Download or read book Italian Institutional Reforms A Public Choice Perspective written by Fabio Padovano and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-11-21 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few established European democracies have undergone as much change as Italy in recent years, and here is a book that explores precisely what has been achieved – from a public choice perspective. The book pays particular attention to, among others, the introduction of the EURO, the reform of voting from proportional to majoritarian rule, and the switch from a highly centralized government to a federal organization.

Download or read book Do They Walk Like They Talk written by Louis M. Imbeau and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-16 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Bush’s 1988 campaign pledge, "Read my lips: no new taxes," has become a mantra for those who distrust politicians and bureaucrats. The gulf between what political leaders say and do seems to be widening, and in democratic societies around the world, contributing to an atmosphere of cynicism and apathy among the citizenry. Understanding the characteristics and functions of speech in policy processes is a requirement for trying to overcome this problem; indeed, politicians and bureaucrats spend a good proportion of their time and resources discoursing, i.e., writing, speaking, and publishing. However, there has been scant analysis of political discourse; the aim of this book is to fill this analytical gap, by exploring political speech from a variety of perspectives, including normative, epistemological, and empirical. Incorporating insights from economics, political science, philosophy, and law, and evidence from the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Turkey, and the EU, the book addresses a wide variety of timely issues, including:. Fiscal discipline in speeches vs budget balance: Is an improvement (deterioration) of the budget balance preceded by a more (less) fiscally disciplined discourse? Revenues and spending forecasted in budget speeches vs realised budget outcomes: Is there a systematic bias? If so, how can we explain it? Electoral pledges vs actual realisations: Do governments follow up on their electoral pledges? Ideological stance in party publications vs spending and revenues of party governments: Do parties of the right and the left speak different languages? How can we validly classify a government as of the left or of the right? Is there a systematic difference between governments of the right and of the left in terms of their policy? Speeches by central bank officers vs monetary policy: Can changes in monetary policy be predicted by official speeches? The political business cycle: How can taking into consideration the speech-action relationship strengthen (or threaten) our knowledge about electoral and partisan cycles in public spending? Other questions explored include: Should policy makers always tell the truth and all the truth? What are the benefits and the costs of transparency? How can we resolve the apparent contradiction between the democratic demand for transparency and the efficiency requirement of secrecy in many policy areas (budget preparation, monetary policy, foreign policy, security, etc.)? Under which conditions is secrecy acceptable in a democratic society? To what extent may deception and lies lead to a breach of trust or to power abuse? What are the most efficient institutional mechanisms to prevent such abuse? Collectively, the authors present new insights for understanding political process and government activity, and suggest avenues for further research.

Download or read book The Italian Welfare State in a European Perspective written by Ascoli, Ugo and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2015-05-07 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Trente Glorieuses era of economic prosperity that followed World War II, Italy grew into one of Europe's--and, indeed, the world's--largest economies. While the more tumultuous decades since have resulted in the rise of the Italian welfare state, Italy remains a globally important economic player and important social policy indicator, but as of yet it has received little academic research attention. This is the first English-language book to explore the evolution of the Italian welfare state, with a particular emphasis on how it has changed since the 2008 economic crisis. Drawing on a variety of social policies--including pension, schooling, higher education, healthcare, and taxation policies--this collection both offers a broad overview of the Italian situation, featuring detailed analysis of the connections between particular policies and their outcomes, and a comparative approach that frames the Italian case within a larger European context.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Public Choice written by Charles Rowley and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2004-07-06 with total page 1142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia provides a detailed and comprehensive account of the subject known as public choice. However, the title would not convey suf- ciently the breadth of the Encyclopedia’s contents which can be summarized better as the fruitful interchange of economics, political science and moral philosophy on the basis of an image of man as a purposive and responsible actor who pursues his own objectives as efficiently as possible. This fruitful interchange between the fields outlined above existed during the late eighteenth century during the brief period of the Scottish Enlightenment when such great scholars as David Hume, Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith contributed to all these fields, and more. However, as intell- tual specialization gradually replaced broad-based scholarship from the m- nineteenth century onwards, it became increasingly rare to find a scholar making major contributions to more than one. Once Alfred Marshall defined economics in neoclassical terms, as a n- row positive discipline, the link between economics, political science and moral philosophy was all but severed and economists redefined their role into that of ‘the humble dentist’ providing technical economic information as inputs to improve the performance of impartial, benevolent and omniscient governments in their attempts to promote the public interest. This indeed was the dominant view within an economics profession that had become besotted by the economics of John Maynard Keynes and Paul Samuelson immediately following the end of the Second World War.

Download or read book The Crucible of Revolutionary and Napoleonic Warfare and European Transitions to Modern Economic Growth written by Patrick Karl O'Brien and published by Library of Economic History. This book was released on 2021-12-17 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Historiographically, this book rests on the fact that European transitions to modern economic growth were obstructed and promoted by the Revolution in France and 15 years of geopolitical conflict sustained by Napoleon in order to establish French Hegemony over the states and economies of Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and overseas commerce. The chapters reveal that the nature and significance of connections between geopolitical and economic forces lend coherence to a collaborative endeavour utilising comparative methods to address a mega question: What might be plausibly concluded about the economic costs and the benefits of this protracted conjuncture of Revolutionary and Napoleonic Warfare?"--

Download or read book Making Democracy Work written by Robert D. Putnam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1994-05-27 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and health services, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity.

Download or read book Behind a Veil of Ignorance written by Louis M. Imbeau and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-02-19 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a very interesting research project that includes the most careful work on constitutional power and limits to authority of which I am aware. In general, the contributors find that constitutional negotiations normally took place in settings where uncertainty was considerable. They also find that the more detailed the characterization of power relationships, the more liberal and durable the democracy tends to be. Roger D. Congleton This book addresses the issue of the impact of uncertainty in constitutional design. To what extent do constitution drafters and adopters make their decisions behind a veil of ignorance? More fundamentally, can we infer from constitutional texts the degree of uncertainty faced by constitution drafters and adopters? After an introduction (chapter 1), the book proceeds in two parts. The first part (chapters 2 to 4) introduces to the intellectual filiation of the project and to its theoretical and methodological foundations. The second part (chapters 5 to 13) presents nine case studies built on the same structure: historical account of the making of the Constitution, results of the content analysis of the constitutional text, and discussion of specific issues raised in the analysis. Chapter 14 concludes.

Download or read book The Next Twenty five Years of Public Choice written by Charles Rowley and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Next 25 Years of Public Choice brings together the perspectives of many of the world's leading scholars of public choice on the present state of knowledge and the likely future course of scholarship on public choice and constitutional economy. This book presents material in a manner accessible to a wide educated readership and will be influential in guiding future research in this important field. It is directed at professional scholars of public choice, economics and political science, government officials, graduate students and anyone seriously interested in public policy. A distinguished group of internationally well-known scholars offer their own often far-reaching views on strengths and weaknesses in the current literature and pinpoint important avenues of research amenable to future research.

Download or read book Constitutional Economics and Public Institutions written by Francisco Cabrillo and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This extensive book explores in detail a wide range of topics within the public choice and constitutional political economy tradition, providing a comprehensive overview of current work across the field. The expert contributions are underpinned by the notion of moving economic thinking away from the analysis of the logic of a situation given a set of well-established and well-enforced Ôrules of the gameÕ towards a deeper analysis of the logic behind the selection of the rules of the game themselves. Within this context, the theme of choice between rules (as well as the more conventional analysis within rules) across historical time and place, and in various thought experiments and conceptual situations, is explored in detail. Extensive case studies back theory with empirical evidence, and topics discussed include: the foundations of constitutional economics; constitutional political economy; political competition and voting; public choice and public policy; and extensions to public choice theory. This stimulating book will prove a thought-provoking read for academics and both under- and post-graduate students in the fields of economics (particularly public choice and Austrian economics), public policy and political science.

Download or read book Preparing Africa for the Twenty First Century written by John Mukum Mbaku and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-20 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1999, this volume is written by seasoned African scholars and is intended to make a significant contribution to the debate on peaceful coexistence and sustainable development in the continent. The book contains a very refreshing, rigorous, informative and multidisciplinary analysis of the transition in Africa and provides practical and effective policy options for Africans. It breaks new ground in that it emphasizes the importance of institutions to economic growth and development in Africa. As such, it differs significantly from previous efforts which have tended to blame Africa’s underdevelopment on incompetent, ill-informed and poorly educated leadership. While agreeing that the shortage of competent and skilled technocrats has been a significant problem for many African countries during the last four decades, the contributors argue that the most critical determinant of poverty and deprivation in the continent has been the absence of institutional arrangements that enhance the creation of wealth and allow ethnic and other social cleavages to live together peacefully. Thus, as Africans prepare their societies for the new century, the first line of business should be state reconstruction - a task that was supposed to have been undertaken shortly after independence but was never accomplished. The main purpose of such an exercise is for each African country to design and adopt institutional arrangements that enhance peaceful coexistence of groups, the creation of wealth, and sustainable development.

Download or read book Constitutional Political Economy in a Public Choice Perspective written by Charles Rowley and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constitutional political economy is a research program that directs inquiry to the working properties of rules and institutions within which individuals interact and to the processes through which these rules and institutions are chosen or come into being. This book makes the case for an approach to constitutional political economy that is grounded in consistent, hard-nosed public choice analysis. Effective institutional design is simply not feasible unless the designers build their structures to withstand rational choice pressures from the political market place. If mean, sensual man is here to stay, then let us, in our better moments, incorporate that knowledge into the institutions that must govern his behavior. A distinguished list of public choice scholars pursue this approach against a varying backcloth of constitutional issues relevant to the United States, Canada, Western Europe, the transition economies and the third world.

Download or read book Devolution and Development written by Mwangi S. Kimenyi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-18 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a collection of unique case studies and theoretical analyses, this work examines the genesis and impact of decentralization reforms in developing and transition countries. In particular, the volume shows how decentralization affects governance and efficiency in the provision of public goods and under what conditions decentralization seems to deliver its theoretical benefits. Analyses in the book address current concerns about the interaction of decentralization with social and political structure, resource mobilization, public goods provision and corruption. This work will be invaluable to scholars of politics, development studies and regional studies.

Download or read book Institutional Reforms in the Public Sector written by Mahabat Baimyrzaeva and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it take to build and sustain effective government institutions? What have we learnt about the attempts to design and redesign public sector institutions in different countries? What works and what doesn't, and why? This book intends to answer these questions and presents analytical tools essential in planning for institutional reform,

Download or read book Reforms in Long Term Care Policies in Europe written by Costanzo Ranci and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-11-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last two decades, many changes have happened to the social welfare policies of various industrial countries. Citizens have seen their pensions, unemployment benefits, and general healthcare policies shrink as “belt tightening” measures are enforced. But in contrast, long-term care has seen a general growth in public financing, an expansion of beneficiaries, and, more generally, an attempt to define larger social responsibilities and related social rights. The aim of this book is to describe and interpret the changes introduced in long-term care policies in Western Europe. The volume argues that recent reforms have brought about an increasing convergence in LTC policies. Most of the new programs have developed a new general approach to long-term care, based on a better integration of social care and health care. The book explores increasing public support given to family care work (in the past, the family would take care of the elderly or infirm) and increasing growth and recognition of a extended social care market (by which care has shifted from a moral obligation based on family reciprocity to a paid, professional activity). A new social care arrangement has therefore been developing in Western countries, based on a new mix of family obligations, market provision, and public support. In order to understand such changes, this analysis will take into account the social and economical impact of these reforms.

Download or read book Making Multilevel Public Management Work written by Denita Cepiku and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public management increasingly takes place in multilevel settings, since most countries are decentralized to one degree or another and most problems transcend and cut across administrative and geographical borders. A collaboration of scholars in the Transnational Initiative on Governance Research and Education (TIGRE Net), Making Multilevel Public

Download or read book Reform Processes and Policy Change written by Thomas König and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-17 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Tsebelis’ veto players approach has become a prominent theory to analyze various research questions in political science. Studies that apply veto player theory deal with the impact of institutions and partisan preferences of legislative activity and policy outcomes. It is used to measure the degree of policy change and, thus, reform capacity in national and international political systems. This volume contains the analysis of leading scholars in the field on these topics and more recent developments regarding theoretical and empirical progress in the area of political reform-making. The contributions come from research areas of political science where veto player theory plays a significant role, including, positive political theory, legislative behavior and legislative decision-making in national and supra-national political systems, policy making and government formation. The contributors to this book add to the current scholarly and public debate on the role of veto players, making it of interest to scholars in political science and policy studies as well as policymakers worldwide.

Download or read book Ethics and Integrity in Public Administration Concepts and Cases written by Raymond W Cox and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ethics and Integrity in Public Administration" presents cutting-edge perspectives on the role of ethics in public sector management - what it is and where it is going. The contributors include a cross-section of authoritative authors from around the globe, and from both the academy and government. They cover a wide range of topics, diverse theoretical and conceptual paradigms, and global examples, and provide a broader view than what is typically offered in other books. The book includes both theoretical insights and commentaries grounded in practice. Chapters are divided into three parts: Ethical Foundations and Perspectives, Ethical Management and Ethical Leadership, and International and Comparative Perspectives.