The limits to royal power: contrafueros or actions against violations of privileges in the Valencian parliamentary assemblies until 1604

SUMMARY

The parlement of Navarre, which was located at Pau (1620–1789), had a very distinctive existence during the crisis years 1760–70. The first to experience a purge in May 1765, through a series of forced resignations of magistrates, which culminated in the Maupeou reforms of 1771, this parlement was the last to resume its functions after ten years of exile in 1775. If no one doubts the urgent need for a reform of the judiciary in the eighteenth century, and as part of it a virtual revolution at the heart of the magistracy, the methods adopted by the royal government have not ceased to divide French historians, who have rarely gone beyond the parameters of contemporary debate, which contrast two revolutions: that of the king for the common interest and that of the office holders for the interests of the nobility. The crisis of 1765 had originated in a local disciplinary problem but in a context of exacerbated national protests over taxation and resulted in a purge of most of the magistrates, amid a local indifference that was scarcely mitigated by the few gestures of support from fellow magistrates. A careful study of the parlementaire discourse of the new officers appointed by Maupeou, the ‘interlopers’, drawn from the bourgeois members of the local Bar, reveals in reality a disturbing continuity with that of the ‘expelled’ magistrates. Ridiculed by public opinion, harassed by the Estates of Béarn and by the intendant, and on top of that poorly rewarded for their devotion to the royal authority, the new magistrates, who had suffered a total lack of appreciation, displayed to extremes the defensive attitudes of the traditional office holders. This unwavering stand throws new light on the continuities of a political culture and modifies as too simplified and one-dimensional assessments of the principles and discourse of the parlementaire opposition.     

MULTI‐LAYERED ACCOUNTABILITY. PERFORMANCE‐BASED FUNDING OF UNIVERSITIES

In most Western countries there has been an increasing demand for new and different types of audit, evaluation and reporting systems that reveal the output of public sector organizations ( Pollitt and Bouckaert 2000 ). Quality assessments have had a profound impact on the funding of university research, most visibly in the UK. However, the relationship between qualitative and quantitative indicators of research performance has been an ongoing source of debate ( Bence and Oppenheim 2004 ). By exploring four different types of accountability relations, this paper investigates different stakeholders' perceptions of whether or not performance funding increases accountability and transparency, and poses the following questions: Does performance funding result in high accountability and high transparency? Does high accountability imply high transparency? Does high transparency lead to low accountability? Three main empirical sources have been utilized: a comprehensive survey of faculty at Norwegian higher education institutions, a stakeholder survey, and data from case studies of four universities.     

Punctuated Equilibrium and Agenda‐Setting: Bringing Parties Back in: Policy Change after the Dutroux Crisis in Belgium

The article analyzes how focusing events affect the public and political agenda and translate into policy change. Empirically, the study focuses on the policy changes initiated by paedophile Marc Dutroux's arrest in 1996 in Belgium. Theoretically, the article tests whether Baumgartner and Jones's (1993 ) U.S. punctuated equilibrium approach applies to a most different system case, Belgium being a consociational democracy and a partitocracy. Their approach turns out to be useful to explain this “critical case”: Policy change happens when “policy images” and “policy venues” shift. Yet, the Dutroux case shows also that political parties, as key actors in the Belgian policy process, should be integrated more explicitly in the punctuated equilibrium theory. Finally, the article argues that the quantitative analysis of longitudinal data sets on several agendas should be supplemented with qualitative case study evidence (e.g., interviews with key decision makers) to unravel the complex case of issue attention and policy change.     

RESIGNED BUT SATISFIED: THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION AND RED TAPE ON WORK SATISFACTION

This article examines the relationship between red tape, Public Service Motivation (PSM) and a particular work outcome labelled ‘resigned satisfaction’. Using data from a national survey of over 3754 public servants working at the municipal level in Switzerland, this study shows the importance of looking more closely at the concept of work satisfaction and, furthermore, of thoroughly investigating the impact of the different PSM dimensions on work outcomes. Unsurprisingly, research findings show that red tape is the most important predictor of resignation. Nevertheless, when PSM dimensions are analysed separately, results demonstrate that ‘commitment to public interest/civic duty’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘attraction to policy‐making’ decrease resignation, whereas ‘compassion’ and ‘self‐sacrifice’ increase it. This study thus highlights some of the negative (or undesirable) effects of PSM that have not been previously addressed in PSM literature.