Lessons from the Asian Economic Crisis: A View from South Korea

Ha and Kim present a new reading of the East Asian crisis, focusing particularly on South Korea's experience. They argue that previous studies have ignored the political environment that paved the way for such an event. Neoliberal economists, according to the authors, were so enamoured with the example of the 'Asian tigers' and the ideal of unregulated markets that they were blind to the many warnings of an ensuing disaster. Economic systems can thus no longer rest on such a free-market capitalist ideal where no one controls the global economy, but must instead have a secure political base. As the financial crisis has shown, such international anarchy must be checked by a new set of international institutions. While the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organisation did attempt to handle the crisis, it, along with Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), proved unable to do so. East Asia's leaders and theorists have been presented with the challenge of reforming this region's institutions and political orders in order to avoid another crisis, complete with all its social and political ramifications.     

The new media landscape: Regulating the idiot boxes

The European Commission has proposed a modernization of the Directive 89/552/EEC, also known as the TV without Frontiers Directive (TVWF). The draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive suggests extending regulation to cover a broad range of new and emerging audiovisual media services. The proposal unleashed fierce opposition from all sectors. The most contentious issue concerns the distinction between the two types of audiovisual media services (linear and non-linear), which are distinguished from each other by the degree of user control. The Commission has failed to provide any convincing argument to prove the necessity of imposing a new regulation and the inadequacy of the current regulatory framework. This paper analyses the proposed Audiovisual Media Services Directive.     

Influence of Family,Agency, and Caseworker Dynamics on Caregivers' Satisfaction With Their Child Protective Services Experience

Numerous child protective services (CPS) agencies have adopted differential responses as a system reform hypothesized to facilitate family engagement. This research tests a conceptual framework developed to examine dynamics between caregiver, agency, and caseworker factors that are assumed to impact caregiver engagement. Data from a randomized control study and structural equation modeling methods were used to explore the influence of these factors on caregiver satisfaction with their CPS experience. The results indicate that receipt of alternative response, caregivers' ratings of their caseworker's interaction style, and caregivers' positive emotional response influenced satisfaction with their intervention experience, while negative emotional responses did not.