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Supranational Institutions (supranational + institution)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Do Governments Use Financial Derivatives Appropriately?

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 2 2001
Evidence from Sovereign Borrowers in Developed Economies
This article provides original evidence on the use of derivatives by sovereign borrowers. Swaps are used both to increase the liquidity of long-term government bonds and for speculation. However, some sovereign borrowers have also used derivatives to ,window dress' their public accounts for the purpose of disguising budget deficits. One actual window-dressing transaction by a sovereign borrower that used it to facilitate entry into the EMU is described. It is shown that the size of the artificial deficit reduction it achieved through this transaction is large. I argue that window-dressing through derivatives might prove particularly damaging for the political stability of the EMU, the effectiveness of stabilization programmes in less developed countries, and the credibility of supranational institutions charged with monitoring the soundness of client-country economic policies. Window dressing also dangerously distorts the relationship between governments and private financial institutions. I suggest proper accounting procedures that should be used to eliminate the possibility of such operations. [source]

International Migration and State Sovereignty in an Integrating Europe

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 6 2001
Andrew Geddes
This article examines the development of migration policy competencies of the European Union (EU) since the 1990s. It pays particular attention to policy framework that developed after the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties entered into effect in 1993 and 1999 respectively. In order to chart these developments, the article focuses on five analytical themes that illustrate key trends in EU migration policy. Reasons for and implications of shift from "pillarization" in the Maastricht Treaty to "communitarization" in the Amsterdam Treaty. , Blurring of the distinction between external and internal security. , The role that supranational institutions such as the European Commission are playing (or trying to play) in policy development. , Debates about migrants' rights in an integrating Europe. , Links between migration and EU enlargement. It is argued that far from weakening EU member states or symbolizing some "loss of control", EU cooperation and integration have thus far helped member states consolidate and reassert their ability to regulate international migration through the use of new EU-level institutional venues. This raises legitimacy issues as the EU moves into politically sensitive policy areas. Although talk of "fortress Europe" is overblown, the EU is likely to face legitimacy challenges on both the "input" (democracy, openness and accountability of decision-making) and "output" (implementation and compliance) elements of decision-making. [source]

Dynamics and Countervailing Pressures of Visa, Asylum and Immigration Policy Treaty Revision: Explaining Change and Stagnation from the Amsterdam IGC to the IGC of 2003,04*

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 3 2008
ARNE NIEMANN
The objective of this article is to account for the varying, and sometimes puzzling, outcomes of the past three Treaty revisions of EU/EC visa, asylum and immigration policy. The article focuses on decision rules and the institutional set-up of these policies, subjecting the results of the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations leading to the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice and the Constitutional Treaty to causal analysis. The article maintains that four factors can explain the various Treaty outcomes: (i) functional pressures; (ii) the role of supranational institutions; (iii) socialization, deliberation and learning processes; and (iv) countervailing forces. [source]

Globalisation and science education: Rethinking science education reforms

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 5 2005
Lyn Carter
Like Lemke (J Res Sci Teach 38:296,316, 2001), I believe that science education has not looked enough at the impact of the changing theoretical and global landscape by which it is produced and shaped. Lemke makes a sound argument for science education to look beyond its own discourses toward those like cultural studies and politics, and to which I would add globalisation theory and relevant educational studies. Hence, in this study I draw together a range of investigations to argue that globalisation is indeed implicated in the discourses of science education, even if it remains underacknowledged and undertheorized. Establishing this relationship is important because it provides different frames of reference from which to investigate many of science education's current concerns, including those new forces that now have a direct impact on science classrooms. For example, one important question to investigate is the degree to which current science education improvement discourses are the consequences of quality research into science teaching and learning, or represent national and local responses to global economic restructuring and the imperatives of the supranational institutions that are largely beyond the control of science education. Developing globalisation as a theoretical construct to help formulate new questions and methods to examine these questions can provide science education with opportunities to expand the conceptual and analytical frameworks of much of its present and future scholarship. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]