The political management of managed care: explaining variations in state health maintenance organization regulations

In the 1990s, strong incentives for managed care organizations to control costs, once regarded as a fortuitous confluence of interests, came to be seen as antithetical to consumers' interests in quality of care. In response to this change in political climate, many states have greatly increased their regulatory control of managed care organizations since the mid-1990s. This activity is surprising in an era when public policy on health care issues is usually described as frozen, gridlocked, and/or stalemated as a result of intense activity on the part of organized interests. We take advantage of the variation in state regulations of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to discover why some governments are able to address policy problems that are often perceived as intractable in a political if not in a true policy sense. From the history of HMOs, the backlash against managed care, and state responses to that backlash, we first extract a number of hypotheses about state regulatory activity. We then test these hypotheses with data on regulatory adoptions by states during the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Last, we discuss the findings with special attention to the role of politics in health care.     

Information Technology Transfer to African Nations: An Economic Development Mandate

The global revolution caused by the advancement and deployment of information technology (IT) demands the full involvement of the entire international community if the technology is to be ultimately effective. IT which continues to revolutionize all facets of life in the developed world has the potential to affect African countries in historic proportions. IT presents several opportunities and challenges for developing African countries, including Africa. There are opportunities for fostering technological capabilities, and thus enhancing the prospect of economic development. This paper highlights the opportunities facing African countries in the information age. The challenges that African countries must face in order to experience the full impact of the technology are discussed. A policy framework for the transfer of IT to African countries is presented and several Internet resources relating to IT transfer in Africa are provided.     

A shift towards collaboration: Examining practitioner's economic development practices in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic

Regional collaboration has been suggested as a more effective way to promote economic development than competitive approaches. In Ontario, despite attempts by the provincial government to encourage regional collaboration, research finds that municipalities are still engaging in inter-territorial competition. In this article, we conducted interviews with thirty-seven practitioners to determine if economic development practices in Ontario have shifted towards more collaborative approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article finds that regional collaboration, as an economic development practice, has intensified in the province during the recent pandemic. Practitioners noted three reasons for engaging in regional collaboration: pool resources, reduce duplication, and complete regionally task-oriented goals.     

Barriers to practice by foreign lawyers in Asia – exploring the role of lawyers in society

This paper examines the barriers to legal practice by foreign lawyers in selected Asian jurisdictions, where the boundaries between local lawyers and foreign lawyers are drawn, and why barriers exist. It suggests that many jurisdictions in Asia still consider lawyers to be members of a special profession and are resistant to treating and regulating lawyers as ‘service providers’. In addition, although protectionism is a significant factor behind the barriers to practice by foreign lawyers in many jurisdictions, other factors are relevant, including traditional attitudes towards the role of lawyers based on their traditional role as advocates in a litigious context.