Identifying and Coping with Fiscal Emergencies in Ohio Local Governments

Abstract

This study examines the reasons fiscal emergencies occur in Ohio local governments and the strategies that local governments use to recover. In Ohio, fiscal emergencies have regularly occurred predominantly at the local level. This study aims to reveal the internal process that both bring on and ameliorates fiscal emergencies. Previous studies failed to differentiate between fiscal stress and fiscal emergencies and did not include the role of the Ohio Fiscal Emergency Law in assisting local governments in restoring long term fiscal health. This study finds fiscal emergencies in Ohio were caused by: (1) the increased costs associated with unfunded state-mandated programs and, (2) major economical downturns brought on by local plant closings. Local governments were found to have responded in the short run by strategies such as targeted expenditure cuts and in the long run by increased the use of economic development.     

Tax Innovations and Public Revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

We study the effect of two tax innovations – value added taxes (VAT) and autonomous revenue authorities (ARA) – on tax revenues in sub-Saharan Africa. The dataset consists of 47 countries over 1980–2010. We find that VATs have no effect on total tax revenues, neither in the short- nor in the long-run. ARAs lead to higher tax revenues in the short- and medium-run, but the effect dissipates over time. The main conclusion is that tax innovations are not a panacea to overcome the revenue shortages in African countries, but they are helpful in the short- and medium-run.     

Problem-Solving Courts in China: Background,Development, and Current Status

ABSTRACT

As a judicial system, the Chinese problem-solving courts are more deeply rooted in traditional judicial approaches than in therapeutic jurisprudence that fueled the movement in the West. Nevertheless, they share many similarities with problem-solving courts developed elsewhere in the world. To provide a better understanding of the courts, the authors first introduce the cultural and legal tradition that served as background for the judicial innovations. They then review the social and economic conditions that provided the impetus for the judicial reform. Next, they examine the two most common forms of the problem-solving court—the juvenile court and the family court—and identify their key functions and procedures. Last, the authors discuss the significance of the legal reform, the challenges it confronts, and improvement it can achieve.     

Incumbents and Innovations under Decentralization: An Empirical Exploration of Selected Local Governments in the Philippines

Abstract

Like in other developing countries, many local governments in the Philippines have become innovative under decentralization. We investigate here the drivers of local innovations, with focus on quality of incumbent leaders, their political incentives and fiscal resources. We applied Poisson regressions on a survey data comprising 209 innovations introduced in 48 cities and municipalities during the period June 2004–June 2008. The statistically significant factors are the mayor's competence (age, educational attainment), re-election status and term in office. Innovations appear to increase with local fiscal resources but at decreasing rate. Access to information appears not to matter much. However, these factors, including poverty rates, vary in relative importance in explaining innovations in expenditure services, and in revenue and public administration services. Some policy inputs are suggested.     

The Relationship Between State Government Performance and State Quality of Life

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between government performance and quality of life in the American states. We contend that the management capacity of state governments should have direct, tangible impacts on the overall social and economic well‐being of state citizenry. In order to test this idea, we examine the influence of state management capacity (using the 1999 Government Performance Project grades), alongside other economic and political variables, on two prominent measures of state quality of life—The Morgan Quitno “Most Livable State” Index and State Policy Reports' (SPP) “Camelot Index.” We find that both state economic conditions and governmental policy priorities have significant impacts on state performance levels. But, our results clearly indicate that the management capacity of state governments also contributes directly to improving the overall quality of life for state citizens.     

Mixed Welfare Systems and Hybrid Organizations: Changes in the Governance and Provision of Social Services

Abstract

The provision and governance of personal social services is nowadays often thought as a matter of finding the right balance between market principles and state regulation. However often, personal social services depend as well from a third resource and mechanism of governance: It is the impact of the social capital of civil society, which makes itself felt not only by resources such as grants, donations, and volunteering, but as well by networking and social partnerships. A number of crucial changes in welfare and service provision have led to a situation, where service systems and service units, rather than being part of a clear-cut sector, have increasingly to be seen as hybrids, combining varying balances of resources and mixes of governance principles usually associated with the market, the state, and the civil society.     

‘SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL CREDIBILITY’: FOUNDING THE BANK OF CHINA IN 1912

Abstract

The Bank of China led China’s modern-style banks during the Republican era, supporting the Chinese state through war and peace and financing China’s industrialization in the first half of the twentieth century. This article explores the founding of this institution in 1912 in the context of building the modern Chinese nation state following the 1911 Revolution. It argues that the events that made possible the Bank of China’s founding illustrate the contingent nature of state building. Furthermore, emphasis is on the critical relationship between finance and political legitimacy in state building. The article also shows how the creation of an institution such as the Bank of China, which was originally intended to be the new Republic’s central bank, gave the fledgling state the opportunity to support the transfer of legal rights in regime change.     

Perilous semi-presidentialism? On the democratic performance of Timor-Leste government system

ABSTRACT

Timor-Leste chose semi-presidentialism as its government system to steer the country towards a democratic state. This government system became popular in the course of the ‘Third Wave’ of democratization, but has no other example in Southeast Asia. The Timorese Constituent Assembly was guided not by an appraisal of the virtues and pitfalls of competing systems, but by historical and political factors that led it to craft an institutional solution in line with significant features of Timorese society. Yet the specific form of semi-presidentialism adopted in Timor-Leste (‘president-parliamentarism’) is regarded in the literature as prone to instability. However, in spite of episodes of instability, the conclusion emerging from three consecutive presidencies is one of positive steps in democracy-building and consolidation. This is mainly due to the emergence of ‘independent’ presidents who have sought power-sharing arrangements and promoted inclusive governance.     

Local governments and their arm’s length bodies

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art on the creation of arm’s length bodies (ALBs) by local governments. We make three main contributions. First, there are many different types of ALBs and each country has its own categories; an expert survey was held identifying three common types of body, to enable future comparative research. Second, we point out that the creation of ALBs has led to a number of new challenges for local governments, particularly regarding governing bodies at arm’s length to ensure ALBs’ good performance. A lack of capacity and information have to be countered, for example, by increased monitoring – also for democratic accountability purposes. Special attention is needed for the multiple principal problem that arises when local governments jointly create ALBs. Third, research into local ALBs is still in its early stages. We present a research agenda to develop knowledge on the topic.     

Taxing the Informal Economy: The Current State of Knowledge and Agendas for Future Research

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on taxation of the informal economy, taking stock of key debates and drawing attention to recent innovations. Conventionally, the debate on whether to tax has frequently focused on the limited revenue potential, high cost of collection, and potentially adverse impact on small firms. Recent arguments have increasingly emphasised the more indirect benefits of informal taxation in relation to economic growth, broader tax compliance, and governance. More research is needed, we argue, into the relevant costs and benefits for all, including quasi-voluntary compliance, political and administrative incentives for reform, and citizen-state bargaining over taxation.     

From centralisation to fragmentation and back again: the role of non-state actors in Brazil’s transformed foreign policy

Abstract

Since the 1990s, Brazil’s foreign policy-making, traditionally a highly centralised and hierarchical process, has become more fragmented, plural and horizontal. In this context, the role of non-state actors has been increasingly relevant. The impact and significance of these actors have been however a matter of debate. While there are authors that consider that non-state actors play only a secondary role in the policy-making process, there are others that assert that these actors work alongside governmental actors and directly influence policy choices. Drawing on the concept of network governance, the paper proposes a different view from the two recurrent approaches in the literature mentioned above. It argues that the recent steps to transform Brazil’s state governance from hierarchy to horizontal networks have indeed expanded the room for the direct participation of non-state actors in the policy process. However, state authorities fought to adjust this tendency, in order to retain control over the decision-making process, by putting in place formal and informal coordinating mechanisms led by the Ministry of Foreign Relations and the Presidency. This suggests Brazil’s foreign policy was made in the shadow of hierarchy. The paper demonstrates the argument using the case of Brazil’s foreign policy towards China.     

Chapter 11. The Future of Culturally Competent Mental Health Care for Latino Immigrants

Abstract

This chapter underscores the importance of cultural competence in the provision of effective mental health services to Latino immigrants. Culturally competent mental health care must be understood within the context of a social-political-economic framework that is changing on a continual basis. Health and mental health care reform for Latino immigrants must be linked to both practice-based research efforts and timely diffusion of best practice innovations. Cultural competence must be integrated as a valued component of the organizational structure of mental health systems of care.     

Maintaining disorder: the micropolitics of drugs policy in Iran

Abstract

This article analyses the ways in which the state ‘treats’ addiction among precarious drug (ab)users in Iran. While most Muslim-majority as well as some Western states have been reluctant to adopt harm reduction measures, the Islamic Republic of Iran has done so on a nationwide scale and through a sophisticated system of welfare intervention. Additionally, it has introduced devices of management of ‘addiction’ (the ‘camps’) that defy statist modes of punishment and private violence. What legal and ethical framework has this new situation engendered? And what does this new situation tell us about the governmentality of the state? Through a combination of historical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, the article analyses the paradigm of government of the Iranian state with regard to disorder as embodied by the lives of poor drug (ab)users.     

Genealogies of horror: three stories of slave-women,motherhood, and murder in the Americas

ABSTRACT

This article examines three cases of infanticide committed by slave women in the Americas – Margaret Garner (1856) of Ohio, Ignácia (1868) of Paraná, Brazil, and Justina (1878) of Rio de Janeiro. The article argues that each woman sought to dislodge their own as well as their children's place in what I term slavery's ‘genealogy of horror’, making the act of killing their children into an expression of black female agency, love, and insurgence against slavery. The cases of Justina and Ignácia's, I argue, provide a counternarrative to the myth of Brazil's genteel and harmonious slavery, propagated throughout the nineteenth century, by exposing the violence and desperation in which slave women and their progeny lived. In the second half of the article, I examine how cases of infanticide were depicted and used in the nineteenth-century abolitionist poetry of Brazilian poet Castro Alves and noted African American writer Frances Harper.     

Technological Innovation and Its Impact on Public Sector Efficiency and Performance: Aerial Imagery in Property Tax Assessment Administration

ABSTRACT

Technological innovations can help public organizations deliver higher quality public goods and services at lower average costs. While a considerable literature exploring the determinants of technology adoption and diffusion exists, much less is known on whether technology innovations improve public sector outputs. This study investigates the impact of high-resolution, oblique aerial imagery, an increasingly common technology used by local governments in the US, on the inspection efficiency and quality of property assessment administration. Aerial imagery is often argued to be a low-cost substitute to in-person inspections of property. Drawing on data from 2013 through 2017 for property assessing districts in Texas, aerial imagery use is found to improve the rate at which properties are inspected as well as improve the quality of assessments. The results further provide evidence that investments in aerial imagery are best justified on budgetary grounds rather than as a means to improve organizational performance.     

Recent state initiatives: The governor as policy leader; the governor as chief administrator

Innovative accomplishments of governors are a vehicle for analyzing state governors' performance as policy leaders and as chief executives. Analysis of survey data describing state innovations reveals governors fostering an almost even mix of programs (initiatives directly serving clienteles) and administrative innovations (changes in internal procedures), with innovations tending to be reported from agencies where the governor is involved in selection of the agency head. The implications are that governors interested in instituting and institutionalizing innovation can do so through their appointments and that the appointive power can be a vehicle for change as well as control. Program initiatives tended to concentrate in various functional policy areas, such as economic development or education. Management innovations, on the other hand, tended to be system wide in that they were reported in agencies that serve the entire state bureaucracy or they emanated from the governor's office.1     

Seeds of hope,seeds of despair: Towards a political economy of the seed industry in southern Africa

The seed industry in Southern Africa has been radically transformed by a policy of liberalisation and privatisation started under structural adjustment. Traditionally under the domain of parastatals, seed research, production and distribution has been criticised for failing to provide modern variety seed to smallholder farmers. However, the private companies which have stepped in to replace seed parastatals in southern Africa have proven no more effective in meeting the demands of smallholders. The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement, concluded in 1994 as part of the Uruguay Rounds of GATT negotiations, as well as certain biotechnological innovations such as Terminator or Traitor technologies, threaten to further undermine local seed production and consumption by destroying the informal seed sector so central to agricultural production in the region. What alternatives exist? The success of Zimbabwe's maize seed network offers some insight. Resting on a unique relationship between government and nationally based producer co-operatives, Zimbabwe's maize programme was able to provide nearly every farmer in the country with hybrid maize suited for local growing conditions.     

ROMANIA: A CASE STUDY IN DELAYED PRIVATIZATION

ABSTRACT

Romania emerged from 45 years of communism with 12,000 enterprises in state hands. As the nation moved toward democracy and free market conditions, its new leaders created legislation to privatize at least half of the state owned enterprises. In the years 1990 to 1996, the actions to privatize state owned enterprises went slowly, even though outside organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and European Union urged speed in privatization. Until November 1996, former communists who had high positions under Nicolae Ceasusescu led the government. After 1996, with a reform coalition running the country, privatization speeded up and made a difference in the county's economy. Privatization continues even though the government changed hands again in 2000. Romania's delayed privatization program has so far precluded the emergence of a new group of powerful owners who become so strong they can stymie the long-term achievement of a fully reformed economy.     

Refining and Resolving the Blur of Gault for Juvenile Capital Offenders in Texas: A World without the Juvenile Death Penalty

Texas's approach to juvenile capital offenders has been profoundly lacking any balance of the interests of accountability and rehabilitation. Texas has employed adult transfer for juvenile capital offenders with potential life imprisonment and possible parole in 40 years and determinate sentencing to adjudicate capital offenders in juvenile court, yielding a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Legislative initiatives in the 1990s to curtail parole have led to only 22 percent of violent offenders receiving early release while serving an average of 61 percent of their sentence. Aggravated offenders, including youth capital offenders, serve at least 80 percent of their total incarceration time. Notably the Texas framework does not effectively allow for offenders whose acts were the product of either an undeveloped or disabled mental capability to be punished appropriately and distinctly from those who possess psychotic or antisocial tendencies—or adult offenders. This deficiency is worsened as a result of the recently passed legislation SB.60, which establishes that juvenile capital offenders must receive the sentence of life without the possibility of parole upon conviction. Texas can create a more precise approach with three modifications: (1) centralize all youth capital adjudications to a criminal court, (2) effectuate separate imprisonment and enhanced educational programs for the first ten years of incarceration, (3) implement a “soft-ten” sentence where after the initial ten years of imprisonment the presumption for release favors the offender unless the state establishes that additional time is needed; this determination is primarily based on a complete psychological assessment of the offender.     

Terrorism Financing with Virtual Currencies: Can Regulatory Technology Solutions Combat This?

ABSTRACT

This article considers the terrorism financing risk associated with the growth of Financial Technology innovations and in particular, focuses on virtual currency products and services. The ease with which cross-border payments by virtual currencies are facilitated, the anonymity surrounding their usage, and their potential to be converted into the fiat financial system, make them ideal for terrorism financing and therefore calls for a coordinated global regulatory response. This article considers the extent of the risk of terrorism financing through virtual currencies in “high risk” States by focusing on countries that have been recently associated with terrorism activities. It assesses the robustness of their financial regulatory and law enforcement regimes in combating terrorism financing and considers the extent to which Regulatory Technology and its global standardization, can mitigate this risk.