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Institutional Conditions (institutional + condition)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	45%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	18%

Selected Abstracts

Religion, Historical Contingencies, and Institutional Conditions of Criminal Punishment: The German Case and Beyond

LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 2 2004
Joachim J. Savelsberg
Religion and historical contingencies help explain cross-national and historic variation of criminal law and punishment. Case studies from German history suggest: First, the Calvinist affiliation of early Prussian monarchs advanced the centralization of power, rationalization of government bureaucracy, and elements of the welfare state, factors that are likely to affect punishment. Second, the dominant position of Lutheranism in the German population advanced the institutionalization of a separation of forgiveness in the private sphere versus punishment of "outer behavior" by the state. Third, these principles became secularized in philosophy, jurisprudence, and nineteenth-century criminal codes. Fourth, partly due to historical contingencies, these codes remained in effect into post,World War II Germany. Fifth, the experience of the Nazi regime motivated major changes in criminal law, legal thought, public opinion, and religious ideas about punishment in the Federal Republic of Germany. Religion thus directly and indirectly affects criminal law and punishment, in interaction with historical contingencies, institutional conditions of the state, and other structural factors. [source]

Food Security in Complex Emergencies: Enhancing Food System Resilience

DISASTERS, Issue 2005
Prabhu Pingali
This paper explores linkages between food security and crisis in different contexts, outlining the policy and institutional conditions needed to manage food security during a crisis and to rebuild the resilience of food systems in periods of relative peace. The paper reviews experiences over the past decade of countries in protracted crisis and draws lessons for national and international policy. It assesses the different alternatives on offer in fragile countries to address, for example, the disruption of institutional mechanisms and the decreasing level of support offered by international donors with respect to longer-term expectations. It proposes a Twin Track Approach to enhance food security resilience through specific policies for protracted crises that link immediate hunger relief interventions with a long-term strategy for sustainable growth. Finally, the article analyses policy options and the implications for both short- and longer-term responses vis-à-vis the three dimensions of food security: availability; access; and stability. [source]

Extraregional Linkages and the Territorial Embeddedness of Multinational Branch Plants: Evidence from the South Tyrol Region in Northeast Italy

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2006
Markus Perkmann
Abstract: This article reevaluates the regional embeddedness of multinational manufacturing branch plants in view of recent work on global production networks and extraregional links. It argues that the predominance of extraregional production linkages is not necessarily detrimental to regional economies and that such linkages can even compensate for weak territorial innovations systems in noncore regions. The arguments are supported by a case study of the South Tyrol region of Italy, using firm-level data from surveys and interviews, complemented by evidence on institutional conditions. The findings suggest that neither the branch plants nor the locally owned manufacturing firms are strongly embedded in the region in terms of material linkages and interorganizational relationships, indicating that the ownership status of firms is not a good predictor of embeddedness. Second, compared to local firms, branch plants are more innovative and hence contribute to a larger degree to regional upgrading processes. Third, South Tyrol's core institutional structures, such as those governing the labor force, play a decisive role in the competitiveness of branch plants and therefore create codependencies that bind these producers to the territory. The results suggest a more differentiated assessment of the role of branch plants within noncore regions. [source]

The globalized, generous welfare state: Possibility or oxymoron?

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002
Cynthia Kite
Arguments about the incompatibility of globalization and generous welfare spending have given way to more nuanced analyses of how domestic-level institutions mediate the impact of globalization. This article discusses and compares two models , the labour-partisan politics model and the labour-monetary politics model , that identify national-level institutions that are said to make it possible for states to combine generous welfare spending and good economic performance. The empirical analysis shows that the labour-monetary politics model performs better for the period 1973,1989. However, institutional conditions that existed during these years are shown to be rather poor predictors of economic performance in the 1990s. The article goes on to discuss what this suggests for the continued viability of generous welfare spending and argues that while globalization might undermine some institutional settings conducive to continued generosity, there is evidence that other ones remain viable. [source]

,Beyond Left and Right': The New Partisan Politics of Welfare

GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2000
Fiona Ross
The ,new politics of the welfare state,' the term coined by Pierson (1996) to differentiate between the popular politics of welfare expansion and the unpopular politics of retrenchment, emphasizes a number of factors that distinguish countries' capacities to pursue contentious measures and avoid electoral blame. Policy structures, vested interests, and institutions play a prominent role in accounting for cross-national differences in leaders' abilities to diffuse responsibility for divisive initiatives. One important omission from the ,new politics' literature, however, is a discussion of partisan politics. ,Old' conceptualizations of the political right and left are implicitly taken as constants despite radical changes in the governing agenda of many leftist parties over the last decade. Responding to this oversight, Castles (1998) has recently probed the role of parties with respect to aggregate government expenditures, only to concludethat parties do not matter under ,conditions of constraint.' This article contends that parties are relevant to the ,new politics' and that, under specified institutional conditions, their impact is counterintuitive. In some notable cases the left has had more effect inbruising the welfare state than the right. One explanation for these cross-cutting tendencies is that parties not only provide a principal source of political agency, they also serve as strategies, thereby conditioning opportunities for political leadership. By extension, they need to be situatedwithin the ,new politics' constellation of blame-avoidance instruments. [source]

Risk trading in trans-boundary flood management: case study of the Dutch and German Rhine

JOURNAL OF FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008
C.-T. Chang
Abstract This paper explores the potential of applying a newly developed risk trading system, the so-called ,tradeable flood mitigation permit', to international flood management. Trading, aimed at complementing binding agreements or regulations, offers a new approach to transnational collaboration. A case study on the Dutch and German River Rhine is presented. The principle of internalising externalities using direct financial means is applied. The expected result is a higher level of river basin management in the upstream area, with financial resources coming from downstream. Specific institutional conditions, at both national and international levels, are identified in order to facilitate the establishment of the transactions. [source]

Religion, Historical Contingencies, and Institutional Conditions of Criminal Punishment: The German Case and Beyond

Agricultural policies and the emergence of cotton as the dominant crop in northern Côte d'Ivoire: Historical overview and current outlook

NATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 2 2009
Oluyede Clifford Ajayi
Abstract In most of sub-Saharan Africa, where the agricultural sector experiences dismal performance and is characterized by a gloomy picture, the cotton sub-sector in Côte d'Ivoire is often mentioned as a "success story" given the spectacular rise in the quantity of cotton production and the profile of the crop within the farming system. What are the historical and political antecedents of the development of cotton and the factors responsible for the feat accomplished in the midst of general failures in the same continent? To what extent can cotton be regarded as a "success story" and, what lessons can be drawn for agricultural development strategies based on the Ivorian case study? This paper traces the historical and socio-political background of cotton development in Côte d'Ivoire and identifies key policy and institutional interventions that have influenced the rise of cotton production and its emergence as the dominant crop in the farming systems of the country. Four stages in Ivorian cotton development are identified: planning, take off, crisis and the renaissance phases. The study demonstrates how a combination of good planning, technological advancement and appropriate policy and institutional conditions have contributed significantly to the rise of cotton production and its influence on the agricultural economy of northern Côte d'Ivoire. The study also highlights how the sustainability of agricultural development has been impacted by domestic and international policies and political events over which smallholder farm families have little control, and can at best only respond to. Important questions about cotton development in Côte d'Ivoire are raised that need to be answered before the program can be categorized conclusively as a success story. The study shows that there are no quick fixes to agricultural development in the sub-region. Rather, good planning and putting the necessary building blocks in place are important prerequisites. It is recommended that agricultural development efforts in the continent take cognizance of the complexity of the sector and address the inter-relationships that exist among the technical, policy, market and institutional factors that combine individually and collectively to influence African agriculture. [source]

Klimapolitik: Kyoto-Protokoll und Emissionshandel für CO2 -Zertifikate in der EU1

PERSPEKTIVEN DER WIRTSCHAFTSPOLITIK, Issue 3 2005
Wolfgang Ströbele
Also every economist knows that the institutional conditions and the rules of the game are important. This basic idea stood behind the introduction of a CO2 -emissions trading system within the European Community starting in 2005. Since the starting point is the Kyoto-protocol with its subset of relevant states involved and the rules agreed upon there, one must ask whether the EU CO2-trading system is really an instrument that helps to reach the Kyoto goals more efficiently. A positive answer to this question is very doubtful. The new European subsystem is only valid for CO2 while Kyoto knows six greenhouse gases, the EU trading periods are 2005,2007 and 2008,2012 while Kyoto is only relevant for the second period, the integration with all flexible instruments of Kyoto is not guaranteed from the beginning. The plants involved are power plants and plants with high energy intensity. Since the technological levels of these plants are rather similar in Europe, the difference in marginal abatement cost will not be large enough to offset the rather high transaction cost of the special EU system. Furthermore, the heating systems and small scale plants of industry are not included in the trading system. The same holds true for traffic, households and the service sector. Drawing a borderline between CO2 -policy there and the trading activities will cause inefficiencies. If CO2 -prices are high, the main incentive of the trading system will be a large shift from domestic production to production abroad without any CO2 -restrictions. Leakage-effects will then be dominant. With low CO2 -prices the special European bureaucratic system will not create enough efficiency gains to cover the trading system's cost. [source]

The Devil is in the (Bio)diversity: Private Sector "Engagement" and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2010
Kenneth Iain MacDonald
Abstract:, Intensified relations between biodiversity conservation organizations and private-sector actors are analyzed through a historical perspective that positions biodiversity conservation as an organized political project. Within this view the organizational dimensions of conservation exist as coordinated agreement and action among a variety of actors that take shape within radically asymmetrical power relations. This paper traces the privileged position of "business" in aligning concepts of sustainable development and ecological modernization within the emerging institutional context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Environment Facility in ways that help to secure continued access to "nature as capital", and create the institutional conditions to shape the work of conservation organizations. The contemporary emergence of business as a major actor in shaping contemporary biodiversity conservation is explained in part by the organizational characteristics of modernist conservation that subordinates it to larger societal and political projects such as neoliberal capitalism. [source]

Public-service values and ethics: Dead end or strong foundation?

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 4 2007
Ralph Heintzman
This article reconsiders Langford's arguments. It suggests that public-service renewal requires ongoing attention to public-service values but also a widening of perspectives. It is now necessary to give more attention to the organizational, professional and institutional conditions for sound individual behaviour. Renewed attention to public-service values did not seek to supplant traditional approaches to individual decision-making but rather to re-frame them, grounded in the principles without which they cannot make sense of the world. The research literature on values and ethics contradicts the critique's main contentions. The critique is also based on a mistaken premise, false dichotomies, and inadequate and contradictory assumptions about the nature of individual decision-making. Three points that are useful contributions to the ongoing dialogue on public-service values and ethics are noted. But an individual perspective must now be augmented by a focus on organizational performance. Far from being a "dead end," public-service values remain the strong foundation , the only possible foundation , for the public service of the future. Sommaire: Le présent article réexamine celui de John Langford, publié dans le numéro d'hiver 2004, dans lequel il prononqait un verdict négatif sur la préoccupation au sujet des valeurs du service public qui a été un élément de la réforme de la fonction publique au cours de la dernière décennie. Une nouvelle attention portée aux valeurs du service public n'a pas cherchéà remplacer les approches traditionnelles concernant la prise de décisions, mais plutôt à les recadrer, à les faire reposer sur des principes sans lesquels le monde n'a pas de sens. La littérature de recherche sur les valeurs et l'éthique conrredit les principales allégations du critique et est également fondée sur des assomptions erronées et contradictoires au sujet de la nature de la prise de décision individuelle. Trois points qui représentent des contributions utiles au dialogue actuel sur les valeurs et l'éthique du service public sont mentionnés. Mais la perspective individuelle doit aussi avoir pour objectif la performance organisarionnelle. Loin d'être une « voie sans issue », les valeurs du service public restent le fondement solide , et en fait le seul fondement possible , du service public de l'avenir. [source]