State Reform Research Articles

Integrated Care Policies and Politics in Belgium: Conceptual, Contextual and Governance Linkages for More Effective Integrated Care Policy Management Comment on "Integration or Fragmentation of Health Care? Examining Policies and Politics in a Belgian Case Study".

The study on the management of integrated care (IC) policies in Belgium from Martens et al illustrates the complex process of the political and stakeholder game in a country whose governance is changing as a result of successive state reforms. We argue that the way forward for putting health back at the centre of IC policy design and management is to improve three types of connections. First, the conceptual connections should help to articulate the different IC policies into a coherent overall picture. Second, contextual connections should allow for the adaptation of policies to different country contexts. This requires a new form of governance, ie, a place-based and adaptive form of governance. This can be developed, provided that a third connection, between the different levels of governance, is fully revised.

Sarah Mortimer, Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State (1517–1625)

Sarah Mortimer, Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State (1517–1625)

Hardening the EU core-periphery lines, 2009–2019: Dependency, neoliberalism, welfare reformation and poverty in Greece

The paper holds a critical view on EU austerity policies, with particular emphasis given to Greece. It is maintained that the main causes for the implementation of neoliberal reforms should be examined in the manner with which the Greek economy has developed in relation with the European capitalist division of labor as a peripheral economy. Greece is approached as intimately conditioned by a multifaceted institutional structure of dependencies that outstrips the country's ability to exercise economic policy for its own social interests. Essentially built upon the premises of a core-periphery dependency paradigm, the periodic post-war reconfigurations of the EU architectural design offered enough room to the formation of a stricter policy framework along these lines. By developing a set of differentiated indices on European poverty, the devastating consequences of the belated neoliberal reformation of the country's welfare state are highlighted. All calculations are based on microdata sets of EUSILC surveys.

International legal nature of multilateral development banks

The article examines the theoretical foundations of the international legal nature of multilateral development banks. The methodological basis of the study was a complex systematic analysis of legal phenomena, as well as private scientific methods of knowledge: formal-legal, historicallegal, and comparative-legal. It indicated that multilateral development banks are international organizations that meet all the characteristics of subjects of international law – they have their own will, competence, and responsibility. Multilateral development banks are international organizations of a special type that combine public and private foundations in terms of competence. It noted that multilateral development banks create conditions for cooperation between states in matters of financing the economy. Development banks created as international organizations based on multilateral agreements for joint management of international settlements in the field of financial cooperation. Multilateral development banks as subjects of international law are capable of responding quickly to changes in the world economy. The purpose, tasks, functional features of multilateral development banks constantly being transformed, which corresponds to modern trends in the development of international legal and economic relations. It indicated that multilateral development banks, as international intergovernmental organizations, have their own legal personality and do not fall under the jurisdiction of the national states on whose territory the headquarters are located. Development banks have international immunities and privileges that are functional in nature. A feature of the legal status of multilateral development banks, as subjects of international public law, is the combination of public and private functions due to the private law and public-law nature of their activities. This manifested in the fact that the financial operations of international multilateral development banks are similar to market financial operations, but credit agreements are international contracts concluded with states. A special aspect of the legal activity of development banks is the influence on social and economic reforms in member states by financing development programs.

The welfare state, technological unemployment and social innovation in Mexico

The adverse effects of the opening of the economy during the 1980s and 1990s in Latin America brought about a debate about the reform of the welfare state. However, the path to follow is still uncertain. This scenario has forced the emergence of social innovations to tackle problems such as poverty and technological unemployment which neither the market nor the state have been able to solve. The aim of this paper is to review the way in which the Mexican welfare state has impeded the alleviation of poverty and technological unemployment making, in consequence, the creation of an enabling technology-based social innovation environment a priority. For that purpose we carried out a documentary analysis as part of a broader research study which assesses empirically the role of the Mexican state in creating a technology-based social innovation environment as a way to alleviate social illness such as poverty and technological unemployment. We conclude that empirical approaches to the links between social innovation, the labor market and poverty are indispensable to advancing the discussion about the design of the provision of welfare in the twenty-first century.

Institutionalizing Experimental Places for Inclusive Social Innovation: From Utopias to Heterotopias

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopias and heterotopias in Foucault, the paper sheds light on the opportunity to move from policy utopias to democratic heterotopias, discussing the politics embedded in this cognitive shift and the democratic nature of social innovation changing social and governance relations by interacting with politico-administrative systems. Some obstacles to institutionalizing social innovation are highlighted, as well as some key governance mechanisms that can be activated either by public and/or social purpose organizations to try to overcome those obstacles. Finally, we discuss the importance of linking inclusive social innovation with democratic, rather than market logics.

Cannabis Policy in the 21st Century: Mandating an Equitable Future and Shedding the Racist Past

The cannabis legalization movement in the United States has experienced unprecedented success in the past decade due to a wave of grassroots reforms in states across the country. The current legalization movement began in 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize the use and sale of cannabis for adults aged ≥ 21 years. Since then, the use of cannabis has been legalized in 21 states, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Washington, DC. Many of these states have explicitly framed the law change as a rejection of the War on Drugs and its harms, felt disproportionately in Black and Brown communities. However, racial inequities in cannabis arrests have increased in states that have legalized cannabis for adult use. Moreover, states working to implement social equity and community reinvestment programs have made little progress toward their goals. This commentary describes how US drug policy, racist in intention, gave way to drug policy that perpetuates racism, even when its ostensible or stated goal is equity. As the United States prepares for national legalization of cannabis, it is critical that we break away from past legislation and mandate equity in cannabis policy. Developing meaningful mandates will require us to acknowledge our history of using drug policy for the racist goals of social control and extortion, study the experience of states that are trying to implement social equity programs, listen to Black leaders and other leaders of color who have developed guidance for equity-focused cannabis policy, and commit to a new paradigm. If we are willing to do these things, we may be able to legalize cannabis in an anti-racist way that will stop causing harm and enable us to effectively implement reparative practices.

Of autocratic incrementalism and inadvertent inspirations: the interaction between the European Court of Justice and national lawmakers in the rule of law crisis in Poland

AbstractThe European Court of Justice (ECJ) is often viewed as a revered champion of opposition to autocratic reforms in the Member States. In the context of the rule of law crisis in Poland, however, its resolute support for judicial independence contrasts notably with the limited improvements for judges on the ground. As the present investigation suggests, this discrepancy can be explained by a mode of incremental adjustments at national level that has allowed Polish lawmakers to repeatedly neutralise the effects of the Court’s interventions. Resulting from this strategy are several instances of mutually responsive interaction between the Court of Justice and autocratic national lawmakers that have shaped developments in the rule of law crisis, both at national and supranational level. At national level, lawmakers have incrementally adjusted reforms to comply – at least superficially – with supranational judicial interventions, whereas the Court refined its interpretation of supranational safeguards of judicial independence in response to incremental adjustments in Polish law. Yet, more recently, this interaction of inadvertent mutual inspiration may have come to a halt. Rather than changing national law to superficially respond to supranational judicial interventions, Polish authorities may increasingly deny the Court’s authority to adjudicate in matters of judicial independence in the Member States altogether.

Three Versions of Social Science in Late Eighteenth-Century France

The term science sociale was first employed by Mirabeau père in 1767, not Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in 1789, as historians until now believed. Taking this discovery as its starting point, this article examines the ways in which the idea of a science of society was successively conceptualized in the late eighteenth century by Mirabeau, Sieyès, and Nicolas de Condorcet. Situating their ideas in the context of evolving discussions over the reform of the French state, it argues that they developed three different versions of social science, and that these reflected different attempts to answer the question of how to achieve collective prosperity, justice, and happiness under modern conditions. This article further highlights the changing modes of historical temporality that informed those approaches, which shifted from a focus on the social forms of a mythical past, to a concern with the prevailing norms of the present, to an emphasis, finally, on the likely developments of an ever-perfecting future. In doing so, it shows that the history of early French social science is best understood not as a process of gradual advancement, but rather as one of serial reinvention.

The Role of Property Assessment Oversight in School Finance Inequality

This paper explores an under-studied channel for school finance inequality: property assessment. School districts have historically relied on local tax revenues (typically property taxes) to fund schools, which can generate disparities in funding across districts. Many states passed school finance reforms that give more state funding to poorer districts. These formulas typically discourage school districts from offsetting state funding by reducing local tax rates (“crowd out”). However, many reforms have not adequately addressed another source of inequality: property assessment accuracy and equity. Moreover, state reform can unintentionally subsidize property underassessment. We analyze a state government intervention to address property assessment inequities within and across school districts. We use difference-in-differences and county- and school district-level administrative data to find the intervention boosted assessments by 32 percent. Assessment equity improved substantially and local property revenues temporarily increased by 17 percent. Local fiscal and institutional capacity played a role in assessment inequity pre-reform. Our results suggest that underassessment can compound funding inequality across districts in states that rely on property wealth to fund schools. Therefore, effective state oversight in property assessments is needed to ensure the integrity of funding systems that distribute state funding to districts on the basis of their assessed property wealth.

Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State (1517–1625), written by Sarah Mortimer

Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State (1517–1625), written by Sarah Mortimer

M. M. Speransky – a person, a citizen, a statesman

The history periodically introduces us to really brilliant people, who are, as a rule, not appreciated by contemporaries. M.M. Speransky can rightfully be considered such a genius. A brilliant student of the seminary, a responsible official, an executive forwarder and head of the office, became a victim of court intrigues. However, even after his exile and return, Speransky turned out to be useful to the court of Emperor Nicholas I.The purpose of the research is to analyze the life and views of an outstanding politician of the first quarter of the 19th century, whose transformations were not appreciated in a timely manner, butwhose benefits are obvious at the present time. In the study the following methods have been used: the retrospective one allowing you to immerse yourself in the events of the past, the historical andgenetic method, revealing the specifics of M.M. Speransky’s views, and the chronological one. The results of the research consist in the study and analysis of M.M. Speransky ‘s life and political views as an ideological inspirer of state reforms. The conclusions made are: M. Speransky’s ideas were embodied in the future in the such well-known political institutions as the State Council, the bicameral parliament, the principle of separation of powers.

Evaluation and its politics: trade unions and education reform in Greece

ABSTRACT The implementation of global teacher and school evaluation reform has often been contentious, in ways that differ according to national context. Teacher trade unions have frequently been active opponents of reform but their strategies and motivations have been relatively little studied. This article examines evaluation reform in Greece and the role of teacher trade unions in contesting it. It situates current collisions over policy in the context of Greek politico-administrative traditions, of past relations between unions and governments and of the austerity that followed post-2010 structural adjustment programmes. It places education policy change in the broader context of state reformation and contributes to understanding its inherent politics. Working with insights from Nicos Poulantzas, it identifies evaluation reform as a restructuring of the Greek state, where relationships between central authority and political actors such as unions have been reset, weakening the position of the latter. Drawing from interviews with union representatives, it analyses their reading of policy change and the dilemmas that faced them in responding to evaluation policies. In doing so, it points out the political role of teacher trade unions in both historical and contemporary terms while also highlighting the uncertainty of their response to evaluation reform.

From De-collectivization to Re-collectivization: New Transformation Trend in Agriculture Production in Taicang City of the Eastern China from the Perspective of 'Governmentality'.

The continuous development of agricultural technologies and produces trade and updated state reforms strongly shape the dominant organizing styles of local agriculture production. Since the end of the 1970s, rural China has witnessed a drastic agriculture transformation featured by de-collectivization, and recently in Taicang, a developed city in the eastern China, a kind of new cooperative farms have replaced the smallholders by pooling households' contracted farmland, signaling a new shift tendency towards agriculture recollectivization that is distinctive compared to other countries. Given the state governance's leadership in promoting this latest transformation, drawing on the theoretical concept of 'governmentality' that is powerful in understanding how to govern the society to meet certain objectives, this paper examines the accurate processes of agriculture re-collectivization in Taicang City based on the methods of semi-structured interview and participant observation. Our research shows that the China's tax-sharing and relevant reforms in the 1990s framed a new governance structure in line with the new mode of 'governmentality' closely linked to 'advanced liberalism', creating the responsibility shift from central to local governments and a set of evaluation technologies, and guiding various actors to engage in the agriculture re-collectivization practice in Taicang. Importantly, the considerable subsidies and the impressive extension services in terms of farming personnel training and agricultural techniques diffusion underpin the normal running of cooperative farms and contribute to the local implementation of national strategy of agriculture modernization. We argue that the combination of distinctive institutional arrangement of rural land owned by village collectives in China and the burgeoning local economy allows the developed areas to re-collectivizing the agriculture production for ensuring grain self-sufficiency rather than capturing more share in global agriculture products trade, and that the cooperative farms in our case have been deeply integrated into the 'modern procurement system' and become more sensitive to market fluctuation, requiring rural extension service to transform towards farms' capacity building for maintaining the long-term development momentum.

Historical-retrospective and legal analysis of the conditions, values and consequences of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk

The history of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk is sufficiently studied both in Ukrainian and foreign historiography, but the issue remains rather relevant for a full historical and legal review, so the interpretation and consideration of events of those times, and especially the legal study of the underlying document, is still important. The purpose of this article is to study the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, for the sake of interpretations of the events of 1710, to trace the processes and reasons that followed, to analyze the historical and legal role, the conditions and consequences of the adoption of the constitution, and consider the role of Pylyp Orlyk in its establishment. The study used various historical methods and approaches to analyze and select information relevant to the adoption of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk. Also, the article widely used methods of analysis and synthesis, general methods of scientific knowledge and methods of empirical research. Historical comparative, retrospective and abstract methods made it possible to reconstruct and model in greater detail the processes that were taking place before the adoption of the Constitution, as well as its consequences. It is argued that the Constitution was created based on democracy, which was the main factor in the creation of the historical goal, which was the development of state reforms. From the point of view of the law, a complete analysis of the new state system, which was referred to by the provisions of the Constitution, was carried out. In the process of research, the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk was studied, as well as some factors that helped construct and reconstruct the conditions, values, and consequences that led to the adoption of the Constitution of 1710. It was determined that the specified Constitution depicts the improvement of relations in power, and can also be used as a regulator of the state tradition of the Ukrainian people. It has been investigated that the described and analyzed historical-political aspects fully describe the motive for the adoption of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, caused by the completion of these events in the new time and the possibility of researching this issue as in domestic historiography

Sex-workers Defying Patriarchy and Challenging State Reform and Rehabilitation Projects in India: Voices from the Margins

Despite the prostitution industry being accorded a semi-legal status in India, the status of sex-workers remains abysmal with scarce provisions towards healthcare, education/literacy and/or labour rights. Consequently, the current approach to the rights of sex-workers is ridden with several structural barriers, as existing state reform projects often violate subjects’ bodily autonomy and act as moral discipliners, leaving them vulnerable to forms of systemic and institutionalised violence. Notwithstanding such exclusions, there have been strong feminist undercurrents advocating for the inclusion of such marginalised actors. One such example is the <i>DURBAR</i> NGO in Kolkata comprising of many sex-workers, calling for the legalisation of the prostitution industry as its underground nature enhances networks of crime, and simultaneous workers’ stigmatisation. <i>DURBAR </i>workers actively champion for their rights as equal citizens, and instead critique state regulation projects that seek to morally discipline them rather than providing concrete emancipation strategies or skill development. This article analyses such modalities of resistance through local channels of grassroots organisation, performative culture, and collective action. Reliant on such accounts from the margins, it elucidates how such bottom-up accounts of mobilisation, epitomise significant catalysts of agency and social change, which otherwise go missing from the dominant annals of policy and developmental discourses.

ХРАНЕНИЕ ЛЕКАРСТВЕННЫХ СРЕДСТВ И ДРУГИХ ТОВАРОВ, РЕАЛИЗУЕМЫХ В АПТЕЧНЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯХ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ТАДЖИКИСТАН: АКТУАЛЬНОСТЬ, ПРОБЛЕМА, ПУТИ РЕШЕНИЯ

Relevance: Since gaining state independence, state reforms have been actively continuing in the Republic of Tajikistan, including the field of drug development, the study of problems related to the storage of pharmaceutical assortment products and the formation of requirements for the organization of appropriate storage conditions for drugs is a relevant and timely step towards the development of rules of national pharmaceutical practice and standardization of the drug development field in the region. Objective: Study of the existing state of the pharmaceutical assortment products storage organization, including problems that may affect the proper placement of pharmaceutical assortment products at the places of main storage, and development of proposals for the formation of the storage order from the standpoint of minimizing potential risks of quality loss of products at the stage of their placement and storage in pharmacy organizations. Materials and methods: Through content analysis, the content of regulatory legal documents regulating the drug development field and other products sold in pharmacy organizations of the Republic of Tajikistan has been studied in order to establish legal gaps in the problem under study. With the use of structural and logical analyses, the potential risks of organizing pharmaceutical activities that have an impact on the quality of products during their storage are determined. By means of structural analysis, the climatic storage conditions of pharmaceutical assortment products are systematized. The developed structure is the basis for further grouping of products to determine their storage locations in pharmacy organizations. Results: Compliance with the necessary storage conditions established by the manufacturer of products is a key aspect of ensuring the quality of products and requires the development and establishment of the procedure for organizing and observing the storage of medicines and other pharmaceutical products at the legislative level, however, in the Republic of Tajikistan there are no approved norms, rules and standards for organizing the storage of pharmaceutical assortment products. The study and optimization of storage sites was carried out by grouping the products according to the following criteria: type of group of drugs, medical devices (MI), biologically active food supplements (BAFS), etc.), requirements for climatic storage conditions and the need for protection from exposure to light. During the study, 25 options of the storage regime of drugs, 16 storage options for MI and BAFS were identified, representing various combinations of the established storage conditions. It was found that some drugs and MI (more than 40) with the same trade names, but different manufacturers, may require different temperature storage conditions and may lead to errors when placing medicines data in their main storage locations. Drugs, the storage modes of which have an insignificant temperature range of storage, have been identified. The presence of such drugs in the assortment of pharmacy organizations requires additional professional vigilance from pharmaceutical workers at the stage of acceptance and placement of products. Conclusion: The article presents the results of studying the storage conditions of pharmaceutical products sold in the Republic of Tajikistan. The expediency of determining storage locations for various groups of products and individual items depending on their storage conditions is actualized and the need to improve the organization of storage by developing requirements for the organization of storage locations in the subjects of drug development is justified.

Bicameralism and Policy Responsiveness to Public Opinion

AbstractDoes the organization of the assembly affect whether governments deliver policy that reflects the public's changing preferences? Cross‐national analyses of public opinion and policy outputs for policies concerning welfare and immigration show that governments respond to shifts in public opinion in systems with a dominant chamber but not where bicameralism is strong. Our theory's emphasis on the distribution of power between chambers further explains differences within bicameral systems: constraints on policy change mean that responsiveness is weaker where power is equally distributed between chambers but more robust where power is concentrated in the lower house. Evidence from institutional change in Belgium, where the fourth state reform shifted power away from the senate and disproportionately toward the lower house, provides corroborating evidence that policy becomes more responsive when constitutions concentrate legislative power. This study's findings have implications for our understanding of how bicameralism matters for government responsiveness to public opinion.

The regulatory security state in Europe

ABSTRACT The ‘regulatory state’ has prevailed in almost every sector of European public policy. The provision of security, however, is still widely viewed as the domain of the ‘positive state’, which rests on political authority and autonomous capacities. Challenging this presumption, we argue that expertise – as foundation of authority – and rules – as policy instruments – also shape the provision of European security by national and, in particular, supranational ‘regulatory security states’, namely the European Union (EU). We lay out a framework for mapping the uneven and contested rise of European regulatory security states; analyzing drivers and constraints of security state reforms; and grasping the implications of the regulatory security state for the effectiveness and democratic legitimacy of European security policy-making. We advance the research program on the regulatory state and contribute to an innovative understanding of who governs security in Europe’s multi-level polity, by what means, and on what legitimatory grounds.

Same Trend, Different Paths: Growth and Welfare Regimes Across Time and Space

The article reviews the recent advances in comparative political economy. It reconnects knowledge on growth regimes and welfare regimes by analyzing how growth and welfare regimes covary over both time and space. It underlines the fact that governments pursue different growth strategies to adjust to new economic environments, focusing in particular on welfare state reforms. Synthesizing the literature, we propose a definition of growth and welfare regimes that integrates different engines of growth as a way to track general trends in the evolution of capitalism. We analyze the main trends of three eras of capitalism: Fordism, neoliberal financialization, and the digitalized knowledge-based economy. We trace the various paths of change by identifying the five growth strategies governments have pursued to adapt their growth and welfare regimes to the new capitalist era. The result is not a typology of fixed types of capitalist models but a dynamic process of adjustment.