Private Agenda Research Articles

The Science of Public Procurement and Administration. International Public Procurement Conference

<p><em>This paper reviewed Benon C. Basheka book’s chapter on the Science of Public Procurement and Administration published by International Public Procurement Conference in 2013. The objective of the review was to expand on the origin of procurement, highlight the areas that make public procurement discipline to be an art or science and make recommendations for policy makers and researchers. The author found that public procurement is still at its infant stage with little known theory though it has a close relationship with public administration.</em><em> Although public procurement has existed from the time man started trade, procurement was chaotic and disorganized since there was </em><em>nothing unethical or illegal about receiving kickbacks from contractors.</em><em> The author also found that, procurement had no regulations until 1792 when US Congress passed procurement legislation. The major procurement between 300 B.C-3000 B.C was construction of roads, bridges, </em><em>railway networks and supplies of foodstuffs, army uniforms and fighting equipments. The study also reveals procurement as a blend of art and science because</em><em> it is both a theoretical field and an area of practice. The theoretical field (art) is concerned with the teaching or academic study while the practice (science) deals with the day to day activities of procuring and disposing entities. </em><em>The author, therefore recommends scholars to conduct empirical studies among procurement researchers, lecturers and practitioners in relation to the field procurement should belong to so as to have consensus on procurement field/discipline as it was done with procurement meaning. Finally, since there is no consensus between public and private procurement agenda; it means procurement is not a pure science but it is an art and science.</em></p>

The development of private pensions in Serbia: caught between a generic blueprint and an unconducive local environment

Serbia is one of the rare eastern European countries that decisively dismissed the controversial pension privatisation agenda whereby mandatory private pension funds would be introduced to (partially) replace existing public pay-as-you-go (PAYG) benefits. Instead, Serbia opted for a more traditional western European approach, combining PAYG cost-containment parametric reforms with the introduction of tax-preferred supplementary private pensions. We explain that the desire for equitable intergenerational burden-sharing was one of the key factors behind the decision-making process that made Serbia diverge from regional trends and World Bank orthodoxy. Nonetheless, problems that have plagued mandatory private funds in neighbouring countries, such as excessive operating costs and undiversified portfolios, have also been prevalent in the Serbian voluntary private pension fund industry, which failed to achieve tangible labour market coverage and whose survival has been due mostly to exclusive tax privileges.

Conflits inter-religieux, associations confessionnelles et construction de la paix dans le bassin sud du Lac Tchad: le cas du Northern Nigeria

Conflits inter-religieux, associations confessionnelles et construction de la paix dans le bassin sud du Lac Tchad: le cas du Northern Nigeria Ouba Abdoul-Bâgui, Ph.D Abstract The conflicts between the followers of the two main monotheistic religions of Northern Nigeria, Islam and Christianity, have become by their recurrence almost trivial facts. They are, for the most part, the products of the manipulation of religious and political leaders engaged in the pursuit of usually personal goals. The Muslim and Christian masses are then regularly mobilized to satisfy rather private and hidden agendas. Meanwhile, the seriousness and the effects of the clashes ended up calling many actors to the urgency of the dialogue and the necessity of peace. Among these actors, civil society has taken a very active part in promoting peaceful coexistence between groups, through the deployment of strategies and pedagogy that, in the long run, have produced very interesting results. Faith-based associations, Muslim and Christian, have become involved in this endeavor. They have taken initiatives, individually and collectively through inter-religious dialogue. This study has two objectives. At first, she wants to understand the real causes of inter-religious conflicts in Northern Nigeria by taking into account their recurrence and their persistence. In a second step, it analyzes the role played by faith-based associations and governments both in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts between followers of Islam and those of Christianity and in the construction of peace in an area, which obviously, seems to be particularly unstable. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jgpc.v6n1a1

Neoliberalism and Regulatory Capitalism: Understanding The Freer Markets More Ruless Puzzle

Over the past four decades, across the OECD countries and beyond, we observe a simultaneous increase (a) in the number, the budgets and the staffing of regulatory agencies, as well as the number of regulations, and (b) of economic liberalization, as measured by economic freedom and doing business indices. This is the “freer markets, more rules” or “more capitalism, more regulations” puzzle. This puzzle provides a window into the underlining mechanisms behind the complex regulatory developments in advanced democracies and transition economies, showcasing both some convergence trends and some diversity of the regulatory national patterns. Before the recent post-financial crisis backlash, the neoliberal agenda of privatization and deregulation seems to have happened in a roundabout manner as a side-effect of regulatory capitalism, rather than by implementing the policy and institutional recommendations of authors like Hayek, Friedman, and Buchanan. Three common hypotheses about “neoliberalism” don’t work very well: pro-market ideology as a driver of policy, rent-seeking in favor of deregulation, and markets outpacing attempts at government regulation. Two other hypotheses provide better insight: a heterogeneous regulatory environment allows private firms to engage in regulatory arbitrage, and political entrepreneurs under public finance constraints look for novel ways of obtaining tax revenues. The emerging picture provides a serious challenge to both critics and supporters of neoliberalism.

WHO’s work in relation to health and nutrition should counter the privatization agenda, but does it?

WHO’s work in relation to health and nutrition should counter the privatization agenda, but does it?

Patriotic Philanthropy? Financing the State with Gifts to Government

Federal and state law prohibit government officials from accepting gifts or “emoluments” from outside sources. The purpose of gift bans, like restrictions on more explicit forms of bribery, is to protect the integrity of political processes and to ensure that decisions about public policy are made in the public interest — not to advance a private agenda. Similar considerations animate regulations on campaign funding and lobbying. Yet private entities remain free to offer gifts to government itself, to foot the bill for particular public projects they would like to see government pursue. Such gifts — dubbed “patriotic philanthropy” by one prominent donor — raise fundamental questions about the private role in public policymaking, questions that are central to debates over campaign finance, private philanthropy, and the privatization of government functions. Nevertheless, they have received virtually no attention in the legal literature. This Article offers a positive and normative account of gifts to government. Although we do not question the enormous good that patriotic philanthropy can do, we argue that gifts raise significant concerns about democratic process, equality, and state capacity.

Where is Publicc in the Public Health Discourse?

The origin of modern public health as an academic discipline goes back to the 19th century. However, a concern towards the health of masses has always existed in all societies. The principles of public health in earlier times were guided more by the notions of the commons, wellbeing, and local knowledge. In recent times, our understanding and practice of public health is guided more by technological advances and the market forces. In such a situation, the present public health prescriptions fail to understand the importance of local knowledge systems and practices. As a consequence, people’s dependence is increasing on technologies which are accessible to a limited group of people who can afford and controlled only by the few multi-national companies and trans-nationals. Despite our commitment to decentralization, democracy, communitisation and people’s participation, public health policy planning is guided by top down approach and privatization agenda. In this context, the paper is an attempt to bring people into the public health discourse and redefine it from a people’s perspective.

Social work and substance use: Ecological perspectives on workforce development

This paper offers a theoretical analysis of the place of substance use within social work education and workforce development in England. Using ecological systems theory as its theoretical framework, it explores the relationship between social work education and practice, and wider systemic and situational constraints which have helped or hindered social work’s engagement with substance use issues. Furthermore, it suggests that the current direct government intervention in social work education and practice, in addition to the cuts in budgets and its privatisation agenda, has been unhelpful in supporting change and professional development in relation to substance use. It will draw on the limited international data that show similar challenges for social work in relation to substance use beyond England and the UK. It will conclude with an argument for strengthening the social work voice in relation to substance use education and practice in spite of the systemic pressures.

Bureaucratically distorted communication: The case of managed mental health care

Mental health treatment providers today are subject to insurance company regulation. Using grounded theory to analyze 33 interviews of treatment providers, I portray this regulation as a form of surveillance that operates through discourse, and ask how treatment providers communicate with and through this system. My findings reveal that mental health treatment providers are required to deliver information to insurers within a rationalized medical discourse that is supposed to represent treatment, but is inadequate for the task. I argue this bureaucratic system demands that providers communicate with insurers in a distorted way. These findings are theorized in dialogue with Habermas’ communication typology and his theory of lifeworld colonization. I argue that the case of managed mental health care presents an arena of communication and colonization which is best suited by building from the Habermasian framework. Colonization occurs, yet on within a specific channel of communication, despite pretensions of thoroughgoing colonization. Systematically generated communicative distortions occur, but often without necessarily involving self-deceptions or strategic private agendas. This paper contributes to Habermasian theory by suggesting it could be further elaborated upon to account in for forms of colonization and distorted communication that occur in varied social contexts.

F.Z.S. Peregrino, A Significant but Duplicitous Figure in the Black Atlantic World

The role of Francis Zaccheus Santiago Peregrino is one that has intrigued historians for many years. He represented a direct link between West Africa (Gold Coast, modern Ghana), Britain, the United States and South Africa. Peregrino was a campaigning editor and vocal supporter of black rights in both the United States and southern Africa. He appeared to be the embodiment of the black Atlantic. These qualities have, rightly, been celebrated, but there is another side to the man, which has received only limited attention. He was also someone of ruthless ambition. In New York he was accused of labour-broking practices that replicated slavery. In South Africa he thought nothing of denouncing some of his closest black associates to the white authorities. Peregrino also pursued his private agenda at the cost to the wider African and Coloured communities, threatening them at a critical moment in the formation of the Union of South Africa. This article traces his life in the USA, Britain and southern Africa to reveal Peregrino as a more complex and disturbing figure than has previously been acknowledged.

Street level bureaucracy and the dilemmas of private entities in public spaces: Case of GPRTU

Lipsky’s notion of “street-level bureaucrats” refers to public sector actors who provide service and sanction the public due to their ability to wield discretionary power. Hence are autonomous from government. Discretionary power enables them to shape public policy in pursuit of private agendas by inter alia creating artificial shortages. Given that they a pose threat to government’s efforts, government sometimes moves to curtail their power of discretion and autonomy. Street-level bureaucrats are rational and activate mechanisms to escape government control. This study examines the coping mechanisms of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) after government implementation of a petroleum price deregulation policy. This paper raises questions and sets the stage for the next part by highlighting the notions of the prisoner’s dilemma, collective action, tragedy of commons and organizational choice. These are refracted through the transactional model of coping strategies of entities.Keywords: Street-level bureaucrats, discretionary power, autonomy, coping strategy, GPRTU, transactional model

Political standards: corporate interest, ideology, and leadership in the shaping of accounting rules for the market economy

Prudent, verifiable, and timely corporate accounting is a bedrock of our modern capitalist system. In recent years, however, the rules that govern corporate accounting have been subtly changed in ways that compromise these core principles, to the detriment of the economy at large. These changes have been driven by the private agendas of certain corporate special interests, aided selectively-and sometimes unwittingly-by arguments from business academia With Political Standards, Karthik Ramanna develops the notion of political markets to describe a key problem facing technical rulemaking in corporate accounting and beyond. When standard-setting boards attempt to regulate the accounting practices of corporations, they must draw on a small pool of qualified experts-but those experts almost always have strong commercial interests in the outcome. Meanwhile, standard-setting rarely enjoys much attention from the general public. This absence of accountability, Ramanna argues, allows corporate managers to game the system. In the profit-maximization framework of modern capitalism, the only practicable solution is to reframe managerial norms when participating in thin political markets. Political Standards will be an essential resource for understanding how the rules of the game are set, whom they inevitably favor, and how the process can be changed for a better capitalism.

The Reversal of the Privatisation Logic in Central European Transition Economies

The main ambition of this study is to explain the unexpected change in the transition process of some Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries starting in the second half of the 2000s. Special attention is paid to changes in and the attitudes of governments toward state ownership. Although statist approaches gained momentum in the economic policy of various states in and after the 2008/2009 crisis, this did not mean a fundamental reorientation expressed in changes in the main economic conditions such as ownership patterns. Nevertheless, governments in some CEE countries seem to flirt with such ideas too in the general policy of increasing state economic intervention. The privatisation process was stopped and in a number of cases, formerly privatised assets were re-nationalised. Governments strengthened their influence in the governance structure in mixed-ownership companies. The main body of the present paper provides a better understanding of this change in state property policies. We also call attention to the risks of a reversal of the privatisation logic. An increasing role of the state as proprietor may today strengthen similar negative political and economic consequences and risks as the ones against which the privatisation agenda of the 1990s was suggested. It can reduce competition, give way for political and personal rentseeking, and weaken the functions of market economic institutions.

Private agenda and re-election incentives

Consider a politician who has to take two sequential decisions during his term in office. For each decision, the politician faces a trade-off between taking what he believes to be the decision that generates a public benefit, thus increasing his chances of re-election, and taking the decision that increases his private gain but is likely to decrease his chances of re-election. In our results we find that if the politician is a good enough decision maker and he desires to be re-elected enough, he takes the action that generates a public benefit regardless of his private interests. Moreover, we find that the behavior such that the politician delays taking the action that generates a public benefit to the last period of his term in office before he is up for re-election is optimal if and only if he has either very high or very low decision making skills.

"Coercive Diplomacy" in David Hare's <i>Stuff Happens</i><i> </i>(2004)

This paper addresses George Bush the junior's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 on the plea of its weapons of mass destructions (WMD's), as delineated in David Hare's Stuff Happens (2004), a docudrama depicting the events following the 9/11 attacks and preceding the US’s invasion of Iraq. The paper explains how Bush deals with the opponents—Colin Powell, the British PM Tony Blair, and Hans Blix—opposing his decision, based on "fabricated" evidence, by employing his father's strategy of coercive diplomacy against them, depending on both his faith and his position as President. Drawing on a postcolonial approach, the analysis of Hare's piece has demonstrated two significant aspects: 1) Bush, implementing such a strategy of coercive diplomacy, has succeeded in achieving his private agenda in invading Iraq; 2) Hare is possessed of the dramatic dexterity of mixing fiction (the significant roles of the nameless fictional characters as well as the unnamed narrator-actors) with facts (the main figures of politics) for supporting play’s different conflicts. The present paper has reached a number of findings. First, the US attacked Iraq, for Bush had to show his people some reaction to the 9/11 attacks. Second, Bush chose Iraq in particular and not North Korea, for instance, for his personal motives. Third, the US's double standard is stressed through the unresolved Israeli/Palestinian conflict negotiated throughout. Fourth, the coercive-diplomacy strategy has always been the US’s means for (il-) legal ends and, thus, this strategy can be considered a postcolonial construct in Hare’s Stuff Happens.

Empirical Evaluation of Law: The Dream and the Nightmare

I discuss the empirical revolution in law and economics, and use the analysis of the deterrent impact of the death penalty to chart the tremendous advances in estimating causal effects since the mid-1970s. This story highlights how ostensibly sophisticated studies frequently generate incorrect estimates, and how difficult it is to know what studies should be believed—a difficulty open to being exploited by those (the media, think tanks, and others) who seek to promote clearly weak studies for some private agenda. I offer a hierarchy of methodologies to assist in evaluating empirical studies and some suggestions for promoting the search for truth.

Globalisation masculinities, empire building and forced prostitution: a critical analysis of the gendered impact of the neoliberal economic agenda in post-invasion/occupation Iraq

Adopting a transnational feminist lens and using a political economy approach, this article addresses both the direct and indirect consequences of the 2003 war in Iraq, specifically the impact on civilian women. Pre-war security and gender relations in Iraq will be compared with the situation post-invasion/occupation. The article examines the globalised processes of capitalism, neoliberalism and neo-colonialism and their impact on the political, social and economic infrastructure in Iraq. Particular attention will be paid to illicit and informal economies: coping, combat and criminal. The 2003 Iraq war was fought using masculinities of empire, post-colonialism and neoliberalism. Using the example of forced prostitution, the article will argue that these globalisation masculinities – specifically the privatisation agenda of the West and its illegal economic occupation – have resulted in women either being forced into the illicit (coping) economy as a means of survival, or trafficked for sexual slavery by profit-seeking criminal networks who exploit the informal economy in a post-invasion/occupation Iraq.

BANKING PRIVATIZATION IN TURKEY

It seems impossible to drive a general rule concerning the outcomes of privatization that would be applicable to each country or sector. Privatization may lead to better use of resources but also to extraction of profit overseas and growing industrial concentration. Privatization of banking is more delicate an issue because of the potential to undermine confidence in the system. Moreover, there is the problem of obtaining data on bank privatization as public banks have always been an important government tool and it is generally the politicians who plan what, when and how to privatize. Hence, the results of banking privatization, that are only visible in the long run, change in each country depending on the timing, objectives and methods of privatization. The recent financial crises in the Turkish economy has caused a vast number of bank nationalisations. While some of the nationalised banks are privatized in 2001, the remaining nationalised banks and the stateowned banks are on the agenda of privatization now. However, the results of the previous bank privatisations of 1990s are not promising as two banks that were privatized previously had to be renationalised recently. The problems concerning bank privatizations in Turkey regarding the market structure, lack of competitive environment, lack of legal and regulatory framework, the objectives and the method of privatization still persist. Today, the problem is even more severe due to economic and political instability in the Turkish economy since success in bank privatizations depends also on the proper timing.

Editorial: the price of rights?

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 2 Volume 22 Issue 2 2015 IUR ❐ EDITORIAL Editorial: the price of rights? S even (or eight, depending who you ask…) years into the global financial crisis the world is still very much in turmoil. Throughout Europe workers have seen their rights rolled back in the name of stability or austerity , as collective bargaining systems have been ‘americanised’ (moved from the sectoral to the enterprise level), jobs have become increasingly precarious, and unemployment has rocketed in countries such as Greece and Spain. In the UK John Hendy QC and Carolyn Jones look over a new round of anti-union legislation proposed to further curb strikes, and observe that even the repeal of Human Rights Act has been mooted, as a confidently belligerent government seeks to impose hard-line austerity measures in the name of ‘balancing the books’. All around we see the shrinking value of wages for low and middleincome earners, trade unions and their wage bargaining / regulatory role being rolled back, and a dizzying escalation of wealth pooling into the pockets of those in the very wealthiest echelons of society, a group now frequently referred to as ‘the one percent’ and contrasted with everyone else ‘the 99 percent’ group of society, which seems to be comprised of everyone outside the definition ‘extremely rich’. And so it seemed extraordinary, in this climate, that the IMF should publish a piece of research titled Power from the people, which analyses the trade union role. Ian Manborde takes stock of the current economic situation and its implications for the labour movement, and considers the contribution that the IMF’s report makes to our understanding of the role and position of trade unionists as active regulatory forces within the economies within which they function. ICTUR’s Ciaran Cross, meanwhile, takes issue with one of the fundamental assumptions that underlie the IMF’s report, encouraging readers to question whether any analysis that ultimately measures success only in terms of its impact upon the notion of ‘growth’ is really helpful if it makes our evaluation of fundamental human rights subject to the impact that those rights have on our economies. Cross remind us that the IMF itself has a dramatic impact on the fundamental ways in which we evaluate success, and we are reminded by Kurshid Ahmad of the role that the international financial institutions continue to play in forcefully promoting a privatisation agenda , even where this policy appears to have little support from key stakeholders in the country concerned. And although we give pause for thought around the value of growth as an object in and of itself IUR is also pleased to include a report from Nicolò Giangrande in which examines the economic success and high growth in Uruguary, which he tells us has been combined with redistribution, creating ‘new spaces of freedom , rights and tolerance’. Other themes considered in this edition of IUR include Claire La Hovary’s update on the ongoing wrangle over the right to strike within the ILO system; Isabel Cortes’s report on the harassment and attacks faced by union organisers in Kenya’s key trucking corridor; Eric Lee’s report on an incident in which police (temporarily) mobilised against the subject of a Labourstart international campaign; and Sonja Vartiala updates us on developments in the Thai tuna industry following her NGO’s recent work around migrant workers’ rights. Unfortunately this edition of IUR was scheduled to print just too early for us to include any significant evaluation of the report of the South African Marikana Commission of Inquiry, which was released the evening before this edition went to print. However, ICTUR is dismayed that the report has produced no recommendations for compensation to be paid or prosecutions to be brought. IUR will be returning to examine the Marikana report in detail in our September 2015 edition (IUR 22.3). Daniel Blackburn, Editor Next issue of IUR Articles between 850 and 1,900 words should be sent by email (mail@ictur.org) and accompanied by a photograph and short biographical note of the author. Photographs 15 August 2015 if they are to be considered for publication in the next issue of IUR. Subscribe to IUR...

The struggle for the soul of teaching and teacher education in the USA

This paper discusses changes over the last 40 years in teacher education in the USA that have resulted in two very different strategies for improving the preparation of teachers and in substantial inequities in the distribution of the teaching force. The strengths and limitations of promoting greater deregulation and privatisation versus investing in strengthening the dominant college and university system of teacher education are discussed. A case is presented for rejecting the deregulation and privatisation agenda and for reinventing college and university-based programmes.