An Empirical Evaluation of the Influence of Descriptive Representation on Human Resource Practice at the Local Government Level

Significant changes in employee demographics and values and the nature of public service employment have impacted personnel administration. This study evaluates the impact of both gender and race on the assessment of current HRM practices and reforms at the local level of government. Results from a national survey are assessed in order to enhance the field’s understanding of whether differences in administrative perceptions and values attributed to these two factors have the potential to translate in HR policy positions that continue to embrace or strive to transcend traditional public personnel management. We find that although certain functions and activities are seen as more important by specific groups in the study, the order of importance of these functions and activities is very similar between groups

Did Secularism Fail? The Rise of Religion in Turkish Politics

Religious movements have long been challenging the modernist and secularist ideas around the world. Within the last decade or so, pro-religious parties made significant electoral advances in various countries, including India, Sudan, Algeria, and the Palestinian territories. In this article, we focus on the rise of the pro-religious Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi- AKP) to power in the 2002 elections in Turkey. Using the Turkish experience with political Islam, we evaluate the explanatory value of Mark Juergensmeyer\u27s rise of religious nationalism theory, with a special emphasis on the failed secularism argument. Our analysis indicates that the theoretical approach formulated by Juergensmeyer has a great deal of explanatory power; however, it does not provide a complete explanation for the success of the AKP. The rise of religion in Turkish politics is the result of a complex process over long years of encounter and confrontation between two frameworks of order, starting with the sudden imposition of secularism from above, when the republic was established. Hence, to understand the rise of religion in contemporary Turkish politics, an in-depth understanding of history, politics, and the sources of tension between secularists and Islamists is essential. The findings of this article have important implications for other countries, especially those that are experiencing a resurgence of religion in politics, and are struggling to integrate religious parties into a democratic system