scholarly journals Democracy and the Environment: An Ecological Economics Research Agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Prakash Kashwan

In this essay, we look into two dominant pillars of environmental governance, the State and the market, juxatoposed with the varitiies of environmentalism--of the rich and of the poor--to create a mosaic for the ecological economists to examine how socio-economic and political factors mediate the framing, design, and implementation of policies and institutions meant to foster socially just environmental protection efforts.

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (32) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jumi Herlita

Zakat and taxes are two important sources of funding for the state. Both function to solve economic problems and reduce poverty in the community. But in reality the function of zakat and tax can not be optimal. BAZNAS and LAZ as an extension of the government in managing zakat can not be maximized in the collection of zakat funds as well as taxes. Although the nature of the tax is not specific to the poor, but also to the rich, but in fact the existence of taxes have not been able to solve poverty in Indonesia. Therefore it is necessary solution to synergize zakat and tax in order to increase zakat and tax collection. With bersinerginya zakat and taxes are expected to increase public awareness to pay zakat and taxes that can eventually be used to reduce poverty.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (-) ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
Oleksandr HRYHORIEV ◽  
Nataliia PETRYSHYN ◽  
Andrii TODOSHCHUK

Introduction. The introduction of tax rating will help to centralize the control over the activities of economic entities by various government agencies. On the other hand, tax rating will avoid subjectivity in the assessment of enterprises by the tax authorities and establish a transparent and understandable work of the tax authorities themselves for taxpayers and society as a whole. The purpose of the paper consists in a thorough study and analysis of international and domestic experience in rating the economic activity of enterprises by tax indicators in Ukraine to develop harmonized and unified guidelines for ranking business entities in the European integration of Ukraine. Results. To determine the company's rating by tax indicators, it is necessary to assess the company's payment of taxes, fees and other tax payments and introduce digital rating of the company's fiscal indicators, which, thanks to two-way communication, will reveal negative phenomena in enterprises and fiscal authorities. When ranking enterprises by tax indicators, it will be possible to avoid the corruption component in the distribution of budget funds, the provision of tax benefits, to identify the most important industries, regions and enterprises that need state aid. Also with the help of this rating and tax indicators, you can calculate the amount by region, region, industry, which large enterprises (unfortunately, the state as well) hide. You can also determine the reduction of gross product due to the large salaries of “predatory” top management. We remind you that Ukraine has a flat scale of taxation of individuals and the main tax revenues under this article are paid by the poor and middle class. That is, in fact, the poor and middle class pay pensions, including to the rich. Comparing the paid taxes and own revenues of the region plus determining the amount of domestic debt with its sources of repayment will significantly strengthen financial and tax discipline both in the center and on the ground. Such measures will significantly improve Ukraine's international image and simplify its entry into the international community. Conclusions. The proposed guidelines for digital rating of tax indicators of enterprises will improve the regulatory framework for determining the rating of the enterprise to obtain a scale of reliability of the enterprise as a business entity, eliminate significant problems of corruption in the fiscal system, improve financial and tax discipline primarily in central authorities, and secondly in industries, oblasts, cities, etc. These recommendations make it possible to establish opportunities for honest enterprises to obtain various privileges from the state and to avoid unreasonable and often ineffective inspections by tax and other authorities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Miftahur Ridho

<p><em>Religion based charity organizations, including those inspired by the Islamic teachings regarding caring for others, are prevalent around the world. They play significant role both in supporting the state to deliver social welfare services to the poor and the less fortunate and sidestepping or competing with the state in such provision. This paper, thus, aims at exploring the dynamic interplay between Islamic teachings regarding charitable practices and social welfare services provided by the state. Discussion on this paper suggests that Islamic charitable practices such as Zakat, shadakah, and others, can be observed through different lenses; as a charity of the rich and as rights of the poor. In Indonesia and other Muslim countries, such giving practices are widely accepted as charity of the rich partly because the idea of providing social welfare to the poor is perceived as the duty of the state. Hence, the rights of the poor lies on the obligation of the state, not the rich.</em></p><p> </p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-184
Author(s):  
Hamzah Hamzah

One of the major problems that the developing countries face is the lack of state revenues to cover all required expenses. Zakat is completely different from taxes, because it is a direct solution for poor people because it goes with the same type of property from the rich to the poor (not like the most of the poverty reduction programms which go in shape of projects for the poor), also Zakat has its own fixed resources and fixed legal channels of spending. Zakat is considered a form of charity that must be paid from a person`s wealth (when his/her wealth exceeds or reaches a “specific amount” of money (or othertypes of wealth like gold) So when the wealth reaches this level or (the specific amount ) the person who owns this wealth should pay a specific amount for the poor and this amount goes to the poor named Zakat. At the time of prophet Mohamed, he was sending the officials to collect money of Zakat, as it was mentioned for example , when he sent Muaaz Ibnu Jabal to govern Yemen, he ordered him to collect money of Zakat. Also in the time of the second gonernant in Islam (Khalifah). At the time of the third Khalifah Umar, where the state was expanded, Umar still interes ed in collecting Zakat but with a new way in terms of two perspectives, first collecting it from both outward and inward money, second by establishing “a Zakat organization” to be the ideal solution in dealing with Zakat. At the time of umar the revenues of Zakat became a huge amount, until Umar decided to give a salary for The periods after that the governants were not interested so much to collect Zakat by themselves and from the outward and inward money, because total toll became very huge so they decided to leave this mater up to the eligible Muslims to pay their Zakat, but in the later on periods of time the Muslims became less aware by the religious practises so the total toll of Zakat became less than periods of the prophet and Khalifah and not sufficient to satisfy the basic needs of the poor in the Muslim countries. To conclude from that, the best total yield of Zakat was happened when it was collected and distributed through an organization with a great attention from the leader of the state, so this paper will be describe about zakat persepective Hadis Maudu’ in the first time of Islam. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
LaDawn Haglund

The democratic transition and constitutional reforms in Brazil raised hopes that critical environmental challenges and egregious social deficits could finally be remedied through law, but political and legal legacies, fragmentation among actors, and disarticulation between and within institutions and between the state and citizens have complicated this transformation. Examination of the emerging role of the courts and the law in promoting social rights and environmental protection in the water and sanitation sectors in São Paulo reveals how long-standing urban problems are reified or altered through legal means. It also shows that ongoing challenges have prompted a search for new, proactive strategies of coordination, tested old assumptions about state/society relationships, and provoked broader conversations about difficult socioeconomic and political questions at the heart of creating sustainable, just societies.A transição para a democracia, e as reformas constitucionais, no Brasil crearam a esperança de que puder-se corrigir os desafios do meio-ambiente e as deficiências sociais dos mais flagrantes por meio da lei. Infelizmente essa transformação se complicou pelas heranças políticas e legais, pelas divisões entre os atores, e a desarticulação entre as instituições e dentro delas, e o afastamento entre o Estado e os seus cidadãos. Um exame do papel emergente dos tribunais e da lei na promoção dos direitos sociais e em proteger o meio-ambiente nos setores do abastamento de água e do saneamento na Grande São Paulo mosta como se mudam ou se reificam os problemas urbanos de larga duração pelo meio do sistema legal. Revela também como os desafios consistentes estimularam a procura de novas estratégias proativas de coordinação, põem à prova as velhas assumções sobre a relações entre o Estado e a sociedade, e provocaram conversações mais amplas sobre essas questões socio-econômicas e políticas que jazem no coração do esforço de crear as sociedades sustentáveis e justas.


1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nafhat Nasr ◽  
Monte Palmer

In a recent book Michael Hudson referred to Lebanon as the “Precarious Republic.” The Lebanese Republic was said to be precarious because its citizens tended to identify more strongly with the ideologies of their various sects than with the state, because of the gulf separating the rich from the poor, and because of the growing restlessness of the latter. It was also said to be precarious because of growing disaffection of most segments of Lebanese society with most areas of government performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Theresa Addai-Munumkum

African literature is famous for the depiction of a type of politics that tends to reflect the reality on the ground, spanning a panorama of incompetent leadership to gross political corruption.  As a result, writing about politics in Africa tends to be a risky undertaking as many creative writers who criticize political leadership and corrupt practices in their works end up being jailed. Using contemporary African literature to discuss the postcolonial African Political State, this paper explores the nature of the state in West Africa in three novels, Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People, Anthills of the Savannah and Sembene Ousmane’s Xala.  Using the metaphor of an impotent masculinity, this paper argues that the political State in Africa is a failed one. From the dawn of independence to the era of democracy, the political state in Africa has had to grapple with failed leadership, corruption, injustice, the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor etc., and it appears that these problems are becoming more.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Nfon Rita Gola

This paper looks at globalization, civil societies and their extensions, NGOs, as forces of development within the contemporary global era through the prism of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, The Thing Around Your Neck and Americanah. In these texts, the above forces have eroded both ideological and geopolitical boundaries for the betterment of humanity. The centrality of the state, with regards to state development, has been questioned by civil society activism. Civil society agencies, especially, NGOs, the paper posits, have become players in governance−an activity generally reserved for the state. The paper views the flux in state and civil society borders as a part of the shifts in the borders of most of the once outstanding binary pairs−the west and the non-west, the whites and the blacks, as well as the rich and the poor. These are positive shifts that are integral to the present mix in which humanity now exists. The works I analyze market this blend in that Adichie’s characters, no matter where they find themselves, move away from fixed ways of doing things and get connected with the supposed others for humanistic purposes. Globalization theory is used to underline the extent to which the ‘self’ and ‘other’ concepts disappear when it comes to development issues in the postcolony. The paper seeks to answer two basic questions, namely; is the proliferation of civil societies, especially NGOs, the result of the globalization phenomenon or the cause of the globalization process? How has globalization, civil societies and NGOs developed Nigeria, in particular, and Africa in general? It premises the civil society as a trajectory of the globalisation process with a positive outcome from the perspective that its various forms have encouraged and facilitated the spread of humanitarian considerations for the purpose of development.


Author(s):  
Y Han ◽  
V.O.K. Li ◽  
J.C.K. Lam ◽  
P. Y Guo ◽  
R.Q Bai ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundA novel coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China and reported to WHO on 31 December 2019. WHO declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. The first case in the US was reported in January 2020. Since mid-March 2020, the number of confirmed cases has increased exponentially in the States, with 1.1 million confirmed cases, and 57.4 thousand deaths as of 30 April 2020. Even though some believe that this new lethal coronavirus does not show any partiality to the rich, previous epidemiological studies find that the poor in the US are more susceptible to the epidemics due to their limited access to preventive measures and crowded living conditions. In this study, we postulate that the rich is more susceptible to Covid-19 infection during the early stage before social distancing measures have been introduced. This may be attributed to the higher mobility (both inter- and intra-city), given their higher tendency to travel for business/education, and to more social interactions. However, we postulate after the lockdown/social distancing has been imposed, the infection among the rich may be reduced due to better living conditions. Further, the rich may be able to afford better medical treatment once infected, hence a relatively lower mortality. In contrast, without proper medical insurance coverage, the poor may be prevented from receiving timely and proper medical treatment, hence a higher mortality.MethodWe will collect the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US during the period of Jan 2020 to Apr 2020 from Johns Hopkins University, also the number of Covid-19 tests in the US from the health departments across the States. County-level socio-economic status (SES) including age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education, occupation, employment status, immigration status, and housing price, will be collected from the US Census Bureau. State/county-level health conditions including the prevalence of chronic diseases will be collected from the US CDC. State/county-level movement data including international and domestic flights will be collected from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. We will also collect the periods of lockdown/social distancing. Regression models are constructed to examine the relationship between SES, and Covid-19 infection and mortality at the state/county-level before and after lockdown/social distancing, while accounting for Covid-19 testing capacities and co-morbidities.Expected FindingsWe expect that there is a positive correlation between Covid-19 infection and SES at the state/county-level in the US before social distancing. In addition, we expect a negative correlation between Covid-19 mortality and SES.


2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. i-iii

In this election year, 2004, people are grappling with the various forces that make up these United States. What forces encourage inclusion and which exclusion? Who is to be included and who excluded? Is this to be a country with wide discrepancies between the rich and the poor? Is this to be a country where public education is poorly funded and a good education depends upon private resources? Are we going to forget that discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnic origin, and economic status still exists and needs to be perpetually, vigilantly addressed? There is a deep division in the country over the proper and fair use of our resources that constitutes concern in all our citizens


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