Government Research Articles

A Study on Socioeconomic Support Systems and Success Rate of Track and Field Athletes in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

This study investigates the correlation between socioeconomic support systems and the success rates of track and field athletes in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Utilizing both primary and secondary data, the research explores the role of governmental programs, educational institutions, family and community support, and financial aid in shaping athletic performance. The findings reveal a strong correlation between robust socioeconomic support and higher athletic success, with significant disparities observed between regions with varying levels of resources. The study identifies key challenges, including inadequate funding and uneven resource distribution, and proposes opportunities for improvement through increased investment, stakeholder partnerships, and enhanced community involvement. Recommendations are made to guide policy and practice towards more equitable support systems, aiming to nurture athletic talent across all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Evaluation of a risk-sharing agreement for atezolizumab treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a strategy to improve access in low-income countries.

Using immune checkpoint inhibitors (IO) is a promising approach to maximize clinical benefits for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PD-L1 expression serves as a predictive factor for treatment outcomes with IO. However, the high cost of this treatment creates significant barriers to access. Substantial evidence demonstrates the sustained clinical benefits experienced by patients who respond to immunotherapy. While IOs show promise in NSCLC treatment, their high cost poses access barriers. This study focused on a prospective cost analysis conducted at a high-specialty health facility to assess the economic implications of implementing a risk-sharing agreement (RSA) for atezolizumab in NSCLC. The study included 30 patients with advanced NSCLC, with the pharmaceutical company funding the initial cycles. If patients responded, a government program covered costs until disease progression. A median progression-free survival of 4.67 months across populations, rising to 9.4 months for responders. The 2-year overall survival rate for the response group was 64%, significantly higher than for non-response. Without an RSA, a total treatment cost of $881 859.36 ($29 395.31/patient) was reported, compared to $530 467.12 ($17 682.24/patient) with an RSA, representing a 40% cost reduction. In responders, the average cost per year of life per patient dropped by 22%. Risk-sharing, assessed through non-parametric tests, showed a statistically significant difference in pharmacological costs (P < .001). Implementing RSAs can optimize resource allocation, making IO treatment more accessible, especially in low-income countries.

Tobacco industry corporate social responsibility activities and other interference after ratification of a strong tobacco law in Ethiopia

BackgroundSince strict new tobacco control laws were introduced in 2019 and 2020, the National Tobacco Enterprise (NTE), the main manufacturer and distributor of cigarettes in Ethiopia, strategically engaged in corporate...

Information Stratification: An Understanding of Rural Governance in the New Media Era

Current research on media governance emphasizes the technological aspect of information as a tool but lacks sufficient attention to the digital transformation of information subjects. This paper aims to focus on the internal information characteristics of rural governance in the digital age, thus understanding the changes of rural governance subjects in the information society under new media contexts. Based on more than a decade of fieldwork in rural areas of Beijing conducted by the research team, this study employs in-depth interviews and participant observation in a multi-case study, exploring the structural representation of rural governance from an information perspective. The research reveals that in the new media era, rural society, under multiple governance bodies, generates differentiated information stratification, specifically manifesting as instrumental rational information in the formal governance layer, proxy implementation information in the semi-formal governance layer, and livelihood-adaptive information in the informal governance layer. Among these, the authority-driven governance information in the formal layer is the core part of the rural governance system. The subjects and structures of information under multiple governance bodies are interconnected and coexist within the internal field of rural governance, subsequently driving the centralization of formal governance information, the collaboration of semi-formal governance information, and the alienation of informal governance information. This leads to the emergence of orderly information stratification within the multi-layered governance structure. Information stratification deepens the explanatory pathway of multi-layered governance in rural social studies and proposes new perspectives for understanding rural governance issues in the new media era.

Continuation of same programmed death-1 inhibitor regime beyond progression is a novel option for advanced gastric cancer

BackgroundGastric cancer is a significant global malignancy with poor prognosis. Although the emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) prolonged the duration of survival, resistance and progression are inevitable. We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors in immunotherapy beyond progression (IBP).MethodWe divided the advanced gastric cancer patients who received two lines immunotherapy into same regimen group (with same PD-1 inhibitor regime after IBP) and different regimen group (with different PD-1 inhibitor regime after IBP). Statistical analysis conducted to compare patient characteristics and evaluate survival differences between groups.ResultThe clinical outcome analysis showed that the same PD-1 inhibitor regime seemed to exhibit a higher disease control rate (DCR) (51.8% vs. 29.2%, P = 0.062), significantly prolonged progression-free survival 2 (PFS2) (162 vs. 75 days, P = 0.001) and overall survival (OS) (312 vs. 166 days, P = 0.022) when compared with those of cross line. In the multivariate analysis, when using different regimen group as reference, the same regimen group was found to be independently associated with improved PFS2 [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.467, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.267–0.816, P = 0.008] and OS (HR = 0.508, 95%CI: 0.278–0.927, P = 0.027).ConclusionContinuation of the same type of PD-1 inhibitor regime in IBP shows clinical benefits and represents a promising therapeutic approach.

Economic Growth and Democratic Political System in Developing Countries

The relationship between a democratic political system and economic growth has been the focus of debate in recent years. This article is a contribution to the economic analysis of the relationship between democracy and economic growth. Using an econometric illustration of panel data from twenty developing countries, in a period from 2000 to 2021, Fixed-effect, random-effect and GMM model estimates show that a democratic political regime positively affects economic growth in developing countries. This result is explained by the importance of the role of democracy in implementing economic and social reforms, encouraging investment, opening up trade and protecting civil liberties and political powers.

Consistent effects of science and scientist characteristics on public trust across political regimes

Recent years have seen an increased research interest in the determinants of public trust in science. While some argue that democracy should be the political regime most conducive to science, recent debates about salient scientific findings revealed considerable cracks in the public perception of science. We argue that existing cross-national work on trust in science is incomplete because it uses an aggregate concept of “science”. People in different political environments likely have different conceptions of what science is, which can have consequences for perceptions and trust. To remedy this shortcoming, we present results from a preregistered survey experiment in ten countries (N = 8441), which covers a broad spectrum of political regimes and tests how science and scientists’ characteristics influence public trust. We find that, against expectations, female scientists and scientists engaging in public activism are both perceived as more trustworthy. High-impact research is trusted more than low-impact research, and it does not matter whether a scientist is a co-national. Overall, our experiment reveals few differences across political regimes. Additional survey results show that respondents’ education and exposure to science have similar relationships with trust across autocratic and democratic countries. A striking difference we find is that while political orientation has little impact in autocratic countries, it is strongly related to trust across democracies as perceptions of science become increasingly politicized.

Inside de- and re-centralisation: the formation of governance in Swedish local education authorities during education reform

ABSTRACT This article concerns the professional work of Swedish heads of local educational authority [LEA] school administrations) with a particular focus on their relationships with local politicians since the 1990s. In recent decades, Sweden has undergone foundational educational reforms, radically de-centralising - and then re-centralising - the school system. Thus, Sweden represents an interesting case for understanding both de-centralisation and re-centralisation processes. We cover seven empirical studies of superintendents to understand how municipal governance and the role of superintendents have changed over time in response to these large-scale reforms. We show that the de-centralisation reforms of the 1990s destabilised municipal administrative structures and superintendents' roles and duties with regard to politicians. However, during the 2000s, the municipal administrative structures and the role and duties of superintendents stabilised significantly. In the mid-2010s, reforms institutionalised superintendents' roles and bound them more closely to the state administration.

Legislation Development in Vietnam: Is the criminal law becoming more humane?

After four decades since the present of the first “modern” Criminal code of Vietnam in 1985, Vietnamese lawmakers have reached many remarkable milestones in terms of criminal justice policy and legislation. The paper shall discuss and clarify 02 main hypotheses. Firstly, there are 05 criteria to evaluate the clemency of the Vietnamese criminal law, including: 1) The proportion between the number of very serious, extremely serious crimes and total number of crimes; 2) Severity of the punishments in the 2015 Criminal Code; 3) The number of provisions on exemption from serving sentences, reduction of sentence duration and conviction expungement; 4) The number of provisions on penalty decisions in favor of the offenders; 5) The proportion between the decriminalized crimes and criminalized conducts in the criminal code. Secondly, based on analyzing these criteria, the paper shall prove that Vietnamese criminal law is becoming more humane. The achieved developments come from several reasons. The main one is that the entire political regime of Vietnam, with the key role of Communist Party, participated in the reformation process of the criminal law.

Glycemic management in the stroke unit and its relationship with morbidity and mortality

To determine the treatment of hyperglycemia in the stroke unit, and to compare the morbidity and mortality of patients treated with an intravenous (iv) insulin therapy protocol compared to subcutaneous (sc) insulin when reaching glycemia levels of = 155 mg/dL. We performed a prospective observational study of patients admitted to our stroke unit between July and October 2022. Demographic, glycemic and prognostic variables were collected. Glycemic variability was defined as the standard deviation (SD) of the mean individual glycemia during the first 24-72 hours. Acute complications during admission and mortality at discharge and at 3 months were determined. The variables were analysed by subgroup according to the insulin regime in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) or stress hyperglycemia. The sample consisted of 181 patients, of whom 63.5% were male, with a mean age of 74.2 (SD: 11.6) years. 25.4% required insulin due to glycemia = 155 mg/dL (18 patients iv and 28 sc). 31.5% had DM2 (82.6% of the group receiving insulin and 14% of group without insulin). The group receiving insulin presented higher levels of glycemic variability, at 33.3 (SD: 21.7) mg/dL vs. 11.7 (SD: 7) mg/dL (p < 0.01), more acute complications (43.5% vs. 19.2%; p < 0.01) and higher mortality at 3 months (19.5% vs. 6.6%; p = 0.04) than the group without insulin, and no differences were observed between the type of insulin regime in the subgroups with DM2 or stress hyperglycemia. The patients with glycemia = 155 mg/dL presented higher levels of glycemic variability, acute complications and mortality at 3 months, and no differences were observed in the type of insulin regime, regardless of whether they had DM2.

Complex Hybrid Governance in the South American Borderlands: The Agency of Grassroots Actors in Transforming Violent Conflicts

ABSTRACTThis article examines the role of grassroots actors in regions of violent conflict where competing governance systems exists. Specifically, it focuses on those living in the borderlands of South America, where alternative forms of governance may be created in response to violence between state and criminal organizations. In this context, how can grassroots actors overcome protracted armed violence and establish new, legitimate forms of social governance? To explore this question, our methodology employs data triangulation, combining literature, news reports, and fieldwork data collected in two violence‐prone territories: the borderlands of Cúcuta (Colombia)/Táchira state (Venezuela) and Pedro Juan Caballero (Paraguay)/Ponta Porã (Brazil). We argue that grassroots actors can develop innovative and alternative governance structures that differ from those of the state and criminal groups. This research also contributes to the ongoing discussion about the agency of local actors in violent conflicts between nonstate actors and the state. The findings demonstrate that grassroots actors in violent border regions can actively transform conflicts and build peace, particularly in areas such as migration, security, health, and education.

Authoritarianism and civil society: Legal restrictions on Human Rights CSOs

New types of authoritarian regimes attempt to create the illusion of democracy. They therefore seek to restrict the establishment and activities of CSOs not through outright bans, but through the adoption of laws and regulations designed to systematically and methodically impede the operation of human rights CSOs. This paper, based on empirical research, classifies and analyses the registration and re-registration procedures that restrict the freedom of association of human rights CSOs, as well as the legislation that imposes registration or re-registration requirements on organisations designated as “foreign agents.” Additionally, it assesses the proportion in which democratic and authoritarian regimes use these restrictive mechanisms. The results show that the restrictions examined are predominantly used in authoritarian regimes.

The Misadventures of Giuseppe Chiarini's Circus in Mexico, or a Survival Guide for Itinerant Entertainers in Turbulent Times

Press coverage of Giuseppe Chiarini's circus in Mexico during the downfall of Maximilian shows the entertainment entrepreneur adapting and altering his promotional messaging in response to a volatile political climate. That Chiarini operated a transnational enterprise at the time allows direct comparisons of the differing messaging he employed between Mexico and the United States on two controversial issues: republican versus imperial forms of government that divided Mexico and slavery that divided the United States. His politically splintered audiences in Mexico also offered differing interpretations of the import of his company's performance, and subsequently employed his circus to bolster the emergence of a national symbol. The record in Mexico suggests that the circus's methods of communication were less resistant to the application of political meaning than they were flexible in incorporating such meanings, allowing for them to attract and maintain the most diverse, and therefore largest, possible public.

Metamorphosis of Turkey’s political landscape: unveiling the evolving party system in the aftermath of the presidential system shift and the 2023 elections

ABSTRACT The May 2023 elections in Turkey—comprising both parliamentary and presidential races—represented a pivotal moment in the country’s political history. These elections provided a crucial evaluation of the hyper-presidential system instituted after the 2017 constitutional transition. This article delves into the impact of the 2023 electoral outcomes on Turkey’s party system within the context of Turkey’s transition to a presidential system. It examines the ramifications of institutional changes, such as the introduction of winner-takes-all dynamics and alliance laws, on party system dynamics. Our findings indicate substantial transformations in key aspects of the party system, including increased polarization, heightened fragmentation, enhanced volatility, and intensified personalization. Through empirical analysis, showcasing the evolving dynamics of these challenges within the Turkish party system and their consequences for both the party system’s structure and the broader political regime, we offer insights into potential future trajectories for Turkey’s political landscape.

Housing First as a global fast policy, economic tool, and disciplinary tactic: can Housing First’s progressive promise be salvaged?

While there are an abundance of studies evaluating the effectiveness of Housing First programs, there is a recent surge in critical social science research that situates Housing First within broader debates about contemporary neoliberal homelessness governance. This paper provides clarity to this evolving and somewhat fragmented work by highlighting three main conceptualisations of critical Housing First research. First, it is interpreted as a technocratic global fast policy that, while appealing to policymakers and government officials, ultimately fails to address the structural causes of housing insecurity and homelessness. Second, it is viewed as an economic tool that prioritises housing for a narrow cohort of ‘chronic homeless’ that incur a high cost to scarce public resources. Third, it is seen as a disciplinary tactic that ignores people’s alternative expressions of home and compels them to abide by the norms of ‘independent living’ and the private rental market. We conclude with an assessment of this critical literature. Whilst acknowledging its key insights, we contend that its treatment of Housing First as yet another form of neoliberal homelessness governance and overreliance on Anglophone-country case studies risks reifying HF’s worst aspects and failing to adequately recognise its transformative potential.

Governance of labour relations in the platform economy. The cooperation between YouTubers Union and IG Metall

AbstractThe article focuses on the factors that explain the emergence and accomplishments of the ‘FairTube’ campaign, which was initiated in 2019 by the YouTubers Union and the German metalworkers' union IG Metall, and was later established as a formalised German association (“Verein”). While the initial focus of the campaign was on changing the monetisation rules, which YouTube had altered very abruptly in 2017, the initiative subsequently focused on improving the working conditions of content creators. Methodologically, we deploy a mixed‐methods design that flanks media discourse network analysis through qualitative content analysis of expert interviews, which helps to identify the interaction between these established and new actors in the governance and interest representation in the digital platform economy. Our findings reveal a ‘hybrid form of governance’ that, by aligning ideologies and combining sources of power, was able to accomplish most of the goals set out by the campaign (avoiding arbitrary platform decisions, increasing transparency and communication, securing creators' income). We conclude that new forms of collective action, i.e. the coalition between “old” and “new” organizations, may mitigate particular negative consequences of the platform economy. The study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of platform work and to the concepts of power, ideas, and interests in industrial relations.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG): Roles and Strategies to Improve the Performance of the Indonesian Insurance Industry

The objective of this research is to understand the role of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in improving the financial performance of insurance companies in Indonesia. A qualitative, library study method was employed, Research results show (1) the role of ESG as definers of competitive advantage, in improving performance, and guaranteeing the sustainability of the company in the future; and (2) the strategy of insurance companies in Indonesia with respect to ESG is to run business with sustainable financial principles and create environmental-based service products. The implications of this study are that the application of ESG principles to insurance companies in Indonesia is expected to drive government programs to implement sustainable development governance (SDGs) in sustainable finance. The novelty of this research is its emphasis on environmentally-based sustainable financial principles. Keywords: social and environmental governance, roles, strategies, performance, insurance

How can we accept ‘our’ decisions?: an experimental study on lottocracy, epistocracy, and electoral democracy

Abstract Lottocracy and epistocracy have received deeply insightful attention as political regimes. Herein, by conducting an experiment using an online survey, we explored the extent to which public opinion is receptive to political decisions under various regimes regarding two environmental policies: education policy and environmental tax policy. By doing so, we examined whether the presence of tax burdens affected the acceptability of political regimes, i.e., electoral democracy, lottocracy, and epistocracy. Our results revealed that decisions based on lottocracy and epistocracy were significantly less acceptable than those based on electoral democracy. Nevertheless, lottocratic and epistocratic decisions were more acceptable regarding the issue of environmental tax policy. The difference was mainly attributed to people's rejection of environmental tax policy offsetting their rejection of lottocracy and epistocracy. This suggests, first, that decisions based on electoral democracy increase policies' acceptability if they do not involve taxation, and second, that the status of whether or not a decision is electoral does not significantly affect policy acceptability if taxation is involved, whereas on the other hand, people are sensitive to differences between the regimes if the policy does not involve taxation.

Legendary Culinary Tourism in Jakarta, Indonesia

This research explores legendary Jakarta culinary delights reflecting local traditions, global influences, and the city's cultural identity. The study aims to identify and analyse iconic restaurants such as Ragusa Es Italia and Nasi Goreng Kebon Sirih. The methods include semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document collection to understand culinary delights' experience, history, and social impact. The results identified eight legendary restaurants, each significantly contributing to Jakarta's culinary culture. The culinary experience at these places is not just about the food but also strengthens social interactions between diners, creating connected communities. Analysis shows that the restaurant is a custodian of cultural and historical values, connecting different generations. The conclusion is that the culinary legend not only serves delicious food but also builds the city's identity. Means for preserving culinary heritage include collaboration between government, communities, and entrepreneurs and training programs for the younger generation to maintain traditional cooking techniques. Hopefully, this research will become a reference in developing culinary studies and preserving cultural heritage in Jakarta. Keywords: legendary culinary delights, Jakarta, cultural identity, social interaction, heritage preservation

Increasing The Effectiveness And Efficiency Of Local Msme Consignment Cooperation With The Vendor System

MSMEs have an important role in the Indonesian economy but face challenges in adapting to the digital era and establishing effective collaboration with retail companies. This research aims to develop and evaluate a vendor portal system that can overcome this challenge by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of consignment collaboration between local MSMEs and retail companies. Using qualitative descriptive methods, this research analyzes the impact of implementing a vendor portal system on consignment business processes, including operational efficiency, transparency, and collaboration between both parties. The research results show that the vendor portal system has succeeded in increasing operational efficiency, providing real-time transparency of sales and inventory data, and facilitating better communication between MSMEs and retail companies. Apart from that, this system also supports government programs in encouraging MSMEs to "Go Digital" and "Upgrade"