Era Of Fiscal Austerity Research Articles

From Personality‐Driven to Institutionally Driven Collaboration by the US Forest Service

This article describes an approach being used by the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service to assess and strengthen agency‐wide capacity to collaborate effectively with external stakeholders, as well as strategic reasons for investing resources in this endeavor in an era of fiscal austerity. The article examines the role of the third‐party neutral in helping agency stakeholders chart the path forward, in the near term and the longer term, and offers reflections on the characteristics of that role that are most important to the efficacy of the over‐all effort in this particular case.

Solidarity against All Odds

In an era of fiscal austerity and dualization of social protection, has organized labor become increasingly split along skill and industry lines? Against recent political science accounts of trade union involvement in social policymaking, this paper argues that, in the specific area of pensions, unions representing high-skilled workers and the core industrial sectors of the economy have paradoxically been led to increase their cooperation with unions representing the less privileged segments of labor, in order to improve coverage of private pensions across the board. These unions’ motivations for doing so and the strategies they have employed have nonetheless differed according to the preexisting institutional design of domestic pension systems. The argument is supported with case studies of British, French, German, and Belgian unions’ involvement in contemporary pension reform.

Disability Benefits in an Age of Austerity

AbstractThis article takes a long‐view of the huge rise in disability claimant numbers in the UK since the early 1980s and looks ahead to the trends that can now be expected to emerge in an era of fiscal austerity and welfare reform. The article's central thesis is that disability numbers are best understood as part of a triangular relationship between levels of employment, unemployment and sickness. In particular, the big decline of industrial employment in many places has often resulted in large‐scale ‘hidden unemployment’ on disability benefits, especially among low‐skilled workers. Looking ahead, the UK's welfare reforms are set to reduce disability claimant numbers but principally by restricting access to Employment and Support Allowance, the new disability benefit. The main effect will be to divert substantial numbers of men and women with ill health or disability onto unemployment benefits instead or, more often, out of the benefits system altogether.

Solidarity Against All Odds: Organized Labor and Pension Privatization in Western Europe

In an era of fiscal austerity and dualization of social protection, has organized labor become increasingly split along skill and industry lines? Against recent political science accounts of trade union involvement in social policy-making, this paper argues that, in the specific area of pensions, unions representing high-skilled workers and the core industrial sectors of the economy have been paradoxically led to increase their cooperation with unions representing the less privileged segments of labor, and this in order to improve coverage of private pensions across the board. These unions’ motivations for doing so and the strategies they have employed have nonetheless differed according to the pre-existing institutional design of domestic pension systems. The argument is supported with case studies of British, French, German and Belgian unions’ involvement in contemporary pension reform.

Accountability and surveillance: New mechanisms of control in higher education

In the past decade, higher education institutions in South Africa have witnessed a firm and decisive move towards corporatisation. It may well be argued that this is an inevitable trend, driven largely by globalisation and the need to remain or become competitive in a highly market-oriented local and international higher education sector. This need to attain a competitive edge demands that the status quo cannot remain. Higher education institutions have to respond to indicators of quality contained in the international rankings machinery. In an era of fiscal austerity, this necessitates a greater extraction of output from existing higher education production factors. Labour in particular requires a more sophisticated disciplinary regime: one that defines the work of academics in explicit quantifiable terms, and sets and measures performance standards for the different facets of an academic’s work. In this commentary, I present a Foucauldian analysis of the effect of accountability and performance regimes on academics at a South African university. I argue that particular constructions of performance expectations produce particular effects. This paper draws attention to the subjugating effect of stringent control technologies on the lived experience of the higher education pedagogue with a view to exploring possibilities and spaces of resistance.

From the Ground Up: The Importance of Preserving SOF Capacity Building Skills

The last decade of international engagements marks a shift in the way that the American military fights wars and mitigates conflict overseas. Although America has long had an affinity for creative destruction and cycles of force buildup and tear down, it is increasingly apparent that such an approach is not a viable option for the U.S. military’s path ahead. After a decade of costly conflict with large conventional forces and an abundance of direct action operations, the American way of war is evolving towards less muscle, more mind. To this end, the specialized training, mentoring, and capacity building skills that Special Operations Forces (SOF) receive must remain a priority in an era of fiscal austerity and streamlined resources. It is easier to strengthen security forces than to strengthen governance and the drivers that combat instability. As SOF returns to a focus on partner capacity building programs rather than direct action missions, the lessons learned of the last twelve years of international security assistance programs must be embraced and codified rather than allowed to atrophy, as is often the case when the United States military reorients its attention to new policy priorities. Reliance on external nations and allied partners, coupled with the strategic direction to employ innovative, low-cost, and small-footprint indirect approaches to prevent conflict, have made SOF a resource of choice for both Combatant Commanders and military strategists.

Strategic Commissioning in the UK: Service Improvement Cycle or Just Going Round in Circles?

This article explores the drivers of the development of strategic commissioning over the last two decades, its limitations, and the implications of its rapid spread. It suggests that the differences between government departments have allowed scope for local variations, which have been exploited by local government, leaving room for more innovation than would have been possible under an entirely ‘joined-up’ government agenda. The forms taken by this new approach to strategic commissioning were consistent with continual pressure from central government to find ways of promoting externalisation of public services. Although this underlying drive was often resisted, particularly at local level, but always re-emerged. The article ends by exploring the implications of this analysis for public services in the era of fiscal austerity under the new UK Coalition government.

Evidence versus Pragmatism

This study explores two construction execution and management models for construction and infrastructure development in a new era of fiscal austerity in the face of unplanned, yet devastating natural or man-made disasters. One model explores the role and application of evidence-based construction management, while the other studies the role of the pragmatic approach to construction management in the context of existing cultures and emergent, or dynamic project circumstances. Responses from subject matter experts from two representative dynamic construction and infrastructure development areas (Nigeria and Afghanistan) are evaluated for insights. This research combined expert opinions with time-tested approaches for efficient infrastructure project, procurement, and execution in emergent circumstances of man-made or natural disaster management. While one of the two development strategies is based on performance criteria such as cost, quality and time efficiencies, the other is based on the utilitarian value of a pragmatic juxtaposition of driving social, political and environmental factors. The study is underscored by the notion that while numbers do not lie, they are by their very nature incapable of offering the whole truth.

Unpaid and Paid Care: The Effects of Child Care and Elder Care on the Standard of Living

ABSTRACT Transforming care for children and the elderly from a private to a public domain engenders a series of benefits to the economy that improve our standard of living. We assess the positive impacts of social care from both receivers’ and providers’ points of view. The benefits to care receivers are various, ranging from private, higher returns to education to enhancing subjective well-being and health outcomes. The economy-wide spillovers of the benefits are noteworthy. Early childhood education reduces costs of law enforcement and generates higher long-term economic growth. Home-based health care lowers absenteeism and job losses that otherwise undermine labor productivity, providing adequate care at a lower cost and delaying admission into high-cost institutional care. Social care improves mothers’ labor-market attachment with higher lifetime income; it also lowers physical and psychological burdens of elder care that are becoming more prevalent with an aging population. Social care investment creates more job opportunities than other public spending, especially for workers from poor households and with low levels of educational attainment. The broad contributions of social care to our standard of living should be recognized in the public discourse, particularly in this era of fiscal austerity.

Resilience or Retrenchment?: Japanese Security in the Era of Fiscal Austerity

The advanced industrialized world has entered an era of fiscal austerity, with profound implications for international security and the global balance of power. Japan’s predicament is particularly dire: public debt has risen to historically unprecedented levels, and defense expenditures have continually declined for a decade. Nonetheless, we show that Japan is primarily unique for being early – other developed democracies will soon face comparable, long-term fiscal pressures due to three principal factors: financial crises, demographics, and elevated levels of pre-existing debt. As an early mover, how has the Japanese defense establishment responded to fiscal austerity? Consistent with existing accounts of Japan’s reemergence as a more muscular military power, we find that defense spending is characterized by relative resilience, receiving increasingly high priority within the domestic budgetary process. Japanese defense policymakers have also taken advantage of austerity to rationalize the allocation of funding among its services and priorities. However, fiscal austerity is increasingly limiting Japan’s options. The recent buildup of military hardware is attributable to various life extension measures and expenditure shifts from procurement to equipment maintenance, calling into question the quality and long-term viability of Japanese military forces. As these measures run their course over the coming decade, Japan faces the prospect of a sharp reduction in its military capabilities.

Operational Systems, Logistics Engineering and Technology Insertion

ABSTRACT In an era of fiscal austerity, downsizing and unforgiving pressure upon human and economic capital, it is an Augean task to identify resources for fresh and creative work. The realities of the day and the practical demands of more immediate fleet needs can often dictate higher priorities. Yet, the Navy must avoid eating its seed corn. Exercising both technical insight and management foresight, the fleet, the R & D community, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OpNav) and the product engineering expertise of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) are joined and underway with integrated efforts to marry new, fully demonstrated technologies and operational urgencies.Defense funding today cannot sponsor all work that can be mission‐justified over the long term because budgets are insufficient to support product maturation within the classical development cycle. However, by rigorous technical filtering and astute engineering of both marketplace capabilities and currently available components, it is possible in a few select cases to compress and, in effect, integrate advanced development (6.3), engineering development (6.4), weapon procurement (WPN), ship construction (SCN), operation and maintenance (O & M, N) budgetary categories when fleet criticalities and technology opportunities can happily meet. In short, 6.3 funds can be applied directly to “ripe gateways” so modern technology is inserted into existing troubled or aging systems, sidestepping the lengthy, traditional development cycle and accelerating practical payoffs to recurrent fleet problems.To produce such constructive results has required a remarkable convergence of sponsor prescience and engineering workforce excellence. The paper describes, extensively, the philosophy of approach, transition strategy, polling of fleet needs, technology assessment, and management team requirements. The process for culling and selecting specific candidate tasks for SHARP sponsorship (matching operational need with technological opportunity) is described broadly in the main body of the paper with the details provided in an Appendix. Finally, three specific examples from the methods used to pick “best” choices from multiple surface, air and underseas contenders are presented as illustrations of programs able to obtain recent SHARP sponsorship.

Niche Diplomacy as Canadian Foreign Policy

Few observers of Canadian foreign policy would deny that the number and complexity of foreign policy issues is increasing, yet the resources available to manage them are decreasing.(f.1) If we assume that 'old' foreign policy concerns -- non-proliferation, economic diplomacy, alliance politics, and multilateralism -- will continue to be important, Canada is left with three choices: increase the foreign policy budget to reflect the expanding agenda, do more things less well, or assign a lower priority to some issue-areas. This last choice implies a shift in Ottawa's focus away from some traditional functional concerns and geographic areas and towards those areas in which there is a clear and identifiable Canadian interest and where Canada's international policy decisions and programmes can have a maximum impact. The operative term here is maximum impact because the millions of public dollars spent to keep Canadian peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia may have satisfied the criterion of identifiable interest but have surely fallen short of maximum impact. In this article I argue that to maximize its influence in an era of fiscal austerity, Canada will have to be more selective about the many international spheres in which it plays. In the search for niches, Ottawa must not only use its resources more efficiently; it must look increasingly to the under-utilized and under-appreciated non-governmental and philanthropic sectors. Moreover, Canada's pent-up 'soft' power that comes from knowledge and ideas, and the information technologies that transmit them further, faster, and with greater effect around the world, must be allowed to flourish.(f.2) A greater exercise of such power -- in effect, energizing the cultural pillar of the foreign policy agenda of Jean Chretien's government rather than, for example, trying to achieve a greater naval presence in the Pacific in support of Canada's commercial interests in the region (as the 1994 defence white paper advocates(f.3)) -- is consistent with niche diplomacy. Foreign policy reviews over the past two years have emphasized that Canada's national interests dictate a global rather than a regional foreign policy and hence a widespread and effective diplomatic presence. At the same time, the various debates leading up to the Canada 21 report, the first two National Forums on Canada's International Relations (1994 & 1995), the final parliamentary foreign policy and defence reports, and Ottawa's programme reviews (I and II), all resonated with the need to 'make hard choices.' Growing domestic fiscal pressures have highlighted a fundamental tension in the conduct of Canada's international relations between a more engaged global player in an age of globalization and interdependence and a more disengaged actor. Despite the conclusions of the parliamentary reviews, this debate is not likely to abate. On the one hand, some (notably members of the Reform party) have questioned how long Canada can enhance its prestige in a number of expensive spheres of influence -- the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Commonwealth, la francophonie, Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), and the Group of Seven (G-7), to name just a few simultaneously.(f.4) On the other hand, powerful forces reinforce this internationalism. As noted by the minister of foreign affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in April 1969,(f.5) it is anachronistic to try to draw a clear distinction between international and domestic. Because of economic and post-Cold War security globalization, problems are no longer East-West or North-South in scope. For example, unemployment, transportable diseases (for example, HIV), environmental degradation (for example, global warming) affect both South and North. As nation-states realize that they cannot respond to these challenges alone, increased multilateralism appears to be the only answer. From a narrower Canadian perspective, one need look no further than Canada's growing economic dependence on the rest of the world: in 1995 exports accounted for 37 per cent of national income compared to 17 per cent in 1960. …

ACHIEVING TITLE IX GENDER EQUITY IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS IN AN ERA OF FISCAL AUSTERITY

This article reviews the statutory background of Title IX and provides an analysis of three recent legal cases that address gender equity issues. Most specifically, the article examines three recent lawsuits, all initiated and decided after 1988 legislation reinvigorated Title IX. These cases involving Colorado State University, Brown University, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania illustrate the approach the courts are taking on gender equity and the practical difficulties of achieving gender equity in an era of fiscal austerity. The article examines the impact of other recent litigation arising out of Title IX and analyzes the gender equity strategy of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The article concludes proposing a comprehensive game plan for Title IX compliance in today's fiscal climate by analyzing compliance factors, methods of achieving gender equity, and the economics and ethos of budget cutting.

FIGHT AGAINST AIDS: First step toward national strategy

The U.S. has no national policy for dealing with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), many critics charge. Last week, surprising the critics, the first step toward an integrated national strategy was taken by the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Epidemic. At a press conference in Washington, D.C., the commission chairman, Adm. James D. Watkins (Ret.), released a 60-page document bearing his comprehensive recommendations for action in three areas: basic research and vaccine and new drug development; health care; and intravenous (IV) drug abuse treatment and prevention. The panel's first policy proposals call for broad new programs costing some $2 billion a year over the next 10 years—split between federal and state or local governments. The proposals indicate the commission is now well on its way, after an initial period of controversy and resignations. But funding new programs in an era of fiscal austerity may not be easy. The commission started work last ...

Decolonization and the State in Kenya (review)

222 SAIS REVIEW to seek a solution are the burden Namibia places on a strained national budget and international pressures to end Namibia's colonial status. Reasons for maintaining the status quo are the political weight of the militant Afrikaner population residing in Namibia and the potential security threat posed by another independent state straddling the South African border. The author shows that the result ofthese conflicting pressures is the "Botha Strategy," in which supposedly earnest negotiations are periodically sabotaged by South African military campaigns. Since Botha's ascendancy in 1978 every breakthrough in the Namibian talks has been followed by raids on SWAPO bases or offices in Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In light of the political realities Botha faces, Jaster is pessimistic about any negotiated resolution for Namibia. He concludes, "Ultimately perhaps only a prolonged insurgency—one far more effective than that waged by SWAPO so far—would generate the sorts of pressures that alone might force [Botha and] Namibia's white minority to accept desegregation and a government of national reconciliation dominated by SWAPO." Hanlon concludes that changes in Pretoria's behavior can be made through coordinated international economic sanctions against South Africa, but the sanctions must be accompanied by massive Western aid for, and investment in, the SADCC states. South Africa is likely to use its considerable economic and military muscle to retaliate with "countersanctions" against its neighbors; thus the West must help to bolster their defenses. This view assumes that the West is both willing and able to assume responsibility for the future security and development of southern Africa while Pretoria stands ready to threaten any project that might increase the autonomy of the SADCC nations. In this era of fiscal austerity and shrinking aid budgets, there is little evidence that Western governments could make the necessary commitment even if the political will to do so existed. Taken together, the two books show how South Africa has achieved a position of regional power that dilutes the effect of external political pressures. Any initiative from outside seeking to influence Pretoria's regional policies must coincide with positive changes in South Africa's internal political constellation. One is left with the cynical thought that meaningful policy reform during Botha's reign will remain only a political pipe dream for those who closely follow development in southern Africa. Decolonization and the State in Kenya. By David F. Gordon. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1986. 265 pp. $25.00/cloth. Reviewed by Gilbert Khadiagala, Ph.D. candidate, SAIS. The politics of Kenya's transition from colonial administration to independence have attracted considerable interest since the British government decided in early 1980 to declassify colonial documents. This process has opened up a wealth of once classified reports that have assisted in filling the gaps in Kenya's colonial history. In Decolonization and the State in Kenya David F. Gordon uses original imperial sources to provide a comprehensive historical account of the events BOOK REVIEWS 223 and issues surrounding Kenya's decolonization process between 1945 and 1963. The author's thesis is that the decolonization process in Kenya was propelled by the inability of the colonial state to reconcile the twin imperatives of economic accumulation and political conquest. Under the aegis of a settler-dominated state, the author cites the need to derive economic benefits from the country as the raison d'être of formal colonization of Kenya. After having strengthened their grip on the apparatus of the state, the prime commitment of the settler colonial authorities was to pursue a pattern of accumulation dependent solely upon the alienation of African land and the exploitation of African labor. However, this mode of accumulation generated problems in the greater political economy; foremost of these problems was the issue of African nationalism, which arose to challenge the colonial state. The author uses his exhaustive examination of colonial reports to support his principal argument: the post-World War II colonial strategy of piecemeal agrarian reforms contained in the Swynnerton Plan of 1954 clearly reflected the colonial state's increasing inability to contain the tide of African nationalism while the authorities tried to maintain accumulation patterns pursued since the onset of colonial rule in Kenya. In the...

Attrition versus Layoffs: How to Estimate the Costs of Holding Employees on Payroll When Savings Are Needed

In an era of fiscal austerity, public agencies are experiencing periods of no growth or even absolute reductions in force (RIFs). Administrators of these organizations are increasingly concerned with the management of reductions in both budgets and personnel. The various journals serving public sector managers reflect a growing concern over how to best manage an organization through the turbulent, controversial, painful, and all too often, unfamiliar process of carrying out mandated cuts in staff. The recent symposium on cutback management' in the Public Administration Review and the articles that have subsequently appeared' represent just an interesting sample from this literature. Several different objectives have been pursued by the authors of these articles and the wider body of literature. Some articles have sought to provide conceptual frameworks for understanding organizations in periods of decline, while others have offered lessons learned from experience. Still others deal with particular strate

Foreign Assistance in an Era of Fiscal Austerity: Whither the Development Banks?

Foreign Assistance in an Era of Fiscal Austerity: Whither the Development Banks?