Download or read book Transformation Index BTI 2016 written by Bertelsmann Stiftung and published by Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Managing the peaceful transition of authoritarian states to democracy and a market-economic system represents a tremendous challenge. Whether it comes to reconstituting the coherency of the state following armed conflict, expanding participation rights and the rule of law in emerging democracies, overcoming corrupt structures, fighting poverty and inequality, or establishing clear rules for stable market-economic competition, the requirements are enormous, and the pressure on responsible leaders is intense. After all, the quality of political management makes an essential contribution to the success or failure of transformation processes. The Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index (BTI) thus systematically places political decision-makers' steering capability at the heart of its analysis and, as a result, is the only index in the world that measures and compares the quality of governance with self-collected data. This is done in the firm conviction that the ongoing comparative study of transformation processes is invaluable for the successful design of reforms and holds enormous global potential to learn from different political strategies for steering change, even though diverse traditions, power configurations, resources and cultures necessarily make each transformation process unique. The BTI measures and compares transition processes in 129 transformation countries with data collected between 2013 and 2015 and establishes their global rating based on detailed country reports. Now in its seventh edition, it offers the opportunity to understand long-term trends and global developments through the analysis of time-series data. The spotlight on current developments is thus complemented by a decade of data that captures the most varied transformation processes and puts into perspective recent progress and setbacks on the way to democracy and a market economy.

Download or read book Transformation Index BTI 2018 written by Bertelsmann Stiftung and published by Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Managing the peaceful transition of authoritarian states to democracy and a market-economic system represents a tremendous challenge. Whether it comes to reconstituting the coherency of the state following armed conflict, expanding participation rights and the rule of law in emerging democracies, overcoming corrupt structures, fighting poverty and inequality, or establishing clear rules for stable market-economic competition, the requirements are enormous, and the pressure on responsible leaders is intense. After all, the quality of governance makes an essential contribution to the success or failure of transformation processes. The Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index (BTI) thus systematically places political decision-makers' steering capability at the heart of its analysis and, as a result, is the only index in the world that measures and compares the quality of governance with self-collected data. This is done in the firm conviction that the ongoing comparative study of transformation processes is invaluable for the successful design of reforms and holds enormous global potential to learn from different political strategies for steering change, even though diverse traditions, power configurations, resources and cultures necessarily make each transformation process unique. The BTI measures and compares transition processes in 129 transformation countries with data collected between 2015 and 2017 and establishes their global rating based on detailed country reports. Now in its eighth edition, it offers the opportunity to understand long-term trends and global developments through the analysis of time-series data. The spotlight on current developments is thus complemented by a decade of data that captures the most varied transformation processes and puts into perspective recent progress and setbacks on the way to democracy and a market economy.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Limited Statehood written by Thomas Risse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unpacking the major debates, this Oxford Handbook brings together leading authors of the field to provide a state-of-the-art guide to governance in areas of limited statehood where state authorities lack the capacity to implement and enforce central decision and/or to uphold the monopoly over the means of violence. While areas of limited statehood can be found everywhere - not just in the global South -, they are neither ungoverned nor ungovernable. Rather, a variety of actors maintain public order and safety, as well as provide public goods and services. While external state 'governors' and their interventions in the global South have received special scholarly attention, various non-state actors - from NGOs to business to violent armed groups - have emerged that also engage in governance. This evidence holds for diverse policy fields and historical cases. The Handbook gives a comprehensive picture of the varieties of governance in areas of limited statehood from interdisciplinary perspectives including political science, geography, history, law, and economics. 29 chapters review the academic scholarship and explore the conditions of effective and legitimate governance in areas of limited statehood, as well as its implications for world politics in the twenty-first century. The authors examine theoretical and methodological approaches as well as historical and spatial dimensions of areas of limited statehood, and deal with the various governors as well as their modes of governance. They cover a variety of issue areas and explore the implications for the international legal order, for normative theory, and for policies toward areas of limited statehood.

Download or read book Armenia s Velvet Revolution written by Anna Ohanyan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In April 2018, Armenia experienced a remarkable popular uprising leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and his replacement by protest leader Nikol Pashinyan. Evoking Czechoslovakia's similarly peaceful overthrow of communism 30 years previously, the uprising came to be known as Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution': a broad-based movement calling for clean government, democracy and economic reform. This volume examines how a popular protest movement, showcasing civil disobedience as a mass strategy for the first time in the post-Soviet space, overcame these unpromising circumstances. Situating the events in Armenia in their national, regional and global contexts, different contributions evaluate the causes driving Armenia's unexpected democratic turn, the reasons for regime vulnerability and the factors mediating a non-violent outcome. Drawing on comparative perspectives with democratic transitions across the world, this book will be essential reading for those interested in the regime dynamics, social movements and contested politics of contemporary Eurasia, as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the fields of democracy assistance and human rights in an increasingly multipolar world.

Download or read book Stateness and Democracy in East Asia written by Aurel Croissant and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparative analysis of case studies across East Asia provides new insights into the relationship between state building, stateness, and democracy.

Download or read book Transformation Index BTI 2020 written by Bertelsmann Stiftung and published by Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung. This book was released on 2020-08-24 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wie gelingt der Wandel zu Demokratie und Marktwirtschaft? Antworten auf diese Frage gibt zum neunten Mal in Folge der "Transformation Index BTI 2020" der Bertelsmann Stiftung. Damit liegt erneut eine globale Analyse mit selbsterhobenen Daten zur Qualität von Demokratie, Marktwirtschaft und Regierungsführung in Entwicklungs- und Transformationsländern vor. Diese vergleichende Untersuchung ermöglicht es, aus verschiedenen politischen Strategien zur Steuerung des Wandels zu lernen, auch wenn unterschiedliche Traditionen, Machtkonfigurationen, Ressourcen und Kulturen jeden Transformationsprozess einzigartig machen. Der BTI misst und vergleicht alle zwei Jahre den Entwicklungsstand in 137 Transformationsländern auf der Grundlage detaillierter Länderberichte. Als international vergleichender Index gibt er damit außen- und entwicklungspolitischen Akteuren, Wissenschaft und Medien sowie Reformern vor Ort wichtige Anhaltspunkte. Die Ausgabe 2020 fasst globale wie auch regionale Erfolge und Rückschläge auf dem Weg zu rechtsstaatlicher Demokratie und sozialpolitisch flankierter Marktwirtschaft in der Zeit zwischen 2017 und 2019 zusammen.

Download or read book Measuring Democracy written by Gerardo L. Munck and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although democracy is a widely held value, concrete measurement of it is elusive. Gerardo L. Munck’s constructive assessment of the methods used to measure democracies promises to bring order to the debate in academia and in practice. Drawing on his years of academic research on democracy and measurement and his practical experience evaluating democratic practices for the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Munck's discussion bridges the theories of academia with practical applications. In proposing a more open and collaborative relationship between theory and action, he makes the case for reassessing how democracy is measured and encourages fundamental changes in methodology. Munck’s field-tested framework for quantifying and qualifying democracy is built around two instruments he developed: the UN Development Programme’s Electoral Democracy Index and a case-by-case election monitoring tool used by the OAS. Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.

Download or read book The Mobility of Displaced Syrians written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2020-01-27 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The war in Syria, now in its eighth year, continues to take its toll on the Syrian people. More than half of the population of Syria remains displaced; 5.6 million persons are registered as refugees outside of the country and another 6.2 million are displaced within Syria's borders. The internally displaced persons include 2 million school-age children; of these, less than half attend school. Another 739,000 Syrian children are out of school in the five neighborhood countries that host Syria's refugees. The loss of human capital is staggering, and it will create permanent hardships for generations of Syrians going forward. Despite the tragic prospects for renewed fighting in certain parts of the country, an overall reduction in armed conflict is possible going forward. However, international experience shows that the absence of fighting is rarely a singular trigger for the return of displaced people. Numerous other factors—including improved security and socioeconomic conditions in origin states, access to property and assets, the availability of key services, and restitution in home areas—play important roles in shaping the scale and composition of the returns. Overall, refugees have their own calculus of return that considers all of these factors and assesses available options. The Mobility of Displaced Syrians: An Economic and Social Analysis sheds light on the 'mobility calculus' of Syrian refugees. While dismissing any policies that imply wrongful practices involving forced repatriation, the study analyzes factors that may be considered by refugees in their own decisions to relocate. It provides a conceptual framework, supported by data and analysis, to facilitate an impartial conversation about refugees and their mobility choices. It also explores the diversified policy toolkit that the international community has available—and the most effective ways in which the toolkit can be adapted—to maximize the well-being of refugees, host countries, and the people in Syria.

Download or read book The Autocratic Middle Class written by Bryn Rosenfeld and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The conventional wisdom is that a growing middle class will give rise to democracy. Yet the middle classes of the developing world have grown at a remarkable pace over the past two decades, and much of this growth has taken place in countries that remain nondemocratic. Rosenfeld explains this phenomenon by showing how modern autocracies secure support from key middle-class constituencies. Drawing on original surveys, interviews, archival documents, and secondary sources collected from nine months in the field, she compares the experiences of recent post-communist countries, including Russia, the Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, to show that under autocracy, state efforts weaken support for democracy, especially among the middle class. When autocratic states engage extensively in their economies - by offering state employment, offering perks to those to those who are loyal, and threatening dismissal to those who are disloyal - the middle classes become dependent on the state for economic opportunities and career advancement, and, ultimately, do not support a shift toward democratization. Her argument explains why popular support for Ukraine's Orange Revolution unraveled or why Russians did not protest evidence of massive electoral fraud. The author's research questions the assumption that a rising share of educated, white-collar workers always makes the conditions for democracy more favorable, and why dependence on the state has such pernicious consequences for democratization"--

Download or read book Sustainable Governance Indicators 2011 written by Bertelsmann Stiftung and published by Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) 2011 make up the second and latest edition of this major study, and they build upon the work of the successful and widely acknowledged first edition, from 2009. The study examines 31 OECD countries and their performance during the period between May 2008 and April 2010, which witnessed the height of the global financial turmoil and economic crisis. In addition to the 2011 findings, this volume also includes essays on the project's conceptual framework and methodology as well as summaries and strategic forecasts for each of the countries.

Download or read book Shared Prosperity written by Maurizio Bussolo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World Bank has recently defined two strategic goals: ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Shared prosperity is measured as income growth among the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution in the population. The two goals should be achieved in a way that is sustainable from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. Shared Prosperity: Paving the Way in Europe and Central Asia focuses on the second goal and proposes a framework that integrates both macroeconomic and microeconomic elements. The macro variables, particularly changes in relative prices, affect income growth differentially along the income distribution; at the same time, the microeconomic distribution of assets at the bottom of the distribution determines the capacity of the bottom 40 to take advantage of the macroeconomic environment and contribute to overall growth. Growth and the incidence of growth are thus understood as jointly determined processes. Besides this integration, the main input of the framework is the finding that the trade-off between growth and equity may be an issue only in the short run. Over the long run, redistribution policies that increase the productive capacity of the bottom 40 percent enhance the overall growth potential of the economy. This report considers shared prosperity in Europe and Central Asia and concludes that the performance in sharing prosperity during the period 2000–10 was good, on average, but heterogeneous across countries and that sustainability is unclear. It also describes examples of the application of the framework to selected countries in the region. Finally, the report provides a tool to structure the policy discussion around the goal of shared prosperity and explains that specific policy links associated with the goal can be established only after a thorough analysis of the country-specific context.

Download or read book Governance and Institutional Risks and Challenges in Nepal written by Rachana Shrestha and published by . This book was released on 2019-12 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report identifies potential reforms that ADB could support to reduce governance vulnerabilities as Nepal transitions to a new federal system of government. With the adoption of its new constitution on 20 September 2015, Nepal became a federal democratic republic. Since then, the country's transition from a unitary system of government to the new federal system has been ongoing and remains a challenging process. The report examines the evolving institutional arrangements, challenges, and governance risks for the sectors in which ADB operates. It also identifies potential reform measures that ADB could support to help address these governance risks. The report aims to contribute to the preparation of ADB's 2020-2024 country partnership strategy for Nepal.

Download or read book Measuring Corruption written by Arthur Shacklock and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the advance of an increasingly globalized market, the opportunities for, and scale of, corruption is growing. The size of corporations and their wealth relative to nations provides the resources for corrupt practices. The liberalization of international financial markets makes transferring and hiding the proceeds of corruption easier. Moves towards privatization in East and West are providing once-only incentives for corruption on an unprecedented scale, as officials not only deal with the income of the state, but with its assets as well. In this book, Transparency International's (TI) world-renowned 'Corruption Perception Index' (CPI) and 'Bribery Perception Index' (BPI) are explained and examined by a group of experts. They set out to establish to what extent they are reliable measures of corruption and whether a series of surveys can measure changes in corruption and the effectiveness of anti-corruption strategies. The book contains a variety of expert contributions which deal with the complexity, difficulty and potential for measuring corruption as the key to developing effective strategies for combating it.

Download or read book Tantric State written by William J. Long and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bhutan is the only mixed-market, democratic nation in the world founded on Buddhist principles and values, rather than Western-liberal ones. This book explains Bhutan's unique model of democracy and economic development, its philosophical foundations and its practical relevance as an alternative approach to today's political and economic challenges.

Download or read book Papua New Guinea in the Twenty first Century written by David Lea and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the challenges this young nation state of Papua New Guinea faces in the twenty first century as it strives for economic development and an independent voice in regional and international affairs. These challenges also include the geopolitical context in which China is exerting a growing influence.

Download or read book Weak Institutions and the Governance Dilemma written by Mariella Falkenhain and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Weak Institutions and the Governance Dilemma is especially important and welcome since it offers a very incisive analysis of the role of NGOs in transitional democracies and the effect of institutional setting on NGO effectiveness in representing citizen interests. This book offers a very creative conceptual framework and timely, penetrating case studies which provide valuable insights on NGO strategy, governmental capacity, and the possibilities for social change.”Steven Rathgeb Smith, Executive Director, American Political Science Association, and Georgetown University, USA This book provides a novel analytical perspective on policymaking, policy effects and NGOs in hybrid regimes. It examines the sources and patterns of gaps between formal rules, political practice and longer term effects, and explores how NGOs navigate the tension-laden environments that gaps represent. The book shows how weak institutions and malfunctioning policies turn NGOs into ambivalent actors. Empirically, it covers criminal justice and social protection policies in post-Soviet Georgia and Armenia. The findings from the in-depth case studies are then extended by a discussion of gaps in hybrid regimes as diverse as Malaysia, Kenya and Russia. The book’s approach and findings will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners interested in NGOs, institutional theory and public policy.

Download or read book OECD Investment Policy Reviews Kazakhstan 2017 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kazakh authorities have embarked upon an ambitious reform programme to improve the country’s framework for investment and strengthen the country as an attractive investment destination.