Spatial Models, Legislative Gridlock, and Resource Policy Reform

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Nathan Chael ◽  
Christophe Crombez ◽  
Pieterjan Vangerven
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Resource Policy ◽  
The Common

This review evaluates the use of spatial models for the analysis of policy making. First, we examine spatial theory and its applications in a variety of institutional settings. We discuss how the preferences of the actors involved in political processes, the steps in those processes, and the locations of the reversion policies affect the policies that emerge from the processes. To illustrate this and analyze how the rights of political actors determine the extent of policy reform and the occurrence of gridlock, we use a spatial model of European Union (EU) policy making. We apply the model to major EU reforms in two resource policy areas: the Common Agricultural Policy reforms of the past two decades and the recent reforms of the Emissions Trading System.

scholarly journals Ministerial Autonomy, Parliamentary Scrutiny and Government Reform Output in Parliamentary Democracies

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402110243
Author(s):  
Hanna Bäck ◽  
Wolfgang C. Müller ◽  
Mariyana Angelova ◽  
Daniel Strobl
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Government Reform ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Limited Impact ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Government

One of the most important decisions coalition partners make when forming a government is the division of ministries. Ministerial portfolios provide the party in charge with considerable informational and agenda-setting advantages, which parties can use to shape policies according to their preferences. Oversight mechanisms in parliaments play a central role in mitigating ministerial policy discretion, allowing coalition partners to control each other even though power has been delegated to individual ministers. However, we know relatively little about how such mechanisms influence the agenda-setting and gatekeeping powers of ministers and how much influence minister parties have on policy output relative to the government as a whole in different institutional settings. We fill this gap by analyzing original data on over 2000 important social and economic policy reform measures adopted in nine Western European countries over 20 years, based on a coding of more than 1200 country reports issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We find that parliaments with strong oversight powers constrain the agenda-setting capacity of minister parties but have limited impact on their gatekeeping capacity. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of policy-making and democratic accountability.

Information Component of Disintegration Processes in Spain and Great Britain: the Comparative Aspects

2019 ◽  
pp. 142-154
Author(s):  
Vasyl Karpo ◽  
Nataliia Nechaieva-Yuriichuk
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
Ancient Times

From ancient times till nowadays information plays a key role in the political processes. The beginning of XXI century demonstrated the transformation of global security from military to information, social etc. aspects. The widening of pandemic demonstrated the weaknesses of contemporary authoritarian states and the power of human-oriented states. During the World War I the theoretical and practical interest toward political manipulation and political propaganda grew definitely. After 1918 the situation developed very fast and political propaganda became the part of political influence. XX century entered into the political history as the millennium of propaganda. The collapse of the USSR and socialist system brought power to new political actors. The global architecture of the world has changed. Former Soviet republic got independence and tried to separate from Russia. And Ukraine was between them. The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine was the start point for a number of processes in world politics. But the most important was the fact that the role and the place of information as the challenge to world security was reevaluated. The further annexation of Crimea, the attempt to legitimize it by the comparing with the referendums in Scotland and Catalonia demonstrated the willingness of Russian Federation to keep its domination in the world. The main difference between the referendums in Scotland and in Catalonia was the way of Russian interference. In 2014 (Scotland) tried to delegitimised the results of Scottish referendum because they were unacceptable for it. But in 2017 we witness the huge interference of Russian powers in Spain internal affairs, first of all in spreading the independence moods in Catalonia. The main conclusion is that the world has to learn some lessons from Scottish and Catalonia cases and to be ready to new challenges in world politics in a format of information threats.

Corporate Politics in the Public Sphere: Corporate Citizenspeak in a Mass Media Policy Contest

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nyberg ◽  
John Murray
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article connects the previously isolated literatures on corporate citizenship and corporate political activity to explain how firms construct political influence in the public sphere. The public engagement of firms as political actors is explored empirically through a discursive analysis of a public debate between the mining industry and the Australian government over a proposed tax. The findings show how the mining industry acted as a corporate citizen concerned about the common good. This, in turn, legitimized corporate political activity, which undermined deliberation about the common good. The findings explain how the public sphere is refeudalized through corporate manipulation of deliberative processes via what we term corporate citizenspeak—simultaneously speaking as corporate citizens and for individual citizens. Corporate citizenspeak illustrates the duplicitous engagement of firms as political actors, claiming political legitimacy while subverting deliberative norms. This contributes to the theoretical development of corporations as political actors by explaining how corporate interests are aggregated to represent the common good and how corporate political activity is employed to dominate the public sphere. This has important implications for understanding how corporations undermine democratic principles.

scholarly journals Tensions Between Teaching Sexuality Education and Neoliberal Policy Reform in Quebec’s Professional Competencies for Beginning Teachers

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-159
Author(s):  
Dan Parker ◽  
Robert McGray
Keyword(s):  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
New Teachers ◽  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Professional Competencies ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms

This research draws into question the effects that neoliberal policy reforms — with an emphasis on individual and measurable “competencies” — has on new teachers teaching sexuality education in Quebec. While we examine professional competencies that teachers can use to define their mandate for teaching sexuality education as a beginning professional, we also detail the ways in which the competencies constrain pedagogical practice. Our argument is that while there are avenues for teachers to use the professional competencies for sexuality education, neoliberal reforms atomize teachers in a search for accountability. As a result, for fear of generating controversy, potentially contentious issues like sexuality education are not readily addressed. This atomization restricts both teachers and the field — the policy circumscribes sexuality education as personal rather than cultural. As such, we are left impotent to address cultural issues of sexuality education.

scholarly journals Indo-Pacific Maritime Cooperation: ASEAN Mechanisms on Security Towards Global Maritime Governance

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Angel Damayanti
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Maritime Security ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
West Pacific Ocean ◽  
Ocean Governance ◽  
International Stability ◽  
The Common

The importance of the sea in the current era of globalization has called all countries for managing their interests at sea as well as their common concern collectively, cooperatively and inclusively. By looking at the notions of the sea as a medium of connectivity and sea as a resource coupled with its vulnerability particularly in Indian and Pacific Oceans, Indo-Pacific maritime cooperation towards global ocean governance accordingly are vital to the international stability, a successful of sea-based trading system and sustainability use of the oceans. Therefore this article discusses the rationale of Indo-Pacific Maritime Cooperation, which made possible by the common concern of countries that locate between the Indian and West Pacific ocean maritime, the vulnerabilities of the region and the existence of various ASEAN’s mechanisms on Maritime Security Cooperation as well as regional regime and international law. Nevertheless, ASEAN needs to note some issues relating to its consolidation as well as the internal challenges in the realization of global maritime governance.

‘Depoliticisation’ in the Reform of the Panamanian Security Apparatus

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
CORINNE CAUMARTIN
Keyword(s):  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us

This article examines the unusual public security reform process that took place in Panama in the wake of the US military invasion of December 1989. The changes to the Panamanian security forces that ensued were in equal part a ‘demilitarisation’ process, a police reform and an (imposed) transition to democracy where the political domination of the Panamanian security forces came to an abrupt end. Deploying the concepts of demilitarisation, professionalisation and depoliticisation, the article evaluates the political role and activities of police forces and the nature of their relationship with the main Panamanian political actors through to the present Torrijos administration. It then assesses the implications for wider political processes, suggesting that explanations for the success or failure of reform are unlikely to be found in the examination of the design and implementation of the reform itself, but that broader political processes must be analysed in order to understand the dynamic that underpins it.

Policy-Making in the European Union

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
National Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Common ◽  
Key Events ◽  
The Eu

Policy-Making in the European Union explores the link between the modes and mechanisms of EU policy-making and its implementation at the national level. From defining the processes, institutions and modes through which policy-making operates, the text moves on to situate individual policies within these modes, detail their content, and analyse how they are implemented, navigating policy in all its complexities. The first part of the text examines processes, institutions, and the theoretical and analytical underpinnings of policy-making, while the second part considers a wide range of policy areas, from economics to the environment, and security to the single market. Throughout the text, theoretical approaches sit side by side with the reality of key events in the EU, including enlargement, the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, and the financial crisis and resulting Eurozone crisis, focusing on what determines how policies are made and implemented. This includes major developments such as the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, the reform of the common agricultural policy, and new initiatives to promote EU energy security. In the final part, the chapters consider trends in EU policy-making and the challenges facing the EU.

Phases of Transformation

2019 ◽  
pp. 585-590
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Merkel ◽  
Lea Heyne
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Common Good ◽  
System Change ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
System 2 ◽  
The Common ◽  
Consolidated Democracy ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
External Forces

This chapter examines system change: the interval between an autocratic system and a new consolidated democracy. This transformation can be differentiated in to three phases: (1) the end of the autocratic system, (2) the institutionalization of democracy, and (3) the consolidation of democracy. The end of an autocratic system can be caused by internal legitimacy crises as well as external forces like military conflict, and follows different courses. During the institutionalization of democracy, political actors need to manage to establish institutions and norms that maintain a balance between particular interests and the common good in order to prevent a backslide into autocracy. The consolidation of democracy starts with the adaptation of a new constitution, and takes place on four levels: (a) constitutional consolidation, (b) representative consolidation, (c) behavioural consolidation, and (d) the consolidation of civil society. A democracy consolidated on all four levels has considerable reserves of resistance to meet exogenous destabilization shocks.

5. Key Policies

2018 ◽  
pp. 101-122
Author(s):  
John Peterson ◽  
Alberta Sbragia
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
Competition Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Common ◽  
Policy Types

This chapter examines some of the most important areas of policy-making in the European Union. It first explains how EU policy-making differs from national policy-making before discussing the most important policies aimed at building the internal market and limiting its potentially negative impact on individuals, society, and the environment. The EU’s ‘market-building’ policies include competition policy, trade policy, and the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), while ‘market-correcting’ and ‘cushioning’ policies include the common agricultural policy, the cohesion policy, and environmental and social regulation. The chapter shows how these policies are made and also why and how they matter. It also compares policy types in the EU.

Financial Incentives in Vertical Diffusion: The Variable Effects of Obama’s Race to the Top Initiative on State Policy Making

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-212
Author(s):  
William G. Howell ◽  
Asya Magazinnik
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Race To The Top ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Vertical Diffusion ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
General Importance ◽  
Federal Initiatives

A substantial body of empirical work documents the influence of federal monies on state policy making. Less attention, however, has been paid to the conditioning effects of states’ prior financial health. Nearly always, apportioned monies cover only a fraction of the costs of federal policy reforms. The capacity of states to deploy supplementary resources, therefore, may inform the willingness of states to comply with the federal government’s policy objectives. Focusing on Barack Obama’s Race to the Top (RttT) initiative, we present new evidence that state responses to federal initiatives that carry financial rewards systematically vary with the amount of resources already on hand. States that survived the Great Recession with their education budgets largely intact, we find, tended to implement more RttT reforms overall, and especially more reforms that required substantial up-front financial commitments. These patterns of policy adoptions can be meaningfully attributed to RttT, are not the result of either prior or ancillary policy trends, and speak to the general importance of accounting for what states already have, above and beyond what the federal government is willing to offer, when studying the financial incentives of vertical diffusion.

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