Political Realm (political + realm)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Rethinking the Emerging Post-Washington Consensus

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2005
Ziya Öni
The objective of this article is to provide a critical assessment of the emerging Post-Washington Consensus (PWC), as the new influential vision in the development debate. The authors begin by tracing the main record of the Washington Consensus, the set of neoliberal economic policies propagated largely by key Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, that penetrated into the economic policy agendas of many developing countries from the late 1970s onwards. They then outline the main tenets of the PWC, emerging from the shortcomings of that record and the reaction it created in the political realm. The authors accept that the PWC, in so far as it influences the actual practice of key Bretton Woods institutions, provides an improvement over the Washington Consensus. Yet, at the same time, they draw attention to the failure of the PWC, as reflected in current policy practice, to provide a sufficiently broad framework for dealing with key and pressing development issues such as income distribution, poverty and self-sustained growth. [source]


Language and Nationalism in Italy

NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 1 2006
JAMES STERGIOS
ABSTRACT. Language is a central gauge of a culture's desire for and ability to articulate a common cultural, and political, identity. As such, historical figures, as well as theorists and historians, often view linguistic standardisation as a critical step on the road to forging a nation. This article explores linguistic standardisation in Italy, focusing on the Cruscan Academy dictionaries, and assesses any links between the standardisation of Florentine and nationalism. It then compares the changing political terminology in Florentine to comparable terms in French and English. The article concludes that (a) unlike the cases of French and English and much current theory on linguistic standardisation, in Italy there was no connection between standardisation and nationalism; (b) the standardisation of Florentine was accompanied by the collapse of political concepts that could have been used to bolster a nationalist movement; and (c) Italian ideas about reason of state are distinguishable from other theoretical justifications of absolutism by the removal of political morality (virtù) from the political realm. [source]


Formal and informal dimensions of intergovernmental administrative relations in Canada

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 1 2007
Carolyn M. Johns Associate professor
This article investigates how developments in federalism and public administration in the 1990s have affected intergovernmental administrative machinery and the formal and informal structures, functions, and resources of intergovernmental relations compared to findings from the 1980s. Using a survey, interviews with senior intergovernmental officials, and government documents, this paper examines the evolution of the intergovernmental administrative state as opposed to the political realm of executive federalism. The authors outline how the formal structures and functions of intergovernmental agencies and officials have evolved and argue that informal intergovernmental networks are very important in understanding and explaining the capacity of the federation to meet current and future policy and administrative challenges. Sommaire: Au cours des deux dernières décennies, d'importants changements se sont produits au sein du fédéralisme et des relations intergouvernementales au Canada. Le présent article examine comment les récents développements intervenus dans le fédéralisme et l'administration publique dans les années 1990 ont affecté les rouages administratifs intergouvernementaux et les structures officielles et non officielles, ainsi que les fonctions et ressources des relations intergouvernementales au cours de deux dernièves décennies comparativement aux résultats des années 1980. A l'aide d'un sondage, d'interviews de hauts fonctionnaires intergouvernementaux et de documents gouvernementaux, cet article étudie l'évolution de l'État administratif intergouvernemental par opposition au domaine politique du fédéralisme exécutif. Les auteurs ébauchent la façon dont les structures et les fonctions officielles des organismes et des hauts fonctionnaires intergouvernementaux ont évolué et soutiennent que les réseaux intergouvernementaux non officiels sont très importants pour comprendre et expliquer l'aptitude de la fédération à relever les défis politiques et administratifs présents et futurs. [source]


Managerialist advocate or "control freak"?

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 2 2004
The Janus-faced Office of the Auditor General
This character, it is argued, is shaped by institutional factors and the knowledge-basis on which the office relies to fulfil its mission. Three causes of "institutional schizophrenia" are identified: the OAG'S mandate in relation to financial and value-for-money audit (VFMA); the combination of the OAG'S institutional permeability and the structure of the management consulting market; and the tensions between the "negative" and "positive" dimensions of the office's mandate. On the consequences side, the author discusses three elements: the limited capacity of the OAG to develop a coherent position about managerialism; the fact that the advocacy of managerialist principles is drawing the OAG closer into the political realm; and the fragility of professionalism as a mechanism for regulating the management consultant's role of the OAG in relation to VFMA. Sommaire: Le but de cet article est de mettre en relief les contradictions dans le rôle du Bureau du vérificateur général (BVG) et d'identifier les causes et les conséquences du caractére schizoïde du Bureau qui est à la fois partisan du managérialisme et obsédé du contrôle. Ce caractère spécifique du Bureau est façonné par des facteurs institutionnels et le type de connaissance dont il dépend pour remplir sa mission. Trois causes de schizophrénie institutionnelle sont identifées:le mandat du BVG en ce qui concerne la vérification financière et l'optimisation des ressources; l'interaction entre la perméabilité institutionnelle du Bureau et la structure du marché du conseil en management; et les tensions entre les dimensions positives et négatives du mandat du Bureau. En ce qui conceme les conséquences, cet article aborde trois aspects:l'incapacité du BVG À développer une position cohérente à l'endroit du managérialisme; le fait que la promotion d'idées managérialistes amène le BVG À s'impliquer dans la sphère politique, et la fragilité du professionalisme en tant que comme mécanisme pour réguler le rôle de consultant du BVG en ce qui concerne la vérification d'optimisation des ressources. [source]


Prospects for an Environmental Economic Geography: Linking Ecological Modernization and Regulationist Approaches

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2006
David Gibbs
Abstract: Although the "new" economic geography has explored links between the subdiscipline's traditional areas of study and cultural, institutional, and political realms, environmental issues remain comparatively underresearched within the subdiscipline. This article contends not only that the environment is of key importance to economic geography, but also that economic geographers can make an important contribution to environmental debates, through providing not just a better analysis and theoretical understanding, but also better policy proscription. Rather than claim new intellectual territory, the intention is to suggest potential creative opportunities for linking economic geography's strengths with those insights from other theoretical perspectives. In particular, this article focuses upon linking insights from ecological modernization theory, developed by environmental sociologists, with regulationist approaches. [source]


Elizabeth Eckford's Appearance at Little Rock: The Possibility of Children's Political Agency

POLITICS, Issue 1 2008
Sana M. Nakata
In 1957, Hannah Arendt argued against the legally enforced desegregation of public schools in the American South. She argued that African Americans had mistaken schools and education for a site of political debate, when they properly belonged to a social realm instead. This article disagrees and reconsiders Arendt's separation between the social and political realms. Arendt also took exception to the role Elizabeth Eckford, a 15-year-old, played in this debate. It is argued here that Elizabeth Eckford's actions were deeply political and give rise to a need to consider the possibility of children's political agency. [source]