The GOVERNANCE blog

In the current issue of Governance, David DeMortain of Université Paris-Est reviews Daniel Carpenter’s Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA.  DeMortain says it is “likely to become a gold standard for the study of regulatory agencies.”  Read the review.  And Ian Greener of Durham University reviews Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine by Marc Rodwin.  “A very good book indeed,” says Greener, which ought to be widely used to illuminate “the kinds of challenges the profession faces in relation to conflicts of interest.” Read the review.

Several mechanisms have given momentum to a global movement for rationalization of national rules against money laundering.  But the adoption of rules in China has not been straightforward, Sebastian Heilmann and Nicole Schulte-Kulkmann write in the current issue of Governance (24.4, October 2011), because of the “powerful role of secretive Communist Party bodies” in national governance.  Chinese leaders want to promote integration into the global economy, but do not want to jeopardize the “core prerogative of Communist Party control.”  The result?  A “stark gap between strict formal regulation in the law books and feeble implementation in administrative and judicial practice.”  Read more: The Limits of Policy Diffusion: Introducing International Norms of Anti-Money Laundering into China’s Legal System.

In the current issue of Governance, Tom McClean of the London School of of Economics reviews Freedom of Information and the Developing World by Colin Darch and Peter Underwood.  The book represents “a valuable contribution to scholarship on FOI,” McClean says, and challenges conventional wisdom about its role in advancing democratic goals.  Open access to the review for the month of October.

Also in the current issue: Clay Wescott reviews Oligarchy by Jeffery Winters of Northwestern University.  This “provocative work” examines the role of oligarchs in many countries, including the advanced democracies.  Winters’ book provides “fresh insights,” says Wescott, and helps to explain when efforts to curb corruption and decentralize authority might succeed or fail.  Read the review.

Dr. Kutsal Yesilkagit of the Utrecht School of Governance will chair the committee to award the 2012 Levine Book Prize.  Other members of the committee are Dr. Eliza Lee, University of Hong Kong, and Dr. Victor Lapuente, University of Gothenburg.  The deadline for nominations is March 31, 2012.  More details about the prize are here:  LEVINE Announcement 2012. |  Read about previous Levine winners here.

The 2011 Levine Prize has been awarded to World Rule: Accountability, Legitimacy, and the Design of Global Governance (University of Chicago Press, 2010), by Jonathan G.S. Koppell.  Koppell holds the Lattie & Elva Coor Presidential Chair at Arizona State University, and is Director of the University’s School of Public Affairs.  The 2011 Levine Prize Committee was comprised of Anthony B.L. Cheung, Hong Kong Institute of Education (Chair);  Kimberley Isett, Columbia University; and Kutsal Yesilkagit, University of Utrecht.  The Committee says World Rule “has made a significant contribution to the understanding of the complex nature of global governance.”  More details about the 2011 Levine Book Prize are available here.

In the current issue of Governance (24.3, July 2011), Moshe Maor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem develops a more sophisticated method for thinking about the significance of organizational reputations.  In a comparative study of drug safety regulation, Maor finds two types of regulators: those that have a reputation for expertise in pre-approval of new drugs, and those that have a reputation for providing timely warnings about dangerous drugs already on the market.  “The type of reputation an organization has plays a key role in determining its behavior,” Maor says.  He shows that the first type is more likely to downplay announcements about the withdrawal of dangerous drugs, while the second type emphasizes such decisions.  These regulatory choices have “important implications for public health,” Maor adds: the citizens of countries with the second type of “guardian regulator” are generally more aware of decisions to withdraw drugs from the market.  Read the article: Organizational Reputations and Observability of Public Warnings in 10 Pharmaceutical Markets.

Professor Peter Aucoin, a highly regarded Canadian scholar of public administration, passed away on July 7 at the age of 67.  Peter was a long-time member of the Governance editorial board and contributor to the journal, beginning in its first volume in 1988.  Maclean’s Magazine has posted a brief note.  Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter has also offered his condolences.  “Nova Scotia, and Canada, has lost one of its most respected all-round political scientists of this generation,” said Premier Dexter.

Governance is now ranked #4 for impact among scholarly journals in public administration, according to ISI’s Journal Citation Report for 2010, released on June 29. Among journals in political science, Governance is ranked #12. Since 2008, Governance is the only journal in the world that is ranked within the top twenty in both public administration and political science.

The submission period for panel proposals for the upcoming IPSA World Congress in Madrid July 8-12 2012 has opened this month. For the regular IPSA programme, each RC may propose an unlimited number of panels which are endorsed by its Board.  Research Committee 27, on the Structure and Organization of Government — otherwise known as SOG, the academic sponsor of Governance — encourages the submission of panel proposals on topics related to the mission of the committee. Panel proposals may also be co-sponsored with other IPSA Research Committees.  Download this file for more details.  The deadline for proposals is 31 July 2011.

The next conference of the IPSA Structure and Organization of Government Research Committee (SOG) will be hosted by the Centre for Public Policy at University of Melbourne on January 27-29, 2012.  SOG is the sponsoring organization of Governance.  A Call for Papers is now available.  The theme for the conference is “Public Policy and Public Management: Exploring the Changing Linkages.”  The deadline for paper proposals is August 31.  For more information, contact Damon Alexander at University of Melbourne.