WorldWideScience

Sample records for political agendas policy

  1. Pharmaceuticals, political money, and public policy: a theoretical and empirical agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jorgensen, Paul D

    2013-01-01

    Why, when confronted with policy alternatives that could improve patient care, public health, and the economy, does Congress neglect those goals and tailor legislation to suit the interests of pharmaceutical corporations? In brief, for generations, the pharmaceutical industry has convinced legislators to define policy problems in ways that protect its profit margin. It reinforces this framework by selectively providing information and by targeting campaign contributions to influential legislators and allies. In this way, the industry displaces the public's voice in developing pharmaceutical policy. Unless citizens mobilize to confront the political power of pharmaceutical firms, objectionable industry practices and public policy will not change. Yet we need to refine this analysis. I propose a research agenda to uncover pharmaceutical influence. It develops the theory of dependence corruption to explain how the pharmaceutical industry is able to deflect the broader interests of the general public. It includes empirical studies of lobbying and campaign finance to uncover the means drug firms use to: (1) shape the policy framework adopted and information used to analyze policy; (2) subsidize the work of political allies; and (3) influence congressional voting. © 2013 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

  2. Rural Youth: The Policy Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dey, Ian; Jentsch, Birgit

    With the advent of a Scottish Parliament and a Minister and Parliamentary Committee for Rural Affairs, there is now a broad consensus that policies are needed to generate "quality jobs" for young people in rural Scotland. This agenda is politically appealing, since it addresses various rural problems, including retention of young people…

  3. HIV/AIDS policy agenda setting in Iran

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khodayari - Zarnaq, Rahim; Ravaghi, Hamid; Mohammad Mosaddeghrad, Ali; Sedaghat, Abbas; Mohraz, Minoo

    2016-01-01

    Background: HIV/AIDS control are one of the most important goals of the health systems. The aim of this study was to determine how HIV/AIDS control was initiated among policy makers’ agenda setting in Iran. Methods: A qualitative research (semi-structured interview) was conducted using Kingdon’s framework (problem, policy and politics streams, and policy windows and policy entrepreneurs) to analysis HIV/AIDS agenda setting in Iran. Thirty-two policy makers, managers, specialists, and researchers were interviewed. Also, 30 policy documents were analyzed. Framework analysis method was used for data analysis. Results: the increase of HIV among Injecting drug users (IDUs) and Female Sex Workers (FSWs), lack of control of their high-risk behaviors, and exceeding the HIV into concentrated phase were examples of problem stream. Policy stream was evidence-based solutions that highlighted the need for changing strategies for dealing with such a problem and finding technically feasible and acceptable solutions. Iran’s participation in United Nations General Assembly special sessions on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS), the establishment of National AIDS Committee; highlighting AIDS control in Iran’s five years development program and the support of the judiciary system of harm reduction policies were examples of politics stream. Policy entrepreneurs linking these streams put the HIV/AIDS on the national agenda (policy windows) and provide their solutions. Conclusion: There were mutual interactions among these three streams and sometimes, they weakened or reinforced each other. Future studies are recommended to understand the interactions between these streams’ parts and perhaps develop further Kingdon’s framework, especially in the health sector. PMID:27579283

  4. Bangladesh pharmaceutical policy and politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reich, M R

    1994-06-01

    An analysis of the politics of Bangladesh pharmaceutical policy in the 1980s shows how significant health policy reforms in developing countries depend on political conditions both inside and outside the country. Bangladesh's drug policy of 1982 illustrates that governments can sometimes change public policy in ways unfavourable to multinational corporations, while the failed health policy reform of 1990 shows that reforms unfavourable to powerful domestic interest groups can be more difficult to achieve, even contributing to a government's downfall. The case provides evidence of basic changes in how the international agenda for health policy is set, especially the growing role of non-governmental organizations in international agencies and national policy debates. Understanding the political patterns of policy reform in Bangladesh has important implications for strategies to affect health policy in developing countries.

  5. Putting newborn hearing screening on the political agenda in Belgium: local initiatives toward a community programme - a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vos, Bénédicte; Lagasse, Raphaël; Levêque, Alain

    2014-07-01

    The Kingdon model, based on the convergence of three streams (problem, policy, and politics) and the opening of a policy window, analyses the process by which a health issue is placed on the political agenda. We used this model to document the political agenda-setting process of the newborn hearing screening programme in Belgium. A qualitative study based on a document review and on semi-directed interviews was carried out. The interviews were conducted with nine people who had played a role in putting the issue in question on the political agenda, and the documents reviewed included scientific literature and internal reports and publications from the newborn hearing screening programme. The thematic analysis of the data collected was carried out on the basis of the Kingdon model's three streams. The political agenda-setting of this screening programme was based on many factors. The problem stream included factors external to the context under study, such as the technological developments and the contribution of the scientific literature which led to the recommendation to provide newborn hearing screening. The two other streams (policy and politics) covered factors internal to the Belgian context. The fact that it was locally feasible with financial support, the network of doctors convinced of the need for newborn hearing screening, the drafting of various proposals, and the search for financing were all part of the policy stream. The Belgian political context and the policy opportunities concerning preventive medicine were identified as significant factors in the third stream. When these three streams converged, a policy window opened, allowing newborn hearing screening onto the political agenda and enabling the policy decision for its introduction. The advantage of applying the Kingdon model in our approach was the ability to demonstrate the political agenda-setting process, using the three streams. This made it possible to identify the many factors involved in

  6. Technical analysis, contestation and politics in policy agenda setting and implementation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koduah, Augustina; Dijk, van Han; Agyepong, Irene Akua

    2016-01-01

    Background: Why issues get on the policy agenda, move into policy formulation and implementation while others drop off in the process is an important field of enquiry to inform public social policy development and implementation. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy

  7. Politics, policy and physical education | van Deventer | South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    To understand educational reform and the form that Physical Education (PE) takes on we need to understand how policy becomes practice and the nature of the political agenda at any particular time. The research problem focuses on the politics involved in the policy process within educational reform regarding PE as a ...

  8. The politics of agenda setting at the global level: key informant interviews regarding the International Labour Organization Decent Work Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Ruggiero, Erica; Cohen, Joanna E; Cole, Donald C

    2014-07-01

    Global labour markets continue to undergo significant transformations resulting from socio-political instability combined with rises in structural inequality, employment insecurity, and poor working conditions. Confronted by these challenges, global institutions are providing policy guidance to protect and promote the health and well-being of workers. This article provides an account of how the International Labour Organization's Decent Work Agenda contributes to the work policy agendas of the World Health Organization and the World Bank. This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with representatives from three global institutions--the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Of the 25 key informants invited to participate, 16 took part in the study. Analysis for key themes was followed by interpretation using selected agenda setting theories. Interviews indicated that through the Decent Work Agenda, the International Labour Organization is shaping the global policy narrative about work among UN agencies, and that the pursuit of decent work and the Agenda were perceived as important goals with the potential to promote just policies. The Agenda was closely linked to the World Health Organization's conception of health as a human right. However, decent work was consistently identified by World Bank informants as ILO terminology in contrast to terms such as job creation and job access. The limited evidence base and its conceptual nature were offered as partial explanations for why the Agenda has yet to fully influence other global institutions. Catalytic events such as the economic crisis were identified as creating the enabling conditions to influence global work policy agendas. Our evidence aids our understanding of how an issue like decent work enters and stays on the policy agendas of global institutions, using the Decent Work Agenda as an illustrative example. Catalytic events and policy

  9. The politics of agenda setting at the global level: key informant interviews regarding the International Labour Organization Decent Work Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Global labour markets continue to undergo significant transformations resulting from socio-political instability combined with rises in structural inequality, employment insecurity, and poor working conditions. Confronted by these challenges, global institutions are providing policy guidance to protect and promote the health and well-being of workers. This article provides an account of how the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work Agenda contributes to the work policy agendas of the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Methods This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with representatives from three global institutions – the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Of the 25 key informants invited to participate, 16 took part in the study. Analysis for key themes was followed by interpretation using selected agenda setting theories. Results Interviews indicated that through the Decent Work Agenda, the International Labour Organization is shaping the global policy narrative about work among UN agencies, and that the pursuit of decent work and the Agenda were perceived as important goals with the potential to promote just policies. The Agenda was closely linked to the World Health Organization’s conception of health as a human right. However, decent work was consistently identified by World Bank informants as ILO terminology in contrast to terms such as job creation and job access. The limited evidence base and its conceptual nature were offered as partial explanations for why the Agenda has yet to fully influence other global institutions. Catalytic events such as the economic crisis were identified as creating the enabling conditions to influence global work policy agendas. Conclusions Our evidence aids our understanding of how an issue like decent work enters and stays on the policy agendas of global institutions, using the Decent Work Agenda as an illustrative

  10. Shaping the Health Policy Agenda: The Case of Safe Motherhood Policy in Vietnam

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bui Thi Thu Ha

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Background Maternal health remains a central policy concern in Vietnam. With a commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5 target of maternal mortality rate (MMR of 70/100 000 by 2015, the Ministry of Health (MoH issued the National Plan for Safe Motherhood (NPSM 2003-2010. In 2008, reproductive health, including safe motherhood (SM became a national health target program with annual government funding. Methods A case study of how SM emerged as a political priority in Vietnam over the period 2001-2008, drawing on Kingdon’s theory of agenda-setting was conducted. A mixed method was adopted for this study of the NPSM. Results Three related streams contributed to SM priority in Vietnam: (1 the problem of high MMR was officially recognized from high-quality research, (2 the strong roles of policy champion from MoH in advocating for the needs to reducing MMR as well as support from government and donors, and (3 the national and international events, providing favorable context for this issue to emerge on policy agenda. Conclusion This paper draws on the theory of agenda-setting to analyze the Vietnam experience and to develop guidance for SM a political priority in other high maternal mortality communities.

  11. The role of policy actors and contextual factors in policy agenda setting and formulation: maternal fee exemption policies in Ghana over four and a half decades.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koduah, Augustina; van Dijk, Han; Agyepong, Irene Akua

    2015-05-30

    Development of health policy is a complex process that does not necessarily follow a particular format and a predictable trajectory. Therefore, agenda setting and selecting of alternatives are critical processes of policy development and can give insights into how and why policies are made. Understanding why some policy issues remain and are maintained whiles others drop off the agenda is an important enquiry. This paper aims to advance understanding of health policy agenda setting and formulation in Ghana, a lower middle-income country, by exploring how and why the maternal (antenatal, delivery and postnatal) fee exemption policy agenda in the health sector has been maintained over the four and half decades since a 'free antenatal care in government facilities' policy was first introduced in October 1963. A mix of historical and contemporary qualitative case studies of nine policy agenda setting and formulation processes was used. Data collection methods involved reviews of archival materials, contemporary records, media content, in-depth interviews, and participant observation. Data was analysed drawing on a combination of policy analysis theories and frameworks. Contextual factors, acting in an interrelating manner, shaped how policy actors acted in a timely manner and closely linked policy content to the intended agenda. Contextual factors that served as bases for the policymaking process were: political ideology, economic crisis, data about health outcomes, historical events, social unrest, change in government, election year, austerity measures, and international agendas. Nkrumah's socialist ideology first set the agenda for free antenatal service in 1963. This policy trajectory taken in 1963 was not reversed by subsequent policy actors because contextual factors and policy actors created a network of influence to maintain this issue on the agenda. Politicians over the years participated in the process to direct and approve the agenda. Donors increasingly

  12. A Telecommunications Policy Agenda for Latinos en la Edad de Informacion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schement, Jorge Reina

    2001-01-01

    Discusses telecommunications developments affecting Latino access and participation. Examines telecommunications policy as political discourse. Presents elements of a telecommunications policy agenda drawn from that of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and focusing on access to services, education for digital literacy, needs of small businesses…

  13. A POLITICAL AGENDA OF SPORTS?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina-Ana DROBOT

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to analyze the most recent running marathons in Bucharest to see whether they are part of a political agenda or not, and if yes, what are the reasons for this. Is this a way of allowing people to bond together, and to take part in charity? Is this part of the way media imposes its agenda on people, or vice-versa? Is it a way of political elites to control the masses and make them take part in welfare activities? The paper will take into account the hypothesis of sports and welfare holding communities together.

  14. Mandating influenza vaccinations for health care workers: analysing opportunities for policy change using Kingdon's agenda setting framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson-Lee, Angela; Barr, Neil G; Randall, Glen E

    2016-09-29

    The consequences of annual influenza outbreaks are often underestimated by the general public. Influenza poses a serious public health threat around the world, particularly for the most vulnerable populations. Fortunately, vaccination can mitigate the negative effects of this common infectious disease. Although inoculating frontline health care workers (HCWs) helps minimize disease transmission, some HCWs continue to resist participating in voluntary immunization programs. A potential solution to this problem is government-mandated vaccination for HCWs; however, in practice, there are substantial barriers to the adoption of such policies. The purpose of this paper is to identify the likelihood of adopting a policy for mandatory immunization of HCWs in Ontario based on a historical review of barriers to the agenda setting process. Documents from secondary data sources were analysed using Kingdon's agenda setting framework of three converging streams leading to windows of opportunity for possible policy adoption. The problems, politics, and policies streams of Kingdon's framework have converged and diverged repeatedly over an extended period (policy windows have opened and closed several times). In each instance, a technically feasible solution was available. However, despite the evidence supporting the value of HCW immunization, alignment of the three agenda setting streams occurred for very short periods of time, during which, opposition lobby groups reacted, making the proposed solution less politically acceptable. Prior to the adoption of any new policies, issues must reach a government's decision agenda. Based on Kingdon's agenda setting framework, this only occurs when there is alignment of the problems, politics, and policies streams. Understanding this process makes it easier to predict the likelihood of a policy being adopted, and ultimately implemented. Such learning may be applied to policy issues in other jurisdictions. In the case of mandatory influenza

  15. The parliamentary political agenda: a tool for policy analysis of diabetes priorities in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agudelo-Suárez, Andrés A; Ruiz-Cantero, María Teresa; González-Zapata, Laura I; Restrepo-Medrano, Juan Carlos; Ortiz-Barreda, Gaby M

    2012-01-01

    To analyze the political agenda on diabetes in Spain under democracy by considering the frequency and content of initiatives in the Spanish parliament. A systematic search of parliamentary interventions (1979-2010) reported on the Spanish Congress of Deputies' web page was carried out using the key word "diabetes". A descriptive study of the frequency of interventions was performed, followed by a content analysis, according to the priorities of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Diabetes Federation and the Spanish Diabetes Federation. Other study variables were the year of presentation, legislature, type of initiative and whether a political decision was taken (yes/no). There were 59 interventions: 22% were related to the first international initiatives and 44.1% took place in the last two legislatures in response to the WHO's program Diabetes Action Now. A total of 32.2% of the initiatives addressed educational and social programs, while 23.7% addressed access to resources and health services. Most initiatives (74.6%) consisted of parliamentary questions to the government, which only required a response. Of the 15 initiatives requiring a decision to be taken, only eight were approved. Spanish legislators aim to comply with international standards. Nevertheless, political decision-making has sometimes been slow. Importantly, most of the political responsibilities related to health have been transferred to the autonomous regions. The updated National Diabetes Strategy in Spain will need to strengthen public health policies according to established international priorities. Monitoring parliamentary interventions has proven to be a valid tool for evaluating patterns of political debate and decisions on diabetes. Copyright © 2011 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  16. Policy in the Public Eye : Agenda-setting and framing dynamics of traditional and social media in relation to immigration and integration policies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R. Dekker (Rianne)

    2016-01-01

    markdownabstractThe policy field of immigration and migrant integration is publicly and politically controversial. Consequently, issues related to immigration and migrant integration are regularly in the public eye of the media. This doctoral thesis analyzes how policy agendas in the domain of

  17. How Did Youth Mental Health Make It Onto Australia’s 2011 Federal Policy Agenda?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harvey A. Whiteford

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The 2011 Australian federal budget included a large investment in youth mental health and early intervention services. In this article, we focus on the critical role of agenda setting in the preceding 4 years to examine how and why these services were given such a high priority at this time. We undertook a systematic review of relevant literature, including parliamentary Hansard transcripts from the House of Representatives and Senate, the final reports of all available parliamentary committees, government policy documents, other pertinent documents held by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging, and media reports from five widely circulated Australian publications/news outlets. We used Kingdon’s multiple streams framework to structure analysis. We highlight three factors that were influential in getting youth mental health issues onto the policy agenda: (a the strategic use of quantitative evidence to create a publicly visible “problem,” (b the marshalling of the “public” to create pressure on government, and (c the role of serendipity. Overall, we found the decision to prioritize youth mental health resulted from a combination of advocacy for a well-articulated policy solution by high-profile, influential policy entrepreneurs, and political pressure caused by an up swell of national support for mental health reform. Our findings highlight the socio-political factors that influence agenda setting and health policy formulation. They raise important ethical and strategic issues in utilizing research evidence to change policy.

  18. Technical analysis, contestation and politics in policy agenda setting and implementation : the rise and fall of primary care maternal services from Ghana’s capitation policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koduah, A.; Dijk, van J.W.M.; Agyepong, I.A.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Why issues get on the policy agenda, move into policy formulation and implementation while others drop off in the process is an important field of enquiry to inform public social policy development and implementation. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy agenda

  19. Participation as Post-Fordist Politics: Demos, New Labour, and Science Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    In recent years, British science policy has seen a significant shift ‘from deficit to dialogue’ in conceptualizing the relationship between science and the public. Academics in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) have been influential as advocates of the new public engagement agenda. However, this participatory agenda has deeper roots in the political ideology of the Third Way. A framing of participation as a politics suited to post-Fordist conditions was put forward in the magazine Marxism Today in the late 1980s, developed in the Demos thinktank in the 1990s, and influenced policy of the New Labour government. The encouragement of public participation and deliberation in relation to science and technology has been part of a broader implementation of participatory mechanisms under New Labour. This participatory program has been explicitly oriented toward producing forms of social consciousness and activity seen as essential to a viable knowledge economy and consumer society. STS arguments for public engagement in science have gained influence insofar as they have intersected with the Third Way politics of post-Fordism. PMID:21258426

  20. What Enables and Constrains the Inclusion of the Social Determinants of Health Inequities in Government Policy Agendas? A Narrative Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Phillip Baker

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Background Despite decades of evidence gathering and calls for action, few countries have systematically attenuated health inequities (HI through action on the social determinants of health (SDH. This is at least partly because doing so presents a significant political and policy challenge. This paper explores this challenge through a review of the empirical literature, asking: what factors have enabled and constrained the inclusion of the social determinants of health inequities (SDHI in government policy agendas? Methods A narrative review method was adopted involving three steps: first, drawing upon political science theories on agenda-setting, an integrated theoretical framework was developed to guide the review; second, a systematic search of scholarly databases for relevant literature; and third, qualitative analysis of the data and thematic synthesis of the results. Studies were included if they were empirical, met specified quality criteria, and identified factors that enabled or constrained the inclusion of the SDHI in government policy agendas. Results A total of 48 studies were included in the final synthesis, with studies spanning a number of country-contexts and jurisdictional settings, and employing a diversity of theoretical frameworks. Influential factors included the ways in which the SDHI were framed in public, media and political discourse; emerging data and evidence describing health inequalities; limited supporting evidence and misalignment of proposed solutions with existing policy and institutional arrangements; institutionalised norms and ideologies (ie, belief systems that are antithetical to a SDH approach including neoliberalism, the medicalisation of health and racism; civil society mobilization; leadership; and changes in government. Conclusion A complex set of interrelated, context-dependent and dynamic factors influence the inclusion or neglect of the SDHI in government policy agendas. It is better to think about

  1. What Enables and Constrains the Inclusion of the Social Determinants of Health Inequities in Government Policy Agendas? A Narrative Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Phillip; Friel, Sharon; Kay, Adrian; Baum, Fran; Strazdins, Lyndall; Mackean, Tamara

    2018-01-01

    Background: Despite decades of evidence gathering and calls for action, few countries have systematically attenuated health inequities (HI) through action on the social determinants of health (SDH). This is at least partly because doing so presents a significant political and policy challenge. This paper explores this challenge through a review of the empirical literature, asking: what factors have enabled and constrained the inclusion of the social determinants of health inequities (SDHI) in government policy agendas? Methods: A narrative review method was adopted involving three steps: first, drawing upon political science theories on agenda-setting, an integrated theoretical framework was developed to guide the review; second, a systematic search of scholarly databases for relevant literature; and third, qualitative analysis of the data and thematic synthesis of the results. Studies were included if they were empirical, met specified quality criteria, and identified factors that enabled or constrained the inclusion of the SDHI in government policy agendas. Results: A total of 48 studies were included in the final synthesis, with studies spanning a number of country-contexts and jurisdictional settings, and employing a diversity of theoretical frameworks. Influential factors included the ways in which the SDHI were framed in public, media and political discourse; emerging data and evidence describing health inequalities; limited supporting evidence and misalignment of proposed solutions with existing policy and institutional arrangements; institutionalised norms and ideologies (ie, belief systems) that are antithetical to a SDH approach including neoliberalism, the medicalisation of health and racism; civil society mobilization; leadership; and changes in government. Conclusion: A complex set of interrelated, context-dependent and dynamic factors influence the inclusion or neglect of the SDHI in government policy agendas. It is better to think about these factors

  2. Politics of sustainability in the Arctic - a research agenda

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gad, Ulrik Pram; Jakobsen, Uffe; Strandsbjerg, Jeppe

    2017-01-01

    and application from the global ecosphere to a regional environment, and, second, how sustainability is again conceptually transformed when meeting Greenlandic ambitions for postcoloniality. This discussion leads us to outline an agenda for how to study the way in which sustainability works as a political concept.......The concept of sustainability has taken centre stage in Arctic politics. However, there is little agreement on what ‘sustainable’ means. For different actors (governments, indigenous people, NGOs, etc.) the concept implies different sets of opportunities and precautions. Sustainability, therefore......, is much more a fundamental idea to be further elaborated depending on contexts than a definable term with a specific meaning. The paper argues a research agenda that aims to map and analyse the role of sustainability in political and economic strategies in the Arctic. Sustainability has become...

  3. What Enables and Constrains the Inclusion of the Social Determinants of Health Inequities in Government Policy Agendas? A Narrative Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Phillip; Friel, Sharon; Kay, Adrian; Baum, Fran; Strazdins, Lyndall; Mackean, Tamara

    2017-11-11

    Despite decades of evidence gathering and calls for action, few countries have systematically attenuated health inequities (HI) through action on the social determinants of health (SDH). This is at least partly because doing so presents a significant political and policy challenge. This paper explores this challenge through a review of the empirical literature, asking: what factors have enabled and constrained the inclusion of the social determinants of health inequities (SDHI) in government policy agendas? A narrative review method was adopted involving three steps: first, drawing upon political science theories on agenda-setting, an integrated theoretical framework was developed to guide the review; second, a systematic search of scholarly databases for relevant literature; and third, qualitative analysis of the data and thematic synthesis of the results. Studies were included if they were empirical, met specified quality criteria, and identified factors that enabled or constrained the inclusion of the SDHI in government policy agendas. A total of 48 studies were included in the final synthesis, with studies spanning a number of country-contexts and jurisdictional settings, and employing a diversity of theoretical frameworks. Influential factors included the ways in which the SDHI were framed in public, media and political discourse; emerging data and evidence describing health inequalities; limited supporting evidence and misalignment of proposed solutions with existing policy and institutional arrangements; institutionalised norms and ideologies (ie, belief systems) that are antithetical to a SDH approach including neoliberalism, the medicalisation of health and racism; civil society mobilization; leadership; and changes in government. A complex set of interrelated, context-dependent and dynamic factors influence the inclusion or neglect of the SDHI in government policy agendas. It is better to think about these factors as increasing (or decreasing) the

  4. The (limited) political influence of ecological economics. A case study on Dutch environmental policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boezeman, Daan; Leroy, Pieter; Maas, Rob; Kruitwagen, Sonja

    2010-01-01

    Although the ecological economics (EE) discourse attempts to influence environmental policy, empirical studies have concluded that its success in this endeavour has been limited thus far. In the Netherlands, however, two EE-related policy concepts, Environmental Utilisation Space and Ecological Footprint, were strongly present in environmental policy during certain periods in time, but subsequently disappeared from the environmental agenda. The central question of this article is how these ups and downs of the EE concepts can be understood: which factors determine their rise on and fall from the policy agenda over time? To answer this question, this article offers a conceptual model informed by the approaches in political science on framing, agenda-setting and knowledge utilisation. We conclude that the interplay of concept-specific characteristics, the formation of coalitions around the concept and contextual variables explain the rise and fall of the aforementioned concepts. A match between the dominant policy frame and the core elements of the concept provides the opportunity for the two concepts to be pushed on the agenda. We observe the alternation of 'constraining' frames, which allows for EE concepts to survive, and 'reconciling' frames, which block agenda entrance for EE concepts. Furthermore, the alternation of these frames seems to correlate with economic and public environmental attention cycles in the Netherlands. (author)

  5. Corporate philanthropy, political influence, and health policy.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gary J Fooks

    Full Text Available The Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC provides a basis for nation states to limit the political effects of tobacco industry philanthropy, yet progress in this area is limited. This paper aims to integrate the findings of previous studies on tobacco industry philanthropy with a new analysis of British American Tobacco's (BAT record of charitable giving to develop a general model of corporate political philanthropy that can be used to facilitate implementation of the FCTC.Analysis of previously confidential industry documents, BAT social and stakeholder dialogue reports, and existing tobacco industry document studies on philanthropy.The analysis identified six broad ways in which tobacco companies have used philanthropy politically: developing constituencies to build support for policy positions and generate third party advocacy; weakening opposing political constituencies; facilitating access and building relationships with policymakers; creating direct leverage with policymakers by providing financial subsidies to specific projects; enhancing the donor's status as a source of credible information; and shaping the tobacco control agenda by shifting thinking on the importance of regulating the market environment for tobacco and the relative risks of smoking for population health. Contemporary BAT social and stakeholder reports contain numerous examples of charitable donations that are likely to be designed to shape the tobacco control agenda, secure access and build constituencies.Tobacco companies' political use of charitable donations underlines the need for tobacco industry philanthropy to be restricted via full implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the FCTC. The model of tobacco industry philanthropy developed in this study can be used by public health advocates to press for implementation of the FCTC and provides a basis for analysing the political effects of charitable giving in other industry sectors which have an impact on

  6. Chapter 6: The policy agenda of ISPRM.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stucki, Gerold; von Groote, Per M; DeLisa, Joel A; Imamura, Marta; Melvin, John L; Haig, Andrew J; Li, Leonard S W; Reinhardt, Jan D

    2009-09-01

    This paper suggests a comprehensive policy agenda and first steps to be undertaken by the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) in order to realize its humanitarian, professional and scientific mandates. The general aims of ISPRM, as formulated in its guiding documents, the relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations system, and demands of ISPRM's constituency herein form the basis of this policy agenda. Agenda items encompass contributions to the establishment of rehabilitation services worldwide and the development of rapid rehabilitation disaster response, the enhancement of research capacity in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM), and the development of PRM societies. ISPRM's possible input in general curricula in disability and rehabilitation, and in fighting discrimination against people experiencing disability are discussed. Moreover, the implementation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in medicine, contributions to WHO guidelines relevant to disability and rehabilitation, the provision of a conceptual description of the rehabilitation strategy and the outline of a rehabilitation services matrix are seen as important agenda items of ISPRM's external policy. With regard to its constituency and internal policy, a definition of the field of competence and a conceptual description of PRM, as well as the development of a consistent and comprehensive congress topic list and congress structure appear to be crucial items. The proposed agenda items serve as a basis for future discussions.

  7. How Intense Policy Demanders Shape Postreform Politics: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rocco, Philip; Haeder, Simon F

    2018-04-01

    The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a politically volatile process. The ACA's institutional design and delayed feedback effects created a window of opportunity for its partisan opponents to launch challenges at both the federal and state level. Yet as recent research suggests, postreform politics depends on more than policy feedback alone; rather, it is shaped by the partisan and interest-group environment. We argue that "intense policy demanders" played an important role in defining the policy alternatives that comprised congressional Republicans' efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. To test this argument, we drew on an original data set of bill introductions in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2016. Our analysis suggests that business contributions and political ideology affected the likelihood that House Republicans would introduce measures repealing significant portions of the ACA. A secondary analysis shows that intense policy demanders also shaped the vote on House Republicans' initial ACA replacement plan. These findings highlight the role intense policy demanders can play in shaping the postreform political agenda. Copyright © 2018 by Duke University Press.

  8. Regional industrial policy and the new agenda for growth

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gjerding, Allan Næs

    2005-01-01

    Even though the structural reform of the Danish administrative three-tier system in general implies a centralisation of the policy decision-making process, centralisation may not apply entirely to the field of industrial policy as the result of the implementation of the new national law on indust......Even though the structural reform of the Danish administrative three-tier system in general implies a centralisation of the policy decision-making process, centralisation may not apply entirely to the field of industrial policy as the result of the implementation of the new national law...... on industrial development. Describing the implications of the law in terms of the changes of the regional setting for industrial policy and the ensuing focus on a new agenda for growth, the paper devotes its attention to the region of North Jutland that has been designated as a test case for the organisational...... coalitions rather than centralising the decision mak-ing power. However, since the political bodies involved in industrial policy will become fewer, more powerful and more focussed on industrial policy, goal conflicts are likely to oc-cur in the future....

  9. Shift in the United States Climate Policy and the Arctic Council Agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sakharov A.

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Environmental issues form the basis of the Arctic Council’s agenda. Since the first Senior Arctic Officials (SAOs meeting in 1996, issues related to ecology and climate have been raised at almost every event under the aegis of the forum. A substantial number of structures within the forum’s institutional framework were created to engage in monitoring exercises and scientific research, as well as to harmonize the positions of Arctic Council members on the most pressing environmental and climate change concerns in the region. In this regard, the change in the general course of U.S. environmental policy under the administration of Donald Trump could significantly complicate the interaction between members in key areas of the Council’s agenda. The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the lifting of the moratorium on oil and gas exploitation in the Arctic seabed will certainly impede dialogue within the Council. Nevertheless, there are several aspects of U.S foreign and internal politics which could work to preserve its long-term environmental policy trend despite changes brought about by the Trump administration. Even in the short term, the activities of the U.S. within the Arctic Council and the provisions of the Fairbanks Ministerial Declaration differ from the president’s statements on climate change. The U.S.’s new environmental policy is compared to the priorities of Finland’s 2017–2019 chairmanship which maintains the traditional environmental focus of the forum’s agenda while intensifying cooperation with other international institutions on climate change issues. Thus, the institutional basis established in previous years, and more importantly, the stable agenda and concrete work by the forum’s bodies ensure the effective use and functioning of the Arctic Council. The Finnish presidency and the secretariat of the Arctic Council are not adjusting the agenda to accommodate policy changes of individual

  10. The Development of Computer Policies in Government, Political Parties, and Trade Unions in Norway 1961-1983

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elgsaas, Knut; Hegna, Håvard

    A “Council for Government Electronic Data Processing” was established in 1961. This was the start of development of a common policy for computers and data within the public administration. In 1969-70, computers got on the agenda of political parties and the trade unions. In the course of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties the government, the political parties, and the trade unions established a more comprehensive view of data political questions that we will designate by the term data policy. This paper puts some light on the causes and forces that drove the evolvement of a data policy within these central sectors in Norway. We will also show how various actors of research, trade and industry, and political life influenced the development of data policy and present links between the actors that indicate that they mutually influenced each other.

  11. Political innovations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Eva

    2017-01-01

    are mainly interested in assessing and promoting innovations in public service delivery, but have paid little or no attention to the need for innovations in polity, politics and policy. This article develops a research agenda for studying innovations in political institutions, in the political process...... and in policy outputs. It proposes a number of research themes related to political innovations that call for scholarly attention, and identifies push and pull factors influencing the likelihood that these themes will be addressed in future research....

  12. Nature/nurture and the anthropology of Franz Boas and Margaret Mead as an agenda for revolutionary politics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sidney M. Greenfield

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available There is much more involved in the nature/nurture debate than an abstract theoretical disagreement among dispassionate scientists. Each side of the debate leads logically to significantly different views of the social order and holds different implications for social policy. In this paper I shall argue that Boas' Anthropology with its emphasis on cultural relativism was as much a social and political agenda as it was a scientific theory. The positions on public policy issues he opposed were informed (and rationalized by what its advocates claimed to be science. To be able to counter the discriminatory policy proposals that followed from this science, it was necessary for Boas both to challenge its validity and then replace it with an alternative that would support a more liberal political agenda. This chapter of anthropology's history gains relevance in today's context as neoevolutionary, reductionist theories once more provide "scientific" support for conservative, separatist and often discriminatory social policies.O debate natureza/cultura é muito mais do que um desentendimento teórico e abstrato entre cientistas desapaixonados. Cada lado do debate leva a visões diferentes da ordem social e traz implicações diferentes para políticas sociais. Neste artigo, sugiro que a Antropologia de Boas, com sua ênfase no relativismo cultural, tanto quanto uma teoria científica, foi um programa social e político. As posturas de política pública às quais ele se opunha eram informadas (e racionalizadas por algo apresentado por seus proponentes como ciência. Para combater as propostas discriminatórias que decorriam desta ciência, cabia a Boas desafiar sua validade e substituí-la por uma alternativa que daria apoio a uma agenda política mais liberal. Esse capítulo da história da antropologia assume maior relevância no contexto atual em que teorias néo-evolucionistas e reducionistas mais uma vez fornecem uma base "científica" para pol

  13. The Politics of Local Tax Policy-Making in Poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Swianiewicz Paweł

    2016-06-01

    To what extent is tax policy an important item of the local political agenda in Polish municipalities ? Is it a subject of intense debates at city hall and local councils or is it accepted as a routine exercise ? The results suggest that the issues related to local taxes play a relatively marginal role compared to issues such as the location of major investments. However, the importance of taxes in local debates increases in those local communities in which the tax yields collected are larger and in the case of those taxes which are paid by a wider group of tax payers.Who governs in local tax-policy-making ? According to local provisions the proposal of tax resolution is submitted by the mayor, and the local council makes the final decision. But empirical findings suggest that the practice follows the “strong mayor” model, in which the local political leader, supporter by his staff of the financial department, is more influential than the councilors.

  14. Political processes and variation in renewable energy policies between U.S. states

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vasseur, Michael

    , especially an affinity for neo-liberal ideology, which informs the content of the policy a state ultimately enacts. My final empirical project examines what state-level factors predict a state pledging to join a regional cap-and-trade program and how these factors differ for states that take meaningful action and actually enact such a program. I find that in more liberal states cap-and-trade programs can enter the political agenda, but that different political, economic, and ideological factors are associated with actually implementing such a program. In this dissertation I expand understanding of the politics of renewable energy policy by complicating the outcomes examined, and extend and expand prior findings from a variety of subfields within political sociology.

  15. Montagem da Agenda e Formulação da Política Pública: Austeridade Fiscal no Brasil / Public Policy Agenda Setting: Fiscal Austerity in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriano Cardoso Henrique

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – This paper analyzes the agenda setting and the formulation of the public policy that inserted in the macroeconomic context of Brazil fiscal austerity policies adopted in other countries, evaluating the negative impact of this economic measure. Methodology/approach design – we use the theoretical framework called the "public policy cycle" developed by several authors mentioned in the article. Findings - the analysis of the fiscal austerity agenda in Brazil reveals an orchestrated movement of certain economic agents, taking advantage of the moment of institutional fragility, as well as of deficiency of legal language in dealing with economic issues. Practical implications –the paper presents as possible failures in the formulation of the public agenda, especially the absence of democratic and transparent debates, may result in the adoption of outdated and misguided policies in the management of a specific sector of the State. Originality/value – the approach of the macroeconomic agenda for Law and even for the political sciences is a challenge that imposes originality in the search for interdisciplinary solutions. Resumo Propósito – O artigo analisa a montagem da agenda e a formulação da política pública que inseriu no contexto macroeconômico do Brasil políticas de austeridade fiscal adotadas em outros países, avaliando o impacto negativo de tal medida econômica. Metodologia/abordagem/design – Utiliza-se o marco teórico denominado “ciclo de políticas públicas” desenvolvida por vários autores citados no artigo. Resultados – A análise da montagem da agenda de austeridade fiscal no Brasil revela um movimento orquestrado de determinados agentes econômicos, aproveitando o momento de fragilidade institucional, bem como da deficiência da linguagem jurídica em tratar de temas econômicos. Implicações práticas – O artigo revela eventuais falhas na formulação da agenda pública, principalmente a aus

  16. Mídia e política no Brasil: textos e agenda de pesquisa Midia and politics in Brazil: texts and research agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Albino Canelas Rubim

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available Um especialista em estudos de comunicação e um cientista político apresentam conjuntamente um panorama da pesquisa sobre as relações entre os meios de comunicação e os processos políticos no Brasil. Uma agenda de pesquisa é proposta e um elenco de textos nessa área é apresentado.A specialist in communication studies and a political scientist present together a panorama of research on the relations between communication midia and political processes in Brazil A research agenda is proposed and a list of texts in this area is presented.

  17. The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Workman, Annabelle; Blashki, Grant; Bowen, Kathryn J.; Karoly, David J.; Wiseman, John

    2018-01-01

    A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite a recognition that the combustion of fossil fuels results in pervasive short- and long-term health consequences. We use insights from literature on the political economy of health and climate change, the science–policy interface and power in policy-making, to identify additional barriers to the meaningful incorporation of health co-benefits into climate change mitigation policy development. Specifically, we identify four key interrelated areas where barriers may exist in relation to health co-benefits: discourse, efficiency, vested interests and structural challenges. With these insights in mind, we argue that the current politico-economic paradigm in which climate change is situated and the processes used to develop climate change mitigation policies do not adequately support accounting for health co-benefits. We present approaches for enhancing the role of health co-benefits in the development of climate change mitigation policies to ensure that health is embedded in the broader climate change agenda. PMID:29617317

  18. The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Workman, Annabelle; Blashki, Grant; Bowen, Kathryn J; Karoly, David J; Wiseman, John

    2018-04-04

    A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite a recognition that the combustion of fossil fuels results in pervasive short- and long-term health consequences. We use insights from literature on the political economy of health and climate change, the science–policy interface and power in policy-making, to identify additional barriers to the meaningful incorporation of health co-benefits into climate change mitigation policy development. Specifically, we identify four key interrelated areas where barriers may exist in relation to health co-benefits: discourse, efficiency, vested interests and structural challenges. With these insights in mind, we argue that the current politico-economic paradigm in which climate change is situated and the processes used to develop climate change mitigation policies do not adequately support accounting for health co-benefits. We present approaches for enhancing the role of health co-benefits in the development of climate change mitigation policies to ensure that health is embedded in the broader climate change agenda.

  19. Health system strengthening: prospects and threats for its sustainability on the global health policy agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naimoli, Joseph F; Saxena, Sweta; Hatt, Laurel E; Yarrow, Kristina M; White, Trenton M; Ifafore-Calfee, Temitayo

    2018-01-01

    In 2013, Hafner and Shiffman applied Kingdon's public policy process model to explain the emergence of global attention to health system strengthening (HSS). They questioned, however, HSS's sustainability on the global health policy agenda, citing various concerns. Guided by the Grindle and Thomas interactive model of policy implementation, we advance and elaborate a proposition: a confluence of developments will contribute to maintaining HSS's prominent place on the agenda until at least 2030. Those developments include (1) technical, managerial, financial, and political responses to unpredictable public health crises that imperil the routine functioning of health systems, such as the 2014-2015 Ebola virus disease (Ebola) epidemic in West Africa; (2) similar responses to non-crisis situations requiring fully engaged, robust health systems, such as the pursuit of the new Sustainable Development Goal for health (SDG3); and (3) increased availability of new knowledge about system change at macro, meso, and micro levels and its effects on people's health and well-being. To gauge the accuracy of our proposition, we carried out a speculative assessment of credible threats to our premise by discussing all of the Hafner-Shiffman concerns. We conclude that (1) the components of our proposition and other forces that have the potential to promote continuing attention to HSS are of sufficient strength to counteract these concerns, and (2) prospective monitoring of HSS agenda status and further research on agenda sustainability can increase confidence in our threat assessment. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  20. Political contexts and maternal health policy: insights from a comparison of south Indian states.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Stephanie L

    2014-01-01

    Nearly 300,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications each year. One-fifth of these deaths occur in India. Maternal survival rose on India's national policy agenda in the mid-2000s, but responsibility for health policy and implementation in the federal system is largely devolved to the state level where priority for the issue and maternal health outcomes vary. This study investigates sources of variation in maternal health policy and implementation sub-nationally in India. The study is guided by four analytical categories drawn from policy process literature: constitutional, governing and social structures; political contexts; actors and ideas. The experiences of two south Indian states-Tamil Nadu a leader and Karnataka a relatively slow mover-are examined. Process-tracing, a case study methodology that helps to identify roles of complex historical events in causal processes, was employed to investigate the research question in each state. The study is informed by interviews with public health policy experts and service delivery professionals, observation of implementation sites and archival document analysis. Historical legacies-Tamil Nadu's non-Brahmin social movement and Karnataka's developmental disparities combined with decentralization-shape the states' political contexts, affecting variation in maternal health policy and implementation. Competition to advance consistent political priorities across regimes in Tamil Nadu offers fertile ground for policy entrepreneurship and strong public health system administration facilitates progress. Inconsistent political priorities and relatively weak public health system administration frustrate progress in Karnataka. These variations offer insights to the ways in which sub-national political and administrative contexts shape health policy and implementation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. The health policy pathfinder: an innovative strategy to explore interest group politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nannini, Angela

    2009-10-01

    Moving a specific nursing health policy agenda forward depends on skill in building coalitions with other interest or stakeholder groups, including consumers. Often, nursing students study health policy in a discipline-specific environment without experiential opportunities to argue their views with other stakeholders in policy arenas. The health policy pathfinder, an innovative learning strategy for understanding interest group politics, will assist nursing students in meeting the following objectives: 1) analyze and articulate diverse policy arguments from various stakeholder groups; 2) identify opportunities for collaborations between stakeholder groups; 3) identify the influence of interest groups on the policy making process; and 4) critically evaluate evidence from a variety of sources ranging from peer-reviewed publications to grey literature to Internet blogs. This article describes the health policy pathfinder, including design, execution, and evaluation steps, and provides a brief excerpt from a student pathfinder. Copyright 2009, SLACK Incorporated.

  2. The internationalization of higher education: an emerging political agenda

    OpenAIRE

    MCVICAR MALCOLM

    2015-01-01

    Given growing importance of education as a factor of internal development and in the context of globalization universities can be considered to be international economic actors playing an increasingly significant role in economic and political agenda. Universities face a lot of challenges, to wit: quality control, further privatization of higher education and for-profit education, the problem of innovations and advanced technologies, the emergence of international labour market etc. Therefore...

  3. The Politics of Industrial Policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Whitfield, Lindsay; Buur, Lars

    2014-01-01

    Economic transformation is driven by successfully implemented industrial policy, but industrial policy is inherently political. We cannot understand why some governments pursue and implement industrial policy better than others without understanding the politics. This article addresses...

  4. The Politics of Policy in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act: Setting the Agenda for Students Experiencing Homelessness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pavlakis, Alexandra E.; Duffield, Barbara

    2017-01-01

    While most of the press around the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has focused on how it signals an end to No Child Left Behind, the implications of ESSA for students experiencing homelessness have been largely overlooked. Garnering organizational insights from Kingdon's (Agendas, alternatives, and public policies, Pearson, Glenviiew, 2011)…

  5. Sports, Global Politics, and Social Value Change: A Research Agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lars Rensmann

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Despite their important role in forging, constructing and self-ascribing social identities and shaping popular culture, sports have long been a marginalized subject of social science inquiry, cultural studies, and research on international politics. Only in recent years this has begun to change. The article seeks to advance the still nascent but emerging cross-disciplinary field of research on sports and global politics in two ways: first, by addressing largely unexplored issues of sports, politics, and social conflicts, putting the spotlight on sociopolitical arenas beyond commercialized sports mega events, which have attracted most scholarly attention in contemporary research; and second, by generating hypotheses on the indirect political effects of sports cultures, in particular on the relationship between local social identities—reinforced through sports—and cosmopolitan value change. These interlinked spatial and substantive claims ground a new critical research framework and agenda: it examines sports as profoundly embedded in socioeconomic, cultural and political forms of rule and domination but also seeks to disclose sports’ emancipatory and subversive potential in advancing globalization from below.

  6. Interest group satisfaction with the European Commission's consultation agendas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hermansson, Henrik Alf Jonas

    2016-01-01

    Interest groups exist largely to raise awareness of particular problems or to avoid regulation by keeping items off the political agenda, it is a major component of their raison d'être. At the earliest stages of the European policy process, the European Commission presents an agenda in the form...... of a "call for consultation" which interest groups attempt to influence. Groups that have had a role in setting the Commission's agenda will likely show most satisfaction with the agenda, used here as a way to examine their agenda-setting power. Based on a novel dataset covering 190 policy issues and 469...... interest groups, unique issue-level data on the expertise held by interest groups, their privileged access and their resources, this paper evaluates whether it is the technical information provided by groups, their insider status or their ability to put pressure on the European institutions that form...

  7. The role of policy actors and contextual factors in policy agenda setting and formulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koduah, Augustina; Dijk, van Han; Agyepong, Irene Akua

    2015-01-01

    Background: Development of health policy is a complex process that does not necessarily follow a particular format and a predictable trajectory. Therefore, agenda setting and selecting of alternatives are critical processes of policy development and can give insights into how and why policies are

  8. Political frictions and public policy outcomes

    OpenAIRE

    Grechyna, Daryna

    2016-01-01

    We study the role of political frictions in public policy outcomes. We propose a simple model of fiscal policy that combines a lack of commitment by the government, political turnover, and another political friction that can be interpreted either as political polarization or as public rent-seeking. We show that political turnover increases public debt levels, while political polarization or public rent-seeking leads to higher public spending. We evaluate the importance of different political ...

  9. Structuring injustice: partisan politics in the making and unmaking of James Madison University's equal opportunity policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Christine M; Spivey, Sue E

    2011-01-01

    This analysis contributes to LGBT campus climate research on the quality of campus life in higher education in the United States. We argue that public education institutions in different states face divergent impediments to improving campus climate, and that more research is needed identifying structural factors affecting campus climate. Using a social systems analysis of policymaking at one university as a case study, we illustrate how partisan politics and state regulation make Virginia colleges and universities more vulnerable to political scrutiny and control. Finally, we propose a social justice-oriented policy agenda to address structural inequalities.

  10. Locating regional health policy: Institutions, politics, and practices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riggirozzi, Pia; Yeates, Nicola

    2015-01-01

    Poverty reduction and health became central in the agendas of Southern regional organisations in the last two decades. Yet, little is known about how these organisations address poverty, inclusion and social inequality, and how Southern regional formations are engaging in power constellations, institutions, processes, interests and ideological positions within different spheres of governance. This article reviews academic literatures spanning global social policy, regional studies and diplomacy studies, and the state of knowledge and understanding of the ‘place’ of regional actors in health governance as a global political practice therein. It identifies theoretical and thematic points of connection between disparate literatures and how these can be bridged through research focusing on the social policies of regional organisations and regional integration processes. This framework hence locates the contributions of each of the research articles of this Special Issue of Global Social Policy on the regional dimension of health policy and diplomacy in relation to Southern Africa and South America. It also highlights the ways in which the articles bring new evidence about how social relations of welfare are being (re)made over larger scales and how regional actors may initiate new norms to improve health rights in international arenas engaging in new forms of ‘regional’ diplomacy. PMID:26635495

  11. The "Good Governance" of Evidence in Health Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Benjamin; Parkhurst, Justin

    2016-01-01

    Calls for evidence-based policy often fail to recognise the fundamentally political nature of policy making. Policy makers must identify, evaluate and utilise evidence to solve policy problems in the face of competing priorities and political agendas. Evidence should inform but cannot determine policy choices. This paper draws on theories of…

  12. Bringing the Low-Carbon Agenda to China: A Study in Transnational Policy Diffusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Hofem

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study traces the transnational interactions that contributed to introducing the low-carbon economy agenda into Chinese policymaking. A microprocessual two-level analysis (outside-in as well as inside-access is employed to analyse transnational and domestic exchanges. The study provides evidence that low-carbon agenda-setting – introduced by transnational actors, backed by foreign funding, promoted by policy entrepreneurs from domestic research institutes, propelled by top-level attention, but only gradually and cautiously adopted by the government bureaucracy – can be considered a case of effective transnational diffusion based on converging perceptions of novel policy challenges and options. Opinion leaders and policy-brokers from the government-linked scientific community functioned as effective access points to the Chinese government’s policy agenda.

  13. Politics of climate change: a European perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Riordan, T.; Jaeger, Jill

    1996-01-01

    The Politics of Climate Change provides a critical analysis of the political, moral and legal response to climate change, in the midst of various other closely connected socio-economic policy shifts. Evolving from original EC commissioned research, it examines how climate change was put on the policy agenda with the evolution of the United Nations Framework Convention and subsequent Conference of Parties, and considers the uncertainties of climate futures in the context of changing social and industrial policies. (Author)

  14. THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: AN EMERGING POLITICAL AGENDA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malcolm McVicar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Given growing importance of education as a factor of internal development and in the context of globalization universities can be considered to be international economic actors playing an increasingly significant role in economic and political agenda. Universities face a lot of challenges, to wit: quality control, further privatization of higher education and for-profit education, the problem of innovations and advanced technologies, the emergence of international labour market etc. Therefore internationalization of higher education determines the necessity to reform and adapt universities around the globe.

  15. Media and politics: Empirical data on their cross-influence in health policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    OBJECTIVES: Despite the central influence of public policies on health and welfare, relatively little is known about actual health care policy-making processes. This presentation will offer preliminary results from a federally funded project aimed at gaining insights into the interrelations among interest-group strategies, media discourses and political debates in health care. The policy debate on health care privatization in Quebec is used as a case study. APPROACH: Two sources of data were used: media sources and political debates. Media sources were the six main provincial newspapers in Quebec, two national newspapers and The Canadian Press, as well as transcripts from specific news-related programs of three national television stations and two national radio stations. Political debates were obtained through transcripts of all question periods in the Parliament and debates in the standing committee on health. Sources were systematically searched to identify all relevant data. Multiple search syntaxes were developed and tested to maximize sensitivity and specificity. All data was entered and coded into qualitative analysis software. RESULTS: Data was analyzed longitudinally from June 2005 to January 1, 2010. Four levels of results will be presented: 1) Descriptive analysis of the interest groups involved, their policy preferences and the rhetoric they employed to support their views. 2) Descriptive analysis of the main policy proposals that structured the debate as well as of the coalition of groups behind those proposals. 3) Graphic longitudinal analysis of the intensity of the debate and of the relative importance and evolution of various policy proposals. 4) Preliminary results on the nature, direction and level of inter-influence between the policy and media agendas. CONCLUSION: This presentation provides empirical evidence on current policy-making processes in health care. It shows, unsurprisingly, that policy-making is a circumvoluted process of inter

  16. Policy, politics and public health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greer, Scott L; Bekker, Marleen; de Leeuw, Evelyne; Wismar, Matthias; Helderman, Jan-Kees; Ribeiro, Sofia; Stuckler, David

    2017-10-01

    If public health is the field that diagnoses and strives to cure social ills, then understanding political causes and cures for health problems should be an intrinsic part of the field. In this article, we argue that there is no support for the simple and common, implicit model of politics in which scientific evidence plus political will produces healthy policies. Efforts to improve the translation of evidence into policy such as knowledge transfer work only under certain circumstances. These circumstances are frequently political, and to be understood through systematic inquiry into basic features of the political economy such as institutions, partisanship and the organization of labour markets. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

  17. Voluntary sport clubs and the social policy agenda

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boven, Magda; Slender, Hans; Wiggers, Peter

    2016-01-01

    Local governments, traditionally an important partner of voluntary sport clubs in the Netherlands, are increasingly influencing clubs into involvement in social projects and activities. Although it is not clear what contribution sports clubs can play in this social policy agenda, or whether this

  18. The global agenda council on the ageing society: policy principles

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olshansky, S. Jay; Biggs, Simon; Achenbaum, W. Andrew

    2011-01-01

    In 2008, the World Economic Forum (WEF) created the Global Agenda Councils – an amalgamation of scientists, public policy makers, academics, physicians and business leaders with the task of devising transformational innovation in global governance for the purpose of advancing knowledge and collab......In 2008, the World Economic Forum (WEF) created the Global Agenda Councils – an amalgamation of scientists, public policy makers, academics, physicians and business leaders with the task of devising transformational innovation in global governance for the purpose of advancing knowledge......, proposing solutions, devising strategies, making public policy proposals and evaluating the effectiveness of actions using measurable benchmarks. This report is the first product of the WEF’s Council on the Ageing Society – our goal is to lay down the initial principles that will guide our actions...

  19. The emergence of the vertical birth in Ecuador: an analysis of agenda setting and policy windows for intercultural health

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llamas, Ana; Mayhew, Susannah

    2016-01-01

    Maternal mortality continues to claim the lives of thousands of women in Latin America despite the availability of effective treatments to avert maternal death. In the past, efforts to acknowledge cultural diversity in birth practices had not been clearly integrated into policy. However, in Otavalo (Ecuador) a local hospital pioneered the implementation of the ‘Vertical Birth’—a practical manifestation of an intercultural health policy aimed at increasing indigenous women’s access to maternity care. Drawing on agenda-setting theory, this qualitative research explores how the vertical birth practice made it onto the local policy agenda and the processes that allowed actors to seize a window of opportunity allowing the vertical birth practice to emerge. Our results show that the processes that brought about the vertical birth practice took place over a prolonged period of time and resulted from the interplay between various factors. Firstly, a maternal health policy community involving indigenous actors played a key role in identifying maternal mortality as a policy problem, defining its causes and framing it as an indigenous rights issue. Secondly, previous initiatives to address maternal mortality provided a wealth of experience that gave these actors the knowledge and experience to formulate a feasible policy solution and consolidate support from powerful actors. Thirdly, the election of a new government that had incorporated the demands of the indigenous movement opened up a window of opportunity to push intercultural health policies such as the vertical birth. We conclude that the socioeconomic and political changes at both national and local level allowed the meaningful participation of indigenous actors that made a critical contribution to the emergence of the vertical birth practice. These findings can help us advance our knowledge of strategies to set the agenda for intercultural maternal health policy and inform future policy in similar settings

  20. Choosing a standard reactor: International competition and domestic politics in Chinese nuclear policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramana, M.V.; Saikawa, Eri

    2011-01-01

    China has ambitious plans to expand its nuclear power capacity. One of the policy goals that high-level policymakers have desired is to base the nuclear program on a standardized reactor design. However, this has not materialized so far. By examining its nuclear reactor choices for individual projects, we argue that China’s policymaking process has been greatly influenced by international competition and domestic politics. Multiple international nuclear vendors are intent upon maintaining their respective niches in the expanding Chinese reactor market, and they have used various forms of economic and political pressure to achieve their objectives. On the other hand, China’s policymaking process is fragmented and the shifting power balances among powerful domestic actors do not allow a fixed path to be followed. Further, because of the high costs and potential profits involved, nuclear reactor choices in China have been driven not just by technical considerations but also by foreign and trade policy objectives. All of these make it unlikely that China will standardize the reactor type it constructs in the near future. -- Highlights: ► China’s nuclear power policymaking has been fragmented and without central control. ► Multiple domestic actors have pursued independent agendas. ► International nuclear vendors have intensely competed for Chinese reactor contracts. ► Economic, political and foreign policy goals have driven reactor contract decisions. ► China is unlikely to construct only a standardized reactor design.

  1. Power and Agenda-Setting in Tanzanian Health Policy: An Analysis of Stakeholder Perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, Sara Elisa; Strandberg-Larsen, Martin

    2016-02-09

    Global health policy is created largely through a collaborative process between development agencies and aid-recipient governments, yet it remains unclear whether governments retain ownership over the creation of policy in their own countries. An assessment of the power structure in this relationship and its influence over agenda-setting is thus the first step towards understanding where progress is still needed in policy-making for development. This study employed qualitative policy analysis methodology to examine how health-related policy agendas are adopted in low-income countries, using Tanzania as a case study. Semi-structured, in-depth, key informant interviews with 11 policy-makers were conducted on perspectives of the agenda-setting process and its actors. Kingdon's stream theory was chosen as the lens through which to interpret the data analysis. This study demonstrates that while stakeholders each have ways of influencing the process, the power to do so can be assessed based on three major factors: financial incentives, technical expertise, and influential position. Since donors often have two or all of these elements simultaneously a natural power imbalance ensues, whereby donor interests tend to prevail over recipient government limitations in prioritization of agendas. One way to mediate these imbalances seems to be the initiation of meaningful policy dialogue. In Tanzania, the agenda-setting process operates within a complex network of factors that interact until a "policy window" opens and a decision is made. Power in this process often lies not with the Tanzanian government but with the donors, and the contrast between latent presence and deliberate use of this power seems to be based on the donor ideology behind giving aid (defined here by funding modality). Donors who used pooled funding (PF) modalities were less likely to exploit their inherent power, whereas those who preferred to maintain maximum control over the aid they provided (ie, non

  2. Health policy and systems research agendas in developing countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gonzalez-Block Miguel A

    2004-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Health policy and systems research (HPSR is an international public good with potential to orient investments and performance at national level. Identifying research trends and priorities at international level is therefore important. This paper offers a conceptual framework and defines the HPSR portfolio as a set of research projects under implementation. The research portfolio is influenced by factors external to the research system as well as internal to it. These last include the capacity of research institutions, the momentum of research programs, funding opportunities and the influence of stakeholder priorities and public opinion. These dimensions can vary in their degree of coordination, leading to a complementary or a fragmented research portfolio. Objective The main objective is to identify the themes currently being pursued in the research portfolio and agendas within developing countries and to quantify their frequency in an effort to identify current research topics and their underlying influences. Methods HPSR topics being pursued by developing country producer institutions and their perceived priorities were identified through a survey between 2000 and 2002. The response to a call for letters of intent issued by the Alliance in 2000 for a broad range of topics was also analyzed. The institutions that were the universe of this study consisted of the 176 institutional partners of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research producing research in low and middle income countries outside Europe. HPSR topics as well as the beneficiaries or issues and the health problems addressed were content analyzed. Topics were classified into 19 categories and their frequency analyzed across groups of countries with similar per capita income. Agendas were identified by analyzing the source of funding and of project initiation for projects under implementation. Results The highest ranking topic at the aggregate level is

  3. The Political Dynamics of Higher Education Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dar, Luciana

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a framework informed by spatial models of politics to explain the dynamics of political competition in higher education policy and, in particular, the observed instability in the relationship between political variables and policy outcomes. To this end, I explore competing hypotheses for the relationship between government…

  4. The composition and impact of stakeholders' agendas on US ethanol production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talamini, Edson; Eduardo Caldarelli, Carlos; Wubben, Emiel F.M.; Dewes, Homero

    2012-01-01

    This paper aims to identify the macro-environmental dimensions under which journalists, scientists and policy-makers have framed the liquid biofuels in the US over time. The number of publications concerning liquid biofuels from mass media, scientific community and government with ethanol production are correlated, seeking for causality between ethanol production and those stakeholders' agendas. Text-mining techniques were used to explore 2016 mass-media news sources, 455 scientific papers and 854 government documents published between 1997 and 2006. Granger-causality tests were performed to analyse the causality concerning stakeholders' agendas. The results indicate that scientists emphasise environmental, agronomic and technological matters, while journalists are more interested in covering economic, environmental, geopolitical and political issues. Although policies on this subject appear to be more in line with science, the trend analysis indicates that the mass media are gaining prominence amongst policy-makers. The causation analysis suggests that ethanol production and public policy present a bi-directional causality at t-2 time lag. At t-1 time lag, ethanol production precedes the publication of scientific documents, which present a bi-directional causality with public policy on ethanol and precedes the mass-media news. In conclusion, ethanol production precedes the presence of liquid biofuels on the agendas of scientists, journalists and policy-makers. - Highlights: ► Composition and impact of stakeholders' agendas on ethanol production were analysed. ► 3325 documents published between 1997 and 2006 were text mined. ► Government agenda and ethanol production present a bi-directional causality. ► Science has played an advisory role in policy-making. ► Ethanol production precedes the stakeholders' agendas.

  5. Social Investment after Neoliberalism: Policy Paradigms and Political Platforms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deeming, Christopher; Smyth, Paul

    2015-04-01

    The concept of the 'social investment state' refocuses attention on the productive function of social policy eclipsed for some time by the emphasis on its social protection or compensation roles. Here we distinguish between different social investment strategies, the Nordic 'heavy' and the Liberal 'light', with particular reference to the inclusive growth approach adopted in Australia. In 2007, social democrats in Australia returned to government with a clear mandate to reject the labour market deregulation and other neoliberal policies of its predecessor, and to tackle entrenched social and economic disadvantage in Australian society. For the last five years, social investment and inclusive growth has been at the centre of the Australian social policy agenda. Against this background, the article examines and critically assesses the (re)turn to 'social investment' thinking in Australia during Labor's term in office (2007-13). Analysis focuses not just on what was actually achieved, but also on the constraining role of prevailing economic and political circumstances and on the processes that were used to drive social investment reform. In many ways, the article goes some way to exposing ongoing tensions surrounding the distinctiveness of 'social investment' strategies pursued by leftist parties within the (neo)liberal state.

  6. The role of the media in agenda setting: the case of long-term care rebalancing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Edward Alan; Nadash, Pamela; Goldstein, Rachel

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates the role of print media in state policy agendas in four states-Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, and Utah-in rebalancing long-term care away from institutions toward home- and community-based (HCBS) services. Ordinary least squares regression is used to model states' policy agendas, as measured by the proportion of Medicaid long-term care spending on HCBS expenditures and number of rebalancing bills proposed, from 1999 to 2008. Results reveal a relationship between states' rebalancing agendas and the extent of media coverage, and state economic, political, and programmatic characteristics. Findings suggest that media coverage reflects broader shifts in state-level attitudes toward rebalancing.

  7. Policy and Culture: From Machiavelli’s Political Philosophy to Kipling’s Political Prophecies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Konstantin M. Dolgov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The article is concerned with interrelationship of policy and culture, in particular N.Machiavelli's political philosophy and its reflection in some short stories by R.Kipling, one of the most recognized representatives of the British imperial thought. Policy and culture have traditionally been considered almost incompatible spheres of human activity as policy tended to become more and more severe, cynical, "dirty", while culture aspired to develop supreme values and perfect ideals. Sometimes the direct confrontation between policy and religion, policy and morals, policy and law, policy and literature, policy and art in the broad sense of the word could occur. The greatest Renaissance masters - Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael etc. - actively opposed any evil manifestations: evil ideas, evil words, evil doings, expressing in their masterpieces the highest ideals and values. However, these ideals and values drastically diverged from the reality, political and public relations of the time, the "dirty" policy conducted by the rulers of numerous Italian principalities. It is no coincidence that N.Machiavelli develops his new political philosophy aiming not only to create the strong unitary state, but also to overcome this "dirty" policy at least to a certain extent. Therefore, describing the mechanism of the "dirty" policy that opposes high culture, N.Machiavelli introduces a new political philosophy which should be based on the highest ideals and values. As far as literary art is concerned, one can easily see that such world famous novelists as Kipling, Chekhov, Maupassant and many others reflected in their short stories that very longing for highest values and ideals which are almost absent in political doctrines and political practice. The true policy is necessarily based on the true culture and its values and ideals, whereas the true culture is indispensably connected with the true policy.

  8. Global health politics: neither solidarity nor policy: Comment on "Globalization and the diffusion of ideas: why we should acknowledge the roots of mainstream ideas in global health".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Méndez, Claudio A

    2014-07-01

    The global health agenda has been dominating the current global health policy debate. Furthermore, it has compelled countries to embrace strategies for tackling health inequalities in a wide range of public health areas. The article by Robert and colleagues highlights that although globalization has increased opportunities to share and spread ideas, there is still great asymmetry of power according to the countries' economic and political development. It also emphasizes how policy diffusion from High Income Countries (HICs) to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) have had flaws at understanding their political, economic, and cultural backgrounds while they are pursuing knowledge translation. Achieving a fair global health policy diffusion of ideas would imply a call for a renewal on political elites worldwide at coping global health politics. Accordingly, moving towards fairness in disseminating global health ideas should be driven by politics not only as one of the social determinants of health, but the main determinant of health and well-being among-and within-societies.

  9. Prioritizing Surgical Care on National Health Agendas: A Qualitative Case Study of Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dare, Anna J; Lee, Katherine C; Bleicher, Josh; Elobu, Alex E; Kamara, Thaim B; Liko, Osborne; Luboga, Samuel; Danlop, Akule; Kune, Gabriel; Hagander, Lars; Leather, Andrew J M; Yamey, Gavin

    2016-05-01

    Little is known about the social and political factors that influence priority setting for different health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet these factors are integral to understanding how national health agendas are established. We investigated factors that facilitate or prevent surgical care from being prioritized in LMICs. We undertook country case studies in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Sierra Leone, using a qualitative process-tracing method. We conducted 74 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in health agenda setting and surgical care in these countries. Interviews were triangulated with published academic literature, country reports, national health plans, and policies. Data were analyzed using a conceptual framework based on four components (actor power, ideas, political contexts, issue characteristics) to assess national factors influencing priority for surgery. Political priority for surgical care in the three countries varies. Priority was highest in Papua New Guinea, where surgical care is firmly embedded within national health plans and receives significant domestic and international resources, and much lower in Uganda and Sierra Leone. Factors influencing whether surgical care was prioritized were the degree of sustained and effective domestic advocacy by the local surgical community, the national political and economic environment in which health policy setting occurs, and the influence of international actors, particularly donors, on national agenda setting. The results from Papua New Guinea show that a strong surgical community can generate priority from the ground up, even where other factors are unfavorable. National health agenda setting is a complex social and political process. To embed surgical care within national health policy, sustained advocacy efforts, effective framing of the problem and solutions, and country-specific data are required. Political, technical, and financial support from

  10. Prioritizing Surgical Care on National Health Agendas: A Qualitative Case Study of Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna J Dare

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Little is known about the social and political factors that influence priority setting for different health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs, yet these factors are integral to understanding how national health agendas are established. We investigated factors that facilitate or prevent surgical care from being prioritized in LMICs.We undertook country case studies in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Sierra Leone, using a qualitative process-tracing method. We conducted 74 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in health agenda setting and surgical care in these countries. Interviews were triangulated with published academic literature, country reports, national health plans, and policies. Data were analyzed using a conceptual framework based on four components (actor power, ideas, political contexts, issue characteristics to assess national factors influencing priority for surgery. Political priority for surgical care in the three countries varies. Priority was highest in Papua New Guinea, where surgical care is firmly embedded within national health plans and receives significant domestic and international resources, and much lower in Uganda and Sierra Leone. Factors influencing whether surgical care was prioritized were the degree of sustained and effective domestic advocacy by the local surgical community, the national political and economic environment in which health policy setting occurs, and the influence of international actors, particularly donors, on national agenda setting. The results from Papua New Guinea show that a strong surgical community can generate priority from the ground up, even where other factors are unfavorable.National health agenda setting is a complex social and political process. To embed surgical care within national health policy, sustained advocacy efforts, effective framing of the problem and solutions, and country-specific data are required. Political, technical, and financial

  11. Prioritizing Surgical Care on National Health Agendas: A Qualitative Case Study of Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Sierra Leone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dare, Anna J.; Lee, Katherine C.; Bleicher, Josh; Elobu, Alex E.; Kamara, Thaim B.; Liko, Osborne; Luboga, Samuel; Danlop, Akule; Kune, Gabriel; Hagander, Lars; Leather, Andrew J. M.; Yamey, Gavin

    2016-01-01

    Background Little is known about the social and political factors that influence priority setting for different health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet these factors are integral to understanding how national health agendas are established. We investigated factors that facilitate or prevent surgical care from being prioritized in LMICs. Methods and Findings We undertook country case studies in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Sierra Leone, using a qualitative process-tracing method. We conducted 74 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in health agenda setting and surgical care in these countries. Interviews were triangulated with published academic literature, country reports, national health plans, and policies. Data were analyzed using a conceptual framework based on four components (actor power, ideas, political contexts, issue characteristics) to assess national factors influencing priority for surgery. Political priority for surgical care in the three countries varies. Priority was highest in Papua New Guinea, where surgical care is firmly embedded within national health plans and receives significant domestic and international resources, and much lower in Uganda and Sierra Leone. Factors influencing whether surgical care was prioritized were the degree of sustained and effective domestic advocacy by the local surgical community, the national political and economic environment in which health policy setting occurs, and the influence of international actors, particularly donors, on national agenda setting. The results from Papua New Guinea show that a strong surgical community can generate priority from the ground up, even where other factors are unfavorable. Conclusions National health agenda setting is a complex social and political process. To embed surgical care within national health policy, sustained advocacy efforts, effective framing of the problem and solutions, and country-specific data are required. Political

  12. The practice of electronic petitions to regional political agenda-setting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. M. Kuzhman

    2016-05-01

    Proved that electronic petitions as a special form of collective appeals, in fact, represent electronic (national, regional, local – depending on the level of government initiatives which the conditions of collecting the required number of signatures in his support are urgently considered relevant authority. For it must necessarily be made or decision given in a public way motivated refusal. It was determined that the regional feeder electronic petitions is very effective because it allows you to identify the pressing issues of interest to residents of a region, and respond to them. Thus, through electronic petition very quickly established regional political agenda.

  13. The Ontological Politics of Evidence and Policy Enablement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carusi, F. Tony; Rawlins, Peter; Ashton, Karen

    2018-01-01

    Ontological politics has received increasing attention within education policy studies, particularly as a support for the notion of policy enactment. While policy enactment offers serious challenges to traditional approaches toward policy implementation, this paper takes up ontological politics as a concept that extends beyond implementation and…

  14. Agenda Setting and Evidence in Maternal Health: Connecting Research and Policy in Timor-Leste.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Kayli; Kelly, Paul; Barclay, Lesley; Martins, Nelson

    2015-01-01

    The evidence-based policy (EBP) movement has received significant attention in the scientific literature; however, there is still very little empirical research to provide insight into how policy decisions are made and how evidence is used. The lack of research on this topic in low- and middle-income countries is of particular note. We examine the maternity waiting home policy in Timor-Leste to understand the role of context, policy characteristics, individual actors, and how evidence is used to influence the policy agenda. The research tracked the maternity waiting home policy from 2005 to 2009 and is based on in-depth interviews with 31 senior policy-makers, department managers, non-government organization representatives, and United Nations advisors. It is also informed by direct observation, attendance at meetings and workshops, and analysis of policy documents. The findings from this ethnographic case study demonstrate that although the post-conflict context opened up space for new policy ideas senior Ministry of Health officials rather than donors had the most power in setting the policy agenda. Maternity waiting homes were appealing because they were a visible, non-controversial, and logical solution to the problem of accessing maternal health services. Evidence was used in a variety of ways, from supporting pre-determined agendas to informing new policy directions. In the pursuit of EBP, we conclude that the power of research to inform policy lies in its timeliness and relevance, and is facilitated by the connection between researchers and policy-makers.

  15. Linking national and global population agendas: case studies from eight developing countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, K; Walt, G

    1995-06-01

    This comparative study of the determinants of family planning policy initiation and implementation focuses on four pairs of countries: Zambia/Zimbabwe, Algeria/Tunisia, Pakistan/Bangladesh, and Philippines/Thailand. The conclusion is drawn that global efforts had an influence on national policy makers and on putting family planning issues on the policy agenda. Global impacts were affected by national economic and social conditions and the broader political and economic relations with Western countries. The absolute level of economic development was found to be unrelated to the timing of initiation of family planning on national policy agendas. Stronger national family planning programs occurred in countries where policy makers linked economic development at whatever level with the need to limit population growth. Pakistan and Thailand in the 1960s illustrated this commitment to family planning programs, and Zambia and Algeria illustrated the lack of connection between development and population growth at the policy level and the lack of family planning on the policy agenda. Affiliation with the West during the 1960s meant early initiation of family planning in Pakistan/Bangladesh and Philippines/Thailand. Stronger commitment to program implementation occurred only in Thailand during the 1970s and Zimbabwe during the 1980s. Commitment lessened in the Philippines and Pakistan. Program implementation and national support of family planning were viewed as also dependent upon domestic factors, such as sufficient resources. Algeria/Tunisia and Zambia/Zimbabwe were countries that promoted family planning only after national political ideology shifted and anti-imperialist sentiments subsided. The impact of the international Cairo conference on these countries was minimal in terms of policy change. Most of the countries however desired greater support from donors. Even objections from the Vatican and internal domestic pressures were insufficient to prevent countries such as

  16. A spanner in the works? anti-politics in global health policy: Comment on "A ghost in the machine? politics in global health policy".

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCoy, David; Singh, Guddi

    2014-08-01

    The formulation of global health policy is political; and all institutions operating in the global health landscape are political. This is because policies and institutions inevitably represent certain values, reflect particular ideologies, and preferentially serve some interests over others. This may be expressed explicitly and consciously; or implicitly and unconsciously. But it's important to recognise the social and political dimension of global health policy. In some instances however, the politics of global health policy may be actively denied or obscured. This has been described in the development studies literature as a form of 'anti-politics'. In this article we describe four forms of anti-politics and consider their application to the global health sector.

  17. Developing and implementing global gender policy to reduce HIV and AIDS in low- and middle-income countries: policy makers' perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olinyk, Shannon; Gibbs, Andrew; Campbell, Catherine

    2014-09-01

    Gender inequalities have been recognised as central to the HIV epidemic for many years. In response, a range of gender policies have been developed in attempts to mitigate the impact and transform gender relations. However, the effects of these policies have been less than successful. In March 2010 the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched the Agenda for accelerated country level action on women, girls, gender equality and HIV (the Agenda), an operational plan on how to integrate women, girls and gender equality into the HIV response. This paper explores the perspectives of those involved in developing and implementing the Agenda to understand its strengths and limitations. In-depth one-on-one interviews were conducted with 16 individuals involved in the development and implementation of the Agenda. The data were analysed using thematic network analysis. Facilitators of the Agenda centred on the Agenda's ability to create political space for women and girls within the global HIV/AIDS response and the collaborative process of developing the Agenda. Barriers to the implementation and development of the Agenda include the limited financial and non-financial resources, the top-down nature of the Agenda's development and implementation and a lack of political will from within UNAIDS to implement it. We suggest that the Agenda achieved many goals, but its effect was constrained by a wide range of factors.

  18. The Politics of EPSDT Policy in the 1990s: Policy Entrepreneurs, Political Streams, and Children's Health Benefits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sardell, Alice; Johnson, Kay

    1998-01-01

    The Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, which was designed to ensure that Medicaid-eligible children receive comprehensive health services, is the only national attempt to provide a right to these services. The political factors that have shaped national EPSDT policy during the past decade are described, based on a conceptual framework developed by John W. Kingdon. The analysis focuses on the roles of two distinct sets of policy entrepreneurs: child health advocates and fiscally conservative governors. Their activities are described in relation to the larger political environment, or “political stream,” from the period of the expansion of Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and children in the late 1980s to the enactment of a new State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997. The relative saliency of eligibility and benefit issues in children’s health policies had a major influence on the politics and outcomes. PMID:9614420

  19. Policy paradigms, transnationalism, and domestic politics

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Skogstad, Grace Darlene

    2011-01-01

    Policy Paradigms, Transnationalism, and Domestic Politics offers a variety of perspectives on the development of policy paradigms -- the ideas that structure thinking about what can and should be done in a policy domain...

  20. Down but Not Out: The National Education Association in Federal Politics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marianno, Bradley D.

    2018-01-01

    This research provides new evidence on the political activity and policy-setting agenda of the largest national teachers' union during a time of political change. Using a longitudinal dataset comprised of election outcomes and campaign contributions for all candidates for federal office and the National Education Association's (NEA) official…

  1. Dublin’s Neoliberal Agenda and the Social Cost of Entrepreneurial Planning

    OpenAIRE

    MacLaran, Andrew; Kelly, Sinéad; Brudell, Paula

    2014-01-01

    This paper reviews the manner in which a neoliberal political agenda emanating from central government has increasingly infused Irish urban policy and created an entrepreneurial local-authority culture in which urban planning and regeneration policies have been pursued in a highly contentious manner. Specifically, it examines the ways in which the functioning of local-area planning, public-private partnerships in social-housing regeneration and urban gentrification strategies have operated in...

  2. How mass media attract political elites' attention

    OpenAIRE

    Sevenans, Julie

    2018-01-01

    Abstract: Political agenda-setting research has shown that policy makers are responsive vis-à-vis media priorities. However, the mechanisms behind this effect have remained understudied so far. In particular, agenda-setting scholars have difficulties determining to what extent politicians react to media coverage purely because of the information it contains (information effect), and to what extent the effect is driven not by what the media say but by the fact that certain information is in th...

  3. Monitoring HIV-Related Laws and Policies: Lessons for AIDS and Global Health in Agenda 2030.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Mary Ann; Gruskin, Sofia; Buse, Kent; Erkkola, Taavi; Bendaud, Victoria; Alfvén, Tobias

    2017-07-01

    The National Commitments and Policy Instrument (NCPI) has been used to monitor AIDS-related laws and policies for over 10 years. What can be learnt from this process? Analyses draw on NCPI questionnaires, NCPI responses, the UNAIDS Law Database, survey data and responses to a 2014 survey on the NCPI. The NCPI provides the first and only systematic data on country self-reported national HIV laws and policies. High NCPI reporting rates and survey responses suggest the majority of countries consider the process relevant. Combined civil society and government engagement and reporting is integral to the NCPI. NCPI experience demonstrates its importance in describing the political and legal environment for the HIV response, for programmatic reviews and to stimulate dialogue among stakeholders, but there is a need for updating and in some instances to complement results with more objective quantitative data. We identify five areas that need to be updated in the next iteration of the NCPI and argue that the NCPI approach is relevant to participatory monitoring of targets in the health and other goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

  4. Building Political Participation: The Role of Family Policy and Political Science Courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parrott, Emily

    2017-01-01

    This mixed-methods study examined the long-term associations between two kinds of politics courses--required political science courses and required family policy courses--and the political participation, knowledge, skill, efficacy, and politically engaged identity of child and family studies alumni. Two special cases were examined: those who…

  5. Environment protection and energy politics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pernice, I.

    1993-01-01

    Three aspects make the issue of energy politics and environment protection in the European Community interesting: Questions of competence, international stipulations, and the concrete measures the Community implements or plans in fulfillment of its duty to integrate these two political spheres. At the international level impulses for an environmentally benign energy policy are given by the World Climate Convention, the Agenda 21 passed at the Rio Conference, and by the European Energy Charter and its consequential documents. (orig./HSCH) [de

  6. SHAPING THE AGENDA: FEMINIST STRATEGIES OF CIVIC AND POLITICAL ACTION IN POST-COMMUNISM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana Elena NEAGA

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available More than 20 years after the 1989 Revolution, the Romanian society continues to be patriarchal – and implicitly less democratic for women. This fact becomes more obvious if one looks towards the political sphere and at the way in which women’s interests are represented at the political decision level. In this social environment, civil society and especially the feminist movement have a particularly important role in terms of promoting women’s specific civic and political agendas. Our paper is an exploratory investigation of the strategies of political and civic actions used by the feminist movement in Romania during the postcommunist period. We will try to identify and categorize these strategies. Our aim is to explore a way of formulating a sort of typology (a methodological exploration of the civil and political models of action used by five Romanian feminist NGOs, while trying to assess their activity. This study is one of a prospective nature, in other words, it is not an exhaustive attempt to analyze the entire specter of feminist organizations, but rather an attempt to test the methodological apparatus and to adapt the theoretical framework to the realities found in the field.

  7. The Power of Economic Ideas: A Constructivist Political Economy of EU Trade Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriel Siles-Brügge

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The European Union’s (EU’s 2006 Global Europe communication established an offensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA agenda premised on serving the interests of the EU’s upmarket exporters at the expense of the EU’s remaining “pockets of protection”. This has remained in place with the advent of the 2010 Trade, Growth and World Affairs strategy. Such a development defies both rationalist International Political Economy (IPE explanations – which emphasise the protectionist bias of societal mobilisation – and accounts stressing the institutional insulation of policy-makers from societal pressures because the recent economic crisis and the increased politicisation of EU trade policy by the European Parliament have coexisted without leading to greater protectionism. Adopting a constructivist approach, we show that this turn of events can be explained by the neoliberal ideas internalised by policy-makers in the European Commission’s Directorate-General (DG for Trade. We then deploy a novel heuristic to illustrate how DG Trade acted upon these ideas to strategically construct a powerful discursive imperative for liberalisation.

  8. A Mixed Methods Approach for Identifying Influence on Public Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weaver-Hightower, Marcus B.

    2014-01-01

    Fields from political science to critical education policy studies have long explored power relations in policy processes, showing who influences policy agendas, policy creation, and policy implementation. Yet showing particular actors' influence on specific points in a policy text remains a methodological challenge. This article presents a…

  9. Local Agenda 21. Policy and indicators for sustainability; Lokale Agenda 21. Beleid en indicatoren voor duurzaamheid

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schultink, R.

    1997-11-01

    The main questions that are dealt with in this report concern the sustainability policy of the so-called Local Agenda 21 and the different sustainability indicators and their use for several aspects of sustainability. The Local Agenda 21 is the result of the Agenda 21 conference, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1992. The global aspects of sustainable developments is based on sustainability developments that can take place on a local level. In this report the Local Agenda 21 activities in the Netherlands are outlined. A framework is developed by means of which the quality of indicators to determine sustainability can be assessed. Four framework criteria are defined: (1) the coverage of sustainability with regard to economical, spatial, social and ecological developments; (2) the transparency of the indicator, i.e. is it easy to calculate?; (3) the scale of the indicator, which in this case concerns the local or regional level; and (4) the availability of data, of which the processing is not always simple. The indicators to which those criteria are applied are the (a) Gross National Product, (b) Human Development Index, which measures economic and sustainability aspects, (c) the Ecological Footprint, reflecting an ideal sustainable development, and (d) environmental indicators (NAMEA or National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts). 30 refs.

  10. Advancing Strategies for Agenda Setting by Health Policy Coalitions: A Network Analysis of the Canadian Chronic Disease Prevention Survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGetrick, Jennifer Ann; Raine, Kim D; Wild, T Cameron; Nykiforuk, Candace I J

    2018-06-11

    Health in all policies can address chronic disease morbidity and mortality by increasing population-level physical activity and healthy eating, and reducing tobacco and alcohol use. Both governmental and nongovernmental policy influencers are instrumental for health policy that modifies political, economic, and social environments. Policy influencers are informed and persuaded by coalitions that support or oppose changing the status quo. Empirical research examining policy influencers' contact with coalitions, as a social psychological exposure with health policy outcomes, can benefit from application of health communication theories. Accordingly, we analyzed responses to the 2014 Chronic Disease Prevention Survey for 184 Canadian policy influencers employed in provincial governments, municipalities, large workplaces, school boards, and the media. In addition to contact levels with coalitions, respondents' jurisdiction, organization, and ideology were analyzed as potential moderators. Calculating authority score centrality using network analysis, we determined health policy supporters to be more central in policy influencer networks, and theorized their potential to impact health policy public agenda setting via priming and framing processes. We discuss the implications of our results as presenting opportunities to more effectively promote health policy through priming and framing by coordinating coalitions across risk behaviors to advance a societal imperative for chronic disease prevention.

  11. Contentious Politics and Participatory Democracy in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brian Wampler

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2014v13n28p199 Contentious politics helps individuals and groups with limited political voice to place their ideas and interests on the political agenda. Contentious politics were long thought to occur when politically marginalized group had no other means to advance their political agenda. The June 2013 social mobilization in Brazil caught most political observers by surprise, especially given the creation of a large, wide-spread participatory architecture (national conferences, councils, participatory budgeting. The innovative institutions emerging in Brazil created a policy environment in which millions of citizens have regular access to state policymaking bodies. How does the institutionalization of a broader network of participatory institutions make it easier for citizens to engage in contentious politics? In what ways does this institutionalization make it more difficult for some citizens to engage in contentious politics? In what ways has the vast network of participatory institutions been largely irrelevant to how citizens use contentious politics? This article explore how the institutionalization of an extensive participatory democracy system in Brazil alters the incentive structures that encourage citizens to engage in contentious collective action.

  12. Should we use a direct regulation to implement the Healthy Prisons Agenda in England? A qualitative study among prison key policy makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ismail, N; de Viggiani, N

    2017-08-31

    The Healthy Prisons Agenda seeks to reduce prisoners' health risks, balance prisoners' rights with a security regime, ensure equivalent prison health service provisions to community health services, and facilitate the whole-prison approach. There is an established assumption that legislation will ensure better implementation of health promotion programmes. This study aimed to examine whether a legislative framework, via a direct regulation, could lead to enhanced implementation of the Healthy Prisons Agenda in England. A qualitative study design was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 30 key prison policy makers in England. Our findings contradict the established assumption that legislation improves the implementation of health promotion programmes. A direct regulation was perceived as restrictive, manifesting excessive compliance and encouraging a risk-averse culture, whilst preoccupation with security, order and discipline amongst prison governors and custody staff was deemed an internal institutional barrier to implementing the Healthy Prisons Agenda. External barriers included diminishing resources, lengthier or delayed sentencing, and an unsympathetic public and political stance towards prisoner rehabilitation. A direct regulation should not be used to operationalize the Healthy Prisons Agenda. Rather, self-regulation, along with proactive solutions for the identified barriers to implementing the Agenda, is the most appropriate path forward. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  13. New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    NEW AGENDA is peer-reviewed and listed in the department of education's Index of Approved South African Journals. The journal's focus encompasses South African, African and international developments in social and economic research and policy. We aim to provide high-quality pertinent information and analysis for ...

  14. The participatory agenda

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kortbek, Hjørdis Brandrup; Schwartz, Charlotte Præstegaard; Sørensen, Anne Scott

    2016-01-01

    of a “radical democracy” (Mouffe, 2014) and the “radical institution” (Bishop, 2013), respectively, we focus on key terms in the participatory agenda such as “access”, “agency” and “ownership”, and pursue a conceptual intervention in terms of a “post-critical”, “anticipatory” analysis and practice (Rogoff......In this article we address the participatory agenda defined as outreach in Danish national cultural policies, tracing specificities to other Nordic and EU cultural policies as well (Bell & Oakley 2015). The article investigates the discursive link that these policies establish between participation......, democracy and transformation, and argue that a range of paradoxes emerge once the agenda is translated at local cultural policy levels or by different institutions and adopted into daily practice. The thesis is that the agenda is a configuration of the “culture complex” as outlined by Tony Bennett (2013...

  15. The link between poverty, environment and development. The political challenge of localizing Agenda 21.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wichmann, R

    1995-11-01

    This article discusses the links between poverty, development, the environment, and implementing Agenda 21. The poor in large cities experience greater health risks and threats from environmental hazards. The poor also face inadequate housing, poor sanitation, polluted drinking water, and lack of other basic services. Many poor live in marginalized areas more susceptible to environmental degradation. During 1990-2030, population size may reach 9.7 billion, or 3.7 billion more than today. 90% may be urban residents. Already a large proportion of urban population live in a decaying urban environment with health and life threatening conditions. At least 250 million do not have easy access to safe piped water. 400 million lack proper sanitation. The liberalization of the global economy is fueling urbanization. The cycle of poverty and environmental decline requires rapid economic growth and closing of the infrastructure gaps. Policy initiatives of Agenda 21 occur at the local urban level. At this level, policies directly affect people. The future success of Agenda 21 will depend on local initiatives. Management approaches may need to change in order to achieve sustainable development. The poor will be more vocal and heard from in the future. Critical areas of management include waste management, pollution control, traffic, transportation, energy, economic development, and job creation. Society must be able to participate in setting priorities. About 1500 local authorities are involved in Agenda 21 planning initiatives. Curitiba, Brazil, is an example of how cities can solve community problems.

  16. The balancing act of establishing a policy agenda : Conceptualizing and measuring drivers of issue prioritization within interest groups

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Halpin, D.R.; Fraussen, B.; Nownes, A.J.

    2017-01-01

    Interest groups are important intermediaries in Western democracies, with the potential to offer political linkage and form a bridge between the concerns of citizens and the agendas of political elites. While we know an increasing amount about the issue-based activity of groups, we only have a

  17. Discourse, ideas and power in global health policy networks: political attention for maternal and child health in the millennium development goal era.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDougall, Lori

    2016-05-18

    Maternal and child health issues have gained global political attention and resources in the past 10 years, due in part to their prominence on the Millennium Development Goal agenda and the use of evidence-based advocacy by policy networks. This paper identifies key factors for this achievement, and raises questions about prospective challenges for sustaining attention in the transition to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, far broader in scope than the Millennium Development Goals. This paper relies on participant observation methods and document analysis to develop a case study of the behaviours of global maternal and child health advocacy networks during 2005-2015. The development of coordinated networks of heterogeneous actors facilitated the rise in attention to maternal and child health during the past 10 years. The strategic use of epidemiological and economic evidence by these networks enabled policy attention and promoted network cohesion. The time-bound opportunity of reaching the 2015 Millennium Development Goals created a window of opportunity for joint action. As the new post-2015 goals emerge, networks seek to sustain attention by repositioning their framing of issues, network structures, and external alliances, including with networks that lay both inside and outside of the health domain. Issues rise on global policy agendas because of how ideas are constructed, portrayed and positioned by actors within given contexts. Policy networks play a critical role by uniting stakeholders to promote persuasive ideas about policy problems and solutions. The behaviours of networks in issue-framing, member-alignment, and strategic outreach can force open windows of opportunity for political attention -- or prevent them from closing.

  18. The emergence, growth and decline of political priority for newborn survival in Bolivia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Stephanie L

    2014-12-01

    Bolivia is expected to achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goal Four, reducing under-five child mortality by two-thirds between 2021 and 2025. However, progress on child mortality reduction masks a disproportionately slow decline in newborn deaths during the 2000s. Bolivia's neonatal mortality problem emerged on the policy agenda in the mid-1990s and grew through 2004 in relationship to political commitments to international development goals and the support of a strong policy network. Network status declined later in the decade. This study draws upon a framework for analysing determinants of political priority for global health initiatives to understand the trajectory of newborn survival policy in Bolivia from the early 1990s. A process-tracing case study methodology is used, informed by interviews with 26 individuals with close knowledge of newborn survival policy in the country and extensive document analysis. The case of newborn survival in Bolivia highlights the significance of political commitments to international development goals, health policy network characteristics (cohesion, composition, status and key actor support) and political transitions and instability in shaping agenda status, especially decline-an understudied phenomenon considering the transitory nature of policy priorities. The study suggests that the sustainability of issue attention therefore become a focal point for health policy networks and analyses. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine © The Author 2013; all rights reserved.

  19. Bio-objects’ political capacity: a research agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maeseele, Pieter; Hendrickx, Kim; Pavone, Vincenzo; Van Hoyweghen, Ine

    2013-01-01

    This article explores the merits of foregrounding the dichotomy of politicization vs de-politicization for our understanding of bio-objects in order to study their production, circulation, and governance in European societies. By asking how bio-objects are configured in science, policy, public, and media discourses and practices, we focus on the role of socio-technical configurations in generating political relations. The bio-object thereby serves as an entry point to approach and conceptualize “the political” in an innovative way. PMID:23630150

  20. Beyond Essentialist and Functionalist Analyses of the "Politicisation of Religion": The Evolution of Religious Parties in Political Catholicism and Political Islam

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joerg Baudner

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The debate about “politics and religion” has already rejected essentialist claims of fundamental differences in the impact of religion on politics in different cultures. This article will argue that political Islam in Turkey and political Catholicism in Italy and Germany adopted remarkably similar patterns of cross-class coalitions and policies for a “reconciliation of capitalism and democracy”. First, religious parties developed as mass integration parties which already encompassed cross-class coalitions. Second, in the aftermath of political and economic crises these parties transformed into catch-all parties with a pronounced neo-liberal agenda which was given a religious justification. Third, at the same time these parties continued to sponsor policies and organizations which cushioned and supplemented an uneven economic development. Fourth, the parties kept traditional family policies which helped attracting a significant female electorate. “Organized religion” provided religious parties with a potential electorate, ancillary organizations and ideological concepts; however, their role in this political evolution changed. The conclusion will discuss whether these findings can be generalized.

  1. Gender security between human development and human security. Recent issues in the political international agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paola Degani

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Issues regarding security, for a long time have been proposed, both in the scientific literature, that in the writings of popular character, without taking into due consideration the specificity of the effects that certain threats can cause the different subjectivity or on specific groups rather than on other . In particular, very rarely takes into account the fact that, in relation to the condition of women, we can talk, referring to certain areas or aspects of the problem, think of the problem of violence, of a real security crisis. The safety cultures sedimentation processes of socialization through everyday practices, can be considered an integral part of the internal structures of states. The issues relating to the in / security for women are on the agenda institutional, only a few years, do not fall within the traditional framework of interventions aimed at regulating sector profiles of women, in line with a vision of the subject recipient of this policy individual as "neutral." These are issues that today are also of inter-governmental organizations, in particular the United Nations, a central political role with respect to the adoption of policies related to the affirmation, respect and the effectiveness of human rights and at the same time enrich and innovate in order substantial guidelines and decision-making processes in the field of security.

  2. Policy Ideas, Knowledge Regimes and Comparative Political Economy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Campbell, John L.; Pedersen, Ove K.

    2015-01-01

    Despite much attention to how ideas affect policy making, where these ideas come from is a blind spot in comparative political economy. We show that an important source of policy ideas are knowledge regimes—fields of policy research organizations. We show as well that the organization of knowledge...... to restore it by transforming their knowledge regimes, albeit in ways that are still shaped by the surrounding political and economic institutions. The effectiveness of their efforts is not guaranteed. The argument is based on an analysis of the evolution of knowledge regimes since the 1970s in the USA...... regimes is heavily influenced by the organization of their surrounding political economies such that knowledge regimes have particular national characters. Furthermore, when people perceive that the utility of their knowledge regime for the rest of the political economy breaks down, they often try...

  3. European Policy for Corporate Social Responsibility: Governance Context, Linkage with Sustainable development and Crisis as a Policy Factor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taliouris, Evangelos

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Political prerequisites for sustainable development (SD in European Union (EU and its member states are environmental innovation as well as transparency, social welfare, good governance and responsible entrepreneurship. The Europe 2020 Strategy and its indicators were a significant step in order EU, its member states and the social stakeholders to deal with crisis negative socioeconomic and environmental outcomes, but also to improve social trust. An important stakeholder towards these is European business sector. Therefore, responsible entrepreneurship via corporate social responsibility (CSR is a policy topic in EU in parallel with other policy topics such as transparency (e.g. non-financial reporting and good governance (e.g. political framework for CSR. The European business community was always a crucial stakeholder for development, but since 2001 CSR is explicitly part of European policy agenda through topics such as public procurement, responsible supply chains, anti-corruption policies, employment generation, reporting and disclosure etc. In EU the applied policy for CSR indicates different approaches and policy tools within the common policy framework and definitions. Moreover, the crisis evolution became an accelerator for CSR policy evolution and convergence between perspectives and member states. The renewed strategy in 2011, the report for CSR public policies in 2014 and the EU steps towards SD Agenda for 2030 in 2015 indicated issues such as corporate citizenship and responsible entrepreneurship as an ongoing policy process that focuses both on EU political convergence at member states level and the European business sector excellence.

  4. Neo-Liberalism and the Politics of Higher Education Policy in Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosser, Andrew

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines Indonesia's experience with neo-liberal higher education reform. It argues that this agenda has encountered strong resistance from the dominant predatory political, military, and bureaucratic elements who occupy the state apparatus, their corporate clients, and popular forces, leading to continuation of the centralist and…

  5. Window of opportunity--positioning food and nutrition policy within a sustainability agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeatman, Heather

    2008-04-01

    Public health professionals have an opportunity to refocus national attention on food and nutrition policy, within a sustainability agenda. A broadly based national Food and Nutrition Policy was developed in 1992. However, its implementation has been selective and primarily based within the health sector. Other major policy areas, for example; industry, agriculture and trade, have dominated Australian nutrition and health policy. A broad, whole-of-government commitment to a comprehensive food and nutrition policy that engages with the community is required to achieve outcomes in terms of public health, a sustainable environment and viable food production for future generations.

  6. Políticas de saúde no Brasil nos anos 2000: a agenda federal de prioridades Health policies in Brazil in the 2000s: the national priority agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristiani Vieira Machado

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available O artigo analisa as prioridades da política nacional da saúde no período de 2003 a 2008, correspondente ao Governo Lula. A pesquisa envolveu revisão bibliográfica, análise documental, análise de dados e entrevistas com dirigentes federais. Foram identificadas quatro prioridades na agenda federal da saúde: a Estratégia Saúde da Família, o Brasil Sorridente, os Serviços de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência e o programa Farmácia Popular. A primeira configura uma política de alta densidade institucional, iniciada no governo anterior, constituindo um exemplo de "dependência da trajetória". As demais foram adotadas como marcos de governo e trouxeram inovações em áreas em que havia fragilidades da atuação federal. As quatro políticas prioritárias analisadas se voltam para problemas relevantes do sistema de saúde brasileiro, porém apresentam diferenças quanto à sua trajetória, base de apoio e implicações para os princípios do Sistema Único de Saúde. Apesar de mudanças incrementais, observou-se a predominância de elementos de continuidade na política nacional de saúde no período.This article analyzes Brazilian national health priorities from 2003 to 2008 under the Lula Administration. The study included a literature review, document analysis, and interviews with Federal health administrators. Four priorities were identified on the national health agenda: the Family Health Program, Smiling Brazil, Mobile Emergency Services, and the Popular Pharmacy Program. The first is a policy with high institutional density launched by the previous Administration, constituting an example of path dependence. The other three are innovations in areas where there had been weaknesses in Federal government action. The four policy priorities are strategies focused on solving key problems in the Brazilian health system. However, they display important differences in their historical development, political and institutional base, inclusion on

  7. Agenda-Setting for VET Policy in the Western Balkans: Employability versus Social Inclusion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartlett, Will; Pagliarello, Marina Cino

    2016-01-01

    For the last decade, the Western Balkan countries have sought to modernise their vocational education and training (VET) systems, adapting them to the needs of their emerging market economies. Within the framework of the EU accession process, the policy agenda for VET policies has been strongly influenced by a range of international and domestic…

  8. Behaviour Change Policy Agendas for "Vulnerable" Subjectivities: The Dangers of Therapeutic Governance and Its New Entrepreneurs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ecclestone, Kathryn

    2017-01-01

    Apocalyptic crisis discourses of mental health problems and psycho-emotional dysfunction are integral to behaviour change agendas across seemingly different policy arenas. Bringing these agendas together opens up new theoretical and empirical lines of enquiry about the symbioses and contradictions surrounding the human subjects they target. The…

  9. The grand coalition's climate policy: retrospective and perspectives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bausch, C.; Gorlach, B.

    2008-01-01

    2007 was a year of exceptional importance for Germany, due to the dual presidency and the decision to declare climate change as one of the key issues for both the G8 and the EU Presidency. Supported by public and media interest, climate change was pushed to the top of the international political agenda, at a critical time in the development of the international climate regime. Germany was able to show profile and leadership in international climate policy and Europe was able to set a political agenda and decide on targets, which have shaped European policies and legislative proposals since then, and will continue to do so into the future. In Germany, the Meseberg programme is the main initiative aiming at the implementation of climate policy, while at the European level the heads of states have been able to agree on the widely discussed climate - energy package. The authors provide an overview of the measures taken and assess them in light of the EU self-imposed political targets

  10. Hispanic Business Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coca-Cola USA, Atlanta, GA.

    This is a corporate policy statement of the Hispanic business agenda of Coca Cola USA, and the results of a community survey conducted to inform that agenda. The statement outlines several areas of company policy as they relate to Hispanic Americans. These areas include regional marketing, promotion, and community relations strategies, a…

  11. State political ideology, policies and health behaviors: The case of tobacco.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fox, Ashley M; Feng, Wenhui; Yumkham, Rakesh

    2017-05-01

    Anti-smoking campaigns are widely viewed as a success case in public health policy. However, smoking rates continue to vary widely across U.S. states and the success of anti-smoking campaigns is contingent upon states' adoption of anti-smoking policies. Though state anti-smoking policy is a product of a political process, studies of the effect of policies on smoking prevalence have largely ignored how politics shapes policy adoption, which, in turn, impact state health outcomes. Policies may also have different effects in different political contexts. This study tests how state politics affects smoking prevalence both through the policies that states adopt (with policies playing a mediating role on health outcomes) or as an effect modifier of behavior (tobacco control policies may work differently in states in which the public is more or less receptive to them). The study uses publicly available data to construct a time-series cross-section dataset of state smoking prevalence, state political context, cigarette excise taxes, indoor smoking policies, and demographic characteristics from 1995 to 2013. Political ideology is measured using a validated indicator of the ideology of state legislatures and of the citizens of a state. We assess the relationship between state political context and state smoking prevalence rates adjusting for demographic characteristics and accounting for the mediating/moderating role of state policies with time and state fixed effects. We find that more liberal state ideology predicts lower adult smoking rates, but that the relationship between state ideology and adult smoking prevalence is only partly explained by state anti-smoking policies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Family care work: a policy-relevant research agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moen, Phyllis; DePasquale, Nicole

    2017-03-01

    This article addresses the need for policy-relevant research agendas on family care in transaction with formal care and public as well as organisational norms and policies in light of the crisis in caregiving for older adults. We propose a combined institutional and life-course theoretical approach, suggesting seven ways of organising scholarly enquiry to promote understanding of the changing nature of family care in the 21st century, inform policymakers' efforts at supporting family caregivers and improve caregivers' and care recipients' quality of life. These include: (1) moving beyond snapshots of individuals; (2) conducting comparative cross-cultural and crosscohort analyses; (3) documenting social heterogeneity, vulnerability and inequality; (4) capturing individuals' and families' adaptive strategies and cycles of control during the caregiving process; (5) investigating policy innovations and natural experiments; (6) assessing third parties as mediating institutions between regulatory environments and caregiving families; and (7) attending to the subjective meanings of care.

  13. The politics of health sector reform in developing countries: three cases of pharmaceutical policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reich, M R

    1995-01-01

    This paper examines the political dynamics of health sector reform in poor countries, through a comparative study of pharmaceutical policy reform in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. The paper first reviews five reasons why policy reform is political. It then presents three political economic models of the policy reform process: the political will, political factions, and political survival models. Next, the paper describes the three cases of national pharmaceutical policy reform, and identifies common conditions that made these reforms politically feasible. The paper's analysis suggests that health sector reform is feasible at certain definable, and perhaps predictable, political moments, especially in the early periods of new regimes. The most important and manipulable political factors are: political timing, which provides opportunities for policy entrepreneurs to introduce their ideas into public debate, and political management of group competition, which allows leaders to control the political effects of distributional consequences and protect the regime's stability. A strong and narrow political coalition improves the capacity of political leaders to resist the pressures of concentrated economic costs (both inside and outside national boundaries). The paper argues that for reform to succeed, policy-makers need effective methods to analyze relevant political conditions and shape key political factors in favor of policy reform. The method of Political Mapping is briefly introduced as a technique that can help policy-makers in analyzing and managing the political dimensions of policy reform and in improving the political feasibility of reform.

  14. Unconventional politics of unconventional gas: Environmental reframing and policy change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kear, Andrew Robert

    The present Rocky Mountain West natural gas boom, enabled by historic pro-resource-development political, institutional, economic, and cultural structures, is a politically contested battle over values. Volatile political action, unconventional coalitions, and unconventional politics engulf this unconventional gas boom -- especially at the state level. In this comparative case study of natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, I measure and compare these values, expressed as frames, through textual analysis of interest group public documents and state legislative bills and statutes from 1999-2008. By developing a new measure of state legislative framing, I test the relationship between interest group and institutional framing and also provide a viable measure of policy change useful to Narrative Policy Analysis theory. Results show that competing interest group and state legislative framing efforts are dynamic, measurably different, and periodically correlative. Competing interest groups rarely engage each other, except as the conflict matures when status-quo-supporters break their silence and engage the challengers' frames that have gained legislative traction. Environmental and land-use counter-framing ensues, but status-quo-supporters remain vigilant in their economic framing. Economic frames retain their institutional privilege within Wyoming and New Mexico, but natural gas policy undergoes a complete environmental reframe in the Colorado state legislature. Although the historically dominant economy frame based on "Old West" values remains largely intact, the respective state legislatures partially reframe policy (within 4 years) using environment, alternative land-uses, and democracy frames based on "New West" and long-extant but previously marginalized status-quo-challenger definitions. This reframing is not a strictly partisan issue, but rather it is influenced by political context, policy diffusion, and long-term interest group advocacy and

  15. The emergence of maternal health as a political priority in Madhya Pradesh, India: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jat, Tej Ram; Deo, Prakash Ramchandra; Goicolea, Isabel; Hurtig, Anna-Karin; San Sebastian, Miguel

    2013-09-30

    Politics plays a critical role in agenda setting in health affairs; therefore, understanding the priorities of the political agenda in health is very important. The political priority for safe motherhood has been investigated at the national level in different countries. The objective of this study was to explore why and how maternal health became a political priority at sub-national level in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India. This study followed a qualitative design. Data were collected by carrying out interviews and review of documents. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with twenty respondents from four stakeholder groups: government officials, development partners, civil society and academics. Data analysis was performed using thematic analysis. The analysis was guided by Kingdon's multiple streams model. The emergence of maternal health as a political priority in Madhya Pradesh was the result of convergence in the developments in different streams: the development of problem definition, policy generation and political change. The factors which influenced this process were: emerging evidence of the high magnitude of maternal mortality, civil society's positioning of maternal mortality as a human rights violation, increasing media coverage, supportive policy environment and launch of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the availability of effective policy solutions, India's aspiration of global leadership, international influence, maternal mortality becoming a hot debate topic and political transition at the national and state levels. Most of these factors first became important at national level which then cascaded to the state level. Currently, there is a supportive policy environment in the state for maternal health backed by greater political will and increased resources. However, malnutrition and population stabilization are the competing priorities which may push maternal health off the agenda. The influence of the events and factors

  16. Greening the Danes? Experience with consumption and environment policies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Toke Haunstrup; Godskesen, Mirjam Irene; Gram-Hanssen, Kirsten

    2007-01-01

    structures, and information are all in accordance with each other, and this is only the case when sustainable consumption does not conflict with economic growth. A more fundamental critique thus concerns the failure of Danish consumer-oriented environmental policies to address consumption growth......Consumer-oriented environmental policies came high on the political agenda during the 1990s. Internationally, consumers were assigned a key role in environmental policies; also in Denmark, political initiatives were taken to promote sustainable consumer behaviour. In this article, the results...... of Danish policies related to consumption and environment are assessed by considering first, the environmental impacts of the political measures, and second, whether the policies have succeeded in addressing the dynamics behind increasing consumption. The study combines a theoretical understanding...

  17. The politics of federal environmental education policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crouch, Richard Craig

    Both environmental governance1 and education governance 2 occupy contested territory in contemporary US political discourse. Environmental education (EE) policy has emerged at this intersection and taken on aspects of both controversies. Central to debates surrounding environmental education are still unresolved issues concerning the role of the federal government in education, the role of education in citizen-making, and the role of the public in environmental governance. As a case study of the politics of environmental education policy, I explore these issues as they relate to the National Environmental Education Act of 1990,3 attempts at its reauthorization, its continued appropriations, and its current state of policy stasis. The political controversy over the federal role in environmental education is an appropriate case study of environmental education politics insofar as it reflects the different positions held by actor groups with regard to the definition, efficacy, and legitimacy of environmental education. At the core of these debates, as we will see, is a definitional crisis---that is, there is no common understanding across the relevant actor groups as to what environmental education is, or should be. I suggest here that this definitional issue can be best understood as having technical, ideological, and structural components4---all of which are mutually reinforcing and thus perpetuate the stasis in federal environmental education policy. 1I rely on Durant, Fiorino and O'leary's definition of environmental governance in Environmental Governance Reconsidered ; "In the term environmental governance, we refer to the increasingly collaborative nature of [environmental and natural resource] policy formulation and implementation. In this vein, a wide array of third parties (for example, actors in the profit sector, the nonprofit sector, and civic society), in addition to government agencies, comprise non hierarchical networks of actors wielding a variety of

  18. Businesses' voluntary pro-health tobacco policies: a review and research agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDaniel, Patricia A; Malone, Ruth E

    2012-01-01

    Research on the role of businesses in tobacco control has focused primarily on retailers, advertising firms and the hospitality industry, all of which have tended to support tobacco industry interests and resist effective tobacco control policies. However, in several countries, businesses have a history of voluntarily adopting tobacco-related policies that may advance tobacco control objectives. These phenomena have received little research attention. Existing literature on businesses ending tobacco sales, instituting voluntary workplace smoking restrictions and establishing non-smoker only hiring policies was reviewed. A research agenda on voluntary business initiatives would enhance and complement research on mandatory tobacco control policies by identifying new advocacy opportunities; suggesting avenues for strengthening or reinforcing existing policy initiatives; laying the groundwork for new mandatory policies; helping to inform ethical debates about contentious voluntary policies; and contributing to a better understanding of how alliances between the tobacco industry and other businesses might be weakened.

  19. Heads in the clouds, feet in the sand: Multilateral policy coordination in global environmental issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harrison, N.E.

    1994-01-01

    This is a study of how issues that can only be solved through cooperation (such as commons issues) reach the international agenda and how states then form policy on those issues. Extensive primary data are used in analyzing (1) accession of stratospheric ozone depletion and global climate change to the international agenda and (2) the policy formation of ten states on these issues. This study shows that commons issues reach the international agenda through the actions of intergovernmental organizations in defining the problem, and the political activities of a leader state (such as the US on ozone) or a state acting as a policy entrepreneur. In the extensive literature on international cooperation most studies emphasize the importance of system level variables. Adapting the two-level games approach to multilateral issues, this study argues that, as commons issues do not directly threaten the security of most states, state policy on such issues primarily reflects domestic political necessities. In effect, foreign and domestic policy on such issues become unified. Through analysis of secondary and primary data, including more than 30 interviews with representatives of both developed states (the US, Canada, the UK, and Japan) and developing states (Brazil, India, Algeria, Mexico, and Thailand), and the Soviet Union, this study shows how domestic factors influenced foreign policy decisions and actions. The study shows that states seem to be less interested in absolute or relative gains in international negotiations that in maximizing domestic political rewards from its choice of foreign policy. Finally, through study of the accession of the global climate change issue it is appears that knowledge may be politically derived. States required a open-quotes consensusclose quotes among the technical experts before initiating the international negotiations. Politics seems to have played a large part in forming the technical consensus and in communicating it to states

  20. Policy Capacity Meets Politics: Comment on "Health Reform Requires Policy Capacity".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fafard, Patrick

    2015-07-22

    It is difficult to disagree with the general argument that successful health reform requires a significant degree of policy capacity or that all players in the policy game need to move beyond self-interested advocacy. However, an overly broad definition of policy capacity is a problem. More important perhaps, health reform inevitably requires not just policy capacity but political leadership and compromise. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

  1. O caso da Rede Universitária de Telemedicina: análise da entrada da telessaúde na agenda política brasileira The case of Telemedicine University Network: analysis of telehealth entry in the Brazilian political agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angélica Baptista Silva

    2012-01-01

    the cycle of public policy: the construction of the government agenda and choice of alternative policies. We sought to delineate the composition of Rute and answer constraints which led federal managers from various sectors to recognize the quality of the system as a public health problem and the choice of implementing telehealth programs as one of the alternatives. The cases analyzed showed that in the flux convergence problems with favorable political environment, a window of opportunity opened up for the deployment of telehealth to eventually ascend as an alternative in the political agenda of the government decision. But for this, there is urgent need for digital inclusion in the territory and identify the technologies of information and communication as an innovation for SUS.

  2. A Policy Analysis Perspective on Ecological Restoration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan Baker

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Using a simple stages model of the policy process, we explore the politics of ecological restoration using an array of examples drawn across sector, different size and scale, and from different countries. A policy analysis perspective reveals how, at both the program and project levels, ecological restoration operates within a complex and dynamic interplay between technical decision making, ideologies, and interest politics. Viewed through the stages model, restoration policy involves negotiating nature across stages in the policy making process, including agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. The stages model is a useful heuristic devise; however, this linear model assumes that policy makers approach the issue rationally. In practice, ecological restoration policy takes place in the context of different distributions of power between the various public and private actors involved at the different stages of restoration policy making. This allows us to reiterate the point that ecological restoration is best seen not only as a technical task but as a social and political project.

  3. How Politics Shapes the Growth of Rules

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Mads Leth Felsager; Mortensen, Peter Bjerre

    2015-01-01

    when, why, and how political factors shape changes in the stock of rules. Furthermore, we test these hypotheses on a unique, new data set based on all Danish primary legislation and administrative rules from 1989 to 2011 categorized into 20 different policy domains. The analysis shows......This article examines the impact of politics on governmental rule production. Traditionally, explanations of rule dynamics have focused on nonpolitical factors such as the self-evolvement of rules, environmental factors, and decision maker attributes. This article develops a set of hypotheses about...... that the traditional Weberian “rules breed rules” explanations must be supplemented with political explanations that take party ideology and changes in the political agenda into account. Moreover, the effect of political factors is indistinguishable across changes in primary laws and changes in administrative rules...

  4. Inside the Agenda-Setting Process: How Political Advertising and TV News Prime Viewers Think about Issues and Candidates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schleuder, Joan; And Others

    A study of the agenda-setting influence of the mass media on adult viewers explored (in a series of five experiments) how political knowledge stored in long term memory can be activated by the media, leading to decisions about issue salience. Spreading activation theory formed the basis for the study, and priming--the concept that the activation…

  5. Intra-party policy entrepreneurship and party goals. The case of political parties’ climate policy preferences in Ireland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Little, Conor

    2017-01-01

    This study contributes to the growing literature on the domestic politics of climate change by examining the climate policy preferences of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party over 20 years. Bringing the concept of ‘policy entrepreneurship’ into the study of intra-party politics, it uses...... who have engaged in policy entrepreneurship with the aim of strengthening their parties’ climate policy preferences. In instances where office-seeking incentives for climate policy have been strong, they have often contributed to changes in policy preferences, whether or not intra-party policy...... entrepreneurship has been present. Theoretically, the study argues that the concept of ‘policy entrepreneurship’ can be usefully borrowed from the public policy literature by researchers of party policy preferences and intra-party politics. Empirically, it adds to the small but growing body of research on climate...

  6. Evaluating the Results of Quota Systems in Politics in Latin America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mala Htun

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses the varying effects of quota systems, as they emerge from a scenario of women’s increased inroads into politics in Latin America, expressed in the increased number of women in elected offices, the implementation of quota systems and increased presence of the issue of gender equality in political agendas. The character of the electoral system, as based on “open” or “closed” lists; the absence or presence of a norm of a compulsory competitive position for women within political parties and political parties’ commitment to quota policies are the crucial factors that determine variation.

  7. African Journal of Political Science: Editorial Policies

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The AJPS is published by the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), with the aim of providing a platform for African perspectives on issues of politics, economy and society in Africa. It is published 2 times a year - in June and December, and targeted at the social science community, policy-makers, and university ...

  8. Advancing the climate agenda: Exploiting material and institutional linkages to develop a menu of policy options

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Asselt, H.D.; Gupta, J.; Biermann, F.

    2005-01-01

    The utilization of interlinkages of existing material and the strengthening and promotion of new institutional interlinkages can widen the climate change agenda through new and innovative policy and legal measures. Material linkages are inherent structural connections between policy domains that are

  9. The parliamentary political agenda: a tool for policy analysis of diabetes priorities in Spain La agenda política parlamentaria: una herramienta para el análisis político sobre las prioridades sobre diabetes en España

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrés A. Agudelo-Suárez

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To analyze the political agenda on diabetes in Spain under democracy by considering the frequency and content of initiatives in the Spanish parliament. Methods: A systematic search of parliamentary interventions (1979-2010 reported on the Spanish Congress of Deputies' web page was carried out using the key word "diabetes". A descriptive study of the frequency of interventions was performed, followed by a content analysis, according to the priorities of the World Health Organization (WHO, the International Diabetes Federation and the Spanish Diabetes Federation. Other study variables were the year of presentation, legislature, type of initiative and whether a political decision was taken (yes/no. Results: There were 59 interventions: 22% were related to the first international initiatives and 44.1% took place in the last two legislatures in response to the WHO's program Diabetes Action Now. A total of 32.2% of the initiatives addressed educational and social programs, while 23.7% addressed access to resources and health services. Most initiatives (74.6% consisted of parliamentary questions to the government, which only required a response. Of the 15 initiatives requiring a decision to be taken, only eight were approved. Conclusions: Spanish legislators aim to comply with international standards. Nevertheless, political decision-making has sometimes been slow. Importantly, most of the political responsibilities related to health have been transferred to the autonomous regions. The updated National Diabetes Strategy in Spain will need to strengthen public health policies according to established international priorities. Monitoring parliamentary interventions has proven to be a valid tool for evaluating patterns of political debate and decisions on diabetes.Objetivo: Analizar la agenda política sobre diabetes en el periodo democrático español, considerando la frecuencia y el contenido de las iniciativas parlamentarias. M

  10. When Politics Matters: The Impact of Politicians' and Bureaucrats' Policy Preferences on Salient and Nonsalient Policy Areas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bækgaard, Martin; Blom-Hansen, Jens; Serritzlew, Søren

    2015-01-01

    whether politics still matters when bureaucratic preferences are taken into account. We do this in a simultaneous test of political and bureaucratic influences on public budgets, a policy measure often studied in the ‘politics matters’ literature. We find that political preferences trump bureaucratic ones...... in policy areas salient to the public, but not in less salient areas. This might be comforting news from a democratic perspective. However, since public budgets represent an easy case for political influence, it is food for thought that political preferences do not always prevail....

  11. Citizenship and cultural diversity in agenda of cultural policies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia Silva Dorneles

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This is a discussion paper which aims to contribute to the systematization of studies, concepts and practices on cultural policies which have been developed in previous years in Brazil and are orienting cultural actions and public programs in the country, also influencing the Occupational Therapy. Citizenship and Cultural Diversity are concepts under construction and are part of the of the agenda of cultural policies and as well as the reflections and practices of various occupational therapists who are acting in a constant dialogue with the cultural area by means of the formation in cultural management, cultural mapping, programs and grant projects aimed to promote inventive identities, traditional communities, native populations, urban mobility, and cultural networks and exchange initiatives, among others. The article presents the process of this conceptual construction and the constitution of experiences aiming the democratization of the culture in the history of Brazilian cultural public policies, over which are being discussed approach paths and possibilities for Occupational Therapy.

  12. Public health policy research: making the case for a political science approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernier, Nicole F; Clavier, Carole

    2011-03-01

    The past few years have seen the emergence of claims that the political determinants of health do not get due consideration and a growing demand for better insights into public policy analysis in the health research field. Several public health and health promotion researchers are calling for better training and a stronger research culture in health policy. The development of these studies tends to be more advanced in health promotion than in other areas of public health research, but researchers are still commonly caught in a naïve, idealistic and narrow view of public policy. This article argues that the political science discipline has developed a specific approach to public policy analysis that can help to open up unexplored levers of influence for public health research and practice and that can contribute to a better understanding of public policy as a determinant of health. It describes and critiques the public health model of policy analysis, analyzes political science's specific approach to public policy analysis, and discusses how the politics of research provides opportunities and barriers to the integration of political science's distinctive contributions to policy analysis in health promotion.

  13. The Politics of Universal Health Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Framework for Evaluation and Action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fox, Ashley M; Reich, Michael R

    2015-10-01

    Universal health coverage has recently become a top item on the global health agenda pressed by multilateral and donor organizations, as disenchantment grows with vertical, disease-specific health programs. This increasing focus on universal health coverage has brought renewed attention to the role of domestic politics and the interaction between domestic and international relations in the health reform process. This article proposes a theory-based framework for analyzing the politics of health reform for universal health coverage, according to four stages in the policy cycle (agenda setting, design, adoption, and implementation) and four variables that affect reform (interests, institutions, ideas, and ideology). This framework can assist global health policy researchers, multilateral organization officials, and national policy makers in navigating the complex political waters of health reforms aimed at achieving universal health coverage. To derive the framework, we critically review the theoretical and applied literature on health policy reform in developing countries and illustrate the framework with examples of health reforms moving toward universal coverage in low- and middle-income countries. We offer a series of lessons stemming from these experiences to date. Copyright © 2015 by Duke University Press.

  14. Policy Capacity Meets Politics; Comment on “Health Reform Requires Policy Capacity”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick Fafard

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available It is difficult to disagree with the general argument that successful health reform requires a significant degree of policy capacity or that all players in the policy game need to move beyond self-interested advocacy. However, an overly broad definition of policy capacity is a problem. More important perhaps, health reform inevitably requires not just policy capacity but political leadership and compromise.

  15. The Political Representation of Women in Public Policy Management Councils

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lígia Helena Hahn Lüchmann

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available This work raises some hypotheses to explain the significant presence of women on public policy management councils, which are spaces for discussion and deliberation of policies that have been implemented in Brazil in recent decades. The data about the profile of representatives on these spaces indicates a situation inversely proportional to the low degree of political inclusion of women in traditional spaces of political representation – executive positions, city councils, and state legislatures. There is thus a need to develop new analytical tools to understand the phenomenon of political representation. The data also question a reductive perspective of action and politics, which concludes that there is a low degree of political inclusion of women.

  16. Using Natural Sciences for Cultural Expansion: The National Socialist Agenda for the Balkans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Zarifi

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available This article highlights the political merit natural sciences were awarded under the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany and their propagandistic role in Hitler's foreign policy agenda for the Balkans, a region which was expected to replace Germany's colonies lost in World War I. It accounts further for the policies and strategies National Socialists used to exert cultural influence on the countries of South-East Europe, namely through a number of institutions with which natural sciences were in one way or another involved in order to promote German culture abroad. The promotion of the German language and, to a certain degree, the Nazi ideology was a precondition for familiarising the Balkan countries with German scientific achievements, which would pave the way for an economic and political infiltration in that region. Therefore, natural sciences, as part of the German intellect, acquired political and economic connotations hidden behind the euphemistic term of cultural policy, designed for this region of geopolitical importance. The article is based almost exclusively on unpublished German records.

  17. The passage of tobacco control law 174 in Lebanon: reflections on the problem, policies and politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakkash, R T; Torossian, L; El Hajj, T; Khalil, J; Afifi, R A

    2018-06-01

    Progress in tobacco control policy making has occurred worldwide through advocacy campaigns involving multiple players- civil society groups, activists, academics, media and policymakers. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)-the first ever global health treaty-outlines evidence-based tobacco control policies. Lebanon ratified the FCTC in 2005, but until 2011, tobacco control policies remained rudimentary and not evidence-based. Beginning in 2009, a concerted advocacy campaign was undertaken by a variety of stakeholders with the aim of accelerating the process of adopting a strong tobacco control policy. The campaign was successful, and Law 174 passed the Lebanese Parliament in August 2011. In this article, we analyse the policy making process that led to the adoption of Law 174 using Kingdon's model. The analysis relies on primary and secondary data sources including historical records of key governmental decisions, documentation of the activities of the concerted advocacy campaign and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. We describe the opening of a window of opportunity as a result of the alignment of the problem, policy and politics streams. Furthermore, findings revealed that despite the challenge of persistent tobacco industry interference and established power relations between the industry, its allies and policymakers; policy entrepreneurs succeeded in supporting the alignment of the streams, and influencing the passage of the law. Kingdon's multiple stream approach was useful in explaining how tobacco control became an emerging policy issue at the front of the policy agenda in Lebanon.

  18. The New Right and family politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somerville, J

    1992-05-01

    Political concern for the family has historically been intermittent; the present context is that there are considerable consequences for individuals, families, and personal life. Socioeconomic and cultural changes brought the rise of the New Right; The Thatcher (UK) and Reagan (US) administrations were committed to strengthening the traditional family. The emergence of the family as a social problem and the political agenda are discussed. The costs of liberalism were felt in a recessionary economy. The US political agenda of Carter to hold a White House Conference on the American Family never materialized. Reagan used the restoration of the traditional American family as a way to get the economy back on its feet. Moral crusaders and the new evangelical Christian movement merged with the political right; the "Gang of Four" (Republican Party right) politicians involved morally conservative communities normally outside the political area into the New Right. Grass roots organizations were mobilized on the Right. The British situation is explained; differences existed in that there were no antiabortion and moral lobby groups tied to the Right although their influence was felt. Pressure group politics is relatively novel to Britain. The Moral Majority in the US and right wing pressure groups on the Tory government are but 1 part of the New Right; it is characterized as populist, proclaiming the Radical Conservatism of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. The approach in this article is to show the complex interactions of theory, biography, and public opinion in the practical politics of the New Right. Policy outcomes are not predictable because of ideological differences in New Right attitudes toward the family. The attitudes of the moral order and the family is exemplified in the work of Roger Scruton's neoconservative stand on social order, Robert Nozick's Kantian proposition that human beings are ends with natural inviolable rights of individual freedom, Hayak and Friedman

  19. Setting the media agenda: A study of the 2010 Sudanese presidential elections

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Syed Arabi Idid

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates the influence of new media agendas on traditional news media according to the theoretical framework of intermedia agenda-setting during the 2010 Sudanese presidential elections. Upon applying content analysis, cross-lagged correlation analysis, and Rozelle-Campbell Baseline analysis, the paper provides evidence of intermedia agenda-setting in Sudanese media across a number of dependent variables. Sudanese newspapers influenced the agenda of Sudanese blogs whilst blogs have an increasing impact on the agenda of the newspapers. Our content analysis found that the agendas of socio-political blogs were strongly correlated with those of the newspapers. The findings also presented evidence of intermedia agenda-setting between socio-political blogs and citizen journalism.

  20. The Agenda of Dutch Higher Education Policy in Transition. The Effect of a New Government.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mc-Daniel, Olaf C.; van Oijen, Paul M. M.

    One of a series of studies related to the Delphi research project: "Policy Instruments for Higher Education in the Western Europe of the Future", this paper describes and analyses the recent development of the higher education agenda in the Netherlands to show that the development of higher education policy is an incremental process of…

  1. Tobacco Control in Africa: People, Politics and Policies | IDRC ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2011-10-15

    Oct 15, 2011 ... Although the policy interventions are well understood, the political economy ... case studies – representing diverse linguistic, geographic, political, legal and ... Addressing Africa's unmet need for family planning by intensifying ...

  2. Cultura, mercado e desenvolvimento: a construção da agenda contemporânea para as políticas culturais

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elder P. Maia Alves

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The theoretical and political approach process involving the categories of culture and development engendered the conditions of possibility that enabled the development of economic and cultural policies. Such policies now occupy the center of the contemporary agenda for public cultural policies. The actions and programs that mobilize most discursive and material resources are directed to the so-called creative economy, whose concep- tual and political lexicon is spreading and consolidating in very diverse organizations. To understand the specificity of this process, it is necessary to explore the theoretical, political and institutional realm in which the categories of culture and development stood in sharp contrast between the years 1950 and 1980. This paper seeks to objectify the main sociological conditions responsible for the dissolution of that tension, whose practical effects have allowed the operation of certain cultural policies, such as financing the incubation cultural enterprises.

  3. The Media and the Agenda of Nuclear Energy in France. 1970-2000

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blanchard, Philippe

    2010-01-01

    The agenda has been studied in two complementary ways: one based on modeling, the other on sociology. Their combined use helps to understand the construction of the nuclear issue as a long-term public controversy and policy. To a quite stable policy lead by a cohesive policy community corresponds a long-term trend of positive public support, but punctuated with bursts of protest. To explain the upheavals of some publics' support, the media coverage appears as a crucial factor, with its peaks of visibility, conflict-driven frames or news focused on the sector's failures. The media did sometimes provide the conditions of a policy reversal. Two successive cycles of media coverage occur, both linked to a state of the local referential, embedded in the global one. Yet neither of them leads to a steady rejection of nuclear energy by the public, nor by the elite. Two agenda strategies face each other: contestants seek maximum visibility, defenders discretion and alternative framing. From the 1970's to the 1990's, both strategies change with diverse contexts: the decline of global ideological commitment, the professionalization of ecological protest, the evolution of journalistic practices and political opportunities. But they only account for a part of the controversy process. Non-strategic agendas also have to be dealt with. They are led by dramatic events, crisis, non-anticipated consequences of prepared achievements and non-coordinated strategies that happen to converge. (author) [fr

  4. The Politics of African Industrial Policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Whitfield, Lindsay; Therkildsen, Ole; Buur, Lars

    in the early stages of capitalist transformation that also experience the pressures of elections due to democratization, this book provides four in-depth African country studies that illustrate the challenges to economic transformation and the politics of implementing industrial policies....

  5. Coastal erosion and beach nourishment in Scania as issues in Swedish coastal policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bontje, L.E.; Frederiksson, Caroline; Wang, Zilin; Slinger, J.H.

    2016-01-01

    This paper discusses the dynamics of coastal policy change in Sweden, using erosion and beach nourishments as an example. The Multiple Stream Model is a theoretical model on agenda setting and policy change developed by the political scientist John Kingdon (1984, 2003). This paper applies Kingdon’s

  6. A Collaboratively-Derived Science-Policy Research Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sutherland, William J.; Bellingan, Laura; Bellingham, Jim R.; Blackstock, Jason J.; Bloomfield, Robert M.; Bravo, Michael; Cadman, Victoria M.; Cleevely, David D.; Clements, Andy; Cohen, Anthony S.; Cope, David R.; Daemmrich, Arthur A.; Devecchi, Cristina; Anadon, Laura Diaz; Denegri, Simon; Doubleday, Robert; Dusic, Nicholas R.; Evans, Robert J.; Feng, Wai Y.; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Harris, Paul; Hartley, Sue E.; Hester, Alison J.; Holmes, John; Hughes, Alan; Hulme, Mike; Irwin, Colin; Jennings, Richard C.; Kass, Gary S.; Littlejohns, Peter; Marteau, Theresa M.; McKee, Glenn; Millstone, Erik P.; Nuttall, William J.; Owens, Susan; Parker, Miles M.; Pearson, Sarah; Petts, Judith; Ploszek, Richard; Pullin, Andrew S.; Reid, Graeme; Richards, Keith S.; Robinson, John G.; Shaxson, Louise; Sierra, Leonor; Smith, Beck G.; Spiegelhalter, David J.; Stilgoe, Jack; Stirling, Andy; Tyler, Christopher P.; Winickoff, David E.; Zimmern, Ron L.

    2012-01-01

    The need for policy makers to understand science and for scientists to understand policy processes is widely recognised. However, the science-policy relationship is sometimes difficult and occasionally dysfunctional; it is also increasingly visible, because it must deal with contentious issues, or itself becomes a matter of public controversy, or both. We suggest that identifying key unanswered questions on the relationship between science and policy will catalyse and focus research in this field. To identify these questions, a collaborative procedure was employed with 52 participants selected to cover a wide range of experience in both science and policy, including people from government, non-governmental organisations, academia and industry. These participants consulted with colleagues and submitted 239 questions. An initial round of voting was followed by a workshop in which 40 of the most important questions were identified by further discussion and voting. The resulting list includes questions about the effectiveness of science-based decision-making structures; the nature and legitimacy of expertise; the consequences of changes such as increasing transparency; choices among different sources of evidence; the implications of new means of characterising and representing uncertainties; and ways in which policy and political processes affect what counts as authoritative evidence. We expect this exercise to identify important theoretical questions and to help improve the mutual understanding and effectiveness of those working at the interface of science and policy. PMID:22427809

  7. Conceptualizing an Agenda for Social Responsibility and Public Policy at Montgomery College. A Briefing Paper. Revised

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, Michelle T.

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of this briefing paper is to conceptualize a social responsibility and public policy agenda for Montgomery College. The briefing paper provides (a) a well researched perspective to embed a College culture to actualize social responsibility and public policy as institutional practices; (b) examines some of the opportunities and…

  8. Policy agendas and births and deaths of political parties : The Dutch Model

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lowery, D.; van Witteloostuijn, A.; Peli, G.; Brasher, H.; Otjes, Simon; Gherghina, Sergiu

    The standard model of political party density emphasizing the interaction of social cleavages and district magnitude (M) is incomplete in accounting for number of parties in cases of high values of M in an arbitrary way. We explore an alternative model for such cases emphasizing the slack in the

  9. Setting performance-based financing in the health sector agenda: a case study in Cameroon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sieleunou, Isidore; Turcotte-Tremblay, Anne-Marie; Fotso, Jean-Claude Taptué; Tamga, Denise Magne; Yumo, Habakkuk Azinyui; Kouokam, Estelle; Ridde, Valery

    2017-08-01

    More than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have introduced performance-based financing (PBF) in their healthcare systems. Yet, there has been little research on the process by which PBF was put on the national policy agenda in Africa. This study examines the policy process behind the introduction of PBF program in Cameroon. The research is an explanatory case study using the Kingdon multiple streams framework. We conducted a document review and 25 interviews with various types of actors involved in the policy process. We conducted thematic analysis using a hybrid deductive-inductive approach for data analysis. By 2004, several reports and events had provided evidence on the state of the poor health outcomes and health financing in the country, thereby raising awareness of the situation. As a result, decision-makers identified the lack of a suitable health financing policy as an important issue that needed to be addressed. The change in the political discourse toward more accountability made room to test new mechanisms. A group of policy entrepreneurs from the World Bank, through numerous forms of influence (financial, ideational, network and knowledge-based) and building on several ongoing reforms, collaborated with senior government officials to place the PBF program on the agenda. The policy changes occurred as the result of two open policy windows (i.e. national and international), and in both instances, policy entrepreneurs were able to couple the policy streams to effect change. The policy agenda of PBF in Cameroon underlined the importance of a perceived crisis in the policy reform process and the advantage of building a team to carry forward the policy process. It also highlighted the role of other sources of information alongside scientific evidence (eg.: workshop and study tour), as well as the role of previous policies and experiences, in shaping or influencing respectively the way issues are framed and reformers' actions and choices.

  10. The nutrition policy process: the role of strategic capacity in advancing national nutrition agendas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelletier, David L; Menon, Purnima; Ngo, Tien; Frongillo, Edward A; Frongillo, Dominic

    2011-06-01

    Undernutrition is the single largest contributor to the burden of disease in developing countries and has documented effects on social and economic development, yet progress in reducing undernutrition remains slow. This paper identifies the range of factors that have influenced the nutrition agenda in developing countries, in order to inform the implementation of three major global initiatives related to undernutrition. Data sources include interviews with nutrition practitioners at the national and international level, written accounts from six African countries, and observations of the policy process in five countries. Data were thematically coded to identify recurrent factors that facilitated or inhibited progress in addressing undernutrition. The data reveal the following: First, societal conditions and catalytic events pose a variety of challenges and opportunities to enlarge and shape the nutrition agenda. Some countries have been successful in using such opportunities, while others have been less successful and there have been some unintended consequences. Second, disagreements over interventions and strategies are an almost universal feature of the nutrition policy process, occur primarily among mid-level actors rather than among politicians or senior administrators, and are primarily the product of structural factors such as organizational mandates, interests, and differences in professional perspectives. Third, many of these structural factors can be molded, aligned, and/or circumvented through strategic action on the part of the mid-level actors to strengthen movement on the nutrition agenda. This evidence that strategic action can redirect and/or overcome the effects of structural factors has important implications for future efforts to advance the nutrition agenda.

  11. Problems, policies and politics: making the case for better assistive technology provision in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Layton, Natasha

    2015-05-01

    Substantial evidence supports assistive technology and environmental adaptations as key enablers to participation. In order to realise the potential of these interventions, they need to be both recognised in policy, and resourced in practice. This paper uses political theory to understand the complexities of assistive technology (AT) policy reform in Australia. AT research will not be influential in improving AT policy without consideration of political drivers. Theories of policy formation are considered, with Kingdon's (2003) theory of multiple streams identified as a useful lens through which to understand government actions. This theory is applied to the case of current AT policy reformulation in Australia. The convergence model of problem identification, policy formulation and political will is found to be an applicable construct with which to evaluate contemporary policy changes. This paper illustrates the cogency of this theory for the field of AT, in the case of Australia's recent disability and aged care reforms. Political theory provides a way of conceptualising the difficulties of consumers and AT practitioners experience in getting therapeutically valid solutions into public policy, and then getting policies prioritised and funded. It is suggested that AT practitioners must comprehend and consider political factors in working towards effective policies to support their practice. AT practitioners generally lack political awareness or an understanding of the drivers of policy. The effectiveness of AT practitioners at a systemic level will remain limited without consideration of policy drivers. AT practitioners must comprehend and consider political factors in working towards effective policies to support their practice.

  12. Political determinants of Health: Lessons for Pakistan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jooma, Rashid; Sabatinelli, Guido

    2014-05-01

    There is much concern about the capacity of the health system of Pakistan to meet its goals and obligations. Historically, the political thrust has been absent from the health policy formulation and this is reflected in the low and stagnant public allocations to health. Successive political leaderships have averred from considering healthcare is a common good rather than a market commodity and health has not been recognized as a constitutional right. Over 120 of world's nation states have accepted health as a constitutional right but the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan does not mandate health or education as a fundamental right and the recently adopted 18th constitutional amendment missed the opportunity to extend access to primary health care as an obligation of the State. It is argued in this communication that missing from the calculations of policy formulation and agenda setting is the political benefits of providing health and other social services to underserved populations. Across the developing world, many examples are presented of governments undertaking progressive health reforms that bring services where none existed and subsequently reaping electoral benefit. The political determinant of healthcare will be realized when the political leaders of poorly performing countries can be convinced that embracing distributive policies and successfully bringing healthcare to the poor can be major factors in their re-elections.

  13. Family Grant: social policy or political marketing?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo Gabriel Martins de Moura

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available This essay, a political analysis, criticizes the Family Grant Program, implemented by the Lula government of 2003-2005. It is based on the ongoing analysis methodology originated in U.S. political science. It seeks to establish a parallel of these analyses with criticisms of the Family Grant program presented in the media and made by specialists. They focus on the absence of a conceptual reference for the program (or its practical non-application, supported by accumulated knowledge in the field, that would guide the social policies of the Lula government. Based on secondary sources about official data and on statements from specialists, the analysis identifies an apparent 'schizophrenia' in the 'philosophical' references that orient the government's social policies, suggesting that the solution chosen was a situational response to a demand for government marketing and not oriented to a deliberate public policy pre-conceived as such, which, if it exists, is not evident in the government actions.

  14. Political elites and foreign policy : democratization in Indonesia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wibisono, Aria Teguh Mahendra

    2009-01-01

    In the investigation, the domestic sources of foreign policy analytical framework were used to analyze the dynamics of elites in foreign policy making. After analyses of the results of mostly personal interviews and historical materials, it was determined that political elites do matter in foreign

  15. How the Second Delta Committee Set the Agenda for Climate Adaptation Policy: A Dutch Case Study on Framing Strategies for Policy Change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simon H. Verduijn

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available In 2008, the Second State Delta Committee, commissioned by the Dutch Secretary of Public Works and Water Management, provided suggestions on how to defend the Netherlands against the expected impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, longer periods of drought, more intense periods of rainfall and additional land subsidence over the coming two hundred years (Veerman, 2008. In this paper we show that even though no crisis actually occurred, the Second Delta Committee succeeded in three areas. First, the committee managed to create awareness and set the agenda for climate adaptation policy and the issue of safety in Dutch water management. Second, the committee succeeded to a large extent in getting the media, the public and politics to accept its frame and framing of the problems, causes, moral judgments and suggested remedies. Third, the committee has to a certain degree already succeeded in having its recommendations translated into policy programmes. It will be argued that framing strategies were key to the committee’s success and that the committee used various framing strategies to convince the Cabinet, citizens and others of the urgency and necessity of implementing adaptation measures. The most important framing strategies identified were adherence to the climate adaptation narrative, using the story of our delta identity, creating a sense of urgency and collectiveness, and creating a crisis narrative.

  16. Demographic profile of states with human cloning laws: morality policy meets political economy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stabile, Bonnie

    2007-03-01

    This analysis seeks to identify factors that may shape the policy stance - whether restrictive or permissive - that each state in the United States with a human cloning law in place takes toward human therapeutic cloning. The investigation also considers if cloning policy is more the product of morality politics or political economy. Results show that among states with human cloning policies in place, those with a greater biotechnological capacity, more permissive abortion laws, fewer Evangelical Protestants, and higher political liberalism rankings are more likely to have permissive cloning laws. A higher Roman Catholic population is strongly associated with permissive cloning laws, rather than restrictive cloning laws as originally supposed. Factors with morality policy and economic bases were both found to be associated with cloning policy outcomes. Results suggest that morality policies, though distinct in some ways, do share determinants with public policies based on political economy.

  17. The Agenda-Setting of Ivy Lee.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olasky, Marvin N.

    Journalism historians in recent years have made good use of agenda-setting theory in research, but there has been one drawback: in concentrating on the political and economic views of publishers, editors, and reporters, the agendas of those working behind the scenes, the public relations men and women have been overlooked. The public relations…

  18. Expanding Policy Imagination in Political Economy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Seabrooke, Leonard

    2006-01-01

    capacity to see political, social, and economic changes that do not conform to conventional theories, as well as distorting our understanding of how the contemporary world works. What policymakers want, more than prediction or recitation of conventional theories, is context to understand how policy can...

  19. Iran: Politics, Gulf Security, and U.S. Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-30

    U.S. Policy Congressional Research Service Contents Political History ...Research Service 1 Political History Iran is a country of nearly 80 million people, located in the heart of the Persian Gulf region. The United...Iran government figure was 27), including a 19-year-old woman , Neda Soltani, who subsequently became an emblem of the uprising. The opposition

  20. State health agencies and the legislative policy process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams-Crowe, S M; Aultman, T V

    1994-01-01

    A new era of health care reform places increasing pressure on public health leaders and agencies to participate in the public policy arena. Public health professionals have long been comfortable in providing the scientific knowledge base required in policy development. What has been more recent in its evolution, however, is recognition that they must also play an active role in leading and shaping the debate over policy. A profile of effective State legislative policy "entrepreneurs" and their strategies has been developed to assist health agencies in developing such a leadership position. Based on the experiences of State legislative liaison officers, specific strategies for dealing with State legislatures have been identified and are organized into five key areas--agency organization, staff skills, communications, negotiation, and active ongoing involvement. A public health agency must be organized effectively to participate in the legislative policy process. Typically, effective agencies centralize responsibility for policy activities and promote broad and coordinated participation throughout the organization. Playing a key role in the agency's political interventions, the legislative liaison office should be staffed with persons possessing excellent interpersonal skills and a high degree of technical competence. Of central importance to effective legislative policy entrepreneurship is the ability to communicate the agency's position clearly. This includes setting forward a focused policy agenda, documenting policy issues in a meaningful manner, and reaching legislators with the proper information. Once a matter is on the legislative agenda, the agency must be prepared to negotiate and build broad support for the measure. Finally, public health agencies must be active policy players. To take advantage of new opportunities for action, the public health (policy) leader must monitor the political environment continually.By working to anticipate and formulate

  1. Minority Political Incorporation and Policy Outcomes in U.S. School Districts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leon, Ana L.

    2017-01-01

    This study examines if gains in ethnic political representation and incorporation on local school boards result in policy responsiveness, as well as improved student achievement in a way that benefits minorities. By applying the political incorporation framework developed by Browning, Marshall, and Tabb (1984) to the education policy arena, gains…

  2. The WTO Agenda and the Media Agenda

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Rune Saugmann; Skjoldan, Lasse

    ’ (DDA) negotiations. While the DDA was set off in 2001 and was intended to be concluded by the end of 2004, the multilateral negotiations are in the end of 2007 still short of agreement. This thesis conceives of the media agenda as an important factor influencing trade policy formation and trade...... negotiation in the WTO. Combining elements from agenda-setting and institutional media theory, the study examines which issues and themes have been covered (priming) and from which angles these issue have been covered (framing). In particular, this thesis investigates the degree to which this priming...... as the ones who should liberalise. When this particular press coverage of the DDA is highly institutionalised, it means that it will be sticky and less prone to change. And because the media agenda is taken to affect the WTO agenda, the actors who are (dis)advantaged from this particular coverage in the press...

  3. Political Economy and the NCLB Regime: Accountability, Standards, and High-Stakes Testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parkison, Paul

    2009-01-01

    Focus and institutional policy under the No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB] (U.S. Department of Education 2001) has prioritized the individualistic, market-driven agenda. The NCLB regime has gained hegemony over the political space of public education, and the value and effectiveness of the educational process has become subject to the fetishism of…

  4. Government, politics and health policy: A quantitative analysis of 30 European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackenbach, Johan P; McKee, Martin

    2015-10-01

    Public health policies are often dependent on political decision-making, but little is known of the impact of different forms of government on countries' health policies. In this exploratory study we studied the association between a wide range of process and outcome indicators of health policy and four groups of political factors (levels of democracy, e.g. voice and accountability; political representation, e.g. voter turnout; distribution of power, e.g. constraints on the executive; and quality of government, e.g. absence of corruption) in contemporary Europe. Data on 15 aspects of government and 18 indicators of health policy as well as on potential confounders were extracted from harmonized international data sources, covering 30 European countries and the years 1990-2010. In a first step, multivariate regression analysis was used to relate cumulative measures of government to indicators of health policy, and in a second step panel regression with country fixed effects was used to relate changes in selected measures of government to changes in indicators of health policy. In multivariate regression analyses, measures of quality of democracy and quality of government had many positive associations with process and outcome indicators of health policy, while measures of distribution of power and political representation had few and inconsistent associations. Associations for quality of democracy were robust against more extensive control for confounding variables, including tests in panel regressions with country fixed effects, but associations for quality of government were not. In this period in Europe, the predominant political influence on health policy has been the rise of levels of democracy in countries in the Central & Eastern part of the region. In contrast to other areas of public policy, health policy does not appear to be strongly influenced by institutional features of democracy determining the distribution of power, nor by aspects of political

  5. The post-2015 development agenda for diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges and future directions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renzaho, Andre M N

    2015-01-01

    Diabetes is one of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which is rising significantly across sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and posing a threat to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of the SSA population. The inclusion of NCDs into the post-2015 development agenda along with the global monitoring framework provides an opportunity to monitor progress of development programmes in developing countries. This paper examines challenges associated with dealing with diabetes within the development agenda in SSA and explores some policy options. This conceptual review draws from a range of works published in Medline and the grey literature to advance the understanding of the post-2015 development agenda and how it relates to NCDs. The paper begins with the burden of diabetes in sub-Sahara Africa and then moves on to examine challenges associated with diabetes prevention, treatment, and management in Africa. It finishes by exploring policy implications. With regards to development programmes on NCDs in the SSA sub-continent, several challenges exist: 1) poor documentation of risk factors, 2) demographic transitions (rapid urbanisation and ageing), 3) the complementary role of traditional healers, 4) tuberculosis and the treatment of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as risk factors for diabetes, 5) diabetes in complex emergencies, 6) diabetes as an international development priority and not a policy agenda for many SSA countries, and 7) poorly regulated food and beverage industry. For the post-2015 development agenda for NCDs to have an impact, sufficient investments will be needed to address legislative, technical, human, and fiscal resource constraints through advocacy, accountability, political leadership, and effective public-private partnership. Striking the right balance between competing demands and priorities, policies, and implementation strategies hold the key to an effective response to diabetes in SSA countries.

  6. The post-2015 development agenda for diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges and future directions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andre M. N. Renzaho

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Background: Diabetes is one of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs which is rising significantly across sub-Saharan African (SSA countries and posing a threat to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of the SSA population. The inclusion of NCDs into the post-2015 development agenda along with the global monitoring framework provides an opportunity to monitor progress of development programmes in developing countries. This paper examines challenges associated with dealing with diabetes within the development agenda in SSA and explores some policy options. Design: This conceptual review draws from a range of works published in Medline and the grey literature to advance the understanding of the post-2015 development agenda and how it relates to NCDs. The paper begins with the burden of diabetes in sub-Sahara Africa and then moves on to examine challenges associated with diabetes prevention, treatment, and management in Africa. It finishes by exploring policy implications. Results: With regards to development programmes on NCDs in the SSA sub-continent, several challenges exist: 1 poor documentation of risk factors, 2 demographic transitions (rapid urbanisation and ageing, 3 the complementary role of traditional healers, 4 tuberculosis and the treatment of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as risk factors for diabetes, 5 diabetes in complex emergencies, 6 diabetes as an international development priority and not a policy agenda for many SSA countries, and 7 poorly regulated food and beverage industry. Conclusion: For the post-2015 development agenda for NCDs to have an impact, sufficient investments will be needed to address legislative, technical, human, and fiscal resource constraints through advocacy, accountability, political leadership, and effective public–private partnership. Striking the right balance between competing demands and priorities, policies, and implementation strategies hold the key to an effective response to diabetes

  7. Aspirations and Actions: Early Childhood from Policy to Practice in Scotland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunlop, Aline-Wendy

    2015-01-01

    This paper explores early childhood experience in Scotland in terms of how readily the aspirations of policy convert to day-to-day practices. Ambitions to improve the lives of children and families have been high on the political agenda. Policy may be understood as a tool that aims to influence childhood experience in positive ways. If this is to…

  8. Agenda setting and framing of gender-based violence in Nepal: how it became a health issue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colombini, Manuela; Mayhew, Susannah H; Hawkins, Ben; Bista, Meera; Joshi, Sunil Kumar; Schei, Berit; Watts, Charlotte

    2016-05-01

    Gender-based violence (GBV) has been addressed as a policy issue in Nepal since the mid 1990s, yet it was only in 2010 that Nepal developed a legal and policy framework to combat GBV. This article draws on the concepts of agenda setting and framing to analyse the historical processes by which GBV became legitimized as a health policy issue in Nepal and explored factors that facilitated and constrained the opening and closing of windows of opportunity. The results presented are based on a document analysis of the policy and regulatory framework around GBV in Nepal. A content analysis was undertaken. Agenda setting for GBV policies in Nepal evolved over many years and was characterized by the interplay of political context factors, actors and multiple frames. The way the issue was depicted at different times and by different actors played a key role in the delay in bringing health onto the policy agenda. Women's groups and less powerful Ministries developed gender equity and development frames, but it was only when the more powerful human rights frame was promoted by the country's new Constitution and the Office of the Prime Minister that legislation on GBV was achieved and a domestic violence bill was adopted, followed by a National Plan of Action. This eventually enabled the health frame to converge around the development of implementation policies that incorporated health service responses. Our explicit incorporation of framing within the Kindgon model has illustrated how important it is for understanding the emergence of policy issues, and the subsequent debates about their resolution. The framing of a policy problem by certain policy actors, affects the development of each of the three policy streams, and may facilitate or constrain their convergence. The concept of framing therefore lends an additional depth of understanding to the Kindgon agenda setting model. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions

  9. The politics of harm reduction in federal prisons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Tara Marie

    2014-09-01

    We need to understand better the political barriers to prison-based harm reduction programs. In this paper, I examine the situation in the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), a federal prison agency with a zero-tolerance drug policy and general opposition to prison needle and syringe programs (PNSPs) and safer tattooing initiatives. This study draws on 16 interviews with former CSC senior officials, former frontline staff, and external stakeholders; CSC policy and practice documents; and testimony from a House of Commons Standing Committee public study. Thematic coding and comparison of texts were used to examine emergent themes of interest. Four interrelated issues were central for understanding the political barriers: a narrower definition of harm reduction used in corrections, both in principle and practice; the Conservative government's tough-on-crime agenda; strong union opposition; and stakeholder perceptions that political constraints will likely persist, including the view that litigation may offer the only way to introduce PNSPs. The system is at an impasse and key questions remain about the importability of harm reduction services into federal prisons. Despite a highly challenging policy environment, moving forward will demand asking new, critical questions and devising more strategic ways of entering the political-operational dialogue that opposes evidence-based programs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Beyond leadership: political strategies for coordination in health policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greer, Scott L; Lillvis, Denise F

    2014-05-01

    Health in All Policies (HiAP) promises to improve population health by harnessing the energies and activities of various sectors. Nevertheless, it faces well-documented bureaucratic obstacles and appears to require intersectoral governance if it is to be established. The basic problems of establishing intersectoral governance for HiAP are known to public administration and political science. On reading that literature, we find that the difficulty of establishing intersectoral governance for HiAP breaks down into two kinds of problems: that of establishing coordinated actions at all (coordination); and ensuring that they endure in changed political circumstances (durability). We further find that policymakers' solutions fall into three categories: visible ones of political will (e.g., plans and targets); bureaucratic changes such as the introduction of Health Impact Assessment or reorganization; and indirect methods such as data publication and support from outside groups to put pressure on the government. It can seem that Health in All Policies, like much of public health, depends on effective and committed policymakers but is vulnerable to changing political winds. The three kinds of strategies suggest how policymakers can, and do, create intersectoral governance that functions and persists, expanding the range of effective policy recommendations. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  11. [The crowdsourcing and cyberactivism agenda in São Paulo city].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segurado, Rosemary

    2015-12-01

    This article presents the results of a study that analyzed 144 Facebook profiles to identify how digital media are used in setting the agendas for discussions and in organizing and mobilizing people about social, political and cultural topics like ethnic, racial, gender, and citizens' rights issues in São Paulo city. This platform was chosen because of its growing appropriation for political actions. The study found that the incorporation of digital tools in political action is bringing about a number of changes in the discussion of social, political, and cultural topics, and redefining the ways that agendas and deliberations are organized, fostering innovative forms of participation by social actors.

  12. Political economy constraints on carbon pricing policies: What are the implications for economic efficiency, environmental efficacy, and climate policy design?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenkins, Jesse D.

    2014-01-01

    Economists traditionally view a Pigouvian fee on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, either via carbon taxes or emissions caps and permit trading (“cap-and-trade”), as the economically optimal or “first-best” policy to address climate change-related externalities. Yet several political economy factors can severely constrain the implementation of these carbon pricing policies, including opposition of industrial sectors with a concentration of assets that would lose considerable value under such policies; the collective action nature of climate mitigation efforts; principal agent failures; and a low willingness-to-pay for climate mitigation by citizens. Real-world implementations of carbon pricing policies can thus fall short of the economically optimal outcomes envisioned in theory. Consistent with the general theory of the second-best, the presence of binding political economy constraints opens a significant “opportunity space” for the design of creative climate policy instruments with superior political feasibility, economic efficiency, and environmental efficacy relative to the constrained implementation of carbon pricing policies. This paper presents theoretical political economy frameworks relevant to climate policy design and provides corroborating evidence from the United States context. It concludes with a series of implications for climate policy making and argues for the creative pursuit of a mix of second-best policy instruments. - Highlights: • Political economy constraints can bind carbon pricing policies. • These constraints can prevent implementation of theoretically optimal carbon prices. • U.S. household willingness-to-pay for climate policy likely falls in the range of $80–$200 per year. • U.S. carbon prices may be politically constrained to as low as $2–$8 per ton of CO 2 . • An opportunity space exists for improvements in climate policy design and outcomes

  13. The state of aging policy and politics in the trump era.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Edward Alan; Nadash, Pamela; Gusmano, Michael K; Simpson, Elizabeth; Ronneberg, Corina R

    2018-05-25

    The surprise election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States marks a singular turning point in the American republic - not only because of his idiosyncratic approach to the office, but also because the Republican Party now holds the Presidency and both houses of Congress, presenting an historic opportunity for change. The role of older Americans has been critical in both shaping and reacting to this political moment. Their political orientations and behaviors have shaped it through their electoral support for Republican candidates, but they also stand as highly invested stakeholders in the policy decisions made by the very officials they elected, and as beneficiaries of the programs that Republicans have targeted. This article draws on the content of this issue to explore the ways in which Trump administration policies are likely to significantly undermine the social safety net for near-elderly and older Americans, including with respect to long-term care, housing, healthcare, and retirement. It also draws on issue content to speculate on the ways that these policy changes might shape politics and political behavior. It concludes that the response of older voters in the 2018 mid-term elections to efforts by the Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress to draw back on the federal government's commitment to programs and policies affecting them will shape the direction of aging policy and politics in the years to come.

  14. Health policy--why research it and how: health political science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Leeuw, Evelyne; Clavier, Carole; Breton, Eric

    2014-09-23

    The establishment of policy is key to the implementation of actions for health. We review the nature of policy and the definition and directions of health policy. In doing so, we explicitly cast a health political science gaze on setting parameters for researching policy change for health. A brief overview of core theories of the policy process for health promotion is presented, and illustrated with empirical evidence. The key arguments are that (a) policy is not an intervention, but drives intervention development and implementation; (b) understanding policy processes and their pertinent theories is pivotal for the potential to influence policy change; (c) those theories and associated empirical work need to recognise the wicked, multi-level, and incremental nature of elements in the process; and, therefore, (d) the public health, health promotion, and education research toolbox should more explicitly embrace health political science insights. The rigorous application of insights from and theories of the policy process will enhance our understanding of not just how, but also why health policy is structured and implemented the way it is.

  15. National Innovation Policy and Public Science in Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Lyn

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, I have positioned myself with Kean Birch and explored some of the political-economic actors/actants of policy suites implicated in the biotechnologies and bioeconomy. In particular, I have considered Australia's recent National Innovation and Science Agenda and allied documents and entities (that is, Innovation and Science…

  16. POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY – NEW CHALLENGES IN ANALYZING FOREIGN POLICY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karin MEGHEȘAN

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The art of governance, the relationship between the governed and the governing, the impact of a social and political system on coherent foreign policy-building is significantly influenced by the distribution of power and the type of decisional unit existent within the state. New subjects of study, such as political psychology, have proved their utility both in theoretical and practical study of international relations. Being a frontier subject, political psychology tries to offer answers to a number of questions regarding different issues among which the way character features influence the decision maker’s behavior, the role of the operational code in foreign policy and the utility of psychological profiles in the international relationships and in intelligence. Leading from the types of power distribution and decisional units existent in the professional literature, the present paper narrows the narrative and focuses on examining the importance of the individual level of analysis in explaining foreign policy decisions, analyzing the decision of the Russian Federation to veto the intervention of the international community in the Syrian civil conflict.

  17. Political rhetoric from Canada can inform healthy public policy argumentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, Patrick B; McIntyre, Lynn; Anderson, Laura C; Mah, Catherine L

    2017-10-01

    Household food insecurity (HFI), insufficient income to obtain adequate food, is a growing problem in Canada and other Organisation of economic cooperation and development (OECD) countries. Government political orientations impact health policies and outcomes. We critically examined Canadian political rhetoric around HFI from 1995 to 2012 as a means to support effective healthy public policy argumentation. We analysed a data set comprised of Hansard extracts on HFI from the legislative debates of the Canadian federal and three provincial governments, using thematic coding guided by interpretivist theories of policy. Extracts were examined for content, jurisdiction, the political affiliation of the legislator speaking and governing status. Members of non-governing, or 'opposition' parties, dominated the rhetoric. A central hunger-as-poverty theme was used by legislators across the political spectrum, both in government and in opposition. Legislators differed in terms of policy approach around how income should flow to citizens facing HFI: income intervention on the left, pragmatism in the centre, reliance on markets on the right. This analysis is a case-example from Canada and caution must be exercised in terms of the generalizability of findings across jurisdictions. Despite this limitation, our findings can help healthy public policy advocates in designing and communicating HFI policy interventions in OECD countries with a similar left-right spectrum. First, even with a divisive health policy issue such as actions to address HFI, core themes around poverty are widely understood. Secondly, the non-polarizing centrist, pragmatist, approach may be strategically valuable. Thirdly, it is important to treat the rhetoric of opposition members differently from that of government members. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  18. Energy Poverty and Policy Coherence in India

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jaeger, Mark Daniel; Michaelowa, Katharina

    2016-01-01

    Energy poverty is frequently mobilized as a normative argument in international negotiations. Typically, the concrete linkages between political propositions at international level and domestic policies remain ill-defined, and thus invite different stakeholders to make use of terms like “energy...... poverty” for their own purposes. In other words, “energy poverty” remains a contested concept that lends itself to social norm construction. Whether, under these conditions, national policies and their implementation then truly serve the interest of the poor is an open question. Indeed, critics at both...... the international and the national level suggest that political actors in India might hijack salient normative positions on energy poverty in order to advance their own agenda. To assess whether domestic politics are consistent with the pro-poor normative discourse at the international level, we examine (i...

  19. Graduate course development : transportation policy and politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-08-01

    Transportation, public policy, and politics are inextricably linked and have been, in the United States, from : at least 1956, with the birth of the federal highway system and the Interstate Highway Act, if not earlier. : Much of the transportation s...

  20. Abortion politics: public policy in cross-cultural perspective

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Stetson, Dorothy M; Githens, Marianne

    1996-01-01

    " ... focuses on current abortion policy and practice in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan and aims to provide a comprehensive, stimulating, and balanced picture of current abortion politics...

  1. Atomic-powered democracy: Policy against politics in the quest for American nuclear energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, R.W.

    1993-01-01

    This dissertation focuses on the relationship of American nuclear energy to democracy. It examines whether the nuclear policy processes have furthered the legitimacy-government accountability and citizen participation-which the democratic institutes are based. Nuclear policy and its institutions have placed severe limitations on democratic practices. Contravened democracy is seen most clearly in the decoupling of policy from politics. Decoupling refers to the weakening of institutional linkages between citizens and government, and to the erosion of the norms that ground liberal democracy. Decoupling is manifested in policy centralization, procedural biases, technical rationality, and the spatial displacement of conflict. Decoupling has normative implications: While federal accountability was limited and citizen participation was shackled, other major groups enjoyed privileged access to policy making. The decoupling of nuclear policy from politics arose within the context of US liberal-democratic capitalism. The federal government pursued its own goals of defense and world leadership. Yet, it was not structurally autonomous from the hegemony of the political-economic context. Economically, the Atomic Energy Act did not permit federal agencies to directly invest in power plant construction, and did not authorize them to commercially generate electricity. Private industry was structurally placed to domesticate the atom. Politically, the liberal-democratic system hampered an unquestioning pursuit of atomic energy. Federal institutions have been forced to heed some of the anti-nuclear concerns. The pervasive influence of the US political economy on nuclear policy has come to transgress democracy. Nuclear power's growth faltered during the 1970s. The political and economic constraints on federal actions have limited the means available to revive a becalmed nuclear industry; this has exerted strong pressure on federal institutions to decouple policy from participation

  2. Languages and Politics: A Political Football or a Tool for Empowerment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broady, Elspeth

    2006-01-01

    In this review, the author explores various perspectives on language issues in political contexts, not least because languages have been prominent recently on the political agenda both in the UK and the US. She reviews articles that highlight different ways in which political pressures and contexts influence language teaching, learning and use.…

  3. Alcohol industry influence on UK alcohol policy: A new research agenda for public health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Benjamin; Holden, Chris; McCambridge, Jim

    2012-09-01

    The British government has been criticised for according industry interests too much weight in alcohol policy-making. Consequently, it has been argued that alcohol strategy in the UK is built around policies for which the evidence base is weak. This has clear implications for public health. The purpose of this commentary is to map recent developments in UK alcohol policy and related debates within the alcohol policy literature, thus laying the foundations for a systematic examination of the influence of the alcohol industry on alcohol policy. It highlights the changing structure of the industry and summarises what is known about the positions and strategies of industry actors towards alcohol policy. In so doing, it aims to contribute not just to debates about alcohol policy, but to a broader understanding of health policy processes and the relationships between government and other stakeholders. It advances a new research agenda focused on the role of corporate actors in the field of alcohol policy and public health more broadly.

  4. An Analysis of Donald Trump's Political Personality Traits and Policy Orientations

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Yin Jiwu; Zheng Jianjun; Li Hongzhou

    2017-01-01

    As a political leader,US President Trump's personality traits affect his policy orientations and current US foreign policy.The authors analyze Trump's personality in several categories-uninhibited and capricious,dynamic and capable,profit-orientated and self-centered,competitive and persistent,positive and extraverted.The traits of breaking traditions,skill at strategic deception and negotiation,action-motivated implementation,intuitive decision-making,pursuit of respect and interest exchange,and vengefulness will shape his policy and behavioral orientations.Initial study shows Trump to be a political leader with positive personality traits and double-sided dimensions.The analysis offers insight toward understanding the new US executive and his policy direction.

  5. Transgender inclusion in state non-discrimination policies: The democratic deficit and political powerlessness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew R Flores

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Transgender people—people whose gender identity or expression is different from their assigned sex at birth—and their allies advocate for the inclusion of gender identity or transgender in state non-discrimination policies. These policies generally proscribe discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Courts and administrative agencies have determined discrimination against transgender people is a violation of existing statutes, but there remain efforts by advocates to seek policies that explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of transgender status, which are often the result of legislation going through the political process. A pluralist understanding of the political process theorizes that a majority coalition of minorities can offer social groups policies they support. This rests on the presumption that a majority coalition of minorities should rule. Any indication to the contrary may suggest a democratic deficit, whereby more than a majority is necessary for policy introduction. We find that there is a substantial democratic deficit regarding the inclusion of gender identity or transgender in employment non-discrimination policies. On average, state support for the policy must be 81% in order for the state to have a policy reflecting such sentiment. This leaves substantial implications for the political powerlessness of transgender people in the political process.

  6. The Naivasha Language Policy: The Language of Politics and the Politics of Language in the Sudan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdelhay, Ashraf Kamal; Makoni, Busi; Makoni, Sinfree Bullock

    2011-01-01

    This article provides a textual analysis of the Naivasha language provisions in Sudan in an attempt to explore how political discourse is manifested in each policy statement. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an analytic and interpretive framework, the article argues that the Naivasha language provisions as political discourse are shaped…

  7. The tension between research of policy and research for policy in an era of transnational education policy-making

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Desjardins, Richard; Rubenson, Kjell

    2009-01-01

    of implications for education policy-making processes and not least it has had an impact on who conducts policy studies and how. This book brings together a variety of contributions which explore recent political economic changes affecting education policy-making processes including the ascension of neo-liberalism......As national governments reform their educational systems to meet the challenges of living in a globalised world, the agenda setting power of transnational organizations like the OECD and the EU have become more transparent in the last decade. The phenomenon of globalization has a number...... and the transnationalization of education policy-making, as well as the tension between research of policy and research for policy. Working from different perspectives, the authors help to provide a better understanding of these two important sets of issues which the field of education must contend with today....

  8. Sector-based political analysis of energy transition: Green shift in the forest policy regime in France

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sergent, Arnaud

    2014-01-01

    This article examines energy transition political process from a sector-based approach, through the analysis of recent shift in the French forest policy regime. We demonstrate that, since 2007, energy transition policies have led to a harvesting turn within the French forest policy framework, meaning that priority is given to wood mobilisation, mainly for biomass uses. In addition, our findings suggest that the political authority wielded by the state over forest policy has shifted from forest administrative services to energy agencies and local authorities. Finally, we show that, although implementation of the harvesting turn is a cause of sectoral and inter-sectoral tensions, energy transition challenge also contributes to a process of (re)institutionalisation of mediation relationships among forestry stakeholders and wood-based industries representatives. The article concludes by arguing that sectors should retain relevant institutional frameworks for actors when choosing political arrangements required for implementing energy transition policy. - Highlights: • Implementing energy transition policy potentially challenges sector-based politics. • We propose a policy regime framework and socio-political investigations. • We analyse the political impact of energy transition policy on French forest sector. • Shifts occur in sectoral policy framework, authority, and mediation relationships

  9. Young Offending: Towards a Radical/Critical Social Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogowski, Steve

    2010-01-01

    Young offending is perceived as a serious social problem and always remains near the top of the political agenda. Over the post-war years, policy and practice moved from welfare/treatment towards punishment as the key for addressing the problem, culminating in New Labour's Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Thereafter there was increasing concern about…

  10. NGOs, Trust, and the Accountability Agenda

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Keating, Vincent Charles; Thrandardottir, Erla

    2017-01-01

    NGOs are undergoing an alleged crisis of trustworthiness. The past decades have seen an increase in both academic and practitioner skepticism, particularly given the transformations many NGOs have undergone in size, professionalism, and political importance. The accountability agenda, which...... on theoretical innovations in trust research to put forward three arguments. First, the proponents of the accountability agenda are implicitly working with a rational model of trust. Second, this model does not reflect important social characteristics of trust between donors and NGOs. Third, this mismatch means...... that the accountability agenda might do more to harm trust in NGOs than to help it....

  11. Book Review: "The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics"

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Honest Broker is a must-read for any scientist with even a modest interest in environmental policy or politics, and I recommend it especially to scientists unfamiliar with the continuing controversy over how scientists misuse science in environmental policy and politics. The ...

  12. Mobilizing women at the grassroots to shape health policy: a case study of the Global Campaign for Microbicides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forbes, Anna

    2013-11-01

    Competition to advance issues on public policy agendas is constant. Political scientists agree that professional "policy entrepreneurs" (researchers, academics, and bureaucrats) serve as conduits in this process. Grassroots advocacy has always been part of the political landscape as non-professional people also take on the role of policy advocates or activists, to get specific problems and preferred solutions onto public and policy agendas and motivate policymakers to take action. The contribution of grassroots advocacy to significant policy changes is often under-funded because its impacts are hard to isolate and quantify, and are often most evident in retrospect. This paper examines the contribution of the Global Campaign for Microbicides to the movement to expand the range of HIV prevention options for women and describes how it mobilized hundreds of grassroots policy activists around the world to take coordinated action on this issue. It reviews the Campaign's accomplishments and highlights some of its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the paper considers the value of similar efforts on the part of grassroots advocates seeking to influence the post-ICPD and post-2015 development agendas as they are being negotiated. Decisions regarding what kind of advocacy work is carried out during this process, and by whom and how, will inevitably shape the content of these new frameworks. Copyright © 2013 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. The Bush administration, sex and the moral agenda

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ashbee, Edward

    1. The rise of the moral agenda and American public opinion; 2. The politics of 'W-ism'; 3. Gay rights, same-sex marriage and AIDS; 4. 'Pet your dog...': sex education and contraception; 5. Obscenity and indecency; 6. Building 'healthy' marriages; 7. Abortion and the 'culture of life'; 8. Conclus......1. The rise of the moral agenda and American public opinion; 2. The politics of 'W-ism'; 3. Gay rights, same-sex marriage and AIDS; 4. 'Pet your dog...': sex education and contraception; 5. Obscenity and indecency; 6. Building 'healthy' marriages; 7. Abortion and the 'culture of life'; 8...

  14. (Miscommunication across the Borders: Politics, Media and Public Opinion in Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Banu Baybars-Hawks

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley defined public opinion "as a process of interaction and mutual influence rather than a state of broad agreement" in 1918. On the other hand, according to the American political scientist V.O. Key, public opinion was "opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed," in 1961. During the 1990s, advances in statistical and demographic analysis helped the development of an understanding of public opinion as the collective view of a defined population, such as a particular demographic or ethnic group. In this view, the influence of public opinion is not restricted to politics and elections. Public opinion is considered a powerful force in many other spheres, such as culture, fashion, literature and the arts, consumer spending, and marketing and public relations.1 Attitudes and values play a crucial role in the development of public opinion. Different variables embedded in the political, social and media structure of the country also have potential to make an impact on public opinion. These dynamics vary from the economics to the judicial system and democratic principles functioning in that country. On the other hand, public opinion has a power to shape politics and media's priorities in reporting. The interaction among politics, public opinion and media of one country can be better analyzed with the findings of public opinion research administered regularly. In Turkey, the research on and analysis of public opinion are most frequent during the election times. Therefore, it seems necessary to measure the public opinion more regularly to test the relationships among political, public and media agendas. Accordingly, the current study seeks to fill this gap. It is argued that in the absence of timely feedback from public surveys, decisions and policies for improving different services and institutions functioning in the country might not achieve their expected goal. The findings of

  15. Evidence based practice in traditional & complementary medicine: An agenda for policy, practice, education and research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leach, Matthew J; Canaway, Rachel; Hunter, Jennifer

    2018-05-01

    To develop a policy, practice, education and research agenda for evidence-based practice (EBP) in traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM). The study was a secondary analysis of qualitative data, using the method of roundtable discussion. The sample comprised seventeen experts in EBP and T&CM. The discussion was audio-recorded, and the transcript analysed using thematic analysis. Four central themes emerged from the data; understanding evidence and EBP, drivers of change, interpersonal interaction, and moving forward. Captured within these themes were fifteen sub-themes. These themes/sub-themes translated into three broad calls to action: (1) defining terminology, (2) defining the EBP approach, and (3) fostering social movement. These calls to action formed the framework of the agenda. This analysis presents a potential framework for an agenda to improve EBP implementation in T&CM. The fundamental elements of this action plan seek clarification, leadership and unification on the issue of EBP in T&CM. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Democracy on the edge: limits and possibilities in the implementation of an urban reform agenda in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rolnik, Raquel

    2011-01-01

    The 1990s in Brazil were a time of institutional advances in the areas of housing and urban rights following the signing of the new constitution in 1988 that incorporated the principles of the social function of cities and property, recognition of the right to ownership of informal urban squatters and the direct participation of citizens in urban policy decision processes. These propositions are the pillars of the urban reform agenda which, since the creation of the Ministry of Cities by the Lula government, has come under the federal executive branch. This article evaluates the limitations and opportunities involved in implementing this agenda on the basis of two policies proposed by the ministry — the National Cities Council and the campaign for Participatory Master Plans — focusing the analysis on government organization in the area of urban development in its relationship with the political system and the characteristics of Brazilian democracy.

  17. U.S. Theater Nuclear Policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thompson, J.A.

    1994-01-01

    In the brief period between May 1978 and December 12, 1979, U.S. policy, and the policy of the NATO Alliance, toward theater nuclear forces (TNF) changed dramatically. The consequences of this change now dominate the political agenda in East-West (and West-West) relations. The ultimate outcome of the now renamed intermediate-range nuclear force (INF) debate will have far-reaching consequences for the future of the Atlantic Alliance. How did this issue emerge? Why did the US change its policy? How did it work with its Alliance to change NATO policy? These questions, among others, are now figuring in the debate. The answers to these questions are discussed in detail

  18. Fulfillment of the Brazilian Agenda of Priorities in Health Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    This commentary describes how the Brazilian Ministry of Health's (MoH) research support policy fulfilled the National Agenda of Priorities in Health Research (NAPHR). In 2003, the MoH started a democratic process in order to establish a priority agenda in health research involving investigators, health managers and community leaders. The Agenda was launched in 2004 and is guiding budget allocations in an attempt to reduce the gap between scientific knowledge and health practice and activities, aiming to contribute to improving Brazilian quality of life. Many strategies were developed, for instance: Cooperation Agreements between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology; the decentralization of research support at state levels with the participation of local Health Secretariats and Science and Technology Institutions; Health Technology Assessment; innovation in neglected diseases; research networks and multicenter studies in adult, women's and children's health; cardiovascular risk in adolescents; clinical research and stem cell therapy. The budget allocated by the Ministry of Health and partners was expressive: US$419 million to support almost 3,600 projects. The three sub-agenda with the higher proportion of resources were "industrial health complex", "clinical research" and "communicable diseases", which are considered strategic for innovation and national development. The Southeast region conducted 40.5% of all projects and detained 59.7% of the resources, attributable to the concentration of the most traditional health research institutes and universities in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The second most granted region was the Northeast, which reflects the result of a governmental policy to integrate and modernize this densely populated area and the poorest region in the country. Although Brazil began the design and implementation of the NAPHR in 2003, it has done so in accordance with the 'good practice principles

  19. Fulfillment of the Brazilian Agenda of Priorities in Health Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guimarães Reinaldo

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract This commentary describes how the Brazilian Ministry of Health's (MoH research support policy fulfilled the National Agenda of Priorities in Health Research (NAPHR. In 2003, the MoH started a democratic process in order to establish a priority agenda in health research involving investigators, health managers and community leaders. The Agenda was launched in 2004 and is guiding budget allocations in an attempt to reduce the gap between scientific knowledge and health practice and activities, aiming to contribute to improving Brazilian quality of life. Many strategies were developed, for instance: Cooperation Agreements between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology; the decentralization of research support at state levels with the participation of local Health Secretariats and Science and Technology Institutions; Health Technology Assessment; innovation in neglected diseases; research networks and multicenter studies in adult, women's and children's health; cardiovascular risk in adolescents; clinical research and stem cell therapy. The budget allocated by the Ministry of Health and partners was expressive: US$419 million to support almost 3,600 projects. The three sub-agenda with the higher proportion of resources were "industrial health complex", "clinical research" and "communicable diseases", which are considered strategic for innovation and national development. The Southeast region conducted 40.5% of all projects and detained 59.7% of the resources, attributable to the concentration of the most traditional health research institutes and universities in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The second most granted region was the Northeast, which reflects the result of a governmental policy to integrate and modernize this densely populated area and the poorest region in the country. Although Brazil began the design and implementation of the NAPHR in 2003, it has done so in accordance with the 'good

  20. The Political Communication of Strategic Nuclear Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camden, Carl; Martin, Janet

    A study of the different perceptual frameworks of the major parties involved in strategic nuclear policy was conducted by examining the interaction between the Executive Branch, Congress, and the informed public. Public political communication data were gathered from public documents generated by Congress and the Executive branch, and by examining…

  1. Agenda 21; Agenda 21

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2002-03-01

    In the prospect of the Johannesburg international summit in August 2002, the regional council of Midi-Pyrenees region (S France) in partnership with the French ministry of national development and environment has organized a two-days meeting in order to identify and valorize the good practices for the implementation of a sustainable development policy. The basic reference document of this meeting is the 'Agenda 21' program of actions that all governments signatories to the commitments of the Rio summit will have to implement. This document is the complete version in French language of the Agenda 21. It comprises several points dealing with: the environment protection and the abatement of pollution, the management of energy resources with the development of renewable energies, the viable management of the transportation sector, the management of wastes and radioactive wastes, etc.. (J.S.)

  2. Agenda 21; Agenda 21

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2002-03-01

    In the prospect of the Johannesburg international summit in August 2002, the regional council of Midi-Pyrenees region (S France) in partnership with the French ministry of national development and environment has organized a two-days meeting in order to identify and valorize the good practices for the implementation of a sustainable development policy. The basic reference document of this meeting is the 'Agenda 21' program of actions that all governments signatories to the commitments of the Rio summit will have to implement. This document is the complete version in French language of the Agenda 21. It comprises several points dealing with: the environment protection and the abatement of pollution, the management of energy resources with the development of renewable energies, the viable management of the transportation sector, the management of wastes and radioactive wastes, etc.. (J.S.)

  3. Dutch women are liberated, migrant women are a problem: the evolution of policy frames on gender and migration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roggeband, C.M.; Verloo, M.

    2007-01-01

    Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in Dutch gender equality policy to an almost exclusive focus on migrant women. Simultaneously, the focus of 'minority policies' has shifted more and more towards gender relations. The appearance of migrant women at the top of the political agenda is

  4. Political economy models and agricultural policy formation : empirical applicability and relevance for the CAP

    OpenAIRE

    Zee, van der, F.A.

    1997-01-01

    This study explores the relevance and applicability of political economy models for the explanation of agricultural policies. Part I (chapters 4-7) takes a general perspective and evaluates the empirical applicability of voting models and interest group models to agricultural policy formation in industrialised market economics. Part II (chapters 8-11) focuses on the empirical applicability of political economy models to agricultural policy formation and agricultural policy developmen...

  5. A review of Brazilian scientific output on crack - contributions to the political agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Rasga Moreira

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Object: scientific literature about crack abuse published in Brazilian journals indexed in SCIELO.Objective: systematic review of literature treating findings as a framework for agenda-setting orienting policy decision makers.Methodology: SCIELO online journals research since 02/06/2013 on tag crack as "key word searched" and in indexes as "research amplitude". An amount of 199 references were identified and their abstracts were analyzed getting to a final group of 59 articles specifically studying crack issues in Brazil. Analysis: institutional criteria (journal, subject area, and publishing time and analytical categories created by the authors: "Social Risk", "Treatment", "Use/Abuse", "Profile", "Social Relations", and "Study".Results: crack use impact Brazilian journals since 2011; health field is prominent; articles about "Associated Risk" and "Treatment" prevail; SUS cannot face demand;investment improvement in CAP and harm reduction; therapeutic communities need to match with SUS standards; youngers, black people and poor express users profile; rave style use; repressive policies were not well succeeded; and multidisciplinary approach are necessary.

  6. A review of Brazilian scientific output on crack--contributions to the political agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreira, Marcelo Rasga; Fernandes, Fernando Manuel Bessa; Ribeiro, José Mendes; Franco Neto, Thereza de Lamare

    2015-04-01

    scientific literature about crack abuse published in Brazilian journals indexed in SCIELO. systematic review of literature treating findings as a framework for agenda-setting orienting policy decision makers. SCIELO online journals research since 02/06/2013 on tag crack as "key word searched" and in indexes as "research amplitude". An amount of 199 references were identified and their abstracts were analyzed getting to a final group of 59 articles specifically studying crack issues in Brazil. institutional criteria (journal, subject area, and publishing time) and analytical categories created by the authors: "Social Risk", "Treatment", "Use/Abuse", "Profile", "Social Relations", and "Study". crack use impact Brazilian journals since 2011; health field is prominent; articles about "Associated Risk" and "Treatment" prevail; SUS cannot face demand;investment improvement in CAP and harm reduction; therapeutic communities need to match with SUS standards; youngers, black people and poor express users profile; rave style use; repressive policies were not well succeeded; and multidisciplinary approach are necessary.

  7. Networked Intermedia Agenda Setting: The Geography of a Hyperlinked Scandinavian News Ecology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sjøvaag, Helle; Stavelin, Eirik; Karlsson, Michael

    How does agenda setting work within the hyperlinked Scandinavian news ecology? This paper investigates intermedia agenda setting within and between the local, regional, national and supra-national levels in Sweden, Denmark and Norway; analyses the center/periphery dimensions of hyperlink connecti......, social geography and hyperlinked news agendas in Scandinavia, adding to the research on the political implications of the Internet on national public spheres....... March 2016, amounting to approximately 2 million hyperlinks, each geotagged with publication origin. The visualisation of the hyperlink structure is one of the main results of the analysis, illuminating a) the relative disconnect between local and national hyperlinked agendas, b) the relative disconnect...... between news agendas in the three countries, and c) the connectedness enabled by size, resources and central location in the Scandinavian hyperlinked information structure. The network analysis provides new insights into the relationship between centralized political structures, media ownership dispersal...

  8. The political economy of trade liberalization and environmental policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fredriksson, P.G.

    1999-01-01

    A pressure group model where environmental and industry lobby groups offer political support in return for favorable pollution tax policies is used to explain and predict the equilibrium pollution tax in sectors protected by tariffs. The political economy effects of trade liberalization are investigated. The pollution tax is shown to decrease if the lobbying effort by the environmental lobby decreases more rapidly than by the industry lobby Ceteris paribus. The level of political conflict falls with trade liberalization. Pollution may increase because of a reduction of the pollution tax, and tax revenues may fall simultaneously as pollution increases

  9. Political Strategies and Language Policies: The European Union Lisbon Strategy and Its Implications for the EU's Language and Multilingualism Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krzyzanowski, Michal; Wodak, Ruth

    2011-01-01

    This paper explores the interplay between the politics and policies of multilingualism by looking at the role of political macro-strategies in shaping language and multilingualism policies within the European Union. The paper focuses on the relationship between the European Union's 2000-2010 Lisbon Strategy on the European Knowledge-Based Economy…

  10. Myanmar: Political Reforms and the Recalibration of External Relations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Bünte

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This opening chapter provides some background to the domestic reform agenda, along with its drivers and motivations. From 1988 to 2011, the military built up institutions that guaranteed the military’s dominant position in the political arena. The second phase, since 2011, has seen a guided relaxation of the military’s coercive controls and the liberalisation of political spaces for the opposition and civil society. In order to contextualise Myanmar’s external relations, this article will first describe the military’s strategy and then outline the key changes that have been implemented in the country’s foreign policy.

  11. The social and political lives of zoonotic disease models: narratives, science and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leach, Melissa; Scoones, Ian

    2013-07-01

    Zoonotic diseases currently pose both major health threats and complex scientific and policy challenges, to which modelling is increasingly called to respond. In this article we argue that the challenges are best met by combining multiple models and modelling approaches that elucidate the various epidemiological, ecological and social processes at work. These models should not be understood as neutral science informing policy in a linear manner, but as having social and political lives: social, cultural and political norms and values that shape their development and which they carry and project. We develop and illustrate this argument in relation to the cases of H5N1 avian influenza and Ebola, exploring for each the range of modelling approaches deployed and the ways they have been co-constructed with a particular politics of policy. Addressing the complex, uncertain dynamics of zoonotic disease requires such social and political lives to be made explicit in approaches that aim at triangulation rather than integration, and plural and conditional rather than singular forms of policy advice. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Crisis, neoliberal health policy, and political processes in Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laurell, A C

    1991-01-01

    The Mexican case represents an orthodox neoliberal health policy in the context of the structural adjustment adopted by the Mexican government in 1983. The social costs of this strategy are very high, including an increase in unemployment, wage depression, regressive redistribution of wealth, and profound changes in social policies. These transformations are reflected in the health sector, where the four main axes of neoliberal policy--expenditure restrictions, targeting, decentralization, and privatization--have been implemented. This represents a change in social policy from a model based on citizens' social rights and the state's obligation to guarantee them, to a model characterized by selective public charity. This strategy has been imposed on society as a result of the Mexican corporative political regime based on a state party system. Since 1985, however, there has been a growing process of independent organization of civil society. This led in the presidential elections of 1988 to the defeat of the candidate of the governing party by the candidate of a popular-democratic opposition front. Although the government party imposed its candidate through electoral fraud, social mobilization against neoliberal policies continues in the midst of an important political crisis that can only be resolved by profound democratization of Mexican society.

  13. Policy Responsiveness and Political Accountability in City Politics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anthony M. Sayers

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Peculiar patterns have emerged in municipal politics in Canada. Unlike at federal and provincial levels of government, party politics is weak or absent in cities. But looking at the entire history of municipal elections of three Western Canadian cities — Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver — also finds that, again unlike politicians at higher levels, municipal representatives are increasingly more likely to win repeated re-elections, facing a much lower threat from any competitive challenge. In addition, the careers of municipal politicians are growing steadily longer, leading to relatively stable, almost static, city governments that tend to see change most commonly when councillors choose to step down, rather than being forced out. Such patterns, of course, run counter to the general presumption in lively democracies, including this one, that the responsiveness of government leaders (that is, following the wishes of their constituents and their accountability for the actions they take are best served by frequent turnovers in government: The need to throw politicians out every now and again to let new ones try and do things better. Whether the remarkable levels of stability and incumbency on city councils actually do serve the best interests of voters is unclear. More clear is that the lack of a party system at the city level seems to have contributed to this peculiar dynamic, and that city politicians have an interest in keeping it that way. While party affiliations provide a candidate some benefits in the form of campaign co-ordination, they also provide voters with increased clarity about what each candidate stands for policy-wise. That might be helpful to voters, but city politicians might find it more useful to blur their positions, leaving voters uncertain of exactly how to define a specific councillor’s stand, overall. The amount of information required to root through a councillor’s voting record, and the relatively light media

  14. Opportunity from Crisis: A Common Agenda for Higher Education and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacob, Merle; Hellström, Tomas

    2014-01-01

    This paper makes a plea for the construction of a common agenda for higher education and science, technology and innovation (STI) policy research. The public higher education and research sector in all countries is currently in the grip of several challenges arising from increased accountability, internationalization and in some cases dwindling…

  15. The Recalibration of Neoliberalisation: Repoliticising Higher Education Policy in Hong Kong

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, William Yat Wai

    2017-01-01

    This article analyses a recent policy change in higher education in Hong Kong to determine the significance of politics in the conceptual understanding of higher education governance. To achieve this objective, the article examines the tension between the global agenda, which is characterised by neoliberal ideology and practices, and local needs,…

  16. Australian Indigenous Higher Education: Politics, Policy and Representation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Katie; Wilks, Judith

    2015-01-01

    The growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in Australian higher education from 1959 to the present is notable statistically, but below population parity. Distinct patterns in government policy-making and programme development, inconsistent funding and political influences, together with Indigenous representation during the…

  17. The science and politics of targeting: who gets what, when, and how.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelletier, David L

    2005-04-01

    Targeting has been defined as a method by which goods, services, or other programmatic actions are delivered to groups or individuals who have specific characteristics. Similarly, politics refers to the social processes that determine who gets what, when, and how. This similarity suggests there may be utility in undertaking an explicit analysis of how the science and the politics of targeting relate to one another. Accordingly, this article outlines a technical/scientific framework regarding targeting and, using one element of this framework [sensitivity and specificity analysis], demonstrates that recent shifts in politics and policy in the United States can be more clearly understood when viewed from this angle. Then, the article outlines a basic framework on politics and uses it to demonstrate that one of the most fundamental features of our training, practices, and outlook (specialization) holds obvious benefits for advancing research but has three undesirable effects in the realm of policy: 1) it directly or indirectly encourages narrow, partial solutions to complex problems, some of which may have unintended effects on health or well-being for the very people we seek to help; 2) it creates a cumulative demand for research dollars, specialized interventions, and policy attention that far exceeds available resources and capabilities; and 3) it often prevents us from developing and advancing the common agendas and mutual support required to be effective in political and policy realms. The article concludes that more explicit analysis along these lines could strengthen our effectiveness in the policy realm.

  18. Politics and Policies of Promoting Multilingualism in the European Union

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romaine, Suzanne

    2013-01-01

    This article examines the politics of policies promoting multilingualism in the European Union (EU), specifically in light of the recently released European Union Civil Society Platform on Multilingualism. As the most far-reaching and ambitious policy document issued by the European Commission, the Platform warrants close scrutiny at a significant…

  19. Persuasive territories in European cultural politics:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thelle, Mikkel; Thylstrup, Nanna Bonde

    2011-01-01

    Purpose – This paper aims to view the concept of persuasive technology as a framework for discussing cultural politics on the internet. Taking digital collections as a point of departure, the cases of Europeana and Google Books are to be discussed as promoting different assemblies of information......, practice and identity politics. Through this discussion the study aims to show how the internet becomes territorialized through persuasive mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies different concepts on the cases, derived from different fields of social theory, such as “soft power......”, “assembly” and “folksonomy” in order to question the traditional view of persuasive technology as a concept instrumental to, for example, marketing agendas. Targeting the relation between policy and everyday practice, the paper aims to open a discussion of persuasive technology deeply embedded in digital...

  20. Regime change and public policy: the political and macro-economic decision-making of Spanish energy policy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lancaster, T.D.

    1983-01-01

    This dissertation examines the effects of peaceful regime change on public policy-making. Spain's National Energy Plan (PEN) in particular, and energy planning in general, constitute a critical policy issue which permits direct comparison of decision-making across regime change from the Franco dictatorship to the present constitutional monarchy. The research reveals that the nature of the political coalition underlying Spain's regime change accounts of the lack of significant change in policy-making processes in this particular policy issue. This thesis develops a two-pronged argument to explain the absence of significant policy change. The first is based on a general view of the Franco regime's and the democratic system's coalitional support. In each, three major political forces are seen as central: the military, business, and labor. One of these, business, is seen as being pivotal in the regime transition. Business' pivotal position, it is argued, has permitted a defence of a national energy policy beneficial to its economic interests in energy. The argument's second part focuses on the binding constraint on policy outcomes imposed by private interests in state planning and the generally non-binding nature of oppositional party policy proposals and public opinion.

  1. Immigration agenda in Domestic Politics in the Great Britain: Main Participants and Controversy in Conditions of Crisis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Людмила Константиновна Мамедова

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available British Labour government has been implementing a policy of multiculcuralism in Great Britain for the last ten years. New Labour multicultural policy is based on cultural diversity and could be built up in a society of social cohesion. But in the beginning of the XXI century the tolerant attitude towards members of the British ethnic minorities clashed with the religious consciousness strengthening among radical British Muslims. It was obvious that Labour government lacked effective instruments to deal with this group of people. Serious mistakes in immigration policy have made sufficient negative impact on Labour government popularity rates. Global financial recession have caused more troubles and made political perspectives of Mr. Brown government vaguer. Such situation in its turn leads to the increase of popularity of British Conservative party and even of far right party - British National party, which is famous for its racist statements. British observers star to talk that the political leadership faces the necessity to revise the multicultural policy.

  2. The complex agenda-setting power of protest: demonstrations, media, parliament, government, and legislation in Belgium, 1993-2000

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Walgrave, S.; Vliegenthart, R.

    2012-01-01

    We conducted pooled time-series analyses to assess how number and size of demonstrations affect the political agenda in Belgium (1993-2000). Taking twenty-five issues into account, this study finds that protest matters for the political agenda setting. This study also advances scholarly

  3. Oil and the political economy of energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matutinovic, Igor

    2009-01-01

    The key issues concerning oil exploitation are still open for discussion: there is no agreement about where we presently stand in the world oil extraction curve, what is its exact shape, and how far can oil price grow before it changes irreversibly the world economy and consumer behavior. The paper proposes an alternative scenario to the Hubbert's bell-shaped model of oil exploitation, based on more realistic assumptions regarding political agendas in oil-exporting countries and consumer behavior dynamics in oil-importing countries. Under this scenario, the joint impact of markets and public policy in oil importing countries together with 'resource pragmatism' policy in oil-exporting countries allows for a less steep oil supply curve with a much fatter tail compared to the Hubbert's model.

  4. The EU and Climate Change Policy: Law, Politics and Prominence at Different Levels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chad David Damro

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available The European Union (EU is a prominent player in the politics of climate change, operating as an authoritative regional actor that influences policy-making at the national and international levels. The EU’s climate change policies are thus subjected to multiple pressures that arise from the domestic politics of its twenty-seven individual member states and the international politics of non-EU states with which it negotiates. Facing these multiple pressures, how and why could such a non-traditional actor develop into a prominent player at different levels of climate change policy-making? This article argues that the EU’s rise to prominence can be understood by tracking a number of historical-legal institutional developments at the domestic and international levels. The article also provides a preliminary investigation of the EU emissions trading scheme, a new institutional mechanism that illustrates the policy pressures arising from different levels.

  5. Federalism, Agenda Setting, and the Dynamics of Federal Education Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manna, Paul

    This paper is part of a larger project on agenda setting in the U.S. federal system and the development of the federal education agenda since 1965. Two questions motivate the paper, one theoretical and the other empirical: (1) how does federalism affect the federal agenda?; and (2) what explains the development of federal involvement in K-12…

  6. Reframing political violence and mental health outcomes: outlining a research and action agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Duncan Pedersen

    Full Text Available In recent decades, the number of people exposed to traumatic events has significantly increased as various forms of violence, including war and political upheaval, engulf civilian populations worldwide. In spite of widespread armed conflict, guerrilla warfare and political violence in the Latin American and Caribbean region, insufficient attention had been paid in assessing the medium and long-term psychological impact and additional burden of disease, death, and disability caused by violence and wars amongst civilian populations. Following a review of the literature, a few central questions are raised: What is the short, medium and long-term health impact of extreme and sustained forms of violence in a given population? How political violence is linked to poor mental health outcomes at the individual and collective levels? Are trauma-related disorders, universal outcomes of extreme and sustained violence? These questions lead us to reframe the analysis of political violence and mental health outcomes, and reexamine the notions of trauma, after which a research and action agenda for the region is outlined. In the concluding sections, some basic principles that may prove useful when designing psychosocial interventions in post-conflict situations are reviewed.

  7. Explaining the unexpected success of the smoking ban in Italy: political strategy and transition to practice, 2000–2005.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mele, Valentina; Compagni, Amelia

    2010-01-01

    The approval (2003) and enforcement (2005) of a smoking ban in Italy have been viewed by many as an unexpectedly successful example of policy change. The present paper, by applying a processualist approach, concentrates on two policy cycles between 2000 and 2005. These had opposing outcomes: an incomplete decisional stage and an authoritative decision, enforced two years later. Through the analysis of the different phases of agenda setting, alternative specification and decision making, we have compared the quality of participation of policy entrepreneurs in the two cycles, their political strategies and, in these, the relevance of issue image. The case allows us to direct the attention of scholars and practitioners to an early phase of the policy implementation process – which we have named "transition to practice". This, managed with political strategy, might have strongly contributed to the final successful policy outcome.

  8. Home health nursing care agenda based on health policy in Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryu, Hosihn; An, Jiyoung; Koabyashi, Mia

    2005-06-01

    Home health nursing care (HHNC) in Korea has taken on an important role under the mandate of the national health care system since 2000. This program was developed to verify the possibility of early discharge of hospitalized patients and cost containment through a research and development project that was conducted with the government from 1994 to 1999. The process of development of HHNC provided an opportunity to realize the advancement and changes in the system into a consumer-focused structure. This is an important turning point for the Korean health care system that suggests certain possibilities for building a foundation for further changes in the service delivery structure. The structure, which had been limited to a supplier-oriented model, is moving to a consumer-oriented structure. Accordingly, the major function and role of nursing policy makers in Korea is to develop an agenda and alternatives for policy-making in a systematic manner and to present implementation strategies clearly.

  9. The "Post-Racial" Politics of Race: Changing Student Assignment Policy in Three School Districts

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDermott, Kathryn A.; Frankenberg, Erica; Diem, Sarah

    2015-01-01

    Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large…

  10. The politics of researching global health politics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rushton, Simon

    2015-01-01

    In this comment, I build on Shiffman’s call for the global health community to more deeply investigate structural and productive power. I highlight two challenges we must grapple with as social scientists carrying out the types of investigation that Shiffman proposes: the politics of challenging the powerful; and the need to investigate types of expertise that have traditionally been thought of as ‘outside’ global health. In doing so, I argue that moving forward with the agenda Shiffman sets out requires social scientists interested in the global politics of health to be reflexive about our own exercise of structural and productive power and the fact that researching global health politics is itself a political undertaking. PMID:25905482

  11. The Political Economy of Carbon Securities and Environmental Policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Polborn, Sarah

    The costs of the current suboptimal carbon abatement policy are likely in the range of 3 to 6 trillion 2005 US dollars. Using methods from the political economy of environmental policy, the paper develops a new carbon abatement policy instrument, carbon securities. A carbon security entitles its...... owner to a ?xed proportion of ex ante unknown total emissions. This creates an additional group of stakeholders on the side of the issue that has traditionally been underrepresented. The advantages over existing systems include an equilibrium carbon price closer to the social optimum, a more predictable...

  12. Trump and the GOP agenda: implications for retirement policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madland, David; Rowell, Alex

    2018-04-11

    Policymakers need to act to protect Americans' retirement security. A significant portion of Americans are at risk of not being able to maintain their standard of living in retirement and research suggests that this percentage is likely to grow. This commentary provides background on the current state of American retirement, highlights recent efforts to reform retirement policy, and predicts what to expect under President Donald Trump. Retirement has not been a major focus of national policymakers in recent years. Early actions during the Trump administration to undo Obama administration policies may make it more difficult for individuals to save for retirement. While it is impossible to predict the future with any certainty, long standing trends and recent political developments suggest that major action will not be taken during the Trump presidency to boost retirement security.

  13. EU Energy Policy in a Supply-constrained World

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Jong, J.; Van der Linde, C.

    2008-10-01

    Energy is quickly becoming an issue of integration and disintegration of the EU and will perhaps turn out to be the ultimate litmus test of political and economic unity in the EU, as energy issues are increasingly intertwined with wider security issues on the continent. Very often, economic issues are elevated to the political-strategic level, serving a different agenda than merely contributing to the energy policy agenda of the EU. The challenges to the EU and its member states in the energy sector are many: some issues are part of the wider geopolitical and geo-economic agenda, but some are also the product of the new EU that emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The enlargement with member states that are asymmetrically dependent on oil and gas supplies mainly from Russia has further emphasised the growth of structural energy import dependency. Moreover, the new member states did not have the benefit of introducing the energy 'acquis', i.e. liberalisation, in a period of ample supply and relatively low prices. From 2004 onwards, energy has become tighter and more politicised. It was these developments that also uncovered the calculated risk of the old member states to embark on liberalisation without putting a crisis management policy into place. With the increasing worries about the security of supply and the asymmetric exposure of Eastern Europe to a single supplier, energy security issues also began to dominate the internal policy debates both in energy and in external relations. The new developments require the EU member states to consider how and to what extent their external energy policies should also be merged into a more EU-wide approach, if they can agree on the common risks that need to be averted and the common benefits gained, and if and how a crisis mechanism for fuels other than oil is needed to manage the perceived increased security of supply risks. Moreover, they should also consider the internal market design they set out to implement and

  14. Soil and land use research in Europe: Lessons learned from INSPIRATION bottom-up strategic research agenda setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartke, Stephan; Boekhold, Alexandra E; Brils, Jos; Grimski, Detlef; Ferber, Uwe; Gorgon, Justyna; Guérin, Valérie; Makeschin, Franz; Maring, Linda; Nathanail, C Paul; Villeneuve, Jacques; Zeyer, Josef; Schröter-Schlaack, Christoph

    2018-05-01

    We introduce the INSPIRATION bottom-up approach for the development of a strategic research agenda for spatial planning, land use and soil-sediment-water-system management in Europe. Research and innovation needs were identified by more than 500 European funders, endusers, scientists, policy makers, public administrators and consultants. We report both on the concept and on the implementation of the bottom-up approach, provide a critique of the process and draw key lessons for the development of research agendas in the future. Based on identified strengths and weaknesses we identified as key opportunities and threats 1) a high ranking and attentiveness for the research topics on the political agenda, in press and media or in public awareness, 2) availability of funding for research, 3) the resources available for creating the agenda itself, 4) the role of the sponsor of the agenda development, and 5) the continuity of stakeholder engagement as bases for identification of windows of opportunity, creating ownership for the agenda and facilitating its implementation. Our derived key recommendations are 1) a clear definition of the area for which the agenda is to be developed and for the targeted user, 2) a conceptual model to structure the agenda, 3) making clear the expected roles, tasks, input formats regarding the involvement and communication with the stakeholders and project partners, 4) a sufficient number of iterations and checks of the agenda with stakeholders to insure completeness, relevance and creation of co-ownership for the agenda, and 5) from the beginning prepare the infrastructure for the network to implement the agenda. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Charting the Research on the Policies and Politics of Coaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woulfin, Sarah L.

    2014-01-01

    Facing relentless pressure to improve student achievement, many states and districts are using coaching as a policy lever to promote changes in practice. This special issue centers on the policies and politics of coaching, and this editorial commentary highlights what we know about the role of coaches and coaching in the field of education. Then I…

  16. Poor program's progress: the unanticipated politics of Medicaid policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Lawrence D; Sparer, Michael S

    2003-01-01

    Advocates of U.S. national health insurance tend to share an image that highlights universal standards of coverage, social insurance financing, and national administration--in short, the basic features of Medicare. Such an approach is said to be good (equitable and efficient) policy and equally good politics. Medicaid, by contrast, is often taken to exemplify poor policy and poorer politics: means-tested eligibility, general revenue financing, and federal/state administration, which encourage inequities and disparities of care. This stark juxtaposition fails, however, to address important counterintuitive elements in the political evolution of these programs. Medicare's benefits and beneficiaries have stayed disturbingly stable, but Medicaid's relatively broad benefits have held firm, and its categories of beneficiaries have expanded. Repeated alarms about "bankruptcy" have undermined confidence in Medicare's trust funding, while Medicaid's claims on the taxpayer's dollar have worn well. Medicare's national administration has avoided disparities, but at the price of sacrificing state and local flexibility that can ease such "reforms" as the introduction of managed care. That Medicaid has fared better than a "poor people's program" supposedly could has provocative implications for health reform debates.

  17. The politics of carbon taxation - how varieties of policy style matter

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Mikael Skou

    2018-01-01

    that the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix defines the room for such taxes, nor does it point to a strong role for political partisanship. Rather, it is deep-seated patterns of national policy styles with neo-corporatist traits, providing a protective device for the open economies of small countries, which...... condition the introduction of carbon taxes. The associated routines of decision-making offer coordination mechanisms for proactive macroeconomic policies in which carbon taxation can find a place. Parliamentary democracies with proportional representation, as are common in the smaller countries, provide...... access to the government for political parties that pursue carbon taxation. These in turn sensitise larger political parties to climate concerns, as they benefit from institutionalised practices and routines for problem-solving and consensus-seeking. Carbon taxes tend to get more leeway in coordinated...

  18. The Agenda 21 and its implementation at the national level. Berlin conference of the Environmental Advisory Councils of the EU Member states: Discussions, results, conclusions; Die Agenda 21 und deren Umsetzung auf nationaler Ebene. Berliner Konferenz der Umweltraete der EU-Mitgliedstaaten: Diskussionen, Ergebnisse und Schlussfolgerungen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sandhoevel, A. [Rat von Sachverstaendigen fuer Umweltfragen, Wiesbaden (Germany); Wiggering, H. [Rat von Sachverstaendigen fuer Umweltfragen, Wiesbaden (Germany)

    1995-12-31

    The Agenda 21, its realisation at the national level, and the establishment of the principle of sustainable development in political programmes and instruments were the main topics at the last meeting of the European Environmental Advisory Councils. As well as the questions of how to `ecologise` the European agricultural policy, how to incorporate environmental considerations into transport and technology policy, and how to develop an ethos of sustainability and encourage proper use of resources, the meeting discussed arrangements for future cooperation between the Advisory Councils and the possibilities available for the Councils to influence European environmental policy. (orig.) [Deutsch] Der Umsetzung der Agenda 21 auf die nationale Ebene und der Verwirklichung einer dauerhaft-umweltgerechten Entwicklung in politische Programme und Instrumente war die letzte Zusammenkunft der europaeischen Umweltraete gewidmet. Neben Oekologisierung der EU-Agrarpolitik, der Integration von Umweltbelangen in der Verkehrspolitik und in der Technologiepolitik, der Herausbildung eines Sustainability-Ethos und Aspekten des Ressourcenverbrauchs standen auch die Rahmenbedingungen zukuenftiger Kooperation und die Moeglichkeiten der europaeischen Umweltraete zur Einflussnahme auf die europaeische Umweltpolitik im Mittelpunkt. (orig.)

  19. US foreign policy towards West Africa after September 11 attacks

    OpenAIRE

    Akinwande, FO

    2014-01-01

    The United States foreign policy towards West Africa experienced a significant shift after the terrorist attacks of US strategic institutions in September 11, 2001. This was marked by the securitization of US foreign policy beyond the military-security context of security into other aspects of US security strategy after the Cold War. In that context, political, economic and environmental sectors became part of US security agenda, as reflected in the post-9/11 US\\ud War on Terror in global reg...

  20. Oligarchization and extractivism. Locks against the democratization of environmental politics in Chile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandro Pelfini

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to show that the modernization of Chile’s environmental institutions (called Nueva Institucionalidad Ambiental, introduced in 2009/2010 consolidates the informal networks that have traditionally linked its main actors (investors, State and experts. Consequently, it is a public policy that despite the incorporation of governance standards marked by accountability, transparency and public participation does not contribute to the formation of citizenship and public agenda around models of development and use of natural resources, but limited to assess/ mitigate/legitimize pre-established agendas, introduced by productive, extractive or infrastructure investment projects. In our view, this is due to the tendency to oligarchization of the Chilean political system and of the domination of elites in general and the persistence of an accumulation model based on the extraction of natural resources. Both serve as a structural lock that bolts any substantive change of environmental policy in a more democratic direction

  1. Purchasing power: business and health policy change in Massachusetts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergthold, L A

    1988-01-01

    As in many states around the country, health care costs in Massachusetts had risen to an unprecedented proportion of the state budget by the early 1980s. State health policymakers realized that dramatic changes were needed in the political process to break provider control over health policy decisions. This paper presents a case study of policy change in Massachusetts between 1982 and 1988. State officials formulated a strategy to mobilize corporate interests, which were already awakening to the problems of high health care costs, as a countervailing power to the political monopoly of provider interests. Once mobilized, business interests became organized politically and even became dominant at times, controlling both the policy agenda and its process. Ultimately, business came to be viewed as a permanent part of the coalitions and commissions that helped formulate state health policy. Although initially allied with provider interests, business eventually forged a stronger alliance with the state, an alliance that has the potential to force structural change in health care politics in Massachusetts for years to come. The paper raises questions about the consequences of such alliances between public and private power for both the content and the process of health policymaking at the state level.

  2. Politics and Development: Lessons from Latin America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renato Boschi

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available The present article discusses the conditions for the adoption of development strategies in Latin America in the aftermath of the neoliberal reforms, focusing specifically on the role of political institutions as a component of the productive regimes in selected countries. Development is treated as an endogenous process, which is shaped over time in terms of trajectories that are continuously redefined according to specific political conjunctures. Having moved from restricted democracies or authoritarian regimes and autarchic economies to mass democracies operating in the context of open economies after the market-oriented reforms, persistent structural inequalities presently constitute the major axis framing the definition of development policies. More so than in advanced countries where the State is treated as epiphenomenon of their respective productive regimes, in the case of the Latin American semi-periphery the State is the crucial actor for the reversal of vicious circles and negative complementarities stemming from the extreme structural and social inequalities within and between countries in the region. Following a brief discussion on development and economic growth in the definition of the post-neoliberal agenda, the article examines institutional indicators for economic performance of contemporary governmental coalitions in selected countries, focusing on State policies favouring development such as financing, technological innovation, training of labour and social policies. Next, we concentrate on the analysis of political institutions and the role of political elites capable of generating national projects for sustainable development strategies, showing some of the differences between these countries. We conclude with a brief discussion on the adequacy of contemporary political economy approaches to understand processes of capitalist transformation in the periphery, calling attention to the need for a redefined regional perspective

  3. How the global and national levels interrelate in climate policymaking: Foreign Policy Analysis and the case of Carbon Capture Storage in Norway's foreign policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roettereng, Jo-Kristian Straete

    2016-01-01

    States struggle to develop adequate climate change mitigation policies, especially when national energy interests conflict with collective environmental concerns. It is therefore crucial to understand how viable solutions may find political support on these terms. As one such case, this paper examines Norway's explicit foreign policy to promote Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a mitigation measure. I suggest that a Foreign Policy Analysis framework with a norm-centered constructivist focus allows for new insights into how climate policies function as balancing strategies between external normative pressures and important domestic concerns. It reveals how Norway's CCS policy represents an extraordinary effort to bridge seemingly contradictory agendas. The Norwegian CCS case highlights how a state may engage in innovative foreign political engineering to promote solutions to its international climate commitments on terms that fit national energy needs. It shows that climate political success may depend on successfully linking the international and domestic levels by simultaneously appealing to established norms within each system. - Highlights: • A Foreign Policy Analysis framework is used to explain foreign policy in the energy-climate domain. • Norway's external strategy to promote CCS globally is traced and explained. • Both external and domestic factors influenced Norway's CCS policymaking. • Both ideational and material factors were important to legitimize this strategy.

  4. Financing and funding health care: Optimal policy and political implementability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nuscheler, Robert; Roeder, Kerstin

    2015-07-01

    Health care financing and funding are usually analyzed in isolation. This paper combines the corresponding strands of the literature and thereby advances our understanding of the important interaction between them. We investigate the impact of three modes of health care financing, namely, optimal income taxation, proportional income taxation, and insurance premiums, on optimal provider payment and on the political implementability of optimal policies under majority voting. Considering a standard multi-task agency framework we show that optimal health care policies will generally differ across financing regimes when the health authority has redistributive concerns. We show that health care financing also has a bearing on the political implementability of optimal health care policies. Our results demonstrate that an isolated analysis of (optimal) provider payment rests on very strong assumptions regarding both the financing of health care and the redistributive preferences of the health authority. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Religion, Church, Intimate Citizenship and Gender Equality (An Analysis of Differences in Gender Equality Policies in European

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verloo, M.M.T.

    2015-01-01

    During the past decades, processes of (post)modernization have raised the importance of quality-of-life issues and related policies, resulting in a higher salience of intimate citizenship issues on the political agenda. The Catholic Church as an institution especially has been articulating strong

  6. [Swiss Research Agenda for Nursing (SRAN): the development of an agenda for clinical nursing research in Switzerland].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Imhof, Lorenz; Abderhalden, Christoph; Cignacco, Eva; Eicher, Manuela; Mahrer-Imhof, Romy; Schubert, Maria; Shaha, Maya

    2008-12-01

    In many Anglo-Saxon and North European countries nursing research agendas have been developed to address priorities in nursing research in accordance with a nationally defined health policy. In Switzerland, due to lack of a nationwide governmental health policy, co-ordination of nursing research so far was scarce. The "Swiss Research Agenda for Nursing (SRAN)" project developed an agenda for clinical nursing research between 2005 and 2007. Based on literature reviews, expert panels and a national survey a project team formulated an agenda which passed a consensus conference. The agenda recommends aspects that should lead research and defines seven research priorities for nursing in Switzerland for the time between 2007 and 2017. Nursing research should prioritize to investigate 1) the effectiveness of nursing interventions; 2) the influences of service adaptations in a changing health care system; 3) the phenomena in patients requiring nursing care; 4) the influence of the work environment on the quality of nursing care; 5) the functioning of family and social systems; 6) varieties of life circumstances and their integration; and 7) the implementation of ethical principles in nursing. Written in German and French, the Swiss Research Agenda for Nursing for the first time formulates priorities for nursing research in Switzerland and can be used for strategic discussions. As a next step, the development of an action plan to enhance nursing research will take place in Switzerland.

  7. Japan's 2014 General Election: Political Bots, Right-Wing Internet Activism, and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's Hidden Nationalist Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schäfer, Fabian; Evert, Stefan; Heinrich, Philipp

    2017-12-01

    In this article, we present results on the identification and behavioral analysis of social bots in a sample of 542,584 Tweets, collected before and after Japan's 2014 general election. Typical forms of bot activity include massive Retweeting and repeated posting of (nearly) the same message, sometimes used in combination. We focus on the second method and present (1) a case study on several patterns of bot activity, (2) methodological considerations on the automatic identification of such patterns and the prerequisite near-duplicate detection, and (3) we give qualitative insights into the purposes behind the usage of social/political bots. We argue that it was in the latency of the semi-public sphere of social media-and not in the visible or manifest public sphere (official campaign platform, mass media)-where Shinzō Abe's hidden nationalist agenda interlocked and overlapped with the one propagated by organizations such as Nippon Kaigi and Internet right-wingers (netto uyo) during the election campaign, the latter potentially forming an enormous online support army of Abe's agenda.

  8. Trayectoria multinivel de una coalición promotora e incidencia en la agenda política nacional. El caso del conflicto de Pascua Lama y la ley de glaciares en Chile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mauricio Cortez

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The socio-environmental conflict around the mining project Pascua-Lama motivated a revision of the glacier protection policy in Chile. In order to explain this unusual impact of the policy on the national political agenda, this article traces back the trajectory that initiated the local conflict and boosted it into a national political conflict. Using process tracing, the transformation of the coalitions that began as opponents to the mining project is identified as the cause that promoted a local claim that became a political proposal. The incorporation of local and international agents to the coalition promotes an upward transit of the levels of public action but it leads to a counter effect, the marginalization of the local participants.

  9. Party politics and Greek security policy from 1974 to 1984: change and continuity

    OpenAIRE

    Haines, John L.

    1984-01-01

    Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited This thesis explores the effects of political change on Greek security policy during the period 1974 to 1984. This period encompasses significant change in Greece's foreign relations including those with the United States. The central question is: Are the elements of Greek security policy based on long-term basic interests which find consistent expression, or are they a function of domestic political factors, more ideologicall...

  10. United Nations conference of environment and development, held at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Documents. Agenda 21

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-01-01

    With the translation of Agenda 21 all the documents released in connection with the United Nations Conference of Environment and Development (UNCED) at Rio de Janeiro (June 1992) have now been made generally available also in the German language. Agenda 21, which in 40 chapters discusses the basic political platforms of environment-oriented sustainable development, is an action programme for the 21st century adopted at Rio by more than 170 states. The action programme contains detailed instructions as to the practices to be abandoned to prevent any further deteriorations as well as strategies to be adopted to gradually relieve the situation and to ensure a reasonable and sustainable exploitation of our natural resources. One important approach to this goal is that environmental issues are considered within a global context, thus being a prominent factor in all political spheres. The rules set up in this action programme are applicable to industrial and developing countries alike. It offers - in broad outline - prescriptions for the combatting poverty, control of overpopulation, reconciliation of commercial and environmental interests, disposal of refuse and chemicals, for climate, energy and agricultural policies as well as the ways in which industrial and developing countries could cooperate both financially and in terms of shared technologies. The bilateral and multilateral development policies of the Federal Government are largely based on Agende 21. (orig./HP) [de

  11. Tobacco control, global health policy and development: towards policy coherence in global governance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collin, Jeff

    2015-01-01

    The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) demonstrates the international political will invested in combating the tobacco pandemic and a newfound prominence for tobacco control within the global health agenda. However, major difficulties exist in managing conflicts with foreign and trade policy priorities, and significant obstacles confront efforts to create synergies with development policy and avoid tensions with other health priorities. This paper uses the concept of policy coherence to explore congruence and inconsistencies in objectives, policy, and practice between tobacco control and trade, development and global health priorities. Following the inability of the FCTC negotiations to satisfactorily address the relationship between trade and health, several disputes highlight the challenges posed to tobacco control policies by multilateral and bilateral agreements. While the work of the World Bank has demonstrated the potential contribution of tobacco control to development, the absence of non-communicable diseases from the Millennium Development Goals has limited scope to offer developing countries support for FCTC implementation. Even within international health, tobacco control priorities may be hard to reconcile with other agendas. The paper concludes by discussing the extent to which tobacco control has been pursued via a model of governance very deliberately different from those used in other health issues, in what can be termed ‘tobacco exceptionalism’. The analysis developed here suggests that non-communicable disease (NCD) policies, global health, development and tobacco control would have much to gain from re-examining this presumption of difference. PMID:22345267

  12. Oil and the political economy of energy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matutinovic, Igor [GfK-Center for Market Research, Zagreb (Croatia)

    2009-11-15

    The key issues concerning oil exploitation are still open for discussion: there is no agreement about where we presently stand in the world oil extraction curve, what is its exact shape, and how far can oil price grow before it changes irreversibly the world economy and consumer behavior. The paper proposes an alternative scenario to the Hubbert's bell-shaped model of oil exploitation, based on more realistic assumptions regarding political agendas in oil-exporting countries and consumer behavior dynamics in oil-importing countries. Under this scenario, the joint impact of markets and public policy in oil importing countries together with 'resource pragmatism' policy in oil-exporting countries allows for a less steep oil supply curve with a much fatter tail compared to the Hubbert's model. (author)

  13. The use of evidence in maternal health: Connecting research and policy in Timor-Leste

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kayli Janine Wild

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The evidence-based policy (EBP movement has received significant attention in the scientific literature, however, there is still very little empirical research to provide insight into how policy decisions are made and how evidence is used. The lack of research on this topic in low and middle-income countries is of particular note. We examine the maternity waiting home policy in Timor-Leste to understand the role of context, policy characteristics, individual actors and how evidence is used to influence the policy agenda. The research tracked the maternity waiting home policy from 2005 to 2009 and is based on in-depth interviews with 31 senior policy-makers, department managers, non-government organisation (NGO representatives and United Nations (UN advisors. It is also informed by direct observation, attendance at meetings and workshops and analysis of policy documents. The findings from this case study demonstrate the importance of political context, policy characteristics and the power of senior Ministry of Health officials rather than donors in setting the policy agenda. Maternity waiting homes were appealing because they were a visible, non-controversial and logical solution to the problem of accessing maternal health services. Evidence was used in a variety of ways, from supporting pre-determined agendas to informing new policy directions. In the pursuit of EBP, we conclude that the power of research to inform policy lies in its timeliness and relevance, and is facilitated by the connection between researchers and policy-makers.

  14. Family planning: the unfinished agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cleland, John; Bernstein, Stan; Ezeh, Alex; Faundes, Anibal; Glasier, Anna; Innis, Jolene

    2006-11-18

    Promotion of family planning in countries with high birth rates has the potential to reduce poverty and hunger and avert 32% of all maternal deaths and nearly 10% of childhood deaths. It would also contribute substantially to women's empowerment, achievement of universal primary schooling, and long-term environmental sustainability. In the past 40 years, family-planning programmes have played a major part in raising the prevalence of contraceptive practice from less than 10% to 60% and reducing fertility in developing countries from six to about three births per woman. However, in half the 75 larger low-income and lower-middle income countries (mainly in Africa), contraceptive practice remains low and fertility, population growth, and unmet need for family planning are high. The cross-cutting contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals makes greater investment in family planning in these countries compelling. Despite the size of this unfinished agenda, international funding and promotion of family planning has waned in the past decade. A revitalisation of the agenda is urgently needed. Historically, the USA has taken the lead but other governments or agencies are now needed as champions. Based on the sizeable experience of past decades, the key features of effective programmes are clearly established. Most governments of poor countries already have appropriate population and family-planning policies but are receiving too little international encouragement and funding to implement them with vigour. What is currently missing is political willingness to incorporate family planning into the development arena.

  15. Embryo politics: ethics and policy in Atlantic democracies

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Banchoff, Thomas F

    2011-01-01

    ... States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France have grappled with these questions so far. In setting out an argument about the intersection of politics, ethics, and policy, I focus on national bioethics committees, elected leaders, and their efforts to reconcile the moral status of the embryo and the imperative of biomedical progress in practice. In order to st...

  16. Neo-Gramscian Approach and Geopolitics of ICT4D Agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tokunbo Ojo

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available For the last two decades, the notion of Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D has had significant traction in both praxis and scholarly work of international development. While it has dystopia and utopia dimensions, ICT4D came out of particular history and intellectual climates. The historical and political contexts that shaped the ICT4D agenda deserve examination. Grounded within the canon of neo-Gramscian perspectives, this paper discusses the geopolitical construct of the ICT4D agenda and the agenda-building roles of international institutions in the process. In situating the ICT4D agenda in the geopolitical context, this paper highlights the institutional discursive structure and embedded geometries of power relations in the global communication and international development agenda.

  17. Beyond the usual suspects: using political science to enhance public health policy making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fafard, Patrick

    2015-11-01

    That public health policy and practice should be evidence based is a seemingly uncontroversial claim. Yet governments and citizens routinely reject the best available evidence and prefer policies that reflect other considerations and concerns. The most common explanations of this paradox emphasise scientific disagreement, the power of 'politics', or the belief that scientists and policymakers live in two separate communities that do not communicate. However, another explanation may lie in the limits of the very notion of evidence-based policy making. In fact, the social science discipline of political science offers a rich body of theory and empirical evidence to explain the apparent gap between evidence and policy. This essay introduces this literature with a particular emphasis on a recent book by Katherine Smith, Beyond evidence-based policy in public health: the interplay of ideas. As the title suggests, Smith argues that what matters for public health policy is less scientific evidence and much more a more complex set of ideas. Based on detailed case studies of UK tobacco and health inequality policy, Smith offers a richly textured alternative account of what matters for policy making. This excellent book is part of a small but growing body of political science research on public health policy that draws on contemporary theories of policy change and governance more generally. This essay provides a window on this research, describes some examples, but emphasises that public health scholars and practitioners too often retain a narrow if not naive view of the policy-making process. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  18. Health care politics and policy: the business of medicine: a course for physician leaders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marmor, Theodore Richard

    2013-09-01

    This article is a condensed and edited version of a speech delivered to the business of medicine: A Course for Physician Leaders symposium presented by Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Medical Directors Leadership Council at Yale University in November 2012 and drawn from Politics, Health, and Health Care: Selected Essays by Theodore R. Marmor and Rudolf Klein [1]. It faithfully reflects the major argument delivered, but it does not include the typical range of citations in a journal article. The material presented here reflects more than 40 years of teaching a course variously described as Political Analysis and Management, Policy and Political Analysis, and The Politics of Policy. The aim of all of these efforts is to inform audiences about the necessity of understanding political conflict in any arena, not least of which is the complex and costly world of medical care.

  19. The employment effects of sustainable development policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McNeill, Judith M.; Williams, Jeremy B.

    2007-01-01

    This paper argues that it is time for ecological economists to bring the employment impacts of sustainable development policies to the forefront of the research agenda. Important conservation efforts continue to founder because of their perceived employment effects. The paper examines the evidence on the employment impacts of sustainable development policies and argues that maintaining or even increasing employment depends critically on appropriate policy design and attention to the political economy of implementation of policies. The paper concludes that a better understanding of these issues, fair labour market and structural adjustment programs, and especially forward planning to anticipate problem areas, must replace the piecemeal, 'knee-jerk' reactions to environmental issues, such as were evident in Australia during the last federal election. (author)

  20. Dvigateli regional'nogo stroitel'stva. Vlijanie regional'nyh politicheskih organizacij na sotrudnichestvo universitetov v regione Baltijskogo morja [Motors for regional development: impact on regional political organizations on the university cooperation in the Baltic Sea region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ewert Stefan

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Educational co-operation is one of the main aspects of the regional political agenda in the Baltic Sea Region. The article analyzes the political impact of the organizations, as perceived by the universities in the region and political decision-makers on national and regional levels. Based on the success of the OECD in becoming an influential actor in educational policies, this article discusses different strategies for the regional political organizations to enhance their influence.

  1. Discursos cruzados: telenoticiários, HPEG e a construção da agenda eleitoral Cross-discourses: news programs on TV, free time for political propaganda on TV, and the construction of the electoral agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Felipe Miguel

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available O Horário de Propaganda Eleitoral Gratuita (HPEG faculta aos candidatos um espaço de comunicação autônomo, em que suas mensagens não têm que passar pelo crivo dos grupos de mídia. O paper discute a eficácia do HPEG, em contraposição ao telejornalismo, e analisa a evolução da relação entre os dois nas quatro eleições presidenciais brasileiras do período pós-autoritário. Em 1989, os telenoticiários mostravam-se receptivos à agenda proposta pelos partidos em seus programas de TV, mas há um nítido fechamento nas eleições seguintes. Em 2002, os principais candidatos preferiram aderir à agenda e aos enquadramentos dominantes, reconhecendo a incapacidade do HPEG para alterar a pauta da mídia.The free time for political propaganda on TV gives candidates a space for autonomous communication in which their messages do not have to pass the scrutiny of media groups. This paper discusses the effectiveness of such free time on TV as opposed to TV journalism, and examines the development of the relationship between them in the four presidential elections in Brazil in the post-authoritarian period. In 1989, TV news programs welcomed the agenda put forward by candidates in their TV programs, but a closure is clear in the next elections. In 2002, the main candidates chose to join mainstream agenda and frameworks, acknowledging the inability of free TV time to change the media's agenda.

  2. Indonesia's road to universal health coverage: a political journey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pisani, Elizabeth; Olivier Kok, Maarten; Nugroho, Kharisma

    2017-03-01

    In 2013 Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, declared that it would provide affordable health care for all its citizens within seven years. This crystallised an ambition first enshrined in law over five decades earlier, but never previously realised. This paper explores Indonesia's journey towards universal health coverage (UHC) from independence to the launch of a comprehensive health insurance scheme in January 2014. We find that Indonesia's path has been determined largely by domestic political concerns – different groups obtained access to healthcare as their socio-political importance grew. A major inflection point occurred following the Asian financial crisis of 1997. To stave off social unrest, the government provided health coverage for the poor for the first time, creating a path dependency that influenced later policy choices. The end of this programme coincided with decentralisation, leading to experimentation with several different models of health provision at the local level. When direct elections for local leaders were introduced in 2005, popular health schemes led to success at the polls. UHC became an electoral asset, moving up the political agenda. It also became contested, with national policy-makers appropriating health insurance programmes that were first developed locally, and taking credit for them. The Indonesian experience underlines the value of policy experimentation, and of a close understanding of the contextual and political factors that drive successful UHC models at the local level. Specific drivers of success and failure should be taken into account when scaling UHC to the national level. In the Indonesian example, UHC became possible when the interests of politically and economically influential groups were either satisfied or neutralised. While technical considerations took a back seat to political priorities in developing the structures for health coverage nationally, they will have to be addressed going forward

  3. Political ecologies of resource extraction: Agendas pendientes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anthony Bebbington

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Research related to extractive industries has grown significantly over the last decade. As the commodities boom appears to be winding down, this essay outlines areas for potential future research. Emphasis is placed on the need for research on: the relationships among extractivism, climate change and societal transitions; the aggregate effects of the commodity boom on the environment, on societal structures, on elite formation and on cultural politics; the implications of resource extraction on the couplings of space and power at different scales and with particular reference to the Colombian peace process; and the gendered and generation dimensions of the effects of extractivism on rights and citizenship. The paper calls for on-going collaborations among scholars and activists, for greater collaboration among social and bio-physical scientists, for comparative analysis with regions beyond Latin America and for innovative ways of bridging research and the public sphere. Resumen: Ecologías políticas de la extracción de recursos: Agendas pendientes Las investigaciones relacionadas con las industrias extractivas han aumentado considerablemente durante la última década. Como el boom de las materias primas está tocando su fin, este ensayo señala áreas que se prestan a posibles investigaciones en el futuro. Se pone el énfasis en la necesidad de investigar: las relaciones entre el extractivismo, el cambio climático y las transiciones sociales; los efectos agregados del boom de las materias primas en el medio ambiente, en las estructuras sociales, en la formación de élites y en las políticas culturales; las implicaciones de la extracción de recursos en las relaciones entre espacio y poder a distintas escalas y refiriéndose especialmente al proceso de paz colombiano; y las dimensiones generizadas y generacionales de los efectos del extractivismo en los derechos y en la ciudadanía. Este artículo hace un llamamiento a colaboraciones

  4. From Impact Assessment to the Policy Cycle: Drawing Lessons from the EU’S Better-Regulation Agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Renda

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The European Union launched its first comprehensive better-regulation agenda in 2002 and has since then been constantly modifying and improving its toolkit aimed at guaranteeing the quality of its legislation. The first better-regulation agenda followed the pioneering experience of some of its member states and introduced a formal procedure of ex ante impact assessment (IA as well as minimum criteria for stakeholder consultation.1 Different variables explain the rise of EU-level IA, such as reactions to the overuse of the precautionary principle in risk analysis and health policy (especially in chemicals and tobacco;2 pressure from finance ministers in countries such as the U.K. and the Netherlands to introduce evidence-based procedures in policy formulation, thus increasing accountability;3 and organizational developments within the European Commission, with an expansion to regulatory policy of tools originally crafted for sustainable development policies.4 The EU IA model was introduced together with a communication aimed at simplifying and improving the regulatory environment and promoting “a culture of dialogue and participation” within the EU legislative process.5 As a result, the commission decided to integrate all forms of ex ante evaluation and various tests by building an integrated impact-assessment model, to enter into force on Jan. 1, 2003.6 This model was tasked with the heavy responsibility of ensuring that adequate account was taken, at an early stage of the regulatory process, of both the competitiveness and sustainable-development goals, which ranked among the top priorities on the EU agenda. Over the past 14 years, the better-regulation toolkit of the European Commission has been strengthened from a methodological standpoint, and expanded into a more comprehensive system that involves ex ante IAs, ex post evaluations, “fitness checks” focused on clusters of laws, and cumulative cost assessments that address specific

  5. Biblical antecedents of modern agenda-setting: religious platforms in lieu of mass media

    OpenAIRE

    Rashi, Tsuriel; McCombs, Maxwell

    2017-01-01

    Can a primitive society set a public agenda? Are there some advantages for a religious society in setting an agenda? From a critical study of the communicative perspective of the Bible and hermeneutic reading of its texts, it can be said that certain elements in primitive societies succeeded in influencing the political and social agendas. They did so by exploiting specific public assemblies or appearing in crowded places in attempts to impact local and national agendas. This notion is signif...

  6. [The history of Chagas' disease in Argentina: conceptual, institutional, and political evolution].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zabala, Juan Pablo

    2009-07-01

    In the one hundred years since the identification of Chagas disease, major changes have occurred in its scientific conception, institutional recognition, and political weight. From a medical perspective, it was seen as the cause of goiter, next its acute effects were emphasized, and then its effects on cardiac health received greater attention. In similar fashion, sanitary policy first downplayed the disease's importance, then elevated it to the role of a national cause, and gradually relegated it to the bottom of the agenda. The article briefly presents the key points of this historical trajectory in Argentina, exploring the cognitive, political, and institutional underpinnings of the disease as both a social and biological fact.

  7. Global perspectives on nursing and its contribution to healthcare and health policy: thoughts on an emerging policy model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shamian, Judith

    2014-12-01

    We know from rigorous evidence that nurses can exert an incredible impact on the everyday lives of people and their health. Nurses can also contribute in much wider spheres of influence by applying their knowledge and skills to address broader issues affecting population health across communities, nations and globally. Despite the prevalence of so many vexing health and social issues, nurses often fail to think globally, or even regionally, when they are lobbying for change. And while much political influence is local, some issues are simply too complex to rely on local influence alone. Importantly in all this, we must acknowledge the ways these complex health issues are shaped by economic and political agendas and not necessarily by healthcare agendas. As such, the nursing community has to act globally and locally, both within and outside of the nursing arena. This paper explores early thinking about an evolving model of spheres--or "bubbles"--of policy influence in which nurses can and must operate to more effectively impact key global health and healthcare challenges.

  8. Estimation of several political action effects of energy prices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew B. Whitford

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available One important effect of price shocks in the United States has been increased political attention paid to the structure and performance of oil and natural gas markets, along with some governmental support for energy conservation. This article describes how price changes helped lead to the emergence of a political agenda accompanied by several interventions, as revealed through Granger causality tests on change in the legislative agenda.

  9. United Nations conference of environment and development, held at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Documents. Agenda 21; Konferenz der Vereinten Nationen fuer Umwelt und Entwicklung im Juni 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. Dokumente. Agenda 21

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1994-12-31

    With the translation of Agenda 21 all the documents released in connection with the United Nations Conference of Environment and Development (UNCED) at Rio de Janeiro (June 1992) have now been made generally available also in the German language. Agenda 21, which in 40 chapters discusses the basic political platforms of environment-oriented sustainable development, is an action programme for the 21st century adopted at Rio by more than 170 states. The action programme contains detailed instructions as to the practices to be abandoned to prevent any further deteriorations as well as strategies to be adopted to gradually relieve the situation and to ensure a reasonable and sustainable exploitation of our natural resources. One important approach to this goal is that environmental issues are considered within a global context, thus being a prominent factor in all political spheres. The rules set up in this action programme are applicable to industrial and developing countries alike. It offers - in broad outline - prescriptions for the combatting poverty, control of overpopulation, reconciliation of commercial and environmental interests, disposal of refuse and chemicals, for climate, energy and agricultural policies as well as the ways in which industrial and developing countries could cooperate both financially and in terms of shared technologies. The bilateral and multilateral development policies of the Federal Government are largely based on Agende 21. (orig./HP) [Deutsch] Mit der Uebersetzung der Agenda 21 sind nunmehr alle Dokumente der Konferenz fuer Umwelt und Entwicklung der Vereinten Nationen (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro (June 1992) auch in deutscher Sprache der Oeffenlichkeit zugaenglich. Die Agenda 21, die mit ihren 40 Kapiteln alle wesentlichen Politikbereiche einer umweltvertraeglichen, nachhaltigen Entwicklung anspricht, ist das in Rio von mehr als 170 Staaten verabschiedete Aktionsprogramm fuer das 21. Jahrhundert. Mit diesem Aktionsprogramm werden

  10. Macroeconomic policies and economic democracy in neoliberal Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Bin

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate some of the forms of conduct of macroeconomic policies related to a substantive concept of democracy, characterized by popular participation - direct or through representatives - in decisions that unevenly affect the material well-being of the entire Brazilian population. Special attention is given to decisions about the country's public indebtedness in the years following the launching of the RealPlan. Empirical evidences show a limited democracy, revealed by the material inequality, which in turn reproduces political inequality and restricts real freedom. This is combined with the selective bureaucratic insulation of economic policy decisions, and the parliament's failure to deal with the macroeconomic agenda. The latter is thus left to the control of the executive branch's economic apparatus, which on one hand submits itself to substantial political influence from finance and, on the other hand, restricts popular participation in decisions on both fiscal and monetary policies.

  11. Political and Policy Arguments for Integrated Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adalsteinn D Brown

    2017-04-01

    Our analysis suggests several key issues around successful integrated data policy and politics that support the importance of strong leadership, an incremental approach to institution building that focuses on public benefits, strongly alignment to missions that are congruent with societal values, and stronger attention to effective and rapid implementation of policy. In addition to the cases studied here, the success of smaller sub-national (e.g. state or provincial efforts suggests that smaller efforts tend to work better although their success may not receive the attention that could support larger efforts to integrate data on the national level. Further work should focus chiefly on the extension of these arguments to non-health sectors to realize the full value of integrated data.

  12. Emotion Regulation as the Foundation of Political Attitudes: Does Reappraisal Decrease Support for Conservative Policies?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jooa Julia; Sohn, Yunkyu; Fowler, James H.

    2013-01-01

    Cognitive scientists, behavior geneticists, and political scientists have identified several ways in which emotions influence political attitudes, and psychologists have shown that emotion regulation can have an important causal effect on physiology, cognition, and subjective experience. However, no work to date explores the possibility that emotion regulation may shape political ideology and attitudes toward policies. Here, we conduct four studies that investigate the role of a particular emotion regulation strategy – reappraisal in particular. Two observational studies show that individual differences in emotion regulation styles predict variation in political orientations and support for conservative policies. In the third study, we experimentally induce disgust as the target emotion to be regulated and show that use of reappraisal reduces the experience of disgust, thereby decreasing moral concerns associated with conservatism. In the final experimental study, we show that use of reappraisal successfully attenuates the relationship between trait-level disgust sensitivity and support for conservative policies. Our findings provide the first evidence of a critical link between emotion regulation and political attitudes. PMID:24367583

  13. Emotion regulation as the foundation of political attitudes: does reappraisal decrease support for conservative policies?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jooa Julia Lee

    Full Text Available Cognitive scientists, behavior geneticists, and political scientists have identified several ways in which emotions influence political attitudes, and psychologists have shown that emotion regulation can have an important causal effect on physiology, cognition, and subjective experience. However, no work to date explores the possibility that emotion regulation may shape political ideology and attitudes toward policies. Here, we conduct four studies that investigate the role of a particular emotion regulation strategy--reappraisal in particular. Two observational studies show that individual differences in emotion regulation styles predict variation in political orientations and support for conservative policies. In the third study, we experimentally induce disgust as the target emotion to be regulated and show that use of reappraisal reduces the experience of disgust, thereby decreasing moral concerns associated with conservatism. In the final experimental study, we show that use of reappraisal successfully attenuates the relationship between trait-level disgust sensitivity and support for conservative policies. Our findings provide the first evidence of a critical link between emotion regulation and political attitudes.

  14. Leadership and Ambiguity: When Policy, Politics, and Truth Collide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Block, Betty Ann

    2014-01-01

    This article discusses the need for chairs to recognize the changing and interconnected nature of postmodern times by engaging with policy makers, politics, and coalitions in this age of supercomplexity. Chairing a kinesiology department is a rewarding and complex position fraught with uncertainty; nevertheless, tolerating and planning for…

  15. Las políticas educativas en México desde una perspectiva de política pública: gobernabilidad y gobernanza (An Analysis of Education Policies in Mexico from the Perspective of Public Policies and Governance (Les politiques éducatives au Mexique depuis une perspective de politique publique: gouvernabilité et gouvernance (As políticas educativas no México desde uma perspectiva de política pública: governabilidade e governança

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gloria del Castillo-Alemán

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available ResumenEl propósito de este artículo es mostrar la experiencia de las reformas de las políticas educativas en México desde una perspectiva de investigación de políticas, la cual aporta evidencia útil para otros casos latinoame- ricanos. Se muestra por qué la dinámica de cambio y continuidad de las políticas favorece en mayor medida resultados de cobertura, al mismo tiempo que se hace visible el potencial analítico de esta perspectiva para mejorar la capacidad de intervención gubernamental a la luz de la resolución de problemas pendientes en la agenda de las políticas. Se concluye que el cambio hacia la calidad y equidad está en función de dos tipos de reformas y, por tanto, de dos tipos de agendas, una política (politics y otra de políticas (policy.AbstractThe aim of this paper is to introduce the experience of education policies reforms in Mexico from a perspective of policy research, contributing useful findings for other Latin American cases. The dynamics of change and continuity of policies are shown to favor coverage. Also, the advantage of this pers- pective for the improvement of governments' intervention capacity and the solution of unresolved problems in policy agendas is made clear. The paper concludes that the change toward quality and equity is part of two types of reforms and, therefore, of two types of agendas: a political agenda and a policies agenda.RésuméLe propos de cet article est celui de montrer l'expérience des reformes politiques éduca- tives au Mexique depuis une perspective de re- cherche de politiques, laquelle fournit une évidence utile pour d'autres cas en Amérique Latine. On montre pourquoi la dynamique de changement et continuité des politiques fa- vorise d'avantage les résultats de couverture, en même temps qui est plus visible le poten- tiel analytique de cette perspective pour amé- liorer la capacité d'intervention du gouverne- ment avec l'esprit de résoudre les problèmes qui

  16. Political and institutional influences on the use of evidence in public health policy. A systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liverani, Marco; Hawkins, Benjamin; Parkhurst, Justin O

    2013-01-01

    There is increasing recognition that the development of evidence-informed health policy is not only a technical problem of knowledge exchange or translation, but also a political challenge. Yet, while political scientists have long considered the nature of political systems, the role of institutional structures, and the political contestation of policy issues as central to understanding policy decisions, these issues remain largely unexplored by scholars of evidence-informed policy making. We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies that examined the influence of key features of political systems and institutional mechanisms on evidence use, and contextual factors that may contribute to the politicisation of health evidence. Eligible studies were identified through searches of seven health and social sciences databases, websites of relevant organisations, the British Library database, and manual searches of academic journals. Relevant findings were extracted using a uniform data extraction tool and synthesised by narrative review. 56 studies were selected for inclusion. Relevant political and institutional aspects affecting the use of health evidence included the level of state centralisation and democratisation, the influence of external donors and organisations, the organisation and function of bureaucracies, and the framing of evidence in relation to social norms and values. However, our understanding of such influences remains piecemeal given the limited number of empirical analyses on this subject, the paucity of comparative works, and the limited consideration of political and institutional theory in these studies. This review highlights the need for a more explicit engagement with the political and institutional factors affecting the use of health evidence in decision-making. A more nuanced understanding of evidence use in health policy making requires both additional empirical studies of evidence use, and an engagement with theories and approaches

  17. Corporate political strategy: incorporating the management of public policy issues into hospital strategy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bigelow, B; Arndt, M; Stone, M M

    1997-01-01

    Hospitals engage in a variety of strategies designed to anticipate, shape, and respond to public policy issues. This article describes corporate political strategy and argues for its need throughout a public policy issue's life cycle.

  18. The current state of play of research on the social, political and legal dimensions of HIV

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vera Paiva

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper offers a critical overview of social science research presented at the 2014 International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. In an era of major biomedical advance, the political nature of HIV remains of fundamental importance. No new development can be rolled out successfully without taking into account its social and political context, and consequences. Four main themes ran throughout the conference track on social and political research, law, policy and human rights: first, the importance of work with socially vulnerable groups, now increasingly referred to as "key populations"; second, continued recognition that actions and programs need to be tailored locally and contextually; third, the need for an urgent response to a rapidly growing epidemic of HIV among young people; and fourth, the negative effects of the growing criminalization of minority sexualities and people living with HIV. Lack of stress on human rights and community participation is resulting in poorer policy globally. A new research agenda is needed to respond to these challenges.

  19. The current state of play of research on the social, political and legal dimensions of HIV

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paiva, Vera; Ferguson, Laura; Aggleton, Peter; Mane, Purnima; Kelly-Hanku, Angela; Giang, Le Minh; Barbosa, Regina M.; Caceres, Carlos F.; Parker, Richard

    2015-01-01

    This paper offers a critical overview of social science research presented at the 2014 International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. In an era of major biomedical advance, the political nature of HIV remains of fundamental importance. No new development can be rolled out successfully without taking into account its social and political context, and consequences. Four main themes ran throughout the conference track on social and political research, law, policy and human rights: first, the importance of work with socially vulnerable groups, now increasingly referred to as “key populations”; second, continued recognition that actions and programs need to be tailored locally and contextually; third, the need for an urgent response to a rapidly growing epidemic of HIV among young people; and fourth, the negative effects of the growing criminalization of minority sexualities and people living with HIV. Lack of stress on human rights and community participation is resulting in poorer policy globally. A new research agenda is needed to respond to these challenges. PMID:25859715

  20. Towards a New LLL Paradigm? EU Policy on Key Competences and Reskilling: Facets and Trends

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Papadakis

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Policy initiatives such as the European Year of Creativity and Innovation (2009 and the EU Framework on “Key Competences” (2006 and onwards aim at contributing on the ongoing reconceptualisation of skills (gradually correlated to Reskilling, Employability, Sustainability and Competitiveness and operate within the context of a changing balance between technocracy, pedagogy and politics. I.e. according to the EU cluster on Key Competences “major themes are applied throughout the Framework: creativity, critical thinking, initiative taking, play a major role in all eight key competences”. This explicit changing role of Creativity gains in political visibility and requires a contextually embedded and multidisciplinary approach. On such a perspective the present paper analyzes the political context and interest politics’ impact on the transformations on LLL and reskilling within the EU policy agenda and raises methodological and epistemological issues on the interface between educational and policy analysis.

  1. History of UK contribution to astronautics: Politics and government

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hicks CB, Colin

    2009-12-01

    In all developed countries, once it emerged from the amateur era, Space (and especially rocketry) moved on the public agenda because of its potential significance for both the civil and military policies of governments (coupled with its appetite for new money). In the UK the policy treatment of Space broadly paralleled that in other countries until the post-Empire trauma, the burn-out of the White-Hot Technological revolution of Harold Wilson, and the financial crises of the 1970s exhausted the public appetite for large scale publicly funded projects in high technology. The culmination for Space of these pressures came in 1986-1987 when the UK rejected the emerging international consensus and, almost alone, stayed outside the manned space commitments which developed into the International Space Station. In this paper, Colin Hicks will review the UK political developments which led up to the 1986-1987 decision and how the politics and organisation of UK space activity have developed since then to the point where in 2008 a major government review of the UK involvement in manned space was commissioned.

  2. Machine Learning-Based Content Analysis: Automating the analysis of frames and agendas in political communication research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Burscher, B.

    2016-01-01

    We used machine learning to study policy issues and frames in political messages. With regard to frames, we investigated the automation of two content-analytical tasks: frame coding and frame identification. We found that both tasks can be successfully automated by means of machine learning

  3. Book Review: Poverty, Politics and Policy in South Africa: Why has ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Abstract. Book Title: Poverty, Politics and Policy in South Africa: Why has Poverty Persisted after Apartheid? Book Authors: Jeremy Seekings & Nicoli Nattrass. Jacana Media: Johannesburg, 2016, 335 pp ...

  4. Tobacco control policy development in the European Union: do political factors matter?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosdriesz, Jizzo R.; Willemsen, Marc C.; Stronks, Karien; Kunst, Anton E.

    2015-01-01

    There has been much variation between European countries in the development of tobacco control policy. Not much is known about the factors that shape this variation. This study aimed to assess the role of political factors in tobacco control policy development. We used data from 11 European

  5. The Politics of Trade: The Role of Research in Trade Policy and ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2009-05-07

    May 7, 2009 ... Drawing on internal political contexts and external influences on the policy ... the Latin American School of Social Sciences, and Senior Research ... call for proposals to establish Cyber Policy Centres in the Global South. ... Special journal issue highlights IDRC-supported findings on women's paid work.

  6. Review: Questioning Ireland: debates in political philosophy and public policy

    OpenAIRE

    Sheehan, Helena

    2000-01-01

    This is a review of a collection of essays entitled Questioning Ireland: debates in political philosophy and public policy, edited by Joseph Dunne, Attracta Ingram and Frank Litton, published in Dublin by the Institute of Public Administration in 2000.

  7. The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feinberg, Matthew; Tullett, Alexa M; Mensch, Zachary; Hart, William; Gottlieb, Sara

    2017-01-01

    It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum-whether liberal, conservative, or moderate-has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in "bluer" locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in "redder" locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced.

  8. The AK Party’s Islamic Realist Political Vision: Theory and Practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malik Mufti

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The currently governing Turkish AK Party’s reformist agenda at home and its increasingly assertive policies abroad, like the “soft” and “hard” power elements of its foreign policy, reflect a remarkable coherence and continuity in the political vision of the party leadership. That vision—a contemporary manifestation (sometimes described as “neo-Ottomanism” of an older tradition of Islamic realism—is explicated through a detailed analysis of the speeches and writings of the main AK Party leaders, as well as of their opponents within the Islamist movement, and correlated with actual policy practice. It is further suggested that the AK Party’s preoccupation with its traditional secular-nationalist (Kemalist adversaries has left it unprepared to confront an even more formidable looming challenge: liberalism.

  9. The Effect of Early Political Opinion and the Political Positions on Willy Brandt's Policy towards America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Judith Michel

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Based on two case studies and using the hermeneutic interpretation of sources, this paper analyzes how Willy BRANDT's early political and cultural orientation and his respective political offices influenced his policy towards the United States of America. The example of the Vietnam war illustrates that his early biographical conditioning, as well as his government office, caused him to restrain from public criticism of American involvement in Southeast Asia. As an elder statesman, after leaving the office of Federal Chancellor, some of the orientations which he had developed during the early phase of the Cold War faded into the background while other early conditionings gained new strength in a modified form. He now took a much more critical line on the American policy towards Latin America which was consistent with his aims as Chairman of the "North-South-Commission" and President of the Socialist International. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1102122

  10. Identity politics: Exploring Georgian foreign policy behavior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kornely Kakachia

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyses the extent to which Georgia's pro-Western foreign policy orientation stems from ideas and identity rather than from materialist and systemic factors alone. Finding such narrow approaches insufficient for explaining small state behavior, and drawing on liberal and constructivist approaches to international relations theory, the article argues that Georgia's foreign policy orientation has a strong basis in the widespread ideological perception amongst the local political elite that Georgia “belongs” in the West. Based on this theoretical framework, this paper provides a historical overview of Georgia's foreign policy, tracing the evolution of Georgia's identity from seeing itself as “Christian” in contrast to its Islamic neighbors, to identifying as European in contrast to a modern, Russian “other”. As Georgia attempts to construct a collective international identity, the devotion to the idea of Euro-Atlantic integration as a “sacred destiny” amongst the country's elite has significant foreign policy implications. This article overviews the current challenges and dilemmas of self-identification and investigates the roles that national identity and the prevailing “European” identity play in Georgia's quest for “desovietization”.

  11. Tobacco Control in Africa: People, Politics and Policies | CRDI ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    15 oct. 2011 ... Tobacco use in Sub-Saharan Africa is growing rapidly as a result of strong economic growth and the aggressive marketing tactics of tobacco multinationals. Although the policy interventions are well understood, the political economy of tobacco control in Sub-Saharan Africa is not, and this volume is a timely ...

  12. Decoding the agenda: An analytical model for manifest and latent knowledge of the public agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaime Andréu Abela

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this paper is to show a model of analysis based on the hypothesis of the agenda-setting but with a clear longitudinal, multidimensional and multiparadigmatic component. Design/methodology: The theory of the media agenda (agenda setting is one of the most applied communication theories in diversity of social science fields for studying the direct and cumulative effects of the media on the audiences. Decoding the agenda is a methodological model derived from this theory that strives to obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the effects of the messages broadcasted by the media on the public opinion. Our methodological and multidimensional model, as a difference to other multi-method and triangular models, exchanges and analyzes quantitative and qualitative data in a comprehensive way. Contribution and results: In this article are presented the results of diverse pieces of research on the influence of the media in the analysis of social issues. Possible areas of application of the model in the economic sphere are indicated, especially in market and business studies. Research limitations: The topics of study, for a good application of the model in its whole temporal and dimensional breadth, require building good secondary quantitative and qualitative data bases. Practical implications: The results provided by the studies in which the model has been applied improve over time the knowledge of the influence of the media on the social, economic and political agendas. Social implications: Better understanding of the agenda setting of social issues in the public opinion. Added value: The implementation of the agenda decoder model improves the knowledge of the cumulative influence of the issues raised by the media on the public opinion.

  13. Developing a research agenda for promoting physical activity in Brazil through environmental and policy change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reis, Rodrigo S; Kelly, Cheryl M; Parra, Diana C; Barros, Mauro; Gomes, Grace; Malta, Deborah; Schmid, Thomas; Brownson, Ross C

    2012-08-01

    To identify the highest priorities for research on environmental and policy changes for promoting physical activity (PA) in Brazil; to uncover any gaps between researchers' and practitioners' priorities; and to consider which tools, methods, collaborative strategies, and actions could be useful to moving a research agenda forward. This was a mixed-methods study (qualitative and quantitative) conducted by Project GUIA (Guide for Useful Interventions for Activity in Brazil and Latin America) in February 2010-January 2011. A total of 240 individuals in the PA field (186 practitioners and 54 researchers) were asked to generate research ideas; 82 participants provided 266 original statements from which 52 topics emerged. Participants rated topics by "importance" and "feasibility;" a separate convenience sample of 21 individuals categorized them. Cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling were used to create concept maps and pattern matches. Five distinct clusters emerged from the concept mapping, of which "effectiveness and innovation in PA interventions" was rated most important by both practitioners and researchers. Pattern matching showed a divergence between the groups, especially regarding feasibility, where there was no consensus. The study results provided the basis for a research agenda to advance the understanding of environmental and policy influences on PA promotion in Brazil and Latin America. These results should stimulate future research and, ultimately, contribute to the evidence-base of successful PA strategies in Latin America.

  14. The politics of drug control in Nigeria: Exclusion, repression and obstacles to policy change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klantschnig, Gernot

    2016-04-01

    International agencies have viewed West Africa as a major player in the global trade in cocaine and heroin and in efforts to control that trade, as there have been reports of escalating arrests of drug smugglers, large-scale drug seizures and 'narco-states' in the subregion. It is claimed that a substantial share of the drugs available in Western markets transit through West Africa today and are increasingly used there as well. Notwithstanding this growing alarm, there is little serious scholarship addressing the issue of drugs and drug policy in West Africa. The article assesses and challenges some of the existing depictions of drugs and drug policy in West Africa through an empirical case study of drug control in Nigeria - one of West Africa's most notorious 'drug hubs' and recently hailed as a policy model by international experts. Based on previously inaccessible government documents, interviews with key officials in Nigeria, as well as ethnographic work at Nigeria's key drug agency, the article provides a unique insight into the politics of drug policy-making and implementation in West Africa. After describing the dominant official narratives of Nigeria's drug control, the article shows how the key political dynamics underlying drug policy remain obscured by these narratives. Nigerian drug policy has been characterised by a highly exclusive policy-making process, repression as the sole means of implementation and a strong bond with international drug agencies. This policy emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and has remained the unchallenged norm until today. The political processes underlying Nigerian drug policy also explain why policy reform has been and will be difficult to accomplish. These domestic political processes have largely been ignored in the existing depictions of drugs in West Africa, as they have mainly focused on externally driven drug threats and foreign policy responses. Most importantly, they have ignored the role played by the state. Rather

  15. Impact of the social agendas--Agenda 21 and Healthy Cities--upon Social Determinants of Health in Brazilian municipalities: measuring the effects of diffuse social policies through the dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    do Nascimento, Paulo Roberto; Westphal, Marcia Faria; Moreira, Rafael da Silveira; Baltar, Valéria Troncoso; Moysés, Simone Tetu; Zioni, Fabiola; Minowa, Evelin

    2014-01-01

    In order to improve the quality of life and health of the population in recent years there have been several local social agendas, like Agenda 21 and Healthy Cities. To identify how social agendas are impacting on the living conditions and health in municipalities of the five regions of Brazil. Through an ecological longitudinal study, the social agendas' effects on the Social Determinants of Health were measured in 105 municipalities, using indicators related to the eight dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Indicators were also calculated for other 175 non-exposed municipalities. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each group of municipalities at three different moments: in the year of the agenda implementation, then 3 and 6 years later. The models were adjusted by the method of GEE to assess the effects of the agendas, time and their interaction. Nonparametric analysis of variance was used for the ordinal data with repeated measures. Impacts of the agendas were detected for reduction of hunger and increase of universal access to education: 'percentage of children under one year with protein/caloric undernourishment' (interaction effect: p = 0.02) and 'Age-grade distortion in the 8th grade of fundamental education' (interaction effect: p < 0.001). The comparative discussion between model results and descriptive statistics recommends, at further research, extending the period of investigation, using compound indexes, improving the methodology for the apprehension of the impacts of the diffuse social policies for development, as well as using 'mixed methodologies', integrating quantitative and qualitative tools.

  16. Impact of the Social Agendas - Agenda 21 and Healthy Cities - upon Social Determinants of Health in Brazilian municipalities: measuring the effects of diffuse social policies through the dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo Roberto do Nascimento

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: In order to improve the quality of life and health of the population in recent years there have been several local social agendas, like Agenda 21 and Healthy Cities. OBJECTIVES: To identify how social agendas are impacting on the living conditions and health in municipalities of the five regions of Brazil. METHODS: Through an ecological longitudinal study, the social agendas' effects on the Social Determinants of Health were measured in 105 municipalities, using indicators related to the eight dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs. Indicators were also calculated for other 175 non-exposed municipalities. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each group of municipalities at three different moments: in the year of the agenda implementation, then 3 and 6 years later. The models were adjusted by the method of GEE to assess the effects of the agendas, time and their interaction. Nonparametric analysis of variance was used for the ordinal data with repeated measures. RESULTS: Impacts of the agendas were detected for reduction of hunger and increase of universal access to education: 'percentage of children under one year with protein/caloric undernourishment' (interaction effect: p = 0.02 and 'Age-grade distortion in the 8th grade of fundamental education' (interaction effect: p < 0.001. CONCLUSION: The comparative discussion between model results and descriptive statistics recommends, at further research, extending the period of investigation, using compound indexes, improving the methodology for the apprehension of the impacts of the diffuse social policies for development, as well as using 'mixed methodologies', integrating quantitative and qualitative tools.

  17. The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feinberg, Matthew; Tullett, Alexa M.; Mensch, Zachary; Hart, William; Gottlieb, Sara

    2017-01-01

    It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum–whether liberal, conservative, or moderate–has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in “bluer” locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in “redder” locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced. PMID:28207906

  18. The political reference point: How geography shapes political identity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthew Feinberg

    Full Text Available It is commonly assumed that how individuals identify on the political spectrum-whether liberal, conservative, or moderate-has a universal meaning when it comes to policy stances and voting behavior. But, does political identity mean the same thing from place to place? Using data collected from across the U.S. we find that even when people share the same political identity, those in "bluer" locations are more likely to support left-leaning policies and vote for Democratic candidates than those in "redder" locations. Because the meaning of political identity is inconsistent across locations, individuals who share the same political identity sometimes espouse opposing policy stances. Meanwhile, those with opposing identities sometimes endorse identical policy stances. Such findings suggest that researchers, campaigners, and pollsters must use caution when extrapolating policy preferences and voting behavior from political identity, and that animosity toward the other end of the political spectrum is sometimes misplaced.

  19. Who Is a Stream? Epistemic Communities, Instrument Constituencies and Advocacy Coalitions in Public Policy-Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ishani Mukherjee

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available John Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF was articulated in order to better understand how issues entered onto policy agendas, using the concept of policy actors interacting over the course of sequences of events in what he referred to as the “problem”, “policy” and “politics” “streams”. However, it is not a priori certain who the agents are in this process and how they interact with each other. As was common at the time, in his study Kingdon used an undifferentiated concept of a “policy subsystem” to group together and capture the activities of various policy actors involved in this process. However, this article argues that the policy world Kingdon envisioned can be better visualized as one composed of distinct subsets of actors who engage in one specific type of interaction involved in the definition of policy problems: either the articulation of problems, the development of solutions, or their enactment. Rather than involve all subsystem actors, this article argues that three separate sets of actors are involved in these tasks: epistemic communities are engaged in discourses about policy problems; instrument constituencies define policy alternatives and instruments; and advocacy coalitions compete to have their choice of policy alternatives adopted. Using this lens, the article focuses on actor interactions involved both in the agenda-setting activities Kingdon examined as well as in the policy formulation activities following the agenda setting stage upon which Kingdon originally worked. This activity involves the definition of policy goals (both broad and specific, the creation of the means and mechanisms to realize these goals, and the set of bureaucratic, partisan, electoral and other political struggles involved in their acceptance and transformation into action. Like agenda-setting, these activities can best be modeled using a differentiated subsystem approach.

  20. Effects of Fiscal and Monetary Policy in the Great Recession

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gonzalo Caballero

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available World economy is living a time of change, and the complexity of change has implied a new research agenda on the role of economic policy in society. The role, types and effects of economic policy have been major issues in economic science since its origins. Jean Tinbergen (1956 [1] established the basis for the traditional theory of economic policy in economics and he tried to show how economic knowledge could be organized to regulate and guide economic systems. Nevertheless, this traditional approach has been improved through several contributions, for example when Eggertsson (1997 [2] incorporated the existence of incomplete knowledge, endogenous politics and institutional change in the theory of economic policy.

  1. Montagem de Agenda no Comitê Itajaí: Uma Aplicação do Modelo de Kingdon

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcello Beckert Zapelini

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this article is to study agenda setting during the formulation of the Itajaí River Basin Plan by the Comitê Itajaí (Itajaí Committee. In methodological terms, it consists of a qualitative, documentary and field case study, collecting data through documentary research and interview. The studied case was that of the decision to charge for the use of water resources, to which we applied Kingdon’s multiple streams model (2003 in order to understand the dynamics of the involved agents’ actions in which the combination of the problem, political and policy streams led to the opening of a policy window. Hence, water resource users, acting as policy entrepreneurs, made use of the policy window to modify the formula for charging originally proposed by the Committee’s board of directors, thus ensuring a more appropriate instrument for their interests.

  2. Explaining the non-implementation of health-improving policies related to solid fuels use in South Africa

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matinga, Margaret Njirambo; Clancy, Joy S.; Annegarn, Harold J.

    2014-01-01

    In 1998, the South African government developed an energy policy that focused on a pro-poor agenda. Its objectives included addressing the health impacts of solid fuel use in households. Fourteen years later, and with household electrification at over 80%, millions still use solid fuels and yet ambitious policy objectives to address this situation are not being met. Using three theoretical frameworks; institutional capacity, policy inheritance and the symbolic use of policy, this paper analyses the reasons why household energy policy objectives related to solid fuels and health, as stated in the 1998 South African energy policy, have not been implemented. The results of the analysis show that the symbolic use of policy, including meanings of objects used for meeting policy objectives is the most critical explanation. The paper illustrates that political and historical contexts are critical to understanding policy outcomes in developing and transition countries which often experience tensions between implementing what may seem as objective policies, and that matches their political and historical experiences and aspirations. We recommend that policy analysts in the energy sector complement currently common methods to include political contexts of policy development and implementation in order to better understand why policy makers chose to implement certain policies over others. - Highlights: • Policy non-implementation in developing countries focuses on lack of resources. • We add policy inheritance and policy symbolism to assess non-implementation. • South Africa's racial politics affect how policies are perceived and implemented. • Politically, firewood and electricity symbolise repression and emancipation. • Electricity and firewood's symbolic meanings affect policy makers' focus on these

  3. Green industrial policy. Perspectives of economic and political scienc; Oekologische Industriepolitik. Wirtschafts- und politikwissenschaftliche Perspektiven

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jacob, Klaus [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany)

    2009-01-15

    The necessity and possibilities of, limits to and the specific instruments employed for green industrial policy are a topic of both scientific and political debate. Economists and politicians can draw on rich resources in dealing with these issues. The contributions contained in this volume are the outcome of a workshop held by the German Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Environment Ministry on the topic of ''Green industrial policy'' on 18 April 2008 in Berlin. Economists and politicians were invited to participate in an expert dialog to locate the topic of green industrial policy within the larger discourses of political economics, deliberate on theoretical motives and practical limits to the concept from an economic viewpoint and discuss possible instruments and fields of action. The workshop focussed on questions relating to the necessity of green industrial policy, the framing of political programmes and the implementation of adopted goals into specific measures.

  4. How to Use a Trafficked Woman. The Alliance between Political and Criminal Trafficking Organisations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Davies

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available The principal argument of this paper is that migrant women with secure mobility rights and supportive social networks can avoid or mitigate many trafficking harms. However the paper contends that some actors have conspired to prevent such circumstances so as to pursue diverse political agendas at the expense of migrant women. The paper’s analysis restructures the trafficking contest from organised criminals versus law enforcement agencies to principally a contest between migrant women and those political agents who benefit from the moral panic associated with trafficking. It is then argued that it is these more sophisticated political actors rather than organised criminals and the clients of sex workers are the most important stakeholders in sustaining or exploiting trafficking harm. Therefore, it is concluded that resolving many trafficking harms in the EEA could be achieved by subverting political traffickers through improving migration policy rather than fighting organised crime.

  5. Preferences, power and policy outcomes in public policy in Iceland: The Icelandic Housing Fund fiasco 2003-2005

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sigurbjörg Sigurgeirsdóttir

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This research focuses on the interplay of politics, bureaucracies and markets in Iceland. It aims to explain theoretically how politics and bureaucracies operate when a coalition government makes and implements decisions in a policy environment in which decisions and their effects intersect public bureaucracies’ and markets’ boundaries. The decision to raise the limits of Housing Fund mortgages in 2003 is a case examined by agenda-setting theories in public policy. The research is based on the data from parliamentary Special Investigation reports on the collapse of the Icelandic banks and the Housing Fund as well as the author’s interviews home and abroad. The research shows that, when made, the decision ignited competition between the Housing Fund and the recently privatized banks and that between the banks themselves. The Independence Party’s attempts to delay implementation of the decision involved system change backed by an instrument designed to stem a run on the Fund. The impact of this instrument (a tax on pre-payments was incompatible with the Progressive Party’s political interests. In a hasty attempt to implement its election promises, the Progressive Party ignored the fact that the Fund was operating within a transformed financial system. The conclusions indicate that those who think long-term in politics make policies by changing system dynamics, those who think short-term change programmes. System dynamics, however, change the balance of power and influence between actors, leaving legacies which curb the government’s attempt at change, unless consolidated and sustained political authority and will are established to see changes through.

  6. Deliberative Political Leaders: The Role of Policy Input in Political Leadership

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jennifer Lees-Marshment

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This article provides a fresh perspective on political leadership by demonstrating that government ministers take a deliberative approach to decision making. Getting behind the closed doors of government through 51 elite interviews in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the article demonstrates that modern political leadership is much more collaborative than we usually see from media and public critique. Politicians are commonly perceived to be power-hungry autocratic, elite figures who once they have won power seek to implement their vision. But as previous research has noted, not only is formal power circumscribed by the media, public opinion, and unpredictability of government, more collaborative approaches to leadership are needed given the rise of wicked problems and citizens increasingly demand more say in government decisions and policy making. This article shows that politicians are responding to their challenging environment by accepting they do not know everything and cannot do everything by themselves, and moving towards a leadership style that incorporates public input. It puts forward a new model of Deliberative Political Leadership, where politicians consider input from inside and outside government from a diverse range of sources, evaluate the relative quality of such input, and integrate it into their deliberations on the best way forward before making their final decision. This rare insight into politician’s perspectives provides a refreshing view of governmental leadership in practice and new model for future research.

  7. newspapers' agricultural agenda setting and extension agents ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    p2333147

    Keywords: Newspapers', agricultural, extension agents' agenda setting. ABSTRACT ... from the priorities of political or other interest groups to the news priorities of media ... people. The questions that arise are-: what are the sources operating for ... The ADPs presently adopt the training and visit (T & V) system of extension.

  8. Introducing payment for performance in the health sector of Tanzania- the policy process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chimhutu, Victor; Tjomsland, Marit; Songstad, Nils Gunnar; Mrisho, Mwifadhi; Moland, Karen Marie

    2015-09-02

    Prompted by the need to achieve progress in health outcomes, payment for performance (P4P) schemes are becoming popular policy options in the health systems in many low income countries. This paper describes the policy process behind the introduction of a payment for performance scheme in the health sector of Tanzania illuminating in particular the interests of and roles played by the Government of Norway, the Government of Tanzania and the other development partners. The study employed a qualitative research design using in-depth interviews (IDIs), observations and document reviews. Thirteen IDIs with key-informants representing the views of ten donor agencies and government departments influential in the process of introducing the P4P scheme in Tanzania were conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Oslo, Norway. Data was collected on the main trends and thematic priorities in development aid policy, countries and actors perceived to be proponents and opponents to the P4P scheme, and P4P agenda setting in Tanzania. The initial introduction of P4P in the health sector of Tanzania was controversial. The actors involved including the bilateral donors in the Health Basket Fund, the World Bank, the Tanzanian Government and high level politicians outside the Health Basket Fund fought for their values and interests and formed alliances that shifted in the course of the process. The process was characterized by high political pressure, conflicts, changing alliances, and, as it evolved, consensus building. The P4P policy process was highly political with external actors playing a significant role in influencing the agenda in Tanzania, leaving less space for the Government of Tanzania to provide leadership in the process. Norway in particular, took a leading role in setting the agenda. The process of introducing P4P became long and frustrating causing mistrust among partners in the Health Basket Fund.

  9. The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda

    OpenAIRE

    Annabelle Workman; Grant Blashki; Kathryn J. Bowen; David J. Karoly; John Wiseman

    2018-01-01

    A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite a recognition that the combustion of fossil fuels results in pervasive short- and long-term health consequences. We use insights from literature on the political economy of health and climate chan...

  10. Education policy and school segregation of migrant students in Catalonia: the politics of non-decision-making

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bonal, X.

    2012-01-01

    This article shows how the Catalan government has not developed an agenda to tackle school segregation despite the growing number of migrant pupils who arrived over the course of the last decade. Education policy has explicitly disregarded the possibilities of improving the regulatory framework for

  11. Why invest in wind energy? Career incentives and Chinese renewable energy politics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cao, Xun; Kleit, Andrew; Liu, Chuyu

    2016-01-01

    We study wind development at the provincial level in China, modelling installed wind capacities as a function of both economics and politics. We assume that the top provincial officials desire to maximize their chances of promotion under the Chinese cadre evaluation system. We expect that those with the strongest incentives to perform in order to achieve promotion would work harder to comply with the central government’s policy agenda to promote renewable energy. Collecting and testing data on provincial leaders’ characteristics, we find that provinces governed by party secretaries who were approaching the age of 65 are associated with significantly higher level of wind installed capacities. This result supports the political tournaments theory of Chinese politics. We also find that better educated party secretaries are likely to be more supportive of renewable energy, implying that education acts to encourage provincial leaders to support the central government’s policy. - Highlights: • No negative association between fossil fuel production and wind energy development. • Provinces with party secretaries approaching the age of 65 have more installed capacities. • Better educated party secretaries are likely to be more supportive of renewable energy.

  12. Factors shaping political priorities for violence against women-mitigation policies in Sri Lanka.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colombini, Manuela; Mayhew, Susannah H; Lund, Ragnhild; Singh, Navpreet; Swahnberg, Katarina; Infanti, Jennifer; Schei, Berit; Wijewardene, Kumudu

    2018-05-25

    Although violence against women (VAW) is a global public health issue, its importance as a health issue is often unrecognized in legal and health policy documents. This paper uses Sri Lanka as a case study to explore the factors influencing the national policy response to VAW, particularly by the health sector. A document based health policy analysis was conducted to examine current policy responses to VAW in Sri Lanka using the Shiffman and Smith (2007) policy analysis framework. The findings suggest that the networks and influences of various actors in Sri Lanka, and their ideas used to frame the issue of VAW, have been particularly important in shaping the nature of the policy response to date. The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs led the national response on VAW, but suffered from limited financial and political support. Results also suggest that there was low engagement by the health sector in the initial policy response to VAW in Sri Lanka, which focused primarily on criminal legislation, following global influences. Furthermore, a lack of empirical data on VAW has impeded its promotion as a health policy issue, despite financial support from international organisations enabling an initial health systems response by the Ministry of Health. Until a legal framework was established (2005), the political context provided limited opportunities for VAW to also be construed as a health issue. It was only then that the Ministry of Health got legitimacy to institutionalise VAW services. Nearly a decade later, a change in government has led to a new national plan on VAW, giving a clear role to the health sector in the fight against VAW. High-level political will, criminalisation of violence, coalesced women's groups advocating for legislative change, prevalence data, and financial support from influential institutions are all critical elements helping frame violence as a national public health issue.

  13. Discourse and dissonance: religious agendas in the 104th Congress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bethany Blackstone

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the religious dimension of Republican legislators’ participation in one-minute speeches during the 104th Congress (1995–1996. Many have characterized the House Republican Conference that emerged after the 1994 elections as a highly cohesive majority party. Even in that context, however, legislators represent varied personal agendas, and in part these are informed by religion. We topically coded a subset of floor speeches to measure the extent to which variation is observed in the issues addressed by Members of Congress. The findings demonstrate that on key policy domains, such as the role of government, culture, and social welfare, speech participation varies systematically on the basis of member religion. This suggests that legislative participation is influenced by genuine personal preferences in additional to strategic political factors.

  14. The politics of policy : participatory irrigation management in Andhra Pradesh

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nikku, B.R.

    2006-01-01

    This thesis studies the emergence, process and politics of the Andhra Pradesh reform policy of Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM). The reform has been labeled as the 'A? model' of irrigation reforms and supported by external aid agencies like World Bank. Within a short span of time Andhra

  15. The Politics of Trade and Industrial Policy in Africa: Forced ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2004-01-01

    Jan 1, 2004 ... This book maps the policy process and political economy of policymaking in Africa. ... Detailed case studies help the reader to understand how the process ... Professionals, practitioners, and policymakers in the international donor ... a member of the editorial board of the Cambridge Journal of Economics.

  16. On Welfare and Terror: Social Welfare Policies and Political-Economic Roots of Terrorism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgoon, Brian

    2006-01-01

    This article argues that social welfare policies may reduce international and domestic terrorism. Social policies likely affect terrorism in offsetting ways but, on balance, should diminish preferences for terrorism by reducing economic insecurity, inequality, poverty, and religious-political extremism. Thus, countries with more generous welfare…

  17. A Literature Review of Homelessness and Aging: Suggestions for a Policy and Practice-Relevant Research Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grenier, Amanda; Barken, Rachel; Sussman, Tamara; Rothwell, David; Bourgeois-Guérin, Valérie; Lavoie, Jean-Pierre

    2016-03-01

    Homelessness among older people is a growing concern across Canada and is expected to rise with demographic change (Crane & Warnes, 2010; Culhane, Metraux, Byrne, Stino, & Bainbridge, 2013). Yet current knowledge, policies, and practices on homelessness largely focus on younger populations. Likewise, research and policies on aging typically overlook homelessness. Responses to homelessness among older people must address complex needs related to health, income security, and housing. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article outlines the existing and needed research with regards to homelessness among older people. We clarify the intersections of aging and homelessness; review the relevant statistics, including estimated prevalence; discuss pathways and variations in experience; and identify gaps in knowledge. We conclude with a call for an inclusive research agenda that will help build policies and practices to reduce and ultimately to eliminate homelessness among older people in Canada.

  18. A Research Agenda for Humanitarian Health Ethics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunt, Matthew; Schwartz, Lisa; Pringle, John; Boulanger, Renaud; Nouvet, Elysée; O'Mathúna, Dónal; Arya, Neil; Bernard, Carrie; Beukeboom, Carolyn; Calain, Philippe; de Laat, Sonya; Eckenwiler, Lisa; Elit, Laurie; Fraser, Veronique; Gillespie, Leigh-Anne; Johnson, Kirsten; Meagher, Rachel; Nixon, Stephanie; Olivier, Catherine; Pakes, Barry; Redwood-Campbell, Lynda; Reis, Andreas; Renaldi, Teuku; Singh, Jerome; Smith, Maxwell; Von Schreeb, Johan

    2014-01-01

    This paper maps key research questions for humanitarian health ethics: the ethical dimensions of healthcare provision and public health activities during international responses to situations of humanitarian crisis. Development of this research agenda was initiated at the Humanitarian Health Ethics Forum (HHE Forum) convened in Hamilton, Canada in November 2012. The HHE Forum identified priority avenues for advancing policy and practice for ethics in humanitarian health action. The main topic areas examined were: experiences and perceptions of humanitarian health ethics; training and professional development initiatives for humanitarian health ethics; ethics support for humanitarian health workers; impact of policies and project structures on humanitarian health ethics; and theoretical frameworks and ethics lenses. Key research questions for each topic area are presented, as well as proposed strategies for advancing this research agenda. Pursuing the research agenda will help strengthen the ethical foundations of humanitarian health action. PMID:25687273

  19. Global climate policy and local energy politics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jaeger, Mark Daniel; Michaelowa, Katharina

    2016-01-01

    Along with the large middle-income countries Brazil, China, and South Africa, India has been put under increasing pressure to shoulder parts of the mitigation burden and commit to national emission reduction targets. India, however, refers to its limited capacity and widespread poverty. Is India......-poor arguments advanced at the international level. Given their large number and the country's democratic system, the poor do have some weight in Indian politics. However, pro-poor policies end where they do not translate into greater vote shares. Moreover, India's international position ignores the existing...

  20. What factors in the policy-making process determine the priority given to a policy issue?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erisa Xhixho

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Agenda setting is the process by which problems and alternative solutions gain or lose public attention (Birkland T. (2007, p.63; Werner J. and Wegrich K. (2007, p.46.. The main factor that determine an issue that it could become a priority, drawing the attention of decision makers, the public, reaching for it to become part of the agenda are: “Window of Opportunity”, which is a strategy used by less powerful groups, which are benefiting from the fact that powerful groups in certain situations may lose control of the agenda, they manage this circumstances to make their case to the priority. Another factor are the “Focus Event” that emphasizes the fact that unexpected events that shock the public opinion, as were the cases of corruption of officials, case “Snowden” or 11 September in the USA, affecting an issue that directly lead the decision-making agenda. Advocacy coalitions, is a form that use less powerful groups by joining on the basis of certain principles, values, beliefs they have about a particular issue. This alliance of values, resources and coordination of actions helps to advance the issue becoming a priority. “Venue shop” as a factor that aims to reach groups through institutions, be heard, be able to attract the attention of decision makers, also using the media as a very important factor nowadays for sensitizing public opinion on the issue and influence in order to become a priority issue. “Policy network” has come as a need of developing a relationship between government and the private sector, thus forming a power dependency relationship mainly the exchange of resources and thereby influencing the political agenda on particular issues. Therefore in this article I will try to argue that these factors affect in various ways becoming determinant that the issue be the priority on the decision agenda. Also, I can say that after the development of the analysis, I think that the two factors have a greater influence

  1. Climate politics in the Lower Mekong Basin. National interests and transboundary cooperation on climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baadsgaard Lange, R.; Moerck Jensen, K.

    2013-09-01

    Climate change is expected to intensify water security concerns in international river basins. UNFCCC and DAC-donors have been important generators of political attention to the climate agenda among governments in the Mekong Basin in relation to regional cooperation, national policy-making and capacity building. However, the formal commitment to climate action is not necessarily reflected in the everyday business of development. In this paper we use a political economy approach to understand when and how climate change becomes a political priority for the governments of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and for transboundary cooperation. Uneven distribution of climate hazards and vulnerabilities create different national risk perceptions and commitment to climate action. Donor funding and national development strategies are also strong drivers of climate action and inaction. Climate change is sometimes used as a scapegoat for domestic policy failures and as a tool to acquire donor funding. We recommend prioritizing climate action in the context of immediate development challenges and 'no regrets' interventions that are likely to enhance adaptive capacity and governments' commitment. (Author)

  2. The Policy Dystopia Model: An Interpretive Analysis of Tobacco Industry Political Activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ulucanlar, Selda; Fooks, Gary J; Gilmore, Anna B

    2016-09-01

    Tobacco industry interference has been identified as the greatest obstacle to the implementation of evidence-based measures to reduce tobacco use. Understanding and addressing industry interference in public health policy-making is therefore crucial. Existing conceptualisations of corporate political activity (CPA) are embedded in a business perspective and do not attend to CPA's social and public health costs; most have not drawn on the unique resource represented by internal tobacco industry documents. Building on this literature, including systematic reviews, we develop a critically informed conceptual model of tobacco industry political activity. We thematically analysed published papers included in two systematic reviews examining tobacco industry influence on taxation and marketing of tobacco; we included 45 of 46 papers in the former category and 20 of 48 papers in the latter (n = 65). We used a grounded theory approach to build taxonomies of "discursive" (argument-based) and "instrumental" (action-based) industry strategies and from these devised the Policy Dystopia Model, which shows that the industry, working through different constituencies, constructs a metanarrative to argue that proposed policies will lead to a dysfunctional future of policy failure and widely dispersed adverse social and economic consequences. Simultaneously, it uses diverse, interlocking insider and outsider instrumental strategies to disseminate this narrative and enhance its persuasiveness in order to secure its preferred policy outcomes. Limitations are that many papers were historical (some dating back to the 1970s) and focused on high-income regions. The model provides an evidence-based, accessible way of understanding diverse corporate political strategies. It should enable public health actors and officials to preempt these strategies and develop realistic assessments of the industry's claims.

  3. Political Measures for Strategic Environmental Policy with External Effects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ohyama, A. [Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Kyoto (Japan); Tsujimura, M. [Faculty of Economics, Ryukoku University, Otsu (Japan)

    2006-10-15

    This paper investigates an environmental policy designed to reduce the emission of pollutants under uncertainty, with the agent problem as an optimal stopping problem. We first analyze the two cases in which there are one agent and two competing agents by following Ohyama and Tsujimura (2005). When we consider a model of strategic agents, we need to analyze the external economic effect that is peculiar to an agent's environmental policy implementation. Then, to improve and resolve these external effects, we examine three alternative political measures, comprising an environmental subsidy, an environmental tax and an emission trading system. The results of the analysis indicate that the environmental subsidy and environmental tax promote environmental policy. However, they do not create an incentive to be the leader. On the other hand, an emissions trading system not only promotes environmental policy but also creates an incentive for leadership.

  4. Political Measures for Strategic Environmental Policy with External Effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohyama, A.; Tsujimura, M.

    2006-01-01

    This paper investigates an environmental policy designed to reduce the emission of pollutants under uncertainty, with the agent problem as an optimal stopping problem. We first analyze the two cases in which there are one agent and two competing agents by following Ohyama and Tsujimura (2005). When we consider a model of strategic agents, we need to analyze the external economic effect that is peculiar to an agent's environmental policy implementation. Then, to improve and resolve these external effects, we examine three alternative political measures, comprising an environmental subsidy, an environmental tax and an emission trading system. The results of the analysis indicate that the environmental subsidy and environmental tax promote environmental policy. However, they do not create an incentive to be the leader. On the other hand, an emissions trading system not only promotes environmental policy but also creates an incentive for leadership

  5. Chapter 4: A policy process and tools for international non-governmental organizations in the health sector using ISPRM as a case in point.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinhardt, Jan D; von Groote, Per M; DeLisa, Joel A; Melvin, John L; Bickenbach, Jerome E; Stucki, Gerold

    2009-09-01

    The politics of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) serve the function of selecting and attaining particular socially valued goals. The selection and attainment of goals as the primary function of political action can be structured along a policy process or cycle comprising the stages of strategic goal setting and planning of strategic pathways, agenda setting, resource mobilization, implementation, evaluation and innovation. At the various stages of this policy process different policy tools or instruments, which can be used to influence citizen and organizational behaviour in the light of defined goals, can be applied. The objective of this paper is to introduce and describe policy tools of potential relevance to ISPRM with regard to different policy functions and stages of the policy process.

  6. Barriers to breastfeeding in Lebanon: A policy analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akik, Chaza; Ghattas, Hala; Filteau, Suzanne; Knai, Cecile

    2017-08-01

    Although the issue of breastfeeding in Lebanon has risen on the political agenda, the country does not meet international recommendations for early breastfeeding practices. This study analysed barriers to dissemination, implementation, and enforcement of key policies to improve early breastfeeding practices. We conducted interviews with stakeholders in breastfeeding policy in Lebanon and used a framework approach for analysing data. We found a disconnect between policy endorsement and translation on the ground, weak engagement of professional associations and governmental institutions, undue influence by the breast milk substitute industry, and competing priorities-most notably the current refugee crisis. This study highlights the potential policy opportunities to counter these barriers and points to the role of international organisations and grassroots advocacy in pushing, monitoring, and implementing policies that protect breastfeeding, where government capacity is limited, and the private sector is strong.

  7. Defusing the bombshell? Agenda 21 and economic development in China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harris, P.G.; Udagawa, C. [Lingnan University, Hong Kong (China)

    2004-08-15

    Agenda 21 is the voluminous policy document that emanated from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Using a brief case study of China's energy use - specifically its use of coal - this article illustrates the degree to which objectives of Agenda 21 are reflected in China's economic development policies and practices. China has started to shift its economic development toward a more environmentally sustainable trajectory, as reflected in its changing policies on energy derived from coal burning. We conclude that while China's environmental policies have been stimulated in part by Agenda 21 and other international environmental undertakings, such 'soft' international agreements are far from the only important determinants and variables. Many factors, such a bureaucratic infighting, disagreements between central and provincial governments, as well as corruption, severely delimit the extent and efficacy of energy policies and other environmental regulations. Because economic growth remains central to development goals, existing environmental policies are only a start toward environmentally sustainable development. Environmental decline still outpaces sustainable development in China, and this will continue for many years to come.

  8. Climate policy in developing countries and conditional transfers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruebbelke, Dirk T.G.

    2006-01-01

    This paper analyzes the role international transfers may play in international climate policy in consideration of the policy's ancillary benefits, such as air quality improvements. Ancillary benefits are especially important in many developing countries, while climate protection benefits or primary benefits play a minor role on the political agenda of these countries. In contrast, industrialized countries have a strong interest in combating climate change. These often neglected asymmetries between the developing and industrialized world affect the impacts of transfers. Interestingly, as we will show, the cost differentials between different environmental technologies among countries are the crucial prerequisite for the functioning of a transfer scheme and not the cost differentials in the execution of climate policy. This result has been overlooked by standard pure public good approaches

  9. Climate policy. Objectives, conflicts, solutions; Klimapolitik. Ziele, Konflikte, Loesungen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Edenhofer, Ottmar [TU Berlin (Germany). Lehrstuhl fuer die Oekonomie des Klimawandels; Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Berlin (Germany); Potsdam-Institut fuer Klimaforschung (Germany); Jakob, Michael [Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Berlin (Germany)

    2017-07-01

    Extreme temperatures and deaths in Pakistan, floods in Russia, draughts in California, melting glaciers, harvest losses and a century vine in the Rheingau 2015: the consequences of the climatic change can be observed on all continents and oceans. The international climate politics has installed the intergovernmental panel on climate change that is of fundamental importance for political agenda. Up to now mankind has little experience with the fair and efficient use of common assets. Therefore climate policy is of special importance for international cooperation. [German] Hitzetote in Pakistan, Ueberschwemmungen in Russland, Duerren in Kalifornien, schmelzende Gletscher, Ernteverluste und ein Jahrhundertwein im Rheingau 2015: Die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels lassen sich bereits auf allen Kontinenten und in allen Ozeanen beobachten. Die internationale Klimapolitik hat sich im Weltklimarat ein einzigartiges Gremium geschaffen, das fuer die Agenda der Politik von grundlegender Bedeutung ist. Noch hat die Menschheit wenig Erfahrung mit der gerechten und effizienten Nutzung globaler Gemeinschaftsgueter. Daher kommt der Klimapolitik eine besondere Bedeutung zu, denn sie hat fuer die internationale Kooperation auf vielen Feldern eine Vorbildfunktion.

  10. The presidential politics of climate discourse: energy frames, policy, and political tactics from the 2016 Primaries in the United States

    OpenAIRE

    Brown, George; Sovacool, Benjamin K

    2017-01-01

    his study presents the results of an investigation into the frequency in which four candidates of the 2016 United States Presidential Primary season communicated their political positions on climate change, and how they subsequently framed these stances in numerous contextual drivers alongside energy policies. A systematic content analysis of political debates, campaign speeches, and press statements reveals how Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz undertook in vote-see...

  11. Energy security and climate change concerns: Triggers for energy policy change in the United States?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bang, Guri, E-mail: guri.bang@cicero.uio.n [CICERO - Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo, P.O. Box 1129, 0318 Oslo (Norway)

    2010-04-15

    Why is it so difficult to change the energy policy status quo away from dependence on fossil fuels when the need to become less dependent on imported oil seems to be generally accepted by US politicians? In recent energy debates in the House and Senate, references to climate change and energy security were frequently used as a rationale for the need for energy policy change. But policymakers were not in agreement about what policy programs would be the best alternative or what goals the programs were to achieve in terms of addressing energy security or climate change, or both at the same time. The paper explores whether putting energy security and climate change on the decision making agenda simultaneously helped craft a political compromise in the 110th Congress-the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and points out how the political institutions of the US structured interaction and affected policy outcome, and ultimately the chance of changing the energy policy status quo.

  12. Energy security and climate change concerns. Triggers for energy policy change in the United States?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bang, Guri [CICERO - Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo, P.O. Box 1129, 0318 Oslo (Norway)

    2010-04-15

    Why is it so difficult to change the energy policy status quo away from dependence on fossil fuels when the need to become less dependent on imported oil seems to be generally accepted by US politicians? In recent energy debates in the House and Senate, references to climate change and energy security were frequently used as a rationale for the need for energy policy change. But policymakers were not in agreement about what policy programs would be the best alternative or what goals the programs were to achieve in terms of addressing energy security or climate change, or both at the same time. The paper explores whether putting energy security and climate change on the decision making agenda simultaneously helped craft a political compromise in the 110th Congress - the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and points out how the political institutions of the US structured interaction and affected policy outcome, and ultimately the chance of changing the energy policy status quo. (author)

  13. Energy security and climate change concerns: Triggers for energy policy change in the United States?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bang, Guri

    2010-01-01

    Why is it so difficult to change the energy policy status quo away from dependence on fossil fuels when the need to become less dependent on imported oil seems to be generally accepted by US politicians? In recent energy debates in the House and Senate, references to climate change and energy security were frequently used as a rationale for the need for energy policy change. But policymakers were not in agreement about what policy programs would be the best alternative or what goals the programs were to achieve in terms of addressing energy security or climate change, or both at the same time. The paper explores whether putting energy security and climate change on the decision making agenda simultaneously helped craft a political compromise in the 110th Congress-the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and points out how the political institutions of the US structured interaction and affected policy outcome, and ultimately the chance of changing the energy policy status quo.

  14. Work-Life balance: towards an agenda for policy learning between Britain and Germany

    OpenAIRE

    Arthur, Lore

    2002-01-01

    This survey analyses the political context, the legislative frameworks and the policy developments in an area that is now widely termed 'work-life balance' in both the United Kingdom and Germany. It also looks at the theoretical notions of time in relation to work and family life and gives examples of research in the public, private and voluntary sector.

  15. Global economic governance in the G20: perspectives on a working agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Saguier

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available The international financial crisis unleashed in 2008 has given renewed prominence to the Group of 20 (G20 as the main forum of governance in the world economy. The main challenge of G20 is to articulate a political dialogue that can generate a basic consensus for a new paradigm of globalization that not only can overcome the current crisis, but also ensure social and environmental sustainability of a new growth model in a context post-neoliberal. Unlike other international crises, the G20 acknowledges that employment and social security are imperative agendas for sustainable economic recovery. The incorporation of this agenda results from the joint leadership of Brazil and Argentina in coalition with the International Labour Organization (ILO and the international labor movement. The article discusses the content and scope of the labor agenda in response to changes in the international political context marked by a restoration of neoliberal globalization.

  16. The politics of surveillance policy: UK regulatory dynamics after Snowden

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arne Hintz

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have illustrated the scale and extent of digital surveillance carried out by different security and intelligence agencies. The publications have led to a variety of concerns, public debate, and some diplomatic fallout regarding the legality of the surveillance, the extent of state interference in civic life, and the protection of civil rights in the context of security. Debates about the policy environment of surveillance emerged quickly after the leaks began, but actual policy change is only starting. In the UK, a draft law (Investigatory Powers Bill has been proposed and is currently discussed. In this paper, we will trace the forces and dynamics that have shaped this particular policy response. Addressing surveillance policy as a site of struggle between different social forces and drawing on different fields across communication policy research, we suggest eight dynamics that, often in conflicting ways, have shaped the regulatory framework of surveillance policy in the UK since the Snowden leaks. These include the governmental context; national and international norms; court rulings; civil society advocacy; technical standards; private sector interventions; media coverage; and public opinion. We investigate how state surveillance has been met with criticism by parts of the technology industry and civil society, and that policy change was required as a result of legal challenges, review commissions and normative interventions. However a combination of specific government compositions, the strong role of security agendas and discourses, media justification and a muted reaction by the public have hindered a more fundamental review of surveillance practices so far and have moved policy debate towards the expansion, rather than the restriction, of surveillance in the aftermath of Snowden.

  17. Developing and Implementing Educational Policy in a Hung Parliament: The Tasmanian Green-Labor Accord (2011), and Kingdon's Agendas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodwell, Grant

    2012-01-01

    This paper details how educational policy is developed in an educational authority in a political environment of a hung parliament. The paper begins by looking briefly at the difficulties facing educational policy rollout in Tasmania during the years 2000-2011, and then details how an educational policy dealing with school closures was reshaped in…

  18. The formulation of public policies for rural youth in Brazil and the constituent elements of social process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sérgio Botton Barcellos

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The construction of the research problem occurred in trying to investigate the configuration of public policies for the rural youth and how this political agenda was introduced in the State of the Brazil. The main issue in the research is how the process of configuration of public policies for rural youth in federal government has occurred. The methodology for this study used was qualitative research procedures were triggered participant observation, interviews and documentary analysis. During the research the actors, the formulated policies and rural youth category expressed during this process were highlighted.

  19. Leadership in politics and science within the Antarctic Treaty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John R. Dudeney

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available For over 50 years the Antarctic has been governed through the Antarctic Treaty, an international agreement now between 49 nations of whom 28 Consultative Parties (CPs undertake the management role. Ostensibly, these Parties have qualified for their position on scientific grounds, though diplomacy also plays a major role. This paper uses counts of policy papers and science publications to assess the political and scientific outputs of all CPs over the last 18 years. We show that a subset of the original 12 Treaty signatories, consisting of the seven claimant nations, the USA and Russia, not only set the political agenda for the continent but also provide most of the science, with those CPs producing the most science generally having the greatest political influence. None of the later signatories to the Treaty appear to play a major role in managing Antarctica compared with this group, with half of all CPs collectively producing only 7% of the policy papers. Although acceptance as a CP requires demonstration of a substantial scientific programme, the Treaty has no formal mechanism to review whether a CP continues to meet this criterion. As a first step to addressing this deficiency, we encourage the CPs collectively to resolve to hold regular international peer reviews of their individual science programmes and to make the results available to the other CPs.

  20. Implementing China`s Agenda 21: From National Strategy to Local Actions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gan, Lin

    1998-12-01

    This report analyses the process of adaptation of the Chinese governmental policy in response to sustainable development. It reviews the historical roots from which response to sustainable development arises. By examining the policy-making and implementation processes of China`s Agenda 21, the author studies (1) the dynamic forces that contribute to the establishment of the national and regional Agenda 21 and the relationships between different institutional preferences, arrangements and their obstacles, (2) the driving forces that pro-active responses to implement Agenda 21 projects, and the role of local governments in the process, (3) the relationship between international environmental aid and national capacity building for the environment, (4) the obstacles and conflicting interests that limit the implementation of Agenda 21 and sustainable development in China. 22 refs., 2 tabs.

  1. Education Policy and School Segregation of Migrant Students in Catalonia: The Politics of Non-Decision-Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonal, Xavier

    2012-01-01

    This article shows how the Catalan government has not developed an agenda to tackle school segregation despite the growing number of migrant pupils who arrived over the course of the last decade. Education policy has explicitly disregarded the possibilities of improving the regulatory framework for tackling segregation; it has exercised…

  2. Nursery Schools or Nursery Classes? Choosing and Failing to Choose between Policy Alternatives in Nursery Education in England, 1918-1972

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, Amy

    2016-01-01

    This article analyses early years education policy in England from 1918 to 1972, applying the theoretical ideas of John Kingdon. Throughout this period, the educational needs of young children were a low political priority, but they did occasionally rise on the agenda. When the issue gained prominence, politicians considered two key policy…

  3. História, saúde e seus trabalhadores: da agenda internacional às políticas brasileiras History, health and its workers: from the international agenda to the Brazilian policies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Pires-Alves

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available O artigo discute, em perspectiva histórica, as agendas dirigidas para a formação de trabalhadores e para a gestão do trabalho em saúde no Brasil, em especial as suas relações com os programas desenvolvidos pela Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde (OPAS e pela Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS. Na primeira seção, discute-se o papel da história no campo da saúde coletiva. A priorização do tema do trabalho em saúde na agenda internacional parece apontar para uma potencial renovação das relações entre história e saúde. Na segunda seção, realiza-se um balanço histórico a respeito das agendas da OMS em torno do tema recursos humanos. Na terceira parte, constrói-se balanço similar a respeito das ações da OPAS. Na quarta parte, discute-se - a partir da experiência do Programa de Preparação Estratégica de Pessoal de Saúde (PPREPS - a relação da agenda de trabalho nacional com a internacional em torno do desenvolvimento de recursos humanos, bem como se aponta para um conjunto de respostas adaptadas e soluções originais aos problemas da formação de pessoal de saúde dadas pelos técnicos brasileiros. Ao final, são levantadas algumas questões para discussão sobre a articulação entre história e as agendas de recursos humanos para a saúde discutida ao longo do artigo.This article discusses the agenda for the training and management of the health workforce in Brazil from a historical viewpoint, especially as refers to its relations with the programs in this field developed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO and by the World Health Organization (WHO. In the first section one discusses the role of history in the field of community health. The priority given to the topic health work in the international agenda seems to point to a potential renewal of the relations between history and health. The second section provides a historical examination of the human resources programs of the WHO. In the third

  4. Enabling spaces in education research: an agenda for impactful ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    An enabling schools research agenda could intentionally guide inquiry into that which supports education, where chronic poverty renders society as characteristically less equal. Keywords: barriers to education; buffers in education; egalitarian political philosophy; equality of opportunity; global South education; high risk ...

  5. Medicaid and the politics of groups: recipients, providers, and policy making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kronebusch, K

    1997-06-01

    There is a substantial heterogeneity of interests within the Medicaid program. Its major beneficiary groups include the elderly, people with disabilities, children in low-income families, and adults receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Providers who deliver medical services to these recipients represent another set of potential claimants. These groups are likely to be treated differently by the politics that affect the design and management of the Medicaid program. The Medicaid recipient groups vary in several important dimensions: First, the groups differ politically, a dimension that includes their political participation, their relationships to parties and electoral coalitions, the images they present to other political actors, and the legacy of public policies that affect them. Second, the groups have different medical and social needs. Third, the groups differ with respect to economic constraints, including the political economy of labor markets and of government spending programs, and they have differing relationships to the various types of medical providers. The medical providers are themselves political actors with a variety of characteristics that create political advantages relative to recipients, although there is also diversity among providers. The politics of the Medicaid program involves more than simply technical decisions about eligibility, coverage of medical services, reimbursement, and the implementation of managed care initiatives. Instead the differences between the program's multiple claimants are an important element of current Medicaid politics and the likely path of future reforms.

  6. Political economy models and agricultural policy formation : empirical applicability and relevance for the CAP

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zee, van der F.A.

    1997-01-01

    This study explores the relevance and applicability of political economy models for the explanation of agricultural policies. Part I (chapters 4-7) takes a general perspective and evaluates the empirical applicability of voting models and interest group models to agricultural policy

  7. Understanding the micro and macro politics of health: Inequalities, intersectionality & institutions - A research agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gkiouleka, Anna; Huijts, Tim; Beckfield, Jason; Bambra, Clare

    2018-03-01

    This essay brings together intersectionality and institutional approaches to health inequalities, suggesting an integrative analytical framework that accounts for the complexity of the intertwined influence of both individual social positioning and institutional stratification on health. This essay therefore advances the emerging scholarship on the relevance of intersectionality to health inequalities research. We argue that intersectionality provides a strong analytical tool for an integrated understanding of health inequalities beyond the purely socioeconomic by addressing the multiple layers of privilege and disadvantage, including race, migration and ethnicity, gender and sexuality. We further demonstrate how integrating intersectionality with institutional approaches allows for the study of institutions as heterogeneous entities that impact on the production of social privilege and disadvantage beyond just socioeconomic (re)distribution. This leads to an understanding of the interaction of the macro and the micro facets of the politics of health. Finally, we set out a research agenda considering the interplay/intersections between individuals and institutions and involving a series of methodological implications for research - arguing that quantitative designs can incorporate an intersectional institutional approach. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  8. Local government alcohol policy development: case studies in three New Zealand communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maclennan, Brett; Kypri, Kypros; Room, Robin; Langley, John

    2013-01-01

    Aims Local alcohol policies can be effective in reducing alcohol-related harm. The aim of this study was to examine local government responses to alcohol-related problems and identify factors influencing their development and adoption of alcohol policy. Designsettings and participants Case studies were used to examine local government responses to alcohol problems in three New Zealand communities: a rural town, a provincial city and a metropolitan city. Newspaper reports, local government documents and key informant interviews were used to collect data which were analysed using two conceptual frameworks: Kingdon's Streams model and the Stakeholder model of policy development. Measurements Key informant narratives were categorized according to the concepts of the Streams and Stakeholder models. Findings Kingdon's theoretical concepts associated with increased likelihood of policy change seemed to apply in the rural and metropolitan communities. The political environment in the provincial city, however, was not favourable to the adoption of alcohol restrictions. The Stakeholder model highlighted differences between the communities in terms of power over agenda-setting and conflict between politicians and bureaucrats over policy solutions to alcohol-related harm. These differences were reflected in the ratio of policies considered versus adopted in each location. Decisions on local alcohol policies lie ultimately with local politicians, although the policies that can be adopted by local government are restricted by central government legislation. Conclusions The adoption of policies and strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm may be better facilitated by an agenda-setting process where no ‘gate-keepers’ determine what is included into the agenda, and community mobilization efforts to create competitive local government elections around alcohol issues. Policy adoption would also be facilitated by more enabling central government legislation. PMID:23130762

  9. [Food in the contemporary context: consumption, political action and sustainability].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Portilho, Fátima; Castañeda, Marcelo; de Castro, Inês Rugani Ribeiro

    2011-01-01

    The interdisciplinary field of reflections on food as politics goes through a process of expansion and overflow to the private sphere, and routine daily food consumption. This process seems to be a reflection of transformations in the global agrifood markets, the wide publicity and awareness of food hazards and the politicization of consumption. To the extent that individuals are to assume responsibility for the environmental and social consequences of their everyday choices, the specificity of political power in contemporary societies goes beyond the institutional level (food security and nutrition, social inequalities in access to food, agricultural policies and regulations advertising of food) to meet the private sphere. This paper shows, initially, some of the recent debates about the process of politicization of consumption and then explores a theoretical reflection on the ethical, political and ideological habits that relate to food consumption, including the locations and ways of acquiring and food preparation, the values of environmental preservation, solidarity with local producers and reflexive caution against food risks. Finally, points to a research agenda capable of capturing the processes of politicization of food and consumer practices in the field of political power.

  10. Strengthening political leadership and policy innovation through the expansion of collaborative forms of governance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Torfing, Jacob; Ansell, Christopher

    2017-01-01

    This article explores how political leadership and policy innovation can be enhanced through collaborative governance. The main findings are that while wicked and unruly problems create an urgent need for policy innovation, politicians are badly positioned to initiate, drive and lead...... this innovation. They are either locked into a dependency on policy advice from senior civil servants or locked out of more inclusive policy networks. In either case, they are insulated from fresh ideas and ultimately reduced to ‘policy-takers’ with limited engagement in policy innovation. Collaborative policy...

  11. Science, Technology and Natural Resources Policy: Overcoming Congressional Gridlock

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCurdy, K. M.

    2015-12-01

    The current status of Science, Technology and Natural Resources (STNR) policy in the United States provides an ideal context to examine the influence of committee seniority within the public policy process. Exemplars of the Policy Entrepreneur have been individuals in leadership positions, whether executive or legislative. The role of junior committee members in shaping policy innovation is less well understood, and is frequently masked either in cross-sectional research designs or in case studies. The House Natural Resources committee seniority patterns are compared to the House of Representatives Chamber data from 1975 to 2015. This expanse of congressional time captures both the policy innovation of the Class of 1974 who helped transform the public lands by pursuing a preservation agenda, along with the contemporaneous gridlock caused by disagreements about reducing the size of the federal government, a policy agenda championed and sustained by the Class of 1994. Several types of political actors have served as policy entrepreneurs, President Kennedy and Secretary of Interior Udall shepherding the Wilderness Act of 1964 from the Executive branch, or in the 111th Congress Committee chairmen Senator Christopher Dodd and Representative Barney Frank, having announced their retirements, spent their final Congress shaping the consensus that produced the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. A less studied policy phenomenon relies on "packing the committee" to outvote the leadership. This tactic can be used by the party leadership to overcome recalcitrant senior committee members, as was the case for Democrats in the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee shift to preservation in the 1970s, or the tactic can be employed from the grassroots, as may be happening in the case of the House Natural Resources Committee in the 114th Congress. A policy making process analog to rivers is more appropriate than a mechanistic model. As there are multiple

  12. From Good Governance to Developmental Governance - How Policies, Institutions and Politics Matter

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lauridsen, Laurids Sandager

    2012-01-01

    The present global financial and economic crisis offers an opportunity to rethink the relative roles of state and market as well as of globalisation and national development strategies in the political economy of development. It has become more difficult to argue that globalisation has rendered...... national development strategies and in particular industrial policies superfluous. The crisis also calls for a rethinking of the prevailing standard recipes for development and of the ‘institutional therapy’ that has been driven by the international development establishment. The article seeks to identify...... and outline a heterodox view on how policies, institutions and politics matter for latecomer development, and does that by juxtaposing it with the orthodox view. The central argument of the article is that the orthodox view has serious weaknesses, and that a heterodox approach – developmental governance...

  13. Introduction of male circumcision for HIV prevention in Uganda: analysis of the policy process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Odoch, Walter Denis; Kabali, Kenneth; Ankunda, Racheal; Zulu, Joseph Mumba; Tetui, Moses

    2015-06-20

    Health policy analysis is important for all health policies especially in fields with ever changing evidence-based interventions such as HIV prevention. However, there are few published reports of health policy analysis in sub-Saharan Africa in this field. This study explored the policy process of the introduction of male circumcision (MC) for HIV prevention in Uganda in order to inform the development processes of similar health policies. Desk review of relevant documents was conducted between March and May 2012. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Conceptual frameworks that demonstrate the interrelationship within the policy development processes and influence of actors in the policy development processes guided the analysis. Following the introduction of MC on the national policy agenda in 2007, negotiation and policy formulation preceded its communication and implementation. Policy proponents included academic researchers in the early 2000s and development partners around 2007. Favourable contextual factors that supported the development of the policy included the rising HIV prevalence, adoption of MC for HIV prevention in other sub-Saharan African countries, and expertise on MC. Additionally, the networking capability of proponents facilitated the change in position of non-supportive or neutral actors. Non-supportive and neutral actors in the initial stages of the policy development process included the Ministry of Health, traditional and Muslim leaders, and the Republican President. Using political authority, legitimacy, and charisma, actors who opposed the policy tried to block the policy development process. Researchers' initial disregard of the Ministry of Health in the research process of MC and the missing civil society advocacy arm contributed to delays in the policy development process. This study underscores the importance of securing top political leadership as well as key implementing partners' support in policy development processes

  14. Regional integration and Brazilian Foreign Policy: Strategies in the South American space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Soreanu Pecequilo

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to present, based on theoretical studies of integration, the evolution of this process in Latin America and, most recently, in South America. Based on these studies, the goal is to analyze the role played by Brazil in the process, which defines as priorities of its foreign policy a regional and global framework for its international action that is based on both cooperation and power projection.The research has been conducted based on theories of integration, an historical background on Latin American integration and in Brazilian foreign policy, through its contemporary agenda. The answer was based on a comparative agenda and in a bibliographical critical analysis of the research material.The main findings of the paper point out that Latin American integration has specific features linked to the economic, political and stragetic realities of the continent that show the limitations of some theories applied to the European process, also that it depends on Brazilian foreign policy actions, that still sees the region as instrumental to its interests. So, Brazil sometimes fail to fulfill some requisites of integration that are essential to sustain its projects. Therefore, there is a cycle of enlargement and deepening of regional integration process in this political space that point out to the need of a more sustained compromise of Brazilian foreign policy towards these projects. If Brazil continues not to sustain these projects, they will lose momentum and significance once more, increasing power asymmetries in the region.

  15. Family planning policy in the United States: the converging politics of abortion and contraception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aiken, Abigail R A; Scott, James G

    2016-05-01

    Following decades of mainstream bipartisan support, contraception has reemerged as a controversial political issue in the United States. At the same time, opposition to abortion has intensified. State legislatures across the country have enacted highly visible policies limiting access to family planning. Perhaps the most striking example occurred in 2011 in Texas, when legislators instituted unprecedented requirements on abortion providers and cut public funding for contraception by two thirds. Yet, despite popular interpretations of this phenomenon as a simple byproduct of increasing partisan divisions, little is understood about the factors underlying such policy shifts. We fit Bayesian ideal-point models to analyze correlation patterns in record-vote data in the Texas House of Representatives in the 2003 and 2011 Legislatures. Both sessions had large Republican majorities and saw the passage of restrictive abortion bills, but they differed markedly with respect to public funding for contraception. We demonstrate that variation in voting on family-planning issues cannot be fully attributed to partisanship in either session. However, the politics of abortion and contraception have converged over time, and - at least for Democrats - the correlation between constituency characteristics and voting behavior on family-planning legislation is markedly higher in 2011 than in 2003. These shifts have been partly driven by legislators from high-poverty, majority Latino districts near the US-Mexico border. Recent dramatic shifts in family-planning policy go beyond simple partisan divisions. As the politics of abortion and contraception have converged, policies that are increasingly hostile to reproductive health and that disproportionately affect low-income minority women have emerged. Recent shifts in family-planning policy restrict women's access to contraception and abortion, yet little research has examined why such shifts are occurring. This paper analyzes factors

  16. The OHS consultant as a 'political reflective navigator' in technological change processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Broberg, Ole

    2004-01-01

    between different roles and mobilize different types of knowledge depending on the context; the consultant is a navigator in the sense of knowing how to navigate in the complex organization surrounding the technological change process. The competencies of a political reflective navigator are outlined...... of OHS consultants is placed on the line between an expert and a process consultant. Based on evidence from the cases and on the concepts of actor-network theory on technological development, we suggest a supplementary third role, that of the 'political reflective navigator', where the OHS consultant...... is an 'actor' who pursues a work environment agenda in a complex network in which other actors pursue other agendas such as productivity, economics, quality, etc. The consultant is political in the sense of pursuing a work environment agenda; the consultant is reflective in the sense of being able to switch...

  17. Political past weight: factors that affect the development of policies of memory in Argentina and Chile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Mario SOLÍS DELGADILLO

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper explains why the Argentine and Chilean presidents believe important to face the political past of their countries; or in other words, why no president resists the temptation to interfere in the issue of public policies of the memory through different strategies with different political costs. In that sense, we try to explain what factors mainly affect the decision of the Argentine and Chilean presidents when they adopting public policies of memory. Following the analysis made by means of logistic regressions, it is estimated that the ideology of the leaders, affect on the repair policies. In justice policies, the analysis shows that these are particularly conducive in times of critical juncture. And in the symbolic policies, anniversaries are not so decisive as might be expected.

  18. POLITICAL REGIME, COMPETITIVENESS, AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT: AN EVIDENCE OF THE EURO AREAS’ FDI POLICIES TO SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ari Warokka

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Theory and previous evidences provide conflicting predictions concerning the growth effects of foreign direct investment (FDI. The mainstream ideas support FDI as an engine of employment, technological progress, productivity improvements, and ultimately economic growth. Because of these significant benefits, attracting FDI has become one of the integral parts of economic development strategies in many countries. There are two schools of thought that hypothesize the FDI determinants: economic factors and political factors. For the latter school of thought, the central questions are directed to determine whether political regime affect country’s trade policy or not. In the advanced industrial countries where labour tends to be scarce, are left political regimes more protectionist than right ones, which represent capital owners? Prior evidence had demonstrated an association between the type of political regimes and trade policies (FDI policies.

  19. Do political variables affect fiscal policy adjustment decisions? New empirical evidence

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mierau, Jochen O.; Jong-A-Pin, Richard; de Haan, Jakob

    2007-01-01

    We test eight hypotheses on political factors influencing the likelihood that a fiscal policy adjustment occurs. We employ a panel discrete choice model for 20 OECD countries for the period 1970-2003. Two different definitions of fiscal adjustments are used to capture the differences between rapid

  20. Writerly Gaming: Political Gaming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Christian Ulrik

    2007-01-01

    software for private entertainment (looking/feeling real) or they can be pragmatic software used for training of professionals (affecting soldiers’, pilots’, etc. perception of the real). A third, and less debated game-reality relationship, based on public awareness and typically a socio-political agenda...

  1. Biblical antecedents of modern Agenda-Setting: religious platforms in lieu of mass media

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tsuriel RASHI

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Can a primitive society set a public agenda? Are there some advantages for a religious society in setting an agenda? From a critical study of the communicative perspective of the Bible and hermeneutic reading of its texts, it can be said that certain elements in primitive societies succeeded in influencing the political and social agendas. They did so by exploiting specific public assemblies or appearing in crowded places in attempts to impact local and national agendas. This notion is significant because it suggests that in countries that do not have developed communication infrastructures or established religious institutions (e.g., churches, mosques, and synagogues that serve as public arenas, indeed even in seemingly closed religious communities, there may well be attempts to use venues other than mass media to influence the public agenda.

  2. A research agenda for helminth diseases of humans: social ecology, environmental determinants, and health systems.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Gazzinelli

    Full Text Available In this paper, the Disease Reference Group on Helminth Infections (DRG4, established in 2009 by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR, with the mandate to review helminthiases research and identify research priorities and gaps, focuses on the environmental, social, behavioural, and political determinants of human helminth infections and outlines a research and development agenda for the socioeconomic and health systems research required for the development of sustainable control programmes. Using Stockols' social-ecological approach, we describe the role of various social (poverty, policy, stigma, culture, and migration and environmental determinants (the home environment, water resources development, and climate change in the perpetuation of helminthic diseases, as well as their impact as contextual factors on health promotion interventions through both the regular and community-based health systems. We examine these interactions in regard to community participation, intersectoral collaboration, gender, and possibilities for upscaling helminthic disease control and elimination programmes within the context of integrated and interdisciplinary approaches. The research agenda summarises major gaps that need to be addressed.

  3. Dynamics in Higher Education Politics: A Theoretical Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kauko, Jaakko

    2013-01-01

    This article presents a model for analysing dynamics in higher education politics (DHEP). Theoretically the model draws on the conceptual history of political contingency, agenda-setting theories and previous research on higher education dynamics. According to the model, socio-historical complexity can best be analysed along two dimensions: the…

  4. Searching for the Right to Health in the Sustainable Development Agenda Comment on "Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkes, Sarah; Buse, Kent

    2016-02-24

    The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Agenda offers an opportunity to realise the right to health for all. The Agenda's "interlinked and integrated" Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the prospect of focusing attention and mobilising resources not just for the provision of health services through universal health coverage (UHC), but also for addressing the underlying social, structural, and political determinants of illness and health inequity. However, achieving the goals' promises will require new mechanisms for inter-sectoral coordination and action, enhanced instruments for rational priority-setting that involve affected population groups, and new approaches to ensuring accountability. Rights-based approaches can inform developments in each of these areas. In this commentary, we build upon a paper by Forman et al and propose that the significance of the SDGs lies in their ability to move beyond a biomedical approach to health and healthcare, and to seize the opportunity for the realization of the right to health in its fullest, widest, most fundamental sense: the right to a health-promoting and health protecting environment for each and every one of us. We argue that realizing the right to health inherent in the SDG Agenda is possible but demands that we seize on a range of commitments, not least those outlined in other goals, and pursue complementary openings in the Agenda - from inclusive policy-making, to novel partnerships, to monitoring and review. It is critical that we do not risk losing the right to health in the rhetoric of the SDGs and ensure that we make good on the promise of leaving no one behind. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

  5. Moving towards South-South International Health: debts and challenges in the regional health agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrero, María Belén

    2017-07-01

    The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the increased interest in health as an important dimension of the foreign policy and diplomatic concerns together with the emergence of a new framework for regional health integration and regional health diplomacy. Second, it seeks to understand the role and practices of new regional blocs in the field of health and whether they are conducting to the emergence of new strategies for addressing health regional policies in South America. The regional policy process relates to health as a right. Thus, some practices and processes in social policy are setting new standards for political and social cohesion in the construction of new regionalism. Health crosses national, regional, and global agendas in a multi-directional fashion, rather than via one-way, top-down policy transfer. A special feature of Unasur is upholding regional health sovereignty despite the unique fact that member countries retain national autonomy. Unasur has projected foreign policy that promotes social values in ways that seem innovative. Experience as Unasur shows that regional organisms can become a game changer in global diplomacy and an influential actor in the international agenda. Resumen El objetivo de este artículo es doble. En primer lugar,investigar el creciente interés en la salud como una dimensión importante de la política exterior, en sintonía con el surgimiento de un nuevo marcopara la integración regional y la diplomacia en salud. En segundo lugar, comprender el papel y las prácticas de los nuevos bloques regionales en el campo de la salud y si estasconducena la emergencia de nuevas estrategias para abordar las políticas sanitarias regionales en América del Sur. Los nuevos procesos de integración regional se refieren a la salud como un derecho. Así, algunas prácticas y procesos de la política regional están estableciendo nuevos patrones de cohesión política y social en el avancede un nuevo regionalismo

  6. 75 FR 52385 - Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; Lifting of Policy of Denial Regarding ITAR Regulated...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-25

    ... DEPARTMENT OF STATE [Public Notice 7128] Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; Lifting of Policy... Controls Compliance, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Department of State, (202) 663-2980..., identify compliance problems, and resolve alleged violations. Xe replaced senior management; established...

  7. Enhancing Political Will for Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aregbeshola, Bolaji S

    2017-01-01

    Universal health coverage aims to increase equity in access to quality health care services and to reduce financial risk due to health care costs. It is a key component of international health agenda and has been a subject of worldwide debate. Despite differing views on its scope and pathways to reach it, there is a global consensus that all countries should work toward universal health coverage. The goal remains distant for many African countries, including Nigeria. This is mostly due to lack of political will and commitment among political actors and policymakers. Evidence from countries such as Ghana, Chile, Mexico, China, Thailand, Turkey, Rwanda, Vietnam and Indonesia, which have introduced at least some form of universal health coverage scheme, shows that political will and commitment are key to the adoption of new laws and regulations for reforming coverage. For Nigeria to improve people's health, reduce poverty and achieve prosperity, universal health coverage must be vigorously pursued at all levels. Political will and commitment to these goals must be expressed in legal mandates and be translated into policies that ensure increased public health care financing for the benefit of all Nigerians. Nigeria, as part of a global system, cannot afford to lag behind in striving for this overarching health goal.

  8. Politics of oil in Venezuela: A decision-making analysis of PDVSA's internationalisation policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baena, Cesar E.

    The high degree of international vertical integration achieved by the Venezuelan state oil enterprise, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), has placed it among the most important oil multinationals (MNs). The policy of creating downstream outlets through the establishment of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the form of refinery assets was given the term of 'internationalisation'. By analysing PDVSA's internationalisation policy, the thesis explores the difficulties encountered by a major state-owned enterprise (SOE) from a developing country in its efforts to grow beyond national borders. The study focuses on the impact of democratic bargaining on the process of oil policymaking in Venezuela, stressing the constraints posed by politics on PDVSA's efforts to expand its foreign operations. Specifically, the study examines the intricate policymaking process that shaped the origins and the development of PDVSA's internationalisation policy, underlying the events and factors that influenced each one of its three distinguishable phases: adoption, formulation, and implementation. The tensions between politics and corporate strategy are highlighted at the core of the policymaking process. The study also looks at the relationship between the oil industry and the other two key decision-making centres involved in the oil policymaking process: the executive and Congress. In exploring the ways in which each one of them sought to influence policy outcome, the study attempts to gain insight into the main factors that prompted the tensions among the policy actors involved. Three environments, or pressure-generating centres, constantly exert influence on the oil industry: the oil market, the political context and the government's financial situation. By seeking to determine the industry's response to their pervasive influence on policy formulation and implementation, this research ascertains the extent to which these variables influenced the decision-making process that

  9. From everyday conversation to political action : Talking austerity in online ‘third spaces’

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Graham, Todd; Jackson, Daniel; Wright, Scott

    2015-01-01

    Taking forward a new agenda for online political deliberation – the study of everyday political talk in non-political, online ‘third spaces’ – this article examines the dynamics of political talk across three general interest UK based online forums. The quantitative analysis found that discussions

  10. Youth Work in Turkey: A Sector Newly Emerging and Marked by Political Competition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Demet Lüküslü

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Youth work is a very recent field in Turkey and the evolution of the field has been very much influenced by the European institutions, especially with the European Union candidacy process of Turkey. Youth work in Turkey can be analyzed in three different layers since the central government, local government (municipalities and civil society organization all have youth work activities. During our Horizon 2020 PARTISPACE research project, we conducted ethnographic research to shed light on the local characteristics of youth work in a central Anatolian city in Turkey. The cases we discuss in the scope of this paper based on our ethnographic research includes two youth centers, one run by a central government agency, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the other by a local municipality run by the party of opposition. The study reveals the influence of local dynamics and political competition in the development of youth policy and youth work. Our research demonstrates that, even if youth work is not a priority in the public policy agenda, it has become an object of political competition in Turkey.

  11. The problem of Indonesia’s leadership in ASEAN political and security cooperation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. G. Smorzhevska

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The study is dedicated to modern approaches and policy of the Republic of Indonesia toward the process of regional integration in Southeast Asia. Key aspects and instruments of Indonesia’s increasing contribution in strengthening of the political and security cooperation between members of ASEAN have been explained by the researcher. The aim of the article is to identify the role of Indonesia in conduction of multilateral diplomacy within the framework of ASEAN political and security sphere, forms of its implementation as well as the specifics of limiting factors for such leadership. It has been argued by the author that Indonesia’s commitments to ASEAN and its desire to promote or inhibit the process of regional integration vary depending on policy areas and level of compliance to its national interests. Consequently, Indonesia’s main interests and priorities concerning the ASEAN integration process lie in security and defense sphere. Indonesia’s key role in building of the ASEAN Political and Security Community is to provide ideas and political concepts as well as to shape the regional agenda. Therefore, the country implements the relevant agreements and puts forward a number of regional initiatives in foreign policy and defense. Moreover, assuming the fact that direct regional mechanisms of conflict resolution has not been fully implemented yet, Jakarta works on its development, acting as a mediator and a reliable regional partner. In addition, it is worth to underline that Jakarta makes substantial contribution to regional efforts in counterterrorism. The benefit of this study is that it takes into consideration the specifics of the factors that reveal the limitations for leadership in the security sphere. The core principles of ASEAN functioning determine the degree and nature of Member States’ leadership in the region. The material power resources and implementation on power through coercion gave way to soft instruments of

  12. The (Bio)politics of Engagement: Shifts in Singapore's Policy and Public Discourse on Civics Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weninger, Csilla; Kho, Ee Moi

    2014-01-01

    This article provides a historical overview of civic educational policy and political discourse in Singapore from 1959 to 2011, focusing on changes in the role attributed to students in the education process. A review of educational programmes and analysis of political speeches reveals that an earlier transmissionist approach that focused on value…

  13. Prospects and Agendas of Korea Energy Policy for the 21st Century - Focused on the Nuclear Administrative system.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahn, Moon Suk [Korean Association for Policy Studies, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Tae Young [University of Seoul, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Kee Sik; Lee, Sang Pal [Korea University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kang, Kun Bok [ChungNam University, Taejon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jong Sun [Defnense Staff Institute, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Park, Kuk Hum [Ansung University, Ansung (Korea, Republic of)

    1997-12-01

    It is often said that the 21st century will be an era of harsh competition among countries under the WTO regime. Thus, energy problems might become the very problem of national survival, particularly to those counties like korea which have achieved economic growth through export-oriented policies, but with few energy resources. Recognizing that energy security is one of the demanding problems Korea faces, this study analyzes current and future energy problems, pinpoints policy agendas on which the Korean government has to focus, and suggests alternative administrative systems which can effectively deal with energy problems. In doing so, this study focuses more on nuclear energy and its administrative system. 31 refs., 8 tabs., 6 figs. (author)

  14. The politics of social policy: welfare expansion in Brazil, China, India and South Africa in comparative perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Tillin, Louise; Duckett, Jane

    2017-01-01

    This introductory essay reviews the scholarship on the politics of social policy, and shows the contribution of the special issue to explaining expanded welfare commitments in Brazil, China, India and South Africa in the twenty first century. Much literature on welfare expansion in lower- and middle income contexts views it primarily as a policy corrective to the economic dislocations produced by global economic integration. This special issue focuses on the political factors that are critica...

  15. Conflict, location, and politics: Siting a nuclear waste repository

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jacob, G.R.

    1988-01-01

    Nuclear power and the management of high-level radioactive waste is examined with the goal of explaining the forces driving the formulation of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act and a subsequent decision to site a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The study draws upon geographic, political, economic, and organizational factors to examine the commitment to dispose of spent fuel in a geologic repository located in Nevada or in Utah, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, or at Hanford Washington. Special attention is given to the impact of location, science and technology on the definition of the nuclear waste problem and political agendas, public participation, and the power of the nuclear establishment. The study finds that the choice of a Yucca Mountain Nevada as the preferred site for a repository was based more on technological precedent and political-economic expediency than on the demonstrated superiority of that site's geology. Conflict over a repository location is interpreted as a symptom of more fundamental conflicts concerning: the credibility of nuclear science, the legitimacy of federal authority and administration, and the priorities of environmental protection and a nuclear economy

  16. The concern for nature, a natural process for public policy? How to promote sustainable development in urban environmental agendas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María de los Ángeles Barrionuevo Mora

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Ecuador is a leader worldwide for its recognition of the Rights of Nature and the Rights of the City in its Constitution. In so far as Quito, its capital, has positioned itself among the first municipalities that have demonstrated their compliance with the international commitments on climate change, it is a relevant case study. From the experience of this city, we aim to identify the main factors that contribute to local government taking on a sustainability agenda. Although the national and international context influence on the positioning of such topics, such factors as leadership, the influence of international networks, the level of specialization of the bureaucratic apparatus and local regulations have permitted to include issues related to sustainable development in the public policy agenda and thus have given visibility to cities as relevant actors in the pursuit of sustainable development.

  17. The Analysis of Slovenian Political Party Programs Regarding Doctors and Health Workers from 1992 to 2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maksuti, Alem; Rotar Pavlič, Danica; Deželan, Tomaž

    2016-03-01

    The study focuses on the programmatic bases of Slovenian political parties since independence. It presents an analysis of party programs and their preferences regarding doctors and other health workers, as well as the contents most commonly related to them. At the same time, the study also highlights the intensity of the presence of doctors on the policy agenda through time. In the study, 83 program documents of political parties have been analysed. The study includes programmes of political parties that have occurred in parliamentary elections in Slovenia between 1992 and 2014 and have exceeded the parliamentary threshold. The data were analysed using the content analysis method, which is suitable for analysing policy texts. The analysis was performed using ATLAS.ti, the premier software tool for qualitative data analysis. The results showed that doctors and other health workers are an important political topic in non-crisis periods. At that time, the parties in the context of doctors mostly dealt with efficiency and the quality of services in the health system. They often criticize doctors and expose the need for their control. In times of economic crisis, doctors and other health workers are less important in normative commitments of parties. Slovenian political parties and their platforms cannot be distinguished ideologically, but primarily on the principle of access to government. It seems reasonable to conclude that parties do not engage in dialogue with doctors, and perceive the latter aspassive recipients of government decisions-politics.

  18. Political conservatism, rigidity, and dogmatism in American foreign policy officials: the 1966 Mennis data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemmelmeier, Markus

    2007-01-01

    Researchers have established a relationship between political orientation and cognitive styles (A. Chirumbolo, 2002; J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski, & F. Sulloway, 2003a, 2003b; M. Kemmelmeier, 1997). In this article, the author examined whether this finding is true in the political elite, whether the relationship is linear or curvilinear, and whether interest in politics moderates the relationship between political orientation and cognitive styles. He used a 1966 sample of American foreign policy officials (N = 95) to examine the relationship between self-described conservatism and party identification and individual differences in rigidity and dogmatism. Rigidity was related to self-described conservatism, but this relationship was only significant among participants high in political interest, whereas dogmatism was unconditionally related to party identification. All relationships were linear and did not contain a curvilinear component.

  19. [Crisis and the independence of public health policies. SESPAS report 2014].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández Aguado, Ildefonso; Lumbreras Lacarra, Blanca

    2014-06-01

    Independence in the formulation of public health policies can be affected by various agents with objectives contrary to population health, such as large corporations. This lack of independence may be exacerbated by the economic crisis due to lower funding for health regulatory bodies or other measures designed to protect health. Large corporations have influenced the formulation of certain policies with an impact on health, such as those related to the tobacco industry, the chemical industry, nutrition, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and health technology. The main areas in which these companies can influence policies are science, education, politics, and society in general. In this scenario, public health associations should take an active role in ensuring the independence of political decisions via actions such as the following: supporting strategies that guarantee the independence of public health policies and apply criteria of impartiality and transparency; rejecting those public-private partnerships launched to prevent health problems partly caused by these corporations; establishing partnerships to achieve independent training of health professionals and an institution with scientific authority in order to improve public health communication and counteract the lack of sound public health information; promoting a critical analysis of the definition of health problems and their solutions, and establishing related agendas (scientific, political and media) and alliances, so that continuing training for health professionals is independent. Copyright © 2013 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  20. Political considerations of nuclear waste disposal policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Friedman, R.S.

    1985-01-01

    In order to create a program for the establishment of nuclear waste repositories several conditions must prevail. Perhaps foremost is the need to alter the public perception of risk. In short, there will need to be recognition that cigarette smoking and automobile driving, acts of volition, are potentially more dangerous to one's health than radiation leaks from nuclear power plants or waste repositories. Second, the process of repository site selection will have to include wide public participation in the process in order to obtain legitimacy. Without it Congress and the state legislatures are certain to override any proposal no matter how widely accepted by scientists and engineers. Finally, states and localities selected as sites for repositories will need to be compensated adequately in exchange for accepting the onus of serving as host. Political scientists have not been notably successful forecasters of policy outcomes. However, the evidence of American history does not provide encouragement that maximization of control at the state and local level and oversight by Congress of administrative actions, as meritorious as they might appear in terms of democracy, are harbingers of success for unpleasant policy decisions. States rights and Congressional intervention to block executive action were used to maintain second-class citizenship status for Black Americans until the judicial process was resorted to as a device to alter policy. Most likely, a major policy breakthrough will occur only after a mishap or tragedy, the final product involving either a waste disposal program in the context of continued use of nuclear power or one premised on its abandonment

  1. The politics of population policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoodfar, H; Assadpour, S

    2000-03-01

    The Islamic Republic of Iran arguably has one of the most successful family planning programs in the developing world. This success is all the more interesting for advocates of population programs because the political leaders of the Islamic regime were once strongly opposed to family planning. Indeed, after gaining power following the 1979 revolution, they were responsible for dismantling Iran's relatively new family planning program and introducing pronatalist policies. This article provides an account of the different phases of the population policy in Iran and examines the diverse elements that led politico-religious leaders to revise their views about fertility control and to participate in creating a workable family planning program. The complex formal and informal strategies that the political experts, the media, the religious authorities, and the government of the Islamic Republic adopted in order to achieve this about-face are described. The analysis is based on data collected by the first author during anthropological field research in 1993-96, by means of informal interviews with officials, with medical personnel, with family planning clients, and with religious leaders.

  2. The politics of radioactive waste disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kemp, R.

    1992-01-01

    Plans for radioactive waste disposal have been among the most controversial of all environmental policies, provoking vociferous public opposition in a number of countries. This book looks at the problem from an international perspective, and shows how proposed solutions have to be politically and environmentally, as well as technologically acceptable. In the book the technical and political agenda behind low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal in the UK, Western Europe, Scandinavia and North America is examined. The technical issues and the industrial proposals and analyses and factors which have been crucial in affecting relative levels of public acceptability are set out. Why Britain has lagged behind countries such as Sweden and France in establishing Low Level Waste (LLW) and Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) sites, the strength of the 'not in my backyard' syndrome in Britain, and comparisons of Britain's decision-making process with the innovative and open pattern followed in the US and Canada are examined. An important insight into the problems facing Nirex, Britain's radioactive waste disposal company, which is seeking to establish an underground waste site at Sellafield in Cumbria is given. (author)

  3. Political Campaigns

    OpenAIRE

    Lilleker, Darren

    2017-01-01

    Political campaigns are orchestrated attempts by political organizations to garner public support through persuasive communication in order to influence public policy in their favor. This broad definition encapsulates all forms of campaigns from those of neighborhood organizations seeking to influence local politicians to the campaigns of political parties and candidates who seek election to office in order to shape policy themselves. In pluralist democracies, campaigns are crucial for repres...

  4. The mechanism of influence of interest groups in the European Union: political and sociological analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. S. Kanevsky

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Interaction between interest groups and political institutions is one of the cornerstones of the European Union policy making process. Although majority of Russian and foreign works dedicated to lobbying and decision making in the EU, concentrate on a governmental stadial system and normative procedures that regulate interest groups access to policy making centers. Such institutional approach doesn’t clarify why the EU has concrete policies, why not all interest groups are able to win, who sets the agenda and in whose interests decisions are made. Current article, using contemporary theories and research, analyzes process of interaction between interest groups and governmental structures in the EU. It also proposes explanations of wins and losses in the policy making process, trying to answer how interest groups interacts with each other and what patterns can be identified in the process of interest aggregation by governmental structures.

  5. Ottawa 25 years on: a more radical agenda for health equity is still required.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baum, Frances Elaine; Sanders, David M

    2011-12-01

    This article revisits our 1995 assessment of the international health promotion agenda. Then we concluded that a more radical agenda for change was required in which responses were both technically sound and infused with an appreciation of the imperative for a change in politics and power. We conclude that this message is even more relevant in 2011 in an era when the continuing rise of transnational corporations (TNCs) poses a major threat to achieving improved and more equitable health. We support and illustrate this claim through the example of food and agriculture TNCs where the combination of producer subsidies, global trade liberalization and strengthened property rights has given increasing power to the corporate food industry and undermined national food security in many countries. We argue that a Health in All Policies approach should be used to monitor and enforce TNC accountability for health. Part of this process should include the use of a form of health impact assessment and health equity impact assessment on their activities. Civil society groups such as the People's Health Movement have a central role to play in monitoring the impacts of TNCs.

  6. China's power policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mayer, M.

    2006-01-01

    Whether the People's Republic of China may develop to an economical super-government in future depends on the amount of power and resources of this land. The security of power supply is in an extremely prominent position in the Agenda of the Chinese government. Under this aspect the author of the contribution under consideration reports on the power policy of China. The main aspects of this contribution are: (a) Trends of power consumption, productions and imports of power; (b) Power political targets, measures and instruments of China; (c) Characteristics, national and international impacts of the power policy of China. Due to the economical activities of the chinese oil industry worldwide as well as due to the increasing dependence from imports of petroleum and natural oil, China becomes a global player. Thus, one may expect an intensification of Beijing's economical activities with an increased military component. Nevertheless, the power policy of China is an important factor in the global competition according to fossil resources. In order to understand the future behaviour of China's power policy, one may have to take notice of the strategies relating the power policy and relating to foreign affairs. Furthermore, trends and problematic areas concerning the securitization of the power supply in the national area have to be observed

  7. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND NEWS PROCESS IN TURKEY FROM THE POLITICAL ECONOMY PERSPECTIVE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Selda Bulut

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to explore how directly or indirectly control policies of Turkish political government towards media besides the ownership relations of the media affect the newsmaking process. After 1980, Turkey experienced media concentration and media commercialism as a result of neoliberal policies. Though media concentration is a global phenomenon, the process has its own characteristics in Turkey. Free market is not supposed to have given rise to the birth of a free press. Intervention in relations and clientelism between the government and the media in history have merged with a rapid commercialism. This study examines the newsmaking process with the political economy approach on the basis of the ownership structure and the relations between the media and the government. The study covers an analysis of 14 digital news portals based on their headlines between the dates 20-26 January 2015 and the hours 8:00 am. -11:00 pm.  The data obtained indicate a similarity between the news portals in terms of topics agendas, and news discourse.

  8. Biomass utilisation seen against the background of AGENDA 21; Biomassenutzung vor dem Hintergrund der AGENDA 21

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schoenwiesner-Bozkurt, C. [efreso AG, Muenchen (Germany)

    2000-07-01

    From 3 to 14 June 1992 Rio de Janeiro was host to the largest conference that had ever taken place up to that point in human history, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). One major programmatic outcome of the conference was the approval of Agenda 21. This document was signed by 179 states, but it is not binding under international law. Altogether AGENDA 21 comprises 40 chapters. The present paper draws on a selection of these chapters to exemplify the significance of energy production from biomass and its relationship with the goals of Agenda 21. The author has refrained from discussing the issue of climate and energy policy in a wider context, as this matter will undoubtedly already be known to the reader. [German] Zwischen dem 03. und 14. Juni 1992 fand in Rio die bis dahin groesste Konferenz der Menschheitsgeschichte statt. Die Konferenz der Vereinten Nationen ueber Umwelt und Entwicklung 'United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)'. Als greifbares programmatisches Ergebnis der Konferenz wurde am Ende die Agenda 21 verabschiedet. Sie wurde von 179 Staaten unterzeichnet, ist aber voelkerrechtlich nicht verbindlich. Insgesamt umfasst die Agenda 21 40 Einzelkapitel. Beispielhaft soll anhand einiger Kapitel die Bedeutung und der Zusammenhang zwischen der energetischen Nutzung der Biomasse und den Zielen der Agenda 21 aufgezeigt werden. Bewusst wird hierbei der Themenbereich 'Klima- und Energiepolitik' nicht weiter betrachtet, da dieser Zusammenhang den Teilnehmern sicherlich bekannt ist. (orig.)

  9. A view, different proposals: Concept of gender and public policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara Martín Bardera

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This article analyzes the meaning of “gender” as a category of analysis in public policy. The concept has been transferred from the feminist theories and this has meant that the United Nations and European Union have incorporated the inequality as a structural inequality and an issue justice. So, the feminist demands enter the political agenda as an integral project which is characterized by the adoption of the gender perspective and its application from a transversal methodology (“gender mainstreaming”. In this sense, the "gender ideology" is a new paradigm against the “patriarchal ideology”. Now, political actions should be articulated in a double movement of correction and promotion to achieve real equality in societies more democratic and ultimately more just.

  10. Mercosur's regional health agenda: architecture and themes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luisa Guimaraes Queiroz

    Full Text Available This article describes the shaping of institutional health spaces in the Mercosur, with analysis of themes and results and considerations on the construction of the regional agenda and on the effects of regional economic integration processes on health policies and systems. We discuss the organization, operation, focus topics, and results achieved in specific health forums (Meeting of Ministers of Health and Sub-Working Group 11, seeking to analyze the architecture and issues addressed by the regional agenda and drawing parallels with the European experience. The aim of this reflection is to identify how the work done by Mercosur structures contributes to building a regional agenda, with the expectation that the integration can contribute to reducing inequalities in access to health care in the region.

  11. Policy considerations on Facebook: Agendas, coherence and communication patterns in the 2011 Danish parliamentary elections

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    van Dalen, Arjen; Fazekas, Zoltan; Klemmensen, Robert

    2015-01-01

    Given the importance of issue competition in aWest European context and the growing use of Facebook in elections, this paper studies how politicians use Facebook to shape the campaign agenda.We analyze the issues addressed in 6,388 Facebook posts by candidates in the Danish 2011 parliamentary...... election. A limited share of Facebook updates is dedicated to issues. The Facebook agenda did not respond to standings in the polls, nor to the media agenda or public agenda. Comparing issue engagement of new candidates and rerunning candidates we find that the Facebook campaign agenda is not simply...

  12. Thinking Whimsically: Queering the Study of Educational Policy-Making and Politics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lugg, Catherine A.; Murphy, Jason P.

    2014-01-01

    This paper discusses employing queer theory (QT) and queer legal theory (QLT) for critical policy analysis as applied to education. In doing so, the authors will highlight how both QT and QLT can empower analyses to look beyond the identity politics of a particular time period or space and toward potential reforms in curriculum, pedagogy, and…

  13. Democracy and Multiparty Politics in Africa Recent Elections in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The shift from one-party to multiparty politics in many African countries has made the issue of democratisation a crucially equally important part of the development agenda. Efforts to create an economically enabling environment and build administrative and other capacities will be wasted if the political context is not ...

  14. Establishing a disability-inclusive agenda for sustainable development in 2015 and beyond.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geiger, Brian F

    2015-03-01

    Disability was omitted from the Millennium Declaration and eight Millennium Development Goals. As a result, individuals with disabilities and their advocates, health-related agencies and major United Nations (UN) groups collaborated to explicate the rights and needs of persons with disabilities. A community empowerment approach was guided by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, input from expert groups, public meetings held across the globe, questionnaires sent to civil society representatives, and rich online conversation. Persons with disabilities have the right to health, education, gainful employment, social protection, and participation in political and public life. Selected results from The World We Want consultation for the topic of 'Inequalities and a disability-inclusive agenda' illustrate the potential of reaching consensus among a broad array of constituents, informing decisions about policy and practice. © The Author(s) 2014.

  15. Communicating Politics: Using Active Learning to Demonstrate the Value of the Discipline

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Matthew

    2016-01-01

    In the context of higher tuition fees, the Government's employability agenda and growing concern for defined career development strategies among young people, there is a need more effectively for Politics programmes to foster the capacity to communicate politics. Without communicating the implications and relevance of politics the subject and the…

  16. Making drug policy together: reflections on evidence, engagement and participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Marcus

    2014-09-01

    This commentary considers the relationship between evidence, engagement and participation in drug policy governance. It argues that the use of various forms of evidence (for example, statistical data and service user narratives) is critical for meaningful stakeholder engagement and public participation in drug policy, as well as effective policy design and implementation. The respective roles of these different kinds of evidence in consultation processes need to be better understood. It discusses the limits of evidence, which it suggests is rarely conclusive or decisive for drug policy. This is partly because of the incompleteness of most research agendas and the lack of consensus among researchers, but also because issues in drug policy are inherently contestable, involving considerations that lie outside the competency of drug policy specialist as such. In particular, this is because they involve normative and evaluative issues that are properly political (for example, about the relative weight to be accorded to different kinds of harm and benefit). It concludes by supporting calls for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between evidence, engagement and politics than is implicit in the term 'evidence based policy'. It also argues that we should view the inherent contestability of drug policy not as something that can or should be resolved by 'objective' evidence, but as a source of vitality and creativity in policy development and evaluation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Health Policy and Management: in praise of political science. Comment on "On Health Policy and Management (HPAM): mind the theory-policy-practice gap".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunter, David J

    2015-03-12

    Health systems have entered a third era embracing whole systems thinking and posing complex policy and management challenges. Understanding how such systems work and agreeing what needs to be put in place to enable them to undergo effective and sustainable change are more pressing issues than ever for policy-makers. The theory-policy-practice-gap and its four dimensions, as articulated by Chinitz and Rodwin, is acknowledged. It is suggested that insights derived from political science can both enrich our understanding of the gap and suggest what changes are needed to tackle the complex challenges facing health systems. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

  18. REDD+ Crossroads Post Paris: Politics, Lessons and Interplays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esteve Corbera

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This article introduces the special issue “REDD+ crossroads post Paris: politics, lessons and interplays”. The contributions to the special issue demonstrate, first, that REDD+ design in the studied countries has generally lacked social legitimacy and sidelined key actors that have an important role in shaping land-use sector dynamics. Second, they show that REDD+ early actions have tended to oversimplify local realities and have been misaligned with other policy goals and local needs. Third, REDD+ efforts have remained constrained to the forestry or climate mitigation policy sectors and have thus suffered from a lack of harmonization across local, national and international concerns, specifically of contradictory policy. As REDD+ moves from its preparedness to its implementation phase, more research efforts should be aimed at analysing the power relations that underpin and determine the design and implementation of REDD+ policies and actions, the potential for and limits to the vertical and horizontal harmonization of land-use policies and management, and the processes of resistance to or accommodation of REDD+ practices on the ground. In doing so, we advocate for multi-and transdisciplinary research that does not take for granted the benefits of REDD+ and which critically scrutinizes the multiple goals of this ambitious international policy framework, and where it sits within the broader Paris Agreement implementation agenda.

  19. Health Policy and Management: In Praise of Political Science; Comment on “On Health Policy and Management (HPAM: Mind the Theory-Policy Practice Gap”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David J Hunter

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Health systems have entered a third era embracing whole systems thinking and posing complex policy and management challenges. Understanding how such systems work and agreeing what needs to be put in place to enable them to undergo effective and sustainable change are more pressing issues than ever for policy-makers. The theory-policy-practice-gap and its four dimensions, as articulated by Chinitz and Rodwin, is acknowledged. It is suggested that insights derived from political science can both enrich our understanding of the gap and suggest what changes are needed to tackle the complex challenges facing health systems.

  20. Rio + 5 -- INSTRAW's activities regarding the implementation of Agenda 21.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1997-01-01

    The International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) was involved in research analysis and training activities that address women's issues on water supply, sanitation and waste management, development of new and renewable sources of energy, and natural resources since 1982. The four main thrusts of the INSTRAW program include: 1) the economic and political empowerment of the women; 2) women, media and communications; 3) women, environment and sustainable development; and 4) statistics and indicators on gender issues. These areas are approached in an integrated and holistic manner, which is crosscutting and cross disciplinary with relevant chapters Agenda 21. In addition, poverty, population growth, health, structural adjustment policies, education and training, water, energy, agriculture and forestry are addressed within the women's roles and activities context. This article presents an overview of the succeeding chapters, which focus on the programs developed and implemented to promote the well being of the women worldwide.

  1. Putting politics first.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hacker, Jacob S

    2008-01-01

    The greatest lesson of the failure of comprehensive health reform in the early 1990s is that politics comes first. Even the best-laid policy plans are worthless if they lack the political support to pass. Putting politics first means avoiding the overarching mistake of the Clinton reformers: envisioning a grand policy compromise rather than hammering out a real political compromise. It also means addressing the inevitable fears of those who believe that they are well protected by our eroding employment-based system. And it means formulating political strategies that are premised on the contemporary realities of the hyperpolarized U.S. political environment, rather than wistfully recalled images of the bipartisan politics of old.

  2. Energy Security and Climate Change Policy in the OECD: The Political Economy of Carbon-Energy Taxation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lachapelle, Erick

    Why do countries tax the same fuels at widely different rates, even among similarly situated countries in the global political economy? Given the potentially destabilizing effects of climate change, and the political and economic risks associated with a reliance on geographically concentrated, finite fossil fuels, International Organizations and economists of all political stripes have consistently called for increasing tax rates on fossil-based energy. Despite much enthusiasm among policy experts, however, politicians concerned with distributional consequences, economic performance and competitiveness impacts continue to be wary of raising taxes on carbon-based fuels. In this context, this thesis investigates the political economy of tax rates affecting the price of fossil fuels in advanced capitalist democracies. Through an examination of the political limits of government capacity to implement stricter carbon-energy policy, as well as the identification of the correlates of higher carbon-based energy taxes, it throws new light on the conditions under which carbon-energy tax reform becomes politically possible. Based on recent data collected from the OECD, EEA and IEA, I develop an estimate of the relative size of implicit carbon taxes across OECD member countries on six carbon-based fuels and across the household and industrial sectors. I exploit large cross-national differences in these carbon-energy tax rates in order to identify the correlates of, and constraints on, carbon-energy tax reform. Applying multiple regression analysis to both cross-section and time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) data, this thesis leverages considerable empirical evidence to demonstrate how and why electoral systems matter for energy and environmental tax policy outcomes. In particular, I find considerable empirical evidence to support the claim that systems of proportional representation (PR), in addition to the partisan preferences of the electorate, work together to explain

  3. Energy Policy is Technology Politics The Hydrogen Energy Case

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carl-Jochen Winter

    2006-01-01

    Germany's energy supply status shows both an accumulation of unsatisfactory sustainabilities putting the nation's energy security at risk, and a hopeful sign: The nation's supply dependency on foreign sources and the accordingly unavoidable price dictate the nation suffers under is almost life risking; the technological skill, however, of the nation's researchers, engineers, and industry materializes in a good percentage of the indigenous and the world's energy conversion technology market. Exemplified with the up and coming hydrogen energy economy this paper tries to advocate the 21. century energy credo: energy policy is energy technology politics! Energy source thinking and acting is 19. and 20. century, energy efficient conversion technology thinking and acting is 21. century. Hydrogen energy is on the verge of becoming the centre-field of world energy interest. Hydrogen energy is key for the de-carbonization and, thus, sustainabilization of fossil fuels, and as a storage and transport means for the introduction of so far un-operational huge renewable sources into the world energy market. - What is most important is hydrogen's thermodynamic ability to exergize the energy scheme: hydrogen makes more technical work (exergy) out of less primary energy! Hydrogen adds value. Hydrogen energy and, in particular, hydrogen energy technologies, are to become part of Germany's national energy identity; accordingly, national energy policy as energy technology politics needs to grow in the nation's awareness as common sense! Otherwise Germany seems ill-equipped energetically, and its well-being hangs in the balance. (author)

  4. Political Dialogue As The Basis Of Foreign Policy: A Case Study Of Modern Russian-German Relations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia V. Zaytseva

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available His article deals with political dialogue as the basis of the progressive development of interstate cooperation and one of the few ways to diminish interstate tensions without use of military force. With the growing list of new threats and challenges it is very important to work out an effective mechanism of interstate cooperation and to use it in foreign policy. Political dialogue helps to form the basis for cooperation between states to ensure the security, political and socio-economic stability of countries. Moreover, the political dialogue in its various forms is no longer a seldom-used private practice. It is the "all-encompassing reality" now the study of which is necessary for understanding of the social, economic, and humanitarian phenomena in the international relations. The author analyzes principles, functions, rules of constructive interstate dialogue, reflects the conditions of the development of a true political dialogue and reveals the situation of its "stylization" The provisions presented in this article are presented from the viewpoint of practical use in the development of a constructive foreign policy. At the same time the author points to their philosophical basis, identifies regularities and characteristics from the standpoint of philosophical knowledge. As a practical demonstration of carrying on the political dialogue the article presents a brief description of Russian-German political relations at the present stage. Bilateral relations between these two countries, based on the rich history, consilience of main positions in resolving of international problems, largely reflect the basic terms and principles of a competent political dialogue.

  5. Sustainability : Politics and governance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heinrichs, Harald; Biermann, Frank

    2016-01-01

    he article gives an overview of global sustainability policy and politics. It is shown how international policy making on sustainable development has progressed from environmental policy toward recent approaches of Earth system governance. Key challenges of international sustainability politics are

  6. Why metaphor and other tropes? Linguistic approaches to analysing policies and the political

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yanow, D.; Cienki, A.

    2013-01-01

    The articles in this special issue on linguistic approaches to analysing policies and the political share the goal of taking language seriously, achieved through detailed attention to linguistic usage in its respective contexts. They reflect a stance common to both cognitive linguistic and

  7. Features of modern security policy UK political parties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. V. Stalovierova

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The security policy of the British coalition government of D. Cameron (2010-2015 is summarized; it’s been proved that political forces of Tory and Liberal Democrat should have compromised to carry out unanimous course in the scope of national security, and the problems of the security strategy on parliamentary elections in 2015 are analyzed, particularly the comparative analysis of the modern safety strategy of leading British parties is exercised. Under conditions of the appearance of new challenges and threats, transformation of international safety system, the questions of safety policy often become the object of attention of the British community and experts. The absence of cross-party consensus on most terms of safety strategy of the United Kingdom during the election campaign in 2015 makes the discussion about perspectives of the British safety policy still more urgent. During the election campaign there was no unity on any aspect of security subject between parties. First of all, Labourists, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party and Green Party made a statement about readiness to develop cooperation with the EU and the Conservatives and the UK Independence Party were on the side of the Eurosceptics. The opinions of the parties were also divided on military operations abroad, financing and force level. In terms of one-party government and presence of majority in the House of Commons, the Conservatives have opportunities to realize their own vision of British safety policy.

  8. Governance and political consumerism in Finnish energy policy-making

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruostetsaari, Ilkka

    2009-01-01

    The research task in the study was, firstly, to analyse citizens' perceptions of the power structure underlying Finnish energy policy-making. Secondly, we analysed the role of civil society in the energy sector, addressing the question whether Finns feel that they can influence energy policy-making as citizens through general elections (civic participation) or as consumers via their own consumption choices (political consumerism). Methodologically, the study was based on postal survey conducted in 2007 among a random sample representing 18-75-year-old Finns (N=4000). According to the views expressed, the innermost core of the influence structure of Finland's energy policy-making today comprises only the Cabinet and Parliament, while the second circle is composed of energy-producer firms and big firms. The European Union, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Trade and Industry belong to the third circle of influence. The power relations in Finland's energy sector have continued particularly stable since the late 1980s despite the liberalization and globalization of the energy markets. In order to influence energy policy-making, citizens consider their own consumption choices more useful than voting in elections or contacts with MPs, authorities and energy-producing companies. The least useful devices are radical environmental activism and participation in mass demonstrations

  9. Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gad, Ulrik Pram; Jakobsen, Uffe; Strandsbjerg, Jeppe

    2017-01-01

    The concept of sustainability has become central in arctic politics. However, there is little agreement on what ‘sustainable’ means. For different actors (governments, indigenous people, NGOs, etc.) the concept implies different sets of opportunities and precautions. Sustainability, therefore...... the role of sustainability in political and economic strategies in the Arctic. Sustainability has become a fundamental concept that orders the relationship between the environment (nature) and development (economy), however, in the process rearticulating other concepts such as identity (society). Hence, we...... to outline an agenda for how to study the way in which sustainability works as a political concept....

  10. Global health in the European Union--a review from an agenda-setting perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aluttis, Christoph; Krafft, Thomas; Brand, Helmut

    2014-01-01

    This review attempts to analyse the global health agenda-setting process in the European Union (EU). We give an overview of the European perspective on global health, making reference to the developments that led to the EU acknowledging its role as a global health actor. The article thereby focuses in particular on the European interpretation of its role in global health from 2010, which was formalised through, respectively, a European Commission Communication and European Council Conclusions. Departing from there, and based on Kingdon's multiple streams theory on agenda setting, we identify some barriers that seem to hinder the further establishment and promotion of a solid global health agenda in the EU. The main barriers for creating a strong European global health agenda are the fragmentation of the policy community and the lack of a common definition for global health in Europe. Forwarding the agenda in Europe for global health requires more clarification of the common goals and perspectives of the policy community and the use of arising windows of opportunity.

  11. Agenda-setting, Religion and New Media: The Chabad Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tsuriel Rashi

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Theoretically grounded in agenda setting, a theory focused on the transfer of influence from communication media to a public, this paper examines the media activity of Chabad, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish movement that is committed both to making Judaism generally accessible and to influencing public discourse. Rabbi M. M. Schneerson, the movement’s late wise and charismatic leader, undertook this dual mission in light of his conception of the theological grounds for the exploitation of mass media. Our examination of Chabad’s agenda-setting communication strategy was guided by two research questions: 1. What is the range of communication media used by Chabad in an effort to achieve its goal? 2. What evidence is there regarding the agenda-setting success of these communication efforts? Although it is obviously difficult to judge the precise degree of success, it is clear that Chabad is involved in a wide range of media and public activity and has already influenced public discourse well beyond the range of the movement itself and of the Jewish religion. The answer to the two questions above will help us understand the various movements that try to influence the agenda on religious grounds, so that we can determine the interface between religion and setting the agenda. It may also assist the efforts of other religious groups that want to influence the media and the political agenda.

  12. The rise and fall of GO trading in European renewable energy policy. The role of advocacy and policy framing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nilsson, Maans [Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Kraeftriket 2B, SE 10691 Stockholm (Sweden); Nilsson, Lars J.; Ericsson, Karin [Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University, Box 118, SE 22100 Lund (Sweden)

    2009-11-15

    This paper examines policy processes surrounding the rise and fall of the proposed EU-wide policy instrument designed to help achieve the EU's renewable energy targets - the trading of Guarantees of Origin (GO). It discusses its origins and examines factors in the policy processes over time leading first to its development and then to its abandonment. A first analysis looks at the near-term policy-making process before and after the proposal on GO trading in January 2008, focusing on the European policy-making institutions and influences of interest groups and member state governments. It then takes a step back and looks over a longer time period at how competing policy frames have shaped the agendas underlying the debate. Results show how a strong internal market frame acted as a primary driving force in the Commission to promote the GO trading instrument. The rejection of the GO trading proposal in the Council and Parliament can be largely attributed to the lack of a strong lobby in favour of GO, the accumulated experience with and institutionalisation of national RES support policies such as feed-in tariffs, and growing general political concerns for supply security, innovation and competitiveness. (author)

  13. The rise and fall of GO trading in European renewable energy policy: The role of advocacy and policy framing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nilsson, Mans, E-mail: mans.nilsson@sei.s [Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Kraeftriket 2B, SE 10691 Stockholm (Sweden); Nilsson, Lars J.; Ericsson, Karin [Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University, Box 118, SE 22100 Lund (Sweden)

    2009-11-15

    This paper examines policy processes surrounding the rise and fall of the proposed EU-wide policy instrument designed to help achieve the EU's renewable energy targets-the trading of Guarantees of Origin (GO). It discusses its origins and examines factors in the policy processes over time leading first to its development and then to its abandonment. A first analysis looks at the near-term policy-making process before and after the proposal on GO trading in January 2008, focusing on the European policy-making institutions and influences of interest groups and member state governments. It then takes a step back and looks over a longer time period at how competing policy frames have shaped the agendas underlying the debate. Results show how a strong internal market frame acted as a primary driving force in the Commission to promote the GO trading instrument. The rejection of the GO trading proposal in the Council and Parliament can be largely attributed to the lack of a strong lobby in favour of GO, the accumulated experience with and institutionalisation of national RES support policies such as feed-in tariffs, and growing general political concerns for supply security, innovation and competitiveness.

  14. From ‘Good’ to ‘Growth-Enhancing’ Governance: Emerging Research Agendas on Africaʼs Political-Economy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjær, Anne Mette

    2014-01-01

    application of pre-defined good governance institutions in African states. Rather, it argues that there is a need for understanding the political feasibility of possible alternative growth-enhancing governance initiatives. The paper argues that growth-enhancing governance will always be context dependent...... need to research the organisation of ruling coalitions and how they are financed, and we need to know more about the role of elections in shaping policies and their implementation....

  15. The politics of socioeconomic status: how socioeconomic status may influence political attitudes and engagement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown-Iannuzzi, Jazmin L; Lundberg, Kristjen B; McKee, Stephanie

    2017-12-01

    Socioeconomic status is hypothesized to be one factor informing political attitudes and actions. Presumably, this relationship is rooted in economic self-interest, with individuals preferring policies that would benefit them financially. In addition, these economic policy preferences are assumed to translate into political action. However, the relationships between socioeconomic status and political attitudes and behavior, as well as the psychological mechanisms associated with those relationships, are not straightforward. Here, we briefly review the current state of knowledge on the relationships between socioeconomic status and political attitudes and behavior. Overall, the research suggests that while socioeconomic status informs political attitudes toward economic policies, these attitudes may not correlate with complementary political behavior. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  16. Ecuador's energy policy mix: Development versus conservation and nationalism with Chinese loans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Escribano, Gonzalo

    2013-01-01

    Ecuador's energy policy faces a complex variety of political and economic objectives that are difficult to reconcile in a consistent manner. Ecuador is a small oil producer and exporter with significant renewable (mainly hydropower) resources, hosting some of the richest biodiversity areas in the world, part of which are inhabited by so far indigenous un-contacted people. Being a developing country, tensions arise between conservation aims and development imperatives, as well as between resource nationalism and much-needed foreign financing. However, the really limiting factor for the country's energy development seems to be its constraints in financing the government's development and redistributive policies. Resorting to Chinese loans-for-oil may be part of the solution in the short term, but it does not substitute for a more consistent energy policy. Ecuador's case illustrates the dilemmas of energy policy in natural resource-rich developing countries when confronted with diverging political economy, social, environmental and macro-financial goals. - Highlights: ► Ecuador's energy policy lacks coherence and is plagued with inconsistencies. ► Its three main drivers are development, conservation and resource nationalism. ► Fulfilling President Correa's social agenda requires increasing oil production. ► Conservation demands have been subjected to developmental imperatives. ► Chinese loans and investments limit resource nationalism and favour pragmatism

  17. Family Planning Policy in the United States: The Converging Politics of Abortion and Contraception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aiken, Abigail R.A.; Scott, James

    2016-01-01

    Objectives Following decades of mainstream bipartisan support, contraception has re-emerged as a controversial political issue in the United States. At the same time, opposition to abortion has intensified. State legislatures across the country have enacted highly visible policies limiting access to family planning. Perhaps the most striking example occurred in 2011 in Texas, when legislators instituted unprecedented requirements on abortion providers and cut public funding for contraception by two-thirds. Yet despite popular interpretations of this phenomenon as a simple byproduct of increasing partisan divisions, little is understood about the factors underlying such policy shifts. Study Design We fit Bayesian ideal-point models to analyze correlation patterns in record-vote data in the Texas House of Representatives in the 2003 and 2011 Legislatures. Both sessions had large Republican majorities and saw the passage of restrictive abortion bills, but they differed markedly with respect to public funding for contraception. Results We demonstrate that variation in voting on family-planning issues cannot be fully attributed to partisanship in either session. However, the politics of abortion and contraception have converged over time, and—at least for Democrats—the correlation between constituency characteristics and voting behavior on family-planning legislation is markedly higher in 2011 than in 2003. These shifts have been partly driven by legislators from high-poverty, majority Latino districts near the U.S.-Mexico border. Conclusions Recent dramatic shifts in family-planning policy go beyond simple partisan divisions. As the politics of abortion and contraception have converged, policies that are increasingly hostile to reproductive health and that disproportionately affect low-income minority women have emerged. PMID:26794846

  18. The Greek Electricity Market Reforms: Political and Regulatory Considerations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Danias, Nikolaos; Kim Swales, John; McGregor, Peter

    2013-01-01

    The paper tracks the evolution of the Greek electricity market since the beginning of the liberalization process. Its progress is benchmarked against the criteria suggested by Littlechild (2006b). The Littlechild framework highlights key remaining deficiencies in the stances and policies adopted which need to be resolved in order for liberalization to proceed successfully. The focus is on the agendas of the Greek government, other domestic political forces and the European Union. A central requirement is the clear commitment to liberalization by the Greek government. In particular the government needs to give up political control over the previous vertically integrated, state-controlled electricity firm, Public Power Company (PPC), and allow more decision making powers and genuine independence to the market regulator. Liberalization is rendered more difficult by the present financial and economic crisis in Greece. - Highlights: • Greek electricity market liberalization is benchmarked against the Littlechild standard electricity market reform model. • Although the majority of the model requirements are met, liberalization in Greece is only partially successful. • Some elements of liberalization are qualitatively more significant than others. • More fundamental political economy issues need to be addressed in order for the liberalization to progress. • Financial crisis in Greece adds extra challenges

  19. A glossary of terms for understanding political aspects in the implementation of Health in All Policies (HiAP).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oneka, Goldameir; Vahid Shahidi, Faraz; Muntaner, Carles; Bayoumi, Ahmed M; Mahabir, Deb Finn; Freiler, Alix; O'Campo, Patricia; Shankardass, Ketan

    2017-08-01

    Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a strategy that seeks to integrate health considerations into the development, implementation and evaluation of policies across various non-health sectors of the government. Over the past 15 years, there has been an increase in the uptake of HiAP by local, regional and national governments. Despite the growing popularity of this approach, most existing literature on HiAP implementation remains descriptive rather than explanatory in its orientation. Moreover, prior research has focused on the more technical aspects of the implementation process. Thus, studies that aim to 'build capacity to promote, implement and evaluate HiAP' abound. Conversely, there is little emphasis on the political aspects of HiAP implementation. Neglecting the role of politics in shaping the use of HiAP is problematic, since health and the strategies by which it is promoted are partially political.This glossary addresses the politics gap in the existing literature by drawing on theoretical concepts from political, policy, and public health sciences to articulate a framework for studying how political mechanisms influence HiAP implementation. To this end, the glossary forms part of an on-going multiple explanatory case study of HiAP implementation, HARMONICS (HiAP Analysis using Realist Methods on International Case Studies, harmonics-hiap.ca), and is meant to expand on a previously published glossary addressing the topic of HiAP implementation more broadly. Collectively, these glossaries offer a conceptual toolkit for understanding how politics explains implementation outcomes of HiAP. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  20. Imitating the newcomer. How, when and why established political parties imitate the policy positions and issue attention of new political parties in the electoral and parliamentary arena : the case of the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Otjes, Simon Pieter

    2012-01-01

    This thesis studies, how, when and why established political parties imitate new political parties. It examines new party effects on both the policy positions of established parties and the attention established political parties spend on issues. It examines this effect in both the electoral and

  1. Democracy in the country but not in the home? Religion, politics and women's rights in Chile.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzmán, Virginia; Seibert, Ute; Staab, Silke

    2010-01-01

    This article explores the influence of religious actors on the elaboration of two public policies that are key to the advancement of women's rights and have long formed part of the women's movement's agenda in Chile: the introduction of sexual education in secondary schools in the 1990s and the distribution of emergency contraception in the 2000s. Our analysis of how different actors-from a variety of ideological and power positions-have influenced the two policy debates suggests that their discourses and strategies are highly contingent on the political environment. While conservative religious forces retain an enormous capacity to hinder policy making and implementation in the arena of family and sexuality, the government's determination to confront such interference seems to have grown in a context of fewer authoritarian enclaves, a more pluralist society and a strong sexual and reproductive rights movement. The diversification of religious positions on issues of family and sexuality has also affected the room for manoeuvre in the policy arena.

  2. Setting the agenda of a counter-terrorism strategic policy model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emilia Ferone

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to present a functional model to fight terrorism from macro perspective through a “Strategic Policy Model” (SPM. The focus on legal order within the practices of Sociology of Law and Criminology is pivotal in order to reframe terrorism within a viable SPM. In “The Counterterrorism Handbook”, written by Bolz, Dudonis, and Schulz (2005, terrorism, at its very basic level, is defined as “an action that the urban guerrilla must execute with the greatest cold bloodedness, calmness and decision”. They further go on to provide a more scholarly definition: “the calculated use of violence to attain goals which are political, religious or ideological in nature. Terrorism involves a criminal act that is often symbolic in nature and intended to influence an audience beyond the immediate victims”.

  3. A Multidisciplinary Research Agenda for Understanding Vaccine-Related Decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larson, Heidi; Leask, Julie; Aggett, Sian; Sevdalis, Nick; Thomson, Angus

    2013-01-01

    There is increasingly broad global recognition of the need to better understand determinants of vaccine acceptance. Fifteen social science, communication, health, and medical professionals (the “Motors of Trust in Vaccination” (MOTIV) think tank) explored factors relating to vaccination decision-making as a step to building a multidisciplinary research agenda. One hundred and forty seven factors impacting decisions made by consumers, professionals, and policy makers on vaccine acceptance, delay, or refusal were identified and grouped into three major categories: cognition and decision-making; groups and social norms; and communication and engagement. These factors should help frame a multidisciplinary research agenda to build an evidence base on the determinants of vaccine acceptance to inform the development of interventions and vaccination policies. PMID:26344114

  4. A Multidisciplinary Research Agenda for Understanding Vaccine-Related Decisions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nick Sevdalis

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available There is increasingly broad global recognition of the need to better understand determinants of vaccine acceptance. Fifteen social science, communication, health, and medical professionals (the “Motors of Trust in Vaccination” (MOTIV think tank explored factors relating to vaccination decision-making as a step to building a multidisciplinary research agenda. One hundred and forty seven factors impacting decisions made by consumers, professionals, and policy makers on vaccine acceptance, delay, or refusal were identified and grouped into three major categories: cognition and decision-making; groups and social norms; and communication and engagement. These factors should help frame a multidisciplinary research agenda to build an evidence base on the determinants of vaccine acceptance to inform the development of interventions and vaccination policies.

  5. Reshaping skills policy in South Africa: structures, policies and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Reshaping skills policy in South Africa: structures, policies and processes. ... New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy ... South African skills development policy since the promulgation of the Skills Development Act of 1998 has undergone a number of different iterations or attempts at accelerating ...

  6. Politics, policies and processes: a multidisciplinary and multimethods research programme on policies on the social determinants of health inequity in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baum, Fran; Friel, Sharon

    2017-12-21

    The development and implementation of multisectoral policy to improve health and reduce health inequities has been slow and uneven. Evidence is largely focused on the facts of health inequities rather than understanding the political and policy processes. This 5-year funded programme of research investigates how these processes could function more effectively to improve equitable population health. The programme of work is organised in four work packages using four themes (macroeconomics and infrastructure, land use and urban environments, health systems and racism) related to the structural drivers shaping the distribution of power, money and resources and daily living conditions. Policy case studies will use publicly available documents (policy documents, published evaluations, media coverage) and interviews with informants (policy-makers, former politicians, civil society, private sector) (~25 per case). NVIVO software will be used to analyse the documents to see how 'social and health equity' is included and conceptualised. The interview data will include qualitative descriptive and theory-driven critical discourse analysis. Our quantitative methodological work assessing the impact of public policy on health equity is experimental that is in its infancy but promises to provide the type of evidence demanded by policy-makers. Our programme is recognising the inherently political nature of the uptake, formulation and implementation of policy. The early stages of our work indicate its feasibility. Our work is aided by a Critical Policy Reference Group. Multiple ethics approvals have been obtained with the foundation approval from the Social and Behavioural Ethics Committee, Flinders University (Project No: 6786).The theoretical, methodological and policy engagement processes established will provide improved evidence for policy-makers who wish to reduce health inequities and inform a new generation of policy savvy knowledge on social determinants. © Article author

  7. Epidemics and agendas: the politics of nightly news coverage of AIDS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colby, D C; Cook, T E

    1991-01-01

    We examine why the exponential growth of AIDS cases or the wide-spread professional perception of a health crisis did not move the epidemic more quickly onto the agenda of public problems. One possible explanation focuses on how the national news media's construction of AIDS shaped the meaning of the epidemic for mass and elite audiences. An examination of nightly news coverage by the three major networks from 1982 to 1989 reveals considerable variability and volatility in their coverage. Topic-driven saturation coverage occurred only during three short periods in 1983, 1985, and 1987, when the epidemic seemed likely to affect the "general population". Only at such moments did public opinion shift and discussion and debate in government begin. Otherwise, the typical AIDS story tended less to sensationalize than to reassure, largely because journalists depended upon government officials and high-ranking doctors to present them with evidence of news. Such sources had interests either in avoiding coverage or in pointing toward breakthroughs; more critical sources, especially within the gay movement, had far less access to the news. In concluding, we considered the prospects and pitfalls of the news media's power to shape the public agenda.

  8. Common Sense or Gun Control? Political Communication and News Media Framing of Firearm Sale Background Checks after Newtown.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGinty, Emma E; Wolfson, Julia A; Sell, Tara Kirk; Webster, Daniel W

    2016-02-01

    Gun violence is a critical public health problem in the United States, but it is rarely at the top of the public policy agenda. The 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, opened a rare window of opportunity to strengthen firearm policies in the United States. In this study, we examine the American public's exposure to competing arguments for and against federal- and state-level universal background check laws, which would require a background check prior to every firearm sale, in a large sample of national and regional news stories (n = 486) published in the year following the Newtown shooting. Competing messages about background check laws could influence the outcome of policy debates by shifting support and political engagement among key constituencies such as gun owners and conservatives. We found that news media messages in support of universal background checks were fact-based and used rational arguments, and opposing messages often used rights-based frames designed to activate the core values of politically engaged gun owners. Reframing supportive messages about background check policies to align with gun owners' and conservatives' core values could be a promising strategy to increase these groups' willingness to vocalize their support for expanding background checks for firearm sales. Copyright © 2016 by Duke University Press.

  9. The U.S. Freedom Agenda in the Middle East

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Makepeace, Neil J

    2007-01-01

    .... The thesis of this paper is that the United States requires a more balanced and realistic policy agenda in the Middle East, one that discards the strident promotion of constitutional democracy...

  10. Banning shisha smoking in public places in Iran: an advocacy coalition framework perspective on policy process and change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khayatzadeh-Mahani, Akram; Breton, Eric; Ruckert, Arne; Labonté, Ronald

    2017-07-01

    Shisha smoking is a widespread custom in Iran with a rapidly growing prevalence especially among the youth. In this article, we analyze the policy process of enforcing a federal/state ban on shisha smoking in all public places in Kerman Province, Iran. Guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we investigate how a shisha smoking ban reached the political agenda in 2011, how it was framed by different policy actors, and why no significant breakthrough took place despite its inclusion on the agenda. We conducted a qualitative study using a case study approach. Two main sources of data were employed: face-to-face in-depth interviews and document analysis of key policy texts. We interviewed 24 policy actors from diverse sectors. A qualitative thematic framework, incorporating both inductive and deductive analyses, was employed to analyze our data. We found that the health sector was the main actor pushing the issue of shisha smoking onto the political agenda by framing it as a public health risk. The health sector and its allies advocated enforcement of a federal law to ban shisha smoking in all public places including teahouses and traditional restaurants whereas another group of actors opposed the ban. The pro-ban group was unable to neutralize the strategies of the anti-ban group and to steer the debate towards the health harms of shisha smoking. Our analysis uncovers three main reasons behind the policy stasis: lack of policy learning due to lack of agreement over evidence and related analytical conflicts between the two groups linked to differences in core and policy beliefs; the inability of the pro-ban group to exploit opportunities in the external policy subsystem through generating stronger public support for enforcement of the shisha smoking ban; and the nature of the institutional setting, in particular the autocratic governance of CHFS which contributed to a lack of policy learning within the policy subsystem. Our research demonstrated the utility

  11. Global health in the European Union – a review from an agenda-setting perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aluttis, Christoph; Krafft, Thomas; Brand, Helmut

    2014-01-01

    This review attempts to analyse the global health agenda-setting process in the European Union (EU). We give an overview of the European perspective on global health, making reference to the developments that led to the EU acknowledging its role as a global health actor. The article thereby focusses in particular on the European interpretation of its role in global health from 2010, which was formalised through, respectively, a European Commission Communication and European Council Conclusions. Departing from there, and based on Kingdon's multiple streams theory on agenda setting, we identify some barriers that seem to hinder the further establishment and promotion of a solid global health agenda in the EU. The main barriers for creating a strong European global health agenda are the fragmentation of the policy community and the lack of a common definition for global health in Europe. Forwarding the agenda in Europe for global health requires more clarification of the common goals and perspectives of the policy community and the use of arising windows of opportunity. PMID:24560264

  12. Governance and political consumerism in Finnish energy policy-making

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ruostetsaari, Ilkka [University of Turku, Turku (Finland)

    2009-01-15

    The research task in the study was, firstly, to analyse citizens' perceptions of the power structure underlying Finnish energy policy-making. Secondly, we analysed the role of civil society in the energy sector, addressing the question whether Finns feel that they can influence energy policy-making as citizens through general elections (civic participation) or as consumers via their own consumption choices (political consumerism). Methodologically, the study was based on postal survey conducted in 2007 among a random sample representing 18-75-year-old Finns (N=4000). According to the views expressed, the innermost core of the influence structure of Finland's energy policy-making today comprises only the Cabinet and Parliament, while the second circle is composed of energy-producer firms and big firms. The European Union, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Trade and Industry belong to the third circle of influence. The power relations in Finland's energy sector have continued particularly stable since the late 1980s despite the liberalization and globalization of the energy markets. In order to influence energy policy-making, citizens consider their own consumption choices more useful than voting in elections or contacts with MPs, authorities and energy-producing companies. The least useful devices are radical environmental activism and participation in mass demonstrations. (author)

  13. The politics and anti-politics of social movements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Burchardt, Marian; Patterson, Amy S.; Mubanda Rasmussen, Louise

    2013-01-01

    's poverty. Religious HIV/AIDS activities must be analysed in a conceptual space between a civil society/politics approach and a service-provider/anti-politics framework. That is, religious mobilisation may at times seek to engage the public realm to shape policies, while at other times it may shun politics...

  14. European Union energy policy integration: A case of European Commission policy entrepreneurship and increasing supranationalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maltby, Tomas

    2013-01-01

    Focusing on gas, this article explores the role of the European Commission in the process of European Union energy security policy development, and the extent to which the policy area is becoming increasingly supranational. Situating the article within the literature on agenda-setting and framing, it is argued that a policy window was opened as a result of: enlargement to include more energy import dependent states, a trend of increasing energy imports and prices, and gas supply disruptions. From the mid-2000s, the Commission contributed to a shift in political norms, successfully framing import dependency as a problem requiring an EU-level solution, based on the institution’s pre-existing preferences for a diversified energy supply and internal energy market. Whilst Member States retain significant sovereignty, the Commission has achieved since 2006 creeping competencies in the internal, and to a lesser extent external, dimensions of EU energy policy. - Highlights: ► We examine the development of EU energy security policy, focusing on gas. ► We examine changes in European Commission competence in energy policy. ► The European Commission has gained increased competence in the internal market. ► In the external dimension of EU energy policy Member States retain competence. ► The European Commission has had qualified success as a policy entrepreneur

  15. Public Policy and Gender Inequality in Brazilian Society: Considerations From the Realms of Labor, Politics and Science.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janaina Xavier do Nascimento

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The present text focuses on issues of gender inequality and public policy in Brazil today. My major goals are as follows: 1 to provide an analysis of gender inequality in Brazilian society through an examination of the three key arenas of labor, political representation and science and 2 to examine both the advances and the challenges that persist in confronting inequality through public policies on gender. To these ends, I employ secondary data, obtained from three different official sources (IBGE, TSE and CNPq. Lastly, I argue that while the policies that have been implemented can be linked to significant progress in the three above-mentioned arenas, we are still quite far from a real reversal of the current situation of deep inequality, persisting, above all, in the field of political representation.

  16. The effect of political cycles on power investment decisions: Expectations over the repeal and reinstatement of carbon policy mechanisms in Australia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    ShahNazari, Mahdi; McHugh, Adam; Maybee, Bryan; Whale, Jonathan

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Effect of political cycles quantified in power generation investments. • Expected repeal and reinstatement of carbon policy modelled dynamically. • A survey of experts informed the decision making model. • Expectations over reinstatement of policy dampens the effect of expected repeal. - Abstract: Political uncertainty over global greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policy is likely to defer investment in cleaner technologies. It may also incentivise short-lived, high-cost interim investments while businesses wait for the uncertainty to subside. The range of possible policy responses to the issue has created uncertainty over the future of national mitigation pathways. Given that the electricity sector, globally, is a major emitter of GHGs, this represents a systematic risk to investment in electricity generation assets. This paper uses a real options analysis framework informed by a survey of experts conducted in Australia – used as a proxy to model the degree of the uncertainty – to investigate the optimal timing for investment in the conversion of a coal plant to a combined cycle gas turbine plant using the American-style option valuation method. The effect of market and political uncertainty is studied for the Clean Energy Act 2011 in Australia. Political uncertainty is addressed bi-modally in terms of: (1) uncertainty over the repeal of the carbon pricing policy, and (2) if it is repealed, uncertainty over the reinstatement of the policy, to represent the effect of electoral cycles and the possibility of more stringent future global mitigation efforts. Results of the analysis show that although political uncertainty with respect to GHG mitigation policy may delay investment in the conversion of the coal plant, expectations over the reinstatement of the carbon pricing reduces the amount of option premium to defer the conversion decision

  17. Higher Educational Policy, Interest Politics and Crisis Management: Facets and Aspects of the Greek Case within the EHEA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papadakis, Nikos E.; Tsakanika, Theofano; Kyridis, Argyris

    2012-01-01

    With this paper we approach the new policy making paradigm for Europe's higher education policy, set with the Bologna Process, given emphasis to the legitimacy deficit of this political venture and the necessity of a crisis management over the implementation phase within national frames. The implementation of the Bologna's policies, using Greece…

  18. The global and domestic politics of health policy in emerging nations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gómez, Eduardo J; Ruger, Jennifer Prah

    2015-02-01

    In recent years, several emerging nations with burgeoning economies and in transition to democracy have pursued health policy innovations. As these nations have integrated into the world economy through bilateral trade and diplomacy, they have also become increasingly exposed to international pressures and norms and focused on more effective, equitable health care systems. There are several lessons learned from the case studies of Brazil, Ghana, India, China, Vietnam, and Thailand in this special issue on the global and domestic politics of health policy in emerging nations. For the countries examined, although sensitive to international preferences, domestic governments preferred to implement policy on their own and at their own pace. During the policy-making and implementation process, international and domestic actors played different roles in health policy making vis-à-vis other reform actors -- at times the state played an intermediary role. In several countries, civil society also played a central role in designing and implementing policy at all levels of government. International institutions also have a number of mechanisms and strategies in their tool box to influence a country's domestic health governance, and they use them, particularly in the context of an uncertain state or internal discordance within the state. Copyright © 2015 by Duke University Press.

  19. La Violencia de Género en la Agenda Mediática: el Caso de la Ley Integral de Violencia de Género (LO 1/2004 (Gender Violence in the Media’s Agenda: The case of the Gender Violence Integral Law (LO 1/2004

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lohitzune Zuloaga Lojo

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Media's, based on its agenda, has proven crucial in setting up gender violence as a social problem. This article analyzes the development of media coverage of the Gender Violence Integral Law (LO 1/2004, until its adoption in December 2004. The press analysis is focused on El País and El Mundo newspapers from 2000 to 2004. It aims at showing the political and media precedents of the LO 1/2004, and to examine how media's agenda determined the configuration of the political agenda and the new regulation. A total of 1,842 headlines have been gathered, establishing two focus lines: a quantitative analysis that provides a longitudinal study on the number of gender violence related news; and a qualitative content analysis to observe the main theme of headlines, and major milestones of the political agenda around this phenomenon. El comportamiento de la agenda mediática ha sido determinante para la configuración de la violencia de género como problema social. Como ejemplo de ello, se ha analizado el recorrido mediático de la Ley Integral de Violencia de Género (LO 1/2004, aprobada en diciembre de 2004. El análisis de prensa se ha centrado en los diarios El País y El Mundo desde el año 2000 hasta el 2004, con el objetivo de evidenciar los precedentes políticos y mediáticos de la LO 1/2004 y estudiar en qué medida la agenda mediática determinó la configuración de la agenda política y de la nueva normativa. Se han reunido un total 1.842 titulares, que han sido sometidos a un estudio cuantitativo longitudinal sobre el número de noticias relacionadas con la violencia de género; y un análisis de contenido de tipo cualitativo, para observar la tematización resaltada en los titulares seleccionados y los principales hitos de la agenda política en torno a este fenómeno. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2612466

  20. Capturing the ‘evidence’ and ‘what works’ agenda in education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krejsler, John Benedicto

    2017-01-01

    public good has acquired a new meaning of providing policy and market with instruments to enable evidence-based choices in a so-called competitive global knowledge economy. This has, not surprisingly, led to a struggle about evidence and the right to decide how What Works can be defined in education...... that has consequences for school, professionals and educational research. The chapter explores this issue by means of Danish examples located within larger transnational agendas. Evidence discourse was initially a bottom-up professional strategy within the medical field. It was, however, reworked......Education has moved higher up on the policy agenda. Policy-makers and other stakeholders want more of a say in what happens to school and what counts as legitimate educational research. Demands for accountability and comparable choices among public services have followed. Consequently, serving...

  1. "Efforts to Reprioritise the Agenda" in China: British American Tobacco's Efforts to Influence Public Policy on Secondhand Smoke in China.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monique E Muggli

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Each year, 540 million Chinese are exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS, resulting in more than 100,000 deaths. Smoke-free policies have been demonstrated to decrease overall cigarette consumption, encourage smokers to quit, and protect the health of nonsmokers. However, restrictions on smoking in China remain limited and ineffective. Internal tobacco industry documents show that transnational tobacco companies (TTCs have pursued a multifaceted strategy for undermining the adoption of restrictions on smoking in many countries.To understand company activities in China related to SHS, we analyzed British American Tobacco's (BAT's internal corporate documents produced in response to litigation against the major cigarette manufacturers to understand company activities in China related to SHS. BAT has carried out an extensive strategy to undermine the health policy agenda on SHS in China by attempting to divert public attention from SHS issues towards liver disease prevention, pushing the so-called "resocialisation of smoking" accommodation principles, and providing "training" for industry, public officials, and the media based on BAT's corporate agenda that SHS is an insignificant contributor to the larger issue of air pollution.The public health community in China should be aware of the tactics previously used by TTCs, including efforts by the tobacco industry to co-opt prominent Chinese benevolent organizations, when seeking to enact stronger restrictions on smoking in public places.

  2. "Efforts to Reprioritise the Agenda" in China: British American Tobacco's Efforts to Influence Public Policy on Secondhand Smoke in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muggli, Monique E; Lee, Kelley; Gan, Quan; Ebbert, Jon O; Hurt, Richard D

    2008-12-23

    Each year, 540 million Chinese are exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS), resulting in more than 100,000 deaths. Smoke-free policies have been demonstrated to decrease overall cigarette consumption, encourage smokers to quit, and protect the health of nonsmokers. However, restrictions on smoking in China remain limited and ineffective. Internal tobacco industry documents show that transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have pursued a multifaceted strategy for undermining the adoption of restrictions on smoking in many countries. To understand company activities in China related to SHS, we analyzed British American Tobacco's (BAT's) internal corporate documents produced in response to litigation against the major cigarette manufacturers to understand company activities in China related to SHS. BAT has carried out an extensive strategy to undermine the health policy agenda on SHS in China by attempting to divert public attention from SHS issues towards liver disease prevention, pushing the so-called "resocialisation of smoking" accommodation principles, and providing "training" for industry, public officials, and the media based on BAT's corporate agenda that SHS is an insignificant contributor to the larger issue of air pollution. The public health community in China should be aware of the tactics previously used by TTCs, including efforts by the tobacco industry to co-opt prominent Chinese benevolent organizations, when seeking to enact stronger restrictions on smoking in public places.

  3. Do the Media set the Parliamentary Agenda? A Comparative Study in Seven Countries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vliegenthart, Rens; Walgrave, Stefaan; Baumgartner, Frank R.

    2016-01-01

    a number of general agenda-setting patterns but these have never been confirmed in a comparative approach. In a comparative, longitudinal design including comparable media and politics evidence for seven European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK...

  4. Networks of power in digital copyright law and policy political salience, expertise and the legislative process

    CERN Document Server

    Farrand, Benjamin

    2014-01-01

    In this book, Benjamin Farrand employs an interdisciplinary approach that combines legal analysis with political theory to explore the development of copyright law in the EU. Farrand utilises Foucault's concept of Networks of Power and Culpepper's Quiet Politics to assess the adoption and enforcement of copyright law in the EU, including the role of industry representative, cross-border licensing, and judicial approaches to territorial restrictions. Focusing in particular on legislative initiatives concerning copyright, digital music and the internet, Networks of Power in Digital Copyright Law and Policy: Political Salience, Expertise and the Legislative Process demonstrates the connection between copyright law and complex network relationships. This book presents an original socio-political theoretical framework for assessing developments in copyright law that will interest researchers and post-graduate students of law and politics, as well as those more particularly concerned with political theory, EU and c...

  5. Are political institutions resistant to changes?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vranić Bojan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available To what extent is the New institutionalism capable of explaining why implementations of public policies in political institutions may engender resistance? The author believes that political institutions are endogenous and not exogenous entities. The author first tries to demonstrate what constitutes the autonomy of a political institution by recognizing the elements of a specific political culture which becomes source of formation of political identities to political actors. Subsequently, the author examines the assumption that a political institution and actors are not tolerant to public policies authoritatively imposed from the exterior. The result of this collision is the resistance of a political institution. In the end, the author analyzes certain possible forms of resistance and their effect on preventing the implementation of public policy.

  6. Reserve bank independence | Turok | New Agenda: South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 66 (2017) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  7. Fiscal constraints determine South Africa's social agenda | Rossouw ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 62 (2016) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  8. Globalisation and governance | Taylor | New Agenda: South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 37 (2010) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  9. Leading democratic rural development | Turok | New Agenda: South ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 36 (2009) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  10. "Engendering" Agenda 21: gender equality and water resource management: five years after Rio.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hannan-andersson, C

    1997-01-01

    Agenda 21 acknowledges women's role in natural resources management at the local level and emphasizes the need for more women in senior positions to contribute positively to the implementation of environmental policy. This article assesses Agenda 21's approach to gender equality and its achievements. A few explicit references to women and water resource management (WRM) without consideration on the gender implications of the WRM policies and strategies were noted. The macro-oriented, technology-focused and supply-oriented approach of Agenda 21 on WRM hinders the inclusion of a gender perspective. There are two levels of implications of gender-blind intervention in relation to WRM: the issue of social justice and rights, and the negative impact of the neglect of gender inequality on overall planning and success of interventions. The inclusion of a gender perspective at policy and planning levels to facilitate the resolution of inconsistencies, as well as the importance of water sources and patterns of use knowledge for adequate policy development and planning was suggested. It is important that the WRM principle application utilize a sociocultural and gender perspective at both community and household levels before decisions are made on WRM interventions.

  11. The argument for pharmaceutical policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Traulsen, Janine Morgall; Almarsdóttir, Anna Birna

    2005-02-01

    Pharmaceutical policy is a global concern. It has become a hot political topic in most countries--developed as well as developing--and can be found on the agenda of international organizations such as WHO, OECD, EU, WTO and even the World Bank. Pharmaceutical policy affects everyone in the world of pharmacy and it is therefore imperative that it be understood, discussed and debated within the pharmacy profession and included in the curriculum of schools of pharmacy. This, the first article in a series, argues for the importance of the academic discipline of pharmaceutical policy analysis and the involvement of pharmacists in this endeavour. The aim of the authors is to stimulate an informed and critical appreciation of this field. The authors begin with an introduction to the field of pharmaceutical policy, introducing several important concepts and current trends including: medicines regulation; how pharmaceutical policy is made; pharmaceutical policy as a dynamic process; and the new public health as a global issue. The article ends with a short description of the remaining five articles in the series which will deal with important aspects of pharmaceutical policy. The topics include: economic pressures on health care systems; drug utilization from the clinical viewpoint (rational use of medicines); the impact of pharmaceutical policy on patients and the patient impact on pharmaceutical policy; the professional perspective; and finally the last article which deals with studying and evaluating pharmaceutical policy.

  12. Climate policy. The dirt, the country and the world. Part 1. Solo climate policy is damaging symbol politics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang, P.

    2008-01-01

    This article assumes that the objective of climate policy is to limit climate change. The alternative goal of security of supply was not considered. Some measures can be defended in view of both objectives. This is for example the case with energy saving. It is evident that the climate problem becomes increasingly urgent. If the Netherlands or Europe choose individual climate policy, some 'leakage effects' are unavoidable. Such symbol politics harm the economy, whereas the climate does not benefit. On a national and European scale all means must be put to use to bring global collaboration closer at the shortest possible term. [mk] [nl

  13. The co-production of a "relevant" expertise – administrative and scientific cooperation in the French water policies elaboration and implementation since the 1990s

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. F. Deroubaix

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims at understanding the social and political uses of the principle of integrated management and its possible impacts on the elaboration and implementation processes of public policies in the French water management sector. The academic and political innovations developed by scientists and agents of the administration these last 25 years are analysed, using some of the theoretical tools developed by the science studies and public policy analysis. We first focus on the construction of intellectual public policy communities such as the GIP Hydro systems, at the origin of large interdisciplinary research programs in the 1990s. A common cognitive framework is clearly built during this period on the good governance of the aquatic ecosystems and on the corresponding needs and practices of research. The second part of the paper focuses on the possibilities to build political communities and more or less integrated expertises in the decision making processes concerning various issues related to water management. Eutrophication and its inscription on the French political agenda is a very significant case for analysing the difficulty to build such a political community. On the contrary, when there is an opportunity for policy evaluation, which was the case concerning the management of wetlands in France or the implementation of compulsory flows on the French rivers, these communities can emerge. However, the type of integrated expertise and management proposed in these cases of policy evaluations much depends on their methodological choices.

  14. The spatial politics of place and health policy: Exploring Sustainability and Transformation Plans in the English NHS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammond, Jonathan; Lorne, Colin; Coleman, Anna; Allen, Pauline; Mays, Nicholas; Dam, Rinita; Mason, Thomas; Checkland, Kath

    2017-10-01

    This paper explores how 'place' is conceptualised and mobilized in health policy and considers the implications of this. Using the on-going spatial reorganizing of the English NHS as an exemplar, we draw upon relational geographies of place for illumination. We focus on the introduction of 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans' (STPs): positioned to support improvements in care and relieve financial pressures within the health and social care system. STP implementation requires collaboration between organizations within 44 bounded territories that must reach 'local' consensus about service redesign under conditions of unprecedented financial constraint. Emphasising the continued influence of previous reorganizations, we argue that such spatialized practices elude neat containment within coherent territorial geographies. Rather than a technical process financially and spatially 'fixing' health and care systems, STPs exemplify post-politics-closing down the political dimensions of policy-making by associating 'place' with 'local' empowerment to undertake highly resource-constrained management of health systems, distancing responsibility from national political processes. Relational understandings of place thus provide value in understanding health policies and systems, and help to identify where and how STPs might experience difficulties. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Participation in policy discourse: new form of exclusion for seniors with disabilities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raymond, Émilie; Grenier, Amanda

    2013-06-01

    Recent discourses on aging emphasize the value of older people's social participation. How participation is defined in policy, however, may not correspond with seniors' realities. This article reports on the results of a critical discourse analysis conducted on aging policy in Quebec between 2005 and 2011. Results indicate that participation definitions can be problematic recommendations, standards, and expectations. Over time, participation increasingly came to be defined as productivity. The participation context also changed from collective responsibility to community adjustment and personal choice. Finally, policy texts reflected a polarization between activity and a loss of autonomy that linked participation with health status. Results suggest that, although innovative in the Canadian context, articulation of participation in Quebec's recent policies on aging lacks the politics from which to discuss difference, otherness, and access to participative opportunities. The case of older people's aging with disabilities illustrates the challenges of the new participatory agenda.

  16. Hospitality, Tourism, and Politics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen W. Litvin

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Government policy has a significant impact on the hospitality and tourism industry, but it is unclear if political leaders fully understand this economic sector when crafting policies. This article offers new research about the direct involvement of industry practitioners in the political process, by analyzing the backgrounds of legislators in the six New England states. The data indicate that only 3% of these legislators have current or former careers related to hospitality and tourism. The author suggests that practitioners should seek election to political office, to better influence government policy.

  17. Cooperation between Counterparts in Parliament from an Agenda-Setting Perspective: Legislative Coalitions as a Trade of Criticism and Policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Flemming Juul; Seeberg, Henrik Bech

    2016-01-01

    Governments may bargain with parties in parliament to silence them. This insight follows from the agenda-setting literature, which emphasises the power of the opposition to criticise the government. The literature on legislatures points to the fear of loss of future voter support as a motivation....... By offering the opposition noteworthy policy influence in legislative coalitions, governments avoid opposition criticism in return, in addition to having initiatives passed. In order to test this argument, a large dataset is compiled on opposition criticism in parliament and the media before and after the 325...

  18. American Polonia’s Resources Of Ifluence And Us Foreign Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. D. Loshkariov

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The article analyzes resources of political influence on the foreign policy of the country of residence that Polish diaspora in the United States possesses. This analysis is useful for two reasons. Firstly, it will expand the focus of research in the study of pressure groups and their influence on the American foreign policy. Secondly, the Polish diaspora in the United States is rarely the object of research in migrant and ethnic lobbying, despite its the significant share of the country’s population. Analysis of the given resources that the Polish diaspora (American Polonia has leads to the following. Firstly, the foreign policy agenda of the Polish diaspora in the United States faces no strong opponents. This fact means the diaspora has sufficiently developed structural resource. In addition, the Polish diaspora possesses an organizational resource: its institutions are in close cooperation and are coordinated by the Polish American Congress. Secondly, the Polish diaspora in the US is a significant group of the population, especially in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Connecticut, New York and Illinois. However, its electoral and financial capacities are not used to the fullest extent. Finally, there are certain difficulties with the discursive political resource of Polish diaspora. The social and political perception provides of Polonia in the USA two opposing narratives. The first one stresses that it is important for the Americans of Polish descent to share such values as democracy, defending his position, including by military means. The second narrative is a reproduction of widespread stereotypes about Poles, including in the popular culture. Thus, institutions of the American Polonia face several tasks. The most important tasks are the search for new ways of political mobilization of the diaspora and the formation of a balanced image of Polish Americans in the social and political perception in the United States.

  19. Political economy of renewable energy policy in Germany. A consideration of the policy making process in the electricity market under the influence of interest groups

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mueller, Tom

    2015-01-01

    In the research, it is argued that the targeted promotion of renewables leads to a change in the technological path dependency on the electricity market or led. The historically market depending portfolio of products in the conventional power industry will be replaced by an increasingly strong dependence on the product portfolio of Renewable Energy Sector according to this argumentation. The present work is devoted to the political explanation of the change and transition process in the electricity market. The process of policy formation in this market (especially support policies for renewable energies) will be discussed. It is examined from a public choice perspective, which political actors and instances in the past were responsible for the development and maintenance of individual policy elements. In particular, in this analysis the different private sector stakeholders in the electricity market move to center of attention. [de

  20. From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals: Gender and Inclusive Electoral Politics in Nigeria, 1999 – 2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emeka C. Iloh

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the extent to which Nigeria achieved gender parity in the political process between 1999 and 2015 (the period of the Millennium Development Goals and the prospects of sustaining the achievement (if any under the Sustainable Development Goals regime, between 2015 and 2030. Relying mainly on qualitative method and documentary evidence, predicated on the social dominance theory, the study posits that women have been structurally denied access to political power in Nigeria. The patriarchal system which is prevalent in the country ensures that there is no parity between the sexes in the political process. This is despite the fact that women constitute more than 50% of the population but yet, comprise less than 10% of Nigeria’s legislature. This paper, therefore, submits that for Nigeria to achieve the 2030 Agenda on gender parity in the political process, it should move beyond mere policy rehearsals and take concrete steps such as instituting a quota system in its electoral laws. Other countries that have achieved gender parity in the political process did so mainly through constitutional means, rather than mere advocacy.

  1. Emotions, Public Opinion, and U.S. Presidential Approval Rates: A 5-Year Analysis of Online Political Discussions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra; Banchs, Rafael E.; Kaltenbrunner, Andreas

    2012-01-01

    This article examines how emotional reactions to political events shape public opinion. We analyze political discussions in which people voluntarily engage online to approximate the public agenda: Online discussions offer a natural approach to the salience of political issues and the means to analyze emotional reactions as political events take…

  2. Behaviour Change in the UK Climate Debate: An Assessment of Responsibility, Agency and Political Dimensions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shane Fudge

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper explores the politics around the role of agency in the UK climate change debate. Government interventions on the demand side of consumption have increasingly involved attempts to obtain greater traction with the values, attitudes and beliefs of citizens in relation to climate change and also in terms of influencing consumer behaviour at an individual level. With figures showing that approximately 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions are attributable to household and transport behaviour, policy initiatives have progressively focused on the facilitation of “sustainable behaviours”. Evidence suggests however, that mobilisation of pro-environmental attitudes in addressing the perceived “value-action gap” has so far had limited success. Research in this field suggests that there is a more significant and nuanced “gap” between context and behaviour; a relationship that perhaps provides a more adroit reflection of reasons why people do not necessarily react in the way that policy-makers anticipate. Tracing the development of the UK Government’s behaviour change agenda over the last decade, we posit that a core reason for the limitations of this programme relates to an excessively narrow focus on the individual. This has served to obscure some of the wider political and economic aspects of the debate in favour of a more simplified discussion. The second part of the paper reports findings from a series of focus groups exploring some of the wider political views that people hold around household energy habits, purchase and use of domestic appliances, and transport behaviour-and discusses these insights in relation to the literature on the agenda’s apparent limitations. The paper concludes by considering whether the aims of the Big Society approach (recently established by the UK’s Coalition Government hold the potential to engage more directly with some of these issues or whether they merely constitute a “repackaging” of the

  3. Examining political mobilization of online communities through e-petitioning behavior in

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine L Dumas

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to reveal patterns of e-petition co-signing behavior that are indicative of the political mobilization of online “communities”. We discuss the case of We the People , a US national experiment in the use of social media technology to enable users to propose and solicit support for policy suggestions to the White House. We apply Baumgartner and Jones's work on agenda setting and punctuated equilibrium, which suggests that policy issues may lie dormant for periods of time until some event triggers attention from the media, interest groups, and elected representatives. In the case study presented, we focus on 21 petitions initiated during the week after the Sandy Hook shooting (14–21 December 2012 in opposition to gun control or in support of policy proposals that are alternatives to gun control, which we view as mobilized efforts to maintain stability and equilibrium in a policy system threatening to change. Using market basket analysis and social network analysis we found a core group of petitions in the “support law-abiding gun owners” theme that were highly connected and four “communities” of e-petitioners mobilizing in opposition to change in gun control policies and in favor of alternative proposals.

  4. Access to Basic Education in Ghana: Politics, Policies and Progress. CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 42

    Science.gov (United States)

    Little, Angela W.

    2010-01-01

    This monograph examines the history and politics of educational reform in Ghana. Using data from interviews conducted with senior policy-makers, implementers and researchers, as well as documentary sources, to explore the drivers and inhibitors of change at the political, bureaucratic and grass-roots levels. The monograph explores the nature of…

  5. What contribution can international relations make to the evolving global health agenda?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Sara E

    2010-01-01

    This article presents two approaches that have dominated International Relations in their approach to the international politics of health. The statist approach, which is primarily security-focused, seeks to link health initiatives to a foreign or defence policy remit. The globalist approach, in contrast, seeks to advance health not because of its intrinsic security value but because it advances the well-being and rights of individuals. This article charts the evolution of these approaches and demonstrates why both have the potential to shape our understanding of the evolving global health agenda. It examines how the statist and globalist perspectives have helped shape contemporary initiatives in global health governance and suggests that there is evidence of an emerging convergence between the two perspectives. This convergence is particularly clear in the articulation of a number of UN initiatives in this area - especially the One World, One Health Strategic Framework and the Oslo Ministerial Declaration (2007) which inspired the first UN General Assembly resolution on global health and foreign policy in 2009 and the UN Secretary-General's note "Global health and foreign policy: strategic opportunities and challenges". What remains to be seen is whether this convergence will deliver on securing states' interest long enough to promote the interests of the individuals who require global efforts to deliver local health improvements.

  6. National innovation policy and public science in Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Lyn

    2017-12-01

    In this paper, I have positioned myself with Kean Birch and explored some of the political-economic actors/actants of policy suites implicated in the biotechnologies and bioeconomy. In particular, I have considered Australia's recent National Innovation and Science Agenda and allied documents and entities (that is, Innovation and Science Australia, the National Science Statement and the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap) as one of the National Innovation Strategies in place now in OECD countries and beyond. In overview, these policy suites utilise the same high knowledge creation/low translation and commericalisation arguments as elsewhere to press for particular ideologically based `improvements' to public science. Mapping the terrain of these entities has revealed the innovation, biotechnology and bioeconomy policy space to be inordinately complex and challenging to navigate. Reviewing Australia's position enables the type of comparative work that contributes to a closer understanding of the largely neoliberal global economic imperatives shaping contemporaneity. Moreover, while these policy suites attempt to constitute and circulate particular visions of science education, their complex nature mitigates against science teachers/educators grappling with their implications.

  7. Political Parties and Social Policy Responses to Global Economic Crises

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starke, Peter; Kaasch, Alexandra; van Hooren, Franca

    2014-01-01

    Based on empirical findings froma comparative study onwelfare state responses to the four major economic shocks (the 1970s oil shocks, the early 1990s recession, the 2008 financial crisis) in four OECD countries, this article demonstrates that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, policy responses...... to global economic crises vary significantly across countries. What explains the cross-national and within-case variation in responses to crises?We discuss several potential causes of this pattern and argue that political parties and the party composition of governments can play a key role in shaping crisis...

  8. Ingredients for Good Health Policy-Making: Incorporating Power and Politics into the Mix

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yusra Shawar

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Eggs, flour, sugar, butter, baking soda, milk, and vanilla extract—all ingredients necessary to make a delicious cake. Similarly, good health policy-making can only be successfully pursued and understood by accounting for all of its basic ingredients, including the role of politics and power. Otherwise, the result is simply not good.

  9. The Politics of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs Post-Reformation 1998

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aditya Perdana

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Setelah Reformasi tahun 1998, sebagian organisasi organisasi masyarakat sipil (OMS mendorong agenda perubahan kebijakan dari luar pemerintahan dan terlibat dalam berbagai tim asistensi implementasi program pembangunan dari berbagai kementrian. Perubahan tindakan politik kelompok OMS dari luar pemerintahan dan menjadi bagian pemerintahan disebabkan oleh adanya kesempatan politik yang lebih terbuka dan akomodatif dari rejim politik paska Reformasi. Meskipun OMS memanfaatkan kesempatan politik tersebut, OMS menghadapi tantangan serius dalam arena politik yaitu fragmentasi kelompok masyarakat sipil dalam mendorong berbagai perubahan dan reformasi kebijakan dan tidak adanya dukungan perubahan struktur budaya politik yang masih mewarisi hubungan patronase diantara para aktor. Studi ini memperkuat argumen dari Aspinall (2013a dan Mietzner (2013 dalam hal memanfaatkan kesempatan politik paska Reformasi dan tantangan serta respon OMS dalam struktur warisan politik rejim Suharto di dua arena politik: pembuatan kebijakan dan politik elektoral. OMS di Indonesia mengalami ketidaksolidan dan lemah dalam mendorong isu-isu perubahan dalam pembentukan kebijakan di DPR dan lemahnya dukungan politik elektoral bagi pemenangan kandidat dari kelompok OMS di semua pemilihan umum.Untuk mendapatkan data yang terkait aktivitas politik OMS dalam ranah pembuatan undang-undang serta partisipasi politik aktor OMS dalam pemilu, studi ini menggunakan metode pelacakan proses. After the Reformation (reformasi in 1998, some civil society organizations (CSOs have endorsed policy changes from outside the government and have involved in many ministries’ assistance team to implement government’s development programs. These CSOs’political action changes from outside to become inside the government are caused by the openness of political opportunity from political regime after Reformasi

  10. Capacity Development and Strengthening for Energy Policy formulation and implementation of Sustainable Energy Projects in Indonesia CASINDO. Deliverable No. 15. Research agendas of the Indonesian partner universities. Part 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wijnker, M. [Eindhoven University of Technology TUE, Eindhoven (Netherlands)

    2010-09-15

    The overall objective of the CASINDO programme is to establish a self-sustaining and self-developing structure at both the national and regional level to build and strengthen human capacity to enable the provinces of North Sumatra, Yogyakarta, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara and Papua to formulate sound policies for renewable energy and energy efficiency and to develop and implement sustainable energy projects. This report provides an overview of the status of development of research agendas at the five partner universities. The research agendas consists of a research proposals, purchasing and installation of research equipment, cooperation with industries and conducting the research proposals. Start of the development of the agendas is determining the fields of interest and formulating research projects. Research development is an ongoing process and therefore by the end of 2011 part 2 of this report will be prepared which will present the new developments in the research agendas over the coming year.

  11. The role of political affiliation in employment decisions: A model and research agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roth, Philip L; Goldberg, Caren B; Thatcher, Jason B

    2017-09-01

    Organizational researchers have studied how individuals identify with groups and organizations and how this affiliation influences behavior for decades (e.g., Tajfel, 1982). Interestingly, investigation into political affiliation and political affiliation similarity in the organizational sciences is extremely rare. This is striking, given the deep political divides that exist between groups of individuals described in the political science literature. We draw from theories based on similarity, organizational identification, and person-environment fit, as well as theoretical notions related to individuating information, to develop a model, the political affiliation model (PAM), which describes the implications of political affiliation and political similarity for employment decisions. We set forth a number of propositions based on PAM, to spur future research in the organizational sciences for a timely topic which has received little attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Barriers to knowledge production, knowledge translation, and urban health policy change: ideological, economic, and political considerations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muntaner, Carles; Chung, Haejoo; Murphy, Kelly; Ng, Edwin

    2012-12-01

    In this paper, we consider social forces that affect the processes of both knowledge production and knowledge translation in relation to urban health research. First, we briefly review our conceptual model, derived from a social-conflict framework, to outline how unequal power relations and health inequalities are causally linked. Second, we critically discuss ideological, political, and economic barriers that exist within academia that affect knowledge production related to urban health and health inequalities. Third, we broaden the scope of our analysis to examine how the ideological, political, and economic environment beyond the academy creates barriers to health equity policy making. We conclude with some key questions about the role that knowledge translation can possibly play in light of these constraints on research and policy for urban health.

  13. Politics of Leadership and Implementation of Educational Policies and Programmes of Tertiary Institutions in Cross River State, Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ekpiken, W. E.; Ifere, Francis O.

    2015-01-01

    This paper examines issues of politics of leadership and implementation of Educational policies and programmes of tertiary institutions in Cross River State with a view to determine the problems are situated and suggest the way forward. It examines the concept of politics of education, concept of leadership, meaning of planning and generation of…

  14. Politics of environmental regulation: acid rain in Ontario

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hogarth Wood, G P

    1984-01-01

    This study looks at the case of the Ontario government and Inco Limited in order to explain political responses to the acid rain issue and to generalize about the dynamics of environmental regulation. Existing accounts of the acid rain situation neglect a systematic explanation of the political processes that guide the selection of policy. This reflects a tendency in Canadian public policy analysis generally. Most literature in this field is both apolitical and atheoretical. In addition, most models of public policy focus attention on a narrow range of policy determinants, making the models inappropriate as exclusive guides for public policy analysis. This study follows an approach that assumes that no variable can, a priori, be viewed as the primary determinant of a policy choice. Instead, relevant features of the economic, social, and political environment surrounding the policy process have to be examined in addition to that process itself. Accordingly, a number of potential influences on the acid rain policy outcome in Ontario are explored: the economic structure of Ontario, political-geographic factors, the role of science and technology, political power in the province, political values and attitudes, the institutional structure of Ontario politics, and finally, the policy process itself. This exercise points to the overriding influence of the political system environment, particularly the economic structure of the province, in explaining the policy choice. The findings of this study can be extended to explain regulatory responses to the issue in other political jurisdictions.

  15. Comunidades transnacionales, academia y sociedad civil hacía la construcción de una agenda migratoria en México; Comunidades transnacionais, academia e sociedade civil desde a construção de uma agenda migratoria no México; Transnational communities, academia and civil society were building a migration agenda in Mexico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodolfo García Zamora

    2017-07-01

    agenda e ser capaz de gerar propostas sérias e concretas. Este artigo é a revisão do trabalho da sociedade civil que está sendo organizada e propõe ações específicas para enfrentar a migração de diferentes ângulos. Palavras-chaves: Políticas de migração, Organizações de migrantes, Agenda de políticas públicas,  Proposta.   Abstract: The migratory issue has been treated in Mexico as an income that doesn´t require investments and as an topic that can be postponed. But the return migration of mexicans from the United States, due to the economic crisis of 2007-2008, the anti-migrant policies and the massive deportations, call into question the economical, political and institutional structure of the country, the states and the municipalities; and raises the challenge of generating new public policies that support mexican migrants and the reintegration of returned migrants and their families. Policies that must be generated from all the social actors of the migratory phenomenon. When gubernamental authorities are lacking in proposals, those involved in the migratory issue find a sterile road to take in their hands the agenda and be capable of generating serious and concrete proposals. This paper is the review of the work of the civil society which is being organized and proposing specific actions to face migration from different edges. Keywords: Migration policies, migrant organizations, public policies, agenda, proposals.

  16. The Political Economy, the Economic Policy and the Internal Control in the Development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Angola

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mendes Pedro−Ludi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The Economic Policy includes the strategies of diversification and development of the country and has in Angola as the most important objective, the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MPYMES. However, the effectiveness of policies aimed at promoting this type of business depends not only on the policy, but also on the organization, management and control of the process of allocation of financial resources. To achieve this, it is possible if it is based on the interrelationship between Political Economy, scientific basis of Economic Policy and Internal Control, guaranteeing the ordering and control of Economic Policy. The objective of this article is to demonstrate theoretically and empirically the dialectical relationship between Political Economy, Economic Policy and Internal Control, in favor of the development of Angolan MPYMES.

  17. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: United States energy security, oil politics, and petroleum reserves policies in the twentieth century

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beaubouef, Bruce Andre

    The history of U.S. petroleum reserves policies in the twentieth century, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) program, provides a case study of the economic and political aspects of national security, and shows the ways in which the American political economy influences national security. One key problem plagued federal petroleum reserve programs and proposals throughout the twentieth century. In a political economy which traditionally placed strong emphasis upon the sanctity of private property and free markets, could the government develop an emergency petroleum reserve policy despite opposition from the private sector? Previous literature on the SPR and oil-stockpiling programs has largely disregarded the historical perspective, focusing instead upon econometric models, suggesting future oil-stockpiling policy options. This study will also make conclusions about the future of governmental oil-stockpiling policies, particularly with regard to the SPR program, but it will do so informed by a systematic history of the emergency petroleum reserve impulse in the twentieth century. Through a study of the emergency petroleum reserve impulse, one can see how the American political economy of oil and energy changed over the twentieth century. As petroleum became crucial to the military and then economic security of the United States, the federal government sought to develop emergency petroleum reserves first for the military, then for the civilian economy. But while the American petroleum industry could deliver the energy "goods" to American energy consumers at a reasonable price, the companies reigned supreme in the political equation. While that was true, federal petroleum reserve programs and proposals conflicted with and were overwhelmed by the historic American tradition of individual economic and private property rights. The depletion of American petroleum reserves changed that political equation, and the ensuing energy crises of the 1970s not only

  18. Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2015: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huerta, Luis; Shafer, Sheryl Rankin; Barbour, Michael K.; Miron, Gary; Gulosino, Charisse

    2015-01-01

    This 2015 report is third in a series of annual reports on virtual education in the U.S. It is organized in three major sections: Section I examines the policy and political landscape associated with virtual schooling and describes the current state of affairs related to finance and governance, instructional program quality, and teacher quality.…

  19. Searching for the Right to Health in the Sustainable Development Agenda; Comment on “Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarah Hawkes

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The United Nations (UN Sustainable Development Agenda offers an opportunity to realise the right to health for all. The Agenda’s “interlinked and integrated” Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs provide the prospect of focusing attention and mobilising resources not just for the provision of health services through universal health coverage (UHC, but also for addressing the underlying social, structural, and political determinants of illness and health inequity. However, achieving the goals’ promises will require new mechanisms for inter-sectoral coordination and action, enhanced instruments for rational priority-setting that involve affected population groups, and new approaches to ensuring accountability. Rights-based approaches can inform developments in each of these areas. In this commentary, we build upon a paper by Forman et al and propose that the significance of the SDGs lies in their ability to move beyond a biomedical approach to health and healthcare, and to seize the opportunity for the realization of the right to health in its fullest, widest, most fundamental sense: the right to a healthpromoting and health protecting environment for each and every one of us. We argue that realizing the right to health inherent in the SDG Agenda is possible but demands that we seize on a range of commitments, not least those outlined in other goals, and pursue complementary openings in the Agenda – from inclusive policy-making, to novel partnerships, to monitoring and review. It is critical that we do not risk losing the right to health in the rhetoric of the SDGs and ensure that we make good on the promise of leaving no one behind.

  20. Where does political influence go when austerity sets in?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Sune Welling; Houlberg, Kurt; Holm Pedersen, Lene

    Economic crisis is argued to be an opportunity to push through political changes, which otherwise can be difficult to make. Fiscal austerity is likely to change the political agenda and in some cases also the coalitions which can be formed. Based on the asymmetric distribution of preferences...... level down to the subnational level it becomes possible to make an empirical contribution to the discussion on how austerity affects political influence. We examine the case of Danish local government and make use of a time-series cross-sectional dataset consisting of two independent surveys of elected...... guardians, who ‘should not waste a good crisis to make political changes’ because their political influence is increasing in times of austerity....

  1. El ingreso de la agenda feminista a la agenda de los medios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernández Hasan, Valeria

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available [es] La agenda política feminista ha ingresado a la agenda mediática a través de diversas estrategias en los últimos años. Actualmente, no sólo los portales de noticias feministas/de género y los de colectivas feministas presentan y se ocupan de noticias de mujeres y diversidad sino que los grandes medios de comunicación masiva han incorporado a sus agendas estas problemáticas imprescindibles, fundamentalmente, referidas a tres temas puntuales: trata de personas para explotación sexual, derechos sexuales y reproductivos/aborto, violencia de género/femicidio. A cinco años de la sanción de la Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual, nos interesa hacer un balance del impacto de las acciones implementadas en torno del tratamiento de la violencia de género/femicidio en distintos formatos y soportes e indagar cuáles son las percepciones de los y las periodistas respecto de sus propias intervenciones y producciones. Para relevar la información realizamos entrevistas a periodistas de diferentes medios de comunicación de la radio y la TV de Mendoza. También aparecen datos aportados por referentes de las dos redes que actualmente reúnen a las/los periodistas feministas e investigadoras de la comunicación en Argentina (Periodistas de Argentina en Red por una comunicación no sexista y Red Internacional de Periodistas con Visión de Género. [en] The political feminist agenda has entered to the media agenda across diverse strategies in the last years. Nowadays, not only the portals of news feminists /gender and those of collective feminists are presented by them and deal with women’s news and diversity but the big media of massive communication have incorporated to his these problematic indispensable, agendas fundamentally, referred to three punctual topics: It treats of persons for sexual exploitation, sexual and reproductive / reproductive rights, violence of gender/femicide. To five years of the sanction of the Law of Services

  2. The Law, Policy, and Politics of Formal Hypnosis in the Public Community College Classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sachs, Steven Mark

    Information from printed sources, legal documents, and interviews with community college administrators formed the basis of an investigation of the legal, policy, and political implications of the use of formal hypnosis as an instructional augmentation in the community college classroom. Study findings included the following: (1) no formal policy…

  3. Panafrican Research Agenda on the Integration of ICTs in Education ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Panafrican Research Agenda on the Integration of ICTs in Education - Phase I ... and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet, in education ... by taking inventory (policies, infrastructure, teacher training, uses, impact, etc.) ...

  4. From Global to Local and Vice Versa: On the Importance of the 'Globalization' Agenda in Continental Groundwater Research and Policy-Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filimonau, Viachaslau; Barth, Johannes A C

    2016-09-01

    Groundwater is one of the most important environmental resources and its use continuously rises globally for industrial, agricultural, and drinking water supply purposes. Because of its importance, more knowledge about the volume of usable groundwater is necessary to satisfy the global demand. Due to the challenges in quantifying the volume of available global groundwater, studies which aim to assess its magnitude are limited in number. They are further restricted in scope and depth of analysis as, in most cases, they do not explain how the estimates of global groundwater resources have been obtained, what methods have been used to generate the figures and what levels of uncertainty exist. This article reviews the estimates of global groundwater resources. It finds that the level of uncertainty attached to existing numbers often exceeds 100 % and strives to establish the reasons for discrepancy. The outcome of this study outlines the need for a new agenda in water research with a more pronounced focus on groundwater. This new research agenda should aim at enhancing the quality and quantity of data provision on local and regional groundwater stocks and flows. This knowledge enhancement can serve as a basis to improve policy-making on groundwater resources globally. Research-informed policies will facilitate more effective groundwater management practices to ensure a more rapid progress of the global water sector towards the goal of sustainability.

  5. From Global to Local and Vice Versa: On the Importance of the `Globalization' Agenda in Continental Groundwater Research and Policy-Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filimonau, Viachaslau; Barth, Johannes A. C.

    2016-09-01

    Groundwater is one of the most important environmental resources and its use continuously rises globally for industrial, agricultural, and drinking water supply purposes. Because of its importance, more knowledge about the volume of usable groundwater is necessary to satisfy the global demand. Due to the challenges in quantifying the volume of available global groundwater, studies which aim to assess its magnitude are limited in number. They are further restricted in scope and depth of analysis as, in most cases, they do not explain how the estimates of global groundwater resources have been obtained, what methods have been used to generate the figures and what levels of uncertainty exist. This article reviews the estimates of global groundwater resources. It finds that the level of uncertainty attached to existing numbers often exceeds 100 % and strives to establish the reasons for discrepancy. The outcome of this study outlines the need for a new agenda in water research with a more pronounced focus on groundwater. This new research agenda should aim at enhancing the quality and quantity of data provision on local and regional groundwater stocks and flows. This knowledge enhancement can serve as a basis to improve policy-making on groundwater resources globally. Research-informed policies will facilitate more effective groundwater management practices to ensure a more rapid progress of the global water sector towards the goal of sustainability.

  6. Domestic politics, citizen activism, and U.S. nuclear arms control policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knopf, J.W.

    1991-01-01

    The author seeks to ascertain whether and how citizens' movements concerning nuclear arms control and disarmament affect US arms control policy. The author employs a comparative case study methodology. He examines cases of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations during the period of protest against nuclear testing, and the Reagan Administration during the nuclear weapons freeze campaign and the subsequent campaign for a comprehensive test ban. He hows there are four mechanisms through which public advocacy efforts can influence arms control policy, identifies the conditions under which each can be effective, and details the type of impact each mechanism has. Domestic activism interacts with broader public opinion in a way that creates electoral pressure; with elite-level debates in a way that removes a consensus behind presidential policy or changes the winning coalition in Congress; with bureaucratic politics, by generating ideas that have utility for some agents within the Executive; or with the public diplomacy of foreign governments, especially the Soviet Union. Citizens' movements had an impact on policy in each of the cases studied. The type and extent of impact, and the mechanisms involved in giving activism influence, are different for each case

  7. Academic Debate: Publications Which Promote Political Agendas Have no Place in Scientific and Medical Journals, and Academics Should Refrain from Publishing in Such Journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glick, Shimon; Clarfield, A Mark; Strous, Rael D; Horton, Richard

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents the full debate held on October 1, 2014, which focused on the following resolution: "Publications which promote political agendas have no place in scientific and medical journals, and academics should refrain from publishing in such journals." The debate moderator was Professor Shimon Glick. Taking the pro stance was Professor A. Mark Clarfield; the con stance was held by Professor Rael D. Strous. Following the first part of the debate, Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, gave his thoughts on the topic. This was followed by the opportunity for rebuttal by Professors Clarfield and Strous. The debate was summarized and closed by Professor Glick. This paper provides a slightly edited text of the debate, for ease of reading.

  8. Political Incongruity between Students' Ideological Identity and Stance on Specific Public Policies in a Predominantly White Southeastern State Institution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coles, Jeremy T.; Carstens, Brittany A.; Wright, Jennifer M.; Williams, Robert L.

    2015-01-01

    The study determined whether or not a predominantly Caucasian sample (N = 187) attending a southeastern state's major public university embraced political policies consistent with their self-identified political ideology. The findings showed that the highest percentage of students identified with a conservative ideology and that a much lower…

  9. A Research Agenda for Malaria Eradication: Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Malaria modeling can inform policy and guide research for malaria elimination and eradication from local implementation to global policy. A research and development agenda for malaria modeling is proposed, to support operations and to enhance the broader eradication research agenda. Models are envisioned as an integral part of research, planning, and evaluation, and modelers should ideally be integrated into multidisciplinary teams to update the models iteratively, communicate their appropriate use, and serve the needs of other research scientists, public health specialists, and government officials. A competitive and collaborative framework will result in policy recommendations from multiple, independently derived models and model systems that share harmonized databases. As planned, modeling results will be produced in five priority areas: (1) strategic planning to determine where and when resources should be optimally allocated to achieve eradication; (2) management plans to minimize the evolution of drug and pesticide resistance; (3) impact assessments of new and needed tools to interrupt transmission; (4) technical feasibility assessments to determine appropriate combinations of tools, an associated set of target intervention coverage levels, and the expected timelines for achieving a set of goals in different socio-ecological settings and different health systems; and (5) operational feasibility assessments to weigh the economic costs, capital investments, and human resource capacities required. PMID:21283605

  10. Future Perspectives of the Implementation of EU Urban Agenda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olejnik Aleksandra

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This article is an overview of opinions and recommendations adopted in the European Union vis-à-vis urban policy. The author analyses the Pact of Amsterdam and future perspectives of the implementation of EU Urban Agenda.

  11. Reading Ancient Reliefs: An Approach to Interperation of Architectural Decoration in Historical and Political Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mgr. Lucia Novakova

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Ancient treasuries promoted wealth and prosperity of the donation community. Preserved relief scenes portrayed mythological stories used for expressing certain characteristic reflection of reality (chaos, wilderness, heroism, etc. By analyzing historical sources is possible to assign events related to the poleis in historical context. This paper shall serve as introduction of hypothetical nature of political program and contribution to the knowledge of political promotion of polis in relief decoration. Figural decoration became a form of political program, or even metaphorical ideology. The main carrier of ideological reference were figure decorated pediments and friezes. Those visualized political agenda of polis even for illiterate observers. In particular mythological stories, those that might have some ideological scheme, were preferred. They can be applied to current events of polis, but only if adequate historical sources or archaeological evidence. Mythological battles were frequent motifs. The story of Gigantomachy allowed various kind of exploitation in political ideology. The main idea was the battle between world full of chaos and world representing stability and certainty. Analogies are identifiable in the whole archaic period. The main inspiration were military confrontations with other Greek or non-Greek cities. From preserved decorative elements is possible to roughly characterize also political significance of mythological heroes. Visual display is closely related to foreign policy and inner political conflict of poleis. It is important that preserved reliefs with motives that do not deal with panhellenic scenes are lessnumerous.

  12. Pension Funds and the Politics of Ownership in Britain, c. 1970-86.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Aled

    2018-04-23

    The growth of occupational pensions in the post-war era transformed the pattern of capital ownership in Britain, as workers' collective retirement savings purchased a substantial share of the national economy. This article examines the response of the Labour and Conservative parties to this significant material change, and considers how it shaped their respective politics of ownership at the end of the post-war settlement. It demonstrates that Labour and the trade union movement recognized occupational pension funds as a new form of social ownership but had to reconcile their desire to give pension scheme-members direct control over their investments with a broader belief that the funds needed be used for a state-coordinated revitalization of the industrial economy. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party's initial enthusiasm for occupational pensions, which it championed for helping to create a 'property-owning democracy', was challenged by a radical neoliberal critique in the early 1980s that sought to dismantle pension funds and to individualize investment. The findings in the article assert the need for historians to situate the politics of the tumultuous 1970s and 1980s in the context of the substantial economic and social changes that had taken place during the post-war decades. These changes often created opportunities to formulate new policies and political agendas, but they also served to highlight deeper tensions within the ideologies of the main political parties.

  13. Effective research and innovation (R&I) policy in the EU-28: A causal and configurational analysis of political governance determinants

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Turkeli, S.; Kemp, R.P.M.

    2015-01-01

    Effective research and innovation (R&I) policy depends on the extent to which ideas, interests and institutional mechanisms for policy making work together rather than work against each other. In a political governance model for effective R&I policy in the EU-28, the separate influence of

  14. Transexualidad y agenda política: una historia de (discontinuidades y patologización Transexualidad y agenda política: una historia de (discontinuidades y patologización

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raquel Platero Méndez

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Transgenderism has recently become a political matter that has entered the Spanish political agenda. We are witnessing a socio-political scenario of growing inclusion of LGTB rights (lesbians, gays, transgenders and bisexuals in the political debate, including key events such as the approval of same sex marriage (law 13/2005 and the right of transgender people to change their name in the register without having to go through compulsory surgery (Law 3/2007. The study of the discourses on transgenderism is relevant, as it shows the transformations in the sex/gender notions. Therefore, the political problem no longer lies in punishing criminal subjects who are breaking the law (as it was phrased in the 1970 Law on Persons Representing a Social Danger and their Social Rehabilitation, or subjects constructed as transvestites. In the eighties a disclosure of the taboo of transgenderism starts to emerge (Garaizabal 1998:60; in the nineties transgender people become subjects of social mobilization and lastly in our decade, they succeed in achieving legal rights. Using a policy frame analysis, the article arguments that despite the successful history of achievement of rights, the binary inscription of heteronormativity remains unquestioned.La transexualidad se ha convertido recientemente en un asunto político con cabida en la agenda política del Estado español. Somos testigos de un panorama sociohistórico de creciente inclusión de los derechos LGTB (lesbianas, gays, transexuales y bisexuales en el debate político, con eventos clave como ha sido la aprobación del matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo (Ley 13/2005 y el derecho de las personas transexuales a cambiar la mención del sexo en el Registro Civil sin tener que pasar obligatoriamente por la cirugía (Ley 3/2007. Es relevante estudiar los discursos alrededor de la transexualidad porque desvela las transformaciones de los conceptos de sexo y género. Así, ya no se trata de un problema p

  15. Dealing with correlated choices: how a spin-glass model can help political parties select their policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, M A; Katzgraber, Helmut G

    2014-10-01

    Starting from preferences on N proposed policies obtained via questionnaires from a sample of the electorate, an Ising spin-glass model in a field can be constructed from which a political party could find the subset of the proposed policies which would maximize its appeal, form a coherent choice in the eyes of the electorate, and have maximum overlap with the party's existing policies. We illustrate the application of the procedure by simulations of a spin glass in a random field on scale-free networks.

  16. Capitalizing China | Schrire | New Agenda: South African Journal of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 54 (2014) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  17. South Africa's growth traps | Smith | New Agenda: South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 61 (2016) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  18. Racism in the workplace | Dlamini | New Agenda: South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 57 (2015) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

  19. Feminist Reflections on the Peruvian University Politics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stromquist, Nelly P.

    1988-01-01

    An examination of the extent to which Peruvian universities have addressed gender issues finds (1) student politics have been male-dominated and not made women's issues primary concerns, (2) faculty are predominantly male, and (3) the education field has not adopted a feminist agenda despite greater participation by women. (Author/MSE)

  20. Moral foundations and political attitudes: The moderating role of political sophistication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milesi, Patrizia

    2016-08-01

    Political attitudes can be associated with moral concerns. This research investigated whether people's level of political sophistication moderates this association. Based on the Moral Foundations Theory, this article examined whether political sophistication moderates the extent to which reliance on moral foundations, as categories of moral concerns, predicts judgements about policy positions. With this aim, two studies examined four policy positions shown by previous research to be best predicted by the endorsement of Sanctity, that is, the category of moral concerns focused on the preservation of physical and spiritual purity. The results showed that reliance on Sanctity predicted political sophisticates' judgements, as opposed to those of unsophisticates, on policy positions dealing with equal rights for same-sex and unmarried couples and with euthanasia. Political sophistication also interacted with Fairness endorsement, which includes moral concerns for equal treatment of everybody and reciprocity, in predicting judgements about equal rights for unmarried couples, and interacted with reliance on Authority, which includes moral concerns for obedience and respect for traditional authorities, in predicting opposition to stem cell research. Those findings suggest that, at least for these particular issues, endorsement of moral foundations can be associated with political attitudes more strongly among sophisticates than unsophisticates. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.