High Level Of Socio-economic Development Research Articles

Anomalous authoritarianism: what, which, why?

Research on autocracies has gained new momentum in the last decade. One element of this research is the observation that some autocracies are characterised by structural conditions that are normally conducive for democracy. These ‘anomalous autocracies’ have high levels of socioeconomic development and democratic neighbour countries. The study of these cases might expose factors that are decisive for autocratic stability and studying them might give us a better understanding of barriers towards democratisation. This paper contributes to the growing literature on autocracies by mapping anomalous autocracies during the third wave of democratisation, thereby paving the way for systematic case selection in future studies. A large-N analysis of 159 cases (1975–2008) identifies Belarus, Chile, China, Cuba, Morocco, North Korea, Peru, Singapore, Swaziland, Togo and Zimbabwe. In a second step, the paper lays out a theoretical framework that centres on actors and institutions. Rulers must establish elite–elite and elite–mass interaction, and this papers argues that they can do so through quasi-compliance of elites and the masses based on traditional institutions woven into a dominant party. The paper uses the framework to tentatively examine the resilience of authoritarian rule in Swaziland and Morocco, two most-different anomalous cases. In both cases, an elaborate traditional institution has co-opted government, business and rural elites and coordinated interaction within elite circles and with the masses, in turn enabling the remarkable regime resilience.

Functional evolution of rural housing land: A comparative analysis across four typical areas representing different stages of industrialization in China

To understand the functional evolution of rural housing land at different stages of industrialization, a contrast analysis of rural housing land functions was conducted across four typical areas that represented four different socio-economic developmental stages, from the initial stage to the post-industrialization stage. Seven hundred fifty-four valid questionnaires were collected for analysis. The results showed that the production function was diminished but the living function was enhanced with socio-economic development. Moreover, in areas that had a higher level of socio-economic development, especially those with desirable locations or that were suitable for tourism, a profit function emerged that can be seen as resulting from an alteration in the rural housing land’s function. Land-use standards could be established by analysing trends in the functional evolution of rural housing land structure; these standards could then provide guidance for the consolidation of rural housing land and village planning as well as for future rural housing design.

Problems of Observing Constitutional Rights of Eitizens by the Bodies of State Authority and Local Self-government in Urban Planning of Built-up Area Development

The constitutional right of citizens to healthy environment is the fundamental right taken into account when performing the urban planning. However, in the legal science there has developed a narrow understanding of this right as the right to environmental safety and preservation of natural resources. The environment that surrounds a modern person includes not only natural objects, but also the residential areas favorable environment of which is formed on the basis of the developed infrastructure, high level of socio-economic development, compliance with sanitary and building codes, favorable environmental conditions. The development of the built-up area serves the purpose of creating favorable environment in the residential areas. The analysis of legislation and law enforcement practice has revealed the problems in the sphere of observing the constitutional right of citizens to healthy environment during the process of developing built-up areas due to the declarative nature of some regulatory norms of urban planning. Numerous disputes between citizens and bodies of state authority during the process of urban planning prove the lack of any effective mechanism of enforcing their rights. The author attempts to reveal the shortcomings of legal regulation of urban planning in the sphere of built-up areas development and to propose the ways to overcome them.

Role of Agricultural Clusters in Provision of Food Security

1. Introduction The issue of food security escalates every year, as the population of the Earth grows and the climate situation aggravates. At present, the concept of cluster development is used as a key element of the strategies of socio-economic development and provision of food security of the leading countries of the world. Thus, in particular, Danish, Finnish, and Swedish industries are fully clustered. Particular clusters work successfully in Germany (chemistry and machine building), France (production of food and cosmetics), Singapore (petrochemicals), Japan (car industry), and other countries of the world. In developing countries, there is an active discussion as to the possibility of use of cluster approach to the regulation of socio-economic development of regions. Unfortunately, as of now, cluster projects are not being implemented. However, the role of clusters in the development of regions is huge, as they are points of not only the region but of the whole national economy. Cluster, as a territorial and sectorial form of organization of production (through deepening of cooperation between cluster members) stipulates the development of targeted programs for economy development. Cluster policy should be conducted in cooperation with the bodies of state and regional authorities, scientific and research organizations, educational establishments, and business--as only such combination of efforts can lead to a high level of socio-economic development. Actuality of the study of agro-industrial clusters is confirmed by the growth of interest in the development of cooperation and creation of agro-industrial clusters (agricultural clusters) in various developed countries. The article offers a hypothesis that agricultural clusters stipulate the increase of food security in developing countries. This research is devoted to the verification of this hypothesis. 2. Materials and Methods The idea of cluster approach became especially popular in the recent decade, though the foreign founders of the theory of clustering have been developing this sphere for quite some time, for the purpose of creation of mechanisms of industrial policy, aimed at provision of economic growth, competitiveness of enterprises and their production (services). The issues of cluster associations are reflected in the works of such famous researchers as Garthwaite, K.A., P.J. Collins and C.Bambra, He, J., Jacknowitz, A., T. Morrissey and A. Brannegan, Maitra, C. and D.S.P.Rao. The statistics of The Global Food Security Index for 2014 in developed and developing countries is shown in Table 1. As is seen from Table 1, the problem of food security is especially urgent in developing countries, which necessitates the search for effective tools for increasing the food security, one of which is creation of agricultural clusters. For determining the role of agricultural clusters in provision of economic security of modern countries and regions, the following methods are used: methods of comparative and problem analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and analysis of statistical information. At present, there is no single approach or method of evaluation of the level of food security. In one case, the provision of food security is viewed as sustainable development of agro-industrial complex, in the other--as a level of self-provision of population by food products (Chirkina and Ioda, 2012). In the international statistics, food security is measured by the level of calorific capacity of daily ration of the population. However, this indicator, as the other average statistical indicators, has some drawbacks. Firstly, each nation has its preferences in consumption of food products. Secondly, in order to understand the level of food security, it is important to take into account the differentiation of population as to the level of income per capita--as with allowable limits of average values, there can be a situation when significant layers of population will experience the lack of food (Chirkina, 2013). …

Occupational structure and socioeconomic inequality: a comparative study between Brazil and the United States

ABSTRACTThis paper explores how occupational structure is associated with economic inequality in Brazil in comparison to the United States. Changes in the Brazilian and American occupational structures between 1983 and 2011 are investigated in order to assess how closely they generate high socioeconomic inequalities. The effects of education, age, gender and race on occupational attainment are taken into account. Highlights of the results include: (1) a higher level of socioeconomic development in the American occupational structure, reflecting huge socioeconomic differences between these countries; (2) a tenuous convergence between the Brazilian and American occupational structures; (3) a significant decrease in the net impacts of education, age, gender and race on occupational attainment (i.e., reduced social stratification) in both countries. These results suggest the analytical worth of considering occupational structure as a significant intermediate variable affecting the level of socioeconomic inequality within a country over time, as well as between two countries at a given point in time.

Quando ser internacional vale a pena: O efeito da presença internacional de uma marca de serviços sobre as atitudes dos consumidores

A number of academic studies have investigated the effect, i.e., the influence of a product’s country of origin on the attitudes of consumers. It is known that countries with a higher level of socioeconomic development generate more favorable attitudes towards their goods, and that this influence is moderated by the degree of consumer involvement with the product category. Most previous studies have investigated mainly tangible products, however, this study examines the country-of-origin effect for services using an unexplored and distinct approach: the presence of a brand in various cities across the world as an advertising appeal, without explicitly mentioning the country of origin. Specifically, we create a scenario in which two new retail brands in product categories with low and high consumer involvement are established in Brazil, and the presence of these products in cities of developed countries (vs emerging) is mentioned. The results show that their presence in developed (vs emerging) cities has a more positive effect on purchasing intent, attitudes as well as the perceived success for the high-involvement category (clothing store), when compared to the low-involvement category (supermarket). This study contributes to the marketing literature by demonstrating that presence in developed cities can have the same effect on consumer attitudes as the communication of the country of origin, and that this effect is moderated by the degree of consumer involvement with a category

Spatial Differentiation of the Economic Structure of the Russian Regions of the Arctic Zone

The regions situated in the Arctic zone of Russia perform an important function in the implementation of the export potential of the country. As one of favourable factors for the development of production in the Arctic Zone, we have to consider the richest natural and resource potential of dry land and the sea. Negative factors limiting the development of the Arctic zone: the harsh natural and climatic conditions and the remoteness of the region from the subjects of the Russian Federation which have a higher level of socio-economic development, low level of economic development (including infrastructure) of these territories, low demographic capacity of the population. The research is aimed at revealing the existing spatial differentiation of the kinds of economic activity in the latitudes of the northern districts of the country. In order to assess the differences in the industry structure of the gross added value of all the constituent entities of the Russian Federation whose territories to the Arctic zone, some graphs and map-schemes have been drafted. In addition, the authors also assessed the deviation of the industry breakdown from the average values observed in the Russian Federation as a whole. The analysis of the specifics of the spatial differentiation of the types of economic activity in the economy of the Arctic regions allows to reveal certain trends in the future development of the economic structures. The article is intended for specialists and students interested in the problems of the development of the northern regions of Russia.

Socio-Demographic Measuring Of Relation Of Life Quality And Level Of Population Reproduction In Russia And Foreign Countries On Basis Of Rating Evaluations

During the finishing of the second demographic transition in the countries with relatively high level of socio-economic development, the tendencies of rise in the total birthrate and the changing of a calendar of births were revealed. At the same time, the process of delayed marriage of both men and women, and increased number of single households were continued. The developing tendency of rise in births required from demographers an additional analysis of causes of this phenomenon, especially as the growth of total birthrate coefficient become stable after millennium. The attempt to analyze the newest tendencies of the influencing of growth of the life quality on the differential birthrate in safe regions of the world, to compare the processes of socio-economic, sociocultural, and reproductive differentiation of indexes of population movement on Russian territories with rating evaluations were made in the article. The hypothesis of the research is related to the assumption that the global changes in life quality in a number of the world’s regions stimulated the renewal of the tendency to alternation of generations in demographic processes. The authors of the research draw a conclusion that this process in Russia was just started and developing. It gives a chance to develop the tendency of alternation of generations in the future and reduce the treats of depopulation and the need of superfluous recruiting of foreign labor force.

Partnership between a private sector ecotourism operator and a local community in the Okavango Delta, Botswana: the case of the Okavango Community Trust and Wilderness Safaris

The majority of Africa is characterised by high levels of poverty, high population densities and limited economic development. Botswana is, however, different in having the highest gross domestic product per capita in Africa, relatively low population densities and high levels of socio-economic development. Inequality, however, remains high. A community-based natural resource management programme was introduced in 1989 to ensure that local communities benefit from the country's abundant natural resources, with the hope that they will then protect them. Partnerships between the private sector and local communities evolved from this. Okavango Wilderness Safaris, a private sector ecotourism operator, has relationships with three community trusts: Okavango Community Trust (OCT), Sankuyo Community Development Trust and the Khwai Development Trust. This paper looks specifically at the partnership with the OCT. Based on ecotourism staff and non-staff interview results, an analysis of this relationship reveals that there are socio-economic benefits to be received, but the distribution of these is limited. Socio-economic benefits to individual community households can be substantial, but overall community benefit distribution needs to be reassessed. Overall socio-economic impacts of the partnership are examined and suggestions for enhancing private sector/community relationships are put forward, based on the interview results and personal observations.

English

  This review paper presents the concept of partial institutionalization as the process prevents countries that ought to have achieved higher levels of socio-economic development from realizing their potential. The author has reconceptualised de-industrialization away from the mainstream understanding of this notion, that is, the movement away from manufacturing to service industry in the developed countries (cf. Rowthorm and Ramaswamy, 1997). Instead it is seen as the process of partial institutionalization/ partial industrialization of previously industrialized socio-economic activities that manifest in the phenomenon of deindustrialization. It is hypothesized that de-industrialization in its above reconceptualised sense is the main cause of economic underperformance in most developing countries. It is applied at explaining the cause of Kenya’s economic underperformance since independence in 1963. He argues that i the deindustrialization of Kenya’s main economic sector, agriculture, is the cause of Kenya’s economic underperformance because it is partial institutionalization that permits other anti-development ills such as corruption to get established in the system. Finally, it is recommended that in order for Kenya to regain and even surpass its lost economic performance record, it must avoid the current partial institutionalization/ partial industrialization approach to economic development and embrace the full institutionalization/industrialization approach.   Key words: Partial-institutionalization, partial-industrialization, underdevelopment, development, liberalization, deindustrialization.

Colouring the socio-economic development into green: I-distance framework for countries’ welfare evaluation

The indicator-based research papers represent a substantial part of socioeconomic sphere, but the controversy about the choice of indicators and aggregation methods still remains. The aim of our paper is twofold: first, to elaborate the use of indicators in assessing socioeconomic development and welfare of countries, and in particular, to review the socioeconomic and welfare indicators in order to form a theoretical framework. Secondly, the idea of the paper is to emphasize the importance of incorporating environmental indicators into the evaluation of socioeconomic development. To this end we suggest the implementation of ecological footprint and environmental performance index, along with frequently used indicators such as GDP per capita, unemployment rate, etc. In addition, applying a statistical I-distance method we were able to overcome the problems concerning the aggregation of composite indicator using presumably biased weighting factors. As a case study we analyzed a dataset of 25 European Union countries, starting with 2007 and ending with the last available data of 2012. The results presented in this study clearly indicated EU countries with high level of socioeconomic development, with a special emphasis on the underlying dynamics of a five-year period. One of the contributions lies in the application of an I-distance method which can easily integrate economic, social and environmental variables with different measurement units into one composite indicator. Moreover, our approach could be a foundation for an appropriate framework of countries’ welfare evaluation which would be unbiased i.e. independent from subjectively formed weighting factors. The ecological footprint and environmental performance index as environmental indicators proved to be essential part of an I-distance framework for countries’ welfare evaluation.

Spatial Variations in the Levels of Agricultural and Socio-economic Development in Jammu & Kashmir — A District Level Analysis

The study has found the levels of agricultural and the socio-economic development in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The spatial variation has been determined with the help of seventeen variables related to agricultural and socio-economic domains. Z-score variate has been employed to remove the bias of scale of variables and then composite indices have been worked out to find disparity in the agricultural and socio-economic development across districts of the state. A positive correlation exists between the socioeconomic status and agricultural development. Two districts of the state (Jammu and Srinagar) have depicted high level of socio-economic development, but medium level of agricultural development, while four districts (Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, and Budgam) have shown high level of agricultural development and medium level of socio-economic development. The seven districts, viz. Kupwara, Ganderbal, Ramban, Kishtwar, Doda, Leh and Kargil, have revealed low development in both. The districts of Baramulla and Kulgam have shown medium level of development in both the domains. The study has indicated the existence of one-to-one correspondence between the levels of agricultural and socio-economic development, with few exceptions, across districts in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

A comparison and Causality analysis between the Construction and Agriculture Sectors of Malaysia (2000-2010)

Malaysia has been trying to shift toward from developing nation status to developed nation status. Hence it becomes important for the Malaysian government to study and understand the dynamics of inter sectoral linkages in order to obtain positive growth, development to sustain the economic growth momentum and to achieve higher level of socio-economic development. The objective of this study is to investigate the causal relationship and make a comparative analysis between the two key sectors (construction and agriculture) of the Malaysian economy. A descriptive statistics is used for comparison and sophisticated econometric techniques. Granger causality test and the vector auto regression (VAR) technique used to determine the causality link between the two sectors and measure the effect of changes in the output of one sector on the output of another sector. Results of empirical analysis exhibit that there is strong correlation and bi-directional causal relationship between construction and agriculture sectors of Malaysia. Agriculture sector takes only 3 quarters to respond to the impact of shock emanating from the construction industry while the construction sector responding time is 13 quarters against the shock of agriculture sector.

Regional inequity in financing New Cooperative Medical Scheme in Jiangsu, China

This study examined the regional inequity in the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) financing in Jiangsu, China. Counties were classified into three categories according to socio-economic development level: South Jiangsu, Middle Jiangsu and North Jiangsu. Five counties (Changshu, Danyang, Gaoyou, Jiangyan and Ganyu) were selected on the basis of the following criteria: (i) NCMS had been implemented before 2005; (ii) county governments were willing and able to collaborate with the research team; and (iii) counties had different socio-economic development status representing the low, medium and high level of socio-economic development in Jiangsu. As shown in this study, local governments in Jiangsu took the major NCMS financing responsibilities (75.2% in 2009), and local governments (county and lower) subsidies ranged from 220 RMB per capita in South Jiangsu to 18 RMB per capita in North Jiangsu in 2009, with a larger contribution (73.3%) in South than that in Middle (40.0%) and North Jiangsu (18.0%). For achieving more equity in NCMS financing and carrying NCMS forward, we propose that provincial and municipal governments should increase their contribution to NCMS for balancing the regional inequity in subsidies from county and lower-level governments, and the risk pool of NCMS should be promoted to a higher level (e.g., provincial).

A Duration Analysis of Democratic Transitions and Authoritarian Backslides

Recent theories of political development have emphasized redistributive demands as the main drivers of democratic transitions and consolidation. The authors employ Cox duration models to evaluate a number of economic, institutionalist, and sociological theories of regime transition, using global data from 1970 to 1999. This study suggests that demands for redistribution are insufficient explanators of political transitions. The authors find that transitions to democracy depend primarily on a high level of oppositionist social mobilization and, secondarily, favorable patterns of economic distribution. On the other hand, a high level of socioeconomic development is by far the best guarantor of democratic resiliency, whereas mass political conflict endangers consolidation once democracy has been introduced. The study also reveals that institutionalist factors are less influential than socioeconomic characteristics in explaining regime transitions. This study highlights the contribution of social movement theory to the study of regime transitions.

The Making of a Revolution in Tunisia

In their search for explanations for the so-called Tunisian paradox under Ben Ali –a country with comparatively high levels of socio-economic development, yet plagued by the absence of a civil society that could push for political liberalization–analysts primarily investigated the gradual co-optation of political institutions and actors. As research and analytical agendas were consumed by the robustness of Ben Ali’s authoritarian state, little attention was paid to the development of informal and extra-institutional political activities that existed even under deepening political repression. In hindsight, many of these informal activities clearly contributed to the December 2010-January 2011 nation-wide campaign, which eventually led to the Arab World’s fi rst bottom-up revolution ousting an unpopular and illegitimate ruler. Th is article will engage two stories about the Tunisian Revolution that later inspired protests and contentious activities across the Middle East and North Africa. First, it will tell a back-story of contentious activities preceding the January 2011 events that surprised observers, scholars and analysts–even those familiar with the Tunisian case. Second, this article will discuss some of most pressing political dynamics that have emerged in the post-revolutionary (and pre-October 2011 election) environment. The concluding section will subsequently identify avenues for short and long-term research on the subject of contestation, resistance, and the construction of a new political order.

Can development axes be identified by socio-economic variables? The case of Czechia

This article aims to contribute to existing analyses of regional development in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by conducting a detailed regional analysis at the municipal (LAU II) level in Czechia. The focus on such a detailed regional level allows for the testing of several hypotheses, for which traditional regional analyses based on NUTS II – NUTS III data were insufficient. First, we investigate whether development axes, as used in planning documents, manifest themselves at a higher level of socioeconomic development. Second, we expect the formation of clusters, exhibiting a higher level of socioeconomic development, around strong growth centres, such as the city of Mladá Boleslav. Third, we explore whether increasing differentiation has shifted from the regional level to the microregional/local level during the past 15 years of the post-socialist transformation. To address these hypotheses, we analyze a set of socioeconomic variables with the help of the spatial autocorrelation method, which allows us to generalize the inevitably, highly fragmented patterns found at the local level.

Socioeconomic Status and Obesity

The objective of this review was to update Sobal and Stunkard's exhaustive review of the literature on the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity (Psychol Bull 1989;105:260-75). Diverse research databases (including CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, and Social Science Abstracts) were comprehensively searched during the years 1988-2004 inclusive, using "obesity," "socioeconomic status," and synonyms as search terms. A total of 333 published studies, representing 1,914 primarily cross-sectional associations, were included in the review. The overall pattern of results, for both men and women, was of an increasing proportion of positive associations and a decreasing proportion of negative associations as one moved from countries with high levels of socioeconomic development to countries with medium and low levels of development. Findings varied by SES indicator; for example, negative associations (lower SES associated with larger body size) for women in highly developed countries were most common with education and occupation, while positive associations for women in medium- and low-development countries were most common with income and material possessions. Patterns for women in higher- versus lower-development countries were generally less striking than those observed by Sobal and Stunkard; this finding is interpreted in light of trends related to globalization. Results underscore a view of obesity as a social phenomenon, for which appropriate action includes targeting both economic and sociocultural factors.

Socioeconomic Development and Voluntary Associations in Swedish Municipalities

This paper explores the link between voluntary associations and socioeconomic development in Swedish municipalities. According to previous research in the field of social capital, the causal flow goes from having many associations to a high level of socioeconomic development. It has been argued, however, that the causal flow from the level of socioeconomic development to the level of social capital is so weak that it can be ignored. This paper tests a simple simultaneous equation model in order to test whether the causal flows from socioeconomic development to social capital and the inverse are simultaneous. The study is carried out at an aggregated level (the municipalities) that corresponds to the lowest administrative level in Sweden. The results indicate that the socioeconomic development cannot be ignored and that there is a simultaneous relationship. Moreover, the empirical findings indicate that the relationship is negative between the variables expressing socioeconomic development and associational density.

Overweight exceeds underweight among women in most developing countries

It is generally believed that overweight is less prevalent than undernutrition in the developing world, particularly in rural areas, and that it is concentrated in higher socioeconomic status (SES) groups. The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of adult female overweight and underweight in the developing world by using categories of urban or rural status and SES strata. Body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) data collected in 36 countries from 1992 to 2000 by nationally representative cross-sectional surveys of women aged 20-49 y (n = 148579) were classified as indicating underweight (BMI < 18.5) and overweight (BMI >/= 25). Associations between the nutritional status of urban and rural women and each country's per capita gross national income (GNI) and level of urbanization were explored in the overall sample and among different SES groups. Overweight exceeded underweight in well over half of the countries: the median ratio of overweight to underweight was 5.8 in urban and 2.1 in rural areas. Countries with high GNIs and high levels of urbanization had not only high absolute prevalences of overweight but also small urban-rural differences in overweight and very high ratios of overweight to underweight. In the more-developed countries, overweight among low-SES women was high in both rural (38%) and urban (51%) settings. Even many poor countries, countries in which underweight persists as a significant problem, had fairly high prevalences of rural overweight. In most developing economies, prevalences of overweight in young women residing in both urban and rural areas are higher than those in underweight women, especially in countries at higher levels of socioeconomic development. Research is needed to assess male and child overweight to understand the dynamics facing these groups as well.