CSO budget work takes place in a range of dramatically different contexts, in terms of political systems, levels of economic development, and the strength and capacity of civil society. At the same time, the IBP and its partner organizations implement programs that have sufficient similarity for us to begin to assess which strategies work best in which contexts and, therefore, contribute to sys...

Theories of mobilization suggest that groups are more likely to resort to violence in the presence of political opportunity structures that afford greater prospects for extracting concessions from the government or better opportunities to topple ruling governments. However, existing efforts to consider the possible influences of political opportunity structures on incentives for violence and ci...

Political violence is an everyday occurence in many weakly institutionalized polities. This paper o¤ers a uni…ed approach for studying political violence whether it emerges as repression or civil con‡ict. We formulate a model where an incumbent or opposition can choose to use violence as a means of acquiring or maintaining power. We study the institutional and economic factors that determine th...

Political analysts, policy makers, and aid agencies concerned with Melanesia have recently begun to pay attention to the role of Christian churches in governance. As Douglas notes, “churches, with their intensely local roots but broadly global reach,” are increasingly being seen “as alternative structures in the context of ineffective or even absent state institutions” (2007, p. 158). The impor...

Skepticism prevails among a substantial number of economists over a possible connection between civil liberties and the level of economic activity. Until now, empirical research on economic growth has found mixed evidence on the influence of civil liberties. Disaggregation of the Freedom House Civil Liberties Index allows a fresh empirical look at the effect of human rights on long-term growth ...

This paper reviews the reality and vision of the use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials in civil engineering and transportation infrastructure applications. Due to their superior characteristics these materials have become a commonly accepted construction material for both new construction and for rehabilitation and strengthening of existing bridges and structures. This paper...

Civil society is currently a popular concept in the political science literature, appearing across a number of different studies and sub-disciplines. Authors such as Deakin (2001) and Keane (1998) have discussed the widespread employment of the concept where its use ranges from discussions of global civil society in International Relations and the political economy, to civic renewal and social ...

Document management systems are generally assumed to hold a potential for delegating the recording and retrieval of documents to professionals such as civil servants and for supporting the coordination and control of work, so-called workflow management. This study investigates the use and organizational impact of document management systems in the Danish central government. The currently used s...

European Union is an important global actor in terms of economy, welfare and soft security but its institutional development and ambitions has to consider both the issues of grand challenges, resilience, disaster management, in accordance with its citizens’ will and skills. The Lisbon Treaty as well as the recent legislation on civil protection produced incremental change and improved the Emerg...