scholarly journals Editorial: Practical implications of governance and regulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2, special issue) ◽  
pp. 192-194
Author(s):  
Branka Mraović

The authors of papers in this special issue of the Journal of Governance and Regulation come from different parts of the world such as West and South Africa, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Balkans, Western Europe, and the USA, and offer interesting, vivid and educational experiences how countries with different economic, political, cultural and regulatory frameworks deal with global challenges, testifying that the universalism of science and good governance practices transcend geopolitical conflicts and divisions. Each of these papers sheds light on some aspect of governance and provides financiers, investors, regulators, scientists, managers, professionals, students, and other interested readers with useful insights into the market opportunities and challenges of developing countries. The practical implications of these academically written papers are supported by a solid research methodology that ensures the credibility of the written word and calls for new empirical verifications.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Abdulsalam Ahmed Sawmar ◽  
Mustafa Omar Mohammad

This study investigates the issues pertaining to governance practices of the formal zakat institution in Saudi Arabia, GAZT. It also attempts to develop a framework which explains how to improve zakat compliance through good governance. In order to achieve its objectives, the study employs a content analysis of relevant literature and qualitative interviews. Specifically, a total of 21 interviews were conducted with zakat experts in Saudi Arabia who represent diverse backgrounds to explore the issues and factors related to zakat governance-compliance relationship. The findings of the interviews’ analysis suggested several issues that likely affect zakat payers’ compliance in the Saudi context. These issues included the lack of control mechanisms that guarantee zakat payers’ compliance, the perceived image of the GAZT role in relation to zakat, the lack of trust, and issues affecting the perceived procedural fairness. In addition, the analysis of the qualitative interviews was used to develop a framework that explains how to improve zakat compliance through good governance. This study contributes to the literature by investigating governance issues and challenges to improving zakat payers’ compliance. Also, it provides practical implications for zakat administrators, especially in Saudi Arabia, to address these issues and improve the effectiveness of the zakat authority.



2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (04) ◽  
pp. 245-250
Author(s):  
A. Speckhard

SummaryAs a terror tactic, suicide terrorism is one of the most lethal as it relies on a human being to deliver and detonate the device. Suicide terrorism is not confined to a single region or religion. On the contrary, it has a global appeal, and in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan it has come to represent an almost daily reality as it has become the weapon of choice for some of the most dreaded terrorist organizations in the world, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. Drawing on over two decades of extensive field research in five distinct world regions, specifically the Middle East, Western Europe, North America, Russia, and the Balkans, the author discusses the origins of modern day suicide terrorism, motivational factors behind suicide terrorism, its global migration, and its appeal to modern-day terrorist groups to embrace it as a tactic.



Author(s):  
V. V. Makarov ◽  
D. A. Lozovoy

  Enzootic bovine leucosis (EBL) has been known for more than a century and a half. Its occurrence and registration may have historically been associated with intensive breeding of dairy cattle in Western Europe to increase target productivity. It is known that any limiting intervention in the nature of the animal organism is always accompanied by an uncontrolled and unpredictable change in the genotype of a wider range than the required, particularly negative order. In particular, a decrease in the resistance to macroorganisms and the possibility of the new diseases emergence, including infectious ones (for example, immunodeficiencies such as BLAD syndrome of black-motley cattle and stress syndrome in pigs, the occurrence of scrapie and other slow sheep infections). In the last two decades of the last century, in many disadvantaged countries, primarily Western European, national programs for the eradication of EBL have been developed and subsequently successfully implemented. First of all the motivation was the economy of dairy cattle breeding (mainly the extension of productive age, as well as the tightening of requirements in international trade in cattle and bull products, breeding, pricing, etc.). In an analytical article are reviewed the elements of epizootology of EBL in the foreign countries with special attention to the situation in the USA, scenarios of various control programs, and promising methods for assessing the role of infected animals in the epizootic process. A critical assessment of the problem of EBL in the Russian Federation is given, the reasons for the ineffectiveness of against leucosis measures are discussed.



Author(s):  
Halyna Kuzub

The problem of power decentralization is up to date in a modern political science. We can trace its historical genesis first in European and further in the USA political ideas. Decentralization of power was considered along with the study of a perfect state system, civil society and local self-government. It is argued that the major part of successful process of power decentralization in the Western Europe was due to the idea nature for their political culture. The article attempts to retrace the history of the idea of power decentralization. As a background of the investigations of such thinkers as J. Bodin, J. Althusius, J. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau, C.-L. Montesquieu, R. Owen, C. Fourier, J. S.Mill, T. Jefferson, A. de Tocqueville and M. Dragomanov were thoroughly investigated. The paper also considers the modern definitions of power decentralization. Likewise the value of structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and constructivism are argued in terms of further surveys of power decentralization. To conclude, the author opines that civil servants training, their theoretical teaching and moral education have to become the main objectives in perspective investigations. Furthermore, the success of power decentralization depends not only on devoting authority by central government, but also on capacity of its implementation by deputies on the local level. Keywords: Decentralization of power, deconcentration of power, administrative and political decentralization, classical and non-classical philosophy, structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, construc-tivism



Author(s):  
Konstantina Zanou

Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800–1850: Stammering the Nation investigates the long process of transition from a world of empires to a world of nation-states by narrating the biographies of a group of people who were born within empires but came of age surrounded by the emerging vocabulary of nationalism, much of which they themselves created. It is the story of a generation of intellectuals and political thinkers from the Ionian Islands who experienced the collapse of the Republic of Venice and the dissolution of the common cultural and political space of the Adriatic, and who contributed to the creation of Italian and Greek nationalisms. By uncovering this forgotten intellectual universe, Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean retrieves a world characterized by multiple cultural, intellectual, and political affiliations that have since been buried by the conventional narrative of the formation of nation-states. The book rethinks the origins of Italian and Greek nationalisms and states, highlighting the intellectual connection between the Italian peninsula, Greece, and Russia, and re-establishing the lost link between the changing geopolitical contexts of western Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans in the Age of Revolutions. It re-inscribes important intellectuals and political figures, considered ‘national fathers’ of Italy and Greece (such as Ugo Foscolo, Dionysios Solomos, Ioannis Kapodistrias, and Niccolò Tommaseo), into their regional and multicultural context, and shows how nations emerged from an intermingling, rather than a clash, of ideas concerning empire and liberalism, Enlightenment and religion, revolution and conservatism, and East and West.



2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Williams ◽  
Gamze Oz-Yalaman

PurposeThe dominant theorisation of the informal economy views participants as rational economic actors operating in the informal economy when the expected benefits exceed the perceived costs of being caught and punished. Recently, an alternative theory has emerged which views participants as social actors operating in the informal economy due to their lack of vertical trust (in governments) and horizontal trust (in others). The aim of this paper is to evaluate these competing theorisations.Design/methodology/approachTo do so, data are reported from special Eurobarometer surveys conducted in 2007, 2013 and 2019 in eight West European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).FindingsUsing probit regression analysis, the finding is that increasing the expected likelihood of being caught and level of punishment had a weak significant impact on the likelihood of participating in the informal economy in 2007, and there was no significant impact in 2013 and 2019. However, greater vertical and horizontal trust is significantly associated with a lower level of participation in the informal economy in all three time periods.Practical implicationsThe outcome is a call for a policy to shift away from increasing the expected level of punishment and likelihood of being caught, and towards improving vertical and horizontal trust. How this can be achieved is explored.Originality/valueEvidence is provided in a Western European context to support a shift away from a rational economic actor to a social actor approach when explaining and tackling the informal economy.



2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Carolin Seelandt ◽  
Katie Walker ◽  
Michaela Kolbe

Abstract Background The goal of this study was to identify taken-for-granted beliefs and assumptions about use, costs, and facilitation of post-event debriefing. These myths prevent the ubiquitous uptake of post-event debriefing in clinical units, and therefore the identification of process, teamwork, and latent safety threats that lead to medical error. By naming these false barriers and assumptions, the authors believe that clinical event debriefing can be implemented more broadly. Methods We interviewed an international sample of 37 clinicians, educators, scholars, researchers, and healthcare administrators from hospitals, universities, and healthcare organizations in Western Europe and the USA, who had a broad range of debriefing experience. We adopted a systemic-constructivist approach that aimed at exploring in-depth assumptions about debriefing beyond obvious constraints such as time and logistics and focused on interpersonal relationships within organizations. Using circular questions, we intended to uncover new and tacit knowledge about barriers and facilitators of regular clinical debriefings. All interviews were transcribed and analyzed following a comprehensive process of inductive open coding. Results In total, 1508.62 min of interviews (25 h, 9 min, and 2 s) were analyzed, and 1591 answers were categorized. Many implicit debriefing theories reflected current scientific evidence, particularly with respect to debriefing value and topics, the complexity and difficulty of facilitation, the importance of structuring the debriefing and engaging in reflective practice to advance debriefing skills. We also identified four debriefing myths which may prevent post-event debriefing from being implemented in clinical units. Conclusion The debriefing myths include (1) debriefing only when disaster strikes, (2) debriefing is a luxury, (3) senior clinicians should determine debriefing content, and (4) debriefers must be neutral and nonjudgmental. These myths offer valuable insights into why current debriefing practices are ad hoc and not embedded into daily unit practices. They may help ignite a renewed momentum into the implementation of post-event debriefing in clinical settings.



Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Adelaide Madera

Since 2020, the spread of COVID-19 has had an overwhelming impact not only on our personal lives, but also on domestic regulatory frameworks. Influential academics have strongly underlined that, in times of deep crisis, such as the current global health crisis, the long-term workability of legal systems is put to a severe test. In this period, in fact, the protection of health has been given priority, as a precondition that is orientating many current legal choices. Such an unprecedented health emergency has also raised a serious challenge in terms of fundamental rights and liberties. Several basic rights that normally enjoy robust protection under constitutional, supranational, and international guarantees, have experienced a devastating “suspension” for the sake of public health and safety, thus giving rise to a vigorous debate concerning whether and to what extent the pandemic emergency justifies limitations on fundamental rights. The present paper introduces the Special Issue on “The crisis of the religious freedom during the age of COVID-19 pandemic”. Taking as a starting point the valuable contributions of the participants in the Special Issue, it explores analogous and distinctive implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in different legal contexts and underlines the relevance of cooperation between religious and public actors to face a global health crisis.





2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Vischi ◽  
Nicola Zorzin ◽  
Maria Bernhart ◽  
Johanna Winkler ◽  
Dipak Santra ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Global warming and issues in favour of a more sustainable agriculture suggest a reconsideration of minor cereals in European agrosystems. Compared to other summer crops, proso millet has a remarkable drought resistance and could be used to improve crop rotation and biodiversity. Proso millet is also increasingly sought by industry to produce novel foods such as those designed for coeliac patients. In this study, a thorough characterization of 11, commercially available, proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) varieties was carried out as a preliminary step for crop reintroduction and breeding in Western Europe. Methods The cultivars under evaluation were introduced from Austria, Poland, Russia, and the USA (University of Nebraska–Lincoln). Plants were grown at Udine (NE Italy) and Gleisdorf (Styria, Austria), under greenhouse and field conditions, respectively. Yield components and a range of morphophysiological characters were recorded in both locations. In parallel, 85 SSR markers were tested on DNA samples extracted from randomly chosen plants of each variety and the 12 responsive markers used to genotype the whole variety set. Results Morphometric analyses showed that varieties have several diverging phenotypic traits and architectures. In all instances, yields recorded at field level were much lower than potential yields. In this respect, US selections were comparable to earlier developed European varieties, suggesting that breeding for an increased adaptation is the keystone for a stable reintroduction of millet in Western Europe. Molecular analyses uncovered remarkably low genetic differences and heterozygosity levels within cultivars, confirming millet as an essentially autogamous species; in contrast, large genetic distances were noted among cultivars selected in different environments. Results of SSR genotyping combined with those originating from phenotypic analyses indicated possible crosses to source the genetic variability necessary for selection. Conclusions This study enabled the identification of cultivars that could be used to revitalize the crop in Western Europe and to produce genetically variable hybrid progenies exploitable by breeding.



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