Gorbachev's Economic Reform: A Soviet Economy Roundtable

The proceedings of a panel of American specialists devoted to the recent economic reform are summarized. The panelists noted that the most substantial changes to date have accompanied efforts to restructure the decisionmaking hierarchy—in particular, a recentralization of authority through the creation of biuros and state committees and legislation on individual economic activity. Changes in the systems of economic planning and incentives, on the other hand, have been minor, suggesting a continuing debate over the extent to which price reform and various economic incentives should be implemented. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 113, 124.     

Policy Alienation of Public Professionals: A Comparative Case Study of Insurance Physicians and Secondary School Teachers

Currently, there is an intense debate on the pressures facing public professionals in service delivery. Several studies show increasing discontent among professionals toward policies they have to implement. In this article, we aim to contribute to this topic by analyzing this discontent of public professionals in terms of “policy alienation.” The policy alienation concept is used to frame the experiences of professionals in a coherent theoretical framework. We have used a qualitative comparative case study of Dutch insurance physicians and secondary school teachers to study the factors that influence the degree of policy alienation across different domains. Our article shows that facets of New Public Management are important in explaining the pressures on public professionals implementing public policies. However, others factors are also prominent, and the degree of the implementers' professionalism seems especially important. These insights help in understanding why public professionals embrace or resist the implementation of public policies.     

Integrating the Undergraduate Experience: A Course on Environmental Dispute Resolution

This paper describes a rigorous undergraduate course on environmental dispute resolution. Students get hands-on experience in negotiation cases, developing skills and building theoretical understanding through a series of exercises. With this foundation, the students advance to an extended role-playing case study on oil exploration in the Ecuadorian rain forest. The course provides an integration function both in terms of understanding environmental issues, but also in modeling reality, encouraging action, and building process tools that are essential in addressing environmental and social challenges facing the planet.     

Integrating Rijeka into socialist Yugoslavia: the politics of national identity and the new city’s image (1947–1955)

This article investigates the politics of national identity implemented in Rijeka after World War II, when the city was integrated into socialist Yugoslavia. These national and political transitions posed various challenges to the consolidation of the Yugoslav Communists’ power. The nationalities policy embedded in the slogan “Brotherhood and Unity” was the official answer to the national question, promoting collaboration among the Croatian majority, the Italian minority, and other national communities in the city. This article focuses on the definition of postwar Rijeka’s image, investigating the relationship between Yugoslav socialism and national identities in everyday political practice. The negotiation of the representation of national identities in a socialist society led to ambivalences, contradictions, and contentions expressed in and through Rijeka’s public spaces, highlighting the different orientations of cultural and political actors. The process of building socialist Yugoslavia in this specific borderland context reveals the balance and tension between the multinational framework and the integrative tendencies pertaining to the legitimization and consolidation of the socialist system.     

Person-Environment Fit and Public Service Motivation

This article incorporates insights from Person-Environment Fit theories to the discussion about the effect of Public Service Motivation (PSM) on vocational outcome variables. Analysis of a large Dutch dataset shows that workers with a PSM fit are more satisfied and less inclined to leave their job and the organization they work for than workers without such a fit. This is in accordance with the main hypothesis. Other results underline the importance of the PSM concept as they show that public sector workers have a higher level of PSM than private sector workers. Moreover, private sector workers with high levels of PSM are inclined to look for a job in the public sector, which is in accordance with a main propositions of the PSM framework. The article finishes with a discussion on theoretical and methodological issues raised by the analysis and puts forward some suggestions for further research.     

Managers in Governance Networks: How to Reach Good Outcomes?

ABSTRACT

There is a large amount of literature and research on network management activities. This article explores the role of network managers in governance networks. It fits into the discussion of managerial activities and their outcome. This article discusses and analyses the results of a survey that was conducted in 2006–2007 among those involved in environmental projects in the Netherlands (323 respondents, 111 of whom were managers of these projects). The respondents were asked questions about their background, trust, project characteristics, network management activities, and outcomes (both process and content outcomes). This article uses the data collected on network managers to study some of their background characteristics, the management activities they use, and project outcomes. The research shows that more experienced managers achieve good outcomes (trust and substantive outcome). However, the most important insight gained from this research is that network managers who employ a large number of management activities in the management of their network achieve good outcomes.