The Handbook of West European Pension Politics provides scholars, policy-makers and students with a complete overview of the political and policy issues involved in pension policy, and well as case studies of contemporary pension politics (1980 to present) in 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The book is suitable as a text for courses in comparative politics, European Studies, social policy, comparative public policy and public administration. Each chapter is written by an expert on pension politics and is presented in a standardized format with standardized tables and figures that describe: political institutions; government coalitions, parliamentary and electoral majorities; the party system; the pension system; proposed and enacted pension reforms.

The pursuit for better governance has assumed center stage in developmental discourse as well as reform initiatives of all organizations working for the public welfare, and includes such issues as service delivery and responding to citizens' needs and demands. In the era of globalization, multilevel and new modes of governance are changing the traditional governance models of nation states, accelerated by technological innovation, rising citizen expectation, policy intervention from international and multilateral donor communities, and the hegemony of western ideology imposed on many developing nations. However, a universally accepted and agreed upon definition of 'governance' still remains elusive. There is no consensus or agreement as to what would be the nature and form of governance and public administration. The question that is raised: Is there a universal governance mechanism that fits in all contexts or governance mechanisms should be based on home grown ideas?One can see various programs and policies of reforms and reorganizations in public administration in the developing countries, but these efforts have not been effective to address the challenging issues of economic development, employment generation, poverty reduction, ensuring equality of access to public services, maintaining fairness and equity, security and safety of citizens, social cohesion, democratic institution building, ensuring broader participation in the decision making process, and improving the quality of life. Therefore, there is a widespread concern for better governance or sound governance to bridge the gap between theory and practice, making this book of interest to academics as well as policy-makers in global public administration.

This study unravels the real dynamics at stake within the Lebanese Madame/Sri Lankan housemaid relationship. Unraveled in this book are the real dynamics at stake in the Madame/housemaid relationship. While cases of extreme physical abuse by the Lebanese women who hire housemaids - Madames - are an exception, what has become normalised are more insidious patterns of domination used to control each and every aspect of their employees' lives. For their part, Sri Lankan housemaids are not merely passive victims. Away from direct provocation and first-hand repercussions, they try to deflect what Pierre Bourdieu has called 'symbolic violence'. These attempts at 'everyday forms of resistance', as defined by James Scott, can help loosen their employers' grip. Yet, as this unprecedented study shows, the Madame/housemaid relationship and the rules that govern it remain under the managerial hold of the Madame.

A comparative study of how economic and political differences between Antwerp and Barcelona influence the life-course trajectories of Senegalese and Gambian migrants. This book examines two major social changes experienced by European cities in the last two decades: post-industrial economic restructuring and new immigration flows. The link between both has been extensively discussed throughout a variety of theoretical approaches and in numerous descriptive contributions. Adding to those studies, this research focuses on three elements of migratory experience that have been relatively neglected thus far: a dynamic view of changes over time, the influence of national welfare and legislation frameworks, and the importance of support mechanisms outside the labour market. The material underpinning the arguments is the qualitative life-course analysis of 81 in-depth interviews with Senegambian migrants living in Antwerp and Barcelona.

As countries around the world make continuous strides in developing their economies, it has become increasingly important to evaluate the different ways culture impacts the growth of a region. Global Perspectives on Development Administration and Cultural Change investigates the impact of economic growth on different demographics throughout the world. Identifying theoretical concepts and notable topics in the areas of economic development, organizational culture, and cultural shifts, this book is an essential reference source for policymakers, development planners, international institutions, public policy analysts, administrators, researchers, and NGOs.

Economic growth continues to transform the economic and political landscape of Asia. Equally the policies now being adopted to promote private sector participation, re-structure state entities, and reduce the presence of the state in the provision of public goods and services, are tied to fundamental transformations in Asia's state-society relations. The global cast of contributors present a timely analysis of the impact of neo-liberalism on Asia's developmental policies and the organisation of Asian states and markets. Ironically, the "developmental state" that has historically driven Asia's rapid economic transformation is now threatened by an increasingly dominant neoliberal agenda that aims to roll back the state in the name of market fundamentalism.

This book provides rare insights into the nature of contemporary, technologically-facilitated government. Its multidisciplinary approach demonstrates that information technology is more than a tool for politicians and policy-makers. E-government has reconfigured public administration, policy, power and citizenship.

Party Patronage and Party Government in European Democracies brings together insights from the worlds of party politics and public administration in order to analyze the role of political parties in public appointments across contemporary Europe. Based on an extensive new data gathered through expert interviews in fifteen European countries, this book offers the first systematic comparative assessment of the scale of party patronage and its role in sustaining modern party governments. Among the key findings are: First, patronage appointments tend to be increasingly dominated by the party in public office rather than being used or controlled by the party organization outside parliament. Second, rather than using appointments as rewards, as used to be the case in more clientelistic systems in the past, parties are now more likely to emphasize appointments that can help them to manage the infrastructure of government and the state. In this way patronage becomes an organizational rather than an electoral resource. Third, patronage appointments are increasingly sourced from channels outside of the party, thus helping to make parties look increasingly like network organizations, primarily constituted by their leaders and their personal and political hinterlands. Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr The Comparative Politics series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Kenneth Carty, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia, and Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Institute of Political Science, Philipps University, Marburg.

This book argues that the welfare state system should be adopted globally, not only for the purpose of achieving equality and justice within nations, but also for security between states. Using Finland, Sweden and Canada as case studies, it theorises that the welfare state system and the common security system, which are mutually reinforcing peace structures, should be utilised worldwide as the best method of attaining peace and prosperity. It demonstrates the feasibility of the welfare state in the past, whilst also showing how these historical experiences can be translated into socio-political action to address contemporary global challenges. Operating in the fields of political theory, international relations, and social philosophy, it will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, the welfare state, and sociology, as well as state policymakers.

This book contains the collection of papers presented at the conference of the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 8.2 "Information and Organizations." The conference took place during June 21-24, 2009 at the Universidade do Minho in Guimaraes, Portugal. The conference entitled "CreativeSME - The Role of IS in Leveraging the Intelligence and Creativity of SME's" attracted high-quality submissions from across the world. Each paper was reviewed by at least two reviewers in a double-blind review process. In addition to the 19 papers presented at the conference, there were five panels and four workshops, which covered a range of issues relevant to SMEs, creativity and information systems. We would like to show our appreciation of the efforts of our two invited keynote speakers, Michael Dowling of the University of Regensburg, Germany and Carlos Zorrinho, Portuguese coordinator of the Lisbon Strategy and the Technological Plan. The following organizations supported the conference through financial or other contributions and we would like to thank them for their engagement: "

In most developed countries immigration policy is high on the political agenda. But what happens to migrants after their arrival - integration and social cohesion - has received less attention, yet these conditions matter to migrants and to wider society. Drawing on fieldwork in London and eastern England, Moving up and getting on is the first accessible, yet comprehensive, text to critique the effectiveness of recent integration and social cohesion policies and calls for a stronger political leadership. Written for those interested in public policy, the book argues that if the UK is to be successful in managing migration, there needs to be greater emphasis on the social aspects of integration and opportunities for meaningful social contact between migrants and longer-settled residents, particularly in the workplace.

Profound social changes have made governance and political leadership more challenging than ever. The result is that politics in the democratic world faces a crisis in the 21st century. The revised edition of this highly successful text reassesses the gap between citizen expectation and the realities of government in light of new developments.

This book provides key strategic principles and best practices to guide the design and implementation of digital government strategies. It provides a series of recommendations and findings to think about IT applications in government as a platform for information, services and collaboration, and strategies to avoid identified pitfalls. Digital government research suggests that information technologies have the potential to generate immense public value and transform the relationships between governments, citizens, businesses and other stakeholders. However, developing innovative and high impact solutions for citizens hinges on the development of strategic institutional, organizational and technical capabilities. Thus far, particular characteristics and problems of the public sector organization promote the development of poorly integrated and difficult to maintain applications. For example, governments maintain separate applications for open data, transparency, and public services, leading to duplication of efforts and a waste of resources. The costs associated with maintaining such sets of poorly integrated systems may limit the use of resources to future projects and innovation. This book provides best practices and recommendations based on extensive research in both Mexico and the United States on how governments can develop a digital government strategy for creating public value, how to finance digital innovation in the public sector, how to building successful collaboration networks and foster citizen engagement, and how to correctly implement open government projects and open data. It will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, students, and public sector IT professionals that work in the design and implementation of technology-based projects and programs.

During China's Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong's "rustication program" resettled 17 million urban youths, known as "sent downs," to the countryside for manual labor and socialist reeducation. This book, the most comprehensive study of the program to be published in either English or Chinese to date, examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program's inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s. Rustication, in the ideology of Mao's peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution's larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and "degenerative" urban life. This book assesses the program's origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China's contemporary leaders went through the rustication program. The author explains the lasting impact of the rustication program on China's contemporary administrative culture, for example, showing how and why bureaucracy persisted and even grew stronger during the wrenching chaos of the Cultural Revolution. She also focuses on the special difficulties female sent-downs faced in terms of work, pressures to marry local peasants, and sexual harassment, predation, and violence. The author's parents were both sent downs, and she was able to interview over fifty former sent downs from around the country, something never previously accomplished. China's Sent-Down Generation demonstrates the rustication program's profound long-term consequences for China's bureaucracy, for the spread of corruption, and for the families traumatized by this authoritarian social experiment. The book will appeal to academics, graduate and undergraduate students in public administration and China studies programs, and individuals who are interested in China's Cultural Revolution era.

This is the first book in English on the French agency DATAR-DIACT that has been the envy of regional planners worldwide. It sheds new light on political leadership in a bureaucracy and demonstrates convincingly the impact of political leaders on institutions. It is a study of France with lessons for other political and administrative systems.

At a time when issues of international engagement are again at the fore of foreign policy, this book tells the story of how America's apparatus for public diplomacy came to be in disarray. Using newly declassified archives and interviews with practitioners, Nicholas J. Cull has pieced together the story of the final decade in the life of the United States Information Agency. It is both a sorry tale of political neglect and missed opportunities and an account of what America's public diplomats were nevertheless able to accomplish. Key methods examined include Voice of America radio, exchanges, and cultural diplomacy. Major episodes include the transition of Eastern Europe to democracy, the role of public diplomacy in the First Gulf War and Kosovo Wars, the US interventions in Somalia and Haiti, and the build-up to the attacks of 9/11.

Stories of government management failures often make the headlines, but quietly much gets done as well. What makes the difference? Ira Goldstein offers wisdom about how to lead and succeed in the federal realm, even during periods when the political climate is intensely negative, based on his decades of experience as a senior executive at two major government consulting firms and as a member of the US federal government's Senior Executive Service. The Federal Management Playbook coaches the importance of always keeping four key concepts in mind when planning for success: goals, stakeholders, resources, and time frames. Its chapters address how to effectively motivate government employees, pick the right technologies, communicate and negotiate with powerful stakeholders, manage risks, get value from contractors, foster innovation, and more. Goldstein makes lessons easy to apply by breaking each chapter's plans into three strategic phases: create an offensive strategy, execute your plan effectively, and play a smart defense. Additional tips describe how career civil servants and political appointees can get the most from one another, advise consultants on providing value to government, and help everyone better manage ever-present oversight. The Federal Management Playbook is a must-read for anyone working in the government realm and for students who aspire to public service.

Analysis of why politicians are driven to create an independent judicial institution with the authority to overrule their decisions. It focuses on a country with no tradition of independent judicial review - Russia. History does not support an independent judiciary here; yet a potentially powerful constitutional court has existed for 20 years.

The Russian State and Administration provides a rich and innovative assessment of Russian bureaucracy from 1881 to the present. From a variety of disciplinary perspectives, the work assesses the organization, personnel, and practices of officialdom across three different Russian regimes tsarist, Soviet and postcommunist.

Knowledge Policy illustrates how the production of knowledge has become central to economic life, and that competitiveness in the 21st century market place is characterized by the ability to translate scientific and technological knowledge into innovation. Does this therefore render cultural and social knowledge unimportant? The contributors attempt to answer this and other important questions using a broader epistemological base for the term 'knowledge'. Policy implications are then developed from this perspective. By examining long-term challenges, this unique book explains what we actually mean by the term 'knowledge' and raises fundamental critiques of existing conceptions of knowledge. It argues that fresh policy thinking is needed not only in more obviously knowledge-intensive sectors, but also across all areas of knowledge production. By way of illustration, the effects of the different dynamics of the knowledge era on defence, health, employment, environment, indigenous and international relations, multiculturalism and urban policy are explored. The book then addresses the enduring question of whether it is possible to produce too much knowledge at the expense of wisdom. Providing a thorough treatment on the meaning, production and application of knowledge, this book will provide a fascinating read for academics, researchers, students, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in public policy and knowledge-based economies.

Regulation has become a central aspect of contemporary governance as a result of public management reforms over recent decades. Yet, for all its ubiquity, the ideas of regulation have become increasingly contested. Key failures in the regulation of areas such as financial markets, nuclear power and food safety have revealed limitations in strategies which were once praised as offering superior problem-solving solutions. This major new text introduces the issues which affect the design and operation of regulatory regimes, and assesses the different regulatory strategies which can be used to deal with real-world challenges. In doing so, it examines the most important areas in regulatory policy and reform, including rule-making and enforcement, better regulation, infrastructure regulation, international regulation and risk regulation. Throughout the book, Martin Lodge and Kai Wegrich discuss a range of hypothetical and real-world examples to illustrate key issues, options and trade-offs, and to encourage readers to think critically and creatively about the regulatory options which are available. Drawing on the most up-to-date research, this text provides a clear and useful toolkit for thinking analytically about regulation.