Autocracy, Elections, and Fiscal Policy: Evidence from Malaysia

Authoritarian regimes often use fiscal policy to reward political supporters and to punish political opponents. In many authoritarian regimes with political institutions like parties, legislatures, and elections, elections become a focal point for budget expenditures and the distribution of government patronage. A time-series analysis of Malaysian fiscal expenditures from 1967 to 1997 shows that the ruling coalition systematically increases federal government spending before elections. In addition to marshalling private resources to distribute patronage, the Malaysian government manipulates the government’s official position. These findings have important implications for the growing literature on political institutions under autocratic regimes and the politics of patronage and redistribution in the developing world. They also suggest a new empirical domain for existing theories of political business cycles.     

Beowulf: The Heroic,The Monstrous,and Anglo-Saxon Concepts of Leadership

Abstract

The poem Beowulf highlights the leader's heroic role, and is one of the premier examples of literature as a form of leadership instruction. The heroic ideal is one in which leaders are defined by their ability to live in harmony with both the laws and noble norms of society, to overcome opposition, and to demonstrate the acquisition of virtue by the way the live. They are readily recognized as a contrast to the evils they oppose. At the same time, heroic leaders are exemplars for their followers, and receive much of their power by personifying the virtues to which both they and their followers are committed. Leadership thus unfolds in a net of shared expectations, well-defined and noble ideals, and demonstrated accomplishments. In this, the medieval and Anglo-Saxon ideals are wondrously modern.     

Sustainable Development: Concepts and Rankings

One way of thinking about development - endorsed by the UNDP and the Brundtland Commission - involves improvements in the quality of life which are equitable. This conception invokes two values - equity and well-being - which can conflict. The potential conflict suggests that countries which are doing well in terms of well-being may perform badly on environmental concerns. Desai argued to the contrary that there are positive linkages between human development and environmental protection. He found tentative support for this claim in rankings of developing countries in terms of the HDI and indices of environmental exploitation. This result is not robust when similar exercises are carried out using a different set of countries and closely related indices.     

Structural budget deficits: Concepts and facts

Enormous budget deficits in the American government have been persistent despite continuing economic expansion. The nation is now facing a so called structural budget deficit –hat persists despite the business cycle of the economy. This article sets forth a definition of structural budget deficits, traces the trends of cyclical and structural deficits, analyzes the patterns of revenues and public expenditures, and discusses the implication of deficits in light of federal financial liabilities and obligations.     

Fiscal Reforms and the Fiscal Effects of Aid in Uganda

Abstract

Uganda implemented public expenditure and revenue management reforms from the early 1990s with specific aims of improving budget planning and aligning aid with fiscal priorities. The dynamic relationship between aid and domestic fiscal aggregates is analysed using a Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive model with annual data for 1972–2008 and quarterly data for 1997–2014. Aid has been a significant element of long-run fiscal equilibrium, associated with increased tax effort and public spending and reduced domestic borrowing. Fiscal reforms have improved aid and expenditure management, contributing to improved fiscal performance in Uganda, with lessons for other African countries.     

Electoral Rules,Political Competition and Fiscal Expenditures: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Brazilian Municipalities

We exploit a discontinuity in the rules of Brazilian mayoral elections to investigate whether political competition has a causal impact on fiscal policy choices. In municipalities with fewer than 200,000 voters, mayors are elected under a plurality voting system. In all other municipalities, a runoff election takes place between the top two candidates if neither achieves the majority of votes. Our results suggest that political competition induces more investment and less current expenditures, particularly personnel expenditures. The impact is larger when incumbents can run for re-election, suggesting incentives matter insofar as incumbents can themselves remain in office.     

Political Consensus and Fiscal Outcomes

It is becoming difficult to maintain consensus in a period of economic austerity, and this possibly challenges the ability of democratic institutions to take decisions on tough economic questions. In order to find out how political consensus influences fiscal outcomes, this article sets out to analyse the association between political consensus and public expenditure growth. The results show that political consensus is positively associated with both budgeted and actual expenditure growth, but also negatively associated with budget overruns. This indicates that political consensus comes at a cost, while at the same time politicians may be better at sticking to budgets if political consensus exists. The analysis is based on a pooled regression analysis of the local governments in Denmark in the years 2008 and 2009 using a data set combining survey data with administrative data on the local governments.     

Fiscal decentralisation and IDC economic growth: An empirical investigation

The impact of fiscal decentralisation on LDC economic growth and development is widely debated in the development literature. Notwithstanding this, there has been little attempt to test systematically this relationship. Accordingly, in this note we present an empirical examination of the relationship between the level of fiscal decentralisation and economic growth rates across a sample of twenty‐three LDCsfrom 1974 to 1991. We fail to find, however, any strong, systematic relationship between the two among our sample of LDCs.     

Public Administration in Belgium, the UK and Eire: a Review Symposium

Teaching Public Administration in Belgium , Jan Beyers and Yves Plees
The Teaching of Public Administration in the UK , Chris Bellamy
Teaching Public Administration in Ireland , Bernadette Connaughton
Regionalism: a Review Article , Martin Rhodes
Shrinking the State. The Political Underpinnings of Privatization , Harvey Feigenbaum, Jeffrey Henig and Chris Hamnett
Public Policy Instruments. Evaluating the Tools of Public Administration , B. Guy Peters and Frans K.M. van Nispen
Carrots, Sticks and Sermons. Policy Instruments and their Evaluation , Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc, Ray C. Rist and Evert Vedung
Community Organizing. Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy , Ross Gittell and Avis Vidall
Deregulation in the European Union: Environmental Perspectives , Ute Collier
New Instruments for Environmental Policy , Jonathan Golub
Re-imagining Political Community , Daniele Archibugi, David Held and Martin Köhler     

Public Administration in Belgium,the UK and Eire: a Review Symposium

Teaching Public Administration in Belgium, Jan Beyers and Yves Plees The Teaching of Public Administration in the UK, Chris Bellamy Teaching Public Administration in Ireland, Bernadette Connaughton Regionalism: a Review Article, Martin Rhodes Shrinking the State. The Political Underpinnings of Privatization , Harvey Feigenbaum, Jeffrey Henig and Chris Hamnett Public Policy Instruments. Evaluating the Tools of Public Administration, B. Guy Peters and Frans K.M. van Nispen Carrots, Sticks and Sermons. Policy Instruments and their Evaluation, Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc, Ray C. Rist and Evert Vedung Community Organizing. Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy , Ross Gittell and Avis Vidall Deregulation in the European Union: Environmental Perspectives , Ute Collier New Instruments for Environmental Policy, Jonathan Golub Re-imagining Political Community, Daniele Archibugi, David Held and Martin Köhler     

美、日、英社区体育现状及启示

在2008年北京奥运会上,中国代表团共获得51枚金牌,位列奥运会金牌总数第一名。从某种程度上来说,取得如此好成绩的主要原因是举国体制,中国对竞技体育的重视程度和投入在全世界都是一流的。而对比国家对竞技体育的投入,群众体育的投入却严重偏少,平均每万人仅拥有体育场地6．58个。在发达国家如美国、日本,平均每万人拥有200多个体育场地。美国的人均体育场地面积高达16平方米。与发达国家相比,中国在群众体育方面的差距巨大。特别是体育场地严重缺少的问题,     

Poverty in Bangladesh: Measurement,decomposition and intertemporal comparison

This article, using the methodology developed by Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke to measure and decompose poverty, provides estimates of the levels of poverty in rural and urban areas in Bangladesh. It investigates in the context of Bangladesh, the most powerful effect of poverty in terms of a shortfall in food for daily calorie intake by the poor. It provides intertemporal comparison of poverty and its decomposition among subgroups. It also makes comparisons between the results obtained in this study with those currently available. The results of the study show a significant improvement in poverty situations in rural areas from 1982 to 1986. The article also discusses the policy implications of its findings.