In search of a public administration paradigm: is there anything to be learned from islamic public administration?

The intent of this work is to investigate and explore an alternative paradigm in public administration as the next millennium approaches. It provides an analysis of basic premises and principles of Islamic public administration through delineating the meta-values of Islam. These values dominate the philosophical underpinning of the paradigm and provide direction for the functioning of public institutions. This study also examines the practicality and feasibility of Islamic public administration (IPA) and its contribution to the present public administration discipline. It concludes with an evaluation of the viability of IPA as a future model in developmental public administration, especially in countries with a predominately Islamic culture.     

Capitalist Philanthropy and Hegemonic Partnerships

Over the past 10 years individual capitalists have become increasingly involved in philanthropy, setting up charitable foundations targeted at helping to reduce social problems such as poverty, disease and food security. This form of neoliberal capitalist philanthropy is both politically and ideologically committed to market-based social investment through partnerships, to make the market work or work better for capital. The new structures of philanthropy have received much praise in the media for imbuing capitalist business principles into the non-profit sector and for their potential for social transformation. While philanthropic activities may be considered worthy in themselves, this article examines the relationship between giving and business interest and the agency associated with neoliberal capitalist philanthropy. It questions partnerships between philanthropists and private corporations and their motivations for engaging in poverty-related philanthropy. The discussion focuses on capitalist philanthropic foundations' involvement in the process of agricultural commodification in sub-Saharan Africa through the New Green Revolution and genetically modified (gm) technologies.     

An evaluation of the underlying mechanisms of bloodstain pattern analysis error

An experiment was designed to explore the underlying mechanisms of blood disintegration and its subsequent effect on area of origin (AO) calculations. Blood spatter patterns were created through the controlled application of pressurized air (20-80 kPa) for 0.1 msec onto suspended blood droplets (2.7-3.2 mm diameter). The resulting disintegration process was captured using high-speed photography. Straight-line triangulation resulted in a 50% height overestimation, whereas using the lowest calculated height for each spatter pattern reduced this error to 8%. Incorporation of projectile motion resulted in a 28% height underestimation. The AO xy-coordinate was found to be very accurate with a maximum offset of only 4 mm, while AO size calculations were found to be two- to fivefold greater than expected. Subsequently, reverse triangulation analysis revealed the rotational offset for 26% of stains could not be attributed to measurement error, suggesting that some portion of error is inherent in the disintegration process.     

Women’s Rights, Shari‘a Law, and the Secularization of Islam in Iran

Rather than a simple imposition of the shari‘a law, the Islamization of postrevolutionary Iran transpired at the intersection of political necessities, social realities, religious considerations, and legislative initiatives. As much as the Islamization project transformed society, this social transformation also reconfigured the meaning of the shari‘a and expanded the boundaries of communities with interpretive authority over its legal injunctions. The Iranian postrevolutionary experience highlights the fallacies of bifurcated conceptions of religion and politics and more specifically that of church and state. Through the examination of two important legislations on abortion rights and women’s inheritance, I show the contingencies in which the shari‘a is understood and contested in public. The success or failure of the Islamic Republic depends not on the separation of church and state but on how pluralistic and open the communities that lay claim on religious interpretive authority will become.     

The shadow economy and sustainable development: The role of financial development

This paper provides fresh evidence concerning the threshold relationship between the shadow economy and financial development. Shadow economy is quoted as an obstacle to sustainable development and therefore the role of financial development is examined in this paper to tackle the issue of shadow economy. It is based on panel data of 29 developed and developing countries over the period of 1975–2015 and use of panel threshold model. Three proxies for financial development—liquid liabilities, private credit to deposit money banks, and stock market capitalisation—were utilised to obtain the threshold value of US$33,600 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. This threshold helps to determine the impact of financial development on the size of the shadow economy. Empirical results suggest that above this threshold, financial development significantly contributes to the reduction in size of the shadow economy while it has no impact for countries that have per capita income below this threshold. This implies that, countries with lower per capita income (below $33,600) should implement policies to improve accessibility to finance and credit market which leads to a sufficiently higher per capita income that in turn allows for a reduction in the size of the shadow economy.     

The choice of inflation targeting regimes for inclusive growth: Lessons from southern countries

This study tries to shed light on whether the inflation targeting framework behaves as a growth enhancing strategy in some selected southern countries. The study also investigates the best choice of inflation targeting regimes. Using panel data regression model for a growth regression, we found that this monetary policy framework has a relatively significant positive effect on economic growth. This means that even in terms of economic growth, using inflation as a nominal anchor is a better framework to conduct monetary policy than using exchange rate or money aggregate. The results also revealed that among different types of inflation targeting frameworks, full‐fledged can be the best choice for the selected southern countries.