Round Of Reform Research Articles

SEBI's Consultative Paper on Review of Corporate Governance Norms in India: Comments and Suggestions

This paper contains comments and suggestions to the Consultative Paper on Review of Corporate Governance Norms in India that was released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on January 4, 2013. The comments and suggestions are set out in two parts. The first part contains a response to the more specific proposals contained in SEBI’s consultative paper. The second part contains a discussion of some of the broader concerns pertaining to corporate governance in India, and sets out some issues that have not been adequately addressed in the current round of reforms. A summary of the key comments is contained in the Appendix.

The Planning of Urban Waterfront Space Based on Waterway Governance — A Case Study of Nanfei River Waterway in Anhui Province

In recent years, waterway governance has become an opportunity for a new round of reform to urban waterfront space. In the new historical conditions, affected by the requirements of ecological restoration of waterways and urban waterfront landscape, the improvement of the water quality, the functional transformation of waterfront space and comprehensive improvement in the shoreline environment are hold together by the guide of principles of sustainable development. Based on waterway governance, the urban waterfront space is becoming into the important meeting point of the improvement of urban environment, space and the quality of the culture. In this paper, the planning of urban waterfront based on Anhui Nanfei River waterway governance is discussed.

Are Old-Age Pension System Reforms Moving Away from Individual Retirement Accounts in Latin America?

This article reviews two rounds of pension reform in ten Latin American countries to determine whether they are moving away from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Although the idea is provocative, we conclude that the notion of ‘moving away from IRAs’ is insufficient to characterise the new politics of pension reform. As opposed to the politics of enactment of IRAs of the late twentieth century, pension reform in Latin America in recent years has combined significant revival of public components in old-age income maintenance with improvement of IRAs. Clearly, the policy prescriptions that were most influential during the first round of reforms in Latin America have been re-evaluated. The World Bank and other organisations that promoted IRAs have recognised that pension reform should pay more attention to poverty reduction, coverage and equity, and to protect participants from market risks. The experience and challenges faced by countries that introduced IRAs, the changes in policies by international financing institutions, and the recent financial volatility and heavy losses experienced in financial markets may have tempered the enthusiasm of other countries from applying the same type of reforms. Scholars and policy-makers around the globe could benefit from looking closely at these changes in pension policy.

CURRICULUM REFORM IN THE COURSE OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Curriculum reform is an important reform for China in the course of its social transformation since its inception in 1996. With curriculum reform as its core, the current education reform has a decade-long history. Internally, the objectives of the current round of education reform by the state government are in support of the ‘socialist market economy’ and ‘the economic development’ for the restructuring of the social fabric. Externally, the objective is to enhance the human capital of China in preparation for the new challenges and increasingly fierce competition of the global knowledge-based economy. Senior secondary school education has become the focal point of the current round of reform in basic education. The education reform is also an attempt for the state government to ease some of the pressure brought by the social transformation in areas like the school examination system and employment; to handle social inequalities resulting from economic reforms and others, and to enhance the ethics and values of the next generation, a growing concern in the transformation process. These attempts have created tensions with the objectives of enhancing human capital and economic development. Under such context, the mission of the curriculum reform and the new mechanism of curriculum production imply changes in the way the state produces its core values in school education. This paper examines the ‘Phase II Curriculum Reform’ in Shanghai and elucidates the tensions among the diverse reform objectives, the underlying concept, institutional design, organization, actual reform outcomes as well as the path of the reform. In so doing, the paper further reveals the predicament that a developing country is currently facing in its education reform.

Social Insurance for Long‐term Care: An Evaluation of the German Model

AbstractAfter fifteen years of existence, Germany's long‐term care insurance shows both successes and weaknesses. The latter led to the 2008 reform, which concentrated on quality improvements, care management and careful adjustments of benefits. While attempts to improve quality and care management contain promising elements, new rules for adjustment are disappointing. This is also true for the issue of future financing as the modest increase in the contribution rate, which is part of the reform, only buys time. Thus, the next round of reform is already in the making, marking the scheme as a system of permanent reform. As Germany is one of the most clear‐cut examples of social insurance, the assessment of this scheme and its recent reform also allow us to draw some general lessons for the design of long‐term care social insurance schemes.

Towards sustainable fisheries subsidies: Entering a new round of reform under the Common Fisheries Policy

On 22 April 2009 the European Commission published its ‘Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy’. The Green Paper points out a contradiction in policy, noting on one hand that public financial support to the Community's fisheries sector is substantial, but on the other hand such support is often incompatible with other Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) objectives, particularly the need to reduce overcapacities. Providing an analytical framework to better understand the effects of subsidies as well as an overview of existing funding schemes under the CFP, this article aims at answering some of the questions posed by the European Commission within its Green Paper. Answers are based on two ideas: the exploitation of marine capture resources ultimately depends on the level of available fish stocks and that a large share of subsidies fuels the race to fish by inducing investment incentives for the fisheries sector. Policies that have ignored this tend to encourage inefficient and unsustainable fishing as well as the misallocation of public funds. Although support schemes under the CFP have changed in recent years, some problematic support schemes persist. A future reform will have to continue the course taken towards sustainable and efficient approaches to supporting the fisheries industry.

Second Round Reform. Devolution and Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy

The rise of the meso level of government in Europe can be explained by the pressures of managing national diversity, functional restructuring and political change. Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom all have such a level but taking very different forms. All have embarked on a second round of devolution. This differs in kind from the initial decision to devolve because new territorial actors play a role. Issues at stake have included issues of symbolic recognition, welfare state restructuring and fiscal competition and equity. The process has been incremental, with issues dealt with sequentially rather together. The process is centrifugal but the role of territorial parties and governments in the process or reform links them back into state-wide politics. The territorial dimension of politics is thus strengthened and devolution becomes an element in ‘normal politics’.

Are Old-age Pension System Reforms Moving Away from Individual Retirement Accounts in Latin America?

AbstractThis article reviews two rounds of pension reform in ten Latin American countries to determine whether they are moving away from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Although the idea is provocative, we conclude that the notion of ‘moving away from IRAs’ is insufficient to characterise the new politics of pension reform. As opposed to the politics of enactment of IRAs of the late twentieth century, pension reform in Latin America in recent years has combined significant revival of public components in old-age income maintenance with improvement of IRAs. Clearly, the policy prescriptions that were most influential during the first round of reforms in Latin America have been re-evaluated. The World Bank and other organisations that promoted IRAs have recognised that pension reform should pay more attention to poverty reduction, coverage and equity, and to protect participants from market risks. The experience and challenges faced by countries that introduced IRAs, the changes in policies by international financing institutions, and the recent financial volatility and heavy losses experienced in financial markets may have tempered the enthusiasm of other countries from applying the same type of reforms. Scholars and policy-makers around the globe could benefit from looking closely at these changes in pension policy.

After the Big Bang and Before the Next One? Reforming the Financial Supervision Architecture and the Role of the Central Bank - A Review of Worldwide Trends, Causes and Effects (1998-2008)

Today policymakers in all the countries, shaken by the financial crisis of the 2007-2008, are carefully reconsidering the features of their supervisory architecture. Over the last ten years the financial supervision architecture and the role of the central bank in supervision therein has undergone radical transformation. In the wake of the 2007-08 financial crisis, more countries are considering reforms, while others, who went through a round of reforms, are looking at the architecture once again. This paper reviews the insights gained by the literature on this topic and, based on updated information on 102 countries for the period 1998-2008, addresses three questions: which are the main features of the supervisory architecture reshaping? What explains the increasing diversity of the institutional settings? What are so far the effects of the changing face of banking and financial supervisory regimes on the quality of regulation and supervision?

Assessing port governance models: process and performance components

This paper develops a conceptual framework that integrates various relevant port performance components in a way that can be used for a comprehensive port evaluation and adjustment of existing port governance models. The paper presents a synthesis of the literature on port governance models and port performance, arguing that the process of change is a dynamic one, and that the performance outcome of a reform process influences the next round of reforms. It also explores the potential for decomposing performance into two different, although related, port performances components, namely efficiency and effectiveness. Bringing into the analysis concepts like the need to integrate users’ satisfaction in port performance assessment, the paper explores the content of each of these components and their relationship. This discussion, along with empirical evidence provided by port authorities, leads to the conclusion that governance decisions, both at firm and government levels, are largely based on a very limited assessment of port performance. The effectiveness of port reform is largely neglected, with user perspectives not being an integral part of an effort to improve performance by the port or as feedback to assess the effectiveness of the governance model imposed by the government's port policy.

Aspired Convergence, Cherished Diversity: Dealing with the contradictions of Bologna

This article addresses the inherent tension in the Bologna process between the aim of convergence and the will to maintain the diversity of national higher education (HE) systems, as well as the decentralised and autonomous nature of national policy formulation on Bologna reforms. Starting from an analytical discussion of the concepts of convergence versus diversity in the Bologna documents, it assesses empirically the degree of convergence achieved so far between the HE systems of Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England. The result is that convergence in several dimensions was only modest between 1998 and 2004. The article concludes by reflecting upon this finding and discusses the implications. The policy proposals put forward are (1) to acknowledge and stress the merits of the Bologna process other than convergence, (2) to engage in a second round of reforms more clearly targeted at convergence, and (3) to address mobility and recognition issues independent from convergence of degree structures.

Global Trade Models and Economic Policy Analyses: Relevance, Risks and Repercussions for Africa

Computable general equilibrium models are widely used for trade policy analyses and recommendations. There is, however, increasing discomfort with the use of these models, especially in Africa. This article demonstrates that the results of several such studies of the impact of trade reforms in Africa differ drastically in terms of both magnitude and direction, failing to take account of key features of African economies. It also outlines potential consequences of the misuse of CGE models for policy evaluation and suggests pitfalls to be avoided.

Transmission expansion in Argentina 3: The evolution of policy

Argentina's 1992 electricity reform introduced the Public Contest method, which made major expansions of the transmission system the responsibility of users rather than the transmission company or regulatory body. Policy evolved to allow incumbent transmission companies as well as users to propose expansions. In 1999 a second round of reforms envisaged financial transmission rights and At-Risk expansions to complement the Public Contest method, and to achieve more effectively the original aim of economic efficiency. In addition a Federal Transmission Fund was introduced with provision for expansions determined by federal and provincial governments. With a change of presidency in December 1999 the former modifications were mostly not implemented but a Federal Transmission Plan was launched. Especially since the economic crisis of early 2002, and the advent of a new presidency in 2003, the role of government has increased further, almost to the exclusion of the Public Contest and other methods. Extensive transmission expansions are now underway, reflecting federal financing and political pressures from outlying provinces, rather than users' decisions and economic considerations.

Labour reform in a neo-liberal ‘protected’ democracy: Chile 1990–2001

This paper analyses the direction and degree of labour reform in Chile since the restoration of democracy in 1990 after seventeen years of military dictatorship. The regime of General Augusto Pinochet (1973–90) adopted a highly repressive political character and implemented neo-liberal economic policies, which, together with the institutional restructuring that accompanied them, transformed vast sectors of Chilean society. The 1979 Labour Plan significantly changed the character of industrial relations legislation and the roles and balance of power among social actors, transforming the way in which industrial relations had been conducted since the 1920s. We argue that, despite more than a decade since the restoration of democracy, and after several rounds of reform, the current legislation presents remarkable continuity with the one enacted under authoritarianism, contradicting claims that profound change has been achieved. In attempting to explain the direction and degree of the so-called Transition's Labour Reforms, we emphasize the importance of political-economy approaches. We explore the conservative nature of the Chilean transition to democracy, the continuity of the neo-liberal economic model and the increasing imbalance of power between capital and labour, in an effort to account for the persistence of the authoritarian legacy in today's Chilean industrial relations.

Cuban Communism, 1959-2003 (review)

Reviewed by: Cuban Communism, 1959–2003 Wayne S. Smith Irving Louis Horowitz and Jaime Suchlicki, eds. Cuban Communism, 1959–2003. 11th edition. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2003. 735 pp. This is the 11th edition of Cuban Communism, and from its title, one would expect it to be updated to the year 2003. But one would be disappointed. The previous edition, the 10th, was published in 2000. Only 8 of the 39 chapters in the latest edition were written or updated after that, and several of those are seriously out of date. There is not a word, for example, in Jorge F. Pérez-López's chapter "Cuba's Stalled Reforms" about the Helms-Burton Act and its effect on the Cuban government's decisions. Yet the chapter was written in 2001; the Helms-Burton Act was passed in 1996, and many analysts attribute Cuba's decision to slow the reform process to its passage. That causal relationship is ignored or distorted by other authors as well. In his chapter "Cuba: Without Subsidies," for example, Jaime Suchlicki implies that the reforms ended before passage of Helms-Burton. But I was in Havana in January of 1996, that is, before Helms-Burton, and was told by everyone I interviewed in the Economy Ministry and various other government agencies that the reforms were marching forward and that the Small Business Law, the next major step, would be approved that year. I was there again several months later, after passage of Helms-Burton, to find a dramatically changed outlook. The Small Business Law, I was told, would be put on the shelf and many of the other reforms postponed. Why? Because, several friends confided, the passage of Helms-Burton had given the hardliners [End Page 164] the upper hand. They were now arguing to Fidel that, given this new economic aggression against Cuba, the brakes should be applied to the reform process. And again on the question of timeliness, Susan Kaufmann Purcell, writing in 1998 ("Economic Sanctions and American Diplomacy"), concludes that the declining growth rate caused by Helms-Burton "will leave the Castro government with no alternative but to undertake a new round of economic reforms." But five years later, by the time of this new edition's publication, no such new round of reforms had begun. Had she updated her chapter to 2003, she might not have been so optimistic, for the same factors that caused the brakes to be applied—that is, reaction to Helms-Burton—are as alive now as they were then. One of the most out-of-date chapters is the one by Tim Golden, "Health Care in Cuba," written in 1994. It describes a situation that has changed significantly over the past ten years, yet it is presented as originally written. Golden himself is even described as a New York Times correspondent stationed in Havana, when in fact he has not been in Havana for years. All of which leads to the question: Why come out with a new edition if you really have nothing new to say? Chapters on past history of course need not be changed, but one would expect chapters such as Josep M. Colomer's "Forecasting Institutional Change in Cuba," Jorge Domínguez's "Why the Castro Regime Has Not Fallen," Michael Radu's "The United States and Cuba after Castro," and various others to have been updated to reflect the situation in 2003. They were not. This, then seems to be largely a matter of selling an old book with a new cover. Wayne S. Smith Johns Hopkins University Center for International Policy Copyright © 2004 University of Pittsburgh Press

Another lost decade? The future of reform in Latin America

AbstractThe 1990s ended equivocally in Latin America. What has gone wrong? Is economic failure the cause or the consequence of the democratic decay and the erosion of governance throughout the region? The review essay revisits the debate on the intricate links between politics and economics in the second stage of reform. Moving beyond standard typologies of regime type, it explores the interactions between the quality of democratic governance and the performance of economic policy under democratic auspices, in particular its credibility. It is now amply recognized that reforms have been hindered by inefficient unreliable and unaccountable government institutions. Furthermore, the manner in which market reforms have been implemented has undermined governance and accountability. The importance of policy credibility has essentially been neglected as a pivotal condition for effective economic reform. Consequently, policymakers propose a new round of reforms, centring on strengthening the institutions of governance and modifying the incentives shaping public policy. The essay argues that restoring the credibility of policy requires a fundamental redefinition of the state and reforming the methods of government and the styles of policymaking. The defining challenge of Latin American countries is to strengthen capacity to adequately implement policy and credibly commit to policy reform. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Reform of Local Public Utilities in Italy

The Italian system of local public utilities has recently undergone an important reform process. The first round of reforms, introduced in the 1990s, represented a remarkable change in the social welfare function with regard to the management of local public utilities. The legislation was specifically designed to cut costs and reduce deficits. A second round of reforms, required by European directives, started around the mid‐1990s. Several laws were passed introducing important innovations and regulating specific sectors: public transport; electricity; and gas. Article 35 of the 2002 Financial Law was the final step in a comprehensive reform of the whole local public utility sector. The main innovations of the Financial Law concerns liberalization. Article 35 states that the general rule for awarding service provision contracts is competitive tendering; the rationale is obviously that of competition for the market. The general rule as expressed by Article 35 is nevertheless limited during the transition period. In the long run, competitive tendering will become the normal way of awarding contracts for local public utility provision. Even if there are doubts that full competition will be introduced into the sector, liberalization does appear to be having an effect, forcing many local public utilities to become more efficient. The changes introduced have brought about a better and a more efficient system with a greater number of large size enterprises and on the average a more active management.In the future, the liberalization process may come to a standstill due to an insufficient number of competitors. Strong public administrations are therefore needed to prevent opportunistic behaviour by private firms.

Government-Society Relations and the Politics of Administrative Reform in Hong Kong

Administrative reforms are usually implemented for enhancing efficiency, reducing expenditure and improving the quality of public services. External and internal political forces may sometimes prompt reforms. All these factors have been responsible to some extent for the reform attempts undertaken in Hong Kong over the past three decades. Another factor that is not usually recognised in studies on reform is the relationship between the government and society. Administrative reforms undertaken in Hong Kong during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have been preceded by social, economic and political events that have transformed the relationship between the government and society. While small adjustments and tinkering with the existing system was attempted in the 1970s, reforms of a substantial nature had to be introduced in the 1980s. During the 1990s, the relationship changed more radically, and this was reflected in the nature of the latest round of reforms. In order to cope with such changing relationships, the government resorted to administrative reforms as a tool for accommodating changes.

The rocky road to health reform: some lessons from New Zealand.

Ongoing structural change has been a feature of the New Zealand health system throughout the 1990s. As we enter the new millennium a new government is now embarking upon yet another round of reform. I look back on the past few years and consider what lessons might be learned about the process of health policy-making in New Zealand. They include the need for a clear vision about the goals of health policy, the importance of consulting with key stakeholders at an early stage, the problems of implementing change too speedily, and the need to allow sufficient time for systems to mature before replacing them with new structures.

Education and Democracy

The well-educated individual easily acquires the skills of a specific workplace when these become necessary, Mr. Goodlad points out. To make the dozen or more years of schooling instrumental to the future needs of the workplace, however carefully predicted, is immoral and dangerous. THE PAST 15 years have witnessed the emergence of several educational improvement initiatives of national scope that have taken shape largely with the support of private philanthropy. Most have focused on schools; several, on teacher education. Since its inception, ours has assumed the close relationship of the two and has addressed their simultaneous renewal. Our initiative is driven by a research-based agenda referred to by the thousands of school and university people involved in the effort as the Agenda for Education in a Democracy. Context Three agencies have been and are engaged with the Agenda for Education in a Democracy: the Center for Educational (CER) at the University of Washington, founded in 1985; the National Network for Educational (NNER), assembled in 1986 and reconstructed in 1990-91; and the nonprofit Institute for Educational Inquiry (IEI), created in 1992. The major function of the CER has been research, that of the NNER has been implementation, and IEI has focused on leadership training. The Agenda emerged out of two decades of inquiry on educational change, schooling, and teacher education, conducted first by teams in the research division of the Institute for Development of Educational Activities, located in Los Angeles, and then at the CER in Seattle.1 The Agenda is comprehensive in its inclusion of a four-part mission; some five dozen conditions necessary for advancing this mission, which are embedded in 20 propositions referred to as postulates; and a strategy of individual and institutional renewal. (The 20th postulate was added to the original 19 in 2000 and pertains to supporting and sustaining the teaching career.) The whole is grounded in a concept of education as a moral endeavor serving both the individual and the common good through the development of those civil and civic dispositions espoused by the great religions and by lay thinkers in their pursuit of the ideal human condition. In the rhetoric of the Agenda, these attitudes and behaviors are referred to as indicators of character, both individual and collective, whether social or political. The Agenda's strategy has focused on the simultaneous renewal of schooling and teacher education for the well-being of children and young people. The mission for schools addresses this end in two parts: 1) the enculturation of the young into the freedoms and responsibilities of a democratic society and 2) their deep and broad introduction into and preparation for participation in the human conversation. For those who teach the young in schools, the mission includes education in and commitment to this conception of what our schools are for and adds two other responsibilities: 1) employing a caring pedagogy and 2) providing moral stewardship of schools. Whereas successive eras of school improvement have emphasized reform and accountability, the Agenda emphasizes renewal and responsibility. Reform and accountability connote compliance, a response that ranks low in its appeal to the human spirit. Renewal and connote limitless possibilities and disciplined commitment to moral principles. It should come as no surprise that most people who choose to work in education are motivated and challenged by an agenda of renewal but are scarcely moved by still another round of reform. We might well be surprised, however, to discover that renewal has scarcely been tried. Introspection As with those other educational improvement ventures of recent years that have challenged educators to take the high ground of responsibility for renewing themselves and their institutions, the Agenda for Education in a Democracy has been funded almost entirely by private philanthropy, supplemented by institutional budgets. …