Bureaucratic Bodies Research Articles

Monitoring and Evaluation Function of BPKN RI regarding Consumer Protection Issue in Housing Sector

The National Consumer Protection Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BPKN RI) is a bureaucratic body derived from the Ministry of Trade that focuses on handling consumer problems in Indonesia. The paper further examines what makes the housing sector have a high level of complaints at BPKN RI, what types of complaints are filed by consumers and how the form of monitoring and evaluation functions within the scope of BPKN RI in solving problems given by BPKN RI to consumers. This research uses a qualitative method by conducting direct interviews with staff of the Advocacy Division of BPKN RI. The findings obtained are that the monitoring and evaluation of BPKN RI is quite optimal, especially for problems in the housing sector. The number of incoming cases had shown a high number due to the pandemic situation. BPKN RI's evaluation function runs quite well with the achievement of BPKN RI's recommendations being able to become the main basis for the formation of PUPR Ministerial Regulations to protect consumer rights in Indonesia.

The conflict of interest that is so grave that we all prefer to ignore it?

Conflict of Interest declaration is the default way to mitigate the risk of harm of unconscious or deliberate promotion of self-interest causing misinformation or wrong decision-making. Public attention to the disclosure of interests caused by private sources of research funding results in a routine procedure now. At the same time, very strong interests caused by taxpayer-covered Governmental funding of research are generally badly underestimated. Researchers generally have no idea that taking public funding and promoting policy advice to provide more funds should be declared as a conflict of interest: Promotion of more funds and power under the control of bureaucratic bodies or entities is anticipated to bring more funding for the researchers themselves. For example, the COVID-19 response of most democratic governments, based on the use of emergency powers, enjoys broad support from publicly funded research – though the effectiveness of such a response is not supported by the history of previous pandemics. The explicit requirement to disclose public funding as a potential Conflict of Interest, at least in case the authors promote more power and more funds for the Government, will mitigate risks of one of the potentially dangerous biases both in research and indecision-making.

A Dynamic Measure of Bureaucratic Reputation: New Data for New Theory

AbstractBureaucratic reputation is one of the most important concepts used to understand the behavior of administrative agencies and their interactions with multiple audiences. Despite a rich theoretical literature discussing reputation, we do not have a comparable measure across agencies, between countries, and over time. I present a new strategy to measure bureaucratic reputation from legislative speeches with word‐embedding techniques. I introduce an original dataset on the reputation of 465 bureaucratic bodies over a period of 40 years, and across two countries—the U.S. and the U.K. I perform several validation tests and present an application of this method to investigate whether partisanship and agency politicization matter for reputation. I find that agencies enjoy a better reputation among the members of the party in government, with partisan differences less pronounced for independent bodies. Finally, I discuss how this measurement strategy can contribute to classical and new questions about political–administrative interactions.

Bibliometrics of Sudanese scientific publications: Subjects, institutions, collaboration, citation and recommendations

Introduction: Sudan is the third largest country in Africa and has rich reserves of petroleum and other ground resources, but its per capita Gross Domestic Product is only $808 and researchers work in insufficient institutional facilities and with little funding. Previous studies about its scientific productivity have been limited to specific subjects and relatively short periods, with no large analyses until now. Objective: To analyze the scientific output of Sudan in depth, considering all research areas and several decades of scientific activity. Methods: We retrieved the documents with “Sudan” in field country in the Science Citation Index Expanded for the period 1900-2019. Results: We retrieved over 9 000 publications and found that most were articles; that citation was higher for review articles and book chapters, and that this index mostly covered articles in English. Beginning in 1972, the number of publications in this database has increased rapidly. The citation lifespan indicates slow growth in the Sudanese scientific literature, and collaboration is frequent both nationally and internationally, possibly because the scarce resources make collaboration almost compulsory. Most external collaboration is done with Saudi Arabia but citation is higher for articles resulting from international megaprojects, led by Europe and the USA, in which Sudanese researchers play secondary roles. Research focusses on applied technological subjects with little innovation value. Women play a smaller role in Sudanese science. Conclusions: Our recommendations for Sudanese science include increasing the number of women in leading research positions; providing funding directly to researchers (i.e., bypassing bureaucratic bodies); increasing basic research to avoid stagnation; training Sudanese researchers for leading positions; and identifying specific research areas where Sudan can lead in its region.

State regulation of taxes and fees by the governments of the Generals A. I. Denikin and P. N. Wrangel during the Russian Civil War

The subject of this research is the poorly studied in the domestic historical legal science problem of legislative and administrative activity of anti-Soviet authorities in the territory of the Armed Forces of South Russia in the tax sphere during the Civil War. It is determined that tax legislation and law enforcement practice of the white governments were based on the laws of the former Russian Empire and the Provisional Government, which underwent adequate amendments over time. For pumping up the budget in the environment of economic devastation and rapid inflation, the legislator increased the rates of direct and indirect taxes, as well as introduced the new sources of taxation and revision of tax incentives. The author concludes that due to tax evasion of the population, the revenue from direct taxes into the budget, including commercial and industrial classes, were insignificant. Attempts of the government to concentrate legislative and administrative activity on indirect taxation also did not bring expected results; indirect taxes or non-taxable fees barely covered the expenses on the rapidly expanding bureaucratic bodies of civil administration. It is revealed that the supply of warring armies in such conditions was mainly through the uncontrolled issue of banknotes, which boosted inflation, and thus, plundered the public treasury. Being the main source of filling the state budget, it became one of the methods of comprehensive compulsory taxation. It is stated that due to shortage of budgetary funds, military commanders were forced supply the troops via conducting contributions and requisitions, which in fact was tax in kind and negatively affected public image of the government.

Socioeconomic Factors Of UAL Migration In The Educational System

It is worth noting that today's intellektual migration has become an integral part of the World Economic Relations. The more serious impact international labour migration has on the level of development and the indicators of statistical data around the world, intellektual migration has made its social and economic appearance completely unique. While labor migration has affected ethnic and religious factors, ual migration has linked professional activity to talent and ability. As the process of migration is studied by the state migration centers, the regulation of the migration policy is used by various bureaucratic bodies to slow down its possibilities, but this can stop the ongoing processes only for a certain period of time, which can not be the main task of getting out of the problem, since bureaucratic measures adversely affect.

O conceito de gestão social e a democracia regressiva no Brasil após 2016

Desde a Constituição de 1988 que o postulado da democracia representativa no Brasil não era o mote exclusivo para uma participação cidadã que ocorreria a cada período eleitoral, a fim de eleger representantes nas diferentes instâncias legislativas de governo – federal, estadual e municipal. Embora a partir de então a soberania popular pudesse ser exercida de forma direta e/ou participativa em interação com as diferentes instâncias legislativas e executivas e os órgãos do aparato burocrático nos diversos níveis de governo, em 2016 o contexto institucional brasileiro foi alterado sob uma perspectiva que faz dormitar os preceitos constitucionais de 1988, deixando em suspenso a possibilidade de práticas gerenciais democráticas. O presente texto, apesar de sincrônico, tem como objetivo central contextualizar o surgimento do conceito de gestão social no Brasil e verificar até que ponto o momento brasileiro pode apoiar ou impedir a prática de uma gestão comprometida com a sociedade.

Conselho Municipal de Educação e planejamento participativo: mecanismos de efetivação da gestão dos sistemas e escolas

O presente texto faz a discussão acerca do Conselho Municipal de Educação (CME) tendo o planejamento participativo como mecanismo de efetivação do Sistema Municipal de Educação do Tocantins na perspectiva da gestão democrática. Em geral, o SME é entendido como um órgão burocrático municipal, mas este pode ser um espaço de aglutinação das vontades coletivas municipais para a efetivação do SME tendo o planejamento democrático-participativo como horizonte? Este texto, que é resultado de um estudo bibliográfico-documental realizado na perspectiva crítico-dialética, busca explicitar essa tensão entre o SME como órgão burocrático de regulação e como espaço e mecanismo democrático no âmbito dos municípios, incluindo os municípios da realidade tocantinense. O estudo em pauta possibilitou fazermos uma reflexão teórica sobre o conceito, natureza e função do CME e, para além do aspecto teórico, esclareceu sua importância, assim como apontou, na gestão da educação municipal, o planejamento participativo como um importante mecanismo de materialização das políticas municipais no âmbito do SME. 
 Palavras-chave: educação municipal, institucionalização do SME do Tocantins, conselho municipal de educação, planejamento participativo.
 
 Municipal Council of Education and participatory planning: mechanisms for the effective management of systems and schools
 ABSTRACT. This text discusses the Municipal Council of Education (CME) with participatory planning as a mechanism for the effectiveness of the Municipal Education System of Tocantins from the perspective of democratic management. In general, the SME is understood as a municipal bureaucratic body, but can this be a space of agglutination of the municipal collective will for the realization of the SME having participatory-democratic planning as a horizon? This text, which is the result of a bibliographic-documental study carried out in a critical-dialectical perspective, seeks to explain this tension between the SME as a bureaucratic regulatory body and as a democratic space and mechanism within the municipalities, including the municipalities in the reality of Tocantins. The study in question allowed a theoretical reflection on the concept, nature and function of the CME and in addition to the theoretical aspect it clarified its importance, as well as pointing out participatory planning in the management of municipal education as an important mechanism for the materialization of municipal policies within the scope of the SME.
 Keywords: municipal education, institutionalization of the municipal education system of Tocantins, municipal council of education, participatory planning.
 
 Consejo Municipal de Educación y planificación participativa: mecanismos para la gestión efectiva de sistemas y escuelas
 RESUMEN. Este texto discute el Consejo Municipal de Educación (CME) con la planificación participativa como mecanismo para la realización del Sistema Educativo Municipal de Tocantins desde la perspectiva de la gestión democrática. En general, el SME se entiende como un organismo burocrático municipal, pero ¿puede ser éste un espacio de aglutinación de las voluntades colectivas municipales para la realización del SME, teniendo la planificación democrático-participativa como horizonte? Este texto, resultado de un estudio bibliográfico-documental realizado en la perspectiva crítico-dialéctica, busca explicitar esta tensión entre el SME como órgano regulador burocrático y como espacio y mecanismo democrático dentro de los municipios, incluyendo los municipios de la realidad de Tocantins. El estudio en cuestión permitió hacer una reflexión teórica sobre el concepto, la naturaleza y función del CME y, además del aspecto teórico, aclaró su importancia, así como señaló, en la gestión de la educación municipal, la planificación participativa como un importante mecanismo para la materialización de las políticas municipales en el ámbito del SME.
 Palabras clave: educación municipal, institucionalización del SME de Tocantins, consejo municipal de educación, planificación participativa.

ROLE OF THE REFORMS OF THE 1550-IES AS INSTITUTIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION MEASURES

The article considers the prerequisites for the implementation, nature and significance of institutional measures to counter corruption at the local government level in Russia during the reforms of the 50-ies of the XVI century. The problems of evolutionary development or deliberated formation of new ways of combining public and private interests at the local level, interchangeability and complementarity of different forms of state administration, regional and local self-government are put. The article shows that in the search for ways to counteract abuse by vicegerent, the Central government gives wide powers to the bodies of local self-government. But the state will be able to completely abandon the vicegerent system only by the beginning of the XVII century. In turn, corruption costs were also evident in the activities of local authorities, which forces the state to create additional internal institutional mechanisms, and to impose anti-corruption expectations on new bureaucratic bodies voivodes, which were becoming a local continuation of the prikaz system.

Kupní smlouvy k lenním statkům frýdlantského knížectví (vévodství)

The Duchy of Frýdlant, this “state within a state”, as characterized by many authors, existed only for a very short period of time. The fief estates, which were acquired by the imperial military leader Albrecht von Wallenstein (Valdštejn) in the sale following the Battle of White Mountain, were first declared a principality in 1624 and then a duchy in 1627. Immediately after Wallenstein's assassination in 1634, this remarkable constitutional unit was immediately liquidated. Wallenstein kept most of the acquired estates under his direct control, and they thus became chamber ducal estates (this was especially true for all larger, economically strong towns). He left only a relatively small part of his property to the institutions of the Catholic Church – logically, although he provided them with political and property support, in the latter respect he certainly did not dazzle with excessive generosity. On the other hand, he left large estates to various persons (his relatives, subordinate officers, officials, in some cases the original pre-White Mountain owners, etc.), who took them over from him as a Frydlant fief (de iure actually sub-fief, as Wallenstein himself was a vassal of the emperor who was the Czech king). Some of these people received the property as a gift (“Donatio”) as a sign of Wallenstein's generosity. In most cases, however, it was a standard property transaction, where the acquirers paid a more or less adequate amount of money for the fief estate, or their receivables from the Frýdlant landowner were offset. The legal title of the transfer of possession thus became the standard purchase (“Erblehenkauf”), recorded in a contract approved, sealed and signed by both parties. Copies of these contracts are concentrated in the manuscript sign. B 16, stored in the National Archives in Prague, other originals and copies of individual documents of this type can be recorded in other archives. This study is devoted to their content analysis. Purchase contracts for Frýdlant fief estates represent a set of documents, the significance of which can be seen on at least four levels. From the most general point of view, they contribute to the knowledge of early modern legal culture and legal language (although German, not Czech). Secondly, they are evidence of the administrative practice of the court office of the Duchy of Frýdlant, which prepared these documents. They are also a contribution to the history of fief law in the Czech lands. Finally, they provide a number of specific information about individual fief estates, and thus also about the regional history of northeastern Bohemia, where Wallenstein's “terra felix” was located. The surviving contracts relate to more than forty larger and smaller estates, which fell into the hands of the vassals in the short days of Wallenstein’s rule over this region. The court office of the Duchy of Frýdlant, on whose premises the contracts were created, was a relatively advanced bureaucratic body with several lawyers – the former prosecutor Jan Jezber of Kolivá Hora had probably the greatest reputation, who himself bought the Choteč fief estate in 1624. Štěpán Ilgen from Ilgenau, a native of Leipzig, reached the significant position of Frýdlant Chancellor. Many office councilors were also graduates of law education. However, it is very interesting that the set of surviving contracts is largely characterized by its variability. Although a more or less uniform structure was followed (dating, definition of the contracting parties, and the subject of the contract, determination of the price and the method of payment, set of rights reserved to the landlord, confirmation of will and corroboration), contracts offer various and in some cases significantly different specific solutions. On the other hand, different wording did not always mean a difference in content. For example, the extent of the landlord reservations, which Wallenstein reserved in the treaties as chief lord of the Duchy of Frýdlant and among which brewing played the most important role, apparently had a standard scope, regardless of the specific diction. Purchase contracts related to Frýdlant fief estates represent only one type of documents framing the development of this extremely interesting state law unit. The study of others and, in the future, comprehensive elaboration of the history of the Frýdlant estate, or of the entire duchy, remain urgent challenges for further legal historical research.

Between Mandate and Motivation

Abstract International public administrations (IPA s) play a significant role for the success of multilateral negotiations. As the bureaucratic bodies of international organizations, they are deeply involved in international negotiations, but receive little credit for their outcomes. By studying the administrative styles of the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this article arrives at an understanding of how this IPA aims at contributing to the outcome of multilateral climate change negotiations. Administrative styles can be conceived of, ideal typically, as being entrepreneurial or servant-like. The article observes that, despite a prohibitively strict mandate as a technocratic facilitator, the UNFCCC Secretariat adopts an entrepreneurial style at the policy initiation stage and a cautiously entrepreneurial style during the policy formulation phase. It has acquired a distinctive actor quality in the climate regime, motivated by a strong commitment to furthering meaningful cooperation and driving the UNFCCC process toward ambitious climate policies.

Accountability of Bali Regional Officers in Applying Good Governance Principles

Development in Bali is generally largely initiated, proposed, executed by the legislature, in this case the members of the Regional Representative Council, both the Provincial DPRD, Regency DPRD, Denpasar City DPRD. Conceptually, the legislature has the task of making policies, regulations and regional regulations (PERDA) in collaboration with executives. The fact is in Bali, it is precisely the people's representatives who sit in the DPRD dominating the planning process, and implementing policies such as submitting grants for both physical and non-physical development in the community. Submission of proposals for regional development is often bridged by legislative members, causing the existence and authority that the executive should have taken over by members of the legislature. Not infrequently this triggered the emergence of corrupt practices in the bureaucratic body. The purpose of this research is to find out how the accountability of Balinese officials in applying the principles of good governance. The research methods used were interview techniques, observation techniques, and documentation techniques. The results of this study were to obtain information about the accuracy of the implementation of the principles of good governance carried out by the legislature and executive in the Bali region.

The Organization in Economy of Knowledge

The article deals with changes, which will happen to the organization at the new stage of the economic development, i. e. in economy of knowledge. The author points out that traditional economic categories, such as labour, property, money will be seriously changed. Labour under the influence of information and knowledge will transform into creativity, the role of private property will increase, money will become virtual and proliferation of crypto-currency will broaden not only on the global but on the local level as well. All these factors will seriously influence the organization and processes taking place in it. A lot of organizations will pass on to the virtual form. According to the author, organizational culture will alter: the fear of decision - making will disappear, the access of team members to information will rise, private and corporate goals will coincide. The basis of the organization efficiency will be formed by its specialization. Organizations will become decentralized and their structures will lean on teams and bureaucratic bodies. The use of innovation both in production and in all other spheres will become an obligatory foundation of business competitiveness. In conclusion the author puts forward the conceptual model of the organization in economy of knowledge.

Public sector bureaucracies and economic growth

Public sector bureaucracies are key players in modern advanced economies, in particular for the smooth functioning of the roles assigned to the government sector, such as the provision and organization of welfare state services, and the implementation of the (economic) institutional framework, including as regards the tax code and the guarantees of legal certainty for economic agents. From this perspective, a proper functioning of bureaucratic bodies is crucial for potential growth. Thus, cross-country differences in the quality of bureaucracies can explain, to a large extent, differences in economic growth among them. The operation of self-interested bureaucracies, insofar as their objective function differs from the one of the benevolent social planner (government), can lead to regulatory capture, damaging efficiency and economic incentives, labor market misallocation, and inefficient fiscal policies. In this paper, first, we engage in a thorough review of the extant literature, framing the discussion of the main channels by means of a small-scale dynamic, stochastic general equilibrium model. Second, we provide an empirical exercise that illustrates the links between bureaucratic/institutional quality and economic growth.

Patterns of Political Secularism in Italy and Turkey: The Vatican and the Diyanet to the Test of Politics

AbstractFor centuries, Rome and Istanbul have been representing and epitomizing two empires and two entities with both significant spiritual and temporal power: the Papacy and the Caliphate. During the 19th and the 20th centuries, these institutions underwent significant changes in a context of state secularization: in the case of the Papacy, there was a loss of temporal power and its “reduction” to a mainly moral authority; the Caliphate, on the other hand, was abolished after World War I, succeeded by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), a bureaucratic body under state control, founded in the era of Kemalist secularism. Despite these changes, today both institutions still play a significant role in the public life and public policies of the Italian and the Turkish republics. While the Vatican is able to influence the Italian public sphere and public discourse through both its influence on common people and its lobbying activities in relation to political decision-makers, in Turkey the Diyanet has become the main tool in the reshaping of Turkish society (both by the Kemalists and, later, by Erdoğan's AKP). This paper will analyze their influence on the two countries’ public policies in relation to religious pluralism and to family-related issues, to show how different ideas of secularism, institutional arrangements, and historical paths have led to a very different role of the two institutions in the Italian and Turkish political systems.

Are the Ethical Committees for pharmacological research bureaucratic bodies?

Not available

Reorienting paradoxical land use policies towards coherence: A self-adaptive ensemble learning geo-simulation of tea expansion under different scenarios in subtropical China

The expansion of cash crops has raised contradicting interests between two bureaucratic bodies (the economy-oriented one that advocates cash crop production and the conservation-oriented one that focuses on natural resources protection) in many places around the world. Recent past has saw growing efforts on the theoretical linkages between cash crop production and conservation, but the solutions to the cash cropping −related land use conflicts remain as violent controversy. Using a geo-simulation approach, this paper models the tea expansion under different policy scenarios and evaluates the effectiveness of these policies in Anji County (China), as a contribution to the scientific basis for formulating sustainable cash cropping practices and alternative land use policies. In particular, a new self-adaptive cellular automaton model based on ensemble learning (EL-CA) is developed and three policy scenarios (economy-over-conservation (EOC), conversion-over-economy (COE), and economy-balance-conservation (EBC)) are set to predict the tea expansion patterns in 2025. Results show that the EL-CA model significantly outperforms the traditional CA models based on empirical statistics. We find that the tea expansion under the EOC scenario is much more intensive than that under the COE and EBC scenarios. The most outstanding ecological consequence of tea expansion is the occupation of forests. Employing an equivalent coefficient approach, we further quantify the trade-offs between economic incomes (from tea expansion) and ecological loss (due to ecosystem service value (ESV) declines) under the three policy scenarios. In the EOC scenario, the loss in ESV far exceeds the benefit of tea expansion. Net change of ESV is higher than that of economic return under the COE. The economic benefit is approximately equal to the ecological loss in the EBC scenario. The EBC should be a socially preferred scenario, since it leads to sustainable tea expansion and minimal ecological impacts. Though the EBC scenario is a desirable choice, how to enforce these policies is an important consideration. Given the complexity in the Chinese policy context, we finally propose several possible measures to promote the coherence of paradoxical policies involving the allocation of land for cash crop cultivation.

Comparing the autonomy of international public administrations: An ideal‐type approach

International Public Administrations (IPAs), that is, the secretariats of international organizations, are important actors in global governance. This article develops a new typology of IPAs that captures the potential influence of these bureaucratic bodies on international policy‐making. The main argument is that when conceptualizing the varying roles and potential policy impact of IPAs, it is useful to distinguish between their ability to develop autonomous preferences (autonomy of will) on the one hand, and their capacity to transform these preferences into action (autonomy of action) on the other. Based on this premise, the article introduces four distinct ideal‐types of international bureaucracies and suggests indicators to locate a diverse sample of 20 administrations within the four‐fold typology. The results reveal the empirical diversity of IPA autonomy and allow for a first empirical assessment of the factors behind this pattern.

Понимающая социология внешней политики: «агентная» модель поведения государства на международной арене

The article revisits the utility of sociological theories for the students of international relations. The failure of IR scholars to predict Ukrainian crisis revealed the limits of realism, which still remains most influential IR theory. These limits make rethink the prospects of convergence of IR and sociological theories. Pros and cons of holistic constructivist theory are examined. The article results in making an “agent-focused” model composed of the concepts of Max Weber’s interpretive sociology, Graham Allison’s typology of models of decision making and Mark Haas’s model of ideological origins of great powers’ politics. In doing so, it also revisits the concept of identity as a mean to understand “social facts” and their influence on foreign policy. The emphasis on the “agent” though not the “structure” is approached as an alternative to holistic constructivism of Alexander Wendt and his epigones. The “agent” model is supposed to be more capable for studies of great powers’, which play an active role in setting up the “structure’s” parameters. Three different approaches to “agent” are considered - “agent” as a state, as a bureaucratic body or structure within the state and as decision-makers and their staff. The model is designed for further empirical research of the Russian foreign policy.

Policy-making by international public administrations: concepts, causes and consequences

ABSTRACTAs the demand and necessity for greater international and transnational co-operation increase, the bureaucratic bodies of international organizations are receiving ever more scholarly attention. Yet, the relevance of international public administrations (IPAs) for global policy-making remains neither empirically nor theoretically well understood. A heuristic that links considerations of policy scope and policy type is provided to differentiate between the various aims and levels of potential IPA influence. Combining such a distinction with a taxonomy of administrative resources – namely, nodality, authority, treasure and organization – facilitates the development of concepts to systematically study patterns, constellations and conditions of IPA influence.