Suchergebnisse

Existing theories on why administrative reorganizations take place point in opposite directions. This article assesses which logic of action provides the most accurate characterization of reform activities in Sweden's central administration since accession to the European Union (EU) in 1995. In order to explain reorganization activities, two explanatory models are specified: a Rational Actor Model (RAM) and a Normative Organization Model (NOM). The results reveal that the Social Democratic government has been committed to realizing a comprehensive reorganization of the Government Offices. More powers have been concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office, while, for instance, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has lost many of its previous functions. This review of the machinery of government has been predominantly a rational activity with the explicit purpose of strengthening coordination of EU policy between ministries. Nonetheless, the reform activities involve normative considerations and demonstrate that the theoretical cleavage that has nurtured the debate between rational choice theorists and its opponents has been exaggerated.

After Iraq's military defeat in 1991, many in the West & in Arab states hoped that changes in the world & region would produce a new Middle East of pragmatism, reform, democracy, & peace. Given the Soviet Union's collapse, growing democracy elsewhere, & U.S. emergence as sole superpower, a better world seemed imminent. A generation of Arabs had experienced defeat, tragedy, & stagnation. Surely, they would recognize what had gone wrong & choose another path. But, increasingly, they show they have not. The euphoria of the 1990s -- in light of Saddam's defeat in Kuwait, the Oslo process, & the growth of Arab civil society -- was short-lived. For much of the current decade, events have pointed to a backward trend. First, there was Palestinian & Syrian rejection of peace with Israel in 2000 & then re-embrace of terrorism in the intifada. This was followed in quick succession by the fallout from the September 11 attacks, glorifying insurgency & terrorism in Iraq, crushing of internal liberal reform movements, & electoral advances by Hamas, Hezbollah, & the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Adapted from the source document.

The report maintains the concept of the strategic role of education in the development of the state. The government is putting a high priority on educational reforms. It is intended that the realization of the regional project «Education» in Kazan correlates with the conceptual idea of state and social developing of municipal education management. The report views the positive changes in the development of education of the region as well as it highlights the need to provide high quality of it. ; The report maintains the concept of the strategic role of education in the development of the state. The government is putting a high priority on educational reforms. It is intended that the realization of the regional project «Education» in Kazan correlates with the conceptual idea of state and social developing of municipal education management. The report views the positive changes in the development of education of the region as well as it highlights the need to provide high quality of it.

Reform era demands a clean state administration that frees from corruption, collusion, and nepotism. As such, BPK-RI, which is established on UUD 1945 has its ow function in auditing the accountability of the state financial management, has to optimize its role in more transparent and actual manner.In its implementation, BPK-Rl faces many obstacles such as limited authority as regulated in several acts, interdeparfment relationship, working standards, and the overlapping among audit authorities.However, the environment and new regulation underthe reform era has given BPK-Rl an oppo4tunity to improve its role. Therefore, BPK tries to develop and implement a new strategy, like assisting Parliament in developing control on the sys-tem of state finance administration to include check and balances mechanism bythe Treasurer, Intemal Auditor and Extemal Auditor, as well as to put back BPK-RI as the only extemal auditor the paper discusses normatively the way to optimize the role of BPK.Keywords: Public audit, public finance, public organization, BPK

Accountability structures and processes have become such an integral part of education policy development and implementation that Ranson (2003) argues, "accountability is no longer merely an important instrument or component within the system, but constitutes the system itself" (p. 459). This argument is supported by the growth of an orientation in public education reforms toward the premise that more accountable schools are better schools. Canada fits the global trend that levers educational reforms through accountability measures. ; Les structures et les procédures de responsabilité sont devenues une partie tellement intégrante du développement et de la mise en œuvre des politiques en matière d'éducation que Ranson (2003) maintient que la responsabilité n'est plus simplement une composante importante du système, mais elle constitue le système même (p.459, traduction). Les réformes dans l'éducation publique, de plus en plus orientées par l'idée qu'une école responsable, c'est une meilleure école, viennent appuyer cette affirmation. Le Canada s'inscrit dans cette tendance globale qui font passer les réformes en éducation par des mécanismes de responsabilité.

In perpetuating and exacerbating restricted access to essential medicines, current trade-related intellectual property rules on medicines may violate core human rights to health and medicines. In this light, there should be serious questions about their necessity, and their justification should be critically assessed from the perspective of human rights standards. These standards require that international trade rules on medicines be justified to the fullest extent possible, and permitted only to the extent to which they can be justified. In this article I explore the impact of trade rules on medicines access, and the growing force of the human right to health. I argue that the limited justification for strong patents in poor countries suggests the need for significant reform of trade-related intellectual property rights. I argue further that human rights standards may offer both normative and practical tools for achieving this reform and challenging trade rules on medicines at various levels. Adapted from the source document.

Corruption in present-day China is worse than ever before. Widespread corruption is a major obstacle to the Party's goal of creating a harmonious society & a "clean" government. The collusion between officials & businessmen, the exchange of power for money, the abuse of administrative power, local governments' misappropriation of peasants' land, collecting charges at random in rural areas, soaring housing, education & medical-care costs have all aroused public discontent. More high-level officials & younger officials are involved in corruption. Commercial bribery is the focus of the anti-corruption struggle. Conquering corruption calls for real reforms to be made, but as long as the Party refuses to permit an independent anti-corruption organ & judicial institutions to be established & refuses to tolerate critical media, corruption will remain rampant. The CCP is on the horns of a dilemma: it has to fight corruption to achieve its goals, but a triumph in this struggle requires reforms to be made that might endanger the Party's absolute power. References. Adapted from the source document.

The author of the article analyses the idea of political change, focusing on the question whether this change in Poland after the year 1989 was carried out by way of revolution or reforms. he considerations characterise mainly the idea of Mirosław Dzielski and his community, as well as relations with their opponents. Several elements of the above-named theory are brought out in the text. Firstly, the necessity of making comprehensive social changes for the success of the planned change. Secondly, reality diagnosis is necessary. Thirdly, planning of the form of political change, and finally, creation of the project for 'the system of freedom'. The article shows the uniqueness of Dzielski's opinions as a liberal. The author puts special emphasis on the fact that according to him, the reforms program should be directed not at communists but communism. What's more, he perceived that in the Polish conditions there was a collision between freedom and democracy, whereas in his opinion the primacy should go the former.

Academic sociologists have recently increased their focus on improving high school sociology. Reform efforts include networking between teachers and universities, improving curriculum, and enhancing teacher training. I propose that this list be expanded to include setting curricular standards. Current trends in educational reform center on standards-based education, and although many social science disciplines have adapted to this trend, sociology's focus on standards is limited to undergraduate education. I analyze the existing state sociology standards by measuring them against the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Advanced Placement Sociology course, the National Council for Social Studies standards, and the sample learning goals from Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major Updated (McKinney et al. 2005). The results indicate that there are some substantial differences in the learning goals set forth by the ASA and those set forth by the states. I suggest that since the academic sociological community is in an ideal position to address high school social studies content in a variety of disciplines, we should expand our efforts in this area.

There has been a recent explosion of interest in the external influences on the political and economic transformations of postcommunist states. This article consolidates several analytical advances in this literature and distills three main functions of external actors, namely, to lengthen the time horizons ofpostcommunist politicians, to expand the circle of interested reformers, and t o deter opponents of reform. The article argues that a focus on external influences is a growth area for good conceptual work only if it addresses the union of foreign and domestic influences, rather than treating them as stylized alternative explanations. The central point is that outside actors should be considered as striving to influence the choices of existing domestic actors with whom they can be seen to form a kind of informal coalition. At bottom, outsiders do best through a combination of strategies: strengthening domestic actors already committed to their approach, winning over new domestic actors to their priorities, and preventing the unconvinced from obstructing reforms.

This article argues that four factors between September 1939 and 1940 are crucial for developing a comparative occupation model of Belgium, France and the Netherlands: first, the influence of September 1939; second, the invasion of May 1940; third, the nature of the German and local 'New Order' regimes; and fourth, whether a country had experienced occupation in the First World War. The 'New Order' regimes that were built on the foundations of 1940 took on radically different characteristics with three crucial variables in terms of, first, the political nature of the New Order; second, the reforms of the municipal administrative apparatus; and third, the reforms of the police and judiciary apparatus. The article argues that a combination of these variables led to different models of occupation, in which Belgium and France formed opposites and the Netherlands possessed a somewhat 'hybrid' model. It is argued that until 1943 the centralized French model offered the most advantages for the Germans, while after 1943, it was the Belgium localized model.

The Age of Commodity: Water Privatization in Southern Africa,
David A. McDonald and Greg Ruiters, eds., London and Sterling, VA:
Earthscan Press, 2005, pp. xv, 303.This collection of essays is a cutting-edge study of neoliberal public
service reform in Southern Africa. While most studies of water
privatization, such as Karen Bakker's An Uncooperative Commodity:
Privatizing Water in England and Wales (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2004) and Vandana Shiva's Water Wars (Cambridge:
South End Press, 2002), have concentrated on the transfer of ownership and
control from the state to private corporations, privatization is more
broadly defined to include the transfer of ownership and/or
decision-making responsibility to NGOs and community organizations. The
editors rightly emphasize, moreover, that privatization is not the only
disturbing trend in public service reform. Corporatization—the
creation of publicly owned and operated companies that run like private
businesses—threatens to entrench the discriminatory aspects of
infrastructure distribution that characterized colonialism and apartheid
in the region in the previous era.

Recent efforts to reform government are challenging many of the basic theoretical and managerial assumptions of governance at the federal, state, and local levels. Under the political rubric of reinventing government, reform initiatives have devolved administrative decision making to more local levels. In practice this can result in ethical dilemmas for local government administrators as they attempt to reconcile constitutional governance, legal accountability and political environments with the search for flexibility, innovation, and productivity while mimicking private sector processes and practices. This article describes such an ethical dilemma faced by a local government human resource manager and fire chief who were confronted with the decision to succumb to political pressure from prominent citizens, volunteer fire chiefs and city council members to hire unqualified firefighter candidates, or to discount their input and reject the candidates. The authors describe the ethical dilemma and discuss the importance of practicing ethical leadership to build public trust and accountability in the responsible use of administrative discretion while pursuing the public interest.

One of the most acute problems in the world today is provision of a respectable living for the elderly. Today the process of aging population (as a result of a declined birth rate and increased life expectancy) has touched all countries of the world - developed countries as well as countries like Russia. Consequently, reforming traditional pension systems to deal with the changing situation has become an important issue around the world. These reforms typically center on the implementation of some form of funding of future pension benefits. This also holds for Russia, where in 1995 pension reform legislation introduced the so-called 'accumulation pension'. In this context, this article will deal with the issues concerning the establishment of mutual funds, legal aspects of their operating and their investing opportunities. There will be carried out a comparative analysis of mutual funds with the other forms of public investments, namely: Common Funds of Bank Management, Voucher Investment Funds and Joint-stock Investment Funds.