developing about how to live the personal and intimate life in a late modern and global world where we are often confronted by an escalating series of choices and difficulties around intimacies. A framework of four key issues is suggested for fuller examination. This entails the changing nature of the public sphere; the growth of culture wars and the need for dialogue; the narrativisation process and grounded moralities; and the links to global intimacies.