Kazakhstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since then it has witnessed a remarkable economic transformation under the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Pursuing a policy of 'economy first and then politics', Kazakhstan is under growing pressure to engage in political reforms which include a modernization agenda to improve public service provision. Recent constitutional reforms have received a lukewarm reaction from the international community that Kazakhstan is keen to become part of. At the same time a progressive agenda of public services reform is well under way rooted in new public management and a desire to become much more customer focussed in their orientation. This article examines the parallel themes of political reforms and public services modernization in Kazakhstan. Points for practitionersThis article offers two key points for practitioners. First, it describes the detail of public sector reforms taking place in a developing country which secured its independence approximately 16 years ago, and the significant progress since then. Second, it poses questions about the political context in which administrative reform can take place. Has the existence of a highly centralized and autocratic form of presidential leadership resulted in a top-down imperative which has helped the pace of public services modernization in Kazakhstan?
Bangladesh has had a troubled political history since gaining independence in 1971 and is also beleaguered by poverty and natural environmental disasters. In particular however, corruption is blighting its prospects for economic growth, undermining the rule of law, and damaging the legitimacy of the political process. This paper adopts a sectoral approach to the study of corruption by examining people's experiences of using health and education services in Bangladesh through a large scale quantitative survey. It also presents case study research which assesses the impact of anti-corruption work by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in the areas of health and education. The paper concludes that: the poorest in Bangladesh are most penalised by corruption; there are significant benefits for health and education service users resulting from TIB's interventions; and there is a need for committed political leadership beyond the period of the current caretaker government if ongoing efforts to tackle corruption are to be effective and sustainable.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the emergence of e-government in post-Soviet countries using Kazakhstan as a case study. Extant research on e-government in developing countries highlights significant benefits including improved public services, reduced corruption, and more open and inclusive government. The paper asserts the presence of an e-government paradox which limits its potential to improve public services. Design/methodology/approach Primary data were collected from a number of sources: 6 focus groups with central government agencies, local authorities and civil society organisations; 25 structured and semi-structured interviews; and participant observation. Findings The research finds evidence of an e-government paradox in five forms: an emphasis on technological development; transactional services are faster but have displaced attention from core public services; petty corruption has been reduced but grand corruption remains; isomorphic mimicry; and greater participation by citizens has been limited. Research limitations/implications The focus of the research is Kazakhstan. Applying the lessons learned to other post-Soviet countries has limitations given their different stages of development since independence. Practical implications The key practical implication of this research is that countries can become absorbed by e-government technology without questioning the fundamental business model which underpins how public services are delivered. Ultimately, this impacts on the social value of e-government. Originality/value While existing research has examined how e-government has been implemented in developing countries, this paper focusses on Kazakhstan as an authoritarian state with wider implications for post-Soviet countries.
7Northern Ireland has been dubbed by the media as the 'race hate capital of Europe' and 8 attracted recent international criticism after one hundred Roma families were forced to flee 9 their homes following racist attacks. This paper examines the problem of racism in Northern 10Ireland from a number of perspectives. First, it considers the effectiveness of the Government's 11 response to racism against its Racial Equality Strategy 2005-10 using performance criteria 12 designed to track the implementation of the strategy. Second, it considers and empirically tests 51In an unrelated incident soon after, one hundred Roma families were forced 52 to take shelter in a church hall, evacuating their homes in the Lisburn Road area of Northern Ireland were angry about the attacks on the Roma families, claiming the 63 families had been subjected to harassment for some months and had not received 64 adequate protection. They also accused local politicians of deliberately blaming 65 immigrants for the lack of jobs and resources caused by the global recession. 66The country's only minority ethnic elected representative, Alliance Party MLA, 67Anna Lo, argued in a debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly that 'in order to 68 eliminate racism, we must also tackle sectarianism -the twin evils of prejudice'. 69It is against this background that we attempt to examine three key questions:• What has been the Government's response in seeking to tackle increased 72 racism? 73• Using the Government's own performance criteria, how effective has their 74 approach been so far? 75• What factors influence racist attitudes among people in Northern Ireland? 76 tackling racism in northern ireland 3We begin with an overview of previous research on racism in Northern 77Ireland. 78The literature 79The UK social policy literature, according to Craig (2007) by offering a definition of sectarianism and compared it to the concept of racism. 212He argued that there were points of convergence but also differences. Racism The link between sectarianism and racism is also recognised at the European The comparative example here is the debate in Great Britain that racialised xenophobia. These comments have been prompted by the economic downturn. 321Until recently it was recognised that migrant workers filled skills gaps in specific Office. The scheme is used to register migrant workers from the A8 countries. comparison. These data are presented in Figure 1. The data show a trend increase 1 Recorded racist crimes (sometimes referred to as notifiable offences) are those which are deemed to be indictable or triable-either-way. In the same way as incidents are identified as having a hate motivation, a crime will be recorded as having the relevant hate motivation where the victim or any other person perceives it as such. Not all incidents will result in the recording of a crime. Crimes with hate motivations are classified according to the Home Office counting rules. Source: Collated from PSNI annual crime statistics reports; available at: www...
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