How interest groups influence public opinion: Arguments matter more than the sources

Through what mechanism do interest groups shape public opinion on concrete policies? In this article, three hypotheses are proposed that distinguish between the effect of the arguments conveyed by interest groups and the effect of interest groups as source cues. Two survey experiments on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TIPP) and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change allow the testing of these hypotheses. The resulting evidence from several countries shows that, with respect to interest groups’ attempts at shaping public opinion, arguments matter more than their sources. This is so even when accounting for people's trust in the interest groups that serve as source cues and for people's level of information about a policy. The finding that interest groups affect public opinion via arguments rather than as source cues has implications for the literature on elite influence on public opinion and the normative evaluation of interest group activities.     

Increasing access to rural maternal health services in Zambia through demand-side interventions

This paper examines a demand-side intervention that significantly increased access to maternal health services in rural Zambia in a context where skilled birth attendance rates had been stagnant for over two decades. Aspects of the intervention design that were crucial to the programme's success were the participatory and adult learning-centred approach used to mobilise intervention communities, the use of a community volunteer model, and the design's sensitivity and responsiveness to underlying social factors and problems. The demand-side intervention is already being scaled up in six districts, and is highly suitable for national level scale-up.     

Access to Reliable Public Records as Evidence for Freedom of Information in Commonwealth Africa

Abstract

International attention to the benefits of openness for empowering citizens, strengthening economic performance and ending poverty has emphasised the importance of achieving accountability and transparency through freedom of information and open data. The ability to achieve openness depends upon the quality, completeness and accessibility of government records and data. However, chronic problems in managing this information in many Commonwealth countries, particularly in the digital environment, undermine the ability to achieve these goals. There is a critical need to develop and share solutions for managing this essential resource as a basis for digital governance across the Commonwealth, especially in relation to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.     

Productive power in the Papua New Guinea church partnership programme

This article analyses the strategy of partnership governing the Papua New Guinea Church Partnership Program (CPP). Using a governmentality lens that sees power as having a productive aspect, it focuses on how the technologies of financial management and planning, monitoring, and evaluation (PME) are taken up by the churches. Fieldwork research reveals how, in conforming to the discipline of these technologies to fulfil the partnership requirements, skilful and pragmatic individuals utilise the same technologies to empower their churches to enact their theology on development. For partnerships to work, the space must be created for such productive power to flourish.     

Strategic planning through a participatory learning and action framework: a Kenyan study

This paper reflects on the use of a participatory learning and action (PLA) framework in a strategic planning process (SPP) at a primary school in rural Kenya. Successes and challenges are discussed, focusing on the barriers to fully implementing the PLA framework. Additionally, lessons learnt and ways forward for participatory SPPs are outlined. The PLA framework allowed the project stakeholders to engage in a planning process that gave participants a voice in the process. Although PLA methodology faces shortcomings, the application of this model is a step towards making community development more sustainable.     

德国行政形式选择自由理论与实践

行政形式选择自由是德国法中一个古老的问题。相关学说随着时代变迁而不断发展,先后经历了"国库行政"和"行政私法"阶段,现今又受到"新行政法学"的影响。各派学说交锋的核心始终集中于行政形式选择自由存在的前提以及应受到何种限制两大问题。目前,行政形式选择自由已被德国学界普遍认同,且将合宪性作为其存在的基本前提之一。而在法律实践中,立法者和行政者均享有行政形式选择自由,当行政者选择以私法形式完成行政任务时,除适用私法外,还需受到公法之补充适用。行政形式选择自由学说对正处于转型期的我国行政法亦具有重要的启发意义。     

Who's Afraid of WikiLeaks? Missed Opportunities in Political Science Research

Leaked information, such as WikiLeaks’ Cablegate, constitutes a unique and valuable data source for researchers interested in a wide variety of policy‐oriented topics. Yet political scientists have avoided using leaked information in their research. This article argues that we can and should use leaked information as a data source in scholarly research. First, the methodological, ethical, and legal challenges related to the use of leaked information in research have been considered, concluding that none of these present serious obstacles. Second, how political scientists can use leaked information to generate novel and unique insights concerning political phenomena using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods have been shown. Specifically, how leaked documents reveal important details concerning the Trans‐Pacific Partnership negotiations, and how leaked diplomatic cables highlight a significant disparity between the U.S. government's public attitude toward traditional knowledge and its private behavior have been demonstrated.     

Transforming the social capital of the urban poor: Lessons from Kisumu,Kenya

Large-scale organisations of the urban poor (OUP) are needed for greater influence in urban governance. However, where contexts are non-enabling for large-scale organisations to develop, external support may be needed. Past NGO support for building social capital has been heavily criticised for failing to address its darker side, while new forms of OUP supported by urban poor federations have been cited as more inclusive, representative organisations. This study compares NGO- and slum-dwellers’ federation-supported OUPs in Kisumu, Kenya, and finds evidence that development partners should seek to scale-up existing social capital while ensuring that networks formed are transformative for marginalised identities.     

Doing development differently: Rituals of hope and despair in an INGO

Through an anthropological lens, using examples from working in an international NGO, I explore how and why a group of development workers navigated the coercive practices of aid in ways that benefitted their partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Rather than seeking conspiracies to explain the gaps between development rhetoric and practices, I suggest that people both contest and collude with bureaucratic systems of rule. Youth Rights reformed various rituals and created different management practices internally, as well as maintaining its long-established solidarity approach with partners, but only managed to challenge the donors’ controls to a limited extent.     

Myths of Commonwealth Betrayal: UK–Africa Trade Before and After Brexit

Abstract

This article critically interrogates claims that a British exit from the European Union (EU) (Brexit) will create opportunities for the UK to escape the EU’s apparent protectionism and cumbersome internal politics in order to pursue a more liberal and globalist trade agenda based on the Commonwealth. Taking a historical view of UK and EU trade relations with the Commonwealth in Africa, the author highlights the way in which the incorporation of the majority of Commonwealth states into the EU’s preferential trading relationships has reconfigured ties between the UK and its former colonies over time. Further, the author suggests that the EU’s recent attempts to realise a vision for an ambitious set of free trade agreements in Africa—the Economic Partnership Agreements—was disrupted not by EU protectionism or internal politics but rather by African resistance to the EU’s liberal agenda for reciprocal tariff liberalisation and regulatory harmonisation. The UK therefore faces a complex challenge if it is to disentangle its trade relations with Africa from those of the EU and to forge its own set of ambitious free trade agreements with African Commonwealth partners.