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This article puts forward the hypothesis that the sector-­based structuring of policy agendas, debates and decision-making can impede policy change when dealing with issues with an inter-sectoral scope. In so doing, it takes the politics of services of general interest regulation in the European Union as a case study for theory building. Drawing on historical and discursive institutionalism, it empirically demonstrates how feed-back effects of historically entrenched policy arrangements, on the one hand, and discursive interactions among agents, on the other, considerably constrain and shape the formation of preferences and coalitions. Since the sectorization of policy making is a salient feature of contemporary governance, this hypothesis is relevant for understanding policy change in connection with a broad range of policy issues and polities. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The transformation of the education system under the neoliberal principles of privatisation andmarket counted in Chile firstly on the military power of Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-1990) andthen on the consent of the coalition of centre-left wing parties which governed between 1990 and2010 without shaking the foundations of the model. The analysis of that process has concentratedpredominantly on the state actors, while less attention have been put on non-state actors. Thegoal of this article is presenting the results of an exploratory study of the think-tank 'Liberty andDevelopment [Libertad y Desarrollo], so describing and analysing its origins, components,educational project, and action strategies. It is concluded that the case allows identifying newforms of education policy-making which are related with the blurriness of the private and public.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the factors responsible for the delegitimization process of the Third Polish Republic, in particular in the period from 2001 to 2005, when power was in the hands of the coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Polish People's Party (PSL). The analysis applies the concept of discursive structures of possibilities which identifies which properties of the political context made the delegitimization efforts of the right wing credible. The opposite mechanisms applied, and delegitimization messages sent by the SLD are the object of interest here as well, as are the results of these activities, that is the ideas which Civic Platform (PO) used to build and legitimize their own identity before the 2005 parliamentary elections.

Key PointsThe Dimension of Change Model (DOCM), developed by the authors, is offered as a potentially useful tool for foundations, government, bodies,consultants, coalitions, and even individual organizations that are initiating or engaged in substantive efforts to bring about community change.The dimensions contained in the model - structure, parameters, intention, approach, and people - offer a frame for addressing key aspects that emerge from the literature as fundamental to all change efforts. The model is offered as a way to design, implement, adapt, and evaluate change initiatives.The work of First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission in Marin County is used as an example to stimulate reflection and discussion about such initiatives. Lessons learned through First 5 Marin's experience as a change agent are offered and augmented by the literature on change initiatives.

Résumé The present paper analyses the June 5 th , 2011, parliamentary elections in Portugal, and begins by introducing the reader to the background of the 2011 national elections: the exercise of power in the XI Legislature, the economic crisis, the Bailout Agreement for Portugal, and the electoral campaign. Then, the 2011 electoral results are described and compared with previous national elections. Overall, the picture displays a strong defeat of the left that paved the way for the most neoliberal government in the Portuguese history. Voters also voted for stability: the right-wing parties declared that they were willing to cooperate (and in fact they formed a coalition government very quickly), whereas the left-wing parties have shown in several occasions that they are unable and unwilling to cooperate.

AbstractThis paper describes a bottom‐up counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan known as Village Stability Operations, as well as some of the contributions information sharing strategies are making to its success. In a "population‐centric" strategy, it is essential to understand the people and what is important to them in their world, not ours. In this environment, information about the population, also known as "white" data, can be mission critical, although it wasn't treated as such at the beginning of the Afghan campaign. "White" information is not a panacea; it needs to be blended with enemy ("red") information and government ("green") information to form an integrated approach. The paper examines several projects that have been undertaken in Afghanistan, their successes and challenges, and how they have helped the Afghan population while supporting coalition objectives.

Past democratization processes revealed a rise of interorganizational collaboration between social movement organizations. This paper investigates this sociopolitical phenomenon by analyzing the conditions under which alliances form within or across social movement industries in the context of democratizing Korea. A negative binomial regression analysis examines the impacts of the political opportunity structure and the social movement sector on different forms of protests: single, intramovement, and intermovement protests. Statistical results show that various dimensions of the political opportunity structure render differential effects, rather than a uniform effect, on alliance patterns. At the organizational level, coalitions and organizational diversity positively affect all forms of protests. The establishment of a strong alliance structure broadly empowers movements by providing a locus of organizational interactions and supports.

In the current study we extended the research of Zuroff, Fournier, Patall, and Leybman (2010) who found that individuals differ in their use of dominant leadership (DL), coalition building (CB), and ruthless self-advancement (RSA) when trying to secure rank among peers. In this study
we examined whether the interaction of leaders' and followers' social rank styles, composed of these 3 dimensions, would influence group performance. Groups of 4 undergraduates were asked to write an article under the randomly assigned leadership of 1 group member. Hierarchical regression
revealed that under leaders high in RSA, group performance was weaker when followers were high in RSA and stronger when followers were low in CB. However, under leaders high in CB, performance was stronger when followers where either high in CB or high in RSA.

Why are some interest groups able to lobby political decisions successfully whereas others are not? This article suggests that the issue context is an important source of variation because it can facilitate or hamper the ability of interest groups to lobby decision-makers successfully. In order to test the effect of issue characteristics, this article draws on a new, unprecedented data set of interest group lobbying in the European Union. Using quantitative text analysis to analyse Commission consultations, this article studies lobbying success across 2696 interest groups and 56 policy issues. The findings indicate that lobbying success indeed varies with the issue context, depending on the relative size of lobbying coalitions and the salience of policy issues, whereas individual group characteristics do not exhibit any systematic effect.

During much of the Cold War, India chose to pursue a non-aligned foreign policy posture. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War forced India to redefine its foreign policy and search for a new place in the emerging international order. However, almost 20 years on, India's foreign policy still appears to lack a coherent strategic doctrine. This article identifies some of the domestic factors that hampered the development of a post-Cold War 'grand strategy'. It argues that the emergence of coalition governments at the national level since the early 1990s, the country's federal structure, weaknesses in India's foreign policy institutions and the lack of a strategic culture within the country together constrain India's search for a post-Cold War foreign policy.

There are over 7.5 billion needles and syringes used outside of the health care system each year by individuals with diabetes, migraines, allergies, infertility, arthritis, HIV, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, psoriasis, or other conditions. Disposal of needles, syringes, lancets, and other medical products are not regulated in the home, while these same products used in health care facilities are strictly regulated. Home-generated medical waste is routinely placed into curbside trash, placing sanitation workers and custodial personnel at personal risk of a needle-stick injury. The Coalition for Safe Community Needle Disposal is working to establish a solution that is satisfactory to all stakeholders, sharing the burden of these programs with the pharmaceutical industry, medical device industry, waste management industry, recycling companies, and local and state governments.

China has developed a multi-tier strategy in its human rights diplomacy. It has three aspects: in the multilateral international human rights arena, China's approach is dominated by the sovereignty principle and organising like-minded countries into a coalition; in bilateral diplomatic channels, China follows a combined policy of dialogue, negotiation, bargaining and supplementary economic incentives; and on certain international human rights issues such as in the case of Darfur, China mainly applies ad hoc and flexible policies. The core of China's approach is to protect its sovereignty as it continues to insist that human rights are a domestic matter. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain this rigid position. China must adjust its practice to conform to the international norms. (CIJ/GIGA)