Collective learning and regime dynamics under uncertainty: labour reform and the way to autocracy in Russia

The article questions the structural approach to autocratic transition that sees government as knowingly and purposely building autocracy, and contributes to the tradition emphasizing the plurality of possible regime developments and the role of contingency therein, by providing a more systematic treatment of such contingency. We offer a path-dependent theory of political change and use insights from cognitive institutionalism to show how ad hoc policy reform practices become accepted as a trusted way of interaction by political actors and how they “learn” their way into autocracy. This intuition is substantiated with a case-study of the labour reform in Putin’s Russia. The early 2000s marked a surge in uncertainty in Russian politics caused by the succession crisis and the profound political turnover it triggered. This uncertainty could have resolved in a number of ways, each leading to a different political development. We trace the actual way out of this uncertainty and show that the major factor to condition further regime trajectory was the way social reforms were conducted. The course of these reforms determined the ruling coalition and the institutions that ensure credible commitment within its ranks (the dominant party), and contributed to crowding out the political market and opposition decay.     

Competition between unions as a stimulus for initiating reform: the Israeli case, 1958–2015

The article identifies characteristics and consequences of competition between two teachers’ unions as a component of multi-unionism. The study aimed to clarify the consequences of this competition for the education system following the splitting of one teachers’ union and formation of a new union, which challenged both its rival and the policy-makers. The study focuses particularly on the development of the newer union. Data was gathered from documents written between 1958 and 2013, and supplementary interviews were conducted with 15 key figures in the unions, the Ministry of Education, and the Treasury. While research literature usually describes the conduct of teachers’ unions on a continuum between hindrance and facilitation of educational reforms, the study’s findings add an additional dimension relating to the possibility that competition between two teachers’ unions can engender competitive proposals for educational reform and act as a catalyst for change in educational policy. The rivalry led to the emergence of two similar, but competing, educational reforms, accepted by government and in effect today in all the schools. The study provides information on different levels of competition between the teachers’ unions, and the leeway for action that a union has as an interest group.     

IMF conditionality: An approach based on the theory of special interest politics

Financial assistance provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) aims to help member countries reduce their economic policy distortions. Because these distortions are endogenously generated, it is important to understand how IFI assistance interacts with the domestic political economy. In this paper, we review recent models of IFI conditional assistance that are based on the theory of special interest politics (Grossman and Helpman 2001). In these models, governments adopt inefficient economic policies and instruments because of lobbying by interest groups. IFI assistance helps reduce these inefficiencies, at least under perfect and symmetric information, and provided IFIs are representative of the general public in creditor and debtor countries. Factors limiting the effectiveness of conditional assistance as an incentive system are also identified. These are related to information asymmetries, the potential for political instability in debtor countries, and the IFIs’ own financial solvency.

Fiscal institutions of Brazilian municipal borrowing

In an effort to understand subnational borrowing, this article explores how three Brazilian institutions—the 1988 Constitution which mandates revenue and expenditure assignments among the levels of the federation; the national Law of Fiscal Responsibility, which imposes expenditure and debt limitations on all levels and branches of government; and various borrowing arrangements—affect the municipal borrowing environment. These institutions are examined in light of de Mello's (2001) policy recommendations for strengthening efficiency and fiscal discipline in subnational borrowing. The institutions of Brazilian borrowing were found to have some of de Mello's recommendations, with the new Constitution and the Law of Fiscal Responsibility making progress towards increased fiscal responsibility, but the current borrowing arrangements serving to maintain a controlled system that is not conducive to responsible municipal borrowing. Several recommendations are made to improve the borrowing environment and foster fiscal discipline and efficiency Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A CASE FOR REFORM OF THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

There are more than half a million children in our nation's foster care system. While foster care is intended to provide a temporary safe harbor for abused and neglected children, too many of these youth spend years in foster care limbo—experiencing a turbulent life in motion as they move from placement to placement, community to community, and school to school. Youth in foster care commonly fail to receive basic health and psychological care, and nearly 20,000 youth age out of foster care every year to an adult path of homelessness, unemployment, and despair. Our entire community must work together to more responsibly parent these youth. This article will address how lawyers and child advocates can advocate for new approaches and enhanced support on behalf of the voiceless and most vulnerable members of our community. It will address existing hurdles and systemic challenges that have helped to create the current disheartening status quo. The article will then discuss strategies that advocates can employ to turn the corner on behalf of these youth at risk.     

美国监狱管理的紧束化倾向研究

美国是世界上监禁率最高的国家,监禁刑是其比较有代表性的刑罚。美国监狱变革从殖民地时期一直延续至今,与其经济、文化和刑罚理念变化紧密相连,体现了多元化的特征。在勇于创新、接受挑战的思潮影响下,美国监狱部门不断进行变革并发展,完善其监狱法制和管理制度,提高管理和矫正水平,采取新的措施来适应社会对犯罪矫正的新要求,并在新近出现了紧束化倾向。因此,从关注美国的监狱变革角度探讨美国矫正处遇的变革,极具实证价值和社会意义。     

美国联邦侵权法于警察不法行为之应用

本文讨论了依据美国联邦1983条款对警察提起民事诉讼的框架.其中围绕着<1871年民权法案>的"以法律名义行使"、达到宪法水平和侵犯宪法权利及其他1983条款规定的责任的构成要素展开讨论,同时介绍了警察面对诉讼时可使用的抗辨事由.     

浅议高校改革中的社会心理调控

当前,我国高等教育管理体制改革工作正不断向纵深发展。高校教职工都承受着不同程度的“心理震荡”,产生了一系列不良的社会心理反应。我们必须积极采取有效措施,对社会心理加以调控,以促进高校改革工作的顺利进行。     

Jurisdiction size and local government effectiveness: Assessing the effects of municipal amalgamations on performance

The optimal jurisdiction size has been debated since Plato and Aristotle. A large literature has studied economic and democratic scale effects, but we have almost no knowledge of the effects of jurisdiction size on the effectiveness of local services. This is due to two methodological problems. First, selection bias and reverse causality often render change in jurisdiction size an endogenous variable. Second, there is a lack of empirical indicators of effectiveness, and most studies therefore focus on spending measures. Extant research thus studies economies of scale, leaving effectiveness of scale unexamined. We address both problems in a quasi-experimental study of public schools. Our findings from the school area indicate that jurisdiction size does not have systematic effects on effectiveness. Our analysis therefore supports recent studies of economic and democratic scale effects that indicate that the search for the optimal jurisdiction size is futile.     

Justice,democracy, and future generations

Proposals for how to redesign democracy so as to better secure the demands of intergenerational justice can be divided into three broad families: (1) representative proxies; (2) differential voting schemes; and (3) counter-majoritarian devices. However, these proposals suffer from a fundamental weakness: namely, they all assume that despite the fact that democracy is by its very nature ill-equipped to secure intergenerational justice, it is nevertheless possible to rely on democracy to solve this problem in the first place. But that, to put it colloquially, is like thinking that one can pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps. This paper sketches the shape and contours of a solution to this problem that is better able than the alternatives to escape this objection. This solution draws upon the strategy of a so-called ‘non-reformist reform.’