Our section fulfills a special role among the organizations and associations that are interested in international and comparative government. When looking at the listing on our website of international organizations affiliated with SICA it quickly becomes clear why. Several are national associations of public administration (Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia); some are 'regional' or otherwise specific associations (e.g., CAPAM, EGPA, OECD); and there are the affiliations with truly international organizations (UN, World Bank) and associations (IIAS). What makes our section fairly unique is that it strives to connect international and comparative interests, by establishing bridges between practitioners/consultants and academics and between those that work/study in Western and non-Western settings. As a section of ASPA, a national rather than an international organization, we should keep in mind that the ASPA-journal PAR has subscriptions in 52 countries. Thus SICA is potentially attractive to many practitioners and scholars all over the world.
     In a globalizing world it is important to have a platform for discussion where practitioners, consultants and academics can meet. Their work may be concentrated in a particular world region but interests generally transcends those boundaries. Globalization is a concept with several meanings. Some automatically think of the increased interdependence of national economies. Some think more in terms of a convergence of, e.g., administrative practices. Yet, at the same time, globalization has also made us more then ever aware of the importance of culture and cultural differences for understanding the national theory and practice of governance.. Convergence is suggested by the use of such phrases as 'the bureaucratization of the world'. Indeed, we can find examples of hierarchical organizations, of planning, of decision making processes, of implementation, and so forth, everywhere, but how government actually functions varies according to, inter alia, culture. Geert Hofstede's studies of cultural differences between countries are as relevant as ever.
     SICA not only has the potential to be the international platform where academics and practitioners (including consultants) meet to discuss western and non-western governance it ought to be the international platform. Upon the 25th anniversary of SICA Fred Riggs remarked that the "...comparative study of public administration ought to include the United States as well as other countries." (PAR, 1998:22). I take this as a plea to expand SICA's interests in the past decade or so from development management back to the original objective of SICA's predecessor, the Comparative Administration Group: to include all regions of the world. In the same PAR-issue Ferrel Heady, another long-standing member of SICA, argued in favor of broadening the substantive focus of the section to include, for instance, attention for national and international representative bureaucracy, privatization, and the role of intermediate agencies in the domestic and international arena (p.38). Development administration and management have in the past 15 to 20 years been for good reasons the dominant focus of SICA. It is now time, though, to expand SICA's focus to include Western regions and to broaden its substantive interests.
     Of course, we can argue that we should broaden SICA's base if only because of globalization or the need for intellectual exchange. SICA's aim to expand its mission is also reflected in the desire to include scholars that research Western governments. That we have found Richard J. Stillman II, University of Colorado, willing to serve as our next chair, is very fortunate in this respect. There is a more mundane reason as well. Our membership has dropped from about 500 some ten years ago to below 250. We can change this and we should, for, again, SICA is the one international forum that has the potential to link people and regions. We need to keep SICA attractive to its current membership and we should make it more appealing to new members, especially to those that have been active in comparative Western studies and the study of international organizations. There are various ways in which we attempt this academic year to expand SICA in terms of focus and membership, and I speak of 'we' because it is the concerted effort of several people.
     First, Tjip Walker, has done a wonderful job updating the SICA-website: www.uncc.edu/stwalker/sica. The website provides much information about the history of SICA, about institutional affiliations with a variety of national and international organizations and professional associations throughout the world, about current SICA boardmembers and much more. It also provides links to the websites of Fred Riggs and of Bill Miller, two of SICA's long-standing members. Since the website has been available (1 July) it has been visited 265 times to date (11 November). Tjip also developed a Listserv where subscribers can exchange ideas.
     Second, it has been a while since the last newsletter, but thanks to the efforts of Phil Morgan, the dean of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and his graduate student Margherita Serafini, it is once again available. Phil and Margherita welcome contributions for the newsletter in the form of articles, mentioning of recent publications, and so forth.
     Third, SICA is involved in the preparations for the ASPA-2000 conference. Four SICA-members are putting four panels together that ideally have both practitioners/consultants and academics and non-Western/Western papers. Zhiyong Lan of Arizona State University is putting a cross-policy panel together. Donald Klingner of Florida International University is working on the cross-national panel. Jim Svara has put the cross-level panel together. The cross-time panel is prepared by myself. Obviously, the panels will combine two or more types of comparisons.
     Fourth, the flyer will be updated. Initially I hoped to have that done by September but it is one among several other obligations. I will try and finalize a new version before the end of the year..
     Fifth, we are looking into an electronic version of the occasional papers. Several SICA-members indicated that they would be in favor of that. We thus need to see how the occasional papers can be available to SICA-members only. Of course, we need papers first....
     Sixthly, we are investigating the possibility of an affiliation with a journal available to SICA-members at a lower than normal subscription rate. Some members favor an affilliation with the British journal Public Administration & Development. Other members have expressed preference for a link with a journal such as International Review of Administrative Sciences that has attention for both non-Western and Western government. We need to establish a policy on this. Shortly we will have a small committee in place that will present the options possible at the SICA-business meeting during the ASPA-2000 conference.
     Meanwhile, all SICA-members can be active in recruiting new members especially among categories of practitioners and academics that are currently under-represented in the section. With all of our combined efforts SICA can be and ought to be the international forum envisaged so many years ago.

Jos Raadschelders, University of Oklahoma