The book analyses agricultural economics and food policy in New Zealand, where farming produce has been by far the main export commodity. Farming exports' importance, together with the need to diversify exports away from a former colonial relationship with the UK, makes liberalising agricultural trade a major concern for New Zealand. Farmers, themselves, have influenced, significantly, policy development and implementation through their organisation, Federated Farmers. After World War II farmers at first encouraged Government financial support for farming and by the 1980s farming was highly subsidised. Farmers recognised in the 1980s that New Zealand's economic problems demanded reduced Government intervention and accepted ending farming subsidies. New Zealand then encouraged, globally, 'farming without subsidies'. New Zealand projected an image of environmental cleanliness and greenness in support of its exporting but into the 21st century wrestled to maintain that image because farming impacted on water quality and climate change emissions.

The Economic Report of the President provides valuable information about the present state of the U.S. economy and its future course. The Economic Report is issued by the Executive Office of the President and the Council of Economic Advisers and transmitted to Congress no later than 10 days after the submission of the Budget of the United States Government. It includes: *Current and foreseeable trends and annual numerical goals concerning topics such as employment, production, real income and federal budget outlays. *Employment objectives for significant groups of the labor force. *Annual numeric goals. *A program for carrying out program objectives. For more than 70 years, the Economic Report has provided a nearly contemporaneous record of how administrations have interpreted economic developments, the motivation for policy actions, and the results of those interventions. Included in the Economic Report of the President is the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers. Each year, the Council of Economic Advisers submits this report on its activities during the previous calendar year in accordance with the requirements of the Congress as set forth in section 10(d) of the Employment Act of 1946 as amended by the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978.

In order to gain access to the EU, nations must be seen to implement formal instruments that protect the rights of minorities. This book examines the ways in which these tools have worked in a number of post-communist states, and explores the interaction of domestic and international structures that determine the application of these policies. Using empirical examples and comparative cases, the text explores three levels of policy-making: within sub-state and national politics, and within international agreements, laws and policy blueprints. This enables the authors to establish how domestic policymakers negotiate various structural factors in order to interpret rights norms and implement them long enough to gain EU accession. Showing that it is necessary to focus upon the states of post-communist Europe as autonomous actors, and not as mere recipients of directives and initiatives from 'the West', the book shows how underlying structural conditions allow domestic policy actors to talk the talk of rights protection without walking the walk of implementing minority rights legislation on their territories.

Europeans use 'social models' to refer to the combination of welfare state, industrial relations, and educational institutions jointly structuring what we can think of as the supply-side of the labor market. The dominant view in controversy over the social models has been that in the name of equity they have impaired the labor market's efficiency, thereby causing unemployment. But doubt is cast on this supply-side-only diagnosis by powerful macroeconomic developments, from the Europe-wide recession following Germany's post-unification boom to the deepest economic crisis since the interwar Great Depression, which the Eurozone's truncated economic governance structure transformed into a sovereign debt crisis, threatening the Euro's and even EU's very survival. This book explores the interaction of Europe's diverse social models with the major developments that shaped their macroeconomic environment over the quarter century since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It concludes that this environment rather than the social models are primarily responsible for the immense social costs of the crisis.

In all societies, the quality of government institutions is of the utmost importance for the well-being of its citizens. Problems like high infant mortality, lack of access to safe water, unhappiness and poverty are not primarily caused by a lack of technical equipment, effective medicines or other types of knowledge generated by the natural or engineering sciences. Instead, the critical problem is that the majority of the world s population live in societies that have dysfunctional government institutions. Central issues discussed in the book include: how can good government be conceptualized and measured, what are the effects of 'bad government' and how can the quality of government be improved? Good Government will prove invaluable for students in political science, public policy and public administration. Researchers in political science and the social sciences, as well as policy analysts working in government, international and independent policy organizations will also find plenty to interest them in this resourceful compendium. Contributors: E. Andersson, M. Bauhr, N. Charron, C. Dahlstrom, M.A. Fardigh, S. Holmberg, V. Lapuente, S.I. Lindberg, N. Nasiritousi, H. Oscarsson, A. Persson, B. Rothstein, M. Samanni, M. Sjostedt, H.O. Stensota, J. Teorell, L. Wangnerud

It Can Be Done: An Approach for Improving Efficiency in the Public Sector , provides a roadmap describing a simple approach for improving processes using teams. This book is ideal for process improvement initiatives, academic institutions, organizational change practitioners, public entities, and administrators and leaders seeking a practical approach for the promotion and implementation of organizational effectiveness. Throughout this handbook, the term process refers to a series of steps that create a product or service. Processes are different from projects. Projects have a beginning and an end. Processes are ongoing, cyclical, and rarely operate in isolation. They connect to or impact many other processes. An approach to improve these processes is the focus of this book. As a public sector leader, you are encouraged, more often than not, to have an external perspective looking outside, looking long term. You are told to keep your eyes on the horizon, spend time figuring out what the public or the customer wants, to pay attention to what other similar organizations are doing, build external partnerships, network, and analyze both the external opportunities and threats. The truth is, however, the leaders and organizations that stand out are those who, contrary to this traditional approach, aggressively look internally, with a balance, more likely, of 80% internal and 20% external, particularly within the public sector.

The Future of Open Data flows from a multi-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant project that set out to explore open government geospatial data from an interdisciplinary perspective. Researchers on the grant adopted a critical social science perspective grounded in the imperative that the research should be relevant to government and civil society partners in the field. This book builds on the knowledge developed during the course of the grant and asks the question, "What is the future of open data?" The contributors' insights into the future of open data combine observations from five years of research about the Canadian open data community with a critical perspective on what could and should happen as open data efforts evolve. Each of the chapters in this book addresses different issues and each is grounded in distinct disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. The opening chapter reflects on the origins of open data in Canada and how it has progressed to the present date, taking into account how the Indigenous data sovereignty movement intersects with open data. A series of chapters address some of the pitfalls and opportunities of open data and consider how the changing data context may impact sources of open data, limits on open data, and even liability for open data. Another group of chapters considers new landscapes for open data, including open data in the global South, the data priorities of local governments, and the emerging context for rural open data.

For Ukraine, the signing of the Association Agreement and the DCFTA with the European Union in 2014 was an act of strategic geopolitical significance. Emblematic of the struggle to replace the Yanukovych regime at home and to resist attempts by Russia to deny its 'European choice', the Association Agreement is a defiant statement of Ukraine's determination to become an independent democratic state. The purpose of this Handbook is to make the complex political, economic and legal content of the Association Agreement readily understandable. This third edition, published seven years since signature of after entry into force of the Agreement's implementation is substantially new in content, both updating how Ukraine has been implementing the Agreement, and introducing new dimensions (including the Green Deal, the Covid-19 pandemic, cyber security, and gender equality). The Handbook is also up to date in analysing Ukraine's the development of the Zelensky administration, with its unfinished agenda for cutting corruption and reforming the rule of law. Two teams of researchers from leading independent think tanks, CEPS in Brussels and the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) in Kyiv, collaborated on this project, with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). This Handbook is one of a trilogy examining similar Association Agreements made by the EU with Georgia and Moldova.

Written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field, this book provides a unique perspective on the connections between energy justice and human rights. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the author offers an accessible discussion about the implementation of energy justice in practice. The book explores the rise of justice issues in the energy sector, the interdisciplinary nature of energy justice, the economics of energy justice and provides a practical case study on distributive justice. The penultimate chapter focuses on human rights and energy justice in a world first, and explores the topic from the perspective of the opportunity of last resort. This 'opportunity of last resort' is the national courts and is the place where societies can seek to have justice enforced through a variety of human rights being protected. Finally, energy justice risks are highlighted alongside the author's proposed framework for the next generation of energy justice scholars.

Budgeting has long been considered a rational process using neutral tools of financial management, but this outlook fails to consider the outside influences on leaders' behavior. Steven G. Koven shows that political culture (moralistic, traditionalistic, individualistic) and ideological orientations (liberal vs. conservative) are at least as important as financial tools in shaping budgets.

Koven examines budget formation at the national, state, and local levels to demonstrate the strong influence of attitudes about how public money should be generated and spent. In addition to statistical data, the book includes recent case studies: the 1997 budget agreement; Governor George W. Bush's use of the budget process to advance a conservative policy agenda in the state of Texas; and Mayor Marion Barry's abuses of power in Washington, D.C.

Koven demonstrates that administrative principles are at best an incomplete guide for public officials and that budgeters must learn to interpret signals from the political environment.