Latest Reform Research Articles

Itamaraty on the Move: Institutional and Political Change inBrazilian Foreign Service underLuladaSilva'sPresidency (2003–2010)

This article aims to provide answers to two questions prompted by the latest reforms ofBrazilian foreign service duringLula daSilva's presidency: How exactly might these institutional changes generate any impact over theBrazilian diplomatic corporation cohesion at large? How could bureaucratic insulation be undermined as an unexpected outcome of this process? To accomplish their objectives, the authors will briefly review the process of institution‐building inBrazil, with an emphasis on the diplomatic corporation and the transformations it has undergone over the last three decades.

A real job? Regulating household work: The case of Spain

This article is contextualized within the recent evolution of household employment in Spain. In the context of the strong demand for personal care services – due to rapid population ageing, mass incorporation of women into the labour market and insufficient collective provision of care services – the growth of domestic work is closely related to the overall social organization of care and specific migration policies that have eased, both implicitly and explicitly, the labour supply of foreign women into Spanish households. In line with ongoing debates in the academic literature as well as in the political sphere, this article seeks to explain the extent to which domestic work can or should be considered as any other job in terms of social and employment rights and obligations. To that end, it evaluates changes in the regulation of household employment in Spain since the creation of the Special Regime for Household Employees (SRHE) in 1969 until the most recent 2011 reform. Following the recommendations of the ILO Convention for Domestic Workers (2011), this latest reform puts domestic workers on equal footing with other dependent employees. It thus implies a sea change in relation to the discriminatory treatment embedded in previous legal frameworks. The main hindrance to the effective transposition of the norm however remains the strong presence of the informal economy and a dubious political commitment to ensure its application.

Reforming police governance in England and Wales: managerialisation and the politics of organisational regime Change

This article examines reforms to the governance of local policing in England and Wales over the last two decades, from the managerialisation of policing in the early 1990s through to recent plans for the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners. This ‘long view’ facilitates an appreciation of politically driven shifts in organisational regimes, initially from bureau-professionalism to managerialism, and more recently from managerialism to a hybridised model of local governance that combines elements of consumerism, democratic localism and bureau-professionalism. These regimes, however, act less as determining structures, and more as unstable equilibria that are open to contestation and negotiation. Drawing upon insights from governmentality and governance studies, the article reviews the progress of reforms and shows that the ‘success’ of regime changes is contingent upon the translation of regimes into practice. More specifically, understanding regimes as discourses allows us to probe their internal coherence, and their achievements in influencing the strategies and subject positions adopted by actors in local policing policy networks. This enables us to appreciate both the limited successes of regime change reforms to date, and the prospects for the latest reform, namely the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners in each police force area outside of London.

More than “queens of the home”: positivist modernisation, teacher training, and gender mobility in Uruguay, 1882–1915

In memoriam Emilio Marenales, educador apasionado, experto del normalismo uruguayo e inolvidable amigo The training of female primary school teachers was instrumental to the success of Uruguay's remarkable late nineteenth-century education reform which aimed at erasing frontier backwardness. The foundation, in 1882, of the Internato Normal de Señoritas in Montevideo was guided by the positivist zeal to transform rural girls into the central State's priestesses of civilisation. Yet the number of graduates remained low and led, in 1900, to the reorganisation of the boarding school into an instituto with external students, accompanied by the gradual introduction of new philosophical and pedagogical ideas. This study sheds new light on daily life and work in the institution and its increasing conflicts with government. It shows that normalistas who assumed legitimate public positions in a rapidly changing society no longer accepted the role of docile “queens of the home,” which positivists had attributed to them, but supported President Batlle's post-1911 course towards more gender equality.

The politics of pension reform reversal: a comparative analysis of Hungary and Argentina

Argentina and Hungary have recently reversed the pension reforms of the 1990s that had instituted a mandatory private pillar and transferred savings under management by private pension funds back to the public sector. It is argued here that these latest reforms were a product of political dynamics that allowed the governments of Cristina Kirchner in Argentina and Viktor Orban in Hungary to enjoy legislative support and no significant popular backlash as the incumbents blamed the capitalisation system for failures in coverage, poor performance, and high administrative costs. Yet institutional considerations alone do not explain the type of pension reform enacted nor its timing. The need felt to finance short-term debt obligations and promote deficit reduction in a context of significantly restricted access to international credit was crucial in both countries. The two cases reveal that despite being the quintessential intertemporal political bargain, pension reform can be paradoxically determined by short-term fiscal considerations. The reversal of reforms originally aimed at relieving long-term budgetary pressures fuels concerns about the sustainability of the public pension system in indebted economies once again.

El tribunal europeo de derechos humanos a la luz del protocolo 14.

El artículo está centrado en las reformas introducidas por el Protocolo 14 al Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos (en adelante, TEDH), el cual entró en vigor en 2010. Con ello se pretende hacer una revisión crítica sobre dicho Protocolo y analizar sus aciertos y errores, así como la nueva configuración otorgada al TEDH. Asimismo, se estudiarán las últimas reformas introducidas por declaraciones, desarrolladas en el marco de sendas conferencias ministeriales (Interlaken, Izmir y Brighton). De esta manera, se evidenciarán algunas de las problemáticas que acechan al TEDH, sobre todo en términos de congestión y funcionamiento. En última instancia, se examinará la necesidad y pertinencia de las últimas reformas al TEDH y se concluye si fueron suficientes o si, en breve, serán necesaria nuevas reformas.

Chapitre 6. Enseigner la bioéthique dans le secondaire en France

Bioethics is not a subject in the French school curriculum but it can be taught in secondary schools. I will first raise the problems I encountered in order to teach it and some possible solutions for teaching it within the French educational system. An experimental approach often appears irrefutable to students and this can be an obstacle or slow down their acceptance of an ethical approach which leads to questioning result sor exploring more than one answer. The study of an ethical problem requires an interdisciplinary approach which is not always easy to put in place in schools, but which has been helped by the latest reform of the lycle curriculum. Nevertheless, who will be responsible for it? And how? The experiment which I have led over the past 9 years in my school, the Lycle International of St. Germain en Laye, has led me to try to work alongside at least one colleague who is a teacher of Philosophy. A group of students made up of volunteers from the classes of lère and Tie (the last two years of high school),from all three options of the baccalauréat (Scientific, Economic and Literary) and from all the international sections to be found in the school (13 in all) was formed. Firstly they became acquainted with ethical questioning and then took greater control by debating these issues after doing individual research. They spoke for themselves and I gained much from their own ideas and reflections. Arranging contacts and debates with specialists in the field and with witnesses with experiences of these situations enabled the students to be confronted with concrete examples and to understand the human dimension and the daily life of those concerned. Giving their thoughts in written form or translating ethical questioning in other ways proceeded the sharing of these ideas and thoughts with others: either in their own school through debates and other media or from French specialists during the days of reflections organized by the CCNE. In my opinion, this sort of learning is essential for the development of tomorrow's adults.

Reforming Chinese characters in the PRC and Japan: New directions in the twenty-first century

This article provides a comparative evaluation of Chinese character reform in the People's Republic of China and Japan, with a particular focus on the latest changes announced in 2009 to the existing script policies in the two countries. The first Chinese script reform took place in 1956 and the first Japanese script reform in 1946, both for the purpose of simplifying the scripts to facilitate mass education. In the 1980s, prompted by nationalistic sentiments and economic security, both countries backtracked on their script reform policies and adopted a more conservative approach that put an end to any further simplification of the script. The conservative trend which continued into the new millennium is reflected in the two latest reforms. Both China and Japan have moved further away from phonetizing the script in their effort to address issues related to information and communication technology.

Mining the Way to Wealth and Power: Late Qing Reform of Mining Law (1895–1911)

This article traces the origins of Chinese alignment with Western mining laws to the last years of the Qing dynasty. I argue that the first decade of the twentieth century was the fundamental watershed in China between early modern views of mining and those held by the Chinese government today.

Review EssayThe Jewish Roots of the Modern Republic

A concise study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestant Hebraica does not immediately suggest a provocative contribution to contemporary debates about secularization, religion, and politics. But that is what Eric Nelson’s learned yet accessible book about the Jewish sources of early modern republicanism provides.1According to Nelson, Professor of Government at Harvard University, the distinctive authority of the Hebrew Republic made possible the Protestant development of three central ideas: republican liberty, care for equality, and religious toleration. Nelson’s rehabilitation of the neglected Christian Hebraism of the late Renaissance and Reformation seeks to challenge historiographies which characterize modern political thought in terms of a rationalist independence from theology. These dominant narratives roughly describe a transition frompolitical theologytopolitical sciencethat excludes religious conviction from political argument.2Nelson invokes (but does not engage) Mark Lilla’s description of “the Great Separation” of religion and politics as one expression of this threshold of disenchantment.3He also associates this narrative with figures as diverse as Hans Blumenberg, Leo Strauss, C. B. Macpherson, Michael Oakeshott, John Rawls, and Jonathan Israel. The book, therefore, contributes to scholarship that complicates the primacy of the “Enlightenment” origins and character of Western politics. It also raises complex questions about our relation to these origins. Much like Nelson’s own argument about the way Jewish sources helped reorganize accepted categories, his book opens new spaces for scholarly conversation across multiple fields of study. This review briefly raises normative implications of Nelson’s book for scholars of theology, ethics, and religious studies. I examine stronger and weaker versions of Nelson’s historical narrative as well as his gestures at their implications.

The Arbitration Reform in France: Domestic and International Arbitration Law

This article presents a detailed analysis of the latest reform of French arbitration law, embodied in Decree N.2011-48 portant reforme de l’arbitrage of 13 January 2011 (the ‘Decree’). The Decree is a codification of most of France's pro-arbitration case law developed since the 1980 and 1981 reforms, some new rules and some new formulations of existing rules. The result boosts even more the efficacy of France's arbitration regime. Most of its provisions have been in force since 1 May 2011.

Standards-Based Curricula in a Denationalised Conception of Education: The Case of Sweden

In this article, the authors examine the development of the Swedish educational reform of 1991 from an international and European perspective, and from the perspective of what counts as knowledge in a recently implemented Swedish curriculum reform. With effect from 2011, the Swedish Government has significantly reshaped the curricula for pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school education, but in terms of governing principles for schools, these curriculum reforms can be regarded as a continuation of the 1991 reform. The authors argue that this latest reform, as part of an international policy discourse, can be said to represent a denationalised and instrumental conception of education, and that the implications for the formation of knowledge within this conception can be understood as a standards-based curriculum shaped by two powerful international influences: a technical-instrumental discourse of curriculum, emphasising the form, structure and function of the curriculum; and a neo-conservative discourse of curriculum, with an emphasis on curriculum content as a given and uncontested body of knowledge.

A New “Configuration” of the “Field” of Higher Education in Latest Reforms in Greece

A New “Configuration” of the “Field” of Higher Education in Latest Reforms in Greece

Tendering and decision-making: a case on pharmaceutical products

In order to contain expenditures for pharmaceuticals, the latest healthcare reforms have focused on decentralising German pharmaceutical market. Health insurance funds are now able to tender the products and subsequently conclude rebate contracts with one or more companies. Considering the enormous bargaining power of health insurance funds, pharmaceutical manufacturers, in particular companies in the generics industry, are facing an immense pressure to decrease their prices in order to win bids in these tenders. This empirical-based research study focus on a decision model that transforms basic information input into a decision tree is presented to offer practical support for decisioin-making in tendering procedures. The use of decision modelling tools (http://www.treeplan.com) such as objective hierarchies, influence diagrams, decision trees and sensitivity analysis can improve the quality of pricing decisions by forcing decision makers to base their decisions on clear thinking, appropriate assumptions and careful investigation of all alternatives.

Four Effects of the High-Stakes Testing Movement on African American K-12 Students

In order ensure that American are competitive with in other countries, since the 1980s, U.S. policymakers have been trying improve the K-12 public school system. Recent reform efforts have led the current high-stakes testing movement, which measures student achievement and school effectiveness mainly by standardized test scores. In this article, the authors explain how the current high-stakes testing movement has harmed African American through (1) instructional practices that have not resulted in widespread higher test scores; (2) increasing student apathy; (3) more punitive discipline policies and pushing more youth into the prison pipeline, and also by (4) creating a narcissistic education system that strives make schools look good, even if are not really learning information that will help them improve the quality of their lives. The authors conclude with recommendations that can improve the schooling experiences of African American youth.Key words: apathy, achievement gaps, prison pipeline, narcissism, NCLB, school reformIntroductionFrom its creation until the present time, there has been an on-going quest improve the U.S. ?? 2 public school system, and promises of reform have been a foundation of many political campaigns. Nevertheless, the school system has continuously failed live up its potential (Spellings, 2012). Consequently, some receive a quality education that prepares them for college or enter the workforce, and others receive an education that prepares them for lowpaying jobs or perpetual unemployment (Hale, 2001). One of the most far-reaching reforms began in the 1980s after Nation at Risk. . (The National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) was published. This report revealed that U.S. were not performing as well academically as their counterparts in other nations. A flurry of educational reforms followed, include: the 1987 High Schools That Work Reform (Smith, 2005), 1993s Success For All (Smith, 2005), and the Comprehensive School Reform of 1997 (Smith, 2005).The latest reform endeavor was codified in 2002, when the U.S. Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which amended the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). According its statement of purpose, NCLB was created to ensure that all children obtain a high-quality education and reach a minimum proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments (U. S. Congress 2002, p. 15). These goals would be accomplished through a twelve-step process that includedmeeting the educational needs of underperforming from historically underserved backgrounds; closing the achievement gap especially. between high- and low-performing children and their more advantaged peers; and significantly elevating the quality of instruction by providing staff in participating schools with substantial opportunities for professional development. (U.S. Congress, 2002, p. 15)Although the authors of NCLB explicitly outlined a multifaceted approach school reform, in the end, NCLB became equated with one ultimate objective: producing high test scores. A major consequence has been the current high-stakes testing movement that has made standardized test scores the main criteria by which student knowledge, teacher efficacy, and school quality are assessed. An even greater problem has been that although the authors of NCLB had good intentions, a decade after the reform was enacted most of its goals have not been met (Hightower, 2012; Klein & Rice, 2012).Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings stated, Half of our minority don't graduate from high school on time. And of move through the system without having basic reading and math skills (Spellings 2012, p. 42). Among the millions of students whom Spellings referred are African Americans, a group who has historically been underserved and even harmed through low expectations, culturally irrelevant instructional practices, unfair discipline practices, underrepresentation in gifted classes, and overrepresentation in special education classes by the U. …

Analysis of Sectoral Market Efficiency- A Study on Banking Sector

The sectoral analysis quantifies the key parameters of the economy. The analysis of different sectors of economy facilitates the Government to use it as the reference guide for the formulation of economic policy. The sectoral analysis is a summary that explains the economic growth report covering different industries. The sectoral analysis of our economy focuses on the key points of the latest reforms initiated by the Government of India. In addition, the study of this nature, analyses the efficiency of corporate sectors in the stock market. The banking industry is the core sector of the economy and therefore this paper tests the market efficiency across the companies under banking sector, listed at the BSE, by using the daily closing share prices from Jan 2006 to Dec 2009. The parametric and non-parametric tests were used for analysing the sectoral efficiency of sample banking companies and it is found that the banking sector was efficient during the study period.

Be a leader, not a follower

Are nurses permitted to be leaders or expected to be followers? Are they encouraged to develop services or simply expected to modify their practice to fit in with changes made by others? These are increasingly important questions as the NHS in England undergoes its latest reforms, coupled with the significant decreases in medical practitioner hours resulting from compliance with the European working time directive.

World Financial Crisis and Efficiency of Chinese Commercial Banks

AbstractThe US credit crunch generated substantial turmoil in the global financial markets and directly caused the collapse of several world banking giants. Nonetheless, Chinese commercial banks, decoupled from the rest of the world, achieved remarkable results because of their risk‐averse nature and banking reform during the past 10 years. To improve corporate governance and efficiency, the latest reform was focused on ownership transformation via foreign participation and stock listing. Employing data of 14 listed Chinese banks during the period 1999–2008, this paper tests whether IPO was an effective way to enhance banks’ efficiency using two frontier approaches, data envelopment analysis and SFA. The results confirm our hypothesis and suggest that restructuring banks into shareholding companies improves both technical efficiency and scale economies. This conclusion is further confirmed by the technical inefficiency effects model which found that efficiency rating of listed banks was about 5 per cent higher than their prior IPO level. Facing tougher economic condition and increased competition, banks not only need to broaden income sources, cut expenditures, but more importantly, to strengthen their risk management to become more resistant to a volatile business environment.

Evaluation of the Regulations of Credit Rating Agencies in the United States and the European Community

This paper focuses on the National Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs) and Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) operating in Europe before and after the latest reforms. Particular attention is given to Section 15E(h) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, IOSCO’s Code of Conduct fundamentals for Credit Rating Agencies and Annex I of the European Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies. Within these reforms it is possible to identify and highlight three common objectives: the increase of competition amongst rating agencies, the increase of transparency, and the prevention of conflict of interest. This study begins with an analysis of the regulative history as regards NRSROs before the financial collapse of Enron and WorldCom analyzing the deficiencies in the rating system that lead to the need for revision of existing regulations. This background sets the stage for an explanation of how recent regulations set out to achieve their stated objectives by creating an efficient means of registration and surveillance. These instruments serve to increase transparency not only among rating agencies but also for investors’ desideratum to be well informed. Finally, we evaluate the change that these regulations make in the payment system as well as in the actions of participants in the agencies, the results that will be achieved because of the creation of provisions and rules that aim to establish an impartial rating agent and system.

Equivalence and choice in combination: the Swedish dilemma

This article describes and analyses some crucial aspects in the latest reforms of Swedish upper secondary education. For decades Sweden stood out as a special case in several respects, in particular the integration of different tracks in upper secondary education; offering second chances to dropouts, and success in terms of equality and equivalence, as well as in terms of socially equal recruitment to higher studies. But, as in other OECD countries, the neo‐liberal combination of markets, accountability and institutional rankings has begun to dominate educational policies in Sweden. This development has had a noticeable impact on the upper secondary school system as a whole. For instance, through the independent school reform of the 1990s, there has been a gradual shift from education as a common good to stressing the individual’s freedom of choice. As a result of the new reform that begins in 2011 there will be a stronger division between tracks—academic and vocational education, and apprenticeship training will be organised in separate schools.