Government Objectives Research Articles

A history of New Year’s Eve, Sydney: From ‘the crowd’ to ‘crowded places’

This article presents a history of Sydney's New Year's Eve event. First established when a crowd gathered outside Sydney's General Post Office in 1897 to celebrate the inauguration of International Standard Time, in more recent years it has evolved into a signature event on the city's calendar, drawing in excess of 1 million people into the Central Business District in a spectacular celebration of the global city. For those authorities charged with managing the event an enduring problem concerns the question of security: how is the aggregate of human bodies that gather to be governed in ways that secure it from the risks it presents: be they risks to public order (riot), to the crowd itself (panic), or external to it (terror attack) or to the population (viral spread)? This article maps how crowds have been thought as objects of government in relation to the New Year’s Eve event.

Examining the role of business improvement districts (BIDs) as contemporary alternatives for Green Infrastructure funding in London, UK

Sustainable sources of funding for investment in Green Infrastructure have become increasingly difficult to identify due to centralised government financing cuts in the UK. Although local government, as traditional normative funders, have adopted innovative approaches to capital and revenue spending there remains a significant gap in how and what resources are supported. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are one set of stakeholders that potentially have a role to play in addressing funding deficits. As subscriber funded organisations, they work at a local level to enhance economic prosperity, as well as delivering socio-cultural and ecological enhancement in identified urban areas. This paper examines the experience of BIDs in London to debate the influences and barriers to their investing in Green Infrastructure. It argues that BIDs can act as critical advocates for Green Infrastructure planning where the latter aligns with local economic objectives. Moreover, we identify spatial variations in the extent to which BIDs in London engage with Green Infrastructure in their documentation and practice, illustrating differences in the perceived value of the concept. We conclude that BIDs hold the potential to facilitate investment in Green Infrastructure due to their position as conduits of business, local government, and community objectives. However, to fully embrace this role balance is needed between the setting of environmental objectives and the need to support local business needs, land ownership issues, and capital/revenue financing considerations.

Regulating the platform giants: Building and governing China's online economy

AbstractThe online platform economy in China has grown to become one of the largest in the world. Its growth has contributed to China's economic development and played an important role in its innovation path. We present a three‐stage structured explanation of China's governance approaches toward its homegrown platform firms. Using Chinese government documents and secondary sources to conduct a historical process tracing analysis, we argue that the growth of China's main platform firms and the government's governance of them was co‐evolutionary, guided by the party‐state's goals of maintaining social‐political stability, economic growth and strengthening technological self‐sufficiency. By so doing this paper addresses the fundamental question of how a “strong” and “capable” state such as China's has responded as platform firms went from providing various online services to becoming core infrastructure in the economy and society to the point of threatening core government objectives.

OECD Best Practices for Gender Budgeting

This paper presents best practices for gender budgeting in OECD countries, consisting of the core features common to successful implementation of gender budgeting. These best practices identify elements that contribute to the sustainability of gender budgeting and help governments ensure that the budget helps achieve broader government objectives relating to gender equality, such as women’s participation in the labour market. The best practices draw on gender budgeting practices in Member countries and the OECD’s work with countries in designing and implementing gender budgeting.

Twenty years on: Intelligence and Security Committee and investigating torture in the 'war on terror'

ABSTRACT The central objective of democratic governance of intelligence is, through debate and law, to establish public confidence that the agencies work efficiently, effectively and properly. Oversight of intelligence can be seen as a contest between agencies, government and overseers for the control of information. The four interacting dimensions of information control are secrecy, gathering, evaluation and persuasion. This article assesses the oversight performance of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) through the prism of information control in investigating the allegations of UK involvement in torture since 2001. Operating within an overall context of executive dominance, these dimensions constitute a series of filters including what officers tell their managers, what the agencies record, what they tell ministers, what they tell oversight bodies and, finally, what the ISC reports to the public.

The evolution of financial reporting quality for companies listed on the Tadawul Stock Exchange in Saudi Arabia: New emerging markets' evidence

Motivated by the Saudi Arabian government's objective to diversify its economy away from oil and correct deficiencies associated with the Saudi stock market crash of 2006, a series of significant capital market infrastructure reforms were initiated that began with the 2007 reorganization of the Tadawul Stock Exchange (TSE) and the Capital Market Authority (CMA) as its sole regulator. This paper adds to the growing body of emerging market literature by providing new evidence of the effects of these initiatives on earnings quality for firms listed on the TSE. The results of tests of this study provide robust evidence that earnings quality increased during the 2007 to 2018 reform period. In particular, we document that relative to pre – reform years, reform period R squares, earnings response coefficients (ERCs) increased and discretionary accruals decreased. We rationalize these findings by asserting that improved regulatory oversight in juxtaposition with significant reform period investments into Saudi Arabia's capital markets infrastructure enhanced earnings quality (Jiambalvo et al., 2002; Latif et al., 2017; Zhong et al., 2017).

Vulnerability portrayals across climate risk discourses in Bhubaneswar: an evolutionary perspective

ABSTRACT Climate governance studies suggest that the way climate risk and vulnerability are conceptualized, defined, and managed has consequences for people and places. In this paper, we analyze how different climate risk discourses and their vulnerability portrayals are constructed and have evolved in Bhubaneswar city in India. We conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis of various climate action plans and policy documents, as well as a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews to interpret their discursive positions on climate issues. Based on our findings, we highlight three main discourses through which risk is constructed – discourses of inevitability, collocation, and intrinsic necessity. The vulnerability portrayals across these discourses are undergoing a transition from a pure outcome vulnerability approach toward a context-based approach, while their framings range from vulnerability to events, places, and social groups. The intertwining of discursive constructions of risk and vulnerability contributes toward constantly forming and re-forming risk and governance objects (and subjects), and the reproduction and resistance to certain forms of knowledge that limit and enable governance responses to climate change at the same time.

Application of modified porous materials and pollution treatment in water

With the continuous development of social economy, water pollution has become one of the key objects of ecological environment governance. It is one of the effective methods to remove heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorus, antibiotics and other organic pollutants from water by using carbon-based poly porous materials. The physical and chemical properties of porous materials can be improved effectively and the removal effect of target pollutants can be enhanced. The removal of heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter from water by modified porous materials and its possible mechanism were reviewed. The future research and application of modified porous materials in the field of water pollution control were prospected, which could provide useful reference for related research work and engineering application.

Feasibility Analysis of Arctic Governance Based on International Public Goods Theory

As the geopolitical importance of the Arctic region has grown, the "geopolitics of the cryosphere" has been gradually developed. The study of geopolitical game phenomena such as territorial disputes and resource competition in the polar regions based on realism is the general context for the study of Arctic governance. This paper categorizes the subjects and objects in Arctic governance in the context of the geopolitics of the cryosphere and based on the theory of international public goods. This leads to an analysis of the respective dilemmas of the countries involved in Arctic governance and the areas targeted by it. Cases are also given to suggest solutions to the problems for the subjects and objects of Arctic governance. This paper analyzes the dilemmas that each participating subject and governance area may face in Arctic governance based on international public goods theory. It provides a theoretical basis in policy practice for countries to participate in Arctic governance and to carry out governance in solving problems in different areas. This paper uses the case study approach to analyze the governance dilemmas in the Arctic using international public goods theory. Finally, the dilemma faced by the governance subjects and governance objects was summarized, and corresponding policy suggestions were put forward.

The Effects of Economic Policy Instruments of Diffuse Water Pollution from Agriculture: A Comparative Analysis of China and the UK

The world is facing the challenge of increasing grain production and improving the environment, in which the treatment of diffuse water pollution from agriculture is the important content. Traditional administrative means are still unable to solve the problem of market failure and government failure in controlling water pollution. Economic policy instruments have more advantages in improving market economics and reducing the cost of environmental governance and supervision. They have become an important way to solve pollution and promote the transformation of water pollution prevention and control management. This paper puts forward suggestions and countermeasures for improving China’s economic policy instruments by systematically sorting out and analyzing the EPIs in China and the UK. Starting from the whole process of agricultural production, China’s water quality governance needs to follow three principles to innovate and comprehensively utilize economic policy instruments. A transparent multi-party information sharing and an efficient supervision system are invisible to water quality governance. China also needs to continue to deepen reforms and pilot projects, especially in terms of governance objectives, public welfare funds, water prices, tradable water rights, and emission rights. This paper could also provide a reference for water pollution control in other developing countries.

Leverage the COBIT 2019 Design Toolkit in an SME Context: A Multiple Case Study

Organizations today exploit IT to achieve business value and competitive advantages; it is the disruptive effect of digital transformation. However, investing in IT without proper control and governance over enterprise IT (GEIT) can expose organizations to cyber-risks and IT project failures. This problem affects both multinationals and small organizations. In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to implement IT-governance also due to the complexity of the standard IT-governance frameworks. In this study, five case studies were conducted with five manufacturing companies in Italy whose headquarters are located in the Lombardy region to investigate the potential benefits for IT practitioners of using the COBIT 2019 Design Toolkit, an Excel spreadsheet that facilitates the development of a governance system. The results are encouraging, the IT practitioners appreciated the COBIT 2019 Design Toolkit to map the IT resources and issues, prioritize the most important governance and management objectives, and align business and IT strategy. However, some criticalities emerged, for instance, the limited prescriptive power of the tool and the language, which is sometimes difficult to understand for IT practitioners. It should also be noted that current IT-governance implementation in Italian manufacturing SMEs appears to be very limited. Further, it should be highlighted that this study was using COBIT 2019 before ISACA issued “COBIT for Small and Medium Enterprises Using COBIT 2019” which could already have a positive impact on the level of comprehension.
 Keywords: COBIT 2019, IT-governance, IT-governance frameworks, multiple case study

Flood Policy and Governance: A Pathway for Policy Coherence in Nigeria

In recent years, Nigeria is witnessing increasing frequency of flood occurrence with devastating impact translating into significant loss of lives (in Nigeria, over 300 people died in September 2022) and properties. Addressing flood disaster requires holistic approach from policy and governance perspectives, integration of policies and programs and synergies between institutions. Using synergies and eliminating trade-offs, flood governance and policy coherence integrate all relevant policy fields and institutions to achieve common policy outcomes. The objective of this study is to examine and understand how flood governance and policy coherence are approached, as well as institutional design and implementation for coherence in Nigeria. The findings revealed that there is no single flood policy in Nigeria. Due to this, there is no focus and no defined objectives for flood governance, prevention, control, and management, and no imperative for the government to seek both short-term and long-term flood solutions. There is no synergy and coordination among institutions for flood governance in the country. Since the country established the federal ministry of environment in 1999, the environment, floods, and climate-related hazards were given less priority. State and local governments handle most flood disasters and emergencies. Federal assistance is provided, however, when flood disasters exceed the capabilities of local and state governments. This study recommends that across the country, flood policy needs to be designed, formulated, and implemented while assigning governance responsibility and decentralizing policy to state and local governments.

Moving towards a sustainable environment: do disaggregated energy consumption, natural resources, financial development and economic globalization really matter?

ABSTRACT The quality of the environment has become one of the primary objectives of South Asian governments. The majority of South Asian nations are susceptible to the negative effects of climate change, so it is crucial to identify factors that can contribute to environmental sustainability in the region. As a result of globalization, South Asian economies have attracted the attention of developed economies due to their abundance of mineral resources. This study fills a gap in the body of literature by analyzing the impact of economic globalization, financial development, natural resource availability, and disaggregated energy consumption on the environmental sustainability of South Asian nations from 1990 to 2020, taking into account economic growth, trade openness, and urbanization. This study employs a cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) estimator for short-run and long-run estimation, which accounts for slope parameter variability and country-specific dependencies. The results show that 1% increase in natural resource abundance and economic globalization improve the environmental quality in South Asian nations by 1.987% and 0.158% respectively. Furthermore, increasing the amount of renewable energy in total energy consumption minimizes CO2 emissions by 0.295% for every 1% change in renewable energy consumption. By contrast, 1% change in trade openness, financial development, urbanization, non-renewable energy consumption, and economic growth have a negative impact on the environment by 0.178%, 0.182%, 1.131%, 0.352% and 0.854% respectively. There is a unidirectional connection between natural resources and economic globalization that creates trade openness. For sustainable development goals, this study delivers new practical evidence and policy suggestions.

Perspectives on persistent flooding of the Msimbazi Valley in Dar es Salaam viewed through a governance lens

ABSTRACT This article follows the line of scholarship that treats urban flooding as the object of governance and uses a governance lens to analyse reported evidence of how and why detrimental flooding has persisted in the Msimbazi Valley in urban Dar es Salaam. Guided by the governmentality framework and interactive governance theory, an analysis of primary and secondary data was conducted. The analysis revealed the low motivation and commitment of capable staff and well-resourced administrative departments and units of Ilala and Kinondoni Municipal Councils involved in implementing relevant and appropriate measures to control, prevent and end floods. Since organizational values and principles that are well understood and have been embraced have the potential to reignite and revive individual and group commitment, it is recommended that staff and management teams of Ilala and Kinondoni Municipal Councils relearn their organizational values and/or retool themselves with values and principles that strongly inspire flood-prevention actions.

Do cocoa certification schemes improve producers' performance ? Evidence from Centre Region Cameroon

In agricultural value chains, in particular cocoa, environmental, and social standards are becoming increasingly important in meeting sustainability challenges. The main aim of this article is to examine the role of certification primarily on the yields and incomes of cocoa farmers in the Central Cameroon region. From June to July 2017, a survey of certified and non-certified cocoa producers was conducted in the districts of Ngoumou and Mbangassina. At the end of the survey, a total sample of 114 certified and non-certified producers was obtained. Using the cost-benefit analysis, in this preliminary phase of the certification process, the results show that there is no significant difference in costs between certified and non-certified producers for each of the districts. There is also no price difference between certified and non-certified cocoa and the payment of the certification premium is not systematically distributed. However, the profit analysis shows on average significantly higher yields and profits for certified producers. Nevertheless, this increase in profits would mainly be due to the implementation of good agricultural practices rather than the certification itself. Additionally, the exploration of on farm income shows that cocoa-based households remain on average below the poverty line. One of the long-term challenges for the cocoa sector in Cameroon is to combine the government's objective of increasing production with that of improving quality. To this end, the advantages of the predominantly agroforestry systems present in Cameroon should be exploited to produce a critical mass of quality and sustainable cocoa that would allow a significant increase in producer prices.

THE ROLE OF INTERNAL AUDITING IN THE EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF THE AFFAIRS IN LGAS IN NIGERIA (KALTUNGO LGA)

The objective of this research is to find out the role of internal auditing in the effective management and control in the affairs of Kaltungo local government and whether the functions of the internal audit department are performed in compliance with the established standards, policies and how much it has succeeded in achieving the objective of the local government and finally, to find out the benefits that may be derived from effective audit control system in the affairs of the local government. It is expected that at the end of the research, it should have been established that the local government areas are faced with lot of problems such as ineffective audit control system. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. It was obtained from staff of the Local government, staff of the state ministry of local government affairs, through questionnaires and interviews. The total population for the study is 200 persons,140 staff of Kaltungo local government area,10 staff of Gombe state ministry of local Government affairs and 5 staff each from the other 10 local government areas of Gombe State. A total of 133 respondents was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies. The end result showed that there was need for the internal audit unit of Kaltungo local government to reactivate its accounting and financial reporting review engine and maintain sufficient and appropriate documentation of work done to provide a basis for the external auditor’s reliance on internal audit work.

Բարձրագույն կրթական համակարգի պետական կարգավորումը Հայաստանի Հանրապետությունում / State Regulation of the Higher Education System in the Republic of Armenia

The questions of state regulation of higher education system, which is an objective necessity for the life of the population Republic of Armenia. And the state as a whole determines its universal, public, nature in all socioeconomic formations. That is why the state cannot be detached from the development of education and examines education, including higher education, a priority object of government, while linking the interests of both citizens and the state's economy overall, by adopting laws and other regulations in the field education state activities related to its various destinations.

Science diplomacy and Asian states: Transforming the governance landscape in the Arctic

Abstract As ice recedes, the governance of the Arctic is undergoing a significant change. What was once considered a frozen desert with little relevance to the legal system, the Arctic has gradually become a global object of governance. Furthermore, the growing political salience of the Arctic Ocean has generated interest in its governance beyond Arctic states, particularly Asian states such as China, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. These countries have been actively participating in regional cooperation arrangements, including the Arctic Council. Undoubtedly, science diplomacy has been an important driver in shaping the governance of the Arctic and maintaining it as a low-tension area. However, this perception is now being put to the test following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Amidst this crisis, we explore whether science diplomacy can continue to promote peaceful collaboration in the Arctic region. Our research suggests that science diplomacy could potentially aid in the future of Arctic governance, particularly with regard to the involvement of Asian states. We analyse the legal and geopolitical factors involved in determining the potential roles of Asian states in Arctic governance, including whether they could serve as a bridge between the West and Russia or if their actions might further fragment Arctic governance.

The attraction of public-private partnerships for road construction in India, as affected by both positive and negative factors

The paper aims to pinpoint and assess the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for road development in India. Main PPP project contributors in Indian PPP road projects were polled via questionnaire. A literature review was used to select fifteen favourable characteristics and thirteen unfavourable factors for the questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis is used to analyze the data that was collected. The elimination of government financial restraints, project cost and time management, the reduction of government funds committed to capital investment, improved maintainability and accelerated project development are the key positive characteristics that draw PPP in Indian road projects. Excessive participation restrictions, protracted negotiating delays, ambiguity surrounding government objectives and evaluation standards, a lack of employment possibilities, and a lack of experience and the necessary skills make PPP undesirable. Both the public and private sectors can benefit from PPP in various ways. All sectors must make decisions based on proper assessment criteria during the project development stage. The decision-makers of PPP projects benefit early on from thoroughly understanding both positive and negative elements.

Analysis of Political Economy on the Influential Factors of Digital Trade Restrictions

Digital trade is an important part of today’s world economy, and the resulting issue of digital trade restrictions has become the focus of attention in international trade negotiations. Studying the influential factors of digital trade restrictions can help to understand the inherent reasons for the differences in digital trade policies across countries. From the perspective of political economy, this paper establishes a government objective function that pays special attention to the welfare of digital trade-related interest groups based on the protection for sale model, and analyzes the endogenous influencing factors of digital trade policy. In this paper, the QCA method is also applied to analyze the configuration of different influencing factors, and finally two paths leading to high digital trade restrictions and three paths leading to non-high digital trade restrictions are found. The research findings have significant implications both theoretically and practically for revealing the factors and internal mechanisms that affect digital trade restrictions.