Download or read book Italy between the EU and Berlusconi Effects of external and internal factors on the Italian Public Debt written by Alberto Mittestainer and published by Anchor Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this study is to investigate whether the reduction of the Italian public debt between 1994 and 2004 and the increase after 2004 is due to internal or external factors. Given the current debt crisis in Europe, this is a fundamental question since it may demonstrate if Italy - and states in general - are able to handle their fiscal problem by themselves or if they need external help. The evidence, in the form of a detailed analysis of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles, will show that Italy was able to reduce the public debt only when pressured from outside and that the external constraints of the European Union in the form of Maastricht Parameters greatly impacted the level of Italian debt. Once Italy complied with them and became a member of the European Union, the effect disappeared and the Italian public debt started increasing again. Internal factors do not appear to have played a role. In particular, the qualitative study of parliamentary debates on the budget shows that the level of polarization and the role of veto players caused by it have remained constant and therefore can’t be used to explain the variation in public debt.

Download or read book Berlusconi The Diplomat written by Emidio Diodato and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-08 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the foreign policy of Silvio Berlusconi, Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments. The authors examine the Italian position in the international arena and its foreign policy tradition, as well as Berlusconi’s general political stance, Berlusconi’s foreign policy strategies and the impact of those strategies in Italy. Given that Berlusconi is considered a populist leader, the volume considers his foreign policy as an instance of populist foreign policy – an understudied but increasingly relevant topic.

Download or read book Accountability Transparency and Democracy in the Functioning of Bretton Woods Institutions written by Elena Sciso and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-04 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the strengths and weaknesses – in terms of transparency and compliance with the democratic principle – of Bretton Woods Institutions, considering the most important innovations from the original framework achieved through the introduction of independent accountability and complaint mechanisms (the Inspection Panel and Independent Evaluation Office), but also due to relevant reforms in the internal governance of the International Monetary Fund and the new financial assistance tools. One of its main focuses is on evaluating the socio-economic impact of conditionality in the countries requiring financial assistance, acknowledging the need to strengthen social protection policies in the adjustment programs. In addition, emphasis is given to the effects of the “constitutionalization” of the Washington Consensus in the European Union, with the establishment of the so-called “Berlin-Brussels-Frankfurt Consensus.”

Download or read book A Historical Public Debt Database written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper describes the compilation of the first truly comprehensive database on gross government debt-to-GDP ratios, covering nearly the entire IMF membership (174 countries) and spanning an exceptionally long time period. The database was constructed by bringing together a number of other datasets and information from original sources. For the most recent years, the data are linked to the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) database to facilitate regular updates. The paper discusses the evolution of debt-to-GDP ratios across country groups for several decades, episodes of debt spikes and reversals, and a pattern of negative correlation between debt and growth.

Download or read book Rescued by Europe written by Maurizio Ferrera and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.

Download or read book Global Challenges and the Emerging World Order written by Giulio Sapelli and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-20 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a fascinating overview of the challenges posed by the world’s new geostrategic order and likely future directions. It opens with an unconventional view of the Arab Spring, identifying its origins in the relative US withdrawal from the Middle East caused by both the need for military disengagement for economic reasons and the discovery of shale gas and tight oil in the heart of the North American continent. The rise in the geostrategic importance of Putin’s Russia is explored in this context. The implications of the worldwide economic crisis are analyzed in depth: the author’s interpretation is that the world is entering a phase of unstable growth generated by hyper financialization and deflation. Against this background, the book explores the US attempt to trigger growth through the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (based on the US-Australia military alliance) in restraining China’s advance, and the potential for Africa to become the driver of the world’s economic future if it can resist Chinese penetration and continue the nation-building process.

Download or read book A History of Corporate Governance around the World written by Randall K. Morck and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many Americans, capitalism is a dynamic engine of prosperity that rewards the bold, the daring, and the hardworking. But to many outside the United States, capitalism seems like an initiative that serves only to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few hereditary oligarchies. As A History of Corporate Governance around the World shows, neither conception is wrong. In this volume, some of the brightest minds in the field of economics present new empirical research that suggests that each side of the debate has something to offer the other. Free enterprise and well-developed financial systems are proven to produce growth in those countries that have them. But research also suggests that in some other capitalist countries, arrangements truly do concentrate corporate ownership in the hands of a few wealthy families. A History of Corporate Governance around the World provides historical studies of the patterns of corporate governance in several countries-including the large industrial economies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; larger developing economies like China and India; and alternative models like those of the Netherlands and Sweden.

Download or read book The Italian General Election of 2018 written by Luigi Ceccarini and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a lively and comprehensive account of the unprecedented Italian general election of 2018 and of its profound significance for Italy and beyond. The contributions in this volume cover the political, economic and international contexts in which the vote took place, and consider the main election contenders in the run-up to the election as well as the campaigns. The book further examines the election outcome, analysing the votes and discussing the impact of the election on the turnover of parliamentary personnel as well as examining the outcome from the viewpoint of government formation.

Download or read book Ordoliberalism Law and the Rule of Economics written by Josef Hien and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-28 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ordoliberalism is a theoretical and cultural tradition of significant societal and political impact in post-war Germany. For a long time the theory was only known outside Germany by a handful of experts, but ordoliberalism has now moved centre stage after the advent of the financial crisis, and has become widely perceived as the ideational source of Germany's crisis politics. In this collection, the contributors engage in a multi-faceted exploration of the conceptual history of ordoliberalism, the premises of its founding fathers in law and economics, its religious underpinnings, the debates over its theoretical assumptions and political commitments, and its formative vision of societal ordering based upon a synthesis of economic theories and legal concepts. The renewal of that vision through the ordoliberal conceptualisation of the European integration project, the challenges of the current European crisis, and the divergent perceptions of ordoliberalism within Germany and by its northern and southern EU neighbours, are a common concern of all these endeavours. They unfold interdisciplinary affinities and misunderstandings, cultural predispositions and prejudices, and political preferences and cleavages. By examining European traditions through the lens of ordoliberalism, the book illustrates the diversity of European economic cultures, and the difficulty of transnational political exchanges, in a time of European crisis.

Download or read book Italy in International Relations written by Emidio Diodato and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to provide an overview of Italian foreign policy from the moment of unification to the establishment of the European Union. Three turning points are crucial in order to clarify Italy’s foreign policy: 1861, the proclamation of the Italian Kingdom; 1943, when Italy surrendered in World War II; 1992, the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. The international position of Italy continues to be an enigma for many observers and this fuels misinterpretations and prejudices. This book argues that Italy is different but not divergent from other European countries. Italian elites have traditionally seen foreign policy as an instrument to secure the state and import models for development. Italy can still contribute to international security and the strengthening of the EU. At the same time, Italy is not a pure adaptive country and has always maintained a critical attitude towards the international system in which it is incorporated.

Download or read book The EU and the Eurozone Crisis written by Dr Finn Laursen and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-07-28 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global financial crisis, which started in the United States in 2007, spread to Europe in 2009. It especially hit Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain, countries which have introduced the single currency, the euro. These eurozone countries no longer have monetary policy autonomy, so they do not have the option of devaluation to increase competitiveness. The crisis has shown that the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) created in 1993, and which led to the single currency in 1999, is faulty. Its built-in asymmetry, with centralised monetary policy and decentralised fiscal policy, should be expected to create problems. Part of the response to the crisis so far has been incremental moves towards fiscal and banking union, which will mean a deepening of European integration at a time when many observers believed that a certain equilibrium had been reached after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. This book focuses on these developments as well as analysing other economic policies that affect the general economic welfare of the EU, including agriculture, trade and immigration policies. The book puts the eurozone crisis into the wider context of deepening and widening.

Download or read book The Search for Stability in Libya written by Andrea Dessì and published by Edizioni Nuova Cultura. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Established in June 2014, New-Med is a research network of Mediterranean experts and policy analysts with a special interest in the complex social, political, cultural and security-related dynamics that are unfolding in the Mediterranean region. The network is developed by IAI, in cooperation with the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, the Compagnia di San Paolo of Turin, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States. At the core of the New-Med activities stands the need to rethink the role of multilateral, regional and sub-regional organisations, to make them better equipped to respond to fast-changing local and global conditions and to address the pressing demands coming from Mediterranean societies all around the basin. This volume examines the goals and prospects of the OSCE’s growing engagement in the Mediterranean region and, more specifically, with the OSCE’s six Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia). The volume’s four chapters focus on the OSCE’s potential role in international efforts to stabilize Libya, a country which has been ravaged by a prolonged and destructive civil war, becoming the epicenter of conflict dynamics with far-reaching implications for both neighbouring countries and Europe. Each chapter addresses a particular theme, or level of analysis, tied to the current conflict in Libya. Beginning with an introductory chapter outlining the OSCE’s growing engagements in the Mediterranean region and Libya’s abortive requests to joint the OSCE Mediterranean Partnership, subsequent chapters delve into the minute details of the major internal and external obstacles to peace-building and stabilization in Libya, addressing the role of regional, European and international actors involved in the country. A final chapter delivers a Russian viewpoint of these themes and traces Moscow’s evolving policy and interests in Libya while addressing the broader role of the OSCE in the Mediterranean.

Download or read book Russia and the Western Far Right written by Anton Shekhovtsov and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The growing influence of Russia on the Western far right has been much discussed in the media recently. This book is the first detailed inquiry into what has been a neglected but critically important trend: the growing links between Russian actors and Western far right activists, publicists, ideologues, and politicians. The author uses a range of sources including interviews, video footage, leaked communications, official statements and press coverage in order to discuss both historical and contemporary Russia in terms of its relationship with the Western far right. Initial contacts between Russian political actors and Western far right activists were established in the early 1990s, but these contacts were low profile. As Moscow has become more anti-Western, these contacts have become more intense and have operated at a higher level. The book shows that the Russian establishment was first interested in using the Western far right to legitimise Moscow’s politics and actions both domestically and internationally, but more recently Moscow has begun to support particular far right political forces to gain leverage on European politics and undermine the liberal-democratic consensus in the West. Contributing to ongoing scholarly debates about Russia’s role in the world, its strategies aimed at securing legitimation of Putin’s regime both internationally and domestically, modern information warfare and propaganda, far right politics and activism in the West, this book draws on theories and methods from history, political science, area studies, and media studies and will be of interest to students, scholars, activists and practitioners in these areas.

Download or read book National Constitutions in European and Global Governance Democracy Rights the Rule of Law written by Anneli Albi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-29 with total page 1522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume book, published open access, brings together leading scholars of constitutional law from twenty-nine European countries to revisit the role of national constitutions at a time when decision-making has increasingly shifted to the European and transnational level. It offers important insights into three areas. First, it explores how constitutions reflect the transfer of powers from domestic to European and global institutions. Secondly, it revisits substantive constitutional values, such as the protection of constitutional rights, the rule of law, democratic participation and constitutional review, along with constitutional court judgments that tackle the protection of these rights and values in the transnational context, e.g. with regard to the Data Retention Directive, the European Arrest Warrant, the ESM Treaty, and EU and IMF austerity measures. The responsiveness of the ECJ regarding the above rights and values, along with the standard of protection, is also assessed. Thirdly, challenges in the context of global governance in relation to judicial review, democratic control and accountability are examined. On a broader level, the contributors were also invited to reflect on what has increasingly been described as the erosion or ‘twilight’ of constitutionalism, or a shift to a thin version of the rule of law, democracy and judicial review in the context of Europeanisation and globalisation processes. The national reports are complemented by a separately published comparative study, which identifies a number of broader trends and challenges that are shared across several Member States and warrant wider discussion. The research for this publication and the comparative study were carried out within the framework of the ERC-funded project ‘The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance’. The book is aimed at scholars, researchers, judges and legal advisors working on the interface between national constitutional law and EU and transnational law. The extradition cases are also of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of criminal law. Anneli Albi is Professor of European Law at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. Samo Bardutzky is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Download or read book Italy and Saudi Arabia confronting the challenges of the XXI century written by Silvia Colombo and published by Edizioni Nuova Cultura. This book was released on 2013-10-06 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy and Saudi Arabia are united by numerous and strong ties that have developed over the decades. In 1932, the two countries signed a Treaty of Friendship that constitutes the origin of their bilateral relations. The celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of Saudi-Italian diplomatic relations provide an opportunity to assess the state of these relations, as well as to advance some proposals as to how the two countries’ mutual cooperation and engagement in the regional and international arenas could be strengthened. The steady development of Saudi-Italian relations over the past 80 years has most recently been affected by the accelerated changes taking place in the Mediterranean region as part of the so-called “Arab Spring”. This region represents a priority for both countries and a significant link between them. Both economic imperatives and a geo-strategic rationale lie behind the increasingly frequent calls for a consolidation of bilateral relations between Italy and the countries of the GCC in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular. This book wishes to commemorate the outstanding level of engagement between Italy and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in a number of domains. It also aims to advance our knowledge of the most promising areas of cooperation, the challenges facing such cooperation and the prospects for future mutual engagement.

Download or read book Contract with America written by Newt Gingrich and published by Three Rivers Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The November 1994 midterm elections were a watershed event, making possible a Repbulican majority in Congress for the first time in forty years. Contract with America, by Newt Gingrich, the new Speaker of the House, Dick Armey, the new Majority Leader, and the House Republicans, charts a bold new political strategy for the entire country. The ten-point program, which forms the basis of this book, was announced in late September. It received the signed support of more than 300 GOP canditates. Their pledge: "If we break this contract, throw us out". Contract with America fleshes out the vision and provides the details of the program that swept the GOP to victory. Among the pressing issues addressed in this important book are: balancing the budget, stopping crime, reforming welfare, reinforcing families, enhancing fairness for seniors, strengthening national defense, cutting government regulations, promoting legal reform, considering term limits, and reducing taxes.

Download or read book Italy and Japan How Similar Are They written by Silvio Beretta and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an enlightening comparative analysis of Japan’s and Italy’s political cultures and systems, economics, and international relations from World War II to the present day. It addresses a variety of fascinating questions, ranging from the origins of the authoritarian regimes and post-war one-party rule in both countries, through to Japan’s and Italy’s responses to the economic and societal challenges posed by globalization and their international ambitions and strategies. Similarities and differences between the two countries with regard to economic development models, the relationship of politics and business, economic structures and developments, and international relations are analyzed in depth. This innovative volume on an under-researched area will be of great interest to those with an interest in Italian and Japanese politics and economics.