bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Growth by Exception: or The Vain Attempt to Impose Resource Scarcity on the Danish Public Sector
Authors: Christensen Jørgen Grønnegård 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTFor more than a decade control of public sector growth has been one of the key issues in Danish politics. In an attempt to contain further uncontrolled growth, the whole budgetary system has been gradually reformed, and political cutting operations have been a recurrent event. Serious questions, however, remain. First, it is questionable whether procedural and institutional reforms of the budgetary system have made it any easier for political decision-makers to carry through their cutting plans. Second, it is doubtful whether the policy-makers are able to keep within the financial limits, set up by themselves, when confronted with demands for solution of unforeseen, but politically pressing, problems. In such situations there will always remain a strong politicalpropensity to make an exception.
National Diversity, Regime Competition and Institutional Deadlock: Problems in Forming a European Industrial Relations System
Authors: Streeck Wolfgang 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe neo-corporatist experiments of the 1970s were attempts to preserve the labor-inclusiveness of post-war European political economies in increasingly adverse domestic and international conditions. Since their demise in the early 1980s, industrial relations in Western Europe are characterized by highdivergencebetween national systems combined with risinginterdependenceamong national economies, creating a growth potential forinter-regime competition. Endeavors to provide the Internal Market with a Social Dimension are attempts to make the externalities of national industrial relations systems governable in a supra-national industrial order. The odds against European-level political reconstruction of industrial relations appear overwhelming.
Efficiency and Democratic Political Organisation; The Case for the Referendum
Authors: Frey Bruno S. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTFamiliar theories of market failure have diagnosed shortcomings in the economy, but theories of government failure argue that the state is incapable of correcting them. More than that, many criticisms of government implicitly or explicitly see failure as due to fundamental shortcomings of democracy. This paper argues that democratic forms of governments are not necessarily inefficient relative to other types of decisionmaking, for example, authoritarian government, and that if individuals are as rational in their actions and expectations as voters as they are meant to be in the market, then failures attributed to democracy lessen or disappear altogether. The paper demonstrates how more democracy, i.e. the use of the initiative and referendum, may actually improve the efficiency of government by giving the mass of citizens the information and opportunity to frustrate efforts of the classe politique to form a coalition against the voters. Empirical examples are drawn from the experience of Switzerland.
Knowledge Hierarchies and the Politics of Ideas in American International Commodity Policy
Authors: Livingston Steven G. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTMultiple knowledges are available for utilisation in policy choice. The rank ordering of knowledges for use in decisionmaking is thus a fundamental predecision. This article shows how this predecision necessarily constrains the processes associated with a politics of ideas, using cases from American international commodity policy. Even when the supposed preconditions of this sort of politics are present, policy change did not occur when the proposed ideas arose from a knowledge accorded secondary status in policymaking circles. Several implications are discussed for the influence and the study of ideational politics. Ultimately, the politics of ideas, so often portrayed through cases of innovation, may be quite conservative, contained by knowledge hierarchies which reflect prior political circumstances.
Comparing Comparative Policy Studies — A Path Towards Integration?
Authors: Feick Jürgen 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper tries to integrate and generalise research results from selected comparative policy studies in the fields of economic, social, educational, environmental and health and safety policies. The countries included are Britain, Sweden and the United States. The concepts of institutional and organisational structure, culture orientation and policy style are applied in order to develop descriptive taxonomies to suggest how these factors might influence ultimate policy outputs.
Are Industrial Policy and Corporatism Compatible?
Authors: Kenworthy Lane 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTAs intense international competition along with rapidly changing product markets and technology have come to dominate the economic environment for firms, industries, and nations, government pursuit of a coordinated, proactive industrial policy has increasingly been viewed as a key to national economic success. Owing largely to its utility in generating consensus-formation, corporatist concertation has been suggested by a number of commentators as an ideal mechanism for implementing industrial policies. However, the legitimacy of corporatism as a mode of interest intermediation rests on the capacity of interest group representatives to win benefits for all their members, while industrial policy decisions are by nature selective or discriminatory. This feature of industrial policy casts doubts upon its compatibility with corporatism. The postwar policy-making experiences of Japan, Sweden, and West Germany support this skepticism.
Explaining Foreign Economic Policy: A Comparison of U.S and West German Export Controls
Authors: Hofhansel Claus 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes differences between United States and West German export controls. It shows that United States controls are more extensive and stricter than controls in West Germany. Three possible explanations for this variation in policy are considered. First, these two states differ in regard to their positions in the international system and in their choice of economic strategies. Second, the extent of domestic political support for strict export control policies varies between the two countries. Finally, West Germany lacks the institutional framework to adequately control its foreign trade. The evidence presented corroborates the first two alternatives, while institutional explanations receive relatively little support. The article then discusses the historical development of United States and West German export control policies and institutions. The analysis shows evidence of both change and stability. More specifically, the article questions the argument that institutions in foreign economic policy, once established, persist and resist change, instead of adapting to environmental changes. Several hypotheses are considered to explain why in the area of export controls changes in policy, and to some extent institutions, occurred more frequently in West Germany than in the United States.
The Social Production of Welfare and Consumption of Social Services
Authors: Netten Ann , Davies Bleddyn 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe social production of welfare provides a theoretical framework for the analysis of the consumption of social services and the impact of welfare policies. Based on the new home economics, it represents the unit of consumption as a unit of production of commodities. With the advent of disability this unit extends from the household to the informal care network. Social care agencies become involved when the production of basic commodities, such as nutrition and personal care, fall below threshold levels which threaten the survival of the informal care network. The social production of welfare allows comparisons across systems and provides the starting point for the development of tools for empirical analysis.
Why Communism Collapses: The Moral and Material Failures of Command Economies are Intertwined
Authors: Clark John , Wildavsky Aaron 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTCommunism is vulgar capitalism; that is, the communist command economy is based on mistaken notions of how capitalism grew by exploiting workers. Command economies not capitalism fulfil Marx's predictions, collapsing because they are unproductive and immoral, basing economic choices on corrupted personal relations. Without competition, decision in command economies are unproductive through negative selection, and immoral, being based on corrupt personal relations. Each and every Marxist and neo-Marxist prediction about capitalism, from commodity fetishism to the alienation of the citizen from the state, comes true under communism. The explanation is straightforward: Marxist assumptions about the state and the economy are far more true for communist than for capitalist countries.
Institutions, Veto Points, and Policy Results: A Comparative Analysis of Health Care
Authors: Immergut Ellen M. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe medical profession is reputed to control decision-making in medical care to such an extent that one can speak of professional dominance. Yet West European health policies have radically changed the working conditions and incomes of doctors in many countries. Why have some governments been able to ‘socialize’ medicine? This article seeks to refute the view that the medical profession exercises a universal veto power. In contrast to scholars who explain medical influence in terms of singular characteristics of the medical profession or through the historical process of professionalization, this essay focuses on the properties of distinct political systems that make them vulnerable to medical influence. It argues that we have vetopointswithin political systems and not vetogroupswithin societies. By comparing the lobbying efforts of medical associations in Switzerland, France, and Sweden, the article analyses the role of political institutions in accounting for different patterns of medical association influence on health policy.
Skeptical Reflections on a Europe of Regions: Britain, Germany, and the ERDF
Authors: Anderson Jeffrey J. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTEuropean Community policymaking has been predicated upon the member governments acting as gatekeepers which mediate between their respective domestic political systems and EC institutions. However, the sweeping changes associated with Project 1992 threaten the gatekeeping status of the Twelve. This article explores the domestic and international consequences, which are cast in terms of three scenarios: the maintenance of the status quo, the emergence of a ‘Europe of Regions’, and a variegated set of outcomes. As an attempt to move beyond the realm of pure speculation, concrete lessons are culled from the reform of the European Regional Development Fund since 1979 and its effect on national and subnational interests in Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany. The theoretical premise is that national and subnational actors respond to Community initiatives within a structured context, the domestic policy networks in which they are embedded. These clusters of interorganizational relationships at the domestic level reflect the underlying distribution of resources among actors, and endow them with different capabilities and vulnerabilities as they seek to cope with changes administered to their policy environment by the EC. The findings suggest skepticism of the image of strengthened regions breaking out of the orbit of weakened states with the assistance of the EC. While the ability of member states to retain their roles as gatekeepers varies, this capacity remains strong. Moreover, subnational actors often view the EC as yet another exogenous institutional constraint on action.
The European Community Social Charter and Labour Market Regulation
Authors: Teague Paul , Grahl John 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe market orientation of the 1992 European Community programme has given way to a range of other projects involving institutional integration. Issues such as European Monetary Union and the EC Social Charter now dominate the Community's policy agenda. Inducing this shift from ‘negative’ to ‘positive’ integration was a growing realisation that institutional interventions are required to secure and coordinate the integration process. This paper examines the nature of the EC Social Charter as a positive coordination mechanism. First the controversies surrounding the adoption of the Charter are outlined. Then an appraisal is made of how the clauses of the Charter' accompanying action programme and recently published draft Directives affect existing national systems of labour market regulation. The conclusion is that although the Charter does not constitute a move towards a harmonised employment regime, it is a serious attempt to bring about greater coherence in Community labour markets.
Choice and Conflict about Census Data Adjusting the American Census Count
Authors: Cohen Michael L. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe census is a social fact, the outcome of a process that involves the interaction of public laws and institutions and citizens' responses to an official inquiry. However, it is not a ‘hard’ fact. Reasons for inevitable defects in the census count are listed in the first section; the second section reports efforts by the US Census Bureau to identify sources of error in census coverage, and make estimates of the size of the errors. The use of census data for policy purposes, such as political representation and allocating funds, makes these defects controversial. Errorsmaybe removed by making adjustments to the initial census count. However, because adjustment reallocates resources between groups, it has become the subject of political conflict. The paper describes the conflict between statistical practices, laws and public policy about census adjustment in the United States, and concludes by considering the extent to which causes in America are likely to be found in other countries.
Charity-State Relations: A Conceptual Analysis
Authors: Deans Tom , Ware Alan 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article examines the issues and the problems confronted by those conducting comparative research of charity-state relations in England, Canada and the United States. It also provides an explanation of why the interaction between charities and the state is important for political science: in part this is because in all three countries charities have become increasingly dependent on government for their income. In section I, the article examines the relationship between the concepts of a third sector, voluntary sector, non-profit sector and charity and concludes that the last might be the most appropriate to employ in comparative analysis. In section 2, the authors argue that in both England and Canada the state is formally responsible for the formation of certain kinds of charities; they also argue that in the United States a stricter separation between state and charity exists but that, in practice, the boundaries between charities and the state and the market are not clear ones.
Innovation in Local Government and Fiscal Austerity
Authors: Wolman Harold 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article relates a rich and diverse existing body of literature concerning innovation to an area of research on which it has yet to be brought to bear – the response of local governments to fiscal austerity. After reviewing innovation research literature with respect to its applicability to local government innovation as a response to fiscal stress, it sets forth six research questions for exploring the relationship between innovation and local fiscal austerity. The innovation research literature is then examined with respect to each of these questions to determine what findings or hypotheses emerge from this existing body of research which are relevant to these newly formulated questions.
Policy Recommendations for Multi-Actor Implementation: An Assessment of the Field
Authors: O'Toole Laurence J 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTOne goal frequently professed in the research field of multi-actor implementation is to assist those actually involved in the policy process by developing good, empirically-based recommendations. The primary objectives in this article are to investigate the degree of progress attained thus far toward this aim and, as a consequence, to suggest an agenda for future research. The literature is found to impose a number of restrictions on the quality of advice available to practitioners. The field is complex, without much cumulation or convergence. Few well-developed recommendations have been put forward by researchers and a number of proposals are contradictory. Almost no evidence or analysis of utilization in this field has been produced. Two reasons for the lack of development are analyzed: normative disagreement and the state of the field's empirical theory. Yet there remain numerous possibilities for increasing the quality of the latter. Efforts in this direction are a necessary condition of further practical advance.
Problems of Expedited Implementation: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Authors: Weimer David Leo 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTAt each stage of program implementation – strategic planning, systems design, development of the management control infrastructure, and project execution – different types of expertise are most critical to success. The civil service system, which is oriented toward the hiring of permanent employees, and personnel ceilings, which are often arbitrarily set in the budgeting process, interact to impede the transition from one implementation stage to the next. Cost overruns and long-run schedule slippage may result from attempts to expedite programs by beginning implementation stages in parallel, particularly if compensatory resources are not provided. These problems are illustrated with the history of the implementation of the strategic petroleum reserve program, a key element of US policy for reducing vulnerability to disruptions of the world oil market.
The Politics of Industrial Training in the United Kingdom
Authors: Anderson Malcolm , Jurue John Fairley 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTImportant and controversial changes have recently taken place in industrial training in the United Kingdom. Training is a complex policy area – industrial, economic, educational and social objectives may be pursued through it. For the most part it has been policy formation which has been dominated by professionals and thus there has been a ‘closed system’ into which outsiders rarely intrude. But outside influences have become more powerful; consequently the professionals are careful about which issues they place on the agenda for discussion. However, the most striking impression made by the training system is its lack of coherence and this may undermine its effectiveness.
Flood Control Policy in China: The Policy Consequences of Natural Disasters
Authors: Ross Lester 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis study of flood control policy before and after the Chinese floods of 1980–2 reveals the interactive effects of bureaucratic politics, the goals and careers of national leaders, and natural disasters in a communist regime. Policy is shown to be more reactive and influenced by longstanding bureaucratic rivalries than most previous research has found.
The Politics of Central Banks: Austerity and Unemployment in Europe
Authors: Kurzer Paulette 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article examines the divergences in labor market-performances in four small, open economies: Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It argues that great unemployment in Belgium and the Netherlands is partly due to the implementation of deflationary policies during the 1980s. The decline of Keynesian intervention in Belgium and the Netherlands is traced to the institutional independence of their central banks to set monetary and exchange rate policies separate from government. Because the Swedish and Austrian central banks are more integrated in the policy process and their countries are not members of the Common Market or the European Monetary System, social democratic governments have been able to go against the European trend of monetary restrictiveness and fiscal austerity. Accordingly, business in Austria and Sweden is more optimistic about future profit returns and is more willing to invest in productive capital, resulting in lower unemployment.
Hearing Objections? Evaluating Energy Planning Procedures in Scotland and Germany
Authors: Clement Keith 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe planning of major energy facilities in Western Europe has met with increasing opposition in the last 15 years. In Scotland formal objections to such developments are considered in public inquiries; in Germany the equivalent institution is the hearing. These two institutions differ fundamentally in scope and in the means of presenting and examining evidence. The involvement of the courts has been greater in Germany, where lengthy cases examining procedural and substantive issues have developed a new field in legal administration. Developers, objectors and administrators find fault with the planning and legal systems, but outcomes invariably favour the developers. Of the two institutions examined, the British public inquiry offers objectors considerably more scope than does the German hearing.
Do Institutions Make a Difference? Financing Systems of Labor Market Policy
Authors: Schmid Günther , Reissert Bernd 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTIn recent years the hopes of finding a solution for the puzzle of mass unemployment shifted to labor market institutions such as the system of regulation and industrial relations. The following study takes up a much neglected aspect of labor market institutions, the issue of financing labor market policy. After developing the analytical framework, the systems of financing labor market policy in six countries are briefly described. Next are analyzed the effects of different financing systems on expenditures for active labor market policy – as an essential element in fighting unemployment. Financial systems, however, influence not only the level but also the structure of labor market policy which in turn has implications for its allocational and distributional effects. Finally, some lessons are drawn from the international comparison, the main thesis is illustrated by the German case. Institutional incongruity, i.e. a mismatch between organizational structures and functions, may have two effects, leading political decision makers to behave in a generally unexpected way, and channelling the effects of political programmes in unintended directions.
Does Palermo Represent The Future For Moscow?
Authors: Hedlund Stefan , Sundström Niclas 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article addresses and expands on two points made by Robert Putnam in his recent study Making Democracy Work. The first concerns the observation that in order to find the cultural roots of Italian institution building, we may have to go further back in history than the 12th century, where Putnam stopped, and the second relates to the possible implications of this historical approach for the current transformation in the former Soviet bloc. The theoretical presentation revolves around the concepts of path dependence and multiple equilibria, finding much common ground between several of the social science disciplines. In conclusion it is argued that there may be cases of ‘pathological path dependence’, where public policy can have positive effects only if preceded by careful study of the anatomy of the pathological institutions that cause development traps.