Opportunities of Reforming the WTO: Resistance and Potentials of Change

This paper intends to show both that a reform of the WTO is severely needed in order to establish a fairer international trade order but also that it is possible. The first section of this paper analyzes the functioning and the most controversial rules of the organization. The second and third sections intend to look for current opportunities of reforming the WTO by analyzing the main existing critical responses to the institution’s deficiencies—namely coalitions of southern Nation-States and global civil society movements—and their potential to achieve some change. It is concluded that these two key group actors, while playing different roles, do have common goals on selected issues of international trade and if so, their combined negotiating power is considerably increased for achieving a progress in the direction of a positive reform of the WTO for the developing world.

Participation in Decentralized Local Governance: Two Contrasting Cases from the Philippines

Contrary to the popular assumptions among international donor agencies, preceding studies have questioned the causal relations between decentralization, participation and pro-poor policy outcomes. This article introduces two cases of decentralized city governments in the Philippines: one employs radical forms of civil participation, while the other introduces modest ones, but both of them have been successfully launching pro-poor policies. Through referring these contrasting cases to a “participatory governance” model and a “governance with trusts” model, the paper argues that the approach to local governance is not linear.

Emergent Management Strategies in a Public Agency: A Case Study of Alternative Fuel Vehicles

The ability of public organizations to invest in emerging technologies is dependent upon the degree to which they can effectively manage the risks of being a lead-user in a political environment. However, little is known about the dimensions and implications of the different forms of risk faced by innovative public organizations as well as the strategies employed to manage them. This paper addresses these issues by studying how one public agency implements a program of replacing its transportation fleet with alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs).

Governance of open source software: state of the art

In this overview of governance mechanisms developed within open source software (OSS) circles, three types of governance are studied: ‘spontaneous’ governance, internal governance, and governance towards outside parties. Moreover, two main ways in which lessons from OSS can be applied elsewhere are explored: peer production of products other than software, and embedding ‘peer-produced’ products and peer processes into existing institutions (‘coupling’).

Strangers in a Strange Land: Shock,Disappointment, and Adjustments Experiences of Expatriates in Central Asia

Increasing globalization is driving an increase in diversity and interaction. A more mobile and international workforce frequently requires that individuals try to understand the norms of their “new” society. This paper provides a preliminary exploration of the types of issues and concerns raised by expatriates working in a new foreign environment. In particular, the paper uses a hybrid survey/interview methodology to identify specific issues raised by expatriates working in Kazakhstan, Central Asia.

Administration, Globalization, and the Arab States

Globalization involves risks and opportunities for the Arab world. Realistic knowledge of these possibilities is essential for adaptation of governance and reform of public administration to deal more effectively with the unfolding processes of globalization. To be participants rather than mere subjects, the Arab states have to recognize opportunities and limit potential negative consequences. Success requires good governance and professional public management. Public administration in the Arab world has to transform traditional methods of command and control and nepotism into a more collaborative management that relies on institutional capabilities and practicing managerial values of accountability, performance evaluation, transparency, and ethics.

Australian evidence on corporate governance attributes and their association with forward-looking information in the annual report

We investigate the role played by a firm’s corporate governance framework in the decision to voluntarily disclose forward-looking information in the published financial reports of Australian companies in 2000 and 2002. With respect to the year 2000, the corporate governance category, audit quality, consisting of the presence and independence of the audit committee, its meeting frequency, the use of a big 6 auditor and the auditor’s independence, is positively associated with the disclosure of forward-looking information. The corporate governance category, board committees, consisting of the appointment and independence of a compensation committee and the creation of a nomination committee, and the overall efficacy of the corporate governance system are also positively associated with the disclosure of forward-looking information. However, corporate disclosure does not seem to be driven by the same factors in 2002 since in that year none of the governance categories is significantly associated with the firm’s decision to publish forward-looking information in financial reports.

Is the German system of corporate governance converging towards the Anglo-American model?

This paper analyses whether the German corporate governance is converging towards Anglo-American practices. We summarise the extant empirical evidence on the various governance mechanisms that economic theory suggests ensure efficiency and describe recent legal developments. We find no clear signs of convergence in form, i.e. the main distinctive features of the German system have remained largely unaltered. However, changes occurred over the last decade (specially in the legal framework) suggest a certain convergence in function, i.e. some governance mechanisms have effectively incorporated aims and/or goals generally associated with the Anglo-American model.

Using Economic Freedom Indexes as Policy Indicators: An Intercontinental Example

We use time-series cross-section analysis to provide empirical validation for the existence of a specific American ethos and a specific European ethos with respect to economic policy. In our innovation, economic policy is proxied by “economic freedom” from the Fraser Institute database and constitutional “political institutions” are proxied by variables from the Database of Political Institutions (from the World Bank). Our results suggest that, once we control for political and institutional differences, the United States and Europe still pursue different economic policies.

Citizen Support for Hospital Privatization: A Hierarchical Cross-National Analysis

The movement for a new public management (NPM) holds that citizens will put aside partisan and ideological differences to support more efficient service delivery. Focusing on hospital privatization, a multi-national sample is utilized to investigate this assertion. Generalized hierarchical linear modeling (GHLM) is employed as the method of statistical analysis. The findings with regard to privatizing hospitals reveal that citizens develop their policy position by reference to a combination of symbolic political variables, service demand, self-interest, information levels, and political efficacy. The results cast doubt on the assertion that partisan differences will be set aside as citizens consider privatization reforms.

The Termination of Public Organizations: Theoretical Perspectives to Revitalize a Promising Research Area

While many studies deal with comparative public sector reform, the fundamental question of whether and to what extent states are actually able to abolish parts of their administrative structure remains untackled. Despite some efforts to solve this puzzle, the topic remains underestimated. This article identifies the main conceptual and theoretical problems associated with existent research on the termination of public organizations. Furthermore, the article systemizes various causal factors of termination into two broad dimensions: “organizational stickiness” and “political incentives.” Taken together, these constitute a typology, which is able to guide future empirical investigation of the termination of public organizations.

Policy Implementation in Urban Bangladesh: Role of Intra-organizational Coordination

The present study intended to explore role of intra-organizational coordination in policy implementation in urban Bangladesh. In doing so, an attempt was also made to investigate why and how problems of intra-organizational coordination take place in policy implementation. The study was basically based on empirical data gathered during 2003–2004. The available data substantiated that intra-organizational coordination is an important factor for policy implementation. Problems of coordination within organization in urban Bangladesh take place owing to lack of institutionalized rules and regulation and problematic financial management. Once coordination within organization is problematic, policy implementation is hampered which resulted in delay in project completion, increase of cost and unsatisfactory public service delivery.

Client acceptance decisions of Dutch auditing partners

A vignette study of 567 client acceptance decisions by 67 Dutch auditors showed that the prospect of acquiring additional assignments significantly increases the likelihood that auditing partners accept an audit assignment from a new client, thereby violating a rule of the auditing profession. Audit firm strategy was found to moderate the effect of the acquisition of additional assignments: partners working in audit firms emphasizing a professional orientation are less likely to accept such risky assignments, whereas a commercial orientation of audit firms was found to exacerbate the effect of acquiring additional services. Contrary to expectations, punishment severity for professional mistakes increases the likelihood of client acceptance.

Perceptions of Nonprofit Funding Decisions: A Survey of Local Public Administrators and Executive Directors of Community-Based Housing Organizations (CBHOs)

This article compares how local public administrators and executive directors of community-based housing organizations (CBHO) perceive nonprofit funding decisions. The article’s findings suggest that both groups shared perceptions about the scope of affordable housing and factors influencing its funding. Yet, important differences existed. Public administrators were ambivalent about nonprofit capacity and affordable housing outcomes. They also underestimated the importance of networks, partnerships, and minority leadership. Professionals in the nonprofit sector underestimated fair housing concerns and overestimated the importance of promoting homeownership. These insights improve our understanding of the connection between funding patterns, public-nonprofit sector relations, local governance, and administrative structures.

Managerial dominance and audit committee independence in Spanish corporate governance

The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the independence of audit committees is affected by the degree of control exerted by managers over the board of directors. Results from a sample of 75 listed Spanish companies show that the majority of firms that voluntarily adopted an audit committee between 1998 and 2001, made an effort to guarantee their independence from management. The degree of independence is shown to be determined by the proportion of inside directors on the board, the same person holding both the CEO and board chairperson positions, and the level of management ownership. These findings may have political implications because existing regulations do not limit the presence of inside directors on audit committees. The presence of inside directors may compromise effectiveness, turning audit committees into instruments of management to provide the appearance of monitoring.

Central State Steering of Local Collaboration: Assessing the Impact of Tools of Meta-governance in Homelessness Services in England

Much of the discussion of state steering of service delivery networks to encourage collaboration at the local level has been theoretical. This study builds on this analysis systematically to assess the relationship between meta-governance tools of central government steering and the extent of local collaboration, using the case of homelessness services in England. Contrary to the pessimist expectations of some contemporary theory, central government funding tools and facilitating the transfer of best practice encourages collaboration. However, simple information provision and authority based tools are only partially effective, risking tokenistic compliance. Authority tools are more effective when combined with other tools.

Making corporate governance count: the fusion of ethics and economic rationality

Corporate governance codes extensively appeal to ethical standards of conduct. Rather than being articulated alongside economic axioms, ethical and moral precepts are intertwined within neo-classical economic argumentation across corporate governance standards. This paper explores the fusion between ethics and modern economic rationality and reflects on the scientisation of economics and ethics in academic discourse. The argument is then made that the enlistment of ethics within the epistemologically privileged posture of economics characterises corporate governance codes. The UK Combined Corporate Governance Code of 2006 is analysed to draw out the paper’s contention.

Autonomy and Regulation of State Agencies: Reinforcement,Indifference or Compensation?

This paper analyses the relationships between the autonomy and regulation of state agencies in Norway, Ireland and Flanders (Belgium). The empirical basis is provided by broad surveys of public sector organizations carried out in 2002–2004. Three hypotheses on these relationships are formulated and examined, indicating different patterns. The reinforcement hypothesis, stating a negative relationship does not get any support. On the other hand, the compensation hypothesis, stating a positive relationship gets some support. In general, however, the indifference hypothesis, stating low or no correlations seems to be the most adequate. The hypotheses are also linked to prevalent administrative doctrines, and the empirical findings indicate how relevant they are.