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The European Union (EU) is not a state, though it has some statelike attributes; it is not an empire, though it includes many former European imperial powers; and it is not a federation, though Euro-federalists seek to make it one. There is, however, no need to argue that the Union is a singularity, nor to invent novel terminology, such as that deployed by “neo-functionalists” and “intergovernmentalists” to capture its legal and political form. The EU is a confederation, but with consociational characteristics in its decision-making styles. This conceptualization facilitates understanding and helps explain the patterns of crises within the Union.

Formalized business-to-business (corporate) barter is relatively new to the Australian business marketing and purchasing landscape. This is the first empirical study reported on business-to-business barter in Australia. Business-to-business barter operates through trade exchanges which centralize barter transactions in a highly organized and transparent manner. Computer technologies have facilitated the growth and sophistication of this exchange system. It appears to becoming institutionalized in Australia within and alongside the orthodox prices-mediated market regime. Business-to-business barter might be seen as an innovation on a very old fundamental in exchange that has re-emerged in response to deficiencies in the orthodox system.This chapter reports research on the largest of Australia's barter trade exchanges, Bartercard. Bartercard is not only a national exchange within Australia as it also has begun to internationalize its operations. A national mail survey of Bartercard members was conducted to understand more of this form of business-to-business enterprise. Issues investigated include: benefits of membership, limitations of the system, “pricing” within the system, the transaction coordination mechanism, factors leading to success of the system and its likelihood of longevity. Demographics of surveyed firms are reported. The results indicate that there are significant benefits for members but that trading in the system has limitations which necessitate a reliance on the orthodox prices-mediated system for the larger part of the firm's business activity. It does appear that a membership consociation exists within the system which facilitates the transaction mediation. The organizational nature of the trade exchange investigated, and its management, will ensure continuation of its members' business barter trade regardless of variations in the macroeconomics of Australia's economy. Avenues for enterprising research are uncovered.

Max Weber and the Austrian School of Economics share many of the same intellectual influences as well as a similar commitment to a social science characterized by methodological individualism, methodological subjectivism, and value-freedom. Although many of the links between Weber and the Austrian school have been explored, one area of agreement between Weber and Mises that is yet to be explored is their shared understanding of the nature of the market. This chapter attempts to close this gap by examining the pictures of the market in Weber’s Economy and Society and Mises’ Human Action. We find that both portrayals share important features. These include similarities regarding (i) the nature of the market; (ii) the market’s autonomous logic; (iii) the impersonality of the market; and (iv) the market in society.

The assumption of ecological thinking as a main ideology for social systems implies many relevant changes concerning the relation between social and ecological systems. Changes meaning a deep redefinition of goals and strategies pursued for centuries by human communities, like the uncertainty reduction in relation to resources' availability and management, defence respect to variance in ecological system's as well as its constraint within social systems themselves. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

An analysis of literature and critic perspectives allows to highlight different aspects of the imagined transition toward an ecologically informed social organisation. Some considerations will be presented about obstacles to change in social systems as well as about the different levels of response to solicitations coming from ecological thinking and ecological issues.

Many of the considered theoretical proposals lead to assume that those solicitations and the subsequent responses would impact directly on fundamental sets of rights and freedoms, today considered as untouchable.

The establishment of an ecological state – at least as described here – even if it appears as a desirable perspective, it would pass through a re-design of the concept of citizenship as well as of the relation between individuals and social institutions.

The paper tries a definition of the main theoretical topics to be assessed, hoping they may be a useful base for future search.

Dysfunctional governance processes have contributed to catastrophic healthcare system failures due to discordance between clinical and corporate governance processes. The emergence of an integrated governance approach endeavours to overcome the traditional boundaries between corporate and clinical governance systems, to enhance understanding and transparency in the organisations approach to service provision. The purpose of this paper is to discusses the attributes of an integrated governance approach and its contribution to enhancing service delivery.

The paper provides an overview of the governance approaches and the emergence of integrated governance to improve overall service delivery.

An integrated governance approach erodes the traditional boundaries that exist within the complex healthcare system. This allows for a greater understanding of healthcare strategies and organisational objectives, and the dissemination of these throughout the organisation. Further, enhancing awareness within the clinical setting of the core attributes of the organisation and for the upper echelons of management to have a greater understanding of the clinical issues. Integrated governance acknowledges the contribution of all stakeholders including consumers in safe guarding the delivery of healthcare and its standards.

This paper contributes to the discussion and debate regarding governance approaches and how these are situated in enhancing organisational performance.

Scholars studying postwar settings are often highly critical of the work of NGOs in peacebuilding. In this chapter, I argue that many of the limitations of the NGO model are the result of the structure of funding. Using ethnographic and archival data from donors and NGOs engaging in peacebuilding in Croatia, this chapter examines the incentives build into the dominant donor–NGO model of funding. I find that the incentives for both donors and NGOs built into funding for peacebuilding lead to dysfunctional behavior by both donors and NGOs, and ultimately to ineffective and sometimes counterproductive peacebuilding projects. I find that donors actively shape the agenda of NGOs and push NGOs to see projects as the unit of peacebuilding. Donor funding is novelty seeking, rewarding NGOs for coming up with new project ideas and working in new locations. It also favors quantifiable events and activities for the purposes of reporting. In practice, these systematic preferences lead to the abandonment of successful projects, difficulty in securing long-term funding for work in troubled communities, and the favoring of countable events over development of the interpersonal relationships that are at the heart of successful peacebuilding.

This chapter highlights how Malaysia has experienced a successful economy through different stages since independence. The development, administration and institution-building phase was followed by reform initiatives throughout the years. Master Industrial Plans, 5-year development plans and other mid-term plans are used, which include governance and performance management reform. Today, public service reform continues to evolve with emphasis on better services, e-government and one-stop clearance centres. Under the Government Transformation Programme launched in 2010, seven National Key Results Areas have been identified, e.g., reducing crime, fighting corruption, improving education, and raising living standards of low-income households. Within this, political transformation programme, digital transformation programme, community transformation programme and social transformation programme have been created that advance public sector reforms. This chapter shows that while states and leaders remain powerful actors, leaders recognise a need to reform and overcome unethical and inefficient bureaucratic dysfunctions, or keep them at a minimum. Leaders manage such problems by using transparency to address problems of vested interests, stringent audits and punishing civil servants for criminal breaches of trust, removal of ministerial control over government-linked companies and removing resisting actors. Yet, more reforms in shepherding public service renewal are needed in sustaining reforms and reputations of public institutions. The author calls for increased values-based leadership that is inclusive at the highest levels.

How are we to make sense of the attitudes of Social Democratic parties towards decentralisation? What do they think about what is a legitimate territorial allocation of power? What factors shapes this view? And what makes Social Democratic parties change their minds? This article addresses these questions by way of competing ideological traditions, the external strategic incentives and internal constraints. Empirically, the article presents a comparative case-study analysis of Social Democratic parties in four countries (Belgium, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom). On the basis of this analysis, I argue that the positioning of Social Democratic parties on decentralisation is influenced by strategic incentives created by the structure of political competition, whereas the policy shifts are more often produced by factors that are internal to the party. A decentralist policy shift is always associated with the capacity of regionalist parties to set the agenda by exerting pressures on Social Democratic parties. In addition, Social Democratic parties tend to shift their policy while in opposition to distinguish themselves from their centralist mainstream rival in government. The dominant mechanism found across four countries was one in which regional branches persuade the central party leadership to adopt a pro-decentralist position. This chapter illustrates how Social Democratic parties have an instinct for ‘adaptation and control’ in the face of social-structural changes, and it demonstrates that the prevalence of different ideological traditions will vary according to external strategic incentives and, crucially, by the party's internal ability to follow those incentives.