Policy Problems Research Articles

Actual problems of the criminal and legal policy of Ukraine in the conditions of war

Scientific research in the field of criminal and legal counteraction to corruption should be aimed at achieving such a result as minimizing the causes and conditions of corruption and corruption-related offenses, reducing their destructive impact on the already weakened economy, as well as the welfare of the Ukrainian population, the inevitability of being drawn to criminal liability of all persons involved in corruption. The norms on collaborationism, which were adopted in a hurry, have already been criticized by domestic scientists and need improvement. After the de-occupation of all our territories, it is impossible to allow unjustified prosecution of Ukrainian citizens who did not participate in collaborative activities. After the victory in this war, Ukraine, as a victim of the most brutal crime of aggression by Russia in the 21st century, having already some experience in countering the commission of international crimes and their investigation, should initiate the creation of the Code of International Crimes. Protection of victims from crimes is an actual area of criminal law policy. Despite the fact that the term «victim» is used by other sciences of the legal cycle, its meaning is directly related to criminal law. In recent years, the issue of classifying the victim as a subject of material criminal law relations has been actively discussed. Current problems of the criminal law policy of Ukraine, the most important in the conditions of war, can be divided into three groups. The first is the traditionally priority areas that only increased their relevance during the war (fighting corruption, terrorism, organized crime, etc.). The criminal law protection against corruption in all spheres, primarily in the sphere of defense, is the important factor that will contribute to the victory of our state over Russia. The most recent are directions that became relevant during the war (combating international and military criminal offenses, crimes against the foundations of national security (against the state), expanding the list of circumstances that exclude the criminal illegality of an act). The concept of self-defense as legitimate defense comes from domestic law, primarily criminal law. Necessary defense against the actions of an aggressor should be considered as legitimate socially beneficial violence. The predicted directions, which are actualized during the period of post-war reconstruction of the state, are countermeasures against the increase in the level of violent crime, suicides, and crimes related to the use of weapons. Key words: criminal law policy, counteraction, corruption, organized crime, violence, necessary defense, fair justice, international crime, war crime, crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine, criminal organization, terrorism, collaborationism, state security, victim.

Optimal monetary policy with [formula omitted

We study the optimal monetary policy problem in a New Keynesian economy with a zero lower bound (ZLB) on the nominal interest rate, when the steady state natural rate (r∗) becomes permanently negative. We show that the optimal policy aims to approach gradually a new steady state with positive average inflation. Around that steady state, the optimal policy implies well defined (second-best) paths for inflation and output in response to shocks to the natural rate. Under plausible calibrations, the optimal policy implies that the nominal rate remains at its ZLB most of the time. Despite the latter feature, the central bank can implement the optimal outcome as a unique equilibrium by means of an appropriate nonlinear interest rate rule. In order to establish that result, we derive sufficient conditions for local determinacy in a general model with endogenous regime switches.

A Comparative Study on Military Climate Crisis Management Policies in South Korea and the United States

The climate crisis is emerging as an extreme crisis for the entire earth and humanity. Recently, the 6th IPCC report was published, but the forecast results are even more disastrous. Accordingly, the United States, one of the world's strongest developed countries, is doing its best to prepare active countermeasures against the climate crisis in the field of defense. In particular, the United States recognizes the climate crisis as one of the biggest threats to national security, and is designing policies based on this perception. However, in the case of South Korea, there is no continuously policy for responding to the climate crisis in the defense sector. In this study, in order to think about the problems of South Korea's defense climate crisis management policy, a comparative study was conducted with the U.S. defense climate crisis management policy. As a result, specific policies for each field are being conceived and implemented in the U.S. defense climate crisis management policy. However, in the case of South Korea, it was confirmed that there is no recognition of the climate crisis as a threat by the Ministry of National Defense and no specific policy.

Problems and perspectives of the administration of the activities of guardianship and care bodies regarding resolving issues of guardianship and care of adults in Ukraine

The article examines in detail the issues of gaps and problems in Ukrainian state policy and the practice of its implementation in the area of activities of guardianship and care bodies in the field of guardianship and guardianship of adults.On the basis of the analysis of national experience, legislation on the relevant issue and the development prospects of the researched area determined by it, proposals were formulated regarding the likely way of establishing the activities of guardianship and guardianship bodies regarding the provision, protection and protection of the rights and legitimate interests of adults who need guardianship and guardianship. In particular, the author’s considerations regarding the likely content of the government decision on the procedure for conducting activities related to the protection of the rights of adults in need of guardianship and care by guardianship authorities are outlined.It is proposed to regulate this document, among others, the following issues: 1) determine the authorities that are the bodies of guardianship and guardianship in matters related to adults who need guardianship and guardianship, and units or specific persons who will directly coordinate the activities of the relevant direction; 2) determine the legal status of the boards of trustees; 3) to detail the tasks and specific duties and rights of guardianship and guardianship bodies according to the relevant field of activity; 4) determine the mechanisms for establishing, implementing and terminating guardianship over property and detail the features of property management of the person over whom guardianship has been established; 5) to determine the conditions for granting permits to guardians and custodians of adults for their execution of transactions with respect to the property of incapacitated and limited wards; 6) to regulate the powers of guardianship and guardianship bodies related to their exercise of guardianship and care over adults who have not been assigned guardians and custodians, as well as who are not in special institutions; 7) to regulate the procedure for the interaction of guardianship and guardianship bodies with consular institutions; 8) determine the requirements for registration of personal files of incapacitated persons and persons whose legal capacity is limited; 9) to regulate issues of control over guardianship and care of adult incapacitated persons and persons whose legal capacity is limited, etc.

Stated preference methods and STI policy studies: a foreground approach

Abstract This discussion article explores the ontological and epistemic basis for analysing social preferences in the broader interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) policy studies and its evaluation using stated preference (SP) methods. STI policy studies base their approximations of policy problems on a revealed preference (RP) approach, which analyses economic agents' actual market behaviours based on standardized data sources. SP methods arose as an alternative to address the analysis of public goods for which the market fails to assign prices efficiently and can only be evaluated in hypothetical or contingent situations. In an analytical context of complexity defined by grand societal challenges related to the provision of public goods to be addressed by STI transformative policies, analysing social preferences by SP methods could support a more robust and holistic approach to STI policy analysis and its evaluation, improving the policy-making process and promoting more informed policy mixes and evaluation policy mixes. A kind of Kantian categorical imperative favouring SP methods is discussed based on the new STI policy research agenda on transformative change and supported by axiology around social choice, welfare, and a more participative STI policy governance.

Danish nearshore wind energy policy: Exploring actors, ideas, discursive processes and institutions via discursive institutionalism

AbstractThis article explores Danish renewable energy policy and policymaking, focusing on the development of nearshore wind energy and the role played by various actors, their competing ideas, the discursive processes in which they participate, and the institutional settings where exchanges occur. The research employs a case study design, concentrating on the Vesterhav Syd nearshore windfarm project. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews, the paper exploits Discursive Institutionalism and one of its recent refinements, labelled Ideational Power that highlights power over, through and in ideas. The data gathered provides compelling evidence of the ways in which actors struggle for dominance, each seeking to persuade others of their preferred policy problem definition and solutions: a process that oscillates between highly technical coordinative discourses among government agencies and business organisations and more politicised communicative discourses among a wider set of actors that includes community groups. Significantly, this case reveals the power of various policy stakeholders in Danish energy policy, suggesting that once decisions are taken at the national level of governance to construct a windfarm, only limited influence can be exerted by local groups on the outcomes. Our findings raise wider questions about such processes beyond the Danish case.

Citizensourcing policy advisory systems in a turbulent era

Abstract Extending previous works on major changes in policy advisory systems (PASs), such as externalization (locus) and politicization (government control), this study examines whether and how democratization (citizensourcing) of PASs works based on the case of the Kwanghwamun Citizensourcing Policy Platform, which operated for 4 years under the Moon Jae-in administration in South Korea. Analyzing more than 11,000 policy suggestions proposed by ordinary citizens on the digital policy platform, this study investigates how citizensourced policy ideas are discussed, incubated, and finally adopted through interactions among ordinary citizens, policy experts, and government agencies. Based on the belief that the operation of PASs becomes increasingly complicated and often dysfunctional as societies face more “wicked”, cross-cutting, and volatile policy problems than ever, this study argues that citizensourcing policymaking is critical to ensuring policy legitimacy and receptivity. This study suggests that both the quality and features of citizensourced policy ideas are important for advancing policymaking processes. This study also finds that political cycle and active citizen policy entrepreneurs are also critical factors, while it shows noteworthy limits on the quality and features of citizensourced policy ideas, which, in fact, lead to a frustratingly low policy adoption rate. This study suggests that governments need to actively capitalize on the power of ordinary citizens as citizen experts, while the shortcomings and risks of citizensourcing PASs also need to be carefully addressed.

Roma Migration and the Cumulative Causation of Diverging Policy Responses in Scandinavia

Since 2007, Scandinavia has emerged as a new destination for Romanian Roma engaging in circular migration for begging and street work. Using policy documents from parliamentary debates in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, survey data on Romanian migrants in Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen, and qualitative fieldwork in Scandinavia and Romania, this article explores the dynamic relationship between Scandinavian policy responses and migrant selection and adaptations. First, we demonstrate how the Scandinavian countries differ in their approach to migration for begging as a policy problem, resulting in different contexts of reception. Second, we show that these different contexts of reception have given rise to differences in the selection and adaptations of migrant beggars and street workers in each of the three capital cities. Third, we hypothesize that the relationship between policy responses and migrant adaptations should be conceptualized as a process of cumulative causation, where pre-existing policy differences are reinforced through positive feedback.

Problematising the potentials of music programs to address Australia’s youth justice policy problems

ABSTRACT Reflecting an international shift from punitive to more rehabilitative responses to youth offending, many Australian youth justice systems are undergoing significant revision and reform. The urgency of these changes are intensified by longstanding inequities pertaining to the gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and documented violations of human rights within Australian youth detention centres. As state and territory jurisdictions strive towards more child-centred practices, music programmes have been seen to provide transformative experiences for incarcerated young people through opportunities to express themselves and form positive relationships with others. In considering the potentials of music programmes to contribute towards such a child-centred youth justice ‘solution’, this article reports a poststructural policy analysis of Australian youth justice policy texts that produce child-centredness in particular ways. Music programmes are thus positioned as inherently political endeavours that hold potential to reinforce or disrupt policy problems, with implications for equity and justice.

Policy entrepreneurs and problem definition: the case of European student mobility

AbstractIn the literature on the role of agency in the policy process, relatively little attention has been devoted to how agents define policy problems. This article helps to address this gap by asking when and how policy entrepreneurs are successful in defining problems. The article rests on a framework that shows how policy entrepreneurs holding specific ideas and given a propitious socioeconomic context are able to define problems, translate those problems into new frames, and draw on those frames, while using their personal skills and political and institutional resources, to help build supportive coalitions in favor of policy change. Illustrated by a puzzling case in the field of European mobility policy, the article offers a new perspective on the role of ideas at the problem definition stage of the policy process, while providing a richer understanding of the policy entrepreneur as a driver of policy change.

Balancing ChatGPT and Data Protection in Germany: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy Makers

In the last few months there has been widespread discussion about the remarkable progress made in the field of artificial intelligence, specifically large language models such as "ChatGPT". The ethical implications of AI, particularly concerning data protection, have sparked discussions on the necessity of robust regulations. This article examines the intersection of data protection, ChatGPT, and the ethics of AI, it explores Germany's ongoing efforts to strike a balance between harnessing the potential of large language models as ChatGPT and ensuring responsible and transparent use of AI technology in the policy-making realm. The GDPR serves as a guiding framework, necessitating careful consideration of privacy rights and secure handling of personal data when deploying ChatGPT in Germany's policy-making processes. The study draws on analysis on the current laws and regulations of data protection in Germany while studying Germany's commitment to safeguarding personal information through the active presence of The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. The first section provides a context and presents the policy problem. The second section looks at the available policy options on the role of policymaking in establishing comprehensive regulations regarding the use of ChatGPT and generative AI. The third section provides recommendations on how Germany can ensure the responsible management of ChatGPT, through strengthening data protection laws and regulations, simultaneously, restricting ChatGPT usage to private users and government, also, embracing appropriate usage of generative AI while developing ethical guidelines and best practices to harness its benefits, fostering innovation and advancement.

Low interest rates, low productivity, low growth? A multi-sector case study of UK-based firms’ funding and investment strategies in the context of loose monetary policy

ABSTRACT Low productivity growth in a low interest rate environment is a perennial problem for both UK monetary policy and the UK economy more generally. Through a comparative case study of eight firms across two economic sectors during 2012–6 we identify two shortcomings in the current productivity literature. The first is the importance of the order in which firms make investment and funding decisions. Investment decisions tend to predate questions of firm financing, implying loose monetary policy does not drive investment, but rather facilitates it. Secondly, we emphasise the importance of investment quality for funding choices. External financing such as credit or stock issues is predominantly used to fund expansionary but not productivity focussed investments. This implies monetary policy may have worsened the UK’s productivity problem by facilitating expansionary over productivity enhancing investment strategies. Our findings are broadly consistent with the political economy literature on the UK economy, but we argue that research framed by the ‘growth model’ concept has not successfully illuminated firm-level dynamics, and relies on mainstream macroeconomics to explain low productivity. We therefore argue for a research agenda that moves beyond aggregate measures and incorporates questions about the quality of economic activity.

Головной платок в Турции: символ или политический инструмент?

Headscarves are quite a controversial subject in Turkish society. The article reviews the issue in the context of the confrontation between traditional religious and secular values from the perspective of law enforcement. It notes the substantial impact exerted by the headscarf controversy on the political atmosphere and the higher education system in Turkey. The issue is often debated in the context of the threat to the principle of secularism. The previously widespread practice of excluding women who cover their heads from public sphere, especially universities, has become a serious domestic policy problem in Turkey that has been largely securitised by the judicial authorities. (A securitised issue is any aspect of public life that is portrayed by the state as an existential threat and is perceived as such by the population.) The situation changed significantly following the rise to power of the Justice and Development Party in 2022: against a backdrop of sweeping Islamisation of society, the headscarf issue was re-interpreted and re-semanticised. Chronologically, the article covers the period from the emergence of the Turkish Republic to the “Justice and Development Party era” and includes the latest initiatives launched by the ruling elite in late 2022. The article consistently analyses the concept of secularism in republican Turkey, examines the historical context of the headscarf issue and its transformation into a social problem, and provides a description of specific laws and court rulings on the subject. The article ends with a summary of the authors’ conclusions.

Development of Inventory Model to Reduce Total Inventory Costs at RSUD Mentawai

The inventory policy problem is a problem in the inventory system related to how to ensure that each usage demand can be met at minimal cost. In the healthcare industry, it is imperative that the procurement and use of stock is not only cost-effective, but also that the required stock is always available. Discrepancies between total inventory and usage can lead to damage to BMHP inventory as the items have expiry dates, as well as excess total inventory costs. The problem of total inventory costs exceeding the budget occurs because overstock is 83% of the total need, overstock is caused by an excessive number of drug orders purchased. The purpose of this study is to reduce the total cost of inventory by considering expiry costs, inspection cost, shortage cost, order cost, holding cost using the EOQ method. The first stage in this study is to calculate the optimal order quantity value, then find the expected number of drug expirations. These results will be used to calculate the total inventory cost of five types of medical materials. for the inspection cost value, if the number of expired medical materials is above 20, the inspection cost value is not equal to zero. The calculation results found that the total inventory cost was Rp. 162,904,965, this cost is less than the actual cost of Rp. 185,843,346.00 with a difference of 12%.

A slow-burning crisis: Executive relations and the normalisation of distrust in Northern Ireland's ‘cash for ash’ fiasco

This paper explores relationships between ministers, special advisers and civil servants through the lens of a high-profile government crisis in Northern Ireland (NI). Although political–administrative relationships are a mainstay of public administration research, we still have limited understanding of how these relationships feature and function within the ‘Westminster family’ of governance when operating within devolved institutions or post-conflict societies, nor of their role in crisis. We use Scott’s institutional pillars as an analytical framework and conduct a documentary analysis of public inquiry witness statements to explore the Renewable Heat Incentive crisis which led to the collapse of the NI legislature. Utilising a novel application of existing theory, we demonstrate that the implementation of the devolved, consociational power-sharing model incubated new governance norms, that prioritised and legitimised the agendas and actions of political actors (ministers and special advisers), over civil servants. Specifically, in understanding how relational norms – particularly distrust – feed public policy failure and institutional crisis, our findings contribute to this research area and to the broader public administration field. Government institutional crisis negatively impacts upon public service delivery and the wider health of democracy. Understanding such crises is an important first step in their amelioration. Points for practitioners Structural, systemic and day-to-day behavioural layering of distrust adversely impacts government professionals’ ability to recognise, communicate and respond to risk; this can create policy problems, which can escalate, unchecked, until they have become full-blown crises. In order to proactively mitigate crises in other public policy contexts, managers and teams should build in awareness raising, reflection and management processes to individual and operational performance reviews to improve relational norms, and prevent the normalisation of distrust.

Avaliação de Políticas Sustentáveis

Sustainability policy evaluation and assessment seeks to answer the key question, sustainability of what and whom? Consequently, sustainability issues are multidimensional in nature and feature a high degree of conflict, uncertainty and complexity. Social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) has been explicitly designed for public policies; it builds on formal modelling techniques whose main achievement is the fact that the use of different evaluation criteria translates directly into plurality of values and dimensions underpinning a policy process. SMCE aims at being inter/multi-disciplinary (with respect to the technical team), participatory (with respect to the community) and transparent. SMCE can help deal with three different types of sustainability-related policy issues: 1) epistemological uncertainty (human representation of a given policy problem necessarily reflects perceptions, values and interests of those structuring the problem); 2) complexity (the existence of different levels and scales at which a hierarchical system can be analyzed implies the unavoidable existence of non-equivalent descriptions of it both in space and time); and 3) mathematical manipulation rules of relevant information (compensability versus non-compensability, preference modelling of intensities of preference, mixed information on criterion scores, weights as trade-offs versus weights as importance coefficients, choice of a proper ranking algorithm). This paper focuses on the these three issues and provides an overview of the SMCE approaches to them.

Contradictions of economic policy in the context of new risks and challenges in the development of the world economy

The relevance of the problems considered in the article is associated with the growth of uncertainty and increased turbulence in the development of the world economy in recent years, as well as with the ambiguous impact of this instability on the economies of individual countries. These new trends have actualized the problems of economic policy, the analysis of which is the purpose of our study. These problems are connected both with the restoration of the previous growth rates and the choice of optimal instruments of fiscal and monetary policy, as well as counteracting the volatility of world prices and the instability inherent in commodity markets. One of the objectives of the study is to assess the approaches of individual countries in terms of their response to the crisis phenomena of recent years, to determine the main directions for counteracting the growth in the debt burden of countries, tools to curb inflation in the context of unprecedentedly tight financial conditions, as well as mechanisms for macroprudential regulation. As one of the results of the study, the author proves the growing differentiation of economic policies in the context of individual countries, limiting the sustainable recovery of the world economy, which is exacerbated by the ongoing instability of international trade and disruptions in global value chains. In addition, the author concluded that volatile world energy and food prices make traditional economic policies more uncertain and force countries to use alternative economic regulation tools, in particular, those related to changing the practice of applying policy rates to curb inflation, new approaches to the implementation of the tasks of the climate agenda and labor market policy.

Innovating urban governance through ‘Challenges’

ABSTRACT In recent years, urban “Challenges”—competitions that solicit and reward novel solutions to urban policy problems—have become embedded within a wider program of governance innovations presented to city governments as effective means to solve complex urban problems. This paper offers an overview and critical evaluation of the uses of Challenges in contemporary urban governance innovation, based on an extensive analysis of existing Challenges and related practitioner and promotional literature. Situating Challenges within the increasingly prominent urban governance innovation trends, we suggest a fourfold categorization for understanding the diverse positionings, motivations and objectives at play in the application of Challenges. We present a critique of the prominent logics of projectification, technological solutionism and competition associated with Challenges and conclude by offering coordinates for more intensive and contextually-specific analyses of the Challenge phenomenon.

Decentralized access control for secure microservices cooperation with blockchain

With the rapid advancement of cloud-native computing, the microservice with high concurrency and low coupling has ushered in an unprecedented period of vigorous development. However, due to the mutability and complexity of cooperation procedures, it is difficult to realize high-efficient security management on these microservices. Traditional centralized access control has the defects of relying on a centralized cloud manager and a single point of failure. Meanwhile, decentralized mechanisms are defective by inconsistent policies defined by different participants. This paper first proposes a blockchain-based distributed access control policies and scheme, especially for microservices cooperation with dynamic access policies. We store the authorized security policies on the blockchain to solve the inconsistent policy problem while enabling individual management of personalized access policies by the providers rather than a central authority. Then we propose a graph-based decision-making scheme to achieve an efficient access control for microservices cooperation. Through the evaluations and experiments, it shows that our solution can realize effective distributed access control at an affordable cost.

Can NPOs convene collaborative governance in China? —a case of addressing complex water conflicts

ABSTRACT Collaborative governance is considered to be a promising solution to solve complex public policy problems. However, in authoritarian states, the initiation and organization of collaborative governance can be challenging as it often faces political and practical constraints. In response to these challenges, some enthusiastic local governments experimented using a third party to act as convenors of collaborative governance in China. This article conducted in-depth and longitudinal analyses of the case of NPO-GZ, which was contracted as the convenor for collaborative governance to resolve a water pollution conflict between two villages. The research established some critical conditions for a professional convenor of this nature to succeed in China. This research contributes to the growing literature on the possibility of improving developing collaborative governance in an authoritarian political system.