Should Fiscal Policy be different in a Non-Competitive Framework?

Published as an article in: Journal of Monetary Economics, 2003, vol. 50, issue 6, pages 1311-1331.

Facilitated advocacy: supporting farmers to have a voice in policy making and the development of service provision

Listening to people, especially those who are poor, and involving them in policy making and decisions about service delivery processes are logical steps in building better services and improving policies aimed at poverty alleviation. This case describes a facilitated advocacy that helped to negotiate and support a role for poor people who farm and fish, to contribute recommendations for changes in services and policies that impact on their lives. The national Government of India’s Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, both in the capital Delhi, have been linking with farmers and fishers and state government officials in the eastern states of Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, in partnership with the STREAM Initiative of the intergovernmental Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia Pacific and with the support of the UK Government Department for International Development, Natural resources Systems Program supporting farmers to have a voice(13 p.)

The Politics of Internet Regulation in Brazil : dynamics, factors, and actors in broadband policy

In May 2010, Brazil joined the roll of nations with a National Broadband Plan. The Decree nº 7,175/2010 had implemented a program that aimed to offer 30 million permanent broadband accesses until 2014 and established its main goals, such as accelerating economic and social development, promoting digital inclusion, reducing social and regional inequalities, promoting a generation of employment and income, and expanding electronic government services. However, the broadband access in Brazil is limited, expensive, and centralized in the main urban centres. Despite the fast growth in the past years due to mobile internet access, the market is still concentrated in the local incumbent operators that currently provide mobile services, landline services and Paid-TV services, resulting in a high level of market verticalization. The following dissertation investigates the constraint of broadband access development, the dynamics, the actors, and the factors that have delayed the roll-out of broadband services in Brazil. The study also promotes reflections about the challenge posed by the media, by costumers associations and by public opinion as critical observers of the policy making process. This research examines on the political influence towards regulation to determine the way policy will benefit interest groups. Many interviews have been conducted in order to understand the forces which have been acting in the telecommunications in Brazil after privatization, in 1998. This study aims to provide a better understanding of telecommunications regulatory process in Brazil, in order to help the country finding an adequate policy which can lead to the implementation of a broadband roll-out. The universal broadband access is the only way to benefit the whole society in Brazil with a satisfactory level of education and create more jobs and economic development regarding the plenty use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

Process management in healthcare.Sant Camil Hospital case study

Nowadays due to the crisis, some government measures are aimed at reducing healthcare spending, affecting in some level or another the quality offered. Process management is said to be a useful tool for reducing healthcare costs by improving management without any additional economic investment. That is doing more with the same resources and without reducing the quality offered. In this study an empirical case of a Catalan hospital is presented. Overall, the usefulness of process management in the healthcare sector is shown and some tips are provided for those managers that want to implement this management system in their hospitals. This work is also interesting for those managers responsible for the National Healthcare System due to a big question is stated: what would happen if process management was implemented in the whole healthcare system?

Policy analysis of shoreline restoration options on private shorelines of Puget Sound

Puget Sound shorelines have historically provided a diversity of habitats that support a variety of aquatic resources throughout the region. These valued natural resources are iconic to the region and remain central to both the economic vitality and community appreciation of Puget Sound. Deterioration of upland and nearshore shoreline habitats, have placed severe stress on many aquatic resources within the region (PSAT, 2007). Since a majority of Washington State shorelines are privately owned, regulatory authority to legislate restoration on private property is limited in scope and frequency. Washington States’ Shoreline Management Act (RCW 90.58) requires local jurisdictions to plan for appropriate future shoreline uses. Under the Act, future development can be regulated to protect existing ecological functions, but lost functions cannot be restored without purchase or compensation of restored areas. Therefore, questions remains as to the ecological resilience of the region when considering cumulative effect of existing/ongoing shoreline development constrained by limited shoreline restoration opportunities. In light of these questions, this analysis will explore opportunities to promote restoration on privately owned shorelines within Puget Sound. These efforts are intended to promote more efficient ecosystem management and improve ecosystem-wide ecological functions. From an economics perspective, results of past shoreline management can generally be characterized as both market and government failure in effectively protecting the publics’ interest in maintaining healthy shoreline resources. Therefore coastal development has proceeded in spite of negative externalities and market imbalances resulting in inefficient resource management driven by the individual ambitions of private shoreline property owners to develop their property to their highest and best use. Federally derived property rights will protect continuation of existing uses along privately owned shorelines; therefore, a fundamental challenge remains in sustainable management of existing shoreline resources while also restoring ecological functions lost to past mistakes in an effort to increase the ecologic resiliency within the region. (PDF contains 5 pages)

Applying Habermas's critical theory to public administration and policy: A case study of Florida Everglades restoration program

The foundation of Habermas's argument, a leading critical theorist, lies in the unequal distribution of wealth across society. He states that in an advanced capitalist society, the possibility of a crisis has shifted from the economic and political spheres to the legitimation system. Legitimation crises increase the more government intervenes into the economy (market) and the "simultaneous political enfranchisement of almost the entire adult population" (Holub, 1991, p. 88). The reason for this increase is because policymakers in advanced capitalist democracies are caught between conflicting imperatives: they are expected to serve the interests of their nation as a whole, but they must prop up an economic system that benefits the wealthy at the expense of most workers and the environment. Habermas argues that the driving force in history is an expectation, built into the nature of language, that norms, laws, and institutions will serve the interests of the entire population and not just those of a special group. In his view, policy makers in capitalist societies are having to fend off this expectation by simultaneously correcting some of the inequities of the market, denying that they have control over people's economic circumstances, and defending the market as an equitable allocator of income. (deHaven-Smith, 1988, p. 14). Critical theory suggests that this contradiction will be reflected in Everglades policy by communicative narratives that suppress and conceal tensions between environmental and economic priorities. Habermas’ Legitimation Crisis states that political actors use various symbols, ideologies, narratives, and language to engage the public and avoid a legitimation crisis. These influences not only manipulate the general population into desiring what has been manufactured for them, but also leave them feeling unfulfilled and alienated. Also known as false reconciliation, the public's view of society as rational, and "conductive to human freedom and happiness" is altered to become deeply irrational and an obstacle to the desired freedom and happiness (Finlayson, 2005, p. 5). These obstacles and irrationalities give rise to potential crises in the society. Government's increasing involvement in Everglades under advanced capitalism leads to Habermas's four crises: economic/environmental, rationality, legitimation, and motivation. These crises are occurring simultaneously, work in conjunction with each other, and arise when a principle of organization is challenged by increased production needs (deHaven-Smith, 1988). Habermas states that governments use narratives in an attempt to rationalize, legitimize, obscure, and conceal its actions under advanced capitalism. Although there have been many narratives told throughout the history of the Everglades (such as the Everglades was a wilderness that was valued as a wasteland in its natural state), the most recent narrative, “Everglades Restoration”, is the focus of this paper.(PDF contains 4 pages)

Parents aspiration and youth perception to sustainable fisheries development in Kainji Lake basin

Artisanal fisheries development in Nigeria, like in any other developing country of the world is characterized by subsistence level of operation using dugout canoe and paddle. This implies that parents and children constituted the labour in use since they only struggle for the upkeep of the family. A total of 240 questionnaires were used to solicit information from the respondents. This total was divided into 120 each for both parents and the youths respectively. Simple descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages were used to analyze their responses. Parents have strong aspiration for their children to succeed them hence, 78.3% of the parents expressed their aspiration for succession by the younger ones while 83.3% of parents tend to support their aspiration with persuasive strategies such as allowing their children to partake in fishing activities at will. On the part of the youth over 70% of them perceived fishing as a viable business where they can succeed their parents provided government can come to their aid in form of active involvement in the development of rural fisheries. It is therefore believed that fisheries development could achieve rapid improvement if the aspiration of the parents is balanced with perception of the youth and the government meets their expectation

De Flor do Lácio à Língua Global: uma análise discursiva das relações de poder nas políticas linguísticas para a promoção, a difusão e a projeção do português da Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP)

Nesta última década notamos uma série de políticas que visam ampliar a presença da língua portuguesa no mundo, tais como a inauguração da TV Brasil Internacional (2010), no âmbito do governo brasileiro ou a entrada em vigor do acordo ortográfico de 1990 (2009), no âmbito da Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP), organização internacional formada por todos os países de língua oficial portuguesa. Diante desse panorama, esta pesquisa propõe-se a contribuir para a compreensão do papel de políticas linguísticas na configuração do que seja a expansão do português no mundo contemporâneo. Para isso, partimos das premissas de que todo discurso é polêmico pelo princípio da interincompreensão constitutiva (MAINGUENEAU, 2008 [1984]), e de que todo texto político-jurídico-normativo busca apagar, superar essa polêmica e construir um sentido único. Esse caminho teórico-metodológico, nos leva a questionar sobre que processos discursivos constroem essa busca de univocidade para superar a polêmica nos documentos de políticas linguísticas para a expansão do português? Quais coerções foram enfatizadas? De que maneira o enunciador se apresenta em nome dessa univocidade? Acreditamos que encontrar respostas a essas indagações nos levem a discutir relações de poder que sustentam essas políticas linguísticas de expansão do português nesta última década. Para desenvolver nossa pesquisa, selecionamos como corpora de análise, declarações e resoluções da Conferência de Chefes de Estado e de Governo e do Conselho de Ministros da CPLP sobre a difusão e promoção da língua portuguesa, por causa do poder político e simbólico, que essa organização representa em relação à temática. Assim, pudemos identificar quatro posições/faces de enunciadores, o ufanista, o defensor, o apreensivo e o idealista-apaziguador, que juntos compõem um enunciador, que chamamos de super graças a sua memória e a sua competência interdiscursivas e sua maneira específica de enunciar, que potencializam o poder imperativo de seus enunciados. Nas sequências discursivas analisadas podemos constatar que esse (super)enunciador na busca da adesão do coenunciador, articula alianças (a língua portuguesa comum, a sociedade civil) e oposições (diversidade cultural dos países, a língua inglesa) na construção de uma aparente homogeneidade linguística a fim de superar a heterogeneidade fundante da própria CPLP. Desse modo, as polêmicas são silenciadas e podemos notar um processo de construção de um novo sentido de língua portuguesa, homogeneizante em contraposição a outro já em curso de gramatização e heterogeneização das línguas portuguesas nacionais

Newport's mooring regulations: legal and policy analysis

The legal and policy issues facing Newport as it revises and implements its ordinances are numerous. Most of the issues have not been squarely resolved for Rhode Island. While Newport may take guidance from other states, it will be Rhode Island's task going forward to define the reach of its PTD as applied to some novel issues raised by mooring administration. The benefit of the flexibility of the PTD is allowing smaller units of government like Newport to define their regulatory goals based on a locally-tailored balancing test of competing interests facing scarce ocean resources. This report was designed to facilitate decision-maker discussion of how to strike that delicate balance.

Nova sociabilidade do capital e a natureza das políticas para jovens trabalhadores no governo Lula: uma análise da participação cidadã do ProJovem Urbano

Fruto das mudanças realizadas no Programa Nacional de Inclusão de Jovens ProJovem, criado em 2005, o ProJovem Urbano é o programa do governo federal destinado a proporcionar o aumento da escolaridade, qualificação profissional inicial e a participação cidadã de jovens de 18 a 29 anos, prioritariamente aqueles que se encontram em maior estado de vulnerabilidade social. Entendendo-o de forma integrada às políticas de alívio à pobreza e à política novo desenvolvimentista implementadas durante o governo Lula, o presente estudo analisou os nexos existentes entre o ProJovem Urbano e a educação para o desenvolvimento sustentável do novo milênio proposta na Política de Desenvolvimento do Milênio e nas orientações dos organismos internacionais, na qual a educação adquire um novo papel: produzir não só capital humano, mas também capital social. A pesquisa centrou-se em uma das dimensões curriculares do programa denominada participação cidadã, que tem entre suas atividades o Plano de Ação Comunitária (PLA) - ação social a ser planejada e executada pelos jovens no intuito de levá-los a resolução de alguns problemas locais. A partir da pesquisa empírica realizada nas cidades de Palmas, São Vicente e Guarujá, nosso objetivo foi identificar o sentido dado à participação e as contradições que essas experiências podem suscitar. Se elas contribuem para ação dos jovens no sentido oposto ao associativismo colaboracionista aos interesses do capital e para a constituição de comportamentos políticos capazes de (re)fortalecer os movimentos sociais progressistas organizados. Com base no método do materialismo histórico e dialético, concluímos que a dimensão ético-político do programa constitui em formar os jovens para a nova sociabilidade capitalista; tanto no plano econômico, ao educar para os valores do novo desenvolvimentismo centrado no consumo, quanto no plano político, por meio do consentimento passivo/ativo aos ajustes executados pelos intelectuais orgânicos do capital na virada do milênio, com a finalidade de abrandar os efeitos da ortodoxia neoliberal. Que não cabe a programas como o ProJovem Urbano a formação da cultura política participativa que venha contribuir para o (re)fortalecimento dos movimentos sociais. E que, apesar das ações comunitárias serem conduzidas pela perspectiva do capital social, na prática, esta ideologia também não é tão facilmente permeável aos jovens participantes do programa das cidades investigadas, frente às suas precárias condições de existência e reprodução da vida, o que faz com que o programa permaneça fortemente em disputa para ser redirecionado ou superado

Impróprio para menores? Adolescentes e diversidade sexual e de gênero nas políticas públicas brasileiras contemporâneas

Esse trabalho se desenvolve a partir da identificação de uma trama de atores, discursos e jogos de poder no cenário brasileiro contemporâneo, na constituição de uma nova categoria social para as politicas públicas brasileiras, os adolescentes LGBT. O processo de construção desse adolescente LGBT está articulado a um processo mais amplo de constituição dessa nova população denominada LGBT, como sujeitos de direitos especiais para o conjunto de atores que configuram o Estado brasileiro na sua multiplicidade e contradições. A construção dessa nova categoria social se dá a partir do entrecruzamento de vários atores e múltiplas concepções e moralidades em relação à sexualidade e ao gênero, articuladas a questões ligadas à forma como os jovens são vistos e tratados pelo mundo adulto. O trabalho discute como diferentes atores ligados à formulação e implementação de políticas públicas lidam com esse jovem e que discursos são acionados. A primeira parte do trabalho apresenta um panorama de como a articulação entre diversidade sexual e de gênero e adolescência se apresenta (ou não) em documentos relacionados ao campo dos direitos humanos e políticas sociais, a partir das seguintes áreas programáticas e políticas setoriais: (i) Direitos da Criança e do Adolescente; (ii) Direitos da Juventude; (iii) Direitos da População LGBT; (iv) Direitos Humanos; (v) Saúde; (vi) Assistência Social; (vii) Educação. A segunda parte do trabalho se propõe a acompanhar os embates em relação à articulação entre diversidade sexual e de gênero e adolescência a partir de duas experiências: (i) apresento e discuto a trajetória do Projeto Escola sem Homofobia, ligado ao Ministério da Educação, e a polêmica produzida por sua elaboração, remontando ao conjunto de atores, arenas e disputas que ele envolveu; (ii) a partir da experiência dos Centros de Cidadania LGBT do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, serviços governamentais previstos no Programa Rio sem Homofobia, apresento e discuto o conjunto de discursos e atores institucionais que interpelam e são acionados pelos Centros, a partir das demandas trazidas e/ou relacionadas aos adolescentes.

A questão penitenciária no Rio de Janeiro: os reflexos de políticas de lei e ordem

A Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro, por meio da Secretaria de Ordem Pública e a operação Choque de Ordem, bem como o Governo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, atra-vés da Secretaria de Segurança Pública e do projeto UPP, demonstram que é cada vez mais constante no cotidiano carioca a adoção de políticas de lei e ordem. Em tempos de Jornada Mundial da Juventude, Copa do Mundo e Olimpíadas, controlar, vigiar, punir, neutralizar são expressões que se destacam nas políticas de segurança pública. As esta-tísticas oficiais demonstram que a adoção de políticas de lei e ordem provocaram, nos últimos cinco anos, crescimento significativo da população carcerária fluminense, com destaque para as prisões provisórias e para o elevado aumento de adolescentes apreen-didos, o que gerou sérias consequências para a execução penal e contribuiu para o au-mento do déficit de vagas do sistema penitenciário do estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Agriculture, irrigation and poverty reduction in Cambodia: Policy narratives and ground realities compared

This report is a contribution to an assessment of the current status of agriculture in Cambodia, focusing on the linkages between agriculture and water, mainly in the form of irrigation. It seeks to view current government policies on agriculture and irrigation in the context of experiences on the ground, as communicated through the many field studies that cover varied aspects of performance in the agriculture sector and irrigation schemes. In an effort to identify future research areas, this review examines the status quo, and connects or disconnects with stated policy through a broad lens to capture strengths and challenges across crop production, irrigation management and post-harvest contexts. It places irrigation under scrutiny in terms of its value as a major area of government expenditure in recent years, and asks whether it presents the best potential for future gains in productivity, when compared with the prospects offered by investments in other aspects of agriculture. The fieldwork and review of current literature that form the basis of this report were undertaken at the request of, and partly funded by, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). It is also intended to contribute knowledge to the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) led by WorldFish, who co-funded the activities.

Prawn culture and policy options: technology import and culture through fishermen vis a vis industry

Recent developments in aquaculture has created an awareness that prawn culture is a dollar spinner, in which industry can step in to earn foreign exchange by producing an expensive food iten which has a high market demand abroad. The Government has to take a policy decision whether the prawn culture should be done through small fishermen to improve their socio-economic condition or through private industry with the high technology input and predefined objectives of export trade. Perhaps a simultaneous operation of the two could be allowed best in the interest of India. Perhaps in the interest of quick development and adoption of high production technology, through fishermen organization, the development is encouraged through the implimentation of welfare and area development schemes. In some selected areas private industry may be encoureged to use high production technology to develop prawns.