scholarly journals Inclusive development. How is Poland doing in comparison to other OECD countries?

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-333
Author(s):  
Anita Szymańska ◽  
◽  
Małgorzata Zielenkiewicz ◽  

Inclusive development is a multifaceted conception, which makes it difficult to measure. Recent years, however, have brought some proposals for measuring this phenomenon, which opens up new opportunities to deepen the knowledge of how countries are doing in making their economic and social progress more inclusive. The aim of the paper is to examine the level of advancement of inclusive development in Poland in comparison to other OECD countries. The main hypothesis states that the development in Poland is less inclusive than the OECD average. The research covers data from 30 countries (OECD members, excluding the countries where such data were unavailable), and is based on the OECD’s proposal of measurement. The study was conducted with the use of data normalisation into unified indices, taxonomic methods (cluster analysis based on the Ward hierarchic method), and comparative analysis. The results indicate areas of improvement for Poland. These are issues connected with the functioning of the labour market (the level of labour productivity, employment ratio, earnings dispersion), access to loans for starting or expanding businesses, but also life expectancy, wealth distribution, early childhood education and care, and, most of all, characteristics related to the area of governance, such as trust in the government, and voter turnout.

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosta Josifidis ◽  
Radmila Dragutinovic-Mitrovic ◽  
Novica Supic ◽  
Olgica Glavaski

The aim of this paper is to point out the limitations of conventional approaches, articulated via political processes, in reducing income inequality. Using the panel data methods, on the sample of 21 affluent OECD countries in the period from 1980 to 2011, it is observed that the increase in labour productivity as well as preferences of voters to parties that advocate greater redistribution, contrary to common perception, not necessarily lead to reduction in income inequality. Increasing dominance of big capital in the field of technological progress changes the conventions about contribution of workers to labour productivity. The result is a weakening of workers? bargaining power in relation to employers as well as increase in gap between labour productivity growth and real wage growth, which both lead to increase in income inequality. In comparison with the other political parties, it seems that the right-wing parties are more efficient in using voters? support to implement their concept of the welfare state, which contributes to maintaining the high market-generated income inequality. Such situation could be explained that de jure power of the government depends on election results, whereas de facto power depends on the support of so-called globally-oriented super elites.


Author(s):  
Frank Bitafir Ijon

Conducts of by-elections in recent times have been fraught with a lot of security challenges. This has been as a result of the violence that characterized the conduct of by-elections in recent times in Ghana. Violence during by-elections in Ghana plays a vital role in securing election victories for political parties. In all the by-elections characterized by violence in Ghana, they were won by parties that were accused of inciting the violence. The main tenets of election violence as identified by the paper included, actors, motives, timing, consequences, and patterns. The paper adopted the content analysis method in its investigation of the two violent by-elections in Ghana. The paper revealed that there was a correlation between violence during by-elections and victories of incumbent parties. This was because, in the two by-elections understudy, those accused of starting the violence and using national security operatives won the elections. The paper also found out that by-election violence impacted negatively on Ghana’s democratic maturity in several ways, such as; low voter turnout, weakening of democratic foundation and breeding an atmosphere of insecurity. Finally, the paper also revealed that political parties especially those in government resort to violence during by-elections in Ghana because they fear losing it will mean the government was underperforming as argued out by Feigert and Norris and also because they want to add to their tally in parliament.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (34) ◽  
pp. 3710-3729
Author(s):  
David Bartolini ◽  
Eniel Ninka ◽  
Raffaella Santolini

Significance The government has changed hands only once since independence in 1966: in 1992 the People's Progressive Party (PPP), led by Cheddi Jagan, assumed power following 26 years of People's National Congress (PNC) government. Since the last election in 2011 the government has been hamstrung by a parliament in which a coalition of opposition parties, including the PNC, held a one-seat majority. The result has been gridlock, with no new legislation approved, and continuous disputes over the budget, government spending and agreements with foreign investors. Impacts The election could allow a new government to work toward consensus-building. This might facilitate policies to develop Guyana's potential, and narrow the socioeconomic gap with the rest of the region. If the result is close, political tension and deadlock will persist, undermining the business climate, investment and social progress.


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