The lawmaking process in Cuba: Debating the bill on agricultural cooperatives∗

This article focuses on the role of ‘workers’ democracy' in state-owned enterprises (SOE) and workers' resistance to privatization in China today. The concept of workers' democracy has its roots in the first 40 years of labor relations under Chinese state socialism (Brugger 1976; Cliver 2005; Taylor et al. 2003), and no less so in the post-Mao period (Chen 1995; Zhang 2001). But what is its significance to Chinese state workers today? Does it enhance the development of state workers' organizational capacities? Or does it just reinforce the neoliberal policies pursued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Interviews with SOE workers' protest leaders suggest the limits of the possible when Chinese state workers reengage the concept of workers' democracy through their Workers' Representative Congresses as part of their resistance to privatization.1 1.?On my experience of collecting data on Chinese workers' protests, see Philion (2005).      

“Carve‐outs” from the workers' compensation system

Decentralized regulation has become increasingly important in many areas; examples range from school vouchers to workplace safety committees to alternative dispute resolution procedures replacing courts. Consistent with this trend, in 1993 California permitted construction unions and employers to “carve out” their own workers' compensation system. This study examines California's early experience with carve‐outs by analyzing two case studies, a survey of all carve‐outs in existence during the study period, and preliminary data on costs and dispute frequency at one carve‐out. Overall, carve‐outs do not appear to harm employees, and sometimes they help. At the same time, data analysis of one carve‐out showed it had no effect on costs and dispute rates. Moreover, the low involvement of union officials and the many issues that overlap other parts of workplace regulation raise concerns about decentralizing workers' compensation. Lessons can be learned for other spheres of regulation. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Firm size and regulatory compliance costs: The case of workers' compensation insurance

This paper examines the relative costs of workers' compensation insurance across firm-size groups, with particular focus on administrative scale economies (“compliance effects”) and biases in rate-setting (“enforcement effects”). Analyzing data on premiums and losses from the insurance industry, the authors find that the costs of insurance per dollar of loss are relatively high for very small firms. These higher costs reflect certain fixed administrative costs insurance companies must bear, but for extremely small firms these higher costs tend to be mitigated by an “enforcement” bias in state rate-setting outcomes. Due to imperfect experience-rating of insurance premiums, middle-sized firms—which have the highest losses—pay less per dollar of loss than either the smallest or largest firms. Indeed, it appears that large firms purchasing commercial workers' compensation insurance subsidize other size groups.     

Policy Games and Venue‐Shopping: Working the Stakeholder Interface to Broker Policy Change in Rehabilitation Services

How should bureaucrats engage effectively and ethically with stakeholders to achieve legitimate policy change? This essay draws upon findings from a case study of the introduction of an evidence‐based rehabilitation program for injured workers with soft‐tissue injuries in a workers' compensation jurisdiction in Australia. Despite initial enthusiasm for collaborative policy reform, clinical associations soon withdrew their support. In a classic case of venue‐shopping, a coalition of clinical associations formed in opposition to the foundation principles of the proposed policy, overturning the bureaucrats' preferred consultation strategy: a think‐tank comprising of invited clinical experts. The policy game turned from highly cooperative to fiercely competitive. These policy upheavals are interpreted through the lens of two theoretical perspectives: Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition framework, and Scharpf's Actor‐centred Institutionalism framework. The contrasts in perspectives are melded into propositions for bureaucrats seeking to engage with stakeholders in a contested policy drama.     

Preventing construction deaths: The role of public policies

Are stronger direct financial incentives or regulatory enforcement effective in reducing fatalities in the construction industry? We examine two important policies—state workers' compensation (WC) programs and federal and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) activities—which embody those strategies. We examine their impact by looking at state-level fatality rates in the construction industry from 1992 to 2016. Setting aside highway crashes and violence, the majority of employee deaths occur in construction. We find that states which exempt small firms from the requirement to buy WC insurance have higher fatality rates. When eligibility for compensation is restricted by longer waiting periods, fatality rates are substantially higher. More frequent federal or state OSHA inspections and, especially, consultation visits are associated with lower fatality rates, but higher average penalties are not. Limited variation in these policies over our sample period, especially for WC, makes these results suggestive rather than definitively causal.     

The housing system of the former Soviet Union: Why do the soviets need housing markets?

Abstract

The administrative‐command system that had been in full force in the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1990 had its own logic and internal consistency. It is now common knowledge that this economic system has flaws that led to a deepening secular decline over the past three decades. Because of ideological reasons, and an inadequate economic understanding of the capacity of their system to be liberalized, many reformers sought a third way between central planning and markets. The consensus today is that there is no third way. Among the former Soviet republics, Russia has just embarked on market‐oriented reforms and is facing a difficult and unstable transition because central planning mechanisms have ceased to function, but markets are not yet in place. This transition is particularly problematic for housing, which is a very severely distorted economic sector.

The international evidence on market economies that has accumulated over the past 20 years shows that, when housing sector distortions exist, they are predominantly found on the supply side. In socialist economies, however, housing is part of the compensation provided by enterprises and other employers. As a result housing suffers from demand‐side distortions in addition to the supply‐side problems caused by the absence of land markets, vague property rights, and burdensome urban regulations. The housing sector is already so large and distorted in these highly urban economies that overall economic reforms cannot succeed without housing reforms. In addition to presenting an overview of Soviet housing, this paper provides comparative evidence indicating that, among all the distorted socialist housing systems, Russia's probably is the most impaired. The basic elements of a market‐oriented strategy to improve housing are briefly presented.     

Strategic Considerations and Judicial Review: The Case of Workers' Compensation Laws in the American States

Whether state supreme court justices votesincerely or strategically depends upon:(1) justices' sincere preferences; (2)ideological differences between a justiceand other state actors, which affect the willingness of actors tosanction justices; and (3) institutionalrules and political settings, which affect the ability of otheractors to retaliate against justices forobjectionable decisions. Since institutional rules do notvary for the U.S. Supreme Court but do forthe 50 states, state supreme court cases are thebest site for testing conditions underwhich justices are likely to vote strategically. Moreover,amendment of state constitutions isrelatively easy, which permits systematic examination of theextent to which strategic behavior manifests in judicialreview cases. Using data on docketing anddecisions on workers' compensation laws for1970–1993, this research offers a broaderunderstanding of strategic behavior byjudges.     

Development problems and planning in a resource-poor Pacific country: The case of Tuvalu

Tuvalu is an independent microstate and this account of its economic circumstances and prospects provides the context for discussion of administrative problems. The paper outlines the economic structure of the country and examines its economic resources and their potential; demographic trends are given attention, and the country's heavy dependence on foreign aid is explained. These features carry implications for the forms of public administration and development planning, and Tuvalu's current development plan and aspects of its public administration are discussed with this in mind. The article serves as a case study of the economy of a micro state and implications for administration in such a state.     

Public Financial Management Systems and Countries' Governance: A Cross‐Country Study

The objective of this study is to explore whether a relationship exists between public financial management (PFM) systems and expert perceptions of countries' governance in an international cross‐country study. We examine the extent to which variations in accounting, budgeting and auditing practices are associated with governance in a sample of 97 countries that represent different levels of development, analysing the differences between countries classified into factor, efficiency and innovation‐driven economies. Our concept of governance perception includes three dimensions: accountability, government effectiveness and corruption. We find that countries with a higher level of economic development show, on average, more sophisticated PFM systems characterized by the presentation of accrual‐based financial statements, the application of value for money audits and higher budget transparency. When analysing the sub‐samples of countries according to the level of economic development, we find that countries with similar governance perception scores show different patterns of PFM practices, suggesting that there is no one‐size‐fits‐all approach. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conceptualizing economic security and governance: China confronts globalization

Abstract

With the expansion and deepening of globalization, as well as China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the nexus between economic growth and national security has gained prominence in China since the mid-1990s. How to ensure socio-economic security while maintaining its robust economic growth is now the most serious concern of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government. This paper addresses three questions: first, it explores why and how the transformation of economic growth and national security as two separate logics to a single domain evolved conceptually over the past two decades in China; second, what kinds of insecurities are generated by China's robust economic growth coupled with the expansion and deepening of globalization, and in which way and to what extent do they challenge China's government; third, what kinds of mechanisms or policy instruments have been adopted by China's government to address emerging economic insecurities while maintaining robust economic growth. The paper concludes that in the case of China, globalization has posed new challenges to economic security, but given that economic insecurity has its particular salience in individual countries, national institutional adjustment or adaptation becomes increasingly important for each country to govern in the interests of economic security while maintaining economic growth.     

Does corporate governance affect CEO compensation in Indian manufacturing firms?

This study examines the effects of (a) chief executive officers (CEO) pay dynamics, (b) corporate governance characteristics, and (c) the impact of environmental, social, and governance disclosure practices on CEO compensation. Data of 282 Indian manufacturing firms were collected from Bloomberg database from 2013–14 to 2018–19. This study uses Generalized Method of Moments estimation technique to assess the impact of corporate governance on CEO compensation. The empirical estimates reveal that increase in board size, board independence, women director in board, CEO duality, and institutional holdings reduced CEO compensation. Furthermore, the environmental, social, and governance disclosure confirmed that higher firm disclosures help to streamline CEO compensation. It has also been found that CEOs' current compensation is affected by their previous pay. This study corroborates the objectives of Companies Act 2013 to streamline the governance practices for optimizing CEO compensation.     

Institutionalizing fairness in financial markets: Mission impossible?

This article analyzes the institutionalization of process‐oriented regulation, namely: regulatory institutions that allow firms to adapt regulation to their individual circumstances, while holding them to account for the adequacy and efficacy of their internal compliance systems. The article's main focus is on the strategies sought by compliance professionals to attain managers' receptiveness to regulatory expectations. It analyzes British financial firms' responses to a process‐oriented regulatory initiative, which sought to transform the widespread culture of product “mis‐selling” in this industry. Three key arguments and hypotheses are put forward: first, it is suggested that the existing theoretical literature on process‐oriented regulation overly stresses managers' rational, profit‐maximizing motivations for (non‐)compliance, whilst overlooking their emotive motivations. Second, it is proposed that managers' emotive resistance is expected when regulatory expectations challenge firms' “organizational identities” and thereby their individual identities. Third, it is hypothesized that when process‐oriented regulation poses a threat to organizations' identities, its institutionalization will entail delegation of the design and subsequent implementation of compliance systems to managers outside compliance, and reframing of regulatory expectations into existing businesses discourses and methodologies.     

Translation of trustworthiness signals into factors for stakeholder value cocreation

In this empirical paper, we contribute to this special issue on “The Marketing and Public Affairs of Sustainability” by addressing value creation, the raison d'être for the marketing scholarship, from a social sustainability perspective. Our evidence shows that during the interlinked practices of a focal organization and its external stakeholders, the practices from the former emit trustworthiness signals which translate into factors for stakeholder value for the latter, as precursor to stakeholder value cocreation or value destruction. Therefore, utility is not the result of an organization's decision-making and actions but rather, it is shaped by these interlinked practices, moderated by each stakeholder group's dynamic reference state. We believe that our explanatory model, by showing that trustworthiness and stakeholder engagement are endogenous to value creation, is consistent with the view of corporate sustainability as a persuasive and effective organizational management idea.     

The fact remains: Party ID moderates how voters respond to economic change

Recent research suggests that party identification biases voters' economic perceptions in general, but that all voters respond to economic change at the same rate. This implies that voters update their economic perceptions in parallel and are able to hold governments to account. But this has two problems. First, it contradicts evidence of partisan-motivated information processing. Second, parallel-updating does not imply unbiased information processing and is normatively less appealing than if partisans' economic perceptions were to converge at economic extremes. In this article, I argue instead that party identification does moderate how voters' economic perceptions respond to economic change. I test my argument on data from one ordinary and one extraordinary period in Britain's recent economic history using competing Bayesian multilevel ordered-logit models. I show that economic change does lead to changes in voters' economic perceptions. But I also show that party identification moderates this process. As such, voters update their economic perceptions along separate, not parallel, paths.     

“Carrying the black pot”: Food safety and risk in China's reactive regulatory state

This paper explores the struggles of China's party-state to address chronic food safety problems by adopting international best practices of risk-based regulation. Despite formally adopting risk-based approaches for targeting inspections and enforcement in 2002, implementation has been halting and uneven, as we show in the first analysis of risk-based regulation beyond its OECD heartlands. Drawing on policy document analysis and 36 key informant interviews with food business operators and government officials working on food safety regulation at every level of the state, we identify contradictions between official commitments to risk-based inspection and top-down demands for zero tolerance and strict accountability, which leave local inspectors preoccupied with avoiding blame more than reducing safety risks. Our analysis advances recent scholarship on regulatory states of the global South by highlighting how risk-based ideas, instruments, and practices are refracted through the distinctive norms and style of China's reactive regulatory state.     

Informed Preferences? The Impact of Unions on Workers' Policy Views

Despite declining memberships, labor unions still represent large shares of electorates worldwide. Yet their political clout remains contested. To what extent, and in what way, do unions shape workers' political preferences? We address these questions by combining unique survey data of American workers and a set of inferential strategies that exploit two sources of variation: the legal choice that workers face in joining or opting out of unions and the over‐time reversal of a union's policy position. Focusing on the issue of trade, we offer evidence that unions influence their members' policy preferences in a significant and theoretically predictable manner. In contrast, we find that self‐selection into membership accounts at most for a quarter of the observed “union effect.” The study illuminates the impact of unions in cohering workers' voice and provides insight on the role of information provision in shaping how citizens form policy preferences.     

From madness to wisdom: intelligence and the digital crowd

ABSTRACT

This article sheds light on the complexity and sensitivity of crowd-based intelligence in security governance. The 'crowd’ as special manifestation of ‘the public’ is both challenging and enabling new forms of intelligence practices. As a spontaneous eruption of collective activity, the crowd is a notion of great versatility. Sometimes considered mad/dangerous, sometimes wise/useful, the crowd’s drivers are a context-dependent collage of (affective) group engagement, projection from the outside and the workings of digital technologies. The article traces how the existence of crowds in its variations is connected to how they are approached by security agents and their intelligence practices.     

An Assessment of Anti-Satellite Capabilities and their Strategic Implications

ABSTRACT

The success of space-based communications, navigation and reconnaissance programs – in both the commerical and military arenas – presents a significant vulnerability. Intuitively, as the economic importance and military indispensability of space systems grows, so will their attractiveness as targets. Although attacks against satellites would involve significant operational challenges, economic costs and diplomatic risks, it is well within the realm of technological possibility. For example, China's decision to research ASATs is an indication of its long-term strategic goal of weakening America's monopoly on military space capabilities. This essay describes the current capabilities of anti-satellite (ASAT) technology, assesses its military impact and considers its broader policy and security implications. In light of the broad implications of ASAT weapons on the debate about missile defense in particular and space weaponization in general, the author concludes that the best way to protect America's space-related economic and military functions is to avoid ASATs development.     

Which democracies prosper? Electoral rules, form of government and economic growth

Electoral rules and form of government have important economic effects, for example on taxation and public spending. However, there are no robust results in the literature when it comes to their effect on economic growth. This paper investigates whether electoral rules and form of government affects economic growth by applying panel data techniques on a very extensive dataset. There is no robust effect of presidentialism or parliamentarism on growth. However, there is very robust evidence for a positive, and quite substantial, effect of Proportional Representation (PR) electoral rules on economic growth. This is partly due to PR systems’ propensity to generate broad-interest policies, like universal education spending, property rights protection and free-trade, rather than special interest economic policies. Also semi-proportional systems seem to enhance growth relative to plural-majoritarian systems.     

The Impacts of State Capital Management Programs on State Economic Performance

Although the normative literature advocates systematic capital management practices, empirical studies investigating the tangible benefits of these practices are rare. Based on previous findings that public investment affects economic growth, this study extends the model of government spending and economic growth to investigate the effect of systematic capital management programs on state economic performance. Using panel data from 1997 to 2004 and the Government Performance Project's data on state capital management practices, the empirical results indicate that highly systematic capital management programs positively alter the relationship between the state's capital spending levels and the state's economic growth rate.