Idealistic Approach Research Articles

Taming Japan's Deflation: The Debate over Unconventional Monetary Policy by Gene Park et al.

Reviewed by: Taming Japan's Deflation: The Debate over Unconventional Monetary Policy by Gene Park et al. Jenny Corbett (bio) Taming Japan's Deflation: The Debate over Unconventional Monetary Policy. By Gene Park, Saori N. Katada, Giacomo Chiozza, and Yoshiko Kojo. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY, 2018. xviii, 243 pages. $45.00, cloth; $21.99, E-book. Since at least 2008 when the Lehman shock ushered in the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), economists, politicians, and journalists have publicly and privately worried that the large economies of the world might be turning Japanese. "Japanification" brings the specter of stagnant growth, price deflation, huge public debt, and an economy that apparently does not respond to policy remedies. This has brought about new interest in understanding the sources of Japan's problems, how and why Japan's economy may be different from others, and, importantly for this book, why policy has "failed." The interest [End Page 153] has not waned since the onset of Abenomics and indeed has been renewed in light of Japan's economic policy response to COVID-19. The book remains timely even though the analysis ends in early 2018. Park and his coauthors note that Japan's experience has become a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to end deflation (p. 25). They set out to inquire whether Japan has even really tried. "The puzzle motivating this project is why the BOJ [Bank of Japan] was reluctant to embrace unconventional monetary policy even after Japan had experienced deflationary spells for a longer time than other industrialized democracies" (p. 17). The nonspecialist might quail at the prospect of a whole book on monetary policy, but there are many reasons to persevere with this one. To begin with, it is well written and not heavily technical. It contains a wealth of stories about policy process and the individuals involved that will fascinate anyone interested in the politics and mechanics of economic policy in postwar Japan. Clearly the authors had exceptional access to key players and they make good use of their insight and hindsight. Beyond description, the book also attempts an ambitious application of the study of ideas to understanding the formulation of monetary policy. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, the authors describe the development of a closed policy network that incubates a fixed ideational approach and they give evidence of the impact of those ideas on policy outcomes. Their central argument is that the Bank of Japan remained closed to outside ideas about monetary policy and persisted with a "BOJ view" until Abe Shinzō disrupted the model by imposing a governor with a different world view (incidentally challenging the limits of central bank independence). Chapter 2 sets the scene for the rest of the book. It explains the monetary policy options for fighting deflation in a way that nonspecialists can follow and then describes the BOJ's early experiments with "unconventional" monetary policy, in 1998 and again from 2001 to 2006, against the background of economic conditions at the time. The bulk of the chapter focuses on the global financial crisis of 2008–9 and puts BOJ policy in the international context, comparing it to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank. The authors argue that although the BOJ looked like an early experimenter at the turn of the twenty-first century, its efforts were reluctant and tentative in the first rounds and late and tepid in the bigger crisis of the GFC, until Abe's intervention. Furthermore, the BOJ remained wedded to more conventional policies even though Japan faced circumstances arguably more challenging than other countries and thus had even greater need for bold action. Implicit in the argument is the conviction that unconventional policies would have been the correct ones for Japan at the time—an issue I return to below. The book cites the impressive and well-known roll call of international economists who urged bolder reflationary policy for Japan at the [End Page 154] time and the large academic literature explaining the case in theory (noted in footnotes throughout the book). In the face of that pressure, the bank offered several arguments against unconventional policy. These are described but given rather short shrift...

ЛЕВЫЙ И ПРАВЫЙ ПОПУЛИЗМ В ИСПАНИИ В УСЛОВИЯХ ПЕРЕСТРОЙКИ ПАРТИЙНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ: "ВОКС" И "ПОДЕМОС"

For many years, right-wing populism was considered irrelevant in Spain. The recent success of the Vox party, first at the regional and then at the national level, is clear evidence that the transformation of the Spanish party system continues. Moreover, right-wing and left-wing populism (represented respectively by the Vox and Podemos parties) coexist today in the context of its increasing fragmentation. The article attempts to answer the question why two types of populist parties emerged in Spain, what are the key differences between them and what place they occupy in the country's party system. The research intention involves identifying the main characteristics of right and left populism based on the analysis of the latest scientific literature and the subsequent assessment of the prospects of the Vox and Podemos parties. The factors of their electoral successes are determined; it is assumed that the territorial factor plays a special role in the differentiation of Spanish populism. The study uses the methods of comparative analysis and social constructivism, and populism itself is considered within the framework of an ideational approach. Based on the results of the study, the characteristics of left and right populism in Spain were determined on the example of the Vox and Podemos parties. It was concluded that the case of Spain is of particular interest in the European context, as it allows one to study the electoral successes and prospects of both left and right populists. The role of the territorial factor in delimiting left and right populism was emphasized.

Идеационный институционализм: объяснение институциональных трансформа- ций в период кризиса

The role of agents' ideas in determining the direction of institutional transformations is often underestimated; this is especially true if one is analyzing the formation and/or reformation of institutional design during a crisis when the significance of other factors may decrease. Institutional approaches of historical institutionalism and rational choice institutionalism are not always able to adequately measure the impact that agents' ideas have on institutional transformations. Ideational institutionalism, on the contrary, allows one to focus on these ideas, as well as to analyze both ideas’ effect on emerging institutions and the impact of an agent’s ideas on ideas of other agents. Furthermore, ideational institutionalism in the form presented in the article proposes to move away from the perception of ideas exclusively as intersubjective and to separately study the ideas of each decision-maker; this allows one to assess the role of a particular agent in the formation of institutions. This approach is promising, in particular, for the analysis of the institutional changes that occurred in the post-Soviet countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The article discusses the main characteristics of the ideational approach and the framework of its use on the example of institutional changes in the Republic of Belarus in the 1990s.

GEORGE ORWELL'S NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR: HOW A UTOPIA TURNED OUT TO BE A DYSTOPIA

As a literary period, modernism indicated the birth of the new ideas and approaches to art. This period from a political aspect also marked the beginning of the expansion of socialism; for this reason, the literature portrayed the division between the ideas of right- and left-winged intellectuals and how they visualised their ultimate utopias which were based on the political ideas they supported. In time, because of the idealistic approaches of the writers to the issues around them, their realities became a subjective reflection of their political beliefs since their works were highly influenced by them and eventually they started to produce the propaganda of their political views in their literary works. With Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell aims to portray his fears about the future by creating a society in which the external reality is controlled by the authority. In the novel, Orwell reflects the fragmented mind of the modern people through the conflict between his protagonist Winston, who wants to protect the last traces of his humanity, and the Party members that aim to reduce humanity into hollow beings by producing their version of the actuality. As a modernist writer, within the novel, Orwell both experiments with new forms and subject matters with the way he illustrates the psychological effects of constant warfare and criticises the people who have the power in his society for focusing on the control they have over the majority instead of encouraging enlightenment for he believed that their utopia originated a dystopia.

Uluslararası İlişkilerde Kadınların Barış Hareketi: Barış ve Özgürlük için Uluslararası Kadın Birliği

This study aims to examine the women’s peace movement in the context of the activism of transnational civil society that was influential in the formation of the idea of international relations before the First World War. The main argument of the study is that the women’s peace movement, which was institutionalized with the First World War, offers a different approach to international relations and peace than the idealist approach that prevailed in international relations after 1919. This argument was put forward by examining the establishment of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the International Women’s Congress held in Hague, 1915, and the International Women’s Congress in Zurich, 1919. At the end of the study, which aims to draw attention to the activism of transnational civil society in the early stages of international relations, WILPF’s approach to peace is discussed. Based on the experiences of women’s movements before the First World War, women’s activism that transcends nation-state borders towards peace provides a current understanding of the causes of war and the conditions of sustainable peace. The evaluation of the approach of the international relations put forward by the women’s movement together with its origins contributes to the feminist international relations literature with historical research.

PNS181 Exploring the Use of VALUE of Information Analysis in HTA Decision Making at Nice

Value of information analysis (VOI) is a quantitative method to estimate the expected value of additional research to reduce uncertainty in decision making. As part of the NICE methods review, we aimed to develop a VOI framework that could potentially help inform decision makers when considering the value of further evidence to reduce uncertainty in health technology assessment (HTA), and to explore barriers to implementing such a framework. A 2016 Decision Support Unit report considered the use of VOI when developing managed access agreements. Expanding on its principles, we developed a decision-making framework based on the expected value of perfect information (EVPI) and expected net benefit (NB) of approving a technology with current uncertainty, outlining scenarios where additional evidence to reduce uncertainty may add value. We evaluated the potential limitations of the framework and the practical implications of implementing it in a NICE setting. The outcomes of the framework depend on whether a technology is expected to be cost effective based on current evidence. If it is, further research may still be worthwhile if EVPI is higher than NB. Where a technology is expected to be cost ineffective, further research may be worthwhile if EVPI is higher than the expected NB loss of approval, otherwise a price reduction may be required. However, EVPI is an upper limit on the value of reducing parameter uncertainty. Less idealistic approaches are likely to estimate VOI more accurately but are more complex and require additional information (e.g. research design). Other considerations include the relevant time horizon, beneficiary population size and importance of uncertainties captured by VOI. A formal VOI framework may help HTA decision makers consider the suitability of recommending further research. Implementing the framework in a real-world HTA setting has methodological and practical challenges.

Indonesia’s Prospects As World Class Maritime Power

The possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) allows a country to enhance their bargaining position. This approach is coercive rather than peaceful. The idealistic approach using “peaceful” methods to deter the national security threats remains valuable, however, especially for Indonesia as a maritime nation. Indonesia has three factors which obstruct its development as a maritime power. First, there are limited regulations regarding the condition of “secure” regional security in ASEAN. Second, there are limited military funds. Finally, the sea level conditions in the Indonesia waters (known as brown and green sea) are not conducive to naval development. One solution is to leverage the Indonesia Military’s international relations to enhance national maritime power.
 Keywords: Weapon of Mass Destruction, Maritime Power, Internationalism

Constructing ‘the people’ of populism: a critique of the ideational approach from a discursive perspective

ABSTRACT This article takes as its starting point the consensus among scholars regarding the core characteristics of populism, namely the centrality of ‘the people’ and an antagonistic view of society that pits the former against an elite. It suggests that the assumption found in the ideational approach, that populism constructs a homogeneous and morally pure people is problematic and may lead to analytical and normative bias, as it equates populism with anti-pluralism and illiberalism. The article starts with surveying the language games involved in the construction of ‘the people’ in democratic modernity. It then reconstructs the key principles of the ideational and the discursive approaches to populism, highlighting how the latter offers a more robust framework for understanding how populism creates a sense of unity among heterogeneous demands, without necessarily resulting in homogeneity, while problematizing moral framings. Several empirical cases of populist mobilization are surveyed to provide empirical grounding to the argument. The author's suggestion is not to dismiss the ideational approach, but rather to revise the homogeneity and morality theses, opening up the possibility of conceiving of ‘the people’ in terms of unity and understanding the latter’s antagonism towards the ‘elite’ in terms of politics.

The tension between the autonomy of reason and nature in Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature

This article discusses the relationship between the externality of nature and the autonomy of reason, one of the most vexed problems in Hegel’s philosophy. Simply, it focuses on the question of how the compatibility of the logical structure of reason and factual reality is solved in Hegelian system. It is asserted here that Hegel finds the answers given before him in modern philosophy of nature inadequate, so he refuses both realist and idealist approaches. For him, nature is neither wholly compatible nor distinct from reason. Since he repudiates the two options, asking whether Hegel’s philosophy of nature is a priori style or not becomes irrelevant. After reviewing the literature, a new interpretation beyond this dichotomy is suggested. On the basis of an analysis of the first pages of Philosophy of Nature I will show that, according to Hegel, nature and metaphysics are two different language games: the essential issue is a problem of translation. Although Idea serves as a metalanguage holding together these two language games, no exact transition is possible.

State and Institutions: Education as a Product and Generator of Economic Change

The author analyzes the discussion on the problems of the genesis and the role of institutions in economic development and shows that, in particular, in the discussion of supporters of “paninstitutionalism”, “ideational approach” and “critical Marxism” its participants do not take into account the dialectical nature of the connection between the development of economic relations, institutions and ideas. The interaction between them includes not only direct, but also reverse, mutual influences. The latter, in fact, determine that ideas have a certain opposite effect on the formation of institutions, but only when they penetrate the consciousness of economic actors capable of carrying out institutional changes. Education as an integral part of culture plays an important role in this process. This role of education becomes even more significant in the context of the creative revolution, when the main factor in the development of the economy is the creative potential of a person.

Studying Human Relationships in the Short Stories of Bhabani Bhattacharya

Bhabani Bhattacharya is a kind of author who writes mostly on human relationships. In Steel Hawk and other Stories which were published in 1968 there are various such kind of stories. His themes are traditional but new because he has a different and innovative way of writing. His characters are also very interesting and they are influenced from real human societies. This realistic and idealistic approach is very uncommon. In A moment of Eternity we can see a fine blend of realism and idealism. This shows that how he uses the traditional human values as a raw material for his short stories. His experiments with traditional values of life are full of new possibilities and hopes. In some cases we can also find that his characters are alienated and repressed but still there is some sense of optimism in their lives. If they reflect pessimism then this can be a chance of learning for readers. Bhabani Bhattacharya believes that a writer must not impose his school of thoughts on his readers. So in his short stories readers are free to analyze the different situations of life. The story like public figure shows that how a man can change in life. This changing is not normal as it can lead him to identity crisis which can be painful. After reading his short stories we can easily locate that there is a kind of synthesis between modernism and traditionalism in most of his writings. Stories like the steel hawk, The Acrobats , Names are not table’s and the quack are noteworthy as they reflect real life situations. They are not simply stories but they present the way by which life can treat an individual. It also shows a better craftsmanship of the author.

Occupational ideation and participation among middle school students in a college-going culture program

ABSTRACT Adolescents in under-resourced communities are at risk of low educational outcomes which contribute to lower overall earning power and fewer resources to access the social determinants of health over time. This may impact their long-term health outcomes as well as current and future participation in meaningful occupations, including their academic and career futures. Adolescents in communities with low educational attainment face tensions between constraint and agency as they consider and take steps toward their adult career identities. This qualitative study examined occupation among adolescents in the context of a college-going culture program in an underserved community in the southwestern United States. Through participant observation and interviews with 13 participants in grades 6-8, data were collected and analyzed using qualitative coding and thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: career goal and interest alignment, practical and idealistic approach, many big steps are required, and money is a problem. Results demonstrated that students in the program had complex views of the future and growing occupation-based identities that included their current context and vocational futures. They demonstrated awareness of the financial and educational barriers to achieving their goals and articulated plans that involved intentional occupational choices in the present in order to create opportunities for themselves in the future. Evidence from this study supports the use of occupation-focused interventions in community or population health that focus on access to participation in meaningful occupations that are required of adolescents in their specific contexts or that may serve to open future occupational opportunities.

Interpretation Approaches For Biblical Apocalyptic Literature: An Evaluation

Apocalyptic literature is one of the literature that has been subjected to numerous exegetical approaches due to the difficulty of understanding its content. This has resulted in misinterpretation among Christians. After discussing the available models for apocalyptic literature in this study, it was understood that the eclectic approach remains a preferable alternative for interpreting apocalyptic literature. Its steps must be utilized as a whole to yield intended results for a sound interpretation of apocalyptic literature for both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Keywords: Apocalyptic literature, Preteristt Approach, Idealist Approach, Futuristic Approach, Historicist Approach, Propheticist Approach, Eclectic Approach, Revelation.

The end of the Spanish exception: the far right in the Spanish Parliament

ABSTRACT Until very recently, Spain has been an exception to the rise of the far right in the rest of Europe. However, Vox won a sizeable number of seats in the 2019 April national elections, followed by more than doubling them in the November 2019 ones. Following its victory, plenty of journalistic articles have attempted to categorise the party, ranging from Francoist or fascist to populist or conservative. This paper, departing from the ideational approach to populism, analyses the written and spoken production of the party, using both computerised content and discourse analysis to clarify and identify its ideological stance, including what relationship, if any, has with fascism or Franco’s ideas.

The construal of requests for action: Expounding indeterminancy for socio-communicative risks and failures in public health

Requests for action are significant for ensuring clear communication and, delivering quality and safe services in health care but, if presented unclearly or implicitly, may cause indeterminacy, leading to socio-communicative risks and failures (Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. 2013. Applying systemic functional linguistics in healthcare contexts. Text & Talk 33(4–5). 437–67). This research adopted an ideational approach (construing each process as a quantum of change in our experience), rather than the common interpersonal approach (enacting healthcare provider-patient interactions during the patient journey), examining healthcare communication as instances of exchange of social meanings in a semiotic system according to institutional roles, accountabilities, counterparty risks and power differentials (Halliday, Michael A. K. 1978. Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold; Halliday, Michael A. K. 1984a. Language as code and language as behaviour: a systemic- functional interpretation of the nature and ontogenesis of dialogue. In Michael A. K. Halliday, Robin Fawcett, Sydney M. Lamb, and Adam Makkai (eds.), The semiotics of language and culture. London: Frances Pinter; Halliday, Michael A. K. 1984b. Linguistics in the university: the question of social accountability. In James E. Copeland (ed.), New directions in linguistics and semiotics, 51–67. Houston, TX: Rice University Studies). 1,206 instances of construals (processes) were quantitatively and qualitatively examined as “requests for action” or “references of information” in government “health advice letters” to education institutions in Hong Kong, drawing upon resources of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Michael A. K. Halliday, and Christian I. M. Matthiessen 2014. Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, 4th ed. London: Routledge) and Critical Consciousness (Freire, Paulo. 1973. Education for critical consciousness. New York: Seabury). Although a significant 6% of these processes displayed indeterminate tendency in this pre-hospitalization context, the registerial profiling of requests (Action Orientation) contributes to (a) better expounding indeterminacy for further discussions on socio-communicative risks and failures, and (b) constructing an effective framework for analyzing discourses and navigating through various registers of health care in terms of socio-semiotic orientations and power differentials.

Yan’an’s Labor Heroines and the Birth of the Women of New China

Abstract This article discusses the labor heroines of Yan’an and their cultural representation in the context of the early 1940s. It shows how the phenomenon of women’s labor heroism was formed during these years and it points out the rifts, contradictions and multiple understandings in the representation of labor heroines and their ideal role in the revolutionary process. In particular, this study highlights the co-existence of an instrumentalist and an idealist approach to women’s participation in production which is attributed to the double temporality in the Chinese Communist Party’s self-positioning at the time. The short-term necessities of the War of Resistance justified an instrumentalist approach which made labor heroines a “work force.” New Democracy, on the other hand, as a period of incipient socialism, opened the temporal horizon towards the future and moved revolutionary discourse from “memory” to “prophecy.” Writers embraced this creative space and imagined the social relations of a pacified, socialist society. Reportage as genre, labor heroines as subject and utopianism as orientation in time formed the basis for totally new conceptualizations of women’s liberation through work, restituting women’s agency and placing them in new sets of social relations.

Comparative Higher Education Policy Under Nondemocratic Regimes in Argentina and Chile: Similar Paths, Different Policy Choices

Despite their common historical roots, two higher education systems in Latin America differ dramatically in their financing mechanisms. In Argentina, the national government completely subsidizes undergraduate programs in public institutions, while Chile relies mostly on tuition fees charged to individuals attending public institutions. Through quantitative and qualitative secondary sources, this paper shows that class interests (structural approach) and economic policies (ideational approach) played a major role in explaining comparative policy outcomes in these nondemocratic regimes. The article makes an explicit contribution to the understanding of comparative policy choices in nondemocratic regimes.

Universal Basic Income: A Theoretical Review, and an Exploration of a Possible Solution Based on Creation of New Wealth

Universal Basic Income has been in the lexicon for some time now, propagated as a requirement for the projected disruption that may be caused by automation, and advances in machine learning systems, as well as the ever-rising inequality in society. Proponents often regard it as a viable solution to protect society from unrest. However, an idealist approach is not the only ingredient required to better the economic circumstances of the masses, and a Universal Basic Income not funded through creation of new wealth could also play a negative role and instigate inflationary forces, or economically, be a net-neutral rather than a net-positive. This article examines Universal Basic Income funded without creation of new wealth, its economic and financial viability, and, also, direct and indirect ways it may cause inflation or have no positive economic benefit for society. The article examines evidence relevant to Universal Basic Income, and, also, presents a potential solution for policymakers, based on creation of new wealth, that may provide the necessary financing needed to support the projected displaced workers, as their numbers increase.

Varieties of populism and the challenges to Global Constitutionalism: Dangers, promises and implications

AbstractThis article analyses the rise of populism and its discursive challenge to global constitutionalism (GC). It shows that populist contestation is more ambivalent than often suggested: its challenge depends on the populist variety and can both undermine or support liberal principles of GC. Building on the ideational approach to populism and a framework of transnational politicisation, a proposed typology identifies bothcommunitarian types of populismandcosmopolitan types of populism.Illustrative case studies of the Alternative for Germany, the Polish Law and Justice Party, the Democracy in Europe Movement and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori substantiate these empirically. While all cases contest a perceived lack of popular sovereignty in a largely non-majoritarian global constitutional order, varieties of populism present contrasting responses: communitarian types push for global de-constitutionalisation in line with illiberal nationalist majoritarianism, while cosmopolitan types support global constitutionalisation according to liberal and democratic principles. Further, neo-socialist populists campaign against neoliberal principles in GC, but remain divided about supporting political principles beyond the state. These findings suggest an emerging politicisation of the process of global constitutionalisation at the societal level according to principles of democratic legitimacy; and global constitutional differentiation depending on outcomes of these normatively ambivalent and empirically contingent political contests.

Bread or Circuses? Repoliticization in the Italian Populist Government Experience

AbstractThe majority view within political science is that populism is best understood as a (thin) ideology. We problematize the ideational approach by broadening the scope of analysis, linking populism to the rise of long-term generalized anti-political sentiments, against interpretations that tend to tie the populist wave to conjunctural factors related to recent crises. We argue that the essence of populism lies at the intersection of the ‘material constitution’ of advanced industrial democracies (that is, how macroeconomic governance relates to democratic decision-making) and the feelings of societal alienation that are at the heart of anti-political sentiments. We show the peculiar coexistence of economic turbulence, heralded by the crisis of the cartel party and of the neoliberal economic consensus, and an appeal to a post-democratic ‘virtual politics’ of performed but ineffectual popular sovereignty. The policies of the populist coalition governing Italy in 2018–19 provide a key case to test the relevance of our arguments.