Suchergebnisse

Examines reform to decentralized governments in GB & in Eastern/Central Europe -- different types of economic & political systems at different levels of development -- with the observation that the political model has greater power than the managerial reform model to capture pertinent issues regarding central & local government relations. In GB, New Public Management (NPM) has impacted decentralized levels of local & regional government, & has sometimes been seen as a weapon against local government power, function, & jurisdiction, in direction opposition to the decentralizing principle of NPM theory. In Eastern Europe, managerial reform is subordinated to the current issues of constitutional reform, postcommunist development of regional & local government authority, & the development of structures of political leadership. Communist officials who have retained power exert bureaucratic & political resistance to managerial reform. Since NPM reforms must be adapted to the political context of its operation, external aid donors would accomplish more by supporting probity & accountability before promoting market-oriented management reform. 43 References. L. A. Hoffman

Corruption is most commonly viewed as an economic issue & associated with countries that remain poor despite natural resources or highly educated labor forces. It has been defined as using a privileged position for economic gain. It is argued that this common view is too narrow. The history of the idea of corruption shows that it is only in the last 50 years that corruption has been associated so much with economics. This focus has obscured or even exacerbated other types of corruption in the political process. Minimizing economic corruption or reducing government may not be the best solution to the broader problem. M. Pflum

The political challenges & implications of the emergence of international terrorism are considered. Differences between 20th century terrorist activities & those represented by the September 11, 2001, attacks are highlighted to demonstrate the more severe problems posed by new terrorism, eg, the difficulty of comprehending the motives of terrorists who do not announce demands or objectives; moreover, it is stressed that 21st century terrorism is particularly dangerous since it combines religious & political perspectives, thereby reifying fallacious West/East & good/evil dualisms on the international level. Although liberalism provides a strategy for addressing security concerns & encouraging pluralism, it is stressed that liberalism must establish proper limits on pluralism & tolerance. Regardless of the ideological approach adopted toward new terrorism, two courses of action are recommended: the separation of politics & religion & Western nations' re-engagement in negotiations with the Middle East & other countries with large Islamic populations. J. W. Parker

Michel Foucault often spoke of the political in reference to his concept of governmentality, but he also sometimes employed the term in a strongly antigovernmental sense, which betrays a certain utopianism in his theory. While his notion of governmentality is counterposed to Enlightenment understandings of the liberated self, Foucault also offers the prospect of liberation, from domination imposed both by ourselves & by others. It is suggested that Foucault's occasional embrace of this rhetoric of liberation implies that political discourse has something of a mimetic character. Thus, political thinkers would be wise not to follow Foucault in pretending that utopianism can be avoided in political discourse. Rather, they ought to acknowledge, as Foucault appears to do at times, that political critique depends on a utopian impulse. D. Ryfe

Discusses the present & potential dangers of democratic politics governed by technocracy: "the illegitimate extension of scientific ways of thinking to questions that do not admit of scientific answers, & the elevation of scientists & technicians to a position of responsibility for which their knowledge & skills alone do not qualify them." Although science & technology constitute an increasingly large portion of political & social life, their applications in the political & social realms have not achieved the utopian goals of justice & dissolution of bureaucracy. Despite the technocratic assertion that politics can be separated from ideology, it is suggested that politics requires ideology, & technocracy itself is a form of ideology. Understood as a medium for the socialized expression of conflicting beliefs, politics is thus both formed by & dependent on ideology. Further, it is argued that attempts to eliminate ideology from politics place technocratic rulers in a position of unearned & potentially dangerous authority. It is concluded that ideological disagreement & dissent are fundamental components of democracy, & cannot be eliminated through scientific analysis & methodology. T. Sevier

Argues that there is an alliance between modern knowledge & the politics of security of the national state. In this alliance, both philosophy & politics are dedicated to the stabilization of security in the face of an actually existing environment of contingency, flux, & more generalized insecurity. This long-standing alliance has taken on varying forms. In Plato & early Christianity, a supersensible universe controlled the insecurity of Heraclitean flux, first by the idea & then institutionally, through the Church as the condition of human salvation. In early modernity, secular delegitimation of the Church led to a new locus of control. Later, in philosophy, the ideas of rationalism & empiricism helped control epistemological insecurity. In politics, for its part, chaos is exogenized by the institution of the Machiavellian & Hobbesian nation-state. Possible contemporary alliances are considered in the context of late-modern assumptions, in which nature becomes no longer a world of entities available to beings for transformation in respect to its finalities, but instead, a stock of raw material for our own ends. 72 References. V. Rios

Reflects on the nature of the political & its relation to democratic identities. Politics is defined as an encounter between struggles for emancipation & efforts to establish order through policy making. It is suggested that current debates over the political have been stymied by the identification of politics with the self of a community. Politics is understood as inherently anarchic, & thus lacking a particular central subjectivity or identity. The only universal value acknowledged is equality, but this value is understood less as pregiven than as enacted in the process of political struggles. In the act of struggling, individuals are subjectivized to the extent that they claim & demonstrate one identity while refusing others. It is concluded that current debates over the relation between universality & identity are misguided & should be replaced by discussions of the relation between the tribal & the idiomatic. It is in this conceptual universe & understanding of politics that issues such as ethnic nationalism, which now press on the world, might be most profitably addressed. D. M. Smith

Building on Thomas S. Kuhn's (1970) ideas on paradigms, the class paradigm or perspective is outlined & argued to be of diminishing importance in post-WWII advanced industrial societies. Criticisms of class-based interpretations of politics are reviewed in terms of five major issues, centered on party-class dealignment: (1) class voting & class-based political allegiances; (2) the weakening of class organizations; (3) class consciousness, action, & identification; (4) the rise of new politics; & (5) postideological values. It is argued that anomalies in each of these areas mandate a reconsideration of class-based political analyses; a paradigmatic shift to a more Weberian-based approach is suggested. 2 Tables, 105 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

Building on Thomas S. Kuhn's (1970) ideas on paradigms, the class paradigm or perspective is outlined & argued to be of diminishing importance in post-WWII advanced industrial societies. Criticisms of class-based interpretations of politics are reviewed in terms of five major issues, centered on party-class dealignment: (1) class voting & class-based political allegiances; (2) the weakening of class organizations; (3) class consciousness, action, & identification; (4) the rise of new politics; & (5) postideological values. It is argued that anomalies in each of these areas mandate a reconsideration of class-based political analyses; a paradigmatic shift to a more Weberian-based approach is suggested. 2 Tables, 105 References. K. Hyatt Stewart