SSI: trends in state supplementation, 1979-81

In December 1979, the number of persons receiving State supplementary payments under the Supplemental Security Income Program for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled totaled 1,942,000. By December 1981, the number totaled 1,875,000--a decline of 67,000 or 3 percent. This decrease paralleled the reduction in the number of persons receiving Federal Supplemental Security Income payments, which dropped from 3,687,000 to 3,590,000 or 3 percent during the 3-year period. Changes also occurred in the distribution of persons by eligibility category. The number of persons eligible because of age declined 9 percent, from 823,000 to 745,000; persons eligible because of blindness increased 1 percent, from 41,000 to 42,000; and persons eligible because of disability increased 1 percent, from 1,076,000 to 1,086,000. In contrast to the trend in the State supplementation caseload, expenditures for State supplementary payments continued to increase as they have since the beginning of the Supplemental Security Income program.     

Trends in the Fiscal Condition of Cities, 1979–1981

Editor's Note: In the Fall of 1980, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and the Government Finance Research Center surveyed almost 600 cities—approximately half of which responded—concerning their fiscal condition. This excerpt from the introduction to the Committee's report indicates that most cities expect their financial condition to worsen, The full report is available from the Committee.     

Regionalization,administrative reform and democratization: Nicaragua 1979–1984

The article discusses the major events and debates that have taken place during the reform and democratization of subnational government in Nicaragua from the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship to late 1984. Developments during this period highlight five distinct areas of reform that must be addressed as part of any process of state democratization: (a) selection and maintenance of local officials; (b) integration of popular participation; (c) definition of the range of local authority; (d) resources for local development; and (e) relation to other levels of government. These issues are addressed through a discussion focusing heavily on local government during the first 3 years, then on the experience of the newly created regional governments and decentralization beginning in mid—1982, and finally on the early—and quite divergent—experience with the development of zonal government between the municipal and regional levels. The specific resolution of these five sets of issues is part of the development of the revolutionary process in Nicaragua, and will strongly shape the political and developmental significance of the resulting local government.     

UK Privatisation Revisited: Ideas and Policy Change, 1979–92

Privatisation in the UK was facilitated by the interplay of ideas, institutions, actors, and economic interests. The motivations of the programme were ideational and political, but the objectives were economic and administrative. Together these paved the way for the success of the policy. Although several rationales were at play in the unfolding of privatisation, the ideological predilection of the Thatcher governments underpinned this far-reaching policy reform. This explains why the Thatcher government did not reform nationalized industries within the public sector, but instead shifted them into the private sector. Privatisation succeeded because it was championed by new right policy entrepreneurs, was supported by interest groups prepared to support, or least not impede, such dramatic policy change, and when the public enterprise status quo was deemed in need of reform. Of course, ideas only act as a catalyst for policy change when an established policy agenda having withered, been worn-out or otherwise discredited, can then be successfully challenged.     

The 1979 Local Elections in Norway

The result of the 1979 local elections in Norway showed that a strong Conservative wind was blowing over the country. The Conservative Party (Høyre) made an average progress of 8.5 per cent, compared with the previous local election results in 1975. The big loser was the Centre Party, which suffered a decrease of 2.8 per cent as an unweighted average. The governing party of Norway, the Labour Party, experienced only minor changes compared with the 1975 results, but compared with the last Storting election in 1977, the party's vote dropped from 42.2 to 36.1 per cent. Besides the Conservatives, gains were registered by the Liberal Party (Venstre) and the right-wing Progress Party (Fremskrittspariet, formerly Anders Langes Parti). A local election in Norway has traditionally seen a good many local non-partisan election lists. In this election, however, such lists won only 2.3 per cent of the vote, thus confirming a decline in their strength and a process of politicization that have been observed during all elections in the 1970s.     

China's 1979 election law and its implementation

A new election law was passed by the National People's Congress in 1979 to replace the 1953 law. This law extended direct elections to the county level people's congresses, and also introduced the practice of multiple candidates for each seat. This reform is part of the general trend towards increased stress on legality and democracy in the People's Republic of China. The new election system has led to an elaborate complex of unequal representation in favor of urban areas at the expense of the peasantry. National minorities also have greater representation than their actual numbers would warrant. The structure and functions of election comittees, election districts, local congresses and government, and small voters' groups are examined. Specific conditions in several localities are also described.     

Ethnic Management in the 1979 Nigerian Constitution

Nigeria, the most populous African nation, is also the mostheterogeneous. The desire to contain the many ethnic groupswithin the framework of one united country has necessitatedpolitical experiments of federalism and, even for a brief while,unitarism. A thirty-month war was fought to prevent secessionand then a constitutional compact was drawn up to secure theunity of the country. The constitution sought to guarantee ethnicequality and equal ethnic opportunities in governments, politicalparties, and nongovernment public establishments. All governmentand parastatal organizations had to reflect the plural compositionor the federal character of the nation. It was a very ingeniousdevice, but did not fully succeed in neutralizing divisive ethnicpassions.