bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Academic Self‐Concept, Interest, Grades, and Standardized Test Scores: Reciprocal Effects Models of Causal Ordering
Authors: Marsh Herbert W. , Trautwein Ulrich , Lüdtke Oliver , Köller Olaf , Baumert Jürgen
Published: March 2005

Reciprocal effects models of longitudinal data show that academic self‐concept is both a cause and an effect of achievement. In this study this model was extended to juxtapose self‐concept with academic interest. Based on longitudinal data from 2 nationally representative samples of German 7th‐grade students (Study 1: N=5,649, M age=13.4; Study 2: N=2,264, M age=13.7 years), prior self‐concept significantly affected subsequent math interest, school grades, and standardized test scores, whereas prior math interest had only a small effect on subsequent math self‐concept. Despite stereotypic gender differences in means, linkages relating these constructs were invariant over gender. These results demonstrate the positive effects of academic self‐concept on a variety of academic outcomes and integrate self‐concept with the developmental motivation literature.
Daily Reports of Witnessing and Experiencing Peer Harassment in Middle School
Authors: Nishina Adrienne , Juvonen Jaana
Published: March 2005

Two studies examined daily incidents of peer harassment in urban middle schools. Sixth‐grade students (Mage=11 years) described their daily personal experiences and witnessed accounts of peer harassment, and rated their negative feelings across a 2‐week period. In Study 1 (n=95), within‐subject analyses across 4 days revealed that both personally experienced and witnessed harassment were associated with increases in daily anxiety, whereas witnessing harassment buffered students against increases in humiliation on days when they personally experienced harassment. Evidence for witnessing as a buffer against increases in humiliation and anger was also found in Study 2 (n=97) that included 5 daily reports. Witnessing harassment also protected students against increases in negative self‐perceptions.
JOHANNINE DUALISM AND CONTEMPORARY PLURALISM
Authors: VOLF MIROSLAV
Published: March 2005

The main thrust of this essay is an argument that (1) John's Gospel is not “dualistic” in the technical sense of the term but that it does operate with “oppositional dualities”; (2) far from being negating of pluralism as both a social fact and a political project, John's kind of oppositional dualities may in fact be the best way to preserve social pluralism and make it flourish; (3) two notable features of John's oppositional dualities are that (i) they are soft enough to allow surprisingly blurry boundaries between “inside” and “outside” and that (ii) they mandate a willingness to sacrifice one's own life on behalf of one's deadly enemies.
CONCEPT ART, CLONES, AND CO‐CREATORS: THE THEOLOGY OF MAKING
Authors: NORTHCOTT MICHAEL S.
Published: March 2005

In this essay the author compares postmodern art and the cloning of mammals and argues that they both rely upon a narrative of human creativity which sets humanity in the place of God as the only source of meaning and truth in the cosmos. The Christian tradition by contrast owns limits to human making—both artistic and scientific—which are provided by the natural order of creation and by the story of humanity as fallen, and then as redeemed by the unique reordering of reality which the original creator God makes possible in Jesus Christ. Human creativity in the Christian perspective is circumscribed by human creatureliness and this implies that Christian communities will subject aesthetic and technological invention to more careful scrutiny than does a science‐informed and industrially sustained liberal social order.
“COGITOR ERGO SUM”: ON THE MEANING AND RELEVANCE OF BAADER's THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF DESCARTES
Authors: GELDHOF JORIS
Published: March 2005

This paper examines the arguments on the basis of which Franz Baader (1765–1841), the almost forgotten contemporary of Hegel and Schelling, rejected Descartes’ philosophy so decisively, that, at the end of his life, he wrote to a friend that he passionately wanted to put an end to Cartesianism. I defend the thesis that Baader's hostility to Cartesianism was ultimately grounded in a theological idea, and that his holistic and emphatically Christian thought can only be adequately understood in the light of his critique of Descartes and Cartesianism. I also suggest reasons why Baader's work might well be considered as a source of inspiration for contemporary discussions of postmodernism.
PHILOSOPHY AND SALVATION: THE APOPHATIC IN THE THOUGHT OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
Authors: KING ANDREW
Published: March 2005

The mystical apotheosis of Schopenhauer's thought is intimately connected to his immanent definition of philosophy. An analysis of the philosophical progression to salvation via aesthetic contemplation, compassion, and asceticism, illuminates Schopenhauer's advocacy of Eckhartian‐style mysticism. Schopenhauer's mysticism, like Eckhart’s, relies on the structures of negation facilitated by a particular metaphysics. Both therein transcend the tradition of theological discourse which holds it possible to construct propositions that express the essence of the divine. That has led to both being associated with atheism. However, in tracing the mechanism by which Schopenhauer's philosophy reaches its mystical apotheosis, it becomes apparent that it would be mistaken to charge him (and Eckhart) with atheism on the basis of an alleged inability to distinguish between an “atheistic non‐existence of God” and a “hyper‐thingness of God”. Rather than attack Schopenhauer in this manner, and hence also Eckhart, it is more appropriate to target their underlying metaphysical preconceptions, which in the case of Schopenhauer, is to take issue with his Critical conception of philosophy.
Political Influences on Monetary Policy 1914–84
Authors: ELLIOTT EUEL , WHITELEY PAUL
Published: March 2005

This study examines political, institutional and economic influences on monetary policy in the long run. A monetary policy reaction function is estimated, which focuses principally on the influence of the administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve on outcomes; these influences are estimated together with a variety of economic and political controls. The findings show that partisan control of the White House is particularly important in explaining variations in the growth of the quantity of money over time. Republican control of the White House is associated with tighter money, and Democratic control with looser money, but there are exceptions. Finally, the indirect influence of partisanship on the economic variables in the reaction function suggest that the total effects are stronger than the direct effects alone.
Intellectuals, Political Culture and the Roots of the Authoritarian Presidency in Latin America
Authors: SONDROL PAUL C.
Published: March 2005

Curiously, few studies of the Latin American chief executive lend shape to the corpus of scholarly journals. What does exist concerning the presidency in Latin America consists largely of chapters in country studies covering formal‐legal aspects of presidential power. Missing are examinations of the philosophical, intellectual, cultural and historical bases of presidential power. The paucity of research concerning the executive as it relates to the intellectual history and cultural milieu of Latin America is more confounding when it is readily apparent that Latin American pensadores have thought and written extensively about the presidency. Intellectual elites have played a major role as the vanguard of political and social movements in Latin America. This survey explicates and analyzes the intellectual and cultural roots of presidential power in Latin America in order to understand the institution's authoritarian propensities.
The President as Institution Builder: The Reagan Case
Authors: PIKA JOSEPH A. , THOMAS NORMAN C.
Published: March 2005

Every president bestows upon his successors a “legacy” that will have an impact on both policy issues and institutional operations. Although attention is commonly focused on the president's role as a policymaker, he serves as an institution builder, as well, leaving a legacy that is manifested in long‐term developments, in technical details of managing the job, and in patterns of interaction with other actors in the political environment. Reagan's institutional legacy has been the subject of intense debate and is addressed here in relation to five vantage points as they were employed during his eight years in office: personnel, structure, standard operating procedures, modes of exercising influence, and norms. These dimensions are examined in relation to the presidency, the bureaucracy, Congress, and the judiciary.

Reagan's departures in the selection and management of executive and judicial branch personnel were the most distinctive features of his legacy. Important changes were also made in the regulatory review and budgetary processes. Politicization and centralization, two long‐term developments in the presidential office, gained renewed vigor, and Reagan elaborated a judicial strategy for achieving policy goals while refining the administrative strategy pioneered earlier by Nixon. Serious damage may well have been done to the norms of public service and justice under the rule of law. The framework introduced here promises to help scholars deal more systematically with the institutional impacts of both past and future presidents.
The Bureaucracy and Its Masters: The New Madisonian System in the US
Authors: GORMLEY WILLIAM T.
Published: March 2005

The bureaucracy's masters have redesigned the American political system over the past 20 years. As before, checks and balances play a critical role. This time, however, relations between one branch of government (the bureaucracy) and the rest are decidedly and deliberately asymmetrical. While acknowledging the need for bureaucratic accountability, the author raises questions about a growing emphasis on highly coercive controls from above. Instead he recommends greater reliance on catalytic controls from below, which energize the bureaucracy without stifling bureaucratic creativity and eroding bureaucratic integrity.
Corporatism and Planning in London in the 1980s
Authors: SIMMIE JAMES , FRENCH SUSAN
Published: March 2005

This study confirms the existence of corporatist forms of interest intermediation at the micro level of four local planning authorities in London.

In all four boroughs distinctions could be drawn between local business associations and metic, non‐local firms. The former displayed most of the institutional characteristics outlined by Schmitter in his original definition of corporatism. In contrast the non‐local or metic firms did not exhibit all these institutional characteristics at the level of local government. The conditions under which they bargained with local planning authorities (LPAs) were often influenced by statutory and other requirements handed down from central government. These requirements were themselves often the result of corporatist interest intermediation at the level of the central state.

Both local business associations (LBAs) and metic production organizations (MPOs) were required by (LPAs) to implement planning policies. This process has increased in importance during the Thatcher era. Economic decline has made the local planning authorities even more dependent on private organizations for implementation than before.

Local LBAs and MPOs were granted privileged access to the planning system. Only the LBAs were granted representational monopolies for their very local areas in this process. MPOs developed representational oligopolies but because they were so few in number they could be in conflict with one another over the rights to develop a particular site.

In return for these representational privileges both the LBAs and MPOs were expected to moderate their demands for major departures from the approved local plans.

The methods used to intermediate interests to the local planning systems were primarily informal. Although a small number of formal meetings were held each year between external organizations and the LPAs they represented a minority of the contacts between them and representatives of both LBAs and MPOs.

Informal bargaining took place in two ways. First, there were issue specific negotiations over particular developments. The second type of contact was long‐term, non‐issue specific and primarily concerned with network building. Both types of bargaining were relatively secret and involved only the top echelons of the organizations concerned.
Business Associations and the Decentralization of Penury: Functional Groups and Territorial Interests
Authors: ANDERSON JEFFREY J.
Published: March 2005

This article compares the responses of subnational business interest associations (BIAs) in declining industrial regions to the demotion of centrally‐administered regional economic policy in favor of regional and local initiatives — a “decentralization of penury”— in Great Britain and West Germany. As an organization that represents chiefly functional membership interests, a BIA is not the most obvious candidate for economic initiatives based on territory. Drawing on a comparison of BIAs in two British administrative regions and two German Länder, I discuss the mix of elements that influence whether business is capable of fighting out politics about territory across territory, either on a local or regional basis. The analytical framework employed is based on Schmitter and Streeck's logics of membership and influence. The findings suggest that business associations formulate and pursue territorial economic interests consistently, yet face powerful constraints generated by their relations with members and by central government policies. Where the spatial economic interests of business are concerned, BIAs in both countries, despite the clear differences in organizational properties and capabilities, are best able to balance the tensions generated by the two logics when government policy encourages a local focus.
The Diffusion of Responsibility: An Alternative Perspective for National Policy Politics in the US
Authors: JONES CHARLES O.
Published: March 2005

This article proposes a diffusion of responsibility perspective in analyzing post–World War II politics in the United States. Many analysts test the American system by a responsible party perspective, proposing reforms that will orient the system toward the goals of that model. Divided government has characterized much of the period since 1945 and identifiable (and wholly constitutional) politics has accompanied that development. The diffusion of responsibility alternative is characterized by a separated presidency, an expansive Congress, competition between the branches for shared power, and, absent a crisis, a tendency toward perpetuation.
Intergovernmental Structure and Fiscal Management Strategies: A Crossnational Analysis
Authors: DANZIGER JAMES N.
Published: March 2005

Does intergovernmental structure have a systematic effect on the impacts of local governments' fiscal policy responses? Using empirical data from more than 800 local governments in five countries, the article concludes that intergovernmental structure is associated with the impact attributed to various fiscal management strategies. Such strategies have generally had greater impact in local governments in federal systems than those in unitary state systems.

There are similarities between federal and unitary local governments regarding the fiscal management strategies that have least impact, and both types stress the importance of productivity gains via technology. But the differences in relative importance and level of impact are more striking than the similarities. In particular, fiscal management strategies involving the relations of the local government with other governments, such as obtaining intergovernmental revenue and shifting service provision to other governments, have greater impact in significantly more federal systems than in unitary state systems. These federal local governments also experience greater impacts from increasing user charges and raising local taxes. In contrast, local governments in unitary state systems place greater reliance on the more politically expeditious strategy of across–the–board expenditure reductions and on reductions of capital spending.

These findings suggest that local governments in more decentralized systems have greater flexibility to manipulate relations with other governments in order to enhance their own fiscal situation. The data also suggest that the government's level of fiscal stress is not systematically associated with the level of impact from most fiscal management strategies, especially in the unitary state systems.
The Bush Administration and National Security Policy‐making: A Preliminary Assessment
Authors: MULCAHY KEVIN V.
Published: March 2005

The Bush administration's approach to national security policy–making, at least as judged by the early record, can be characterized accordingly: managerial, collegial, incremental and pragmatic. Each of these elements will be considered in turn as part of a preliminary assessment of whether the Bush administration's approach to American national security is adequate to deal with the challenges that the United States will face in world affairs during the “post–Cold War era” of the 1990s.
Coalition Governments, Divided Governments, and Electoral Theory
Authors: FIORINA MORRIS P.
Published: March 2005

For decades theorizing about party competition in two‐party and multiparty democracies has proceeded along separate tracks. The former has assumed an idealized world in which one party wins full control of a system's governing institutions in a first‐past‐the‐post election, while the latter posits a world in which elections conducted under a system of proportional representation split control of the parliament among the parties. The contemporary American experience with divided government suggests that the two lines of theorizing greatly exaggerate the differences between two‐party and multi‐party systems. Where a two‐party system has a separation of powers based on independent elections, coalition governments involving shared control of the separate institutions may result. Under such conditions rational voting may be just as demanding in two‐party systems as in multi‐party systems, and the policy outputs of two‐party systems may be no more coherent than the outputs of multi‐party systems, contrary to traditional arguments.
Divided Government: America is Not “Exceptional”
Authors: LAVER MICHAEL , SHEPSLE KENNETH A.
Published: March 2005

America is thought to be an exceptional political system, and, in many of its particulars, it certainly differs from the institutional arrangements found in most of the world's democracies. Its separation‐of‐powers regime is thought to have spawned, in recent decades, the phenomenon of divided government in which partisan control of political institutions is divided between the major parties. By implication, it is suggested that this robust regularity in which Democrats control the legislature and Republicans the executive is a consequence of its institutional arrangements and, therefore, distinguishes America from its parliamentary counterparts elsewhere. In this article, the authors suggest that parliamentary regimes, too, experience divided government. Specifically, minority governments, in which the executive is controlled by parties that, between them, control less than a legislative majority, is the closest analogue to divided government in America. In each case, the executive needs to seek support in the legislature beyond its own partisan base. Thus, divided government per se does not distinguish parliamentary and separation‐of‐powers regimes. What does, however, are the constitutional roots of this phenomenon: divided governments are negotiated in parliamentary regimes whereas they are mandated electorally in separation‐of‐powers regimes.
The Executive Divided Against Itself: Cohabitation in France, 1986–1988
Authors: PIERCE ROY
Published: March 2005

From March 1986 to May 1988 France was headed by a leftist President and a rightist Prime Minister. The background to this unusual situation is presented, and the experience itself — referred to as cohabitation — is discussed in detail.

The complex game that the two executive leaders played during the period was regulated by the constitutional rules, conditioned by the electoral calendar and the narrowness of the prime minister's coalition majority, and moderated by public approval and the existence of a bipartisan foreign and defense policy.

The 1986–1988 experience did not overtax the constitutional system, but cohabitation under different conditions could be destabilizing. Cohabitation is like the possibility of the US president being selected by the House of Representatives: not highly probable but possible, not necessarily dangerous but possibly so, and something that arouses little enthusiasm.
The Attitudes of Senior Public Servants in Australia and New Zealand: Administrative Reform and Technocratic Consequence?
Authors: GREGORY R. J.
Published: March 2005

This article is in the tradition of comparative international research conducted over recent years into changing political‐bureaucratic role relations. Its focus is the attitudinal orientation held toward various dimensions of their work by senior public servants in Canberra and Wellington. In particular, it is concerned to gauge officials' tolerance for pluralistic politics, their programmatic commitment, democratic sensibilities, and identification with conventions of ministerial responsibility. The study draws on and develops into four the two categories of public servants identified by Robert D. Putnam during the early 1970s in Western Europe. The information generated may be used as a baseline for future surveys of a similar type, which could identify changing patterns of distribution among the four basic categories: Political Bureaucrats, Classical Bureaucrats, Traditional Bureaucrats, and Technocrats. The present survey shows some significant differences between senior public servants in the two cities. In particular, those in Canberra are less programmatically committed than their Wellington counterparts, and considerably more “elitist” in their attitudes to popular involvement in policymaking. In both capitals officials are proactively rather than reactively orientated, a finding that may run counter to reformers' beliefs in the predominance of “Sir Humphrey Applebys.” The article goes on to relate the survey findings to major public sector changes that have taken place in both cities since the data for this article was collected. It speculates that, especially in New Zealand (but perhaps less so in Australia), these changes will see the emergence of more strongly technocratic attitudes among top public officials. Such attitudes may not sit easily with expectations that senior public servants be both politically accountable and managerially orientated. Finally, the four categories used in this study are related to the “images” of political‐bureaucratic role relations developed in other comparative research.
Financing Transport Infrastructure: The Effects of Institutional Durability in French and American Policymaking
Authors: PERL ANTHONY
Published: March 2005

This article compares the finance of transportation infrastructure in France and the United States in order to test the concept of institutional durability as an intervening variable that can account for different patterns of industrial development. Institutional durability is defined as the degree to which the fiscal norms and principles established in agreements between government, industry, and financial investors go on to exert influence over subsequent attempts to reorder the allocation of collective economic burdens and benefits. Two historical episodes of infrastructure development, mid‐19th century railroad construction and the creation of inter‐city highways between the First and Second World Wars, will be evaluated to identify and differentiate the effect of institutional durability upon American and French transportation policy.

French infrastructure finance is shown to exhibit a limited institutional durability which has facilitated the historical adjustment of both rail and road infrastructure along convergent fiscal terms. US infrastructure development is seen to possess a much greater institutional durability which has encouraged the divergence of fiscal arrangements set up at different periods of time. The resulting accumulation of incompatible and often competitive arrangements appears to have locked the US into conflicting means of transport development that make a fiscally coherent transportation policy very difficult to achieve. No such institutional obstacle emerges in French transport policy where the terms of macroeconomic decision‐making are seen to be integrated.
Competitive Government in the United States: Policy Promotion and Divided Party Control
Authors: CONLAN TIMOTHY J.
Published: March 2005

Divided party control of the executive and legislative branches of American government has traditionally been thought to contribute to the system's tendencies toward policy stalemate and paralysis. Based on a series of brief case studies over the past twenty‐five years, this article argues that, under certain circumstances, divided party government may promote rather than hinder the enactment of legislation. It sketches an analytical framework that suggests a range of policymaking outcomes may result from party competition under conditions of divided government, including stalemate, neglect, accommodation, and promotion.
Policy Research — Who Needs It?
Authors: COLEMAN DAVID A.
Published: March 2005

The relationship between government policymaking and policy research changes over time and between governments. It seldom follows the orderly sequence of logical events which researchers may like to imagine. In attempting to understand the relationship between the creation of knowledge and its use by policymakers, it is essential to understand the needs and behavior of politicians, the pressures upon their time and the wide range of channels of information, informal as well as formal, open to them and to their immediate advisers. Social policy research, partly because of its frequent ambiguity and partiality, is particularly likely to be ignored by its official consumers in government. Some social and economic questions are probably not capable of effective testing by research other than by governments putting policies into effect on a national scale. Evaluation of such experiments is difficult. More attention needs to be paid to the marketing of ideas by pressure groups and think tanks. Governments can shop around for acceptable advice from a wide range of sources outside academic life. Except in highly consensual political cultures, the only decisions which are made primarily on the basis of research findings are politically unimportant ones. In considering the role of policy research it is essential to keep the primacy of politics firmly in mind.
The Constitution and Accountability for Public Functions
Authors: CRAIG BARBARA HINKSON , GILMOUR ROBERT S.
Published: March 2005

In review of judicial interpretation of the United States Constitution set against the current reality of American governance, the authors conclude that traditional separation of powers doctrines hold few constraints for delegation of “public functions” beyond the boundaries of the three branches. As the result of constitutional permissiveness, the legislative and executive departments have increasingly lost out (or abdicated) to private and quasi‐governmental institutions to conduct core government functions. Public accountability has been lost in this exchange. At a time of revolutionary change across Eastern Europe and elsewhere, when newly forming governments look to the United States for structural models, they are unlikely to be informed about the functional reality of American governance by either the written constitution or doctrines articulating the constitution.
The Problems of Policy Coordination: The New Zealand Experience
Authors: BOSTON JONATHAN
Published: March 2005

The problems of coordinating the development and implementation of public policy are legion. While such problems are most commonly associated with large federal systems, they can arise with equal force and complexity in small, highly centralized, unitary states such as New Zealand. This article has four main purposes. First, it briefly surveys some of the recent literature on the nature of coordination and the mechanisms for enhancing policy coordination in government. Second, it outlines the nature and causes of the coordination difficulties that have been encountered in recent years in New Zealand. Third, it explores the various attempts which the Labour government (1984–90) and the National government (1990–present) have made to overcome these difficulties. Finally, the article considers some of the lessons which emerge from New Zealand's recent experience.
The Prime Minister's Office in France: A Changing Role in a Semi‐presidential System
Authors: ELGIE ROBERT
Published: March 2005

In France since 1958, it is possible to identify three different types of political leadership: pure presidential government, limited presidential government, and prime ministerial government. These three leadership types are the result of the semi‐presidential nature of the Fifth Republic. Under each of the three different forms of leadership, the role of the prime minister's office has changed. Following a brief presentation of the functions of the two components of the prime minister's office, his cabinet and the General Secretariat of the Government, the changes which the office has undergone are identified. While the role of both of the components of the office varied according to the different types of political leadership, it is concluded that, because of its distinctive structure and functions, the role of prime minister's cabinet has been subject to the greatest amount of variation.
Does Governance Matter — And If So, How? Process, Performance, and Outcomes
Authors: ABERBACH JOEL D. , ROCKMAN BERT A.
Published: March 2005

This article explores the connection between political process, performance, and outcomes. It lays out a set of key analytic distinctions (exogenous versus endogenous effects, micro versus macro level effects and influences, design and chance, and structures versus people) and then looks at conceptual problems in defining governmental outcomes, performance, and process. It gives extended attention to the criteria of effective governance and to the complex relationship of performance, values, and effectiveness, with emphasis on the prospects for improving governmental performance by manipulating modes of governance.
Policy Networks, Policy Communities and the Problems of Governance
Authors: ATKINSON MICHAEL M. , COLEMAN WILLIAM D.
Published: March 2005

This article reviews and evaluates the literature on policy networks and policy communities that has emerged in the comparative public policy field. It argues that these concepts are important innovations because they suggest a renewed attempt to be both encompassing and discriminating in describing the policy process: encompassing because they refer to actors and relationships in the policy process that take us beyond political‐bureaucratic relationships; discriminating because they suggest the presence of many communities and different types of networks. Yet if the concepts are going to continue to make a contribution, some problems must be resolved. The article suggests three that are particularly important: network and community concepts encounter obstacles in incorporating the influence of ma‐cropolitical institutions and the power of political discourse; they have some difficulty in accommodating the internationalization of many policy domains; they have not addressed well the issues of policy innovation and policy change.
Switzerland's Future in Europe: Isolation or Constitutional Change
Authors: GERMANN RAIMUND E.
Published: March 2005

In order to move closer to the European Community and eventually to join it, Switzerland must reshape its political institutions. A major constitutional reform should provide for a real head of government, adapt direct democracy to the constraints of supra‐nationality, and simplify the legislative process. In the ongoing debate in Switzerland, the question is not so much whether such reforms are necessary, but when they should occur. The author argues that the dominant doctrine of negotiating first with the EC and reforming later is not realistic. The so‐called “double majority referendum,” which is necessary for ratifying membership either in the European Economic Space or in the EC itself, is given as an illustration. This ratification procedure is not in accordance with the principle of “one man, one vote,” and is clearly biased against Europe.
Observations on the State of Comparative Administration Research in Europe — Rather Comparable than Comparative
Authors: DERLIEN HANS‐ULRICH
Published: March 2005

This article tries to review public administration research undertaken in Europe since about 1980. As there is little comparative research, an attempt is made to systematize comparable research along three dimensions: organization structures (macro and micro), meta‐policymaking as it refers to budgeting and planning procedures, and research about personnel and personnel policy. It is observed that neo‐conservative reform policies in the Anglo‐American countries have had a noticeable impact on the orientation of academic research. Subsequently, these policies not only affected macro‐structures by privatization and decentralization measures, but also gave meta‐policymaking a characteristic turn, quite as it tried to induce a more managerialist role understanding in the civil service. It is argued in favor of more basic research and the institutionalization of administrative monitoring on the national level as well as stronger cooperation on the international level to advance comparative research beyond secondary analysis of the incidentally comparable.
The State Central Economic Bureaucracies and the Outcome of Systemic Economic Reform: An Institutional Explanation for the Soviet and Chinese Experiences
Authors: ZHANG BAOHUI
Published: March 2005

This article uses an institutional approach to explain the different economic reform outcomes in the Soviet Union and China. It studies how the different institutional positions of the Soviet and Chinese central economic bureaucracies give them different power resources to resist economic reform policies. This article shows that crucial differences between the two regimes in historical experiences, economic development strategies, and ideologies on bureaucratic rationality created different levels of institutional participation by the two central economic bureaucracies in state economic policymaking, and different economic management structures. Specifically, in the Soviet Union there was a strong participatory bureaucracy and a ministerial, vertically based economic management structure. In China however, there was a state leader dominated, politically weak bureaucracy and a provincial, horizontally based economic management structure. These crucial institutional differences, I argue, later gave the two central economic bureaucracies not only different incentives but also different resources to resist and sabotage economic reforms.
Abortion Policy in Western Democracies: A Cross‐National Analysis
Authors: BROOKS JOEL E.
Published: March 2005

This article provides a comparative analysis of abortion policies for 21 countries in Western Europe and North America. First, after briefly discussing the historical evolution of abortion attitudes and policies, a typology of current abortion laws is presented. Second, the mode of determining abortion policy is compared — judicial (Germany, Canada), legislative (Britain, France), and direct democracy (referenda in Italy, Ireland). Third, the question of abortion policy implementation is considered. In other words, does the legal status of abortion really make a difference regarding the pattern of availability and use of abortion services? Fourth, potential explanatory variables (left‐wing party strength, feminism, Catholicism) regarding the content and process of abortion policies is evaluated.
India: Searching for a Consensus by Amending the Constitution?
Authors: SINGH MAHENDRA P.
Published: March 2005

Two major themes have dominated the debate over India's constitutional destiny since the 1980s: parliamentary versus presidential government and federalization of its predominantly parliamentary system. India will do well to continue with its parliamentary form of government. Besides familiarity with it through British colonial experience and practice for nearly half a century, India's social diversity and fragile democracy are better served by a “collective” parliamentary/cabinet system than a “singular” presidential one. The latter may prematurely centralize the system and promote executive aggrandizement and adventurism. But India's continental diversity and complexity cannot be adequately represented solely along the parliamentary axis; they require the additional — and more vigorous — federal axis for democratic accommodation and national integration. The impact on India's parliamentary/federal system of the changing nature of the party system and premiership styles is also analyzed. Six phases of party system evolution are identified: (1) predominant party system‐I (1952–1969); (2) multi‐party system‐I (1969–1971); (3) predominant party system‐II (1971–1977); (4) two‐party system (1977–1984); (5) (a stillborn) predominant party system‐Ill (1984–1989); and (6) multi‐party system‐II (1989–to date). Three styles of prime ministerial leadership are delineated: (1) pluralist, (2) patrimonial, and (3) federal. Federal forces and features of the political system were generally accentuated when the party system was not a one‐party dominant one and the prime ministerial leadership was not a patrimonial one. Some viable constitutional amendments designed to promote federalization are considered. The two particularly promising avenues of federalization that combine “responsible federalism” with “responsible parliamentary government” are those that establish a series of autonomous federal instrumentalities recommended by the Sarkaria Commission and create a President‐in‐Council interlocked with the Inter‐Governmental Council that takes away the power of proclaiming president's rule in a state from the federal Home Ministry.
Restructuring Government Organization in China and Transforming Government Functions for an Efficient and More Productive Bureaucratic Performance
Authors: JIAQI GU
Published: March 2005

A sustained, steady economic development and a stable, prosperous society cannot come about by focusing only on the formulation of concrete social and economic policies. Increased attention and priority should be given to the reform of the state apparatus itself, especially of the policymaking and implementation process. Administrative structural reform, particularly China's practice of adjusting organizational structure and transforming government functions and management processes, is an example of the efforts to explore strategies and approaches for the conduct of administrative restructuring and enhancing bureaucratic performance in developing countries.

This article discusses three questions: first, the necessity of adjusting the government organizational structure and rationalizing the administrative policymaking mechanism, as well as some practices in China; second, transforming government management processes towards adapting to the changing social and economic environment in developing countries, e.g., describing what has been done by China in order to change direct and micro‐management; and third, concentrating on improving efficiency and productivity.
Reform: the Theme of the Development of Chinese Administrative Science
Authors: YI‐CHANG LIU
Published: March 2005

Administrative science studies have thrived in China, motivated by the new reforms and opening up to the outside world during the last decade. Both professional public servants and academicians are greatly interested in the studies of administrative reforms. In fact, reform has become the theme of the development of administrative science during the last decade and outlines the framework of administrative reform in China. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Chinese administrative reform through a general introduction and discussion of the main research problems in administrative science.
Public Sector Management Reform: Convergence or Divergence?
Authors: HOLMES MALCOLM
Published: March 2005

This collection of articles is yet further evidence of an emerging consensus around the world of the need to improve the performance of the public sector. This is happening across countries at different stages of development, with widely divergent cultures and different forms of economic organization. Gu Jiaqi, in discussing reform in China, refers to the public demanding that governments act with fewer inputs and with best outcomes. The recently published book, Reinventing Government, which appears to have captured the attention of both law–makers and the bureaucracy in the US (with some good reason), notes that Americans are demanding “more performance for less money” (1992, 2). In Australia, administrative reform was launched under the umbrella of a Financial Management Improvement Program which sought to change attitudes in the public sector to be much more concerned with outcomes and constantly relate these outcomes to the resources being applied to achieving them.

There seems to be little doubt that there is a common language in the area of results. While this is of considerable interest, of greater interest is the variety of means that are being pursued to achieve these ends. This note raises some questions about the compatibility of some of the means and the ends. It suggests that some of the means identified in these articles may be counter–productive.
Responsible Governance and Problems of Administrative Reform: Experiences of Developing Countries in Asia
Authors: NAKAMURA AKIRA , KOIKE OSAMU
Published: March 2005

In the 1980s many developing and newly industrializing countries in Asia expressed great interest in administrative reform. Compelling reasons for public reform in these nations arise from causes different from those in developed nations. Among Asian developing nations, government reform is intrinsic to and inextricable from crises in governance. Within the context of developing politics, a reliable and competent government is sine qua non of national stability; and, more importantly, this largely decides the tenure of a governing group. Its ability to remain in power will be determined by the efficaciousness of public authority. Against these backgrounds, this article discusses the five conference papers of the Eastern Regional Organization of Public Administration (EROPA) of 1991. It examines both similarities and differences among four countries in their efforts to reform public administration. This review suggests that in developing Asia, the quest for administrative reform emanates from crises in governance. Reform goes beyond exploring ways to improve the quality of public management.
Are Leftist Governments More Generous Toward Public Sector Employees? Evidence From Canada, 1967–1984
Authors: BLAIS ANDRÉ , BLAKE DONALD , DION STEPHANE
Published: March 2005

This article tests the hypothesis that leftist governments concede higher wage increases to their public sector employees than right‐wing governments. Leftist governments are expected to be more generous toward public sector employees because of their commitment to public sector intervention, and because of the heavy representation of the public sector among leftist party elite and clientele. The study examines all major wage settlements signed between 1967 and 1984 in the Canadian provincial public sector and finds that, everything else being equal, wage increases are 10% higher under leftist governments. The standard economic variables (labor demand, expected inflation and spillover from previous contracts) that have been shown to affect wage increases in the private sector also emerge as significant. Finally, the data indicate that the greater the public debt the more constrained governments feel to negotiate minimal wage increases. These findings establish that a proper understanding of public sector labor relations requires a consideration of political as well as economic variables.
Public Administration in a Conflict Situation: The Case of Northern Ireland
Authors: CONNOLLY MICHAEL
Published: March 2005

This article examines recent developments in the public administrative system in Northern Ireland. The conflict in Northern Ireland has received widespread publicity, Yet government in the region continues. Public services are delivered. The article considers how the public administrative system has played its part in the management by the British government of the conflict. There are many other situations where there is political violence. The Northern Ireland case may offer insights to public administrators and policymakers in managing such situations.
EC Credit Assistance Programs in the Light of the US Experience: Budgetary, Financial and Political Aspects
Authors: SEGUITI MARIA LAURA
Published: March 2005

The bulk of the subsidy cost of European Communities (EC) credit programs is not represented in the EC budget. The cost of EC loans and guarantees are not shown, and only token entries are included for the possible activation of guarantees connected to borrowing and lending. Only in the case of credit programs which entail an interest‐rate subsidy, does the budget show an amount corresponding to the subsidy cost. EC budgeting and accounting methods, like those in most member states, hide the full cost of the EC credit programs. The lack of subsidy disclosure has political implications in terms of budget decision‐making and control; budget authorities have neither adequate information to compare the trade‐offs among the various credit assistance programs and other expenditure programs, nor to evaluate or measure the efficiency and effectiveness of credit operations. Moreover, the citizens of Europe, who are taxpayers both in their states and, to a lesser extent, in the Community, do not have a clear understanding of the costs and benefits of credit programs, either at the state or the EC level. The article refers to the US experience of federal credit reform, especially with regard to the disclosure of the cost of credit programs, as a good example of budget transparency and investigates to what extent this experience could be applied to the European Communities.
Bureaucratic Professionalization and the Limits of the Political Control Thesis: The Case of the Federal Trade Commission
Authors: EISNER MARC ALLEN
Published: March 2005

This article explores the political control thesis in light of the literature on bureaucratic politics and agency professionalization. It argues that existing studies of political control have been limited by a failure to analyze the impact of organizational factors on policy change. The article tests political‐control and bureaucratic hypotheses through an analysis of changing enforcement priorities at the Federal Trade Commission, The results suggest that the growing role of economists in the agency, rather than congressional oversight or presidential appointments, is critical in explaining the changing antitrust priorities of the Federal Trade Commission.