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Political Influence (political + influence)
Selected AbstractsCOMPETITION AMONG STAKEHOLDER GROUPS FOR POLITICAL INFLUENCE OVER BUSINESS REGULATION: THE CASE OF THE UK PENSIONS INDUSTRYECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2003Paul Klumpes This paper applies a stakeholder perspective to estimate various types of costs (taxes) and benefits (subsidies) affecting stakeholder groups whose constituents are most affected by recent, major reforms to the public regulation of the UK pensions industry. Both direct and indirect subsidies and taxes arising from regulation distinguishes groups representing both sophisticated and vulnerable investors. The analysis suggests that financial intermediaries, and industry regulators, are all effectively subsidised by other stakeholder groups. [source] Political Influence and the Banking Sector: Evidence from Korea,OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 1 2007Jaewook An Abstract This paper uses panel data to compare the performance of Korean banks with and without effective government control of the appointment of chief operating officers. A privatization programme succeeded in spreading ownership of banks widely among the public, but government retention of an ownership stake in an institution meant de facto control by government. Despite charging lower loan rates, banks controlled by government experience higher bad loans ratios. This is in line with expectations of regulatory forbearance and government protection for recipients of political loans. Banks controlled by government are less efficient than privately controlled banks and bad loan variables are higher at banks with lower efficiency scores. [source] Emergency Medicine and Political InfluenceACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 10 2009Robin R. Hemphill MD Abstract The 2008 election brought sweeping political change to Washington, DC. For a variety of reasons, there is also substantial political momentum for reform of our health care system. At the 2008 Association of American Medical Colleges meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, meeting in conjunction with the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, chose to examine the topic of "advocacy and political influence." This article summarizes comments made at the meeting and develops the argument that expertise in health policy and political advocacy are valuable skills that should be considered legitimate components of scholarly activity in academic emergency medicine. Strategies for effective advocacy of issues relevant to emergency medicine and emergency patient care are also discussed. [source] Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin AmericaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2002Ihejirika, Philomina E. Okeke This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose that the strategic options available to women are shaped by at least three factors: (1) the existence of a unified women's movement capable of making political demands; (2) existing patterns of gender relations, which influence women's access to arenas of political influence and power; and (3) the content of existing gender ideologies, and whether women can creatively deploy them to further their own interests. State feminism emerged in Chile out of the demands of a broad,based women's movement in a context of democratic transition that provided feminists with access to political institutions. In Nigeria, attempts at creating state feminism have consistently failed due to a political transition from military to civilian rule that has not provided feminists with access to political arenas of influence, and the absence of a powerful women's movement. [source] THE LOGIC OF AUTHORITARIAN BARGAINSECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 1 2009RAJ M. DESAI Dictatorships do not survive by repression alone. Rather, dictatorial rule is often explained as an "authoritarian bargain" by which citizens relinquish political rights for economic security. The applicability of the authoritarian bargain to decision-making in non-democratic states, however, has not been thoroughly examined. We conceptualize this bargain as a simple game between a representative citizen and an autocrat who faces the threat of insurrection, and where economic transfers and political influence are simultaneously determined. Our model yields implications for empirical patterns that are expected to exist. Tests of a system of equations with panel data comprising 80 non-democratic states between 1975 and 1999 generally confirm the predictions of the authoritarian-bargain thesis, with some variation across different categories of dictatorship. [source] SPECIAL INTEREST POLITICS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF STRENGTHENING PATENT PROTECTION IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRYECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 2 2008ANGUS C. CHU Since the 1980s, the pharmaceutical industry has benefited substantially from a series of policy changes that have strengthened the patent protection for brand-name drugs as a result of the industry's political influence. This paper incorporates special interest politics into a quality-ladder model to analyze the policy-makers' tradeoff between the socially optimal patent length and campaign contributions. The welfare analysis suggests that the presence of a pharmaceutical lobby distorting patent protection is socially undesirable in a closed-economy setting but may improve social welfare in a multi-country setting, which features an additional efficiency tradeoff between monopolistic distortion and international free riding on innovations. [source] Political participation and procedural utility: An empirical studyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2006ALOIS STUTZER In this article, it is argued that people have preferences about both aspects and that they derive utility from the processes involved in decision making over and above the utility gained from outcomes. The authors study political participation possibilities as an important source of procedural utility. To distinguish between outcome and process utility, they take advantage of the fact that nationals can participate in political decision making, while foreigners are excluded and thus cannot enjoy the respective procedural utility. Utility is assumed to be measurable by individually reported subjective well-being. As an additional indicator for procedural utility, reported belief in political influence is analyzed. [source] Sir Robert Walpole after his Fall from Power, 1742,1745HISTORY, Issue 302 2006JONATHAN OATES It is often assumed that Sir Robert Walpole's career in politics ended with his ceasing to be chief minister in 1742. During his remaining years, however, he continued to exert political influence by bolstering and advising the government, especially in 1743,4. Even without political office, he was still seen as the fount of patronage. He was also able to pursue his other interests in this time and enjoyed favour with both King George II and his former political colleagues. Yet his health, never good, deteriorated rapidly towards the end of 1744 and he died bravely in the spring of the following year. [source] The Decline of America's Soft Power in the United Nations1INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 3 2009Monti Narayan Datta To what extent does anti-Americanism precipitate a decline in America's soft power? Nye postulates a negative relationship, presenting substantial implications for the U.S. national interest. In this paper, I test Nye's hypothesis through an examination of America's political influence within the United Nations. Using a fixed effects model, I regress voting alignment within the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on cross-national, aggregate public opinion toward the United States from 1985 to 2007. Controlling for foreign aid received and alliances with the United States, I find a statistically significant, positive relationship between favorable attitudes toward the United States and voting alignment within the UNGA on overall plenary votes and those votes for which the U.S. lobbies other UN-member states extensively. At the same time, controlling for temporal effects, states are far less supportive of U.S. interests in the UN throughout the tenure of President George W. Bush, capturing the effect of "anti-Bushism" in addition to anti-Americanism. The results of this study shed light on an emerging area of the literature that not only studies the sources of anti-Americanism, but also its consequences. [source] International Regimes, Domestic Veto-Players, and Capital Controls Policy StabilityINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2003Scott L. Kastner States' decisions about regulating international capital movements are shaped in part by institutions and partisanship at the domestic level, but the effects of domestic-level variables are themselves contingent on the constraints imposed by the international system. We amend the veto-players hypothesis to account for the effects of international regimes on the political influence of domestic players in state decision-making. The history of changes in international financial regulations over the past four decades provides an ideal case to study the interaction of international regimes and domestic decision-making systems. We create a data set of all capital controls policy changes that 19 OECD parliamentary democracies made during the years 1951,1998. Using these new data, we find that states with a higher number of veto-player parties in government enact fewer capital controls policy changes. Furthermore, ideologically right-of-center governments in these industrialized countries are more likely than others to enact capital controls liberalizations. We also find, however, that the independent effects of these domestic-level variables disappear after the mid-1980s, when the systemic constraints imposed on individual states increased substantially. [source] Policing a complex community; political influence on policing and its impact on local and central accountabilityJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2005Robin Fletcher Abstract During the 1970s a series of events irrevocably changed the way in which policing was carried out in England and Wales. This paper describes how the police became politicized as it enforced government policies that resulted in violent police/public confrontation. It then explores how the Metropolitan Police Service began a process of re-engagement with the highly complex society of London, by community-focused policing models. The theoretical and practical difficulties of community policing are discussed in relation to legislation that required greater community involvement in policing. A theme of accountability is generated throughout the paper showing how political extremism challenged a bi-partite system of police governance, unique to the Metropolitan Police in the context of the UK, by demanding local accountability. This resulted in conflicting legislation that promotes both localized and centralized forms of accountability. The paper concludes with a speculative theory of how policing may develop in London as a department of a local government. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Salvation or damnation: deconstructing nursing's aspirations to professional statusJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2008JOHN R. CUTCLIFFE BSc(Hon) Aim, This paper will deconstruct the rationale(s) for aspiring to professional status in nursing. Background, It is argued that ,transformative nursing leaders' must transition from operational to strategic aspects, such as considering the question of whether or not nursing should move towards professional status. Method, This paper examines documented outcomes arising out of professional status and considers whether or not these are contrary to the central tenets of nursing's underpinning philosophy and practice axioms. The outcomes scrutinized are: compensation, respect and recognition, political influence and clout, the consumer movement and the gender issue. Findings, A carte blanche aspiration for professional status is irreconcilable with some of nursing's central tenets. However, there are benefits that nurses should pursue. Conclusion, Aspiring to professional status by adopting the normative orthodoxies and dominant discourse of our medical colleagues actually serves to reinforce and maintain nurses in a mostly subservient role. Implications for nursing management, In place of adopting the gendered views of professional status, nurses and clients might be better served by the creation of a parallel discourse; one where the central and underpinning values of nurses and clients are seen as equal, though different to the values of the current dominant discourse. [source] The four Ps of corporate political activity: a framework for environmental analysis and corporate actionJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2009Nicolas M. Dahan In this paper, I propose a new integrated framework which may be used to conduct a thorough analysis of a firm's political environment. The four steps of the methodology include the problem (how a political problem emerges and can be shaped by actors), the procedure (the public decision-making procedure), the policies (relevant public policies currently implemented) and the players (including policy-makers as well as participants in the political debate). Together, they form what I call the ,Four Ps of corporate political activity'. This framework can serve not only for environmental analysis and monitoring, but also to improve the effectiveness of a firm's attempts in the field of political influence, through actions such as arena selection, issue framing, the use of procedural opportunities, proactive negotiation of a compromise or gate-keeping the political arena. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ,Family Businesses Distributing America's Beverage': managing government relations in the National Beer Wholesalers AssociationJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2003Conor McGrath Abstract Over the past decade, America's National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) has transformed itself from an organisation lacking much political influence into one of the most powerful interest groups on Capitol Hill. The NBWA has been described as "the toughest lobby you never heard of" (Birnbaum 1998: 148). Its strategy over this period provides an ideal case study of how to manage government relations within a trade association. It demonstrates the importance of establishing and implementing a measurable strategy, maximising the impact of a range of lobbying tools and leveraging the political environment to operate as effectively as possible. Senator Ben Nelson (Dem, Nebraska) has stated that, ,NBWA is one of the most effective trade associations in Washington DC, with a staff that is savvy to the public relations and marketing strategies required to be influential on Capitol Hill' (Nelson 2001). Indeed, the fact that the NBWA's government relations programme is so explicitly based upon marketing principles is unusual from a British perspective; even in the American context, the strategy is executed particularly effectively. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications [source] Democracy and Social Policy in Brazil: Advancing Basic Needs, Preserving Privileged InterestsLATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2009Wendy Hunter ABSTRACT Has democracy promoted poverty alleviation and equity-enhancing reforms in Brazil, a country of striking inequality and destitution? The effects of an open, competitive political system have not been straightforward. Factors that would seem to work toward this goal include the voting power of poor people, the progressive 1988 Constitution, the activism of social movements, and governance since 1995 by presidents affiliated with center-left and left parties. Yet these factors have been counterbalanced by the strong political influence and lobbying power of organized interests with a stake in preexisting arrangements of social protection and human capital formation. An analysis of four key federal sectors, social security, education, health care, and public assistance, illustrates the challenges for social sector reforms that go beyond raising basic living standards to enhancing socioeconomic inequality. [source] Chinese Nationalism and Sino,Japanese RelationsPACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 2 2008Jing-Dong Yuan Contemporary Chinese nationalism has its roots in the country's nation-building and identity-forming movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that sought to establish China's place in the community of nations. Today, nationalism in China can be characterized as falling into two major categories. On the one hand, there is nationalism embedded in patriotism with great pride in China's civilization, major achievements, and confidence in the country's future in embracing and meeting the challenges of globalization. On the other hand, there is the sentimental nationalism that reacts to what is perceived as injustice and insult done to China and has a strong victim mentality. The domestic discourse of nationalism can be influenced by government propaganda, intellectual debates, populous display of emotion and repulsion, or a mixture of all three. As China continues to grow in economic power and political influence, how nationalism is handled can have a significant impact on relations with its neighbors and beyond. [source] U.S. Presidents and the Use of Economic SanctionsPRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2000A. COOPER DRURY What conditions lead the U. S. president to use and alter economic sanctions? Both relations with the target country and domestic politics are considered as conditions leading to the employment and later removal of economic sanctions. Using time-series cross-sectional data, the analysis shows that the president considers both the relations with the target country and U. S. domestic factors when deciding to impose economic sanctions, although the relations with the target have a much greater impact on the decision. Once the economic sanctions are in place and the president must decide to maintain or alter them, the domestic political influence disappears, and the president considers only the relations with the target when modifying sanction policy. [source] EXPERTISE AND POLICY-MAKING: LEGAL PROFESSIONALS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2006ELLA BATTEN Professional influence in policy-making is generally believed to rest on professionals successfully laying claim to access to expertise , knowledge, understanding or experience , not available to others, above all politicians. On the basis of a 2005 survey of nearly 800 lawyers serving in local authorities in England and Wales, this article explores the relationship between specialization and political influence. Lawyers who shape policy use conventional routes for political influence, establish contacts with political officeholders, tend to identify less with the profession at large and are less likely to see themselves as specialists in any field of law. This means that the relationship between expertise and political power is complex and that the notion that professionals use their expertise to shape policy should be treated with some caution. [source] The Child Welfare System: Through the Eyes of Public Health NursesPUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2005Janet U. Schneiderman Abstract,Objective: This qualitative descriptive study investigates how public health nurses working within the child welfare system view the organization and the organization's effect on their case management practice. Design: Semistructured interviews were conducted utilizing the Bolman,Deal Organizational Model. This model identifies four frames of an organization: symbolic, human resources, political, and structural. Sample: A purposive sample of nine nurses and one social worker was selected to participate in comprehensive interviews. Results: Data analysis identified two main themes. The first theme was the presence of organizational structural barriers to providing case management. The second theme was the lack of political influence by the nurses to change the structure of the organization; hence, their skills could be more completely utilized. Conclusions: Public health nurses who work in child welfare will need to systematically analyze their role within the organization and understand how to work in "host settings." Nursing educators need to prepare public health nurses to work in non-health care settings by teaching organizational analysis. [source] Legitimacy, Political Equality, and Majority RuleRATIO JURIS, Issue 1 2008WOJCIECH SADURSKI The egalitarian character of MR is established by exploring "puzzles" in democratic theory, such as the insensitivity of democratic voting procedures to unequal intensity of citizens' preferences, and the relationship between the principle of unanimity (sometimes thought better to respect citizens' equality) and MR. Special attention is directed to the relationship between political equality and equality in the outcomes of political decisions: The claim is made that the language of equal political opportunity captures well the idea of equal political influence, in the circumstance of disagreement about what is required to achieve equal treatment through the outcomes of political decisions. [source] Local Institutions and the Politics of Urban GrowthAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009Mark Lubell This article uses a political market framework to analyze how the structure of local political institutions affects the relative political influence of development and environmental interests in the context of urban growth. Using panel data from 406 Florida cities from 1998 to 2003, the empirical analysis finds important interaction effects between the structure of city executive branch institutions and interest group variables. The economic and political forces driving urban growth do not operate identically in all cities,they vary as a function of institutional context. Institutional structure helps determine which interest groups have their preferences reflected in local land-use changes and development patterns. The resulting patterns suggest a "sustainability paradox" wherein richer, environmental interests push for the preservation of environmental amenities while at the same time accelerating the number of residential units built in a community. [source] Power Sharing and Leadership Dynamics in Authoritarian RegimesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2009Milan W. Svolik I examine a fundamental problem of politics in authoritarian regimes: the dictator and the ruling coalition must share power and govern in an environment where political influence must be backed by a credible threat of violence. I develop a model of authoritarian politics in which power sharing is complicated by this conflict of interest: by exploiting his position, the dictator may acquire more power at the expense of the ruling coalition, which may attempt to deter such opportunism by threatening to stage a coup. Two power-sharing regimes, contested and established dictatorships, may emerge as a result of strategic behavior by the dictator and the ruling coalition. This theory accounts for the large variation in the duration of dictators' tenures and the concentration of power in dictatorships over time, and it contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of power sharing and accountability in authoritarian regimes. [source] DEMOCRATIZATION AND FINANCIAL REFORM IN TAIWAN: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF BAD-LOAN CREATIONTHE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 3 2002Yukihito SAT This study shows that many bad loans now burdening Taiwan's financial institutions are interrelated with the society's democratization which started in the late 1980s. Democratization made the local factions and business groups more independent from the Kuomintang government. They acquired more political influence than under the authoritarian regime. These changes induced them to manage their owned financial institutions more arbitrarily and to intervene more frequently in the state-affiliated financial institutions. Moreover they interfered in financial reform and compelled the government to allow many more new banks than it had originally planned. As a result the financial system became more competitive and the qualities of loans deteriorated. Some local factions and business groups exacerbated the situation by establishing banks in order to funnel funds to themselves, sometimes illegally. Thus many bad loans were created as the side effect of democratization. [source] CONSULTING KU JLOPLE: SOME HISTORIES OF ORACLES IN WEST AFRICATHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2004Elizabeth Tonkin Historical comparison of oracles in west Africa, mainly during the nineteenth century, shows how divination practices may alter. In the cases explored here, reputation, range of users, economic growth, and political influence interacted as these oracles developed; some at sites with internal and overseas trade access became complex, large-scale operations. But by about 1900, colonialists felt threatened by their secular and their spiritual power and smashed them physically, though not spiritually. Contextualized comparison shows that the many people who were involved as oracle organizers and supplicants must have had different motivations and interests. Some methodological implications of the findings are considered. As in many powerful secular organizations, access to insider knowledge was blocked, but oracular reputation was important, and the oracles had competitors. Success derived partly from collecting intelligence, with simultaneous advertisement that emphasized the mysterious power of their operations. [source] A Loss of Faith: The Sources of Reduced Political Legitimacy for the American Medical ProfessionTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2002Mark Schlesinger Writing at the beginning of the 20th century, Shaw identified one of the significant contemporary transformations in industrial democracies. In part as the result of advances in science and technology, in part as a rejection of the monopolistic abuses of industrialization, and in part as a consequence of assiduous efforts by the professions themselves, this was a period in which the legitimacy and social authority of professionals increased dramatically (Brint 1994; Krause 1996; Larson 1977; Sandel 1996). Nowhere was this more evident than in medicine. Over several decades, medicine changed from an occupation with a mixed reputation and little political influence into one that would "dominate both policy and lay perceptions of health problems" (Freidson 1994, 31). In a number of countries, the professional authority and political influence of physicians also rose during this era (Coburn, Torrance, and Kaufert 1983; Krause 1996; Stone 1980), most dramatically in the United States (Starr 1982). The political legitimacy and policymaking influence of the medical profession have greatly declined in American society over the past 30 years. Despite speculation about the causes, there has been little empirical research assessing the different explanations. To address this gap, data collected in 1995 are used to compare attitudes of the American public and policy elites toward medical authority. Statistical analyses reveal that (1) elites are more hostile to professional authority than is the public; (2) the sources of declining legitimacy are different for the public than they are for policy elites; and (3) the perceptions that most threaten the legitimacy of the medical profession pertain to doubts about professional competence, physicians' perceived lack of altruism, and limited confidence in the profession's political influence. This article concludes with some speculations about the future of professional authority in American medicine. [source] Road pricing: lessons from LondonECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 46 2006Georgina Santos SUMMARY Road pricing LESSONS FROM LONDON This paper assesses the original London Congestion Charging Scheme (LCCS) and its impacts, and it simulates the proposed extension which will include most of Kensington and Chelsea. It also touches upon the political economy of the congestion charge and the increase of the charge from £5 to £8 per day. The possibility of transferring the experience to Paris, Rome and New York is also discussed. The LCCS has had positive impacts. This was despite the considerable political influences on the charge level and location. It is difficult to assess the impacts of the increase of the charge from £5 to £8, which took place in July 2005, because no data have yet been released by Transport for London. The proposed extension of the charging zone does not seem to be an efficient change on economic grounds, at least for the specific boundaries, method of charging and level of charging that is currently planned. Our benefit cost ratios computed under different assumptions of costs and benefits are all below unity. Overall, the experience shows that simple methods of congestion charging, though in no way resembling first-best Pigouvian taxes, can do a remarkably good job of creating benefits from the reduction of congestion. Nevertheless, the magnitude of these benefits can be highly sensitive to the details of the scheme, which therefore need to be developed with great care. , Georgina Santos and Gordon Fraser [source] Monetary Policy Design: Institutional Developments from a Contractual PerspectiveINTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 3 2000Carl E. Walsh Twenty years ago, most industrialized economies were just starting the costly process of disinflation. There was little consensus that these disinflations would be successful, or that low inflation once achieved could be maintained. While the USA achieved low inflation without changing its policy making institutions, many other countries did reform their central banking institutions, making them more independent of political influences. In this paper, I address three questions. First, is independence enough? Second, how do the details of an institution's structure translate, through their impact on incentives, into different policy outcomes? And third, can institutions serve as commitment mechanisms? [source] Perception and Politics in Intelligence Assessment: U.S. Estimates of the Soviet and "Rogue-State" Nuclear ThreatsINTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 4 2009James H. Lebovic United States estimates of Soviet nuclear goals and capabilities and the current "rogue-state" nuclear threat reflected prevailing beliefs about threat within the U.S. government and the relative influence of agencies charged with threat assessment. This article establishes that the patterns in formal Soviet threat assessment: (i) did not reflect a uniform response to "external threat," (ii) were inevitably tied to underlying assumptions about adversary intent, and (iii) were susceptible then to perceptual, organizational, and/or political influences within government. Thus, threat assessments reflected the optimism and pessimism,and political interests and ideologies,of those who participated in the estimating process. The article concludes by examining these lessons in light of the experiences and challenges of assessing threat from small states harboring nuclear ambitions. [source] The Political Activity of Evangelical Clergy in the Election of 2000: A Case Study of Five DenominationsJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 4 2003James L. Guth This article focuses on the political participation of ministers from five evangelical Protestant denominations that differ in theology, polity, and history. Despite such differences, these clergy respond to political influences in much the same fashion. We find that the standard theories of political participation have varying success in accounting for their political involvement. Sociodemographic explanations provide little help, but psychological engagement with politics has more explanatory power. Professional role orientations are the best predictors of actual participation. And the clergy who see moral reform issues as the most important confronting the country,and who hold conservative views on such issues,are most likely to become engaged. Finally, membership in Christian Right organizations serves to elicit more activity than might occur if ministers were left to internally motivated participation. Despite the emphasis on other contextual variables in some work on clerical politics, we find that communications exposures, congregational influences, and even the support of clerical colleagues have very limited independent effects on political involvement. [source] The relevance, practicality and viability of spatial development initiatives: a South African case studyPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2003John M. Luiz Policymakers have for long had an ambivalent attitude towards space and have been hesitant in dealing with intra-national models of uneven development. Issues surrounding regional development have always been tainted with ideological and political influences rather than being a purely economic consideration. This article addresses the thinking behind regional development policies and questions the role of spatial policy. It confronts this question in the South African case where local government capacity is particularly constrained and the boundaries between government tiers unclear. The first section outlines a selected critical history of the regional policy literature as it applies to South Africa. This is followed by an examination of South Africa's post-apartheid policy of spatial development initiatives (SDIs) focusing on the most contentious of these, namely the Fish River SDI, which has been plagued by controversy. It focuses on the tensions involved in development planning between government agencies and between politicians and technocrats. It also highlights the growing schism between government and civil society with the former emphasising mega-projects which reinforce its global competitive strategy but with limited apparent benefit to the local community. Lastly, it concludes that little effort was made to integrate the SDI into a provincial poverty strategy and argues that instead of utilising industrial decentralisation to redress inequality and poverty, a ,first-best' option may be for the government to target poverty directly by investing in various forms of human capital. Such an approach would lead to long-term economic growth and also improve South Africa's international competitiveness. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||