Interior Affairs Research Articles

Territorial and Non-territorial Federalism in Belgium: Reform of the Brussels Capital Region, 2001

Belgium has a peculiar system of federalism, combining both territorial (regions) and non-territorial (communities) substate levels. In the summer of 2001 yet another phase in the process of devolution took place, further adjusting the already quite complex federal model. One of the most important modifications was constituted by the transfer of jurisdiction over interior affairs and electoral law (for the local and provincial level) to the sub-state regions. In addition, new procedures for guaranteed representation of the Flemish minority in the bilingual Brussels Capital Region were introduced. At the same time a number of specific institutional changes were introduced in order to keep the extreme-right wing party Vlaams Blok from power. This contribution aims to describe these changes.

Exploring Policy and Financing Options for Long-Term Care in Taiwan

Summary Policy and financing arrangements for long-term care are important themes in each country and/or region, and Taiwan, with its unique historic and politico-economic background, can be regarded as a bridge between well-developed and under-developed countries. Policy formulation about long-term care in Taiwan involves several agencies in the government, including Ministry of Health, Interior Affairs, Education, Insurance Bureau, and Economic Council, and formulation of policy objectives has progressed considerably in the last five years. Financing arrangements are less well-developed because the National Health Insurance Program began only in 1995, and most long-term care is not yet covered. As demand for long-term care exceeds supply, and this gap will grow in future, current resource allocation measures are concerned to facilitate the expansion of community care rather than allowing institutional care to absorb more resources. Developing future financing options is now a central task for policymaking, and government must continue to take a leading role in consolidating financing and integrating the service systems.

Thailand: A Moment of Transition

Never before in modern Thai political history has a civilian government sustained its full term in office. However, Chuan Leekpai has achieved this, albeit with a weakening of his credibility. In other words, he and his government struggled to complete the full term, in the face of serious criticism and outright challenges from various sectors. At the beginning of 2000, the Chuan government survived no-confidence votes, especially on the motion of a false declaration of assets by his Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Affairs, and concurrendy the General Secretary of his Democrat Party, Sanan Kachornprasart. When the case of Sanan was first submitted to the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), and then forwarded to the Constitutional Court, Sanan was found guilty. The opposition Members of Parliament (MPs), mosdy from the New Aspiration Party (NAP), tried to use this verdict to force Chuan to declare the dissolution of Parliament by their en masse resignation from the House in June.1 Neither the politicians nor others could successfully pressure him into an early resignation, however. They had to wait until 9 November, only eight days before the official termination of government at full term, when Chuan finally declared the dissolution of Parliament. The elections were held on 6 January 2001. There were people who had come to believe that there was no alternative to the old style of politics, and that the sluggish election procedure operating under the umbrella of the Election Commission (EC) would delay the election results. There were others who expected that the elections would bring about a political transition towards democratization. If the elections had failed, it could have been seen as a setback for democracy not only in Thailand but also in Southeast Asia.2 The end of the Chuan government marked a constitutional transition from the old constitution to the new one promulgated in 1997. The new constitution alters the parliamentary composition, which used to comprise of 393 members. It now consists of 500 members ? 400 elected individually via

Teaching social and professional attitudes at the faculty of medicine, ramathibodi hospital

The Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University aims at producing competent medical professionals who are knowledgeable about the social and environmental aspects of health problems. Students are trained to use appropriate technology and to participate in enhancing the quality of life for Thai people. High standards of ethics and moral behavior are important qualities for all physicians; they are seriously addressed at all levels of medical education. The Faculty encourages a positive attitude toward promoting public health as well as providing community service throughout the curriculum. Collaboration between many different agencies and authorities is necessary to build up the required abilities of the students. Mechanisms for more efficient collaboration are being set up between the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Interior Affairs, and the Ramathibodi Medical Faculty for training medical graduates in beha...

A perspective on Capitol Hill

As the AGU Congressional Science Fellow for 1980–1981, I had a unique opportunity to witness the federal engine in action—a remarkable piece of machinery. The American Association for the Advancement of Science organized an excellent orientation program, introducing our class of science fellows (about 30) to the kinds of options available for a year's tenure on Capitol Hill. These include affiliation with a congressman's or senator's staff or with one of the hundred or so standing, select, or joint committees and subcommittees. I arranged to join the personal staff of Congressman Jim Santini (D, Nev.), largely because of his demonstrated interest in Department of Interior affairs in general and the minerals industry in particular. The position of fellow provides no guarantee of work in one's areas of expertise or inclination, however, and I found that my staff assignments included topics ranging from wild horses to peanut subsidies. My principal task involved evaluation of the Air Force proposal to deploy the MX missile in Nevada and the consequent impact of that incredible scheme on the physical and economic environments of the state and the nation, including effects on minerals exploration. I had not expected to become conversant with missile technology, but the exercise provided quite an education.

Factions in Committees: The U.S. House of Representatives

This study undertakes a major reanalysis of the decision-making processes in eight committees of the U.S. House of Representatives–Agriculture, Education and Labor, Interior and Insular Affairs, International Relations, Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Post Office and Civil Service, Public Works and Ways and Means. While past studies have relied mainly on interviews, this study uses a data base composed of recorded committee roll-call votes. The analysis consists of a Q-component analysis to determine voting blocs or factions; an R-component analysis to discover issue dimensions; and step-wise regression and correlation utilizing demographic, political and electoral characteristics to define the nature of the voting blocs. The results are then compared with previous analyses of the same eight committees to determine what changes, if any, have occurred since the committees were last analyzed. The findings suggest that partisanship and ideology have become stronger influences on committee decision making than previously noted.

Potential Reserves of Domestic Oil and Gas

A more favorable and more quickly implemented Federal offshore leasing policy, improved economic incentives, more thorough studies of the ocean policy, improved economic incentives, more thorough studies of the ocean environment, and cooperation among all engineering and exploratory sciences and between government and industry are critical requisites if the much needed potential U. S. hydrocarbons are to become a reality. Introduction The theme of the Symposium Survival in the Seventies - sounds a bit sinister, but I think it may be quite appropriate, for this decade is indeed a critical one. Domestic exploration as measured by the level of seismic activity and wildcat drilling has decreased these past 20 years, while at the same time our demand for petroleum has continued to grow. Because of this decreasing exploration effort, the steadily growing withdrawal of reserves of both oil and gas has not been compensated for. As a consequence, the divergence between projected demand and our domestic supply capacity is so severe that we now face the near certainty that by 1980 we will be dependent on foreign imports for more than half our oil supplies. As a measure of the exploratory effort required if we were to meet this increasing demand from domestic resources, the industry would need to find and develop within these 7 years the potential from five more Prudhoe Bays plus, of course, the production from Prudhoe Bay itself. Through a much needed national energy policy, our domestic potential must be realistically assessed and a goal must be set to achieve the highest possible level of domestic production that is economically feasible and environmentally sound. This, of course, means a greatly accelerated exploration effort. I propose to discuss first the over-all unexplored potential, propose to discuss first the over-all unexplored potential, then to discuss in somewhat more detail three selected provinces. Elements Essential to Achieving Highest Potential Fortunately, there is a substantial resource base in this country for discovering oil and gas; coupled with this is an exploration capability that is technically superb. It is ironic then that such a capability should be at the highest in the industry's history while the exploratory effort is the lowest in some 30 years. For our nation's best interest, this technical capability must be employed in an increased level of exploration. It is estimated that in the 15 years from the mid-1950's to 1970 the industry spent about $68 billion for exploration and found for its efforts a little more than that many billions of oil and gas equivalents. This is an average "finding cost" of just under $1/ bbl a reasonably acceptable figure. But the big question is, how much can be found in the next 15 years? And at what cost? In Aug. 1972, while I was presenting testimony before the Senate Interior and presenting testimony before the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee Hearing on S.B. 45, the following question was posed by one of the Senators: "If the unit price for a barrel of oil and a cubic foot of gas were, say, doubled, could we expect this to double the petroleum products available for our homes and our automobiles?" JPT P. 150

National Fuels Policy the Controversy and the Data

BRINEGAR, CLAUDE S., UNION OIL CO. OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Abstract A U.S. Senate committee is currently making a comprehensive study, commonly known as the "fuels policy study", of the nation's energy situation and outlook. Considerable squabbling between the coal and petroleum industries preceded passage of the Senate resolution authorizing the study. This paper reviews the background of the controversy, outlines some of the nation's long-term energy trends, and points up a few of the problems the Senators face in dealing with available energy data. Particularly bothersome are data labeled as "reserves", which have different meanings in different industries. It seems likely that the Senate committee will conclude that:the nation's consumption of energy will roughly double between 1960 and 1980;petroleum's share of the total will fall slightly, while coal's share will rise; andU.S. raw material reserves are ample to meet 1980 demands without appreciable increases in real unit costs. Introduction In the closing days of the 1961 session of the United States Congress, the Senate passed Resolution 105, a resolution "to authorize a study of national fuels policy". The resolution was sponsored by 63 Senators including most of the Senate's big names and it was passed on a voice vote, with no floor debate and no evident opposition. A reading of Resolution 105 fails to give much indication either of its possible long-range significance or of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that preceded its passage. The preamble is limited to six paragraphs of "whereas's"a modest number by most standards-which declare, among other things, thatenergy is essential to the continued prosperity and security of our nation,our population should reach 250 million by 1980 and our consumption of energy should be about double the current rate, andwe now have many laws and policies that affect our energy resources. The final and key "whereas" deserves to be quoted in full. Whereas in view of theses and other considerations it appears that a Senate committee study of the fuels industries is desirable to determine what, if any, changes in and implementation of existing and prospective governmental policies and laws may be desirable in order to coordinate and provide and effective national fuels policy (emphasis added) in order to assure a continuation of the Nation's energy supremacy: Now, therefore, be it Resolved that the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs is authorized.... to make a full and complete investigation and study..... The passage of this resolution commonly called the "National Fuels Policy" resolution marked the end of a two-year fight between various coal-industry and various oil-industry groups. The fight was bitter, it was confused, and it was costly. It included professional advertising campaigns, fancy brochures, and some high-class lobbying. Since coal advocated the Congressional study while oil people generally opposed it, the passage of Senate Resolution 105 could be considered as a victory for coal and a defeat for oil. Whether or not "victory" and "defeat" are the right words, however, we cannot yet tell. But why all the fuss between coal and oil? Congressional committees regularly spend millions of dollars every year in the study of an enormous variety of subjects. What is so unusual about this one?This paper is directed broadly to trying to bring some perspective to this somewhat confused controversy. In addition, the merits and demerits of some of the data the Senate group must use to reach its decisions are briefly discussed. Definitions First, however, agreement should be reached on certain definitions and units of measurement. "Energy", in its broadest sense, refers to anything that contains the inherent power to perform work. Early in 1961, the U. S. Bureau of Mines, in conjunction with Resources for the Future, Inc., published a detailed balance sheet-type study of U. S. energy production and consumption for the year 1954. These six sources of primary energy were treated separately:anthracite coal;bituminous coal and lignite;crude petroleum;natural gas (unprocessed);hydroelectric power; andwood, wood waste and bagasse. In their original units tons, barrels, cubic feet, kilowatt-hours and cords these sources, of course, cannot be added together to yield a meaningful total. The almost universal aggregation procedure is to convert each to the British thermal unit (Btu) the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 lb of water, at its maximum density, by 1 degrees F. JPT P. 942^