Suchergebnisse

The South African government has been implementing various small and medium sized contractor development programmes in an effort to redress the legacy created by apartheid government. The programmes fulfil such an objective through awarding construction projects to the historically disadvantaged Black contractors to enable them develop competent skills, build viable construction firms, create jobs and redistribute wealth. A mentorship programme was put in place to assist the contractors with technical, managerial, contractual and business impediments they might be encountered in the project execution and in running the construction business. The main aim of the paper was to conduct an evaluation of the contractor development mentorship programme in South Africa using the Free State Province as a case study. Questionnaires were distributed to 120 small and medium contractors in the Free State Province, and a review of literature was undertaken. Financial factors were found to be amongst the leading causes of contractors' failures. It was also established that educational qualification and experience in the construction industry have an effect in a contractor's failure or success. A lot of contractors revealed that they were not exposed to the Contractor Development Programmes like in other provinces hence 74% did not participate in any contractor development programmes and only 26% did participate. The paper concluded with recommendations on how mentorship within the contractor development programme can be improved.

The citizens' right to participate in the conducting the public affairs is accepted as one of the democracy principles constituting the base of the good governance. The members states of the European Council have to embed the participation principle in the internal laws and, if necessary, in the Constitutions. The legal aspects of participatory governance in local self-government are analysed in this article. In accordance with the documents of international organisations, international and Lithuanian acts of law, participation is one of main principles of the good governance. The analysis of participation principle helps to disclose in which way and in what forms local residents can participate in management of the public municipal affairs. It is identified, that the content of participation principle includes: direct participation of local residents in preparation of and discussion on the decisions' projects; direct participation of local residents in the meetings, rallies and polls; direct participation in the analysis of public petitions. Furthermore, the municipal institutions have to inculcate the principles of self-government in the institutions of education, cultural and in other, to support associations initiatives, which are related to the managing the public municipal affairs. Accomplished analysis of law acts allowed to establish that the implementation of residents' municipal rights is concurrent with the institutions, through which this right is implemented, and (or) with the organisation and activity of their accountable institutions.

The system dynamics approach is a holistic way of solving problems in real-time scenarios. This is a powerful methodology of modern Operational Research for framing, analyzing, and discussing complex issues and problems. System dynamics modeling is often the background of a systemic thinking approach and has become a management and organizational development paradigm. This paper proposes a system dynamics model for studying the factors that impact the academic performance of 1st to 8th grade primary school students residing in poor migrant neighborhoods. The data used in the model are based upon the perception of teachers who are the subjects of a survey conducted in public schools located mainly in the inner squatter and outer squatter districts of Turkish cities. Squatter districts are subjected to large shifts of population as a result of interregional and urban-rural migration, and they pose educational, social and behavioral challenges. The system dynamics model proposed here builds up relationships between variables that affect academic performance of migrant students. The goal of the model is to identify best government policies that might improve the system state in the minimum time span. System simulation results show that the government should implement policies that target many aspects of the system concurrently in order to improve student academic quality. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nigeria is one of the relatively secured nations in West African sub-region. In recent times, this endowed nation suddenly metamorphosed into an abode of serial bombing, hostage taking, armed robbery, cold-blooded killings and ethno-religious conflicts traceable to militant groups with conflicting ideological, political and religious agenda. Among these militant groups are Niger-Delta insurgents, Campus cults, Bakassi Boys, Armed robbers, O'odua People's Congress, Boko Haram et cetera. The resultant loss of lives, rising budgetary spending for security and destruction of valuable government facilities portend devastating consequences for sustainable economic development in the country. This paper examines the link between national security and sustainable economic development in Nigeria. The authors adopt quantitative method, which entails extraction of secondary data from the publications of Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics and other reliable reports on the subject. The generated data were carefully analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics on the basis of which far-reaching conclusions were drawn. The research findings indicate that Nigeria's expenditure on national security is rising faster than spending on education, agriculture, health and construction. This unpleasant finding has negative effect on sustainable economic development in Nigeria. The paper proffers tripartite recommendations for governments, the citizens and policy-makers.

This paper formalizes in a fully-rational model the popular idea that politicians perceive an electoral cost in adopting costly reforms with future benefits and reconciles it with the evidence that reformist governments are not punished by voters. To do so, it proposes a model of elections where political ability is ex-ante unknown and investment in reforms is unobservable. On the one hand, elections improve accountability and allow to keep well-performing incumbents. On the other, politicians make too little reforms in an attempt to signal high ability and increase their reappointment probability. Although in a rational expectation equilibrium voters cannot be fooled and hence reelection does not depend on reforms, the strategy of underinvesting in reforms is nonetheless sustained by out-of-equilibrium beliefs. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, uncertainty makes reforms more politically viable and may, under some conditions, increase social welfare. The model is then used to study how political rewards can be set so as to maximize social welfare and the desirability of imposing a one-term limit to governments. The predictions of this theory are consistent with a number of empirical regularities on the determinants of reforms and reelection. They are also consistent with a new stylized fact documented in this paper: economic uncertainty is associated to more reforms in a panel of 20 OECD countries.

Recent discussions on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) have raised optimism about reducing carbon emissions and deforestation in tropical countries. If approved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), REDD+ mechanisms may generate a substantial influx of financial resources to developing countries. Some authors argue that this money could reverse the ongoing process of decentralization of forest policies that has spread through a large number of developing countries in the past two decades. Central states will be accountable for REDD+ money, and may be compelled to control and keep a significant share of REDD+ funds. Supporters of decentralization argue that centralized implementation of REDD+ will be ineffective and inefficient. In this paper, I examine the relation between subnational governments and REDD+ in Brazil. Data show that some state governments in the Brazilian Amazon have played a key role in creating protected areas (PAs) after 2003, which helped decrease deforestation rates. Governors have different stimuli for creating PAs. Some respond to the needs of their political constituency ; others have expectations to boost the forest sector so as to increase fiscal revenues. Governors also have led the discussion on REDD+ in Brazil since 2008. Considering their interests and political power, REDD+ is unlikely to curb decentralization in Brazil.

Support of democracy and acceptance of democratic rules is an essential condition for the effective functioning of democracy. Democratic governments slowly create an affective reservoir of diffuse support for democracy that helps their survival during the period of a short-term economic hardship. @is article investigates sources of political trust in Lithuania. @e method of the study is an analysis of the data of a survey sample conducted in 2010. In the first section of the article, the concept of political trust is defined and modes of support of democracy are introduced. In the second, the sources of political trust are analyzed. In the third section, the impact of the Soviet legacy and post-Communist transformation are examined. In the fourth, the results of the analysis of the survey data are presented and discussed. @e paper concludes that such factors as evaluations of the country's current economy and its economy in the future, pride in the Lithuanian citizenship, evaluations of procedural justice in local government and satisfaction with life influence political trust. Attitudes towards social benefits and dissatisfaction with life are related to the attitudes towards welfare during the Soviet regime. @e collective sociotropic perceptions of how the nation as a whole fares economically affect political trust directly and egocentric concerns indirectly.

Support of democracy and acceptance of democratic rules is an essential condition for the effective functioning of democracy. Democratic governments slowly create an affective reservoir of diffuse support for democracy that helps their survival during the period of a short-term economic hardship. @is article investigates sources of political trust in Lithuania. @e method of the study is an analysis of the data of a survey sample conducted in 2010. In the first section of the article, the concept of political trust is defined and modes of support of democracy are introduced. In the second, the sources of political trust are analyzed. In the third section, the impact of the Soviet legacy and post-Communist transformation are examined. In the fourth, the results of the analysis of the survey data are presented and discussed. @e paper concludes that such factors as evaluations of the country's current economy and its economy in the future, pride in the Lithuanian citizenship, evaluations of procedural justice in local government and satisfaction with life influence political trust. Attitudes towards social benefits and dissatisfaction with life are related to the attitudes towards welfare during the Soviet regime. @e collective sociotropic perceptions of how the nation as a whole fares economically affect political trust directly and egocentric concerns indirectly.

Sri Lanka's Sunni Muslims or 'Moors', who make up eight percent of the population, are the country's third largest ethnic group, after the Buddhist Sinhalese (seventy-four per cent) and the Hindu Tamils (eighteen per cent). Although the armed LTTE (Tamil Tiger) rebel movement was defeated militarily by government forces in May 2009, the island's Muslims still face the long-standing external threats of ethno-linguistic Tamil nationalism and pro-Sinhala Buddhist government land and resettlement policies. In addition, during the past decade a sharp internal conflict has arisen within the Sri Lankan Muslim community between locally popular Sufi sheiks and the followers of hostile Islamic reformist movements energised by ideas and resources from the global ummah, or world community of Muslims. This simultaneous combination of 'external' ethno-nationalist rivalries and 'internal' Islamic doctrinal conflict has placed Sri Lanka's Muslims in a double bind: how to defend against Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic hegemonies while not appearing to embrace an Islamist or jihadist agenda. This article first traces the historical development of Sri Lankan Muslim identity in the context of twentieth-century Sri Lankan nationalism and the south Indian Dravidian movement, then examines the recent anti-Sufi violence that threatens to divide the Sri Lankan Muslim community today. Adapted from the source document.

As each others' most important investment and trading partner, the European and U.S. American economies are closely interlinked. The growing intensity of economic interdependence has spurred the transatlantic coordination of rules and standards that could form non-tariff barriers to transatlantic commerce. But despite impressive government-to-government efforts to eliminate market barriers, the EU and the U.S. have frequently clashed over each other's regulatory policies. The aim of this special issue is to explore the domestic sources of cooperation or conflict in transatlantic regulation. The papers analyze the role of domestic factors through three theoretical lenses that are well-established in the study of multilevel systems: the principal-agent approach, the two-level game metaphor, and through a wider concept of institutionalism which emphasizes the interlinkages of societal interests and regulatory ideas with institutional frameworks. The papers reveal that domestic factors embody more obstacles to than opportunities for horizontal coordination. It is argued that transatlantic relations will likely undergo a 'double movement' of being simultaneously shifted upwards to become part of the global governance architecture, and downwards towards broader involvement of legislators in regulatory matters. Hence, transatlantic regulation might in the near future be more shaped by political leaders, rent-seeking interest groups and legislators than by networks of technocrats. Adapted from the source document.

The article is dedicated to the most important function of the Investigation committee in Russian Federation fighting with the corruption as the mean of protection rights and liberties of the men and citizens. The author marks the tendency to the extention of the powers of the Investigation committee in Russian Federation in the fight with corruptional developments and considers it necessary for complex measures to be held for counteraction of corruption with collaboration with organs of the public power and government involving the public. Improvement of legislation of the activity of Investigation committee with allow according to the authors opinion, achieve the reduce of the volume of corruption. ; The article is dedicated to the most important function of the Investigation committee in Russian Federation fighting with the corruption as the mean of protection rights and liberties of the men and citizens. The author marks the tendency to the extention of the powers of the Investigation committee in Russian Federation in the fight with corruptional developments and considers it necessary for complex measures to be held for counteraction of corruption with collaboration with organs of the public power and government involving the public. Improvement of legislation of the activity of Investigation committee with allow according to the authors opinion, achieve the reduce of the volume of corruption.

In line with the spirit of decentralization and national development, the demands on agricultural extension agents is focused on farmer empowerment so they can improve their quality of life independently. These efforts need to be supported by a professional agricultural extension agent. This study aimed to determine the competency of agricultural extension agents in empowering farmers. The research was conducted through a survey on government employee who work as agricultural extension agents in paddy farming area in Karawang district and in vegetable farming area in Garut district of West Java. Samples were taken randomly. The results demonstrated that the competency of agricultural extension agents were low, especially in the dimensions of entrepreneurial management, renewal management, and network system guiding. Competency dimensions in fair category were understanding the potential of the region, training management, learning management, communication management, and innovation. The t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the competency of agricultural extension agents who served in the rice agricultural area and those who served in the vegetables farming. There was also no significant difference between agricultural extension agents who continued their formal education in public universities and those who continued there formal education in private universities. The low competency of agricultural extension agents became a challenge to all parties, especially the government (central and local), education institutions, colleges that prepare extension workers and extension staff concerned.

Support of democracy and acceptance of democratic rules is an essential condition for the effective functioning of democracy. Democratic governments slowly create an affective reservoir of diffuse support for democracy that helps their survival during the period of a short-term economic hardship. @is article investigates sources of political trust in Lithuania. @e method of the study is an analysis of the data of a survey sample conducted in 2010. In the first section of the article, the concept of political trust is defined and modes of support of democracy are introduced. In the second, the sources of political trust are analyzed. In the third section, the impact of the Soviet legacy and post-Communist transformation are examined. In the fourth, the results of the analysis of the survey data are presented and discussed. @e paper concludes that such factors as evaluations of the country's current economy and its economy in the future, pride in the Lithuanian citizenship, evaluations of procedural justice in local government and satisfaction with life influence political trust. Attitudes towards social benefits and dissatisfaction with life are related to the attitudes towards welfare during the Soviet regime. @e collective sociotropic perceptions of how the nation as a whole fares economically affect political trust directly and egocentric concerns indirectly.