scholarly journals The Incoherence of Institutional Reform: Decentralization as a Structural Solution to Immediate Political Needs

Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Faguet ◽  
Mahvish Shami

AbstractInstitutional reforms are structural changes in the rules and norms of authority, with effects that are long-term and unpredictable on government, politics, and society. But leaders may undertake them to solve unrelated, discrete, short-term political problems. Understanding the latter is key to understanding the characteristics of many real reforms, and hence their fate. We introduce the concept of instrumental incoherence and use it to construct a theory of decentralization where reform is motivated by orthogonal objectives. We show that reformers’ incentives map onto the specifics of reform design via their side effects, not their main effects, which in turn lead to the medium- and long-term consequences eventually realized. We characterize downwardly accountable decentralization, which ties the hands of the center to empower local voters, vs. upwardly accountable decentralization, which ties the hands of local government to empower the center. We use these ideas to explain highly divergent outcomes in two extreme cases, Bolivia and Pakistan, using detailed, original evidence. Our analysis likely extends to a broader class of reforms where the incentives of agents pursuing a change, and the effects of that change, are highly asymmetric in time and dimension.

Author(s):  
Paul D. Kenny

This final chapter draws out the two main conclusions from the book. First, it discusses the policy implications of its findings. It suggests caution in the decentralization of political authority as a remedy for democratic underperformance in patronage-based democracies. Rather than making government more accountable, it may instead exacerbate principal–agent conflicts between center and periphery. More important than decentralization in the short term may be institutional reforms at the center that make parties more programmatic and responsive to citizens. Second, it sets out some of the implications of the book’s findings for the study of populism and party-system change more generally. It shows that the varied ways in which voters and parties are linked creates different pathways to the decline of establishment parties and the success of populist alternatives. Further comparative research across party systems might contribute positively to institutional reform and political change.


2016 ◽  
Vol 307 ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëtan Philippot ◽  
Fred Nyberg ◽  
Torsten Gordh ◽  
Anders Fredriksson ◽  
Henrik Viberg

2021 ◽  
pp. 0160323X2110120
Author(s):  
Hai (David) Guo ◽  
Can Chen

Early in the pandemic, Florida municipal managers indicated that forecasting the impact on local revenues was one of their top priorities in responding to the pandemic, yet such a tool has not been widely available. This study offers simple and straightforward fiscal planning guides for assessing the short-term and long-term impacts of the COVID 19 recession on local government revenues by estimating the revenue declines among 411 Florida municipalities from FY 2021 to FY 2023. The forecast results predict revenues will be reduced by $5.11 billion from 2019 pre-pandemic levels for Florida cities in fiscal years 2021 through 2023. The decline is forecast to be 3.54 percent in FY 2021, 4.02 percent in FY 2022, and 3.29 percent in FY 2023. The revenue structure matters for estimating the revenue decline.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerri Coomber ◽  
Richelle Mayshak ◽  
Ashlee Curtis ◽  
Peter G. Miller

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Bevilacqua ◽  
Lukas Brandl-Cheng ◽  
Jon Danielsson ◽  
Lerby Murat Ergun ◽  
Andreas Uthemann ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumiko Ito ◽  
Hisashi Kawai ◽  
Harukazu Tsuruta ◽  
Shuichi Obuchi

Abstract Background: Predicting incidence of long-term care insurance (LTCI) certification in the short term is of increasing importance in Japan. The present study examined whether the Kihon Checklist (KCL) can be used to predict incidence of LTCI certification (care level 1 or higher) in the short term among older Japanese persons.Methods: In 2015, the local government in Tokyo, Japan, distributed the KCL to all individuals older than 65 years who had not been certified as having a disability or who had already been certified as requiring support level 1–2 according to LTCI system. We also collected LTCI certification data within the 3 months after collecting the KCL data. The data of 17785 respondents were analyzed. First, we selected KCL items strongly associated with incidence of LTCI certification, using stepwise forward-selection multiple logistic regression. Second, we conducted receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses for three conditions (1: Selected KCL items, 2: The main 20 KCL items (nos. 1–20), 3: All 25 KCL items). Third, we estimated specificity and sensitivity for each condition.Results: During a 3-month follow-up, 81 (0.5%) individuals required new LTCI certification. Eight KCL items were selected by multiple logistic regression as predictive of certification. The area under the ROC curve in the three conditions was 0.92–0.93, and specificity and sensitivity for all conditions were greater than 80%.Conclusions: Three KCL conditions predicted short-term incidence of LTCI certification. This suggests that KCL items may be used to screen for the risk of incident LTCI certification.


2022 ◽  
pp. 269-288
Author(s):  
Ayesha Kanwal ◽  
Zeeshan Ahmad Bhutta ◽  
Ambreen Ashar ◽  
Ashar Mahfooz ◽  
Rizwan Ahmed ◽  
...  

Human mortality due to drug-resistant infections is becoming more prevalent in our society. Antibiotics are impotent due to abuse and/or misuse, leading to new, more expensive, and more effective medicines and treatments. Therefore, it causes many short-term and long-term side effects in the patient. On the other hand, nanoparticles have exhibited antibacterial activity against various pathogens due to their small size and ability to destroy cells by various mechanisms. Unlike antibiotics for the treatment of patients' diseases and infections, nanomaterials provide an exciting way to limit the growth of microorganisms due to infections in humans. This has led to the development of a number of nanoparticles as active antibacterial agents. Therefore, the authors have carefully reviewed the recent developments in the use of nanomaterials for antibacterial applications and the mechanisms that make them an effective alternate antibacterial agent.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonello Pasini ◽  
Fulvio Mazzocchi

This paper investigates analogies in the dynamics of Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. A comparison of their common features (such as nonlinearity and inertia) and differences helps us to achieve a correct scientific perception of both situations, increasing the chances of actions for their solutions. Besides, applying to both the risk equation provides different angles to analyse them, something that may result useful especially at the policy level. It shows that not only short-term interventions are needed, but also long-term strategies involving some structural changes. More specifically, it also shows that, even if climate change is probably more critical and long-lasting than the Covid-19 crisis, we still have, at least currently, more options for reducing its related risk.


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