Distribution Of Public Resources Research Articles

The Parliament of Bangladesh: Representation and Accountability

This article is inspired by a recent debate in Bangladesh about the representative credentials of members of parliament (MPs) who have started to assert a pre-eminent and exclusive role for themselves as people's elected representatives. It investigates three dimensions of their representative role. Political representation is analysed by fairness of the electoral process and the space for opposition. Representation of social diversity is evaluated by gender, religion, ethnicity and socio-economic background of MPs. Constituency representation is explored with a particular focus on parliamentarians' involvement in local development work. Provision of constituency services by the MPs, through control and partisan distribution of public resources, has led to allegations of corruption and conflict of interest. Adoption of a code of parliamentary conduct is essential to establish a formal mechanism to hold MPs accountable to citizens.

Renaissance and Retrenchment in the 1970s

Between World War II and 1970, Pittsburgh’s Democratic Party hand-selected the city’s mayors, with one exception: Pete Flaherty. After four years on City Council and a close relationship with Party leaders, Flaherty rejected first an invitation to be Mayor Joseph Barr’s designated successor, beholden to the Party for campaign money, and a subsequent attempt by Allegheny Conference on Community Development (ACCD) members to lure him onto the Republican ticket. He campaigned instead as an unendorsed, independent Democrat and beat the machine candidate in the Democratic primary; in the 1969 general election, he ran on the platform that he was “nobody’s boy.” He financed his campaign through donations, launched innovative billboard and newspaper advertising campaigns, and won handily. Four years later, after alienating the Democratic Party, organized labor, his predecessor, most of the City Council, the police, the firemen, local CEOs, African American leaders, and both of the city’s major newspapers, Flaherty ran unopposed for a second term, having secured both the Republican and Democratic nominations. The joke around town was that “nobody likes Pete except the voters.”1 Popular narratives of Pittsburgh’s urban development since 1945 most often characterize Flaherty’s 1970–1977 mayoral tenure as a temporary disruption of perpetual Renaissance and relentless progress. Flaherty was a passionate critic of the Renaissance’s top–down, corporateoriented approach to urban development and the distribution of public resources, and he set out

Research evaluation and the assessment of public value

Funding organisations are increasingly asking academics to show evidence of the economic and social value generated by their research. These requests have often been associated with the emergence of a so-called ‘new social contract for research’ and are related to the implementation of new research evaluation systems. Although the research evaluation rhetoric is similar across countries and organisations, in practice evaluation can fulfil very different purposes. Additionally, the assessment of the public value of research poses different challenges depending on the academic field under analysis. This paper distinguishes three main research evaluation goals: to inform the distribution of public resources among competing objectives or performers, to help improve the implementation of policies and programmes, and to control the use of public funds. It then argues that assessing the value of research in the arts and humanities calls for a research methodology capable of providing a fine-grained understanding of the variety of, often diffuse, ways in which arts and humanities research can generate value. The methods that we need to do this are better suited to fulfil the improvement goal of evaluation, and require a ‘formative’ approach to evaluation supporting the social engagement of academic researchers.

‘New Fatherhood’ and the Politics of Dependency

Although ‘new fatherhood’ promises a reconstruction of the domesticity paradigm that positions fathers as breadwinners and mothers as caretakers, it maintains the notion that families are self-supporting entities and thereby neglects the extensive interdependence involved in raising children. As a result, it cannot successfully overturn this paradigm and hampers our ability to reimagine relationships along lines that would better serve parents' and children's wellbeing. This article raises these issues through an exploration of ‘daddy-daughter dances’, which manifest new fatherhood discourse as expressed in public schooling. Although the dances are in some ways peculiarly American, they exemplify tensions and inconsistencies around father's involvement in child-raising that nag most contemporary Western societies. These tensions, the article contends, concern the distribution of public resources among families as well as within them. Drawing on Kittay's theorization of dependence and interdependence, the article argues that contemporary social reconfigurations demand a new reimagination of relationships that starts with the recognition of interdependencies

A Discussion on Gender Equity and Women of Color

Establishing women’s equality took center stage of the Women’s Movement during the 1970s as women focused their attention on political institutions and the distribution of public resources to advance women’s equity. One signifi cant achievement marking the period was the passage of the Women’s Educational Equity Act of 1974 (weea). weea followed the landmark Title IX legislation and was designed to provide the programmatic funding to carry out many of the principles set forth in Title IX. Th e gender equity legislation craft ed at that moment centered on establishing women’s equal access to education, with the understanding that greater access to educational opportunities would result in a range of opportunities opening for women across society, including increasing their access to employment in both the public and private sectors. Th is legislation, introduced by the late congresswoman Patsy Mink of Hawaii, contributed to the political energy around ensuring women’s equality under the law. Together with its sister legislation, the popular Title IX, weea set out to level the playing fi eld for women in society by fi rst attending to one of the critical areas in which women needed to gain greater access— quality education. 1 weea had three stated goals that overall speak to the level of societal transformation the legislation aimed to achieve. First and foremost, the legislation sought to “promote gender equity in education.” Second, weea was designed to off er the funds to make women’s equality a reality. Whereas Title IX set forth the policy goals, weea addressed the need to fund programs to support the policy goals outlined in Title IX. In other words, weea set out to fund the road to women’s equality. It appropriated funds for activists and advocacy groups working in the fi eld of education equity for women and girls.

The Progressive Realization of Equal Rights of Chinese Farmers: History, Reality and Future

Compared with urban residents, great inequality exists as to the rights of farm laborers. Chinese Government has made great efforts to achieve equal rights for farmers. Farmers’ equal rights have got a lot of qualitative leap: the agricultural tax exemption, the rural and urban tax fairness; exempt from compulsory education fees, to achieve equality in education; establishing a new rural cooperative medical care, to achieve equal health insurance rights; establishing a sound social security system in rural areas, to achieve equal social security rights; amending the electoral law, to achieve equal voting rights. Due to historical reasons, there are still some problems and obstacles, such as a big gap in the urban-rural income and consumption, and uneven distribution of public resources in urban and rural areas. The government should reform rural household registration system in-depth, promote urban-rural integration to achieve the equalization of allocation of public resources, to ensure equal rights for farmers.

Operação Urbana Consorciada da Linha Verde: limites e oportunidades à luz da gestão social da valorização da terra

Observa-se atualmente o revigoramento dos debates sobre o Estatuto da Cidade, questionando sua efetividade, a baixa participação popular e sua utilização para legitimação de políticas engendradas por interesses particulares. Nesse contexto, este artigo investiga as Operações Urbanas Consorciadas (OU) enquanto mecanismo de recuperação de mais-valias fundiárias. Partindo de um estudo sobre a OU Faria Lima (São Paulo-SP), discute-se de forma prospectiva a OU Linha Verde (Curitiba-PR), em fase inicial de implantação. As análises possibilitam efetuar constatações ao mesmo tempo complementares e contraditórias. Deve-se reconhecer seu potencial na alavancagem da transformação urbana, repartindo os custos da ação pública. Entretanto, evidencia-se sua limitação na gestão social da valorização da terra, carecendo de mecanismos que assegurem o direcionamento adequado dos recursos.

Institutions, cost-effectiveness analysis and healthcare rationing: the example of healthcare coverage in the English National Health Service

Agencies designed to inform the distribution of public resources between competing healthcare programmes are now commonplace across the developed world. While costeffectiveness analysis (CEA) has become integral to prescriptions for such decisions, its influence in practice remains modest especially at local decision-making levels. Explanations focus on evidence and interests and therefore overlook the role played by institutions in determining the use of CEA. Case studies from the English National Health Service indicate that institutions are critical to understanding the technology coverage function and the role of evidence, analysis and deliberation in this.

Combining clientelist and programmatic politics in Tamil Nadu, South India

This article examines the use of material appeals for voter support using evidence taken from the case of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Two types of material appeal co-exist in this case. Clientelist politics, in the form of vote buying, and the distribution of public resources as political patronage, are features of state politics. Parties also use programmatic policies which offer benefits to beneficiaries regardless of partisan affiliation. The provision of such universal benefits has expanded since 2006. Yet the interest in universal provision significantly pre-dates 2006 and can be traced back to elite policy preferences in the early 1980s. The article shows that competition within a clientelist political system need not lead to the intensification of clientelism. Political parties may dilute their clientelist strategy by the addition of some programmatic policies. The wider implication of this study is that future research on material appeals should pay more attention to parties and party systems as causal variables.

Decentralisation and the Provision of Primary and Secondary Education in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

This article examines whether devolving responsibility for the provision of public services such as education in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia can satisfy the demands of non-majority groups for greater autonomy over their own affairs. How education systems are designed and delivered is of particular importance to minority ethnic communities since education is crucial for reproducing (and re-creating) the identity of a group. Without the transmission of the aspects of their identity through education, non-majority cultures may disappear. The review begins with the principal arguments in favour of and against devolving responsibility for the provision of education to local communities. An assessment of the Macedonian education system prior to decentralisation follows, accompanied by a discussion of the decentralisation reforms introduced in 2005. Three key theoretical arguments will then be considered within the Macedonian context: (a) whether decentralisation facilitates the provision of heterogeneous local public services; (b) decentralisation’s ability to enhance participation and transparency in decision-making regarding the delivery of services; and (c) whether decentralisation ensures a more equitable and transparent distribution of public resources. The article argues that the decentralisation of primary and secondary education to the municipal level in Macedonia has enabled local communities to more effectively meet the diverse needs of citizens. Persistent challenges, unless adequately addressed, may however undermine the benefits of reform in the longer term.

On ‘Bringing Corporate Welfare In’: A Reply to Farnsworth (2)

Kevin Farnsworth deserves congratulations and thanks for expanding the analysis of the distribution of public resources. In scrutinising the limited data on public subsidies and other support to business, he opens up important issues highly relevant to the study of welfare, both nationally and comparatively. I want to take advantage of this opportunity to reflect on his paper and pose some questions that I hope he and others will pursue as this area is developed.

Despesa pública municipal com saúde em Pernambuco, Brasil, de 2000 a 2007

In order to assess the impact of macro-political measures implemented in the latter half of the 1990s on the increase in public spending on health and the possible reduction in allocation inequity, a descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study was carried out involving 184 municipalities in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Data from the Public Health Budget Information System was used, with the selected indicator being spending on health per inhabitant under the responsibility of the municipality. The correlations of this variable with the municipal Human Development Index, population size and value of the municipal budget per capita were analyzed. It was seen that, although the mean increase in municipal spending on health is 190.76%, the value per capita has remained relatively low - at around R$183.79 - which is below the national and macro-regional averages. Both spending on health per capita and growth percentages are distributed irregularly among health regions as well as among municipalities within a single region. In conclusion, there is marked allocation inequity among municipalities with regard to the distribution of public resources for health, despite the macro-political measures adopted to reduce this inequity.

DECENTRALIZACJA STRUKTURY POLITYCZNEJ W UJĘCIU NOWEJ EKONOMII POLITYCZNEJ

The aim of the article is to analyze decentralization political structure, under the corner of reduce economical incentives influence of organized interests on the distribution of public resources. The theoretical deliberations presented in the article are based on the research achivements of the new political economy (NPE). The author argue that the federal jurisdiction when the administration have the power to tax is the nearest to the nondiscriminatory politics.

Pro-Business Local Governance and (Local) Business Associations: The Case of Gaziantep

The article investigates how major changes in national economic policies, and in associated forms of state-business relations, produce pro-business local governance arrangements. It places the emphasis on the politics of state-business relations that revolve around the distribution of public resources. It aims to explain, in particular, how these dynamics unfold in the developing countries where neoliberal reforms are implemented under conditions of political instability and weak policy capacity of the state. The article focuses on the political mobilization of the local bourgeoisie through local business associations, as the major force behind the rise of pro-business local governance. It indicates that the emergent form a pro-business local governance scheme, especially when led by local business associations, will depend upon a) the degree of political autonomy of the local bourgeoisie from the national political actors (i.e, their distance to party politics); b) the composition of its constituency/supporters (or the class coalition behind it); c) the degree of their dependency on public resources. The arguments are elaborated in the case of the city of Gaziantep, Turkey.

La recaudación fiscal y su importancia para los Municipios de México

El federalismo hacendario se refiere a la distribución de los recursos públicos entre la federación, los estados y los municipios. Desde 1998 queda establecido el Fondo de Aportaciones Federales o Ramo 33, que tiene como finalidad el fortalecimiento de los estados y municipios, pero que menoscaba a autonomía financiera de los gobiernos locales, principalmente de los municipios. También los gobiernos locales reciben recursos de las llamadas Participaciones Federales, o Ramo 28, los cuales se entregan a las entidades federativas para compensarles su aportación económica a la nación. El federalismo fiscal consiste en la distribución de facultades tributarias entre la federación, los estados y los municipios. A pesar de que la constitución establece el sistema de competencias concurrentes en la materia, las leyes y los convenios transfieren la mayor parte de las atribuciones fiscales al gobierno federal. Otra fuente de recursos de los municipios, y que además resulta exclusiva, lo que indica un gran potencial como fuente de ingresos propios, es el impuesto predial, cuyo fundamento constitucional se encuentra en el artículo 115. Sin embargo, México es uno de los países de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) con menor nivel de recaudación sub-nacional, el promedio de ingresos propios de los municipios mexicanos es de a tan sólo el 10%.

Patrões e clientes ou redistribuição entre iguais? Uma revisão sobre clientelismo político e suas transposições contextuais

Este artigo enfoca o modo como um candidato a vereador pelo partido peronista exercia a distribuição de recursos públicos (planos sociais e alimentos) no município de La Matanza, a oeste da Grande Buenos Aires, durante a campanha legislativa de 2005. A primeira parte apresenta a trajetória do candidato e de alguns dos vizinhos que dele dependiam. A segunda parte examina o modo como o protagonista convocava a um ato político e os sentidos das condutas dos atores na sucessão de eventos entre os quais se contavam a abertura de um restaurante comunitário e o dia das eleições. Identificam-se também as coerções exercidas sobre eles e as implicações em relação ao cumprimento ou descumprimento das obrigações recíprocas. A análise permite uma melhor compreensão da dinâmica e da complexidade dos processos que regem extensos circuitos de redistribuição nos quais os recursos do Estado são concedidos em troca de votos na periferia urbana da Grande Buenos Aires.

Paying for Transportation

Nearly all transportation policy debates concern money, and nearly all transportation finance debates concern equity. To some, this second assertion may seem puzzling, even counterintuitive. But the way public officials think of equity in transportation finance is far different from that of most social scientists or transportation planners. Equity gets defined differently by different interests at different times. This article examines transportation pricing and finance equity from a variety of perspectives to clarify what can be a fuzzy and confusing issue. The authors distinguish transportation finance and pricing equity from other forms of transportation equity and then discuss several competing theories of equity long debated by social philosophers. These theories serve as a basis for understanding the complex and often inconsistent notions of fairness that the public and elected officials have regarding the distribution of public resources and particularly transportation investments. Given these competing theories of equity, the authors argue that most conflicts over transportation pricing and finance are rooted in philosophical differences over justice and equity and differing notions of the appropriate units of analysis—individuals, groups, or jurisdictions—for evaluating equity. Accordingly, the authors offer an analytical framework to help planners and policy makers untangle these two issues. This framework transcends the philosophical characterizations of equity to allow for a more practical consideration of transportation finance and pricing fairness. They conclude with a discussion of the lessons offered by some recent debates in transportation pricing and finance for decision makers searching for a fair price for transportation.

Research notes: Social and human rights implications of TNC activities in the extractive industries

TNC operations in extractive industries can be associated with abuses of social and human rights in certain circumstances. For instance, competition over resource wealth may spark armed conflict in some countries, and even the formation of rebel groups; or, as another example, control of resources by the Government (may be linked to corruption and an inequitable distribution of public resources. This article examines the categories of human rights abuses which may occur, as well as the responsibilities of TNCs and other corporations in this regard. The latter is discussed in the context of “new players”, such as those from developing countries, the complex structures of many TNCs, and their governance (e.g. some are state-owned enterprises). The article concludes by assessing the roles that Governments, TNCs, NGOs and others can play in achieving a viable balance between a favourable investment environment in extractive industries and the interests of local populations.

Changes in Clientelism and Urban Government: A Comparative Case Study of Naples and Marseilles

AbstractThis article discusses changes to political clientelism and forms of urban government in Naples and in Marseilles in the period from the 1960s to the 2000s. From a socio‐historical, comparative perspective I show that, even in two Southern European cities, the expansion of political clientelism does not depend principally on cultural factors, but rather on politico‐institutional processes. The generalization of clientelistic relationships and the increase in policies for redistributing resources on the basis of clientelistic criteria go hand in hand with two historical trends that were evident in the 1960s and 1970s. Those decades were a period both of demographic development and of welfare state expansion at both central and local levels, the latter leading to the distribution of public resources to growing masses of individuals and social groups. In this phase, clientelistic redistribution policies promoted the integration and the upward social mobility of sections of the middle classes and some strata of the working classes in the local and national political system. From the late 1970s and early 1980s onwards, however, these policies were less and less able to promote this upward mobility and social integration. The article ends with a favourable account of some of the new urban management policies conducted by new political leaderships.

Coping with poverty in the health sector: Evidence from public spending in Thailand

This paper examines whether an increase in government expenditure on health has been accompanied by greater equality between the poor and non-poor in Thailand. In the period 1992-2000, real government expenditure grew on average 10 per cent per annum, the number of health services personnel and facilities increased and the rise was far greater than the growth in population or incomes per capita. However, in the distribution of public resources on health the bottom quintile of the population received disproportionately less government spending. The widening inequality between the poor and non-poor could partly be explained by large differences in the mix of health resources used by each province in the country over time and the associated costs involved. These phenomena imply that improving equity in public health care provision needs to be given higher priority in Government spending.