Deliberation and Forgiveness in the Public Sphere

A common objection to the argument for deliberative democracy is that it cannot provide mechanisms for achieving its ideal of all-inclusiveness. This does, however, not in itself refute the deliberative ideal. In a reading of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida’s writings on forgiveness, we argue that forgiving involves a renegotiation of our enemies and of ourselves. Hereby a renegotiation of the seemingly unbridgeable understandings of who our enemies are can be achieved. Forgiving involves a realisation that we have something in common with our foes. This opens the question: Why did our paths separate? We become puzzled and start to search for reasons. This does not mean that we have to accept ways of life that we detest. But it does mean that we need to be able to articulate counter arguments. Hereby limitations of prevailing understandings of who to include in deliberative processes can be overcome.     

Expecting something special? Developing assumptions of involvement organised interests as a source of regulatory quality in the European Union

Organised interests play a double role in policymaking: as representatives of societal interests and as policy experts adding to regulatory quality. The former of these 2 roles has been examined over and over again, whereas the latter has almost completely evaded scholarly interest for a number of reasons. One reason is that it demands a focus on output rather than on traditional darlings such as representation, input legitimacy, or influence. Another is that it demands an interdisciplinary approach as regulatory quality—that which the involvement of organised interests seek to furnish—is a concept that includes elements from both law and political science. The question of how to design involvement of organised interests in order to support regulatory quality, however, is a question with both academic and practical relevance. Building on an empirical study, this paper attempts to spur theorising to address this relevant question. The result is 4 assumptions that describe the relationship between involvement of organised interests and regulatory quality.     

A Framework for the Judicious Use of the Polygraph for Youth Who Have Committed a Sexual Crime

Among professionals working with youth who commit sexual crimes, there is a clear chasm between proponents and opponents of postadjudication polygraph testing. Polygraph use for juveniles is an issue at the forefront of conversation in the state of Colorado, as the Sex Offender Management Board has evolved on positions. Drawing on extant research base, they have conducted a state-level evaluation in Colorado to inform further determinations. Using probation files of youth adjudicated of a sexual crime (N = 62), regression models were run. Youths’ significant reactions on a polygraph test were statistically significantly associated with more disclosures. Nonsignificant reactions, significant reactions, inconclusive results, and more disclosures were statistically, significantly associated with more polygraph testing. Finally, youth with nonsignificant reactions were five times more likely to successfully complete treatment, but test results and number of tests were not associated with recidivism outcomes. A framework for the judicious use of the polygraph is proposed.     

The impact of private security companies on Somalia's governance networks

The article discusses the use of private security contractors to support coastguard forces in the Somali substate entities of Puntland and Somaliland. Neither of these entities is sufficiently robust to raise and maintain an effective maritime security force without external assistance, hence they have had recourse to the private sector for training, logistical and operational support and high-level consultancy with respect to their coastguards. The article makes some general observations about the international private security industry and Somali politics in order to provide a context for the three case studies. The case studies, each of which covers the engagement of one security contractor in support of a coastguard, assess the roles played by the contractors, making particular reference to sustainability and influence on governance networks. The analysis establishes a matrix of security company typologies and potential roles and then uses this matrix to suggest which types of company might be best employed for which functions. The article has current pertinence, as two of the three case studies concern efforts by substate entities to hire private security to enhance anti-piracy capability.     

Looking Forward to Cuts: A Simulation Decision Tool for Cutback Management

This study addresses managerial strategies to adapt public spending in anticipation of fiscal stress. It simulates a cutback to a federal agency, providing a decision tool that applies normative recommendations from the cutback management literature. Using agency data, we develop a menu of options that illustrate how different distributions of budget reductions affect organizational goals. We show five alternatives that consider the political, legal, and fiscal implications of the agency's responses to anticipated budgetary pressure. This simulation demonstrates that public agencies can apply existing data to generate rational and viable strategic plans for weathering fiscal stress.     

Sector Differences in Employee’s Perceived Importance of Income and Job Security: Can These be Found Across the Contexts of Countries,Cultures, and Occupations?

Most empirical research has shown that people working in the public sector perceive job security as more important than people working in the private sector, while the inverse is the case for job income. However, it is not known if these relationships hold globally while controlling for occupation and national context. We combine ISSP data from respondents in 25 countries with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and World Bank data to examine whether the previous generally accepted claims hold while taking into account workers’ occupation, as well as national, cultural, and economic conditions. We find evidence that even when taking into account all these factors, government workers place a higher value on job security than private workers, but contrary to the generally accepted claim, we find no statistically significant difference between government and private workers in their high-income motives when taking the occupation and national context into the models.     

Long-Term Absenteeism From Work: Disentangling the Impact of Sector,Occupational Groups and Gender

Absenteeism is critical to organizational performance. Although absenteeism is higher in the public than in the private sector, surprisingly little public administration research has studied this topic. We investigate and test potential explanations for these differences: is it because the public sector employs more women and occupational groups that have higher absence? Using register data, we find that for six out of seven occupational groups long-term absenteeism is more likely for public than for private sector employees; generally, this is true for both genders. We discuss potential explanations and future avenues for investigating these sector differences.     

A replication of “the effects of making public service employees aware of their prosocial and societal impact”

Recent studies show that simple recall tasks can make public employees more aware of the positive impact they have on others and society. This in turn increases their motivation. However, studies often draw on paid survey respondents, such as respondents recruited via Amazon MTurk, resulting in an unfortunate mismatch between test sample and target population. Addressing the need to test recall tasks among real-world public servants, we conducted a wide replication (n = 412) of a recent study by Vogel and Willems. Our findings suggest that the effect sizes of recall tasks are likely relatively smaller when deployed “in the wild.” Based on our findings, we propose three themes for a future research agenda and point practitioners to areas of attention when implementing recall tasks in real-world settings.     

How to enforce European law? A new history of the battle over the direct effect of Directives, 1958–1987

This article explores the well‐known saga of the European Court of Justice's introduction of direct effect of Council Directives on the basis of new comprehensive archival research. The expansion of the doctrine of direct effect to include Directives was part of a drive of the Legal Service of the European Commission and the ECJ to strengthen the enforcement of European law. This threatened the deeper balance of competences between the European Community and its Member States and consequently led to a sharp response from the national parliaments and courts. The force of these responses and the deep crisis that had evolved in the late 1970s between France and the ECJ, led to a change in the EC's case law that limited the direct effect of Directives to the vertical relation between citizens and the respective Member State and excluded any horizontal effect. The story is an example of how the activist ECJ of the 1970s ran into resistance from the Member States and had to modify its doctrinal advances. It also suggests that the successful acceptance of the constitutionalisation of the Treaties of Rome pursued by the ECJ was by no means secure by the late 1970s.