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Copyright of Brood & Rozen: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis van Sociale Bewegingen is the property of AMSAB - Institute of Social History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper we examine the need of an unitary research on the local collectivity issue with the objective of highlightening the necesity for standardization and adjustment to social and economic realities inside the european administrative space. The paper will be structured into three parts so that the study will begin to clarify the notion of competece. then determining the place and role of local communities-we will identify common features and criteria for their differentiation. Given this objective we propose to realise a comparative study of local collectivities skills in Europe, to identify their relationship with the State. The conducted research continues others concerning the timeliness of this research in the theoretical plan, therefore the following are necesary: establishing the place and role, definition and identification of its legal nature, emphasizing key features of the functions and criteria in relation with the State. The work may be useful to the Romanian authorities involved in the enforcement of local collectivities in the context of decentralization. The results and the essential contribution of the work, its originality, consist of the general examination of the categories of local collectivities elected for representation and the diversity of european experiences, regarding the local administrative device -organizatoric forms, in federal states, decentralized unitary states and unitary states partial or non-centralized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine the governance of activation in relation to the decentralization and centralization of activation for social assistance recipients in Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – This paper outlines broad trends in the governance of activation policies in Europe, focusing on processes of decentralization and centralization in Sweden (characterized by a context of shifting national and local level governance of policies, cultivated within a strong tradition of active labour market policies); The Netherlands (where there has been a deliberate shift in governance towards the local level); and the UK (typified by highly centralized decision making in policy design but local variation in delivery). Findings – The comparison identified different paths of decentralization and examines how these processes interact and overlap with modes of centralization/coordination of policies. Finally, the paper demonstrates the interface between the modes of decentralization and centralization. Originality/value – The investigation of vertical changes in the governance of activation in three country case studies provides an original in-depth analysis of types and paths of decentralization and centralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Europe schools and other service providers increasingly operate in networks to provide inclusive education or develop and implement more localized school-to-school improvement models. As some education systems move towards more decentralized decision-making where multiple actors have an active role in steering and governing schools, the tasks and responsibilities of Inspectorates of Education must also change. This paper reflects on these changes and suggests 'polycentric' inspection models that fit such a decentralized context. Examples of inspection frameworks and methods from Northern Ireland, England and the Netherlands are provided, as well as a brief discussion of the potential impact of such 'polycentric' models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines cross-national differences in the development of sectoral collective bargaining in the European telecommunications industry following comparable changes in market regulations. The authors seek to explain why centralized, coordinated bargaining institutions were established in Austria and Sweden, both within incumbent telecommunications firms and at the sector level, while Germany and Denmark experienced decentralization and disorganization of bargaining at both levels. The authors argue that these outcomes resulted from differences in institutional loopholes employers were able to exploit to avoid centralized bargaining and past union structures that influenced patterns of interunion cooperation. These two explanatory factors were interrelated: the presence or absence of institutional loopholes affected the basis for cooperation between unions, while labor cooperation was an important power resource unions could draw on to close emerging loopholes. Findings demonstrate the importance of sector-level political dynamics for the construction or erosion of solidaristic bargaining structures under pressure from market liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the decentralization of European space technology research and development through the joint lenses of policy, systems architecture, and innovation contexts. It uses a detailed longitudinal case history of the development of a novel astrophysics instrument to explore the link between policy-imposed institutional decomposition and the architecture of the technical system. The analysis focuses on five instances of collaborative design decision-making and finds that matching between the technical and institutional architectures is a predictor of project success, consistent with the mirroring hypothesis in extant literature. Examined over time, the instances reveal stability in the loosely coupled nature of institutional arrangements and a trend towards more integral, or tightly coupled, technical systems. The stability of the institutional arrangements is explained as an artifact of the European Hultqvist policy and the trend towards integral technical systems is related to the increasing complexity of modern space systems. If these trends persist, the scale of the mismatch will continue to grow. As a first step towards mitigating this challenge, the paper develops a framework for balancing upfront decomposition and in-process coordination in collaborative development projects. The astrophysics instrument case history is used to illustrate how collaborations should be defined for a given inherent system complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this introduction to the special issue is to give an overview of the key aspects of the governance of activation policies as discussed in the existing literature. It explains the focus and contribution of this special issue and provides a brief summary of the main findings in the individual articles. Design/methodology/approach – In this special issue the comparative analysis of the key aspects of governance of activation policies like centralization/decentralization, new public management, marketization and network governance is covered, accompanied by an assessment of the role of implementation conditions in shaping the real trends of governance reforms of activation policies. Further, the effects of governance reforms and the influence of EU governance on the dynamics of national activation policies are discussed. This comparative analysis leads to a typology of the "worlds of governance" of activation policies in Europe. Findings – All the countries show certain comparable converging trends in the reforms of governance of activation, although a closer look helps us determine the shape of increasingly different patterns of governance in several respects. In spite of this variety, another general finding is the common discrepancy between aims and effects: the key explanation involves implementation failures. Three governance regimes may be distinguished in the EU countries: committed marketizers, modernizers and slow modernizers. Originality/value – This paper suggests a new typology of governance regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrielle Beziehungen is the property of Rainer Hampp Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the last decade, in many European countries and cities, area-based Urban Development Programmes have been initiated, in response to major problems of poverty and social exclusion. Urban Development Programmes are usually developed in a complex interplay between different governmental levels, and implemented by a wide variety of public and non-public parties. This paper addresses the organisation of these programmes, concentrating in particular on the form and extent of ‘public-public partnership’, i.e. on the role that the different levels of the public administration play, both through the administrative system and through policy-making. The ‘empirical’ basis for the paper consists of case studies, derived from the UGIS project (‘Urban Governance, Social Inclusion and Sustainability,’ a research project financed by the European Commission, DG RTD). The short analysis makes clear that both the model of public administration, in terms of the extent and form of decentralisation, and the presence (or lack) of a national policy framework determine the extent to which UDPs can be planned, approved and implemented at the local level. One of the main findings is that the central influence over UDPs depends more on the urban policy framework of the central government than on the model of public administration of a country. Countries with strong national (regional) urban policies, sufficient decentralisation of public administration to the municipal level and the use of governance methods at the local level open up possibilities for successful UDPs. Without upper-level urban policy frameworks UDPs might be successful as well, but their replicability and the control over their external effects will not be ensured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the relationship between the degree of centralization and the distributive outcomes in European schemes of social assistance is investigated. For this purpose, a scheme of classification suitable for grouping the EU15 schemes according to features related to centralization is established by using cluster analysis and an indicator for centralization is developed by employing multidimensional scaling. Subsequently, on the basis of Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data, the effectiveness and efficiency in reducing poverty through social assistance payments are calculated using several measures of poverty for five selected EU systems and the linkage of their distributive impacts to the degree of centralization is examined. Concerning effectiveness in poverty alleviation, the results provide some evidence that extremely centralized systems are more effective with regard to redistribution than extremely decentralized schemes. However, for systems with a medium degree of centralization, the hypothesis that greater decentralization leads to more effectiveness is not supported. With respect to efficiency, no support is lent to the hypothesis that a higher degree of decentralization is accompanied by a better distributive efficiency. Rather, the results seem to suggest that systems with a medium degree of decentralization do better than either extremely centralized or extremely decentralized systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the arguments in favour of both the decentralization and centralization of public policy making. It points out that the same arguments are sometimes used to advance either claim and that in different countries opposite arguments are used to support the same claim. Clearly, the inherent features of centralization and decentralization are far from obvious. A closer look at the attention given to the issue by political parties at the national level in four European countries reveals that decentralization becomes an issue in these countries at different periods and as a cause of different arguments, which rather reflect the dominant values in the political culture than refer to inherent properties of decentralization itself. An analysis of opinions of local elites points at the relation between their opinion on decentralizing responsibilities in a specific field and the support for existing institutional arrangements, their own influence in the policy field and the predisposition towards decentralization tendencies. This results in the conclusion that the support for decentralization tendencies is more closely related to existing specific institutional arrangements, and to the degree to which it is expected to influence one's own position, than to its inherent merits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the aim of the present paper to contribute to this process by reproducing Barro--Pesaran experiment with data from four western European economies: France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Such a study, it is hoped, will determine the extent to which the conclusions reached by the above authors may be confirmed for countries whose political and economic environments differ from those present in the US and the UK.
The choice of the countries in our sample was motivated by the following three factors. (1) The bulk of extant empirical work pertains to US and occasionally to UK data [Barro (1977, 1978) and Pesaran (1982a) use US data while Attfield et al. (1981) estimate a quarterly model for the UK fashioned after Barro's model]. (2) The size of these four countries and the importance to their economies of international trade provide the opportunity to test the contending models in the ease of small open economies. (3) The countries retain the basic complexion of a decentralized capitalist economy. Extension of this research to other countries with different economic and political environment would be desirable.
Before presenting our empirical results, their place within the broader controversy of New Classical vs Keynesian has to be highlighted. Accordingly, the rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II contains a general survey of the issues separating New Classicals from Keynesians. In Section III, the model and the procedures to be followed in our empirical work are laid out, and the relevant empirical findings for the US economy are, briefly, surveyed. Section IV presents our empirical results, and Section V contains the conclusions of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the spatial distribution of the largest global corporations found on the Forbes Global 2000 list and with headquarters in Europe. The analysis includes the effects of the 2008 global financial crisis on changes in corporate financial performance. Research has shown that London has the largest economic potential in Europe, while companies in Central and Eastern European cities exhibit high rates of growth. The crisis triggered a decentralisation of corporate headquarters' location resulting in more cities with corporate headquarters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most work studying the impact of fiscal decentralization on the provision of public services has measured the latter by way of quantitative output indicators (for example, years of schooling or mortality rates) and the former based on aggregate decentralization indicators reflecting sub-central government spending or revenue as a percentage of total spending or revenue. In this article, we reconsider the link between fiscal decentralization and public service provision based on perception-based measures of the quality of public services as well as decentralization measures that disaggregate spending according to expenditure functions. Specifically, we examine the impact of decentralizing spending in the areas of education, health and social protection down to local (municipal) governments, on perceptions concerning the quality of public services, across a panel of 30 European countries over the period 1996–2015. We find that decentralizing education and social protection spending improves the perceived quality of public services while decentralizing health expenditure undermines quality. Our empirical results are robust to the introduction of a range of potentially important covariates including measures that reflect on the degree of autonomy enjoyed by local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This examination addresses the following questions: Is participative management an American version of European industrial democracy? What are they and what can be expected from them? Is one a substitute for the other? Are they passing fads or here to stay? For what kinds of issues are they best suited? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The LEADER approach has been at the heart of European rural development policy for the last 20 years, encompassing the principles of bottom-up endogenous development and community empowerment. Initially delivered through autonomous local action groups ( LAGs), since the 2007-2013 programming period, LEADER has been integrated with other measures in broader regional rural development programmes. It has been claimed that these changes have diluted the participatory principles of this programme. We examine the extent and impact of participation in rural development through LEADER, how this has changed over time, and the factors driving changes, through surveys of LAG managers in two case study regions in Spain ( Andalusia) and the UK ( Wales). The findings show that LAG managers are very positive about the breadth of participation in their own group and its role in decentralising decision-making, but critical of the structure, operation and management of LEADER in rural development programmes. In particular bureaucracy and the increased influence of regional and local government are perceived to have limited the autonomy of LAGs and to have deterred the participation of marginalised groups. The principles of this initiative are perceived to have been diluted and LEADER appears to have been a victim of its own success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The viability of coordinated, multi-employer bargaining arrangements as a cornerstone of labour market regulation in Western Europe has come under further threat following the crisis. Already, pressure for decentralization had corroded the capacity of sector agreements to specify universal standards applicable at company level. Procedural mechanisms articulating the two levels had become looser and more open-ended. This process has intensified in Northern European countries, whilst in Southern Europe, under pressure from the European institutions, a frontal assault on multi-employer bargaining arrangements is now underway. Reinforced European economic governance intensifies the need for coordination of bargaining across borders, but the capacity for achieving this is significantly reduced by the erosion of capacities for effective coordination within national bargaining systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For activation policies to succeed, the provision of social services in addition to labour-market services is essential, as social services are a prerequisite for integrating groups with complex social problems into the labour market. Activation policies based on social services can be termed inclusive. They require not only a sufficient financial basis, but also governance structures that deal with the organisational challenges associated with coordinated service provision, including fragmented competences and conflicts between different political arenas and territorial levels. This article analyses the capacity of five countries − Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK − to provide coordinated labour-market and social services from a multidimensional, multilevel and multi-stakeholder perspective. The findings show that coordinated service provision requires profound changes to national and local governance structures. Future research should take into account the organisational challenges of integrating social and employment services. Key Practitioner Message: ● The coordinated provision of employment and social services is an important precondition for integrating long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups into the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, activation has become a rather fashionable European trend for policies in the area of welfare and work, facilitating the job inclusion especially of the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. The activation paradigm implies important challenges for related policy fields and the organisational provision of individualised, client-centred training, skills development and counselling services. The main aim of this Supplement is to shed new light on the ways through which activation strategies have been translated in policies and new governance arrangements. More specifically, the five articles in this Supplement deal with two essential challenges of current activation policies: (i) the tightrope walk between cost-effectiveness and comprehensive support; and (ii) the different facets and combinations of systemic coordination, collaboration, marketisation, decentralisation and individualisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active inclusion reforms are radically transforming social policies in Europe. Consequently, the welfare state is changing from a social citizenship approach based on uniform benefits and services towards a system of individualized, targeted welfare intervention. Reforms therefore involve a fundamental re-organization of welfare provision. This transformation is usually discussed as a matter of national regimes for active inclusion and European diffusion of ‘good’ governance. However, active inclusion policies rely on a different social policy approach implying differentiated implementation processes. The implementation of active inclusion reforms can therefore only be understood by taking into account the local level. A series of local studies on French and German minimum income schemes raises questions about national accounts of these schemes, which depict a shift towards workfare. By contrast, this article reveals local variation between market-oriented, bureaucratic and participatory active inclusion strategies dependent on the distinct local governance arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses the effects of the European Social Fund (ESF) on domestic activation policies in the three Belgian regions: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. We argue that over the last decade the ESF has had a catalytic impact, first on the innovation of activation instruments, second on the governance of employment policies and third on policy framing. We explain how three different mechanisms (leverage, conditionality and learning) generate these effects and how they can account for a differential influence in different regions. We conclude by summarizing our research findings and framework, suggesting its usefulness for analyzing other domestic settings and European policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Collective bargaining in most European countries takes the form of multi-employer collective agreements. In the three Scandinavian countries, a two-tier model of bargaining has developed in many sectors: sectoral agreements prescribe national standards and nationally agreed wage increases, but they also give procedural and economic guidelines or frameworks for local or firm-level pay arrangement. Dispute resolution procedures at local level are the crucial link between levels, and a variety of such procedures are discussed. Similar examples of two-tier models can be found in other European countries, but they seem to be more fully developed in the Scandinavian countries. Possible explanations are considered, together with a discussion of the different forms of variation in wages opened up by two-tier models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the condition and changes of the HRM function in various European states. These changes have shown a shift of HRM tasks from HRM departments to managers themselves, and are according to the literature, this shift is known as devolution or decentralization. Our attention is focused on important factors in this process (from organizational ones, such as HRM strategies and policies, to more environmental ones, such as the sector or the state). Analysis shows that the country (as an institutional environment) sets the limits or encourages development towards devolution. HRM policy within the individual institutional context is of only secondary importance. Results show that country is a factor that fosters divergent tendencies and HRM policy accelerates convergence in HRM practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of the turbulence wrought by the global economy, it has become common to see projects as an essential medium for achieving change. However, project-based learning practices—as a subset of organizational learning practices—have not kept pace with this development. To explore this concern, we have carried out a study on practices adopted by organizations for learning through projects involving nineteen companies from across Europe and from a range of different industries. We use the concepts of variation, selection and retention in organizational learning to analyze our findings and report the challenges faced by project-based organizations in each of the areas highlighted. We conclude that time pressures, centralization and deferral are the key characteristics of learning in project-based firms and that these impede project-based members in learning from and through projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP) to replace the 2001 European Clinical Trials Directive in Europe. EFGCP focuses on the system of parallel reviews and approvals for multinational clinical trials to decentralize review on multinational trials. However, European countries have fought against the risk of losing clinical trials from the regulatory constraints in the directive of broader commercial and scientific context.

The article identifies the key entrepreneurship policy that challenges the government of the South East European countries. It outlines the context of the entrepreneurship policy in the region and presents policy recommendations relevant to entrepreneurship and development of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is noted that local entrepreneurship, SME policy instruments and its institutional delivery could be strengthened towards international best practices. The recommendations include policy decentralization and youth entrepreneurship should always provide for counseling and mentoring.