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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Central government > Central government policies
This book examines the EU policy of the German Social Democrats (SPD) after German unification, following their rise to power in 1998 and their record in office under Chancellor Schroeder. The study deals with policy formation in the SPD through an analysis of the opportunity structures for policy-making in the EU, Germany and the party itself. Across this time period, the SPD recalibrated its European policy to absorb the impact of German unification, deeper European integration and globalization, seeking to interpret a changing world.
Political legitimacy has become a scarce resource in Russia and other post-Soviet states. Their capacity to deliver prosperity has suffered from economic crisis, war in Ukraine and confrontation with the West. Will nationalism and repression enable political regimes to survive? This book studies the politics of legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia.
The book, a study of policymaking for conservation in Latin America, employs comparative analysis to explain the policy process in three countries—Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica. Case studies and examples of important policy decisions made in the three countries are employed to help illuminate variations in the policy process from country to country. The analysis is set against the constant conflict between demands for economic development and conservation. Hopkins has selected important examples of policy problems in the areas of conservation, national parks, and environmental protection in the three countries and set these against the political system in each country for comparison. The cases range from the controversial issue of Lago Chungara in Chile to Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica to the Yacyreta hydroelectric project in Argentina. The study aims at beginning to fill an important gap in the literature on national parks, conservation, and environmental protection in Latin America. As such, the volume will be of interest to students of contemporary Latin America, policymaking, and environmental studies.
When environmentalists fail to persuade us that there is an imminent threat of environmental disaster, they typically invoke the "precautionary principle" in order to justify their calls for more regulation. This work challenges the claim that the precautionary principle (PP) is an appropriate guide to public policy decisions. The fundamental problem is that it is impossible to prove a negative, so the PP can be used to justify any regulation limiting emissions of any substance. Taken in its extreme form, the PP would end civilisation. In its more practical form, the PP is about taking a hyper-cautious approach to emissions of substances into the environment. This means imposing very strict controls on the licensing of new technologies and cutting back drastically on emissions of substances into the environment. Although not as devastating as Leggett's philosophically dubious proposal, this more practical approach has serious drawbacks The opening brace of papers discusses the dubious philosophical foundations of PP, and consider the consequences of applying it in various policy contexts relating to scientific controversies.
There has never been a more urgent need for governments to secure
adequate and stable resources for social development: inequalities
are on the rise, a severe global food crisis threatens to eliminate
the achievements some countries have made over recent years, and
the neoliberal policy toolkit has been largely discredited.
The problem-solving capacity, and hence the democratic legitimacy, of national governments is being weakened by the dual processes of legal and economic integration in Europe; and the loss is not fully compensated by the development of effective and legitimate problem-solving capabilities at the European level. Professor Scharpf supports his position by examining the normative underpinnings of democratic legitimacy and by a detailed analysis of the structural asymmetry between the effectiveness of the legal instruments of `negative integration' which prevents governments from interfering with the free movements of goods, services, capital, and persons and the political constraints impeding positive political action at the European level. This is particularly true for policies pertaining to the welfare state. Governing in Europe explores strategies at the national level that could succeed in maintaining welfare state goals even under conditions of international economic competition, and it also discusses the conditions under which European policy could play a protective and enabling role with regard to these national solutions. The author suggests that if these opportunities should be used, multi-level governance in Europe could indeed regain both effectiveness and legitimacy.
This ninth volume of the International Papers in Political Economy (IPPE) series focuses on the theme of the need for and the development of new economic policies, especially so following the events that led to the 'great recession' of 2007 and subsequently. The volume deals with economic policies within the New Economics theoretical framework that was discussed in the eighth volume of IPPE. In doing so this volume concentrates on international issues that relate to economic policies and governance. This book offers detailed analysis and informed comment on the type of new international economic policies in the aftermath of the financial crisis and global recession. It is essential reading for all postgraduates and scholars looking for expert discussion and debate of the issues surrounding the case for new economic policies at the global level.
The search for a more holistic approach to policy and management looks set to be as much a hallmark of public service reform in the early twenty first century as the changes introduced under the rubric of 'new public management' or 'reinventing government' were in the closing decades of the twentieth. Towards Holistic Governance presents an authoritative assessment of successes and failures to date and a new framework for analysis and implementation based on extensive research both in the UK - where the New Labor government has been an early enthusiast and pathfinder for 'joined-up government' just as its predecessors were for privatization and contracting out - and elsewhere.
This book considers the role of social value in the making and implementation of public policy, taking into account how concepts such as subjective well-being (SWB) can be used to measure the expected impact of enacted policies. It argues that there is no evidence that markets have contributed to greater well-being, and that moments of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, represent an opportunity to re-orientate policymaking and policy implementation away from those which favour markets, and towards those which place subjective well-being at their core. Following this premise, the author explores the elements that should be considered in a future society that prioritises social value.
In 1945 Britain was still a world power, but increasingly had to adapt its international commitments to the financial limitations, technological progress and external challenges of the bipolar post-war world. This was particularly the case during the premierships of Eden, Macmillan and Douglas Home from 1955 to 1964. The twelve chapters in this book analyze Britain's foreign policy making during this period, and its regional relationships in the world, providing the reader with an overview of Britain's foreign relations during this crucial transition.
"Staging Stigma "is a captivating excursion into the bizarre world of the American freak show. Chemers critically examines several key moments of a performance tradition in which the truth is often stranger than the fiction. Grounded in meticulous historical research and cultural criticism, Chemers' analysis reveals untold stories of freaks that will change the way we understand both performance and disability in America. This book is a must-have for serious students of freakery or anyone who is curious about the hidden side of American theatrical history.
In the past three decades, the world has witnessed many rapid and invasive changes, and seems to be changing countries have adapted their foreign policies to these changes. Building on a clear typology of foreign policy change and a consistent theoretical framework, this book offers a comparative analysis of foreign policy change in Europe throughout the post-Cold War period. Along the lines of our analytical framework, country experts discuss how and why the further ever more rapidly in ways that seemed only imaginable in movies. This book investigates how European foreign policies of eleven European countries have changed over the past thirty years. This book hereby advances our understanding of the phenomenon of foreign policy change and identifies the most important drivers and inhibitors of change.
This book compiles research from leading experts in the social, behavioral, and cultural dimensions of sustainability, as well as local and global understandings of the concept, and on lived practices around the world. It contains studies focusing on ways of living, acting, and thinking which claim to favor the local and global ecological systems of which we are a part, and on which we depend for survival. The concept of sustainability as a product of concern about global environmental degradation, rising social inequalities, and dispossession is presented as a key concept. The contributors explore the opportunities to engage with questions of sustainability and to redefine the concept of sustainability in anthropological terms.
This bibliography is a systematic and thorough guide to the findings of over one thousand recent English-language dissertations in a number of specific policy areas. It is divided into sixteen fields of concentration based on the amount and scope of work being done: policy analysis, policy making at the state level, policy making at the local level, public administration and the making of public policy, agricultural policy, civil rights and the status of women, domestic taxing and economic policy, educational policy, U.S. foreign policy, governmental regulation of morality: sex, drugs, and abortion, housing policy, energy and the environment, international trade and economics, judicial policy making, military policy, and social, health, and welfare policy. Within each section, the entries are arranged alphabetically by author and numbered sequentially. The volume contains a reader's guide and subject and author indexes.
Hardie investigates the link between the financialization - defined as the ability to trade risk - and the capacity of emerging market governments to borrow from private markets. He considers the government bond markets in Brazil, Lebanon and Turkey and includes interviews with 126 financial market actors.
Media pressure is often implicated in changes to foreign policy. It is at once hailed as a check on the abuse of power and then reviled for undermining the roles and responsibilities of democratic institutions. But we are still left to wonder what media pressure "is." This question is explicitly answered here, and in doing so it shows how the never-ending conversation between the media and executive creates social imperatives to which the executives "must" respond or else threaten their needed moral positions required to lead or act in international affairs.
This unique book deals with the most serious macroeconomic failure experienced in the US in the post-war period and the great inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s. It is the first detailed analysis, using Federal Reserve documents, of the thinking behind the inflationary monetary policy during this period. The book examines documentary evidence, including minutes, memos and reports and interviews with people who were closely involved in making policy decisions, to explain the monetary policy that led to this inflation. Thomas Mayer considers forecasting errors and wage and price controls in his attempt to explain why the inflation occurred and places some of the blame on ineffective operating procedures, institutional inefficiencies, and political pressures on the Federal Reserve. The author concludes that much of the responsibility for the mistaken policies lies with academic economists who underestimated the dangers of inflation and encouraged the Federal Reserve to focus on an unattainable employment goal. Monetary Policy and the Great Inflation in the United States will be welcomed by economists, political scientists and economic historians interested in monetary policy.
Catherine Gwin examines the evolution of U.S. policy toward the World Bank and the impact of the United States on the institution's policies and operations. Beginning with the U.S. role in the start-up of the Bank, Gwin describes the ebb and flow of the U.S. support: the increasing activism of Congress in U.S.-World Bank policy starting in the 1970s, the breakdown in the bipartisan character of support for the Bank in the early 1980s, followed by renewed U.S. attention in response to the debt crisis, and the later entry of Russia and other transforming economies into the Bank. Gwin disputes both those who see the Bank as under the thumb of the United States and those who see it as unresponsive to U.S. concerns. She suggests that the U.S. policy toward the World Bank has always reflected an underlying ambivalence toward both development assistance and multilateral cooperation. As a result, U.S. policy in the Bank has been erraticoften reflecting the swings in U.S. politics and foreign policy rather than presenting a coherent view of the development financing role of the World Bank and a rigorous concern for the effectiveness of Bank operations.
Most publications on heavy metals and the environment have focused on environmental pathways and risks. The present book establishes a link between the environmental risks of heavy metals and the societal causes of the risks. Economic models, substance flow models and environmental fate and risk assessment models have been integrated into a single analytical framework that has been used to trace and understand the routes by which four heavy metals enter the economy, through to their final destination in the environment. The long-term impacts of the current metals management regime in the Netherlands have been used as a case study by which to assess the effectiveness of certain policy measures. Readership: Environmental scientists, especially those practising in the areas of ecological economics, industrial ecology, materials flow accounting and integrated environmental assessment. Environmental policy makers will also find the book an invaluable aid in their deliberations.
All over the world, many people who live in urban areas find themselves in an arduous social situation. In the third world, people in overcrowded metropolitan areas have a problem in maintaining even the slightest standards of living. But also richer parts of the world, the United States, Europe and the far-East, show growing social inequalities in their cities. And social problems are not confined to the large metropolitan areas: impoverishment, long-term unemployment, social isolation, and the dependency on welfare programs pops up in medium-sized cities and even in smaller communities. At the same time, these cities are confronted with a growing bureaucratic conglomerate which is increasingly inapt to fight social degeneration. The catastrophe seems to be total: how to deal at once with declining social conditions and bureaucratic inadequacy? Two American authors, Osborne and Plastrik (1997), claim to have found the answer: just banish bureaucracy. The liberating accomplishments of the free market will elevate ordinary citizens and force lazy, incompetent bureaucrats to do their work properly. If they succeed, they survive. Otherwise, these agencies will vanish. They illustrate their arguments with the American city of 'Uphill Battle' which stopped its decline by reinventing government. Strict performance measures, allotting financial controls and incentives to the citizens, and improving accountability have saved the city. We should, however, be very careful in taking such measures so far that they banish bureaucracy. It is far from obvious that simply banishing bureaucracy indeed will help people in poor social situations.
The rapid development of energy program evaluation has broad implications for the policy porcess and policy design. Evaluation plays a far-reaching role in the energy policy process, affecting all segments of the population and the allocation of billions of dollars in public and private expenditure. The authors have selected a variety of energy program evaluations from the hundreds that have been conducted over the past five years to illustrate this development in energy policy. Thus, they inform the policy community in both academia and in government of the impact of evaluation in the energy context. They also enlighten practitioners in energy program evaluation of the policy implications of this work.
Systemic Governance addresses accounting and accountability and develops conceptual tools to enhance the capacity of policy makers and managers. The structures and processes of international relations and governance need to be re-considered to allow diversity to the extent that is does not undermine the freedoms of others. The book makes a plea for systemic governance. Policy makers and managers need to work with rather than within theoretical and methodological frameworks to achieve multidimensional and multilayered policy decisions. Conceptual tools can be used to enhance systemic governance. The closest we can get to truth is through compassionate dialogue that explores paradoxes and considers the rights and responsibilities of caretakers. It contains case studies and conceptual tools which enliven the text. |
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