Why do so many governments in corruption-prone countries voluntarily sign up for greater scrutiny under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative?  In the current issue of Governance,  Elizabeth David-Barrett and Ken Okamura argue that the answer "lies in a complex story about how norms spread and take hold in international politics."  Once transparency has been established as a global norm, the EITI serves as "an important tool for reformers in government to signal their good intentions, helping them to motivate their peers to comply."   Read the article .

 

More than one hundred countries have adopted electoral quotas to address gender inequality in representation.  But does this have an effect in policy outcomes?   Using data from a survey of Moroccan and Algerian parliamentarians,  Lindsay Benstead  finds that quotas do matter: they create mandates, increasing responsiveness to women.  "Controlling for other factors, quota-elected women are more responsive to females than parliamentarians of either sex elected without quotas."   Read the article .  Benstead also discusses her article in the Washington Post.

 

The study of policy reform has tended to focus on single-stage reforms taking place over a relatively short period -- and suggested that such reforms often do not endure. Carsten Daugbjerg and Alan Swinbank take a long view of Europe's Common Agriculture Policy and reach a different conclusion.  An accretion of layers "may create sustainability dynamics that can result in lasting reform trajectories."  Read the article.

 

SOG, the academic sponsor of Governance, is seeking nominations for a new editorial team, to begin work on January 1, 2018.   More details here.   Governance  has also appointed its editorial board for 2016-2018.   Board members are listed here .

 

On the Quantitative Peace blog, Alissandra  Stoyan and and Sarah Shair-Rosenfield discuss their just-published article in Governance: "In our article, we argue that when legislators are highly professionalized they bring individual skills and resources to office from previous work or governing experiences, and these factors may help level the playing field to empower the legislature vis-à-vis the executive."   Read the blog comment .

 

In the current issue of Governance, Yi Feng reviews Dynamics Among Nations: The Evolution of Legitimacy and Development in Modern States by Hilton Root.  Root "challenges a major paradigm that has guided research in political and economic development: modernization theory."   Read the review .

And Edoardo Ongaro reviews    Integrative Process: Follettian Thinking From Ontology to Administration by Margaret Stout and Jeannine Love .  "This book is a manifesto for the relaunch of Follettian thinking . . . A valuable effort to place it firmly on the public governance and administration agenda."  Read the review.

 

Does the U.S. President need Congress's approval before engaging in a major war?  A U.S. Army captain is now suing the Obama administration on this question.  In two commentaries just published in Governance, Alberto Coll and John Yoo debate the question.  Read the commentaries.  You can also watch video of Coll and Yoo debating in person at the University of Missouri.  

 

A new book by Christopher Pollitt , Advanced Introduction to Public Management and Administration, has just been published by Edward Elgar.  Pollitt discusses his new book here.

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