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Doctoral Thesis Rotterdam School of Management ; This dissertation deals with the interface between governance and strategic management in nonprofit organizations (NPOs). The discussion and analysis focus on the influence of the governance process on strategic decision-making, in particular the interaction between the board members and the top management team (so-called interface governance). The aim of this research project has been to analyze the effects of this interface governance on organizations' governance structure and the impact on organizational performance. The theoretical framework used in this dissertation is rooted in both the NPO governance and the strategic management literature. On the one hand, using NPO management and economic theories, a state of the art overview of governance in NPOs is presented. The typical characteristics of NPO organizations are discussed, as well as the consequences of such organizational peculiarities for both theory and practice. On the other hand, on the basis of strategic management literature – mostly coming from New Institutional Economics, stakeholder theory and resource-based view – a particular perspective on interface governance is presented. At the centre of attention are the factors, which in the context of interface governance can have an impact on the governance process and structure. On the basis of this theoretical framework, hypotheses have been formulated and tested, in a quantitative study using a sample of Austrian hospitals and old people's homes. An overall discussion of the research results and recommendations for a more efficient and effective interface governance in non-profit organizations can be found at the end of the dissertation.

Constitutional arrangements in parts of the UK have been transformed by political devolution. In England, however, reliance has been placed on strengthening the regional tier through administrative decentralisation. Drawing on the views of Whitehall civil servants, this article explores how central–regional relations are being recalibrated and how government is building a regional perspective into its activities. We conclude that, in the absence of regional government, Whitehall is pursuing a cautious approach to regional working and greater attention needs to be given to incorporating regional priorities in national spending programmes and developing a more coherent approach to regional strategy making. ; Constitutional arrangements in parts of the UK have been transformed by political devolution. In England, however, reliance has been placed on strengthening the regional tier through administrative decentralisation. Drawing on the views of Whitehall civil servants, this article explores how central–regional relations are being recalibrated and how government is building a regional perspective into its activities. We conclude that, in the absence of regional government, Whitehall is pursuing a cautious approach to regional working and greater attention needs to be given to incorporating regional priorities in national spending programmes and developing a more coherent approach to regional strategy making.

Both global governance and the sub-set of issues that may be termed 'internet governance' are vast and complex issue areas. The difficulties of trying to 'legislate' at the global level – efforts that must encompass the economic, cultural, developmental, legal, and political concerns of diverse states and other stakeholders – are further complicated by the technological conundrums encountered in cyberspace. The unleashing of the so-called 'Global War on Terrorism' (GWOT) complicates things yet further. Today, both sub-state and non-state actors are said to be harnessing – or preparing to harness – the power of the internet to harass and attack their foes. Clearly, international terrorism had already been a significant security issue prior to 11 September 2001 (hereafter '9/11') and the emergence of the internet in the decade before. Together, however, the events of 9/11 and advancements in ICTs have added new dimensions to the problem. In newspapers and magazines, in film and on television, and in research and analysis, 'cyber-terrorism' has become a buzzword. Since the events of 9/11, the question on everybody's lips appears to be 'is cyber-terrorism next?' It is generally agreed that the potential for a 'digital 9/11' in the near future is not great. This does not mean that IR scholars may continue to ignore the transformative powers of the internet.

Urban health promotion is not simply a matter of the right interventions, or even the necessary resources. Urban (and indeed global) health depends to an important extent on governance, the institutions and processes through which societies manage the course of events. This paper describes the concept of governance, distinguishing between reforms aimed at improving how government works and innovations that more fundamentally reinvent governance by developing new institutions and processes of local stakeholder control. The paper highlights strategies urban governors can use to maximize their influence on the national and international decisions that structure urban life. It concludes with some observations on the limitations of local governance strategies and the importance of establishing a "virtuous circuit" of governance through which urban dwellers play a greater role in the formation and implementation of policy at the national and global levels.

Multi-level governance entails transformations of statehood, including significant changes in both the public sphere of politics and the so-called private sphere of economic activity, and in their modes of interaction, especially law. The fragmentation of the public sphere and the decentring of the state have led to new types of formalized regulation and the emergence of global regulatory networks, intermingling the public and the private. The transition from government to governance means a lack of a clear hierarchy of norms, a blurring of distinctions between hard/soft and public/private law, and a fragmentation of public functions entailing a resurgence of technocracy. Renewed international legalisation (WTO adjudication, International Criminal Court etc) has been viewed by some in formalist terms, as helping to provide certainty and predictability, and this has been used to try to buttress the legitimacy of global governance. Viewed more closely and critically, however, it is the indeterminacy of law that provides the space for interpretative practices, which can both exploit and exacerbate the fragmentation of the public sphere, and mediate the complex interactions. Indeed, the increasingly important role for regulation in global governance undermines the formalist view of law's legitimacy as deriving from national state political structures, and requires new approaches to articulating normative interactions that are more conducive to democratic deliberation, in order to establish the public interest firmly as the prime concern in all forms of management of economic activity. The paper will explore these issues using examples from different areas of international economic regulation.

Abstract This article analyses tensions of governance within the core-executive of the European Union – the Commission. The applied test-bed is seconded national civil servants (SNEs) hired on short-term contracts in the Commission. The analysis benefits from a rich body of surveys and interview data among current and former SNEs. The data demonstrate that the decision-making behaviour evoked by SNEs contains a mix of departmental, epistemic and supranational behaviour. Intergovernmental dynamics are shown to be much less significant. The study also demonstrates that the secondment system scarcely creates enduring supranational loyalties among SNEs. The socialising powers of the Commission is conditional and only partly sustained when SNEs exit the Commission. The temporal identity of SNEs as an 'EU civil servant' is dependent on their primary institutional embeddedness within the Commission. Theoretically, tensions of governance in the Commission are accounted for by an institutionalist approach.

The paper describes the necessity to consider the role of private rule making and the increasing importance of national regulatory agencies, in the process of European legal integration. It then focuses on the legislative design and process implementation of EPL. Its departing assumption is that EPL is and will remain a multilevel system where national implementation of European legislation generates intentional and unintentional spillover effects to be 'governed' through horizontal devices. The author underlines that the current legislative and judicial trend towards total harmonization is the wrong response to normative differentiation occurring in the process of national implementation. He analyses in particular the areas of unfair contract terms and commercial practices, providing examples of divergent implementation which can not be tackled only at legislative level, claiming that governance is a better response. He examines traditional modes of governance and then considers the applicability of new modes of governance to EPL. He makes several reform proposals; most of them do not require legislative intervention. At the legislative level, given that the competences are organised around policy areas while private law, following the national traditions, is conceptually organised around institutions, he proposes different ways to improve coordination at the Commission level, concerning legislative draft. Legislative drafting can also be improved by considering the different impacts of new legal categories in national legal systems, especially the general clauses. At the implementation level he emphasizes the role of judicial governance and the lack of coordination among national judiciaries proposing the establishment of a permanent judicial conference specialised in EPL to be coordinated with TFI and ECJ. He then proposes the institution of committees operating according to subjects ( contract, property, tort) that would cut across directorates competences and would analyse the impact of European legislation on private law national systems. Finally he proposes the use of OMC, adequately redefined to evaluate the policy effects of implementation especially when it involves national regulatory agencies.

The Amended Basic Law of 2003 stipulates: 'The security forces and the police shall be regulated by law.'1 This clause was already present in the very early drafts of the Palestinian 'quasi-constitution'. Yet, after more than ten years of Palestinian self-rule, there is little legislation regulating the work of the security organisations of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). In fact, they still operate in a partial legal vacuum. As the Israeli-Palestinian agreements provided the basis for the establishing of the security organisations, the PNA felt little need to endow them with a sound legal basis. It was only after the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000 that the absence of a legal framework for the PNA security sector became a problem. The deteriorating security situation and the rise of armed groups called for efficient security organisations. But in order to build stronger security organisations, their mandates and accountability mechanisms needed to be defined by law. Rather reluctantly, the late PNA President Yasser Arafat in August 2004 called upon the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) 'to elaborate the necessary laws to ensure an efficient and controlled working of the security forces.

Although Latin America is the world's most democratic developing region and democratization has also caused an economic dividend, many Latin American democracies have a precarious basis of legitimacy. While most Latin American states are not as fragile nor as repressive as in some other regions, there are still serious political deficiencies in many of the subcontinent's societies. No-go areas in urban centres and remote rural areas, high-levels of corruption and soaring levels of criminal violence are the most prominent among these shortcomings.Such political deficiencies are highly dysfunctional for overcoming existing socio-economic development barriers. One of the main origins of existing political problems and governments' fragility is that most of Latin America's democracies have not succeeded in establishing stable and democratic party systems. The fragmentation of the intermediary structure between citizens and state has not only made coherent reforms increasingly difficult but also encouraged governments to engage in populist "dirigismo" and "decretismo". Thus, the promotion of "good" governance should continue to be a focus of development assistance.

The paper refers to the development of corporate governance phenomenon in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) during the 1990s of the twentieth century. It is about the country established by disintegration of the former socialist Yugoslavia, which was in the immediate war zone, under the United Nationsʹ sanctions a full eight years and had one of the most undemocratic regimes in the world. In those circumstances, under the influence of factors from external environment, but also in a situation of unfinished privatization and transition processes and almost complete centralization of entire social and economic life, the specific forms of corporate governance developed, that did not bear much resemblance to the practice in other countries. Many ex‐socialist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe which at that time were in the initial phases of transition also faced certain ʺchildhood illnessesʺ characteristic of the corporate governance development. That was a logical consequence of the long‐standing existence of socialist systems, absence of private ownership, the real corporations and market economy institutions. Meanwhile, however, it became possible to find adequate solutions too many problems and deviations. In Yugoslaviaʹs case, the opposite trends and one strange kind of corporate governance have appeared, due to the rise of unusual forms of corporations, uncharacteristic ownership, and specific mechanisms of control and governance. In that situation, ʺchildhood illnessesʺ were not adequately cured, but soon began to take on some degenerative forms. Since eventually the necessary political changes were effected in Yugoslavia in 2000, the bases for radical departures from the past and correction of many mistakes and misconceptions were formed. One of them has certainly referred to the departure from the strange kind of corporate governance.

This report discusses the current political and social climate of Iraq, specifically in regards to the influence of the U.S. military presence over recent years. This report addresses planned and possible future efforts under the Obama Administration, including the scheduled gradual troops withdrawal. Some U.S. officials believe that a U.S. military presence is needed beyond the scheduled August 31, 2010 date, by which point all U.S. troops will have been withdrawn. This report also discusses the continued tensions between various Iraqi sociocultural groups.

This paper is a snapshot of the potential of Chinese environmental NGOs1 to effectively address environmental problems and needs, alone and in partnership with others. As environmental NGOs have only be on stage for the last ten years or so and as they undergo dynamic changes, a thoroughly conducted scientific analysis about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks is not possible yet. However, as the author has more than six years working experience with different Chinese environmental NGOs across the country, some empiric findings can be given, and some trends and tendencies be predicted. The paper starts with a look at the history of NGOs in China with a specific focus on environmental NGOs, followed by problems and chances caused by the present legal status of the groups. It then describes the main working areas of Chinese environmental NGOs, illustrating them by giving some representative examples. After a brief analysis, the paper proposes current trends and tendencies about the development of China's environmental NGOs. The main trend is that Chinese NGOs, independently on their origin (grass root, semistate organizations or Government-organized non-profit environmental organizations) will gain more respect and influence in both environmental awareness raising and as competent partners in policy formulation and law enforcement, if the State institutions concerned will involve them in planning and developing processes in an early stage and assist them in their capacity building.

ESPON project 2.3.2Governance of Territorial and Urban Policies from EU to Local Level holds an important position in the definition and elaboration of a common ground for investigating the institutional, instrumental ans procedural aspects of territorial and urban policies in Europe. The project focuses on the question how effective different systems are, e.g. considering a policy mix of spatial planning (in different forms implemented by Member States), local government powers and taxation policy in defining common spatial development strategies and objectives such as a polycentric urban system, balancing urban-rural needs, reviving derelict urban areas, urban regeneration, sustainable management of the natural and cultural assets. In that perspective, an analysis based on a comparative review of the instruments used, and stakeholders involved in various policy areas and processes, is being undertaken to draw some valuable conclusions of practical relevance on governance. The report sums up the main overall findings of the ESPON 2.3.2 project and presents in more detail the contributions delivered by IRPUD. The structure of this report is as follows. Part 1 summarizes the project in terms of research aims, hypotheses and key findings. The following parts present research work done by IRPUD. It starts with a German National Overview on the application of governance practices (part 2) and two case studies for urban and territorial governance (part 3). The second half of the report presents on a quantitative analysis of several indicators. Part 4 on data and indicators discusses data quality and develops the quantitative approach for measuring governance. In part 5 the report draws a synthesis of governance trends identified in the national case studies.

How might we think about democratic governance? This paper distinguishes between system governance and radical democracy. Systems governance borrows the language of radical democracy while missing its spirit. It advocates increased participation through networks because new institutionalists suggest networks are an efficient means of service delivery. It advocates increased consultation to build consensus because communitarians suggest consensus is needed for effective political institutions. System governance is, then, a top-down discourse based on the alleged expertise of social scientists. Radical democrats concentrate instead upon the self-government of citizens. Instead of the incorporation of established groups in networks, they promote a pluralism within which aspects of governance are handed over to associations in civil society. And instead of consultation prior to decision-making, they promote a dialogue in which citizens play an active role in making and implementing public policy.

The Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University, the U.S. Southern Command, and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College held the ninth in a series of major annual conferences dealing with security and defense matters in the Western Hemisphere on February 1-3, 2006, in Miami, Florida. The conference, entitled "The Challenge of Governance and Security," brought together over 150 conferees who participated in a robust program of panels, question and answer sessions, and workshops. They exchanged perspectives and evaluated the contemporary hemispheric security situation. The dialogued amicably, with less tendency than in the past to either blame the United States for everything, or look to Washington to solve all of Latin America's problems. At the same time, civilian and military participants engaged in little "fingerpointing" and participants made no effort to keep police forces out of the dialogue. None viewed of the military as a menace, but rather as an important asset that had to be utilized effectively along with other instruments of national and international power to generate security, stability, development, democracy, and effective sovereignty. In this context, the conference dialogue centered on a broad and virtually all-inclusive internal threat environment, and the need for "good governance" to deal with a situation in which "everything is a part of everything else."