“But the Pension Fund Was Just SITTING There …”: The Politics of Teacher Retirement Plans

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Hess ◽  
Juliet P. Squire
Keyword(s):  
Pension Plans ◽  
The Political ◽  
Retirement Plans ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
Teacher Retirement ◽  
Retirement Systems

The tension at the heart of pension politics is the incentive to satisfy today's claimants in the here and now at the expense of long-term concerns. Teacher pensions, in particular, pose two challenges. The first is that political incentives invite irresponsible fiscal stewardship, as public officials make outsized short-term commitments to employees. The second is that incentives hinder modernization, as policy makers avoid the politically perilous task of altering plans ill suited to attracting talent in the contemporary labor market. The alignment of the political stars has helped some states and localities to address the first challenge, but far too few have demonstrated a willingness to tackle the second. We illustrate the political dynamics through discussions of pension plans in New Jersey, Oregon, and San Diego, California, and suggest several political strategies that could make pension challenges more tractable and encourage public officials to be responsible fiscal stewards or to revisit anachronistic retirement systems.

Theories of Policy Diffusion

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Borges Sugiyama
Keyword(s):  
Event History Analysis ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Professional Networks ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
Family Health Program ◽  
Local Diversity ◽  
Professional Norms ◽  
History Analysis

Brazil's democratic constitution granted municipalities responsibility to design and implement social policies, allowing for tailored programs to meet local constituent demands. Yet instead of pursuing local diversity, many governments chose to emulate programs made famous elsewhere. What explains the diffusion of social programs across Brazil? This article investigates whether policy makers are motivated by political self-interest, ideology, or socialized norms. It draws on an event history analysis of two innovative programs that have diffused throughout Brazil's largest cities: Bolsa Escola, an education program, and Programa Saúde da Família, a family health program. The author argues that political incentives, such as electoral competition, cannot explain diffusion. Rather, diffusion occurs when left-of-center mayors are ideologically compelled to enact these programs and when public officials with connections to professional networks are socialized to follow professional norms.

Economic and Demographic Developments

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Marzagalli
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Trade Growth ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Marxist Interpretation ◽  
The Revolution

The reassessment of the driving forces leading to the French Revolution provoked the rejection of the traditional Marxist interpretation according to which the Revolution was led by an emerging capitalistic bourgeoisie strengthened by long-term industrial and trade growth, and the emergence of interpretations based on political and ideological developments. This chapter argues that demography and economy still offer important keys to understand the origins of the Revolution if they are embedded within a broader analysis, taking social, cultural, and political aspects into account. In stressing the escalation of social tensions provoked by an unequal redistribution of resources, analysis of the demographic and economic developments highlight the background against which the convergence of political and short-term subsistence crises pushed rural and urban masses to revolt in 1789. Without their actions, the political revolution led by a majority of the representatives who met at the Estates-General in 1789 would have been repressed.

Who Is Listening? When Scholars Think They Are Talking to Congress

2014 ◽  
Vol 657 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-273
Author(s):  
Kenneth Prewitt
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

The editors asked for my view on whether, in the current political climate, the recommendations in this volume of The ANNALS are likely to be heeded. The question that precedes this one is whether the volume’s contributors understand why policy-makers make use of science at all. “No” is the obvious answer, though I see this not as a failure particular to their effort but rather as a broader failure of social science. Getting the science right is a necessary but not sufficient step in getting it used. Social scientists have not investigated the use of science in policy in a serious way. They must if science is to have influence in the public sphere. I also comment on the political climate, unhelpfully described by many worried observers as antiscience. It is more informative to say that there is a Congress-led effort to push science policy and federal expenditures toward short-term and narrow national goals. This is harmful to science and consequently to the nation, and scientists should explain why. But they must also respect that science policy and setting priorities for spending public funds are congressional responsibilities.

HISTORY, POLITICS, AND CLAIMS OF MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-271
Author(s):  
John David Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Scientific Support

Claims that a man-made global warming catastrophe is imminent have two major aspects: the scientific support offered for the claims, and the political proposals brought forth in response to the claims. The central questions are whether non-scientists should accept the claims themselves as true, and whether they should support the political proposals attached to them. Predictions of a coming disaster are shown to be a-historical in both the long term and the short term, to involve shifting predictions that are contrary to evidence, and to be opposed by many scientists. The political proposals to alleviate this alleged problem—especially plans by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—are shown to offer no alternative to fossil fuels, and to portend a major economic decline and permanent losses of liberty. The anthropogenic global warming claims are largely motivated not by science, but by a desire for socialist intervention on a national and a global scale. Neither the claims to an impending climate catastrophe nor the political proposals attached to those claims should be accepted.

scholarly journals Short-term versus Long-term Investments: A Study of Women Stock Investors of Punjab

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Vohra
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Capital Gains ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Economic Empowerment ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Cross Tabulation

Short term capital gains and long term capital appreciation are important factors influencing the investment decisions of every investor. The purchase of long-term and short term investments by an investor varies across gender. The present study is an attempt to identify the term for which investments are made by women investors of Punjab and to explore if there is a significant difference in the term for which investments are made by women investors based on their demographics. For the purpose of the study, data were collected from primary sources using a pre tested, well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics as well as cross-tabulation analysis have been used in order to analyse the collected data. The results of the study brought out that the majority of women invest for a short term. The term for which the investments are made also varies with the personal monthly income of the respondents. In the light of results, the study suggests that government and the policy makers should undertake various initiatives for the economic empowerment of women as their economic empowerment is a pre requisite for their long term financial well-being.

Negotiation in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristopher Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Alternative Means

Foreign policy often involves two or more countries finding a path from contested interests to a peaceful agreement that incorporates the political and security desires of the relevant parties. In almost every case, the possibility of armed conflict as an alternative means of settling disagreements casts its shadow. Recent research on foreign policy can be well understood as following the view, first articulated by Thomas C. Schelling, that all international relations is really about negotiations and bargaining. This worldview brings a number of aspects of international politics into a natural and coherent framework. We can understand what leads countries to fail to reach peaceful solutions when disagreements arise, how the issues on the agenda influence the content and success of negotiations, and how domestic constituencies shape the ability of leaders to make agreements. Equally important, we can understand the trade-offs between short-term negotiating advantages and long-term issues of reputation.

Micro-Dynamics of Protests: The Political and Cultural Conditions for Anti-U.S. Beef Protests in South Korea

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Eun Lee
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Third Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Conservative Media ◽  
Theoretical Developments

Theoretical developments on the temporalities of social movements have been grounded in both long-term and mid-term perspectives. This focus has obscured the processes of short-term mobilizations, leaving it unclear whether the established models explain the micro-dynamics of short-term protests. Considering the important effects short-term protests have on political processes, it is crucial to analyze how they develop in interaction with their external environment every day. This article seeks to address this research lacuna by extending the current perspectives into short-term protests. It tests whether the daily fluctuations of political and cultural contexts shaped the anti-U.S. beef protests in South Korea in 2008, with a temporal span of 121 days. The findings emphasize the importance of political and discursive opportunities for protests to develop: While state repression as well as state actors' dissonant/incoherent statements spurred protests, third-party actors' dissonant/incoherent opinions in the conservative media led to a decline in protests.

The speeches to the People in Cicero's oratorical corpora

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-175
Author(s):  
Gesine Manuwald
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Events

This paper discusses the function of speeches given by Cicero to the popular assembly (contio) as reports about recent political events or decrees. Several of the few extant examples are part of oratorical corpora consisting of speeches from politically difficult periods, namely from Cicero's consular year (63 BCE; Catilinarians) and from his fight against Mark Antony (44–43 BCE; Philippics). Cicero is shown to have applied his oratorical abilities in all these cases to exploit the contio speeches so as to present narrative accounts of political developments in his interpretation and thus to influence public opinion in the short term during the political process and particularly, within an edited corpus, in the long term.

How to Build and Wield Business Power: The Political Economy of Pension Regulation in Chile, 1990–2018

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Bril-Mascarenhas ◽  
Antoine Maillet
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Business Power ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
Pension Regulation ◽  
Theoretical Developments

AbstractWhat explains the remarkable resilience of pension regulation in postauthoritarian Chile, even after decades of majoritarian voter discontent and growing international and domestic criticism of Pinochet’s pioneering private capitalization system? This puzzling outcome can be understood only by looking at the combined effect of the pension industry’s long-term power-building investments and its short-term political actions to outmaneuver state and societal challengers. Engaging new theoretical developments in political economy and historical institutionalism, this study examines the long-term process by which the previously nonexistent Chilean pension industry expanded and leveraged its power during key episodes of open contestation. The analysis of pension regulation in Chile between the 1980s and the 2010s illustrates the importance of placing business power in time, motivating new rounds of theory building in the quest to address the perennial question of how business gets what it wants in the political arena.

Diversification effect of ship investment funds in South Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae-Boong Lee ◽  
Su-Han Woo ◽  
Jeong Seok Song ◽  
Byeongchan Seong ◽  
Keun-Sik Park
Keyword(s):  
Stock Prices ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Investment Fund ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Investment Funds ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cointegration Tests ◽  
The Government

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the diversification effect of the Korean Ship Investment Fund (KSF) under Markowitz portfolio theory by analyzing short-term and long-term relationships with stocks and bonds. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, unit root, correlation and cointegration tests are performed. Monthly data from 2004 to 2015 for stocks, bonds and KSFs are obtained for this study. Findings The correlation coefficients indicate that KSFs are uncorrelated with stocks and negatively correlated with bonds, and no long-term equilibrium relationships exist with all three variables by the Johansen and Engle-Granger cointegration tests. Research limitations/implications This paper makes contribution to the literature as follows: first, whereas the previous literature investigated diversification effect of ship investment using freight indices or freight rates which are not able to represent returns from ship investment, this study is the first study to use actual stock prices of the KSFs to the authors’ best knowledge; and second, diversification effect of ship investment represented by KSFs is empirically verified in the both short term and long term. Practical implications Policy-makers and managers of shipping companies can have sound ground that the KSFs are alternative and attractive assets to investors. It is also shown that the KSFs have potential to improve risk and return structure of investors on their own regardless of existence of incentives. Therefore, decisions of policy-makers can be made free from expectations for stronger incentives provided by the government. In addition, those countries that do not have such a ship investment platform may consider introducing a similar ship investment fund in order to revitalize the capital markets of the country. Originality/value This study holds its significance in investigating diversification properties of the KSFs for the first time in Korea since the KSFs were introduced.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document