Another nation-building bloc? Integrating nationalist ideology into the EU and ASEAN

The article examines the compatibility of nationalist ideology and regional integration within the European Union (EU) and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In exploring nationalist ideology as a third alternative to functional and identity-based approaches to regional integration, it contributes to debates on the necessity and desirability of a common supranational identity. Despite a hitherto largely transaction-based approach to integration, political elites in South-East Asia have expressed support for ‘ASEAN awareness’ or ‘cognitive regionalism’ in the hope of increasing the organisation’s social cohesion and solidarity. These constructs seek to supplement political and economic co-operation with a sense of imagined (regional) community, despite the lack of strong supranational institutions within ASEAN. Their aim is thus to replicate a quasi-national construct at the regional level, something which has met with relatively little resonance within EU member states. The similarities between government attempts to foster a sense of regional belonging and nation-building principles, let alone their interplay, have yet to be fully explored in the South-East Asian context. The article tackles the question of whether EU and ASEAN member states can learn from each other in developing approaches to regionalisation.     

Report: increases in police use of force in the presence of body-worn cameras are driven by officer discretion: a protocol-based subgroup analysis of ten randomized experiments

Objectives

Our multisite randomized controlled trial reported that police body-worn cameras (BWCs) had, on average, no effect on recorded incidents of police use of force. In some sites, rates of use of force decreased and in others increased. We wanted to understand these counter-intuitive findings and report pre-specified subgroup analyses related to officers’ discretion on activating the BWCs.

Methods

Using pre-established criteria for experimental protocol breakdown in terms of treatment integrity, ten experimental sites were subgrouped into “high-compliance” (no officer discretion applied to when and where BWCs should be used; n?=?3), “no-compliance” (treatment integrity failure in both treatment and control conditions; n?=?4), and tests where officers applied discretion during treatment group but followed protocol in control conditions only (n?=?4).

Results

When officers complied with the experimental protocol and did not use discretion, use of force rates were 37 % lower [SMD?=?(?.346); SE?= .137; 95?% CI (?.614) – (?.077)]; when officers did not comply with treatment protocol (i.e., officers chose when to turn cameras on/off), use of force rates were 71 % higher [SMD?= .392; SE?= .130; 95?% CI (.136) – (.647)], compared to control conditions. When full discretion (i.e., overall breakdown of protocol) was applied to both treatment and control conditions, null effects were registered [SMD?= .009; SE=.070; 95?% CI (?.127) – (.146)], compared to control conditions.

Conclusions

BWCs can reduce police use of force when then officers’ discretion to turn cameras on or off is minimized—in terms of both case types as well as individual incidents. BWCs ought to be switched on and the recording announced to suspects at early stages of police–public interactions. Future BWCs tests should pay close attention to adherence to experimental protocols.

     

Reconciling Nation and Region: Vietnamese Nation Building and ASEAN Regionalism

The article sets out to gauge the usefulness of the concepts of legitimacy, sovereignty and nation in theorising a specific, South-East Asian case of nation building. It looks at the interplay between nation building and regionalist ideology in Vietnam, within the context of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). As one of the world's last communist states, the way in which Vietnam has reconciled hard-won sovereignty with regionalisation is all the more intriguing. The article distinguishes the state-led ideology of regionalism from the macro-level process of regionalisation in charting how sovereignty, legitimacy and nation are constructed in the Vietnamese case, with a view to drawing parallels with experiences in other regions. The first section looks at the concepts of legitimacy, sovereignty and nation and how they underpin the state construct, before relating these to Vietnam's ongoing nation-building project in the second section. The final section evaluates the evolution of these concepts within a regional framework, with specific reference to Vietnam's experience as a member of ASEAN. It concludes that official nation building in Vietnam continues to be based on the premises of state sovereignty and legitimacy, an approach eminently compatible with 'the ASEAN way'. The Vietnamese Communist party seeks to reconcile regionalism with its ongoing nation-building project in a bid to bolster both domestic legitimacy and external sovereignty.     

The evolution of program budget ideas in Canada: Does Parliament benefit from Estimates reform?

Abstract: The article examines the federal Estimates budget from the perspective of whether or not the program format enhances democratic control. It introduces the idea of the budgetary system as a control in a generic management process, and then traces reforms in the accountability side of the Canadian federal government's central management system through the past twenty years. It concludes that the implementation of this version of PPBS was an error, and that it will be difficult to correct, because the budget design is embedded in the network of central institutions, which includes the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). A distinctive kind of “meta control” is now a characteristic of the federal context, and is not clearly managed by government from one decision centre. The author argues that the system does not serve Parliament. Instead it encourages bureaucratic or silent politics at several levels: inside departments; between departments and the OAG; and in an impkit system of elite accommodation between the OAG, central agencies and the government. Sommaire: Cet article analyse le récent budget de dépenses présenté au Parlement fédéral pour voir dans quelle mesure il permet d'accroître le contrôle démocratique. Il présente le système budgétaire comme un élément de contrôle dans un processus global de gestion, pour ensuite décrire les réformes ayant trait à l'imputabilité qui ont eu lieu dans le système de gestion centrale du gouvernement fédéral canadien depuis vingt ans. En conclusion, l'auteur explique que l'implantation de cette version de la rationalisation des choix budgétaires (RCB) était une erreur et que celle-ci sera difficile à corriger, étant donné que le processus budgétaire est noyé dans le réseau des institutions centrales, dont fait partie le Bureau du Vérificateur général (BVC). Le contexte fédéral se caractérise maintenant par une forme de meta-contrôle qui ne permet pas au gouvernement de gérer avec autoritéà partir d'un centre unique de décision. L'auteur soutient que le système ne sert pas le Parlement. Il encourage plutôt les politiques bureaucratiques ou les ententes tacites à différents niveaux, que ce soit à l'intérieur des ministères, entre les ministères et le BVC ou dans le cadre d'un système implicite de services rendus entre le BVG, les organismes centraux et le gouvernement.     

Post-Soviet Agricultural Employment: A Case Study of Employee Incentives in Krasnodar Territory,Russia

Addressed here is the question of rewards associated with agricultural employment on privatised state and collective farms in Russia. Drawing on qualitative field research with agricultural employees in Krasnodar Territory, the article demonstrates multiple benefits to agricultural employment. These include the expectation of stable, waged, often white-collar employment, with access to benefits such as pensions and annual leave, as well as opportunities for career advancement. Employees also identified the amenity value of rural life, and the importance of the village as a place of refuge. It is argued that these features are important to understanding employee resistance to private farming, and are indicative of an evolving culture of employment on large agricultural enterprises.     

Bureaucracy and governance

Bureaucracy and Political Power. By B. C. Smith . Sussex and New York: Wheatsheaf Books and St. Martin's Press, 1988. Pp. 237. Bibliography and index. £12.95 (cloth) Organizing Governance: Governing Organizations. By Colin Campbell and B. Guy Peters , eds. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press. 1988. Pp. 388. $34.95 (cloth)