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Central Government (central + government)
Selected AbstractsTIME FOR EU MATTERS: THE EUROPEANIZATION OF DUTCH CENTRAL GOVERNMENTPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2010ELLEN MASTENBROEK To what extent does the European Union (EU) affect national governments? This article seeks to answer this question by assessing the Europeanization of Dutch central government. Using data from a large-scale survey among civil servants, we assess to what extent the EU affects the structure and culture of governmental organizations, as well as the activities of individual civil servants. On the basis of this analysis, we conclude that the impact of the EU both on individual civil servants and on organizations in Dutch central government is two-sided: a small core of civil servants and organizations are deeply involved in EU-related activities and this exists alongside a much broader base of civil servants and organizations that are less affected by the EU. These differences appear more clearly on the level of daily working practices than on the level of formal organizational structures. Nevertheless, the impact of European integration on government organizations remains limited to particular organizations and particular civil servants within central government. [source] Accrual Accounting in the Public Sector: Experiences From the Central Government in SwedenFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006Gert Paulsson First page of article [source] Land use and soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River: some socio-economic considerations on China's Grain-for-Green ProgrammeLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2006H. L. Long Abstract Soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China is a major concern and the Central Government has initiated the Grain-for-Green Programme to convert farmland to forests and grassland to improve the environment. This paper analyses the relationship between land use and soil erosion in Zhongjiang, a typical agricultural county of Sichuan Province located in areas with severe soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In our analysis, we use the ArcGIS spatial analysis module with detailed land-use data as well as data on slope conditions and soil erosion. Our research shows that the most serious soil erosion is occurring on agricultural land with a slope of 10,25 degrees. Both farmland and permanent crops are affected by soil erosion, with almost the same percentage of soil erosion for corresponding slope conditions. Farmland with soil erosion accounts for 86·2,per,cent of the total eroded agricultural land. In the farmland with soil erosion, 22·5,per,cent have a slope of,<,5 degrees, 20·3,per,cent have a slope of 5,10 degrees, and 57·1,per,cent have a slope of,>,10 degrees. On gentle slopes with less than 5 degrees inclination, some 6,per,cent of the farmland had strong (5000,8000,t,km,2,y,1) or very strong (8000,15000,t,km,2,y,1) erosion. However, on steep slopes of more than 25 degrees, strong or very strong erosion was reported for more than 42,per,cent of the farmland. These numbers explain why the task of soil and water conservation should be focused on the prevention of soil erosion on farmland with steep or very steep slopes. A Feasibility Index is developed and integrated socio-economic assessment on the feasibility of improving sloping farmland in 56 townships and towns is carried out. Finally, to ensure the success of the Grain-for-Green Programme, countermeasures to improve sloping farmland and control soil erosion are proposed according to the values of the Feasibility Index in the townships and towns. These include: (1) to terrace sloping farmland on a large scale and to convert farmland with a slope of over 25 degrees to forests or grassland; (2) to develop ecological agriculture combined with improving the sloping farmland and constructing prime farmland and to pay more attention to improving the technology for irrigation and cultivation techniques; and (3) to carry out soil conservation on steep-sloping farmland using suggested techniques. In addition, improving ecosystems and the inhabited environment through yard and garden construction for households is also an effective way to prevent soil erosion. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The governance of urban regeneration: a critique of the ,governing without government' thesisPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2002Jonathan S. DaviesArticle first published online: 17 DEC 200 This paper offers a critique of the concept of governance as networks. Using the complementary concept of regime governance, it argues that networks are not the primary mode of governance in the politics of urban regeneration in the UK. Drawing on primary and secondary material, it is argued that Central Government is becoming more influential in the local policy arena. In the ,mix' of market, hierarchy and network, hierarchy is more pervasive than network. It is therefore argued that partnerships should be treated as a distinct mode of governance. These conclusions demonstrate that despite the fashion for copying urban policies from the USA, local politics in the UK remain very different. Ironically, the transfer of policies developed in the USA has tended to entrench divergent practices and outcomes. The UK does not, therefore, appear to be moving toward the US model of regime politics. It is concluded that the partnership and network/regime models of governance should be subjected to rigorous comparative studies. [source] MI 6's Requirements Directorate: Integrating Intelligence into the Machinery of British Central GovernmentPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2000Philip H.J. DaviesArticle first published online: 17 DEC 200 The following article examines the relationship between the British Secret Intelli-gence Service (SIS, a.k.a. MI 6) and the machinery of central government, particularly departments of state and other agencies which employ information generated by the SIS. It is argued the main link between the SIS and its consumers in British government is the SIS's requirements ,side', embodied throughout most of the post-war era in the form of a Requirements Directorate. The article argues that the Requirements mechanism operates as a line of communication between the SIS and its consumers separate from the Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO), although there is overlap and interdependency between the two architectures. This discussion traces the development of the ,requirements side' from the interwar period up to the post-Cold War era using information from archival sources and a programme of interviews with former UK intelligence officials. It is further argued that the structure and process of the SIS ,requirements side' has developed and changed as a consequence of changes in the structure of demand in the machinery of British government, including adapting to the increasingly central role of the JIO. However, despite that increasingly central role of the JIO, the ,requirements side' has continued to serve as the first point of contact between the SIS and its customers in Whitehall. [source] The Impact of Decentralization on Subnational Government Fiscal Slack in IndonesiaPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2009BLANE D. LEWIS Since Indonesia began implementing its decentralization program in 2001, subnational unspent balances have grown rapidly and have reached levels that many officials find unreasonably high. But the extent to which subnational government reserves are excessive, in general, is not obvious. A not implausible decrease in the price of oil would reduce transfers to subnationals significantly and, if sustained, could possibly eliminate reserves in a relatively short time. Central government should not take any immediate action to reduce subnational slack resources directly but should instead focus on removing the underlying causes of such. [source] A concept for simultaneous wasteland reclamation, fuel production, and socio-economic development in degraded areas in India: Need, potential and perspectives of Jatropha plantationsNATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 1 2005George Francis Abstract The concept of substituting bio-diesel produced from plantations on eroded soils for conventional diesel fuel has gained wide-spread attention in India. In recent months, the Indian central Government as well as some state governments have expressed their support for bringing marginal lands, which cannot be used for food production, under cultivation for this purpose. Jatropha curcas is a well established plant in India. It produces oil-rich seeds, is known to thrive on eroded lands, and to require only limited amounts of water, nutrients and capital inputs. This plant offers the option both to cultivate wastelands and to produce vegetable oil suitable for conversion to bio-diesel. More versatile than hydrogen and new propulsion systems such as fuel cell technology, bio-diesel can be used in today's vehicle fleets worldwide and may also offer a viable path to sustainable transportation, i.e., lower greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced mobility, even in remote areas. Mitigation of global warming and the creation of new regional employment opportunities can be important cornerstones of any forward looking transportation system for emerging economies. [source] Comprehensive neighbourhood mapping: developing a powerful tool for child protectionCHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 4 2002Sarah Nelson Abstract This paper proposes ,comprehensive neighbourhood mapping' as a schema for gathering and interpreting information within a given geographical area which is informed by imaginative thinking about the safety of children and young people from sexual crime. It would build upon current forms of profiling by local authorities, health authorities and central Government. CNM would actively involve local people, in partnership with agencies, in ,mapping' danger points and support points. Eight components are discussed, including environmental issues, locations of sex offenders, sites where teenagers meet and share information, supportive individuals and organizations. Some issues for pilot projects are discussed, including the need to set up planning and implementation groups and to integrate CNM into wider child protection and community safety strategies. CNM is grounded in an ecological perspective which sees partnership approaches as essential and believes an overarching view of neighbourhood needs, based on detailed local information and understanding of how different forms of harm interconnect, is crucial in developing child protection strategies. At times of acute official anxiety about community ,lynch-mob' reactions to known paedophiles, CNM aims to build communities which instead are informed and thoughtful about child protection. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF OVERLAPPING JURISDICTIONS AND THE FRENCH/DUTCH REJECTION OF THE EU CONSTITUTIONECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006Jean-Luc Migué In seeking to protect their failed social model by rejecting the EU constitution, French and Dutch voters ironically contributed to promoting the very ,liberal' order they misunderstand and despise. When, as in federalist politics, functions overlap, two levels of government compete for the same votes in the same territory in the supply of similar services. Not unlike the tragedy of the commons in oil extraction, it is in the interest of both political authorities to seek to gain votes in implementing the programme first. The overall equilibrium supply of public services is excessive and both levels of government have a tendency to invade every field. Short of effective constitutional limits on the powers of the central government, a more decentralised EU offers an opportunity to overcome the common-pool problem of multi-level government. [source] Towards a new Bradshaw?ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 1 20071960s, Economic statistics, the British state in the 1950s SUMMARY This article outlines the attempts of British central government to react to the perceived inadequacy of official economic statistics. A huge amount of work went into this project, the main aim of which was to speed up the production of statistics so that the economy could be analysed in more detail, and thus better managed. If this was to work, more data was required on the labour market, on productivity, on production, and on the interlinkages between those indicators. British official statistics clearly were more comprehensive and more detailed at the end of this period than they had been at the start. Even so, the effort was usually thought to have been a failure by the early 1970s. More detail took time to produce; it was difficult to recruit the necessary staff; successive administrative reorganizations also absorbed energies. The devolved informality of British government hampered the emergence of an overall picture. Businesses and trade unions resisted attempts to collect more data, especially when it showed them in an unflattering light. Above all, the elite, specialist, and technical nature of the reform process meant that very little political and popular pressure built up to force through further changes. [source] Hesitantly into the arena: An account of trainee teachers' and sixth form students' preliminary attempts to enter into dialogue through emailENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 3 2009Nicholas McGuinn Abstract Teacher training is increasingly accountable to central government. Trainees , the word itself is significant , are expected to demonstrate competence in a wide range of professional standards if they are to achieve qualified teacher status. Training partnership schools, understandably, impose their own conditions for entry into their ,communities of practice'. In these circumstances, trainees , and their trainers , have increasingly fewer opportunities for risk taking or for exploring new configurations of the teacher pupil relationship. This paper describes an attempt to exploit the potential of email as a means of granting access to a ,pedagogical arena' in which trainees and students might attempt to negotiate their own ways of working together. It concludes by suggesting that both groups found this a challenging task and by noting that the trainers involved decided that, if the project were to run again, a certain amount of autonomy would need to be sacrificed to direction. [source] The Making of a Market Economy in China: Transformation of Government Regulation of Market DevelopmentEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 6 2007Qianlan Wu It is the administrative bureaucratic system that has played a leading role in the making of a market economy in China. In recent years, the Chinese Government has strived to establish a market economy based on the rule of law and has undertaken legal measures to rationalise government regulation of market economy development. However, the administrative bureaucratic system headed by the central government remains a strong party leading the market economy construction in China. This article argues that the administrative bureaucratic system and market economy development have evolved into a social institution. To transform the regulation of market economy development towards the rule of law is a social institutional change and is a slow and incremental process, as it is imbedded in the various formal and informal constraints in Chinese society. [source] Reconstructing Weak and Failed States: Foreign Intervention and the Nirvana FallacyFOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 4 2006CHRISTOPHER J. COYNE Attempts to reconstruct weak and failed countries suffer from a nirvana fallacy. Where central governments are absent or dysfunctional, it is assumed that reconstruction efforts by foreign governments generate a preferable outcome. This assumption overlooks (1) the possibility that foreign government interventions can fail, (2) the possibility that reconstruction efforts can do more harm than good, and (3) the possibility that indigenous governance mechanisms may evolve that are more effective than those imposed by military occupiers. It is argued that reconstruction efforts focus on resolving the meta-level game of creating self-sustaining liberal democratic institutions while neglecting the nested games embedded within the general meta-game. An analysis of Somalia, a prototypical failed state, is provided to illuminate these claims. While Somalia lacks a central government, the private sector has developed coping mechanisms to fill the void. These mechanisms have proven to be more effective in generating widespread order than attempts by foreign occupiers to impose a self-sustaining liberal state. [source] More Open but Not More Trusted?GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2010The Effect of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the United Kingdom Central Government This article examines the impact of Britain's Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 on British central government. The article identifies six objectives for FOI in the United Kingdom and then examines to what extent FOI has met them, briefly comparing the United Kingdom with similar legislation in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. It concludes that FOI has achieved the core objectives of increasing transparency and accountability, though the latter only in particular circumstances, but not the four secondary objectives: improved decision-making by government, improved public understanding, increased participation, and trust in government. This is not because the Act has "failed" but because the objectives were overly ambitious and FOI is shaped by the political environment in which it is placed. [source] Implementation from Above: The Ecology of Power in Sweden's Environmental GovernanceGOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2001Lennart J. Lundqvist This paper seeks to assess the tenability of Rhodes' view of the "new governance" as "governing without government," as well as the validity of Pierre and Peters' assertions that the state is still at the center of structures and processes of governance. The case used for analysis is Sweden's ecological modernization and the implementation of Local Investment Programs for Sustainable Development. This case provides a crucial test of the contradictory propositions of Rhodes and Pierre and Peters. Contrary to Rhodes' assertions, central government held the initiative in the process of implementing Sweden's ecological modernization. In line with the arrguments of Pierre and Peters central government created new structures and processes of governance to keep its initiative over constitutionally independent expert agencies and municipal governments,exactly those actors that, in Rhodes' view, could make central governmental steering well nigh impossible. As the paper illustrates, what government gains in direct control over the process, it may well lose in terms of the end results. The case of "new governance" analyzed here thus directs attention to the critical interplay between structure, process, and end results, and to government's role in governance. [source] Rebellion in south-western England and the Welsh marches, 1215,17*HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 208 2007Paul Latimer This study attempts a reassessment of the rebellion of 1215,17 in two regions: south-western England and the Welsh marches. After examining the historiography of the 1215,17 conflict and some problems with the evidence, the article deals with the two regions in turn. In the first, the rebellion is found to be somewhat stronger than has been appreciated and to be, to a considerable extent, one of local county communities, rather than of great barons. In the second, the rebellion is seen as much stronger than it has been portrayed, although here the great rebel barons play a significant role. In both regions, the rebellion appears as one directed against an exploitative and intrusive central government and its aggressive curial servants, while also, in the outcome of the rebellion, a degree of common interest between the rebels and baronial loyalists is suggested. Overall, although there are some contrasts between the two regions, the study stresses the elements of a common cause in the rebellion. [source] Corporations, Cathedrals and the Crown: Local Dispute and Royal Interest in Early Stuart EnglandHISTORY, Issue 280 2000Catherine F. Patterson This article investigates the jurisdictional disputes between ecclesiastical officials and civic corporations in cathedral cities in the first half of the seventeenth century and the response of central government to them. While conflict between civic and cathedral government is ancient in origin, the crown's reaction to it changed substantially over time. In the first years of the century, the crown took little interest in such disputes, allowing the parties to settle jurisdictional differences on their own, often to the advantage of civic leaders. As royal priorities shifted, however, the crown took more active steps to regulate relations between corporate government and cathedral clergy. Civic officials saw their privileges curtailed and authority questioned as the policies of the ,personal rule' altered established patterns. By tracking the course of this change, the article illuminates critical relations between centre and locality and exposes the strains felt by at least some local governments in the face of Caroline policy. [source] Balancing the funds in the New Cooperative Medical Scheme in rural China: determinants and influencing factors in two provincesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010Luying Zhang Abstract In recent years, the central government in China has been leading the re-establishment of its rural health insurance system, but local government institutions have considerable flexibility in the specific design and management of schemes. Maintaining a reasonable balance of funds is critical to ensure that the schemes are sustainable and effective in offering financial protection to members. This paper explores the financial management of the NCMS in China through a case study of the balance of funds and the factors influencing this, in six counties in two Chinese provinces. The main data source is NCMS management data from each county from 2003 to 2005, supplemented by: a household questionnaire survey, qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with all local stakeholders and policy document analysis. The study found that five out of six counties held a large fund surplus, whilst enrolees obtained only partial financial protection. However, in one county greater risk pooling for enrolees was accompanied by relatively high utilisation levels, resulting in a fund deficit. The opportunities to sustainably increase the financial protection offered to NCMS enrolees are limited by the financial pressures on local government, specific political incentives and low technical capacities at the county level and below. Our analysis suggests that in the short term, efforts should be made to improve the management of the current NCMS design, which should be supported through capacity building for NCMS offices. However, further medium-term initiatives may be required including changes to the design of the schemes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Tourism and national identity in UgandaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 6 2008Andrew Lepp Abstract Over the last decade, international tourism has grown rapidly in Uganda. This has been planned by a small consortium of tourism officials working with the central government. Through data obtained from interviews with Ugandan tourism officials, this paper critically assesses their understandings of tourism's role in Uganda's development. Officials conceptualise tourism as a means of constructing a positive national identity for foreign consumption, and hope that a positive national identity abroad will increase foreign investment and spark development. This research considers (re)presentations of the nation and the way(s) in which Uganda is being developed as a tourist destination. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] From ,Great' Leaders to Building Networks: The Emergence of a New Urban Leadership in Southern Europe?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004William Genieys This article reviews the changes that have taken place in local government leadership in France and Spain. It has been argued that political leadership in local government in Southern Europe is characterized by major political leaders who are able to obtain resources from central government through their political connections. However, both French and Spanish local governments have evolved while developing new forms of leadership that are more connected to territory, its people and local issues than to the respective administrative capitals. The article argues that the development of new policies at the local level, the opening of new avenues of citizen participation and the introduction of new methods of public management have changed the relationship between elected representatives and the people. Institutional innovations at the supra-municipal level have also created a space between regions and municipalities for local leaders to develop their capacity as project leaders and network creators. Cet article examine les changements survenus au niveau de l'autorité gouvernementale locale en France et en Espagne. L'autorité politique dans un gouvernement local du sud de l'Europe se caractérise, assure-t-on, par de grands leaders politiques capables d'obtenir des ressources du gouvernement central grâce à leurs relations. Pourtant, les gouvernements locaux français et espagnols ont évolué tout en élaborant des formes originales de leadership, plus proches du territoire, de sa population et des affaires locales que les capitales administratives concernées. La conception de politiques publiques novatrices au plan local, l'ouverture d'autres accès à la participation des citadins et l'introduction de nouvelles méthodes de gestion publique ont modifié le rapport entre représentants élus et population. De plus, des innovations institutionnelles au niveau supra-municipal ont généré un espace entre régions et municipalités permettant aux leaders locaux de développer leurs aptitudes en tant que chefs de projet et créateurs de réseaux. [source] Inside the Sending State: The Politics of Mexican Emigration Control1INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2006David Fitzgerald The social science of international migration has generally ignored labor emigration control policies. In the critical case of Mexico, however, the central government consistently tried to control the volume, duration, skills, and geographic origin of emigrants from 1900 to the early 1970s. A neopluralist approach to policy development and implementation shows that the failure of emigration control and the current abandonment of serious emigration restrictions are explained by a combination of external constraints, imposed by a highly asymmetrical interdependence with the United States, and internal constraints, imposed by actors within the balkanized Mexican state who recurrently undermined federal emigration policy through contradictory local practices. [source] China's health insurance system in transformation: Preliminary assessment, and policy suggestionsINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 3 2004Hans Jürgen Rösner As long ago as the 1980s, in tandem with its gradual implementation of market economy reforms, the Chinese central government also began to introduce changes in the field of social security as part of a move away from the dominant principle of state provision towards a greater espousal of the insurance principle. For demographic reasons, but also in an effort to get the private sector to pay a greater share of the cost, the intention was that future social security should be shaped in a way which combined universal, pay-as-you-go basic provision with individually funded supplementary provision. While the first half of the 1990s saw the establishment of a broadly uniform system of basic pensions, the 1998 attempt to introduce a general system of basic health insurance has not yet proved comprehensively successful, even for the population of the towns and cities, despite the success of pilot projects. This article, based on wide-ranging field studies, seeks to assess progress to date and future prospects for success, from a Chinese and an international perspective. Consideration is given to the situation of both the urban and rural populations. [source] Japan's never,ending social security reformsINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 4 2002Noriyuki Takayama This paper examines implications of the 2002 population projections for future trends in pension and healthcare costs in Japan. Current redistributive pension and healthcare programmes have resulted in considerably higher per capita income for the aged than the non,aged population. Substantive reforms are needed to lessen the extent of such redistribution, but political considerations have meant that only incremental reforms have been feasible. A start, however, has been made on introducing private initiatives in pensions; and shifting from the command and control model operated by the central government to a contracting model for healthcare. [source] An Institutional Framework for Japanese Crisis ManagementJOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000Shun'ichi Furukawa This paper discusses an institutional framework and inter-governmental relationships pertaining to crisis management in Japan. While the current law shifts most responsibility to local governments, the compartmentalized and fragmented nature of the central government and a lack of viable organization therein to oversee crisis management, hinder decisive and responsive action. Crisis management is inherently local in nature and numerous examples from the local level highlight this nature of crisis management. Three features of crisis management are identified: the decentralized nature of centralized government and centralized leadership in local government, fused inter-governmental relationship and lack of political authority. [source] Failures of the state failure debate: Evidence from the Somali territories,JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2009Tobias Hagmann Abstract Much of the current literature on state failure and collapse suffers from serious conceptual flaws. It ignores the variegated types of empirical statehood that exist on the ground, it conflates the absence of a central government with anarchy, it creates an unhelpful distinction between ,accomplished' and ,failed' states, and it is guided by a teleological belief in the convergence of all nation-states. Particularly African states figure prominently in this debate and are frequently portrayed in almost pathological terms. Proposing a comparative analysis of politics in the Somali inhabited territories of the Horn of Africa, this article challenges state failure discourses on both theoretical and empirical grounds. We draw attention to the multiple processes of state-building and forms of statehood that have emerged in Somalia, and the neighbouring Somalia region of Ethiopia, since 1991. The analysis of the different trajectories of these Somali political orders reveals that state formation in Africa contradicts central tenets of the state failure debate and that external state-building interventions should recognise and engage with sub-national political entities. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Values and Purpose in Government: Central-local Relations in Regulatory PerspectiveJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 1 2002Peter Vincent-Jones This paper explores the relationship between theories of regulation and governmentality, showing how a synthesis of the two approaches may be used in the analysis of central-local relations. The basis of the current trend towards greater partnership and cooperation in the regulation of local by central government is argued to lie in the linking of increasingly selective imperium and dominium controls with ,responsibilization' strategies involving techniques of accounting, audit, and contracting. Following Nonet and Selznick, the substantive and purposive nature of state action is placed at the centre of the analysis. In this perspective, the ideal of responsive regulation implies not just technical effectiveness, but the harnessing of regulatory forces and ,governmental' resources in endeavours to achieve legitimate regulatory objectives. While New Labour's regulatory style is more likely to prove effective than that of the Conservatives, it may be criticized for a similar failure to implement fundamental values of openness and participation in the determination of regulatory purposes. [source] Interest group strategies in multi-level EuropeJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2007John Constantelos This article analyzes the political responses of French and Italian business associations to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in the EU. I propose and test the empirical relevance of a multi-level lobbying model for multi-tiered systems, a model assumed by, but never systematically examined in, the pluralism literature. Data for this ten-sector cross-national panel study come from personal interviews with the presidents of French and Italian business associations. The interviews were held at the beginning and the end of the euro implementation process. The research shows that organized groups routinely overstep their territorial jurisdictions to lobby across multiple levels of government in multi-level Europe. The degree of state political decentralization is a statistically significant variable in explaining the choice of lobbying target. This ,crucial comparative case study' finds that, in adjusting to deeper economic integration, regional associations in France focus their energy on the central government, while Italian groups favour the regional government. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Organization of Public Service ProvisionJOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMIC THEORY, Issue 3 2004William Jack This paper addresses the question of how the responsibility for the delivery of social services, including health, education, and welfare programs, should be divided between state and central governments. We combine a random voting model and the incomplete contracts paradigm to formalize the trade-off between central and state responsibility for service delivery, and find that authority should rest with the party for whom the marginal impact of the service on re-election chances is greater. This in turn means that, other things equal, states with lower than average health, education, or welfare status should be given responsibility for service delivery, while authority in states with above average indicators should reside with the central government. Also, we show that there is no presumption that states that are given authority for service delivery should necessarily be granted expanded tax authority. [source] THE "ENTREPRENEURIAL STATE" IN "CREATIVE INDUSTRY CLUSTER" DEVELOPMENT IN SHANGHAIJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2010JANE ZHENG ABSTRACT:,Literature on China's urban development discusses the nature and role of the local state. A set of concepts have been proposed, such as the "entrepreneurial state" (ES) and "local developmental state," and an ongoing debate attempts to ascertain whether the state is "entrepreneurial" in nature. This article uses a newly emerged urban phenomenon, chuangyi chanye jiju qu (CCJQs) or "creative industry clusters," in which the central government is not involved, to explore the nature of local governments, their role in urban development, and the ways in which they perform this role. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. The findings of this research reveal a strong revenue-oriented nature of local governments, highlighting the "entrepreneurial state" as an important dimension in their character: they transform spontaneously emerged urban cultural spaces into a new mechanism generating revenues for both urban growth and their own economic benefit. Local governments promote CCJQ development with place promotion strategies, and they are directly involved in CCJQ-related businesses as market players rather than as independent bodies that effectively control and regulate the CCJQ market through policies and regulations. Further, this article reveals a "public,public" coalition as an important mechanism for local state participation. [source] Political Parties and Governors as Determinants of Legislative Behavior in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, 1988,2006LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 1 2009José Antonio Cheibub ABSTRACT This article examines the relative importance of regional and national forces in shaping the behavior of Brazilian legislators at the national level. A widely held view is that national legislators respond to state pressures in making decisions, rather than pressures from the national government. Governors not only can influence national debates but also can determine outcomes by exerting control over their states' legislative delegations. This article examines a dataset of all roll-call votes in the Chamber of Deputies between 1989 and 2006 to isolate and evaluate the impact of local pressures on legislative voting. Spanning the terms of five presidents and five different congresses, the data show that the local influence is weaker than the national on the voting decisions of individual legislators and the voting cohesion of state delegations. Alternative institutional resources allow the central government to counteract the centrifugal pressures of federalism and other institutional influences. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||