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Focusing on the gap between democratic ideals and performance, three European academics study the common experience and even more common perception of the corrupt behavior of bureaucrats in post-communist Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The authors conducted focus-group studies, one-on-one interviews, and large-scale surveys to reveal plentiful details about the ways ordinary citizens cope in their day-to-day dealings with low-level officials and state employees, whose decisions can have a critically important impact on people's lives. c. Book News Inc.
Considering the enormous problems of the Balkans during the 1990s, the experts who contributed to this study believe that there are solutions to the seemingly intractable situation and the legacy of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.
Volume Three of the Classics of Comparative Policy Analysis, contains chapters concerned with "Regional Comparisons and Policy Analysis" – one of the most prevailing approaches in comparative public policy. Through the prism of inter-jurisdiction comparisons of similarities and variations, they address comparisons in specific policy sectors, governance or institutional constructs, and political regimes. The foci are, nevertheless, on those comparisons between countries or regions, which help to lesson-draw by identifying and understanding the variation in policy analysis and policy making that exists within or across regions. One benefit of regional comparisons is that it often allows stud...
This book is dedicated to Joachim Jens Hesse, a scholar whose multi-faceted work may be characterised as an attempt at "crossing borders" in several respects. These primarily include fostering interdisciplinary cooperation between law, economics and social sciences, analysing public sector developments in an international and intercultural perspective as well as bridging the "gap" between academia and practical politics. Therefore, the volume deals with a subject that covers these features in an exemplary manner: the interrelationship between nation-state constitutions and their international environments. In this context, ongoing processes of transnationalisation have not only contributed to blurring the formerly clear-cut boundaries between these two domains, but also provoked a growing interest in and demand for comparative, interdisciplinary and applied research on constitutional developments. The authors of this Festschrift include eminent lawyers, economists and political scientists from Europe, the United States and East Asia who worked together with Joachim Jens Hesse in various contexts.
This book demonstrates the importance of the credibility and the costs of accession conditionality for the adoption of EU rules in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Beyond the Annual Budget is a comprehensive review of country experience with Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs) worldwide. It looks at countries both with and without MTEFs over the period 1990 to 2008 to obtain results about their impact on fiscal performance.
Strike up a conversation with a citizen from the post-communist region and invariably the talk will turn to the topic of corruption - the misuse of public power for private gain. People are sure that corruption is widespread, whether from their own experiences or stories they have heard from others. They feel frustrated that there seems to be nothing they can do about it, that they are helpless, and that they are being played for fools. And many are cynical: they feel that they, too, have to play the game because "the system" compels them to do so. But what system exactly? What are the structures and mechanisms of corruption in post-communist societies? "The System Made Me Do It" is the first comprehensive study of the origin, nature, and consequences of corruption in post-communist societies. While international actors decry corruption as a major impediment to democracy building and economic development, the problem is not well understood. This book fills that gap, and suggests innovative and practical institutional strategies for containing corruption. It achieves a rare and perfect balance of disciplined analysis, practicality, and passion.
Semi-Presidentialism is the term used to describe the constitutional arrangement where there is a directly elected president and a prime-minister who is responsible to parliament. Examples of semi-presidential regimes include Finland, France, Portugal, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. These countries share certain constitutional features, but the exercise of presidential and prime-ministerial power varies greatly from one to another. Semi-Presidentialism in Europe examines the politics of semi-presidentialism and explores why it is that seemingly similar political systems operate in such different ways. Furthermore, the book examines the constitutional powers of political leaders, the role of political parties and the importance of past precedent.