Contours of a National Infrastructure Policy for the New Millennium

2021 ◽  
pp. 1087724X2110166
Author(s):  
John C. Morris ◽  
Ryan D. Williamson ◽  
A. Stanley Meiburg

As calls for renewed efforts to address the state of the nation’s infrastructure grow across both partisan and ideological lines, they raise pointed questions regarding the nature of such efforts. For example, how do we pay for needed infrastructure? How do we set priorities among the many and varied needs across the nation? Most critically, should the national government play the central role in such an effort or is this task more appropriately left to the states? With Netzer’s article in mind, we examine the core factors that a national infrastructure policy in the 21st century should consider. We illustrate these factors through the use of two exemplar cases: traditional wastewater infrastructure, and the infrastructure required to conduct free, safe, and fair elections. Contrary to Netzer, we contend that there are many advantages to employing a national policy in these areas.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1087724X2110146
Author(s):  
Richard G. Little

In an essay almost 30 years ago, Professor Dick Netzer of NYU asked the question “Do We Really Need a National Infrastructure Policy?” and came to the conclusion that we did not. As the Biden Administration prepares to roll out a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure package, the nation is faced with numerous questions regarding the infrastructure systems necessary to support continued economic growth and environmental sustainability. The purpose of this essay is to look to recent history for guidance for how to proceed by revisiting the underlying premises of the Netzer essay and reconsider whether a National Infrastructure Policy is needed. Because linking infrastructure to broader public policy objectives could both unite the nation and position it to address the many challenges that the 21st century will present, I believe the idea of a National Infrastructure Policy definitely deserves a second look.


2021 ◽  
pp. 149-164
Author(s):  
Alexander Verdoes ◽  
Arjen Boin

AbstractNatural earthquakes do not occur in the northern part of the Netherlands. Yet, small earthquakes have regularly struck the area since the 1980s. For a long time, it was denied that these earthquakes were caused by the extraction of gas in the area and that these earthquakes could cause any damage. When more, and more severe, earthquakes struck the province of Groningen, these claims became unsustainable. In 2012, a relatively strong earthquake hit the area and the earthquakes became a national policy issue that threatened the legitimacy of the state. The crisis lingered on until 2018 when the national government finally realized that prolonged extraction would cause a deep crisis and decided to terminate the extraction of gas well before the depletion of the field. We argue that this visible and enduring crisis was not recognized and sufficiently addressed because of a societal dependency on the extraction of gas. The crisis was actively suppressed by the main actors, which ultimately undermined the legitimacy of the gas production and the state.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186
Author(s):  
Rohmad Adi Yulianto

The problematic of humanism in many countries resulted in a phenomenon of transnational refugee migration. Indonesia is one of a country which has received a massif influx of refugee waves aimed to obtain asylum. This study discussed the policy of handling refugees in Indonesia from the maqasid sharia as perspective. Maqasid sharia, as one of the Islamic law methodological approaches, helped of understanding social phenomena which positioned the interest (maslaha) as the core treatise. This study aimed to explain that the interaction between maqasid sharia as perspective and the development of national regulation, included the regulation in handling refugees, resulted in three models of policy (instructive, integrative, and adaptive). The instructive policy implemented through taqnin model, which is issued by the state authority as a positive norm. An integrative policy implemented through the eclectic model adopted the finest part from both national law and Islamic law. The adaptive policy implemented when important elements of Islamic law affirmed national policy which contained fundamental principles of universal humanism as part of sharia.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1087724X2110166
Author(s):  
Martin Wachs

In 1992 Professor Dick Netzer posed the question “Do We Really Need a National Infrastructure Policy?” but a national infrastructure policy really is a fanciful notion. America has never had a national infrastructure policy, there is no consensus as to what constitutes “infrastructure,” and little to agreement on public policy at the national level. Although we may agree that public expenditures to build and maintain infrastructure should be effective, efficient, and equitable, however hard we try and however sincere our efforts, we never agree on the meanings of terms like infrastructure, policy, effectiveness, efficiency, or equity. The futility of striving toward “a” national or unified infrastructure policy does not, of course, prevent America from pursuing innumerable national infrastructure policies. This essay posits that America can take many practical and important steps to manage and improve its infrastructure regardless of whether it has a document called a “national infrastructure policy.”


2000 ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
O. O. Romanovsky

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the nature of the national policy of Russia is significantly changing. After the events of 1863 in Poland (the Second Polish uprising), the government of Alexander II gradually abandoned the dominant idea of ​​anathematizing, whose essence is expressed in the domination of the principle of serving the state, the greatness of the empire. The tsar-reformer deliberately changes the policy of etatamism into the policy of state ethnocentrism. The manifestation of such a change is a ban on teaching in Polish (1869) and the temporary closure of the University of Warsaw. At the end of the 60s, the state's policy towards a five million Russian Jewry was radically revised. The process of abolition of restrictions on travel, education, place of residence initiated by Nicholas I, was provided reverse.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
Mary L. Mullen

This article considers the politics and aesthetics of the colonial Bildungsroman by reading George Moore's often-overlooked novel A Drama in Muslin (1886). It argues that the colonial Bildungsroman does not simply register difference from the metropolitan novel of development or express tension between the core and periphery, as Jed Esty suggests, but rather can imagine a heterogeneous historical time that does not find its end in the nation-state. A Drama in Muslin combines naturalist and realist modes, and moves between Ireland and England to construct a form of untimely development that emphasises political processes (dissent, negotiation) rather than political forms (the state, the nation). Ultimately, the messy, discordant history represented in the novel shows the political potential of anachronism as it celebrates the untimeliness of everyday life.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2363-2380
Author(s):  
S.B. Zainullin ◽  
O.A. Zainullina

Subject. The military-industrial complex is one of the core industries in any economy. It ensures both the economic and global security of the State. However, the economic security of MIC enterprises strongly depends on the State and other stakeholders. Objectives. We examine key factors of corporate culture in terms of theoretical and practical aspects. The article identifies the best implementation of corporate culture that has a positive effect on the corporate security in the MIC of the USA, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan ans China. Methods. The study employs dialectical method of research, combines the historical and logic unity, structural analysis, traditional techniques of economic analysis and synthesis. Results. We performed the comparative analysis of corporate culture models and examined how they are used by the MIC corporations with respect to international distinctions. Conclusions and Relevance. The State is the main stakeholder of the MIC corporations, since it acts as the core customer represented by the military department. It regulates and controls operations. The State is often a major shareholder of such corporations. Employees are also important stakeholders. Hence, trying to satisfy stakeholders' needs by developing the corporate culture, corporations mitigate their key risks and enhance their corporate security.


Author(s):  
Markus Krötzsch

To reason with existential rules (a.k.a. tuple-generating dependencies), one often computes universal models. Among the many such models of different structure and cardinality, the core is arguably the “best”. Especially for finitely satisfiable theories, where the core is the unique smallest universal model, it has advantages in query answering, non-monotonic reasoning, and data exchange. Unfortunately, computing cores is difficult and not supported by most reasoners. We therefore propose ways of computing cores using practically implemented methods from rule reasoning and answer set programming. Our focus is on cases where the standard chase algorithm produces a core. We characterise this desirable situation in general terms that apply to a large class of cores, derive concrete approaches for decidable special cases, and generalise these approaches to non-monotonic extensions of existential rules.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuks Okpaluba

‘Accountability’ is one of the democratic values entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. It is a value recognised throughout the Constitution and imposed upon the law-making organs of state, the Executive, the Judiciary and all public functionaries. This constitutional imperative is given pride of place among the other founding values: equality before the law, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. This study therefore sets out to investigate how the courts have grappled with the interpretation and application of the principle of accountability, the starting point being the relationship between accountability and judicial review. Therefore, in the exercise of its judicial review power, a court may enquire whether the failure of a public functionary to comply with a constitutional duty of accountability renders the decision made illegal, irrational or unreasonable. One of the many facets of the principle of accountability upon which this article dwells is to ascertain how the courts have deployed that expression in making the state and its agencies liable for the delictual wrongs committed against an individual in vindication of a breach of the individual’s constitutional right in the course of performing a public duty. Here, accountability and breach of public duty; the liability of the state for detaining illegal immigrants contrary to the prescripts of the law; the vicarious liability of the state for the criminal acts of the police and other law-enforcement officers (as in police rape cases and misuse of official firearms by police officers), and the liability of the state for delictual conduct in the context of public procurement are discussed. Having carefully analysed the available case law, this article concludes that no public functionary can brush aside the duty of accountability wherever it is imposed without being in breach of a vital constitutional mandate. Further, it is the constitutional duty of the courts, when called upon, to declare such act or conduct an infringement of the Constitution.


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