Lynn Bennie

The Logic of Transnational Action: The Good Corporation and the Global Compact

This article examines corporate participation in the UN Global Compact programme. Using data on the worlds 2,000 largest companies, we address the question of why companies voluntarily assume the programmes responsibilities and promote the rights of ‘global citizenship’. Our analytic approach is to view transnational corporate political behaviour as a result of firm-level decisions shaped by country-level variation in political audience effects. Drawing on earlier research on more conventional forms of corporate political activity, we expect factors influential in the standard model of firm political activity to determine participation in the Global Compact. In addition, we argue that this highly visible, less instrumental dimension of a firms political behaviour is driven by efforts to build a good environmental and human rights reputation with its audience of external actors. The importance of environmental and human rights concerns depends on the substance of the firms business activities, the availability of investment and ‘exit’ options, and the home audiences bias towards the UN and human and environmental rights. We find support for political factors as well as firm and industry-level characteristics influencing the decision to participate in the Global Compact.

Devolution and party change: Candidate selection for the 1999 Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly elections

The article analyses the candidate selection procedures of each of the major parties in the run‐up to the 1999 Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections, assessing the extent to which they reveal developments in party democratisation and decentralisation on the one hand, and evidence of countervailing central control on the other. Procedural innovations achieved greater openness in candidate nomination and gender balance in candidatures but developments in democratisation were contested and evidence of decentralisation was mixed. Surveys of candidates reveal a perception in the Labour Party that there was too much central influence, although its implications differed in Scotland and Wales. There were perceptions of unfairness and lack of internal democracy in the other parties as well, suggesting in particular a contradiction between central influence in all of the parties’ approaches to list selection and candidates’ expectations of such influence diminishing. Devolution, therefore, released tensions in all parties.

Cadidate selection, devolution and modernisation: The selection of labour party candidates for the 1999 Scottish parliament and welsh assembly elections

Describes the selection of Labour Party candidates for the 1999 Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections.

Voter Reactions to a Preferential Ballot: The 2007 Scottish Local Elections

Abstract The Single Transferable Vote (STV) has featured prominently in debates on electoral reform in Britain but until now there has been little hard evidence on how British voters might react to this electoral system. This has changed with the introduction of STV for the 2007 Scottish local government elections, which represented the first use of the system in a public election in mainland Britain in living memory. Election data collected from Scottish councils are used to examine how voters responded. After providing an overview of the elections, four issues are considered – rejected ballots, preference usage, the patterns of transfers and ballot position effects. Two main themes emerge from the analysis: voters had little difficulty in understanding and engaging with STV and in their use of lower preferences party loyalties remained important.

TRANSITION TO STV: SCOTTISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS 2007

A form of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) will be introduced for Scottish local government elections in May 2007, bringing the total number of electoral systems used in Scotland to four. The article outlines the key characteristics of the new system, and considers the implications of these changes. The introduction of STV will undoubtedly produce a more proportional distribution of seats among the main parties, and there will be a reduction in the number of Labour councillors. However, the reforms are unlikely to lead to an electoral transformation in that minor parties will still struggle to make an impact. Nor will the party responsible for these changes – the Liberal Democrats – benefit to any great extent. This may be a case of political principles overcoming the desire for electoral advantage.

Towards Moderate Pluralism: Scotland's Post-Devolution Party System, 1999-2002

In this article, we examine the development of Scotlands party system since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. The establishing of a new political institution is a rare event and provides us with a new case with which to test existing ideas. In particular, institutional reform can be an important source of party and party system change. Importantly, the study of party systems involves more than just the study of individual political parties. Instead, what is key to party systems analysis is the pattern of interactions that results from party competition. In the context of Scottish politics, the interaction of parties has been a neglected subject, both prior to and following devolution. This analysis of Scotlands post-devolution party system proceeds in three parts. We begin with a discussion of the classification of party systems. There follows an assessment of the electoral strength of the parties in Scotland, their ideological character and policies, and the patterns of interaction between the parties. Thirdly, we attempt to characterize the emerging key aspects of Scotlands post-devolution party system, bearing in mind that it is ultimately relations between the parties that determine the nature of the party system.

STRATEGIC ACTORS OR MUDDLING THROUGH? POLITICAL PARTIES, LOCAL CAMPAIGNING AND THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE1

Through a study of local party adaptation to the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) in the 2007 Scottish local government election, this article asks whether party organisations can be strategic, vote‐maximising actors when a new electoral system is introduced. By examining candidate and ‘vote management’ strategies, the article demonstrates that local parties tended to adapt best in areas of organisational and electoral strength. However, despite some comprehensive attempts to adapt to the STV system, parties were hampered by a lack of experience with the new system and a lack of adequate data upon which to base candidate and campaigning decisions.

The Transformation of Local Politics? STV and the 2007 Scottish Local Government Elections

This article considers the impact of introducing STV for Scottish Local Government elections. The new electoral system has had a significant effect in terms of extending the principles of coalition politics, thereby presenting opportunities for all parties. Parties now work within the context of multi‐party agreements in order to run Scotlands 32 councils. The myriad of party configurations or ‘coalitions’ to emerge from these STV elections stands in sharp contrast with the behaviour of parties at Holyrood, and with parties competing under FPTP rules. In this respect, STV has transformed party politics in Scottish local government.

Parties, mandates and multilevel politics: Subnational variation in British general election manifestos

The three main statewide British parties – Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats – all produce different versions of their manifestos in British general elections. Many policies debated in a British general election no longer apply at the subnational level, where separate devolved institutions control large areas of policy. This article therefore assesses the roles of national party manifestos at the subnational level in British general elections. It develops an original theory linking Strom’s alternative party goals to Ray’s typology of mandate/contract manifestos, advertisement manifestos and identity manifestos. It then explores a comparative overview of British parties’ general election manifestos at the subnational level, before focusing in detail on Labour’s 2010 and 2015 general election manifestos, which reflect the party’s strategic difficulties caused by devolution. The expected variation is found between the national and subnational manifestos. In some instances, multiple goals are pursued simultaneously and this is reflected in manifestos which assume elements of more than one manifesto ideal type. This supports the additional conclusion that manifestos can perform multiple functions in complex multilevel systems of government.

The Australian Greens: From activism to Australia’s third party

be expected and sometimes justified, such as bad decision-making and the slow pace of economic development, it does not provide solutions to and cannot explain away the key problem that many people have with politicians in general, and those in the Pacific in particular, corruption. The treatment of corruption is controversial. In keeping with a number of treatments of corruption in the Pacific, such as Peter Larmour’s Interpreting corruption: Cultural and politics in the Pacific islands (Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press, 2012), this book promotes a more culturally appropriate definition and set of standards (p. 146). It portrays the problem in less stark terms than earlier treatises, such as Ron Crocombe’s Cook Islands Politics: The Inside Story (Auckland, Polynesian Press, 1979). Cultural relativism has its merits, but there are limits to its usefulness, and one of these is when it understates a problem that hurts the disempowered and weak. Although the book is sensibly wary of a one size fits all definition, particularly when propagated by some international organisations, it might have avoided issues with a culturally relativist approach by also relying on other insiders such as Auditors Generals, in particular those who work at the intersection of global norms and local realities, such as Auditor Generals. The book might generate empathy for the challenges and trials that oftenbeset Pacific politicians, many of which go unnoticed and are misunderstood. It might not, however, mitigate popular cynicism about their activities; having politicians explain why they are corrupt or that they are not corrupt is unlikely to sway the many Pacific peoples that live in poverty, some if not many of who might have been helped if public finances were not misused and political office not abused.