Government Intermediaries Research Articles

Legal Analysis of Fines for The Companies That Failing to Provide Wages under Government Act No. 36 of 2021

This study investigates the legal framework surrounding unpaid wages and the subsequent efforts of workers to secure their rightful compensation. Companies employ various tactics to avoid fulfilling their wage obligations, such as delaying payments and making unilateral deductions. In response to these practices, workers, as victims of wage non-payment, persist in seeking their due rights even after fulfilling their job responsibilities. One avenue pursued by workers is engaging in mediation with government intermediaries. The study focuses on the legal context shaped by the government to address the issue, particularly through the enactment of Government Act Number 36 of 2021 on Wages. This legislation plays a crucial role in outlining the government's responsibilities and measures to curb non-payment of wages by companies. Government Regulation No. 36 of 2021 on Wages elucidates the government's role in imposing sanctions, including fines, on companies failing to fulfill their wage obligations to workers. The research aims to shed light on the effectiveness and implications of these legal measures in safeguarding the rights of workers and ensuring fair compensation for their labor.

Everyday governance in areas of contested power: Insights from Mozambique, Myanmar, and Pakistan

SummaryMotivationHow do poor and marginalized people solve problems and claim rights and entitlements in places affected by conflict and where state authority is contested? Understanding such processes is important as the numbers of poor people living in difficult settings grows, yet existing research on governance in conflict largely misses a “citizen's eye” view of these processes.PurposeThe article focuses on “everyday governance” from a citizen's perspective. What do engagements with the multiple state and non‐state actors that prevail in such settings look like? We present insights from longitudinal research in conflict‐affected areas in Mozambique, Myanmar and Pakistan.Methods and approachResearch was undertaken in two phases over the period 2017–2021. Researchers developed an innovative method, “governance diaries,” in which we interviewed the same set of poor and marginalized households over a period of a year, capturing an unfolding citizen's eye view of governance. We subsequently used the same method to include key intermediaries to whom households went with problems.FindingsWe find that in most instances poor and marginalized households did not rely on the state or other formal or external authorities to resolve problems. Mostly, they simply “lived with” those problems, or resolved them through “self‐provision”—mutual aid and community action. When they did go to authorities, they used “governance intermediaries”—actors that connect people with authorities or mediate between households. These intermediaries played a central role in local governance, using their networks and deploying a range of strategies with a focus on local resolution of problems.Policy implicationsThese findings challenge some core assumptions of contemporary development practice. First, development programmes tend to focus on improving state‐run services, rather than engaging with the diversity of how public goods are governed on the ground. Second, policies assume that people can go directly to authorities with their problems, and do not take into account the role that intermediaries play. Finally, the highly diverse networks of governance actors that matter to specific places challenges the common focus on formal systems rather than informal practices.

Understanding global union repertoires of action

AbstractUnlike national trade unions, which operate within country‐specific industrial relations systems, Global Unions have an international mandate and multi‐scalar positionality. As a consequence, their repertoires of action and the opportunity structures available to them differ from those of national unions. Drawing on qualitative interview data and fieldwork observations, we propose a typology of different strategic domains used by the Global Union Federations (GUFs), which identifies their characteristics, scale and constraints. We then discuss two cases that illustrate how complementary strategies of (a) engaging in incremental innovation and (b) combining repertoires from different strategic domains have supported the GUFs' desire to play a stronger role as global labour governance intermediaries.

Aadhaar and social assistance programming: local bureaucracies as critical intermediary

ABSTRACT Digital identity platforms are a recent e-governance innovation for improving social assistance programming in the development context, the most well-known of which is India's Aadhaar. While a significant number of studies have accumulated on Aadhaar, so far under-researched is the importance of local government practices and processes in shaping usage of the platform to support social assistance programming. In this paper we theorize how local government intermediation on digital identity platforms can improve social assistance programming through a case study of the Aadhaar-enabled Fertilizer Distribution System (AeFDS) in Andhra Pradesh. Our findings show how the relevance of the platform for low-income farmers depends crucially on the proactive adaptation of the technology by key local government intermediaries. From a policy perspective, this result emphasizes the importance of supporting efforts to acknowledge the role of responsive local government agencies in ensuring that centralized digital identity platforms remain relevant for implementing social assistance programming.

Crypto Currencies: The Flag Bearer of Future Finance

Cryptocurrencies, as a part of decentralized financial system and powered by distributed ledger technology is the future of finance. Although no one is responsible for the ledger, no one can control or falsify the claims made through blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies backed by blockchain are transformative technology and a forerunner of virtual monetary system. Cryptocurrencies are created out of perceived ‘privacy’ need and drive to exit government intermediaries and financial institutions as a regulator of financials. Thus, Government should focus on timely policy planning, implementation and governance of blockchain and virtual currencies so as to prevent halt in data economy.

A Review on Policy Gaps of Agriculture Research and Development (R&D) in India and Their Effect on Agriculture Stakeholders

Purpose: An impressive stride in the agriculture sector in India after green revolution from a food deficient to food surplus country is attributed to the well-established infrastructure and contribution of various farm families in this sector. In the current scenario, various cons of food surplus and other stagnation issues of the policies need to be contemplated. The various policy reforms should inculcate well utilization of agriculture investment funds, methodologies to allow increments in farmer’s income to prevent their suicidal rates, incentives and requirements for private R&D investment in agriculture while maintaining the sustainable development goal of India. A complete transparent paradigm approach to be followed by the central, state governments and private sectors for fostering agriculture growth is analyzed in this review. The impetus behind the lack of agriculture growth in spite of tremendous productivity measures adopted by farmers, policy makers; public and private investment lies in lacking of an appropriate infrastructure as per current need and demand. It is imperative to foster paradigm protocol in agriculture with articulate government intermediaries to prevent monopoly of a particular authority in due course of time. It develops spurring behavior among stakeholders to form a consortium to revitalize the complete agriculture R&D to obviate the bottle necks hampering agriculture proliferation. Design: The present review highlights the mandatory need in the current scenario to review the agriculture research and development policies and desired amendments as per the needs of the associated stake holders. Paper Type: Review article

Big audit firms as regulatory intermediaries in transnational labor governance

AbstractDue diligence and corporate disclosure initiatives effectively expand the role of professional service firms as regulatory intermediaries in the governance of conditions of production in global supply chains. In this paper, we examine the rise of the “Big Four” audit firms in the market for services connected to transnational labor governance. Through a qualitative case study of audit firms in modern slavery governance, we argue that the Big Four's political repertoire for transnational labor governance expands beyond the roles that are typically linked to their services, and promotes an agenda that touches on key debates on what constitutes proper transnational labor governance. Big audit firms engage in a variety of informal and covert influencing practices and are shown to promote an agenda of incrementalist soft‐law labor governance, opposing concrete performance targets, binding public regulation and an independent watchdog role for civil society.

The role of intermediaries in governance of global production networks: Restructuring work relations in Pakistan’s apparel industry

This article locates the reorganization of work relations in the apparel sector in Pakistan, after the end of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quota regime, within the context of a global production network (GPN). We examine the role of a network of corporate, state, multilateral and civil society actors who serve as intermediaries in GPN governance. These intermediaries transmit and translate competitive pressures and invoke varied, sometimes contradictory, imaginaries in their efforts to realign and stabilize the GPN. We analyse the post-MFA restructuring of Pakistan’s apparel sector, which dramatically increased price competition and precipitated a contested adjustment process among Pakistani and global actors with divergent priorities and resources. These intermediaries converged on a ‘solution’ that combined and enacted imaginaries of modernization, competitiveness, professional management and female empowerment, while also emphasizing low costs and female docility. We highlight the intersection of economic, political and cultural dynamics of GPNs, and reveal the gendered dimensions of GPN restructuring. We theorize the role of these actors as a transnational managerial elite in GPN governance, who led a restructuring process that preserved the hegemonic stability of the GPN and protected the interests of western branded apparel companies and consumers, but did not necessarily serve the interests of workers.

On (not) assembling a market for sustainable energy: heat network infrastructure and British cities

ABSTRACTEnergy policies increasingly rely on market instruments to meet societal objectives for climate change mitigation. We explore the application of such instruments in low carbon heat markets. Using a conceptual framework derived from actor network theory and economic sociology, we examine the role of technical-economic models as market devices in two heat network proposals in British cities. Government intermediaries relied on the models to enact the mutual financial and carbon benefits of an area-wide heat market, and to enrol multiple public sector organisations in innovation. In practice, the models produced the opposite response: parties synthesised the modelled cost–benefit calculations into the existing public services market agencement and translated the model numbers ino opportunities to secure competitive advantage for their own organisation. These activities undermined the projected cost and carbon saving logic of the collective actor solution. The findings demonstrate the potent economic agency of market-emulating public finance and competitive procurement instruments in governing such organisational decisions, and indicate the limited traction of a low carbon calculus, which lacked significant political or senior management sponsorship. Questions are posed about the formatting of economic agency suited to securing the common goods of a sustainable society.

Participatory Politics: Understanding Civil Society Organisations in Governance Networks in Khayelitsha

This paper revisits the role of grassroots forms of mobilisation and organisation that act as governance intermediaries between civil society and government. It focuses on two organisations in Khayelitsha, the Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF), a development organisation formed at grassroots in 1985, and the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO), a national social movement organisation claiming grassroots forms of mobilisation that retains a strong membership base in Khayelitsha. The main focus of the article is to examine to what extent these two grassroots governance organisations enable ordinary people to influence government through direct and representational forms of participation. Agency is explored in relation to the degree to which individuals and community groups are able to access and influence both self-created (invented) and more formal (invited) spaces of governance and government [Cornwall, A., and V. S. Coelho. eds. (2007). Spaces for Change? Participation, Inclusion and Voice. London: Zed Books; Thompson, L., and C. Tapscott, eds. (2010). “Introduction: Mobilisation and Social Movements in the South – The Challenges of Inclusive Governance.” In Citizens and Social Movements: Perspectives from the Global South. London: Zed Books]. The discussion shows that grassroots mobilisation on socio-economic rights, in the case of KDF and, to a greater extent, SANCO, is fraught with leadership battles, factionalism and party politics. The ability to exercise agency through SANCO is limited severely as a result, and in the case of KDF, managing political rivalry and party politics negatively impacts on the functioning of the community development organisation, and its ability to influence government.

International Informal Law-Making and Multi-Level Governance Intermediaries: the Case of National Contact Points Under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Dispute Settlement

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (Guidelines) are a set of non-binding recommendations addressed to companies which focus on issues such as labor rights, environmental protection, consumer protection and the fight against corruption. The Guidelines were originally adopted by the OECD Ministerial Council in 1976, as part of the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. The text of the Guidelines has been reviewed on several occasions since then (1979, 1984, 1991, 2000 and 2011). Today, all 34 OECD Member States, and an additional 11 countries, have subscribed to them. This paper discusses the Guidelines and their enforcement via National Contact Points (NCPs) as a case study of a particular type of rule intermediary that establishes a dispute resolution mechanism to enforce rules and which is especially interesting in the context of multi-level governance. It aims to contribute to the regulatory governance debate by focusing on the role of a specific type of rule intermediary (dispute settlement based rule intermediary) in rule interpretation and enforcement. Two hypotheses on the role of these rule intermediaries are explored using the case of the NCPs within the framework of the Guidelines. First, the paper submits that the actions of rule intermediaries might have an effect on the nature of the rules, i.e. affect the binding/non-binding, voluntary/compulsory and legal/non-legal character of the rules. Secondly, it reflects on the potential influence of rule intermediaries on the content of the rules, in the sense that rule intermediaries in some way determine the content of the rules through their application and interpretation, as is the case in judicial review mechanisms.

Beyond Privacy, beyond Rights - Toward a Systems Theory of Information Governance

For decades, we have refined concepts of information privacy, as well as intellectual property, that are largely based on individual rights. Such an approach is undeniably appealing. It does not necessitate a large enforcement bureaucracy, ostensibly enhances human freedom and self-determination, and ensures efficient information allocation through robust markets. As this article explains, a rights-based approach may even lead us to a convergent and coherent concept of information governance on either side of the Atlantic. Such a convergent conception would, however, not be able to extend to both the United States and Europe. For that it may behoove us to take a serious look at the bidirectional information rights structures emerging in Europe. The problem with such rights based approaches is that they have largely failed in practice. In contrast, information privacy protection works when it rests on a rich and deep network of information governance intermediaries. This article concludes by suggesting that studying the system of information privacy and copyright in particular, and of information governance in general, and examining what mechanisms of governance are employed by the various intermediaries may yield a richer, more accurate, and more effective strategy for information governance than the current rights-based approach.

Balancing old and new organisational forms: changing dynamics of government, industry and university interaction in South Africa

The paper considers changing triple helix relations in the South African context after 1994. The organisational form of university–industry partnership, stimulated by government incentives, is emerging. However, old and new organisational forms, shaped by a tension between financial and intellectual imperatives, co-exist in the shifting relationship between university, industry and government. The capacity to harness the potential of research for innovation by creating new institutional interface structures is evident on a significant scale in a small number of universities, and in isolated pockets in others. Old forms tend to prevail, and may have counter-productive implications. Creating new forms of knowledge-intensive networks requires analysis of the complex inter-dependence between firms, universities and government intermediaries. The paper considers implications for universities, arguing for a strategic balance of old and new forms of partnership across more institutions, taking into account the diversity of university contexts, knowledge fields, industrial sectors and technology platforms.

ON THE INCIDENCE OF SELECTIVE CREDIT AND RELATED POLICIES IN A MULTI‐ASSET FRAMEWORK

This paper attempts to analyze the asset yield and price effects of these three policy approaches: asset subsidy (tax) schemes, government intermediaries, and production-oriented subsidies (taxes). These effects are important in determining the various policies' incidence (i.e., income distribution effects) which provides the focus for the paper. However, certain results which bear on resource allocation effects will also be brought out. The analysis employs a general equilibrium asset-market model of the Tobin-Brainard variety. The multi-asset framework is necessitated by the type of policy analysis and comparisons being made here. An additional motivation is the absence of this framework from most incidence studies of asset policies. To provide some perspective on the analysis and results, we first make a brief assessment of approaches used in current studies.