Greek appeals courts’ quality analysis and performance

Our effort in this paper is to focus on Greek Appeals Courts’ Quality Analysis and Performance examining sample real cases to document the long delays of the Greek judiciary. We also examine evidence to support the suggestion that the main problem of the Greek judicial system is not only of insufficient staffing, but also a problem of insufficient organization, excessively burdensome procedures and severe restrictions in the way legal services are supplied in Greece. In particular, we present evidence of poor justice quality that can be also used to interpret the Greek case focusing on the quality of the judiciary and on inefficiencies in legal service markets. We also present a number of case-files that demonstrate the large delays in the Greek judiciary. We finally summarise policy proposals from the existing literature and use them to suggest appropriate judicial reforms for Greece.     

Negative Capital and the Wealth of Nations

The so-called global economy has generated tremendous international wealth inequality that only increases as globalization deepens. This process is capped by the failure of classical economic theory to incorporate such free market externalities as negative capital . Negative capital can be defined as situations, events, or environmental conditions that degrade or threaten to degrade the standard of living or life expectancy of great numbers of persons, including those living in wealthy nations. These problems cut across issues of sovereignty and security, economic development, and the environment. They can be monetized and have value because the rich will have to pay in order to mitigate them, whether at home or abroad. Payment can take many forms, but it will involve a politics of redistribution. Negative capital is a systemic phenomenon "in nature" without which the classical economic theory is both incomplete and notably ideological. A tamed and therefore enlightened free market, that recognizes and addresses negative capital, may be better equipped to resolve the situations created by its inherent inadequacies.     

New occupations,old demands: The public regulation of paraprofessionals

Like doctors, lawyers, and architects before them, many new paraprofessionals occupations are rapidly being defined and regulated, raising the time-worn questions regarding the virtues of free labor markets versus those of regulated labor markets. The trend to regulation is growing rapidly as the paraprofessionals increase in number. The new regulation may improve the quality of services that paraprofessionals provide. But the costs threaten to exceed the benefits. There are less costly ways to deal with the problems that have given rise to the demands for regulation. The success of these demands is due in part to inadequate consideration of their implications.     

The power not to tax: A search for effective controls

Although the primary purpose of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was to gain greater congressional control over federal spending, the act also represented a small but significant step toward controlling the substantial financial commitments made through the numerous exclusions, deductions, and credits in the federal income tax. In the Budget Act Congress, for the first time, recognized and defined these “tax expenditures” and adopted procedures for reviewing them. But tax expenditure budgeting has not had the beneficial effect that some had hoped, mainly because the 1974 effort failed to take adequate account of the organizational structure of Congress and of the political character of its decision-making. But these weaknesses can be overcome.     

IMPACT OF PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS ON MUNICIPAL PERFORMANCE

Recently, a challenge to the use of traditional productivity and performance measurement tools has emerged. The focus of this debate i s whether such tools are instrumental for making critical trade-off decisions or program changes. In a nationwide survey of municipalities on this subject, the authors found that performance measurement systems are used across a number of service-related functions. While their perceived contribution to overall municipal performance tended to diminish for Individual worker productivity and morale concerns, the respondents–on balance-viewed the returns from performance measurement systems as worth the costs. The work concludes with several implications for possible adoption.     

Advocacy coalitions and the practice of policy analysis

Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (above) have presented a framework for describing the processes by which public policies change over time, and Heintz and Weyant (above) have provided an array of case studies illustrating and elaborating those processes. This article will focus explicitly on the manner in which the advocacy coalition framework bears on the practice of policy analysis, both from the perspective of the manager of analytical resources, and from the perspective of the practicing policy analyst.