Outcome Of Political Processes Research Articles

Selection of Development Projects in Local Government: A Comparative Study of Pathalia and Birulia Union Parishad

The paper is a critical inquiry on the influence of succession politics on state administration in Africa, with reference to Zimbabwe. The paper unpacks the interactive boundaries and conceptual overlaps of succession politics and state administration in Africa. Power transition in any political landscape promotes the remodeling of the political architecture and the functionality of the governmental apparatus of the state. This is because government performance is an outcome of political processes and dynamics that influence governance in a polity. Political leadership determines the composition of administrative structure. In case of a transition, political leaders supplant the administrative apparatus, to ensure ideological compatibility. Regular transfer of executive power is the major test of stability in a nation’s political system. However, in many African countries, leaders have shown a consistent trajectory of amending state constitutions to prolong their stay in power. This study was based on eighteen qualitative in-depth interviews conducted with key informants using the purposive sampling technique, complemented by extensive document review. Respondents were drawn from Members of the Executive, Members of Parliament, think tanks, Politburo, Central Committee, opposition parties, bureaucracy/permanent secretaries in government of they ministries academia and civil society in Zimbabwe. The findings of the study show that succession politics in Africa resembles executive dominance, egocentrism, excessive appointive powers, compounded by lack of institutional framework of succession that undermines professional independence of the bureaucracy which inhibits the pursuit of comprehensive governance. The findings also unequivocally isolates Zimbabwe as a victim of political, societal and historical factors that exacerbates the succession dilemma. In its recommendations, the paper argues that the succession challenge faced by the continent with reference to Zimbabwe will always hound succession trends and responsive administration, unless broad based reforms are instituted to dismantle the historical legacies embedded in the political systems.

Social consequences of airbnb – a New Zealand case study of cause and effect

This study of impacts of Airbnb in a small coastal town in New Zealand was initiated by a need to create housing for those displaced during the summer. The research involved a survey of approximately one-quarter of the households and detailed interviews with 25 local respondents. It was found that approximately 17% of households experienced household stress due to housing costs. However, it was concluded that the impact of Airbnb, while highly visible, is a symptom of wider social factors than simply being a cause of immediate in housing usage and impacting hotel occupancy rates. Context is important in terms of communal ties and residents’ senses of place as short-term occupancy of property becomes a norm. The wider housing market is a determinant of rents and differences between seasonal daily rents derived from tourists and those paid by more stable renters. The de-industrialisation of cities for gentrification has become the de-urbanisation of leisure and a desire for landscape rich destinations, made easier by physical accessibility by transport and informational accessibility through the internet. It is also the outcome of political processes.

Metropolitan regions as contested spaces: the discursive construction of metropolitan space in comparative perspective

ABSTRACTMetropolitan regions as contested spaces: the discursive construction of metropolitan space in comparative perspective. Territory, Politics, Governance. This paper explores how metropolitan space as a spatial category of politics and policies is constructed discursively. It sheds a light on a variety of discursive, ideational or cognitive practices that contribute to the production of metropolitan scales. It understands metropolitan space as an outcome of political processes or of policies with a metropolitan scope. However, these discursive processes constructing metropolitan space are far from constituting a unitary phenomenon. Exploring the discursive construction of metropolitan space as a social-spatial phenomenon moves from the assumption that the object of analysis does not represent an ontologically given category, but is a socially and politically constructed reality. Our analysis is based on contrasting four heterogeneous cases in which a significant variety of definitions and understandings of metropolitan space is present: Berlin, New York, Paris and Rome. Therefore, our approach privileges an interpretive perspective on how political practices and policy discourses constitute multiple ontologies of metropolitan space, and on how their interplay, as the expression of power relations and patterns of influence, may define specific trajectories of rescaling and scale effects.

Researching Ethnic Relations as the Outcome of Political Processes

Ethnic diversity is often seen to be detrimental to peace and stability, particularly if ethnicity is the basis for political mobilization. Mobilization is assumed to increase the salience of ethnicity, and with it in-group cohesion, out-group animosity, and national instability; yet the mechanisms have rarely been studied empirically. This article argues that we need to study ethnicity as the outcome of political processes, focus on the attitudinal mechanisms underlying ethnic relation; and examine this phenomenon at the individual level. To this end, the article first disaggregates the term “ethnicity” into attributes, meanings, and actions. Referring to constructivism, it then argues that political science should focus on meanings. Building on the theory and findings of social psychology, this paper shows that political science must distinguish analytically between meanings regarding different in- and out-group processes. Doing so can help advance the study of ethnic relations and conflict-management practices.

Creating scenarios or creating and sustaining social worlds? Towards new sociological understandings of the use and impacts of scenario planning

Many management scholars and some practitioners argue that scenario planning remains under-theorised, that it has a weak evidence base, and that, in practice, it is often too reactive. Responding to these critiques, we contribute to the development of sociologically informed scenario practices, which are more proactive (or 'transformative'). The paper is grounded in an examination of scenario practices at CSIRO (Australia's national science organisation), focused on the Future Fuels Forum, and a theory of social fields. The case illustrates that both convening a scenario exercise and the construction and/or use of scenarios can be forms of context-specific strategic action, often aimed at inducing cooperation as part of a skilled social action. It also illustrates that the impacts of scenario exercises are influenced by the fluidity of the situation and associated field-level processes; the social skill of actors and their ability to construct and use scenarios in ways that help to solve related problems; and the outcomes of political processes. We also identify key implications for practice.

Exploring the Link between Governance and Institutions: Theoretical and Empirical Evidence from Tanzania

The potential link between governance and institutions is increasingly becoming a central concern in social science. In political science, the approach taken to explore this link involves examining the role structure plays in determining political behaviours, the overall patterns of governance, and the outcomes of political processes. Therefore, the quality of institutions has long been recognized as an important component of a well-functioning system of governance. This paper investigates and reflects on the relationship between institutions and governance in local political settings and analyzes the impacts of institutional factors on good governance. Very specifically, the paper explores different theoretical and empirical debates about governance in general and good governance in particular. Drawing upon “historical institutionalism”, the paper offers a satisfactory analytical framework for studying the ability of the institutions of governance in Tanzania, from their inception through their development over time, to meet the needs of the local community.

LABOUR MARKET REGULATION: SOME COMPARATIVE LESSONS

Labour market regulation that undermines freedom of contract leads to fewer, higher productivity jobs with employment being across a narrower range of ages. More people are excluded from the labour market, in highly regulated countries and they remain unemployed for longer. This seems to be damaging to welfare. It is possible that the extent of regulation is explained by the relative ability of those who gain from regulation (those in work) to influence the outcome of political processes to a greater extent than those who lose (the unemployed). However, the legal framework and legal traditions may also play a part.

NAFTA: From congressional passage to implementation woes

This paper reviews the decision making process during the 1993 NAFTA debate and Congressional vote, and evaluates the likelihood that key provisions on trucking will be implemented. We provide empirical evidence that a combination of expert knowledge and modeling allows analysts to accurately obtain insights and anticipate outcomes of political processes. Utilizing the Expected Utility approach to analyze the NAFTA negotiations prior to the Congressional vote in November 1993, we show that the outcome of this “uncertain” vote according to most expert and media until the very last days, was correctly forecasted months before the actual vote. Furthermore, we show that the benefits of possessing such political knowledge translate directly to the economic sphere. We then show that the same approach can be used to account for the failure to implement key NAFTA provisions on trucking, and anticipate their likely resolution. Finally, we demonstrate that the information provided by the combination of expert knowledge and modeling is superior to either of them separately, and cannot be matched by even a thorough contextual analysis of the situation.

Advertising Budgeting: Process and Structure as Explanatory Variables

Abstract This paper argues that much of the effort devoted to the study of advertising budgeting has been tangential to the central issue of what determines the size of budget allocations. The thesis here is that budgets are outcomes of political processes in organizations and that this can be demonstrated empirically. The implications of this model of advertising budgeting are substantial for both management practitioners and marketing and advertising researchers.

Introduction: state structures, political processes, and collective choice in CMEA states

The similarity of state structures throughout Eastern Europe helps to explain why the reactions of states in that area to the international economic disturbances of the past decade resemble each other and why they differ from those of states outside the socialist bloc. Similar state structures, however, do not explain why the economic strategies of the East European states themselves in response to international economic shocks in the 1970s and 1980s diverged so noticeably. The role of state structure is to define “kto/kovo” (who can do what to whom) relationships in the state and economy. In this way state structures define problems that political leaders must solve, possibilities among which they may choose, and political resources and allies upon which they may draw in the course of their decision making. In contrast, strategy choices–“what is to be done”–are the outcomes of political processes in which leaders mobilize resources and allies to capture positions of power from which they can pursue the purposes they advocate. Thus differences in foreign economic strategies among member states in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance reflected differences in the dynamic interaction of the form and content of political processes that occurred within common state structures.