Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, and Political Interference Cripple the 'Protector Agencies'

AbstractCities around the world are confronted with the need to put in place climate adaptation policies to protect citizens and properties from climate change impacts. This article applies components of the framework developed by Moser and Ekström (2010) onto empirical qualitative data to diagnose institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in the Municipality of Beirut, Lebanon. Our approach reveals the presence of two vicious cycles influencing each other. In the first cycle, the root cause barrier is major political interference generating competing priorities and poor individual interest in climate change. A second vicious cycle is derived from feedbacks caused by the first and leading to the absence of a dedicated department where sector specific climate risk information is gathered and shared with other departments, limited knowledge and scientific understanding, as well as a distorted framing or vision, where climate change is considered unrelated to other issues and is to be dealt with at higher levels of government. The article also highlights the need to analyze interlinkages between barriers in order to suggest how to overcome them. The most common way to overcome barriers according to interviewees is through national and international support followed by the creation of a data bank. These opportunities could be explored by national and international policy-makers to break the deadlock in Beirut.

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Foreign investment in emerging legal medicinal cannabis markets: the Jamaica case study

Globalization and Health ◽

10.1186/s12992-021-00687-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Marta Rychert ◽

Machel Anthony Emanuel ◽

Chris Wilkins

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Foreign Investment ◽

Production Efficiency ◽

Production Quality ◽

Small Scale ◽

Organic Cultivation ◽

Enhanced Production ◽

Political Interference ◽

Medicinal Cannabis ◽

The Impact

Abstract Introduction The establishment of a legal market for medicinal cannabis under the Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act 2015 has positioned Jamaica at the forefront of cannabis law reform in the developing world. Many local cannabis businesses have attracted investment from overseas, including from Canada, US and Europe. Aim To explore the opportunities and risks of foreign investment in an emerging domestic legal cannabis market in a developing country. Methods Thematic analysis of semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 22 key informants (KIs) from the Jamaican government, local cannabis industry, academia and civil society, and field observations of legal and illegal cannabis cultivators. Results KIs from the Jamaican public agencies and domestic cannabis entrepreneurs saw foreign investment as an essential source of capital to finance the start-up costs of legal cannabis businesses. Local cannabis entrepreneurs prioritised investors with the greatest financial resources, brand reputation and export networks. They also considered how allied an investor was with their business vision (e.g., organic cultivation, medical vs. recreational). The key benefits of partnering with a foreign investor included transfer of technical knowledge and financial capital, which enhanced production, quality assurance and seed-to-sale tracking. Some KIs expressed concern over investors’ focus on increasing production efficiency and scale at the expense of funding research and development (R&D) and clinical trials. KIs from the local industry, government agencies and civil society highlighted the risks of ‘predatory’ shareholder agreements and domestic political interference. Concerns were raised about the impact of foreign investment on the diversity of the domestic cannabis sector in Jamaica, including the commitment to transition traditional illegal small-scale cannabis cultivators to the legal sector. Conclusion While foreign investment has facilitated the commercialisation of the cannabis sector in Jamaica, regulatory measures are also needed to protect the domestic industry and support the transition of small-scale illegal cultivators to the legal regime. Foreign investments may alter the economic, social and political determinants of health in transitioning from illegal to legal cannabis market economy.

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The role of open data in evidencing and limiting political interference in public input distribution in Guatemala

Environmental Development ◽

10.1016/j.envdev.2021.100613 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 38 ◽

pp. 100613

Author(s):

Anna Müller ◽

Juultje Blom ◽

Vesalio Mora ◽

Jacob van Etten

Keyword(s):

Open Data ◽

Input Distribution ◽

Public Input ◽

Political Interference

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Accountability and the Media

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716213515154 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 652 (1) ◽

pp. 206-221

Author(s):

Anton Harber

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

News Media ◽

Media Access ◽

Political Interference ◽

The Face ◽

Public Broadcaster ◽

The Media ◽

The Government ◽

The Cost ◽

Poor Management

Two decades of contestation over the nature and extent of transformation in the South African news media have left a sector different in substantive ways from the apartheid inheritance but still patchy in its capacity to fill the democratic ideal. Change came fast to a newly open broadcasting sector, but has faltered in recent years, particularly in a public broadcaster troubled by political interference and poor management. The potential of online media to provide much greater media access has been hindered by the cost of bandwidth. Community media has grown but struggled to survive financially. Print media has been aggressive in investigative exposé, but financial cutbacks have damaged routine daily coverage. In the face of this, the government has turned its attention to the print sector, demanding greater—but vaguely defined—transformation and threatened legislation. This has met strong resistance.

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International Law and Administrative Insulation: A Comparison of Refugee Status Determination Regimes in the United States, Canada, and Australia

Law & Social Inquiry ◽

10.1111/j.1747-4469.2012.01292.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 37 (04) ◽

pp. 933-968 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Rebecca Hamlin

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

International Law ◽

Control Policy ◽

The United States ◽

Border Control ◽

Refugee Status ◽

Common Definition ◽

Political Debates ◽

Political Interference ◽

Definition Of

International law provides nations with a common definition of a refugee, yet the processes by which countries determine who should be granted refugee status look strikingly different, even across nations with many institutional, cultural, geographical, and political similarities. This article compares the refugee status determination regimes of three popular asylum seeker destinations—the United States, Canada, and Australia. Despite these nations' similar border control policies, asylum seekers crossing their borders access three very different systems. These differences have less to do with political debates over admission and border control policy than with the level of insulation the administrative decision-making agency enjoys from political interference and judicial review. Bureaucratic justice is conceptualized and organized differently in different states, and so states vary in how they draw the line between refugee and nonrefugee.

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