Reflections from the Margins: Complexities, Transitions and Developmental Challenges - The Case of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Since the dawn of colonialism in Southern Africa, the province of the Eastern Cape emerged as the cradle of African resistance against colonial oppression. A closer look at the province reveals opportunities for progress and ultimate resurgence of economic and social development, yet conflated by a myriad of challenges. This book brings together different perspectives and realities of the post-apartheid Eastern Cape to provide an in-depth exploration of the developmental dilemmas that the province faces. This book provides insightful reflections on development and its sustainability some 25 years since democracy, and specifically focuses on sociological and demographic realities in the areas of migration and its impact on families. The book further grapples with the role of the state in developing culture and heritage in the province, pointing to fundamental and multiple challenges of deprivation, unemployment and subsequent community resilience in a variety of sectors including health and education. While it provides a historical analysis of contextual issues facing the province, the book also highlights the agency of the people of the Eastern Cape in confronting challenges in leadership, accountability, citizen participation and service provision. The book will be useful for development scholars and practitioners who are interested in understanding the state of the province, and similar settings, and the degree to which it has emerged from the shadows of its colonial and apartheid legacies.

Politics or Performance? Leadership Accountability in UN Peacekeeping

International organizations face a trade-off between the need to replace poorly performing leaders and the imperative of preserving the loyalty of influential or pivotal member states. This performance-politics dilemma is particularly acute in UN peacekeeping. Leaders of peacekeeping operations are responsible for ensuring that peacekeepers implement mandates, maintain discipline, and stay safe. Yet, if leaders fail to do so, is the UN Secretariat able and willing to replace them? We investigate newly collected data on the tenure of 238 civilian and military leaders in thirty-eight peacekeeping operations, 1978 to 2017. We find that the tenures of civilian leaders are insensitive to performance, but that military leaders in poorly performing missions are more likely to be replaced. We also find evidence that political considerations complicate the UN’s efforts at accountability. Holding mission performance constant, military leaders from countries that are powerful or contribute large numbers of troops stay longer in post.

Factors influencing union effectiveness in the public service in Zambia: Associations and mediating effect

The article investigates how environmental and organisational factors may affect union effectiveness in a developing country context. Based on a perceptions survey of union members in the Zambian public service sector, the article uses principal components analysis, correlation, multiple linear regression and mediation analyses to examine relationships between environmental and organisational factors and union effectiveness. Results suggest that labour and product markets and mass media are significant environmental factors influencing union effectiveness. At the organisational level, results suggest that organisational strategies, leadership accountability, innovations and administrative and democratic structuring are significant factors that positively influence union effectiveness. Results also suggest that organisational factors mediate the link between environmental factors and union effectiveness. In this sense, the article provides a striking demonstration of the importance of a strong internal state for the union organisation in mediating the influence of the external environment on the union’s goal of advancing and defending workers’ interests.

The Varieties of Coups D’état: Introducing the Colpus Dataset

Interest in authoritarian politics and democratic breakdown has fueled a revival in scholarship on coups d'état. However, this research is held back by the fact that no global coup dataset captures theoretically salient information on the identity of coup-makers, their goals, and the relationship between the coup leaders and the ruling regime. We introduce the Colpus dataset, new global data on coup types and characteristics in the post–World War II era. These data introduce a typology of coups, measurement strategy, and coding procedures to differentiate between whether coups seek to preserve existing ruling coalitions (leader reshuffling coups) or significantly alter ruling coalitions (regime change coups). We show trends in coup types across time and space. Finally, we demonstrate that poverty—an established determinant of coups—only predicts regime change coups. Colpus data will be of use to scholars of political instability and conflict, regime change, leadership accountability, the political economy of democracy and dictatorship, and related topics.

Smart Cities Enabling Effective Response in Battling Covid-19 Pandemic

Covid-19 has subsequently given rise to a pandemic in early 2020. This virus is new and highly contagious; unfortunately, there is no specific medication to treat the virus. Thus, it has become an obligation for all countries in the world to take drastic measures to protect and ensure safety of their citizens. Moreover, technology has played an important role to help the government to implement measures and customize services effectively to contain the virus. Some of these measures include artificial intelligence or “AI”, Internet of things, “IoT” and Clouds. Countries adopting the smart cities concept were predominately prepared with a technology platform, thus they were effective to react promptly and spontaneously to the threat. This paper discusses success stories of four countries from the Australia-Asia region which up to now have successfully contained the virus. From the literature review analysis, besides technology, other factors have contributed to fight the pandemic battle. These factors are core factors in the process of combating the virus and are related to managerial leadership, leadership, accountability, collaboration, and effective communication. These factors play an important role along with smart cities technologies in the battle to fight against Covid-19.

Promoting a Therapeutic Healing Environment: A Retrospective Examination of HCAHPS “Quiet at Night” Across a Large New York Health System

Promoting respite and sleep impacts a patient's health and their inpatient experience. As New York State's largest health system, Northwell Health has been on a journey to create a healing and therapeutic healthcare environment. By establishing leadership accountability, leveraging patient feedback and adopting evidence-based interventions, system and individual adult inpatient hospital improvements have been noted. Between 2017 and 2020, Northwell's overall system HCAHPS “Quiet at Night” Top Box performance increased by 4.7, improving 30 percentile rank points when compared to the Press Ganey national database. This case study outlines Northwell's pragmatic patient-centered strategy and examines the unanticipated impact of limited visitation due to COVID-19 on this HCAHPS measure.