Winners, Losers, and Efficiency: Achieving Multiple Goals in Japan's Financial System Reforms

When giving policy advice, economists often proceed as if efficiency is the only valid social goal. Although efficiency is important, we argue that single-minded pursuit of it is counterproductive. It unnecessarily erects political hurdles to the enactment of efficiency-enhancing reforms because policy proposals that ignore valid, nonefficiency concerns are more likely to meet political and bureaucratic resistance. Moreover, such resistance may be avoided. A number of design principals can be employed to craft proposals that address political goals without abandoning efficiency. We describe three classes of principles: creative design of market mechanisms, maintenance of marginal incentives, and compensation for losers.We then illustrate their practical application in the context of Japanese financial-sector deregulation. This policy area usefully illustrates the importance of considering multiple goals in policy design. While efficiency is a frequently expressed goal, Japan's continued policy paralysis indicates that the bureaucratic and political goals of major stakeholders make the straightforward deregulation of financial markets difficult to achieve. We do not purport to resolve the entrenched barriers to economic reform in Japan, but to the extent that we identify and address valid nonefficiency goals, the conclusions of the analysis are relevant.     

Politics, Economic Development, and Second-Generation Strain in India's Federal System

Since the late 1960s, India's federal system has experiencedsevere strain in center-state relations. Such strain was almostnonexistent during the first generation of Indian federalism(1950–1966). During the second generation, which followedthe death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966, therise of a powerful leader of the ruling Congress party, IndiraGandhi, and the emergence of dissent inside the party led toa greater emphasis on centralization and regimentation withinthe party and, thereby, the federal system as well. At the sametime, economic development had helped to produce new politicalelites from rural areas who benefited from the "green revolution"of the 1960s. These new elites challenged the professional andindustrial elites who had long controlled the Congress party,the national government, and many state governments. Feelingfrustrated in their efforts to influence national economic policyin a significant way, these new elites have formulated demandsthat call for substantial decentralization, greater state autonomy,and more tolerance for opposition parties whose electoral supportis mainly state-based.     

Building Social Capital in City Politics: Scope and Limitations at the Inter-organisational Level

This article explores the relations between voluntary organisations and the city administration in two British cities through an analysis of the impact of social capital. It provides a corrective to the dominant individual-level approach by offering an organisational-level analysis of social capital. The evidence suggests that inter-organisational social capital is not distributed equitably within cities. Voluntary organisations that regularly engage with a city administration can build networks of trust and information flows that outstrip those available to other voluntary organisations. Although it is easier to build social capital within a sector, such as the voluntary sector, building it in tight networks with voluntary organisations would appear to be an achievable goal for a city administration – but such networks do not guarantee an enhanced overall confidence in the local political system.     

The Cultural Economy of a Border Renaissance: Politics and Practices in the City

The production of culture in urban image-making has received much attention within geography. This paper intervenes in the culture–economy debates in a slightly different way—namely, through the lens of an understudied city of the global South. It examines the structure and discourses embedded in the Tijuana (Mexico) Municipal Plan 2005–07 to interrogate the work that culture performs with an eye to the impacts (both material and discursive) of official strategies across time and space. In so doing, two propositions are suggested. First, post-colonial spaces offer important sites from which to critique the conflation of cultural practice and policy. Secondly, the complex imbrication of culture and economy can be further distilled in grounding examples in ordinary cities.     

Urban Regimes, Sports Stadiums, and the Politics of Economic Development Agendas in Chicago

Sports issues have increasingly become prominent items on the urban policy agenda. Most demands for sports-related policies have been woven into the general fabric of economic development in the community. in this article, the authors examine the issues surrounding sports stadium development in Chicago from 1985–90. An urban regime framework, based on the notion of governing coalitions, is used to analyze the incorporation of stadiums into Chicago's policy agenda during these years. The article is instructive of the way in which progressive city administrations have used the regime to mediate corporate demands for the often intangible benefits of sports.     

Uneven Development, Territorial Politics and the British Health Care Reforms

The paper considers the relationships between the uneven development of the British economy, the political strategies pursued by the Conservative government, and the changes to the character of the NHS in the 1980s which culminated in the NHS reforms. It describes the context in which spatial resource allocation policies in the NHS were operating—one of heightened uneven development, with particularly rapid growth taking place in South East England with harmful effects on the NHS. It shows that one response was pressure by backbench MPs on government for a more equitable distribution of funds. Developments within the NHS are interpreted as strategic attempts to prioritize the interests of key geographical locations within a broader 'two nations' political strategy. Three issues are raised: the usefulness of the idea of 'spatial coalitions' in understanding pressures for change in health care policy; the extent to which spatially-uneven development and the 'two-nations' political strategy influenced the character and timing of changes in health care policy; and the possibility that the politics of the welfare state will increasingly be shaped by territorially-based conflicts.