State Monopoly Research Articles

Ретроспективный анализ деятельности морских торговых портов СССР в условиях новой экономической политики (1921–1928 гг.)

The article highlights the specific features of implementing the new economic policy in the seaports of the USSR. The general laws of economic development of the commercial sea ports during the NEP period have been formulated. Statistical data on port capacity from the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the USA, and France were used for the first time, and an assessment of the economic development of domestic sea ports was made in comparison with the above countries. It was stated that the drop in cargo turnover of the Soviet ports in relation to 1913 was the most significant, and the post-war restoration was slower in comparison with European ports, with the railway and inland water transport of the USSR. It was proved that the decrease in port turnover in the USSR was a consequence of a decrease in the foreign trade volume and short sea shipping. Maintaining the state monopoly of foreign trade, which in the NEP period transformed into the state capitalism, negatively affected outward and inward trade. The intensity of coastal shipping service grew slowly due to the low specialization of the regions. The seaport management system was studied; its centralization and similarity with the port management system of the Russian Empire were stated. There have been presented the study results of property relations in seaports. It was determined that the landowners in the ports were state departments represented by central ministries (people's commissariats), the owners of other property were state and sectorial governmental bodies, joint-stock companies with a predominance of state ownership. Sea trade ports were funded from the budget of the People's Commissariat of Communication Means. Port financing was ten times less than financing of railways and several times less than inland water transport financing

TO THE QUESTION ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF THE SOVIET MODERNIZATIONS

In the context of the theory of modernization created at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s by American scientists, which explained the essence of the historical transition from traditional to industrial society using the example of Western democracies, the nature of Soviet modernization as a separate phenomenon is considered. Classical modernization of the western type was called normative. The views of Soviet historians on the economic development of the Soviet Union and the main provisions of the theory of modernization are compared. While Soviet historiography, considered the beginning of the modernization of Stalin’s industrialization, was officially proud of the latter, the proponents of the theory of modernization, on the contrary, justified its shortcomings and the general negative impact on the further development of the USSR as a whole. It is explained how, during the further development of the theory, the category of non-normative modernization was singled out, to which, according to all the main indicators, economic transformations in the USSR were assigned. Such indicators include lack of democracy, free market, restriction of private property, planned economy, presence of numerous state monopolies, authoritarian model of government. The concept of «non-normative modernization», in the opinion of the author of the article, first, better and more objectively explains the essence of economic processes in the Soviet Union, and secondly, can serve as a marker in the analysis of the economic prospects of those modern states that actually inherited the Soviet model of the economy. The author concludes on the more objective nature of the theory of modernization in comparison with the concept of catching up with modern Russian historians.

How hard is it to maximize profit? Evidence from a 19th-century Italian state monopoly

Abstract In this paper, we study the ability of the 19th-century Italian government to choose profit maximizing prices for a multiproduct monopolist. We use very detailed historical data on the tobacco consumption in 62 Italian provinces from 1871 to 1888 to estimate a differentiated product demand system. The demand conditions and the legal environment of the period made this market as close to a textbook monopoly as is practically possible. The government’s stated aim for this industry was profit maximization: since at the time profits from tobacco were close to 10% of the revenues for the cash-strapped government, the stated aim was very likely the true one. Our empirical application uses historical price and cost data, and suggests that the government was not wide off the mark: the tobacco prices were ‘not far’ from those dictated by the multiproduct monopoly formulae for profit maximization with interdependent demand functions.

Jövedéki szankciórendszer a dualizmus korában és a jelenkorban

Excise tax has a convoluted history. The current regulation roots in the excise duties of the 19th century and other consumption taxes concerning trade lottery, salt and spirits among other state monopolies. After the spread of tobacco in Europe, excise duties on tobacco appear. The present study is based on the thesis that today’s excise sanction system is based on 19th-century excise law institutions and related regulations. Consequently, there is a strong similarity between today’s and former excise sanctions.

Development of Mainline Electric Locomotive Engineering in Ukraine (on the Example of Diversification of Production Activity of OJSC "Luhanskteplovoz")

The article attempts to investigate the economic preconditions for the formation of the main electric locomotive industry in Ukraine on the example of diversification of production activities of the State Holding Company «Luhanskteplovoz». It is determined that in the late 1980`s, in the absence of convertible currency for the import of traction rolling stock, Luhanskteplovoz received an order from the USSR Ministry of Railways for the development and production of electric freight and passenger locomotives of its own design. However, after 1991, due to the strategy of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation to support the domestic market of main electric locomotives, and especially the lobbying of the renewed Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding the direction of investments to create a state monopoly corporation on the basis of low-power SPA «Dnipropetrovsk locomotive plant», diversification of production activities of OJSC «Luhanskteplovos» focused on a less promising direction of development of production of railcars for social purposes. It is argued that due to the low quality of products caused by the lack of sustainable funding and sound experience in the development of mainline equipment, the order of electric locomotives of SPC «Elektrovozobuduvannia» (SPA«DEVZ») was stopped. Instead, the localization and further development of industrial production at the facilities of HC «Luhanskteplovoz» of new generation freight electric locomotives, created on the basis of design and technological products of LLC «Novocherkassk electric locomotive plant», allowed the company in a short time to significantly increase the growth rate of production and expand cooperation with «Ukrzaliznytsia».

Conflict as Business

The state monopoly on violence is a core concept of modern public law, wherein only sovereign nation-states may lay claim to the legitimised usage of physical force. In recent years, however, this is commonly outsourced through Private Military Companies. Using Satz’s model and Weber’s definition of modern democracies, we argue that the market of Private Military Companies is a noxious one with severe ramifications in regards to democracy, freedom, and the autonomy of nation-states globally.

Wege in die Digitale Gesellschaft: Computernutzung in der Bundesrepublik 1955-1990 [Towards a digital society: Computer use in West Germany 1955-1990] ed. by Frank Bösch

Reviewed by: Wege in die Digitale Gesellschaft: Computernutzung in der Bundesrepublik 1955-1990 [Towards a digital society: Computer use in West Germany 1955-1990] ed. by Frank Bösch Corinna Schlombs (bio) Wege in die Digitale Gesellschaft: Computernutzung in der Bundesrepublik 1955-1990 [Towards a digital society: Computer use in West Germany 1955-1990] Edited by Frank Bösch. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2018. Pp. 326. The volume unites contemporary history scholarship with the history of computing, technology, and business. The result is a densely researched compilation of studies on computerization in West Germany, in areas such [End Page 1248] as law enforcement and the military, banking, insurance, local utility companies, the printing industry, computer networking, and personal computer uses by hackers, crackers, and chess players. The contributing authors provide original insights into the histories of data security and automation, also raising important comparative questions internationally and between the two Germanies. They paint a picture of a slow but steady diffusion of computing, not a revolutionary overhaul. The authors provide a compelling historicization for current debates about national security and privacy by investigating computing in law enforcement. Contextualizing their studies in West Germany's student protests and the Red Army Faction's left-wing domestic terrorism in the late 1960s and 1970s, they expand the historiography of computing that so far has mostly discussed the counter culture movement as an inspiration for personal computing. In their chapter on data sharing systems in West Germany and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, Constantin Goschler, Christopher Kirchberg, and Jens Wegener ask how the use of data files versus paper records affected transparency practices in democratic states in light of perceived national security threats. Rüdiger Bergien reveals that in West Germany from 1967 to 1989, federal law enforcement agencies accessed civilian databases including health insurance, unemployment offices, and motor vehicle records. But while new data security officers objected to the misappropriation of data for unintended purposes, law enforcement officers standardized data to overcome technical obstacles, caused for example by different formats for names in various databases. The studies disclose a history of conflict between data privacy and national security. In addition, the volume addresses the effects of computer automation on work, particularly in offices. In a notable chapter on computing in the printing industry in the 1960s and 1970s, Kim Priemel examines union responses to technological change. He contributes to growing evidence that union leaders were more supportive of new technologies than the rank-and-file union members who feared for their jobs and in some cases voted down conciliatory union contract proposals. Several chapters allude to the essential role of data entry for computerization: Janine Funke explores how insufficient data impacted the reliability of military simulations; Thomas Kasper argues that lacking data entry hindered the computerization of pension insurance; and Kim Priemel shows how unskilled typists (women) and electronic technicians threatened to replace skilled printers and typesetters (men). These observations invite further studies on labor, gender, skills, and control in computer automation. Finally, the authors contribute to the internationalization of computing history by decentering the United States as the model of computerization. Like Eden Medina in her seminal work on computing in Chile, they examine local conditions where computers were introduced. As Frank Bösch points out, West Germany was among the countries where civilian organizations [End Page 1249] played a more eminent role in computerization than the military-industrial-academic complex. Even the army, as Janine Funke reveals, used its first computers for materials logistics, and only later integrated computers into weapons systems and operations research, mostly through NATO cooperation. The West German legacy of state monopoly and government regulation in telecommunications also impacted computer networking. As Matthias Röhr shows, the postal service favored the hierarchically organized BTX and OSI services and standards over the internet and its de facto standard protocol TCP/IP, rendering computer networking costly to West Germans and delaying its wider use. While the international comparisons highlight local differences, East and West Germany had surprising similarities. Martin Schmitt argues that computerization in savings banks was centralized in both Germanies, albeit for different reasons. And Julia Erdogan finds similar subcultures of young male hobbyists...

The system of providing of social services: the current state

The article is devoted to one of the current scientific problems – the analysis of the role of public organizations in the system of social services. The relevance of the chosen topic is also confirmed by the introduction of the new Law of Ukraine «On Social Services», which aims to remove the state monopoly on social services, promote partnerships between state and municipal enterprises and public and charitable organizations and involve the latter in helping individuals and/or seven who found themselves in difficult life circumstances. In the article, the term «social services» is defined as actions of state organizations, municipal organizations, non-government organizations and individuals aimed to prevent difficult life circumstances of persons and/or families being in them, overcoming such circumstances or minimizing them. The purpose of the article is to determine the role of public organizations in the system of providing social services in Kharkiv. The article focuses on the analysis of public organizations as subjects of social services in Kharkiv. Unique experience of cooperation of local authorities of Kharkiv with public and charitable organizations in providing social services on the example of the project «Unified social network» is described. In particular, in 2019, the winners of the tender for the implementation of social order proposals «Unified Social Network» were 46 public organizations that have implemented more than 60 social projects at the expense of the city budget. The article notes that the peculiarities of public organizations in providing social services are that they are less formalized and bureaucratic than state organizations, use an individualized approach to each client, provide additional services, and involve a wide range of professionals and volunteers to solve problems of individuals and / or families who find themselves in difficult life circumstances.

Usury Enforcement as an Alternative to Capital Taxation in Pre-Modern States

All governments have an obligation to protect their territory and the wealth within that territory from external predation. In fact, since war has historically resulted in the plunder and destruction of wealth, it seems straightforward to suggest that the cost of providing adequate defense of one's territory is a function of the accumulated wealth within the territory. Suppose that all wealth in society is capital. The accumulation of capital conveys a private benefit to its owner, but imposes an external cost on society. As with any externality, the optimal tax policy would be to tax capital. The revenue from capital taxation could then be used to finance defense. Such a taxation scheme, however, requires the state to have an appropriate level of bureaucratic capacity. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, this sort of state infrastructure did not exist. Yet the rulers of those states faced the same constraint. In this paper, I argue that the enforcement of usury laws during this period imperfectly replicate the outcome of the optimal capital tax. Lending at interest was prohibited. However, rulers often allowed certain groups to lend in society in exchange for a license fee. This granted monopoly status to lenders. At the same time, rulers imposed binding price ceilings on interest rates. The combination of these three characteristics of enforcement replicate the long-run restriction on capital accumulation of the optimal capital tax whereas the licensing fees allowed the governments to collect as much as half of the revenue that the optimal capital tax would generate. Given that some defense costs were paid in kind, this sort of policy is capable of replicating the optimal capital tax. I support this claim with historical examples of ``lombard'' and Jewish lending in pre-modern England, Italy, and France.

State monopolies in China: history and modern experience

State monopolies in China: history and modern experience

Itinerary planning and cabin pricing of coastal short-term cruise tourism for local Chinese cruise companies

ABSTRACT Coastal short-term cruise products are matched with Chinese consumer demand characteristics. Launching coastal short-term cruise products can help local Chinese cruise companies change the monopoly status of foreign cruise companies in China. This paper builds a two-stage optimization model to provide a decision-making method for local Chinese cruise companies. The first stage determines the itinerary scheme, with the goals of minimizing the cost and maximizing the potential demand. The second stage determines the cabin price, with the goal of maximizing the profit of the cruise company. The model considers the competition of cruise products and their alternative products based on consumer preferences. In the case study, we take Dalian Port as the home port to do the numerical analysis. The results show that coastal cruise products with journey times of 2–3 days have the highest market penetration and are more profitable.

Організаційно-правові основи економічної діяльності уряду Української Держави

Стаття присвячена дослідженню різних аспектів організаційно-правових основ діяльності уряду гетьмана П. Скоропадського в галузі внутрішньої торгівлі. Визначені пріоритетні вектори фінансово-економічної політики в період кризи державотворення, в складних умовах Брест-Литовських зобов’язань. З використанням широкого кола архівних матеріалів автором висвітлені етапи встановлення державної монополії на продаж зернової, цукрової та горілчаної продукції; подані матеріали активної співпраці міністерств Української Держави з представниками торговельно-промислових кіл; проаналізована діяльність «Відділу для виготовлення торгово-економічних договорів і», «Комітету для зовнішньої торгівлі», «Комісії зі справ цукру», Особливого ТорговельноФінансового відділу при Раді мукомолів, Державного Хлібного Бюро і «Товариства винокуренних заводчиків».

Travels of Count Michał Tyszkiewicz to Africa, his excavations in 1861–1862, and the origin of his collection of Egyptian antiquities

Count Michał Tyszkiewicz (1828–1897) was one of the most renowned collectors of the ancient classical art at the end of the 19th century. His interest in archaeology and ancient art was developed during his travel through Egypt in 1861. His Journal of the Travel to Egypt and Nubia, fortunately found in 1992 in Poznań, recounts this journey. From Egypt, Michał Tyszkiewicz brought a collection of antiquities, estimated to have comprised c. 800 objects; today, over a half of them can be found in museums in Paris (Louvre), Warsaw, Vilnius, Kaunas, and Moscow. The majority of the objects originated from excavations conducted by the count, particularly in Thebes (Luxor area), by virtue of an official licence granted to him exceptionally by Mohamed Said Pasha – the then head of the Egyptian state. The present article discusses the circumstances of granting of this permission in the period when a strict state monopoly was imposed on archaeological investigations and presents the course of the excavations along with their results.

Food sovereignty and education: A Japanese type of harmonization

Every civilization has specific social-cultural rituals for eating, and contemporary Japan is a particularly interesting case. The architects of the Japanese food policy use a special respect for food in two ways: first, as a tool of soft power to spread Japanese influence worldwide; second, as an effective way to ensure food security. It is the second component that interests the authors. The article identifies key issues of Japan’s food policy. Based on the institutional analysis and the food regime theory, the authors identify the structural nature of food import dependency of the Land of the Rising Sun. The combination of the comparative approach and retrospective analysis allowed to discover a number of elements that are closely connected with the idea of food sovereignty, especially the concept of shokuiku (food education). Based on the historical-genetic method, the authors suggest a cognitive route of the terminological unit “from the component of folklore to the legislative act” and identify structural-functional features of the Basic Law ( Shokuiku Kihon-ho ). The analysis of three Basic Plans for promotion of Shokuiku proved the institutional reorientation of Japan to collectivism, healthy lifestyle and dietetics of younger generations. Despite the fact that effectiveness of re-profiling was verified by empirical data, the article provides a critical analysis of shokuiku as well. The state monopoly on food knowledge and risk discourse legitimize ideologies, generate alarmist feelings and lead to food nationalism.

Tax Farming — pro et contra

This article investigates issues related to a unique experiment carried out in Russia in unifying the collection of all obligatory payments. It analyzes the legal aspects of this approach and presents the variety of methods for collecting such payments. Notions of budget revenue and sources of revenue are considered. Special attention is paid to the forms and practices of tax farming and other obligatory payments. The article concludes that the budget legislation actually specifies various fiscal charges as sources of budget revenue. The real source of public revenue are the assets and resources making up the national wealth. Historical examples show that despite the generally accepted denial, tax farming is a normal method and can be applied along with the state monopoly and tax administration. The cases when tax farming is transformed into a state monopoly or excise and vice versa are not rare. Tax farming, which has continued to this day, is also referred to as parafiscal charges or quasi taxes

RESOLUTION OF ISSUES RELATED TO THE USE OF LAND PLOTS NOT FOR THE PURPOSE PURPOSE WHEN CARRYING OUT A JUDICIAL ECONOMIC EXPERTISE

The relevance of the census is by the fact that it is the first-rate property for all significant means of justice, disputable persons, as well as perusal of civil rights, and of the rest of the country, and at the same time, at the same time, at the same time, N 963 «Techniques for rozmіru shkodi, zapodіyanono ї vnasdok samovilny zaynyattya land dіlyanok, vikoristannya land dіlyanok not for the whole ryazanennyam, knowing the ground crookedness (I’m using the same mask, I didn’t have a draw).
 The Method № 963 is hidden on the assignment to the distributor, the authorities, the territorial communities, the legal entities, the legal entities, all the categories of land in the land and land areas, not the main reason, which is not the main reason.
 The state monopoly (control) at the part of the land legislation, the victorious and the safeguarding of the lands of all categories and the forms of authority, is attached to the Derzhgeokadastre.
 It is prescribed by the Law of Ukraine «On state control over the damage and protection of land» from 19 June 2003, p. N 963-IV of the sovereign control over the victorians and the defense of the earths can be crossed by the cross.
 In response to a visit to the Roshraunker Rozmir, to be under the supervision of the Victory Day in the land of the Red Army, not in accordance with the appropriate standards, refer to the administrative provisions of the state registrars and the workers, but also to the lawyers in the field
 
 The act of registration of the law of land legislation;
 protocol on administrative law enforcement;
 pripis (with the usushenya pushenenya land legislation);
 act of land registration.
 
 The procedure for the assignment to the distributor of the schoolchildren, according to the rules of the localization of the land of the girls, is not the same as the assignment of the procedure, clause 5 of Method № 963.
 An overview of the data for this type of expertise є Rosrahunok rozmіru shkodi, zavdo їnask dikoristannya land dylyanki not for the purpose.
 Judicial examiner — economist to carry out the completion of the correctness of the assignment to the direct ordering of the skoda, induced in the above-mentioned Rosrahunka for the complete assembly of the Inspector.
 The result of the ship examiner’s examination of the economist’s case is that of the hanging of the vessel itself, at the same time as the control body of the Technique № 963.

Lawful Access to Cannabis: Gains, Losses and Design Criteria

Legalisation does not specify a policy. Cannabis could be made available for use by adults under a wide variety of conditions: cheap or expensive, offered by for-profit enterprises, by not-for-profits (including consumer co-operatives), as a state monopoly (for production or sales or both), or even on a grow-your-own basis. It could be cheap (as it would be in a free market) or expensive (due to taxes or minimum pricing). Marketing efforts could be free or restrained. Users could be nudged toward temperate use - for example, through a system of user-set but enforceable periodic purchase limits - or left to their own devices. Policy-makers should keep in mind Pareto's Law, which applies to cannabis consumption: about four-fifths of consumption is accounted for by about one-fifth of consumers. That fact will drive the commercial strategies of for-profit producers and sellers, and should focus the attention of public agencies on the risks and harms to the heavy-using minority. Uncertainties abound, and consequently policies should be designed to allow the system to learn from experience. But it is possible to try to predict and evaluate – albeit imperfectly – the likely consequences of proposed policy changes and to use those predictions to choose systems of legal availability that would result in better, rather than worse, combinations of gain and loss from the change.

Chapter 7. Human colonies and the cosmos.

We have come far from the days when space activities were the monopoly of States. Henceforth, private actors, from the tech world, possess significant financial means which they intend to mobilise in order to exploit the resources of outer space commercially and, eventually, to inhabit outer space. As a result, the principle of non-appropriation of celestial bodies is seen by some as an impediment to the development of the exploitation of space.Is it really possible to envisage a human community inhabiting outer space without claiming exclusive rights on the surface of celestial bodies? Can the resources extracted from celestial bodies be appropriated and if so what legal regime could manage the said resources?This article attempts to answer these questions with a double approach focussing on the ownership of celestial resources and the ownership of celestial bodies.The recognition since the Obama Act that celestial resources can be appropriated imposes a model of management of the said resources in the interests of the whole of mankind.Likewise, without undermining the fundamental principle of non-appropriation, States should establish themselves as the managers and guarantors of the use of celestial bodies in that they constitute the common heritage of Earth’s community.

Rewriting China’s Recent History: Fluctuations in State Economic Control, 1949–1984

AbstractChina's political and economic systems are often discussed in combination. It is generally believed that under the political system of centralization, the economic system had to be a state monopoly. This article challenges that view by providing an economic perspective. The period 1949–1984 is selected to explore the causes of successive periods of strengthening and weakening of the state's monopoly power over the economy. Scholars have generally assumed that the period of state monopoly originated from socialist ideology or the personal will of the leaders. But economic conditions severely limited the options available. After the new China was established, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not try to create a fully socialist economy in the short run. Instead, the CCP formulated a New Democracy platform that pragmatically allowed many types of enterprise to function side by side, including private industry, household ventures, and state‐owned enterprises. The original plan of the CCP was to allow private enterprise to develop in order to build up capital to rebuild the war‐damaged economy so that a strong foundation could be established for creating a socialist economy. But the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and an influx of Soviet capital caused a shift from a mixed economy to state capitalism by 1956. From that point on, Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders had to change course again and again as fiscal crises limited available options. A reversal occurred in 1958 when the Soviets withdrew both their advisors and their capital subsidies, leaving the state capitalist system weakened. The crisis in the Chinese economy from 1959 to 1961 required decentralization of economic authority and efforts to promote rural capital formation. The next shift occurred after 1963 as the economy was organized to prepare for a possible military invasion. The required mobilization of industrial resources in remote regions of China inevitably reinforced state management of the economy. The final reversal occurred in the late 1970s, when imports of Western technology and equipment created another fiscal crisis for the central government, which then had to shift the burden of capital formation from the state to private entities. The reform of the rural household contract system, the adjustment of economic structures, and an increase in exports to gain foreign exchange all took place as part of “de‐monopolization” reforms. The reforms that occurred after 1979 were not an aberration or a radical break from the past. They were part of a pattern that evolved from 1949 to 1984, with fluctuations dependent on the weakening and strengthening status of state finances. The shifts that occurred during this period have either been ignored by observers, or they have been misinterpreted as being motivated by ideology. In fact, new policies were created to enable the government to adjust to changes in the internal and external environment.

Monopoly and Anti‐Monopoly in China Today

AbstractFor three decades after liberation in 1949, the Chinese economy consisted almost entirely of state monopolies. Economic reforms, starting in 1979, sought to increase the efficiency of the economy by introducing competitive practices in many sectors of the economy. But the Chinese economy has been partially administered by the state for over two millennia. As a result, both state‐managed and private monopolies are still an intrinsic part of the Chinese economy today. Despite two decades of anti‐monopoly reforms, state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) continue to dominate key sectors of the economy, particularly in resource extraction and financial services. The government is aware of the inefficiencies and corruption caused by monopolies, both public and private. But Chinese tradition takes a balanced view of social harms and weighs the damage caused by monopoly against the stability that SOEs have provided China in recent decades. There is less reason for China to tolerate private monopolies, but most of them have arisen in conjunction with digital technology because of its distinctive cost structure (high entry costs, low marginal costs). China has made some use of antitrust law, but most economic regulation in China is administrative. Thus the anti‐monopoly activities that are used to restrain monopoly power in China are different from Western practices.