scholarly journals The Return of the State?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobus Delwaide

Massive government-financed rescue operations for banking and insurance industries in the United States and in Europe, seeking to contain the financial crisis that culminated in 2008, amounted to ‘the biggest, broadest and fastest government response in history.’ This ‘great stabilisation,’ as The Economist called it, resulting in ‘quasi’ or ‘shadow nationalization,’ cast doubt on the notion, fashionable at the height of the neoliberal wave, that the state was essentially on its way out, as many of its tasks and responsibilities were oozing steadily and irreversibly toward the market. The state and, by the same token, the political seemed back – with a vengeance, triggering solemn announcements of ‘the return of the state’ and ‘the end of the ideology of public powerlessness.’ Observers concurred. ‘Free-market capitalism, globalization, and deregulation’ had been ‘rising across the globe for 30 years,’ yet that era now had ended: ‘Global economic and financial integration are reversing. The role of the state, together with financial and trade protectionism, is ascending.’ Triggering a perceived ‘paradigm shift towards a more European, a more social state,’ even in the United States and in China, the crisis was seen to herald a move ‘back towards a mixed economy.’ The question, meanwhile, remained: had the state indeed withdrawn as much during the neoliberal era as is often assumed?

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobus Delwaide

Massive government-financed rescue operations for banking and insurance industries in the United States and in Europe, seeking to contain the financial crisis that culminated in 2008, amounted to ‘the biggest, broadest and fastest government response in history.’1This ‘great stabilisation,’ asThe Economistcalled it, resulting in ‘quasi’ or ‘shadow nationalization,’2cast doubt on the notion, fashionable at the height of the neoliberal wave, that the state was essentially on its way out, as many of its tasks and responsibilities were oozing steadily and irreversibly toward the market. The state and, by the same token, the political seemed back – with a vengeance, triggering solemn announcements of ‘the return of the state’ and ‘the end of the ideology of public powerlessness.’3Observers concurred. ‘Free-market capitalism, globalization, and deregulation’ had been ‘rising across the globe for 30 years,’ yet that era now had ended: ‘Global economic and financial integration are reversing. The role of the state, together with financial and trade protectionism, is ascending.’4Triggering a perceived ‘paradigm shift towards a more European, a more social state,’ even in the United States and in China, the crisis was seen to herald a move ‘back towards a mixed economy.’5The question, meanwhile, remained: had the state indeed withdrawn as much during the neoliberal era as is often assumed?


2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Richard M. Morse

This introductory paper examines some of the main questions raised by the papers presented to the urbanization symposium in Vancouver. Comparisons between the Latin American urban experience and that of the United States and Canada revealed basic contrasts in spite of some broad hemispheric similarities. Differences were particularly apparent in the residual influence of native society on later European settlement, in the role of the state versus private commerce in growth and development, and in the differing class structures.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Hansson ◽  
Paul Mihailidis ◽  
Carl Holmberg

This study aims to comparatively explore the role of the state (federal policy) in distance-education initiatives in the higher education communities of Sweden and the United States. In a globalized context, education institutes now have the capabilities to provide education and educational resources more efficiently and to a wide-ranging and diverse audience. Within the education sector and distance education, the role of the state and federal policy becomes increasingly important, in terms of how distance-education platforms are developed and implemented in institutions of higher education. The first section of this article provides an overview of the United States and Sweden's current higher education and distance-education landscapes, focusing on the role of the state and federal policy with respect to the funding and overall aims of distance education. The development of distance education in Sweden is highly related to political goals and policies, the top down/domestic/‘inside’ approach. The governing body dictates the funding and policy for distance education, and implementation is left to the university body. In the United States, the landscape differs in that no one federal institution provides direct funding or unified guidelines for developing distance education, but universities are left to their own devices and capabilities for implementation. In Sweden, high ambitions and goals are set at the national level, but the educational organizations are changing only slowly. The pressures on the education organizations are high because of steadily decreasing funding and fewer and fewer staff in relation to students. In the United States, education functions primarily as a state and local responsibility. In conclusion, the article aims to exploit the differences between the two countries' role of the state (federal policy) in distance-education policy, and present a middle ground which would be most balanced for distance education, entailing some federal supervision with the allowance for a certain level of autonomy in regards to development, implementation, funding and longevity.


1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-334
Author(s):  
William J. Breen

In recent years scholars from various disciplines have begun to explore new questions concerning the role of the state in society. This article is related to two aspects of this emerging scholarship, namely, the work of scholars interested in the relationship between the state and the production and utilization of knowledge and the related work of what has been called the historical institutional group. Scholars working on the role of the state in the production of knowledge have abandoned an earlier model that saw the state as a passive recipient of knowledge from the private sector and now emphasize interaction: the state is seen as both a consumer and producer of knowledge. Recent research also suggests that the modern state is increasingly dependent on knowledge in order to demonstrate a rational basis for policy decisions: without such justification, the actions of the state lack legitimacy and are open to challenge and opposition. Related to this increased dependence of the state on knowledge is the conundrum of whether knowledge is acquired in order to develop policy or whether policy is adopted first and knowlege then sought in order to justify action.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 285-289
Author(s):  
Cinnamon P. Carlarne

On June 1, 2017, President Trump declared that the United States would “cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.” The United States’ de facto withdrawal from the Paris Agreement represented an important inflection point for conceptualizing the role of nonstate actors in addressing climate change. President Trump's announcement was met with an outpouring of resistance and widespread and concerted efforts to mobilize substate, nonprofit, and private actors to step into the void created by his announcement and to help keep the United States on track to pursue domestic and international commitments to address climate change despite federal recalcitrance. Within the leadership void created by the Trump Administration and amidst the increasingly extensive body of sub- and nonstate climate efforts, it is tempting to decenter the role of the state or to underestimate the persistent power of the state to shape the approach and effectiveness of nonstate actions. Failing to recognize that the state retains significant power in this field undermines efforts to understand the realities within which nonstate actors operate. This creates a set of heightened expectations for these actors that defies the reality of the political, economic, and social resources available to them and masks the challenges inherent in relying upon a fragmented, shifting, and differently accountable set of actors to effect pervasive change.


Author(s):  
Н. А. Гончарова ◽  
Е. А. Сурова

В статье рассматриваются формы и модели взаимодействия государства и общественных объединений, получившие широкое распространение в мировой политической практике. Рассмотрены возрастные критерии, соотносимые с возрастом молодежи в практике различных государственных подходов; традиции взаимодействия с молодежью в европейских государствах и в Соединенных Штатах Америки; опыт решения проблем молодежи как социальной группы. Выявлены объекты, субъекты, цели молодежной политики с точки зрения разных подходов к осуществлению молодежной политики в Европе и в США. Раскрыты проблемы, встающие на пути субъектов молодежной политики в процессе ее разработки и реализации. В свете изложенных подходов к молодежной политике, политика Российской Федерации имеет ряд особенностей, одной из которых является понимание взаимосвязи духовно-нравственных и социально-экономических проблем. The article examines the forms and models of interaction between the state and public associations, which are widespread in world political practice. The age criteria, correlated with the age of young people in the practice of various state approaches; traditions of interaction with youth in European states and in the United States of America; experience in solving problems of young people as a social group. The objects, subjects, goals of youth policy have been identified from the point of view of different approaches to the implementation of youth policy in Europe and the United States. The problems that stand in the way of the subjects of youth policy in the process of its development and implementation are revealed. In the light of the outlined approaches to youth policy, the policy of the Russian Federation has a number of features, one of which is the understanding of the relationship between spiritual, moral and socio- economic problems.


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