Policy Dilemmas Research Articles

The Two Faces of Russia Foreign Policy toward China and Taiwan

Russia, as one of the key actors in international politics, faces problematic issues in Chinese-Taiwan Relations. As a significant player, Russia reserves a close and stable relationship with China. However, Russia could not avoid Taiwan's significant role in Northeast Asia, especially its role in allying with the West. Taiwan undoubtedly offers a promising prospect for the Russian economy, but political relations with Taiwan could not significantly contribute to Russian FP. In this paper, Russian foreign policy will be examined on both sides, Russian foreign policy toward China and Russian foreign policy toward Taiwan. The purposes of this paper are trying to analyze the Russian foreign policy dilemma toward China-Taiwan relation. The analysis of this paper will focus on President Vladimir Putin as the decision-maker and explore all circumstances that will influence the decision-making process. The level of analysis implemented in this paper is domestic politics that significantly contribute to Russian foreign policy decision-making. This paper will gather secondary data from the news, journal, and book as the primary sources. The paper's outcome is analyzing Russian foreign policy's dilemma and exploring how Russian foreign policy toward current dynamics of China-Taiwan Relations.

Extraterritorial Reference of China’s Labor Market Flexibility Adjustment

China’s labor market is facing a policy and legal dilemma of balanced flexibility and security adjustment. Under the condition of the continuous development of new economic conditions such as sharing economy and platform economy, the new employment pattern of the labor market presents new challenges to the current legal system. It is of great significance to optimize and perfect China’s existing labor policies and regulations by studying the experience of representative countries such as the United States, Japan, and Germany in labor market regulation and drawing on their scientific adjustment model.

Public values and plurality in health priority setting: What to do when people disagree and why we should care about reasons as well as choices

Context‘What does ‘The Public’ think?’ is a question often posed by researchers and policy makers, and public values are regularly invoked to justify policy decisions. Over time there has been a participatory turn in the social and health sciences, including health technology assessment and priority setting in health, towards citizen participation such that public policies reflect public values. It is one thing to agree that public values are important, however, and another to agree on how public values should be elicited, deliberated upon and integrated into decision-making. Surveys of public values rarely deliver unanimity, and preference heterogeneity, or plurality, is to be expected. MethodsThis paper examines the role of public values in health policy and how to elicit, analyse, and present values, in the face of plurality. We delineate the strengths and weaknesses of aggregative and deliberative methods before setting out a new empirical framework, drawing on Sunstein's Incompletely Theorised Agreements, based on three levels: principles, policies and patients. The framework is illustrated using a recognised policy dilemma – the provision of high cost, limited-effect medicines intended to extend life for people with terminal illnesses. FindingsApplication of the multi-level framework to public values permits transparent consideration of plurality, including analysis of coherence and consensus, in a way that offers routes to policy recommendations that are based on public values and justified in those terms. ConclusionsUsing the new framework and eliciting quantitative and qualitative data across levels of abstraction has the potential to inform policy recommendations grounded in public values, where values are plural. This is not to suggest that one solution will magically emerge, but rather that choices between policies can be explicitly justified in relation to the properties of public values, and a much clearer understanding of (in)consistencies and areas of consensus.

Promethean Economics: The Exploration and Exploitation of the Space of Technological Possibilities

Graphical argument and game theory can elucidate, more effectively than mathematical general equilibrium theory, the Promethean economics of how market capitalist economies explore and exploit the space of technological possibilities. The first step is to understand why supply curves can slope down, which can result in the non-production of goods and services that are technologically available. The consumer goods space, for example, consists of active and potential industries, largely depending on whether there is a critical mass of demand. Invention can add goods to the consumer goods space, but goods can become newly available without invention, simply due to increased market size or intensification of and division of labor. Goods can be classified as (a) natural vs. man-made and (b) consumable vs. higher-order, yielding a typology of (a) foraging goods that are natural and consumable, (b) raw materials, (c) consumer products, and (d) intermediate goods (man-made and non-consumable). Adding roundaboutness and higher-order goods to the picture makes the technology space a graph-theoretic landscape of active and potential industries, with production functions linking nodes in the network in complex ways. Market size and/or division of labor can fuel productivity growth through activating upstream industries without fundamental invention. Effective market size depends in part on institutions, which may fail to achieve efficiency in basic product and factor markets, but also in the less well-recognized specialization problem that arises when specializing is in the social but not the individual interest, due to the way specializing damages an individual's or organization's bargaining position and terms of trade. Contracts, reputation, habit and moral virtue are among the factors that might solve prisoner's dilemma games to facilitate and trade, driving a more complete exploitation of the technology space, and raising productivity. A wide range of policy dilemmas, e.g., relating to IP and competition policy, arise at the economic frontier, which don't lend themselves to one-size-fits-all solutions, and finding the efficient policy frequently depends on understanding the technologies involved and the resulting economic possibilities and incentives. This gives rise to a valuable role for technocratic planning if it can be done well.

Policy Contradictions and Policy Dilemma: A Case of Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) on Business Performance in the Engineering Sector in Zimbabwe

The use of tax policies to address macro-economic challenges has often led to serious other macro-economic challenges for developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate macro-economic policy dilemmas that affect developing countries when they implement tax policies to address macroeconomic challenges. The objective of the study was to examine how the 2% Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (MTT) introduced to raise financial resources to grow the economy affected performance of companies in the engineering sector. The study was guided by the pragmatism research philosophy, used explanatory research design and a mixed research approach. Data was collected from companies in the metal fabrication and machine/equipment sub-sectors of the engineering sector. A total of 68 companies were used. The paper shows that a tax policy adopted by Zimbabwe to raise revenues for supporting economic growth and addressing several economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment and negative economic growth generated other macro-economic challenges such as declining performance of companies in the Engineering sector. Results from the study showed that 2% IMTT had a negative an influence on business performance of companies in the engineering sector. The tax reduced profit margins, sales, and competitiveness. Conclusions from the study were that adoption of tax policies by governments, to achieve increased revenue and growth of the economy may, in the process, negatively affect some sectors of the economy. It was therefore recommended that the government analyse potential contradictions and dilemmas before implementing tax policies. Further studies of the influence of IMTT on other sectors like the small scale and informal sectors that are usually hit the hardest by government policies is recommended.

Political and policy dilemmas of euro adoption in CEE countries: What next when crisis hits?

AbstractSuccessive crises and shifts in geopolitics necessitate a more coherent Europe, with the euro as a key instrument, yet the enlargement of the euro area is unfinished. The paper reconstructs diverging trends in non‐EA countries, and considers the motivations of key stakeholders in countries without commitment to enter. The approach applied is dual: we reconsider economic arguments of a currency reform and conduct political economy analysis with the underlying hypothesis that euro adoption, for businesses, is a cost/benefit issue, while for governments, parties, and voters it is a sovereignty issue with cost/benefit aspects attached. The authors conclude that macroeconomic and business considerations would support Eurozone entry in all CEE countries concerned. As for key stakeholders, society and the business community support the euro, but particular government interests are at stake. Post‐pandemic realities would reconfirm rational arguments for euro entry; to make that happen, economic nationalist and state developmental concepts need be discarded.

Exploring the dilemma of overcapacity governance in China's coal industry: A tripartite evolutionary game model

Coal overcapacity reduction is an essential part of China's energy transition. An effective governance model is a key to realizing the smooth exit of excess coal capacity. We construct a tripartite evolutionary game model involving the central government (CG), local governments (LGs) and coal enterprises (CEs), and then use it to examine the dilemma of overcapacity governance and alternative policies. Our results demonstrate that: First, the evolutionary convergence of strategy among the tripartite game agents exhibits a reliable degree of interdependence. The market-oriented central regulation mechanism of the CG may incentivize LGs to take a strict implementation. Also, when the LGs strictly perform the de-capacity policy, CEs are more active in responding to the de-capacity task. Second, the stable and ideal evolutionary state of (0,1,1) can be achieved when the corresponding conditions are met, which indicates that the coal de-capacity should coordinate the interests of multiple stakeholders. Third, inspired by the parameters sensitivity simulation, reducing the de-capacity costs, a balanced performance appraisal system, an appropriate supervision and punishment mechanism for de-capacity implementation, and increasing the investment in technological innovation and upgrading can promote the effective management of the coal overcapacity issue. This study can more genuinely reflect the complicated dynamic game process of China's coal de-capacity than the previous studies, and thus provides insights and decision-making references for the design of an effective coal overcapacity governance mode.

Why machines cannot be moral

The fact that real-world decisions made by artificial intelligences (AI) are often ethically loaded has led a number of authorities to advocate the development of “moral machines”. I argue that the project of building “ethics” “into” machines presupposes a flawed understanding of the nature of ethics. Drawing on the work of the Australian philosopher, Raimond Gaita, I argue that ethical dilemmas are problems for particular people and not (just) problems for everyone who faces a similar situation. Moreover, the force of an ethical claim depends in part on the life history of the person who is making it. For both these reasons, machines could at best be engineered to provide a shallow simulacrum of ethics, which would have limited utility in confronting the ethical and policy dilemmas associated with AI.

Navigating policy dilemmas in fuel-subsidy reductions: learning from Indonesia’s experiences

Fuel subsidies are policy instruments that have historically been used to assist the poor in affording energy for essential household activities. The subventions have, however, been the subject of considerable criticism that they in practice exacerbate inequalities and enrich fuel producers and well-to-do households that do not require support from fuel subsidies. When efforts to resolve tensions across different stakeholder needs lead to unintended, undesirable, and differential impacts across groups and across different time horizons, a policy dilemma emerges. Actors looking to understand or inform fuel-subsidy reform face an analytical challenge in knowing how to effectively frame important interlinkages and identify strategies for intervention. This policy brief responds to this analytical challenge in understanding interlinkages that frame these policy dilemmas by using John Kingdon’s multiple-policy stream framework to analyze how the Indonesian government navigated its energy subsidy reform policy dilemma during 1998–2016. It shares lessons on how the country has managed this situation and discusses implications for further domestic reforms. The Indonesian experience may provide useful insights and lessons for other developing countries looking to navigate the multiple interlinkages across fuel-subsidy dilemmas.

1923: Hyperinflation in Germany

In the 1920s, Germany experienced one of the most severe episodes of hyperinflation in history. The episode originated in military defeat and revolution, produced instability that figured prominently in the onset of the Great Depression, and created policy dilemmas that present cautionary lessons for leaders in business and government. This note examines the causes, dynamics, and consequences of Germany's hyperinflation in 1923.Hyperinflation is an episode of very large price increases across a broad range of goods and services that often arises from excessive expansion of the supply of paper money to finance government expenditures. It causes wasteful distortions in the functioning of markets, including hoarding of goods and commodities, currency depreciation, capital flight, price controls, and black markets. In a self-reinforcing cycle, price increases beget greater issuance of currency, which begets more price increases and so on, until a political regime shift reforms the unit of currency and government spending. Excerpt UVA-F-1965 Dec. 18, 2020 1923: Hyperinflation in Germany Hyperinflation is an episode of very large price increases—for instance, at the rate of 50% per month—across a broad range of goods and services. It typically arises from excessive expansion of the supply of paper money to finance government expenditures—the new money is issued by central banks that have lost their independence from governments. These episodes amount to wealth redistribution from savers to the government and from creditors to debtors. Hyperinflation causes wasteful distortions in the functioning of markets and in decisions about investment and consumption. Distortions include hoarding of goods and commodities, currency depreciation, capital flight, price controls, and black markets. Ultimately, the distortions accelerate a decline in national output. Hyperinflation is a self-reinforcing cycle. Price increases beget greater issuance of currency, which begets more price increases and so on, until a political regime shift reforms the unit of currency and government spending. This is largely a modern phenomenon; it is a consequence of failed states, wars, and utopian experiments. For instance, from 2007 to 2009, Zimbabwe suffered hyperinflation that reached 500billion percent annually. In 1946, Hungary experienced price increases of 350% per day. In 2018, Venezuela experienced annual inflation of 1.7million percent. . . .

Technology Policy Dilemmas in the New Administration

Investors and managers have to deal with the economy as it is, and do business as best they can. New administrationsmake policy decisions with economic consequences, shaping costs and opportunities for firms. In that sense, it is possible to have a nonpartisan conversation about the technology policy dilemmas inherited by a new administration, and discuss how realistic policy changes shape the economic situation for firms. That is what today’s column provides—a nonpartisan survey of interesting technology policy issues to watch in the new administration. To be clear, there is professional opinion in this column—i.e., I made some judgment calls about what topics interest those in the technology business. To the best of my ability, however, I tried to stick to the economics and nothing else. This survey will show how many key decisions are up in the air. That has one important economic implication for investors: It creates a classic situation where new information about policy will move financial markets far in advance of the actual actions of firms responding to new policy. Expect indicators to move up and down immediately after decisions become public.

Is Bangladesh ready to open its schools? School closure and opening policy dilemma of Bangladesh

Is Bangladesh ready to open its schools? School closure and opening policy dilemma of Bangladesh

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS. IS CAPITALISM AT A NEW TURNING POINT?

Mankind will prevail in the fierce war against the coronavirus, a hidden, treacherous foe that has been attacking randomly and leaving many human deaths behind. The struggle with this pandemic has an end in sight because we have effective weapons to combat it now, such as vaccines which are be used on a grand scale, worldwide. We will overcome the severe economic downturn as well; but this crisis will leave deep scars, given that economies are witnessing sweeping changes. These changes, adding to tensions and intricate issues and policy dilemmas that date back prior to the Pandemic and the current economic crisis, call for introspection, examination of economies’ functioning and a revisiting of public policies. The financial crisis that erupted a decade ago prodded social scientists and policy-makers to think about serious problems that afflict modern economies. In the text below I hook up with ideas that I have expressed in recent years and extrapolate them to the fallout from the current crises

Fuel choice and tradition: Why fuel stacking and the energy ladder are out of step?

Multiple fuel use, incorporated within the concept of fuel stacking is prevalent in households at the beginning and mid-way in their ascension up the energy ladder. However, households cannot fully let go of their traditional energy sources presenting inherent policy complexities and contradictions within energy transition theories. Empirical insights into the determinants of clean energy transitions are presented that highlight the need to recognise both fuel switching and stacking occurs in many rural households. It focuses on rural communities in India and illuminates policy dilemmas. The study reveals that fuel stacking is likely to remain a key part of the socio-cultural energy tradition that will impact progress towards low carbon and a cleaner energy transition. We therefore argue targeted policy interventions, multi-stakeholder collaboration and strong energy governance is needed to incorporate socio-cultural traditions particularly linked to cooking. This suggests new energy policy that must offer flexibility in order to achieve the twin goals of universal energy access and decarbonising energy systems.

Overview of Economic and Social Aptitude of International Migration

This paper synthesizes insights from new global data on the effectiveness of migration policies. It investigates the complex links between migration policies and migration trends to disentangle policy effects from structural migration determinants. The analysis challenges two central assumptions underpinning the popular idea that migration restrictions have failed to curb migration. First, post‐World War II global migration levels have not accelerated, but remained relatively stable while most shifts in migration patterns have been directional. Second, post‐World War II migration policies have generally liberalized despite political rhetoric suggesting the contrary. While migration policies are generally effective, substitution effects can limit their effectiveness, or even make them counterproductive, by geographically diverting migration, interrupting circulation, encouraging unauthorized migration, or prompting “now or never” migration surges. These effects expose fundamental policy dilemmas and highlight the importance of understanding the economic, social, and political trends that shape migration in sometimes counterintuitive, but powerful, ways that largely lie beyond the reach of migration policies.

Common shock, different paths? Comparing social policy responses to COVID‐19 in the UK and Ireland

AbstractThe UK and Ireland responded to the rapid health and economic impacts of COVID‐19 by supporting incomes through job retention and job loss instruments, However distinct policy legacies, political and institutional differences between the two countries mean critical differences in both the nature and the relative weight placed on these instruments. The UK income support package was announced in one go and centred on a generous, newly created Job Retention Scheme as well as an enhanced Universal Credit for people who became unemployed. Ireland, by contrast, created a new, more generous social security payment, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, while a less prominent job retention scheme followed a week later. These initial decisions generated distinct policy dilemmas during a second round of policy changes, in which Ireland sought to reintegrate the more generous Pandemic Unemployment Payment into the mainstream welfare system, while UK sought to ensure that the Job Retention Scheme was only supporting retained (or “viable”) jobs. A second wave of infections in October 2020, requiring new restrictions, led both nations to make substantial retreats from resolving these core policy dilemmas.

AB’nin Sorgulanan Küresel Aktörlüğü: AB-Türkiye Göç Mutabakatı Üzerine Bir Tartışma

Addressing a close relationship between the EU’s role as a global actor and migration management, this article covers the 2016 EU-Turkey migration deal and endeavors to go beyond simple criticism of its efficiency. Following a review of the relevant literature and critical analysis of recent migration management process, interviews with field experts and policymakers were utilized to assess the policy dilemmas of the EU’s approach to the pressure from migration. The pressure the EU has long been experiencing is not a challenge that can be solved by asymmetric cooperation with third countries, characterized by an ignorance of divergences in perceptions and expectations. This may have subsequent impact on the EU’s enlargement policy and thereby on the stability of the region.

Human Rights in a Pandemic

The article is focused on the problem of human rights (HRs), limited or derogated from, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While addressing some HRs limitations, derogations and even abuses, and their consequent problems, the aim is to try to analyze policy, social, moral and personal dilemmas of HRs restrictions as well as motivations behind the types of public and social behavior, in the course of the pandemic, in response to the public measures of sanitation, social distancing and confinement, travel restrictions and social assistance, recommended by the WHO and selectively followed by governments. Learning from some old experience and deriving new lessons from the pandemic, as well as from public and social actions and reactions, the purpose of the present article is to assess whether or not public health policies in this context, implemented nationally or internationally, can promote change in the HRs paradigm in the face of the existing dilemmas and dichotomies in HRs, aggravated by the pandemic. The conclusion is that the extant HRs paradigm should be redefined to address better the political, social, economic, environmental and, especially, existential exigencies of “rainy times”, thus leading to the creation of a new universal HRs code or to harmonizing the existing one.

Social distancing and reopening universities after the COVID-19 pandemic: policy complexity in G20 countries.

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected the entire globe, and various mythologies argue about its diagnosis, cure, and prevention. Globally, as of September 18th, 2020, there have been 30.055 million confirmed cases, including 0.943 million deaths. The nationwide closures are impacting over 60% of the world’s student population. This study aimed to explore the social distancing policies and universities’ reopening after COVID-19 in G20 countries (19 member countries and the European Union).Design and Methods: The study is based on documentary analysis. G20 members represent around 80% of the world’s economic output, two-thirds of the global population (including more than half of the world’s poor), and 75% of international trade. Based on documentary analysis, the study revealed that there is a policy dilemma among G20 countries regarding school reopening and a variety of conflicting policies within each country.Results: Based on a sample of 838 universities in the USA, 66% of universities (552 of 838) plan for in-person instruction, while only 7% are planning for a completely online teaching mode in the fall 2020 semester.Conclusions: Interestingly, none of the private universities in this study are planning to implement an online teaching mode. Policymakers need an integrated set of policy guidelines for school reopening, considering the evaluation of current COVID- 19 pandemic circumstances and social distancing capacity.Significance for public healthAccording to UNESCO, most governments worldwide have temporarily closed educational institutions to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to nationwide closures are impacting hundreds of millions of students. Recently, several countries have implemented localized social distancing policy to open schools. In the background of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic globally, the study reveals that school reopening policy guidelines are very important because gathering more students may spread the virus.

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security