The neoliberal way of war: a critical analysis of contemporary British security in policy and practice.

Dominant paradigms of causal explanation for why and how Western liberal-democracies go to war in the post-Cold War era remain versions of the 'liberal peace' or 'democratic peace' thesis. Yet such explanations have been shown to rest upon deeply problematic epistemological and methodological assumptions. Of equal importance, however, is the failure of these dominant paradigms to account for the 'neoliberal revolution' that has gripped Western liberal-democracies since the 1970s. The transition from liberalism to neoliberalism remains neglected in analyses of the contemporary Western security constellation. Arguing that neoliberalism can be understood simultaneously through the Marxian concept of ideology and the Foucauldian concept of governmentality – that is, as a complementary set of 'ways of seeing' and 'ways of being' – the thesis goes on to analyse British security in policy and practice, considering it as an instantiation of a wider neoliberal way of war. In so doing, the thesis draws upon, but also challenges and develops, established critical discourse analytic methods, incorporating within its purview not only the textual data that is usually considered by discourse analysts, but also material practices of security. This analysis finds that contemporary British security policy is predicated on a neoliberal social ontology, morphology and morality – an ideology or 'way of seeing' – focused on the notion of a globalised 'network-market', and is aimed at rendering circulations through this network-market amenable to neoliberal techniques of government. It is further argued that security practices shaped by this ideology imperfectly and unevenly achieve the realisation of neoliberal 'ways of being' – especially modes of governing self and other or the 'conduct of conduct' – and the re-articulation of subjectivities in line with neoliberal principles of individualism, risk, responsibility and flexibility. The policy and practice of contemporary British 'security' is thus recontextualised as a component of a broader 'neoliberal way of war'.

The Role of Collateral in Entrepreneurial Finance

Previous research has suggested collateral has the role of sorting entrepreneurs either by observed risk or by private information. In order to test these roles, this paper develops a model which incorporates a signalling process (sorting by observed risk) into the design of an incentivecompatible menu of loan contracts which works as a self-selection mechanism (sorting by private information). It then tests this Sorting by Signalling and Self-Selection Model, using the 1998 US Survey of Small Business Finances. It reports for the first time that: high type entrepreneurs are more likely to pledge collateral and pay a lower interest rate; and entrepreneurs who transfer good signals enjoy better contracts than those transferring bad signals. These findings suggest that the Sorting by Signalling and Self-Selection Model sheds more light on entrepreneurial debt finance than either the sorting-by-observed-risk or the sorting-by-private information paradigms on their own.

Understanding the resurgence of traditional authorities in post-apartheid South Africa

Drawing their power not from the ballot box but from a supposedly ancient wellspring of power, hereditary traditional authorities in postcolonial Africa have frequently posed challenges for incoming ‘democratic’ governments. The situation in post-apartheid South Africa is no different. However contentious their role under the colonial and apartheid systems of government was, the Constitution of the new South Africa (1996) recognised traditional authorities and afforded them opportunities for a political resurgence. This paper reviews the changing status of traditional authorities in the Eastern Cape Province over the twenty years since 1994. It explores the resurgence of the chiefs in relation to the consolidation of both democratic processes and of emergent, neo-patrimonial modes of government. It briefly considers the role of traditional authorities in three key and closely related spheres, namely the institution of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders, the question of how gender is handled by and within traditional institutions, and the continuing challenges of land administration and development in rural areas. In all these spheres, and in the face of real opposition, the voice and influence traditional authorities have emerged stronger than ever. We conclude by suggesting that as they are drawn deeper into governance and have to play a formal role in addressing the myriad institutional challenges, new questions will and should be asked about the status and influence of traditional authorities, and their substantive contribution to democracy in South Africa.

The politics of fiscal policy during economic downturns, 1981-2010

This article investigates fiscal policy responses to the Great Recession in historical perspective. We explore general trends in the frequency, size and composition of fiscal stimulus as well as the impact of government partisanship on fiscal policy outputs during the four international recessions of 1980-81, 1990-91, 2001-02 and 2008-09. Encompassing 17-23 OECD countries, our analysis calls into question the idea of a general retreat from fiscal policy activism since the early 1980s. The propensity of governments to respond to economic downturns by engaging in fiscal stimulus has increased over time and we do not observe any secular trend in the size of stimulus measures. At the same time, OECD governments have relied more on tax cuts to stimulate demand in the two recessions of the 2000s than they did in the early 1980s or early 1990s. Regarding government partisanship, we do not find any significant direct partisan effects on either the size or the composition of fiscal stimulus for any of the four recession episodes. However, the size of the welfare state conditioned the impact of government partisanship in the two recessions of the 2000s, with Left-leaning governments distinctly more prone to engage in discretionary fiscal stimulus and/or spending increases in large welfare states, but not in small welfare states.

Construction contracts: law and management. 5th edition

The fifth edition of this best-selling textbook has been thoroughly revised to provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of the legislation, administration and management of construction contracts. It now includes comparison of working with JCT, NEC3 and FIDIC contracts, throughout. In line with new thinking in construction management research, this authoritative guide is essential reading for every construction undergraduate and is an extremely useful source of reference for practitioners.

Monitoring and Explanation of Contract Execution: A Case Study in the Aerospace Domain

In the domain of aerospace aftermarkets, which often has long supply chains that feed into the maintenance of aircraft, contracts are used to establish agreements between aircraft operators and maintenance suppliers. However, violations at the bottom of the supply chain (part suppliers) can easily cascade to the top (aircraft operators), making it difficult to determine the source of the violation, and seek to address it. In this context, we have developed a global monitoring architecture that ensures the detection of norm violations and generates explanations for the origin of violations. In this paper, we describe the implementation and deployment of a global monitor in the aerospace domain of [8] and show how it generates explanations for violations within the maintenance supply chain. We show how these explanations can be used not only to detect violations at runtime, but also to uncover potential problems in contracts before their deployment, thus improving them.

Using Normative Markov Decision Processes for Evaluating Electronic Contracts: A Case Study in a Simulated Aerospace Aftermarket

Before signing electronic contracts, a rational agent should estimate the expected utilities of these contracts and calculate the violation risks related to them. In order to perform such pre-signing procedures, this agent has to be capable of computing a policy taking into account the norms and sanctions in the contracts. In relation to this, the contribution of this work is threefold. First, we present the Normative Markov Decision Process, an extension of the Markov Decision Process for explicitly representing norms. In order to illustrate the usage of our framework, we model an example in a simulated aerospace aftermarket. Second, we specify an algorithm for identifying the states of the process which characterize the violation of norms. Finally, we show how to compute policies with our framework and how to calculate the risk of violating the norms in the contracts by adopting a particular policy.

Insuring cleaner oceans: the economics of oil pollution prevention

The current system of controlling oil spills involves a complex relationship of international, federal and state law, which has not proven to be very effective. The multiple layers of regulation often leave shipowners unsure of the laws facing them. Furthemore, nations have had difficulty enforcing these legal requirements. This thesis deals with the role marine insurance can play within the existing system of legislation to provide a strong preventative influence that is simple and cost-effective to enforce. In principle, insurance has two ways of enforcing higher safety standards and limiting the risk of an accident occurring. The first is through the use of insurance premiums that are based on the level of care taken by the insured. This means that a person engaging in riskier behavior faces a higher insurance premium, because their actions increase the probability of an accident occurring. The second method, available to the insurer, is collectively known as cancellation provisions or underwriting clauses. These are clauses written into an insurance contract that invalidates the agreement when certain conditions are not met by the insured The problem has been that obtaining information about the behavior of an insured party requires monitoring and that incurs a cost to the insurer. The application of these principles proves to be a more complicated matter. The modern marine insurance industry is a complicated system of multiple contracts, through different insurers, that covers the many facets of oil transportation. Their business practices have resulted in policy packages that cross the neat bounds of individual, specific insurance coverage. This paper shows that insurance can improve safety standards in three general areas -crew training, hull and equipment construction and maintenance, and routing schemes and exclusionary zones. With crew, hull and equipment, underwriting clauses can be used to ensure that minimum standards are met by the insured. Premiums can then be structured to reflect the additional care taken by the insured above and beyond these minimum standards. Routing schemes are traffic flow systems applied to congested waterways, such as the entrance to New York harbor. Using natural obstacles or manmade dividers, ships are separated into two lanes of opposing traffic, similar to a road. Exclusionary zones are marine areas designated off limits to tanker traffic either because of a sensitive ecosystem or because local knowledge is required of the region to ensure safe navigation. Underwriting clauses can be used to nullify an insurance contract when a tanker is not in compliance with established exclusionary zones or routing schemes.

The political economy of exchange rate in Brazil

This paper reviews part of the political economy literature on exchange rate policy relevant to understanding the political motivations behind the Brazilian exchange rate policy. We shall first examine the distributive role of the exchange rate, and the way it unfolds in terms of the desired political goals. We will follow by analyzing exchange policy as indicative of government effciency prior to elections. Finally, we discuss fiscal policy from the point of view of political economy, in which the exchange rate results from the macroeconomic equilibrium. Over this review, the Brazilian exchange rate policy is discussed in light of the theories presented.

Modelo para avaliação do custo burocrático do FCVS (Fundo de Compensação de Variações Salariais) : um estudo de caso

In 1964, year of the military coup, the Brazilian government established a housing finance system with the intention of reducing the housing shortage that had been going on for decades. In order to reach this goal, the government created the Housing Finance System (acronym in Portuguese ¿ SFH), a set of rules which intended to set up a regulated market through standardized contracts and compulsory sources of funds. The system survived for some time, due to the state control of prices and salaries in the authoritarian regime. However, the increasing inflationary pressure obliged the government to adopt a populist subsidy policy, which left as a consequence outstanding balances at the end of the contracts that very often exceeded the value of the financed units. The solution adopted was to create a fund to settle these residual balances. Such fund should be capitalized by the government and by compulsory contributions from borrowers and financial institutions. Since the government did not make such contributions, the debt of this fund increased on a yearly basis, reaching around 3,5 % of Brazil¿s GDP in December 31, 2006. Due to the decline of private investments in the housing finance system, this debt concentrated mostly on public and state-owned companies, government agencies and public funds. The outcome of this policy was the Salary Variations Compensation Fund (acronym in Portuguese ¿ FCVS), which has a negative net equity of 76 billion reais and costs 100 million reais per year to be managed, and whose main creditor is the Federal Government itself.

A influência do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento na formulação de políticas públicas: análise das condições de financiamento do programa de reabilitação da área central do município de São Paulo - Procentro

Este trabalho analisa a atuação do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID) quanto ao financiamento de políticas públicas, notadamente o Programa de Revitalização do Centro de São Paulo (Procentro). O período observado se estende da administração Marta Suplicy (2000 – 2004) – gestão em que ocorreu a assinatura do contrato – à administração José Serra/Gilberto Kassab (2004 – 2008). Objetiva-se avaliar a influência exercida pelo BID numa política pública específica, tendo como referência o estudo de caso do Procentro. Para tanto, optou-se por realizar entrevistas em profundidade com alguns técnicos responsáveis por diferentes áreas do Programa, por analisar fontes documentais (contratos, programas e relatórios) com vistas a identificar o tipo de linguagem utilizada pelo Banco, assim como a qualidade de suas demandas e contrapartidas para a realização da referida política publica. As observações centraram-se nas etapas de pré-aprovação e no período da assinatura do contrato; portanto, nas fases entendidas como precondições e condições respectivamente. Constatou-se que as condicionalidades são pressupostos que condicionam a assinatura do Contrato, sendo este circunscrito a um instrumento de garantia de pagamento do empréstimo, o que implica a lógica do “custo-benefício” (o Banco considera apenas, portanto, os aspectos mensuráveis). Para tanto, o Banco exige um conjunto de procedimentos gerenciais que definem o modus operandi dos financiamentos, assim como estipula como padrão formas gerenciais conhecidas como “melhores práticas”. Quanto à análise das diferentes gestões político/partidárias, foi possível observar a opção do BID por não valorizar a participação popular, bem como ignorar as demandas reivindicadas pelos movimentos sociais representantes da população pobre. Ao analisar os documentos, observou-se que o BID possui uma visão particular em relação às políticas públicas baseando-se em modelos internacionais de experiências consideradas bem-sucedidas por ele. Por fim, os documentos assinados com os governos são de difícil acesso, o que denota baixa transparência.

Estado e terceiro setor na prestação de serviços públicos: o programa Nacionmal de DST e Aids: 1994-2005

O presente trabalho busca analisar os motivos pelos quais o Estado realiza parceria com organizações da sociedade civil na prestação de serviços públicos. Para tanto, tomamos como exemplo a política pública nacional de combate ao HIV/Aids, capitaneada pelo Programa Nacional de DST/Aids do Ministério da Saúde, tido como referência na realização de parcerias com estas organizações. A análise é conduzida tentando responder três questões básicas: os motivos da parceria, as áreas ou as modalidades de serviço onde esta parceria ocorre e como se dão os mecanismos de contratualização. O trabalho mostra a construção de uma política de parcerias a partir da constatação das dificuldades do Estado em prestar diversos serviços dentro desta política, serviços estes que já eram executados com sucesso por muitas organizações não-governamentais. A partir disso se estabelece uma espécie de divisão de trabalho, na qual as ONGs desempenharão diversas atividades no campo da prevenção, assistência e direitos humanos, notadamente com as chamadas populações mais vulneráveis à epidemia. Após vários anos centralizada no governo federal, esta política passa por um processo de descentralização, inserindo de forma mais definitiva os níveis estadual e municipal de governo. No bojo deste processo, percebe-se um conflito ainda não resolvido a respeito da ¿titularidade¿ destes serviços: se serão incorporados pelo Estado ou se continuarão sendo executados pelas ONGs. Apesar disso, a política de descentralização foi pactuada de forma a se garantir que um percentual mínimo de recursos destinadas a cada unidade da federação seja destinado ao apoio de projetos destas organizações, representando uma institucionalização desta política de parcerias.

Divisão de poder e autoridade civil: governança, políticas públicas e desenvolvimento local em projetos fomentados por agências multilaterais

Dentro do atual contexto de crescente urbanização e novas oportunidades econômicas, a relação entre economia local e governo emerge como uma área estratégica para a promoção do desenvolvimento. No presente contexto de consolidação democrática e reforma do Estado, a responsabilização está associada à capacidade dos cidadãos em atuar na definição de metas coletivas e na criação de mecanismos institucionais que garantam o controle público da ação governamental e seus líderes, incrementando a governabilidade e, se não a eficiência, a eficácia de políticas públicas e seus processos de gestão. Esse trabalho pretende contribuir para o entendimento do papel dos órgãos de financiamento multilaterais em projetos de DEL, nomeadamente, para compreensão e a avaliação desses programas quanto ao resgate e aperfeiçoamento de bases de legitimidade social em ações de governo vinculadas à processos de desenvolvimento e promoção democrática. De modo específico, esse trabalho ambiciona compreender a concepção de grupos de interesse e sociedade civil presentes nos contratos fomentados pelo banco, assim como, a relevância conferida à esses agentes pelos técnicos do banco por ocasião da formulação desses contratos. Ao investigar esses pontos a pesquisa objetiva contribuir para o debate acerca dos dilemas e desafios para a implementação de programas de desenvolvimento urbano promovidos por governos locais em conjunto com organismos multilaterais.

Unemployment insurance an analysis of optimal mechanisms under aggregate shocks

The purpose of this work is to provide a brief overview of the literature on the optimal design of unemployment insurance systems by analyzing some of the most influential articles published over the last three decades on the subject and extend the main results to a multiple aggregate shocks environment. The properties of optimal contracts are discussed in light of the key assumptions commonly made in theoretical publications on the area. Moreover, the implications of relaxing each of these hypothesis is reckoned as well. The analysis of models of only one unemployment spell starts from the seminal work of Shavell and Weiss (1979). In a simple and common setting, unemployment benefits policies, wage taxes and search effort assignments are covered. Further, the idea that the UI distortion of the relative price of leisure and consumption is the only explanation for the marginal incentives to search for a job is discussed, putting into question the reduction in labor supply caused by social insurance, usually interpreted as solely an evidence of a dynamic moral hazard caused by a substitution effect. In addition, the paper presents one characterization of optimal unemployment insurance contracts in environments in which workers experience multiple unemployment spells. Finally, an extension to multiple aggregate shocks environment is considered. The paper ends with a numerical analysis of the implications of i.i.d. shocks to the optimal unemployment insurance mechanism.

A study of the impacts of quantitative easing on the macroeconomics variables

Neste trabalho, propusemos um modelo DSGE que busca responder algumas questões sobre políticas de afrouxamento monetário (Quantitative Easing - QE) recentemente implementadas em resposta à crise de 2008. Desenvolvemos um modelo DSGE com agentes heterogêneos e preferred-habitat nas compras de títulos do governo. Nosso modelo permite o estudo da otimalidade da compra de portfolio (em termos de duration dos títulos) para os bancos centrais quando estão implementando a política. Além disso, a estrutura heterogênea nos permite olhar para distribuição de renda provocada pelas compras de títulos. Nossos resultados preliminares evidenciam o efeito distributivo do QE. No entanto, nosso modelo expandido apresentou alguns problemas de estabilidade.