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This article is an inquiry into the nature and roles of rulemaking and adjudication in shaping public policies in the American political system. Rulemaking and adjudication are compared in terms of policy formulation by administrative agencies. The political contexts of the two procedures are explored, with reference to the US Federal Communications Commission and to its counterpart in South Korea. Public policies shaped by the closed systems and administrative discretion of government agencies often have negative side effects that reach far beyond the interested parties immediately affected. The procedures of quasi-legislative rulemaking and quasi-judicial adjudication act as institutional safeguards. They oblige public agencies to follow due process when they are formulating public policies, thereby protecting the public from the abuse or misuse of administrative discretion. If the Korean government systematically institutionalises and operates such rulemaking and adjudication procedures in an effective way, Korean citizens and private companies may have formal or legal opportunities to express their opinions and appeal decisions adversely affecting their interests to a higher authority, including the judiciary. The congressional system may closely oversee the inner practices of policy formulation by administrative agencies, and the Korean President may effectively and impartially monitor the exercise of bureaucratic discretion in public areas of national importance. Adapted from the source document.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1996, Congress authorized a test program that permits government buyers to use procedural discretion and flexibility, so that commercial items may be obtained in a simplified manner. This report discusses how federal agencies demonstrated whether the test program produced the desired results and (2) assesses how the authority provided under the test program was being used on selected contracts. GAO found that (1) the Office of Federal Procurement Policy did not collect data to provide a basis for measuring whether the test program produced the desired results and (2) government buyers did not always demonstrate that prices were fair and reasonable for the contracts included in GAO's review. However, OFPP's 1999 survey of procurement executives showed that these executives believed that the program has had a positive impact on the federal procurement process. These executives believed that the authority provided under the test program should be made permanent. However, OFPP's survey did not collect empirical data that would have supported these views."

From a political standpoint, post‐communists systems include both democratic and non‐democratic nations. From an economic standpoint, they include both collapsing and expanding economies. All four logical possibilities exist for post‐communist political and economic systems. The Czech Republic is an example of a democratic political system and an expanding economic system. Russia is an example of a democratic political system and a collapsing economic system. China is an example of a non‐democratic political system and an expanding economic system. North Korea is an example of a non‐democratic political system and a collapsing economic system. The fact that all four logical possibilities exist suggests that democracy is neither necessary nor sufficient for good economic performance. However, democracy is certainly a value in itself that requires certain basic institutions, including free and fair elections, the orderly transfer of power to those elected, the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the protection of individual freedoms and basic liberties, including those of speech, press, religion, assembly, property, and economic opportunity.Economic policies, rather than the form of government, determine the results for an economy. Russia and China, the two largest socialist economies, followed very different economic policies and experienced radically different outcomes. The failure of "shock therapy" economic policies for transition to a market economy in Russia is related to its use of the Washington Consensus SLP package of stabilization, liberalization, and privatization, as recommended by the World Bank and the IMF. The success of Deng's economic policies for transition to a market economy in China is related to its rejection of the SLP in favor of the ICG approach of institutions, competition, and government. Other interesting cases are those of the Czech Republic and North Korea.Those nations in which both political and economic reforms have been simultaneously successful, such as the Czech Republic, are generally small, homogeneous European nations with a historic work ethic, with a relatively short period of socialism, and with support from neighboring advanced industrialized nations. There is great difficulty in simultaneously establishing both democracy and a market economy without a very special set of circumstances. Thus, it is necessary to determine a sequence for political and economic reform. Ultimately, however, the ideal of both democracy and a market economy may be attained even in nations without special circumstances and external assistance, with Russia eventually turning its economy around and with China eventually reforming politically into a democratic nation.

ABSTRACTAccording to political business cycle theory, separate opportunistic and partisan approaches exist. It is obvious, as seen from theoretical and empirical points of view, that politicians aim for both opportunistic as well as partisan goals. This paper presents a model of a pre‐election political business cycle that manifests an indication of competence and a post‐election political business cycle that occurs because of the uncertainty of an election's winner monetary policy. In the pre‐election period competent governments expand the economy. The post‐election cycle depends on whether a leftist or a conservative government is in power in the pre‐election period, and if they are re‐elected or not.

The article introduces a theoretical model that helps to explain the reactions of Western European governments to the challenges of economic globalization. Since reforms to adjust to external challenges need to be adopted by governments & parliaments, the analysis models the preferences of these actors (most often political parties). In the following section, the article puts forward hypotheses on the process of economic policy adaptation & its results. It is concluded that far-reaching reforms to adapt national political economies to globalization occur only in case of significant deterioration of economic performance, coinciding with a previous failure to adjust to economic globalization which threatens to jeopardize the electoral or programmatic performance of the political actors. 19 References. Adapted from the source document.

THE AUTHOR ADVANCES THREE GENERAL POINTS ABOUT PRIVATIZATION IN RUSSIA: (1) THE RHETORIC OF REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION IS SOMEWHAT MISLEADING; THE NARRATIVE SHOULD BE ONE OF AN EVOLUTION IN ECONOMIC POLICY, SINCE PRIVATIZATION IS BEST SEEN AS THE CONTINUATION OF PRE-1991 SHIFTS IN PROPERTY STRUCTURES; (2) RUSSIAN PRIVATIZATION IS INSIDER-DOMINATED, CONTRARY TO THE GOVERNMENT'S HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS; NEVERTHELESS, THE GOVERNMENT HAS PRESSED AHEAD WITH THE REFORM DUE TO ITS POLITICAL UTILITY FOR THE GOVERNMENT AS A WHOLE, FOR THE POLITICIANS RUNNING THE SCHEME, AND FOR THE GOVERNMENT'S INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS; (3) DESPITE THE FACT THAT PRIVATIZATION HAS NOT BROUGHT A MASSIVE INFLUX OF NEW OWNERS, THERE IS SOME EVIDENCE THAT RUSSIAN MANAGERS ARE STARTING TO BEHAVE MORE CAPITALISTIC.

"Separatist revolts erupted in Spain's American colonies in the early 1800s. Opinion in the United States was undecided as to what position to take. U.S. strategic interests during the Napoleonic Wars dictated a policy of neutrality. Rebel agents and Spanish diplomat-spies vied behind the scenes for U.S. assets. The U.S. inadvertently became involved in their revolutionary struggle"--

The infamous "Scramble for Africa" resulted in random and unlikely borders that remain today. The West partitioned territory for the sake of its short-term goal of influence or mastery. They gave little thought to the long-running consequences for the Africans themselves. This arbitrary carving up of Africa, the colonial policy of divide and rule, and the resultant segmental cleavages in most post-colonial African states may be blamed for the horizontal inequalities, conflicts, and insecurity rampant since independence. In Uganda, as in many other African countries, the most evident of such cleavages have been tribal and ethnic. Recently there have been calls for constitutional reform that would devolve power to the tribal regions and revive the idea of federalism which was the organizing principle in the immediate aftermath of independence. This book highlights the dynamics of ethnic politics in the post-independence sub-Saharan setting in general and the background, meaning, and relevance of the debate on ethnic federalism in Uganda, in particular. Part of the book covers Vick Lukwago Ssali's own experiences growing up in an independent but troubled Uganda. However, its central thesis is based on the voices of selected samples of ordinary people in ten different tribal areas of Uganda and what they comparatively think about the issue of federalism. Is their loyalty growing towards the centre or fading outwards from the troubled state to their integral traditional and cultural units?

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- Analytical Assumptions -- Waves of Reform -- Overview -- Notes -- 2 The Legacy of the Past -- The Moderate Leninist Approach to Development -- Mao's War Communism: The Third-Front Strategy -- The End of the Third-Front Strategy -- Waves of Reform After Mao -- The Roots of Reform -- Notes -- 3 The First Wave and Ebb Tide: Search for a New Model (1979-1982) -- Discarding Old Models -- A New Paradigm for Chinese-Style Socialism -- The Challenge of International Competition -- Notes -- 4 The Second Wave: Ideological Struggle and Policy Breakthrough (1983-1984) -- Reform Offensive -- The Conservative Reaction -- Scientific Socialism: The Politics of "Third-Wave Fever -- New Policy Guidelines -- Opening the Coast -- Readjustments in Foreign Policy -- Blueprint for Reform -- Setting the Stage for Institutionalizing Reform -- Notes -- 5 The Second Wave: Institutional Changes (1985) -- Drafting the 7th FYP and the Year 2000 Plan -- National Security Review -- The Weak Institutional Base for Reform -- Notes -- 6 Crosscurrents: Problems of Systemic Transition and Political Succession (1985-1988) -- Economic Problems Threaten the Reform Program -- Compromise in Politics and Economics -- Political Struggle Delays a Third Wave -- The 13th Party Congress: Mandate for a Third Wave -- Struggle Continues -- Notes -- 7 Conclusion -- Limits to Reform Under Deng Xiaoping -- The Challenge of the Future -- Postscript: Reaction and Bloodshed -- Notes -- Chronology -- Major Individuals and Institutions -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- Index.

Suicide prevention policies set out government strategies and priorities for action and in doing so construct meanings, legitimise knowledge and frame possibilities. Despite their importance, prevention policies remain underexamined and taken for granted. Using Bacchi's poststructuralist 'What's The Problem Represented To Be' approach we critically analyse UK suicide prevention policies as sites of biopolitical surveillance and consider how suicide is constructed within such policy regimes. Drawing on Foucault, we contextualise suicide as an object and focus of biopolitical surveillance. We argue that suicide prevention policies seek to negate the contingency and complexity of suicide and instead represent it as amenable to biopolitical governance. Prevention policies do this by framing suicide as a visible and predictable object that can be known and governed via surveillance driven risk management. Such policies risk marginalising some publics, and diverting attention from the political, social and economic contexts of injustice in which suicides occur.

There is growing evidence of the problematic nature of the UK's 'flexible labour market' with rising levels of in-work poverty and insecurity. Yet successive governments have stressed that paid work is the route to inclusion, focussing attention on the divide between employed and unemployed. Past efforts to measure social exclusion have tended to make the same distinction. The aim of this article is to apply Levitas et al.'s (2007) framework to assess levels of exclusionary employment, i.e. exclusion arising directly from an individual's labour market situation. Using data from the Poverty and Social Exclusion UK survey, results show that one in three adults in paid work is in poverty, or in insecure or poor quality employment. One third of this group have not seen any progression in their labour market situation in the last five years. The policy focus needs to shift from 'Broken Britain' to Britain's broken labour market.

This paper examines the ongoing social exclusion and marginalization of Roma migrants living in Scotland in a context of European Union enlargement eastwards and the development of National Action Plans for Social Inclusion at the level of national and regional government which have as their stated aim the extension of opportunity and social justice to all citizens of Europe. It argues that so long as primary legislation dictates that A8 migrants will have 'no recourse to public funds', Roma families will continue to be excluded from mainstream society and prevented from making a sustained and valued contribution to public life. Moreover, the evidence suggests that this structural barrier to inclusion, coupled with racism, discrimination and exploitation at the local level, work to hinder regional policy makers and local service providers where they are working to meet the welfare needs of one of the most excluded sections of their community and facilitate wider community cohesion.

Incidence of breast cancer is rising globally, with little attention paid by government health planners to upstream causal factors. The research reported here used qualitative methods to explore the usefulness of creating opportunities for dialogue between various `communities of interest' - laypeople, health activists, environmentalists, scientists, health professionals and politicians - concerned about possible environmental factors in breast cancer aetiology. The paper reports discussion of some of the methodological difficulties in investigating the causes of breast cancer, what constitutes `evidence' and the perceived obstacles to adopting a precautionary approach to the prevention of breast cancer. The key difference between viewpoints concerns the appropriate evidence for - and response to - risk. We have argued that these differences are both ideological and epistemological; we are concerned here to identify how a tripartite categorization of positions is articulated through participants' narrative accounts and arguments about how science contributes to the basis for policy making.