Protecting Power

Mapping Power ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 215-236
Author(s):  
Ashwini K. Swain
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
Agrarian Economy ◽  
Economic Significance ◽  
The Status ◽  
Potential Benefits

Punjab is a high-income state with a predominantly agrarian economy, the first in India to achieve universal village electrification and household access. Promises of free power for farmers came at a time when electricity constituted a substantial input in farm costs. Now, though, even as the economic significance of the subsidy has fallen and free power yields few electoral gains, no party in the state can risk eliminating the subsidy. In addition to cross-subsidy from industrial consumers, paying consumers are also charged increasing levels of cess and duties to balance the high cost of subsidies. Populist inertia strains the ability of any one actor to break from the status quo. On the supply-side, high-cost, long-term contracts signed over the last five years with private generators have curtailed the potential benefits of demand-side management (since far from curbing demand, the utility needs to encourage it) and renewable energy (with a supply glut, no one has an appetite for new sources of energy, however virtuous they may be).

scholarly journals COMMONWEALTH Forum: Addressing Pennsylvania’s Structural Budget Deficit

Commonwealth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Dick ◽  
Marc Stier
Keyword(s):  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Structural Deficit ◽  
The Status ◽  
Structural Budget

In November 2016 Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office released a five-year projection of the health of the Commonwealth’s economy and budget. The long-term estimates were not promising as increasing expenditures outstripped existing sources of revenues. Left unchanged, the status quo would result in a deficit of almost $3 billion in fiscal year 2021–22. Tackling this “structural deficit” is one of the most difficult issues facing the state of Pennsylvania. Given the current political climate it should come as no surprise that there is no consensus on resolving this problem. COMMONWEALTH invited representatives from two very different policy perspectives to provide their solutions to the structural deficit. We would like to thank Bob Dick of the Commonwealth Foundation and Marc Stier of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center for addressing this important issue in the COMMONWEALTH Forum.

Power Projects and Covid-19: A Practical Analysis of the Relevance of Force Majeure Clauses under the Standardised Power Purchase and Implementation Agreements of Uganda

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-193
Author(s):  
Aisha Naiga ◽  
Loyola Rwabose Karobwa
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
The State ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Force Majeure ◽  
Practical Analysis ◽  
Energy Justice

Over 90% of Uganda's power is generated from renewable sources. Standardised Implementation Agreements and Power Purchase Agreements create a long-term relationship between Generating Companies and the state-owned off-taker guaranteed by Government. The COVID-19 pandemic and measures to curb the spread of the virus have triggered the scrutiny and application of force majeure (FM) clauses in these agreements. This article reviews the FM clauses and considers their relevance. The authors submit that FM clauses are a useful commercial tool for achieving energy justice by ensuring the continuity of the project, despite the dire effects of the pandemic. Proposals are made for practical considerations for a post-COVID-19 future which provides the continued pursuit of policy goals of promoting renewable energy sources and increasing access to clean energy, thus accelerating just energy transitions.

scholarly journals The natural duty of justice in non-ideal circumstances: On the moral demands of institution building and reform

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Valentini
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Institutional Agents ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
The Status

Principles of distributive justice bind macro-level institutional agents, like the state. But what does justice require in non-ideal circumstances, where institutional agents are unjust or do not exist in the first place? Many answer by invoking Rawls's natural duty ‘to further just arrangements not yet established’, treating it as a ‘normative bridge’ between institutional demands of distributive justice and individual responsibilities in non-ideal circumstances. I argue that this response strategy is unsuccessful. I show that the more unjust the status quo is due to non-compliance, the less demanding the natural duty of justice becomes. I conclude that, in non-ideal circumstances, the bulk of the normative work is done by another natural duty: that of beneficence. This conclusion has significant implications for how we conceptualize our political responsibilities in non-ideal circumstances, and cautions us against the tendency – common in contemporary political theory – to answer all high-stakes normative questions under the rubric of justice.

Mercantilism Revisited

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
The Status

The intention of this paper is to look at some of the problems which arise in attempts to provide ‘explanations’ of mercantilism and especially its English manifestations. By ‘explanations’ I mean the efforts which some writers have made causally to relate the historical appearance of sets of economic notions or general recommendations on economic policy or even acts of economic policy by the state to particular long-term phenomena of, or trends in, economic history. Historians of economic thought have not generally made such attempts. With a few exceptions they have normally concerned themselves with tracing and analysing the contributions to economic theory made by those labelled as mercantilists. The most extreme case of non-explanation is provided by Eli Heckscher's reiterated contention in his two massive volumes that mercantilism was not to be explained by reference to the economic circumstances of the time; mercantilist policy was not to be seen as ‘the outcome of the economic situation’; mercantilist writers did not construct their system ‘out of any knowledge of reality however derived’. So strongly held an antideterminist fortress, however congenial a haven for some historians of ideas, has given no comfort to other historians – economic or political, Marxist or non-Marxist – who obstinately exhibit empiricist tendencies. Some forays against the fortress have been made. Barry Supple's analysis of English commerce in the early seventeenth century and the resulting presentation of mercantilist thought and policy as ‘the economics of depression’ has passed into the textbooks and achieved the status of an orthodoxy.

Pandora's Box: Reviewing the Composition of the UN Security Council in the Light of British and French Experience 1945–1963

1997 ◽  
Vol 66 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 273-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Short Term ◽  
French Experience ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Foreign Ministries

AbstractThis article aims to throw a light on the problems relating to the proposed enlargement of the composition of the UN Security Council at present by studying the creation of four non-permanent seats in the Security Council in 1963 from the British and the French perspectives. The examination is based on the author's research of original documents in the archives of the British and French foreign ministries and upon information provided to the author by British, French and Finnish diplomats. The author concludes that, as between 1946 and 1963, British and French short term interests are still best served by maintaining the status quo in the Security Council. However, in a long term perspective it is not clear where the interests of these two States lie.

scholarly journals Whom is political science for?

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Andrea Theocharis ◽  
Marcus Graetsch
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Political Science ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Status ◽  
Internet Discussion

We all study political science, but - what do we actually do here anyway? This essay expresses our thoughts about our subject. The everyday life in University doesn’t seem to give enough space for questioning what is this all about. Maybe a debate on that issue does not exist extensively because of fears of the loss of entitlement. The aim of this essay is to support the heightening of student’s awareness about the status quo of research and teaching in political science as we can judge it from our modest experiences. Trying to get to the basis of such a problem is not easy. The things here written are surely not the state of the art, but they could shine a better light on the problem what had been called the 'politics of political science' in an earlier Internet discussion on the IAPSS website. This paper should be understood as a start for a discussion, where we all can express our surely different experiences and ideas.

OPTIMAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXAS ELECTRICITY MARKET

2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (04) ◽  
pp. 1650010 ◽  
Author(s):  
WICHSINEE WIBULPOLPRASERT
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Electricity Market ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Welfare Gain ◽  
Energy Investment ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Status

Renewable electricity subsidies have been popular policy instruments to combat climate change because of their ability to offset emissions. This paper studies the long-run welfare benefits of optimizing the design of the existing renewable energy subsidy (the status quo) in the presence of heterogeneity in the offset emissions. In particular, I measure the welfare gain from differentiating renewable subsidies across location and time to reflect the environmental benefits from emissions offset in the context of wind energy in the Texas electricity market. I find that the welfare gain from differentiation is small compared to the gain already achieved under the status quo subsidy. In contrast, the optimal emissions tax yields much larger welfare gain because it engages in other cost-effective emissions abatement channels that renewable energy subsidies do not: namely, demand conservation and cross-plant fuel substitution.

The Question of Conscience in Why am I Doing This?

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
ADEYEMI AMOS ADEGBOYEGA
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
The Status ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
State Of Affairs

Greatly concerned and obsessed with the state of affairs in the country, literary artists more often than not, call to conscience the sensibilities of their audience, politicians inclusive. Against the prebendal nature of politics which is characterized by different anarchist tendencies in Nigeria, literary artists find justification for their craft as they seek ultimately to re-organize the society and confront its perils. This is the crux of this study. My concern is to rationalize Abubakar Gimba’s Why am I Doing This? banking on the interrogative undertone of the title, a variation from the norm. This interrogative undertone as will be explicated herein questions the rationalities – of the author and the actors in his observations as documented. Four essays from the collection were purposively sampled to demonstrate this. Deploying the literary tool of postcolonialism, this study a critical qualitative analysis submits that Abubakar Gimba laments the anathema and apathy that pervades the Nigerian society despite the professed democratic system of governance. He unveils the hidden and sad truths of modern Nigeria in its raw and naked form. These truths contradict her democracy. It is against this that Gimba hopes for a change in the status-quo and modus operandi of statecraft.

Gender Awareness and Women Managers in Tourism

2019 ◽  
pp. 218-238
Author(s):  
Inês Carvalho ◽  
Carlos Costa ◽  
Anália Torres
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Women Managers ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
The State ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
The Status ◽  
Gender Awareness ◽  
State Organizations

The purpose of this chapter is to reveal women top-level managers' gender awareness in relation to two aspects: 1) perceptions of discrimination and 2) views of what could be done towards gender equality (by the state, organizations, and women themselves), so that more women can advance their careers. Women top-level managers in the Portuguese tourism sector were interviewed. The interview data suggests that discrimination might still be pervasive in the Portuguese tourism industry. However, many women do not perceive it as “real” discrimination and have contradictory discourses about it. Informants were also asked what could be done so that more women advance in their careers. They place the solution to the problem of gender equality mostly in women's hands. While some of the strategies proposed by women confront the gender order, others align with the status quo by ensuring that women “fit in” without challenging existing structures.

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