bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding National Administrative Styles and Their Impact Upon Administrative Reform: A Neo-Institutional Model and Analysis
Authors: Howlett Michael
Published: October 2008

Students of organizational behaviour have always been concerned with understanding the manner in which complex organizations – including systems of public administration – tend to have distinctive organizational cultures and the impact these cultures have upon their activities and outputs, including their prospects for reform. Recently, neoinstitutional accounts of social and political life have provided a new entry point to the analysis of administrative cultures and administrative reform. For neo-institutionalists, the institutional structure of an organization is seen as creating a distinct pattern of constraints and incentives for state and societal actors which define and structure actor's interests and channel their behaviour. The interaction of these behaviour and structure generates a particular administrative logic and process, or “style”. However, since institutional structures vary, a neo-institutional perspective suggests that there will be many different kinds of relatively long-lasting administrative style – each pattern being defined by the particular set of formal and informal institutions, rules, norms, traditions, and values of which it is comprised – and many different factors affecting the construction and deconstruction of each pattern. Following this neo-institutional logic, this paper examines several relatively recent efforts to identify and classify administrative styles. On the basis of these assessments, a multi-level, “nested,” model of national administrative styles is developed and applied to the question of observances of patterns of convergence and divergence in administrative reforms in many jurisdictions over the past several decades.
Open or Closed Boundaries? Attitudes towards Sovereignty Issues in Australia
Authors: Bean Clive
Published: October 2008

This paper considers data from Australia on two dimensions related to the concept of sovereignty, namely public attitudes concerning the maintenance of economic boundaries and attitudes related to the social, economic and cultural impact of immigration. The data suggest that in general Australians are inclined to favour economic protection rather than openness but at the same time they tend to emphasise the benefits rather than the costs of immigration. Various theoretical propositions are tested concerning the social and attitudinal predictors of these dimensions. Despite some differences between the two dimensions, the most important variables prove to be occupational status, birthplace and education, plus attitudes towards multi-national companies and general feelings towards immigrants. These results imply that, other things being equal, public attitudes on both the immigration and economic dimensions are likely to become more open over time.
The Changing Role of Consultants in Canadian Policy Analysis
Authors: Perl Anthony , White Donald J
Published: October 2008

This article explores the Canadian government's trend toward outsourcing policy analytical and advisory services over the 1980s and 1990s. We test three (not mutually exclusive) hypotheses about why such policy consulting has increased. A combination of New Public Management values and knowledge expansion are shown to drive this trend. In the late 1990s, the federal government significantly decreased the number of in-house operational and administrative support workers. These reductions enabled the government to contract out more while a managerial and administrative cadre remained in place to manage the contracts. The main implication is that contracting out analytical and advisory services does not necessarily lower costs, but does aid government in pursuing other objectives. The growth in Canadian policy consulting corresponded with a stabilization of public service personnel expenditures, a focus on leaner government, and an ability to rely on outside specialists for objective, expert advice.
Medical Regulation in Malaysia: Towards an Effective Regulatory Regime
Authors: Rosnah Nik , Abdullah Wan
Published: October 2008

This paper assesses the functioning of the regulatory system of the Malaysian medical profession. It demonstrates that the regulatory bodies of the medical profession do not reflect the interest of the users adequately. Their composition mostly represents the medical practitioners and medical organizations and their regulatory processes do not provide clear channels through which users can voice complaints.
The Role of Property Tax in Fiscal Decentralization in Indonesia
Authors: Asher Mukul G
Published: October 2008

Indonesia has embarked on a decentralization process with potentially far reaching implications for its fiscal system and political economy. This paper examines the role of property tax in fiscal decentralization in Indonesia. Currently, the property tax is essentially a central tax as far as design, valuation, collection (target based), and administration are concerned. The net revenue is fully shared with provinces and districts, though the basis of sharing is not fully transparent. This paper suggests that in order to increase the share of own-revenues of the regions, policymakers may consider permitting greater discretion to districts to set effective property tax rates, within the overall limits set by the central government. It is suggested that centralized administration be retained. Transforming property tax into a truly local tax, including local responsibility for valuation, is not currently recommended, but could be kept as a key long-term goal.
Women, Gender and International Institutions: Exploring New Opportunities at the International Criminal Court
Authors: Chappell Louise
Published: October 2008

Traditionally women have been constructed in very limited terms under international law. They have been defined through their relationships with either men or with children. Moreover, the types of crimes experienced by women in times of armed conflict, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, have been categorised as less egregious than those experienced by men. In recent years feminists have sought to challenge the existing definition of women, drawing attention to the serious nature of gender-based crimes. They have done this through their engagement with new international institutions including the UN ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the development of the statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC). Through their efforts they have made some significant advances in bringing to light the complex, diverse and unique aspects of women's lives previously ignored in international criminal and humanitarian law. Although there is still much to be done, feminist activists have demonstrated that the law and its influence are not fixed but dynamic and open to change.
The Political Gender Gap: Australia, Britain and the United States
Authors: Hill Lisa
Published: October 2008

This article explores gender differences in voting habits and explores the question of whether it is possible to speak of a distinctive women's perspective when it comes to elections. Drawing on a wide body of existing data, the discussion focuses on the “gender gap” in three settings: Britain, Australia and the United States. It canvasses competing explanations of political gender differences and seeks to account for the similarities between the British and Australian cases and their differences with the American. A key puzzle is this: Why was America's “traditional” (that is, conservative) gender gap superseded so readily by a “modern” (that is, liberal) gender gap while Australia and Britain's traditional gender gap retained its resilience? Future prospects for the gender gap in each case are also considered.
Gender, Mainstreaming and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
Authors: Guerrina Roberta
Published: October 2008

This article explores the impact of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights on the position of women in the EU. The context of the paper is current debates about women's rights and constitutionalism in Europe. The discussion outlines the development of EU women's rights, the introduction and development of Union citizenship within the Treaties and the launch of the Charter at the Nice Summit. The paper thus explores the position of equality and women's rights in the Charter, with particular emphasis on the Commission and Treaties’ commitments to mainstreaming. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the power of mainstreaming as a theory and political strategy for the pursuit of substantive equality within the EU.
Media Representations of Women Politicians in Australia and New Zealand: High Expectations, Hostility or Stardom
Authors: van Acker Elizabeth
Published: October 2008

Senior women politicians are a novelty, receiving enormous media attention. They have had to deal with high expectations in the media and other political institutions such as Parliament. This essay examines media portrayals of women politicians in Australia and New Zealand. It argues that the media embrace women quickly and fully early in their careers, but attack them very fiercely when things go wrong. The media creates elevated hopes around them when they enter the political arena. Initially, these women can do no wrong as the media raises them on a pedestal. Those who cannot meet the high expectations, however, fall from the pedestal and are often attacked or trivialised. A more recent development, particularly by the Australian media, shapes women into stars, promoting them as personalities. The women themselves may encourage or welcome the celebrity tag. The minute they make mistakes, however, they are judged harshly. I argue that media representations of women's political styles illustrate perceptions about politics that continue to reflect entrenched gender norms. One-dimensional media portrayals do little to challenge these norms. Setting up false distinctions of femininity and masculinity contributes little to pushing women's interests on to the political agenda.
The Leadership Role of the Prime Minister and Party
Authors: George Mulgan Aurelia
Published: October 2008

Transformational leadership implies both a reforming vision and the achievement of significant change. Strong transformational leadership, as provided by some western democratic leaders, has not been possible in Japan because of the lack of institutional power available to the formal executive and the strong policy nexus between the ruling party and the bureaucracy. The failure of the Koizumi government to implement its reform agenda illustrates this impossibility. However, some Japanese prime ministers, including Koizumi himself, have been able to exhibit a relatively weak form of transformational leadership, in comparison with the more transactional style typical of most prime ministers. Whether the ruling LDP is capable of sustaining a stronger form of leadership is open to doubt.
Japanese Foreign Policy: Leadership and Style
Authors: Javed Maswood S
Published: October 2008

It is a curious reality that despite being the second largest economic power, Japan has not cast a large shadow on issues of international politics. Instead, the Japanese government has been largely content to remain on the sidelines and play a reactive role. This broad depiction of Japanese foreign policy however obscures recent attempts by the Japanese government to pursue its own agenda on the international stage. This paper looks at Japanese dealings within the International Whaling Commission and in the field of regional finance to highlight a more activist foreign policy posture. In the end the picture that emerges is of a Japan that is prepared to vigorously articulate and defend a position that is of somewhat ‘marginal’ interest to its key international allies but unprepared to venture out on other critical issue areas.
Local Political Leadership in Japan: A Harbinger of Systemic Change in Japanese Politics?
Authors: Jain Purnendra
Published: October 2008

Observers of Japanese politics have generally assumed that because Japan is a unitary state, local government and its political chief executives have very little political and policy autonomy. Yet the assumption that a high degree of centralization in the political structure prevents leadership at the local level is misguided. Three case studies demonstrate that local chief executives from the peripheries are now more than ever demonstrating leadership at the local level. Local chief executives are increasingly challenging central government plans and policy priorities for local areas by setting policy agendas to follow their own vision and local needs, rather than accepting the center's fiat. Using the typology of transactional and transformational styles of leadership, this article argues that trends observed in some localities may be the harbinger of transformational leadership from the local level, as local government takes a more salient place in Japan's political system.
Japan's Leadership Role in East Asia: Cooperation and Competition between Japan and China
Authors: Zhao Quansheng
Published: October 2008

The issue of Japan's regional role is a source of concern and uncertainty for its Asian neighbours. By focusing primarily on Japan's relationship with China as well as the United States, this article first examines the concept of transformational leadership. It then discusses regionalism in the Asian Pacific arena, Japan's possible leadership role, and the changing dynamics of power distribution in the region for the past two decades. The challenge for Japan is that it must develop a joint leadership role with China in order to integrate the region as has been done in Europe and North America. In the economic dimension, such cooperation and integration is already well-developed, although limitations still remain. The most difficult problems lay in strategic and political dimensions. Japan's relations with China continue to be affected by two major factors, namely historical legacies (war memories) and the United States’ role in the region (particularly with regard to the issue of Taiwan).
Wage and Labour Regulation in Vietnam within the Poverty Reduction Agenda
Authors: Brassard Caroline
Published: October 2008

This paper analyses the extent to which current wage and labour regulations can help reducing poverty levels in Vietnam. It begins with an overview of population and employment trends since 1990. It then discusses wage and labour regulation in Vietnam, particularly the 2002 amendments to the 1994 labour code, focusing on the minimum wage regulation in enterprises, farms labourers and female and junior labourers. The paper then analyses labour market imperfections and the provision of safety nets Vietnam, whilst linking with the poverty alleviation strategy. Next, the paper presents data analysis at the commune level, based on the Vietnam Living Standard Survey of 1998, comparing the northern and southern communes. The findings show significant gender differences within regions for daily agricultural wages, and significantly lower wages in the North. As for industrial wages in the state and private sector, we find that northern wages are below the legal minimum wage in the textile industry, and differ significantly between gender and regions, and where children under eighteen tend to earn as little as 25 percent of adults’ salaries. In the formulation of poverty alleviation policies, this paper highlights the importance of recognizing: the regional and sectoral related-characteristics of the labour market; the impact of gender differences in wage labour; and the implications on child labour.
Confronting the Reality of a Nuclear North Korea: The Challenge of Shrinking Policy Options
Authors: O’Neil Andrew
Published: October 2008

This article analyses the narrowing range of policy choices for dealing with a nuclear-armed North Korea. One of the central themes of my argument is that diplomacy has failed to constrain Pyongyang from proceeding across the nuclear threshold. North Korea's strategic worldview, in particular the regime's ingrained perception of the US as a threat to its very existence, has meant that it has resisted successfully bilateral and multilateral attempts to stop it going nuclear. Yet while diplomatic efforts have failed, I argue that the widely canvassed option of pre-emptive strikes to neutralise North Korea's nuclear program is unnecessarily risky and fraught with acute uncertainties. However carefully calibrated, such strikes would raise the likelihood of full-scale war on the peninsula. And, in any event, the complex targeting challenges facing the US mean that it would struggle to nullify Pyongyang's nuclear capability with any degree of certainty. The final section of the article examines the alternative of simply accepting North Korea's nuclear capability as a fait accompli. I argue that the advantages of this option have been underestimated and that, given the failure of diplomacy and the dangers associated with using military coercion, it is an alternative that deserves careful deliberation on the part of policy makers.
Paradigmatic Crisis in International Economic Governance: Explaining the Explosion of Protest
Authors: Hira Anil
Published: October 2008

Anti-globalisation protests and increasing dissonance internationally, including a host of new leftist leaders in Latin America and insider criticism are the signs of paradigmatic crisis for both neoliberalism and “free” trade agreements. This introductory essay seeks to demonstrate that such phenomena are not isolated events of passing unhappiness, but can be interpreted as part of a long-term shift, reflecting changes in the experience and opportunity structure of the young generation in the North. Ironically, the relative wealth and peace of the current generation sets up a relative expectations problem in light of declining economic prospects. Northern youth are the first generation to face potentially long-term declining income and job prospects in at least the last 2 centuries. While the system is in crisis, no new paradigm is yet apparent. Neither a global Keynesian state nor a breakdown of neoliberalism and free trade seem possible in the foreseeable future. This volume explores the nature of the crisis from a variety of angles that have not received adequate attention, but which signal long-term shifts in global economic governance.
Global Trade Politics and the Cycle of Dissent Post-Cancún
Authors: Drache Daniel
Published: October 2008

This paper examines the realignment of forces that derailed the Cancún meeting to broaden and deepen the WTO’s world trade agenda held in September 2003, which according to conventional wisdom was supposed to be a done deal. The growing disjuncture between global cultural flows of people and ideas, and the rules and practices of globalisation has created a highly unstable environment with many opportunities but at the same time significant political costs. Regardless of what the EU and US may admit in public, at Cancún global dissent counterpublics acquired visible agendasetting power. The growth in influence of the “nixers” and “fixers” has contributed to a tectonic shift in the international economy that has immediate and far-reaching consequences for destabilizing globalisation and its narrow economic agenda.

The second argument is that global cultural flows of ideas, texts and wealth have deepened the global environment of dissent at the WTO. Many of these flows are the consequence of free trade itself. They have accelerated as economic barriers have fallen facilitating the movement of ideas, people and texts driven by new technologies and the appetite for mass culture. Increased trade has increased cultural interaction globally. When these global cultural flows function as catalysts for change, they become both a conduit and channel to set new agendas and, it is this agendasetting capacity that challenges state authority globally no less locally. So far there is no single over-riding vision that addresses the collective problem of diversity at the global level. Nonetheless, the global dissent movement intends to have a prominent role in defining public culture and in shaping it in inherently democratic ways.
Financial Governance and the Public Sphere: Towards a Global Modality of Governance?
Authors: Germain Randall D
Published: October 2008

Recent efforts to reform the international financial architecture have focused attention on the way in which decision-making occurs within an increasingly globalised structure of financial governance. I explore an important development within this structure: the emergence of what may be identified as a global financial public sphere. This article considers the formation and foundation of the global financial public sphere, and discusses its relationship to the globalised structure of financial governance. The argument of the paper is that a strengthened public sphere is both an increasingly significant attribute of financial governance and a welcome development, but one that is not yet fully consolidated.
BITing Back: Bilateral Investment Treaties and the Struggle to Define an Investment Regime for the Americas
Authors: Alexander Haslam Paul
Published: October 2008

This paper examines the consequences of the breakdown of talks on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the generalized shift from multilateralism to bilateralism in the Americas for the region’s emerging foreign investment regime. The paper argues that multilateral processes have historically benefited Latin American countries when their interests have diverged from those of the US. In terms of investment, the foreign investment regime advanced by the United States (in bilateral investment treaties) differs significantly from that advanced by subregional powers such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, particularly regarding investment rules on national treatment and performance requirements. This suggests that, in the absence of multilateral negotiations, US norms on investment and development will progressively define the emerging hemispheric investment regime.
The Role of the Provinces in Canadian Foreign Trade Policy: Multi-Level Governance and Sub-National Interests in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Kukucha Christopher J
Published: October 2008

Canada has a history of supporting the evolution of trade related multi-level governance structures. In the post-war period these commitments had limited implications for domestic policy space. Over time, however, these governance frameworks began to increasingly focus on areas of provincial jurisdiction. This paper argues that these developments have empowered a range of traditional and non-traditional actors within Canadian provinces. On an institutional basis, this includes engagement by provincial executives, bureaucratic interests, and emerging consultative structures within Canadian federalism. Sectoral interests have also responded by pressuring provincial governments to adopt specific policy positions. In addition, neo-liberal ideational factors are significant although some provincial governments have at times challenged this ideological consistency. Societal considerations, on the other hand, have the least impact provincially. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between national and sub-national interests when evaluating Canada’s foreign trade policy. In the case of Canadian provinces it is clear that institutional, sectoral, and ideational factors are most prominent.
Revisiting Organizational Politics: Toward a Postempirical Approach
Authors: Fischer Frank
Published: October 2008

Although common knowledge has long acknowledged the place of political behaviour in organizational life, few attempts to rigorously theorize a political model of organization appeared before the 1980s. Developed in significant part to offset the more technical, overly rational, top-down conceptions of organization and management, these emerging models offered interesting new ways to look at both intra- and interorganisational action. While the approach can shed light on political realities typically ignored or neglected by dominant mainstream theories, it has suffered from an uncritical pluralist theory of politics. To adequately elucidate the basic political issues, as critical organizational theorists have argued, the model requires a more complex theory of power. But also missing is an alternative postempiricist epistemology capable of systematically investigating the hidden sides of organizational power and politics that a critical theory seeks to explain. The analysis draws out and illustrates the need for more interpretively-oriented qualitative modes of understanding inherent to such a perspective, in particular narrative analysis. In the course of the discussion, the essay examines the implications of such an approach for the critical study of organizational politics more generally.
Regulating Genetic Engineering in the United States and the European Union: Policy Development and Policy Resilience
Authors: Skogstad Grace , Moore Elizabeth
Published: October 2008

The article offers an explanation of the distinct trajectories of policy development of the American and European Union regulatory regimes for genetically modified foods and crops. The permissive American regulatory regime has been resilient; the rigorous EU regime, much less so. The account of policy development and policy resilience directs attention to the foundational ideas and material legacies of regulatory policies at an early critical juncture of their development, and the distinct mechanisms of reproduction that resulted. It argues that the constitutive ideas of US policies for GM crops and foods, and the material coalitions these ideas induced, created power and functionalist mechanisms of reproduction that have stabilised policies and limited reforms to incremental adaptations. By contrast, the initial critical juncture of EU policy development resulted in core ideational principles that relied on different functional and legitimation logics. Their material (power) base much weaker, early EU regulatory policies for GM foods and crops failed to be resilient when the institutional and normative context shifted.
Independent Food Agencies – Restoring Confidence
Authors: Hellebø Rykkja Lise
Published: October 2008

The article examines food agencies created in the wake of the mad cow disease or BSE crisis in 1996. Two specific food agencies, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Great Britain, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in the EU, are compared. Central research questions focus on the reasons and reasoning behind their establishment, and the comparison is centred on dimensions of activities and degrees of independence. The establishment of independent agencies has been highlighted as a recent trend in public policy and management. The creation of such agencies is frequently assumed to produce accountability, trust and confidence in regulation and regulating institutions by separating execution from policy making institutions. In the case of food agencies, an additional essential dimension is the question of independence from agricultural and commercial interests, whereas food safety regulation has a fundamental legitimacy basis within the field of public health.
The Politics of Global Legalism and Human Security
Authors: Franceschet Antonio
Published: October 2008

This article argues that human security discourses and initiatives are made intelligible by the politics of applying legalism to global politics. Human security projects like the International Criminal Court, the Ottawa Treaty on landmines, and coercive interventions like Kosovo are shaped, mobilised, but also limited and constrained by the wider problematic of the legal constitution of global politics. Although human security has been the justiﬁcation for efforts to liberalise and humanise politics through law, it has also been associated with exceptionalistic and non-universal legal relationships that reinforce the interests of the most dominant actors in global politics. As a result, human security runs the danger of becoming an instrument of hegemony. Nonetheless, the article also argues that there are always progressive political openings in the politics of a global rule of law that can facilitate a wider conception of human security than has been pursued since the mid-1990s.
The Helms-Burton Bill and Canada’s Cuba Policy: Convergences with the US
Authors: Deonandan Kalowatie
Published: October 2008

This analysis reassesses Canada’s Cuba policy by challenging the prevailing view that it has been largely independent of the US. The thesis posited here is that despite its opposition to the US’ Helms-Burton legislation (which seeks to increase economic pressures on the Cuban economy by penalising foreigners who conduct business with the island) the Canadian government has been pursuing a Cuba strategy which closely converges with the Americans, and this has been particularly evident since the late 1990s. This argument is made through a discussion of the following themes: Canada’s support for US hegemony; its shared interest with the US in protecting the global trading regime; its desire to defend its trading relationship with the US; its support for the US’ position in the Organization of American States vis a vis Cuba; and its commercial competition with the US in Cuba.
Policy Divergence as a Response to Weak International Regimes: The Formulation and Implementation of Natural Resource New Governance Arrangements in Europe and Canada
Authors: Howlett Michael , Rayner Jeremy
Published: October 2008

This article addresses the issue of convergence and divergence in Europe, and elsewhere, of a specific type of governance arrangement: “Natural Resource New Governance Arrangements” (NRNGAs). Two cases of the development of these regimes in the environmentally-related areas of forest and fisheries management are examined in Europe and North America, focusing on the Canadian experience in the latter case. The findings reveal significant similarities across sectors and countries but little evidence of any larger pattern of policy convergence. While the impetus for the adoption of both these NRNGAs lies in the international and regional realms, without the force of either international law or competitive advantage, consequential pressure for convergence is weak. It is proposed that the reasons for the differences in NGA adoptions thus lie primarily in the interaction of the changing capacities of domestic public and private actors active in the affected resource policy arena: specifically, the interplay between the effect of the internationalisation of resource policy issues, tending to increase private capacities at the expense of the public one, and the declining importance of primary industries, which has the reverse effect.
The Europeanisation of CO2 Regulation in the Scandinavian Countries
Authors: Pedersen Lene Holm
Published: October 2008

The impact of European integration differs over time and between states. This article demonstrates how the increasing europeanisation of CO2 regulation in the Scandinavian countries has lead to increasing convergence in the regulatory systems for very important target groups. The same system is being implemented in EU-member states (Denmark and Sweden) and an EEA member state (Norway), but at this stage the implementation is dissimilar in the sense that the established CO2 tax delimits where quotas are introduced in Norway. In contrast, however, the quota systems in Sweden and Denmark delimit to a higher extent where the CO2 taxation continues to exist. However, at this stage, it cannot be concluded that the variation is due to different degrees of Europeanisation.
Discourse in Comparative Policy Analysis: Privatisation Policies in Britain, Russia and the United States
Authors: Gabrielyan Vache
Published: October 2008

Privatisation has been of the most widely used and extensively debated policies in the world for the last quarter century. This phenomenon, though, is mostly unified by rhetoric, and substantially varies across time and space, particularly in implementation. To answer the question of what presupposes a choice of particular mechanism of privatisation, three distinct cases of privatisation (the US, the UK, and Russia) are analysed through Fischer's (1995) model of practical policy deliberation. The model tests the reasons for policy ranging from its technical efficiency to its relation to the ideological principles that justify the societal system. The elaborated theory suggests that privatisation policies generally pursue multiple goals, with the prevailing goal being determined by the dominant discourse in which the topic of privatisation is debated in society. The prevailing goal, in turn, determines the privatisation mechanism that maximises this particular goal.
Inside Deliberative Experiments: Dynamics of Subjectivity in Science Policy Deliberations
Authors: Görsdorf Alexander
Published: October 2008

Deliberative procedures – like consensus conferences, citizen juries, and scenario workshops – are intended to give voice to the citizens and to arrive at a more comprehensive knowledge base for political decisions. This paper seeks to enrich the analysis and practice of these endeavours, drawing attention to dynamics of subjectivities. Such interpretive dynamics among participants may ensue not only with respect to the problem tackled by the procedure but, importantly, with respect to the deliberative procedure itself. The main argument is that failing to accommodate these dynamics within the procedures may result in participants’ alienation from the event, effectively undermining the endeavour's participatory promises. As a consequence, the paper calls for more analytical attention to the micro-level of deliberative processes, which yields important insights into the interpretive and communicative processes upon which citizen panels’ statements and arguments rest. I illustrate my point by reflecting on my observations of a scenario workshop on the future of biomedical research, an ambitious experiment that took place in Germany in 2002 and sought to bring together citizens and experts in a new form of collective reflection and cooperative inquiry.
No Watertight Compartments: Trade Agreements, International Health Care Reform, and the Legal Politics of Public Sector Exemptions
Authors: Crawford Mark
Published: October 2008

Debates over the legal interpretationof trade treaty (WTO and NAFTA) exemption clauses for public services display a common pattern. Critics of trade agreements argue that these clause sare likely to be narrowly interpreted, providing scant protection from international trade rules to public health care. Defenders usually argue that they will be given a reasonably expansive deinition and that trade obligations (atleast the more onerous WTO national treatment obligations) will generally not apply to public health care services. This paper argues that although the optimism of trade agreement defenders may be well-founded when viewed from a static perspective, the protection afforded by exemption clauses shrinks with the expansion of market elements in healthcare. Hence, the major implication of such “carve-outs” for health policy makers will not be the liberty to engage in “business as usual”, but rather the need to assess the trade-related risks associated with market-based reform in the future. This paper analyses theWTO and NAFTA provisions limiting the application of these trade agreements to the health care sector in terms of the various risk scenarios posed by different models of health care reform.
Deep Integration and Shallow Governance: The Limits of Civil Society Engagement across North America
Authors: Ayres Jeffrey , Macdonald Laura
Published: October 2008

This article investigates the complex position of civil society within the unfolding processes of regional governance across North America. The analysis focuses on the region's evolution and institution-building under the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the negotiations that have accompanied more recent efforts to deepen continental integration. We argue that North American regional governance has clearly shifted from a state-centric to a more contested, pluralistic model of multilateralism, but is a model that still betrays a more elitist, non-cooperative orientation. Yet, beyond theorising about regional governance, this article raises concerns about the future of the North American governance project in the face of national and transnational civil society political contestation against the still exclusionary character of regional governance. It is suggested that there are both normative and political reasons why North American governance should be transformed to open new democratic channels for civil society participation in the emerging debates on deepening continental integration.
Investment as the Achilles Heel of Globalisation?: The Ongoing Conflict between the Rights of Capital and the Rights of States
Authors: Blackwood Elizabeth , McBride Stephen
Published: October 2008

Efforts to extend global trade and investment governance seem at an impasse. Many disputes, including over investment rules, the focus of this article, and continued controversies over inequality and fairness in the global economy have contributed to the collapse of various trade and investment initiatives. Especially in the investment area, the collapse of mulilateral initiatives has led to bilateral “solutions” – the number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters included in bilateral or small group free trade agreements has increased. These are frequently depicted as evidence that the investment protection goals of the capital exporting states, especially the US, are being achieved by bilateral means. However, this article shows that while the bilateral route does enhance capital's rights at the expense of state autonomy, the process is far from an inexorable, linear progression. There has been more contestation and the results are more uneven than is often conceded. In particular there is considerable variation in the contents of BITs and most continue to leave space for states to design economic development policies and retain some leverage over the uses of foreign investment. The US model of investment protection may have made inroads but in its full form it is the exception rather than the rule. The struggle between relative rights of capital and of states remains intense and is one of the central factors that explain the impasse in extending the reach of global economic governance institutions.
Stranded on the Common Ground: Global Governance and State Power in England and Canada
Authors: Lee Simon
Published: October 2008

In the policy debates about international competitiveness, the ubiquity of the entrepreneur has become so widespread as to occupy the common ground of political economy. However, at the heart of this debate, the seminal work of Michael Porter has tended to overlook the importance of decentralised democratic political institutions for competitive advantage. This article compares policies for fostering innovation in England and Canada to contrast the competitive advantage to be derived from the centralised English and decentralised Canadian polities respectively. The conclusion drawn is that, on almost every measure, the decentralised framework of the Canadian state provides a more effective discovery process for entrepreneurship than the centralised prescription of policy and resources fostered in England during the tenure of the Blair Governments.
Giving Credit where it's Due: Public Policy and Household Debt in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada
Authors: Montgomerie Johnna
Published: October 2008

The dominant account of rising household indebtedness in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada claims that current economic stimuli, namely low nominal interest rates and rising property markets, are the key reasons debt has grown so rapidly since the mid-1990s. By drawing on key theoretical assumptions from neoclassical economics, policy makers have argued that rising debt levels since the mid-1990s shows that households are rational agents taking advantage of cheaper credit to purchase assets; thus, the equilibrating effect of market society translates into a balance between rising debt and rising assets. This article puts forward an alternative framework for evaluating potential contributing factors of rising household indebtedness in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada by evaluating the long-term impacts of policies implemented to achieve non-inflationary growth. Using a neo-Gramscian method of analysing historical structures, it is argued that growing household indebtedness was not an inevitable outcome of the policy of non-inflationary growth. Instead, it was most likely a product of a confluence of forces as rising demand for credit by households (due to downward pressure on wages) combined with increased supply of credit (as banks sought profitable returns in a liberalised market) to generate indebtedness. By locating the specific policy processes that contributed to mass household indebtedness this article tries to more accurately understand the origins and effects of politically-led structural change.
Hidden Community Development among the Urban Poor: Informal Settlers in Metro Manila
Authors: Nakanishi Toru
Published: October 2008

This article investigates how informal urban settlers autonomously and substantially organise and develop their own communities in Metro Manila. Such a community is neither one which has been introduced by an outside third party nor one which has been organised by the residents to realise concrete objectives. We can verify that a community of informal settlers emerges in the guise of village endogamy networks, which arise paradoxically from chronic poverty and are formed without recognition. The deepening of these networks provides families with incentives to reside permanently in their locality and undertake collective action to obtain property rights. Such networks spread across many sites of poverty in Metro Manila at the same time, and build open stages for enhancing and sharing local knowledge, which can be mobilised for development by the urban poor.
Selective Outrage and Unacknowledged Fantasies: Re-thinking Papua, Indonesia and Australia
Authors: Aspinall Edward
Published: October 2008

This article discusses the public controversy that occurred in Australia after the arrival of 43 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua in early 2006. Noting that human rights abuses elicit greater public attention in Australia when they occur in Papua than in any other Indonesian province, the article examines several explanations for the relatively great Australian interest in the Papua issue. Among these are a tendency to romanticise independence movements, a propensity to be most interested in human rights issues when they occur in such contexts, the prevalence of several popular myths about Indonesia in Australian society, as well as the influence of resurgent fantasies about Australia's role in the region. The article suggests that one narrative framework for understanding the Papua issue has become dominant in Australia (the framework promoted by independence supporters), and that its dominance impedes rounded appreciation of the dynamics of the conflict.
Contours of the Post-Staples State: The Reconstruction of Political Economy and Social Identity in 21st Century Canada
Authors: Hutton Thomas A
Published: October 2008

In this essay I will be advancing an argument that the national development trajectory is in transition from a “mature staples” phase to a “post-staples” era, signifying not only a new phase of industrial restructuring, but also profound shifts in social development and the structures and operations of the state. This emergent development trajectory is shaped by a mélange of influences which includes new rounds of industrial restructuring, the repositioning of cities and settlements within the Canadian urban hierarchy and (more decisively) international networks, and influential social movements (including multiculturalism and environmentalism). My notion of a “post-staples” state – is not intended as an “absolute”, as even episodes of quite fundamental and far-teaching industrial and socioeconomic change necessarily encompass a sublation of conditions, both contemporary and historical, rather than a complete and totalising break with the past. Rather, these concepts represent ventures in capturing important new phases of economic change, together with the complex social, cultural, spatial and political causalities and outcomes that comprise basic shifts in development mode. It is important to recognise, however, that this “post-staples” political economy is not a “non-staples” one. That is, many regions of the country remain at the stage of a “mature” staples political economy functioning under a Ricardian state system. Moreover, despite the many efforts of Canadian governments to promote “knowledge-based” industries such as software and computer games which have few, if any, material inputs, most of the industries and activities towards which knowledge has been directed in Canada, are classic staples ones such as agriculture (genetically-modified foods), forestry (new pulp and paper techniques, biologically-enhanced silviculture), fisheries (aquaculture) mines (enhanced reclamation) and energy (hydrogen fuels, renewables, offshore drilling and tar sands production. The Post-staples direction of Canada’s political economy then, is complex and nuanced but represents elements of continuity with earlier stages in Canada’s economic history, not a decisive break with the past.
The New Agriculture: Genetically-Engineered Food in Canada
Authors: Moore Elizabeth
Published: October 2008

Agriculture in Canada is a mature staples industry. However it also contains some elements of a post-staples sector notably in trends towards an increasingly high technological component of basic foodstuffs. This is evident in the increasing mechanisation of farm production, the increasing sophistication of food inspection processes and other developments of industrial farming, but reaches its apogee in the use of sophisticated gene-splicing to produce genetically-engineered crops and livestock. The application of genetic engineering to agriculture remains controversial in the early years of the 21st century, however, rendering problematic any possible transition of agriculture from a staples to a post-staples industry.
The Future of Non-State Authority on Canadian Staples Industries: Assessing the Emergence of Forest Certification
Authors: Cashore Benjamin , Auld Graeme , Lawson James , Newsom Deanna
Published: October 2008

Virtually all of the literature on Canada as a “staples state” has focused on two related topics: the impact of a historically staples-based economy on the development of the Canadian state’s structure, function and policy outcomes; and, given these historical influences, the ability and capacity state officials might have to veer Canada off this “hinterland” pathway by facilitating a more diversified Canadian economy less dependent on the US “metropole”. While these foci are important, the dramatic arrival in the 1990s of Non-State Market Driven (NSMD) governance systems that focus largely on regulating staples extracting sectors such as forestry, fisheries, and mining, has raised important new questions for students of the staples state.
The Judiciary’s Role in Good Governance in Korea
Authors: Kim Joongi
Published: October 2008

This paper will focus on the role that the judiciary has played in improving public sector governance in Korea. It will argue that the increased level of enforcement has become a cornerstone for the consolidation of rule of law and good governance. The paper will concentrate particularly on enforcement through the level of judicial sentencing against senior public officials who have committed violations in two areas: campaign financing and election laws, and anti-corruption laws. The paper focuses on the judicial treatment that senior public officials such as National Assembly persons or senior bureaucrats have received under the legal system. In the end, the paper will offer some comparative lessons that can be learned from the Korean experience.