This unusual, witty, satirical, pseudonymous, controversial and very pointed work gathers together the 50 episodes which were originally published on the famous and widely-read nhsManagers.net eletter run by Roy Lilley, which has some 30,000 subscribers here and abroad. Both the author, and Mr. Lilley - who are not one and the same - have been Chairs of NHS Trusts and advisers to government. Mr. Romford dramatizes the current issues and problems of British healthcare - and points out some radical and innovative solutions. The author holds up a mirror to the NHS and public service, its foibles and peculiarities. He shines a light into the dark recesses and makes us think, entertains us, pokes fun and encourages us to do better. His characters are a delight and his stories grasp the issues of the day and sets them out in a new light.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Silk Road Economic Belt component of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative at Kazakhstan in 2013. OBOR is a development strategy and framework that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily in Eurasia. It consists of two main components, the land-based 'Silk Road Economic Belt' (SREB) and ocean-going 'Maritime Silk Road' (MSR). This book studies the equilibrium or balance between overland and maritime trade routes of OBOR.This book has two major sections. The interpretive section examines contemporary media narratives related to the OBOR initiative and how contemporary commentators appropriate narratives about historical events related to the maritime Silk Road to interpret current policy agendas and legitimize diplomatic or economic exchanges. In terms of institutional studies, the chapters related to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will look at the issues facing the Bank in its quest in forming a new world platform for multilateral development financing.The other section, the empirical case study of the publication highlights the fact that Euro-China High Speed Rail (HSR) and Central Asia-China HSR are not viable at the moment as passenger volume is not sufficient to justify the HSR line. This section examines the overland route of the OBOR and looks at recent Chinese HSR history and conventional sub-high speed rail technology development, and identifies technical & economic criteria determining the appropriate technology for a certain line. The chapter in this section will use the developed criteria to analyze the various rail linkage projects currently under study in the OBOR framework, highlight the economic, bureaucratic and geo-political challenges that these projects likely face and lay down conditions that will determine the outcome of these projects.

In this fascinating inquiry into the Soviet retreat from the Third World, Melvin A. Goodman analyzes GorbacheV's policy from the standpoint of disillusionment with the Third World. He cites, among other reasons for the retreat, the diminished strategic significance of the Third World to current Soviet leadership, the limitations for Soviet power projection in distant areas, and the dilemmas in MoscoW's relations with Third World regimes. Goodman contends that GorbacheV's foreign policy shift to achieve a more stable international arena and a less militant Soviet stance allowed Moscow to focus on its internal economic problems. This volume provides the first exploration of Afghanistan as a watershed in Soviet thinking on the Third World and discusses the current Soviet emphasis on conflict management and resolution in Third World states--particularly Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. "GorbacheV's Retreat" explains how cooperation with the United States improves MoscoW's image in the West and tends to stabilize Third World flash points. Up-to-the-minute data on Soviet military and economic assistance to the Third World as well as Third World responses to the new Soviet policy are also presented.

The volume examines Soviet retrenchment and retreat in the Third World; analyzes GorbacheV's decisions relative to Third World relationships; zeroes in on the withdrawal from Afghanistan; explores some of the reasons for Soviet power limitations; and assesses the regional implications of GorbacheV's New Political Thinking. "GorbacheV's Retreat" then looks at Soviet power projection and crisis management, Soviet military and economic aid, and Soviet retreat in the 1990s. The volume will be particularly useful to undergraduate and graduate courses in foreign policy and international relations as a discussion of the impact of the new Soviet policy in the Third World and the consequences for U.S.-Soviet relations. Regional studies specialists will find its in-depth analyses of the limits on Soviet actions in the Third World cogent and timely.

During World War I, French citizens accepted national union on the home front as a necessary act of self-defence, but not without a considerable degree of ambivalence. At the political level, the union altered the balance of forces by improving the position of the Right, destroying the identity of the Radical party and creating the means by which the Socialist party first had access to power. However, what makes this collection of articles important is that they illustrate the social and political impact of French citizens' acceptance of a national union during World War I as well as dealing with the industrial aspects of French wartime history.

Burton offers a thorough and thoughtful review of research and arguments concerning poverty in the United States. He cites and summarizes the views of influential conservative thinkers and he provides solid evidence to defeat their arguments. While conservative writers have traditionally presented the poor as lazy and unfortunate offshoots of a generally prosperous nation, Burton convincingly demonstrates that poverty in America is widespread and that it is not caused by a lack of ambition. The text begins with an overview of the true extent of poverty in America, including an examination of how poverty is defined and measured. Burton then analyzes the cultural characteristics of the poor, the homeless, and the underclass. He then turns his attention to welfare, workfare, and the generation of jobs. A final set of chapters probes more deeply into the political dimension of poverty and the role of government in alleviating it. Throughout the study, Burton refers to numerous influential works by conservative authors, and he deftly addresses their shortcomings. An extensive bibliography adds to the usefulness of the text. The result is a clear and comprehensive treatment of poverty in America.

The global food system is the largest segment of the world's economy. As agribusiness-studies pioneer Ray Goldberg suggests, it is also the largest health system on the planet. And it is changing fast. Its size and importance to human, environmental, and economic health means that no system is viewed with as much suspicion by so many people around the globe. Changing societal expectations and scientific and medical advances have made the drivers of the food system-the world's food citizens-realize they must take more responsibility for society's nutritional needs, economic development, and the health of the environment. Goldberg argues that the traditionally commodity-oriented, bargaining relationship between segments of the food system has become win-win, collaborative, and characterized by public and private partnerships. Those who are responding to society's needs are succeeding; those who are not are losing out. The food system's greatest growth area is the developing world, where millions of small-scale producers, workers, and impoverished consumers need help to become part of the commercial food system. In this book, Ray Goldberg interviews the change makers of today's food system: leaders and constructive critics in government, private industry, nonprofits, and academia who provide a panoramic and in-depth look at a revolution in progress.

The Falklands War of 1982 figures prominently in recent British history. The impact this conflict had on Western Europe and the tensions it caused within the European Community has not, however, been properly examined.This book, written by leading experts, throws new light on the workings of EC foreign policy, national foreign policies, and the relationship between individual states, as seen in an unusual moment of crisis. The authors compare the reactions of the respective governments, political parties, the media and public opinion, and examine the domestic dimensions of foreign policy-making in the countries involved. Particular attention is paid to Spain, the only country to depart from the original European consensus. Complicating factors included its historical ties with Latin America, its accession to NATO membership in June 1982, and its bid to join the EC. Other countries of particular interest are Italy, Ireland and Denmark, who broke ranks with the common European position after a month because of economic interests, ingrained attitudes and legal considerations are also analyzed.

This book provides an effective antidote to the small business owner's frustration with government, demonstrating how to cut through regulations, red tape, and political corruption. Even as the American economy has slumped and every institution-private, municipal, and federal-strives to cut costs, government continues to grow more complex, intrusive, and expensive. Small businesses already bear a disproportionate share of regulatory costs and suffer more than large competitors when corruption distorts local markets. This situation will soon get worse: looming federal health care as well as environmental and financial mandates will push vast new oversight responsibilities into the states-and onto businesses' backs. Amy H. Handlin applies her 20 years' experience in state government and politics to provide this practical, results-oriented guide that teaches how to successfully navigate the jungle of overlapping federal, state, and municipal rules-skills that will become more essential as regulations balloon. Readers will learn how government works, get insight into the mindset of bureaucrats and politicians, and discover specific, nuts-and-bolts strategies for dealing with even the most unwelcoming, recalcitrant, or even dishonest officials. Provides model advocacy materials Includes end-of-chapter summaries that reinforce key concepts Presents vignettes dubbed "Tales from the Dark Side" that portray the worst in government bungling and help reinforce points in the text Contains a glossary clarifying common bureaucratic and political jargon

Governments worldwide struggle to remove policy deadlocks and enact much-needed reforms in organizational structure and public services. In this book, Jacob Torfing explores collaborative innovation as a way for public and private stakeholders to break the impasse. These network-based collaborations promise to multiply the skills, ideas, energy, and resources between government and its partners across agency boundaries and in the nonprofit and private sectors. Torfing draws on his own pioneering work in Europe as well as examples from the United States and Australia to construct a cross-disciplinary framework for studying collaborative innovation. His analysis explores its complex and interactive processes as he looks at how drivers and barriers may enhance or impede the collaborative approach. He also reflects on the roles institutional design, public management, and governance reform play in spurring collaboration for public sector innovation. The result is a theoretically and empirically informed book that carefully demonstrates how multi-actor collaboration can enhance public innovation in the face of fiscal constraint, the proliferation of wicked problems, and the presence of unsatisfied social needs.

The Dutch National Research Agenda is a set of national priorities that are set by scientists working in conjunction with corporations, civil society organisations, and interested citizens. The agenda consolidates the questions that scientific research will be focused on in the coming year. This book covers the current status of the Dutch National Research Agenda and considers what changes and adjustments may need to be made to the process in order to keep Dutch national research at the top of the pack.

This study critically examines for the first time the unlikely friendship between apartheid South Africa and non-white Japan. In the mid-1980s, Japan became South Africa's largest trading partner, while South Africa purportedly treated Japanese citizens in the Republic as honorary whites under apartheid. Osada probes the very different foreign policy-making mechanisms of the two nations and analyzes their ambivalent bilateral relations against the background of postcolonial and Cold War politics. She concludes that these diplomatic policies were adopted not voluntarily or willingly, but out of necessity due to external circumstances and international pressure.

Why did Japan exercise sanctions against South Africa in spite of their strong economic ties? How effective were these sanctions? What did the sensational term honorary whites actually mean? When and how did this special treatment begin? How did South Africa get away with apparently treating the Japanese as whites but not Chinese, other Coloureds, Indians, and so forth? By using Japan's "sanctions" against South Africa and South Africa's "honorary white" treatment of the Japanese as key concepts, the author describes the development of bilateral relations during this unique era. The book also covers the fascinating historical interaction between the two countries from the mid-17th century onward.

Welfare state reform has been a focus of domestic policy making in many European countries in recent years. Representing almost a third of the EU population and two distinctive models of European welfare states, this book compares development in British and German social policy over the past 25 years. During this time four periods of conservative governments were followed by centre-left administrations in both countries. Moreover, the respective economic and social positions of the two countries have been reversed. Adverse socio-economic developments have contributed to the waning of the erstwhile appeal of Germany as a role model of welfare capitalism. By contrast, the UK is seen by some as being on its way to gaining such a position. These trends provide an analytically intriguing background for a systematic contextualized comparison of reform processes in the two welfare states. Concentrating on three core domains of social policy, the book argues that unemployment support and public pension programmes have been subjected to retrenchment, as well as to restructuring. By contrast, family policies have been extended in both countries. However, patterns of retrenchment and restructuring differ across countries and programmes. In order to explain similarities and variations, the book emphasizes the relevance of three sets of factors: shifts in party policy preferences and power relations, three institutional variables, and contingent factors impinging on policy direction and profiles. Within pension policy, the relevance of different institutional characteristics and the respective balance between private and public forms of retirement suggest that the concept of 'path dependence' is particularly instructive. By contrast, differences in programme structures and their role within national political economies prove to be most relevant for the understanding of changes in unemployment support policy. Less institutionally embedded and expanding, the trajectories of family policies have to be seen in the context of dynamic party policy preferences.

In many respects, the United States remains a nation of immigrants. This is the first book length treatment of the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on a wide range of immigrant groups in North America. Contributors to the book draw on ethnographic fieldwork, government data, and original survey research to show how welfare reform has reinforced socio-economic hardships for working poor immigrants. As the essays reveal, reform laws have increased the social isolation of poor immigrant households and discouraged large numbers of qualified immigrants from applying for health and welfare services. All of the articles highlight the importance of examining federal policy guidelines in conjunction with local enforcement policies, labor market dynamics, and immigrant attitudes toward government agencies.

The future for all the nations of the world, whether diverse- or single-commodity countries, is bound up in effective economic development. In particular, an understanding of the relationship between a government and its private business sector is becoming an increasingly important factor in the management of economic growth. This work presents the results of a study that focuses on efforts to stimulate private industrial investment in the manufacturing sector of the Saudi Arabian economy. The conclusions help to shed light on the interplay of government-business relationships not only in Saudi Arabia, but in other developing countries as well.

The study, conducted in 1986, included a series of interviews with manufacturing executives, government officials, and chamber of commerce members. Wahib Soufi and Richard Mayer begin their analysis with an overview of government and business in Saudi Arabia, assessing the role played by Islamic law and the need for diversification. They follow this by sketching a conceptual framework for examining government-business relationships, and outlining issues relevant to promoting industrial development. A set of three chapters explore the results of the survey data, detailing the perceptions of the Saudi private business sector, comparing business and government perceptions, and finally, evaluating the effect of communications, expectations, and perceptions on the government-business relationship. The concluding chapter reexamines these conclusions on the basis of information available three years after the initial study, and is followed by a selective bibliography. This important study will be a valuable resource for corporate managers and government officials involved in economic planning, and a useful reference tool for college courses in business and economic policy and for public and academic libraries.

Crimes associated with the illegal trade in wildlife, timber and fish stocks, and pollutants and waste have become increasingly transnational, organized and serious. They warrant attention because of their environmental consequences, their human toll, their impact on the rule of law and good governance, and their links with violence, corruption and a range of cross-over crimes. This ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary Handbook examines key transnational environmental crime sectors and explores its most significant conceptual, operational and enforcement challenges. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners, this book presents in-depth analysis based on extensive academic research and operational and enforcement expertise. The sectors covered include illegal wildlife, timber, pollutant and waste trades and crimes in the carbon market. The contextual chapters examine criminal networks and illicit chains of custody, local sociocultural, economic and political factors, the effectiveness of policy and operational responses, and international jurisdictional challenges. This Handbook will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of global environmental politics, international environmental law, and environmental criminology as well as for regulatory and enforcement practitioners working to meet the challenges of transnational environmental crime. Contributors include: J. Ayling, L. Bisschop, G. Broussard, A. Cardesa-Salzmann, M. Cassidy, D.W.S. Challender, E. Clark, M.A. Clemente Munoz, E. de Coning, R. Duffy, L. Elliott, C. Gibbs, D. Humphreys, Y. Jia, N. Liu, D.C. MacMillan, C. Middleton, R. Ogden, G. Pink, G. Rose, V. Sacre, S. Saydan, W.H. Schaedla, S. Sinha, V. Somboon, T. Terekhova, E. van Asch, T. Wyatt

Reveals the ideal of a sustainable ecosocialist world in Marx's writings Karl Marx, author of what is perhaps the world's most resounding and significant critique of bourgeois political economy, has frequently been described as a "Promethean." According to critics, Marx held an inherent belief in the necessity of humans to dominate the natural world, in order to end material want and create a new world of fulfillment and abundance--a world where nature is mastered, not by anarchic capitalism, but by a planned socialist economy. Understandably, this perspective has come under sharp attack, not only from mainstream environmentalists but also from ecosocialists, many of whom reject Marx outright. Kohei Saito's Karl Marx's Ecosocialism lays waste to accusations of Marx's ecological shortcomings. Delving into Karl Marx's central works, as well as his natural scientific notebooks--published only recently and still being translated--Saito also builds on the works of scholars such as John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett, to argue that Karl Marx actually saw the environmental crisis embedded in capitalism. "It is not possible to comprehend the full scope of [Marx's] critique of political economy," Saito writes, "if one ignores its ecological dimension." Saito's book is crucial today, as we face unprecedented ecological catastrophes--crises that cannot be adequately addressed without a sound theoretical framework. Karl Marx's Ecosocialism shows us that Marx has given us more than we once thought, that we can now come closer to finishing Marx's critique, and to building a sustainable ecosocialist world.

Laham analyzes perhaps the most politically controversial element of Reagan's conservative agenda, involving his attempt to curtail federal enforcement of civil rights laws. The book focuses on the major initiatives Reagan pursued in his attempt to curb enforcement of those laws: first, his efforts to reform affirmative action by prohibiting mandatory employer use of minority and white female hiring goals, and second, his veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act. Reagan's academic critics argue that the president was politically motivated in his efforts to curtail federal enforcement of civil rights laws by his desire to appeal for the support of working-class whites, many of whom harbor racial resentments against minorities. Reagan's historical reputation suffers from his attempt to curb enforcement of those laws, which has fostered charges by his critics that he was cynical and manipulative, though outwardly pleasant and likable; a president who shamelessley played the race card for his own political gain. Laham challenges the conventional notion that Reagan was an ardent practitioner of the politics of racial division. Rather, he argues that Reagan's civil rights policy was determined by his philosophical commitment to colorblind justice and limited government, two core principles of his conservative agenda. This is a controversial survey important to students and scholars of contemporary American politics, public policy, and race relations.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

"The First Black President" is a critical and passionate reflection on the political and historical implications of an Obama administration concerning the issue of race in America. Obama's rise to political power has forever changed the contours of race relations in the country as many hail the new age of a "post-racial" society. Yet, an Obama presidency could further complicate real racial progress and could set race relations back in the country for decades to come if not viewed in the proper context. The book demonstrates that the Obama presidency must be celebrated as a historical triumph based on America's racist past, but also the struggle for equality, justice and freedom must also intensify with recognition of its global consequences. The problem of race in America no longer just affects American citizens but impacts cultures around the globe. The book speaks to both optimists and pessimists alike who are struggling to understand how race factors into the domestic and international policy agenda of Obama who now sits in the highest seat of political and global power.

Public Sector Reform in South Africa 1994-2021 is an examination of specific public sector reforms in three core Public Administration areas in the democratic South Africa: political-administrative relationships, the delegation of authority to senior managers and performance management. Comprehensively spanning a critical period from 1994 to the current day, this collection constitutes the first systematic study of public sector reform in the gamut of the democratic era in the country. The author traces developments of policy following a rapid political shift, shedding light on previously unexplored evolving structures and systems. The Public Policy and Governance series brings together the best in international research on policy and governance issues. Books within the series are authored and edited by experts in the field and present new and insightful research on a range of policy and governance issues across the globe.