Central Authority (central + authority)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Deliberative Democracy and International Labor Standards

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2003
Archon Fung
Political theorists have argued that the methods of deliberative democracy can help to meet challenges such as legitimacy, effective governance, and citizen education in local and national contexts. These basic insights can also be applied to problems of international governance such as the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of labor standards. A participatory and deliberative democratic approach to labor standards would push the labor,standards debate into the global public sphere. It would seek to create broad discussion about labor standards that would include not only firms and regulators, but also consumers, nongovernmental organizations, journalists, and others. This discussion could potentially improve (1) the quality of labor standards by incorporating considerations of economic context and firm capability, (2) their implementation by bringing to bear not only state sanctions but also political and market pressures, and (3) the education and understanding of citizens. Whereas the role of public agencies in state,centered approaches is to formulate and enforce labor standards, central authorities in the decentralized,deliberative approach would foster the transparency of workplace practices to spur an inclusive, broad, public conversation about labor standards. To the extent that a substantive consensus around acceptable behavior emerges from that conversation, public power should also enforce those minimum standards. [source]


Land Administration in Medieval Japan: Ito no shô in Chikuzen Province, 1131,1336

HISTORY, Issue 289 2003
Judith Fröhlich
The topic of land administration is central in historical studies of medieval Japan, since it provides insight into the social and economic development during the medieval period and highlights the lives of various social groups, courtiers, clerics, warriors and peasants. Based on the case of Ito no shô, an estate in northern Kyushu, this article analyses the establishment of a wide system of land administration under courtiers and central religious institutions during the twelfth century and its decline during the thirteenth century. The concurrent rise of local land managers and their social and economic activities during the thirteenth century are also explored. Finally, an assessment is made of the impact of the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281 on economic and social development during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, in particular the loss of influence of central authorities in regions remote from the capital and the formation of rural communities under the leadership of local warriors. [source]


Resource periphery, corridor, heartland: Contesting land use in the Kalimantan/Malaysia borderlands

ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 1 2009
Lesley PotterArticle first published online: 25 MAR 200
Abstract The long borderland in Kalimantan between Indonesia and East Malaysia is partly mountainous and environmentally unique, its three national parks forming the core of a tri-nation ,Heart of Borneo' initiative proposed by environmental NGOs and ratified in 2006. More accessible lowlands in West Kalimantan and the north of East Kalimantan constitute a typical ,resource periphery' in which strategic considerations, persisting through the Suharto years, now intersect with a range of new political, economic and cultural demands. A perception by the central government of increasing lawlessness in the borderlands arose in the turbulent years following Suharto's fall, during ,reformasi' and the beginnings of decentralisation. In addition to smuggling and illegal logging, contests over land use erupted at various scales. Proposals to construct an oil palm corridor along the border, begun by the Megawati government and extended by some sectors of the Yudhoyono regime, were part of a quest for greater legibility and control on the part of the central authorities. The paper specifically examines the power struggles that arose over that project and its inevitable outcome, a central government back down. However, the current palm oil boom is bringing new corporate planting, which may eventually succeed in ,taming' the borderlands. [source]


From plan to practice: Implementing watershed-based strategies into local, state, and federal policy,

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 4 2000
Alice L. Jones
Abstract Planners are becoming increasingly interested in watershed-based plans as a way to more accurately reflect the natural landscape processes that cross the borders of political jurisdictions. Although developing plans that cross political boundaries is a relatively simple matter, establishing the transboundary authority necessary to implement such plans is often a much different matter. We investigated the regulatory mechanisms under which a watershed-based storm-water management plan could be implemented in the Big Darby Creek, Ohio, USA, a national scenic river currently facing critical threats from nonpoint sediment- and pollutant-loaded storm-water runoff in the rapidly urbanizing portions of the watershed. The watershed encompasses portions of 7 counties, 11 incorporated areas, and 26 townships, each of which has some authority over land use and storm water. The transboundary options explored include creation of a storm-water utility, creating a conservancy district, or an independent approach requiring all jurisdictions in the watershed to simultaneously adopt a series of storm-water ordinances. We evaluated these options on a number of characteristics, including their relative ability to control runoff quality and quantity, the locus of political control and enforcement authority under each, funding considerations, and the likelihood of acceptance given the region's existing political realities. Although a central authority such as a conservancy district or storm-water management district would likely be most effective in protecting water quality, the long tradition of local controls on land use makes this politically infeasible. Thus, we argue that a watershed-based protection plan for the Darby region will require the simultaneous independent approach. The case study of the Big Darby suggests that the successful implementation of watershed-based plans may be more dependent on the plan's political savvy than its technical superiority. [source]


The Politics of Banking in Romania: Soft Loans, Looting and Cardboard Billionaires

GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION, Issue 3 2004
Lucian Cernat
In this article attention is focused on the features of the emerging Romanian banking system, its failures, and their determinants. These failures were either politically driven or simply a result of the weak regulatory capacity of the state (as the owner of the banks) and lax monitoring from the central bank, as the central authority entrusted with the responsibility to maintain a well-functioning banking system. The reluctance of various governments, regardless of their political orientation, to apply sanctions against banks that are in trouble until the last possible moment encourage excessive risk-taking when banks first encounter financial difficultics, and asset-stripping when the insiders realize that a bank's continued viability is in jeopardy. Based on a number of case studies, the article argues that, in post-1989 Romania, insider trading, self-loans and blunt theft appeared more as systemic features rather than isolated incidents. [source]


Reconsideration of Economic Views of a Classical Empire and a Nation-State During the Mercantilist Ages

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009
Article first published online: 3 JUN 200, Mehmet Bulut
While the main aim of the economic policies of European nation-states was to use the power of the state to promote trade and economic growth and to build up national industries and manufacture, the Ottoman Empire continued to follow its provisionist, fiscalist, and traditional economic policies of land expansion in the early modern period. In Western Europe, this experience gave birth to a new class that gradually improved its trade ability and expanding industries and markets under a capitalist system. The Ottoman imperial policy was mostly concerned about the continuity of strong central authority and land expansion, which never meant improving the industry or trade concerns. Instead, the economic policies of the Ottomans were subsistence of the people, provisioning the major population centers, collection of taxes, and maintaining freedom of trade. The balance and stability in society explain the priority for the Ottomans in the economy. However, commercialization and profit explain the priority for the Dutch nation in the economy. This article elaborates the economic views of the Dutch Republic and the Ottoman Empire in the mercantilist ages. [source]


Lessons from Environmental Regulation for the Nonprofit Sector

ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2002
Renee A. Irvin
As the third sector's economic and social impact grows worldwide, efforts by governments to regulate the sector have focused on increasing compliance in tax,exempt organizations. This article turns to the environmental sector for guidance, summarizing key characteristics of environmental regulation and noting what strategies are likely to prove useful for application to regulation of nonprofit organizations. The article finds some value in promotion of market,based enforcement schemes, but little value in promulgation of laws specifying governance structures and performance standards by a central authority. The most promising opportunity for improvement of the nonprofit regulatory process involves incorporation of financial incentives into monitoring schemes. [source]