Commentary

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Sinfield
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
The Imf

Increasing inequality was a deliberate policy of the Thatcher governments, marking a significant shift in UK policy-making. The strategy was supported by strong vested interests and active myth-making that stigmatized both social spending and its recipients. The legacy of Thatcherism has been powerful and persistent, leading to an acceptance of the increased inequality and a lack of challenge to its proponents and beneficiaries. There now appears to be a growing challenge to this acquiescence from many quarters including the churches and, surprisingly, the IMF, as well as many more detailed analyses of the wide differences in income and wealth. The arguments against increased inequality have strengthened again, bolstered by growing evidence of exploitation of the tax system, but is the political will strong enough to bring about significant changes?

scholarly journals Is This Tax Reform, or Just Confusion?

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Slemrod
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax System ◽  
The Law ◽  
Jobs Act ◽  
Tax Cuts

Based on the experience of recent decades, the United States apparently musters the political will to change its tax system comprehensively about every 30 years, so it seems especially important to get it right when the chance arises. Based on the strong public statements of economists opposing and supporting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a causal observer might wonder whether this law was tax reform or mere confusion. In this paper, I address that question and, more importantly, offer an assessment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law is clearly not “tax reform” as economists usually use that term: that is, it does not seek to broaden the tax base and reduce marginal rates in a roughly revenue-neutral manner. However, the law is not just a muddle. It seeks to address some widely acknowledged issues with corporate taxation, and takes some steps toward broadening the tax base, in part by reducing the incentive to itemize deductions.

Het profiel van de lokale politiek

Res Publica ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Rudolf Maes
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Government Organization ◽  
Cultural Sector ◽  
Total Government Expenditure

In Belgian political rhetoric municipalities are described as the cornerstone of a well-balanced government organization. However, this is not noticeable in the administrative language: municipalities are described as 'subordinate' administrations or 'administrations under tutelage'. Their share in total government expenditure is alarmingly low, 10.8%.The importance of local politics is determined by:- the political will to recognise the municipality as a 'civil society'- the interest in the democratic content of government and the necessity of policy differentiation- the recognition of local government as a laboratory for policy and as a voice of the place community in the national politics.From the perspective of policy-making Belgian municipalities have a mixed profile. First of all, they are 'cultural municipalities': 28.5% of the expenditures are in the educational and cultural sector. Other important expenditures are: roads and utilities (17%) and security (12.8%). Compared to different West-European countries, expenditures for social matters are rather limited (11 %).

The urban historian and the political will

Urban History ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. G. Checkland
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Research And Policy ◽  
General Perspective

At the Leicester urban history conference in 1966 there was very little discussion of the relationship between public policy and urban history. There were some points at which linkages were implied, but these arose merely incidentally. There was no attempt to adopt public policy as a general perspective on urban development. Reciprocally, the planners paid no attention to the historians: Jim Dyos remarked that the largest part of ‘research and policy making is taking place without reference to the historians’. The picture has not greatly changed over the past 14 years. There have indeed been studies in which policy, its formation and limitations, have been implicit, but few in which they have played a central part.

National Level Goods and Services Tax (GST): Towards Cooperative Federalism

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Sury
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Cooperative Federalism ◽  
Broad Consensus

The GST has been an initiative that has commanded broad consensus across the political spectrum. It has also been a model of cooperative federalism in practice with the Centre and states coming together as partners in embracing growth and employment-enhancing reforms. It is a reform that is long awaited and its implementation will validate expectations of important government actions and effective political will. Given the historic opportunity afforded by the GST, the aim should be to clean up an Indian tax system that has effectively become an <italic>exemptions raj</italic> with serious consequences for revenues and governance. By improving efficiency as well as revenues, GST can add substantially to growth as well as helping government finances.

The Evolution of Peace Operations in Africa: Trajectories and Trends

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 6-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
de Coning Cedric
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
African Union ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Stability Operations ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Financial Arrangements

The scale of contemporary United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) peace operations in Africa represent a significant shift in the political will of the international community to invest in UN and African peace operations. A macro-pattern has developed where most European and American peace and stability operations are deployed in NATO or European Union (EU) operations in Europe and the Middle-East, whilst most UN peace operations troops are contributed by the developing world and deployed in Africa. However, there is a new willingness in Europe to consider deploying some of its peacekeepers to Africa in EU or UN peace operations. From a UN and African perspective, the USA and Europe have a major political and financial influence on, and stake in, the future of peace operations in Africa. The AU and regional entities like ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC have significantly increased their capacity to undertake and manage peace operations over the last decade. The AU has deployed its first three peace operations, AMIB in Burundi, AMIS in Darfur and AMISOM in Somalia. However, the single most important factor when considering the future of peace operations in Africa is how they are financed, as that determines the size, scope and duration of the missions, and therefore has a direct bearing on their impact. The lack of clear and predictable financial arrangements is now the most important factor hindering the further expansion of African peacekeeping.

scholarly journals Towards Improved Policymaking in Ireland:Contestability and the Marketplace for Ideas

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-15
Author(s):  
Frank Barry
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Strict Interpretation ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Political Decisions

The current market for policy advice in Ireland is highly cartelised. A more contestable “marketplace for ideas” would afford greater opportunity for good ideas to challenge bad ones and would diminish the power of vested interests, including elements of the political establishment and the bureaucracy itself. Policy weaknesses could have been identified much earlier were the policy-making system more transparent and contestable. By obscuring where policy advice ends and political decisions begin, the strict interpretation of the “doctrine of the corporation sole” facilitates the evasion of responsibility and institutionalises a regime of inappropriate incentives. Greater inquisitorial powers for Oireachtas committees should prove valuable but other incentives within the system also need to be changed if more efficient outcomes are to be secured.

The Dual Executive

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Belco ◽  
Brandon Rottinghaus
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
Government Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Government Function ◽  
Dual Roles ◽  
System P ◽  
Policy Making Process

The president serves dual roles in the political system: one who “commands” by pursuing his or her agenda using unilateral orders and one who “administers” and who works to continue proper government function, often with the support of Congress. In a reassessment of the literature on unilateral power, this book considers the president’s dual roles during the stages of the policy-making process. Although presidents may appear to act “first and alone,” the reality is often much different. Presidents act in response to their own concerns, as well as assisting Congress on priorities and the need to maintain harmonic government function. The authors find support for both the model of an aggressive president who uses unilateral orders to push his or her agenda, head off unfavorable congressional legislation, and selectively implement legislation, and they find support for a unifying president who is willing to share management of government, support Congressional legislative efforts, and faithfully implement legislation. At the same time, presidents self-check their actions based on the ability of Congress to act to overturn their orders, through a shared sense of responsibility to keep government moving and out of respect for the constitutional balance. The shared nature of unilateral orders does not preclude an active president, as presidents remain strong, central actors in the political system.

COMBATING TRANSNATIONAL CRIME IN AFRICA: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN HATCHARD
Keyword(s):  
Transnational Crime ◽  
Environmental Crime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
The Third ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Proceeds Of Crime ◽  
Made In

Transnational crime is a major problem for African states with corruption, trafficking of persons, drugs trafficking, environmental crime and the like posing a major threat to development and stability. This article examines three challenges that states must tackle in order to combat transnational crime effectively. The first is how to deal with criminals who operate outside the jurisdiction. The second concerns the investigation of crimes with a transnational element. The third challenge involves tracing and then recovering the proceeds of crime that have been moved out of the country where the crime occurred. Here the need for Western states to cooperate with those in Africa is highlighted. Drawing on examples from Lesotho and Nigeria in particular, it is argued that some progress is being made in meeting these challenges. However, the article notes that developing the political will to tackle transnational crime is fundamental to any lasting improvement.

Legislators, Bureaucrats, and Canadian Democracy: The Long and the Short of It

1977 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Sigelman ◽  
William G. Vanderbok
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Substantial Proportion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Annual Average ◽  
Canadian Politics ◽  
Strategic Role

The bureaucratization of the political process that characterizes twentieth century politics in many countries has not bypassed Canada—as evidenced by skyrocketing rates of government employment and expenditure and, even more dramatically, by the ever-expanding policy-making power of Canadian bureaucracy. One observer sees the civil service as occupying an increasingly strategic role in Canadian politics, a condition thatreflects in part the expanding role of modern government into highly technical areas, which tends to augment the discretion of permanent officials because legislators are obliged to delegate to them the administration of complex affairs, including the responsibility for drafting and adjudicating great amounts of sub-legislation required to “fill in the details” of the necessarily broad, organic statutes passed by Parliament. Some indication of the scale of such discretion is found in the fact that, during the period 1963–8, an annual average of 4,130 Orders-in-Council were passed in Ottawa, a substantial proportion of which provided for delegating authority to prescribe rules and regulations to ministers and their permanent advisers. By contrast, the number of laws passed annually by Canadian federal parliaments is rarely over one hundred.

From One-Stop Graft to Costly Corruption Webs: Democratisation and Shifting Patterns of Corruption in Korea

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 635-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Schopf
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Veto Players ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
One Stop ◽  
The Web

Abstract Democratisation has brought a new, riskier pattern of corruption to Korea. More groups and institutions have secured a role in a more inclusive democratic policy making process. As a result, corruption schemes now require the consent of a wide and diverse set of veto players, often including the political opposition, producing expansive democratic ‘corruption webs’. The key democratic element of competition for votes rewards opposition members in the web for blowing the whistle. Increased likelihood of exposure and punishment deter many from corruption, which has subsequently declined in Korea under democracy, as measured by perception polls, experience surveys and objective measures of elite rent exchange. The Roh Moo-hyeon NACF scandals demonstrate that democratic corruption webs also mitigate damage from scandals — forcing participants to limit rent exchange to minimise exposure to clean veto players. Democratic oversight ensures that even bribe-taking officials implement policy according to publicly-declared objectives. Finally, competition for votes encourages timely exposure of democratic corruption rackets.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document