Determinants and Benefits of Household Level Participation in Rural Drinking Water Projects in India

Abstract

Using data from households in 45 villages in rural India, this paper finds that wealth, literacy, household and village size are often determinants of two measures of participation in community-based development projects: meeting attendance and capital cost contributions. Using propensity score matching, this study concludes that participation leads to benefits for the households that participate although these benefits are strongest in regions with higher levels of overall participation. This study finds no evidence of elite capture with both poor and wealthy households benefiting from their participation.     

The Gender Gap in African Political Participation: Testing Theories of Individual and Contextual Determinants

Abstract

This article aims to test whether existing theories of what factors underlie the gender gap in political participation apply in an African context. Empirical estimations drawing on recent data covering over 27,000 respondents across 20 African emerging democracies suggest that whereas several of the investigated factors – structural differences in individual resource endowments and employment, and cultural differences based in religious affiliations – are found to be important determinants of participation, they explain only a very modest share of the observed gender gaps. Suggestive evidence instead points to the role of clientelism, restricted civil liberties, economic development and gender norms.     

中国与印度在美国的游说行动对比

中国与印度对美国国内政治的塑造方法很少被关注,并更少被比较。大多数分析家描写美国对这两个崛起中的国家的影响。但是,在国际关系领域中,这两个国家对美国国内决策的影响越来越突出。一种比较典型的影响通道来自于游说集团。虽然双方都经常通过这类的方式,但是他们的游说行动还保持差异。按照理性主义,一切行为的基本特征都是对自身利益最大化的精密计算。本文通过案例分析的归纳方法来探索中印采取的游说措施,并使用国别观察来区分双方游说的共同点与不同点。最后,文章要判断为什么印度在美国的游说行动往往比中国的游说行动有效。     

Vertical Specialisation and its Determinants

Vertical specialisation (VS) and outsourcing have gained prominence in international trade recently and could represent an entry point for developing countries into world markets as well as a channel for technology transfer. However, entry into international supply chains often requires just-in-time delivery and close to zero fault rates, making market entry via VS difficult. This paper analyses the importance of infrastructure and quality of institutions for VS, for total trade and with a focus on the clothing and electronics sectors. It is found that good governance and an open trade policy is strongly related to VS in electronics. Infrastructure, particularly ports, is strongly related to VS in the clothing sector.     

Substantive Participation: A Model of Public Participation that Works for Citizens and Administrators

Decision-makers and affected parties engaged in solving contemporary governmental problems are recognizing that traditional decision-making strategies are insufficient. A participatory democracy approach to public participation has been offered as a potential solution to these problems; however, a more sophisticated understanding of this approach is needed. This study defines a more substantive brand of public participation, identifies barriers to its implementation, and provides recommendations for implementation. Models of substantive participation should empower and educate all stakeholders, reeducate public administrators, and establish new administrative structures and processes. These objectives as well as a discussion of particular barriers to substantive participation are outlined.     

Determinants of Government Effectiveness

The direct relationship between government effectiveness and the population's well-being has generated a growing interest about the explanatory factors of governance quality. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine the determinants of government effectiveness, in relation to the organizational environment and political and internal characteristics of public administrations. For this, we used a sample composed by 202 countries observed between 2002 and 2008. A World Bank governance indicator represents the government effectiveness. We estimated a panel data dependence model by the Generalized Method of Moments estimator to avoid heterogeneity and endogeneity problems. Furthermore, a CHAID algorithm provides a classification of governance quality according to the predicted determinants.

The results show that government effectiveness is initially explained by the organizational environment, related to economic development and educational status. Later, and according to countries’ income distribution, political constrains and some organizational characteristics, such as gender diversity and government size, may improve governance quality.     

The Geography of Participation

Revisiting the critique of participatory development and one of its core political technologies, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), this paper suggests that participation in the form of PRA creates ‘provided spaces’ that dislocate ‘development’ from politics and from political institutions of the postcolonial state. PRA thereby becomes what Chantal Mouffe calls a post-political aspiration through its celebration of deliberative democracy (although this is largely implicit rather than explicit in the PRA literature). What makes this post-political aspiration dangerous is that its provided spaces create a time–space container of a state of exception (the ‘workshop’) wherein a new sovereign is created. In combination with other developmental techniques, PRA has become a place where a new order is being constituted—the state of exception becomes permanent and nurtures the ‘will to improve’ that undergirds ‘development’.     

Participation and accountability in development management

This article critically reviews the role of participatory theory in managing development projects and programmes in poor countries. Participation has emerged in response to global demands for greater individual and social control over the activities of state and private agencies, and especially to the manifest failures of traditional ‘top-down’ management systems in LDCs. Claims made on behalf of these participatory methodologies are critically reviewed and a distinction is drawn between strong and weak versions of the theory. Empirical evidence is then considered to evaluate the effectiveness of these methodologies, using long-standing insights of social science theory to show that participation can succeed for specific kinds of projects and programmes in favourable circumstances, but is unsuitable for many others. It commonly fails in contexts where local conditions make co-operative and collective action very difficult, or where it is manipulated by implementing agencies to justify their own actions or poor performance.     

Determinants of Jamaican government revenue shares

This paper attempts to identify the determinants of the Jamaican government's revenue share of gross national product. Statistical analyses presented in the paper indicate that, in the Jamaican case, the level of development is a more important determinant of the government's revenue share than is the size of the foreign trade sector.     

Exploring the Determinants of Collaboration Failure

ABSTRACT

Many of the case studies on collaboration tout the success of collaborative efforts, and theory building efforts focus almost exclusively on conditions for successful collaboration. Notably missing from the literature are efforts to comprehend why collaborations fail. Given that participants in a collaboration are invested in the collaborative effort, why does a collaboration fail? In addition, does the membership of the collaborative effort impact the factors for success or failure? By examining extant literature on both collaboration success and collaboration failure, we seek to identify a set of factors common across the literature that are foundational to a framework of collaboration failure.     

美国移民公共参与对中国农民工政治参与的启示

美国移民及解决移民公共参与的主要做法一、美国移民的发展历程从哥伦布发现美洲新大陆后不久,北美就有了欧洲人的活动,但直到1607年英国人在弗吉尼亚的詹姆士河口建立了第一个殖民地据点——詹姆士城之后,有组织、永久性的移民活动才随之开始。美国的移民主要分为三个阶段：（1）自由移民时期（1607-1882年）。     

Determinants of Personal Income Taxes for Barbados

The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of personal income taxes in Barbados and, using the Engle-Granger two-step procedures with annual data from 1976 to 2008, ascertain how these variables would impact on the dependent variable in the long and short run. The study showed that in the long run, the variables that would impact upon personal income tax receipts were marginal tax rate, real per capita income, and the rate of unemployment, while in the short run, personal income taxes were affected by current real per capita income in addition to lagged values of real per capita income, the marginal tax rate, and the rate of unemployment, respectively.     

Determinants of demographic change in transition Estonia

The author discusses the transformation of Estonia to a market economy, with a focus on trends in demographic development. "The transition of society in Estonia has been accompanied by significant changes in the demographic behaviour of the population, including nuptiality, fertility, mortality and population migration.... However, this period has been relatively short, and it is premature to conclude which of the current trends are long-term in nature, and which will have only a short-term effect."     

The Determinants of Local Government's Financial Transparency

This paper contributes to the scarce literature on government transparency by analysing the impact of political and socio-economic factors on municipal financial transparency. Our sample covers the 100 largest Spanish municipalities in 2008. Compulsory publicity and transparency are key to public management (rule-of-law theory). Our data show that Spanish municipalities are providing financial information beyond the legal requirements, thus exceeding the compulsory disclosures required by the rule-of-law theory. The more taxes and more transfers per capita, the more financial information is disclosed and, accordingly, the higher the transparency is. Therefore the municipalities are not taking advantage of fiscal illusion or principal–agent effects, since they are not concealing higher levels of taxes and transfers from citizens. Furthermore, left-wing parties are more transparent than right-wing ones. Finally, the population also has a positive effect on the achievement of financial transparency.     

An Empirical Investigation into Measurement and Determinants of Food Security

We examine the association between calorie-based indicators and experiential indicators of food security using data from slum households of Kolkata surveyed in 2010–2011. Experiential indicator is constructed following the United States Household Food Security Survey Module. Calorie based indicator is constructed using household-specific calorie norms. Modelling techniques take account of potential endogeneity in the relationship. The two indicators are aligned in the same direction implying more accurate targeting. However, there is a lack of one-to-one correspondence between the two measures and the drivers of calorie deprivation and food insecurity also differ, suggesting a one-size-fits-all policy cannot address both concerns simultaneously.     

Corporate Governance of Nonprofit Organizations: Cooperation and Control

Abstract

This article explores the limits of institutional economics regarding the cooperation of boards of directors and executive directors of nonprofit organizations. The normative separation of power between these central actors resulting especially from arguments derived from institutional economics is being reflected using the analytical approach from the resource-based view and empirical evidence based upon group and motivational theory. After analyzing the board’s role and the individual board member’s role within a nonprofit organization, the paper explores the limits to decision-making within governing bodies. The paper shows why a unitary board can improve the quality of decision-making within nonprofit organizations by raising the incentives for the executive director to act as desired. The paper also explores the impact of trust and different types of control upon the key actors within the governance process in order to derive the suitable form of control from that analysis.     

Participation and independence of consumers in a health systems agency

Health Systems Agencies (HSAs) were mandated to include representation of the community, broadly conceived. The implicit intention of the law was to include consumers as important and co-equal participants with providers in health planning. This paper is an examination of consumer participation in one ESA. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, citizens in this HSA exercised independent judgment regarding the major issue to confront them. We conclude his was a function of the following: talents and skills of the consumer members; natural interest in health care policy by consumer board members, sympathetic and supportive provider board members; and the homogenous character of the population in the region served.     

Determinants of Income Mobility and Household Poverty Dynamics in South Africa

This article analyses household income mobility among Africans in South Africa's most populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, between 1993 and 1998. Compared to industrialised and most developing countries, mobility has been quite high, as might have been expected after the transition in South Africa. This finding is robust when measurement error is controlled for. When disaggregating the sources of mobility, it is found that demographic changes and employment changes account for most of the mobility observed which is related to rapidly shifting household boundaries and a very volatile labour market in an environment of high unemployment. Using a multivariate analysis, it can be seen that transitory incomes play a large role. Four types of poverty traps are found, associated with large initial household size, poor initial education, poor initial asset endowment and poor initial employment access that dominate the otherwise observed regression towards the mean.     

Citizen Participation and Neighbourhood Governance: Analysing Democratic Practice

From the late 1990s the New Labour government implemented changes to local government and, within the context of a discourse of ‘democratic renewal’, also introduced neighbourhood-based participatory Forums. In this paper, a framework is set out for analysing the democratic effectiveness of Area Forums. This framework sees Area Forums as novel social practice entailing interaction and assesses them against normative characteristics for an effective democratic public sphere; the analysis is applied to a case study of Area Forums in a small English city and finds them lacking in this respect. Aspects of Area Forums may even present barriers to effective participation.