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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Public administration
This edited volume brings together debates from the Global South and Global East to explore alternatives to conventional planning in Southern cities. Embracing the evolving post-colonial theory, the volume offers 'fragments' of the urban that provide clues to the larger, often-repeated ontological question that continues to hold: Why and what does theory from the South mean? The chapters derive from and speak to the simultaneously homogenous and heterogeneous South. They focus on presenting the alternative realities of Southern cities as critical analytical lenses that can build up to the theorisation of the Southern urban with a potential to (re)understand the contemporary urban world. The contributions explore locally rooted knowledge systems, premised on social and cultural practices, as possible conduits to evolving planning methods. In doing so, the volume breaks apart the linear modernity that urban theory from the North relies on. Chapters [Chapter-1] and [Chapter-11] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This comprehensive and accessible textbook introduces the basic concepts of transport policy and decision-making to students of transport policy, transport planning, urban transport, transport evaluation and public policy.It presents the foundations and rationale of transport policy, incorporating a review of the policy formulation process and models of decision-making appropriate to public sector policy-makers. Topics covered include: - The basics of transport planning and traffic theory deemed necessary to understand policy implications of issues including congestion, safety and parking. - Potential solutions to problems such as road user charges, travel demand management, voluntary travel behavior change, transport system management and public transport investment. - Prescriptions for technological change. - Discussion of the need for an integrated land transport policy along with a case study to illustrate how this might be developed for a typical metropolitan area. Contents: 1. Introduction 2. History of Transport with Policy Implications 3. Policy Needs and Policy Processes 4. Economic and Sustainability Foundations 5. Traffic Theory and Transport Planning Foundations 6. Social Exclusion 7. Tackling the Externalities - Environment 8. Tackling the Externalities - Health and Safety 9. Tackling the Externalities - Congestion 10. Tackling the Externalities - Fuels and Technology 11. Agglomeration and Other Wider Economic Benefits 12. Road User Charges 13. Potential Solutions - Public Transport Investment and Technology 14. Potential Solutions - TSM, TDM, VTBC, etc 15. Goods Movement 16. An Integrated Land Use/Transport Policy
As economic populism and protectionism increasingly threatens the global trade order, this book examines the behavior of World Trade Organization (WTO) members at the judicial arm of the WTO-the dispute settlement mechanism (DSM). The author explores why and when governments cooperate at the WTO and comply with the ruling of its panels, focusing on how the growth of global value chains through the internationalization of trade and production has increased the importance of both trade liberalization and supra-national governance and policy-making. Finding that domestic organized interests-i.e. firms and sectors-mobilize and lobby national governments to change their domestic policies to better harmonize with their international trade commitments, the author outlines how the time it takes to comply with adverse WTO rulings is shorter when the potential domestic costs of non-compliance outweigh protectionist interests. The author's innovative research design highlights the conditions under which the WTO can preserve the rules of international trade and support a more open, global economy.
This book examines the evolution of basic income policy and research in advanced economies and is divided into two parts. The first section considers the development of basic income as a social policy initiative in advanced (OECD) nations from the 1960s to today. It reviews what the negative income tax experiments accomplished, their limitations, and what they can lend to the design and implementation of basic income pilots or a full blown basic income program today. It also considers important developments and research in poverty and economic inequality and in technological change and labour market adjustment over the last half century. The second section focuses on the Canadian case, where the prospects for basic income are perhaps among the most promising. In addition to a review of Mincome and its lessons and limitations, this section considers important developments in poverty research by the Economic Council of Canada and the Canadian Senate in the 1960s, attempts at welfare reform, and the policy initiatives to develop a basic income for elderly Canadians that has endured to this day. Many of the important social and technological developments that are reviewed in the first part will be discussed in more detail with specific reference to the Canadian case. The evolution of the important policy innovations the National Child Benefit and its successors and the Poverty Reduction Strategy are outlined in detail and linked to other, more modest, income support initiatives such as the federal sales tax credit that provide a potential foundation for a comprehensive basic income plan in Canada. Research, including recent microsimulation studies of a basic income, are critically reviewed. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest in basic income to support those hardest hit, the book argues for careful design of basic income policies in its aftermath rather than simplistic adoption of emergency pandemic measures.
This book addresses current challenges in public administration and regional management in Russia. By taking into account socio-economic factors, as well as key ethnic, cultural and social processes in multicultural regions, it identifies the prerequisites for successful public governance and regional management. The respective contributions cover a broad range of topics, including digitalization trends, managerial approaches, diversification strategies, and corporate cultures. Moreover, the book discusses the effects of ethnopolitical tensions and interethnic tolerance on public administration in Russia's multicultural regions. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for scholars and public servants at governmental institutions.
Federal models of government have shaped history and demonstrated how diverse people can live together and govern together in relative harmony. The Forum of Federations Handbook of Federal Countries 2020 builds on the previous 2005 edition and offers a much-needed update to this signature resource in comparative federalism. Outlining every federal country in the world, each chapter provides a brief yet comprehensive overview of the history of federalism in its specific country, the constitutional nature of federalism, and recent historical dynamics. As new countries have joined the Federal ranks, this handbook brings readers up to speed offering an authoritative look at both the older federal countries as well as new federal countries like Nepal. The Forum of Federations Handbook of Federal Countries 2020 is an essential resource for academics, researchers, university students, libraries, history and governance teachers, politicians and civil servants, and casual observers of federalism.
Science councils have been tasked with complex new mandates, to achieve these they have to interact with knowledge users in the private and public sectors and be of benefit to communities, particularly to those that are vulnerable and marginalised. What are the diverse forms of interaction in science councils with distinct legacies, what are the diverse forms of partners and what are their outcomes? What are some of the successful strategic policy interventions, organisational structures and internal incentive mechanisms that science councils have created to channel and promote these interactions? Questions such as these are addressed in this timely and groundbreaking research as it investigates how scientists interact with actors in the informal sector, social development and community spaces, alongside their role in technology development for industry and government actors. Balancing multiple mandates: The changing role of science councils in South Africa is an important study – building an evidence base to inform the contribution of science councils to innovation, poverty reduction and inclusive economic development in South Africa.
This book explores the shift towards individual responsibility that is increasingly evident in welfare systems across the world. The book will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, social policy, and political science, with a particular focus on migration, minorities, political discourse, securitisation, social justice and human rights. "This book offers a compelling read, analysing how workfare is legitimated in the Central European context, through the innovative metaphor of "political farming." The analytical framework brings together several distinct streams of theorizing (critical discourse studies, critical security studies, governmentality, boundary-making, and the dynamics of ethnic relations) seamlessly and effectively. Through a very nuanced discursive analysis, Kissova shows how the poor, the offenders, and the "unadaptable" - categories policymakers use to talk about material need recipients - are linked pathologically with criminality, abuse of the system and other negative perceptions. This is a must-read text for anyone interested in how political actors justify questionable legislation that cements inequality in today's neoliberal milieu." - B. Nadya Jaworsky, Associate Professor, Sociology, Masaryk University, Czech Republic "Lenka Kissova's book is clearly written and carefully researched. Her interdisciplinary insight and discursive analysis of parliamentary debates on Slovak "workfare" policies illustrates the deliberate, precise and politicized colocation of Roma marginalization and economic disadvantage, in a manner that starkly illustrates systemic racism dressed up as morally necessary regulatory reform. Moreover, her research has broader comparative and methodological relevance given how she layers in and utilizes governmentality, securitization and legitimation theory, unmasking how neoliberal economic assumptions and dog whistle politics, woven into the speech of politicians, works to demonize recipients as real or potential cheats and criminals, enact further social exclusion and heighten inequality and fear while not-so-subtly promoting existing prejudices. Her overarching metaphor-that of parliamentarians engaging in "political farming" where their ideas seed and take root in fertile soil of the national landscape resulting in regulatory "products"-effectively demonstrates how social reality generally and state regulation specifically can be constructed divorced from actual evidence, a process beyond her specific case and critically relevant to our times." - Barbara J. Falk, Professor, Department of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College/Royal Military College of Canada, Fellow, Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada
This book analyses the challenges facing the European Union through the frame of the rule of law. It shows how over the last decades the increased dissensus and contestation of the rule of law has given rise to heightened tensions between national and EU institutions, leading to the establishment of new soft and hard policy tools to safeguard it at the supranational level. The book proposes a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the current state of debates by exploring how EU institutional actors seek to uphold the Union's values. It shows that European integration in core state powers is the outcome of the clash between liberal and anti-liberal ideas, between dissensus and contestation over how collective problems should be solved, in a community of voices featuring assent and dissent, all of which give democracy its substance. Beyond the analysis of the emerging EU's rule of law policy, the book will help readers to better understand the EU's fragilities and resilience and the potential challenges for the future of EU integration.
Longer term thinking and new approaches to development and prosperity have never been more urgently required. Since 2020, the precarity of the global economy, links between ecological destruction and public health and disparities in levels of exposure and vulnerability to systemic disruption have all been thrown into stark relief. In this book the authors put forward a series of principles on which economic and development policy for the post-Covid era should be developed. These are outlined as five 'pillars' through which to (re-)build a shared prosperity in the aftermath of the Covid-19 global shock. The five pillars are an ecological prosperity (pillar one), a decarbonized economy (pillar two), a shared (cost) burden (pillar three), a transformative social sustainability (pillar four) and a just resilience (pillar five). The book provides a framework through which policymakers, decision-makers, politicians, community groups and the corporate sphere might begin to consider, map out, and plan for just transitions in their domains.
This open access regional reader examines emerging issues around new migration patterns in South America and their relationship with changing migration policies over the last twenty years. The first part of the book looks at conceptual discussions on mixed and survival migration, the link between migration and extractivism, and the specific character of transit migration. A second part examines how these debates have led to transformations in state policies, and the shift in government policies from a human rights-based approach towards more restrictive ones. Finally, the third section revisits the relationship between racism, xenophobia and colonialism in contemporary migrations. As such this book makes an interesting read to students, academics, policy makers and all those working in the field.
This open access book asks whether cash-transfer programs for very low-income households promote social and economic citizenship and, if so, under what conditions. To this end, it brings together elements that are too often considered separately: the transformation of social and economic citizenship rights in a market-centered context, and the increasing popularity of cash transfer as an instrument both of social policy and humanitarian action. We link these by juxtaposing theoretical treatment of citizenship and inclusion with concrete policy case studies set in contemporary Turkey. Cases are taken both from domestic social policy and international relief efforts aimed at Syrian refugees. Theoretical discussion and case studies lead to the conclusion that cash transfer programs can promote economic and social inclusion - if deployed at an appropriate scale; if sufficient financial, technical, and social resources are available; and if program design and implementation promotes market inclusion of beneficiaries both as consumers and workers.
Over the past two decades, society has been witnessing how technological, political, and societal changes have been transforming individual and collective urban mobility. Driven both by newcomers and traditional players, by disruptive as well as incremental innovations, the main objective now is to enhance mobility and accessibility while, reducing vehicle ownership, congestion, road accidents, and pollution in cities. This transformation has been mainly enabled by the widespread adoption of internet-connected devices (e.g.: smartphones and tablets) and by the innovative business models, technologies, and use-cases that arose from this rapid digitalization, such as peer-to-peer, and two-sided markets providing several mobility schemes: car-sharing, car-pooling, bike sharing, free-floating (cars, bikes, electric scooter), ridesharing and ride hailing either for long distances as well as for urban and micro-mobility. The book presents - in a holistic perspective - how this revolution is happening and what are the major cornerstones for the implementation of robomobility. It aims at answering several substantial issues, such as: What is robomobility and what does it imply for the different stakeholders of the public transport ecosystem? How do policy makers integrate this innovation and how ready the regulations are? How do citizens take part in this transformation? What is the level of user acceptance for this new type of mobility? What are its environmental impacts? What is the economic impact of deploying these shuttles in a local ecosystem?
This open access book offers unique insights into how governments and governing systems, particularly in advanced economies, have responded to the immense challenges of managing the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing disease COVID-19. Written by three eminent scholars in the field of the politics and policy of crisis management, it offers a unique 'bird's eye' view of the immense logistical and political challenges of addressing a worst-case scenario that would prove the ultimate stress test for societies, governments, governing institutions and political leaders. It examines how governments and governing systems have (i) made sense of emerging transboundary threats that have spilled across health, economic, political and social systems (ii) mobilised systems of governance and often fearful and sceptical citizens (iii) crafted narratives amid high uncertainty about the virus and its impact and (iv) are working towards closure and a return to 'normal' when things can never quite be the same again. The book also offers the building blocks of pathways to future resilience. Succeeding and failing in all these realms is tied in with governance structures, experts, trust, leadership capabilities and political ideologies. The book appeals to anyone seeking to understand 'what's going on?', but particularly academics and students across multiple disciplines, journalists, public officials, politicians, non-governmental organisations and citizen groups.
This open access book brings together scholars in the fields of management, public policy, regional studies, and organization theory around the concept of resilience. The aim is to provide a more holistic understanding of the complex phenomenon of resilience from a multi-sectorial, cross-national, and multidisciplinary perspective. The book facilitates a conversation across diverse disciplinary specializations and empirical domains. The authors contribute both to theory testing and theory development and provide key empirical insights useful for societies, organizations, and individuals experiencing disruptive pressures, not least in the context of a post-COVID-19 world. Diverse chapters are held together by a clear organization of the volume across levels of analysis (resilience in organizations and societies) and by an original perspective on resilience derived from an extended review, by the editors, of the existing literature and knowledge gaps, according to which each of the individual chapter contributions is positioned and connected to.
In 1965, a family-reunification policy for admitting immigrants to the United States replaced a system that chose immigrants based on their national origin. With this change, a 40-year hiatus in Asian immigration ended. Today, over three-quarters of US immigrants originate from Asia and Latin America. Two issues that dominate discussions of US immigration policy are the progress of post-reform immigrants and their contributions to the US economy. This book focuses on the earnings and human capital investment of Asian immigrants to the US after 1965. In addition, it provides a primer on studying immigrant economic assimilation, by explaining economists' methodology to measure immigrant earnings growth and the challenges with this approach. The book also illustrates strategies to more fully use census data such as how to measure family income and how to use "panel data" that is embedded in the census. The book is a historical study as well as an extremely timely work from a policy angle. The passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act set the United States apart among economically developed countries due to the weight given to family unification. Based on analyses by economists-which suggest that the quality of immigrants to the US fell after the 1965 law-policymakers have called for fundamental changes in the US system to align it with the immigration systems of other countries. This book offers an alternative view point by proposing a richer model that incorporates investments in human capital by immigrants and their families. It challenges the conventional model in three ways: First, it views the decline in immigrants' entry earnings after 1965 as due to investment in human capital, not to permanently lower "quality." Second, it adds human capital investment and earnings growth after entry to the model. And finally, by taking investments by family members into account, it challenges the policy recommendation that immigrants should be selected for their occupational qualifications rather than family connections.
This book explores the development of sustainable public procurement (SPP) as a strategic policy instrument to support decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation and enhancing social well-being. Offering an in-depth case study of India's SPP implementation trajectory, it discusses the challenges of integrating sustainability criteria into purchasing decisions, and examines policy choices and best practices to address them. It investigates the legislative, institutional, and governance framework for SPP in India, and identifies priority actions to accelerate wider uptake of SPP policy and practices. Furthermore, the book highlights the evolving role of SPP policies in response to emerging global mega trends, such as international trade, low carbon economy, circular economy, and Industry 4.0. Given its scope, this book appeals to scholars of economics, public administration, and environmental and social sciences, as well as to policymakers, practitioners, and advocates interested in steering transformational changes towards mainstreaming sustainable procurement practices in developing economies at the desired scale. "This book comes at the right time to compensate for the lack of in-depth works on the origins, nature and reality of the implementation of sustainable purchases." - Farid Yaker, Programme Officer, Sustainable Public Procurement, Economy Division, UNEP, Paris, France. "...If you are a procurement or sustainability professional anywhere in the world, please read this book. It will change the way you think and feel about your profession." - Shaun McCarthy OBE, Chair, Supply Chain Sustainability School, London, UK & Director, Action Sustainability, London, UK
Based on contributions from leading scholars, this study generates a wealth of new empirical information about Latin American party systems. It also contributes richly to major theoretical and comparative debates about the effects of party systems on democratic politics, and about why some party systems are much more stable and predictable than others. Party Systems in Latin America builds on, challenges, and updates Mainwaring and Timothy Scully's seminal Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America (1995), which re-oriented the study of democratic party systems in the developing world. It is essential reading for scholars and students of comparative party systems, democracy, and Latin American politics. It shows that a stable and predictable party system facilitates important democratic processes and outcomes, but that building and maintaining such a party system has been the exception rather than the norm in contemporary Latin America.
This book examines developments in governance reform in Britain, with a particular focus on the period since 2010. We argue that the experiences of the past decade mean that public value-based ideas are required to inform governance reform for the coming years. This needs to be prioritised due to the twin challenges of managing the aftermath of Brexit and navigating through the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume outlines key themes, issues and debates relevant to contemporary public sector reform including: modes of state governance, evidence-based policy-making debates, the challenges and possibilities of public sector innovation, accountability issues, and the implications of Brexit. The overall conclusion of the book is that the coming decade presents an opportunity for more paradigmatic changes to UK governance but, for this to happen, political leaders need to prioritise a 'reinventing government' agenda underpinned by public value-based thinking and approaches. This book will be of particular interest to students of politics and public administration and relevant for those with general research interests in British governance and public policy.
The fifth volume of the Interdisciplinary European Studies series aims to explore the EU's pursuit of societal resilience and its role in the transition to a green economy. It brings together scholars from economics, law, and political science to provide insights related to climate change and the protection of the environment, the role of innovation in the green economy, resilience of national public health systems after the COVID-19 pandemic, regulatory resilience in the face of financial instability, and immigration. All chapters are based on up-to-date research, succinct assessment of the current state of affairs, and ongoing debates. They conclude with policy recommendations for decision-makers on European and national levels. Legal Preconditions for an Environmentally Sustainable European Union" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This book examines the connections between poverty and innovation in Africa. Through case studies and theorizations from a distinctly African perspective, it stands in contrast to current theoretical works in the field, which remain very much rooted in Western-orientated thinking. The book investigates the application of methodologies which explain numerous African contexts in connection with issues of poverty and inequality. It reflects on comparative practices and praxes on the African continent, including commonplace traditions and practices in alleviating poverty, taken against a background of the failure of current prescriptions for poverty alleviation, such as the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). There is a dire need for new practical perspectives which move Africa forward using its indigenous knowledge. Owing to a general lack of recorded African theories and methodologies on poverty, inequality and innovation, this book represents a pioneering corpus of African knowledge addressing poverty and inequality through local innovations. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach, it is relevant to students and scholars in development studies and economics, African studies, social studies, political history and political economy, climate studies, anthropology and geography.
This book offers a practical guide for policy advisors and their managers, grounded in the author's extensive experience as a senior policy practitioner in New Zealand's Westminster-style system of government. A key message is that effective policy advising is less about cycles, stages and steps, and more about relationships, integrity and communication. Policy making is incremental social problem solving. Policy advising is mostly learned on the job, like an apprenticeship. It starts with careful listening, knowing one's place in the constitutional scheme of things, winning the confidence of decision makers, skillfully communicating what they need to hear and not only what they want to hear, and learning to lead from behind, scheme virtuously and play nicely with others. The author introduces a public value approach to policy advising that uses collective thinking to address complex policy problems, evidence-informed policy analysis that also factors in emotions and values, and the practice of "gifting and gaining" (rather than "trade-offs") in the long-term public interest. Theory is illustrated by personal anecdote and each chapter offers practical processes, tools, techniques and questions for reflection, to help readers master the art and craft of policy advising. This second edition has been substantially revised and updated. It provides an expanded, step-by-step approach to stakeholder analysis and prioritisation in relation to an agency's own strategic frame; it aligns and integrates theory about the public interest, public value and anticipatory governance; and it updates a "fair go" multi-criteria decision analysis matrix with the latest iteration of the N.Z. Treasury's Living Standards Framework.
Policy knowledge derived from data, information, and evidence is a powerful tool for contributing to policy discussions and debates, and for understanding and improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of government action. For decades, politicians, advocates, reformers, and researchers have simultaneously espoused this value, while also paradoxically lamenting the lack of impact of policy knowledge on decision making, and the failure of related reforms. This text explores this paradox, identifying the reliance on a proverb of using policy knowledge to supplant politics as a primary culprit for these perceived failures. The evidence in this book suggests that any consideration of the role of policy knowledge in decision making must be considered alongside, rather than in place of, considerations of the ideologies, interests, and institutional factors that shape political decisions. This contextually rich approach offers practical insights to understand the role of policy knowledge, and to better leverage it to support good governance decisions.
This book provides the first book-length study of the political and economic ideas of the British left's Alternative Economic Strategy in the 1970s and early 1980s. Discussing the AES's approaches to capitalism, the nation state and the working class, it argues that existing academic accounts have significantly overstated the radicalism of the strategy. Perhaps more notable, especially in the light of its stated 'revolutionary' aims, was the extent of its moderation - its continuities with post-war Labour revisionism, its marked reluctance to look beyond the market economy, the degree of its preoccupation with Britain's global-economic status, and its inability to break with Labourist politics of class co-operation in the national interest. While the book argues that the AES was the last 'class politics' socialist initiative in mainstream British politics, it also explores the ways in which its ideas perhaps prepared the way for New Labour in the 1990s, and its relationship with 'Corbynism' since 2015. |
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