Economic Diversification, Homogeneity of Interests, and the Impartiality of Government

2021 ◽  
pp. 377-398
Author(s):  
Petrus Olander
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Sectoral Structure ◽  
Government Power

Can economic diversification constrain elites from shaping government institutions to their own advantage? This chapter reviews scholarly work that suggests it can. Elites frequently use government institutions to cement their position and enrich themselves at the expense of others, but to overcome opposition to their own advancement they must form coalitions. The ability to form coalitions is conditioned by the compatibility of underlying interests; the more diverse the economy, the less cohesive the underlying interests are, making it harder for the elites to form collusive coalitions. This chapter outlines political theory and recent research on the role played by diverse and competing interests in shaping the exercise of government power, democratization, and institutional reform. Considering the sectoral structure of the economy can help us better understand ongoing economic and political processes such as reconcentration of economic activities, the position of transient labor, and state-led efforts for economic diversification.

Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data in Israel

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omer Tene
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
National Security ◽  
Attorney General ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Government Power ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The One ◽  
Sector Data

Israel is a democracy committed to the protection of human rights while at the same time trying to contain uniquely difficult national security concerns. One area where this tension is manifest is government access to communications data. On the one hand, subscriber privacy is a constitutional right protected by legislation and Supreme Court jurisprudence; on the other hand, communications data are a powerful tool in the hands of national security and law enforcement agencies. This chapter examines Israel’s attempt to balance these competing interests by empowering national security agencies while at the same time creating mechanisms of accountability. In particular, Israel utilizes the special independent status of the attorney general as a check on government power.

We-Transparency

2014 ◽  
pp. 156-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bani ◽  
Gianluca Sgueo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Core ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Political Problem ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Western Democracies

“Transparency” is a term that many speculate about. According to scholars, transparency has three inter-related aims: first, to inform citizens in a simple and understandable way on the government's decisions; second, to foster civil society participation and engagement; and, third, to monitor and to prevent corruption. Notwithstanding these shared thoughts, much has to be done in liberal democracies. The European Commission estimates that corruption costs the EU economy roughly 120 billion EUR per year. The lack of transparency is both an economic and political problem, since corruption and opaque policies may develop degenerative forms of governance, which, in turn, lessens citizens' political participation and understanding on how the governmental machine functions. This “participative deficit” is common in many Western democracies. The notion of popular empowerment, the “core of democracy,” has been diluted to the point that most citizens exercise their putative sovereignty only through periodic elections of representatives and thus have extremely limited input into political processes. This deficit is further exacerbated by the fact that elected representatives in fact embody a range of competing “interests”—party, ideological, corporate—which may or may not coincide with those of the voter. This chapter explores a new concept of transparency.

Mission in Modern Life

1998 ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
Edmund F. Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Secular Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Relations

In this paper I discuss recent scholarly work on ideology, mostly by Europeans, that exposes a secularist bias in current political theory, invites a nonderogatory concept of religion, and (I argue) justifies more flexible church/state relations. This work involves (1) redefining ideology as any action-oriented ideas, whether destructive or ameliorative, including both secular theory and religion, then (2) drawing on hermeneutical and critical studies of the power/ideology relationship to rediscover a role for ‘utopia’ as a social catalyst for amelioration. I then call attention to the relevance of ‘mission’ to this work. For in both secular and sacred contexts, missions are defined and assigned to individuals or groups to enhance some aspect of the organizing entity’s sense of purpose and possibility. What stands out in each instance is that the sense of mission is not passively epistemic but actively project-oriented, goal-directed. It can be used with reference to any end or goal that is at least implicitly normative and which people seek to attain. A mission moves people, however, only if it is tied to some belief-based social identity which can be interpreted as oriented to that end. A case can be made, accordingly, for accommodating religious views in our political discourse, for they have a history of directing people’s thinking beyond what is to what ought to be, and without them we are ever more inclined to tolerate mediocrity in ourselves and despair in others.

scholarly journals Under the Banner of the Prophet? Terek and Dagestan in the Flames of the Civil War

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10 (108)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Julia Biryukova
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
The North ◽  
Key Aspects

The review is devoted to Vladimir Borisovich Lobanov's monograph “Terek and Dagestan in the Flames of Civil War: Religious, military-political and ideological Confrontation in the 1917—1920s”, which touches on all the most important aspects of life in the North Caucasus in the era of revolution and Civil War. There is a serious source base of the study, which has absorbed, perhaps, a critical mass of documents on the problem, which allowed us to draw convincing conclusions. Lobanov highlighted the key aspects of the chosen topic: the development of autonomous self-government institutions in the North Caucasus against the background of the collapse of statehood, the Islamic factor in the Civil War, the emergence and activity of the spectrum of anti-Bolshevik forces, the role of the Cossacks and the Volunteer Army in military-political processes in the region. He also pays attention to the revolutionaries who played a significant role in the establishment of Soviet power in the region, analyzes the reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks in the North Caucasus.

scholarly journals Egalitarianism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Knight ◽  
Andreas Albertsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
Moral Equality ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Substantive Equality ◽  
Egalitarian Theory

Equality as a bare concept refers to two or more distinct things or people being the same in some dimension. Different forms of equality are distinguished by the dimension that is held to be the same. Within political theory, three main forms of equality can be distinguished: moral equality, political equality, and substantive equality. “Moral equality” refers to each individual having the same inherent dignity as a human being, and therefore being worthy of respect. “Political equality,” by contrast, refers to each individual having the same basic rights of involvement in political processes, e.g., by voting or running for office. Modern political theories generally accept that each individual has moral and political equality. The distinguishing feature of egalitarianism is its interpretation of this equal status as requiring substantive equality, i.e., that each individual be placed in the same social or economic conditions. Egalitarianism is an inherently normative view, and more specifically, a view about distributive justice—that is, about the appropriate distribution of benefits and burdens. The account of these benefits and burdens varies from one egalitarian theory to another. For instance, some egalitarians believe that levels of benefit should be measured in terms of resources, others in terms of well-being, and still others in terms of basic capabilities. Egalitarians also disagree on whether benefits should be distributed equally or whether equality of substantive condition in some other sense (i.e., equal opportunity or equal social standing) might be sufficient. Accordingly, each egalitarian theory has its own account of equality. These theories as a whole contrast with non-egalitarian theories, such as right libertarianism or conservativism, which deny that people’s condition should be made equal in any substantive sense. In practical terms, egalitarianism is strongly associated with the political left, but different brands of egalitarianism are associated with different brands of left-wing politics, from traditional socialism or social democracy to a less distribution-focused politics of identity. This article provides an overview of egalitarianism, primarily focusing on its development in contemporary political theory. For left libertarianism, see the Oxford Bibliographies article “Libertarianism.”

The role of agroholdings in inclusive development of united territorial communities and districts: synergetic effect of decentralization

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Oleksandr I. Pavlov ◽  
Serhiy M. Didukh ◽  
Vitaliy D. Barvinenko
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Synergetic Effect ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Business Entities

The aim of the article is to substantiate the synergetic relationship between the consequences of decentralization of authorities and governance constituting the formation of united territorial communities (UTCs) and new districts and the role of agricultural holdings in creating an inclusive environment within these socio-spatial formations. The methodological basis of the study consists of systemic, synergetic, geographical, socio-economic approaches, which together form an interdisciplinary research paradigm. The methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, SWOT-analysis, methods of comparison, statistics, and sociology are used to examine the processes occurring in rural areas as a result of reforming the basic and district levels of the administrative-territorial organization and their transition to the principles of inclusiveness with the active participation of agricultural holdings. The analysis of socio-economic and political processes occurring within the UTCs and districts has contributed to the identification of their orientation in the following directions: forming the rural-urban agglomerations of the convergent-continuum type; revealing the complementary relationship between agricultural, rural, and inclusive development, which forms the preconditions for the creation of welfare inclusion within the specified space; determining the dimensions of inclusive development of UTCs and districts; disclosing the priority role of agricultural holdings as activators of the process of creating inclusion, provided that they increase their social responsibility for the results of their own economic activities and establish a harmonious partnership between government, business, and society. The originality and novelty of the study lie in the use of the synergies effect in the analysis of interconnected phenomena consolidated by a single focus on the formation of the rural and inclusive environment as decent living conditions for local people, socially-oriented business, and the establishment of efficient rural self-government with the participation of large agri-food companies of the holding type. The article substantiates the conditions, directions, and ways to transform the agricultural holdings into activators of inclusive development of UTCs and districts, which can be used in the process of practical activity of local governments and business entities.

scholarly journals Brunei Darussalam in 2016

Asian Survey ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik M. MÜLler
Keyword(s):  
Budget Deficit ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Brunei Darussalam

Brunei continued in 2016 to suffer from declining oil and gas prices. The budget deficit grew. The Sultan made economic diversification and “prudent spending” the year’s central political themes. He criticized several government institutions during “surprise visits” and sharply attacked the Ministry of Religious Affairs for “delaying” the full enforcement of an Islamic legal reform.

scholarly journals A DINÂMICA ESPACIAL DA ECONOMIA BRASILEIRA NOS ANOS 2010 A 2015

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 71-106
Author(s):  
Camila Vito Silva de Lima ◽  
Hamilton Matos Cardoso Júnior ◽  
Divina Aparecida Leonel Lunas
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Internal Migration ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
External Trade ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
South Axis ◽  
Wealth Generation ◽  
Concentration Levels

Este artigo visa apresentar um comparativo entre a distribuição espacial das atividades econômicas das Regiões e Unidades da Federação brasileiras verificados por Ablas e Fava (1985) para a década de 1980 com os resultados divulgados pelos órgãos oficiais para os anos de 2010 a 2015 e identificar seus níveis de concentração, baseando-se em dados sobre migração interna, geração de riqueza nos três setores da economia e volume de comércio interno e externo em 2013. A análise das informações indica que a atividade econômica das Regiões e Unidades da Federação do Brasil continua centralizada no eixo Sudeste-Sul, contudo apresenta tendência de queda ao longo do período estudado. Assim, conclui-se que a economia brasileira permanece espacialmente concentrada até os dias atuais.  Palavras-chave: Brasil; Regiões e Unidades da Federação; Distribuição Espacial; Atividades Econômicas.   THE SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF BRAZILIAN ECONOMY IN THE YEARS 2010 TO 2015 Abstract This paper aims to present a comparative between the spatial distribution of economic activities by the Brazilian Regions and Federative Units verified by Ablas and Fava (1985) for the decade of 1980 with the results published by the official government institutions for  the years of 2010 to 2015 and identify their concentration levels, based on data about: internal migration, wealth generation in the three economy sectors and volume of internal and external trade to the year of 2013. The analysis of the information indicates that the economic activity of the Brazilian Regions and Federative Units remain centered in the Southeast-South axis, however, presents downward trend over the period studied. Thus, it is concluded that the of the Brazilian economy remains spatially concentrated until the present day. Keywords: Brazil; Mesoregions and Federative Units; Spatial Distribution; Economic Activities.   LA DINÁMICA ESPACIAL DE LA ECONOMÍA BRASILEÑA EN LOS AÑOS 2010 A 2015 Resumen Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar un comparativo entre la distribución espacial de las actividades económicas de las Regiones y Unidades de la Federacíon brasileñas verificadas por Ablas y Fava (1985) para el decenio de 1980 con los resultados publicados por las autoridades nacionales competentes para los años de 2010 a 2015 tiendo como base los datos sobre: migración interna, generación de riqueza en los tres sectores de la economía y volumen de comercio interno y externo para el año 2013. La análisis de las informaciónes indica que la actividad económica de las Regiones y Unidades de la Federacíon brasileñas permanecen centradas en el eje Sureste-Sur, sin embargo, presentan tendencia a la baja durante el período estudiado. Así, se concluye que la economía brasileña sigue espacialmente concentrada hasta nuestros días. Palavras clave: Brasil, Mesoregiones y Unidades de la Federacíon; Distribución Espacial; Actividades Económicas.

scholarly journals PROBLEMS OF USE OF RECREATIONAL POTENTIAL OF THE SIBERIAN FEDERAL DISTRICT ON THE EXAMPLE OF WESTERN SIBERIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 262-267
Author(s):  
Elena Ushakova ◽  
Sergei Vdovin
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Regional Economy ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Federal District ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Siberian Federal District ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Sectoral Structure ◽  
Novosibirsk Region

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the need to assess structural changes in the territorial and sectoral structure, as well as factors affecting the competitiveness of the regional economy. The article presents the results of calculations of structural changes in the economy of the Novosibirsk region for the period from 2000 to 2016 using the method of "shift-share analysis". The method allows to assess the degree of influence of three groups of factors (national, regional and internal competitiveness of the regional industries) on changes in the regional economy. The article presents the results of calculations of the growth rates employed in certain sectors of the Novosibirsk region by types of economic activity for the period from 2000 to 2016, as well as indicators of the MIX-effect (composition) and DIF-effect (competition). Based on the assessment of structural changes, the types of economic activities that demonstrate the highest indicators of industry competitiveness are determined.

scholarly journals Percepção dos citricultores e técnicos agrícolas quanto ao uso dos agrotóxicos

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Ringo Souza Batista ◽  
Jéferson Luiz Ferrari ◽  
Marianna Abdalla Prata Guimarães ◽  
Gilson Pinel de Mendonça
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Pest Management ◽  
Pest Management ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Rational Use ◽  
Espírito Santo ◽  
Adequate Knowledge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Espirito Santo

<p>A citricultura tem se destacado como alternativa de renda aos agricultores familiares no estado do Espírito Santo, numa proposta de diversificação econômica com a cultura do café. Objetivou-se neste trabalho verificar o nível de conhecimento e comprometimento técnico a respeito da responsabilidade da emissão de Receitas Agronômicas por técnicos em agropecuária, egressos do IFES-campus de Alegre, bem como analisar a percepção dos citricultores quanto ao uso racional de agrotóxicos. Para chegar aos resultados, um questionário foi estruturado e aplicado a uma parcela representativa de citricultores dos municípios de Alegre e de Jerônimo Monteiro, e uma oficina pedagógica, com o tema "Receituário Agronômico e a Citricultura", foi realizada com os técnicos em agropecuária. Percebeu-se, por parte dos citricultores de Jerônimo Monteiro e de Alegre, o uso irracional de produtos agrotóxicos no manejo fitossanitário das suas atividades econômicas. Notou-se que os técnicos não apresentaram segurança quanto ao tema discutido na oficina, demonstrando pouco conhecimento a respeito dos problemas fitossanitários dos citros. Há a necessidade de ações educativas no sentido de proporcionar aos citricultores e aos técnicos, o conhecimento adequado para adoção do Manejo Integrado de Pragas e dos métodos alternativos de manejo, sensibilizando-os quanto ao uso racional de agrotóxicos.</p><p align="center"><strong><em>Perception of growers and agricultural experts in the use of pesticides</em></strong></p><p><strong>Abstract</strong><strong>: </strong>The citriculture has emerged as an alternative income to farmers in the state of Espírito Santo, a proposal for economic diversification with coffee growing. In this scenario aimed at verifying the level of commitment and technical knowledge about the responsibility of issuing Agronomic Recipes by technicians in agriculture, egresses of IFES-campus Alegre, and analyze the perception of citrus growers Alegre-ES and Jerônimo Monteiro-ES about the rational use of agrochemicals. To get the expected results , a questionnaire was structured and applied to a significant portion of citrus growers in the municipalities of Alegre and Jeronimo Monteiro and conducting a workshop with the theme " Recipes Agronomy and Citrus " with the help of technicians in agriculture graduates of IFES - campus Alegre of 2013. It was noticed that there, by the growers of Jeronimo Monteiro and Alegre, the irrational use of pesticides products in the phytosanitary management of their economic activities. We conclude that the technicians showed no certainty as to the subject discussed in the workshop, demonstrating little knowledge about the disease problems of citrus and its management, thus, the need for educational activities is necessary  to provide growers the adequate knowledge to adoption of Integrated Pest Management and of alternative management methods, about the rational use of pesticides.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

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