In this paper, we address the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Italy with regard to the integration of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees (MRAs) in the labour market. The paper analyses the role played by CSOs in practice, looking at the dynamics of demand and offer of services through the perspective of both the CSOs and MRAs. To achieve this, we combine qualitative data from semi-structured interviews to CSO representatives as well as MRAs. Our findings point out that the fragmentation of the policy framework in terms of employment and integration, and an unfavourable legislation (above all, migration law) shape the kind of prevalent activities of CSOs and negatively impact the potential for integration of MRAs in the labour market. In general, much is left to the single CSO to fill in the needs of MRAs beyond minimal provisions established by law, with just asylum seekers and refugees having better opportunities and support. Furthermore, we can also observe how economic migrants generally tend to be less supported.

One puzzle that the crises of the past three years have thrown up is why the financial crisis of the period 2008–09 and the sovereign debt crisis of 2010 had such a different political-institutional fall-out on the Euro area. In both, governments were essentially trying to avert a banking collapse. The Euro area passed the stress test of the financial crisis in the period 2008–09 surprisingly well, especially when compared with the US. By contrast, the turmoil in peripheral countries’ bond markets since late 2009 required the suspension of constitutive principles of economic governance and was a disaster for European political integration. This paper tries to offer an explanation.

Information and knowledge have re-emerged as essential resources in the fight against poverty, with new opportunities for their dissemination seen to empower the poor and the agencies that work with them. While optimism is high, little empirical evidence exists as to the actual effect of these changes within localized development contexts. This article contributes to overcoming this lacuna by exploring the role of local non-government organizations (NGOs) in Uttarakhand, North India. It examines how the promotion of information and knowledge as development goods have changed the way NGOs understand poverty and their own roles within the sector. I propose the metaphor of NGOs as ‘peddlers of information’ to draw attention to the current emphasis on awareness, sensitisation and assemblage of information about the grassroots as the primary—and in many cases only—development work NGOs undertake. This metaphor provides an analytical device through which to assess the roles of NGOs in immanent and intentional development.

This article presents an account of Samuel E. Finer's seminal – and widely praised – study entitled The History of Government, Volumes I–III. It is argued that the Finer's magnum opus presents a continuation of the traditional British approach to the study of political science as a more – though not exclusively – ideographic discipline; one more akin to the humanities than the natural sciences. Following a discussion of Finer's place within the history of the discipline of political science, S. E. Finer's contribution to political science is presented. It is argued that The History of Government can be seen as a continuation of Finer's lifetime preoccupation with comparative government as an object of study that transcends the traditional – largely positivist – approach to the social sciences. Finally, it is suggested that Finer's approach points towards a post‐positivist turn in political science, and that his contribution, and the results he produces, necessitates a re‐thinking of the current – Americanised – approach to the study of government.

Political science in European universities is often seen as having traditional signature pedagogy but pockets of innovation have become increasingly common. This article will outline and reflect upon two projects at University College Cork, which were designed to increase student engagement and create an active learning environment. The projects brought students directly into contact with the national political arena and, in particular, with contemporary debates on political reform, which have dominated political discourse in Ireland since the economic crash of late 2008. The projects presented students with (1) the opportunity to make an oral and/or written submission to a committee of the national parliament, which held a public session at the University and (2) publish a peer-reviewed article in an online undergraduate research journal and participate in an academic conference. The projects were designed with active and participatory learning at their core and feedback from participating students and staff indicated that these goals were achieved. The level of student engagement, however, in terms of the participating numbers was lower than expected, which brings some caution about students’ perceived enthusiasm for active forms of learning.

The nature and benefits of different kinds of affordable rental housing providers, and particularly for-profit housing developers, have been contested by practitioners and scholars. We contribute to this debate by exploring whether the missions, the resources harnessed to build housing, the human resources, and the involvement of residents in decision-making differ based on organizational form. Using case study design, we examine two third sector organizations (a zero equity cooperative and a community-based non-profit) and a for-profit located in Canada. The two third sector organizations had less knowledge of housing construction and harnessed in-kind contributions compared to the for-profit. These organizations, and again in contrast with the for-profit, also pursued social missions, including supporting other organizations and sharing their experiences related to housing construction. The zero equity cooperative featured greater resident involvement in the development and the management of the housing compared to both the community-based non-profit and the for-profit.

Employee commitment to an organisation is accepted as an important concept in organisation psychology. Yet commitment to a project on which an employee might be working is largely unknown. Additional complications arise when the project makes use of volunteers who donate their time for reasons other than pecuniary reward. The relationships between volunteers, organisations and projects represent a gap in the field of organisational commitment knowledge. This paper identifies from literature the values that inform and influence volunteer commitment levels. Known antecedents of commitment are developed to present a model which encapsulates the variables that should be recognised as influencing volunteer commitment levels within a project context. The paper proposes a conceptual model of volunteer commitment to a project using three categories of commitment: emotional, purposeful and contextual, and concludes that the next phase of the study will test this model and develop a tool that will enable the measurement of volunteer commitment in a project context.

Old Icelandic relative clauses are frequently preceded by the pronoun sá, considered by most grammars to be a demonstrative. Using a large corpus of Old Icelandic prose, I show that when sá precedes relative clauses, it is often ambiguous between a cataphoric demonstrative (referring ahead to a relative clause) and relative pronoun (part of the relative clause). Syntactic and prosodic evidence indicates that, at least in some instances, sá is unambiguously a relative pronoun, used in tandem with the particle er; thus Old Icelandic relative clauses seem to have doubly filled COMP. A notable characteristic of relative sá is its pervasive attraction to the case of the matrix antecedent. I argue that case attraction represents an intermediate stage in the reanalysis of sá from a demonstrative to a true relative pronoun. Structurally, case-attracting relative pronouns and true relative pronouns occupy different functional positions within a split-CP system. Sá achieved the final stage of the development in the seventeenth century, but rapidly declined under competition with the complementizer sem, thus leaving the false impression that sá never developed beyond the case-attraction stage.

Alternative forms of political participation that place little emphasis on traditional representative forms of democracy are becoming more prevalent. Typifying the shift from government to governance, forest certification provides important opportunities for political participation with local, national, and global influence. Using Pippa Norris's three dimensions of political participation—agencies, repertoires, and targets—this article explores political participation within the practice of forest certification. The article highlights how traditional and alternative forms of political participation do not act as a dualism and instead occur simultaneously in practice due to historical, spatial, and practical influences.

The UK has, over recent years, moved from a ‘welfare state’ to a more ‘market-oriented’ system of welfare. But the extent of this change has varied considerably according to the ideological position of local government in different parts of the country. This makes it possible within one country to assess the implications for the voluntary sector of different models of welfare. This article develops a framework for looking at different welfare ideologies and the values they espouse, with reference both to the UK and to the models that exist in other countries. It then takes four examples of UK local authorities which demonstrate the different models and examines the implications for the voluntary sector. In doing so, it examines the prospects for the voluntary sector to deliver both service and political pluralism in the future.

African non-governmental organisations undergo various shifts in order to cope with diverse challenges. This article takes a longitudinal case study approach to analyse the identities and resilience of a small sample of NGOs in South Africa and Zimbabwe between 2009 and 2013. This article will rely on time period and the nature of the state in each site as independent variables. The nuances brought on by the different time periods and each organisation’s profile, and the two countries where the NGOs are set, are significant for contributing to the literature on the fluid and adaptive nature of African NGOs in their bid for survival. Through exploring these four diverse NGOs in the two states and time period where new challenges and opportunities are presented, the article will also highlight the variety of challenges and strategies each NGO engaged with when confronting crises specific to their settings and the identities each NGO adopted when developing and shifting their agendas.

After three decades of electoral stablity, characterized by the domination of the four old Icelandic parties and small fluctuations at the polls, the 1970s and the 1980s proved to be a period of increasing volatility in Icelandic politics. All of the old parties suffered internal difficulties, and four new parliamentary parties emerged. By comparison, only one new party had obtained representation in the Althingi in the period 1942-1967. The only one of the new parties to survive more than two elections, however, has been the Women's Alliance (WA).

This article argues that the continuity in French approaches to the transatlantic relationship and to the North Atlantic Alliance is structured by deep historical forces and is relatively unaffected by the personal preferences of individual Presidents or other political actors. Nicolas Sarkozy's much discussed ‘return to NATO’ will not affect French foreign policy in any significant way. Indeed, having France inside the tent is likely to generate even greater European-American tension within the Alliance.

The Great Recession that hit the world in 2008 functioned as a critical juncture, nurturing socioeconomic but also political transformations. Some of the political developments during the crisis have challenged civil, political and social rights, triggering a Great Regression. In the geographical areas that have been hardest hit by the financial crisis, particularly in the European periphery, waves of protest have, however, challenged the austerity policies adopted by national governments under heavy pressure from lending institutions including the European Central Bank, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund. This has put democracy under stress, but also triggered at some capacity for innovation. While some have considered the multiple crises as proof that governments need more technical expertise, others have blamed an “econocracy” that has taken over political decisions while pretending they are not political. Siding with this second vision, I will suggest in these notes that what we need is more, rather than less participation in democracy. I develop my argument by summarising some recent reflections in the social sciences on the challenges that the financial crisis poses to democracy, and the ways to address those challenges.

Using Euro-Barometers 20 and 21, this research examines the role of economic discontent in promoting disenchantment with democracy in Great Britain, France, West Germany, and Italy. Both cognitive and affective economic evaluations have a strong effect on one's level of political alienation. Those who believe the government will have a negative effect on the economy in the future and those who are angry over their government's management of the economy are likely to be dissatisfied with the way in which democracy is working in their country. After these economic evaluations the factors most closely related to alienation are support for the parties not in the governing coalition and post-materialist values. Even with these items included, however, economic evaluations continue to dominate the model of political alienation.

This study examines the conditions that facilitate the growth of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) in 126 countries, from 1982 to 2000. To explain the uneven growth of INGOs around the world, I test two competing theoretical approaches. The “top-down” perspective of growth focuses on the degree of a country’s integration into the world polity and international economy. The “bottom-up” perspective emphasizes the development of democracy and the prosperity of the domestic economy as significant factors in facilitating INGO growth within a given country. An econometric analysis of panel data with ordinary least squares (OLS) suggests that both economic and political factors at the global and national level explain the rise of INGOs, rather than viewing either in an isolated fashion.