Architects Of Reform Research Articles

Индия: от “реформы М. Сингха” к экономической политике Н. Моди

In consequence of the 1991 economic reform, India has become one of the world’s fastest growing economies and evolved into a new center of attraction regionally and globally. Meanwhile, the postreform development model has accumulated a lot of constraints, particularly a high percentage of the people living below poverty line and exacerbation of regional disparities. These unresolved problems hamper geopolitical and geoeconomic aspirations of the country. The architects of reforms have ever emphasized the need to accompany high economic growth by more equitable distribution of income among the general population. This means that economic reforms must be provided with appropriate changes of political institutions reflecting cooperative nature of “centre–state relations”. In 2014, Bharatiya Janata Party was able to perceive an urgent request of the Indian society for changes. The government primary tasks emanated from progressive trends of socio-economic and political development were as follows: firstly, to strength the infrastructure; secondly, to attract the foreign direct investments; thirdly, to attain the financial inclusion of the people; fourthly, to create an enabling business environment; and fifthly, to encourage the manufacturing sector. Despite the ongoing efforts improvement in the agricultural sector, some Indian states continue to be shaken by farmers’ protests. In that way the farmers appeal to the authorities to intensify the implementation of a comprehensive problem solution in the farm sector. It was suggested that this theme will be one of the key issues of the BJP’s strategy plan in a pre-election phase. The article points out that under present-day conditions, transformation development model includes the continuation of economic reforms initiated in the early 1990s. The author reveals that the main intention of the transformative development strategy after the 1991 reform was to engage the most vulnerable (in economic and social regard) population groups and sections as well as backward states in economic growth. The article also examines the initiatives of Narendra Modi’s government and their results attained in terms of strengthening the socio-economic integration.

A Minskyan Road to Financial Reform

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the global financial collapse that began in 2007, governments around the world have responded with reform. The outlines of Basel III have been announced, although some have already dismissed its reform agenda as being too little (and too late!). Like the proposed reforms in the United States, it is argued, Basel III would not have prevented the financial crisis even if it had been in place. The problem is that the architects of reform are working around the edges, taking current bank activities as somehow appropriate and trying to eliminate only the worst excesses of the 2000s. Hyman Minsky would not be impressed. Before we can reform the financial system, we need to understand what the financial system does—or, better, what it should do. To put it as simply as possible, Minsky always insisted that the proper role of the financial system is to promote the “capital development” of the economy. By this he did not simply mean that banks should finance investment in physical capital. Rather, he was concerned with creating a financial structure that would be conducive to economic development to improve living standards, broadly defined. In this paper, we first examine Minsky’s general proposals for reform of the economy—how to restore stable growth that promotes job creation and rising living standards. We then turn to his proposals for financial reform. We will focus on his writing in the early 1990s, when he was engaged in a project at the Levy Economics Institute on reconstituting the financial system (Minsky 1992a, 1992b, 1993, 1996). As part of that project, he offered his insights on the fundamental functions of a financial system. These thoughts lead quite naturally to a critique of the financial practices that precipitated the global financial crisis, and offer a path toward thorough-going reform.

The Perestroika of Demokratizatsiya

The twentieth anniversary of Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power approaches and Demokratizatsiya prepares two issues that will reflect on this topic. Behind the scenes, Demokratizatsiya has decided to carry out a little perestroika of its own. To better carry out its mission and serve its constituency of scholars and policymakers, Demokratizatsiya is enhancing its editorial structure and board, and also increasing its Internet presence to make it more interactive and accessible. The journal's merger with the East European Constitutional Review has further enhanced these changes. These changes cannot be understood in isolation, which makes for a good opportunity to remind our readers of Demokratizatsiya's unique editorial heritage. Our Editorial Heritage Demokratizatsiya was the first journal of its kind dedicated exclusively to the study of the sociopolitical transformation in the newly independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. The journal is readily identified as distinct for many reasons and retains the aura of policy-relevant scholarship and of the fresh (and ultimately very successful) crowd of specialists--both Western and post-Soviet--that formed it. It was meant as a service to both the Sovietologists as well as to policymakers, both of whom lacked fora for discussing the issues underway in the new states. At that time, there was no Internet, the long-running journal Problems of Communism had ceased publication, and other journals were dedicated mostly to the study of the Soviet economy, ancient history, or literature. Although famously (or perhaps infamously) founded not in the hallowed halls of academe but in the undergraduate dormitories of American University between 1990 and 1992, five groups shaped the editorial style of Demokratizatsiya: (1) emerging Western Sovietologists, (2) scholars from the NIS, (3) architects of reforms, (4) scholars from other fields coming in contact with the NIS, and (5) Western policymakers and analysts. To avoid being identified with any one person or ideology, Demokratizatsiya's editorial structure ensured diversity, balance, and excellence. The journal has traditionally been led by three or four executive editors who agree only on their commitment to study the transitions in the NIS in depth. The original executive editors-Louise Shelley, Nikolai Zlobin, and J. Michael Waller--nonetheless left their indelible mark on the journal, which has proved to be fortuitious since these original editors and other scholars invited by the founding students to run the journal turned out to be such an unusually remarkable group. Demokratizatsiya also aligns with the mission of Heldref Publications, the publishing arm of the nonprofit Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, which became the journal's publisher in 1994. Founded in the 1970s under the leadership of Evron M. Kirkpatrick to assist respected publications achieve financial and organizational viability, Heldref and its forty-seven publications provide new ideas, information, and means of communication to scholars, teachers, students, and interested readers. Heldref achieves this with the cooperation of hundreds of scholars and teachers who contribute their time and expertise as editors and advisors. Demokratizatsiya's editorial restructuring, inviting new and leading experts, and its merger with another leading journal, further position it as a centrepiece in this turbulent yet key field. Compared to its peers, Demokratizatsiya is unique in additional ways: mainly in the way that it took the independence of the new republics seriously from the beginning, engaged scholars from the region as a fundamental part of its mission, and fostered a genuine democracy inside the journal--which sometimes makes its management more challenging than in other journals. Additionally, Demokratizatsiya explored, from the beginning, controversial issues that others shunned, namely organized crime, corruption, and the lingering power of the KGB. …

Apogee of empire: Spain and New Spain in the age of Charles III, 1759-1789

Once Europe's supreme maritime power, Spain by the mid-eighteenth century was facing fierce competition from England and France. England, in particular, had successfully mustered the financial resources necessary to confront its Atlantic rivals by mobilizing both aristocracy and merchant bourgeoisie in support of its imperial ambitions. Spain, meanwhile, remained overly dependent on the profits of its New World silver mines to finance both metropolitan and colonial imperatives, and England's naval superiority constantly threatened the vital flow of specie. When Charles III ascended the Spanish throne in 1759, then, after a quarter-century as ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Spain and its colonial empire were seriously imperiled. Two hundred years of Hapsburg rule, followed by a half-century of ineffectual Bourbon had done little to modernize Spain's increasingly antiquated political, social, economic, and intellectual institutions. Charles III, recognizing the pressing need to renovate these institutions, set his Italian staff-notably the Marques de Esquilache, who became Secretary of the Consejo de Hacienda (the Exchequer)-to this formidable task. In Apogee of Empire, Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H. Stein trace the attempt, initially under Esquilache's direction, to reform the Spanish establishment and, later, to modify and modernize the relationship between the metropole and its colonies. Within Spain, Charles and his architects of reform had to be mindful of determining what adjustments could be made that would help Spain confront its enemies without also radically altering the Hapsburg inheritance. As described in impressive detail by the authors, the bitter, seven-year conflict that ensued between reformers and traditionalists ended in a coup in 1766 that forced Charles to send Esquilache back to Italy. After this setback at home, Charles still hoped to effect constructive change in Spain's imperial system, primarily through the incremental implementation of a policy of comercio libre (free-trade). These reforms, made half-heartedly at best, failed as well, and by 1789 Spain would find itself ill prepared for the coming decades of upheaval in Europe and America. An in-depth study of incremental response by an old imperial order to challenges at home and abroad, Apogee of Empire is also a sweeping account of the personalities, places, and policies that helped to shape the modern Atlantic world.

Feasibility of reforms regarding their reaches: An outline of an impossibility theorem

Reform endeavors run up against various sorts of constraints. A major set of constraints is the one derived from the lack of information and knowledge. This category of constraints is inextricably linked with the size of the reform undertakings. The architects of reforms do not have the knowledge needed for designing big institutional changes. Moreover, the big changes take the system far a field from its initial position, the one to be overcome by the reform process. Both features generate two distinct types of uncertainty which are sources of potential hazards and could easily produce the breakdown of the system as a whole with well-known disastrous consequences. This reasoning turns down to the standard argument of feasibility and (there- fore) desirability of the Popper-like piecemeal engineering. Another important issue is the necessity/desirability of preserving old institutions while the new ones are being built lest institutional vacua be developed with disastrous consequences. The argument is analogous to the tenor of the Burke critique of the French Revolution. The upshot of the analysis is that quick implementation of the far-reaching changes is not to be expected and that the going criticisms of the alleged sluggishness of reforms are to some extent ill-advised.

Introduction to Special Issue on the Institutional Balance and the Future of EU Governance: The Future of the Union and the Trap of the “Nirvana Fallacy”

The question of the “institutional balance” strikes at the very core of what the European Union is and where it is headed. In Declaration 23 of the Treaty of Nice, member states committed themselves to launching “a deeper and wider debate about the future of the Union” (point 3). As the articles in this volume indicate, in addressing the future of the Union, it is crucial that member states and the institutions dispel the myths upon which some of the need for reform has been conceived. In any institutional reform process, it is vital that the architects of reform avoid what Demsetz has referred to as the “Nirvana fallacy.” In examining the institutional balance(s) in the EU and addressing the future of the Union, it is important that the realities of contemporary praxis are fully understood and that unrealistic goals are avoided. The EU can no more be expected to conform to some mythical ideal of “good governance” than can the member states of which it is constituted.

The Consulting Teacher in the Context of Educational Reform

Consulting Teacher in the Context of Educational Reform In her article The Consulting Teacher Model: Risks and Opportunities, (February, 1988), Dixie Snow Huefner makes some important and timely distinctions between the roles of resource teachers and consulting teachers and identifies critical issues related to teacher preparation and program evaluation this model. However, with respect to the literature of general reform and that of reform in teacher in particular, I believe her anlysis is flawed and is illustrative of misinterpretation within the special community regarding the meaning of reform and the potential role of special consultation. My purpose in writing this commentary is to examine (a) contradictions between the concept of the consulting teacher as master teacher presented by Huefner and the concept of master teacher as represented in the reform literature, and (b) contradictions regarding the role of the consulting teacher itself. two points are necessarily related. Proposals career ladders are a hallmark of both the Holmes Group (1986) and the Carnegie Forum (1986) reports on the teaching profession. According to these reports, career ladders, through advancement within the school, encourage capable teachers to remain in classrooms and discourage them from moving out to administration. Holmes Group (1986) described career professionals as teachers who combine outstanding teaching of children with outstanding work with adults in education (p. 96). Career professionals be capable of assuming responsibility not only within the classroom but also at the school level (p. 65). Using the term lead teachers, the Carnegie Forum (1986) stated that those who are most experienced and highly skilled play the lead role in guiding the activity of others (p. 58). Lead teachers also take collective responsibility helping colleagues who were not performing up to par by arranging coaching, technical assistance, course-work, and other remediation that might be called for (p. 59). Clearly, the experiential basis these master teachers is successful teaching in the general environment, combined with additional, specialized, graduate-level training. Although the concept of the consulting teacher appears to be consistent with the general idea of differentiated staffing, the preparation and certification structure proposed by Huefner represents a departure from the assumption in these reports that master teachers would come from the ranks of experienced classroom teachers. Dual certification is correctly proposed as the basis the consulting teacher, but 2 to 3 years of experience in a general or special classroom is suggested. assumption here is that, should a consulting teacher choose (or a state mandate) special experience, preservice preparation alone in general is sufficient as a basis consideration as a master teacher--one who be expected to improve the educational effectiveness of their colleagues as well as their students (Huefner, 1988, p. 413). Further, such master teachers would be asked to perform both regular and special functions (p. 413). With their emphasis on the professionalization of the classroom teacher, it is difficult to imagine that the architects of reform had in mind a narrow band of special experience as the foundation the highest rung on proposed career ladders. Yet Huefner's interpretation, I believe, is not atypical of special education's stance relative to reform in general and is based on teh acceptance of traditional special techniques as the primary source of appropriate remediation the majority of classroom and classroom teacher problems that consulting teachers would face. She enumerates the following techniques: task analysis, behavioral management, diagnostic assessment, curriculum adaptation, and continuous measurement of progress. …

Review: The Jesus of Los Angeles, 1849-1945: An Annotated Bibliography, by Sara G. Cogan; Jews of the West: The Metropolitan Years, by Moses Rischin; and Architects of Reform: Congregational and Community Leadership: Emanu-El of San Francisco, 1849-1980, by Fred Rosenbaum

Book Review| May 01 1984 Review: The Jesus of Los Angeles, 1849-1945: An Annotated Bibliography, by Sara G. Cogan; Jews of the West: The Metropolitan Years, by Moses Rischin; and Architects of Reform: Congregational and Community Leadership: Emanu-El of San Francisco, 1849-1980, by Fred Rosenbaum The Jesus of Los Angeles, 1849-1945: An Annotated BibliographySara G. CoganJews of the West: The Metropolitan YearsMoses RischinArchitects of Reform: Congregational and Community Leadership: Emanu-El of San Francisco, 1849-1980Fred Rosenbaum Lloyd P. Gartner Lloyd P. Gartner Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Pacific Historical Review (1984) 53 (2): 242–244. https://doi.org/10.2307/3639210 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Lloyd P. Gartner; Review: The Jesus of Los Angeles, 1849-1945: An Annotated Bibliography, by Sara G. Cogan; Jews of the West: The Metropolitan Years, by Moses Rischin; and Architects of Reform: Congregational and Community Leadership: Emanu-El of San Francisco, 1849-1980, by Fred Rosenbaum. Pacific Historical Review 1 May 1984; 53 (2): 242–244. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3639210 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentPacific Historical Review Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1983 The Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Architects of Reform: Congregational and Community Leadership, EmanuEl of San Francisco, 1849–1980. By Fred Rosenbaum. Berkeley, California: Western Jewish History Center, Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum, 1980. xii + 241 PP. $19.95.

Architects of Reform: Congregational and Community Leadership, EmanuEl of San Francisco, 1849–1980. By Fred Rosenbaum. Berkeley, California: Western Jewish History Center, Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum, 1980. xii + 241 PP. $19.95. - Volume 51 Issue 4