Governance Reforms

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of public service quality in its relationship with citizen-customers satisfaction. The methodological choice consists of a synthesis of public service theories, a conceptual frameworks of service marketing and models of service quality. This theoretical synthesis made also possible to discuss the concepts of service quality and their application in the context of public administration. Thus, this article proposes a conceptual model of quality based on seven qualitative dimensions of the public service influencing citizen-customers satisfaction. The theoretical results indicate that these qualitative dimensions make it possible to grasp the contribution of quality to mastering the complexity of public service through citizen-customers satisfaction.

أعمال مؤتمر مصر والتنمية المستدامة في أفريقيا: الرؤى وآليات التفعيل في ضوء أجندة الاتحاد الأفريقي 2063
تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى التعريف بما هو المقصود بالخدمة العامة وإصلاحها وأهميتها ، مع استعراض نموذج خصخصة قطاع المياه في كينيا كآلية من آليات إصلاحه مع ذكر التحديات والنتائج المترتبة على التطبيق.

***Description of this Reading***:
This is chapter six of my dissertation with only eleven pages available for preview here on Academia.edu.  It chronicles the beginning of Bethune's NCNW.  Readers gain a sense of her organizing principles, why she felt it was necessary to "pool" Black feminine political energy at this time, in the mid 1930s.  You will also get a sense of the friction she encountered from other Black activist women--an aspect of her political career that has not been properly examined.  In my narrative, archival/primary source research takes precedence.  Pulling particularly from newspapers of that era lend a more complete picture of the dynamics between these particular Black women activists.


***Near Future Plans for this Chapter***:
I am in the process of redeveloping this chapter to self-publish as part of a three-book series, "A Passion For Social Equality," covering Bethune's political activism during the 1930s and 1940s.  POLITICAL ADVOCACY FOR JUSTICE is the title of the third book, forthcoming.

POLITICAL ADVOCACY FOR JUSTICE will include an expanded narrative, interpretation, and analysis of Bethune's activism during the prewar period, from 1940-1941, and material regarding her activism during WWII.  (Some of the former material has already been published in my chapter two of THE ECONOMIC CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT; see http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415537360/.)

***On Book Series: "A Passion For Social Equality"***
The first book of this series has been published, entitled PUSHING THE LIMITS OF THE COLOR LINE: MARY McLEOD BETHUNE AND THE NEW DEAL.  It can be viewed at: https://www.createspace.com/4283303  or the Amazon link on this page.

What happens to informal institutions and practices when political actors decide to implement democratic institutional reforms aimed at relieving formal institutions of informal constraints? Does informality disappear, or do the elites and affected populations continue to apply and abide by informal rules? What do we know about the relationship between institutional reforms and informal institutions? This book seeks to improve our understanding of how, when, and under which conditions democratic institutional reforms affect informal institutions and practices in countries transitioning to democracy, also known as hybrid regimes. With an empirical focus on three transitional post-Soviet regimes—Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine—this book aims to explain the contentious relationship between democratic institutional reforms and informality in the broader post-Soviet context. These findings have implications not only for hybrid regimes, but also for the majority of other post-Soviet, as well as other post-communist, countries. This book engages with a large and growing body of literature on informal institutions and practices and offers theoretical insights relevant to comparative politics, democratization and institutional development studies, political sociology, human geography and political economy.

SEBASTIAN FITZEK SIMONA MARIA STĂNESCU n acest articol ne-am propus să analizăm principalele teme de reformă şi dezvoltare a programelor politice aflate la guvernare în perioada de tranziţie, pe două dimensiuni: a. stabilirea unor comportamente ale partidelor în contextul pluripartidismului ca element fundamental al jocurilor democratice; b. o analiză a raporturilor dintre programe şi cadrele ideologice. Articolul include trei părţi: o descriere generală a reformelor şi a deciziilor guvernamentale adoptate în primii ani de după Revoluţie; analiza tendinţelor şi transformarea sistemică în tipologia partidelor politice româneşti şi o evaluare a programelor de reformă a partidelor aflate la guvernare. Selecţia partidelor propuse pentru analiză a fost proiectată urmând două dimensiuni: analiza evoluţiei programelor şi a marilor teme care au marcat procesele de reformă economică şi politică. Programele electorale ale partidelor postdecembriste sunt astăzi legitimate de triumfalismul discursului populist, ineficient şi nesustenabil în procesele de guvernare. Conform teoriei alegerilor raţionale, scăderea competiţiei dintre partide, precum şi eficienţa unor aranjamente instituţionale trebuie să fie corelată cu resursele folosite de partide, precum şi cu costurile şi beneficiile rezultate în urma implementării unor anumite politici publice. Cuvinte-cheie: programe politice, ideologii, partide politice, tranziţie, reforme, privatizare. O DESCRIERE GENERALĂ A REFORMELOR ŞI A DECIZIILOR GUVERNAMENTALE IMPORTANTE ADOPTATE ÎN PRIMII ANI DE DUPĂ REVOLUŢIE În proaspătul drum spre capitalism, nevoia unei reforme economice care să legitimeze schimbarea ireversibilă a ordinii social-politice a fost una dintre priorităţile primelor guverne postdecembriste. Programul elaborat de academicianului Tudorel Postolache şi-a propus o "revoluţie managerială" aplicată în zona întreprinderilor

Abstract

Undergoing a myriad of regime changes, occupied by different empires and states throughout the history, Kosovo has never had a particular administrative experience. With the creation of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, where Kosovo gained its self-ruling autonomy status granted by the Constitution of 1974, the native Albanian majority were able to join the province administration structures. Nonetheless, with the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the forced supremacy of the autonomy imposed by Slobodan Milosevic with the new 1989 Constitution, all Albanian employees in the administration were forcibly dismissed from their work places. The war in 1999 was succeeded with the launch of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the largest civilian mission at that time, with the task of building a new self-governing administration for the country. That was largely aided by the European Union and its programs of aid.
17 years after the war, the Public Administration in Kosovo is still regarded as unprofessional, partisan, politically dependent and corrupt. Where did the UN or EU fail? 
In this paper I will try to give an insight to the shifts of administrative powers in Kosovo since 1974, how did the administration developments occur in times of a communist Federation, the abolishment of these powers with the new Constitution imposed illegally by Slobodan Milosevic and the endeavors of UN to build up the first modern public administration in post war democratic Kosovo.
Further I will analyze the consequences of the sudden shift from a communist inherited practice to an EU standards public administration, as imposed by the Union itself as a pre accession condition.
This, in itself has been identified as a major problem, taking into consideration the difficulties of implementation of such standards because of the legacy from the communist practice to a modern EU standard based administration.
I will prove that the reform as imposed by the EU especially, analyzing it through the prism of the Europeanization theory, has not yielded satisfactory results, as to the approach that was used.

Since his ascension in 1999, King Abdullah II has halted Jordan’s decade-long experiment with political liberalization. However, the new royal incumbent has preserved authoritarian power not through highly visible tools of domination, such as widespread coercion and institutional closure, but rather softer instruments of legal manipulation. Through selective economic reforms, new civil society regulations, and hollow pluralism initiatives, Abdullah’s regime has tightened its control over political opposition while foreclosing the possibility of mass unrest. As a result, ten years after the Hashemite monarchy received its new king, the prospects for democratic change in Jordan remain exceedingly low.

In this paper, I present an intensive case study of the development of the National Flood Insurance Program to advance two key arguments. First, the conventional model of adoption of general interest reform neglects an important aspect of political context: whether the relevant policy domain is one with or without " publics. " I argue that in domains without publics the politics of reform will differ substantially from the accepted model. Second, I argue that the type of learning necessary to address a given policy failure matters in reform politics. Instrumental learning is necessary but may not be sufficient for successful general interest reforms. When the social construction of a policy failure is such that many people misconceive of the fundamental purpose of a policy, social learning must take place before instrumental learning can be effective.

تقدم هذه الوثيقة تصورا لأهم المبادئ التي تعمل بمقتضاها أجهزة الشرطة في المجتمع الديمقراطي من واقع قراءة وثائق ومدّونات وتشريعات دول الاتحاد الأوروبي فيما تطرحه من مقوّمات عمل الشرطة. وتعرض الوثيقة خمسة مبادئ أساسية تحدد الإطار الديمقراطي لعمل الشرطة لكي يصبح مؤهلا لخدمة الشعب وهى:التمسك بسيادة القانون، والدور الاجتماعي للشرطة، وحماية حقوق المواطنين وحرياتهم، ودور الشرطة في مواجهة الفساد، وقواعد التنظيم الجيد والإدارة الفعالة لجهاز الشرطة.

Velika uloga lokalnih vlasti u pružanju lokalnih javnih i socijalnih službi u Europi se u suvremeno doba gotovo podrazumijeva, dok je u drugim dijelovima svijeta situacija raznolika. I u razvijenim zemljama, naročito u velikim gradovima, u kriznim situacijama ili uslijed velikih migracija (čak i turističkih) postoje veliki problemi s lokalnim javnim službama koje treba rješavati u uvjetima velikih očekivanja i ograničenih sredstava. Komparativno gledajući lokalne se službe pružaju odnosno osiguravaju na različite načine. Postoje razlikovanja komunalnih i osobnih lokalnih službi, ali i razrađeniji modeli razlikovanja socijalnih, ekonomskih, okolišno-urbanističko-planskih službi te policije i srodnih službi kojima je cilj osiguravanje javnog reda. Politika za službe odnosno usluge od općeg interesa Europske unije uzrokuje značajne promjene u sektoru lokalnih službi, pri čemu se mogu uočiti divergentna nastojanja, sektorski pristupi, ali i opstanak različitih modela pružanja lokalnih službi u zemljama članicama. Harmonizacija napreduje, no punu harmonizaciju je teško očekivati. Posebni problem za praćenje, analizu i evaluaciju stanja predstavlja nepostojanje opsežnih komparativnih pregleda stanja u novim zemljama članicama EU. Velika svjetska ekonomska i financijska kriza s kraja 2000-ih bila je vrlo izazovna za lokalne službe naročito u ekonomski slabijim zemljama članicama dovodeći do traženja inovativnih pristupa u prekarnoj situaciji. U Hrvatskoj čitav sektor lokalnih službi prolazi kroz značajne promjene, a od posebnog su značenja promjene koje se tiču vodnih usluga i zbrinjavanja otpada, kao i zdravstva i obrazovanja kao tipičnih lokalnih službi.

Power is present in each individual and in every relationship.  It is defined as the ability of a group to get another group to take some form of desired action, usually by consensual power and sometimes by force (Holmes, Hughes & Julian, 2007).

In society governments, organisations and an elite class of people make decisions that affect the lives of a large mass of other people.  A significant amount of research shows these decisions are often made to serve their own economic interests and values of which includes the means of production and property ownership (Holmes et al, 2007; Walters & Crook, 1995; Haralambos & Holborn, 1990; McGregor, 2000).

These decisions cause inequality in society and resentment from people who are excluded from the decision making process.  The unequalness of this decision-making and power allocation enables the fortunate to enforce their will on the less fortunate (Graetz, 2001, Walters & Crook, 1995).

This essay discusses power from two sociological views; the Conflict perspective, predominately from Karl Marx and the Elite theory perspective.  These theories show that power is distributed unequally in society where governments, a ruling class, media and business elites hold the majority of power over others.

Decades of political backroom deals of a small political cast has resulted in a political system vulnerable to abuse of office, a weak legal system as well as a very frail anti-corruption framework. Numerous corruption scandals, including dubious privatisation deals at Austrian Telekom, BUWOG, police radio etc.,scandals at Vienna airport, bank Hypo Alpe Adria and Kurier, as well as the conviction of Mr Strasser, a former minister, on corruption charges, are compounded by strong criticism from GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption committee.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

In Tanzania, Human Resource Management (HRM) decentralization and reforms were initiated as an effort to address non-transparent and patronizing Human Resource (HR) practices so as to improve public sector governance. However, HRM of the entire public service has been centralized and placed in the hands of President’s Office Public Service Management (PO-PSM). Hence, there arose the need to conduct this study by analyzing the influence of decentralization of HRM on public sector governance in Tanzania. Questionnaires were used for data collection, while Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used in data analysis. Results revealed that management 12 of HR in a decentralised context has a significant relationship with both transparency and accountability. Moreover, findings revealed that political support, technology and culture moderate the relationship between management of HR in a decentralised context and public sector governance. The study suggests that in order to improve gove...

This book addresses the critical knowledge gaps of mergers involving higher education institutions. It is based on a comparative research project (spring 2013-spring 2015) investigating the phenomena of mergers involving higher education institutions across the Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The study involved close to 30 scholars from the region, and aimed at shedding critical light on, and providing novel contributions around, the following key aspects:
 Conceptual and theoretical approaches – strengths and limitations - towards the study of the phenomena of mergers in higher education;
 Historical developments, leading to significant structural changes in the domestic higher education landscape, and, in turn, how mergers have been used as a policy/institutional mechanism to foster adaptation to a new external environment at the local, national, regional and international levels;
 The complex dynamics inherent to merger processes by undertaking an in-depth investigation of a series of selected case studies, with a particular focus on the “black-box” associated with the implementation process;
 The implications of the findings as regards future policy and strategic endeavours, theory development and future research agenda.

This chapter covers the steps you must consider when crafting a strategy for exposing corruption and
mismanagement through social media. Along with practical advice and thought-provoking questions, it
examines several case studies which throw light upon how social media has been and is being used to
expose corruption around the world.

Участники обсуждения: Д. Байрау (Тюбингенский университет Эберхарда и Карла, Германия), Н.И. Горская (Смоленский государственный университет), М.Д. Долбилов (Университет штата Мэриленд, США), В.А. Китаев (Нижегородский государственный университет им. Н.И. Лобачевского), А.А. Комзолова (Издательство "Росспэн), Я. Коцонис (Нью-Йоркский университет, США), Н.Ф. Литвинова (Днепропетровский национальный университет им. О. Гончара, Украина) и Ю. Такенака (Осакский университет, Япония)

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

ÖZET AB'ye üye olmak isteyen ülkelerin AB kurallarını kabul etmesi ve müktesebata uyum sağlamaları beklenmektedir. Söz konusu AB uyum politikaları ve aday ülkelerin Avrupalılaşması sürecinde bazı etki mekanizmaları ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu etki mekanizmalarının başında ise " Koşulluluk Prensibi " (conditionality) yer almaktadır. Koşulluluk prensibi AB'nin dönüştürücü gücünün önemli bir unsuru olsa da eksiklikleri, zamanla etkisinin zayıflamasına neden olmuştur. Bu makalede, Avrupa Birliği (AB) koşulluluğunun bir aday ülke olan Türkiye'de kamu yönetimi reform sürecine olan etkisi incelenmektedir. Makalenin temel amacı, AB'nin koşulluluk prensibinin, aday ülkelerin iç politikaları üzerindeki etkisini Türkiye'deki 2002 yılı sonrası kamu yönetimi reformları üzerinden incelemektir. Makalenin temel argümanı, koşulluluk prensibinin etki alanının resmi adaylık statüsünün verilmesinin ardından 2002-2005 yılları arasında arttığı ve müzakerelerin başladığı 2005 sonrası dönemde ise çeşitli nedenlerle kazanılmış olan ivmenin azaldığıdır. AB'nin dönüştürücü etkisinin en çok adaylık döneminde görüldüğü ile başlarsak, AB'nin " sopa-havuç " stratejisi ile işlettiği koşulluluk prensibinin bir aday ülke olarak Türkiye'de çeşitli evreler geçirdiğini, Türkiye'nin adaylığının ilan edildiği 1999 Helsinki Zirvesi sonrasında görünürlük kazandığını söyleyebiliriz. Bu süreç 2002-2005 yılları arasında hızlanmış ve Türkiye'de kamu yönetimi alanında radikal adımlar atılmış ve çeşitli yönetsel reformlara imza atılmıştır. 2005 yılı sonrası reformların hız kaybettiği ve hatta durma noktasına geldiği eleştirileri yapılmış ve bu yavaşlama çeşitli sebeplere bağlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda çalışmamızda, koşulluluk prensibinin arka planı, ne anlam ifade ettiği ile başlanarak, 2002 sonrası kamu yönetimi reformları ve bu reformların ilerleme raporları çerçevesinde değerlendirmesi yapılacak ve 2002-2005 arası reform çalışmalarında kazanılan ivmenin ve 2005 sonrası bu ilerlemenin neden durduğunun sebepleri çeşitli iç ve dış faktörlerle açıklanacaktır.

Монография издана под грифом Санкт-Петербургского Института истории РАН, в качестве ее рецензента выступил д.и.н., проф. М.Ф.Флоринский (СПбГУ).
На основании широкого круга источников как отечественных, так и зарубежных архивов в ней исследуется политика российского правительства по отношению к прибалтийским немцам в начале 20 в. В работе рассмотрены правовой статус Прибалтийских губерний в составе Российской империи и общественно-политическая ситуация в них на рубеже 19-20 вв., а также формирование прибалтийско-немецкой политической эмиграции в Германии и ее влияние на русско-германские отношения.
Основное внимание в монографии уделено разработке правительственных реформ для Прибалтики – церковной, аграрной, земской и др., а также политике в отношении лютеранской церкви и прибалтийско-немецкой школы. Особый интерес представляет исследование такого малоизученного вопроса, как политика правительства и военных властей применительно к прибалтийским немцам в период Первой мировой войны.
Наряду с этим автор рассматривает участие отдельных представителей прибалтийско-немецкой политической эмиграции в деятельности спецслужб Германии и в организации антироссийской пропаганды. В то же время на основании широкого круга документальных источников в работе опровергается огульное обвинение немецкого населения Прибалтики в шпионаже в пользу Германии.
В целом исследование разрушает сложившиеся в историографии стереотипы в отношении прибалтийских немцев и дает иную, отличную от традиционной, оценку политики правительства в Прибалтийских губерниях в конце 19 - начале 20 в.

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

The Bay of Pigs fiasco was doomed from the start.  From President Eisenhower's obsession with the threat of Communist rule and his impatient and aggressive drive to eliminate Fidel Castro to the unrealistic expectations of maintaining covert status all the way through the execution of Operation Zapata under the office of President Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs was littered with evidence contrary to its expected successful outcome (Andrew 1995, 251-266).

Delhi is a metropolitan city growing at a tremendous pace in terms of population and its need for efficient and sustainable water services. Singapore is considered to be a successful water management model. It started its transformation in 1960s-1970s when it was entirely dependent on Malaysia for its bulk water requirements. That period of Singapore’s water problems and other issues strike resemblance to those Delhi faces in the present- dependence on other states for raw water, polluted water sources and many others. There are numerous positive elements in the Singapore success story that can be emulated in cities such as Delhi. This paper seeks to find out whether Delhi’s water reform process can match Singapore’s model in key principles and the critical conditions required for success of this process. The paper first reviews the Singapore water story- from a state with engraved problems of water services to establish itself as a water hub and successful model in water management. It assesses the reasons for success of efforts in Singapore. The next section discusses the Delhi water problems- the need for reforms, proposed reforms and what happened. The analysis draws on the information sourced from interviews with key stakeholders, documents available, and personal experience as a witness of the process. The paper concludes with presents key recommendations for Delhi to achieve efficient and sustainable water services taking lessons from the Singapore experience.

PELAYANAN PUBLIK DI ERA REFORMASI.

MANAJEMEN PELAYANAN PUBLIK

Manajemen pelayanan publik sebagai salah satu isu penting dalam reformasi birokrasi menjadi sesuatu yang terus berkembang dan penuh kritik. Ide awal pelayanan publik memang berasal dari sektor swasta, kemudian  ditransformasi  dalam  sektor  publik  (Chris  Skelcher,  1992). Terma-terma  customer  atau  consumer  menjadi  referensi  dan  diterima dalam sektor publik yang kemudian mengalami perubahan menjadi clients, tenants, residents dan claimants.
Sekarang ini pemerintah pusat maupun pemerintah daerah dengan keluasan fungsi yang dimilikinya serta kebijakan publik yang diambil mempunyai dampak terhadap pengguna layanan publik dan masyarakat memposisikan pembangunan yang berorientasi ke pengguna layanan dan melakukan pengembangan kualitas pelayanan publik.
Reformasi manajemen pemerintahan yang membutuhkan waktu panjang dengan mengubah sistem pemerintahan dan kinerja yang ada. Kepastian  manajemen  pemerintahan  dapat  dilakukan  melalui pembangunan platform manajemen baru yang antisipatif. terhadap pasar dan diterimanya asumsi bare bahwa pemerintah dapat dan harus melayani (Cullen and Cushmen, 2000). Manajer pemerintah harus mempunyai responsifitas terhadap kompleksitas dan perubahan dalam peranan pemerintah.

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

India being a developing country and more-so-ever an ‘emerging economy’ as tagged by most of the economic analysts and economic rating agencies needs its energy demand met at every step of its development path. In any scenario it cannot allow a restriction of its growth on the pretext of lack of energy supply and coal being the pre-dominant source of energy in India and contributing significantly to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the country since independence, has to carry the burden of increasing the energy supply. Despite the recent emphasis on alternative energy sources (especially renewables), it is clear that the current coal-dependent energy-matrix will continue to be running at least for the next two or three decades owing to cost and technical factors. The Indian coal sector has been mired in recent times with numerous controversies and issues which raise doubt on the overall governance of the sector. The past system along with its timely modifications hasn’t been free of conflicts, especially livelihood, socio-economic and environmental conflicts among the local and neighbouring communities, the private industries and the state and national government. These conflicts reflect the overall poor governance mechanisms currently in place in the sector. If these conflicts are not resolved and the governance mechanisms are not channelized in a proper manner then this will affect the sustainability of the sector and hamper the overall economic development of the economy. In this context, the paper looks into the Mahan Coal Mine Block dispute in the Singrauli region of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and tries to identify the key conflicts and its sources regarding its allocation and operation providing some general suggestions to improve the overall governance of coal mines in India.

Keywords: Mahan Coal Mine, Singrauli, Governance, Conflicts in Mines.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

The Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector evolved, over the years following the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in Oloibiri, from just Miscellaneous to the Main stay of the economy. Unfortunately, Nigeria missed great opportunities to : grow its oil and gas sector and has since reaching 2mln barrels  per day production in the early 1970s remained there and is currently producing far less than the 1970 crude oil production levels; depends on importation to meet its demand for refined petroleum products locally; unable to develop its natural gas potentials etc. due to the challenges facing its oil and gas sector.
Nevertheless,  the outlook for the Nigerian Oil and gas sector remains great with great potentials provided that the Nigerian government  and its people with a great sense of urgency , sincerity , commitment and political will, addresses all the key challenges confronting the oil and gas sector.
The Unions in the Oil and Gas sector should therefore as a matter of utmost urgency engage the larger labour family and Civil society to form a grand alliance that will ensure that the Nigeria government effectively  addresses the challenges facing the industry and close the gap to potentials in the critical oil and gas sector. Empirical evidence suggest that without an effective and coordinated action there may be no remarkable change in the way the Nigerian oil and gas sector is currently being run . It is easy to continue in self-denial but the truth is that other countries including Ghana are making progress in their Oil and gas sector.      The time to ACT is NOW!

This paper expands on recent debates over the merits of online crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) by looking at the extent to which these sorts of funding sites have the potential to contribute to the development of civic society ideals in Europe. In particular, it looks at how online CFPs and other peer-to-peer lending sites are beginning to alter the way in which charities and non-governmental organisations finance their activities. In addition, it also discusses how these sorts of investment platforms have the capacity to affect the way in which individual actors engage with one another at both the local and transnational level. Overall, then, what this paper shows is that, aside from their evident financial and economic benefits, CFPs also have the capacity to help foster and strengthen non-parliamentary democratic structures and practices. As such, they should be supported and encouraged as part of a framework of further European democratisation and civic integration.

The phrase decentralization leads to development means the decentralized government leads the particular country towards growth in terms of economic conditions, foreign relations, good health condition of its people, high literacy rates, strong democracy, transparent political system, more accountability of the public administration, etc.