This Handbook is a comprehensive anthology of up-to-date chapters contributed by current researchers in budget forecasting. Editors Daniel Williams and Thad Calabrese had previously found substantial deficiencies in public budgeting forecast literature with current research failing to address such matters as practices related to forecasting expenditure factors, the consequences of forecast bias, or empirical examination of the effectiveness of many deterministic methods actually used by many governments. This volume comprehensively addresses the state of knowledge about budget forecasting for practitioners, academics, and students and serves as a comprehensive resource for instruction alongside serving as a reference book for those engaged in budget forecasting practice.

The state of New Hampshire has played a pivotal role in Donald Trump's rise. This volume examines how the Granite State incubated Trump's political ambitions as early as the 1988 campaign cycle, how Trump's return to the state in 2014 presaged his 2016 candidacy, and how the state rescued his ambitions after his defeat in the Iowa caucuses. The book also examines how Trump lost the state to Hillary Clinton in the general election, and how the state has in many ways been a microcosm of national politics since Trump's election, as a Republican governor and legislature attempt to pursue their long-deferred agenda in the face of Democratic opposition and as Democrats racked up victories in special and off-year elections. Finally, this book examines what Trump's impact will be on the 2020 presidential primaries.

This book argues that Sierra Leone's ten-year civil conflict demonstrates the criticality of freedom of information (FOI) as a facet of good governance where corruption thrives, spanning both public and private sectors, if Sierra Leone's continued security and stability are to be ensured. It argues that it was the absence of an anti-corruption tool like FOI and its attendants, transparency, and accountability, in governance generally, and in the area of the extractive industry in particular, that lead to other social phenomena which directly sparked the war. It proffers that for the continued consolidation of peace, security, stability and development in Sierra Leone, transparency and accountability must be ensured by protecting and implementing the demand driven anti-graft FOI. Straddling the disciplines of law, political science, public policy, and history, the book's major premise is that it was the absence of FOI in the area of governance and the extractive industry, which enabled politicians, civil servants and the politically connected to ransom and exploit Sierra Leone's mineral resources for their own profit with impunity, a state of affairs which led to underdevelopment, state collapse and an embittered civil populace especially the youth. The book postulates that as such any attempt to ensure long-term peace in Sierra Leone, should seek to avoid replicating the conditions that gave rise to that gruesome conflict- elites expropriation of national resources through endemic graft. The book proposes the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Right to Information Act 2013.

Drawing on research from across Canada and beyond, education policy expert Sue Winton critically analyzes policies encouraging the privatization of public education in Canada. These policies, including school choice, fundraising, fees, and international education, encourages parents and others in the private sector to take on responsibilities for education formerly provided by governments with devastating consequences for the democratic goals of public education. Unequal Benefits introduces traditional and critical approaches to policy research and explains how to conduct a critical policy analysis. Winton explains the role policy plays in supporting and challenging inequality in the pursuit of a strong democracy and the public school ideal. In these idealized education spaces, policy decisions prioritize collective needs over private interests, which are made in public by democratically elected officials, and, more importantly, every child is able to access high quality education programs and enjoy their benefits at no cost. Written for parents, educators, policymakers, and other interested citizens, Unequal Benefits sheds light on how to participate in efforts to resist educational privatization and achieve the public school ideal across Canada.

This book examines the impact and implications of the declaration of human right to water and sanitation access for human security in Central Asia. It analyzes the current risks and threats arising from mismanagement of water resources in Central Asia through the different dimensions of human security: environmental, economic, social, and political. Identifying the main actors involved in water conflict in the region, the author pays particular attention to the multilateral security organizations operating in the region, OSCE, NATO, SCO, and CSTO, and discusses whether their security policies have been effective in addressing these conflicts.

This book examines the functions of conferences within Arctic governance, as a third dimension between sovereign states and formalized cooperative arrangements. It analyzes conferences against the background of three main empirical topics. Firstly, the functions of conferences for different actor groups, both Arctic rights holders and emerging non-Arctic state actors claiming stakeholder status. From this, the book also analyzes how conferences contribute to altering the actor composition of Arctic governance as a whole. Secondly, conferences as agenda setting arenas - whether conference activities can contribute to influencing the broader agenda in the region, and conferences as arenas for agenda setting - whether participants can bring with them topics that are picked up and brought into other processes. Thirdly, the book considers the space for conferences within broader governance architectures, as links between units in the regime complex. The book further presents an in-depth case study of the two largest conferences on Arctic issues: the Arctic Frontiers and Arctic Circle Assembly. It illustrates the diverse functions conferences can have for elements within a broader governance system, beyond serving as meeting places and networking arenas. Therefore, it is a must-read for researchers, students, and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of Arctic governance in particular, and International Relations in general.

Based on contributions from leading scholars, this study generates a wealth of new empirical information about Latin American party systems. It also contributes richly to major theoretical and comparative debates about the effects of party systems on democratic politics, and about why some party systems are much more stable and predictable than others. Party Systems in Latin America builds on, challenges, and updates Mainwaring and Timothy Scully's seminal Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America (1995), which re-oriented the study of democratic party systems in the developing world. It is essential reading for scholars and students of comparative party systems, democracy, and Latin American politics. It shows that a stable and predictable party system facilitates important democratic processes and outcomes, but that building and maintaining such a party system has been the exception rather than the norm in contemporary Latin America.

This handbook presents a comprehensive view of the current theory and research surrounding political elites, which is now a pivotal subject for academic study and public discourse. In 40 chapters by leading scholars, it displays the field's richness and diversity. The handbook is organized in six sections, each introduced by a co-editor, focusing on theories about political elites, methods for studying them, their main structural and behavioral patterns worldwide, the differentiation and integration of political elite sectors, elite attributes and resources, and the dilemmas of political elites in this century. Forty years since Robert Putnam's landmark Comparative Study of Political Elites, this handbook is an indispensable resource for scholars and students engaged in the study of this vibrant field.

This book explores the existence of gaps between public preferences and institutional designs in democracies, and specifically cases in which such gaps are maintained for a long period of time without being challenged by the electorate. Gaps such as these can be seen in the complex relations between the state and religion in Israel and Turkey, and more specifically in their policies on marriage. This line of investigation is interesting both theoretically and empirically, as despite their poles apart policies, Israel and Turkey share a similar pattern of institutional dynamics. Existing explanations for this phenomenon suggested either civil society-based arguments or intra-institutional dynamics, as reasons for the maintenance of such gaps. This book enriches our understanding of policy dynamics in democratic systems by introducing a third line of argument, one that emphasizes the effective role state institutions play in maintaining such arrangements for long periods, often against the public will.

Recounting the gripping tale of Europe's quest for a constitution surveying events from Joschka Fischer's ground-breaking Quo-Vadis speech at Berlin's Humboldt University in 2000, to the failed referendums in France and the Netherlands fiver years later, this book addresses a relatively new aspect in EU Studies: the importance of public communication for bridging the legitimacy dilemmas of European integration. Through analysis of newspaper coverage on the debate over the future of Europe in Great Britain and Germany between 2000 and 2005, this book explores how national identities interact with, and are reproduced in, the discursive construction of the future of the EU and in doing so, it provides powerful insights into Europe's emerging communicative space(s). The results of the three case studies suggest that the debate surrounding the future of Europe touche the core of a European construction, which exposes contradictory connotations and expectations while also highlighting that totally different ontological assumptions exist in Germany and the UK. The implications for the "European Public Sphere' are severe as while communication across borders does not require consensus, it presupposes a common understanding of the issues at stake.

This book examines the progress of institutionalisation of evaluation in European countries from various perspectives. . It describes both prior developments and current states of evaluation in 16 European countries and across the European Union (EU), focussing on three dimensions, namely the political, social and professional systems. These detailed country reports, which have been written by selected researchers and authors from each of the respective countries, lead to a concluding comparison and synthesis. This is the first of four volumes of the compendium The Institutionalisation of Evaluation to be followed by volumes on the Americas, Africa and Australasia. The overall aim is to provide an interdisciplinary audience with cross-country learning to enable them to better understand the institutionalisation of evaluation in different nations, world regions and different sectors.

At last, a right up-to-the-minute volume on a topic of huge national and international importance. As governments around the world battle voter apathy, the need for new and modernized methods of involvement in the polity is becoming acute. This work provides information on advanced research and case studies that survey the field of digital government. Successful applications in a variety of government settings are delineated, while the authors also analyse the implications for current and future policy-making. Each chapter has been prepared and carefully edited within a structured format by a known expert on the individual topic.

This book argues that accelerating action toward sustainability for and by cities and their inhabitants can make a huge difference to humanity's endeavor to recover from current crises and build a sustainable future. It sheds light on cutting-edge concepts and actions toward sustainability that can taken by and for cities and with citizens. In this book, author Voula Mega takes the reader on a journey inside and across cities and highlights efforts toward a paradigmatic shift that reconciles human systems with nature. Leadership, education, innovation, trust and citizen empowerment all play a crucial role for the co-invention of a new model that balances human well-being, sustainable prosperity and the future of the planet. Building on robust evidence and inspired by best practices, Human Sustainable Cities offers compelling messages and convincing advice to all stakeholders who are striving to overcome crises, speed up the path toward resilience and preparedness and bounce forward better.

This book is a study of Britain as a capitalism poised between American and European models. It explores themes of legitimation, denial and opportunism via a series of substantial case studies framed by a reinterpretation of Thatcherism's economic contexts and a critical assessment of New Labour.

This book analyses the impact of participatory governance on cultural development, explaining why cultural participatory practices can lead to positive sustainable effects or to unexpected and controversial ones. It focuses on four projects realized in the two European Capitals of Culture of 2013 - Marseille-Provence (France) and Kosice (Slovakia) - within the Programme 'Quartiers Creatifs' and the SPOTs Programme. By combining different strands of the Democratic Theory and applying the process tracing methodology, the book argues that participation produces cultural developmental processes only when a certain intensity of trust is reached among the various stakeholders. In the presence of fully-fledged trust, participation activates a reinforcing chain of capacity-building and social capital that nurture long-term cultural networks. On the contrary, in the absence of fully-fledged trust, participation can generate contestation movements or isolated cultural production. Uniquely, the book challenges the 'optimistic aura' of participatory governance of culture, showing its conflicting but always productive nature.

This volume explores the professional ethics of addresses the varied ethical needs of the professional economists and public policy professionals. Using terms and methods familiar to the reader, the book goes beyond the typical narrative of economics and morality to walk the professional through the process of ethical decision-making. Designed to be easy to navigate and applicable to everyday practice, this book includes a step-by-step illustrated guide through an ethical decision-making process using a methodology specifically tailored to economists and policy professionals. It describes numerous unique ethical tests and resolution methods which are utilized in a portfolio structure. The book also includes a brief and convenient catalogue of important figures in philosophy and ethics, translated into their policy applications; it concludes with candid advice from experts in different subfields on how ethics impacts their professional lives. This volume provides a foundation and framework for those in economics and public policy to implement a relevant practice of professional ethics both at and in their work.

This book addresses timely concerns of rising African nationalism and the 2nd decolonisation in Africa. The wholesale rejection of all things considered 'Western' is seen to be a result of 'integrationalism', defined as the specific kind of methodology by which EU foreign policy engagement may be interpreted. Using complexity theory and panarchy, a specific arrangement of interacting complex adaptive systems together with a 'resilience assessment', the EU's foreign policy is shown to be undermining the aims of the premier African institution, the AU, created to provide unity and security on the continent: the EU pursues these objectives in its own image rather than honouring African values. This book raises awareness of these issues, as well as to widen the application of the theoretical framework in international relations and politics, which is becoming increasingly important in a complex world. The aim of this book is to show that the negative isolationism pursued in order to counteract western influence is not the answer and can be avoided through this awareness.

This volume continues the tradition now established since 2006, of compiling excellent research into the practice and application of community indicators in a single source volume. It focuses on the theme of the Community Indicators Consortium 2020 Summit, as a significant venue for the advancement of the practice and theory of community indicators work. It covers the conference's theme of "community resilience", which is the capacity of all of a community's elements to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. In keeping with the practical, "best cases" emphasis of this book series, the editors incorporate a case-based approach to chapters discussing how specific indicators, indices or series of indicators can lead to better decisions and outcomes to help communities adapt and transform in the face of challenges, helping them prepare for both the expected and the unexpected to sustain and improve quality of life, including technology and open source approaches to data sharing and data-focussed collaboration; evolving approaches that use shared indicators to improve overall community well-being and quality of life; research related to community indicators and policy, application, research, and/or practice; and techniques and approaches to measure resilience. This volume is of interest to social scientists, management professionals, social workers and policy makers working on various aspects of community indicators of quality of life and well-being. Chapter "The Cost of Sea Level Rise for the Island Community of Vinalhaven, Maine: Spurring action through collaborative data analysis" is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). For further details see licence information in the chapters.

This book examines the development of democratic thought in the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, with a focus on the movement's ideas about participatory democracy. It makes particular reference to two key periods: the 1980s 'people's power' movement and the subsequent years of policy formulation from 1990 when the ANC began to design and implement a system of participatory democracy alongside a representative government. Through the examination of historic documents and in-depth interviews with former ANC activists, government officials and those involved in policy development, the author explores the inspiration for the party's commitment to establishing participatory democracy. The book combines democratic theory and political and intellectual history to look at the role of popular participation as part of a broader trajectory of the ANC's democratic thought. It critically engages with concepts used in the party's participatory discourse with a view to deepening our understanding of how ideas have shaped the construction of South Africa's democracy.

Amid a global health crisis, the process for declaring a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is at a crossroads. As a formal declaration by the World Health Organization, a PHEIC is governed by clear legislation as to what is, and what is not, deemed a global health security threat. However, it has become increasingly politicized, and the legal criteria now appear to be secondary to the political motivation or outcome of the announcement. Addressing multiple empirical case studies, including COVID-19, this multidisciplinary book explores the relationship between international law and international relations to interrogate how a PHEIC is declared and its role in how we collectively respond to outbreaks.

This book identifies "development-oriented poverty reduction" as a crucial part of what is now often billed as China's unique development path, experience and model. China's success serves as an example for any society aiming to eradicate poverty. However, there is still a tough road ahead as the country enters a new phase of the war on poverty. In addition to a systematic overview of the country's development-oriented poverty reduction experiences over recent decades, the book also offers an outlook for poverty reduction in the coming years, including challenges the country will face as it enters the final stretch in the race to achieve moderate prosperity for all. It also discusses policy options for meeting the government's poverty-reduction targets by 2020 within the precision-targeting strategy framework.

This book approaches migration from Marxist feminist, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonial perspectives. The present conditions of transnational migration, best described as a kind of social expulsion, include migrant caravans and detained unaccompanied children in the United States, thousands of migrant deaths at sea, the razing of self-organized refugee camps in Greece, and the massive dispersal of populations within and between countries. Placing patriarchal capitalism, imperialism, racialization, and fundamentalisms at the center of the analysis, Marxism and Migration helps build a more coherent and historically-informed discussion of the conditions of migration, resettlement, and resistance. Drawing upon a range of academic disciplines and diverse geopolitical regions, the book rethinks migrations from the vantage point of class struggle and seeks to ignite a more robust discussion of critical consciousness, racialization, militarization, and solidarity.

This open access book attends to the co-creation of digital public services for ageing societies. Increasingly public services are provided in digital form; their uptake however remains well below expectations. In particular, amongst older adults the need for public services is high, while at the same time the uptake of digital services is lower than the population average. One of the reasons is that many digital public services (or e-services) do not respond well to the life worlds, use contexts and use practices of its target audiences. This book argues that when older adults are involved in the process of identifying, conceptualising, and designing digital public services, these services become more relevant and meaningful. The book describes and compares three co-creation projects that were conducted in two European cities, Bremen and Zaragoza, as part of a larger EU-funded innovation project. The first part of the book traces the origins of co-creation to three distinct domains, in which co-creation has become an equally important approach with different understandings of what it is and entails: (1) the co-production of public services, (2) the co-design of information systems and (3) the civic use of open data. The second part of the book analyses how decisions about a co-creation project's governance structure, its scope of action, its choice of methods, its alignment with strategic policies and its embedding in existing public information infrastructures impact on the process and its results. The final part of the book identifies key challenges to co-creation and provides a more general assessment of what co-creation may achieve, where the most promising areas of application may be and where it probably does not match with the contingent requirements of digital public services. Contributing to current discourses on digital citizenship in ageing societies and user-centric design, this book is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in co-creation, public sector innovation, open government, ageing and digital technologies, citizen engagement and civic participation in socio-technical innovation.