Examining the Adoption of ICTs for Weather Monitoring and Climate Change Adaptation in Uganda

Information communication technologies can only be beneficial to developing countries struggling to build adaptation capacity if technology adoption frameworks are tailored to suit their specific characteristics. The lack of timely, accurate, and reliable weather data and the increasing rate at which climate-related disasters are destroying lives and property in Uganda is evident of lack of good weather forecasts. The study set out to investigate the factors affecting ICT adoption and determine the technologies being used to respond to climate change effects. Specifically, the study set out the extent of use and the factors hindering or guiding ICT adoption. Factors hindering ICT adoption ranging from poor infrastructure to limited government support were established. The strategies that can be used to resolve challenges of ICT adoption, the major stakeholders, their responsibilities and how ICT adoption and utilisation can be enhanced to benefit other sectors of the economy is presented.

The Critical Importance of Enhancing Social Entrepreneurship Learning Pathways to Recover From the COVID-19 Economic Crisis

Social enterprises (SE) have long been recognised as a significant part of society and as a yardstick for the wider concern of community stakeholders to the general wellbeing and quality of life of the population. Furthermore, in countries that have embraced the free market with limited government, particularly in post-financial-crisis enforced austerity fiscal budgets, the role of the SE is extremely important in contributing to community wellbeing. Now the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has dealt a crushing blow to many economic, social, and entrepreneurial activities with its associated lockdowns and government mandated restrictions on economic activities. It is imperative given the devastating economic impact of the epidemic and subsequent lockdowns that efforts to encourage SE and social entrepreneurship be redoubled and receive government assisted training for these efforts. Creating robust and effective learning pathways informed by the need to support a building back better ethos is key to the future of social innovation and social enterprise-based economic activities.

The Dialectic of Civil and Uncivil Society—Fragility, Fault Lines, and Countervailing Forces

In light of the experience of the past three decades—1989 to 2020—the civil society appears as a fragile institution that seems capable of giving rise to the overthrow of dictators as well as to their ready installation; to engender movements of solidarity and inclusion as well as of hatred and violence. To understand what allows these different tendencies to arise from within the civil society requires that we move past a pre-occupation with the structural and socio-economic dimension of the civil society and recover a conception of the civil society as an inherently moral institution. In this regard, the tradition of social analysis pioneered by Alexis de Tocqueville remains singularly instructive. The cultivation of civility, we can learn, is not an automatic by-product of tamed markets, limited government, and vibrant associational life—necessary and important though these are. The dispositions needed to maintain the civil society do not arise with causal necessity even where associations flourish, markets are tamed, and institutions are well-designed. By facing more squarely the deep moral fault-lines of the civil society we can develop a keener sense of the countervailing forces needed to keep the project of the civil society on track.

Are mandates obsolete?

Representative democracy relies on elections and party government. Parties play a key role to the extent that they aggregate citizens’ preferences and that they organize political competition. This in turn implies that parties, once in power, implement the programme they were elected for. There is a growing literature arguing that it is increasingly difficult for governments to implement their electoral programmes for a variety of reasons. Growing international constraints have limited government autonomy in general. As the electorate has become more dispersed and party membership has shrunk, it has, moreover, become more difficult for parties to respond to voters. Greater electoral volatility has further complicated things. As a consequence of these trends, the distinctiveness of government parties is said to have decreased. And this, in turn, could explain the decline in turnout and the rise of populist parties. This conclusion, however, is based on limited data and analyses. This chapter calls for renewed study of competition between parties and election-to-policy linkages. It suggests revisiting the thesis of mandate decline using new empirical data, adopting an agenda-setting perspective.

PERAN INDUSTRI MINUMAN BERALKOHOL DALAM PEREKONOMIAN INDONESIA: ANALISIS INPUT-OUTPUT

ABSTRACT Policy to open investment in alcoholic beverage invite pros and cons in the public. The proponents of the policy argue the importance of alcoholic investment from economic point of views. This article aims at analyzing the role of alcoholic beverage industry in Indonesian economy. The data was Input-Output Table of 2016 which was aggregated into 18 industries. Analyzes carried out were output multiplier, employment multiplier, and income multiplier as well as forward and backward linkages. The results of analyzes show that output multiplier is low, employment multiplier is high, and income multiplier is high. In addition, forward and backward linkages are both below one. From these results, it can be concluded that alcoholic beverage industry is not a leading sector in Indonesia and its role is relatively limited. Government should be cautious in opening up investment for the industry for investment, taking into account that the industry’s pulling factor to input providing industries as well as pushing factor to output using industries are relatively low. In addition, while employment multiplier is high, at present employment in alcoholic beverage is relatively limited. Keywords: Alcoholic beverage, Input output table, Output multiplier, Employment multiplier, Industrial linkage ABSTRAK Kebijakan untuk membuka investasi minuman beralkohol mengundang pro dan kontra di masyarakat. Pendukung kebijakan tersebut menyampaikan pentingnya investasi di sektor tersebut dilihat dari kepentingan ekonomi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis peran industri minuman beralkohol dalam perekonomian Indonesia. Data yang digunakan adalah Tabel Input-Output tahun 2016 yang diagregasi menjadi 18 industri. Analisis yang dilakukan adalah efek pengganda output, tenaga kerja dan pendapatan serta keterkaitan ke depan dan ke belakang. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa angka pengganda output rendah, angka pengganda tenaga kerja tinggi dan angka pengganda pendapatan tinggi. Selain itu, efek keterkaitan ke depan dan keterkaitan ke belakang kurang dari satu. Dengan hasil-hasil tersebut dapat disimpulkan bahwa industri minuman mengandung alkohol bukan merupakan sektor unggulan di Indonesia dan perannya relatif terbatas. Pemerintah perlu berhati-hati dalam membuka investasi atas industri tersebut, dengan pertimbangan bahwa daya tarik terhadap industri penyedia input dan daya dorong terhadap industri pengguna output relatif rendah. Selain itu, meskipun angka pengganda tenaga kerja tinggi, selama ini penyerapan tenaga kerja relatif rendah. Kata Kunci: Minuman beralkohol, Tabel input-output, Pengganda output, Pengganda tenaga kerja, Efek keterkaitan

The reactionary and the radical: A comparative analysis of mass conservative mobilisation in Australia and New Zealand during the Great Depression

<p>The Great Depression witnessed an unparalleled explosion of mass conservative mobilisation across Australia and New Zealand. Large populist movements sprang into being virtually overnight and amassed a collective membership numbering in the hundreds of thousands. At the height of their influence they posed a direct challenge to the electoral base of mainstream conservative parties. They soon faded away from the political scene and, indeed, from the collective memory of Australian and New Zealand society. This thesis is concerned with four of these movements: the Citizens’ League of South Australia, the Australian Citizens’ League of Victoria, the All for Australia League of New South Wales, and the New Zealand Legion. The former three arose in Australia in 1931, whilst the latter appeared in New Zealand in 1933. These movements combined a populist and idealist rhetorical and organisational style with standard conservative social and economic ideas. They simultaneously sought new and radical alternatives to party politics and class conflict whilst expressing nostalgia for an illusory nineteenth century colonial society epitomised by classlessness, limited government, independent politicians, and the self-sufficient pioneer. This thesis suggests that, in order to truly understand these movements, this inherent contradiction between looking forwards and backwards for political inspiration must be embraced rather than ironed out in favour of narrative consistency. It argues that the citizens’ movements were a contradictory blend of the reactionary and the radical, and that their history, from their origins to their rapid demise, can be best interpreted through the lens of this thematic contradiction.</p>

The reactionary and the radical: A comparative analysis of mass conservative mobilisation in Australia and New Zealand during the Great Depression

<p>The Great Depression witnessed an unparalleled explosion of mass conservative mobilisation across Australia and New Zealand. Large populist movements sprang into being virtually overnight and amassed a collective membership numbering in the hundreds of thousands. At the height of their influence they posed a direct challenge to the electoral base of mainstream conservative parties. They soon faded away from the political scene and, indeed, from the collective memory of Australian and New Zealand society. This thesis is concerned with four of these movements: the Citizens’ League of South Australia, the Australian Citizens’ League of Victoria, the All for Australia League of New South Wales, and the New Zealand Legion. The former three arose in Australia in 1931, whilst the latter appeared in New Zealand in 1933. These movements combined a populist and idealist rhetorical and organisational style with standard conservative social and economic ideas. They simultaneously sought new and radical alternatives to party politics and class conflict whilst expressing nostalgia for an illusory nineteenth century colonial society epitomised by classlessness, limited government, independent politicians, and the self-sufficient pioneer. This thesis suggests that, in order to truly understand these movements, this inherent contradiction between looking forwards and backwards for political inspiration must be embraced rather than ironed out in favour of narrative consistency. It argues that the citizens’ movements were a contradictory blend of the reactionary and the radical, and that their history, from their origins to their rapid demise, can be best interpreted through the lens of this thematic contradiction.</p>

Tolerance: Too Little for Clinical Ethics in a Pluralist Society?

"Virtually all Western societies embrace liberalism as a political and moral; it emphasizes individual rights and liberty, democracy, autonomy, limited government, consent, pluralism, and tolerance. Clinical ethics in these societies reflects those priorities. Human migration has made Western societies more diverse and expanded the plurality of values represented within them. As a consequence, clinical ethics consultants (CEC) have encountered cases which reflect a clash between the liberal values of contemporary medical ethics and non-liberal values of patients. Because CECs are steeped in liberalism, their default attitude toward the values outside of that tradition will be tolerance. This paper will argue that because tolerance implicitly contains a judgment of inferiority to other values, it is the wrong attitude for CECs to adopt towards parties whose fundamental values clash with medical ethics. In such cases, this attitude can disrespect to the holders of the values, endorse a consequentialist compromise of values, and leave medical professionals prone to moral distress. Agonism democracy is a political philosophy that accepts that values conflicts are inevitable, and there will be winners and losers from them. It aims to channel this conflict positively by promoting a process marked by openness to questioning fundamental values and genuine consideration of (even contrary) alternate values. As an alternative to tolerance, this paper will explore if cultivating an attitude of agonism can be a better disposition for CECs in such cases. It will use a case study to compare the results of the two approaches in cases of fundamental values clash. "

Education Rights for Stateless Bidoon Children in Kuwait: The Voice of Government Officials

According to the United Nations, a stateless person is someone who has no legal identity in any nation whatsoever. In Kuwait, there are almost 110,000 stateless people who are known as Bidoon, which literally means “without”. Since 1991 Bidoon children have been shut out of the public school system as they are considered illegal immigrants. The only point of contact for legal interaction between the government of Kuwait and the Bidoon is the Central Agency for Remedying Illegal Immigrants’ Status. This complex bureaucracy has two conflicting responsibilities: (1) to investigate claims of citizenship by the Bidoon; and (2) to provide limited government services, including financial support to attend private schools. This research seeks to better understand the government’s position regarding Bidoon education, and present the individual voices and beliefs behind the government policies. Seven government officials were interviewed, including the head of the Central Agency. Their responses, arranged here around specific themes of visibility/invisibility, inclusion/exclusion, and denial/access, suggest some possible explanations for the government’s seeming lack of ability to resolve a situation that has continued for decades. By exploring the multitude of opinions that are impacting government policy, the present study aims to enhance understanding of the political and procedural roadblocks that are preventing the Kuwaiti government from resolving problems around educational access, legal status, and the rights of Bidoon children.

The Late-19th-Century Economy

The United States underwent massive economic change in the four decades following the end of the American Civil War in 1865. A vibrant industrial economy catapulted the nation to a world leader in mining and manufacturing; the agricultural sector overcame organizational and technological challenges to increase productivity; and the innovations in financial, accounting, and marketing methods laid the foundation for a powerful economy that would dominate the globe in the 20th century. The emergence of this economy, however, did not come without challenges. Workers in both the industrial and agricultural sectors offered an alternative path for the American economy in the form of labor strikes and populist reforms; their attempts to disrupt the growing concentration of wealth and power played out in both the polls and the factory floor. Movements that sought to regulate the growth of large industrial firms and railroads failed to produce much meaningful policy, even as they raised major critiques of the emerging economic order. In the end, a form of industrial capitalism emerged that used large corporate structures, relatively weak unions, and limited government interventions to build a dynamic, but unbalanced, economic order in the United States.