Covid-19 Pandemic,Social Mitigation and Taxation: The Open Veins of Inequality in Latin America

The pandemic of Covid-19 has exposed the veins of inequality in Latin America. With a socioeconomic disaster looming, social emergency policies seemed inevitable. Yet while governments argue over the continuity of such policies and whether the fiscal rules in place should be respected, no sustainable response has come out. This essay problematises whether the pandemic could represent a critical juncture to forge ahead with political narratives that highlight tax exemptions and privileges enjoyed by the rich. We analyse the mitigation measures adopted by Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay and their repercussions on the debate surrounding progressive tax reforms to fund social schemes.     

‘Social Investment’ or Back to ‘Familism’: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Family and Care Policies in Italy and Spain

Family policies have traditionally been weak in Southern Europe. In the last two decades, however, and following a ‘catching up’ course, Spain has created new family programmes and expanded existing ones. Meanwhile, the picture for Italy during the years preceding the crisis is more of a ‘frozen landscape’. However, the diverging paths of the two countries in terms of policy reform in the years preceding the crisis do not place them in substantially different positions. The economic crisis and the austerity measures that followed have aggravated the weaknesses of family and care policies in both countries.     

世界粮食危机中泰国粮食政策研究

粮食是重要的农产品,事关人民基本生活和国家经济社会的稳定与发展.今年发生的世界粮食危机让许多国家陷入饥荒与混乱.泰国是世界上重要的粮食生产国和出口国,面对这场"无声的海啸",机遇与挑战并存,泰国政府从容不迫,从维护本国政府和人民的利益出发,着眼于粮食的可持续生产及农业的长远发展,制定出行之有效的粮食政策.这些政策主要涉及保护农民的种粮积极性、敦促利益分享机制的执行、整合农业发展、粮食生产的资金投入和增强国际协商与合作等方面.目前泰国的粮食政策运行良好,可资其他粮食生产国和出口国借鉴.     

The irresistible decline of the medical profession? an empirical investigation of its autonomy and economic situation in the changing German welfare state

The aim of this paper is to examine various theses of loss of autonomy in the medical profession by means of an empirical investigation of changes in physicians' economic opportunities and technical autonomy in Germany since the mid-1970s. The paper shows that transitions in the organisational structure of the health care system, government policies aimed mainly at the economisation of health care, and the changing situation of the profession in the labour market, have together been responsible for the changes investigated. It is argued that technical autonomy has been retained in out-patient care, while in hospitals there has been some loss of technical autonomy. Moreover, the economic situation of physicians has in general deteriorated as a result of central state intervention.     

Health Policy in Chile: The Return of the Public Sector?

Health policy in Chile has mirrored the main changes in economic policy in recent times. The 1950s and 1960s witnessed centralisation of public health care into a National Health Service. Neoliberal policies in the 1970s and 1980s refocused health policy onto extending the scope for private insurance and provision in health care. The return to democracy in 1990 has produced a reappraisal of health policy, with the emphasis on strengthening and improving public health insurance and care. This paper examines the extent to which recent changes in health policy signal a reappraisal of the private-public mix in the provision of basic services, and argues that a model for health care and financing built around a strong, modern, and efficient, public health care sector is more likely to succeed in addressing the health needs of the population in Chile and Latin America.     

Potholes,pensions, and public opinion: the politics of blame in Putin's power vertical

What are the risks and rewards of power centralization in competitive authoritarian regimes, and who in the regime bears those risks and enjoys the rewards? The elimination of gubernatorial elections in Russia in late 2004 provides a unique opportunity to study public reaction to policies that replaced democratically elected regional leaders with Kremlin appointees, thereby further concentrating power in the hands of the central state while simultaneously reducing the level of democratic accountability in Russian politics. Using a 2007 survey of 1500 Russians, it is possible to observe how key measures of public opinion and regime support were influenced by the elimination of gubernatorial elections. Because the timeline of gubernatorial appointments was determined exogenously based on the expiration of elected incumbent governors' terms, by 2007 some regions had governors who still held electoral mandates, while others had Kremlin appointees with no electoral mandate. This quasi experiment allows us to draw surprising conclusions about whom Russians blame – and do not blame – when power becomes increasingly centralized in the hands of the president.     

日本经济政策不确定性与企业研发投资--基于日本上市企业微观数据的实证检验

在梳理日本经济政策不确定性波动情况的基础上,利用2010年-2018年日本上市企业微观数据,通过构建实证模型探讨了日本经济政策不确定性对企业研发的影响,主要结论有:(1)日本经济政策不确定性的提高对企业研发活动产生负面影响;(2)日本经济政策不确定性对企业研发的影响具有行业差异;(3)不同经济政策的不确定性对日本企业研发活动的影响方向不同。贸易政策、金融政策不确定性指数的增加负面冲击企业研发活动,而财政政策、汇率政策不确定性的提高却激励企业研发投资。相较于日本,中国企业研发管理经验较少,风险承担能力较弱,政府更应重视在运用政策手段平滑景气波动的同时,避免政策施行的大起大落,警惕经济政策不确定性的过快、过度提高,尽可能营造、引导产生良好的市场预期,并采取有效措施切实支持企业创新活动。     

L'Etat social suisse face aux nouveaux risques sociaux: Genèse et déterminants de l'adoption du programme d'impulsion pour les structures de garde pour enfants bas age

In this article we highlight the factors and the mechanisms that influence decision making processes in the adoption of new social policies in Switzerland, on the basis of a recent example: the introduction in 2002 of a federal subsidy for new child care facilities. The article begins with a discussion of various hypotheses, inspired from the social policy literature. It then reviews the policymaking process that lead to the adoption of the new programme. In the final discussion, several factors are identified as co‐responsible for the success of the initiative: the convergence of interest of employers and the libertarian left, the favourable economic situation in the 2000 and early 2001 which facilitated the opening of a “window of opportunity”. The fact that the success of this initiative is related to a fairly large number of favourable factors, suggests that the adoption of this kind of measures will remain a politically difficult exercise.     

Can Mercosur Survive? Domestic and International Constraints on Mercosur

Mercosur has survived several crises by resorting to presidential diplomacy, but it risks becoming an empty shell unless member states work to coordinate macroeconomic policies. Its survival depends on the outcome of domestic political struggles in Brazil and Argentina and on the harmonization of exchange-rate policies between the two countries. This article examines the Argentine-Brazilian "trade wars" provoked by successive devaluations of the Brazilian currency, aggravated in 2001 by the Argentine economic crisis. The social explosion in Argentina in December 2001 showed that domestic actors can successfully challenge proglobalization policies. To consolidate, Mercosur will have to address the democratic deficit while building supranational institutions and an effective dispute-settlement system.     

National Competitiveness in Comparative Perspective: Evidence from Latin America

The term competitiveness is widely applied as a catch‐all for investor‐friendly policies and institutions. This article argues that sloppy applications of the term ignore the possibilities of policy tradeoffs and varieties of institutional choices. Popular conceptualizations of the term describe three discernible clusters of economic policies and institutions. One cluster captures openness to international trade; a second gauges regulatory impediments to private sector competition; a third refers to public sector investments in human capital, security, and infrastructure. This essay develops three empirical indexes to operationalize these clusters and shows that these concepts are not only theoretically but also empirically distinct. In particular, the correlation between these measures is not especially high in a sample of Latin American countries. The larger economies in the region tend to be more competitive on the regulatory and public goods dimensions but fall well behind smaller economies in terms of external competitiveness, broadly conceived.     

论中国在东南亚的软实力

近年来,中国与东南亚国家的关系越来越密切,中国在东南亚的影响也越来越大。这种变化不是靠恐吓和威慑达到,而是通过中国不断增强的软实力来实现的。以东南亚地区为舞台,中国从援助、外交、外贸与投资、机制建设、自由贸易区建设、关税减让、非传统安全合作、教育、留学生交换、中华文化弘扬等方面展示了自己的软实力及其魅力。当这些得到东南亚各国认可,中国的政策和做法得到理解和支持,中国在东南亚的软实力就获得了提升。中国在东南亚地区软实力的提升进一步密切了两者的关系,保证了中国和东南亚的共同安全。     

Bureaucratic Migration Politics: German Support for Common EU Policies on Labour Migration

As a macrostructure, this article uses a bureaucratic politics framework to understand the preference formation of the German federal government on liberalising economic migration policies. This allows unpacking the process of preference formation and linking it to a number of causal factors, which, by influencing the costs and benefits distribution of the relevant actors, shape the position of the government. The article argues that the misfit between the existing national regulations for economic migration and European-level policies has to be zero – otherwise the economic and political adaptation costs for the actors involved are too high. A heated national debate on immigration is negatively related to governmental support for such measures, as the political costs of support skyrocket. Conversely, if the decision-making process happens bureaucratically, this helps to attain governmental support, as the political costs of doing so are kept minimal.     

The Policies and Politics of Control: Countering Argentina's Uniformed and Unemployed Protesters

Like many new democracies, Argentina has struggled with contentious movements that have challenged its precarious stability. Two very different sectors have led particularly powerful opposition movements: the military—associated historically with the abuse of power—and the unemployed workers, with important support from prestigious human rights organizations. This article looks both at how the political standing of the sector (military versus civil society) influences policy choices and at how these policy choices influence whether opposition movements remain mobilized and contentious. It argues that situation‐alleviating policies—those that successfully address interests of the sector as a whole—tend to be more successful in defusing contentious movements than policies relying on coercion, concessions, or co‐optation of mobilized opposition groups. Situation alleviation depletes the contentious groups of possible recruits, while policies targeting the mobilized opposition may inadvertently motivate those actors to remain mobilized.     

印度金融自由化对中国金融体制改革的参照意义

本文通过对当代印度经济政策演变历程的分析,对印度的金融自由化进程中存在的问题以及金融危机的生成机理进行了梳理,并在相关的理论指导下对中国的金融改革提出了一些应对的思路.本文对于了解印度金融自由化并吸取其经验教训,促进我国金融体制改革,均具一定的现实意义.     

The EU and the Syrian Crisis: The Use of Sanctions and the Regime's Strategy for Survival

The Syrian crisis has from May 2011 and onwards been met by the EU with rounds of tightening sanctions attempting to put pressure on the Syrian regime and the elites surrounding it. Based on a typology for the sanctions and a periodization showing how the measures have proceeded, the article discusses the EU sanctions and to what degree they have influenced the situation in Syria. Furthermore, the article sheds light on regional and international dimensions of EU policies towards Syria and demonstrates how the policies are met with the Syrian regime's ability to adapt to conditions related to changing internal and external challenges. The article concludes that what in the first phases of the EU sanctions against Syria represented a deviation from the traditional pragmatic EU policies vis-à-vis the Middle East, seems during the latest phase to be followed by a more cautious approach, which also takes security concerns into consideration.     

Ethnocultural nationalism and Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities during the early republican period

This article analyses the Turkish nationalist elite’s economic and demographic Turkification policies toward the non-Muslim minorities in the 1920s and 1930s, and argues that the nationalist elite pursued ethnocultural nationalism toward the country’s non-Muslim citizens, while applying civic-territorial nationalism toward Muslim Turks. The article maintains that the nationalist elite, like the Young Turk regime, aimed at forming a national Turkish Muslim businessmen class at the expense of the non-Muslim minorities by pursuing economic and demographic Turkification policies.     

Endeavours to export a migration crisis: Policy making and Europeanisation in the German migration dilemma

This article examines the potential for ‘Europeanising’ the policy process within Germany ‐ examining the constraints and facilitators that have played a defining role in ‘Europeanising’ asylum and immigration issues. It demonstrates that despite the magnitude of the asylum crisis within Germany, blockages evident within the domestic policy process initially prevented a domestic policy solution. In response the federal government instituted a concerted attempt to resolve the issue outside the domestic arena, exporting the issue to the European decisional level. The processes that governed policy making on the European level within this policy sector proved incapable, however, of adequately addressing the issue. Thus, although agreement on the need to harmonise asylum and immigration policies was forthcoming, consensus on the means to achieve and implement substantive policy harmonisation proved elusive. The ‘Europeanisation’ of asylum and immigration policies within Germany has therefore been inherently limited. In response the German government felt compelled to supplement measures agreed at the European level both with a renewed effort within the domestic arena to resolve the constitutional deadlock and through bilateral agreements with their eastern neighbours.     

菲律宾农业的衰落与政府的对策

菲律宾作为“绿色革命”的策源地之一 ,其农业曾在 60 - 70年代取得过较快的发展。自 70年代初期起 ,政府在土地改革、垄断经营、保护贸易等方面的政策出现了失误 ,降低了农业生产的活力 ,从而使其走向衰落。本文对引起菲律宾农业衰落的原因加以分析探讨 ,并论述近年来政府为振兴农业所采取的举措。     

Good governance and security: The limits of Australia's new aid programme

This article analyses the Australian Agency for International Development's (AusAID) approach to overseas development assistance (ODA) through an examination of AusAID's recent White Paper. The White Paper focuses on the nexus between poverty reduction and security in the Asia-Pacific region. We argue that the Paper's emphasis upon good governance as the key to poverty reduction and security is fundamentally flawed. This stems from the particular ideological and political conditions in which the Paper materialised. In focusing on good governance and security the Paper neglects more fundamental poverty reduction issues, while promoting policies that are difficult to implement and, when implemented, have highly problematic outcomes. This article examines the Australian-led intervention in Solomon Islands and the Australian aid programme in Indonesia as examples for the shortcomings of the approach articulated in the White Paper. We conclude by examining alternative development policies that move beyond the neo-liberal orthodoxy endorsed by AusAID.     

The political economy of subsidiarity in labour market reforms: the United Kingdom and Italy in times of crises

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to contribute to the literature centred on the principle of subsidiarity by highlighting the way in which political actors apply different dimensions of subsidiarity, horizontal versus vertical, in the field of labour market policy. It compares labour market reforms in Britain and Italy in the wake of international economic crises, shedding light on the role of subsidiarity dimensions. It shows that Britain applied the principle of horizontal subsidiarity in quasi-market mechanisms while Italy chiefly resorted to the vertical dimension that helped shifting labour market policies from income replacement to welfare-to-work. Additionally, the article explores how the principle of subsidiarity may affect the relationships between the European Union on one side and Britain and Italy on the other in the field of labour market policies.