Understanding the Magic of Credibility for Political Leaders: A Case of India and Narendra Modi

The field of political marketing has majorly benefited from the use of social media platforms. This has been true both for eastern and western contexts. The primary areas in political marketing that have majorly benefited from the social media usage have been the political leader and the evaluations of the leader by the voters. In the Indian context too, the use of social media techniques has been hailed as the Holy Grail of political marketing. This estimation is quite apposite. Nevertheless, what must not be forgotten is that the complexities of the bonding between political leaders and voters are not only premised primarily on the efficacy of social media techniques but also include other key dimensions. Thus, this article focuses on the importance of credibility as a key dimension. This dimension is inevitable to make social media techniques as effective as they are in political marketing. To substantiate this, we have comprehensively engaged with the fields such as traits of political leaders, crisis management and collaboration. These deliberations have been contextualized to the case of Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India. Further, these deliberations culminate in an effective framework. Academicians and practitioners of political marketing can extensively utilize this framework.     

Decentralization in Tanzania: An assessment of local government discretion and accountability

A large part of the decentralization literature is fragmented along political, fiscal, or administrative lines. In this article we employ a diagnostic framework to draw these dimensions together in a coherent manner to focus on analyzing local government discretion and accountability in Tanzania. Tanzania seems to have a deconcentrated local government system with central appointees having large powers at the local level. Centrally‐funded mandates—such as constructing secondary schools—dominate local government plans and budgets. Central control over administrative functions has ensured that administrative decentralization is yet to occur. In the fiscal sphere, progress has been made in transparency and harmonization of transfers in the last 5 years but local governments still have some way to go in raising own revenues, being less reliant on transfers, and ensuring downward accountability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sickle Cell Trait as a Contributory Cause of Death in Natural Disease

Sickle cell trait (SCT) affects 300 million people globally, and awareness is growing that SCT is not an entirely benign condition; however, most reported cases have been non‐natural deaths. Autopsy records from the Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) in Dallas, Texas, contained seven natural deaths from January 2007 to October 2013 in which micro‐occlusive sickling was identified at autopsy and SCT confirmed by postmortem hemoglobin fractionation. Sickle crisis was never diagnosed clinically. These cases illustrate the importance of red cell morphology in autopsy material. When sickling is suspected, hemoglobin fractionation should be performed. If confirmed, SCT should be listed as an autopsy finding and the severity and distribution of sickling documented. Extensive micro‐occlusive sickling should be considered contributory to death; however, its relative importance depends on all facts of the case. Accurate reporting should facilitate further research and the development of evidence‐based preventative and supportive strategies for these patients.     

Decentralization in Kerala: Panchayat government discretion and accountability

Kerala is regarded as one of the most decentralized states in India. Through a ‘big bang’ approach, Kerala implemented a significant fiscal decentralization program and then built the capacity of its local governments. We employ a diagnostic framework to analyze its local government discretion and accountability in political, administrative and fiscal domains. We find that Kerala's local governments have a very high degree of discretionary power accompanied by a high degree of accountability towards citizens. But the areas of administrative accountability and financial management need to be strengthened. Also there may have been excessive focus and investment on social accountability mechanisms at the cost of local government discretion and formal public sector accountability mechanisms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Democracy,development and the executive presidency in Sri Lanka

This paper examines the developmental causes and consequences of the shift from a parliamentary to a semi-presidential system in Sri Lanka in 1978, examining its provenance, rationale and unfolding trajectory. Drawing on a wide range of sources, it sets out an argument that the executive presidency was born out of an elite impulse to create a more stable, centralised political structure to resist the welfarist electoral pressures that had taken hold in the post-independence period, and to pursue a market-driven model of economic growth. This strategy succeeded in its early years, 1978–93, when presidents retained legislative control, maintained a strong personal commitment to market reforms and cultivated alternative sources of legitimacy. In the absence of these factors, the presidency slipped into crisis from 1994–2004 as resistance to elite-led projects of state reform mounted and as the president lost control of the legislature. Between 2005–14, the presidency regained its power, but at the cost of abandoning its original rationale and function as a means to recalibrate the elite–mass power relationship to facilitate elite-led reform agendas.     

The class certification of medical monitoring claims

The tort claim of medical monitoring has produced a disarrayed set of state and federal court opinions. The procedural dimensions of this claim are as vexing as the related substantive issues with which courts and commentators have long been grappling. Ordinarily, mass tort actions, typically involving claims for money damages, are certified under Rule 23(b)(3), which class category requires the right to notice and to opt out of a proceeding, and the fulfillment of "predominance" and "superiority" requirements. Such features are absent in Rule 23's mandatory classes. Nevertheless, this Note argues that it is appropriate for claims exclusively for medical monitoring to be certified as a mandatory class action under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or its state law counterparts. Given that a medical monitoring fund is an equitable remedy, nonpreclusive of a future damages claim, and groupwide in nature, the (b)(2) class category adequately protects the due process rights of class plaintiffs.     

Covid-19 communication in emerging markets—Not viral enough?

Public health communication acts as a social vaccine in case of pandemics. Prior research has identified that such initiatives often fail to reach vulnerable sections of society. In India, while the first wave of infections mainly hit the urban areas, rural areas witnessed a surge in the second wave. Using the World Bank data, we attempt to understand the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns in rural areas. We use the Ecological Model for public health and find how the various factors relate to public health outcomes. The ecological factors are found to be related to awareness of Covid-19. We find inadequate awareness about the symptoms and preventive measures associated with Covid-19 among the rural population. We also find significant differences in communication and awareness along dimensions such as education and access to media. The role played by SHGs and hospitals in dealing with pandemics is also evident in this study. We conclude that the disparity in public health communication needs to be bridged to ensure equitable access to health information in society during public health crises.