Summary

As the controversy over the “Great Reset” being advocated by supporters of globalization continues, those who consider the prospect of a centralized monetary system controlled by unelected and largely unknown people to be profoundly undesirable will be greatly strengthened in their resistance if they can agree on a preferable alternative. What is needed most of all is a means of reducing the vulnerability of smaller countries to destabilization by large financial corporations and government organisations. This book advocates close consideration of the politically and economically simple initiative to implement the Grondona system, which enables individual countries to improve the working of existing monetary policy arrangements incrementally, notably by stabilizing the real value of their national currency in terms of a range of industrial commodities. Eminent economists have argued in favour of this policy for more than a century, but without offering a satisfactory means of implementing it.

Theoretical and methodological framework for the analysis of international forest political processes by stakeholders´ perceptions at national level

Forests cover about 30% of the world´s land area and provide people and nature with essential ecosystem services and goods. Despite their importance, forests continue to be degraded. A variety of international forest governance and policy arrangements have developed to foster protection and sustainability of forests. However, number of studies point to nonexistence of a global forest policy regime per se, and growing institutional fragmentation of forest governance arrangements. In line with continuing priority of national sovereignty in the international regulation of forest policy, the role of domestic policies, mainly domestic forest policy actors, is considered central to international forest governance analysis by many researchers. The paper aimed to set the framework for the international forest policy analysis by domestic forestry stakeholders´ perceptions. The dimensions of Policy Arrangements Approach modified for purpose of meeting the nature of research, serve as theoretical foundations. In the first part, the paper aim to define dimensions theoretically. In the second part, specific international forest-focused political processes are described through adapted dimensions. The two steps serve as the basis for research to be subsequently applied in selected European countries.

Innovative responses to urban transportation: current practice in Australian cities

This research explores how Australian urban transport programs and policies are responding to changes in transport technology, travel patterns, environmental imperatives and spatial development dynamics in order to offer guidance about future directions and options, and seeks to identify potential policy directions for Australia’s cities and policy arrangements.

Diaspora Diplomacy: Emerging Priority of Nepal’s Foreign Policy

Many people from Nepal are currently living in foreign countries. Their living has become a prominent issue in foreign policy and international relations as it has a broader impact on the bilateral connection between Nepal and the host countries as well as in the development back home. Appropriately mobilizing diverse potential inheritance in the Nepali diaspora can be a real boon for Nepal in achieving the national goals. The government is working on that by devising various policies, but the results are not satisfactory. Rigorous homework is yet to be done at the policy-making level to maximize achievements through the effective conduction of diaspora diplomacy. Hence, shedding light on the broader perspective of the Nepali diaspora, this paper attempts to focus on their role in the social, economic and cultural development of Nepal. The new institutional and policy arrangements that policymakers should adopt in upcoming days to address diaspora needs and to maintain a balanced relation between the government and Nepali community residing outside the border are also discussed. The article is descriptive and analytical in format, and the data are collected from secondary sources.

Tensions in Urban Transitions. Conceptualizing Conflicts in Local Climate Policy Arrangements

Academic and political debate places great expectations on cities’ potential for furthering decentralized, bottom-up climate policies. Local policy research acknowledges the role of local agency to develop and implement sustainability, but also acknowledges internal conflicts. This partly reflects tensions between different functions of the local level, and different governance models related to them. In addition, local dependency on higher level competencies, resources, and overarching strategies is discussed. This article proposes a focus on political processes and power relationships between levels of governance, and among relevant domains within cities, to understand the dynamics of policy change towards sustainability. Researching these dynamics within local climate policy arrangements (LCPAs) is proposed as an approach to understanding the complexities of local constellations and contradictions within them. It makes the distinction between “weak” and “strong” ecological modernization, and relates it to two basic rationales for local governance. The resulting typology denotes constellations characterizing policy change ambitions towards local climate policy in crucial domains, including economic development, energy infrastructures, climate change management, town planning and housing, and transportation. This article argues that this approach overcomes the limitations of the predominating conceptualizations of urban carbon control strategies as consistent, and recognises the multi-level dimension of such internal urban processes.

Legal and Policy Analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage in China

This paper focuses on relevant legal and policy arrangements necessary for the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in China. Special attention is paid to laws and policies on the capture, transport and storage of CO2. In particular, the storage of CO2 is very challenging for the existing regulatory regime, considering the complexity and novelty of the issue. Specifically speaking, the following analysis is made from three perspectives: (1) regulatory regime; (2) fiscal and financial support and (3) environmental regulations (including access to information and public participation). Having summarized and analyzed relevant issues and international experience, this paper identified the foundation, barriers and gaps exist in China. Priority choices and targets for legal and policy development in different periods were also made according to the status quo of CCS development in China and the periods of development recommended by the Asian Development Bank.

Health Policy in East Asia: Objectives, Priorities and Performance

This article aims to identify how the economies that do not necessarily prioritise social rights in their social policy arrangements fare in achieving various healthcare objectives. The big five of East Asian countries – China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore plus Hong Kong – are considered as such cases. It first highlights a wide range of variations in their healthcare offerings. It then shows that, contrary to the common belief, they constitute a surprisingly high level of redistributive elements in them. Deviating from their overall welfare regime characteristics, each healthcare system presents a unique combination of policy objectives in social, medical, economic and political terms, raising a question of the utility of social rights as a central conceptual lens to understand the world of welfare capitalism.

Simple nudges that are not so easy

In this paper, we critically review three assumptions that govern the debate on the legitimacy of nudging interventions as a policy instrument: (1) nudges may violate autonomous decision-making; (2) nudges lend themselves to easy implementation in public policy; and (3) nudges are a simple and effective mean for steering individual choice in the right direction. Our analysis reveals that none of these assumptions are supported by recent studies entailing unique insights into nudging from three disciplinary outlooks: ethics, public administration and psychology. We find that nudges are less of a threat to autonomous choice than critics sometimes claim, making them ethically more legitimate than often assumed. Nonetheless, because their effectiveness is critically dependent on boundary conditions, their implementation is far from easy. The findings of this analysis thus suggest new opportunities for identifying when and for whom nudge interventions are preferable to more conventional public policy arrangements.