Search results for: substantial public policy

Authors: Zintle Sikhunyana

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Management of public finance in many countries such as South Africa is affected by political decisions and by policies around fiscal decentralization amongst the government spheres. Economic success is said to be determined by efficient management of public finance and by the policies or strategies that are implemented to support efficient public finance management. Policymakers focus on pay attention to how economic policies have been implemented and how they are directed into ensuring stable development. This will allow policymakers to address economic challenges through the usage of fiscal policy parameters that are linked to the achieved rate of economic growth and development. Efficient public finance management reduces the likelihood of corruption and corruption is said to have negative effects on economic growth and development. Corruption in public finance refers to an act of using funds for personal benefits. To achieve macroeconomic objectives, governments make use of government expenditure and government expenditure is financed through tax revenue. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of public finance management on economic growth and development in South Africa. The secondary data obtained from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and World Bank for 1980- 2020 has been utilized to achieve the research objectives. To test the impact of public finance management on economic growth and development, the study will use Seeming Unrelated Regression Equation (SURE) Modelling that allows researchers to model multiple equations with interdependent variables. The advantages of using SUR are that it efficiently allows estimation of relationships between variables by combining information on different equations and SUR test restrictions that involve parameters in different equations. The findings have shown that there is a positive relationship between efficient public finance management and economic growth/development. The findings also show that efficient public finance management has an indirect positive impact on economic growth and development. Corruption has a negative impact on economic growth and development. It results in an efficient allocation of government resources and thereby improves economic growth and development. The study recommends that governments who aim to stimulate economic growth and development should target and strengthen public finance management policies or strategies.

Keywords: corruption, economic growth, economic development, public finance management, fiscal decentralization

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Authors: Pooja Pandey

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The role of communication plays an integral part in the management of any disaster, whether natural or human-induced, both require effective and strategic delivery of information. The way any information is conveyed carries the most weight while dealing with the disaster. Hence, integrating communication strategies in disaster risk management (DRM) are extensively acknowledged however, these integration and planning are missing from the practical books. Researchers are continuously exploring integrated DRM and have established substantial vents between research and implementation of the strategies (gaps between science and policy). For this reason, this paper reviews the communication barriers that obstruct effective management of the disaster. Communication between first responders (government agencies, police, medical services) and the public (people directly affected by the disaster) is most critical and lacks proper delivery during a disaster. And these challenges can only be resolved if the foundation of the problem is properly dealt with, which is resolving the issues within the organizations. Through this study, it was found that it is necessary to build the communication gap between the organizations themselves as most of the hindrances occur during the mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery phase of the disaster. The study is concluded with the main aim to review the communication barriers within and at the organizational, technological, and social levels that impact effective DRM. In the end, some suggestions are made to strengthen the knowledge for future improvement in communication between the responders and their organizations.

Keywords: communication, organization, barriers, first responders, disaster risk management

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Authors: Nura Suleiman

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The foreign policy of any country or nation is intended to promote and protect the country’s national interest. To achieve this interest, a country has to be guided by certain principles and influence of domestic and international conditions. The history of Nigerian foreign policy is directed to defend its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, to promote and sustain the economic well-being of Nigerians, and promotion of Africa and world peace with justice. With the change of time and leadership, coupled with corruption, despite all the foreign policy determinants endowed with Nigeria as a country, sacrificed its foreign interest for the benefit of the western powers, by this it lost the opportunity to formulate policies according to its own need and desires.

Keywords: foreign policy, Nigeria, Western power

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Authors: Zhang Xue

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Urban public green spaces have evolved from classical private gardens and have expanded into multi-dimensional space value attributes such as scale and property rights. Among them, ecological, environmental value, social interaction value, and commercial, economic value have become consensual value characteristics. From the perspective of institutional economics, urban public green spaces, as a type of non-exclusive and non-competitive public good, express the social connotation of spatial "publicness" and multiple values are its important attributes. However, due to the positive externality characteristics of public green spaces, the cost-benefit functions between subjects are inconsistent, leading to issues such as the "anti-commons tragedy" of transitional management, lack of public sense of space responsibility, and weakened public nature. It is necessary to enhance the "publicness" of urban public green spaces through effective institutional arrangements, inclusive planning participation, and humane management measures, promoting urban public openness and the enhancement of multiple values.

Keywords: public green spaces, publicness, governance, institutional economics

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Authors: Talal Alqahtani

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For all institutions, either public or private, communication is important now more than ever. This is because the importance of communication has grown over the years, and it has the ability to either break or make an organization. With globalization, the changing technology, and other emergent issues that affect organizations, the communication given out has had to be better, sharper, and both proactive and reactive. This is the reason why the importance of public relations has been on the increase. Institutions realize the importance of having a good image and having public relations experts who can effectively manage communication in an institution easily in times of crisis. Public relations itself is not, however, effective, and this has led to the adoption of rhetoric in communication. Rhetoric use has had a long transformation because, in the past, it was only used in politics. Rhetoric in communication has come to be appreciated and adopted by many diverse fields and sectors. This study looks at the job of rhetoric in public relations practice and how it can identify with the administration of an institution's notoriety.

Keywords: communication, notoriety, rhetoric, public relation

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Authors: Sakulsri Srisaracam

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Social media has become an important source of information for the public and the media profession. Some social issues raised on social media are picked up by journalists to report on other platforms. This relationship between social media and mainstream media can sometimes drive public debate or stimulate social movements. The question to examine is in what situations can social media conversations raise awareness and stimulate change on public issues. This study addresses the communication patterns of social media conversations driving covert issues into mainstream media and leading to social advocacy movements. In methodological terms, the study findings are based on a content analysis of Facebook, Twitter, news websites and television media reports on three different case studies – saving Bryde’s whale, protests against a government proposal to downsize the Office of Knowledge Management and Development in Thailand, and a dengue fever campaign. These case studies were chosen because they represent issues that most members of the public do not pay much attention to but social media conversations stimulated public debate and calls to action. This study found: 1) Collective social media conversations can stimulate public debate and encourage change at three levels – awareness, public debate, and action of policy and social change. The level depends on the communication patterns of online users and media coverage. 2) Patterns of communication have to be designed to combine social media conversations, online opinion leaders, mainstream media coverage and call to both online and offline action to motivate social change. Thus, this result suggests that social media is a powerful platform for collective communication and setting the agenda on public issues for mainstream media. However, for social change to succeed, social media should be used to mobilize online movements to move offline too.

Keywords: public issues, mainstream media, social media, social movement

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Authors: Eiji Okano, Kazuyuki Inagaki

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We revisit Uribe's `Fiscal Theory of Sovereign Risk' advocating that there is a trade-off between stabilizing inflation and suppressing default. We develop a class of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with nominal rigidities and compare two de facto inflation stabilization policies, optimal monetary policy and optimal monetary and fiscal policy with the minimizing interest rate spread policy which completely suppress the default. Under the optimal monetary and fiscal policy, not only the nominal interest rate but also the tax rate work to minimize welfare costs through stabilizing inflation. Under the optimal monetary both inflation and output gap are completely stabilized although those are fluctuating under the optimal monetary policy. In addition, volatility in the default rate under the optimal monetary policy is considerably lower than one under the optimal monetary policy. Thus, there is not the SI-SD trade-off. In addition, while the minimizing interest rate spread policy makes inflation rate severely volatile, the optimal monetary and fiscal policy stabilize both the inflation and the default. A trade-off between stabilizing inflation and suppressing default is not so severe what pointed out by Uribe.

Keywords: sovereign risk, optimal monetary policy, fiscal theory of the price level, DSGE

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Authors: E. T. Svahn

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This article documents how open science policy is perceived in the scientific literature globally throughout the history. It also presents what policy needs are persistent to enable safe and effective dissemination of scientific knowledge. This information may be of interest to open science and science policy makers globally, especially in the view of recent adoption of supranational open science policies such as Plan S. Evaluation of open science policy landscape is in pressing need of assessment regarding its impact on the research community and society at wide as no previous literature review has been conducted on the topic. This study is a rigorous literature review based on constructivist grounded theory method on the full body of scientific open science policy publications. Selection of these articles has been conducted in 2019 and 2020 in major global knowledge databases. Through the analysis of these articles, two key themes emerged that are seen to shape the relationship between science and society. 1st is that of the policy enabling open science in a safe and effective way, and 2nd is that of the outcome of the science policy may have on the research community and the wider society. These findings accentuate that open science policies can have a major impact on not only research process and availability of knowledge but also on society itself. As an outcome of this study, a theoretical framework is constructed, and the need for further study on open science policy itself on a higher level becomes apparent.

Keywords: constructivist grounded theory, open science policy, rigorous literature review, science policy

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Authors: Rosni Lakandri

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With the development of science and technology, there has been a complete transformation in the domain of information technology. Particularly after the Second World War and Cold War period, the role of media and communication technology in shaping the political, economic, socio-cultural proceedings across the world has been tremendous. It performs as a channel between the governing bodies of the state and the general masses. As we have seen the international community constantly talking about the onset of Asian Century, India and China happens to be the major player in this. Both have the civilization history, both are neighboring countries, both are witnessing a huge economic growth and, important of all, both are considered the rising powers of Asia. Not negating the fact that both countries have gone to war with each other in 1962 and the common people and even the policy makers of both the sides view each other till now from this prism. A huge contribution to this perception of people goes to the media coverage of both sides, even if there are spaces of cooperation which they share, the negative impacts of media has tended to influence the people’s opinion and government’s perception about each other. Therefore, analysis of media’s impression in both the countries becomes important in order to know their effect on the larger implications of foreign policy towards each other. It is usually said that media not only acts as the information provider but also acts as ombudsman to the government. They provide a kind of check and balance to the governments in taking proper decisions for the people of the country but in attempting to answer this hypothesis we have to analyze does the media really helps in shaping the political landscape of any country? Therefore, this study rests on the following questions; 1.How do China and India depict each other through their respective News media? 2.How much and what influences they make on the policy making process of each country? How do they shape the public opinion in both the countries? In order to address these enquiries, the study employs both primary and secondary sources available, and in generating data and other statistical information, primary sources like reports, government documents, and cartography, agreements between the governments have been used. Secondary sources like books, articles and other writings collected from various sources and opinion from visual media sources like news clippings, videos in this topic are also included as a source of on ground information as this study is not based on field study. As the findings suggest in case of China and India, media has certainly affected people’s knowledge about the political and diplomatic issues at the same time has affected the foreign policy making of both the countries. They have considerable impact on the foreign policy formulation and we can say there is some mediatization happening in foreign policy issues in both the countries.

Keywords: China, foreign policy, India, media, public opinion

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Authors: Narong Anurak

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The objectives of this research were to investigate the knowledge and understanding of public relations principles for public relations officials of the office of the faculty of management science in Ratjabhat Suan Sunandha University and to determine the approach of public relations for the Office of Faculty of Management Science.  The questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics utilized included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and regression analysis. The results of the research showed that the public relations officials misunderstood on public relations principles. The lack of the perception in media of the target groups both in-house and outside caused the misunderstanding on the roles, mission, and responsibilities. It would be beneficial to public relations division and other divisions of the office of the faculty of management science to be trained and obtained more knowledge and skills on the public relations to support the public relations work for the organization.

Keywords: faculty of management science, preparation in media, public relations, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University

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Authors: Li Lei, Jia Jidong

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Employment right is linked to the people’s livelihood in our society. As a most important and representative part in the labor market, the employment of public servants is always taking much attention. But the discrimination in the employment of public servants has always existed and, to become a controversy in our society. The paper try to discuss this problem from four parts as follows: First, the employment of public servants has a representative status in our labor market. The second part is about the discrimination in the employment of public servants. The third part is about the right of equality and its significance. The last part is to analysis the legal predicament about discrimination in the employment of public servants in China.

Keywords: discrimination, employment of public servants, right of labor, law

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Authors: K. Y. Chen, Y. N. Jia, H. Chua, C. W. Kan

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In United States (US), the environmental policy went through two stages that are government control period and market mechanism period. In the government control period in the 1970s, environmental problems in U.S. are treated by mandatory direct control method, including promulgation of laws, formulation of emission standards and mandatory installation of pollution treatment equipment. After the 1980s, the environmental policy in U.S. went into the second stage, in which the government strengthened the incentives and coordination effects of market. Since then, environmental governance had been partially replaced by means of economic regulation of the market. Green Tax Policy and Marketable Pollution Permits are good examples of government's economic interventions. U.S. Federal Government regards environmental industry as high-tech industry which is promoted in this period. Therefore, in the paper, we aim to analyse the effect of environmental investment on the sustainable development in the US. Acknowledgment: Authors would like to thank the financial support from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for this work.

Keywords: United States, public environmental investment, analysis, sustainable development

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Authors: Yuhanis Ibrahim, Sung-Pil Lee

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This study attempts to address factors that contribute to outline public art factors assessment, memorial monument specifically. Memorial monuments hold significant and rich message whether the intention of the art is to mark and commemorate important event or to inform younger generation about the past. Public monument should relate to the public and raise awareness about the significant issue. Therefore, by investigating the impact of the existing public memorial art will hopefully shed some lights to the upcoming public art projects’ stakeholders to ensure the lucid memorial message is delivered to the public directly. Public is the main actor as public is the fundamental purpose that the art was created. Perception is framed as one of the reliable evaluation tools to assess the public art impact factors. The Malaysia National Monument was selected to be the case study for the investigation. The public’s perceptions were gathered using a questionnaire that involved (n-115) participants to attain keywords, and next Semantical Differential Methodology (SDM) was adopted to evaluate the perceptions about the memorial monument. These perceptions were then measured with Reliability Factor and then were factorised using Factor Analysis of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method to acquire concise factors for the monument assessment. The result revealed that there are four factors that influence public’s perception on the monument which are aesthetic, audience, topology, and public reception. The study concludes by proposing the factors for public memorial art assessment for the next future public memorial projects especially in Malaysia.

Keywords: factor analysis, public art, public perception, semantical differential methodology

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Authors: Ruth Donkoh, Wing On Lee, Solomon A. Boateng, Portia Oware Twerefoo, Josephine Donkor

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In this paper we defend the value of theories and approaches to educational policy and planning in enhancing the educational developments in Ghana. This mission is achieved by enumerating the recent educational developments in Ghana and juxtaposing it with some educational theories, approaches to policy making, and policy planning to see if the educational developments conform with the theory principles as well as policy making and planning processes. Data collection for the research was made through textual analysis of policy documents as well as review of relevant literatures. The findings reveled that educational developments in Ghana are unable to attain its objectives due to the policies not conforming with the policy formation and planning principles. In addition, was that education planning in Ghana does not follow the policy-administration dichotomy theory principles and likewise the distribution of educational needs goes contrary to the equity theory. We recommend that educational policies in Ghana should be in conformity with the principles of theories as well as the approaches to educational policy making and planning to help meet the needs of learners, attain educational quality, and to help in the accomplishment of educational development objectives.

Keywords: Ghana education, equity theories, politics- administration dichotomy theory, educational policies, educational planning

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Authors: Ramon F. B. da Silva, Mateus Batistella, Emilio Moran

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Although the existence of two Forest Transition (FT) pathways, the economic development and the forest scarcity, there are many contexts that shape the model of FT observed in each particular region. This means that local conditions, such as relief, soil quality, historic land use/cover, public policies, the engagement of society in compliance with legal regulations, and the action of enforcement agencies, represent dimensions which combined, creates contexts that enable forest regeneration. From this perspective we can understand the regeneration process of native vegetation cover in the Paraíba Valley (Forest Atlantic biome), ongoing since the 1960s. This research analyzed public information, land use/cover maps, environmental public policies, and interviewed 17 stakeholders from the Federal and State agencies, municipal environmental and agricultural departments, civil society, farmers, aiming comprehend the contexts behind the forest regeneration in the Paraíba Valley, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. The first policy to protect forest vegetation was the Forest Code n0 4771 of 1965, but this legislation did not promote the increase of forest, just the control of deforestation, not enough to the Atlantic Forest biome that reached its highest pick of degradation in 1985 (8% of Atlantic Forest remnants). We concluded that the Brazilian environmental legislation acted in a strategic way to promote the increase of forest cover (102% of regeneration between 1985 and 2011) from 1993 when the Federal Decree n0 750 declared the initial and advanced stages of secondary succession protected against any kind of exploitation or degradation ensuring the forest regeneration process. The strategic policy formulation was also observed in the Sao Paulo State law n0 6171 of 1988 that prohibited the use of fire to manage agricultural landscape, triggering a process of forest regeneration in formerly pasture areas.

Keywords: forest transition, land abandonment, law enforcement, rural economic crisis

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Authors: Alice Civera, Mattia Cattaneo, Michele Meoli, Stefano Paleari

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Despite the fact that more equal access to higher education has been an objective public policy for several decades, little is known about the effectiveness of alternative means for achieving such goal. Indeed, nowadays, high level of graduate population can be observed both in countries with the high and low level of fees, or high and low level of public expenditure in higher education. This paper surveys the extant literature providing some background on the economic concepts of the higher education market, and reviews key determinants of demand and supply. A theoretical model of aggregate demand and supply of higher education is derived, with the aim to facilitate the understanding of the challenges in today’s higher education systems, as well as the opportunities for development. The model is validated on some exemplary case studies describing the different relationship between the level of public investment and levels of graduate population and helps to derive general implications. In addition, using a two-stage least squares model, we build a macroeconomic model of supply and demand for European higher education. The model allows interpreting policies shifting either the supply or the demand for higher education, and allows taking into consideration contextual conditions with the aim of comparing divergent policies under a common framework. Results show that the same policy objective (i.e., increasing graduate population) can be obtained by shifting either the demand function (i.e., by strengthening student aid) or the supply function (i.e., by directly supporting higher education institutions). Under this theoretical perspective, the level of tuition fees is irrelevant, and empirically we can observe high levels of graduate population in both countries with high (i.e., the UK) or low (i.e., Germany) levels of tuition fees. In practice, this model provides a conceptual framework to help better understanding what are the external conditions that need to be considered, when planning a policy for increasing graduate population. Extrapolating a policy from results in different countries, under this perspective, is a poor solution when contingent factors are not addressed. The second implication of this conceptual framework is that policies addressing the supply or the demand function needs to address different contingencies. In other words, a government aiming at increasing graduate population needs to implement complementary policies, designing them according to the side of the market that is interested. For example, a ‘supply-driven’ intervention, through the direct financial support of higher education institutions, needs to address the issue of institutions’ moral hazard, by creating incentives to supply higher education services in efficient conditions. By contrast, a ‘demand-driven’ policy, providing student aids, need to tackle the students’ moral hazard, by creating an incentive to responsible behavior.

Keywords: graduates, higher education, higher education policies, tuition fees

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Authors: Ching-Yu Lin

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The number of patients with aphasia has been gradually increasing; however, public awareness of aphasia is still limited. Moreover, surveys about public awareness of aphasia have been conducted in several countries, but there is no research about public awareness of aphasia in Taiwan so far. Therefore, this study aims at the investigation of public awareness of aphasia in Taiwan. In this pilot study, the original English-version questionnaire will be translated into Mandarin Chinese by a speech therapist (the author), and 100 Taiwanese over 18 years old will be recruited to finish the questionnaire. People with an occupation about health or medical will be excluded. In order to reach more people, the questionnaire will be an Internet survey by Google Forms, and the URL of the survey will be distributed by messaging, i.e. e-mail, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, or Line. Data will be analyzed via PASW Statistic 18. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize what proportion of the public have heard of aphasia and what proportion of the public have basic knowledge of aphasia in Taiwan. The sources of information about aphasia will also be investigated. Further, differences in awareness of aphasia due to age, gender, and education level will be discussed.

Keywords: aphasia, public awareness, public knowledge, taiwan

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Authors: Manal Rayes

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In its efforts to utilize the information and communication technology to enhance the quality of public service delivery, national and local governments around the world are competing to introduce more ICT applications as tools to automate processes related to law enforcement or policy execution, increase citizen orientation, trust, and satisfaction, and create one-stop-shops for public services. In its implementation, e-Government ICTs need to maintain transparency, participation, and collaboration. Due to this diverse of mixed goals and requirements, e-Government systems need to be designed based on special design considerations in order to eliminate the risks of failure to compliance to government regulations, citizen dissatisfaction, or market repulsion. In this article we suggest a framework with guidelines for designing government information systems that takes into consideration the special requirements of the public sector. Then we introduce two case studies and show how applying those guidelines would result in a more solid system design.

Keywords: e-government, framework, guidelines, system design

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Authors: Supattra Kanchanopast

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This article presents the process of change for innovation in the Thai public sector in order to create higher client satisfaction. Change management should concern the potentiality of the change agent or leader, the long-term vision or policy (political side) of the organization, the communication within the organization, suitable organizational culture and structure, preparedness of the personnel, and the fitness of the reward system. Sustaining innovation creation is not sophisticated, as traditionally believed. A basic management principle of identifying clarified and motivating goals needs to be followed by creating support systems after implementation and by ensuring the stakeholders’ benefit, derived from the innovation projects. Finally, creating an amiable atmosphere among the practitioners, including effective evaluation and reward schemes, will support the innovation. However, none of these will ever take place unless support is gained from the leaders of those organizations, and from the staff and clients involved also as well.

Keywords: change management, client satisfaction, innovation management, Thai public sector

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Authors: Titir Bhattacharya, Tanika Chakraborty, Prabal K. De

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Maternal and child health continue to be a significant policy focus in developing countries, including India. An emerging model in health care is the creation of public and private partnerships. Since the construction of physical infrastructure is costly, governments at various levels have tried to implement social health insurance schemes where a trust calculates insurance premiums and medical payments. Typically, qualifying families get full subsidization of the premium and get access to private hospitals, in addition to low cost public hospitals, for their tertiary care needs. We analyze one such pioneering social insurance scheme in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). The Rajiv Aarogyasri program (RA) was introduced by the Government of AP on a pilot basis in 2007 and implemented in 2008. In this paper, we first examine the extent to which access to reproductive health care changed. For example, the RA scheme reimburses hospital deliveries leading us to expect an increase in institutional deliveries, particularly in private hospitals. Second, we expect an increase in institutional deliveries to also improve child health outcomes. Hence, we estimate if the program improved infant and child mortality. We use District Level Health Survey data to create annual birth cohorts from 2000-2015. Since AP was the only state in which such a state insurance program was implemented, the neighboring states constituted a plausible control group. Combined with the policy timing, and the year of birth, we employ a difference-indifference strategy to identify the effects of RA on the residents of AP. We perform several checks against threats to identification, including testing for pre-treatment trends between the treatment and control states. We find that the policy significantly lowered infant and child mortality in AP. We also find that deliveries in private hospitals increased, and government hospitals decreased, showing a substitution effect of the relative price change. Finally, as expected, out-of-pocket costs declined for the treatment group. However, we do not find any significant effects for usual preventive care such as vaccination, showing that benefits of insurance schemes targeted at the tertiary level may not trickle down to the primary care level.

Keywords: public health insurance, maternal and child health, public-private choice

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Authors: Wann-Ming Wey

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In today's popularity and progress of information technology, the big data set and its analysis are no longer a major conundrum. Now, we could not only use the relevant big data to analysis and emulate the possible status of urban development in the near future, but also provide more comprehensive and reasonable policy implementation basis for government units or decision-makers via the analysis and emulation results as mentioned above. In this research, we set Taipei City as the research scope, and use the relevant big data variables (e.g., population, facility utilization and related social policy ratings) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach to implement in-depth research and discussion for the possible reduction of land use in primary and secondary schools of Taipei City. In addition to enhance the prosperous urban activities for the urban public facility utilization, the final results of this research could help improve the efficiency of urban land use in the future. Furthermore, the assessment model and research framework established in this research also provide a good reference for schools or other public facilities land use and adaptive reuse strategies in the future.

Keywords: adaptive reuse, analytic network process, big data, land use strategy

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Authors: Leone Sherman

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While the democratic rights of a citizen may be very clearly outlined in a country’s constitution, it’s not uncommon for political elite to undermine those rights and gain more power and control over a country than it is allowed by this constitution. Moreover, while such a change in some smaller states may not have a substantial impact on the international community, the same change in countries with vast resources and political influence, such as Russia, is always a considerable factor for the world policy. This article aims to research the weaknesses of the Russian democratic system and their effect on the international policy through the three key aspects: The Russian people’s ability to produce the required political will to control their government’s decisions, the current development of the Russian political environment, and the affection of this environment on the world community as a whole during the recent years. The used methodology is a narrative analysis of recent political events, official statistics, international investigations and media statements. As a result, the ever-widening gap between the people and the government becomes evidently seen, as well as the challenges it imposes on the political world arena, both current and those that still lie ahead of us.

Keywords: Russia, political analysis, democratic weaknesses, international society

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Authors: Stefano Fantin

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The present analysis outcomes from the research undertaken in the course of the European-funded project EUNITY, which targets the gaps in research and development on cybersecurity and privacy between Europe and Japan. Under these auspices, the research presents a study on the policy approach of Japan, the EU and a number of Member States of the Union with regard to the handling and discovery of software vulnerabilities, with the aim of identifying methodological differences and similarities. This research builds upon a functional comparative analysis of both public policies and legal instruments from the identified jurisdictions. The result of this analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with EUNITY partners, as well as by the participation of the researcher to a recent report from the Center for EU Policy Study on software vulnerability. The European Union presents a rather fragmented legal framework on software vulnerabilities. The presence of a number of different legislations at the EU level (including Network and Information Security Directive, Critical Infrastructure Directive, Directive on the Attacks at Information Systems and the Proposal for a Cybersecurity Act) with no clear focus on such a subject makes it difficult for both national governments and end-users (software owners, researchers and private citizens) to gain a clear understanding of the Union’s approach. Additionally, the current data protection reform package (general data protection regulation), seems to create legal uncertainty around security research. To date, at the member states level, a few efforts towards transparent practices have been made, namely by the Netherlands, France, and Latvia. This research will explain what policy approach such countries have taken. Japan has started implementing a coordinated vulnerability disclosure policy in 2004. To date, two amendments can be registered on the framework (2014 and 2017). The framework is furthermore complemented by a series of instruments allowing researchers to disclose responsibly any new discovery. However, the policy has started to lose its efficiency due to a significant increase in reports made to the authority in charge. To conclude, the research conducted reveals two asymmetric policy approaches, time-wise and content-wise. The analysis therein will, therefore, conclude with a series of policy recommendations based on the lessons learned from both regions, towards a common approach to the security of European and Japanese markets, industries and citizens.

Keywords: cybersecurity, vulnerability, European Union, Japan

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Authors: Wei Fang, Jian Jun Gu, Di Xue

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Objective: To analyze the employee compensation status of secondary public hospitals of Pudong New Area in Shanghai in order to provide information for compensation reform of public hospitals in Shanghai and as well as in China. Methods: We surveyed all 15 secondary public hospitals of Pudong New Area in Shanghai to collect hospital annual compensation data for their employees and to investigate their suggestions for compensation reform in public hospitals in China. We also collected related annual compensation data of employees in Shanghai and of physicians in the USA from Shanghai statistical Yearbook 2013 and from Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Results: The average annual compensation for the employees in secondary public hospitals of Pudong New Area in Shanghai in 2012 was 2.65 times of that for overall employees in Shanghai. The physician’s compensation in these public hospitals was relatively lower than that in the USA. Conclusion: The physicians’ compensation in the secondary public hospitals of Pudong New Area in Shanghai should be increased rationally and new compensation reform in public hospitals in Shanghai should be carefully designed.

Keywords: human resource, compensation, public hospital, Shanghai

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Authors: Chawarat Rotejanaprasert, Andrew Lawson

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Early detection of unusual health events depends on the ability to detect rapidly any substantial changes in disease, thus facilitating timely public health interventions. To assist public health practitioners to make decisions, statistical methods are adopted to assess unusual events in real time. We introduce a surveillance Kullback-Leibler (SKL) measure for timely detection of disease outbreaks for small area health data. The detection methods are compared with the surveillance conditional predictive ordinate (SCPO) within the framework of Bayesian hierarchical Poisson modeling and applied to a case study of a group of respiratory system diseases observed weekly in South Carolina counties. Properties of the proposed surveillance techniques including timeliness and detection precision are investigated using a simulation study.

Keywords: Bayesian, spatial, temporal, surveillance, prospective

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Authors: Safet Zejnullahu

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The relationship between the public and media is more than meaningful. It has been a topic of discussion as early as the birth of the media. The 'magic box' called radio adapted and transformed by following the tastes and interests of the public. Television went a step further by complementing the magic sound of the magic box with photos/images. Newspapers informed the reader, but from time to time, they also provided them the room to express their opinions. The media-public report in the traditional media is a report of a mutual respect. Today, the report between media and public should be well defined. The goal of this paper is to analyze the history of the media-public relationship, with a special emphasis on the analysis of this relationship in media of the internet time. This paper seeks to prove that the internet media has created a completely new and thus far unknown relationship between the media and public. Through research, which includes an analysis of the media in Kosovo and Albania, it will be proven that the media of the internet time has elevated this relationship to a new level, with many unknowns in terms of the functioning and role of the media. The results and findings of the paper are related to the conclusion that from the relationship in which the roles of the media and the public are known, nowadays, this relationship goes beyond the known principle and rules and is more defined as a relationship of mutual deception. The media goes beyond the line of the humility of the public, and the public seeks to direct the content of the media. The media-public report in the internet-media is a report based on mutual attempt for fraud.

Keywords: media, public, report, humility, direction

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Authors: Samuel Ibbi Ibrahim, Isaiah Ndalassan Ibrahim

Abstract:

Accessibility and availability of good quality water have become a major concern among different users. This paper examines the caustic importance of water security in relation to people’s desire for survival. It observed the democratic ideology of national policy on domestic water supply and demand and its implementation for national and societal development. It used analogy on equilibrium approach to ascertain the household water security. In most communities, it is glaring that several public water management in operation for several years are hardly performing efficiently to reach equilibrium demand. Moreover most settlements being rural or urban lack effective public water system that could ensure regular supplies to the population. The terrain and gradual declining of efficient rainfall northward poses great challenge to the region in managing water supply and demand adequately. This study itemized the need for the government to get clear strategy for a sustainable development on better water efficiency. Partnership in providing workable policy on water security is considered apparently important. It is also suggested that water plant treatment should be established in every medium-sized towns in the country.

Keywords: good quality of water, water accessibility, water availability, water sustainable

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Authors: Ahmad Ardillah Rahman

Abstract:

The decentralisation policy in education has been a trend in some countries in the last two decades. In Indonesia, the implementation of the policy has been introduced since 2003 with the occurrence of School-Based Management policy. The reform has affected the way principals and teachers should involve in school practices in which more autonomies and flexibilities are given to teachers in conducting their teaching practices. Almost 13 years since the policy was firstly introduced, the government and teachers in Indonesia still face some obstacles in maximising the potential benefits of the implementation of the decentralised education system. This study, thus, critically analyses the challenges of decentralised education policy for teachers in Indonesian education context. The purposes of this study are threefold. Firstly, it will explore the history of policy transformation from a centralised to a decentralised education policy. Secondly, it points out the advantages of the decentralised policy implementation. The last, it provides a comprehensive description of challenges faced by Indonesian teachers with the new roles in designing and implementing a curriculum. By using data from existing surveys and research, this study concludes that to successfully implement the transformation in the educational reform of Indonesia, continual and gradual teachers’ training, professional career pathway, and local monitoring for teachers should be developed and strengthened.

Keywords: curriculum design, decentralisation, school-based management, teachers’ autonomy

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Authors: Justine Salam

Abstract:

As a federal state, Canada’s constitutional arrangements regarding the management of natural resources is unique because it gives complete ownership and control of natural resources to the provinces (subnational level). However, the province of Alberta—home to the third largest oil reserves in the world—lags behind comparable jurisdictions in levying royalties on oil corporations, especially oil sands royalties. While Albertans own the oil sands, scholars have argued that natural resource exploitation in Alberta benefits corporations and industry more than it does Albertans. This study provides a systematic understanding of the causal factors affecting royalties in Alberta to map dynamics of power and how they manifest themselves during policy-making. Mounting domestic and global public pressure led Alberta to review its oil sands royalties twice in less than a decade through public-commissioned Royalty Review Panels, first in 2007 and again in 2015. The Panels’ task was to research best practices and to provide policy recommendations to the Government through public consultations with Albertans, industry, non-governmental organizations, and First Nations peoples. Both times, the Panels recommended a relative increase to oil sands royalties. However, irrespective of the Reviews’ recommendations, neither the right-wing 2007 Progressive Conservative Party (PC) nor the left-wing 2015 New Democratic Party (NDP) government—both committed to increase oil sands royalties—increased royalty intake. Why did two consecutive political parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum fail to account for the recommendations put forward by the Panel? Through a qualitative case-study analysis, this study assesses domestic and global causal factors for Alberta’s inability to raise oil sands royalties significantly after the two Reviews through an institutions, interests, and ideas framework. Indeed, causal factors can be global (e.g. market and price fluctuation) or domestic (e.g. oil companies’ influence on the Alberta government). The institutions, interests, and ideas framework is at the intersection of public policy, comparative studies, and political economy literatures, and therefore draws multi-faceted insights into the analysis. To account for institutions, the study proposes to review international trade agreements documents such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) because they have embedded Alberta’s oil sands into American energy security policy and tied Canadian and Albertan oil policy in legal international nods. To account for interests, such as how the oil lobby or the environment lobby can penetrate governmental decision-making spheres, the study draws on the Oil Sands Oral History project, a database of interviews from government officials and oil industry leaders at a pivotal time in Alberta’s oil industry, 2011-2013. Finally, to account for ideas, such as how narratives of Canada as a global ‘energy superpower’ and the importance of ‘energy security’ have dominated and polarized public discourse, the study relies on content analysis of Alberta-based pro-industry newspapers to trace the prevalence of these narratives. By mapping systematically the nods and dynamics of power at play in Alberta, the study sheds light on the factors that influence royalty policy-making in one of the largest industries in Canada.

Keywords: Alberta Canada, natural resources governance, oil sands, political economy

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Authors: Avdasheva Svetlanaa, Kryuchkova Polinab

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Comparative social efficiency of private and public enforcement of law is debated. This question is not of academic interest only, it is also important for the development of the legal system and regulations. Generally, involvement of ‘common citizens’ in public law enforcement is considered to be beneficial, while involvement of interest groups representatives is not. Institutional economics as well as law and economics consider the difference between public and private enforcement to be rather mechanical. Actions of bureaucrats in government agencies are assumed to be driven by the incentives linked to social welfare (or other indicator of public interest) and their own benefits. In contrast, actions of participants in private enforcement are driven by their private benefits. However administrative law enforcement may be designed in such a way that it would become driven mainly by individual incentives of alleged victims. We refer to this system as reactive public enforcement. Citizens may prefer using reactive public enforcement even if private enforcement is available. However replacement of public enforcement by reactive version of public enforcement negatively affects deterrence and reduces social welfare. We illustrate the problem of private vs pure public and private vs reactive public enforcement models with the examples of three legislation subsystems in Russia – labor law, consumer protection law and competition law. While development of private enforcement instead of public (especially in reactive public model) is desirable, replacement of both public and private enforcement by reactive model is definitely not.

Keywords: public enforcement, private complaints, legal errors, competition protection, labor law, competition law, russia

Procedia PDF Downloads 451