In an attempt to strengthen the legitimacy of European Union (EU) policy-making, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty strengthened the principle of parliamentary control in EU affairs. This pertains to parliaments at all levels ranging from the regional to the supranational level. This book analyses the potential of regional parliaments - the parliaments closest to the citizens - to engage in EU affairs and to fill the perceived legitimacy gap. Eight member states have a total of 73 regional parliaments with legislative powers, and there are further trends towards decentralization in Europe. On its quest to understand the role that regional parliaments can plan in the EU multi-level parliamentary system, the book addresses key questions: What are the formal powers and functions of regional parliaments in EU policy-making? How do they use their powers in practice? How active are they in EU politics, and what do they try to achieve? What factors can explain their degree of (in-)activity? The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of The Journal of Legislative Studies.

The first book available devoted exclusively to China's rural organizational change and the subsequent implications for rural societies and politics. Following China's successful decollectivization, diverse new organizational forms arose in response to different local situations. Yet the collective tradition did not die. The contributors dissect the closely structured relationships among the newly emerging class of rural entrepreneurs, local officials, and their family members and associates.

There are wide disparities of wealth between the different regions of China. The result has been increased tension between ethnic groups and serious divisions between China's provinces. This book offers a balanced assessment of the dynamics and consequences of the decentralization of power and resources in post-Mao China. The author argues that increasing decentralisation has unleashed much competition and emulation among local governments. He discusses also the impact on regional disparities and cleavages, and government efforts to address regional disparities. This book is an authoritative study of an issue that will remain highly visible on China's political agenda for the foreseeable future.

The Rise of Big Government chronicles the phenomenal growth of local, state, and federal government over the last 100 years. The authors explain this growth by arguing that public and social acceptance of government intervention has allowed government to maintain a presence at all levels of the economy. The authors take issue with the opposing argument that government has grown by itself and by the bureaucracy's constant push for its own expansion.

The effects of neoliberal economic reforms in the Southern Mediterranean are now widely regarded as a main underlying cause of the Arab uprisings. An often neglected dimension is that of the reforms' implications for local governance. The contributions to this edited volume examine how state power is being re-articulated but also challenged at sub-national levels in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. They explore the effects of neoliberal economic and local governance reforms such as decentralization, public-private partnerships, and outsourcing in the area of public service delivery, poverty alleviation, and labor market reforms on local patronage networks, public accountability, and state-society relations. The findings show that such reforms are often subordinated to established patterns of political contestation among actors who seize on the opportunities that reforms offer to advance their political agendas, thereby illustrating the local specificity of 'actually existing neoliberalisms'. The book thus fills an important knowledge gap by combining public policy and management theories with those on patron-client networks and public accountability at the local level, and situating them within the critical literature on neoliberalism. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

Urban Politics After Apartheid presents an understanding of gendered urban politics in South Africa as an interactive process. Based on long-term fieldwork in the former townships 20 years after the end of apartheid, it provides an in-depth analysis of how activists and local politicians engage with each other. Sandrine Gukelberger contributes to the ongoing debate on urban governance by adding a new historicising perspective as an entry point into the urban governance arena, based upon the political trajectories of ward councillors and activists. Integrating urban governance studies with new perspectives on policy and social movements provides insight on the everyday events in which people engender, negotiate, and contest concepts, policies, and institutions that have been introduced under the catch-all banner of democracy. By conceptualising these events as encounters at different knowledge interfaces, the book develops a locus for an anthropology of policy, highlighting everyday negotiations in urban politics. Urban Politics After Apartheid dissects the social life of policies such as Desmond Tutu's rainbow nation metaphor beyond national symbolism, and academic and public discourse that largely portray participation in South Africa to be weak, local politicians to be absent, and social movements to be toothless tigers. Proving the inaccuracy of these portrayals, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of South African politics, urban studies, political anthropology and political sociology.

Recent years have seen a major transformation in the way that local communities are governed. There is now an appointed world of local governance sitting alongside elected local government. Many appointed bodies (popularly known as QUANGOs) are seen, from the local government perspective, as domain intruders and are often viewed with resentment and suspicion.

Recent years have seen a major transformation in the way that local communities are governed. There has been a growth of 'government by appointment'. It has, of course, never been the case that local authorities have exercised all governmental powers in any particular locality. Others have always been involved but, in the past, local authorities confidently saw themselves as the rightful and undisputed leaders of their communities. Now their position is under challenge as they find themselves sharing the local 'turf' with a whole range of bodies also exercising governmental powers at the local level. The number of members of appointed and self-appointed bodies who have become known as the 'new magistracy' now greatly exceeds the number of elected local councillors. There is now an appointed world of local governance sitting alongside elected local government. Many appointed bodies (popularly known as QUANGOs) are seen, from the local government perspective, as domain intruders' and are often viewed with resentment and suspicion. Certainly organisational roles and boundaries have become more blurred and confused. This publication seeks to develop understanding of the changing world of local governance and thus contribute to wider debates.

Following on from Introducing Town Planning andImplementing Town Planning, this third volume in the series examines the scope and nature of modern town planning in greater depth. It investigates the theories and preoccupations which inform the current planning agenda, compares this with earlier objectives, and discusses likely future trends. Written by a team of expert contributors under the general editorship of Clara Greed, the book begins with a review of town planning and then goes on to discuss the major themes in five parts: the economic context of town planning planning for housing planning for sustainability planning for city centres or decentralisation changing agendas and agencies Within this contextualising framework the contributors investigate many of the current, and often conflicting, urban policy issues challenging the planning profession. Over and above a commitment to traditional, physical land use matters, planning practitioners nowadays must take on board new priorities, deriving from the environmental movement, the European Union, the economic climate, changing local authority structures, and legislative frameworks. The contributors discuss these new agendas, and demonstrate how they link to inner city regeneration, city centre management, sustainability issues, and wider social policy and urban governance questions. This volume incorporates a more discursive and reflective approach to studying, and thus constitutes a valuable text for final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses in town planning, surveying, building, architecture, and housing, as well as RTPI, RICS, CIOH, CIOB, ASI, ISVA and RIBA courses. It will be of interest to a wider readership studying urban economics, urban sociology, social policy and urban geography, and to young professionals in both the public and private sector of the property world.

This third book in the GISDATA series focuses on the widespread use of geographical information systems GIS in European local government. The editors include a wide range of applications carried out by different professional groups, and offer the opportunity of studying the extent to which diffusion of innovations like GIS are sensitive to national issues such as cultural context, institutional setup and the availability of data.; The book answers key questions such as: what can be learnt from research on organizational behaviour in relation to technological innovation?; what are the classical features of the GIS diffusion process?; to what extent is the adoption and utilization of GIS facilitated - or impeded - by the organizational culture within which it takes place?; and what mechanisms can be applied to enhance the diffusion of GIS? The book covers aspects of diffusion in the following European countries: UK, France, Italy, Poland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, Greece and Portugal.

Despite the growing academic interest in the development policy of the European Union (EU) and the booming literature on Europeanisation, the impact of Europe on national development policies has largely been overlooked. By exploring Member State interactions with and through the EU level across a number of different issues, this volume looks to herald a new research agenda. The picture emerging from the empirical evidence is that of modest degrees of Europeanisation. Resistance to Europe can be attributed to different factors, some operating at the domestic level (e.g. established cultural and normative structures, different types of veto players) and others related to the existence of several groupings with alternative policy prescriptions (e.g. Nordic donors, like-minded countries, former colonial powers). Even where there are signs of convergence (or divergence) between the development policies of the various Member States, they may be due to other influences rather than pressures coming from the EU. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Politics and Society.

Based on cases and interviews in Britain, Europe and the United States, this book explains the recurrence of regional planning and of initiatives in regional governance, in a wide range of advanced industrial countries. Providing an analysis of the nature of regional planning and governance, the book traces the development of regional planning and the institutions associated with it. It also looks at the way that regions have been changing their form under pressure from economic and political developments and examines how regional planning and governance has responded, comparing experience in the UK, the rest of Europe and the US.
In concluding that regionalism is an imperative feature of politics in most countries, associated with almost any of the variety of forms of governance, the author offers a major appraisal of the significance of regional planning in an intemational context

Braithwaite's argument against punitive justice systems and for restorative justice systems establishes that there are good theoretical and empirical grounds for anticipating that well designed restorative justice processes will restore victims, offenders, and communities better than existing criminal justice practices. Counterintuitively, he also shows that a restorative justice system may deter, incapacitate, and rehabilitate more effectively than a punitive system. This is particularly true when the restorative justice system is embedded in a responsive regulatory framework that opts for deterrence only after restoration repeatedly fails, and incapacitation only after escalated deterrence fails. Braithwaite's empirical research demonstrates that active deterrence under the dynamic regulatory pyramid that is a hallmark of the restorative justice system he supports, is far more effective than the passive deterrence that is notable in the stricter "sentencing grid" of current criminal justice systems.

An analysis of local legislative and budgetary politics during the late Soviet and post-Soviet period with case studies of electoral behaviour, distribution processes, political contestation, and institutional development.

Regional associations have become major players in international politics and economics. The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), composed of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, is considered as a player which will strengthen the international influence and international trade of the post-socialist countries. It is intended to become a parallel association to the European Union. This comprehensive volume considers the potential global role of the EEU. A major problem outlined is the balancing of relations between the EU and the West on the one hand, and China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on the other. The book explores the impact of the global crisis as well as a consideration of the EEU in the world system of states. It also examines the EEU's relationship with other regional developments, in relation to the EU and to the outer circle of post-socialist states that joined neither the EU nor the EEU. It concludes by considering Eurasia in the Asian context, looking at the two central Asian countries (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), relations with China and the relationship between the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the EEU. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Politics and Society.

As a textbook for students in planning, geography and urban studies, this work provides both an introduction to the problems and practices of planning in general and an illustration of them using the London region in particular. The authors look at the decrepit public transport, congestion, noise, dirt, crime, poverty, begging, homelessness and addresses these issues in terms of history, jobs, housing, transport and the quality of the environment. Future options are considered. The book is divided into four major parts. Part One provides an introduction. Part Two addresses some major problems confronting anyone seeking to plan for London: unemployment, housing and transport. These issues are dealt with both individually and in terms of their inter-relationships, with emphasis placed on the need to relate employment and housing to each other in terms of both their individual land-use requirements and the transportation and communication links between them. Part Three deals with the past and present politics and practices of planning London. Part Four looks at both the future, focusing on the special characteristics of London as a world city, and the recent past in terms of changes i

An analysis of local legislative and budgetary politics during the late Soviet and post-Soviet period with case studies of electoral behaviour, distribution processes, political contestation, and institutional development.

The capacity to conduct international disease outbreak surveillance and share information about outbreaks quickly has empowered both State and Non-State Actors to take an active role in stopping the spread of disease by generating new technical means to identify potential pandemics through the creation of shared reporting platforms. Despite all the rhetoric about the importance of infectious disease surveillance, the concept itself has received relatively little critical attention from academics, practitioners, and policymakers. This book asks leading contributors in the field to engage with five key issues attached to international disease outbreak surveillance - transparency, local engagement, practical needs, integration, and appeal - to illuminate the political effect of these technologies on those who use surveillance, those who respond to surveillance, and those being monitored.

Policy Making in the Public Interest is the first text and workbook to provide a short and firmly focused introduction to local government policy making techniques. Each chapter introduces core policy concepts and competencies and concludes with exercises that encourage the reader to apply the theme of the chapter to a practical policy issue in local government, such as city-planning, community-economic development, public safety programming, utility planning, developing regional partnerships, and sustainable growth and development. The exercises explore issues students are likely to analyze as interns or observe in a service learning assignment with local government. For practitioners and elected officials, the exercises focus on issues commonly confronted on the job. This unique approach is designed specifically to lead the reader to a complete and multi-dimensional understanding of 'the public interest' and to provide tools for identifying and adopting local government policies that will support it. An accompanying eResource page contains grading forms to evaluate verbal presentations and analytical work, PowerPoint slides, downloadable forms for students and practitioners, as well as links and resources. Policy Making in the Public Interest is an essential text and workbook for classes in public policy or local government operations, a vital self-guided handbook for managers and elected officials, and a useful resource and instructional guide for workshops.

Creating metropolitan regions that are more efficient, equitable, and sustainable depends on the willingness of local officials to work together across municipal boundaries to solve large-scale problems. How do these local officials think? Why do they only sometimes cooperate? What kind of governance do they choose in the face of persistent problems? The Risk of Regional Governance offers a new perspective on these questions. Drawing on theory from sociology and anthropology, it argues that many of the most important cooperative decisions local officials make-those about land use planning and regulation-are driven by heuristic, biased reasoning driven by cultural values. The Risk of Regional Governance builds a sociocultural collective action framework, and supports it with rich survey and interview data from hundreds of local elected officials serving in the suburbs of Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a story of the Rust Belt, of how local officials think about their community and the region, and-most importantly-of how we might craft policies that can overcome biases against regional governance.

Since the mid-1990s, Morocco has sought to present itself as a model of genuine and gradual reform, with decentralisation as a key tenet of this. Here, Sylvia Bergh investigates the dynamics of popular participation and local governance, testing the extent to which the current structure builds local capacity, or whether it is, in fact, a tool for 'soft' state control. She narrates the realities of local administration and civil society to shed critical light on questions of democratic transition in North Africa. Her assessment of decentralisation and participatory development projects in rural Morocco, and the legal and policy frameworks in which they operate, leads to the conclusion that they have generally not yet led to an expansion of a civil society able to build local capacity or enhance bottom-up empowerment. Grounded in an approach of the 'anthropology of policy', this book makes an important contribution to literature on the democratisation, development and governance in North Africa.

Reissuing works originally published between 1952 and 1991, this collection presents a wide-ranging set of excellent texts across economics, geography, urban studies, planning, politics and industrial studies. Addressing problems and policy, development and demographics, these books together form a wealth of research and debate. Some volumes address specific areas such as industrialization, housing, property, city-systems, de-centralization, employment or rural resources. Other volumes present case studies in Australia, Britain, underdeveloped countries, South Africa and the USA while some are fully international in representation. Given the recent economic shifts around the world, this timely collection is an incredibly useful resource.

This title was first published in 2001. Planning today has to deal with a completely different world from the one in which many of the basic ways of thought of the profession were founded. Many traditional planning approaches often seem less relevant when attention is increasingly being focused on sustainable development, deregulation and competitiveness in a global world. Focusing on the changes that are taking place in the realm of planning practice and spatial planning across Europe, this text examines the driving forces for institutional change. It brings together a team of leading planning academics with experience of planning practice and policies, from the UK, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Norway. Throughout the 12 chapters of the book, they examine and compare new approaches to planning across Europe at local, metropolitan, regional, national and international levels.

First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Why does public management - the art of the state - so often go wrong, producing failure and fiasco instead of public service? What are the different ways in which control or regulation can be applied to government? Why do we find contradictory recipes for the improvement of public services? Are the forces of modernity set to produce world-wide convergence in ways of organizing government? This important new study aims to explore such questions, central to current debates over public management. Combining contemporary and historical experience, it employs grid/group cultural theory as an organizing frame and method of exploration. Using examples from different places and eras, the study seeks to identify the recurring variety of ideas about how to organize public services. And contrary to widespread claims that modernization will bring a new global uniformity, it argues that variety is unlikely to disappear from doctrine and practice in public management.