Comment from the Editors

This is the first issue of the third volume of the International Public Management Network e-publication The International Public Management Review (IPMR). IPMR is published twice per year on the IPMR website at www.ipmr.net. Volume 1, Number 1 appeared in December 2000 as a double issue to inaugurate the series. Volume 2, Issues 1 was published in March 2001 and Issues 2 appeared in November 2001. Back issues are available at www.ipmr.net

Comment from the editors

The articles in this issue are intended to be of interest to both academics and practitioners. The first piece presents the views of four internationally recognized public management scholars, Steven Kelman, Fred Thompson, L. R. Jones, and Kuno Schedler, on how the PM may be defined and understood as an emergent discipline. Their dialogue took place on the International Public Management list server in October 2003 and is reproduced here with only minor editorial changes. The second work in this issue by Clay Wescott explores how decentralization supports the policy commitments made by the Viet Nam government to increase citizen participation and accountability, and to reduce poverty and regional disparities. The article includes a review of basic definitions of decentralization to place this case study into an international context, a brief look at the unique historical context of Viet Nam, a comparison of policy intention versus implementation reality, an analysis of the impact of decentralization, and a concluding section on remaining challenges

Comment from the Editors

The articles in this issue are intended to be of interest to both academics and practitioners

Magnetism and superconductivity driven by identical 4ff states in a heavy-fermion metal

The apparently inimical relationship between magnetism and superconductivity has come under increasing scrutiny in a wide range of material classes, where the free energy landscape conspires to bring them in close proximity to each other. This is particularly the case when these phases microscopically interpenetrate, though the manner in which this can be accomplished remains to be fully comprehended. Here, we present combined measurements of elastic neutron scattering, magnetotransport, and heat capacity on a prototypical heavy fermion system, in which antiferromagnetism and superconductivity are observed. Monitoring the response of these states to the presence of the other, as well as to external thermal and magnetic perturbations, points to the possibility that they emerge from different parts of the Fermi surface. This enables a single 4$f$ state to be both localized and itinerant, thus accounting for the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

How to understand Pakistan’s hybrid regime: the importance of a multidimensional continuum

Pakistan has had a chequered democratic history but elections in 2013 marked a second turnover in power, and the first transition in Pakistan’s history from one freely elected government to another. How do we best categorize (and therefore understand) political developments in Pakistan? Is it now safe to categorize it as an electoral democracy or is it still a hybrid case of democracy? Using the Pakistani case as an example, this article argues that hybrid regimes deserve consideration as a separate case (rather than as a diminished sub type of democracy or authoritarianism), but must be categorised along a multidimensional continuum to understand the dynamics of power within the political system