Abstract

Dr. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka and JANIPOP (Jatiya Nirbachon Parjabekkhon Parishad)- National Election Observation Council.

M. M. Ashaduzzaman Nour, National Volunteer, JANIPOP (Jatiya Nirbachon Parjabekkhon Parishad)- National Election Observation Council.

Public administration is the management of human activities within the community. Civilization is also closely associated with the growth of human activities. When people of an entire society live a developed and organized social life, it is called civilization. The subject matter and theories of public administration as an academic discipline are still changing in line with the intensification of culture and enlargement of world civilization. However, the necessity of people to subsist an improved civic life and state to facilitate and ensure the political and constitutional rights of the citizen results in the emergence of public administration as a profession. State decision making process, formulation of necessary public policies and proper execution of these policies through various public agencies are considered as the backbone of this profession. Technological advancement, change in economic policies and transformation of society influence both the expansion of civilization and way of government decision making process. The way of analyzing public administration’s future depends largely on the changing nature of administrative coordination, effectiveness and style of governance. Scholars are trying to establish new methodologies of coordination among the public and private sector organizations in federal, state and local governments. Modern administrative system is going to incorporate new approaches to make large and complex bureaucratic organizations more responsive to citizens. New mode of relationship among people’s representatives and administrators is emerging in the developed countries. The pattern of development administration in the developing countries is now also adopting the market principles. Altogether, the future of public administration as an academic discipline and as a profession depends on the future of economic policies, social movement, political culture and civilization.

Waleed Ali

For over thirteen centuries Middle-East and specifically in Egypt, the Islamic rules were the way of governance until 1917 when Turkey joined the Alliance during the First World War. Planting a new political framework after that as a way for governance was planed agenda from the west and specially UK. Egyptian king at the time was the ally for UK in which the Islamists at the time considered him as a traitor. Since then Egypt inter the secularism in which the first constitution indicated in 1922. The following government until the fall of kingdom in 1952 was based totally in this western plantation. The challenge between the imposed framework coming from the colonial power at the time and the Islamic identity in which was the ruling way the country under Khilafa until its fall was a challenge of identity. The debate started between Nasser and Islamists represented by the Muslim Brothers after him gaining power in 1954. Nasser oppressed them in favour to secularism. Even though, Nasser was not reserved and several attacks took places in 1956 by UK, France and Israel and then in 1967 by Israel. That shows that the secularism was misunderstood and mis- implemented in Egypt and was fought by the creator of secularism. Sadat came with a new plan to include the Islamic identity in the constitution to challenge the old Nasserists, he introduced the article 2 in the constitution “the Islam is the source of legislations” and kept better relationship with Islamists. In both cases the way of governance was totally based on authoritarianism and one man state, there was never a real secularism neither a clear political framework “no political skin”. Mubarak came as a calmer and didn’t change that much. He used Islamists as reason to increase his oppressions and keep his regime until the 2011 revolution. The unfinished revolution still facing different types of crises such as creating a new political and governance skin, the effort of creating political Islam by the Islamists political parties such as the freedom and Justice of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Nour party of Salafi movement still unclear project. The deep state of Mubarak and the heritage of Nasser and Sadat regimes’ elites are still on control of the main economic and media channels long side with the vast Army control on different economic resources are the real challenges. As reaction of global changes after the collapse of USSR and the young Islamists reformists who tried to re- introduce a new framework of Islam and play a key opposition during Mubarak regime. That carries different faces such as keeping the Islamic identity and adopting with the new global order. This paper will go through these different challenges and changes in order to explain the way of governance and the impact of social and religious codes long side with new global order in Egypt. It will explain the difficulties facing the current regime of introducing the new governance system to national, regional and global spheres by analysing their political decisions, the current voted institution and the reactions from the public.

Qahtan Khairallah Athab

إن المتتبع لمسيرة الإصلاح والتغيير الإداري، والتي يزخر الفكر الإداري المعاصر بتجاربه الكثيرة منها، يلاحظ إن هنالك نماذج ونظريات قيمة قد طُرحت  لمعالجة الأزمات والمشاكل التي تعاني منها الأجهزة الحكومية، تناسب كل منها والمرحلة التي ظهر فيها وظروف المجتمع الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والسياسية، ولعل من أبرز الأفكار الإدارية المعاصرة هو ظهور اتجاه “إعادة اختراع الحكومة” في نهايات القرن الماضي من قبل كل من “ديفيد أوزبورن ” Osborne D.”، و”تيد جبلير” T. Gaebler ” والذين جاءوا بأفكار سُميت بأنها ثورية، تدعو إلى إحداث التغيير الجذري الشامل في مفاصل منظمات القطاع العام.

وحيث إن إعادة اختراع الحكومة يمثل احد الاتجاهات الفكرية الحديثة في إدارة القطاع الحكومة، ولكون الفكرة لاقت روجاً واسعاً في ثنايا الفكر الإداري من حيث التطبيق العملي لمبادئه أومن حيث تناول مفاهيمه بالدراسة النظرية، عليه فأنه من الأهمية بمكان دراسة هذا المفهوم وإغناء مضامينه الفكرية بالتحليل والمناقشة، من خلال نقل تجارب دول العالم في الإدارة والتنظيم، من أجل إعادة بناء الثقة بالحكومة، ولتحقيق أفضل الخدمات للمواطنين بأقل التكاليف، ضمن آلية عمل مرنة تواكب التطورات كافة في البيئة المحيطة بها، وليكون تطبيق هذا الاتجاه الفكري بديلاً عن كلما هو روتيني يشل حركة العمل والإدارة ويعيق الوصول إلى الأهداف المنشودة.

عليه فلقد استلزم هذا القصور الحاجة إلى إلقاء الضوء على آراء وإمكانيات أصحاب القرار والسلطة ممن يملكون زمام المبادرة في إحداث التغيير المطلوب.

تُثار في ذهن المهتمين بالعمل الحكومي تساؤلات كثير حول أسباب انخفاض مستوى أداء منظمات القطاع الحكومي بشكل عام وهذا بطبيعة الحال انعكس على  رضا الجمهور عن أداء الحكومة ومؤسساتها واستياؤه من ذلك الأداء، وهو ما أدى إلى تراجع ملحوظ في ثقتهم بالحكومة.

تكمن أهمية هذه الدراسة في الآتي:

١. يتسم موضوع إعادة اختراع الحكومة كظاهرة بالحداثة في حقل الإدارة العامة.

٢.  تستمد هذه الدراسة أهميتها من أهمية إبتكار “الحكومة الإبداعية”، التي تجعل رضا المواطن هدفاً مباشراً تسعى لتحقيقه.

٣. كون هذه الدراسة تعتبر احد المداخل المهمة المقترحة لعلاج انخفاض مستوى الأداء الحكومي والرضا الشعبي.

٤. من المؤمل أن تسهم هذه الدراسة في معرفة مدى الحاجة للتغيير الشامل والجذري   في أساليب العمل في منظمات القطاع العامٍ.

تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى  تحقيق الآتي:

١. التعريف بمفهوم إعادة اختراع الحكومة كاتجاه فكري حديث في تطوير المنظمات في القطاع العام، وبيانٍ صور وأوجه هذه الاتجاه ومركزاته الفكرية.

٢. التعرف عن مدى الحاجة إلى التغيير الجذري والشامل في منظمات القطاع العام ف.

٣. كما وتهدف إلى توفير المعلومات المتعلقة بمدى ميل الإدارات العليا والوسطى نحو التطوير في القطاع العام والتي تؤثر في إحداث التغيير الإيجابي المنشود.

٤. تساعد هذه الدراسة على استكشاف المعوقات والتحديات التي تواجه مديري الإدارات العليا والوسطى في مساعهم نحو التغيير.

تحاول هذه الدراسة اختبار صحة الفرضيات الآتية:

الفرضية الرئيسة: لا توجد فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية عند مستوى دلاله (α ≤ 0.05) لاتجاهات المبحوثين نحو تطبيق مبادئ إعادة اختراع الحكومة تُعزى للمتغيرات الديموغرافية (النوع الاجتماعي، العمر، المؤهل التعليمي، الخبرة، مستوى الدخل)، وينبثق عنها الفرضيات الفرعية الآتية:

الفرضية الفرعية الأولى: لا توجـد فروق ذات دلالة إحصـائية عـند مسـتوى دلاله (α ≤ 0.05) لاتجاهات المبحوثين نحو إيجاد الحكومة المُحفّزة تُعزى للمتغيرات الديموغرافية (النوع الاجتماعي، العمر، المؤهل التعليمي، الخبرة، مستوى الدخل).

الفرضية الفرعية الثانية: لا توجـد فروق ذات دلالـة إحصائية عند مسـتوى دلالــه (α ≤ 0.05) لاتجاهات المبحوثين نحو إيجاد الحكومة المُنافسة تعزى للمتغيرات الديموغرافية (النوع الاجتماعي، العمر، المؤهل التعليمي، الخبرة، مستوى الدخل).

 الفرضية الفرعية الثالثة: لا توجد فروق ذات دلالـة إحصائية عند مـستوى دلالـه (α ≤ 0.05) لاتجاهات المبحوثين نحو إيجاد حكومة المجتمع التي تُدير نفسها بنفسها تُعزى للمتغيرات الديموغرافية (النوع الاجتماعي، العمر، المؤهل التعليمي، الخبرة، مستوى الدخل).

الفرضية الفرعية الرابعة: لا تـوجد فروق ذات دلالـة إحصائية عند مسـتوى دلاله (α ≤ 0.05) لاتجاهات المبحوثين نحو إيجاد الحكومة الموجهة برسالة تُعزى للمتغيرات الديموغرافية (النوع الاجتماعي، العمر، المؤهل التعليمي، الخبرة، مستوى الدخل).

Inas Ahmed Ismail

Mahmud Rahman, Assistant Professor Department of Public Administration Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh

Terrorism has become today as a much talked problem all over the world. It is so pervasive that not only affects the countries which have been suffered directly but also attacks the mindset of the people of other unaffected countries both socially and culturally. Therefore, it will be an unwise decision of keeping oneself aloof of thinking that it is not our business regarding this widespread problem to address it. Several countries have adopted their own counterterrorism strategies along with some international anti-terrorism agreements but the intended outcome of these efforts is very less. Though the terrorists are being detained and taken under punishment, the mankind could not be made free from terrorist threats at all. Because the terrorists are said they are the ideologically motivated offenders. (Crenshaw, 2000; Pedahzur, 2005). Thus there is very little effort taken both nationally and internationally to look for the hidden and deliberate man-made conditions that are responsible for accelerating this overwhelming problem. In spite of being a global problem, terrorism itself does not happen against the same causes or conditions globally. Therefore, it is not an easy way to identify one single cause to be addressed for combating terrorism and making a counterterrorism strategy all over the world (Pape, 2005; Tosini, 2007). The proposed study will draw attention to terrorism and counterterrorism issues from a socio-cultural and political perspective. Attempts will also be given in identifying various actors and institutions which are directly or indirectly concerned with these global issues.

There are mainly two distinct views regarding this context in policy making perspective. Some analysts value individual and collective actors as the only relevant categories of analysis, while others maintain that what actors seek and do depends on the political, economic and social structures that surround them (Howlett and Ramesh, 2003). The study will look into both the aspects with a view to establishing a framework for a global counterterrorism strategy leading an effective security policy especially in Bangladesh. The study is mainly qualitative in nature and is concerned with the policy related affairs. To get a complete scenario on various dimensions of terrorism and counterterrorism a number of national and international books, journals, periodicals and scholarly publications will be consulted as the secondary materials. Moreover, an in depth Force Field Analysis (FFA) will be conducted to develop a policy universe, thought of as a fundamental unit containing all possible international, state and social actors and institutions directly or indirectly affecting a specific policy area. FFA is a general tool for systematically analyzing the factors found in complex problems. It looks at forces that are either accelerating movement toward a goal (driving factors) or deterring movement toward a goal (restraining factors). A subset will also be drawn from all potential factors that comprise a sectoral policy subsystem (Howlett and Ramesh, 2003). Policy subsystem is a space where relevant actors and factors interact and often give up or modify their objectives in return for concessions from others. The participants in FFA will be among the graduating students of the Department of Public Administration of Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. Prior to start analysis, several reading materials will be provided among the participants to develop their general idea about the term to be analyzed

Gökhan Orhan, Balıkesir University, Bandırma School of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, 10200 Bandırma Balıkesir. gorhan@balikesir.edu.tr

Explaining policy change has been the concern of a number of scholars in the field of policy studies. Policy change can be explained with reference to a number of processes, among which policy learning, policy transfer and lesson drawing can be mentioned along with changes in variables like ideas, discourses and perception of interests. Although policy process has portrayed as a technical process, it has a rather complex nature where a number of actors with competing interests try to influence the whole process. Today, policy process is not limited to the participation of public officials and politicians alone, citizens, professionals and entrepreneurs also bring in their own expertise and resources to the public sphere. Despite the opening up of policy process and the rise of governance with the involvement of new actors, a certain degree of centralization and top-down measures are observed in some cases of policy formation and implementation where already existing methods of legitimization have not been sufficient. Because there are a number of incidences where certain actors are left out of policy process without their ideas and concerns are taken into account despite the rhetoric of democratization. In some of those occasions, crises, disasters, external shocks and extraordinary circumstances are used as a mechanism to reverse the argument and legitimize rather unpopular policy changes.

This paper aims to discuss the relationship between the extraordinary circumstances and policy change with specific reference to uses of extraordinary circumstances in legitimization of policy change. The fundamental question to be answered in the paper will be “to what extent and through which mechanisms extraordinary circumstances, crises, natural disasters and outer shocks are used as an instrument of imposing a new order and leaving some actors, and their concerns, ideas and interests, out of the policy process.” Following a literature review on the connections between the extraordinary circumstances and policy change, policy discourses on extraordinary circumstances will be analysed from around the world. The initial findings of the paper indicates that this trend has been observed in a variety of contexts from developed countries to less-developed countries and in the realm of public policies ranging from education to tourism development and resettlement policies. Furthermore, arguments are blurred in a number of cases and actors cross boundaries and use the language of rival actors to be perceived trustworthy.

This paper extends its argument to the use of extraordinary circumstances in the context of public policy making and implementation in Turkey. Trajectory of urban transformation policies will be analysed with reference to use of extraordinary circumstances and crises as a legitimising device in imposing rather unpopular policy paths. Further evidence will be provided with reference to use of environmental crisis in legitimising developmental projects with ecological risks associated. Drawing on empirical evidence from Turkey, the paper demonstrates that public policy-making and implementation increasingly became a performative endeavour where the problem definition stage is likely to determine the rest of the process. Extraordinary circumstances, crises and disasters provide the ammunition that legitimse “necessary” and “unavoidable” policy options in a rather top-down manner.

Darci Pauser

Through an internship at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ankara and support of scholars at Ankara University, I will conduct research on Turkey’s internal and external response to and regulation of environmental degradation and assessment of ecological sustainability as a situation of crisis proportions, for presentation at the 2013 AMEPPA Conference.

Scholarship on crises and chaos in the Middle East generally focuses on issues related to political or armed conflict. Tumult resulting from conflicts such as those between Israel and Palestine, Syria and Turkey and the U.S. and Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran take center stage in the assessment of emergency. However, my research will focus on a crisis of another nature—the crisis of environmental sustainability. This crisis is an issue of public administration, requiring policy and regulation to keep environmental degradation under control and ensure future stability in the Middle East region and beyond.

Environmental sustainability is important not only for the sake of the natural world, but also for that of global security. Pressures and limits on natural systems create a risk of conflict. While the U.S. and other developed countries have relied largely on industrialization and the use of fossil fuels to grow their economies, developing countries face pressure to develop in ways that place less strain on natural systems.

This reality has created a diplomatic impasse because of Western countries’ economic success with environmentally unfriendly methods of growth and throws into question the authority of outside organizations, such as the UN, to drive growth in an environment-centric manner. With countries of the Middle East striving for governmental independence, how can a country such as Turkey ensure autonomy while appeasing external pressures to develop in an environmentally sustainable way?

My research will explore this issue as it relates to projects of the UNDP and the government of Turkey. Situated distinctly between the Middle East and Europe, Turkey is a quintessential example of the relationship between assimilation and maintaining tradition. I predict that an analysis of the administration of sustainable development programs by an external organization and by internal agencies such as the Ministry of Environment and City Planning will reveal these tensions and shed light on policy solutions that may rectify conflicts in development administration between the east and west.

Richard Khan (MA) and Shamshad Ahmed (PhD), Marywood University

This presentation reviews coping strategies (task-, emotional- and avoidance-oriented) utilized during and after experiencing trauma, and some of the variations when it comes to generational status (mainstream vs. heritage culture) with a Muslim sample residing in the United States (U.S.). Moreover, it reveals the role religiosity plays when it comes to trauma recovery with this population. Research in the aforementioned topics suggests that individuals who identify with their culture of origin experiences more acculturated stressors (e.g., PTSD; Golding, 1999; Herman, 1992; VandenBos, 2007; Dutton, 2009) and utilize less proactive approaches when coping with these stressors (Berry, 1997, 2005; Firestone et al., 2008; Harris et al., 2005). Due to a gap in the existing empirical research with the Muslim population within the U.S. (Ahmed, 2006; Amer & Bagasra, 2013), the presentation will engender an understanding of ways in which the Muslim population within the U.S. copes during and/or after experiencing interpersonal trauma. Participants complete the Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Ryder et al., 2000); the Impact of Events Scale-Revised version (Weiss & Marmar, 1997); the Coping Inventory of Social Situations (Endler & Parker, 1994); and the Religious Commitment Inventory (Worthington et al., 2003). Results are analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results from the current study will be presented at conference.

Samir Rihani (PhD.) Research Fellow University of Liverpool srihani@liverpool.ac.uk

The paper argues that nations are not machines but living (complex) systems. When functioning well they contain a mix of ‘order’ and ‘chaos’. Neither extreme is right: the ‘order’ of the Saddam’s years in Iraq was not better or worse than the ‘chaos’ of the post-2003 years.

Few countries in the wider Middle East are functioning well, but others are not so fortunate. They oscillate between deathly order or wasteful chaos. Successful countries manage to achieve a delicate state of self-organisation that obtains the best from order and chaos. This is the key task facing nations in the region.

Understanding the dynamic nature of how nations function as living systems helps to suggest a number of actions that would assist in guiding the countries concerned towards self-organisation. Proposals to this end are presented at the end of the paper.

However, three sections are given at the start of the paper:

• While the region squabbled over leaders and leadership

• The region’s past casts a long shadow

• Islam is a political economic philosophy

These preliminary sections are included to underline an important point that the fortunes of nations are outcomes of numerous interlinked influences that cannot be analysed in isolation in a reductionist manner.

Nations are complex adaptive systems that require ‘soft’ styles of management based on trial and error and continual learning rather than the ‘hard’ styles of management favoured by military and religious leaders accustomed to command-and-control and blind obedience. This ‘hard’ style has been tested and found not only useless but harmful in the Middle East as elsewhere.

Treating nations as living complex adaptive systems is consistent with the theme of AMEPPA’s second conference:

• First, ‘crisis management’: Complex systems often go through crises in their adaptation to changing conditions. When managed well crises are opportunities that enable the system to move in a new, more sustainable direction.

• Second, ‘management from within’: Internal elements (mostly people in the case of nations) interact continuously within the system.  Ability to interact (freedom, good governance, ..) and capability to interact (health, education,…) determine success or failure. Reliance on an external power or a ‘forceful leader‘ is useless at best and harmful at worst.

• Third: ‘governing chaotic situations’. The ‘chaos’ of a system’s dynamics is essential to its proper functioning. Order is the same as death in a living system. The aim is not to impose order, as dictators set out to do, but to manage the chaos ‘softly’ through better governance, etc.

Two (possibly unwelcome) conclusions emerge from treating nations as complex systems. First, evolution (or regression) happens at the most local level. Populations determine success or failure. External factors do play a role but that itself is enhanced or diminished by the state of human development of the citizens.

Second, evolution is a long marathon rather than a sprint to the summit. Little of significance happens overnight; through revolution, military takeover or the emergence of a resolute leader. The proposals put forward by the paper involve co-ordinated work over a period measured in years and not months.

The paper concludes that governments are part of the problem in most parts of the wider Middle East. It puts forward the idea of a concord based on an agreed agenda involving Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and universities in the region. The aim would be to spread a consistent message of demands for change that would be incorporated whenever and wherever possible into the normal output of CSOs and universities as they work independently.

Hüseyin Gül, Prof. Dr., Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey.

Turkey has gone through major shifts in terms of public policy and administration in the first decade of the new millennium. Many different factors have had an impact on the direction of these shifts, such as globalization, increased democratization, marketization and decentralization, Turkey’s EU accession process, continuing urbanization and highly urbanized population with diversifying needs and demands, 2001 economic crises in Turkey and continuing global economic crises, Kurdish issue, regional conflicts, Arabian Spring, international immigration, Turkey’s high economic growth rate in recent years, among others. Besides, many scholars argue for and agree on the fact that the changes in the public administration in Turkey have been mainly shaped by the New Public Management (the NPM) paradigm, as well. That is to say that the principles of free market, competition, entrepreneurship, efficiency, effectiveness, participation, transparency, accountability etc. have played decisive roles in the direction of the public policy and administration reforms in Turkey.

This paper firstly provides a brief overview of the changes and reforms in the public administration and the current status of the public administration in Turkey. Secondly, the paper aims to discuss the impact of local, regional, national and global dynamics and developments on the direction of these changes and current shape of the public administration in Turkey. Thirdly and finally, the paper attempts to entertain the question of what such reforms and developments tell us about the prospects of the public administration. In other words, the main question to entertain in this paper is what kind of a public administration we should expect or long for in the near future in Turkey with implications for the organization of public administration, public policy and the study of public adminsitration.

Abdalhadi M. Alijla, Doctoral Researcher, University of Milan.

In recent years, Palestinian internal division has been analysed either within the classical framework of political division or through the normative studies of peace and conflict. By analysing Hamas-Fatah and Palestinian Liberation Organization-Palestinian Authority relationships and their functionalities, this research proposes a different conceptual framework. It takes up the question of how public administration facilitates and contributes to the division between PLO-led government and the de-facto government in in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. With the start of Hamas-Fatah conflict in 2006 and later in 2007 overthrowing the national unity government in Gaza and forcing President to leave the Gaza Strip, a new kind of conflict started. This conflict is becoming more salient over several issues that provide a kind of local legitimacy to the de-facto government led by Hamas in the Gaza strip. Pubic administration became the major source for such conflict, from passport issuing to legalization and policy making. Turning to public administration, we find that there is a surprising amount of public administration elements that form obstacles to unite the two divided factions. This paper considers the deliberative potentialsof formal institutions that not only address needs of specific people, but that also find ways to include other peoples within other political parties.To this end, this paper examines the institutions that make up the public administration beneficial for Hamas’s de facto government.This paper deals with the state of division in Palestine   in the context of Hamas–Fatah relations. The central part of this paper concentrates on the case of the Gaza strip and how the political conflict triggered by the different structure of public administration adopted by Hamas and Fatah. It is concluded that conflict over policy-making and its benefits deepen and sustains remarkably the division between Fatah and Hamas, leaving the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under two different authorities. Political division also has a negative impact on the conduct of public administration.

Sabuhi Khalili, Qafqaz University

Starting with the uprisings in Tunisia Arab spring caused “domino effect” in Middle East and is still going on in Syria. Since the midst of 20th century most of Arab countries in the Middle East were ruled by dictators. The oppression against the local people existed in the first years of independency of these countries, however the uprisings in such a level and scope against the systems started only in 2011. Media and Internet were one of the main tools that helped the uprisings to spill over in the region; but they were also tools that made the people to think about the system and its failures.

In this paper the role of internet and media of 21st century in these uprising will be analyzed. Discussion will cover both social media like and traditional media and their effects on shaping “untraditional uprisings” in Middle East.

Michiel S. de Vries, Professor and chair of the department of Public Administration at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Prof. in Governance of Small Systems of Law, at the University of Aruba, and Professor in Public Administration at the Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic). The President of IASIA.

This paper gives a moral analysis of the background of the Arab spring in which development apparently was not sustainable. It starts with a theoretical discussion of the terminology regarding values and virtues and posits that virtue is in order when values based on deontology (rule-based values) conflict with values based on consequentialism (the effects of those rules). In such cases, one is in need of virtue (courage, wisdom, restraint, and moral understanding). (cf. De Vries& Kim, 2011).

Subsequently the paper investigates how the essentials of virtuous behavior compare to what actually happened during the Arab spring. The conclusion is that the Arab spring is exemplary for a moral crisis in which the people are confronted with the varying consequences of policies and laws for their leaders and themselves. They faced an apparent lacking moral understanding amongst their leaders, and absent restraint, prudence and practical wisdom of their leaders. This resulted in the image of public policies aggravating their situation and only to the benefit of already extremely rich leadership, which made them reconsider the weight of values based on such laws thus resulting in the Arab awakening.

This calls for moral leadership. More specifically, it calls for a moral stance, a moral understanding, clear ruleson how to behave in complex arenas; a restoration of restrained and prudent leadership, and justice instead of lawmaking. As to the resolution of severe societal problems, this is in need of the contextualization thereof based on coherent and consistent reasoning and cognition, acknowledgement of the complexity of the nature of public policies, modesty in goals to be achieved and finally the education of leaders and policy makersregarding the essentials of the public sector.

Fadel al-Kifaee and Mohammed Talabani

Although many believe Arab Spring has nothing to do with Iraq, the long-suffering country produced his own version of the trend. Desperate by high corruption, poor basic services, unemployment, widespread poverty and insecurity, many NGOs and thousands of Iraqi youth had used social networks, along with other means, to organize wide protests against the government’s policies in February 25, 2011. The major distinction between this movement and the demonstrations broke down in other Arab countries is that the core demand of the Iraqi protests was to reform the regime not to oust it. This can be understood within the contextual differences; Iraq was still occupied, the country has a transitional democratic regime, Iraq has a serious societal sectarian problem.

The organizers of Feb 15 demonstrations were generally belonged into three major categories; civil society organizations, profession-based demanding groups, and political parties. The proposed article researches the role of the civil society organizations in the movements; how had these NGOs used the social networks, what’s their role in forming public opinion regarding the protests, how did they interact with other non-state actors (media, religious establishment,…), how did they deal with the high sectarian tensions, and what government restrictions did they face?

The paper is to conduct a questionnaire and/or interviews to provide some primary data to support its analysis.

Nassef Manabilang Adiong

The elemental subject of this study is the concept of ‘nation-state’ but delimited within the bounds of two disciplines, i.e. International Relations (IR) and Islamic Studies (IS), particularly Political Islam and Jurisprudence. This is in part of the author’s aim of contributing to the evolving literature on the relation between IR and religion in the 21st century. The defining problem lies in the vagueness of interpretations and understanding on the conceptualization of nation-state in those mentioned disciplines, while subsequently reaching a ‘via media’ of understanding.

To ameliorate our focal understanding, the proponent selected two frameworks: 1) a selective mainstream theoretical IR survey, i.e. Liberalism, Realism, and Social Constructivism, and 2) Islamic jurisprudential and political understanding of nation-state. It will humbly try to examine, analyze, and decipher the origin, idea, and operationalization of nation-state in IR and IS by the usage of Comparative Analytical Method (CAM). Three data analytical or coding stages under CAM will be operationalized: the first stage is setting the Textual Codes via alpha-numerical representation next is processing the Arithmetical Codes and the last step is determining the Categorical Codes.

Through these CAM codes, the inferential chart of ‘compare and contrast’ will compose the result of data analysis. Thus, allowing us to categorically pinpoint inferences of similarities and differences, and further it through the use of analytical induction, which is, inducing it to specific facts or imperative details. In generalization, there were foreseen differences and/or similarities on the notions of level of analysis, sovereignty, citizenship, and territoriality.

Stefanie Slaoui-Zirpins, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

One of the most important contributions of AMEPPA to the academic discourse on public policy in the Middle East and North Africa is to put an emphasis on the perspective of local actors. Indeed, their perspective cannot be separated to what is happening in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe. On the other hand, it is highly critical to assume that the governments and administrations would need “the help” of “the West” to organize.

In my contribution, I would like to discuss history, current trends, and further perspectives of the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue paying particular attention to asymmetrical power-relationships. In this regard, I want to shed light on the possibilities of a qualitatively different, intensified dialogue to overcome ongoing instabilities in the MENA region as well as to reformulate criticizable EU policies that promote a democratic foreign policy while just paying attention to economic and security interests. Some of my points are based on existing literature, some of own empirical research. In particular, I want to illustrate my presentation by examples from the efforts o the German Council on Foreign Relations in collaboration with other actors to promote dialogue between young professionals from the EU as well as from the MENA region.

“Sino-Turkey Comparative Study on Recent Governance Reform —-Based on Case Studies of Governments Responsiveness to Group Events”

Zhu Xiaoning, Zhao Shurong and Zhang Mengmeng, School of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, P.R. China, 611731

Given the context of the globalization in 21century, many Asian nations are experiencing rapid economic growth and development that requires good governance. Yet, good governance development lags behind economic development in most fast growing Asian economies. Facing the new worldwide changes in the public administration, how to reform governance is of vital importance for building transparent, accountable and participative governments so as to achieve the good governance. Government’s responsiveness to group events and to the appeals for the group victims can reflect a government transparency, accountability and effectiveness and demonstrate a government’s status quo of governance to some extent. China and Turkey, two of the fast growing Asian economies representing respectively quite a different nation with “Strategic Partnership” established in 2010 at national level are not exceptional. As for Turkey, the only one Middle East Islamic nation on its path to successful modernization and secularization while for China, the world’s most influential socialist nation on its path to successful modernization as well, thus there exists a compelling need on governance reforms issues, challenges, and solutions to be researched and studied in theory and practice . Furthermore, there also exists the comparative studies to be conducted between China and Turkey in relation to building good governance. This paper, taking the recent year group events of “2008 Xiamen PX Project” in China and “2013Gezi Park ” in Turkey respectively as two cases happening in China and Turkey ( This research will follow the procedures for 2013 Gezi Park Event while doning this comparative research), has explored issues of the Sino-Turkey status quo of governance reforms from the perspectives of reform motivative, dilemmas and achievements. By comparative analysis, some Sino-Turkey experiences, lessons and leanings in achieving good governance for both China and Turkey are concluded.

Keywords: Sino-Turkey, Governance Reform, Good Governance, Comparative Analysis

Savaş Zafer Şahin, Assist. Prof. Dr. Dept. of Politics and Public Adm. Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey.

Debates on the recent political uprisings in the Middle East are captured by a false “totalitarianism vs democracy” dilemma. What goes mostly unnoticed is the key role played by “bureaucracy” in these transformations. This chapter builds on the observation that even though the top-bureaucrats and politicians of the older regimes are removed, the organizational and cultural features of the bureaucracies are still there to stay. Turkey, which has been experiencing a similar (but “passive”) political revolution since 2002, offers an interesting case to understand how the (changing) relations between bureaucracy and politics might influence the political future of the region.

Taking the cue from the Turkish example where three electoral successes of the Justice and Development Party has been likened to this struggle for democracy. What goes unnoticed, though, is the fact that the bureaucracies are still there to stay. Even though the remnants of the old regime, the top-bureaucrats and politicians are removed, only to be replaced by the new names of the victors of the revolution (if there are any), the organizational and institutional features of the bureaucracies, as well as the political culture, as well as the role and place of the bureaucrat and bureacy in the imagination of the broader public and the politicians are still there to stay.  In that regard, this chapter will question whether the democratic claims

And just to share some initial thoughts, since I received you email, I have been thinking about the contextual factors that inform the administrative practice in the Middle East and Turkey, in an attempt to overcome the dualisms such as developed vs underdeveloped; modern vs pre-modern etc.

I think that I could work on a three levels of abstraction: the universality of public administration tracing its intellectual and practical roots to the story of capitalism and the nation state; the contextual factors that transform and reshape the history of administration in the Middle East through a historical perspective (cultural, economic, political); the place of Turkey in the Middle East and in the global political-economy to examine the theory and practice of public administration here (though, I am not sure if my contribution will look at the whole administrative system, or will look at a policy sector, or a particular level of government…).

All in all, that will be an effort to question the theoretical tension between the universal and the particular; emphasizing the necessity to adopt a historical perspective also examining the tension between continuity and change…

Vadim Atnashev, PhD, Assist. Prof., Department of International and Humanitarian Law, North-West Institute of Management, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vatnash@hotmail.com.

The paper is based on the analysis of the current legislation of Turkey regarding status of stateless persons, refugees and their naturalization. The issue has become really burning after the recent conflicts broke out in some Arab countries.

According to the official statistics (from the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship) the majority of those who acquired Turkish citizenship on exceptional grounds were expellees from Iraq, Iran, later from Bulgaria. However, there are many stateless refugees from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Somalia (total number 30,000) and recently also from Syria.

To date, there are about 170,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey. Their legal status is crucial for the protection of their rights and interests. However, just 110,000 Syrians accommodated in 14 camps are registered as beneficiaries of Turkey’s “temporary protection” policy loosely inspired by the EU directive. Besides, there are also 40,000 refugees who have irregularly crossed the Syrian border. Surely many refugees try to naturalize in Turkey.

On the universal level of international law, the main document is 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. As for the Turkish legislation, on 29th May 2009, the new Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 was adopted while the old law No. 403, dated 11 February 1964, expired. One of the reasons of the enactment was pressure from EU to make the Turkish legislation closer to the European standards. In March 2010, the government adopted two circulars to ensure better access to the asylum procedures. Hence the author compares the corresponding legal norms of Turkey with the European standards, especially with the European Convention on Nationality.

From the end of 20th century, international law norms have been actively incorporated in the Turkish legislation. Provisions concerning refugees’ rights can be found in separate parts of basic laws. Recent amendments to the legislation thereupon are especially taken into consideration.

In a multi-ethnic state as Turkey with active migration processes, legal aspects of citizenship play a very important role, so the author doesn’t pass the issue over. Incompleteness of the system of the rights and duties often shows up in their violations.

Finally, the paper examines the participation of Turkey in the core international treaties concerning stateless persons-refugees rights as well as perspectives of stabilizing their situation in Turkey.

Dr. Thomas W. Haase,  Department of Political Studies and Public  Administration American University of Beirut th30@aub.edu.lb

This panel responds to a gap in the public policy literature; the lack of theoretical and empirical research related to the public policy processes within non-­‐western countries. This problem has significant contemporary relevance; especially that scholars and analysts seek to understand how the so-­‐called “Arab Spring” will impact the Middle East Region. This panel represents an initial step towards understanding the public policy processes within the Republic of Lebanon, a country that has an extremely complex social and political history.

Although there exists a substantial literature on the various dimensions of the processes

that give rise to the adoption and enactment of public policy (Lasswell 1948; Kiser and Ostrom 1982; Baumgartner and Jones 1991; Stone 2001; Sabatier 2007; Kingdon 2010; Birkland 2010), there are only a limited number of studies that focus on public policy processes in non-­‐western environments. This is particularly problematic for a country such as Lebanon, which faces an ever-­‐expanding assortment of public policy problems. Consequently, the goal of this panel is to bring together junior scholars whose research explores the public policy processes, institutions and actors within the Republic of Lebanon.

Thus, with respect to the Republic of Lebanon, this panel invites papers that address the following research questions: What are the primary stages of the public policy process? Which institutions and actors are most involved in the public policy process? To what extent, and in what ways, do stakeholders influence the public policy agenda? To what extent, and in what ways, do civil society actors influence the public policy processes? Although there is not a preference for authors that use a specific methodology, papers that explore contemporary public policy issues are strongly encouraged.

Wen-Jiun Wang (PhD), National Taipei University

Civil conflicts can give rise to complex humanitarian emergencies. This is because non-­‐ combatants who live in conflict zones often become refuges when they flee their homes and communities. The humanitarian assistance that is provided by such refugees often involves multiple actors, for example, international nongovernmental organizations, national agencies, local nonprofit organizations, and the communities where the refugees eventually settle. It is recognized that a successful response to a humanitarian crises requires the effective coordination of the various actors that make up the response network (OCHA 2013). Although the value of humanitarian assistance is widely accepted by most of countries around the world, the structure and the practice of such networks are highly complex and vary according to the political, social, economic, and cultural contexts in which they form and operate.

The political crisis in Syria has created a complex humanitarian emergency. According to United Nations (2013) statistics, more than 1.5 million Syrians have fled their home country. Many have relocated to neighboring countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. This migration has had a tremendous impact on Lebanon. As of May 23, 2013, approximately 488,516 refugees are reported to have entered Lebanon, of which 399,203 have registered with humanitarian assistance agencies. Many of these refugees currently reside in informal tented settlements, and they receive a diversity of services from a complex network of humanitarian assistance organizations.

The central goal of the proposed study is to identify the structural characteristics of this humanitarian assistance network, which can then be used to evaluate its effectiveness (Kapucu et al 2010, Comfort 1999, 2006). To obtain this goal, this study will conduct an analysis of the humanitarian assistance network that has emerged to address the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon. The data that will be used to conduct this analysis will be obtained from a review of United Nations situation reports. These documents will be reviewed to identify relevant organizations, as well as the nature and strength of their interactions. This data, which will be stored in an Excel spreadsheet, will be analyzed using the network analysis software ORA (Carley 2013). Basic network measures will then be analyzed for the assistance network, including size, centrality, distance, fragmentation and components (Wassermann and Faust 1994). We anticipate that this study will indicate that, after a brief period of uncertainty, the assistance network evolved in a steady and somewhat predictable fashion.

Thomas W. Haase and Anna Nersesyants, American University of Beirut

Although Lebanon is located in a region that faces a number of significant disaster risks (UNDP 2010), the country has yet to develop a comprehensive national disaster management strategy. There are a variety of explanations for why this may be the case, one of which might be that policy issues related to disaster management have yet to become a priority for the government. Consequently, issues related to disaster management have not managed to make their way onto the national policy agenda.

There is a substantial body of literature that addresses questions related to public policy agenda setting. This literature suggests that policy issues must compete for access to the policy agenda (Anderson 2006; Cobb, Ross and Ross 1976; and Hilgartner and Bosk 1988). For an issue to obtain access, it must be correctly defined (Cobb and Rochefort 1993; Daviter 2007; and Elder and Cobb 1984), it must come at the correct time (Kingdon 1995), and it must be advanced from either outside or inside the government (Cobb, Ross and Ross 1976; Wang 2008). Policy issues may also make their way onto the national policy agenda due to rapid change (True, Jones and Baumgartner, in Sabatier 1999) or collaborative actives that occur within and across policy communities (Sabatier and Weible, in Sabatier 1999). In contrast, there are also a number of factors that may keep an issue off the national policy agenda (Cobb and Elder 1981). These factors include non-­‐ decision-­‐making (Bachrach and Baratz 1963) and the inability of a potential issue to compete with already existing policy issues (Downs 1972; Hilgartner and Bosk 1988; and Zhu 1992).

This research seeks to understand whether agenda-­‐stetting theory explains the level of

attention given to disaster management issues by the Lebanese government. Two questions are central to this inquiry. First, what factors explain Lebanon’s action or inaction on issues related to disaster management. Second, to what extent does the “outside initiative model of agenda setting” explain the Lebanese government’s current level of interest in disaster management issues? To answer these questions, we will conduct interviews with twenty-­‐five experts familiar with the disaster management situation in Lebanon. We will analyze the data collected from these interviews by employing the grounded theory method (Gibbs, 2007). We anticipate that study will provide empirical support for the conventional wisdom that disaster management is not on the government’s policy agenda, and even if it were, it would be an issue on the pseudo-­‐ agenda due to the lack of political support (Peters 2002).

Melissa Ajamian, American University of Beirut

There are approximately 4000 to 6000 nonprofit and voluntary associations that currently exist within the Republic of Lebanon (Joseph 2010; Salamon, el-­‐Husseini and Topler 2004). Unfortunately, we do not know how many of these organizations are active, how these organizations are structured and managed, what their activities are and who they serve. This creates a hindrance for nongovernmental organizations and the people who seek their services. It is also important to understand these organizations are because they are becoming more involved in the Lebanese public policy process. To improve our understanding of non-­‐governmental organizations (NGOs) that are based in Beirut, Lebanon, this study will address four questions. First, what are their general characteristics? Second, what are their general functions and activities? Third, who are their primary beneficiaries? Finally, what forms of governance structures do they utilize?

This study developed and employed an organizational classification system that is based upon a combination of the systems used to classify non-­‐profit organizations in the United States. Classification can help to reveal the diversity of nonprofit organizations that operate in a region by providing statistical information. Classification can also help different funding entities to make educated decisions about the allocation of their funds. Referred to as the Beirut Classification System (BCS), my system will seek to collect for analysis four categories of data. The first category relates to the purpose of the NGOs under analysis. To gather this data, this research will combine elements of the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) and the International Classification of Nonprofit Organizations (ICNPO). The second category relates to organizational structure and governance. For this, my research will also use elements of the NTEE. The third category relates to the organizational size and characteristics. For this, the ICNPO will be used to identify and assess expenditures, as well as the number of employees and volunteers employed by the organizations under analysis. To assess financing, this study will employ Hansmann’s (1980) sub-­‐categorization of nonprofit organizations. The fourth category relates to geographical location of the headquarters and areas of operation. For this, my study will employ a modified sub-­‐competent of the NTEE.

Given the exploratory nature of this study, I began by creating a list of NGOs that could be contacted for data collection purposes. Following an extensive review of publically available sources, I managed to identify 650 NGOs that were deemed appropriate for this study. Data collection will now proceed through the distribution of an electronic survey, which will be sent to professionals that work within each of the 650 identified NGOs. After the data is collected, it will be used to create a directory of NGOs in Lebanon. Although I am concerned about low response rates, I anticipate that this study will generate the following findings. First, that the NGOs that operate in Beirut are highly diverse in terms of their structure. Second, that as a substitute for the lack of a strong central government, these organizations preform a number of activities affect the health and welfare of the Lebanese public. Finally, that many of these organizations have external (non-­‐Lebanese) sources of funding.

Hiba Khodr, American University of Beirut

This paper is an exploratory study on energy policy making in Lebanon aiming at investigating the contributing factors to the absence of evidence-­‐informed policy by analyzing the relation between energy-­‐related research and public policy. It uses a qualitative approach in which two complementary types of data sources are employed. Data was mainly obtained from in-­‐depth semi-­‐structured interviews conducted with 40 key stakeholders including high-­‐ranking public officials and administrators, members of parliaments and politicians, NGOs, international organizations and donors, academicians, researchers and energy consultants, and representatives from the private sector. The data was further enhanced by an extensive review and analysis of related documents available in the public domain as well as research-­‐related activities. Data were analyzed using an iterative thematic content analysis which findings served to illustrate the theoretical perspectives in the relevant prevailing literature on linking policy and research.

This paper suggests that the politicization of energy policy, the lack of communication of evidence between the policy actors as well as the weak and non-­‐institutionalized links between researchers and policymakers pose an obstacle to an effective, efficient and evidence-­‐based policy in the country. There is a dearth of academic studies that have investigated this issue from perspective of policy content. The analysis lays the foundation for much needed future evaluation studies on the country’s energy policy in terms of identifying the main participants and mapping out the policymaking process. Moreover, considering the emerging need to develop and implement an evidence-­‐based national policy, this paper fills the gap in the literature by providing policy recommendations that aid in bridging research and policy.

Carmen Geha, University of St. Andrews

Lebanese citizens enjoy basic rights and freedoms that are protected by the constitution (article 13). The right to form associations is protected by law and Lebanon has one of the most dynamic and vibrant civil society spheres in the MENA region (Salam 2002). Despite this dynamism, the role of civil society in the policy process remains hindered by the nature of the sectarian system. The consociational model means that policy-­‐making is neither an open or participatory process. Non-­‐state actors and particularly civil society groups face difficulty and almost an impossibility to influence policy-­‐making in Lebanon. This paper argues that the liberal notion of civil society’s role is incompatible with the Lebanese context in particular and with sectarian power-­‐sharing systems more broadly. To understand how and where civil society can be more effective, the paper offers a framework to assess the political readiness and capability of public institutions. The paper utilizes three case studies that shed light on the institutional and political factors at play during the policy-­‐making process.

There is myriad literature on the Republic of Lebanon including its formation (Harik 1968, Zamir 1997, Makdisi 2000). The civil war from 1975-­‐1990 is also extensively covered in the academic world including accounts about its causes, events and implications (Khazen 2000, Hudson 1985, Khalaf 1987 and 1993). The post-­‐war era, following the Tai’f agreement, was largely characterized by contestation politically, and also a lack of consensus academically around the stability and social character of Lebanon. Although much has been written about the geopolitics of Lebanon (Hamzeh 2004) little is known about the processes of policy and decision-­‐making that affect this nation (Trabolsi 2010). The paper contributes to furthering the readers’ understanding of the political mechanisms that shape public policy and citizen-­‐state interaction in Lebanon. By studying recent cases from after the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, the paper shows the ways in which the sectarian gridlock is dominant is disabling policy reform.

The paper builds on a vast array of literature on civil society in the Arab World (Norton 1995, Krause 2012, Challand 2010, Cavatorta 2011) and contributes to this debate by adding a new paradigm for evaluating the role of civil society in reform processes. In doing so, the paper begins with by reviewing a case where civil society actors were successfully able to introduce a new policy through legislation that banned public smoking. The second case is about a failed attempt to pass an access to information law. The third case explores electoral reform, or lack thereof, despite nation-­‐wide efforts by civil society actors since 2006. Each of these cases answers a piece of the puzzle about policy-­‐making in Lebanon and helps with the formulation of a framework for how civil society actors can intervene in, and contribute to, policy-­‐making.

Yasmin Khodary

Despite the numerous education initiatives that have been suggested and carried out in Egypt and North Africa, very little has been achieved in terms of improving education quality and boosting consequently the development and democratic transition processes in such countries. Despite the specific content or substance of the education initiatives suggested, this paper argues that reasons behind the failure of suggested education initiatives and education systems lies mainly in the design of such initiatives and their implementation patterns that are characterized with lack of transparency, authoritarianism, inequity, low responsiveness, etc…. Simply, the patterns and substance of education systems and initiatives vary from a country another but it is “how” such initiatives and systems are selected, designed and later implemented that determines the success or failure of an education system or initiative.

This paper offers a new insight to education that focuses on good governance in education as a technique towards a high quality and more democratic education that has agreed upon vision when dealing with issues of religion, citizenship and identity in the education systems. The paper does not and should not specify how an education system or initiative deals with issues of religion, citizenship or identity; rather, it points out some rules into how a country should choose or undertake its own path with regards to such issues; a path that should be characterized by transparency, participation, accountability, responsiveness, sensitivity to equity issues, efficiency and combating corruption. The paper shall: 1) define good governance (in terms of better transparency, participation in planning and in monitoring and evaluating, accountability, etc…), 2) elaborates on the importance and benefits of good governance in education (e.g. improving services’ delivery, re-gaining trust between stakeholders especially between government and citizens, contributing to meeting the MDGs related education), and 3) refers to a cases study where governance assessment to the education sector in Egypt has been used to derive recommendations and policy advice to improve education in the public sector.

The case study which is based on the efforts of the Social Contract Center (UNDP funded Cabinet of Ministers’ think tank) to assess good governance in education in Egypt, involved:

a) Exploring the well-established international governance models: WGI, USAID indicators, E.U CGP, UGI, UNDP

    governance framework, UN University’s WGA.

b) Analyzing those governance models and identifying the major shared components and areas of governance that fits

    Egypt economic, political and social context.

c) Reviewing the legal and institutional background of the education sector and drafting the governance in education

    indicators and questions guided by the generic framework.

d) Carrying out extensive consultations with the education taskforces and modify the indicators accordingly.

e) Assessing good governance in education in Egypt and driving recommendations

Anıl Çekiç, Assist. Prof. Dr., Dept. of Politics and Public Adm. Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey.

In this study, the 1 to 1 computing initiative that is widely being pursued in many countries is widely discussed with many aspects. Glocal example of initiatives are taken into consideration. The expected economic, educational and social outcomes of such projects and the bottlenecks of such projects at implementation level are discussed. Furthermore, datas coming out of a reputable field research is evaluated and finally in the lights of all the information obtained, criteria of programs for a successful 1 to 1 computing educational system implementation in K12 schools are proposed for Turkey. With the help of such pograms implementations it is expected that the educational system of Turkey will be positively affected and with its qualified and growing human resources potential Turkey would be  much more confident with being the leading economic force in the region.

Keywords: Education,  1 to 1, computing, OLPC(OneLaptopPerChild), K12

Ayman Hussein

Questions about the future of public administration as a field of study are abound (Bouckaert, 2010; Fritzen, 2010; Hou et al, 2011, Moloney&Gulrajani, 2010; Pollitt, 2010). In the United States and Europe, themes like global and comparative studies, multidisciplinary approaches, collaborative management, public values, networks and competing conceptualizations of the public are starting to become dominant with almost no literature addresses the future of public administration as a field of study, as it applies to the Arab region.

 The problem with this transition is not that it is occurring. Rather, it is that there is no clear consensus about what subject matters and core competencies should be taught to future students of public administration. The lack of literature on the Arab region is also evident to this regard. While taking into consideration the importance of these questions, this paper argues that prior to considering future avenues of the field, the mapping out of current curricular offerings in major public administration is first needed for a clearer assessment.

Accordingly, this study explores the nature of current curricular offerings in the top twenty Masters of Public Administration programs in the Arab region from 2009 to 2012. Not only will these offerings be identified and classified according to subject matter areas, but according to emphasis in core competencies as well, in line with calls for competency based MPA program designs of late.

Research Questions and Methodology

This study explores the current state of the discipline in the Arab region with specific emphasis on the following research questions:

1. What subject matters are offered by the top twenty public administration programs in the Arab region?

2. What competencies are offered by the top twenty public administration graduate programs in the Arab region?

Data Collection

The top twenty ranked graduate programs in public administration in the Arab region will be identified using information previously available in the public domain as well as data requests.

Data Coding

The information contained in the curriculum material will be coded in terms of competencies and subject matter areas. A single course can represent one or more subject matter areas and/or competencies. During the coding process, data will be entered into an Excel spreadsheet. Once the coding process is finished, the data will be reviewed to check for accuracy.

Data Analysis

Once the data set is complete, descriptive statistics will be generated using Excel. These statistics will allow me to review the nature of curricular offerings in terms of subject matter areas and competencies in the Arab region. Moreover, these statistics will also enable me to evaluate the extent to which the curriculum offered by these programs reflects new subject matter areas and competencies.

Significance of Study

This study provides an insight into the nature of current curricular offerings available in the Arab region. With the present as the starting point, the study will provide an indication of directions the field may take in the future. Furthermore, this study serves as bases for further analysis of public affairs education and curriculum in the region.

Heba Abdel Megeed

World Bank (2012) report illustrates the education problems in Egypt which is resulted from many reasons such as the government focus on the quantity of graduates rather than the quality of education especially among poor people who represent according to the World Bank report 40 percent from the population. Another major challenge in education is the illiteracy rate. Egyptian adults, half of them were illiterate; this problem is unsolved the literacy rate is still increasing. Another major challenge in education is the drop out. Students stop receiving education at any grade for several reasons such as failure of the system to mobilize community to keep their children enrolled in education. Other may argue that the reason of dropping out results from economics conditions.

To deal with these kind of challenges, the Egyptian government  since 90’s has started to work on reforming education programs, focusing on the quantitative issue as building many schools, but recently they realized that they need to focus on the qualitative issue as that they should be focusing on quality. The main aspect of qualitative reform is centered on improving education community participation and decentralization (EL Baradei & Amin, 2010).

Even donors in Egypt have moved towards community participation approach to reform education by increasing the funds for teachers and schools to improve the quality and access of primary education (Azfar, Kähkönen, Meagher, 2001).

Problem:

Improving education in Egypt is a big challenge; people by themselves need to participate in improving education in order to help Egypt to overcome education reform challenges. Thus, it is vital to examine community participation effectiveness and challenges. However, Community participation is a problematic concept mainly because the term itself is defined in many different ways by the development literature and practitioners. The lack of a clear definition of what is meant by community participation and what occurs in projects that use community participation as a development mechanism. Community participation needs to be better understood because the “conceptual and practical ambiguity of participation can lead onto its abuses and misuses” (Chanrith, 2004, p. 187; White, 1996) Quoted in Ternieden, (2009). The problem is that there is lack of clarity on knowing to what extend can community participation be effective in education reform; thus, it is vital to examine it to how much it is effective in order to see if you can recommend it to applied it in all Egypt.

Purpose statement:

The purpose of this research is clarify to what extent community participation cab be effective in education reform and what is meant by community participation in education in order to avoid any problems can cause and to examine the community participation approach effectiveness in education to recommend it for all Egypt. The research will be discussing the meaning of community participation and its effectiveness and challenges. The research will suggest the community participation approach effectiveness by providing case study of community participation in education in other counties and in Egypt to show how it works and its achievement as well.

Research question:

Till which extend the community participation in education (school performance) is effective?

Specific questions:

What is the role of community participation in education?

What the community participation in education can achieve?

Mete Yıldız and Kamil Demirhan, Dept. of Politics and Public Adm. Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.

This study examines the social media presence and performance of citizens after the disastrous earthquake in the Van Province in 2011 in Turkey. The content of various Facebook discussion groups populated by citizens were analyzed in detail so as to understand how this new medium was utilized for crisis response and recovery.

The findings presents an opportunity to understand whether the traditional understanding/conventional wisdom of e-government studies is sufficient to grasp the full potantial of using information and communication technologies in crisis situations, and whether we can enrich our theoretical and practical understanding of both e-government and crisis response concepts by the way of analyzing examples such as the Van Earthquake.

Shahjahan H. Bhuiyan, Associate Professor of Governance Reform

Department of Public Policy and Administration, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt. sbhuiyan@aucegypt.edu

The waves of the political tsunami, i.e., the Arab Spring, which contributed to the rise of social and democratic movements throughout large parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have given a new momentum for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and e-government to foster participation and engagement, as well as to increase transparency and restore trust in government (OECD, 2013). As a result of the Arab Spring, Egypt has been experiencing political upheavals, crafting the January 25 People’s Revolution, which changed the political landscape of Egypt, ousted the President Mubarak’s longstanding authoritarian regime and brought Islamist President Morsi in power. The spirit of the Egyptian revolution was to build, among other things, a transparent, accountable, open and trusted government.  To achieve this, particularly to ensure democracy and social justice of the Egyptians, the importance of the uses of ICTs by both government and the citizens are widely recognized. Available evidence suggests that, Egypt has made important achievements in the area of e-government and is increasingly using ICTs to support public policy-making and online delivery of public services.

The main objective of this paper is to understand whether e-government, being spirited by the People’s Revolution, is playing any role to build a transparent and open government in the “new” Egypt. In doing so, it seeks answers to the following research questions:

(1) What is the current status of e-government in Egypt?

(2) What progress the Egyptian Governments made in the field of e-government after the 25 January revolution?

(3) What are the challenges of building a transparent and open government by using ICTs in the “new” Egypt?

The result of the paper reports that ICTs has the capacity to modernize the governmental operation in Egypt by improving the quality delivery of public services, reduction in corruption, making public officials accountable to the citizens. The study further argues that the goal of building a transparent and open government remains largely unachieved due to transitional challenges, which are also barriers to attain democratic governance in the “new” Egypt.

Reference

OECD (2013), OECD e-Government Studies: Egypt 2012, Paris: OECD Publishing.

Tawfik Elkheshen:

The popular uprisings in the Arab world has put increased pressure on governments to become more efficient, transparent and responsive to their citizens. The need for finding new and innovative mechanisms for bridging the  gap between citizens and their governments and breaking the cycle of mistrust which has characterised this relationship has never been greater in the Arab world. Coupled with this fact is a greater realisation that information technology could play a significant role in improving public service delivery and in turn building trust between citizens and their governments.

 As of the end of 2012 the number of internet users in Egypt has reached 31 million or 38% of the population. Certainly, the utilisation of information technology as a tool for connecting and mobilising activists and articulating the desire for change was one of the main defining features of the Egyptian revolution of January 2011 and it has continued to play a significant role as a political tool since then.   Additionally, the use of IT tools has not only been the prerogative of activists and youth networks. It is certainly now a rarity to find a government entity or prominent public figure without his own Facebook page, twitter account or even website. All this points to a greater potential as well as a greater demand to harness the power of  IT tools to improve government performance.

This not withstanding, Egypt has had its e-government program spearheaded by  the ministry of administrative development prior to the revolution and since 2005.  One of the main components of the Egyptian e-government program is a  project for building web-portals for the 28 egyptian governorates which started in 2010. There are now active web-portals for 22 of the 29 governorates and the remaining 7 are under construction. The stated objective of the project is to improve local government efficiency, to inform citizens about their local government activities and programs,  to enhance interaction between citizens and local governments and increase transparency and reduce corruption.

This paper reflects on the results of a study which was conducted to evaluate the web-portals of the 22 egyptian governorates which already have active portals. The objective of the study was to asses  the extent to which the governorate web-portals are achieving the aforementioned stated objectives of the project and to draw recommendations based on the results to improve functionality and usability of the portals.

The methodology used for the study was to evaluate the content of the websites and to asses it against a framework which assigns particular types of information to each stated objective of the project. The types of information specified are based on the existing framework developed by the United Nations(UN) and the American Association of Public Administration (ASPA) on the five stages of e-government but developed further to identify concrete pieces of information which should be available to achieve the objectives of the project.  The usability and responsiveness of the web-portals were also assessed. In assessing responsiveness particular questions were sent to the contact email on the website and the availability of a response, usefulness of the response and time taken to respond were recorded. In assessing usability a number of indicators were taken into account including formatting, ease of navigation and availability of sitemap and search tools among others. A scoring system was then developed in order to rank the websites according to the degree to which they manage to achieve the desired objective of the local e- government project.

The significance of this research is two-fold. First, the research has substantial practical application as it sheds light on a key ongoing government program in Egypt which seeks to improve the governance system at the local level. The findings of the study could provide useful insights to policy and decision makers to address the drawbacks of the current e-government program at a critical time when citizens are demanding tremendous improvements from local administrations in Egypt. Secondly, the research will develop a useful conceptual framework to assess the degree to which local administration web-portals  can play a role in addressing problems of transparency, accountability and responsiveness which have plagued local administration performance in Egypt for decades.

Salma El Tanany

The purpose of this research is to examine the current state of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Egypt. And provide a careful view of the obstacles and challenges Egypt is facing in enhancing its STI system and how this is hindering Egypt’s transformation to a knowledge-based economy. Applying qualitative methods through the in-depth interviews with the different experts from the field along with the research conducted helped develop policy recommendations that could act as a road map that guide us in our pursuit for revolutionary transformation. The research findings indicate that the process of transformation to a knowledge-based economy is a holistic process; it requires full commitment and participation from government, policy makers and the people, it requires a vision that would unite the efforts and hard work towards achieving a certain goal to be able to reap the success of many of the exemplary attempts initiated, and requires bottom-up approach in setting the ground, changing the culture and building the right foundation that would lead us to a sustainable knowledge-based society.

Sıddık Ekici, Hatice Altunok, Gülcan Şahin

Devlet olgusu tarihsel gelişim süreci içerisinde çok farklı anlamlar içerecek şekilde kullanılmış; çok farklı formları ile de toplumsal hayata yön vermiştir. Klasik anlamda ele alındığında ise ülke (toprak), halk (insan), iktidar (meşruiyete dayalı) gibi asgari koşullar üzerine yükselen; kurumlar, organlar ve kurallar bütünü olarak kendini göstermektedir. Olmazsa olmazlar üzerinden değerlendirildiğinde bir devletin inşa edilmesi için asgari koşullar olarak bu belirtilenlerin tamamlanması gerekir. Aşamalı olarak bakılacak olur ise, ilk üç unsur içinde olan ülke; daha geniş bir anlam taşımakla birlikte yaşam alanı olarak belli bir toprak bütünlüğüne karşılık gelmektedir ki bu yönüyle edilgen bir konumdadır. Halk ise, demokratik bir devlet yapısı içerisinde özne görünümünde olan ama özellikle temsili demokrasi modelinde temsil gücüyle birincil özne olma vasfını iktidar organına bırakan (etkisi sınırlandırılmış) bir pasif özne konumundadır. İktidar devlet olgusunun somut öznesi ve aktif bileşenidir. Bu açıdan bakıldığında iktidarı kurmak demek bir anlamıyla devleti etkin  hale getirmek demektir.

İktidar faaliyetlerini kurumlar, kurallar, gerçek ve tüzel kişilerden oluşan organlar eliyle gerçekleştir. Daha açık olarak söylemek gerekirse; çalışır bir devlet mekanizması kurmak için görevlilere ve onlardan oluşan organlara, onların belli bir örgütsel ve formal yapı içerisinde hayat bulduğu kurumsal mekanizmaya ve anayasa denilen en temel yasal çerçeveden yönetmeliklere kadar uzanan çok geniş bir yelpazeyi içeren mevzuat bütününe ihtiyaç vardır. Devleti inşa etmek demek bir anlamıyla somut olarak bunları inşa etmek demektir. Olumsuz bir çağrışım içeren kriz ise; -kavramsal boyutuna metin içerisinde yer verilecek olmakla birlikte- sözlük anlamı itibariyle “bir ülkede veya ülkeler arasında, toplumun veya bir kuruluşun yaşamında görülen güç dönem, bunalım, buhran” olarak tanımlanmaktadır (TDK Büyük Türkçe Sözlük).

Devlet ve kriz kavramlarının bir araya gelmesi pek istenmez. Çünkü devlet ölçekli bir krizin sosyo ekonomik etkisi genellikle yıkıcı olabilmektedir. Türkiye deneyimi üzerinden konuya bakıldığında ise, adı geçen devlet unsurlarının yeniden inşâsı sürecinin genelde kriz sonrası dönemlere denk geldiği görülmektedir. Bu çalışma temelde kriz dönemleri! üzerine inşâ edilen devlet bileşenlerinin, iç dinamiklerle mi yoksa dış dinamiklerle mi çözülmeye çalışıldığına ilişkin bir inceleme çalışmasıdır. Elde edilen bulgular krizin tamamen içerden yönetilmesi yerine daha çok dışarı destekli olarak çözüm benimsenmeye çalışıldığını bunun somut göstergelerinin ise yabancı uzman raporları olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Çalışmanın inceleme nesnesi yabancı uzman raporları; inceleme dönemi ise 1945-1980 arası dönemi olarak belirlenmiştir. Metodolojik çerçevesi retrospektif karakterlerle destekli bir tarihsel perspektiftir. Çalışmanın krizleri içeriden çözmek başlığıyla farklı ülkelerden gelen sosyal disipliner çalışma alanı akademisyenlerine ve Türkiye’nin kurumsal ve mevzuat inşası tecrübesini farklı bir açıdan incelemek isteyecek olan araştırmacılara katkı sunacağı düşünülmektedir.

Mustafa Altunok and Can Umut Çiner

Reform olgusu, kamu yönetimi alanında faaliyette bulunan kuramcıların ve uygulamacıların bazen taşıyıcısı, bazen kurucucu, bazen de yürütücüsü oldukları ama her halde doğrudan parçası oldukları bir gerçekliktir. Çoğunlukla, belli bir sorunla baş etmenin temel savı olarak ortaya konulan bu gerçeklik, istisnai olması gerekirken Türkiye’de devlet işleyişi içerisinde sanki kamu yöneticilerinin ve politika oluşturucuların amentüsü konumuna yükselmektedir. Bu yönüyle düşünüldüğünde kurtarıcı olarak görülen reform etme sürecinin bizatihi kendisi pek çok açıdan sorunlu bir konuma gelmektedir. Bu konumun kapsayıcılığı içerisinde diğerlerine zemin hazırlayan ve en başat nitelik taşıyanı ise karar vericilerin reform takıntısı olarak belirlenmiştir.

Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de reform gerçekliğine ilişkin kuramsal bir tartışmayı içermektedir. Reform kavramsallaştırmasının etimolojik kökeninden hareketle Cumhuriyet döneminde yaşanan yönetsel yenilenme sürecinin nasıl geliştiği ve bunun reformasyon ve/veya deformasyon özellikleri açısından nasıl bir anlam taşıdığı çalışmanın temel ilgi odağıdır. Bildiri, Cumhuriyet sonrası döneme ilişkin bir kesit incelemesi olup, temel reform belgelerinden yararlanılarak oluşturulan tarihsel karakterli ve eleştirel bir analize dayanmaktadır. Çalışmanın temel savı, yönetsel sorunlardan çıkış aracı olarak sunulan reform çabasının amaçsallaştırılarak kendisinin bir sorun haline dönüştürülmüş olmasıdır. Bu savın işlenmesinde reform belgelerinden elde edilen bilgi ve bulguların önemli bir yeri olacaktır. Bildirinin temel amaçlarından biri yönetsel gerçekliğin önemli bir parçası olan reform algısına ilişkin bir tartışma başlatabilmektir. Bu amacın gerçekleştirilebilmesi durumunda ilgili teorisyenler kadar pratisyenler için de yararlı olabileceği ve bu durumun kamu yönetimi alanı için bir katkı olacağı düşünülmektedir.

Cenay Babaoğlu and Bashar Al-Bayati

Bugünkü Irak devleti toprakları, yüzyıllardır farklı devletlerin hakimiyetinde kalmış ve bu mirasla yoğrulmuştur. Ancak Saddam Hüseyin yönetiminin devrilmesinden sonraki süreçte, yüzyıllık miras yerine küresel dönüşümleri içeren gelişmeler Irak Devlet Yapısını belirlemeye başlamıştır.

2003 yılından sonra yaşanan bu dönüşümlerle merkezi bir devlet olan Irak, federal bir yapıya bürünmüş ve Batılı bir tarzda örgütlenmeye çalışmıştır. 2005 yılında halk oylamasıyla kabul edilen yürürlükteki anayasa, adem-i merkeziyetçilik ilkesi etrafında yeni devleti kurgulamıştır. Bu çalışmada küresel politikalar etrafında yenilenen Irak yerel yönetimleri incelenecek ve Irak devletinin yerel yönetim politikaları tarihsel bir çerçeveden ele alınmaya çalışılacaktır.  Söz konusu çabalar kapsamında yönetimde yaşanan sorunların ve bu sorunlara yönelik çözüm önerilerinin neler olabileceği tartışılacaktır.

Çalışmada öncelikle tarihsel süreçteki yerel yönetim politikalarındaki kırılmalar ele alınacak, ardından günümüz değişimlerini tetikleyen aktör ve faktörler sorgulanacaktır. Bu saiklerden hareketle mevcut hükümetin yerel yönetim politikaları ve Irak yerel yönetiminin mevcut yapısı analiz edilecektir. Yapı ve süreç analizlerinin sonunda geleceğe yönelik öngörülerde bulunulmaya çalışılacaktır.

Özkan Leblebici (PhD), Social Sciences Institute, Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey

Ortadoğu coğrafyası, sanayi devrimini takip eden dönemde, petrol ve enerji kaynaklarının kesişme bölgesi olmasının ortaya çıkmasıyla beraber, sürekli bir istikrarsızlık ve karmaşa sarmalında bulunmaktadır. Bu durum sürekli bir kriz durumunun bölgede varolması anlamına gelmektedir. Kriz durumları ise, bir elden sevk ve idarenin en güçlü olmasını gerektiren bir ortamı gerektirir. Kriz durumlarının etkili biçimde yönetilmesi büyük ölçüde otoritenin bir elde toplanmasına bağlıdır. Öyleyse şu soru akla gelmektedir: Bu otorite meşruiyetini nereden alacaktır? Soruna merkez-çevre karşıtlığı bağlamında baktığımızda, iki farklı durum ortaya çıkmaktadır. Birincisi sürekli kriz ortamının ortaya çıkardığı otoriter rejimler, ikincisi demokrasi görünümünde ve söylemleriyle demokratik olan, ancak demokrasinin genel ilkeleri ile uyumlu olmayan, bununla birlikte merkez tarafından yönlendirilebilen (Amin, 1995) ve öngörülebilen rejimlerdir.

Ortadoğu coğrafyasında süregelen istikrarsızlığa bu bakış açısı, merkezin bölgedeki çıkarlarının temsilini varolan istikrarsızlık üzerine kurgulamaktadır. Bu çerçevede araştırmak istediğimiz olgu, sürekli kaos durumunun yarattığı kriz ortamının otoriter rejimleri ortaya çıkarması ve bunun merkez tarafından çevrenin kontrolü amacıyla kullanılmasıdır. Bu amaçla tarihsel olgular üzerinden bir analiz yapılmaya çalışılacaktır.

Ahmed Alaa Fayed

Following the Arab Spring and specifically the January 25th 2011 revolution in Egypt, countries in the region continue to face turmoil economically, politically and at the security level. This has lead to great controversy and polarization between the different actors, and stagnation of the democratic transformation of the country. When looking at one of the root causes of the uprisings, corruption is specifically highlighted. Post-revolutionary governments have pledged to combat the phenomenon at all levels, but their policy impact is yet to be seen.

The purpose of this research was to look at the types of corruption affecting small businesses in formal and informal districts of Cairo before and after the January 2011 revolution. The district of Nasr City was chosen, including its formal neighborhoods and the informal area of Ezbet Al-Haggana Small grocery businesses were selected as representatives of the largest business sector in Egypt. The purpose was to identify the discrepancies between the two types of sectors in the types of corruption they face on a daily basis, and how they have been impacted by the Revolution. This would allow us to gain insights on the barriers to conducting business after the Revolution and how anti-corruption policies affect businesses at the local level. The study findings indicate that corruption affecting small businesses in both formal and informal districts of Cairo decreased drastically, compared to before the revolution; the main reason for the results being the breakdown of citizens’ fears and the weakening of governmental power and authority, particularly in the police.

Ashraf Numair

Putting the title “Citizens’ trust in government in Egypt” in AUC library search box yields more than 700 results most of them highlight the relatively low degree of trust Egyptian have toward their governments. A significant indicator for this declining trust level is the increasing number of protests and labour strikes that followed the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. This might be normal after the revolution since the political scene was not yet clear. However, even after the election of the first president after the revolution, Dr Mohamed Morsi, the uprisings did not stop. Moreover, and against the expectations, it is reported that social protests and labour strikes have doubled since President Morsi’s election. Statistics show that significant portions of Egyptians do not believe in the intentions of the ruling party.

Given this context, In this piece of research, I will answer the research main question: How to boost Egyptians’ trust in their governments?. In other words, what needs to be done to build public trust in Egyptian Government? There is almost an agreement that increasing public trust in governments revolves around transparency, responsiveness, accountability, and responsibility.  The aim of this working paper is to explore the experiences of other countries that went through revolutions with regard to the previously mentioned items and benefit from their experiences in the Egyptian context. In addition to that, there will be interviews with Egyptian citizens to ask them about their opinions and suggestions to build a strong public trust in Egyptian Government.

Jenifer Bremer, Professor of Practice and Chair, Department of Public Policy and Administration American University in Cairo, jbremer@aucegypt.edu

Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, is a charitable donation incumbent upon all Muslims with assets above a specified level. Eight purposes are defined in the Qur’an for the use of zakat donations, of which the most important is the support of the poor and unfortunate. Contact between the Muslim diaspora and philanthropic institutions in the West has contributed to the growth of private nonprofit organizations that operate internationally to collect zakat from the diaspora community and then to direct it towards addressing the economic and social challenges in the giver’s country of origin. Earlier research by the author provided an overview of the emergence of these funds and identified a need for further research on how professionalized management, IT-based marketing tools, and Western models of civil society governance are shaping these institutions. This paper will explore the collection of zakat within the Egyptian-American community in the Washington DC area through interviews with prominent members of that community, representatives of diaspora funding groups, and experts in the role of Islamic institutions in development. It will examine the extent to which organized zakat giving is contributing to addressing development and inclusive growth challenges in Egypt, whether this community is making use of or has established its own formalized zakat institutions based in the United States, and whether these organizations are using the hybrid zakat/sadaqa or zakat/waqf institutional models developed in other Muslim communities. Of particular interest is the current or emerging application of “zakat for development” (Z4D) strategies, which program zakat to contribute to long-term sustainable development at the level of the community as well as the individual, rather than only providing short-term consumption support to the latter. A second issue is whether diaspora donors are demanding or contributing to achievement of greater transparency and accountability in the mobilization and use of zakat in Egypt, including how they relate to state-managed collection models, such as the Nasser Social Bank, and new private models, such as Misr El-Kheir. Finally, the paper will explore how the Egyptian Revolution and the subsequent political and economic crisis in Egypt have interacted with the philanthropic activities and concerns of the Egyptian-American diaspora community. What role has diaspora philanthropy, using Z4D and/or Western  models, played in their response to the needs of Egyptian communities during this critical but chaotic period in Egypt’s history?

Eissa Abou Omar

In searching for a governance reform strategy, the size, the vital roles of professional syndicates and their impact on the whole society place them among our top priorities. According to both the old and the new Egyptian constitutions, the professional syndicates have the legal base to represent the different professions, defend rights and interests of their members, improve the quality of the offered services to the society, and share in creating policies and procedures related to syndicates’ members and their careers. The discrepancy between the proposed role of the professional syndicates and the reality motivated this research into the reasons behind their weaknesses and poor performance. Little recent analysis of Egypt’s syndicates could be found in the literature. Selecting the Egyptian Medical Syndicate (EMS) as a case study was invoked by its vital role in health system reform.

The main research question is “To what extent do the governance structure and procedures of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate correspond to international good governance standards?”

The qualitative method was adopted in this research. The aspects of the governance of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) were used as a guide to highlight what components and core compositions of the structures of the EMS should be examined in the governance process and how? In addition, two questionnaires were developed. The first one conducted to the members and the later to senior managers and Board members. The respondents answered these questionnaires through group interview for members and Individual In-Depth Interview for senior managers and Board members. The aim was to make sure through these instruments, it will be possible to assess to what extent the EMS covered the standards principles of good governance and illuminate the areas which need to be improved. The study targeted doctors in three Egyptian governorates (Cairo, Giza and Gharbia) and the sample included males and females from different ages and backgrounds.

The research found that the current governance system and procedures are in a bad need to be reformed to be consistent with international good governance standards. The findings of the study illustrated that there is a crucial need to issue a new law and bylaw for the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. The elections’ system needs to be revised. There is a necessity to identify a clear vision and mission for the EMS, setting the long term objectives, consider the annual planning and evaluation for the programs and activities. The Board of Directors needs to enhance its leadership and strategic planning skills. The study also highlighted the importance of considering the new tools of communications such as emails, website and video conferences to share information, and to achieve greater connection, participation and involvements for the members of the EMS.

This study open the door to further research with hope to develop a good model to evaluate the governance system in other professional syndicates, and it will be possible to apply the model with some adaptation to fit the specific features of each syndicate.

Lucky Benson and Bulila N. Daniel, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Adamawa State University, Mubi Adamawa State-Nigeria luckybensonkarfe@gmail.com

The inability of the public service to deliver effectively public goods and services and high incidence of ghost workers have justified the need to reform the public service to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria. To this end, this paper examines the public service reforms and the Millennium Development Goals. The Weberian legal rationale bureaucratic theory was used to buttress the arguments in this paper which uncovered among others that the internal reforms and programs put in place to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are laudable. However, as a result of poor implementation, the achievements so far are nothing to write home about. For instance, despite poverty alleviation and eradication programs implemented at all levels of government to achieve goal 1 by 2015, the percentage of Nigerians living in extreme poverty remain 35% in 2004, 2005 and 2006.The paper recommends among others, the need for social and cultural re-orientation to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Noura Wahby

Realizing the magnitude of informality as a façon-de-vie in Cairo as in other megacities, this research focuses on the urban poor in their attempts to provide a decent standard of living using their own efforts, within the context of the lack of government engagement and limited resources. The study focuses on the research question of how community organizations and state actors interact in providing key infrastructure in informal areas, taking IzbitElHaggana in Cairo as an area of study. The objective is to determine the processes of how community self-help schemes install and upgrade, operate, and maintain infrastructure in informal areas. This thus allows us to recognize sustainability issues, as well as potential for integrated/inclusive upgrading policies. As part of a masters’ thesis research, qualitative interviews were conducted with community members, government officials and experts on informality to provide holistic perceptions on the upgrading paradigm.

The study findings provided an insight to case studies of self-help water installations inElHaggana, as well as an insight into electricity and sewerage connections, regarding gehoodzateya processes- incremental networking, innovation strategies, communal networks and self-sufficiency. The findings also shed light on the themes of informal social structures and interaction with formal systems. The research indicates that local self-help initiatives often override non-functioning formal systems, while local governments stubbornly avoid collaboration as back participation in initiatives.

Amira Abdel Latif:

This thesis deals with the quality of public health services in the primary health care clinics in lower income areas in Cairo. There are multiple factors affecting such quality, including the motivation of the workforce, the infrastructure and equipment of the facility, and the modes of finance and management. The research examines whether the accreditation of health clinics by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population affects these factors and hence improves the quality of the service provided.

To do this, the research is based on a comparative study between accredited and non-accredited health care facilities; where accreditation is granted based on patients’ rights, patients’ care, environmental and clinical safety, information management, clinical and non clinical services, and management of the facility, quality improvement program, and integration of care. Although the accreditation period has expired for all accredited facilities in Cairo, some improvements to the quality of health care services were introduced as a result of the accreditation. Forty four interviews were conducted with public health workers and health service visitors (patients) in two accredited clinics and two non- accredited. The interviews were transcribed and data was analyzed using qualitative method of analysis. The results have shown that the accredited clinics are more organized, regularly inspected, and hence patients are more satisfied with the quality of service. However, it was noted that there are common impediments to improvement of health services in all public health clinics, like; poor equipments, old outdated devices, lack of utilities, and insufficient medicine supply; which act as de-motivating factors to most of the health workers. The thesis comes to the conclusion that these common factors point out to the need for wider reforms in the health service sector beyond introducing the accreditation system of public health clinics. These reforms should focus on a considerably more investment in the health service sector to modernize the service as well as improving the incentive system for health workers, improving the processes of purchase and maintenance of equipment, revising the essential drug list, and focusing on patients’ education.

Mona Salem El Rassass

This empirical study aims at investigating the determinants that influence the level of citizens’ satisfaction regarding the water public service. It provides the policy makers and the management of the water companies, with scientific evidence on the factors that control the citizens’ satisfaction, and the potential areas of water service improvement. The study used a primary data from a survey of 3000 respondents, collected by the Social Contract Center in December 2011 in the governorate of Fayoum.

The investigated variables of this study have been classified into two main groups; the first group is the service-related variables, which included variables related to the water quality, and service quality. The second group is the non service-related variables, which included the socioeconomic, and the demographic variables.

For the service-related variables, the study has found that the variables of water quality (i.e. water taste, color, and smell) were all significant in influencing the level of citizens’ satisfaction, where the satisfaction varied according to the incidents of facing problems in the water quality. For the variables investigated under the service quality, the study has found that only water pressure, continuity of water flow during the day, and the water company’s response to the service urgent needs were significant in influencing the citizens’ satisfaction level, while the other variables of having a functioning water meter, facing problems in water bills, and accessibility to the water service information were not influential in affecting the citizens’ level of satisfaction regarding the water public service.

For the non service-related variables, the study has found that regarding the socioeconomic characteristics of the citizens, the education level of respondents was significant in affecting their level of satisfaction; while on the contrary, the monthly spending average of the household has not show any significance. The demographic characteristics of the citizens have been investigated, and showed that, the gender, and rural-urban distribution of the citizens were significant in affecting the level of satisfaction regarding the water service, yet, the citizens’ age failed to show a significant influence.

The findings of the study highlight the importance of improving the service-related factors, in order for the water companies to increase the level of citizens’ satisfaction with the service.

Alexandre Munoz

In the context of the modernisation and development of economies on the southern banks of the Mediterranean Basin, numerous international organisations provided advice in the selection of public policies. Being the “alpha and omega” of the success of economic transitions, increased trade and growth of foreign direct investment (FDI), openness and competition are often presented as the main tools for economic success.

While the aim of growth is undeniable, and sometimes even achieved, current debates focus on the inclusivity of this growth. By inclusivity, economists mean the ability to offer the entire population the benefits of economic growth in a productive system that can achieve a decent standard of living.

It also pertains to the inclusion of environmental and regional challenges (in particular by including all populations spread across regions that do not equally benefit from the fruits of growth).

It is therefore an economic development model that not only maximises cost to profit ratio, but also caters to the expectations of the various stakeholders by giving them an active role, and not merely the passive role of redistribution a posteriori.

After highlighting the issues of inclusive growth in the Mediterranean zone, we will focus on the territorial aspect of this growth. We will tackle the public practices of support for investment, and more specifically the aspects of the governance of these practices that enabled or hindered territorial inclusion, before finally discussing what new approaches could be implemented in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. We will evaluate the practices by means of a territorial division of DFI in the regions concerned. We will then explore in greater detail the managerial practices inspired by New Public Management (NPM) and the foreseeable public governance modifications to overcome the challenges faced by political and economic transitions. We will insist upon the aspect of public policy management in post-Arab Spring countries as a link between the national framework and local action. We will develop our vision of Mediterranean territorial management inspired by neo-liberal competition between territories. In contrast to what people may believe, management and public policy implementation issues are not mere technical issues; they also must take ideological choices into account. The forms of public governance chosen always bear economic and political models. The managerial practices and public policies implemented in recent years in Mediterranean countries reveal an ideology, the relevance of which today we must call into question.

We may well ask what we mean when we speak of territorial management and efficient management methods born out of New Public Management. Is it not cause for reflection on what new practices could be implemented that aim for more inclusion? Agencies from the Mediterranean zone and the Persian Gulf in charge of territorial marketing as regards foreign investors present their cases well. Lastly, we will discuss the proposals on what sort of method of governance could go beyond the limits of this territorial management.