Monitoring quality in a federal state with shared powers in healthcare: the case of Belgium

The Belgian healthcare system consists of a complex of more or less autonomous groups of healthcare providers. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the fundamental right to qualitative healthcare is secured through the services they provide. In Belgium, the regulatory powers in healthcare are divided between the federal state and the three communities. Both levels, within their area of competence, monitor the quality of healthcare services. Unique to the Belgian healthcare system is that the government that providers are accountable to is not always the same as the government that is competent to set the criteria. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the main mechanisms that are used by the federal government and the government of the Flemish community to monitor healthcare quality in hospitals. The Flemish community is Belgian's largest community (6.2 million inhabitants). The overview is followed by a critical analysis of the dual system of quality monitoring.     

Comparing crime reporting factors in EU countries

Through crime-reporting citizens make their security needs explicit to the police. This information helps the police in the allocation of resources. In the European Union, there are significant differences among countries, both in terms of overall and specific crime-reporting rates. Factors highlighted by the literature that might explain these differences are not entirely satisfactory. There is little comparative research, and most published studies are nation-centred, based on the experience of central and northern European countries, and largely focused on the situational variables related to the criminal incident itself. It is widely assumed that situational variables have a universal explanatory capacity in crime reporting. This article questions this assumption and shows that a number of factors weight differently in explaining national rates. Following a literature review, we identified four groups of causal factors and analysed their explanatory capacity. These are related largely to the incident (rational models) and victims’ perception (psychological models). In addition, we also analysed the influence of institutional and community factors. The European Survey on Crime and Safety database was used for our analysis. Results show the existence of two areas in Europe, the north-central area and the south-eastern area, in terms of crime reporting rates and the factors that explain these differences. Rational and psychological models explain crime-reporting practices better in the north-central area. In contrast, socio-demographic variables and social inequalities are more relevant for explaining crime reporting in the south-eastern area of Europe. Institutional variables are also important in eastern countries. Community factors are not significant explanatory variables due to the limitations of indicators available in the database. Our research reveals that crime-reporting is a rather more complex phenomenon than is often assumed, and highlights the limitations of existing knowledge and methodologies on comparative crime-reporting.     

The Cost of Crime and Violence in Five Latin American Countries

This paper provides evidence on the costs imposed by crime and violence in five Latin American countries: Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay. Crime and violence stand out as one of the major social challenges to be dealt with in Latin America. However, the incidence of crime (and thus its social and economic impact) varies among countries. Based on a common theoretical framework across all five countries, we use a costs-accounting methodology and find that the cost of criminality varies from a striking 10.5 % of GDP in Honduras to a moderate 2.5 % in Costa Rica. Also, by quantifying the different components of the cost equation separately, we provide insight on which felonies are more costly and which agents are burdened most heavily by these costs.     

A new approach to measuring technology with an application to the shape of the diffusion curves

This paper documents the sources and measures of the cross-country historical adoption technology (CHAT) data set that covers the diffusion of about 115 technologies in over 150 countries over the last 200 years. We use this comprehensive data set to explore the shape of the diffusion curves. Our main finding is that, once the intensive margin is measured, technologies do not diffuse in a logistic way.

Capable,splendorous and unequal: international media portrayals of Brazil during the 2014 World Cup

This article examines how Brazil was perceived internationally during the 2014 World Cup (2014WC), for which one of Brazil’s perceived objectives was to enhance its international image to play a more significant role on the world stage. Nine media outlets’ coverage of the 2014WC was analysed using the website Alexa. These outlets published 699 articles about diverse themes relating to Brazilian society. The outlets studied considered the event a success overall and emphasised Brazil’s natural beauty, but raised concerns about social problems such as inequality. We conclude that the 2014WC updated but did not fundamentally alter Brazil’s international image.     

The relationship between crime victimization,corruption, and public attitudes of Mexico’s armed forces

This paper studies the relationship between self-reported crime victimization, perceptions of corruption, and attitudes of Mexico’s armed forces. We find that perceptions of corruption along with individual and state-level factors are important predictors of support for Mexico’s Army and Navy. While crime and violence have had a tremendous impact on Mexican society, crime victimization does not seem to undermine public support for the armed forces. In contrast, corruption in these institutions does undermine support. Given the historical and contemporary significance of the armed forces, this research has significant implications for the role of the coercive apparatus of the Mexican state.