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Despite a cascade of corruption scandals over the last decade, the role of political corruption has yet to be accounted for in the scholarship on Spanish urban entrepreneurialism. This is an omission that extends to the broader literature on the topic as well. This paper looks at the theoretical causes of this neglect and explores ways of integrating corruption into the study of urban entrepreneurialism. To do so, it offers a systematic analysis of the role of clientelism in the political economy of Spanish inter-urban competition. Contrary to the existing literature, which at best explains away corruption as a logical outgrowth of intensified competition for real estate capital, this paper argues that corruption is rooted in a political structure that precedes the emergence of urban entrepreneurialism. This structure is identified as an "iron triangle", a complex of colluding interests formed by the state, the real estate industry, and political parties.

First Published online: 13 October 2014. First Online in issue 21 September 2016. ; This article provides an empirical assessment of the causal structure underlying the core dependent variable of electoral research (the vote) and two of its most notable predictors (partisanship and leader evaluations). A critical review of traditional models of voting highlights the need to account for the reciprocal relationship between the main predictors as well as for the potential feedback stemming from the dependent variable. In the light of these considerations, a new 'iron triangle' of electoral research would seem to take shape, with partisanship, leader evaluations and the vote tight to each other by a strong link of reciprocal causation. Making use of pre-/post-election surveys from Britain and Italy, the empirical analysis provides evidence for a strong effect of past behavior on political attitudes. However, past behavior seems to exert its effect mainly on partisan attitudes, whereas party leader evaluations appear only slightly affected. The results point to the considerably weakened role of partisanship as attitudinal anchor of vote choice. Leader evaluations, on the contrary, emerge as a crucial component in the voting decision.

Many natural resources have degraded and collapsed despite being managed under rigorous institutional frameworks set up to ensure rational exploitation. Path dependency of dysfunction institutions has been suggested as an explanation for such undesired outcomes. We explore the role of path dependency in natural resource management by studying a 100-year evolution of Swedish fisheries. We rely on three main types of original longitudinal data collected for the period 1914–2016: (A) policy documents, (B) government spending on management and subsidies, and (C) catch and fleet data. Our analysis contrasts the periods before and after the Swedish entrance into the European Union (1995) because this marks the year when fisheries policy became beyond the direct influence of the Swedish government. We uncover four pieces of evidence suggesting the existence of a path dependent dynamic in the pre-EU period: (1) despite increasing insights on the vulnerability of fish stocks to overexploitation, national policy goals in relation to fisheries continuously promoted incompatible goals of social and economic growth but without any reference to the sustainability of the biological resources; (2) the same policy instruments were used over long periods; (3) actor constellations within the fisheries policy subsystem were stable over time; (4) neither political regime nor macroeconomic variables and fisheries performance (industry production, oil price, landing values) could explain observed temporal variation in subsidies. We conclude that key policy actors in the pre-EU period formed an "iron triangle" and thereby prevented necessary policy changes. These national reinforcing feedbacks have been weakened since EU entrance, and the indicators for path dependency show broader involvement of stakeholders, a shift in spending, and policy goals that now explicitly address ecological sustainability.

'Japan Inc.' is manifested in the agricultural sector as a classic subgovernment consisting of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the agricultural cooperative organisation (Nokyo). This three-way coalition of bureaucratic, party and producer organisations forms an 'iron triangle' of vested interest in agricultural support and protection. The agricultural public works component of the agricultural iron triangle is also linked to the larger iron triangle of public works, one of Japan's most notorious interest coalitions. In the past decade, processes of electoral reform, administrative reform and financial liberalisation have presented each of the elements in the agricultural iron triangle with problems of political and organisational adjustment. At the same time, tripartite policymaking within the agricultural policy subgovernment has been institutionalised, and the LDP's agricultural leadership is now directly penetrating the agricultural bureaucracy. Similarly, macro-policy trends such as deregulation, trade liberalization and fiscal stimulus have influenced the concessions and benefits flowing to the agricultural and rural sectors both positively and negatively. While a degree of induced marketisation and liberalisation has taken place, a defensive consolidation of the agricultural support and protection regime can be discerned with the passage of the 1999 Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas Basic Law. Moreover, the iron triangle of vested interests in agricultural and rural public works has been strengthened by policies to combat Japan's sustained economic recession. On balance, therefore, innovation and reform are being offset by factors perpetuating the status quo and even further entrenching the agricultural support and protection regime.

The process of reforming the organization of agricultural cooperatives (JA) under the Abe administration in 2013-2015 reveals the extent to which Japan's "agricultural policy triangle" still functions as a key element of government decision-making for agriculture. The triangle consists of Liberal Democratic Party agricultural "tribe" Diet members (nōrin zoku), bureaucrats from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and JA executives. The paper shows that while the "agricultural policy triangle" played an important role at key junctures in the JA reform process, the loyalties and links that had hitherto bound the three parties in an "iron triangle" of vested interest in agricultural support and protection have been eroded.

I have entitled this address From the Triangle to the Pentagon: Open Universities in the 21st Century. In the light of current events I hasten to add that I am not talking about the Sunni triangle and the building in Washington from which the war in Iraq is directed. Many of you know my fondness for explaining the success of educational technology in general, and open and distance learning in particular, in terms of an iron triangle made up of the vectors of access, cost and quality. Some colleagues in India even call this the Daniel Triangle, although I disclaim any ownership. // The importance of these three parameters in education is obvious. I first heard them used as a way of analysing developments in higher education when I was a new university president attending one of my first meetings of the Council of Ontario Universities in the mid-1980s. The then president of the University of Toronto, George Connell, used these three vectors to analyse Ontario government policy for higher education and the idea has stayed with me ever since. Today, however, I am going to add two more vectors and look at today's challenges to open universities as a pentagon.

We present a spatial interaction entropy maximizing and structural dynamics model of settlements from the Middle Bronze (MBA) and Iron Ages (IA) in the Khabur Triangle (KT) region within Syria. The model addresses factors that make locations attractive for trade and settlement, affecting settlement growth and change. We explore why some sites become relatively major settlements, while others diminish in the periods discussed. We assess how political and geographic constraints affect regional settlement transformations, while also accounting for uncertainty in the archaeological data. Model outputs indicate how the MBA settlement pattern contrasts from the IA for the same region when different factors affecting settlement size importance, facility of movement, and exogenous site interactions are studied. The results suggest the importance of political and historical factors in these periods and also demonstrate the value of a quantitative model in explaining emergent settlement size distributions across landscapes affected by different socio-environmental causal elements.

Robert Mood – Served in South China Sea and bays, inlets and rivers of South Vietnam. Operation Junction City (Iron Triangle). Returned from Vietnam in 1967; experienced health issues arising from exposure to Agent Orange and asbestos which only became apparent after military service. ; https://vc.bridgew.edu/vhp_stories/1032/thumbnail.jpg

Trade unions, political parties and municipal bureaucracy, the « iron triangle » of municipal government in a French Town (Toulouse, 1910-1970). In Toulouse, during the first decades of the twentieth century, the unionization of the workforce and the institutionalization of a co-management system were active factors in the modernization of municipal government. It contributed decisively towards the decline of patronage and political pressure that had hitherto characterized the relationship between local elected representatives and the municipal workforce. An established partnership involving the local union, the ruling party and the head of bureaucracy became a structural element in the city's municipal government for almost 50 years. An English version of this paper was published in : Dagenais Michèle, Maver Irene, Saunier Pierre-Yves, 2001, Municipal services and employees in the modern city , London : Ashgate. ; A Toulouse, pendant les premières décennies du vingtième siècle, la syndicalisation du personnel municipal et l'institutionnalisation d'un système de paritarisme ont été des facteurs très actifs de la modernisation de l'administration communale. Ce processus a contribué d'une façon décisive au déclin du patronage qui caractérisait les relations entre les élus et les employés municipaux. A partir des années trente et jusqu'aux années soixante-dix, un système de relations d'interdépendance entre le syndicat hégémonique, le parti politique dirigeant la coalition municipale et les cadres de la bureaucratie communale est devenu un élément structurel de l'organisation du gouvernement municipal. Ce "triangle de fer" a produit des effets importants sur le management des services et la gestion du personnel communal.

Trade unions, political parties and municipal bureaucracy, the « iron triangle » of municipal government in a French Town (Toulouse, 1910-1970). In Toulouse, during the first decades of the twentieth century, the unionization of the workforce and the institutionalization of a co-management system were active factors in the modernization of municipal government. It contributed decisively towards the decline of patronage and political pressure that had hitherto characterized the relationship between local elected representatives and the municipal workforce. An established partnership involving the local union, the ruling party and the head of bureaucracy became a structural element in the city's municipal government for almost 50 years. An English version of this paper was published in : Dagenais Michèle, Maver Irene, Saunier Pierre-Yves, 2001, Municipal services and employees in the modern city , London : Ashgate. ; A Toulouse, pendant les premières décennies du vingtième siècle, la syndicalisation du personnel municipal et l'institutionnalisation d'un système de paritarisme ont été des facteurs très actifs de la modernisation de l'administration communale. Ce processus a contribué d'une façon décisive au déclin du patronage qui caractérisait les relations entre les élus et les employés municipaux. A partir des années trente et jusqu'aux années soixante-dix, un système de relations d'interdépendance entre le syndicat hégémonique, le parti politique dirigeant la coalition municipale et les cadres de la bureaucratie communale est devenu un élément structurel de l'organisation du gouvernement municipal. Ce "triangle de fer" a produit des effets importants sur le management des services et la gestion du personnel communal.

Trade unions, political parties and municipal bureaucracy, the « iron triangle » of municipal government in a French Town (Toulouse, 1910-1970). In Toulouse, during the first decades of the twentieth century, the unionization of the workforce and the institutionalization of a co-management system were active factors in the modernization of municipal government. It contributed decisively towards the decline of patronage and political pressure that had hitherto characterized the relationship between local elected representatives and the municipal workforce. An established partnership involving the local union, the ruling party and the head of bureaucracy became a structural element in the city's municipal government for almost 50 years. An English version of this paper was published in : Dagenais Michèle, Maver Irene, Saunier Pierre-Yves, 2001, Municipal services and employees in the modern city , London : Ashgate. ; A Toulouse, pendant les premières décennies du vingtième siècle, la syndicalisation du personnel municipal et l'institutionnalisation d'un système de paritarisme ont été des facteurs très actifs de la modernisation de l'administration communale. Ce processus a contribué d'une façon décisive au déclin du patronage qui caractérisait les relations entre les élus et les employés municipaux. A partir des années trente et jusqu'aux années soixante-dix, un système de relations d'interdépendance entre le syndicat hégémonique, le parti politique dirigeant la coalition municipale et les cadres de la bureaucratie communale est devenu un élément structurel de l'organisation du gouvernement municipal. Ce "triangle de fer" a produit des effets importants sur le management des services et la gestion du personnel communal.

Recent changes in Japan's civil society together with the current political and economic environment have created the first opportunity to develop a viable nonprofit sector that represents citizen interests and allows for public participation in Tokyo's urban development scheme. Tokyo's urban environment has failed to meet the social and cultural needs of its citizens due to unprecedented economic and industrial growth from the beginning of the Meiji era until the 1990s. Through this extended period of growth, the goal for urban development was solely to increase Tokyo's economic strength, while social needs were not addressed. While the City Planning Law of 1968 ("CPL") sought to require citizen participation in urban planning, the law was largely ineffective due to its narrow scope and weak legal remedies. During much of the twentieth century, Tokyo's governance was controlled by an iron triangle comprised of bureaucracy, government, and big business, which drove Tokyo's economic growth. This form of governance did not allow citizens to participate in the political process. The iron triangle lost its strength only after the collapse of the economic bubble in the 1990s. With urban development failing to meet the needs of the citizens and the iron triangle having lost its strength, citizens groups began to assert more influence over the city's governance. Successes for the citizens groups and growing media attention prompted the promulgation of the Nonprofit Organizations Law of 1998 ("NPO Law"). The NPO Law created a framework for a nonprofit sector and began to strengthen its legitimacy. Unlike past attempts to introduce a viable nonprofit sector, the NPO Law came at a time when the political and economic environments of the city allowed for outside influence in the political process. While the foundation has now been laid for a viable nonprofit sector, the sector must gain legitimacy and independence before it is a truly viable means to public participation. With increased legitimacy and independence, Japan's ...

The Vaal Triangle is richly endowed with a prehistory that commenced c. 1.5 million years ago, when a succession of Stone Age cultures flourished in the fertile Vaal-Klip valley in the environs of the modern industrial city of Vereeniging. The numerous stone artefacts scattered throughout the area, attest to these ancient settlements. During the Iron Age, the sandstone outcrops in the valley provided a durable surface for engraving – a manifestation of the burgeoning ability of humankind to give pictorial form to experiences and ideas. Due to the efforts of a few concerned individuals, the prehistoric sites in the Vaal-Klip valley received international acclaim and recognition. In 1943 and 1944, the two most important Stone Age archaeological reserves were officially declared national monuments, followed by the Redan rock engraving site in 1971. Over an extended period of time the two bodies responsible for their maintenance, the local government and the official heritage body of the day, conducted extensive negotiations, but failed to save these sites. With the exception of Redan, all the previously listed rock engraving sites, and the two Stone Age archaeological reserves, have been completely obliterated. Redan has become progressively neglected and abandoned. This paper examines the impasse presently surrounding Redan, and the failure of the relevant bodies, to conserve and sustain the non-renewable prehistoric culture remains of the Vaal Triangle.

The term "construction state" has been used, to refer to a system of vested interests in construction activities that embraced Japan at different geographical levels of scale. A system of collusion between politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen evolved and led to massive government spending on public works projects. Its pace and scope have resulted in fiscal crisis and environmental devastation and have aroused the opposition of local residents. This paper will analyze the construction-related networks of relationships of the central actors in the so-called "iron triangle" ofpolitics, bureaucracy and construction business, and its influence on regional development. We shall theorize that sustainability will remain an unattainable ideal in regional development as long as the stability of the "construction state" is preserved by certain formal and informal elements in Japan's politicoeconomic system. These elements, however, have until now remained comparatively stable, despite of some reform initiatives.

Since 2006, global prices and price volatility for foodgrain commodities have spiked frequently and dramatically. Such spikes have had the heaviest economic and social impact on developing nations, where agriculture accounts for a sizable portion of economic activity. We demonstrate how US public policies have contributed to these spikes. We first assess the impacts of US agricultural and macroeconomic policies on basic food commodity markets in the United States and their spillover effects on world markets prior to 2006. We then focus on new causal mechanisms that have emerged since 2006, sourced with energy and environmental policies. We assess the emergence of US biofuel policies, highlighting how these policies have interacted with each other and with biofuel policies in the rest of the world. This assessment focuses on the role of such policies in the integration of fuel and foodgrain prices. We also analyse the political economy of US biofuel policies, the changing US political landscape, and current Farm Bill politics and their linkages to biofuels. We demonstrate that the 'iron triangle' that once influenced governmental intervention in programme commodity markets has expanded into an 'iron maze' of environmental, energy, and agricultural organized interest groups that continues to evolve.