Bureaucratic Conflict Research Articles

“City of districts” as state project: socioeconomic unevenness and contested power relations in establishing Wansheng in Chongqing

ABSTRACT Wansheng is a small and historically wealthy industrial territory currently under the jurisdiction of Chongqing provincial-level city as an economic and technological development district. The overlapping territorial policies through which the central government reconfigured Wansheng constituted the conflictive setting of the reform approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the State Council that merged Wansheng district and Qijiang county to establish Qijiang district in December 2011. This decision immediately produced discontent and social chaos in the former Wansheng district. Four months later, the central government repealed the original merger, establishing Wansheng as an economic and technological development district. Changes in administrative borders of sub-national territories in China are complex state strategies that intrinsically involve local bureaucratic conflicts and socioeconomic contradictions. This paper analyzes, through the disciplinary lens of political geography, the Wansheng-Qijiang merger as a contested and contradictory territorial strategy whose main goal was the centralization of power relations in Chongqing city by integrating two territories with extremely different socioeconomic and administrative conditions.

The Shadow Effect of Courts: Judicial Review and the Politics of Preemptive Reform

We challenge the prevalent claim that courts can only influence policy by adjudicating disputes. Instead, we theorizethe shadow effect of courts: policy makers preemptively altering policies in anticipation of possible judicial review. While American studies imply that preemptive reforms hinge on litigious interest groups pressuring policy makers who support judicial review, we advance a comparative theory that flips these presumptions. In less litigious and more hostile political contexts, policy makers may instead weaponize preemptive reforms to preclude bureaucratic conflicts from triggering judicial oversight and starve courts of the cases they need to build their authority. By allowing some preemptive judicial influence to resist direct judicial interference, recalcitrant policy makers demonstrate that shadow effects are not an unqualified good for courts. We illustrate our theory by tracing how a major welfare reform in Norway was triggered by a conflict within its Ministry of Labor and a government resistance campaign targeting a little-known international court.

Examining the interface between bureaucratic conflict and public interest in Africa

Background: In every human organisation, there is bound to be conflict of ideas because everyone wants his or her viewpoint to take precedent over others. There are those who want to be on top of every situation irrespective of those involved or the issue at stake. However, a proactive bureaucratic leadership should be able to find a way out of these quagmires.Aim: Within the framework of the strategic elite theory, this article examines the nexus between bureaucratic conflict and public interest in Africa, as well as challenges confronting bureaucracy in the pursuit of public interest with specific reference to Nigeria.Method: This article adopts a qualitative approach and is descriptive in nature, with the researcher setting out to illustrate the association that exists between the dependent and independent variables. Authoritative scholarly sources were reviewed during a desktop study. The purpose was to identify the relevant publications and apply them in the research.Results: This article argues that whilst conflict generally is an inevitable outcome of human interactions. However, conflict is more common in a bureaucratic organisation where issues of power and influence are always a source of contention amongst the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Therefore, resolving the basis for the existence of the MDAs that will ultimately inculcate in the bureaucrats a new worldview.Conclusion: It therefore, concludes that there should be countervailing forces to put the bureaucracy on check. This includes: strengthening interest groups, the pursuit of institutionalism, ethical reorientation in the public service, amongst other measures. However, to achieve this, requires a critical mass of men and women of integrity, doggedly and ruggedly committed to Africa’s project and ready to subsume their personal interests under that of the national interests.

Bureaucracy conflicts in border areas: study on conflict between civilian state apparatus and regent in morotai island regency

Regional bureaucratic conflicts are often caused by regional heads' failure to express the concept of regional bureaucratic development and appear to be political, followed by the regional authorities' egocentrism, causing conflicts for the provincial government's technical implementers (in this case, Civilian State Apparatus. This series of matches has drained energy, costs, and energy for Civilian State Apparatus has been highlighted so that the spirit of bureaucratic reform is highlighted not running optimally. The results of the study show that the conflict begins with the regional head's policy regarding a system of rotation/transfer of positions that are not based on employment regulations, the application of immeasurable reward and punishment, the obligation to take credit, buy a house, and buy a vehicle for state civil apparatus with guaranteed Regional Performance Allowances. Following the position (not having a legal basis) Decree of Promotion for state civil apparatus as much as 611 (3 (three periods of promotion) and the imposition of sanctions for the Acting Regional Secretary of Morotai Island Regency in the form of a Warning Letter for not receiving allowances until an unspecified time limit.

Bureaucratic conflict between transnational actor coalitions: The diffusion of British National Vocational Qualifications to China

AbstractQuantitative studies of social policy diffusion face substantial challenges regarding their understanding of causal mechanisms. Knowledge of diffusion processes is particularly limited in authoritarian countries, in comparatively autonomous developing countries, and fields of social policy not characterized by hegemonic ideas and strong epistemic communities. This study focuses on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the People's Republic of China. The conceptual approach is based on the interaction‐oriented understanding of causal mechanisms in actor‐centred institutionalism, and the framework of lesson drawing. Methodologically, this study follows a process tracing approach, relying on semi‐structured interviews with Chinese experts, recently de‐classified project reports of the World Bank, and content analysis of Chinese legal and regulatory documents. Analysing why China introduced a system of vocational qualification certificates similar to English National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), rather than German‐style dual vocational apprenticeships, it uncovers a mechanism of bureaucratic conflict between competing coalitions of domestic ministries and transnational actors from the UK and Germany in a context of organizational hierarchy with multiple principals. The World Bank here attempted to play the role of a neutral international principal, but could only do so in limited ways and insofar as its preferences were compatible with those of the leadership core of the Party‐state. The study illustrates how bureaucratic conflict mediates policy learning, explaining the diffusion and non‐diffusion of different policy options. Furthermore, it highlights doubts regarding the mechanism of coercion, which remained largely ineffective.

The Shadow Effect of Courts: Judicial Review and the Politics of Preemptive Reform

We challenge the prevalent claim that courts can only impact policy by adjudicating disputes. Instead, we theorize the shadow effect of courts: Policymakers preemptively altering policies in anticipation of possible judicial review. While American studies imply that preemptive reforms hinge on litigious interest groups pressuring policymakers who support judicial review, we advance a comparative theory that flips these presumptions. In less litigious and more hostile political contexts, policymakers may instead weaponize preemptive reforms to preclude bureaucratic conflicts from triggering judicial oversight and starve courts of the cases they need to build their authority. By allowing some preemptive judicial influence to resist direct judicial interference, recalcitrant policymakers demonstrate that shadow effects are not an unqualified good for courts. We illustrate our theory by tracing how a major welfare reform in Norway was triggered by a conflict within its Ministry of Labor and a government resistance campaign targeting a little-known international court.

LIFT and the GLC versus Thatcher: London’s Cultural Battleground in 1981

In 1981 Rose Fenton and Lucy Neal established the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). While the Festival is generally recognized as having been highly influential in the field of British theatre over the past twenty-five years, it has received little academic attention. In this article Phoebe Patey-Ferguson examines the founding of the event, arguing that the specific socio-political circumstances of its early years gave shape to the innovative form of a city-based international theatre festival. The bureaucratic conflict between Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government and Ken Livingstone’s Greater London Council (GLC) is identified as a central factor in the creation of LIFT, with reference to Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the bureaucratic field and Loïc Wacquant’s development of this model in relation to neoliberal market capitalism. The article is derived from Phoebe Patey-Ferguson’s recently completed PhD on LIFT in its social, cultural, and political context at the Department of Theatre and Performance, Goldsmiths, University of London.1

When and How do Bureaucratic Conflicts Matter in Trade Policy? Evidence from the US Trade Policymaking Process during the Clinton Administration (1993–2001)

The study of the role played by bureaucracies contributed substantively to the analysis of the domestic determinants of foreign policy outcomes, particularly by softening the premise of the state as a unitary-rational actor. However, the potential of focusing on bureaucracies to analyse US trade policy outcomes has been severely underestimated by the most recent IPE scholarship, which tends to focus on the Congress and interest groups, and to consider the Executive a unitary actor. Based on elements of the bureaucratic politics model, this article uses evidence from the US trade policy during Clinton’s administration (1993–2001) in order to present arguments regarding how and when bureaucratic conflicts matter the most, and highlight the relevance of these conflicts in the trade decision-making process.

Operation Sussex: your worst enemy is your ally

Operation Sussex was an intelligence operation undertaken by the Allies in occupied France shortly before the Normandy invasion. English and American officers trained French agents to parachute into France, spy on German military movements, and send information back to London via radio. The Germans exposed a number of the Allied agents; nonetheless, the operation proved a major success. The key threat to Sussex came not from the Nazis, but from bureaucratic conflicts among the Allies. Despite the operation’s significance, the scholarly literature on it remains sparse. The foundation of this paper rests upon little used documents from various collections.

“Men who smell of fear”: The Menzies Government and Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence

This article uses international archival sources to examine Australian policy on the problem of Rhodesian independence during the 1960s. It demonstrates that until November 1965 the Australian government led by Sir Robert Menzies followed a finely balanced policy that was broadly supportive of Britain but also sympathetic to the Rhodesian Front. However, the Australian response to Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) revealed increasing bureaucratic conflict in Australian policy‐making and exposed the limits of Australian support for Britain in dealing with the international consequences of the UDI. Analysis of Australia's decision to not attend the Lagos Conference in January 1966 demonstrates the Menzies government's anxiety about the implications of racial issues for Australian domestic and foreign policies. This suggests that historians should pay more attention to the significance of Africa in Australian foreign relations during the Menzies era.

The Impact of Bureaucratic Conflict on US Counternarcotics Efforts in Afghanistan

Despite counternarcotics efforts over the past decade, Afghanistan’s drug trade continues to thrive. This article is a review of US counternarcotics policy in Afghanistan, focusing on the inner workings of the bureaucratic machine. During the Bush Administration’s two terms in office, unique agency cultures ensured that no common conception or understanding of the drug problem manifested within the US foreign policy bureaucracy. Various US agencies and officials pursued separate eradication and interdiction policies, and there was similar disagreement in respect to the Alternative Livelihood Program. Consequently, the United States failed to pursue a counternarcotics program that was united, effective, or reflective of Afghanistan’s needs.

Contested Boundaries: psychiatry, disease, and diagnosis.

Since the 19th century, we have come to think of disease in terms of specific entities--entities defined and legitimated in terms of characteristic somatic mechanisms. Since the last third of that century, we have expanded would-be disease categories to include an ever-broader variety of emotional pain, idiosyncrasy, and culturally unsettling behaviors. Psychiatry has been the residuary legatee of these developments, developments that have always been contested at the ever-shifting boundary between disease and deviance, feeling and symptom, the random and the determined, the stigmatized and the value-free. Even in our era of reductionist hopes, psychopharmaceutical practice, and corporate strategies, the legitimacy of many putative disease categories will remain contested. The use of the specific disease entity model will always be a reductionist means to achieve necessarily holistic ends, both in terms of cultural norms and the needs of suffering individuals. Bureaucratic rigidities and stakeholder conflicts structure and intensify such boundary conflicts, as do the interests and activism of an interested lay public.

Governance struggles in the case of Camp Carroll conflict

This research examines the multifaceted governance struggles associated with the alleged burial of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll in Chilgok County, Korea. To deal with this incident, the Korea central government forms bureaucratic conflict management system, which can be characterised as a joint response system, a one-voice system for press briefing, and an intergovernmental joint supporting group. However, this system conflicts with the participatory governance of local governments and civic society. This research explores why the Korean central government's bureaucratic conflict management prevails over the participatory governance of local governments and environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It argues that the Status of Forces Agreement between Korea and the USA provides the Korean central government with a reason to curb the participation of local governments and environment NGOs in the governance of Camp Carroll conflict.

Perception of corrupt practices among extension agents of Oyo State agricultural development programme (OYSADEP)

Corruption has been a perennial clog in the wheel of development of all the sectors of Nigeria economy, agriculture inclusive. Staffers of different establishments engage in some conducts tantamount to corruption advertently and in some instances, inadvertently. This study focused on the perception of some practices; that were considered corrupt, by agricultural Extension Agents (EA) of Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme (OYSADEP). Simple random sampling was used to select 85 EAs (out of the total of 170) representing the sample size. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents on their personal characteristics, awareness and perception of the different forms of corrupt practices. Descriptive statistics, (frequency counts, percentages and mean) were used to summarize the data. More (35.3%, 64.7% and 29.4%) were between 32and 36 years of age, male, and had crop production as their area of specialization, respectively. Most (88. 2%) of the respondents knew abuse of office as corrupt practice, while the least known (9.4%) corrupt practice was bureaucratic conflict of interest. So also, patronage was known by just 17.6% as a corrupt practice. Majority (55%) of the respondents perceived corruption as impeding development. There was no significant relationship between awareness of various forms of corruption and perception of different corruption related statements. Therefore, it could be inferred that there exist a fair virtue within staffers of EAs of OYSADEP, but they were not aware of the semantics used in describing the different forms of corrupt practices. Many of the different forms of corrupt practices were not known to be such, while those that were known were not so derided. Hence, high toleration for those practices was implied. The current war against corruption by the present administration in the country should be holistic in covering public officers in the agricultural sector, as well as ensure mass media orientation to enhance attitudinal change. Keywords : Bureaucratic conflict, Corrupt Practices, Extension Agents.

대학 직무발명 보상금 비과세제도에 대한 제언

대학으로부터 교직원에게 지급되는 직무발명에 대한 보상금은 어떤 종류의 소득으로 정의되는지에 따라 과세의 대상이 될 수도 있고 비과세의 대상이 될 수도 있다. 정부는 산업교육 진흥 및 산학연협력 촉진에 관한 법률 및 기술의 이전 및 사업화 촉진법을 제정하여 대학에서 생산된 기술을 산업계로 이전하여, 연구생산성을 높이고 산학 간 협력을 증진시키려는 노력을 해 오고 있다. 그러나 정부부처간의 법 해석의 차이로 인해 대학이 교직원들에게 지급하는 직무발명 보상금에 대한 과세의 혼선이 초래되어 왔다. 본 연구에서는 이와 관련하여 대학의 직무발명 보상금 비과세제도를 둘러싼 부처 간의 갈등과정을 법해석의 차원에서 고찰하고, 비과세제도의 집행효과를 개인소득세 감면의 차원에서 분석한 후, 이를 근거로 제도의 정착을 위해 정부에 대한 제언을 직무발명 보상금의 제도 개선 차원에서 도출하였다. The compensation for employee invention from the university can be taxed or non-taxed depending on the classification of the type of income. The government legislated the Promotion of Industrial Education and Industry-Academic Cooperation Act and the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Promotion Act in order to improve the research productivity of universities and industrial-academic collaboration via transferring the technologies. However, the confusion with taxation on the compensation of employee invention from the university has been incurred due to the difference of legal interpretation between government bureaus. In this research, bureaucratic conflict on the non-taxation scheme is examined in a legal aspect and the effect of non-taxation scheme is also studied in aspect to personal tax exemption. Finally, some suggestions are provided for the purpose of settlement of the non-taxation scheme in order to improve employee invention from the university.

Predator Empire: The Geopolitics of US Drone Warfare

This paper critically assesses the CIA's drone programme and proposes that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles is driving an increasingly “dronified” US national security strategy. The paper suggests that large-scale ground wars are being eclipsed by fleets of weaponised drones capable of targeted killings across the planet. Evidence for this shift is found in key security documents that mobilise an amorphous conflict against vaguely defined al-Qa'ida “affiliates”. This process is legitimised through the White House's presentation of drone warfare as a bureaucratic conflict managed by a “disposition matrix”. These official narratives are challenged by the voices of people living in the tribal areas of Pakistan. What I term the Predator Empire names the biopolitical power that digitises, catalogues, and eliminates threatening “patterns of life” across a widening battlespace. This permanent war is enabled by a topological spatial power that folds the distant environments of the affiliate into the surveillance machinery of the Homeland.

A principal–agent analysis of China's sovereign wealth system: Byzantine by design

ABSTRACT The paper provides an explanation for a puzzling aspect of China's nascent sovereign wealth system, namely the ever-more obvious competition between China's officially designated sovereign wealth fund (SWF), the China Investment Corporation (CIC), and the foreign exchange reserve management agency, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). We outline an analytical framework which illuminates the various pathways by which state leaders seek to address a principal–agent problem common to all sovereign wealth funds. We suggest that state leaders select corporate governance regimes that mesh with what we call the state's ‘governance endowments’. We then substantiate the claim that China's particular governance endowments have led China's leaders to embrace a corporate governance model premised on competition among the state's sovereign wealth investors. We trace the intense bureaucratic conflicts that shaped the creation of CIC and then show how SAFE was subsequently drawn into competition with CIC in the area of high risk, high yield investment. Although China's SWF tournament emerged as a quite unintended consequence of bureaucratic politics, China's leadership has since tacitly endorsed this rivalry because it has supplied the government with valuable carrot and stick mechanisms with which to discipline fund managers.

From Kabul to Kandahar: The Canadian Forces and Change

This article analyzes the civil-military and political-bureaucratic issues and relationships, both conflictual and cooperative, surrounding the deployment of the Canadian Forces to Kandahar. It examines the role played by former Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier in the Kandahar decision, and chronicles the development and fate of two of Hillier's organizational innovations, CEFCOM and SAT-A. It also explores the efforts of the Manley Panel to “civilianize” Canada's Afghanistan mission and assesses the effectiveness of two associated administrative innovations: the Afghanistan Task Force inside the Privy Council Office, and the RoCK (Representative of Canada in Kandahar) on the ground. While the Kandahar decision may ultimately have been a mistake for Canada, and while bureaucratic conflict pervaded much of the atmosphere in Ottawa, whole-of-government cooperation often succeeded on the ground in Kandahar, and its lessons need to be captured in organizational memory.

The External Dimension of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: Hijacker or Hostage of Cross‐pillarization?

The objective of this article is to investigate the issue of cross‐pillarization in the context of the growing interconnection between the EU Justice and Home Affairs and other policies. At the conceptual level, the article traces the development and functioning of cross‐pillarization in various contexts: legal and political, internal and international. At the analytical level, it investigates whether cross‐pillarization might be used by European institutions in a strategic way in order to promote particular interests. Based on the literature on European inter‐ and intra‐institutional politics, this article makes the case that the process of cross‐pillarization has a strong politics component. The Strategy for External Dimension of Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) and the Passenger Name Record Agreement are used to demonstrate how the objective of cross‐pillar consistency may be jeopardized by bureaucratic turf wars and conflicts over ideology or resources.

Transforming the Empire with a Department of Peace

This article argues that transformation of the American Empire requires changing American culture and that this can best be achieved by establishing a Department of Peace. It presents details of how such a department could be structured to facilitate cultural change and then addresses the political challenges involved in establishing such a department. A brief history of past attempts to create a Department of Peace reveals three major challenges: the danger of co‐option, the necessity of facing bureaucratic conflicts, and the need to overcome nationalistic political opposition. To meet these challenges, those involved in the peace movement must recognize and resolve three specific sources of tension within the movement. The article addresses these tensions.