Refocusing regulatory exclusivities: Regulatory data protection and marketing exclusivity as forms of pharmaceutical innovation policy

Protection of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry has traditionally been realised through protection of inventions via patents. However, in the European Union regulatory exclusivities restricting market entry of generic products confer tailored, industry specific protection for final, marketable products. This paper retraces the protection conferred by the different forms of exclusivity and assesses them in the light of recent transparency policies of the European Medicines Agency. The purpose of the paper is to argue for rethinking the role of regulatory data as a key tool of innovation policy and for refocusing the attention from patents to the existing regulatory framework. After detailed assessment of the exclusivity regime, the paper identifies key areas of improvement calling for reassessment so as to promote better functioning of the regime as an incentive for accelerated innovation. While economic and public health analysis necessarily provide final answers as to necessity of reform, this paper provides a legal perspective to the issue, appraising the current regulatory framework and identifying areas for further analysis.

The Policy Effects of Multilevel Regulation in Europe. Insights from the Energy and Postal Sector

This paper examines the policy effects of multilevel regulation in Europe. It finds that the extent to which negative integration effectively narrows the range of policy options available domestically tends to be overstated. Drawing on empirical evidence from EU-induced reform in electricity supply and postal delivery, the paper illustrates that liberalisation and institutional reorganisation may lead to relatively little policy change. Although a lack of centralised regulatory capacity at the European level is identified as a key explanatory factor for the cases studied, the findings also point to the relevance of sector specificities and the role of exogenous drivers of change.

The Educational Imaginary in Radical Reconstruction: Congressional Public Policy Rhetoric and American Federalism, 1862-1872

Facing the exigencies of Emancipation, a South in ruins, and ongoing violence, between 1862 and 1872 the United States Congress debated the role education would play in the postbellum polity. Positing schooling as a panacea for the nation’s problems, a determiner of individual worth, and a way of ameliorating state and federal tensions, congressional leaders envisioned education as a way of reshaping American political life. In pursuit of this vision, many policymakers advocated national school agencies and assertive interventions into state educational systems. Interrogating the meaning of “education” for congressional leaders, this study examines the role of this ambiguous concept in negotiating the contradictions of federal and state identity, projecting visions of social change, evaluating civic preparedness, and enabling broader debates over the nation’s future. Examining legislative debates over the Reconstruction Acts, Freedmen’s Bureau, Bureau of Education, and two bills for national education reform in the early 1870s, this project examines how disparate educational visions of Republicans and Democrats collided and mutated amid the vicissitudes of public policy argument. Engaging rhetorical concepts of temporality, disposition, and political judgment, it examines the allure and limitations of education policy rhetoric, and how this rhetoric shifted amid the difficult process of coming to policy agreements in a tumultuous era. In a broader historical sense, this project considers the role of Reconstruction Era congressional rhetoric in shaping the long-term development of contemporary Americans’ “educational imaginary,” the tacit, often unarticulated assumptions about schooling that inflect how contemporary Americans engage in political life, civic judgment, and social reform. Treating the analysis of public policy debate as a way to gain insights into transitions in American political life, the study considers how Reconstruction Era debate converged upon certain common agreements, and obfuscated significant fault lines, that persist in contemporary arguments.

Zgaga, P., Teichler, U., Schuetze, H. G., Wolter, A. (Eds.) (2015). Higher education reform: Looking back – looking forward. Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang. [Book review]

Book review of: Zgaga, P., Teichler, U., Schuetze, H. G., Wolter, A. (Eds.) (2015). Higher education reform: Looking back - looking forward. Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang. 430 pp. ISBN 978-3-631-66275-5

Golpe de Estado no século XXI : o caso de Honduras (2009) e a recomposição hegemônica neoliberal

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Centro de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação sobre as América, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Comparados sobre as Américas, 2016.

Human resource management reform in the Indonesian civil service : towards strategic fit?

Studies of strategic HRM have dominated HRM research over the last three decades. Focusing on the HRM-organisation performance relationship, researchers take various themes and perspectives in their approach to strategic HRM. Among these themes, two contrasting approaches of strategic HRM continue to flourish: first, the best practice approach suggests that certain HRM practices will have the same effect irrespective of context and, second, the best fit approach suggests that the choice of HRM practices should be designed in accordance with an organisations’ specific context. While there is little consensus on what constitutes strategic HRM, the most common feature agreed in this field is the notion of the strategic integration; aligning HRM practices with organisations’ overall strategic objectives (vertical fit) and with each other (horizontal fit). Utilising the best fit approach as its theoretical framework, this study examines how vertical and horizontal fit is practised in the Indonesian civil service and what factors likely influence the prevalence of vertical and horizontal fit in the Indonesian civil service context. This study is significant for two important reasons. Firstly, the literature suggests that there are limited studies examining the best fit concept in the civil sector despite its implementation in the private sector positively contributing to organisational performance improvement. Secondly, the study provides enlightenment on how the best fit approach could contribute to performance improvement in the Indonesian civil service. This is in line with the fact that negative images of the Indonesian civil service are continuously highlighted although various HRM reform initiatives have been put in place. To achieve the objectives of the study, the qualitative case study approach accompanied by semi-structured interviews was employed involving 53 senior officials and one focus group discussion from eight Indonesian government agencies, consisting of three central agencies mandated to manage human resources, the National Bureaucratic Reform Team and four line agencies from both central and local governments. Thematic analysis was employed for data analyses and NVIVO software was used to manage the data. The study suggests three main findings. First, various HRM initiatives in relation to the HRM reform have been introduced in the Indonesian civil service differentiating them from the old HRM practices. However, the findings indicate that some HRM policies are still contradicting and hinder vertical and horizontal fit. Second, despite the contradictory policies, vertical and horizontal fit can be seen in the line agencies which have been acknowledged as ‘reformed agencies’. This demonstrates that the line agencies play an important role in aligning HRM practices with the line agencies’ goals and objectives and with one another although they are bounded by HRM policies that are unlikely to support the vertical and horizontal fit concept. Third, factors influencing the prevalence of vertical and horizontal fit include knowledge of contemporary HRM in both central agencies and line agencies, commitment from the line agencies’ leaders, devolvement of HRM to the line agencies and the socio-political and economic environments of the Indonesian civil service. The findings of the study raise policy, practical and theoretical implications. In terms of policy implications, the study highlights the importance of fit in HRM policies to support the achievement of the line agencies’ goals. Therefore, when formulating an HRM policy, the central agencies need to ensure that the HRM policy is linked to line agencies’ goals and to other HRM policies. This is to ensure synchronisation among the policies and thus maximising the achievement of the line agencies’ goals. From the practical perspectives, the study highlights important points which can be learned by the central agencies in carrying out their strategic role with regard to the formulation of HRM policies; by the line agencies in maximising the contribution of HRM to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the agencies through the implementation of the best fit concept, and by the leaders of the agencies in providing continuous support to each of the involved parties in the line agencies and involving the HRM department in all agency’s strategic decision-making. In relation to the theoretical implication, it is clear that the best fit approach is not thoroughly applied due to factors discussed previously. However, this does not mean that the best fit concept cannot be implemented. As argued by McCourt & Ramgutty-Wong (2003), instead of adopting the whole concept of best fit, a modulated approach reflecting the best fit concept, such as selecting individual HRM practices and experimenting with devolution, is possible for civil service organisations which still embrace centralised HRM systems. As demonstrated in the findings, some of the line agencies being studied seem to be ready to adopt the best fit approach given that they have knowledge of the best fit concept, strong support from the top leader, less political intervention and less corruption, collusion, and nepotism practices in their HRM practices.

Tensões e contradições do processo de construção das diretrizes para a politica pública de educação infantil do campo

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, 2016.

Film policy under globalization: the case of Mexico

The changing economic and technological conditions often referred to as ‘globalization’ have had a deep impact on the very nature of the state, and thus on the aims, objectives and implementation of cultural policy, including film policy. In this paper, I discuss the main changes in film policy there have been in Mexico, comparing the time when the welfare state regarded cinema as crucial to the national identity, and actively supported the national cinema at the production, distribution and exhibition levels (about 1920-1980), and the recent onset of neoliberal policies, during which the industry was privatized and globalized. I argue the result has been a transformation of the film production, from the properly ‘national’ cinema it was during the welfare state—that is, having a role in nation building, democratization processes and being an important part of the public sphere—into a kind of genre, catering for a very small niche audience both domestically and internationally. However, exhibition and digital distribution have been strengthened, perhaps pointing towards a more meaningful post-national cinema.

Territorial development, planning reform and urban governance: the case of Ireland's second-tier cities

The increased emphasis within Europe on the role of second-tier cities has implications for the ways in which these urban centres are considered within national spatial planning strategies. In centralised, monocentric states like Ireland, there has been a general ambivalence towards urban policy for cities outside the capital city, and historically this has prevented the development of a strong, diversified urban hierarchy undermining prospects for balanced regional development. This paper examines the extent to which a new found emphasis on Ireland’s second-tier cities which emerged in the ‘Gateways’ policy of the National Spatial Strategy (NSS, 2002) was matched by subsequent political and administrative commitment to facilitate the development of these urban centres. Following a discussion of the position of second-tier cities in an international context and a brief overview of recent demographic and economic trends, the paper assesses the relative performance of Ireland’s second-tier cities in influencing development trends, highlighting a comprehensive failure to deliver compact urban growth. In this context, the paper then discusses the implications of current development plans for the second-tier cities and proposals for Irish local government reform for securing compact urban development.

Public policies and work integration social enterprises: the challenges of institutionalism in a neoliberal era.

One particular field of Social Enterprise – WISEs or Work Integration Social Enterprises – has become increasingly recognised as being emblematic of the dynamics of social enterprises and now constitutes a major sphere of their activity globally. From their early roots, focusing on providing productive activity for the blind and those with other physical and/or intellectual disabilities, WISEs are pioneers in promoting the integration of excluded persons through a productive activity. In recent decades, WISEs have incrementally evolved as a tool for implementing national and regional labour market policies. The papers in this special edition explore how populations of WISEs in different country contexts have emerged, and in some instances, shifted in their identities over time in relation to changing national or regional public policies. This special issue is part of the ICSEM project, a worldwide research project aiming to identify, analyze and compare social enterprise models across countries, regions and fields. The special issue features five country specific analyses from the first stage of the ICSEM project where researchers focusing on WISEs examined the policy environment surrounding WISEs and the heterogeneity of the organizational WISE models that have emerged in different contexts: Ireland, the United States, Japan, Austria and Switzerland.

La educación desde los pueblos indígenas de Bolivia. Análisis del proyecto de Nueva Ley de Educación “Avelino Siñani y Elizardo Pérez”, como resistencia frente a la educación para la globalización neoliberal

En este ensayo nos interesa abordar las implicaciones del cambio político y social que se vive en América Latina, particularmente enfocado en Bolivia y sobre la educación y su relación con el desarrollo, a partir del estudio del proyecto de Nueva Ley de Educación “Avelino Siñani-Elizardo Pérez”, presentado para su tramitación al Congreso Nacional por iniciativa del Gobierno de la República y del movimiento indígena-popular. Mediante la metodología del análisis de coyuntura y del análisis estructural temático del discurso, se busca mostrar de qué manera esta reforma construye formas de resistencia cultural y alternativas educativas ante la llamada educación para la globalización neoliberal, propia de un modelo de desarrollo económico impuesto a Bolivia hace más de 20 años.AbstractThis essay aims to find out on the implications of political and social changes currently in process in Latin America focusing in Bolivia’s education and development in the New Act in Education, Avelino Siñani-Elizardo Pérez. The bill of law was submitted to the National Congress by the Government of Bolivia and the Indigenous Popular Movement. Based on current situation analysis and in topic-structure discourse analysis as a methodological approach, it discourse analysis as a methodological approach, it endeavours to show how this reform may build cultural and alternative education as ways of resistance to the socalled education for the neliberal globalization. The latter is featured in the economic development model, imposed to Bolivia 20 years ago.