Central Decisions,Decentralized Solutions: Comparing the Implications of Central Cutback Policy for the Agency Level in Estonia and Latvia

Abstract

The paper investigates the implications of governmental cutback strategies related to the recent fiscal crisis at agency level in Estonia and Latvia. For this purpose, the article applies a comparative case study approach, through a purposeful selection of five agencies – three in Estonia and two in Latvia – to map the maximum possible variation of before-and-after effects of the crisis on organizational responses and individual-level coping. The selected agencies represent a range of regulatory and social policy domains directly and severely affected by the crisis through budget cuts and increased demand for services, and therefore most affected by the crisis. The study demonstrates that the budget cuts imposed by the cabinets of both countries and widely praised internationally actually left agency-level actors in an extremely difficult situation. Centrally imposed across-the-board cuts resulted in diverse public service gaps, leading to a range of hardships for the citizens, and therefore turning out to be neither equal nor fair for the target groups. The study concludes that centrally decided cutbacks shifted the burden to street-level bureaucrats, who in turn took on the role of key policy actors by ensuring the delivery of public services during the fiscal crisis.     

Challenging business as usual? The rise of new parties in Spain in times of crisis

The two-party system in Spain collapsed in the aftermath of the Great Recession with the appearance of two new parties, Podemos and Ciudadanos. How are we to understand the sudden emergence of these new formations? Using 2015 and 2016 post-electoral survey data to map the ideological space and model voting behaviour, it is shown that economic voting is only part of the story. This article contends that the transformations in the Spanish party system are best understood through the prism of the crisis of representation that unfolded alongside the severe economic crisis. It is dissatisfaction with the political system that drives the vote for both new parties. The results also show that a unidimensional ideological structure and a generational divide cut across these critical attitudes. The young and politically dissatisfied are more likely to vote for new parties, each on different sides of the ideological spectrum.     

Economic crises and augmenting financial bureaucratic power in South Korea

Despite negative public opinion, the role of the Korean government has expanded, while overcoming two rounds of global financial crises. The phenomenon of the re-swelling state is mainly attributed to the strengthening of the central bureaucracy, in particular the financial bureaucracy, rather than the whole central government or the state. The argument of the strengthening of the ‘state’ or the ‘government’ after economic crises might be subject to the error of generalization. Through the two rounds of economic crises, the financial bureaucracy succeeded in acquiring the authority of market supervision and industrial support. In consequence, the bureaucracy's institutional supremacy within the government grew less challenged. The central bureaucracy was no longer the loyal servant to the President. It has reinforced its institutional strength and autonomy vis-a-vis the President, the National Assembly, the Central Bank and civil society, under the pretext of building up the rational and autonomous market and democratic politics.     

Trends of Marxian Ratios in South Korea, 1980–2014

ABSTRACT

This article explores the dynamics and contradictions of capital accumulation in South Korea from 1980 to 2014 by analysing the rates of surplus value and profit and criticises two theses of financialisation and income-led growth. The rate of surplus value soared after 2000 because the real wage growth was contained by the neo-liberal onslaught against workers. The profit rate consistently declined after 1987, paving the way for the 1997 crisis and its main driver was the rising organic composition of capital. After the 1997 crisis, the profit rate rebounded for six years thanks to the intensified exploitation of workers. From 2002 until the 2008 global financial crisis, the rate of profit dropped again. However, contrary to the financialisation thesis, there has been no substantial transfer of surplus value from the real sector to the financial sector. Our results also show that the accumulation rate determined income distribution, not vice versa, contradicting the income-led growth strategy, now popular among the Korean progressives. Marxian macro-dynamics is operating as usual in Korea.     

Moral economy in a global era: the politics of provisions during contemporary food price spikes

The wave of food riots since 2007 revived interest in why people protest in periods of dearth, yet research has to date failed to make sense of the political cultures of food protests. The concept of the moral economy in European history is explored here to make sense of contemporary political perspectives on how food markets should work in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya and Zambia. The concrete expressions of these moral economies are localized and politically contingent, yet there are broad areas of common ground across settings. As with the moral economies of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, there is strong popular feeling against speculation and collusion in food markets in times of dearth, and an emphasis on the responsibilities of public authorities to act. But whereas the moral economy in European histories focused on customary paternalistic obligations, the contemporary emphasis is on formal and electoral accountabilities as a means of triggering public action. The paper concludes with a discussion of a research agenda on the moral economy and the politics of provisions in globalised present-day food markets.     

我国危机管理机制的建设与重构

危机管理是政府组织相关力量在监测、预警、控制以及消解危机性事件的生成、演进与影响的过程中所采取的一系列方法和措施。我国危机管理机制建设取得了一定的成果,但还有许多不够完善之处。建立健全我国危机管理机制,应加强危机管理中政府职能研究,提高政府在危机管理中的处置能力;应以危机应急预案建设为突破口。建立反应快捷的应急机制;应加强应急法制化建设,依法对突发事件进行科学管理;应重视危机事件善后处理系统建设。建立危机管理资料库,不断提高政府处置危机的水平和能力。     

论强势化解危机

与预防危机、处置危机相比,化解危机有其独特的价值与作用,是减少社会冲突的最佳选择。群体性治安事件作为一种社会危机,更有机会和可能得到化解。在当前维护稳定工作中一般性号召和措施难以奏效的背景下,运用强势化解危机这种工作理念和运作方法,把握其中的两个基本环节并采取四种基本策略,可以有效地应对群体性治安事件。     

金融危机对我国经济增长的影响及应对策略

金融危机通过贸易领域传导至我国,对我国出口、投资、消费产生了较大的影响,从而抑制了我国的经济增长。我国经济增长除受到外因作用而放缓之外,还受到我国自身经济结构不合理、发展方式不科学的制约。面对金融危机的挑战,政府应加快推进经济结构调整、切实转变经济发展方式,促使消费、投资、出口协调拉动经济增长,以保持我国经济健康平稳可持续增长。     

社会危机与干预中的青少年成长机制

社会危机是常态社会发展进程中出现的扰乱因子,而干预是对危机中的青少年的一种修复或维护,它既包括来自外部的社会干预,也包括来自自身的自我修复体系。基于个体与社会的互动关系,危机和干预这两种力量对正在成长中的青少年至关重要。从危机中防御行为的习得,到对危机和新环境的认知评价的建立和自我修复功能的完备,到人类集体潜意识对危机的承载,危机下的青少年成长正经历着这一深刻的变化。引导青少年正视危机,在危机中学会生存、适应,建立完备的心理防御体系与社会支持保障系统,是克服危机,促进成长的基本途径。     

当前世界金融危机与东南亚金融危机的比较——兼谈中国应对当前世界金融危机的措施

当下发生的世界金融危机是在经济全球化背景下的新现象,几乎各国经济都深受其害,中国经济也受到较大冲击,世界经济陷入上世纪大萧条以来最困难的境地。该文对当前世界金融危机和东南亚金融危机进行比较,并提出了中国应对当前世界金融危机的措施。