Europe’s financial crisis: the Euro’s flawed design and the consequences of lack of a government banker

This paper argues the euro zone requires a government banker that manages the bond market and helps finance country budget deficits. The euro solved Europe’s problem of exchange rate speculation by creating a unified currency managed by a single central bank, but in doing so it replaced the exchange rate speculation problem with bond market speculation. Remedying this requires a central bank that acts as government banker and maintains bond interest rates at sustainable levels. Because the euro is a monetary union, this must be done in a way that both avoids favoring individual countries and avoids creating incentives for irresponsible country fiscal policy that leads to “bail-outs”. The paper argues this can be accomplished via a European Public Finance Authority (EPFA) that issues public debt which the European Central Bank (ECB) is allowed to trade. The debate over the euro’s financial architecture has significant political implications. The current neoliberal inspired architecture, which imposes a complete separation between the central bank and public finances, puts governments under continuous financial pressures. That will make it difficult to maintain the European social democratic welfare state. This gives a political reason for reforming the euro and creating an EPFA that supplements the economic case for reform.

Impact assessment and quality analysis of corporate social responsability (CSR) programs of mining companies and their contribution to sustainable development in the communities they operate: case study Tenke Fungurume Mining SA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Purpose – This case study presents an impact assessment of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs of the TFM Company in order to understand how they contribute to the sustainable development of communities in areas in which they operate. Design/Methodology/Approach - Data for this study was collected using qualitative data methods that included semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions most of them audio and video recorded. Documentary analysis and a field visit were also undertaken for the purpose of quality analysis of the CSR programs on the terrain. Data collected was analyzed using the Seven Questions to sustainability (7Qs) framework, an evaluation tool developed by the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) North America chapter. Content analysis method was on the other hand used to examine the interviews and FGDs of the study participants. Findings - Results shows that CSR programs of TFM SA do contribute to community development, as there have been notable changes in the communities’ living conditions. But whether they have contributed to sustainable development is not yet the case as programs that enhance the capacity of communities and other stakeholders to support these projects development beyond the implementation stage and the mines operation lifetime need to be considered and implemented. Originality/Value – In DRC, there is paucity of information of research studies that focus on impact assessment of CSR programs in general and specifically those of mining companies and their contribution to sustainable development of local communities. Many of the available studies cover issues of minerals and conflict or conflict minerals as mostly referred to. This study addressees this gap.

The impact of social security reform on occupational and retirement behavior : a quantitative assessment for Brazil

Population ageing is a problem that countries will have to cope with within a few years. How would changes in the social security system affect individual behaviour? We develop a multi-sectoral life-cycle model with both retirement and occupational choices to evaluate what are the macroeconomic impacts of social security reforms. We calibrate the model to match 2011 Brazilian economy and perform a counterfactual exercise of the long-run impacts of a recently adopted reform. In 2013, the Brazilian government approximated the two segregated social security schemes, imposing a ceiling on public pensions. In the benchmark equilibrium, our modelling economy is able to reproduce the early retirement claiming, the agents' stationary distribution among sectors, as well as the social security deficit and the public job application decision. In the counterfactual exercise, we find a significant reduction of 55\% in the social security deficit, an increase of 1.94\% in capital-to-output ratio, with both output and capital growing, a delay in retirement claims of public workers and a modification in the structure of agents applying to the public sector job.

Essays on health care reform, wealth inequality, and demography

This thesis contains three chapters. The first chapter uses a general equilibrium framework to simulate and compare the long run effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and of health care costs reduction policies on macroeconomic variables, government budget, and welfare of individuals. We found that all policies were able to reduce uninsured population, with the PPACA being more effective than cost reductions. The PPACA increased public deficit mainly due to the Medicaid expansion, forcing tax hikes. On the other hand, cost reductions alleviated the fiscal burden of public insurance, reducing public deficit and taxes. Regarding welfare effects, the PPACA as a whole and cost reductions are welfare improving. High welfare gains would be achieved if the U.S. medical costs followed the same trend of OECD countries. Besides, feasible cost reductions are more welfare improving than most of the PPACA components, proving to be a good alternative. The second chapter documents that life cycle general equilibrium models with heterogeneous agents have a very hard time reproducing the American wealth distribution. A common assumption made in this literature is that all young adults enter the economy with no initial assets. In this chapter, we relax this assumption – not supported by the data – and evaluate the ability of an otherwise standard life cycle model to account for the U.S. wealth inequality. The new feature of the model is that agents enter the economy with assets drawn from an initial distribution of assets. We found that heterogeneity with respect to initial wealth is key for this class of models to replicate the data. According to our results, American inequality can be explained almost entirely by the fact that some individuals are lucky enough to be born into wealth, while others are born with few or no assets. The third chapter documents that a common assumption adopted in life cycle general equilibrium models is that the population is stable at steady state, that is, its relative age distribution becomes constant over time. An open question is whether the demographic assumptions commonly adopted in these models in fact imply that the population becomes stable. In this chapter we prove the existence of a stable population in a demographic environment where both the age-specific mortality rates and the population growth rate are constant over time, the setup commonly adopted in life cycle general equilibrium models. Hence, the stability of the population do not need to be taken as assumption in these models.

Plano setorial: a construção de estratégias para implementação do plano diretor de Natal

The Sectoral Plan was inserted as an urban instrument in Master Plan of Natal (LC82/07), since then it has been deepened. It is guided to the equitable distribution of the benefits of urbanization, aimed the efetivation of the Right to the City and the Environmental function of property in the context of urban planning. Thereby, the Sectoral Plan was inserted into the perspective of promoting a favorable field for applying articulated of instruments defined in the Master Plan, and them with urban interventions, through the deepening of macrozoning - coming out of dimension of the city and going to a small fraction of the urban by reducing scaling - facilitating democratic management in accordance with the City Statute. However, the absence of regulation and the conceptual and operational fragility of the instrument, approached it of other existent experiences and instruments, limiting its application and evaluation. Considering the innovative nature of the instrument and the intense social participation, we inquire about conceptual and operational elements which could give greater effectiveness to Sector Plan in construction? Guided by that question, this dissertation aim to understand the nature and operational procedures of Sectoral Plan, seeking to do indications about the conceptual and operational aspects of implementing a Sector Plan. The neighborhood of Ponta Negra was selected as empirical universe because it was the first sector defined in the Master Plan. This research adopts reference authors who´s make reflection and insights about the matrix of Urban Reform, whose principles constitute the basis of the trajectory of revision of urban planning in Brazil since the 1980s, highlighting Raquel Rolnik, Nelson Saule Júnior and Orlando Alves dos Santos Júnior. For the local monitoring, we use the authors Alexsandro Ferreira Cardoso Silva, Rosa Maria Pinheiro Oliveira e Marise Costa da Souza Duarte, in order to understand the growth dynamics of Natal, lawfully and urbanistically

A encruzilhada da vida política em assentamentos de reforma agrária no Rio Grande do Norte

The rural settlements represent a mark in the expensive historical process of fight by the land in Brazil. At first offer basic terms of survival, through the access the land and of the fundamental supports for exploration. At the same time, have stimulated organization forms politicizes of the families who manage to work with the new challenges of the everyday. The moment that follows the land conquest, and therefore, the settlements construction while life and work project, it is crossed for objective and subjective demands, with highlight for options of agricultural production and strategies of collective action. Originally formed as representation instance legitimates of the families - front to the government and social actors - the settlers associations are private spaces for political sociability, that guided by principles participative, can lead the settlers the new conquests through indeed democratic experiences. The goal of this work is to comprehend the participation forms in the scope of these associations and the way as that translates in life best terms for the group, from the settlements experiences located in the Territories of the Citizenship Mato Grande and Açu-Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte's State. The theoretical conceptions that guide this analysis are concentrate on discussions about democracy and participation (Patermam, Putnam, Bodernave) and in the reflections about the rural world (Medeiros, Martins, Woodman e Woodman and Bergamansco). About methodological, different point of view strategies were developed: The direct observation, the application in locate of questionnaires to the families settlers and interviews semi-structured with the internal leaderships. With that could verify that the participation forms in the associations operate in two heartfelt: Of a side, they promote assimilation opportunities of democratic abilities accompanied of notions of social rights and redefinition of political standards; Of another, it offers indeed the possibility of the settlers lead, with relative autonomy, the political organization and her changes in direction to a way of life that wish to have in the settling

Tribunal do Júri e Soberania Popular

The present work has for object the Jury under the democratic optics, looking for to demonstrate its democratic validation. The purpose of this work was to revisit the institution, in order to bring its importance while instrument of popular participation. The work presents, first, a systematic and chronological approach of the institution of the Jury and its evolution inside of Brazilian constitutional history, objectifying, with this, to approach the narrow entailing of the Jury with the constitutional postulates. After that, the constitutional principles of the Jury had been examined, looking for to establish the popular identity of the institution and its approach with the human rights system of the Brazilian Federal Constitution. More ahead, had been examined the direct participation of the society in the Jury, going deep the questions related with the election of the jurors and the jury nullification on the American Jury. Finally, had been dedicated the study of the current conjuncture of the Brazilian Jury, its problems and the possible solutions, beyond the study of the limitation's mechanisms in the constitutional principle of the popular supremacy and the reform's projects suggested for legislators and jurists. In this way, had been looked elaborate a constitutional construction of the Jury, defending its permanence in the Brasil law system, for being a fundamental guarantee to protect the freedom, moreover for being essential to validate the Democratic State of Right, for to be the materialization of the democratic principle. For opportune, it's necessary to allege that this work had been directed to the constitutional analysis of the Jury, its legitimacy and its democratic vocation, using themselves as ideological north the American Jury System and as philosophical base the social contract theory, understanding the Jury as an instrument of protection of the society front to the state supremacy and its hierarchy structure of the power

Os conflitos de competência normativa do estado regulador brasileiro no setor administrado pela ANP

The dissertation has by objective describe the administrative activity of regulation exercised by independent regulatory agencies, observing that this activity was already done before this structures creation, however, after a really deep administrative reform that had as objective built a Public Administration with more efficiency, it passed to be done with some own peculiarities of these new structures of regulation. The work gave especial attention to what concern the conflicts of normative competency that really often happen between ANP (Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis) and the legislatives organs of the Republic Federative of Brazil, because energetic area has unbelievable mater to any country, and the fact of some juridical norm be against the law and be accepted is very dangerous, it affronts the constitutional principle of the legality e may put in risk the democratic Estate of law, them, regulatory dogmatic must be scientifically knows, and developed, thought and especially there are so many doctrinaires divergences about regulation constitutionality. As a theorist point, the investigation got the Logical nocontradiction principle, according Hans Kelsen and Lourival Vilanova thought, doing a philosophical reflection about the system of positive law, in which there are many antinomies, or conflicts of norms, what include the conflicts of the administrative acts expedited by ANP and the legislation of the brazilian regulatory Estate. For a better understanding and exemplify some perplexities treated by the doctrinaire angle, this work did a lucubration about a possibility of a normative conflict between a ANP resolution and the municipal legislation in a specific case, also, brought several jurisprudences for the brazilians courts of justice, that confirm the empiric existence of normative conflicts among ANP s administrative norms and federal legislation. Finally, concludes observing that the regulation is not a legislative competency delegation to regulatory agencies, is just a new exercise of the administrative function, it is a technical specialization of the public administration, that using this know-how can acting with more efficiency, however the normative power of regulatory agencies must respect the empire of law, so in this terms, the dissertation suggests the ponderation of the constitutionals principles of efficiency and legality how form to harmonizing the democratic legitimate inherent to legal norm supremacy, with the perspective of an efficient economic and institutional development

Devido processo penal: uma análise acerca dos direitos fundamentais sob a perspectiva do processo eletrônico

The current study presents an analysis about the automation of the lawsuits in Brazil, which opens a new direction to be followed by the National Secretary of Justice, applied indistinctively to the civil, criminal and labor lawsuits, as well as to the special court houses at any degree of juridisdiction. It treats, specifically, about the transition from the classic lawsuit with bureaucratic aspects to the electronic one, based on the simplicity of the functions, the quality of the oral and the readiness. The light of the constitutional principle of the reasonable duration of the lawsuit, while fundamental rigth of the defendant and, under de protection of the democratic guarantee, it investigates, from the theory of the fundamental rights to the reform movement of the lawsiut, in the scenery of the alien law and national law, the latter, mostly because it has the automation as a necessary improvement claimed by modernity, yet without forgetting of the humane character inherent to the criminal lawsuit. It faces the issue of of the disruption of the paradigm of the written formality of the Brazilian lawsuit, the problem of the resistance to the new automized method, the use of the video conference for the inquest of the witnesses as well as for the questioning of the defendant, the advancements of the virtual lawsuit on the Superior Courts, Federal Supreme Court and Superior Court of Justice, it treats also about the role of the National Council of Justice - CNJ - to uniformize the legal proceedings in the country. Without neglecting the effective respect to the fundamental rights, it focuses the cultural change necessary so that the electronic technology can be, in fact, in the indictment system, the means to reach with excellency the citizenship by the simplification of the legal proceedings, transposing the baseless bureaucracy and assuring an effective judicial service assistance in order to have a better quality of life

Práticas interformativas e desenvolvimento profissional de professores de jovens e adultos

The docent formation has been instigating researchers who look for ways to better qualify teachers in a way they can form and reform their practice in class. The category we brought for investigation and discussion is the formation that happens in the school these teachers work. This paper aims to study the repercussion of an inter-formative practice for the professional development of teachers from EJA 1st segment. The empirical field for the study was Professor Emília Ramos State School in Natal-RN/Brazil where, since its creation in 1988, has been developing a practice of formation continued on services characterized as Procedure of Inter-formation. The study fits in the qualitative approach of educational research. In methodological terms, it is a study case. Also, we were inspired by some elements from life history since we work on the teachers experiences in the School. Methodological tools such as semi-structured interviews, analysis of documents and participant observation were used. We invited 07 (seven) teachers from the night period of the school to revisit their formation history as teachers from EJA, counting on by their narrations apprehending the contributions of this formation on their professional development. The results collected show the school grants privileges to inter-formative practices based on collective and pair work, as well as on the teacher s reflection about his/her own practice. The Inter-formative Practice that happens in the School has an action-reflection-action basis where the docent action is read under the light of the theoretical support that fundaments the School s Pedagogical Proposal. The results also highlight the relevance of the inter-formative practices on the teachers professional development. This practice contributes to the construction of knowledge and competences, as well as to the identity of the teacher from EJA. For all the teachers interviewed, the School s formation has been the most significant contribution to their development as a teacher from EJA. Despite of the limitations found on using this kind of approach, we hope our study that talks about a well-succeeded experience can contribute to the widening of this type of practice, increasing then, the chances of making the dream of having a democratic high quality public school, despite all the difficulties, come true

SINAES: as diferentes faces da avaliação na UFRN

This thesis entitled SINAES: the different faces of the evaluation at UFRN, aims to analyze the configuration that the national policy for assessment in higher education has taken on UFRN. We assume that in recent years there are an oscillation between the concepts of evaluation, according with the logic of public administration it has preferred an approach that presents itself as a promoter of quality, sometimes with regulatory aspects, sometimes with educational ones. The text discusses the use of the new assessment tools for higher education placing them under the new demands on state reform context in which this is to promote and measure quality based on the values of excellence and competitiveness. This movement arises from the redefinition of the role of the State that has been taking features of Evaluator State. From a historical review of government initiatives in the field of evaluation, we analyze the characteristics of assessment policies outlined over the past decades. We are based on the theoretical method that aims to examine the multiple determinants that shape a particular reality from the larger movement of totality. To identify, in this case, connections and ruptures that have emerged over the history of assessment policies aimed at higher education by checking their determinants in order to better explain the reality. To investigate the object of this study we used as instruments: the research literature and research documents, the semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation. The study revealed that there are different practices of evaluation and that before to establishment the SINAES program, the UFRN already had a culture of an institutional assessment, more participatory and democratic, opposing to the rigidity of the self-assessment in SINAES program that it was instituted by the Commission for assessment (CPA). We also noticed that the implementation of the SINAES at URFN has been performed very slowly and the breadth and complexity of the evaluation process has contributed to hinder its implementation in all dimensions provided by MEC. Although it was observed that in its operationalization the SINAES has assumed a more normative assessment and directed to establish rankings between courses and higher education schools than to establish a more qualitative assessment in this system. As regards the evaluation of the undergraduate course studied on this research and subjected to the three dimensions of evaluation proposed by SINAES (self-assessment, Evaluation of Courses and ENADE) it was not possible to verify an effective integration between the methods of assessing conducted. The results are considered separately, in only a partial view of the course evaluated the proposal what pits the SINAES as a system that involves the totality

A implementação do programa Gestão nota 10 no sistema municipal de educação em Mossoró/RN (2005 a 2009)

This research work is focused to show the changes in educational administration from the agreements between the Mossoró / RN and the Ayrton Senna Institute IAS, for education provision. Nowadays, the partnership policy is a constitutive element of the reform of the Brazilian State, which dropped its action on social policies and to strengthen its regulatory role, encouraging private participation in planning, preparation and implementation of public policies, new printing setting the political-social. In this context, the 10 Note Management Programme, developed by the IAS, is part of the neoliberal logic of modernization of public school systems, focusing on results and developing strategies for control and regulation of schools work and its efficiency, effectiveness and greater productivity. The 10 Note focuses on two dimensions: the management of learning and teaching in networking, in a managerial perspective to overcome the culture of failure (expressed as age-grade, dropout and repetition rates in) and implantation of culture of success (as measured in the improvement of the indices). To understanding the process, we have delimited as the object of study, the process of implementing them mentioned program in the city, which its objective is to analyze implications for the school community from the perspective of democratic management, adopting the dimensions of autonomy and participation in institutional processes as a criterion of analysis. From a methodological point of view, the survey was conducted from a literature review and documentary about educational policy developed in the country since the 1990´s, seeking to understand, in a dialectical perspective, the political dimensions of teaching, training and performance of the subjects involved in the school work. Besides the empirical observation, it was also used semi-structured interviews with a methodological tool for gathering information and opinions about the partnership and the implementation of the 10 Note Management Program in the county. The interviewee participants were ex-former education managers, coordinators, school managers, secretaries and teachers. Regarding the dimensions inside the analysis (autonomy and participation), the research led to the conclusion: that GEED, under the guidance of IAS promoted regulation of school autonomy, set up the selection process for exercising the office of school administration and system awards to schools, pupils and teachers, subject to results, there is mismatch between the managerial logic and the democratic management principles, that the ideological discourse of modernization of municipal management coexists with traditional practices, centralizing patronage, which ignores the democratic participation in the school decisions processes, the goals of the partnership were partially achieved, since that the city has improved over the approval and dropouts, although the approval of the Education Municipal Plan of the rules institutional (administrative, financial and educational) and the creation of the Councils observed that the school community participation is still limited, not being characterized as a coordinated intervention, capable of promoting the transformation and improvement its quality in the county. In the same way, the orientation of networking is a limit to the autonomy of schools, given the external definition of goals and strategies to be adopted, along with pressure exerted through the accountability of each school community for their achievements

Gestão democrática: autonomia e participação na Escola Estadual 11 de Agosto Umarizal/RN

The object of analysis of this work is the implementation of the election of director in the State School August 11, situated in the city of Umarizal, State of Rio Grande do Norte, period 2005-2008. The understanding of the politics concerning the school democratization, triggered in Brazilian society in the 1990s, requires taking into consideration the changes occurring in recent decades in the national and international, which impressed significant changes in the role and functions of the state. The election of a director is part of the policy of administrative decentralization and educational reform that focuses on the democratization of the management of public education with the involvement of social actors in decisions within the educational institutions as a way to address the problems that hinder the actions management education, especially school management. To better understand this process of political democratization of school management developed our analysis seeking to answer the following questions: implementation of direct election for a director ensures democratic management in schools? What are the ramifications for the school, caused by direct election on the school autonomy and participation of the subjects in school processes? From these questions, we set as standard for analysis of democratic management in schools of two dimensions: participation and autonomy within the school. For this we take as a theoretical and methodological literature: Pateman (1992); Rousseau (2010); Bourdieu (2007), Castoriadis (1991); Macpherson (1978); Marx; Engels (2007), among others dealing with participation, autonomy, decision power and election of director, and guidelines dealing with the democratization of school management. As data collection procedure, we use the semi-structured interviews and analysis of meeting minutes of the School Council and the Minutes of the final results of elections, to understand the empirical aspects of the implementation of the election of a director. The survey results indicate some progress and setbacks regarding the participation of subjects from issues relating to the school's educational project. Also underline the political interference as a factor crystallizer the centralization of power in the figure of the director as well as the advancement of the spaces that nurture the mobilization of political debate on the democratization of management. About the extent of autonomy observed that social actors to relate predominantly to the power of decision and the involvement of subjects in the school's actions

A psicologia e o programa de saúde da família :novas possibilidades, velhos dogmas?

The model of attention to health has been suffering alterations due to the difficulty faced to put into practice its universal, democratic and institutional layout. Since the movement of Sanitary Reform, which focused in the demands of a new health context and the process of work in the area of health, one seeks uninterruptedly, to find a way which leads to the execution of the principles of SUS. Despite having tried, the model of Sanitary Vigilance centered within the work of a multi-professional team has shown fragmentation and little adequacy to the necessity of health in the population. Whilst inserting himself in the field of health, the psychology professional has taken with him his clinic way of attending to individuals being one more in the team to act in a de-contextualised and little critical way. In virtue of this framework, the Ministry of Health invests in the Family Health Program as a new guide in the health system, restructuring the basic attention at a new logic of action. In this way, the municipality of Natal-RN implants, in the year 2002, the PSF in the Northern Sanitary District, a context in which professional teams are created where there is not an inclusion of a psychologist. Consequently, this professional is excluded of his work space in the previous Basic Unities of Health. This piece of work constitutes in the investigation of the implementation and instrumentalization of the Northern Sanitary District PSF of Natal-RN, having as its objective to analyze the implications of this execution for the structuring of the health network services and more specifically the alterations that this implementation could be making to the practice of the Psychology Professionals, emphasizing its advances, obstacles and limitations. To make this work feasible it was necessary to search for data and information from the implementation and execution of the PSF in the DSN, carrying interviews from a semi-structured guide, with 21 institutional actors (members of the team, coordinators and directors of the unities and psychologists)