Part-Time Work,Gender and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from a Developing Country

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between part-time work and job satisfaction in Honduras. In contrast to previous work for developed countries, this paper does not find higher job satisfaction among women working part-time. Instead, for both women and men, job satisfaction is higher when in full-time work, although this finding is stronger for men. Consistent with an interpretation of working part-time as luxury consumption, the paper finds that partnered women with children, poor women or women working in the informal sector are more likely to report higher job satisfaction when working full-time than single women, partnered women without children, non-poor women or women working in the formal sector.     

Regional and local economic development issues in the united states

The purpose of this symposium is to address several policy and managerial issues related to regional and local economic development in the United States. This symposium introduction first reviews the background information of regional and local economic development and then provides a summary of key issues or findings reported in the symposium articles. The issues and findings identified include: the development of state economic development strategies, the problem of local and regional development strategies, the relationship between government regulation and economic development, the use of strategic management in local economic development, the issue of neighborhood challenges to economic development, and the support of community-based development organizations.     

Applying strategic management to economic development: benefits and challenges

Strategic management has become one of the popular managerial techniques emphasized by policy makers and public managers in recent years. Many local government officials are especially interested in applying this technique to improve the effectiveness of their economic development policies and programs. This paper examines issues associated with the application of strategic management concepts to local economic development. The paper first provides an overview of basic concepts of strategic management and special issues of public strategic management. It then focuses on the background of local economic development and the linkage between strategic management and economic development. The paper finally addresses the benefits and challenges associated with the development of strategic economic development.     

Making Plans for Liberia—a Trusteeship Approach to Good Governance?

Abstract

Since the end of the Liberian civil war in August 2003 the international community has been ‘making plans’ for Liberia. However, it rarely questioned whether these plans were in accordance with the political and economic logic of the peace agreement and the subsequent transitional government. The consequence was that corruption continued and a much more intrusive economic management plan was established. The Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (gemap) is supposed to combat corruption and facilitate good governance, but it also limits the range of policy options for the new democratically elected government of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. The irony is that the best and most legitimate government that Liberia has ever had is subject to stronger external control than any of its predecessors. The probability that this scheme will remain sustainable when donor interest shifts elsewhere is low, and what is needed is a more pragmatic approach that draws a wider segment of Liberian society into anti-corruption management and creates checks and balances between them.     

Administrative development issues in china's economic reform: an introduction

This introduction article provides the background information about the present symposium and the summary of the articles addressed in the symposium. On the background information, the article reviewed the process of economic reform and key measures of administrative reforms. On the symposium summary, the article explained issues and conclusions of the following articles: administrative decentralization and state-society relations, the role of government in economic development, ethical codes in China's civil service, transportation infrastructure and regional economic development, characteristics of recent financial reforms, and privatization of urban housing provision.     

The role of government in economic development: the chinese experience

This study examines the role of government in China's economic reform and development years. The study first provides a literature review about major functions government played in the modern economic system and the importance of government policies to economic development. It then evaluates the experience of the Chinese government in the process of reform and development by focusing on five major roles: (a) promoter of growth, (b) manager of economy, (c) distributor of income, (d) regulator of industry, and (e) protector of citizen and business. The implications of the Chinese experience are discussed.     

Democratic Centralism and the Party Guidance of Soviet Type Councils in Communist Hungary (1950–89/90)

The author of the present paper published a study in the 30th volume of Parliaments, Estates and Representation in 20101 ¹T. Antal, ‘Socialist Councils and Representation in the People's Republic of Hungary (1949–1989)’, Parliaments, Estates and Representation 2 (2010), pp. 113–28. on the legal features of the Hungarian socialist councils, detailing thematically the legal frameworks and institutions of the Soviet-type public administration. In the present paper, the theoretical basis and the actual operation of the local councils is described, involving their relationship to other state organs as well as the historical criticism of political one-party guidance and personality cult over them. This article focuses on democratic centralism as the leading theory of socialist representation, the place of councils in the science of socialist public administration and in the parallel state party structure. The political determination with regard to local councils is also discussed in a case study of Szeged city.     

Ethnic diversity and its spatial change in Latvia, 1897–2011

Utilizing data from five census enumerations of Latvia (including the most recent 2011 census), this study analyzes temporal and spatial trends in ethnic diversity in the country at the national and municipal levels. The measure employed, the ethnic diversity index (EDI), makes possible a more sophisticated interpretation of the dynamics of ethnic diversity than an analysis of the changing percentage shares of Latvia's various ethnic groups over time. At the national level, a trend of declining ethnic diversity prior to Latvia's incorporation into the Soviet Union was followed by a rapid increase during the Soviet period, before the onset of gradually decreasing diversity during the post-Soviet period. These national-level trends obscure a number of trends evident at the municipal level, including salient (depending on the period) ethnic diversity gradients Rīga–Latvia, cities/towns–countryside, and the east–west. Latvia remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries of Europe, and the study outlines some of the implications of the recent stagnation of regional EDIs at rather high levels for the economic and political life of the country.     

The fetishism of humanitarian objects and the management of malnutrition in emergencies

This paper examines two common objects in humanitarian assistance: a therapeutic food called Plumpy’nut, and a tape for measuring malnutrition known as the muac band. It argues that humanitarian relief has become a standardised package reliant on such objects, which receive excessive commitment from aid workers and are ascribed with almost magical powers. Drawing on the Marxist notion of commodity fetishism, the paper proposes a three-part model for examining this phenomenon, in which humanitarian objects are bound up in processes of concealment, transformation and mystification. First, these objects are perceived as rootless, recent discoveries, allowing the complex history and ambivalent results of technology to be concealed. Second, they facilitate a single-minded attention to efficiency and aggregate survival, which transforms the way humanitarian action is understood. Third, these objects are imbued with a mystical and autonomous spirit, redefined as irreplaceable elements of aid. This ‘fetishism of humanitarian objects’, the paper concludes, prevents a more flexible and people-centred approach to relief.