Public Spending Cuts Research Articles

The Economic, Judicial and Political Influence Exerted by Private Foundations on Cases Taken by NGOs to the European Court of Human Rights: Inklings of a New Cold War’?

AbstractBecause of the so‐called ‘austerity policies’ implemented by European institutions and national governments entailing substantial public spending cuts, national fundamental rights structures responsible for considering individual petitions and complaints have seen their resources significantly reduced. Similarly, non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), which have become specialised in lodging complaints with the European Court of Human Rights, have faced a substantial decrease in their funding. For these reasons, many NGOs active in the protection of human rights seem to have become increasingly dependent for their funding on private foundations led by wealthy financiers who pursue economic, political and judicial objectives that are not always self‐evidently compliant with the European standards of fundamental rights protection. The best example is perhaps that of the Open Society Foundations, which funds many NGOs. While scant attention has been paid by scholars to this phenomenon, this increasing dependency of NGOs on ‘economic finance’ will have a deep impact on concentrating and orientating applications towards specific domains and against specific countries. This process could therefore lead to the thwarting of the protection given to certain rights in certain countries that are not seen as priorities for NGOs and private foundations and could seriously compromise the right to make complaints to the ECtHR.

The great tax reform, a French myth

The need for a great tax reform is often debated in France, although the content and objectives of such a reform are never clearly specified. There is no unanimity on how the tax reform should be designed, some advocating that the reform should aim at cutting taxation (which implies further public spending cuts) while according to some others the tax system become more progressive. The French tax-to-GDP ratio is 46%, and primary public expenditure amount to 50% of potential GDP. This high level of public spending reflects a choice of society, which should be maintained. The French tax system is already very progressive, similar taxation applies to capital and labour incomes. France is one the very few countries where inequalities have not risen in the recent past. The paper addresses, for each category of tax, the reforms which could be introduced, and discusses whether they would be appropriate. In particular, the paper shows that replacing employers’ social contributions by VAT would be useless. It is desirable but difficult to raise environmental taxation; French taxation should remain family-based, merging the income tax with the CSG is not desirable. Tax expenditures should be reconsidered, especially as concerns companies’ and households’ tax optimization schemes. Merging PPE and RSA is not obvious. A competitiveness shock (i.e. strong cuts in employers’ social contributions and corporate taxation financed by a rise in CSG) should be implemented only in a European context.

‘Child friendly’ international human rights standards and youth offending team partnerships

International human rights standards stipulate that youth justice should be ‘child friendly’ and protect the ‘best interests’ or welfare of young people who offend. The multi-agency composition of youth offending teams (YOTs) in England and Wales seems to offer the ideal arrangement to achieve these standards. Yet while official inspections generally praise YOTs highly for reducing the risk of reoffending, independent research reveal significant shortfalls in their work to address the social welfare difficulties of young people who offend. This article uses an empirical study of YOT partnerships to explore why young people's social welfare needs are not being met. It challenges explanations which blame the audit culture and public spending cuts, and argues that such failure stems from the way young people's social welfare problems are framed. The article ends on a positive note by considering how a rights-based approach could be used to uphold young people's social rights.

The Effect of IMF Programs on Women’s Economic and Political Rights

ABSTRACTThough much research has been devoted to the socioeconomic and political consequences of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs for recipient countries, little is known about the impacts of these programs on the level of respect for women’s rights. We postulate that IMF-induced policy reforms of privatization and public spending cuts, and the growing political repression and instability following the implementation of IMF programs, undermine the government’s ability and willingness to protect women’s economic and political rights. To substantiate the theoretical claims, we combine data on women’s political and economic rights with data on IMF programs for the years 1981–2004. Our findings suggest that IMF involvement is likely to deteriorate the level of respect for women’s economic rights while having no discernible effect on women’s political rights. The results further indicate that the effect of these programs is not conditioned by political regime type and economic wealth of recipient countries. One major policy implication of our findings is that the IMF should start to recognize that the conditions attached to lending programs might be implemented at the expense of women’s economic rights and that more explicit protections of women’s rights need to be included in program negotiations.

Building Relationships in a Cold Climate: A Case Study of Family Engagement within an ‘Edge of Care’ Family Support Service

Drawing on a case study generated as part of a larger evaluation, this article explores engagement between one family and an ‘edge of care’ intensive family support service, within a cold climate of public spending cuts and rising numbers of children in care. The focus on engagement in the case study illustrates theories about relationship building at the ‘edge of care’: the importance of an empathic relationship; harnessing parents’ agency for change while raising child welfare concerns; allowing parents space to maintain a positive self-conception of parenthood while supporting improvements; and engagement with family practices. The case study highlights that, despite the potential disciplinary aspects of intensive family support, the parents valued the ‘edge of care’ service because it provided them with the help they felt they needed, contrasting with their prior experience of statutory child welfare agency practice.

The Failures of Privatization: A Comparative Investigation of Tuberculosis Rates and the Structure of Healthcare in Less-Developed Nations, 1995–2010

Tuberculosis remains a persistent global health problem and key threat to development in poor countries. While many nations pursue privatization of healthcare, some accounts suggest that private health services are inadequate in addressing the TB burden. We utilize panel regression to empirically investigate data from 99 less-developed nations from 1995 to 2010. The results illustrate private health expenditures do not significantly impact TB rates, while public health expenditures reduce TB rates in developing nations over time. Thus, we caution against international development strategies which promote cuts in public spending and encourage privatization of healthcare as a means to stimulate growth or efficiency.

Lessons from Thailand's Fiscal Policy

If rules of fiscal sustainability are observed, available fiscal space permits effective countercyclical fiscal programs. The importance of automatic fiscal stabilizers should not be underestimated. The discretionary impact of increased public spending and tax cuts can be amplified if implemented when consumer confidence investor sentiments are high. There is no evidence to support non-Keynesian effects of fiscal policy in Thailand. Unwarranted fears of unsustainable public debt and ultra-conservative fiscal policy has cost the country a lost opportunity for achieving high growth. After the military coups in 2006 and 2014, the Thai economy experienced the lowest economic growth among ASEAN countries. The budget spent on economic services was diverted into defense, increases in public sector's wages, and income transfer payments. The opportunistic political budget model predicts higher fiscal spending by incumbent democratic governments before an election to gain votes. In the case of Thailand, such spending comes after military coups, akin to a military business cycle spending.

Making development deliverable: Overcoming the hurdles of s.106 obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy

The current housing crisis will only be solved if we build more houses, but the delivery of development rests upon its viability. Planning policy requirements are commonly viewed as a key area for discussion and the area in which developers look for the greatest ‘give’ on the part of local authorities. However, in the climate of public spending cuts, development is often being relied upon to fund infrastructure that has traditionally been paid for by the public sector. Against this context, this paper explores some of the key issues arising from planning policy requirements — Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and s.106 obligations. It explains the likely impact of recent policy changes including restrictions upon the pooling of contributions, the ‘vacant building credit’, and the size threshold for the requirement of affordable housing. It provides examples of recent appeal decisions and High Court judgments and provides practical solutions to help navigate the increasingly complex topics of CIL and s.106 obligations.

Trade unions and austerity in Central and Eastern Europe

Austerity measures in the wake of the recent world financial crisis often translated into large cuts in public employment and spending, and tax increases. Trade unions throughout Central and Eastern Europe had a disillusioning record of protecting their members against the previous wave of market-making reforms that swept through the entire region in the 1990s. Would unions perform better this time? As the article shows, in three of the four countries discussed below (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania) trade unions were able to launch protests and nationwide strikes, arguably a sign of their growing capacity to mobilize discontent and of their willingness to risk their relationship with the government.

Social Risk of Public Spending Cuts in Scotland: Local Authority Experiences

This paper relates to work supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which examines the way Scottish Local Authorities have approached budget cuts (Asenova, et. al., 2013). Starting with a discussion of notions of social risk, we discuss the heightened challenges faced by local authorities. We note that the literature on public sector innovation predict such pressures would cause local authorities to engage in short term decision making and adopt a static coping approach to risk mitigation which is likely to stifle innovation and obstruct the creation of more coherent and resilient localities. Although we find this to have happened in some areas, we discuss two cases where these challenges have promoted innovative and inclusive approaches to service re-design and delivery.

Exploring the contribution of rural enterprises to local resilience

The economic importance of the private sector, such as the contribution of businesses to Gross Domestic Product or to employment creation, is well recognised in research and policy. In the context of significant economic, social and environmental changes such as the economic downturn, public spending cuts, an ageing population and climate change, the broader social and environmental contributions of the private sector to local resilience have begun to be recognised by researchers and policy-makers. However, we lack a detailed understanding of the nature of, and motivations for, these different contributions.This paper discusses the findings of a case study in South Australia which aimed to enhance our understanding of the role of private sector enterprises in local development and resilience. In particular, this article explores What, How and Why questions: What are the economic and social contributions of rural businesses to local resilience?, How are these contributions made? and Why do business owners make these contributions?The findings reveal that rural businesses contribute to local resilience in both direct and indirect ways. Direct contributions include, for example, the creation of local employment and local product and service delivery. Indirect contributions can be understood as the knock-on effect or added value of primary business activities. For example, the provision of employment opportunities helps to reduce the risk of out-migration and depopulation. With reference to the concept of embeddedness, the study demonstrates the importance of the rural context in shaping the behaviour of rural business owners and encouraging them to operate in economically, socially and environmentally responsible ways. However, this is not a passive relationship; rural business owners have the motivation and resources to respond to specific local challenges, opportunities and characteristics, and to proactively and skilfully turn them into entrepreneurial opportunities. As such, they become part of the adaptation process, acting as agents of change in supporting rural resilience. This adaptation process contributes to enhanced community resilience which enables the modification of existing structures and the seeking of solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges.

Beleaguered boroughs

Lara ten Caten and Maria Palomares explain how the twin crises of public spending cuts and insufficient housing have led to appalling behaviour by local authorities, and describe the impact on those who need help.

The uneven impact of austerity on the voluntary and community sector: A tale of two cities

There has been much debate about the impact of recession and austerity on the voluntary and community sector over recent years. Using secondary data from the 2008 National Survey of Third Sector Organisations, Clifford et al. (2013), writing in this journal, have argued that voluntary sector organisations located in more deprived local authorities are likely to suffer most due to the combined effect of cuts in government funding in these areas and their greater dependency on statutory funding. This paper develops this argument by exploring the sector’s changing relationship with the state through an empirical analysis of the differential impact of recession and austerity on voluntary and community organisations involved in public service delivery in the two English core cities of Bristol and Liverpool. This paper highlights how the scale and unevenness of public spending cuts, the levels of voluntary sector dependency on statutory funding and the rising demands for the sector’s services in a period of recession and austerity are being experienced locally. It portrays a sector whose resilience is being severely tested and one that is being forced rapidly to restructure and reposition itself in an increasingly challenging funding environment.

Batten down the hatches

Public-spending cuts could get much worse after the UK election. Science may be in the firing line again, warns Jennifer Rohn

Layers of Inequality—a Human Rights and Equality Impact Assessment of the Public Spending Cuts on Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women in Coventry

Layers of Inequality—a Human Rights and Equality Impact Assessment of the Public Spending Cuts on Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women in Coventry

Exploring the propensity to travel by demand responsive transport in the rural area of Lincolnshire in England

Local transport systems in rural areas worldwide are facing significant challenges. In particular, increased car ownership and usage as well as broader socio-economic trends such as ageing populations and cuts in public spending are combining to threaten the bus – the traditional means by which people without cars have accessed the services that they need. Consequently, Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) systems have emerged in a bid to combine the benefits of bus-based and taxi-based services, to deliver a relatively cheap yet comprehensive level of public transport in low demand environments. Unfortunately, while attractive in principle, several barriers conspire to limit the effectiveness of such services in practice.This paper therefore investigates how individual level factors influence the use of DRT systems in rural Lincolnshire in England by applying an ordered logit model to a survey of DRT users in the county. The analysis shows that those who are disabled, travelling for work, or live in less densely populated areas are likely to travel more frequently by DRT. Men are found to travel less frequently than women when they are below pension age. However there are no significant gender differences once they reach retirement age. This highlights an emerging market potential from the retired male market segment. The implications for policy include recommendations that DRT systems should be designed to cater for such market segments through both traditional channels and through further engagement with employers.

Austerity’s effect on English Civil Justice

textabstractThis article considers the effect of austerity-induced public spending cuts on the English civil justice system. In doing so it initially examines two fundamental changes engendered by the effect austerity has had on civil court fees and legal aid: first, a challenge to the traditional commitment in English procedure to adversarial process, and a concomitant increase in inquisitorial or investigative processes; and secondly, the growth in use of unqualified individuals to act as advocates in court for individual litigants who are unable to afford legal representation. It then turns to consider what, if any, effect austerity has had on simplified processes available in English civil procedure.

Troubling Times for Young People and Families With Troubles – Responding to Truancy, Rioting and Families Struggling With Adversity

The Big Society was one of the UK Prime Minister’s flagship policy ideas prior to his election in 2010 and has since become part of the UK coalition government’s legislative programme. A key aspect of the Big Society is to mend ‘societally Broken Britain’ by supporting families, as ‘strong families are the foundation of a bigger, stronger society’. However, in the aftermath of the riots of August 2011 in London and other parts of England, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, has suggested that parents of children who regularly truant need to be confronted and challenged and has proposed penalizing parents of truanting children by cutting their benefits. This article considers whether withholding benefits from families is an effective means of tackling antisocial behaviour or does this plan represent an ideological view of welfare recipients as being irresponsible and a commitment to the penalization of the socially excluded? This article will consider whether the Big Society truly offers the prospect of a new approach to young people and families deemed to be ‘in trouble’ or whether the August 2011 riots created the environment for justifying cuts in public spending by shifting responsibility for crime and crime control from the criminal justice system onto vulnerable young people and low-income families.

Public Service Broadcasting in Greece in the Era of Austerity

In 2013 the Greek government closed down public broadcaster ERT and made its employees redundant as part of the latest public spending cuts imposed to meet the terms of the country’s bailout deal. In effect, this has left the commercially dominated Greek broadcasting landscape without a public channel and its citizens dependent on the private media sector for the provision of information, entertainment and education. One can rightly accuse ERT of lacking clear public interest objectives, overstaffing, bureaucracy, wastefulness and over-rewards for senior management, but its abrupt closure without consultation and a strategic plan is an attack on free speech and public space by the Greek government. ERT required restructuring, but not closing down. Public service broadcasters play a crucial role in producing and disseminating public service output that brings citizens together and enhances the educational and cultural aspect. This paper is concerned with analysing the reasons behind, and consequences of seizing a public service broadcaster such as ERT. After providing a background of the historical role and remit of ERT, the article focuses on the legal questions surrounding the Council of State decision regarding ERT’s closure. The final part examines the legality of ERT’s closure from the EU and ECHR perspective. The central argument is that the closure of a public channel limits pluralism and freedom of speech in a market-driven Greek economy.

Public libraries in the "age of austerity": income generation and public library ethos

The budgets of Britain’s public services have been under sustained pressure and public libraries are no exception to public spending cuts in today’s “age of austerity”. Librarians increasingly try to supplement shrinking budgets by employing a variety of income generation methods. But are these methods always in line with the public library ethos? This article presents data showing what British librarians hold to be the public library ethos, what they undertake to generate extra income to maintain public library services and whether they think that their efforts to generate additional income are ever in contradiction to the public library ethos. The article is based on survey and interview data produced in 2013 and also provides, in a Supplementary File, a comprehensive list of income generation methods. The research methods only allowed for the production of non-generalisable data.