Alan Greer

Policy networks and policy change in organic agriculture: A comparative analysis of the UK and Ireland

This paper takes a comparative case–study approach, located within the literature on policy networks, to organic agriculture policy in the United Kingdom and Ireland since the late 1980s. An examination of policy development for the organic sector focuses primarily on regulatory arrangements. The core of the analysis applies some prominent themes in the policy network literature to the organic sector: the debate about sectoral and sub–sectoral networks, the relationship between networks, context and outcomes, and the role of the state and ideas in promoting policy change.

Public Policies, Private Strategies and Local Public Spending Bodies

Local Public Spending Bodies (LPSBs) occupy an important position in the contemporary structures of governance in the UK. As exemplars of many of the diverse characteristics of the New Public Management, LPSBs inhabit the fuzzy space between the public and private spheres, both in terms of organizational structure and service delivery. One finding from recent research into the internal governance of three kinds of LPSBs – Further Education Colleges, Housing Associations and Training and Enterprise Councils – was that the language of strategy predominated over that of policy on the boards of such organizations. In this article we assess the significance of this finding. We contend that the two terms are not interchangeable and that a vital distinction needs to be maintained between them. Specifically we argue that policy refers to collections of decisions grounded in public values whereas the concept of strategy, particularly as currently understood in the context of the New Public Management, refers to the positioning of an organization in its struggle to survive and grow. We conclude that LPSBs have been invited to behave strategically within a framework of increasingly centralized policy objectives and resource allocations.

Decentralization and district health services in Nepal: understanding the views of service users and service providers.

BACKGROUND Within the decentralization framework of Government, the Ministry of Health (MoH) Nepal initiated the decentralization of primary care services closer to citizens. This paper aims to examine and understand the effect of decentralization at the district health service from the perspectives of service users and providers. METHODS Using non-probability purposive sampling, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions in four primary health care institutions with service users, providers and other stakeholders. QSRNVivo7 software was used to analyse and categorize the data under emerging themes. RESULTS Decentralization was positively associated with increased service access and utilization and improved service delivery. The study also revealed areas of concern and possible improvement and identified the barriers to implementing these improvements. Problems described included three main areas: functions, functionaries and funding. CONCLUSION Both service users and providers convey a generally positive message about the health sector decentralization. The active involvement of service users, providers, policy-makers in the process of decentralization and clear national and local policy agendas may bring positive changes in district health services.

Policy Networks and State-Farmer Relations in Northern Ireland, 1921–72

An extensive literature already applies a variety of theories of interest intermediation to case studies of British agricultural policy. This paper applies the concept of policy network to one particular territorial aspect of agricultural policy – the relationship between the state and the farmer in Northern Ireland during the period of devolution between 1921–72. The conclusion is that although theories of policy community and meso-corporatism have some explanatory value, La Palombaras notion of parentela is necessary to any understanding of the essential nature of the farmer-state relationship in Northern Ireland.

Inter-institutional decision-making: The case of the Common Agricultural Policy

Abstract The dominant portrayal of the policy process around the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) emphasises a system of inter-governmental bargaining, close links between institutions and farming interests, and compartmentalised closed policy networks. This article considers how inter-institutional relationships might be reshaped by the extension of ‘co-decision’ powers to the European Parliament in the Lisbon Treaty. This raises the possibility that policy proposals and outcomes may increasingly reflect the participation of a broader range of actors and interests. Using four scenarios that reflect different institutional configurations, a preliminary analysis of the 2011 dairy regime proposals (the ‘Milk Package’) is used to draw some conclusions about whether the agricultural policy agenda is likely to be broadened through de-compartmentalisation, leading to a more fluid policy arena characterised by more actors with conflicting values.

Contemporary Governance and Local Public Spending Bodies

This paper draws on recent research conducted by the authors to examine the nature of board/executive relations in three different kinds of Local Public Spending Body (LPSB). Big variations are noted, between and within sectors, in the way in which boards organize themselves and the degree of power they have in relation to executives. In all organizations studied the executive played a crucial role both in managing day-to-day operations and in setting the organization’s strategic direction. Chief executives exercised considerable influence over the recruitment of board members and the maintenance of consensual relations between board and executive. The dilemma of the voluntary board member with limited time and a lack of inside knowledge of the organization he/she is accountable for is examined. It is argued that the most effective boards contain members with a strong sense of their own legitimacy and enjoy a membership with a diverse range of interests and experiences. It is suggested that such models might combine the merits of greater democratic responsiveness and enhanced organizational effectiveness.

Patterns of governance in local public spending bodies

Presents initial findings from research undertaken in 1996 for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation into the internal governance of further education corporations, housing associations and training and enterprise councils. Discusses the relationship between board members and senior officers in these organizations by focusing on the distinctions drawn between strategy, policy and operations. Argues that the language of policy has increasingly been replaced by the language of strategy and that this corresponds to the evacuation of policy questions from the local public sphere. Advances four hypotheses to explain this rolling back of the frontiers of politics: a reassertion of the power of chief executives/managers linked to a new generation of social entrepreneurs; the emergence of a new generation of elite volunteers who restrict their activities to vision and strategy; a response to a rapidly changing economy, society, politics and environment in which speed of decision is of the essence; and increasing centralization. Concludes that a combination of internal and external pressures has reinforced the move towards the new governance.

Sir James Craig and the constrution of Parliament Buildings at Stormont

Architecture has its political uses: public buildings being the ornament of a country; it establishes a nation, draws people and commerce, makes the people love their native country, which passion is the original of all great actions in a Commonwealth. Sir Christopher Wren When the prince of Wales formally opened the new Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings at Stormont on 16 November 1932, it brought to an end over ten years of controversy, delay, confusion, and wrangling over both finance and design. Although approval to build a new parliament house and administrative offices was given in the autumn of 1922, and preliminary work began on the site in 1923, the above-ground foundation stone was not laid until 1928, and the departmental offices were not occupied until April 1931. There is an extensive literature which stresses the political significance of the architecture of civic and public buildings such as parliament houses, law-courts, government offices and even theatres. Other writers have noted the linkages between architecture, empire, nationalism and state formation. Thomas Metcalf commented that distinctive architectural forms ‘sought to manifest the ideals of imperialism’ and were designed to enhance ‘the hold of Empire over ruler and ruled alike’. For architects such as Herbert Baker, classical design, with its monumentality and ideals of law, order and government, was the only architectural form appropriate for the representation of empire. This was an architecture which gave a ‘visible shape to the new imperialism of the turn of the twentieth century’.

Post-exceptional politics in agriculture: An examination of the 2013 CAP reform

ABSTRACT A core claim about agricultural policy making is that it is ‘compartmentalized’ and ‘exceptional’. In this picture, the policy process is insulated from other policy concerns, has a distinctive system of actors and institutional structures, and is rooted in extensive governmental intervention in the market and the redistribution of resources from taxpayers to food producers. Recently there have been suggestions that a ‘post-exceptional’ agricultural politics has emerged, which is more market-driven, has reduced state intervention, and where policies reflect influences relating to non-food issues such as the environment. This contribution discusses the concepts of compartmentalization and exceptionalism and then applies ‘indicators of change’ to a case study of the 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It concludes that the reform provides evidence for ‘shallow’ post-exceptionalism where a historically persistent agricultural policy subsystem has opened up to new actors, incorporated some programme change but left the ideational framework largely intact.

History And Art

Trevor Fawcett’s The Rise of English Provincial Art: Artists, Patrons, and Institutions outside London, 1800 – 1830 (1974) was groundbreaking in the way it rebalanced attention between the metropolis and the regions. In its wake a few studies of specific British provincial centres have appeared, but the only notable Irish investigation heretofore is Peter Murray’s Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery: Incorporating a Detailed Chronology of Art in Nineteenth-century Cork and Biographies of those Cork Artists Represented in the Collection (1991). Tackling the other end of the island, Dr Black, a curator of fine art at the Ulster Museum, deals with the context of the Belfast art world in general and the history of attempts to set up cultural institutions there in particular. This is on the grounds that a ‘skewed picture’ would emerge from a study restricted to the small number of artists active in the town in the period in question. The narrative starts in a somewhat barren period around 1760—the first fifty years are dealt with in fourteen pages. The earliest of the numerous plans for libraries, art galleries and art schools which came, sometimes briefly flourished, and then went, dates from the 1820s. Dr Black narrates the long series of ploys and pleas to establish such institutions. The turning point came in 1870 when a group of private subscribers scraped together the funds to establish a School of Art, the direct antecedent of the present School of Art and Design of the University of Ulster. The story finishes on a high point with the opening in 1888 of the Free Public Library, Art Gallery and Museum, the town becoming a city in the same year. A lot of ground is covered en route, including the emergence of Belfast artists, auctioneering, dealing, collecting and patronage and allied activities in the print trade. In the 1850s the development of art in Belfast was still poor. According to the 1851 census, Plymouth, with a population of 90,000, supported thirty-six artists but Belfast’s 103,000 only eight. In 1858 a touring exhibition of decorative art drew over 55,000 visitors in Dublin and 13,998 in Clonmel but only 3,322 in Belfast. A poor example was set by the caution of the Belfast civic authorities, summed up by Thomas Verner, the mayor in 1855. When other towns and cities were embracing the opportunity to set up libraries and galleries funded through the rates following the 1845 Museums Act, he declined to do so saying: ‘I should hesitate before I should call upon the inhabitants to tax themselves for the establishment of an Institution, however worthy of support.’ The spending of individual philanthropists may often have been directed to humanitarian rather than cultural needs but Belfast was an increasingly wealthy town: in 1855 the customs revenue was £363,000; by 1886 it was £1,635,000. Even the very rich such as Sir Edward Harland gave only small sums to encourage the fine and applied arts. Belfast must have envied the generous civic