Incremental Reform Research Articles

Under double shadows: how U.S.–China trade relations and path dependence shape China's IP preliminary injunction system

ABSTRACT The current IP preliminary injunction system in China is an awkward mixture that has developed under two shadows: U.S.–China trade relations, and path dependence. This article traces the historical moments when China amended its rules on IP preliminary injunctions. It finds that, while U.S.–China trade relations facilitated the transplantation of equitable standards into the regime, the basic procedural framework, rooted in the civil law tradition, remains largely intact. These double shadows have introduced pressing problems into the system. However, most of these issues can be attributed to China's retention of its basic procedural framework, which is shared with and originates from the property preservation system. Path dependence theory aptly explains this developmental trajectory and offers normative guidance for future reforms. It may not be feasible to conduct a full cost–benefit analysis on establishing a standalone framework for IP preliminary injunctions in China, which would represent a radical alteration of the system. However, the developmental-evolution model of path dependence theory can still provide valuable insights, even if the system currently exhibits a semi-strong form of path dependence. Chinese legislators could design future incremental reforms with path evolution in mind, aiming for a gradual recombination that ultimately pulls the IP preliminary injunction system out of its original procedural framework. Once sufficient incremental reforms have accumulated, decision-makers can seize critical junctures (such as future escalations in U.S.–China trade conflicts) as opportunities to establish a new, standalone framework for IP preliminary injunctions, thereby breaking the lock-in loop.

Two routes to degeneration, two routes to utopia: The impure critical performativity of alternative organizing

It sometimes appears that alternative organizations are doomed to perpetuate the systems they aim to transform, as efforts to avoid co-optation entail retreat from the very engagement social change requires. Scholars then face a dilemma: do we reveal these degenerative processes in existing alternative organizations and reinforce disillusionment, or avoid such critique and endorse ineffectual strategies? To address this question I draw on Erik Olin Wright’s identification of two broad strategies of social transformation adopted by alternative organizations. Symbiotic strategies are those that aim to change the existing system via incremental reform, such as trade unions’ collective bargaining. Interstitial strategies, by contrast, are those more radical approaches that seek to prefigure emancipatory alternative systems, such as mutual aid networks. The first contribution this paper proposes is a mapping of these social transformation strategies to distinct forms of degeneration, understood as inadvertent reproduction of the hegemonic system. Organizations adopting the symbiotic strategy are particularly vulnerable to the more well-studied forms of degeneration that result from partial alignment with the hegemonic system—what I call exposure degeneration. Organizations adopting the interstitial strategy are instead vulnerable to less well-studied forms of degeneration resulting from insufficient engagement with the hegemonic system—what I call insulation degeneration. Although this model may appear to place alternative organizations in a catch-22, I draw a more hopeful perspective from theories of performativity that highlight the relationship between socially transformative agency and social reproduction. Unpacking the necessary impurity of performativity leads to the paper’s second contribution: while both practitioners and scholars of alternative organizations can pursue social transformation only via impure critical performativity, awareness of this constraint can foster reflexivity regarding the agential scope that remains.

Political Economy of Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) prevention and control in Lebanon: identifying challenges and opportunities for policy change and care provision reforms

IntroductionLebanon is a middle-income country facing substantial fragility features. Its health profile shows a high burden of NCD morbidity and mortality. This paper intends to analyse the political economy of NCD prevention and control in Lebanon.MethodsThis study adopted a literature-based case study research design using a problem-driven political economy analysis framework. A total of 94 peer-reviewed articles and documents from the grey literature published before June 2019 were retrieved and analysed.ResultsLebanon’s political instability and fragile governance negatively affect its capacity to adapt a Health-in-All-Policies approach to NCD prevention and enable the blocking of NCD prevention policies by opposed stakeholders. Recent economic crises limit the fiscal capacity to address health financing issues and resulting health inequities. NCD care provision is twisted by powerful stakeholders towards a hospital-centred model with a powerful private sector. Stakeholders like the MOPH, UN agencies, and NGOs have been pushing towards changing the existing care model towards a primary care model. An incremental reform has been adopted to strengthen a network of primary care centres, support them with health technologies and improve the quality of primary care services. Nevertheless, outpatient services that are covered by other public funds remain specialist-led without much institutional regulation.ConclusionOur study revealed a locked equilibrium in NCD prevention policymaking in Lebanon, but with an incremental progress in service delivery reforms towards a primary care model. Advocacy and close monitoring by policy entrepreneurs (such as civil society) could initiate and sustain the implementation of policy change and care model reforms.

Redress and worldmaking: Differing approaches to algorithmic reparations for housing justice

A reparative approach to algorithmic justice provides a compelling alternative to existing fairness-based frameworks, which are often inadequate for challenging the technological perpetuation of unjust social hierarchies. The definition of “reparations,” however, is philosophically contested. I discuss two interrelated but distinct notions of reparations: reparations as accountability and redress for past injustice, and reparations as a constructive worldmaking project focused on present and future justice. Each of these perspectives offers different recommendations and provocations for how to implement algorithmic reparations. I apply this to a case study of housing injustice in the US and offer three interpretations of “algorithmic reparations” in context: first, we can litigate instances of algorithmic discrimination in housing. Second, we can use computational methods to compute damages and demand redress for structural housing injustice in the past. Finally, we can repurpose algorithmic methods to imagine more radical resistance efforts that connect incremental reform to large-scale structural change for the future.

Uncovering the interplay between political will, public management reforms, and outcomes: a study of the United Arab Emirates

The aim of the study is to fill the gap in the existing literature by presenting a comprehensive and theoretically sound framework that examines the interplay between the attributes of political will, public management reform design and implementation, the results they yield and the impact of external factors on these variables. Drawing upon the systematic literature review, the research develops a conceptual framework of political will and applies it to the context of public management reforms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A wide range of databases are used from secondary sources including Worldwide Governance Indicators, Failed State Index, Global Innovation Index, and Transparency International. The results show that the UAE government's strong commitment to reforms, as well as its ability to implement those reforms effectively, has contributed to positive outcomes in areas such as economic development and public service delivery. UAE has liberalized its economy and institutionalized innovative practices. All actors are involved in reform initiatives. Given the developmental clientelist regime in the UAE, political leadership has played an instrumental role in successfully implementing public management reforms. The UAE Government has ensured capacity-building efforts and proper incentives such as Government Excellence Awards are in place for the continuity of reform initiatives. Other government regimes could potentially benefit from the approaches employed by the UAE government in undertaking public management reform initiatives. The results challenge the common assumption that monarchical regimes are unable to drive such changes and instead demonstrate that a development-focused clientelist state can effectively implement incremental reforms in public management. The proposed conceptual model will also potentially guide future empirical research in the field.

The Quadrilemma: Appointing Adjudicators in Future Investor–State Dispute Settlement

ABSTRACT Concern with the selection and appointment of arbitrators has been central in the ‘legitimacy crisis’ surrounding investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS). The regime has been criticized for the outsized role of litigating parties in appointment, absence of transparency in the appointment procedure, potential for conflicts of interests, lack of diversity, and little emphasis on public international law competence. However, attempts to reform the selection and appointment of adjudicators involve confronting dilemmas, requiring trade-offs between different normative values. We therefore introduce a quadrilemma that captures the underlying values of independence, accountability, diversity, and procedural fairness that actors often seek to realize through adjudicatory design. We then set out seven idealized selection and appointment reform options under discussion in the ISDS reform process at UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) (from incremental reform through to new permanent mechanisms and removal of ISDS). The quadrilemma is employed to analyse their advantages and disadvantages of each model. In light of empirical and doctrinal evidence, it is clear that some reform options are more likely than others to optimize the quadrilemma. However, the effects are often conditional and sometimes there is a need for accompanying mechanisms.

Global Development by Public Participation: An Approach to Achieve SDGs

Research on public participation in the policy process often focuses on the localization and participation activities, and pay less attention to the empowerment of civil societies and their meaningful participation; what kind of institutional setups are required and what types of reforms are needed. To address these major gaps, this research theoretically illustrates that the presence of institutional setups that help to empower civil societies not only ensure meaningful involvement of civil societies in their development but also help to develop pressure on the governments to fulfill their commitments towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goal of this study is to analyze in-depth the relationship between institutionalization of Participatory Development (PD) and SDGs. This study will help not only to understand the logic behind the emphasis on PD in the UN agenda 2030 but also to find out socio-political institutions that are required to make the relationship between PD and SDGs successful. To evaluate this relationship, I used comparative case study method. I developed theoretical framework to analyze the practical implications of incremental reforms in the socio-political setup of both case studies. After careful analysis, this research finds out the institutional setups that help to empower and strengthen civil society, are useful not only to institutionalize PD but also to achieve SDGs.

Abortion Reform in Colombia: From Total Prohibition to Decriminalization up to Week Twenty-Four

On February 21, 2022, the Colombian Constitutional Court decriminalized abortion up to the twenty-fourth week of gestation and clarified that the grounds under which abortion had been allowed since 2006 should continue to apply in the remaining weeks of pregnancy. This decision, more than any other, is the material manifestation of the strategic efforts of a broad sector of Colombian feminism grouped under the slogan Causa Justa (Just Cause). This article briefly presents the history of feminist mobilization around abortion in Colombia, emphasizing its contributions for thinking about progressive reform in highly conservative environments: the importance of taking advantage of political opportunities, the appropriation of legal reform, and incremental change. Three different moments are discussed: political mobilization and the construction of meaning (1979–2004), progressive legal mobilization and appropriation of incremental reform (2004–2018), and feminist legal mobilization (2018–present).

7 E’s of Constructivism in E-learning Skills of University Faculty

Purpose: The goal of this research paper is to stress on the Information Technology skill of the University Faculty in achieving 7 Es of the constructivist E-Teaching/Learning process. Methodology: It also uses secondary data of well-known books, reputed journal articles, authentic websites, and popular reports. Based on observations from the research papers also we have found that 7Es constructivist learning is better than traditional instruction-based learning. Findings: The analysis shows that the skill component of education should be taken very seriously. The very application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skill has achieved good results in achieving better learning outcomes with reference to knowledge management processes like knowledge acquisition, storage, distribution, and use. This has encouraged the majority of people or communities to share, clarify and improve content using technologies. Constructivism must employ one or more techniques like problem solving, Role playing, Discussion, and simulations along with models like 7Es or 4As to construct new knowledge from existing knowledge for future learners so that innovations help learning process for easy or less time- consuming activity. Research limitations/implications: Total change of existing education/training system is beyond one person or small community. But incremental reform steps can be taken so that the future is less cumbersome and living is easy. Originality/value: Past experiences have shown us that technological advancement does not come easily, it is conjugation of constant skill application and research. This study addresses the importance of skill generated from learning/teaching concepts in the education sector and how it can be enhanced through various innovative teaching/learning ways. Paper type: Case study paper

Overview of the main incremental health care reforms introduced between 2014 and 2020 in Romania

Aim: On 2014 the Government of Romania has committed to improving health and health system through the implementation of the 2014–2020 National Health Strategy: Health for Prosperity. An official evaluation of the strategy implementation is not publicly available yet. This paper aims to provide an overview of the main incremental reforms taken during this period in Romania and to analyse the results from the perspective of the main Strategy goals. Methods: Information was collected from legislative documents, statistical and scientific publications. The main implemented or initiated incremental reforms, during the assessed period, were assigned to five main clusters: ”governance”, “resources for health”, “coverage and access”, “organization of health care”, “quality of care” and were analysed in accordance with the aim, the type, the implementation stage and the corresponding objectives of the Strategy. Results: The 2014–2020 National Health Strategy has definitely not reached all its objectives, but one sign of prosperity, is that based on 2019 per capita income (of $12,630) World Bank classified Romania, for the first time, as a high-income country. The health status of the population has increased in many aspects, yet Romanians’ health has still remained among the poorest in the European Union (EU). Conclusion: Incremental reforms might be successful, but the small steps should be taken in a holistic approach, and should be tailored to specific needs. Previous strengthening health systems resilience and plans for overcoming possible risks and obstacles might ensure successful implementation. Assessments of the reforms might draw lessons that help policymakers in shaping further health policies and designing of next strategies.

30 years of primary health care reforms in Estonia: The role of financial incentives to achieve a multidisciplinary primary health care system

Estonia has a legacy of hospital-focused service provision, but since the 1990s, has introduced a series of reforms to strengthen primary health care (PHC). The recent PHC reforms have placed an increasing focus on multidisciplinary care, involving home nurses, midwives, and physiotherapists, and emphasize PHC centres over single physician practices. These incremental reforms, without a supporting legal basis nor explicitly defined timelines and targets, nonetheless demonstrated the ability of financial incentives to drive change. EU structural funds in particular provided essential funding for infrastructure investments in PHC. Yet not all stakeholders supported these initiatives, largely due to the uncertain sustainability of funding. The EHIF also adjusted contract and payment terms to support PHC reforms, with some concessions to PHC providers operating as single practitioners. Despite substantial progress over the last three decades to shift the focus to PHC, there are some important bottlenecks that hinder the progress. These include PHC providers’ hesitance to give up their freedom as single practitioners, low interest from specialists to start working at the PHC level, and a lack of financial incentives and adequate funding for a broader scope of PHC services. This looks to become more challenging in the future, as nearly half of family physicians are 60 years old or older. The development of the new PHC strategy in 2023 is very timely to comprehensively address these bottlenecks and to set the vision for the future of PHC in Estonia.

ПРЕЕМСТВЕННОСТЬ ПРОТИВ ПЕРЕМЕН: ЭВОЛЮЦИОНИРУЮЩИЕ ТРАЕКТОРИИ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ КИТАЯ

China’s public administration system has been shaped by incremental reforms since China started its reform and opening up in 1978. These reforms highlighted a delicate balance between continuity and change so gradual, incessant, and autonomous adaptation to China’s socioeconomic development as well as to its external environment could happen. Since China moved into the “deep-water zone” in the recent decade, does this reform strategy remain effective? This article examines the Chinese way of introducing public administration reforms, with a focus on the reforms in the past decade. Although incremental reform has in general been kept useful, changing internal and external conditions in China have made it more difficult to achieve innovations and systematic transformation through incremental reforms. An apparent approach to politicization has replaced the fragile politics-administration dichotomy and reshaped the way of value balancing in China’s administrative system.

Spatial Matching and Policy-Planning Evaluation of Urban Elderly Care Facilities Based on Multi-Agent Simulation: Evidence from Shanghai, China

China is about to enter the stage of deep aging, and the number of disabled elderly is growing continuously. Although the government continues to increase its investment in elderly care institutions and facilities, there is still an unreasonable and unbalanced structure of resource allocation, and the configuration of elderly care institutions and facilities is not well coupled with the geographical layout of the population. Taking Shanghai, China, as an example, based on the multi-agent simulation method, this paper forecasts the supply and demand of elderly care institutions, and evaluates the rationality of relevant policy planning by comprehensively analyzing the behavior of the elderly, the behavior of elderly care institutions, and the interaction between the actors and the environment. The study concludes that: (1) With the increase of aging in Shanghai, the disability rate and chronic diseases will reach 18.7% and 42.0%, respectively, before the arrival of the peak of the elderly population in 2030, and 32.2% of the elderly will be willing to receive nursing services in elderly care institutions, which may make it difficult for the incremental reform of institutional beds in the existing policy planning to meet the actual needs. (2) The index of the number of beds for 100 people in the spatial configuration of elderly care institutions continued to increase, but the actual utilization rate of beds continued to decline, which was only 61.3% in 2030. (3) From the regional perspective, there is an obvious imbalance. The research shows that, with the increase in the disability rate of the elderly and the high incidence of chronic diseases, increasing the supply of facilities for elderly care institutions is an inevitable choice to meet the differentiated needs of the elderly. The demographic characteristics, psychology, economic costs, and spatial distribution of the elderly have a comprehensive impact on the decision-making of institutional elderly care. Institutional facility planning needs to combine urban development strategies, comprehensively consider economic costs, population characteristics and spatial distribution, and achieve a reasonable layout of different types of elderly care institutions. In summary, this paper provides a reference for the scientific layout of urban elderly care institutions through multi-agent simulation, and provides empirical support for how to achieve a good configuration of “population–facilities” in space.

Sexual Citizenship and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Since its beginnings as a parade and protest in 1978, the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has become something of a national juggernaut of queer pride in Australia, as well as an international tourist destination. At the centre of this event is an annual parade through the queer heartland of Sydney, comprised of floats and marching groups of performers. This article will investigate the changing stories told about the Australian nation at this march and its associated commemorative events. Tracing the history of the parade and associated storytelling offers a unique chance to trace the contradictory claims to and contestations over sexual citizenship over 40 years. While recent storytelling at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has often been tied to a pleasing liberal narrative of incremental reform and the recognition of sexual rights within the nation-state, the Mardi Gas parade has actually been a site of continual contestation over the terms of national inclusion and the limits of sexual citizenship. How, then, have the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras queered the sexual and racial dimensions of citizenship in Australia, and what are some of the different historical forces and transformations that have inflected and reshaped these moments?

Reforming Investment Protection: A Comparative Analysis of the EU and China

This article provides a comparative analysis of the European Union’s (EU’s) and China’s approaches to international investment law reform. While the EU has been referred to as a ‘systemic reformer’, which promotes significant institutional reform, China’s emerging model of investment protection remains unclassified. In the first part, this article describes the progressive emergence of China’s investment law regime. It argues that the Chinese model of investment protection may be viewed as an outright tool of foreign economic policy. Accordingly, China’s reform’s approach is a middle ground between systemic and incremental reforms. By contrast, due to its democratic nature, the EU has adopted a value-driven model. In this respect, this article posits that the political science scholarship on democracy may shed a different light on the EU’s institutional approach, and thus enrich the debate on investment law reform. The second part analyses the proposed Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (Proposed CAI) between the EU and China, which has been signed but not ratified. After showing that convergence was achieved on substantive protection, it argues that democratic imperatives explain the EU’s preference for a court system. Nevertheless, non-democracies often do not face the same incentives, which may generate disagreements regarding the dispute settlement design for investment claims. European Union, China, CAI, international investment law, democracy, dispute settlement

A Tale of Two Systems: The Public and Private Faces of Investor-State Dispute Settlement

Abstract It seems fair to say that the system of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) now faces something of a ‘legitimacy crisis’. States complain of what they perceive to be an unjustified encroachment into their regulatory space. Investors bemoan the fragmentation of investment law. And the public resents the fact that an anonymous panel of lawyers sitting behind closed doors are making decisions with significant implications for their well-being and livelihoods through a process in which they are neither seen nor heard. These criticisms of ISDS raise serious questions as to the adequacy of the procedural design of the ISDS system and how this might be affecting perceptions of ISDS’s legitimacy as a means of dispute resolution. It is suggested that ISDS’s legitimacy crisis can be traced, at least in part, to its failure to uphold certain core values and principles of the Rule of Law – in particular, transparency, accountability and consistency – which are of especial importance in the ISDS context. It is argued that the reason why investment arbitration struggles to uphold these values lies in the dissonance between the public face of ISDS – meaning the public nature and significance of investment disputes – and its private face – meaning the private arbitral process by which investment disputes are resolved. Efforts at reform should be directed at resolving that dissonance, and whilst there is much to commend an incremental reform of the system of arbitration, it seems clear that that can only be an interim step on the path to deeper process reform.

Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio

Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio

Food sovereignty and the integral state: Institutionalizing ecological farming

This article takes up the question of how food sovereignty, and accompanying agricultural models that will help combat climate change, may be institutionalized through policy processes. I draw on the theories of Antonio Gramsci and his successors to discuss how the interwoven nature of the state and civil society, conceptualized as the ‘integral state’, can help inform an analytical approach to food policy change. Based on research that analyzes the work of Canada’s two member organizations of La Vía Campesina, Union Paysanne and the National Farmers Union (NFU), I highlight the differences and parallels between food sovereignty struggles taking place in Quebec and those underway elsewhere in the country. I argue that although agricultural policy has the potential to be an important tool in transitioning toward a climate-friendly food system, proponents of food sovereignty would benefit from disengaging from traditional food policy advocacy efforts as these will only lead to incremental reforms. Instead, I suggest that a ‘prefigurative institutionalization’ has the potential to be transformative within and beyond the food system. The concept offers both a political strategy as well as an analytical framework for assessing movements’ efforts related to policy formation and governance.

Combatting corruption and collusion in public procurement: Lessons from Operation Car Wash

This article examines the question of how a nation can combat corruption and collusion and prevent these practices from plaguing and undermining public procurement processes. This matter is especially important to Brazil where Operation Car Wash exposed widespread corruption and collusion affecting public procurement. Although focusing on Brazil, this article reflects on a broader academic and policy debate as to how a nation can escape from a ‘high-corruption’ equilibrium, especially one strengthened by its interaction with supplier collusion. In particular, whether endemic corruption can be combatted through an invigorated law enforcement push, combined with incremental reform, or whether some ‘big bang’ approach, with complete institutional overhaul, is required to establish a new equilibrium. The article notes that the Brazilian experience provides support for the hypothesis that, where corruption is endemic, better laws and law enforcement may be insufficient on their own to break a cycle and to remove the incentives and opportunities for corruption and collusion that exist. However, it also recognizes that, for many jurisdictions, wholesale big bang reform is unlikely to be feasible. It thus proposes a multi-pronged, and self-reinforcing, set of reforms to trigger change, concentrated on weaknesses diagnosed in the system. In particular, it suggests that where corruption affects public procurement, beyond specific adjustments to procurement, competition and anti-corruption laws, procurers, anti-corruption and competition enforcement agencies need to work closely together to coordinate policies, achieve synergies and to combat incentives and opportunities for corruption and collusion within procurement processes. Such reforms must be combined with measures to tackle broader factors contributing to systemic corruption. Although inspired by the Brazilian case study, the diagnosis and proposed reform strategy provides a workable model for use in other jurisdictions.

Power struggles in policy feedback processes: incremental steps towards a circular economy within Dutch wastewater policy

Environmental problems are usually not tackled with path-departing policies but rather with incrementally adjusted or unchanged policies. One way to address incremental change is the policy feedback approach, which initially focussed on self-reinforcing feedback and path-dependency. Today, self-undermining feedback is also increasingly being studied, centring on agency and change. However, it is unclear precisely how actors use power in policy feedback processes. Therefore, this study applied a power perspective and the policy arrangement approach to a case study of the reorientation towards a circular economy in Dutch wastewater policy between 2008 and 2018, which resulted in incremental instead of fundamental policy change. Here it was observed that self-undermining feedback was generated from 2008 onwards but the balance quickly shifted back to self-reinforcing feedback, indicating that the analysed power struggles led to incremental change. These dynamics resemble a shift from the so-called paths and forks (i.e. fork in the road) towards the boomerang pattern (i.e. returning to its original position) of policy change. The patterns are explained by focussing on powerful actors that resist change through the use of incremental reforms, the ongoing struggles of these actors in facilitating self-reinforcing feedback and the role of interpretation in using feedback as a resource. Overall, this study provides a nuanced understanding of incremental change by directing attention to the power struggles of actors in policy feedback processes. For practitioners, the study emphasises the importance of power struggles in enabling a circular economy.