Your Money or Your Life

2022 ◽  
pp. 19-46
Author(s):  
Nancy Ruth Fox

The pandemic offers numerous applications of very basic microeconomics concepts and their extension to other aspects of economic life. It also creates an opportunity for better understanding of how the market works and its effects on the economy and society. Allocation of a scarce resource is the definition of economics. There have been countless examples of scarcity (toilet paper, vaccines). How do we decide how to allocate those goods, especially when the market fails? The pandemic is a classic illustration of tradeoffs. In particular, there are tradeoffs between shutting (or re-opening) the economy and loss of human life; a rational decision would compare the costs and the benefits. Lastly, there are countless examples of the unequal economic effects of the virus and their implications for public policy.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwiyanto Indiahono ◽  
Erwan Purwanto ◽  
Agus Pramusinto

This research aims to examine differences in the relationship of bureaucratic and political officials during the New Order (Soeharto’s era) and the Reformation (post-Soeharto) era within the arena of public policy implementation. This is a matter of importance given that there is a change in relations between the two from integration in the New Order to bureaucratic impartiality in the Reformation Era. This study attempts to answer the question: How were the relations of bureaucratic and political officials in the implementation of local level public policy during the New Order and the Reformation Era? A qualitative research has been conducted in Tegal Municipality using the following data collection techniques: interview, focus group discussion, documentation, and observation. Tegal Municipality was selected as the study location because of the unique relationship shown between the mayor and the bureaucracy. Its uniqueness lies in the emergence of bureaucratic officials who dare to oppose political officials, based on their convictions that bureaucratic/public values should be maintained even if it means having to be in direct conflict with political officials. This research indicates that the relationship between bureaucratic and political officials in the arena of local level policy implementation during the New Order was characterized as being full of pressure and compliance, whereas during the Reformation Era bureaucrats have the audacity to hinder policy implementation. Such audacity to thwart policies is considered to have developed from a stance that aims to protect public budget and values in policies. The occurring conflict of values here demonstrates a dichotomy of political and bureaucratic officials that is different from the prevailing definition of politics-administration dichotomy introduced at the onset of Public Administration studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
E. B. Veprikova ◽  
◽  
A. A. Kislenok ◽  

Reducing the level of interregional differentiation is one of the problems in spatial development management according to the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation. Presence of significant regional imbalances hampers formation of a common economic, social, cultural, and institutional space and lead to a creation of backward territories which lag behind in the development. The focus of public policy measures on the centers of economic growth, with the concentration of financial and labor resources, without solving the problems of backward territories does not bring the expected effect – overall development and well-being. Local effects in the absence of positive changes in other territories result in the increase in imbalances, which limit the overall effectiveness of the public policy. At the same time, a steadily increasing lag may cause a loss of potential of economic growth and thus forms backward territories. The creation of territorial backwardness is a gradual process. Therefore, diagnosing the state of the territory and identifying the signs of increasing depression is an essential issue of public administration. The article presents the main approaches to the definition of territorial backwardness used in the Russia and overseas, it also reviews the determinants of backward territories. Different methods for identification of backwardness in the territorial development have been tested on the basis of the regions of the Russian Far East.


2021 ◽  
pp. 175797592199571
Author(s):  
Sikopo Nyambe ◽  
Taro Yamauchi

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) factors are responsible for 11.4% of deaths in Zambia, making WASH a key public health concern. Despite annual waterborne disease outbreaks in the nation’s peri-urban (slum) settlements being linked to poor WASH, few studies have proactively analysed and conceptualised peri-urban WASH and its maintaining factors. Our study aimed to (a) establish residents’ definition of peri-urban WASH and their WASH priorities; and (b) use ecological theory to analyse the peri-urban WASH ecosystem, highlighting maintaining factors. Our study incorporated 16 young people (aged 17–24) residing in peri-urban Lusaka, Zambia in a photovoice exercise. Participants took photographs answering the framing question, ‘What is WASH in your community?’ Then, through contextualisation and basic codifying, participants told the stories of their photographs and made posters to summarise problems and WASH priorities. Participant contextualisation and codifying further underwent theoretical thematic analysis to pinpoint causal factors alongside key players, dissecting the peri-urban WASH ecosystem via the five-tier ecological theory ranging from intrapersonal to public policy levels. Via ecological theory, peri-urban WASH was defined as: (a) poor practice (intrapersonal, interpersonal); (b) a health hazard (community norm); (c) substandard and unregulated (public policy, organisational); and (d) offering hope for change (intrapersonal, interpersonal). Linked to these themes, participant findings revealed a community level gap, with public policy level standards, regulations and implementation having minimal impact on overall peri-urban WASH and public health due to shallow community engagement and poor acknowledgement of the WASH realities of high-density locations. Rather than a top-down approach, participants recommended increased government–resident collaboration, offering residents more ownership and empowerment for intervention, implementation and defending of preferred peri-urban WASH standards.


Numen ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-254
Author(s):  
Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati

AbstractThe present article focuses on the function of mythic journeys with regard to the problem of death and the transience of human life in two selected Mesopotamian literary sources: the Gilgamesh-Epic IX–XI and the Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld. The selected texts are analysed and compared from the perspective of a functionalist definition of religious symbol systems, with particular attention to the transformation involved in travelling through different cosmic regions. The structure of the journey, the characterisation of the different regions visited by the protagonist, and the changes provoked by the mythic travel evince similarities and differences in the strategies employed to produce a religious orientation dealing with the ineluctable limits of life.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Eliana Alemán ◽  
José Pérez-Agote

This work aims to show that the sacrificial status of the victims of acts of terrorism, such as the 2004 Madrid train bombings (“11-M”) and ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty) attacks in Spain, is determined by how it is interpreted by the communities affected and the manner in which it is ritually elaborated a posteriori by society and institutionalised by the state. We also explore the way in which the sacralisation of the victim is used in socially and politically divided societies to establish the limits of the pure and the impure in defining the “Us”, which is a subject of dispute. To demonstrate this, we first describe two traumatic events of particular social and political significance (the case of Miguel Ángel Blanco and the 2004 Madrid train bombings). Secondly, we analyse different manifestations of the institutional discourse regarding victims in Spain, examining their representation in legislation, in public demonstrations by associations of victims of terrorism and in commemorative “performances” staged in Spain. We conclude that in societies such as Spain’s, where there exists a polarisation of the definition of the “Us”, the success of cultural and institutional performances oriented towards reparation of the terrorist trauma is precarious. Consequently, the validity of the post-sacrificial narrative centring on the sacred value of human life is ephemeral and thus fails to displace sacrificial narratives in which particularist definitions of the sacred Us predominate.


1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Cranford ◽  
David Randolph Smith

For the past two decades, the medical profession and society have debated the definition of death. Some reasonable consensus has been reached on this issue, in theory and in practice. In the last few years, however, a far more important debate has been evolving — the definition of human personhood. Human personhood has been discussed extensively in the past with respect to the abortion question and other issues concerning the beginning of life. More recently, however, the definition of personhood has been raised with respect to termination of treatment decisions at the end of life and, in particular, on the appropriate care of patients in a persistent vegetative state.Our major premise is that consciousness is the most critical moral, legal, and constitutional standard, not for human life itself, but for human personhood. There is nothing highly original in our approach to this particular issue; others have advanced similar arguments in recent years.


Author(s):  
Andrii Moisiiakha ◽  

The article is devoted to the problems of finding ways to improve the mechanisms of implementation of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere. The purpose of this article is to identify areas for improvement of mechanisms for implementing public policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere, taking into account the needs of their unification within a single approach to the organization of social processes in the analyzed area. Achieving this goal has provided solutions to more practical problems: the development of goals, objectives, areas of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere, as well as organizational and legal support for its implementation. All this together will allow to introduce quite detailed algorithms and tools for managing the socio-humanitarian development of Ukraine and to quickly and effectively overcome the negative risks that arise in it. The content, essence and state-legal nature of mechanisms of public administration, as a set of ways and tools of practical realization of state policy are revealed. The analysis of modern approaches to understanding the essence of mechanisms of public administration is carried out. The author's definition of the mechanism of public administration in the socio-humanitarian sphere is offered. The content and essence of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere are revealed. The conclusion concerning the basic determinants and features of its development is made. Approaches to the formation of mechanisms for the implementation of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere are generalized. The need to further unify approaches to the implementation of such public policy in different sectors of the socio-humanitarian sphere has been proved. The main directions of improvement of mechanisms of its realization are allocated. The mechanism of state policy implementation in the socio-humanitarian sphere is defined as a set of nonlinear sets of tools and methods of state influence, which is implemented through appropriate management decisions (a set of measures as components of state policy) to develop the rights and interests of citizens and practical implementation. guarantees of the state in the fields of education, health care, social security, as well as others covered by the humanitarian mission of the state and able to influence the formation of productive forces, human, intellectual and social capital in society.


Author(s):  
Rakhimova I.I. ◽  
◽  
Mukhiddinova U.A. ◽  
Bеrdiqulоvа G.N. ◽  
Suleymanova D.I. ◽  
...  

In today's age of the Internet, computers and mobile phones for people of all ages are available in almost every home. In addition, in today’s world-wide pandemic, the use of the Internet for education and all aspects of cultural, socio-economic life as well as games such as games is growing rapidly. This, in turn, has a psychological effect on the individual, both positively and negatively on our society and national values. In this article, I have tried to highlight the positive and negative aspects of the internet world that affect the individual. In the article we will focus on the role of the virtual world in human life, the need not to depend on it, to use it for useful purposes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Musikanski

This author examines subjective indicators of well-being as they relate to the happiness movement, a global effort to create a new economic paradigm. The essay focuses on the prominent international institutions that are developing happiness metrics as well as agencies exploring the use of happiness data for crafting supportive public policy. A definition of happiness metrics, based on international institutions, identifies the primary questions that compose perceived happiness and how this data can be used.


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