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| 1 |
ID:
134626
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper compares how officials in Rousse, Bulgaria, and Transcarpathia, Ukraine, interact with ‘foreigners’: officials from agencies of the European Union (EU), other member states, and foreign consultants. The goals are: a) to compare the extent to which officials in the two communities participate in transnational networks of European bureaucracies, the so-called ‘transnational fusion bureaucracy’; b) to assess the ways in which the bottom-up actions of those officials relate to the broad, top-down policy goals of the EU; and c) to analyse the effects of those interactions on the business environments of the two communities. As a result of comparing the two regions, this paper argues that similar processes of integration in the transnational fusion bureaucracy occur in the internal periphery of the European Union (Rousse) and in areas outside the EU borders (Transcarpathia). In doing so, it questions the extent to which both regions participate in an emerging ‘transnational fusion bureaucracy’ emphasising difference in intensity of the considered processes, as well as the different responses by the two bureaucracies to inputs and opportunities provided by the EU.
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| 2 |
ID:
135279
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In this article I explore the making of national culture through bureaucratic routines in the Centre for National Culture in Wa, North-Western Ghana. I focus on an aspect of bureaucracy that is usually left aside: the productivity and creativity of bureaucratic routines. State, nation and culture are not fixed entities, but have to be constantly produced through processes of negotiation and meaning-making and through the continual reproduction of their boundaries and the categories that determine what is to be promoted or preserved. Bureaucratic routines and administrative processes are analysed as practices objectifying and nationalising culture and naturalising the boundaries and categories created through the cultural officers' practices.
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| 3 |
ID:
134975
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What explains the electoral staying power of many Japanese interest groups in the wake of electoral reform? Electoral explanations provide part of the answer; candidates in elections to both houses of the Diet continue to face incentives—many of them unintended—to court the organized vote. But missing from such accounts is an explanation of why economically noncompetitive groups provide the bulk of such support. The primary reason for this, I argue, is organization. As a result of their historical linkages to the bureaucracy, many interests developed hierarchical, national organizational structures that enabled them to carry out a variety of vote-gathering functions that the parties had trouble performing themselves. Although electoral reform and long-term demographic trends have weakened the electoral influence of interest groups, these organizational complementarities between groups and the parties continue to matter in Japanese elections—including under conditions of two-party competition. To illustrate these points, I trace the evolution of interest group politics from the era of LDP dominance through the rise of two-party competition and the LDP's recent return to power, using postmasters associations and agricultural cooperatives as case studies.
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| 4 |
ID:
134538
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In spite of geographic proximity and a number of shared interests, the European Union and Libya have a history of strained relations. The war of 2011 provided an opportunity for a fresh start, but so far neither side has been able to reap benefits from an entirely new political situation. Instead, Libya’s difficult internal situation has not only slowed down the process of rapprochement, but also increased EU concern. At a time when cooperation becomes a necessity rather than a choice, Libya is now down-spiralling into implosion at the levels of security, bureaucracy and economy, to the point where it cannot absorb the offers being made.
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| 5 |
ID:
134491
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| Summary/Abstract |
What can the scholarship on global international organizations (IOs) tell us about the contributions of the executive head (EH) to organizational change? The empirics of IO studies frequently credit EHs with important changes, but these studies seldom consider EHs separate from the rest of the bureaucracy and thus make few theoretical claims about them. Consequently, it is difficult to assess whether this credit is warranted and why some heads are given more credit than others. This article argues that heads, such as World Bank President Robert McNamara and United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, were influential because they did not just channel state and bureaucratic demands but made political choices that contributed to organizational adaptation. To make this argument, it draws on sociological institutionalist and constructivist scholarship on IO and leadership to develop an analytical framework where IO adaptation is linked to the EH's performance of two tasks commonly associated with executive leadership: defining a strategic plan and mobilizing support to implement that plan. However, it adds that when environmental constraints are severe, the conventional “follower-oriented” mobilization strategies found in leadership studies are less viable. Instead, EHs can adopt an “opposition-oriented” one intended to prevent the opposition from mobilizing while incrementally implementing key reforms.
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| 6 |
ID:
136168
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| Summary/Abstract |
National Security Council is a real-time, semester-long simulation of the senior advisory group to the US President on national security and foreign policy. The simulation requires undergraduate students to role-play policymakers charged with long-range security planning and responding to actual events and crises as they happen. Students are encouraged to exercise their own judgment, but must operate within the political, bureaucratic, and organizational confines of the office (for example, Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc.). Students conduct briefings, develop initiatives, and debate policy positions and proposals. Weekly meetings are supplemented with occasional special sessions to deal with real-world developments (for example, Arab Spring protests, military crisis with North Korea, major humanitarian emergency). The simulation course promotes accountability, independent and team learning, and oral communications skills, and forces students to grapple with bureaucratic turf battles, time pressure, and rapidly changing real-world situations. Several iterations between 2007 and 2012 yield insights into best practices for pedagogy and assessment, but also raise questions about the appropriate roles of technology, social networking, and the Internet.
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| 7 |
ID:
136487
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| Summary/Abstract |
The US Army currently faces challenges not unlike those of the post-Vietnam era and the post-Cold War period. Subsumed within these challenges is a more critical overarching one; simply stated, will the Army that emerges from this transition period in 2025 be an effective and ethical military profession, or just another Abstract: The US Army currently faces challenges not unlike those of the post-Vietnam era and the post-Cold War period. Subsumed within these challenges is a more critical overarching one; simply stated, will the Army that emerges from this transition period in 2025 be an effective and ethical military profession, or just another large government bureaucracy? The former can defend the Republic and its interests abroad, the latter cannot. How to understand and think about this challenge is the topic of this commentary large government bureaucracy? The former can defend the Republic and its interests abroad, the latter cannot. How to understand and think about this challenge is the topic of this commentary
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