5.5 Transportation

Since the early 1990s, reports on topics ranging from neighbourhood renewal and low demand to social exclusion have highlighted the damaging effects of anti-social behaviour. Local authorities are urged to develop a 'holistic' response to anti-social behaviour. Recent research into the effectiveness of legal remedies reveals a tension between attempts to address the underlying causes of anti-social behaviour and the government's emphasis on legal action to control and punish perpetrators. Drawing on this research, the article examines why many landlords are still evicting perpetrators rather than dealing with the underlying causes of their behaviour. The article concludes by outlining the barriers that landlords and other agencies must overcome in order to develop a holistic approach to the problem.     

The Notion of Kosovo as a Precedent and the Impact of the Hungarian Minority Issue on Slovakia's Policy towards Kosovo's Independence

This essay examines the importance of the Hungarian minority issue and the role of precedent in Slovakia's policy towards Kosovo. It shows that the Slovak view was not only a product of its issues with the Hungarian minority but also a response both to the activities of representatives of Hungary and of the ethnic Hungarian party in Slovakia, the SMK. On the basis of Brubaker's concept of ‘triadic nexus’ it explains relations between Slovakia and Hungary based on the minority issue. It also highlights the role of collective rights as presented in the Ahtisaari plan in 2007 and their perception by Slovak officials.     

Getting to the frontier

This article analyses a Stackelberg differential game in which households' labour supply and fertility decisions are taken assuming husbands as leaders and wives as followers. The model solution yields the optimal number of children and labour supply of male and female. In equilibrium male and female labour supply increases with wage and decreases with children costs and time preference, and the optimal number of children increases with male wage and decreases with cost of children, husband's time preference, and female's wage and time preference. We test the model using Ghana Living Standard Survey Round 4 and find that women are more sensitive to changes in the labour market conditions than males, and better labour market opportunities for women may lead to a strong reduction in fertility.     

Moderating Factors in Adopting Local e-Government in Spain

This study analyses the factors that influence citizens' intention to use e-government activities offered by municipalities in Spain. For this purpose, we developed a straightforward user behaviour model that considers the components of the TAM and DOI models simultaneously, harnessing their synergies and factoring in the role of citizens' trust. We also examined the moderating role that population size can play in the model's behaviour. Among the results we obtained, it is important to note that user trust not only improved the model's fit, but also showed a significant effect on intention of use for all the population sizes that we analysed. The other significant relationship for all the samples linked ease of use to perceived usefulness. For the other relationships between variables, we observed the moderating role of size for the populations we considered.     

Facing the challenges of the year 2000: Learning to manage multidimensional workers

The “organization man” of the 1950s was characterized by an all-encompassing commitment to the work organization. Today, workers are multidimensional and seek a balance between work and nonwork commitments. Research to date has addressed the capacity for multiple commitments simplistically by examining two simultaneously held commitments, such as work organization--family, work organization--union, and work organization--church. Research is needed that examines people's simultaneous and multiple commitments to all of the relevant organizations in their lives. We have proceeded from the one-dimensional “organization man” to the dually-committed person; we now need to consider the person with multiple commitments. A model of multiple organizational commitment is presented, and implications and research directions are discussed.     

Challenging the European Union: the rising powers and the USA in the Doha Round

In this article, the challenges posed to the European Union's (EU) role in trade policy and its implications for development policy during the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda, also known as the Doha round, are highlighted. The authors argue that transformed power relations have created a situation characterized by role uncertainty, for the emerging powers but also for the EU. Priorities among multiple possible roles – in the existing trade regime, in relation to the global South and in the ongoing negotiations – become subject to redefinition. For the EU, heavily wedded to a multilateralist and reformist mission because of its own history, this process is particularly difficult. The EU's traditional role conceptions as a leader and a benign partner to developing countries have been challenged and partly replaced by a more realist approach.     

The heritage of war and state collapse in Somalia and Somaliland: Local-level effects,external interventions and reconstruction

Somalia and Somaliland are both inhabited basically by Somaliswith small Oromo minorities in both, and a large Swahili minority in the latter. Both have multiple clans, sub-clans, lineage and blood groups and in both Islam is central to social values. Somalia had no history of a stable state before Italian rule but Somaliland did (Haud-Hargeisa-Berbera-Arabia trade axis centred). The United Republic of Somalia (rejected in the referendum by Somaliland) passed from political instability to two decades of Said Barre's increasingly centralised and repressive dictatorship which waged war against the North-west (Somaliland) and North-east (Bosaso) as well as against Ethiopia. The dictatorship collapsed in 1991 basically because of the 1987-91 Somaliland Liberation war. The economies of Somalia/Somaliland turn on pastoral production, commerce and remittances. These have recovered in part in Somalia and fully in Somaliland. However, only a fraction of the Barre regimes dissolution of service delivery and user friendly law and order capicity has been made good in Somaliland and virtually more in Somalia. USA/UN intervention did limit starvation and-for a time-open violence. That was at a high cost in finances, in the reputation of peacekeeping and to Somalis. UNOSOM answered political and civil questions before having any real grasp of civil, political and economic realities. The price was to entrench warlords and militias and to marginalise 'peacelords' (elders and merchants). Somaliland, never occupied by UNOSOM, has engaged in a series of large, long peace conferences of elders from all parts of its territory leading to a real if fragile national/territorial identity with personal security in most areas, an elected president and two house parliament, a user friendly police force and court system and the beginnings of a restored professional civil service.     

Why Are Some States More Generous in Offering R&D Tax Credits than Others? An Empirical Answer

This article examines political cost factors that affect a state's propensity to adopt a corporate income tax credit to encourage research and development (R&D) activities in the United States. Assuming state elected officials are vote-maximizers, this article hypothesizes that politicians' consideration of potential revenue losses and influence from organized interests are critical in a state's decision to provide a R&D tax credit. To test the hypothesis, two statistical models are specified. With a dichotomous dependent variable of whether or not a R&D tax credit is offered, a Logit regression model is utilized. For the interval level dependent variable of effective R&D credit rates, this article specifies a Tobit model. The results show that politicians' concerns about revenue losses loom much larger than private organized interests.     

Portfolio Allocation or Policy Horizons? Determinants of Coalition Formation in Danish Local Government

It is widely assumed that policy considerations are important when parties form government coalitions. But if this is so, and if coalitions are negotiated in multi-dimensional policy spaces with no majority parties, then a rapid turn-over of coalitions should be observed, cf. the chaos theorem. However, we rarely witness this. Here we analyse two of the most prominent theories that address this puzzle: Laver and Shepsle's portfolio allocation model; and Warwick's policy horizon hypothesis. We do not analyse the ‘usual suspects’ (i.e. national government formations in Europe), but present a new empirical testing ground: Danish local governments. We rely on Laver and Shepsle's Winset programme to identify ‘strong parties’ in the portfolio allocation model but develop a new measure of Warwick's policy horizons that better deals with problems of multi-dimensionality. In a conditional logit analysis of survey data from 3000 local councillors, we find support for the policy horizons model, but not for the portfolio allocation model.     

POLITICAL PRESSURES,ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY,AND ATTENTION TO TASKS: ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PRE‐CRISIS FINANCIAL REGULATION

Regulatory agencies, like most public organizations, typically operate with multiple tasks and goals, which requires them to prioritize some tasks over others. Such prioritization, while essential, engenders a risk of bureaucratic oversight of significant material problems. Despite the ubiquity and importance of these concerns, our understanding of agencies' allocation of attention across tasks is limited. This article develops a model of agencies' allocation of attention across tasks, which involves an interaction between external public and political pressures and agencies' distinct organizational identities. A brief comparison between two cases of pre‐crisis financial regulation illustrates the proposed model. The two cases suggest that the British Financial Services Authority's and the Israeli Supervisor of Banks' distinct identities conditioned their responses to similarly vigorous pressures to devote more attention to firms' alleged mistreatment of their customers, with important implications for these regulators' attention to firms' capitalization and liquidity.     

Household Water Supply Choice and Time Allocated to Water Collection: Evidence from Madagascar

This article uses household survey data from Madagascar to examine water supply choice and time spent in water collection. We find that the choice of water source is strongly influenced by a number of household characteristics, as well as distance to sources. There are also strong substitution effects across sources. For example, increasing the distance to a public tap by 1 km increases the probability of using a well by 43 per cent in urban areas. With regards to time spent gathering water, we focus on the effects of gender, age, and distance to water. Women and girls spend the most time gathering water. The response to reducing distance to water sources differs in rural and urban areas, as well as by gender and age of household members. Investments to reduce to the distance to water sources will have larger impacts on adults than children, and on men than women.     

Canada's views on North‐South negotiations

This article assesses the recent embrace of the concept 'civil society' within development discourses, both conceptually and in the context of the construction of civil society in El Salvador. It challenges the tendency to generalise about civil society, warning against its glorification as a panacea. In a critique of the liberal approach to civil society, commonly used among international agencies, the discussion highlights how civil society organisations in El Salvador are fragmented politically, socially, but also geographically. Furthermore, civil society is not a unified entity with its constituent organisations working towards common goals. Nor may it be created or imposed from above by governments or donors. Instead it comprises a diverse range of competing groups grounded in different historical, political and geographical circumstances. While it is suggested that fostering civil society is a useful aspiration, it is essential that the concept also be recognised as contested.     

Foreign Aid and Illegal Immigration

Abstract

Gaytán-Fregoso and Lahiri (2000) claim that foreign aid may increase the level of illegal immigration. This comment reconsiders their perverse findings under endogenous as well as exogenous income repatriation. Furthermore, modifying Gaytán-Fregoso and Lahiri's model, in which aid is allotted in a lump-sum fashion, it is suggested that the actual amount of foreign aid should depend on the source country's performance, i.e., on the number of illegal immigrants, since such a policy will further reduce the number of illegal immigrants.     

Setting weights for aggregate indices: An application to the commitment to development index and human development index

Abstract

Aggregate indices like UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI) or the Centre for Global Development and Foreign Policy's Commitment to Development Index (CDI) are subject to multiple criticisms. This paper addresses concerns linked to the equal weights used in the HDI and the CDI and evaluates alternative weighting schemes. It relies on an opinion survey conducted electronically among researchers from 60 countries to assess whether or not professional judgment affects the use of equal weights. Results of the opinion survey point to a surprising result for the HDI: despite widespread criticism of equal weights, a simple scheme based on equal weights is not only convenient but also consistent with the views of experts. For some components of the CDI, however, weights derived from the survey do differ from equal weights. Nevertheless, the weights emerging from the survey are not sufficiently different from equal weights to significantly alter country rankings.     

Lula's foreign policy and the quest for autonomy through diversification

The objective of this article is to analyse the changes brought about by the foreign policy of Lula's first administration (2003 – 06). To discuss the topic, we will make use of three notions: autonomy through distance, autonomy through participation and autonomy through diversification. These notions explain the main changes occurring in Brazilian foreign policy from 1980 to the mid-2000s. We will conclude by demonstrating how the autonomy through diversification notion best applies to the 2003 – 06 period.     

Linking national and global population agendas: Case studies from eight developing countries

Human rights advocates have sought to shame the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) into compliance with 'universal' norms. For more than a decade, foreign critics have tried to give the PRC the diplomatic equivalent of a black eye. Proponents of human rights have exposed abuses in the PRC, condemned Beijing in international settings, and protested when PRC leaders travelled abroad, as a way of denying the PRC international prestige. In response, the PRC has issued a sequence of indignant white papers on human rights and has demonstrated a robust capacity to offer gestures of compliance while otherwise resisting pressure to reform. This paper questions whether the effort to shame the PRC leads to enduring improvement in the protection of human rights. It suggests that efforts to shame Beijing arouse indignation born of national pride, coupled with a cultural relativist defence, but that there is little evidence of enduring change. Thomas Risse and Kathryn Sikkink's model of socialisation to international human rights norms informs an examination of how progress toward improved human rights in the PRC has 'stalled'. Indeed, absent a viable opposition within China, shaming may not only be ineffective in altering Beijing's behaviour, but also counterproductive.     

Partner reciprocity,telecommunications flows and balance of trade patterns between the United States and latin America

From 1982 to 1994, the balance of trade deficit for U.S. telecommunications services increased by tenfold. The Central and South American countries contributed greatly to this increase. Our analysis identifies partner reciprocity as a core issue of the international long-distance industry. We apply an economic anthropology perspective to suggest that the antecedent conditions of cultural distance, economic nearness and relative country-risk will affect a foreign partner's reciprocity and examine U.S.- Latin American contracts over 11 years to test our respective hypotheses.     

A Reassessment of the Burden of Eastern Europe on the USSR

A comprehensive accounting of the contributions and costs of East European satellite states to Soviet foreign and defence policy indicates that they were hardly ever a ‘burden’ to the USSR, even at their most costly in 1982, and therefore Gorbachev's decisions later in the decade to allow those regimes to distance themselves from Moscow must be interpreted as part of the Soviet leader's overall political strategy, not a result of material inability to maintain the status quo.     

City and countryside in the onset of Brazilian industrialization

Accounts of the extensive industrialization experienced by São Paulo during the first part of the twentieth century have emphasized external “shocks” or direct linkages to the coffee economy centered on the large estate. This article considers the timing, concentration, and other aspects of industrialization through 1940 to assess these and other theories. Various bodies of evidence confirm that the industrial concentration in the city of São Paulo represented a transition to industrialization before and during the 1920s. Taking place well before the interruption in international trade caused by the depression of the 1930s, the roots of this phenomenon were internal. São Paulo’s industrialization before and through the 1930s was related to a dynamic hinterland experiencing diversification and differentiation. Independent growers played a key role with regard to industrialization, possibly more than the large coffee landlords. São Paulo’s network of towns, transportation facilities, and commercial activity connected city and countryside and favored the dominance of the city and industrialization. A brief comparison with other cities confirms the analysis and suggests a broad comparative framework to explore theoretical implications.     

From ‘remittance’ to ‘tax’: the shifting meanings and strategies of capture of the Eritrean transnational party-state

Abstract

For decades, mass out migration has remained a defining characteristic of Eritrea. The country's first major refugee crisis occurred in the early 1980s, in the midst of its liberation movement. Upon gaining resettlement in the industrialized world, Eritreans overwhelming continued their support of the liberation war, both financially and politically. Since independence, the ruling government adopted strong measures to ensure the diaspora's continued political and economic engagement. We examine the Eritrean party-state's changing relationship with members of its dispersed population focusing on the evolution of an expatriate tax (2 percent Income Tax on Eritreans Working Abroad) levied on all emigrant Eritreans. Building on work that argues for recognizing the social and political dimensions of money sent ‘home’, this paper makes two contributions. First, we use an historical perspective to show how contextual changes can significantly shift the meanings of remittances, in this case from a voluntary patriotic remittance sent to the liberating government, to a coerced tax. Second, we bring the remittance-tax into the literature on remittances and development, expanding the types of income transfers under consideration. Attention is drawn to the party-state's articulation of the 2 percent Tax policy as a national development imperative and the various transnational governance mechanisms employed to coerce compliance. Citizenship serves as a lens for examining the state's instrumentalization and politicization of the diaspora's engagement with the Eritrean nation.