Political Finance Assessment of Fiji

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilesh Lal
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Business Elites ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Political Appointments ◽  
Money In Politics

Fiji, being a transitional democracy with fragile institutional and regulatory mechanisms, is susceptible to the negative effects of money in politics. Yet for a very long time, regulations related to the funding of political parties, candidates and election campaigns, commonly known as political finance, were largely absent in the South Pacific country. Biased political appointments, corruption in the awards of public procurement tenders, cronyism and capture by business elites are some of the challenges that Fiji is vulnerable to, which thrive in an environment with insufficient institutional and legislative regulation of political finance. This report, which is the first of its kind, has undertaken a systematic study of the political finance regulatory framework in Fiji using an internationally developed, and tried and tested, analytical framework. The study is part of a larger International IDEA initiative to review political finance systems in selected countries in order to advance an evidence-based global policy debate on money in politics.

Regulating Online Campaign Finance: Chasing the Gost

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khushbu Agrawal ◽  
Yukihiko Hamada ◽  
Alberto Fernández Gibaja
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Campaigning ◽  
Targeted Messages

As the number of Internet and social media users increases, political parties and candidates are spending significant amounts of money on online campaigning. It not only helps them to reach out to more voters with comparatively lower costs, but also allows them to communicate more targeted messages to voters when compared with other traditional campaign tools. Despite the growing use of online campaigns, appropriate regulation of online expenditures is almost non-existent around the world. In fact, online expenditure is one of the key weaknesses of political finance systems and regulatory frameworks. Appropriate regulation of online expenditures will not only protect the integrity of the political process, but also thwart negative effects, such as disinformation and polarization and, more generally, prevent inauthentic activities that usually characterize online campaigns. As online expenditure is a relatively new phenomenon, its regulation is not straightforward and there is no conclusive evidence on what works. This report outlines some of the challenges that policymakers, legislators and oversight agencies face when drafting and implementing laws to include online expenditure within the scope of regulated political finance. It also provides recommendations for policymakers, social media platforms, political parties, candidates and campaigners, as well as civil society actors, on the steps that they can take towards closing the regulatory gap.

Political Finance Reforms: How to respond to today’s policy challenges?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukihiko Hamada ◽  
Khushbu Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Transparency And Accountability

Money is a necessary component of any democracy: it enables political participation, campaigning and representation. However, if it is not effectively regulated, it can undermine the integrity of political processes and institutions, and jeopardize the quality of democracy. Therefore, regulations related to the funding of political parties and election campaigns, commonly known as political finance, are a critical way to promote integrity, transparency and accountability in any democracy. Political finance regulations must adapt and adjust to political, economic and societal changes. This report contributes to the discussion of the future of political finance by exploring the following trends, opportunities and challenges related to money in politics that need to be taken into consideration when improving political finance systems: • mainstreaming political finance regulations into an overall anti-corruption framework; • supporting the implementation of existing political finance regulations and monitoring their performance; • harnessing digital technologies to ensure transparency and accountability in political finance; and • designing targeted political finance measures to encourage the inclusion of underrepresented groups in politics.

Diploma Democracy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bovens ◽  
Anchrit Wille
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Organized Interests ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Political Meritocracy ◽  
Almost All

Lay politics lies at the heart of democracy. Political offices are the only offices for which no formal qualifications are required. Contemporary political practices are diametrically opposed to this constitutional ideal. Most contemporary democracies in Western Europe are diploma democracies—ruled by those with the highest formal qualifications. Citizens with low or medium educational qualification levels currently make up about 70 per cent of the electorates, yet they have become virtually absent from almost all political arenas. University graduates have come to dominate all relevant political institutions and venues, from political parties, parliaments and cabinets, to organized interests, deliberative settings, and internet consultations. This rise of a political meritocracy is part of larger trend. In the information society, educational background, like class, or religion, is an important source of social and political divides. Those who are well educated tend to be cosmopolitans, whereas the lesser educated citizens are more likely to be nationalists. This book documents the context, contours, and consequences of this rise of a political meritocracy. It explores the domination of higher educated citizens in political participation, civil society, and political office in Western Europe. It discusses the consequences of this rise of political meritocracy, such as descriptive deficits, policy incongruences, biased standards, and cynicism and distrust. Also, it looks at ways to remedy, or at least mitigate, some of the negative effects of diploma democracy.

Remedying Diploma Democracy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bovens ◽  
Anchrit Wille
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Political Skills ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
European Unification ◽  
Nationalist Parties

How can we remedy some of the negative effects of diploma democracy? First, we discuss the rise of nationalist parties. They have forced the mainstream political parties to pay more attention to the negative effects of immigration, globalization, and European unification. Next we discuss strategies to mitigate the dominance of the well-educated in politics. We start with remedies that address differences in political skills and knowledge. Then we discuss the deliberative arenas. Many democratic reforms contain an implicit bias towards the well-educated. A more realistic citizenship model is required. This can be achieved by bringing the ballot back in, for example, by merging deliberative and more direct forms of democracy through deliberative polling, corrective referendums, and more compulsory voting. The chapter ends with a discussion of ways to make the political elites more inclusive and responsive, such as descriptive representation, sortition, and plebiscitary elements.

scholarly journals Subway Gearbox Fault Diagnosis Algorithm Based on Adaptive Spline Impact Suppression

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 660
Author(s):  
Zhongshuo Hu ◽  
Jianwei Yang ◽  
Dechen Yao ◽  
Jinhai Wang ◽  
Yongliang Bai
Keyword(s):  
Fault Diagnosis ◽  
Spline Interpolation ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Engineering Practice ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Time Domain Signal ◽  
Gearbox Vibration ◽  
Long Time

In the signal processing of real subway vehicles, impacts between wheelsets and rail joint gaps have significant negative effects on the spectrum. This introduces great difficulties for the fault diagnosis of gearboxes. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive time-domain signal segmentation method that envelopes the original signal using a cubic spline interpolation. The peak values of the rail joint gap impacts are extracted to realize the adaptive segmentation of gearbox fault signals when the vehicle was moving at a uniform speed. A long-time and unsteady signal affected by wheel–rail impacts is segmented into multiple short-term, steady-state signals, which can suppress the high amplitude of the shock response signal. Finally, on this basis, multiple short-term sample signals are analyzed by time- and frequency-domain analyses and compared with the nonfaulty results. The results showed that the method can efficiently suppress the high-amplitude components of subway gearbox vibration signals and effectively extract the characteristics of weak faults due to uniform wear of the gearbox in the time and frequency domains. This provides reference value for the gearbox fault diagnosis in engineering practice.

scholarly journals Can Financial Engineering Cure Cancer?

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E Fagnan ◽  
Jose Maria Fernandez ◽  
Andrew W Lo ◽  
Roger M Stein
Keyword(s):  
Financial Engineering ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Capital Requirements ◽  
Debt Financing ◽  
Investment Projects ◽  
Time Horizons ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Public Equity ◽  
Highly Correlated

Traditional financing sources such as private and public equity may not be ideal for investment projects with low probabilities of success, long time horizons, and large capital requirements. Nevertheless, such projects, if not too highly correlated, may yield attractive risk-adjusted returns when combined into a single portfolio. Such “megafund” portfolios may be too large to finance through private or public equity alone. But with sufficient diversification and risk analytics, debt financing via securitization may be feasible. Credit enhancements (i.e., derivatives and government guarantees) can also improve megafund economics. We present an analytical framework and illustrative empirical examples involving cancer research.

Hong Kong's Stunted Political Party System

2002 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 1010-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lau Siu-kai ◽  
Kuan Hsin-chi
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Business Elites ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Political Party System ◽  
Representation Of Interests

Hong Kong's political parties are now in decline after the return of the former British colony to China. The decline of political parties stands out in stark relief in a context featuring “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” and gradual democratization. A major reason for the decline is the stunted political party system of Hong Kong. Prominent in that stunted system is the absence of a ruling party. The stunted party system is primarily the result of Beijing's antipathy towards party politics in Hong Kong, which in turn discourages party formation by the Hong Kong government and the conservative elites. The lack of incentives for the business elites to organize political parties to protect their interests is another major reason. The stunted party system has produced serious adverse consequences for the governance of Hong Kong, representation of interests, public attitudes towards the political class and the further democratization of the territory.

Political Finance and Participation in Congressional Elections

1976 ◽  
Vol 425 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Dawson ◽  
James E. Zinser
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Capita Income ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
Campaign Contributions ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Registered Voters ◽  
Campaign Expenditures

Citizens participate in the electoral process both to enjoy intrinsic benefits and in the hope of future bene fits. Factors affecting the strength of these consumption and investment motives therefore will affect registration and turnout rates, levels of campaign contributions, and electoral margins. To some extent, the strength of these motives is fixed by relatively static factors: levels of district per capita income, the degree of income inequality, the partisan division of registered voters. However, both motives also are affected by factors more apt to vary: for example, statutory arrangements, the activities of political parties, levels and types of campaign expenditures. In particular, statutory arrangements and the activities of parties which reduce costs can increase participation. Moreover, substan tial efforts to alter the partisan division of registered voters can increase campaign contributions. Also, campaign expenditures channel motivations in partisan directions, stim ulate partisan turnout, and affect electoral margins. Results reported here suggest the likelihood of bipartisan support for policies facilitating registration and voting, challenge assumptions about the effects of incumbency on campaign contributions, raise doubts about legislated ceilings on cam paign expenditures, and weaken the case for public financing of congressional elections.

Financing political parties in Africa: the case of Zimbabwe

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-317
Author(s):  
Chipo Dendere
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Poor Access ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Opposition Parties

AbstractWhat is the impact of access to political party finance – money that parties use to fund their campaign activities – on politics in Africa? While multiparty elections have become more regular in the developing world, many opposition parties are still failing to win elections. This paper argues that poor access to political finance weakens democratic consolidation and negatively impacts the participation of less-resourced candidates who are unable to self-fund. As a result, opposition parties are forced to rely on weak promises of aid from international donors and unreliable state funding. This in-depth analysis of political finance, based on extensive interviews with politicians and government officials in Zimbabwe, political documents, news reports and a review of court cases, reveals that uneven financing has weakened opposition parties and serves as an extra advantage for incumbents.

Welfare Use in Japan: Trends and Determinants

2007 ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Wataru Suzuki ◽  
Yanfei Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Welfare Use ◽  
The Impact

This article represents the first step in filling a large gap in knowledge concerning why Public Assistance (PA) use recently rose so fast in Japan. Specifically, we try to address this problem not only by performing a Blanchard and Quah decomposition on long-term monthly time series data (1960:04-2006:10), but also by estimating prefecturelevel longitudinal data. Two interesting findings emerge from the time series analysis. The first is that permanent shock imposes a continuously positive impact on the PA rate and is the main driving factor behind the recent increase in welfare use. The second finding is that the impact of temporary shock will last for a long time. The rate of the use of welfare is quite rigid because even if the PA rate rises due to temporary shocks, it takes about 8 or 9 years for it to regain its normal level. On the other hand, estimations of prefecture-level longitudinal data indicate that the Financial Capability Index (FCI) of the local government2 and minimum wage both impose negative effects on the PA rate. We also find that the rapid aging of Japan's population presents a permanent shock in practice, which makes it the most prominent contribution to surging welfare use.

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