Policy, management, and political activities: A current evaluation of the time allocations of mayors and managers in small cities and towns

This study examines executive time allocations in cities and towns with populations between 2,500 and 25,000. The majority of previous research has focused on municipalities with populations greater than 50,000. Do mayors and managers in small municipalities spend the same amount of time on policy, management, and political activities as their counterparts in larger municipalities? Four-hundred-sixty-seven surveys from mayors and city managers are evaluated, and the data reveal that a significant relationship between form of government and the time these individuals devote to policy, management, and political activities does exist. This analysis confirms that managers in small cities and towns do spend more time on policy and management activities, and less time on political activities than mayors in small cities and towns. Also, the research demonstrates that differences in time devoted to these three activities can be seen when small and large municipalities are compared.     

南亚女性执政及源头参与

自20世纪60年代以来南亚国家女性高端参政现象凸显。这一现象有着深层次文化缘由,从本土文化中等级制度衍生的家族政治和女神崇拜是不可忽视的因素。女性执掌最高政治权力,决策国家和政府事务,显示了女性在政治生活中源头参与的意义,同时,对推动妇女运动的发展和女性广泛参与政治生活也产生了积极的影响,但并不意味着这些国家的女性已普遍具有参政的强烈意识。     

Gender inequalities in European unemployment benefit systems

The most important structural change which has occurred on the labour market over the past 30 years is the sustained and continued growth of female labour supply. Two-earner couples have become a majority in most European countries and lone parents, mostly women, are also on the rise. On the other hand, since 1975, labour market policies have altered the quality and nature of employment in Europe by promoting atypical forms of employment where women are overrepresented. The analysis has shown us that atypical employment results in restricted access to unemployment benefits. Moreover, combining the presence of more stringent conditions with derived rights results in more and more women being dependent upon their spouses for financial as well as social protection and can even have a disincentive effect on formal labour market participation.     

NIMBY opposition and solid waste incinerator siting in democratizing Taiwan

To address Taiwan's waste crisis, the Taiwanese government has embraced incinerators as a major policy instrument for waste disposal. Although the adoption of waste burning policy was not debated much, the siting of incinerators has been vigorously opposed by community-based protest movements, emerged with Taiwan's transition to democracy. In response, both the Kuomintang (KMT) government and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government have used compensation to induce the acceptance of local hosting communities as in other countries. Nevertheless, the use of compensation has never been effective in resolving not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) conflict without mobilizing local political and government support to suppress NIMBY protests in order to enforce the timely construction of needed incinerators. To accommodate the rising democratic expectation of public participation in deliberations over the incineration waste policy, this article also argues that the role of citizen participation must be addressed to increase public support for incinerator option in managing Taiwan's waste.     

The new privatized market: A question of ideology or pragmatism within the Swedish addiction treatment system?

Given its traditions of universal welfarism and social democracy, Sweden had already scored unexpectedly high on New Public Management by the 1980s. Health and welfare services remain primarily tax‐funded, but the production of care is increasingly transferred to a competitive quasi‐market. To what extent can this development be understood in terms of right‐wing governments, and to what extent in terms of other, socioeconomic and pragmatic factors? We examined this question through official statistics on providers of institutional addiction care since 1976, and through the total expenditure and purchases by local‐level municipal social services of interventions for substance users in Sweden in 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. We have analyzed the distribution across public and private providers within the addiction treatment system, and whether national developments and local differences across the 290 municipalities—which bear the major treatment responsibility—can be understood in terms of local‐level political majority, population size, and local wealth. The share of purchased services has remained stable, but the treatment system shows increasing financial turnover and an increasing share of for‐profit providers among producers of purchased care, especially in outpatient treatment. While venture capital enterprises emerged as a new actor, non‐governmental organizations lost out in importance. Bourgeois government correlated with larger shares of purchasing and purchases from for‐profit providers. However, purchasing on a market dominated by for‐profit providers has also become the “new normal”, regardless of ideology, and recent years have shown a reversed effect of left‐wing municipalities purchasing more services than right‐wing governments. Pragmatic reasons also influence local‐level purchasing.     

Competing frames of immigrant integration in the EU: geographies of social inclusion in Italian regions

After the federal reform of 2001, Italian regions have gained greater autonomy in matters of social policy, including immigrant integration. In this paper, we assess frames of immigrant integration in eight Italian regions, i.e. Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna in the North, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzi in the Centre, Basilicata and Calabria in the South, against the EU equal treatment and mobility rights-based regime. Through a diachronic analysis of the regions' official documents on immigrants' integration approved in the period 2000–2010, we shall consider: (1) the policy priorities identified and the measures funded and (2) the implementation structures. The analysis points out how the frames of immigrant integration emerging at a regional level shape different geographies of social inclusion which are sometimes openly in contradiction with the EU discourse on equal treatment and mobility rights. Immigration is perceived more as an economic asset for local labour markets' unsatisfied demand for low-qualified, flexible, and often informal workers, rather than as a strategic resource for the realisation of a competitive and knowledge-based European economy.     

The impact of political and non-political officials on the financial management of local governments

This paper investigates the impact of non-political administrators on the financial management of local governments. The activity of prefectorial officials is compared with the activity of elected mayors exploiting data extracted from a panel of 7826 Italian municipalities from 2007 to 2018. To address the potential confounding effects and selection biases, we combine a Difference in Difference strategy with machine learning methods for counterfactual analysis. Results show that non-political administrators bring higher financial autonomy and higher collection capacity, raising more revenues at local level. This is consistent with the hypothesis that, since they do not respond to electoral incentives, non-political administrators have lower motivations to behave strategically, not taking their own interests about electoral successes into account when they must choose the proportion of local versus external revenues for financing local expenditure.     

Social Inclusion or Market Competitiveness? A Comparison of Rural Development Policies in the European Union and the United States

The language of EU rural development policy appears more interested in social inclusion and that of US policy more interested in market competitiveness. We seek to determine why policies directed at rural development in the EU and the USA differ. In both contexts new rural development policies emphasize partnership and participation but we find local participation is used to promote social inclusion in the EU and market competitiveness in the USA. An examination of these dimensions illustrates important transcontinental differences and similarities in rural development policies. We explore the socio‐historical reasons for differences in the commitment to social inclusion, while also noting similarities in the priority of market competitiveness.     

Effective local governance assisting vulnerable groups: The case of youth not in employment,education or training (NEETs) in Sweden

Youth not in employment, education or training (NEETs) have been analyzed from either individual or macro-structural perspectives, while policy discussions have emphasized national policy. This disregards (i) the substantial variation in NEET rates within countries, and (ii) the importance of local governance for this variation. We examine these issues in Sweden through the lens of interactive governance. Theoretically, four aspects of collective action are highlighted: identification of local NEET subgroups, perceptions of problems and of solutions, and stakeholder relationships. Empirically, an initial multi-level regression analysis of all 290 Swedish municipalities provided the basis for semi-structured interviews regarding local work with NEETs in 20 strategically selected municipalities. The qualitative data are here analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The results suggest that municipalities where local governance combines three of the four aspects, namely identifying NEET subgroups and sharing perceptions of problems and of solutions, have lower NEET shares than predicted.     

A Comparative Discussion of the Gendered Implications of Cash-for-Care Schemes: Markets, Independence and Social Citizenship in Crisis?

There are moves across many countries away from state-led provision of services for disabled people towards cash-based systems, which have been welcomed by disabled people as increasing choice and control over services and support, and increasing independence and social participation. However, feminist scholars have long warned about the implications of commodifying care for women, and the possible consequences of substituting cash for services for social citizenship have remained underexplored, for both disabled people generally, disabled women and mothers more particularly, and for personal assistants/care workers. This article will attempt to address that gap by carrying out a comparative literature review and policy analysis of the role of policy development and outcomes in cash-for-care schemes, looking comparatively across policy developments in several countries, as well as developed welfare states beyond Europe to examine: (a) the impact of the tensions between various governance levels, particularly local and national government; (b) the gendered impact of such policies on (for example) gendered divisions of paid and unpaid work, citizenship and social participation; (c) the impact such policies have, or are likely to have, on different groups of men and women across the life course and across different social and economic groups; and (d) how such policies can contribute to the well-being and/or detriment of different groups of women (and men) within different social, political, economic and historical contexts.     

Advocacy for disabled children and young people: benefits and dilemmas

Recent policy has emphasized the need for advocacy services for children and young people, developments that have gone hand‐in‐hand with greater levels of participation of young people in decision‐making. Advocacy for disabled young people is especially important, as they are a particular vulnerable group and have, traditionally, been even more excluded from decisions about matters affecting their lives. This paper reports the findings, as they relate to disabled young people, from a study that investigated the role of advocacy for looked‐after children and children in need. The paper highlights some of the benefits of advocacy for disabled children, the dilemmas facing advocates between advocating and acting in someone's ‘best interests’, identifying the client and the boundaries between advocacy and social work. It argues that time given to establish a close relationship with a disabled child or young person is crucial if advocacy is to be effective and participation in decisions affecting their lives a reality.     

Saving public pensions: Labor migration effects on pension systems in European countries

European countries have experienced population aging and consequent pressure on public pensions. Some European countries, therefore, have welcomed migrants, expecting that the inflow of people will ease the demographic and fiscal problems. It is important to ask if this policy approach has had the intended effects. This paper examines the effects of labor migration on public pension systems. Using error correction models (ECMs) with cross-country time-series data on European countries from 1981 to 2009, this analysis demonstrates that labor migration has deterred the reduction of public pension benefit levels and government expenditure on pension as well as the expansion of private pensions. This implies that labor migration eases the pressure on public pension systems. Migration contributory effects have been larger in countries with Bismarckian pension systems because those countries have experienced greater pressure on public pension systems than other countries.     

北极问题演化及其对世界政治经济格局影响的研究

近年来,随着北极地区的经济价值和战略地位逐渐升高,北极问题的世界政治经济色彩越来越浓厚。从与北极问题相关的国家和国际组织对国际航线和资源能源等领域的影响以及越来越多的国家制定北极相关战略政策等方面来看,北极问题对世界政治经济格局影响的范围不断扩大。同时,从美俄、东北亚地区、欧盟等国际地位的变化来看,北极问题对世界政治经济格局影响的程度也在不断加深。在此作用下,世界政治经济重心将会进一步向北转移。世界大国在未来都会与北极问题形成千丝万缕的联系,如果不抓住机会积极争取北极权益、不关注和重视北极问题的发展趋势,势必会丧失占据下一轮世界政治经济格局转变优势地位的机会。     

European Union Policy on Asylum and Immigration. Addressing the Root Causes of Forced Migration: A Justice and Home Affairs Policy of Freedom,Security and Justice?

This paper contributes to the debate on the development of the future common European Union Policy on Asylum and Immigration. It seeks to explain the rationale behind the evolution of the Union's policy outlook on asylum and immigration. It then analyses the most recent Union‐wide policy tools available to address asylum and migration issues, arguing that common European asylum policies thus far have focused on containment of migration flows seen as a threat to the European internal security regime and in response to perceived populist pressures. The return and readmission clauses now being implemented, in agreements with countries outside of the Union, serve to illustrate this point, as does the political willingness to extra‐territorialize asylum processing. However, the focus on eliminating the root causes of migration flows is a relatively new paradigm, developed since the 1999 Tampere European Council. Although off to a slow start, the European Union Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument may become an institutional outlet to create a more normative framework for asylum and migration. The success of such a framework is contingent upon breaking with earlier conceptualizations of “asylum” as a security threat. Implicit in such a framework is the need to retain a clear distinction between asylum‐ and labour‐related migration. Partnerships must also be granted a budget sufficient for their establishment in real terms with countries of origin and transit. Lastly, there must be changes in modes of governance, as well as institutional reform, if efforts to elaborate a strategy on asylum and migration are to be executed successfully. Curiously, while the proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe sought to abolish the pillar structure put in place by the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, it would have retained the institutional inhibitions imposed by long‐existing tensions between national and community administrations and the “inter‐pillar” battles between the foreign policy, humanitarian and development dimensions of the EU apparatus. The current political debate about moving Europe “closer to its people”, following the rejection of the proposed Constitution at national referenda in France and the Netherlands, appears unlikely to solve any of these tensions.     

Examining the variation in local water sustainability practices

As sustainable development is becoming more important to ensure the economic success and social well-being of any government, without regard to its level, the efficient use and protection of natural resources has increased in importance. And local governments are at the forefront of developing sustainability policy in many ways. This study investigates the factors that influence the variation in local sustainability practices in one critical area, water conservation. The variation in adoption of water sustainability programs in municipalities across the U.S. is hypothesized to rely on three key factors: environmental condition, form of government, and fiscal condition. Our findings from an ordered logistic regression model indicate that municipalities with high drought level, high environmental policy priorities, and high community wealth are likely to adopt more water conservation programs.     

Social Politics and Policy in an Era of Globalization: Critical Reflections

This paper critically examines the ways in which social policy is said to be affected by globalization. The prevailing approach has been framed in terms of the impact of "external" economic forces on national welfare states. Globalization is said to undermine the economic and political conditions on which welfare states were built, erode national policy autonomy and force the marketization and residualization of welfare states. These predictions are found wanting on the grounds that they share many of the assumptions, and therefore also the faults, of "strong" globalization theory. A more nuanced account of the way in which social politics and social policy are affected by globalization is needed and a global governance perspective is outlined. This, it is argued, better captures the political and institutional environment in which social policy is formulated and implemented. It also recognizes the importance of "local" factors and their interaction with global ones in shaping political responses, including social policy, to globalization. The discussion highlights the enduring power of "local" forces—those which are at the level of and internal to states—and of politics and ideology in shaping the process of globalization and ultimately its implications for welfare states and social policies.     

Getting a head start: early provision of day care among municipalities in Norway

Municipal day care services for children in Norway have experienced two important reforms: the introduction of the Kindergarten Act in 1975, and the introduction of preschools for 6-year-olds in 1991. Focusing on the relationship between environmental inputs and policy outcomes, this article attempts to identify characteristics influencing the propensity towards early provision of day care in the municipalities. Applying logistic regression, service-specific factors show the greatest importance, as opposed to more general municipal features. The political system, in terms of high female representation and low representation from the Christian Democratic Party, the Center Party, and the Progress Party in local councils, seems responsive to the proportion of children, the percentage of women working full time, and average net income per capita. The persisting importance of gender-specific variables is discussed – suggesting different interpretations of the results in relation to the feminization of politics.     

Determinants of the timing of social insurance legislation among 18 OECD countries

The purpose of this paper is to determine which theory best explains the development of social insurance programs. The survival analyses of 4 social insurance programs in 18 OECD countries present mixed results. The adoption of each social insurance program is developed and related to a combination of industrialism, modernization, left-wing participation, state autonomy, and international environment. Based on these findings, it is concluded that no single paradigm adequately explains the adoption of each of the social insurance programs. However, the combination of two society-centered approaches – namely, logic of industrialism and political conflict explanation – and a state-centered approach better explains the origin and development of modern social policy than does the international diffusion theory.     

Central versus Local Service Regulation: Accounting for Diverging Old-age Care Developments in Sweden and Denmark, 1980–2000

In Sweden and Denmark, the development of old‐age care has followed markedly divergent paths over the past 20 years. In both countries, the level of old‐age care universalism was exceptionally high in the early 1980s. Since then it has dropped sharply in Sweden, while remaining constantly high in Denmark. These divergent trends are clearly irreconcilable with the common image of a coherent Scandinavian welfare state model, and they seem hard to explain with reference to traditional approaches of comparative social policy. This article attempts to account for the divergent developments by focusing on the balance of old‐age care regulation between central and local government. The main finding is that only in Sweden has the central regulation of old‐age care been weak and unspecific. As a consequence, Swedish municipalities have enjoyed sufficient autonomous, regulatory competence to exercise certain local retrenchment measures in times of austerity, thereby eventually causing a nationwide weakening of old‐age care universalism. By contrast, municipalities in Denmark have been much more tightly bound by central state regulations which have prevented them from imposing similar retrenchment measures in the old‐age care sector; consequently, Denmark's level of old‐age care universalism has remained comparatively high.     

Health and Social Policy Responses to Unemployment in Europe

This paper analyzes health policy development in Europe in response to economic instability, and describes agreements and declarations at a European level as well as commitments in some selected countries. One significant example is the European Health for All Strategy, which encompasses 38 operational targets agreed upon by all 32 member states of the European region. The Council of Europe and the Commission of the European Communities have instituted study groups on psychosocial and health effects of long-term unemployment, and on intervention measures taken or contemplated. This paper discusses interventions such as psychological and socio-pedagogic training schemes, measures for long-term unemployed, and a "social guarantee" of employment or training, as well as prevention of unemployment and empowerment of the unemployed. A local approach in a region of the Federal Republic of Germany illustrates the need for political involvement and strategies.