scholarly journals Member influence in cooperatives: Contributions of Scandinavian studies to the research conducted in the United States

1984 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-129
Author(s):  
Petri Ollila

This literature review summarizes research on member influence in cooperatives conducted in Scandinavia and some of the research conducted in West Germany. The review divides the contents of member influence into three components; individual factors, the cooperative organization’s internal factors and the organization’s external factors. As individual factors, participation, representation and representativeness are considered. Conflicts in cooperative organizations, the effect of the growth of the organization and the rules of decision making are discussed as organizations internal factors. The major interest groups in addition to members (the market, personnel and the society) are presented as external factors. The external factors are increasingly challenging the nature of cooperatives as member interest organizations.

Author(s):  
D. B. Grafov

The article is about how pro-Israel and pro-China interest groups try to lobby on the ground of Capitol, White House and executive branch. The study of the lobbying results is based on «General theory of action» T. Parsons. It is concluded that for lobbying interests the main point will be the representation of the interests in the political and public spaces and the creating of advocacy and lobbying infrastructure. The ability of the Israeli lobby to achieve the goal can be explained, firstly, by political inclusion in the decision-making process, and, secondly, by almost axiomatic representation Israel interests through the national interests of the United States. The Israeli lobby can be considered as the religious lobby. It can use the possibilities of Jewish religious organizations in grass root action. Also this gives the opportunity to avoid the requirements of the LDA. From the point of view of the theory of Talcott Parsons, the success of the Israeli lobby is the cause of the action of a large number of actors that may form in large groups. Another advantage of the Israeli lobby is the ability of its members to get relevant information about the current situation in different spheres of political life in the U.S. The objective of the present study was to reveal the ways in which China lobby succeeds. The influence of China lobby on decision-making process in the United States can be explained through strong economic ties between American corporations and the Chinese market. When lobbying China uses numerous Chinese Diaspora in many States, as well as trying to interest of the former high-ranking American officials, granting them special privileges for doing business in China. In comparison to the Israeli lobby, the Chinese lobby has weaknesses. Chinese interest groups are not included in the political system of the USA and this is the disadvantage of the Chinese way of lobbying. Unlike Israel lobby Chinese one is external. The interests of the chinese pressure groups do not coincide with American national interests. Their actors are not rooted in the American political system.


1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank L. Wilson

In a critical review of the state of comparative politics fourteen years ago, Joseph LaPalombara noted important gaps in our information on politics even in the presumably well-researched Western democratic countries. As an illustration, he contrasted the wealth of information on American interest groups with the surprisingly few solid studies of interest groups in countries such as Britain, France, Italy or West Germany. Despite, or perhaps because of this information gap, specialists in comparative politics were prepared to make sweeping generalizations about politics in this or that foreign country that a United States specialist would never dare to make on the basis of the wealth of research data available on politics in the United States. In the years since LaPalombara's critique, few have picked up his challenge to fill these information gaps, particularly the lacunae in our knowledge of interest group politics outside the United States. This lack of information has not discouraged scholars from proposing high-flown generalizations and models on interest group-government interaction in Europe. Sometimes, as we shall see, scholars studying interest group-State interactions have thought they found what Sartori labelled ‘travelling universals’ in certain interest-group patterns existing in struggling, non-democratic Third World countries which they then assumed to be present in the modern industrial democracies of Western Europe.


Author(s):  
Karno Pandu Wibowo

This study aims to determine the usefulness level of accounting information (on cash basis and accrual basis) in central goverment agencies internal decision-making process. In addition, this study also aims to determine the influence of the organization’s external factors, the organization's internal factors and Individual Actor’s Characteristic Related Factors on the level of use of accounting information in central goverment agencies internal decision making.The research show that  level of accrual accounting information use in the context of internal decision making is high. In addition it showed differences between  level of cash-based accounting information use and accrual-based accounting information use. This study also addressed that the organization’s external factors, the organization's internal factors and individual actor’s characteristic related factors significantly influence both level of accounting information use  on cash basis and accrual basis in the internal decision-making. Except for the organization’s external factors  did not significantly affect the level of accrual accounting information use  in the internal decision-making.   Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui tingkat kegunaan informasi akuntansi (berbasis kas dan akrual) dalam proses pengambilan keputusan internal Unit Akuntansi Kuasa Pengguna Anggaran (UAKPA). Selain itu penelitian ini juga bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh faktor eksternal organisasi, faktor internal organisasi dan faktor karakteristik individu pengguna terhadap tingkat penggunaan informasi akuntansi dalam pengambilan keputusan internal Unit Akuntansi Kuasa Pengguna Anggaran (UAKPA).Temuan peneliti menunjukan bahwa tingkat penggunaan informasi akuntansi berbasis akrual tinggi dalam rangka pengambilan keputusan internal. Selain itu penelitian menunjukan adanya perbedaan tingkat penggunaan antara informasi akutansi berbasis kas dan informasi akutansi berbasis akrual. Penelitian juga menujukan bahwa faktor eksternal organisasi, faktor internal organisasi dan faktor karakteristik individu pengguna berpengaruh signifikan terhadap tingkat penggunaan informasi akuntansi (berbasis kas dan akrual) dalam pengambilan keputusan internal. Kecuali untuk faktor eksternal organisasi tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap tingkat penggunaan informasi akuntansi akrual dalam pengambilan keputusan internal.


Author(s):  
Steven Hurst

The United States, Iran and the Bomb provides the first comprehensive analysis of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship from its origins through to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Starting with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, it analyses the policies of successive US administrations toward the Iranian nuclear programme. Emphasizing the centrality of domestic politics to decision-making on both sides, it offers both an explanation of the evolution of the relationship and a critique of successive US administrations' efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear programme, with neither coercive measures nor inducements effectively applied. The book further argues that factional politics inside Iran played a crucial role in Iranian nuclear decision-making and that American policy tended to reinforce the position of Iranian hardliners and undermine that of those who were prepared to compromise on the nuclear issue. In the final chapter it demonstrates how President Obama's alterations to American strategy, accompanied by shifts in Iranian domestic politics, finally brought about the signing of the JCPOA in 2015.


Author(s):  
Richard Gowan

During Ban Ki-moon’s tenure, the Security Council was shaken by P5 divisions over Kosovo, Georgia, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. Yet it also continued to mandate and sustain large-scale peacekeeping operations in Africa, placing major burdens on the UN Secretariat. The chapter will argue that Ban initially took a cautious approach to controversies with the Council, and earned a reputation for excessive passivity in the face of crisis and deference to the United States. The second half of the chapter suggests that Ban shifted to a more activist pressure as his tenure went on, pressing the Council to act in cases including Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Syria. The chapter will argue that Ban had only a marginal impact on Council decision-making, even though he made a creditable effort to speak truth to power over cases such as the Central African Republic (CAR), challenging Council members to live up to their responsibilities.


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