Rethinking Of Policies Research Articles

Economic and Accounting Interpretative Approach on Income Disparity: Evidence from China

In this paper, we analyse the current China urban and rural income disparity. Our analysis demonstrates that the Economic and Policy reforms instituted by the Chinese government over the past decade or so have had two primary aims: Firstly, to maintain political stability at all costs and secondly to transform China into a modern industrial state. To ensure political stability, it has eschewed the current Russian model for a unique Chinese model where state owned enterprises co-exist with market driven businesses. This all began in 1978, after two disastrous near revolutions where the hard-line Marxist-Socialists had to concede that all was not well for the future of China, in a modern world. Beginning with the rural sector, where the pool of greatest poverty existed and improving in that sector firstly, allowed the market-oriented to greatly improve their incomes, thus changing the disparities between urban and rural economics. The period of 1985 to 2005 was a period of almost exponential growth, and the raising of millions out of poverty was only part of the positive results, but the greatest social negative was that inequality became worse, as is found in most Capitalist societies. There seems to be an initial jump in the incomes of rural China to jump out of poverty, but the effects have slowed, and it is now up to government agencies to aid the remaining impoverished to escape the traps of poverty through education and relocation incentives for industry, domestic and foreign. This does not mean throwing money at the problem, it means preventing destitution, as destitution adds to crime and other anti-social events and greatly increases instability, the anti-thesis of current Chinese policy. Perhaps the question ought to be a rethink of agricultural policies, to generate corporate farming, as opposed to collective farming, all in order to reduce rural poverty and make rural businesses into a proper and profitable sector of employment

The global crisis, social protection and jobs

Abstract.Policy responses to the global financial meltdown of 2008 and the collapse of aggregate demand have largely been driven by domestic interests. Resurgent protectionism, bank bail‐outs and national‐level stimulus packages are distorting competition and incentives to the detriment of developing countries, much‐needed spending on social protection and, ultimately, rapid global economic recovery. Warning against underestimation of the job‐destruction potential of the current crisis, the author argues for a truly global stimulus package, together with a rethink of economic paradigms and regulatory policies, financial assistance to developing countries, a less constraining IMF, and stronger social protection as an automatic stabilizer of economies.

The impact of water scarcity on economic development initiatives

South Africa’s unallocated water resources have dwindled to precariously low levels. Furthermore, it is generally recognised by the authorities and specialists alike that it is likely that water demand will outstrip water supply within the next decade. Macro-economically and strategically speaking, the question therefore is how to make best use of the country’s available water resources? We ask this question since South Africa is a country classified as having chronic water shortages, a condition exacerbated by climate change and the presence of invasive alien plant species. In this paper we address the question of sectoral water allocation by applying a macro-economic comparative static Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model using an integrated database comprising South Africa’s Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and sectoral water use balances. We refer to AsgiSA, the South African Government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, and conclude that introducing the proposed programmes in a business-as-usual and water-intensive manner will strengthen the current growth in the demand for water. This will bring forward, or accelerate, the need for introducing water rationing among sectors. The importance of this conclusion cannot be emphasised enough. Water is essential, and recognised in as much in the preamble to the National Water Act of 1998, with regards to livelihoods, health and from a socio-economic development perspective since there are no substitutes for it. While water rationing is imminent, the reality thereof has not yet led to a rethink of macro-economic policies. This delayed effect can create a degree of comfort and ill-founded complacency leading to non-action, whereas there is an urgent need for proactive measures towards water conservation.

Research and Development, Competitiveness and European Integration of South Eastern Europe

This article explores the relationship between research and development (R&D) and competitiveness of South East European (SEE) economies from the perspective of European Union (EU) integration. Specifically, the article addresses the question of whether South East Europe is a potential asset or liability to the enlarged EU. SEE countries are quite diverse in terms of levels of competitiveness, with visible effects on the role of R&D, which is confirmed by analysis of R&D demand and supply factors. Improvements in the national innovation systems of SEE countries have largely taken place through vertical linkages on the supply and demand sides. However, a wider role for R&D will depend increasingly on the strength of horizontal linkages within national systems of innovation and their key agent—the local innovative business enterprise sector. This calls for a rethinking of science and technology policy, traditionally defined as a sectoral activity.

"The Extension Service Is Not an Integration Agency": The Idea of Race in the Cooperative Extension Service

Abstract This article is an institutional history of the development of race policy within the federal Cooperative Extension Service. It demonstrates that the popular belief in African-American inferiority and pragmatic political compromises aimed at creating a bureaucracy serving the nation’s agricultural constituency and ensuring its longevity, led to a conscious marginalization of African-American interests within the program. Federal extension officials not only tolerated, but actively supported, discrimination within the southern branches of the service. African-American leadership protested against the adverse effects of racial policies in the Extension Service from the very beginning. While there were some limited positive gains in the number of staff and availability of services for rural African Americans, these changes did not challenge the suzerainty of whites over the program. In the post-World War II era--especially after 1950--African Americans confronted white extension leadership. Extension officials hid behind a bureaucratic façade and a flawed interpretation of the federal-state cooperative agreement to delay institutional restructuring. Political appointees pushed the service toward policies of racial justice; however, extension leadership continued to move slowly on fundamental transformation. As a result, the adjustments did not lead to a fundamental re-thinking of race policy in the service and ultimately contributed to the disappearance of the African-American extension force to a significant degree.

"The Extensions Service is not an Integration Agency": The Idea of Race in the Cooperative Extension Service

This article is an institutional history of the development of race policy within the federal Cooperative Extension Service. It demonstrates that the popular belief in African-American inferiority and pragmatic political compromises aimed at creating a bureaucracy serving the nation's agricultural constituency and ensuring its longevity, led to a conscious marginalization of African-American interests within the program. Federal extension officials not only tolerated, but actively supported, discrimination within the southern the southern branches of the service. African-American leadership protested against the adverse effects of racial policies in the Extension Service from the very beginning. While there were some limited positive gains in the number of staff and availability of services for rural African-Americans, these changes did not challenge the suzerainty of whites over the program. In the post-World War II era -- especially after 1950 -- African-Americans confronted white extension leadership. Extension officials hid behind a bureaucratic façade and a flawed interpretation of the federal-state cooperative agreement to delay institutional restructuring. Political appointees pushed the service toward policies of racial justice; however, extension leadership continued to move slowly on fundamental transformation. As a result, the adjustments did not lead to a fundamental re-thinking of race policy in the service and ultimately contributed to the disappearance of the African-American extension force to a significant degree.

Taking a Second Look at Economic Stabilization Policy: Appraisal and issues

This paper focuses on the expediency of monetary policy and fiscal policy. It draws from a background of arguments of different schools of thought on which of the two approaches is better suited for controlling the economy of nations in order to achieve desirable macroeconomic performance levels in the light of the recent wave of globalisation. Over time, the use of monetary policy and fiscal policy to moderate the workings of the economy of nations has been popular. However, in recent years, there are divergent views on which of these two approaches is better suited for the smooth operation of any economy, due to the different noticeable effects of these policies when applied in some countries in respect of achieving full employment and price stability. The conflict between the desire to achieve full employment and price level stability simultaneously calls for a rethink of stabilisation policy. Keywords: Monetary policy, Fiscal policy, Fiscal neutrality, Fiscal balance.

The poverty of forestry policy: double standards on an uneven playing field

Can policies designed to maximize exploitation by elites benefit the people who live in forests? Forestry policy throughout the developing world originates from European “scientific” forestry traditions exported during the colonial period. These policies were implemented by foreign and local elite whose interest was to maximize and extract profit. In spite of reforms since the end of the colonial period, policies on the environment usually remain biased against rural communities. Even when more recent policies are fair, the rural poor face severe biases in implementation. In addition, they must compete on an uneven playing field of ethnic and other social inequities and economic hurdles. This article examines how forestry policy and implementation maintain double standards on this uneven playing field in a manner that permanently excludes the rural poor from the natural wealth around them—producing poverty in the process. Change that would support poverty alleviation for forest-based communities requires a radical rethinking of forest policy so as to counterbalance widespread regressive policies and structural asymmetries.

Re-imagining the Borders of US Security after 9/11: Securitisation, Risk, and the Creation of the Department of Homeland Security

The articulation of international and transnational terrorism as a key issue in US security policy, as a result of the 9/11 attacks, has not only led to a policy rethink, it has also included a bureaucratic shift within the US, showing a re-thinking of the role of borders within US security policy. Drawing substantively on the ‘securitisation’ approach to security studies, the article analyses the discourse of US security in order to examine the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, noting that its mission provides a new way of conceptualising ‘borders’ for US national security. The securitisation of terrorism is, therefore, not only represented by marking terrorism as a security issue, it is also solidified in the organisation of security policy-making within the US state. As such, the impact of a ‘war on terror’ provides an important moment for analysing the re-articulation of what security is in the US, and, in theoretical terms, for reaffirming the importance of a relationship between the production of threat and the institutionalisation of threat response. La unión del terrorismo internacional y transnacional como asunto clave en la política de la seguridad de EE.UU., por consecuencia a los ataques del 11/9, no sólo ha conducido a un nuevo replanteamiento de política, sino que también ha incluido un cambio burocrático dentro de los EE.UU., señalando un replanteamiento del rol de las fronteras dentro de la política de seguridad en los EE.UU. El artículo analiza el argumento de la seguridad de EE.UU. para examinar la fundación del Departamento de Seguridad Patria, extrayendo sustancialmente del enfoque a la ‘securización’ con base a los estudios de seguridad, indicando que su misión provee una nueva manera de proporcionar ‘fronteras’ a la seguridad nacional de los EE.UU. Por lo tanto, la securización del terrorismo no sólo se representa al señalar al terrorismo como un asunto de seguridad, sino que también se consolida con la organización de la determinación de políticas de seguridad dentro la nación estadounidense. Como tal, el impacto de una ‘guerra al terrorismo’ provee un momento importante para analizar la rearticulación de lo que la seguridad es en los EE.UU. y en términos teóricos, para reafirmar la importancia de la relación entre la producción de la amenaza y la institucionalización de la respuesta a la amenaza.

‘White Men are Liars’ – another look at Aboriginal-Western interactions

Aboriginal Australia has been in the national press lately for tragic reasons. Family violence, substance abuse, unemployment, poor health, appalling living conditions, hopelessness – the statistics and stories tell a terrible tale of life in some remote area communities. Although they do not describe all Indigenous communities, they are a reality for a sufficiently large number to require a radical rethink of policies designed to promote Indigenous rights and prosperity. They exist despite structural reforms previously achieved and believed to rectify the wrongs of the past, such as land rights, government financial support, educational facilities and employment opportunities. Why have these reforms been less than successful? ‘White Men are Liars’ uncovers some new insights into the traditional Aboriginal worldview that can assist the dominant Western culture understand it in greater depth. This appreciation can lead to knowing what needs to be added to Western cultural artefacts before traditional Aboriginal people...

Hidden Costs of Food Production: The Veterinarian's Role

Veterinarians who work in food-animal production and food safety help to deliver food policy by enabling farmers to supply safe, affordable food. However, existing food policy reflects a production bias and is increasingly being criticized for its hidden costs. These costs include reduced animal welfare, the inflated risk of anti-microbial resistance, and the current pandemic of human obesity and overweight. Veterinarians do not generally recognize that this is the context within which they do their work. In this article, I review this context and argue that veterinary students should be taught about it. I also argue that the profession should join with food-policy analysts, ethicists, and others who are already calling for a rethinking of food policy, so that new policy might meet the full wealth of problems and not just some.

The Implications of Shortages of Health Professionals for Maternal Health in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper discusses the implications of shortages of midwives, nurses and doctors for maternal health and health services in sub-Saharan Africa, and inequitable distribution of maternal health professionals between geographic areas and health facilities. Shortages of health professionals reduce the number of facilities equipped to offer emergency obstetric care 24 hours a day, and are significantly related to quality of care and maternal mortality rates. Some countries are experiencing depletion of their workforces due to emigration and HIV-related illness. Another feature is the movement from public to private health facilities, and to international health and development organisations. The availability of skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care may be reduced due to understaffing, particularly in rural, poor areas. The existing workforce may experience increased workloads and job dissatisfaction, and may have to undertake tasks for which they are not trained. If governments and development partners are serious about reaching the Millennium Development Goal on maternal health, substantial numbers of professionals with midwifery skills will be needed. Shortages of maternal health professionals should be addressed within overall human resources policy. A rethink of health sector reforms and macro-economic development policies is called for, to focus on equity and strengthening the role of the state.

Integrated Health Care System: Meeting Global Health Care Needs in the 21st Century

The Integrated Health Care System is presented as anappropriate system capable of helping meet global healthcare needs in a satisfactory manner. It is a system thatconsciously targets and harnesses peoples’ links with biodiversityfor health reasons. It is an integrative and positivetool blending health, economic, and biological andcultural diversity conservation needs of people and theirarea, all at the same time.Results from a study of health care conducted from 1993through 1997 at the ‘Clinique de Manongarivo’, a pilot ruralhealth center in northwest Madagascar practicing theIntegrated Health Care System approach, are used as evidenceof the viability of this system. In conclusion a callis made for re-thinking and re-acting of health policies toimplement the system in other countries.

Organizational Networking in UK Biotechnology Clusters

Differences in growth patterns between regional clusters are often attributed to the extent to which they benefit from agglomeration, defined as the advantages that derive from being proximately located with other companies and institutions in the same industry. Foremost among these supply‐side externalities are the knowledge ‘spillover’ effects that can result from firms interacting extensively in both horizontal (complementary equivalent firms) and vertical (value chain) directions. The paper presents evidence from two surveys, one national and one regionally based, of networking patterns in UK biotechnology, focusing on how firms engage with other small firms, with large pharmaceuticals, and with research centres, and how far these interactions are regional, national or international in character. It suggests that where companies do collaborate, there is a tendency for the intensity of activity to increase as the location of the partner moves from the local to the international space. We evaluate the obvious interpretation that local linkages may be satisfactory for idea generation and early product development, but that national and international connections are more important for manufacturing, marketing and distribution activities. However, we conclude that a broader set of largely industry factors account for the networking patterns – namely, the science‐technology base, research funding, firms' business models, and competitor strategies in evolving markets – and that these matter more to clustered UK biotechnology firms than the cluster itself. These findings suggest a rethinking of cluster policy and the theoretical basis for clusters.

Adapting to European enlargement: Spain and cohesion policy

Spain has enjoyed large net inflows of public funds from the European Union (EU) since accession in 1986. These funds have contributed to a strong growth performance, a largely successful economic transition, and economic convergence. Enlargement of the EU has transformed Spain's relative position from that of a poor country to that of a middle-income one, thus reducing its claim on EU funding. Lower levels of funding under the next EU financial perspective (2007–13) and a reformed cohesion policy will affect the model of economic development and will have domestic and external political consequences. Adapting to European enlargement, a new funding relationship with Europe and a reformed cohesion policy will require a rethinking of economic policy if the momentum of convergence is to be maintained.

Killing us softly with their words? Retirement pensions and New Labour

This brief article argues that New Labour has relied on means testing to raise current pensioner incomes, but their main goal has been to change the balance of pension responsibilities in the future. Neither objective has succeeded. Despite New Labour’s incessant use of a language of choice there is a real possibility that some of the poorest individuals will be compelled to save in private (defined contribution) schemes, or that their retirement age will be raised, or both. The needs of carers have been inadequately addressed while successive governments have presided over the decline of good employer (defined benefit) pension schemes. There is a need for a fundamental rethink of pension policy that recognises the limits to personal pension saving for the poorest 20%-40% of the population. This in turn will demand a more robust attitude to employers and private providers, along with a commitment to meeting the needs of current pensioners.

Rejection of the European Constitution must prompt re-think of economic and employment policies

Rejection of the European Constitution must prompt re-think of economic and employment policies

Response to key issues raised in the Post-14 mathematics inquiry

This article is a detailed response to the issues raised by the Post-14 Mathematics Inquiry in the UK. It aims to debate some of the central issues in mathematics teaching in the UK, including recruitment and retention of mathematics teachers, the curriculum content, national assessment, teaching resources (including ICT) and national strategies and policy (including inspection). Throughout, we have tried to base our recommendations on evidence and experience from the many teachers and tutors we work with as well as on our own experience. We have not hesitated to make what could be seen as controversial recommendations, but we believe a fundamental rethink of education policy and practice is needed if mathematics teaching and learning is to improve. We have also considered the impact that a proposed ‘National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics Education’ might have on the situation, although we doubt that it can have a marked long-term impact in the current UK situation.

THE LABOUR PARTY AND THE CAPITALIST FIRM, c. 1950–1970

One of the most profound challenges facing the Labour party in the post-war period was its ability to understand and make policy to reform the private sector. Before the Attlee government, Labour had little to say on this issue, but that government's experience exposed the dangerous ‘vacuum’ this involved. In the 1950s the nature of the capitalist firm ranked alongside the alleged ‘embourgoisement’ of the working class as an issue framing Labour's ideological and policy debate. The centrality of this issue reflected the fact that understanding the firm was inextricably linked to a raft of broader arguments within the Left about the nature of modern capitalism. The benign view of the corporation that flowed from the revisionist wing of the party was challenged by the ‘declinist’ politics of the 1960s, and in office after 1964 Labour pursued a modernizing agenda which centrally involved seeking to shape the behaviour of the private sector in order to deliver the higher economic growth that Labour so much desired. The failure of this growth to materialize led to great disillusion across the party about the policies pursued by the Wilson government, and this in turn led to a fundamental rethink of policy that was to underpin the radical agenda of the party in the 1970s.

Mammographic breast cancer screening: after the dust has settled

Breast cancer is still a major public health issue worldwide; according to present estimates, 1 million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. There are no longer any countries in which the incidence is truly low. In the European Union, there are 1 million women alive today with breast cancer and over 100 000 deaths each year. Death can frequently occur at an age when a woman has maximal social responsibility. It is a common cause of cancer and cancer death and can frequently be a dreadful disease. Progress in breast cancer control is slow but steady with recent proof-ofconcept in Tamoxifen intervention giving a cause for hope for the future. Clinical and pathological considerations clearly demonstrate that survival following the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer at an ‘early’ stage is much better than when the disease is locally advanced or metastatic. Mammography can detect tumours at a clinically undetectable stage; such tumours have a very good prognosis and many can be cured by appropriate treatment. Since the publication of the results of the Greater New York Trial and the Swedish Two-County Trial in the 1970s and 1980s, there has been a general consensus that screening for breast cancer with mammography reduces mortality from the disease. The results of these pioneering trials have for the most part been subsequently confirmed by later trials in Sweden, Canada and the United Kingdom. Although some debated issues endure, most notably issues of costeffectiveness of screening in particular age groups, the evidence that screening reduces deaths from breast cancer has grown and the consensus has remained. Results from trials were adequately promising that routine, population screening was either recommended or introduced as Public Health Policy in a number of populations. Questions about the quality of the trial data were raised by G tzsche and Olsen and vigorously debated. This challenge was renewed when The Lancet published a research letter by Olsen and G tzsche describing their overview of the mammographic screening trials and reaching a startling conclusion. It was asserted that ‘y the reliable evidence does not indicate any survival benefit of mass screening for breast cancer,’ and maintain that screening leads to more aggressive treatment. The publication has not prompted any major rethinking of screening policy in the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands or the United States, and most of the scientific community remains unconvinced by the arguments. To see why, consider the figure (Fig. 1) showing the published results of the mammographic screening trials. Overwhelmingly, the results indicate a substantial and significant reduction in breast cancer mortality with invitation to screening. The data in these trials have undergone repeated independent scrutiny and recent evidence suggests that in organised service screening programmes, the benefit may be greater than that observed in the trials. The situation was in striking contrast to the views of the media and the general public, where frequently major concerns were raised that screening was doing no good and may even be doing harm. The temperature was further raised when the PDQ Committee in the United States, in a highly publicised meeting, then down-graded their position on the quality of the evidence on mammographic screening. The controversy regarding the efficacy of mammographic screening is clearly one of the most important issues in cancer control at the present time. If recent conclusions questioning the efficacy of mammography ARTICLE IN PRESS