Conclusion

Author(s):  
Madeline Baer

The conclusion synthesizes the main findings from the empirical chapters in response to the three research questions guiding the book, modifies the “moments of social transformation” model of rights realization, and proposes hypotheses to guide future research. The chapter reviews the key mechanisms, actors, and pathways that lead to acceptance of the right to water and sanitation at the global level, and to the fulfillment of these rights in Chile and Bolivia. The main contributions of the book are presented, including the finding that neoliberal approaches to water policy have the potential to weaken state capacity to fulfill the right to water and sanitation, and that implementing a human rights-based approach to water policy alone will not lead to social transformation. Rather, meaningful social transformation in the water sector requires mechanisms for citizen participation, accountability, and the creation of alternatives to the state/market binary.

Author(s):  
Madeline Baer

Chapter 5 provides a case study of the human rights-based approach to water policy through an analysis of the Bolivian government’s attempts to implement the human right to water and sanitation. It explores these efforts at the local and national level, through changes to investments, institutions, and policies. The analysis reveals that while Bolivia meets the minimum standard for the human right to water and sanitation in some urban areas, access to quality water is low in poor and marginalized communities. While the Bolivian government expresses a strong political will for a human rights approach and is increasing state capacity to fulfill rights, the broader criteria for the right to water and sanitation, including citizen participation and democratic decision-making, remain largely unfulfilled. This case suggests political will and state capacity might be necessary but are not sufficient to fulfill the human right to water and sanitation broadly defined.


Author(s):  
Madeline Baer

The human right to water and sanitation emerged as a rallying cry for protestors and a legal tool to challenge privatization of water services. This book explores how the right to water and sanitation is fulfilled in different contexts, whether neoliberal policies like privatization pose a threat to the right to water, and whether rights fulfillment leads to meaningful social change. It analyzes the global dynamics of water governance as well as two in-depth country case studies: Chile, the most extreme case of water privatization in the developing world, and Bolivia, the site of the “water wars” that sparked a global movement for the human right to water. An analysis of state capacity, political will, and citizen participation in the case studies reveals that the minimum standard for the right to water and sanitation can be achieved in the absence of political will, and even in a privatized setting. However, achieving this requires strong state capacity, which runs counter to neoliberal logics. Furthermore, the broader standard for the right to water and sanitation requires citizen participation, accountability, and respect for alternatives to the state/market binary. The book argues that a human rights-based approach to water policy will not necessarily lead to social transformation because of the limits of the rights frame itself and preexisting barriers in each local context. The analysis draws from and modifies an analytical framework for evaluating socioeconomic rights realization. In this way, the book builds theory on socioeconomic human rights realization and social transformation.


Author(s):  
Madeline Baer

Chapter 2 presents the central research questions that drive the theoretical and empirical work of the book, outlines the “moments of social transformation” model used for analyzing human rights realization, and positions the book in relation to theoretical and contemporary policy debates. The chapter synthesizes the literatures on socioeconomic human rights fulfillment and the human right to water and sanitation. It introduces two key elements for implementing human rights: political will and state capacity, as well as some obstacles to rights realization, including lack of strong regulatory frameworks and accountability mechanisms. The chapter explores the tensions between markets and rights, finding that neoliberal approaches to water policy have a negative effect on rights fulfillment by weakening the state’s role, and it engages with critiques that the human rights frame is too narrow and vague to facilitate transformative change in the water sector.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauri Rapeli

It is widely assumed that a representative democracy requires an enlightened citizenry in order to function properly. The competence of citizens has been studied extensively and the sociodemographic determinants of political sophistication are particularly well known. Much less is known about whether and how citizen competence affects electoral behaviour and outcomes. This article reviews the existing literature on these topics. Despite the widespread consensus that, generally speaking, citizen competence matters for electoral outcomes, the review produced a mixed result: some studies suggest that the political left would benefit from a better-informed electorate, while other studies suggest the opposite. Although the majoritarian electoral context is overrepresented in the evidence, the review shows that at the individual level, political knowledge greatly increases a person’s ability to match personal preferences with the right candidate or party in an election. The article also identifies several gaps in existing knowledge, thereby suggesting future research questions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chryssy Potsiou ◽  
Cornel Paunescu ◽  
Charalabos Ioannidis ◽  
Konstantinos Apostolopoulos ◽  
Florin Nache

This paper is part of a doctoral dissertation (PhD) research that investigates the development of a procedure for reliable 2D crowdsourced cadastral surveying introducing the use of new Information Technology IT tools and increased citizen participation, supported by m-services. For the development of this procedure, the formal cadastral procedure applied currently in two Europeans countries, Greece and Romania, for their modern nation-wide projects is firstly investigated. The first part of this paper briefly investigates the current stage of progress of those projects in both countries, as well as the specifications and procedures applied for the cadastral surveys, and assesses the level of participation of the right holders and the efficiency of the current procedures. Then, a proposal for a crowdsourced general procedure with increased participation of the right holders in the initial cadastral data collection phase is designed that it may be of value either for the planners of those two projects to improve their projects towards a more fit-for-purpose approach and successfully meet the deadlines timely, or for researchers and planners of other projects with similar nation-wide approaches which also require accurate, assured and authoritative end products. For the assessment of the applicability of the proposal, three case studies are held and tested in urban, rural and suburban areas in both countries, using both a commercial application and an open source one. These crowdsourced surveys are compared to the formal cadastral surveys that have been compiled by cadastral professionals in both countries and the achieved results are assessed and judged as satisfactory in terms of geometric accuracies and the avoidance of gross errors in the location of the parcels. A proposal for future research in order to further improve the proposed procedure is discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-125
Author(s):  
Michael Gyan Nyarko

Using a human rights-based approach and Ghana as a case study, this article examines the scope and content of the right to property in relation to compulsory land acquisition under international law. It argues that while the exact frontiers of the right to property remain quite uncharted at the global level the vacuum has been filled by the regional human rights systems and soft law. In the context of Ghana, the Constitutional protection of the right to property and quite elaborate rules to be followed during compulsory acquisition have not translated into revision of the compulsory acquisition laws, which remain largely incoherent and inconsistent with the requirements of the Constitution and international human rights law.


Author(s):  
Madeline Baer

Chapter 3 explores how global actors promote the human right to water and sanitation at the global level, the venues in which they carry out their campaigns, and the resistance they face to redefining water and sanitation as human rights. The chapter analyzes how the water justice movement works to build political will for the human right to water and sanitation in the first stage in the “moments of social transformation” model, when abstract norms become accepted as held beliefs. The analysis focuses on three venues where activists advocate for the human right to water and sanitation: the United Nations General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and the World Water Forum. The chapter explores the mechanisms at play in these campaigns, revealing a highly contested process pitting rights promoters against powerful adversaries in the global system, including representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele R. Nogueira-Librelotto ◽  
Cristiane F. Codevilla ◽  
Ammad Farooqi ◽  
Clarice M. B. Rolim

A lot of effort has been devoted to achieving active targeting for cancer therapy in order to reach the right cells. Hence, increasingly it is being realized that active-targeted nanocarriers notably reduce off-target effects, mainly because of targeted localization in tumors and active cellular uptake. In this context, by taking advantage of the overexpression of transferrin receptors on the surface of tumor cells, transferrin-conjugated nanodevices have been designed, in hope that the biomarker grafting would help to maximize the therapeutic benefit and to minimize the side effects. Notably, active targeting nanoparticles have shown improved therapeutic performances in different tumor models as compared to their passive targeting counterparts. In this review, current development of nano-based devices conjugated with transferrin for active tumor-targeting drug delivery are highlighted and discussed. The main objective of this review is to provide a summary of the vast types of nanomaterials that have been used to deliver different chemotherapeutics into tumor cells, and to ultimately evaluate the progression on the strategies for cancer therapy in view of the future research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 117-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista Fiolleau ◽  
Theresa Libby ◽  
Linda Thorne

SUMMARY As the scope of the audit continues to broaden (Cohen, Krishnamoorthy, and Wright 2017), research questions in management control and internal control are beginning to overlap. Even so, there is little overlap between these fields in terms of published research to date. The purpose of this paper is to take a step in bridging the gap between the management control and the internal control literatures. We survey relevant findings from the extant management control literature published between 2003 and 2016 on dysfunctional behavior and the ways in which it might be mitigated. We then use the fraud triangle as an organizing framework to consider how the management control literature might help to address audit risk factors identified in SAS 99/AU SEC 316 (AICPA 2002). The outcome of our analysis is meant to identify and classify the extant management control literature of relevance to research on internal control in a manner that researchers new to the management control literature will find accessible. We conclude with a set of future research opportunities that can help to broaden the scope of current research in internal control.


Author(s):  
Madeline Baer

Chapter 4 provides an in-depth case study of water policy in Chile from the 1970s to present, including an evaluation of the outcomes of water policy under the privatized system from a human rights perspective. The chapter interrogates Chile’s reputation as a privatization success story, finding that although Chile meets the narrow definition of the human right to water and sanitation in terms of access, quality, and price, it fails to meet the broader definition that includes citizen participation in water management and policy decisions. The chapter argues that Chile’s relative success in delivering water services is attributable to strong state capacity to govern the water sector in the public interest by embedding neoliberal reforms in state interventions. The Chile case shows that privatization is not necessarily antithetical to human rights-consistent outcomes if there is a strong state role in the private sector.


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