Introduction to special issue on institutional influences on retirement, health and well-being

Countries make differing policy choices. They can serve as a scientific laboratory for drawing lessons on the policy paths to follow or to avoid and the consequences of those institutional choices on individuals at older ages. In this special issue we bring together six articles that evaluate the influence of institutions on retirement decisions, health and well-being of older adults using common data that have emerged with the international network of health and retirement studies to study key life outcomes such as health, work, and lifecycle transitions at older ages.

Just Social Risk Imposition and the Demand for Fair Risk Sharing

Existing accounts of social insurance tend to treat social risks as given and ask whether it is justified for the state to deal with these risks for its citizens. They ignore that many common risks are in fact imposed on citizens as a byproduct of the institutional choices of the society, which call for justification in the first place. In this paper, I use the Scanlonian contractualist framework to develop an account of just social risk imposition which implies a demand for fair risk sharing by all members of a society. In particular, I defend a compensation principle which requires that compensation be paid to victims of risk materialisation. This duty of paying should be shared by all those who benefit from the imposition of the relevant risk. I suggest that this provides a case for social insurance as a way of fairly sharing the burden of social risks.

Geography of Educational Institutions: Geospatial method in identifying Educational Deserts and Oasis-A Case study

<i>Many studies have pointed out that the learner’s choice in opting a programme or the institution of study is largely driven by the institution’s geographic proximity. By assigning a constant buffer radius (geographic reach) for every institution, proximity analysis demarcates regions of lower and higher number of institutional choices available for a learner belonging to that region. Such geographic regions of educational deserts and educational oasis have been identified with respect to institutions of arts and science undergraduate programmes in the state of Kerala. The understanding of the relationship between the geography and the density of educational intuitions in a region will assist the educational planners and administrators and particularly beneficial in learner or parent perspective</i>

Geography of Educational Institutions: Geospatial method in identifying Educational Deserts and Oasis-A Case study

<i>Many studies have pointed out that the learner’s choice in opting a programme or the institution of study is largely driven by the institution’s geographic proximity. By assigning a constant buffer radius (geographic reach) for every institution, proximity analysis demarcates regions of lower and higher number of institutional choices available for a learner belonging to that region. Such geographic regions of educational deserts and educational oasis have been identified with respect to institutions of arts and science undergraduate programmes in the state of Kerala. The understanding of the relationship between the geography and the density of educational intuitions in a region will assist the educational planners and administrators and particularly beneficial in learner or parent perspective</i>

Interorganizational Diffusion in International Relations

How and under what conditions does the European Union (EU) shape processes of institution building in other regional organizations? This book develops and tests a theory of interorganizational diffusion in international relations that explains how successful pioneer organizations shape institutional choices in other organizations by affecting the institutional preferences and bargaining strategies of national governments. The author argues that Europe’s foremost regional organization systematically affects institution building abroad, but that such influence varies across different types of organization. Mixing quantitative and qualitative methods, it shows how the EU institutionally strengthens regional organizations through active engagement and by building its own institutions at home. Yet the contractual nature of other regional organizations bounds this causal influence: EU influence makes an identifiable difference primarily in those organizations that, like the EU itself, rest on an open-ended contract. Evidence for these claims is drawn from the statistical analysis of a dataset on the institutionalization of 35 regional organizations in the period from 1950 to 2017, as well as from detailed single and comparative case studies on institutional creation and (non-)change in the Southern African Development Community, Mercosur, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Concluding Remarks: Towards Convergence?

This chapter charts convergence and divergences in the approaches to liability from procedurally illegal decisions or omissions. It focuses on three aspects relevant in assessing if, and to what extent, the jurisdictions analysed are converging beyond the widespread acceptance of governmental liability for illegal decisions or omissions. The first aspect investigated is whether annulment or other specific administrative law remedies must be sought before (or along with) damages. The answer more often than not turns around the institutional question whether or not the same court is competent for both sets of remedies. A second aspect is whether additional requirements, besides illegality, are needed for a successful damages claim. This might include a subjective element or a more or less objectivized reference to the gravity of the breach. Finally, the actual causal link between procedural breaches and potential damages might be questioned, with courts possibly resorting to different techniques to exclude or mitigate governmental liability. The analysis shows that the different outcomes in terms of liability are such not by any accident but because of path dependency due to institutional choices (general courts versus specialized administrative courts), due to the preference courts may or may not have for remedies other than damages and, finally, due to the deference or lack thereof paid by courts to the discretion left to the administration.

Austria, Germany, and Switzerland

This chapter intends to shed light on commonalities and distinctive features of public authority liability in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. In the first part, background commonalities and background distinctive traits are illustrated, together with the relevant Constitutional provisions. In the second part, a comparative analysis is carried out considering the answers given in the three countries. In particular, the chapter is focused on three kind of administrative action that can cause damages, ie authoritative decisions such as sanctions; the withdrawal of a former benefit; and a physical act. In the third part, the comparative analysis is carried out on cross-cut issues, considering institutional choices. The analysis shows that the outcome may well differ, considering not only the conditions for recognizing damages and their amount, but also for the primacy of alternative remedies, ie annulment.

The De Facto Authority of the Caribbean Court of Justice at the Intersection of Trade Liberalisation and Fundamental Rights

This chapter deals with the trajectory of gaining de facto authority of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), showing how, in its first fifteen years, the Court has been relatively successful as it achieved both narrow and intermediate authority in both its jurisdictions. The chapter shows how this authority was mostly due to several institutional choices of the part of the Court’s founders and to some bold—yet well-balanced—rulings of the Court, which contributed to overcoming the Caribbean legal elites’ initial lack of trust. The progressive expansion of the Court’s authority occurred mainly in matters relating to individual and fundamental rights (i.e. on death penalty issues and freedom of movement of individuals within the Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM)), while it struggled to move beyond a basic form of authority on trade-related matters. This variable authority of the CCJ proves to be grounded in the operational context of the Court. The most notable difficulties faced were the lack of interest of the business community in judicial solutions, the limited powers granted by the CARICOM Secretariat to file non-compliance cases before the Court, and the reluctance of national judges to engage in a constructive dialogue with their regional counterparts through the medium of the preliminary reference procedure.

Irregular Problems and Biased Solutions

This chapter details how the U.S. intervention in Iraq completed a full cycle through the information practice framework between 2003 and 2008. During the invasion and its aftermath, managed practice turned into insulated practice, which prompted both internal and external actors to adapt. During the subsequent occupation, adaptive practice turned into problematic practice, which in turn encouraged the U.S. military to institutionalize doctrinal reforms. The chapter explores the ways in which insulated practice still persisted at the end of this process, curiously enough, even in a tactical unit close to the fight that had ample opportunity to make sense of facts on the ground. It also surveys the Special Operations Task Force's (SOTF) information system and then compares the SOTF to other units that conducted a similar mission (Joint Special Operations Command, JSOC) or operated in the same environment (U.S. Marines) to demonstrate how different institutional choices can generate different qualities of information practice.