with this in mind that the behaviour and interactions of social actors and also the kind of power imagine at the level of social life directly impact political treatments of state and the ways in which political life is organized, then one can admit that understanding the nature and performance of state in every society is closely interconnected to understanding the structures of the society in...

Within neoliberal approaches to the study of International Relations there is a consensus that nongovernmental actors and their potential impact need to be studied more. This article examines how Estonian civil society organisations are acting as agents in the general Europeanisation processes. The framework within which they operate, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EU-Russia Strategi...

Research findings: ‘Civil’ organisations vary in their ties to ‘non-civil’ organisations with fundamental consequences: organisations with ties to the principle actors of representative democracy are the most likely to participate in formal or quasi-formal processes of public policy. The findings suggest that the dominant perspective on civil society and participation in international developme...

During the feudal Edo period (1603-1868) in Japan, the shogunate government relied for regional control on hereditary feudal barons as well as its own bakufu bureaucracy. Compared with hereditary lords, bakufu officials had shorter and uncertain tenure. Examining easily available historical data, the paper finds that regions ruled by bakufu bureaucrats are associated with (a) slower population ...

New momentum for civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) is building, driven by the confluence of growing demands for accountability and results in health, improved equity, and rights-based approaches to development challenges, and by the immense potential of innovation and new technologies to accelerate CRVS improvement. Examples of country successes in strengthening of hitherto weak sy...