Privatization, Thick Sites, and the Women of the Wall

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuval Jobani ◽  
Nahshon Perez
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
The Government ◽  
Governmental Response ◽  
Western Wall

This chapter analyzes the model of privatization, which keeps the state unaffiliated with any given denomination via a strict “hands off” approach toward religions. It attempts to reduce governmental entanglement with religion both by strictly limiting the role religion can play in political institutions and by respecting the autonomy of religions. It examines the applicability of privatization to thick sites in general and the Western Wall in particular. The main argument is that the most adequate governmental response for the Women of the Wall case, as well as for similar religious conflicts, is context-sensitive privatization. This approach is a promising framework for managing struggles over thick sites, because among other considerations, it is egalitarian, protects religious believers from the state, and unburdens the government from an entanglement with diverse religious beliefs.

scholarly journals Endogenous Institutional Change and Dynamic Capitalism

2010 ◽  
pp. 15-39
Author(s):  
Victor Nee ◽  
Sonja Opper
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Property Rights Protection ◽  
The Government ◽  
Formal Rules

State-centered theory asserts that political institutions and credible commitment by political elite to formal rules securing property rights provides the necessary and sufficient conditions for economic growth to take place. In this approach, the evolution of institutions favorable to economic performance is a top-down process led by politicians who control the state. Hence, in less developed and poor countries, the counterfactual is that if formal institutions secure property rights and check predatory action by the political elite, then sustained economic growth would follow. The limitation of state-centered theory stems from the problem that behavioral prescriptions - formal rules and regulations - that reflect what politicians prefer can be ignored. In contrast, we lay out the bottomup construction of economic institutions that gave rise to capitalist economic development in China. Entrepreneurship in the economically developed regions of the coastal provinces was not fueled by exogenous institutional changes. When the first entrepreneurs decided to decouple from the traditional socialist production system, the government had neither initiated financial reforms inviting a broader societal participation, nor had it provided property rights protection or transparent rules specifying company registration and liabilities. Instead, it was the development and use of innovative informal arrangements within close-knit groups of like-minded actors that provided the necessary funding and reliable business norms. This allowed the first wave of entrepreneurs to survive outside of the state-owned manufacturing system. This bottom-up process resembles earlier accounts of the rise of capitalism in the West.

Purge brings rewards and risks for Moreno

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The State ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Persecution ◽  
Political Purge

Subject Political purge. Significance Ecuador’s Supreme Court on November 7 ordered former President Rafael Correa (2007-17) to stand trial for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a political opponent in 2012. The order comes amid increasing efforts by President Lenin Moreno to purge Correa supporters from the government, legislature and bureaucracy and consolidate power. Correa, who now lives in Belgium, is out of reach of Moreno and the Supreme Court, but his popularity and influence in Ecuador endures and will cause ongoing problems for Moreno. Impacts The risk of political violence will increase as Correa and his supporters are locked out of formal political institutions. Correa will find it easier to claim political persecution if attacks against him and his supporters escalate. The arbitrary use of measures to purge Correa supporters from the state risks undermining trust in democratic institutions.

On the Legitimacy of Confucian Constitutionalism

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Chan
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Comprehensive Doctrine ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Confucian Values ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter asserts the idea that Confucianism can positively shape political institutions, legislation, and policy making. However, it argues that promoting Confucianism as a comprehensive doctrine in a modern pluralistic society will damage civility. Free and equal citizens live according to various ways of life and hold different religious beliefs, and promoting Confucian values over and instead of other beliefs can lead only to social conflict. Instead, the chapter favors a moderate form of perfectionism that allows the state to promote specific values in a piecemeal way. Within this context, it may be possible to promote particular Confucian values in a way that they can be accepted or understood by citizens without adopting Confucianism as a comprehensive doctrine.

Demonstrations of Loyalty

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atle L. Wold
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Personal Service ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Government ◽  
British State ◽  
Financial Contributions

This chapter explores the various ways in which Scots demonstrated their loyalty to the British state in the 1790s. It is argued here that loyalism, and not patriotism, is the better term to use when assessing Scottish support for the government and the British state in the 1790s, and a main theme explored in this analysis is the question of what constitutes genuine loyalty, and how this can be measured. The evidence on loyalism is extensive, and it is clear that the Scots demonstrated their loyalty to the state in a number of different ways, such as loyalist resolutions, suggestions for policy initiatives, offers of personal service to the state, and a variety of voluntary financial contributions. A main argument in this chapter is that, in general terms, loyalism in Scotland comes across as very constructive in its outlook – that it was loyalism on the government’s terms.

scholarly journals CONSTITUTIONAL AND FINANCIAL LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE STATE BUDGET IN THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-42
Author(s):  
Valentina Goleva ◽  
Vesela Mircheva
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
The State ◽  
Budgetary Process ◽  
State Budget ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Fiscal System ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government

The study examines the role and place of the two major political institutions, namely government and parliament, in the preparation and adoption of the state budget. The importance of the state budget for the implementation of the political program for the management of the government, as well as the need for its public discussion in the parliament, is substantiated. That is why the annual state budget is adopted in the legal form of the law and the legislative procedure for its adoption is followed, focusing on its specifics. An analysis is presented of the position of the state budget in the budget system of the Republic of Bulgaria, and in particular – in the consolidated fiscal system. The legal regulation of the budgetary process is also examined, and its stages are monitored.

scholarly journals When the State is Untrustworthy: Public Finance and Private Banking in Porfirian Mexico

2004 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 1087-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
NOEL MAURER ◽  
ANDREI GOMBERG
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The State ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Commitment Problem ◽  
The Government ◽  
Federal Taxes ◽  
The Right ◽  
Private Banking ◽  
Standard Solutions

All sovereign governments face a commitment problem: how can they promise to honor their own agreements? The standard solutions involve reputation or political institutions capable of tying the government's hands. Mexico's government in the 1880s used neither solution. It compensated its creditors by enabling them to extract rents from the rest of the economy. These rents came through special privileges over banking services and the right to administer federal taxes. Returns were extremely high: as long as the government refrained from confiscating all their assets (let alone repaying their debts) less than twice a decade, they would break even.

War or the business of God

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 434-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Banos Sanchez-Matamoros ◽  
Warwick Funnell
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The State ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Military Hospitals ◽  
The Government ◽  
Spanish Archives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish the importance of accounting in the management of Spanish military hospitals by the St John’s Order (SJO) of the Roman Catholic Church in the eighteenth century, a time of crisis between the Church and the State. The sacred mission of the Order required that they had a significant role outside the Roman Catholic Church in the care and treatment of the sick and infirm which required them to establish hospitals throughout Spain and across the lands that it had conquered. The study establishes that accounting played a key role in ensuring the success of the unconventional commercial relationship between the SJO and the government and the military. Design/methodology/approach – Niebuhr’s typology is used to help understand how accounting practices were consistent, indeed essential, expectations of the sacred mission of the SJO and not something which represented a denial of the Order’s religious beliefs. The paper relies primarily on documents and other material located in Spanish archives. Findings – The SJO accepted that secular accounting and accountability processes were relevant to their search for God’s love and to showing this love to others. The need for the Order to be accountable to the State was not regarded as profane and antithetical to their religious beliefs. Adopting Niebuhr’s typology of religion and society, this study concludes that the Order was an extraordinary example of Christ the transformer of the culture. Originality/value – This study recognises the need to deepen the understanding of the way in which accounting practices have often played a critical role in the activities of religious organisations by examining an extraordinary example of one organisation which was engaged in an unusual, ongoing, highly complex commercial relationship with the Spanish State.

Evenhandedness, Thick Sites, and the Women of the Wall

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuval Jobani ◽  
Nahshon Perez
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Allocation Of Resources ◽  
Hands On ◽  
The Government ◽  
Western Wall

This chapter analyzes the evenhandedness model, according to which the state remains unaffiliated with any given denomination. While the state does adopt a hands-on approach in which governmental resources are allocated to different religious denominations and groups, the allocation of resources is impartial. The chapter examines the evenhanded approach in general, and its applicability to thick sites and the Western Wall in particular. Critically, it focuses on two principled drawbacks of the evenhanded approach: first, an evenhanded approach to religious claims tends to lead to the adoption of end-result solutions that potentially violate religious freedoms, and second, the burden that this approach places on the government—to continually assess and respond to the demands of different groups—requires unjustifiable optimism with regard to the abilities of any governmental apparatus.

scholarly journals Federalism and health policy: the intergovernmental committees in Brazil

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 642-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiani Vieira Machado ◽  
Luciana Dias de Lima ◽  
Ana Luiza d'Ávila Viana ◽  
Roberta Gondim de Oliveira ◽  
Fabíola Lana Iozzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Government ◽  
Care System

OBJECTIVE To analyze the dynamics of operation of the Bipartite Committees in health care in the Brazilian states.METHODS The research included visits to 24 states, direct observation, document analysis, and performance of semi-structured interviews with state and local leaders. The characterization of each committee was performed between 2007 and 2010, and four dimensions were considered: (i) level of institutionality, classified as advanced, intermediate, or incipient; (ii) agenda of intergovernmental negotiations, classified as diversified/restricted, adapted/not adapted to the reality of each state, and shared/unshared between the state and municipalities; (iii) political processes, considering the character and scope of intergovernmental relations; and (iv) capacity of operation, assessed as high, moderate, or low.RESULTS Ten committees had advanced level of institutionality. The agenda of the negotiations was diversified in all states, and most of them were adapted to the state reality. However, one-third of the committees showed power inequalities between the government levels. Cooperative and interactive intergovernmental relations predominated in 54.0% of the states. The level of institutionality, scope of negotiations, and political processes influenced Bipartite Committees’ ability to formulate policies and coordinate health care at the federal level. Bipartite Committees with a high capacity of operation predominated in the South and Southeast regions, while those with a low capacity of operations predominated in the North and Northeast.CONCLUSIONS The regional differences in operation among Bipartite Interagency Committees suggest the influence of historical-structural variables (socioeconomic development, geographic barriers, characteristics of the health care system) in their capacity of intergovernmental health care management. However, structural problems can be overcome in some states through institutional and political changes. The creation of federal investments, varied by regions and states, is critical in overcoming the structural inequalities that affect political institutions. The operation of Bipartite Committees is a step forward; however, strengthening their ability to coordinate health care is crucial in the regional organization of the health care system in the Brazilian states.

scholarly journals The Public Sphere's Metamorphosis – The Triangular Relation Between the NGO, the State, and Globalization

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 124-128
Author(s):  
Azelarabe Bennani
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The issue we will discuss is related to the use of the Internet by the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to improve the social development in the African and international context. We will also discuss the philo-sophical background of the notion of ?public sphere‘ by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Departing from the situation in Morocco, we observe that the lasting democratization process aims to improve the participation of the public sphere in the agency of social life. Taking for granted that society is not homo-geneous as expected, we observe that it is divided into the political establishment, including the state, par-liament, and the political institutions; in the social, religious and cultural institutions and the civil society. The state aims to enhance the participation of the other social spheres in the programme set by the government. The task is to engage the public sphere in the so called ?partnership‘ in the realization of its social pro-grammes.

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