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32. Governing in Hard Times Conference: The Climate Emergency and the Green Transition
- Author:
- Karl Pike, James Meadway, Holly Rowden, and Ryan Jude
- Publication Date:
- 06-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
- Abstract:
- In light of the IPCC's recent warning that the 1.5 degree target for global warming will be breached by 2028, this panel explored how a centre-left government would tackle the ongoing Climate Emergency. The panellists considered how it might minimise the political and economic blowback to the disruptions of the Green Transition, recent changes to the Labour Party's Green Prosperity Pledge to spend £28bn a year on the transition, and the role that the private sector should - or be encouraged - to play. Chair: Dr Karl Pike (Deputy Director of the Mile End Institute) Panel: Dr James Meadway (Former Director of the Progressive Economy Forum) Holly Rowden (Policy Advisor at Green Alliance UK) Councillor Ryan Jude (Programme Director for the Green Finance Institute and Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Biodiversity at the City of Westminster Council)
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Government, Domestic Politics, and Green Transition
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
33. Growth Stories: the 'Knowledge Economy' and alternative economic narratives for a future government
- Author:
- Nick O'Donovan and Vicky Pryce
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
- Abstract:
- Since the early 1990s, successive UK governments have emphasised social investment in education and research, coupled with pro-market reforms, to foster high-productivity 'knowledge work' in industries such as computing and life sciences. At this seminar at the Mile End Institute, held on Tuesday 23 March 2023, Dr Nick O'Donovan (Head of the Future Economies Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University) explored how the 'Knowledge Economy' became received wisdom in economic policy circles. After presenting his recent book, Pursuing the Knowledge Economy, Nick discussed how it endured multiple crises and a decade-long slump with Vicky Pryce (former Head of the Government Economic Service) and Lord Wood of Anfield (Special Adviser to Gordon Brown). They concluded by discussing whether today's political leaders are willing to break free of the Knowledge Economy narrative and what alternative 'growth stories' they might tell in its place after the next general election.
- Topic:
- Government, Reform, Economic Growth, and Knowledge Economy
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and North America
34. In Conversation with the Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP
- Author:
- David Lammy and Marie Le Conte
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
- Abstract:
- On Thursday 9 March, the Mile End Institute welcomed the Shadow Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP, to @QMUL. In a wide-ranging conversation with Marie Le Conte, David reflected on his early life, becoming the first black Briton to graduate from Harvard Law School and over two decades as the MP for Tottenham. He also took stock of the ongoing war in Ukraine, outlined his vision for the UK's foreign policy if the Labour Party win the next election, and reflected on being one of the few members of the Shadow Cabinet to have served in government before.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Government, Elections, Domestic Politics, and Labour Party
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
35. The Horizontal Merger Efficiency Fallacy
- Author:
- Mark Glick, Gabriel A. Lozada, Pavitra Govindan, and Darren Bush
- Publication Date:
- 08-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
- Abstract:
- The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Merger Guidelines (the “Merger Guidelines”), including the much improved latest revision in 2023 (the “New Merger Guidelines”), have continued to perpetrate what we call in this paper the horizontal merger efficiency fallacy. The fallacy arises because in the Guidelines the term “efficiencies” has become unmoored from its foundations in economic theory and has been reduced to the business school construct of cost savings. We show that cost savings can only be considered universally socially beneficial by acceptance of what is termed “the Consumer Welfare Standard” (antitrust) or “the surplus theory of welfare” (economics), a theory that has been discredited and abandoned by welfare economists. In economic theory, efficiency means Pareto Efficiency. We explore the various attempts to tether the cost savings definition of efficiency to Pareto Efficiency and explain why these attempts have failed. We conclude that there is no sound way to theoretically reconcile cost savings with the economic meaning of efficiencies. We then move beyond the efficiency fallacy and show how modern welfare economics can be used to integrate Congressional antitrust goals into the New Merger Guidelines. This requires abandoning the unsupported “standard deduction” for efficiencies and replacing it with an evidence-based assessment of how a specific merger under review potentially impacts Congressional antitrust goals. This change renders the present efficiency rebuttal section of the New Merger Guidelines superfluous, and we provide specific reasons why this section as currently drafted is flawed and should be jettisoned.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, Business, and Efficiency
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
36. Laying Foundations for Civic Engagement and Government Accountability in Guinea (2011-2020)
- Author:
- Natural Resource Governance Institute
- Publication Date:
- 05-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Natural Resource Governance Institute
- Abstract:
- When President Alpha Condé took office after Guinea’s first democratic election in 2010, he promised to reform the country’s mining sector. Following decades of sector mismanagement and corruption, Guinea introduced a new mining code in 2011 (later amended in 2013) and, in 2012, the government committed to implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Standard and reviewed 19 mining contracts signed by previous administrations. This reform effort precipitated a significant expansion of the industry: investments picked up and bauxite exports rose, and mining revenues grew. Despite progress, and because of the speed of mining expansion, communities in mining areas experienced increasingly negative impacts from the industry. Their interests went unaddressed; the government had been slow to implement key regulations aimed at protecting them. As a result, 2016 saw uprisings in key bauxite-producing areas. In addition, civil society engagement on extractive issues was weak and fragmented; citizens, activists and journalists lacked crucial information and were ill-equipped to engage on key governance issues.
- Topic:
- Government, Natural Resources, Governance, Accountability, and Civic Engagement
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Guinea
37. The Indonesian Government´S Intervention in the Management Of Indonesian Migrant Workers´ Remittances: Natural, Technical and Ultimate Restrictions
- Author:
- Annisa Ayuningtyas and Mailinda Eka Yuniza
- Publication Date:
- 05-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
- Institution:
- Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
- Abstract:
- The constitutionally groundless intervention of Indonesian government towards remittances-the financial outputs categorized as private transaction generated from Indonesian Migrant Workers (IMWs) abroad-has occurred since 1983 until the enactment of Law No. 18 Year 2017 on the protection of IMWs. This Law imposes obligations for local and central governments to conduct financial protection through remittance management by involving domestic and IMW`s placement state`s banks or non-bank financial institution. Given to the limited constitutional basis, private nature of remittances and conditional impact of IWM`s state of origin, this article discusses the limits of Indonesian government intervention in the management of migrants' remittances. This doctrinal legal research found that due to natural and technical restrictions, the government intervention is extremely limited.
- Topic:
- Government, Migrant Workers, Remittances, and Intervention
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia and Southeast Asia
38. Chinese Trust in Government: A Response Pattern Approach
- Author:
- Cary Wu and Yao Lu
- Publication Date:
- 02-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Chinese citizens have high trust in their government is well documented. Recent data show that this remains true during the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, a long-standing debate is whether Chinese trust in government is genuine or simply a reflection of political fear. To offer further insights, in this article I adopt a response pattern approach that shifts the focus from how much people trust (the level of trust) to how people trust (the pattern of trust). Analyzing data from multiple sources, I consider the homogeneity and heterogeneity in how political trust is expressed among diverse populations (e.g., children vs adults) and in different situations (e.g., taped vs. not taped). I identify ten specific patterns that consistently suggest Chinese trust in government may not be simply reduced to a misrepresentation out of political fear. This study illustrates that examining the often-overlooked patterns of how people express their attitudes within different segments of the population and in different contexts provides a means to test whether the expressed attitudes are fake or genuine. This event is sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the China Center for Social Policy.
- Topic:
- Government, Public Opinion, Citizenship, COVID-19, and Trust
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
39. Government Internet Shutdowns Are Changing. How Should Citizens and Democracies Respond?
- Author:
- Steven Feldstein
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- Governments worldwide continue to deploy internet shutdowns and network disruptions to quell mass protests, forestall election losses, reinforce military coups, or cut off conflict areas from the outside world. Data from the past few years show that incidences of global shutdowns have remained steadily high: 196 documented incidents in 2018, 213 incidents in 2019, and 155 in 2020. The first five months of 2021 recorded fifty shutdown incidents.1 Government-instigated internet shutdowns largely took place in relation to five event types: mass demonstrations, military operations and coups, elections, communal violence and religious holidays, and school exams. As Clément Voule, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, pointedly observes: “Shutdowns are lasting longer, becoming harder to detect and targeting particular social media and messaging applications and specific localities and communities.”2 Events in Russia have put a finer point on internet shutdown trends. On March 4, 2022, Roskomnadzor, the Russian internet regulator, announced that it would block Facebook and Twitter and would ban new uploads to TikTok.3 On March 14, it added Instagram to the banned list.4 Russian authorities have also restricted access to a slew of news websites, including the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Voice of America. Roskomnadzor claimed these measures were enacted in response to new limits imposed by platforms on Russian propaganda outlets—accusing Facebook of “discrimination.”5 The Kremlin’s crackdown is an ominous signal about where the shutdown struggle is headed in authoritarian countries. Despite these bleak trends, there is a growing international consensus—at least among liberal democracies—that protecting internet access is integrally linked to freedoms of expression and association and forms a crucial part of the global democracy and human rights agenda. This paper picks up on this emerging norm and probes several key questions: What can citizens do to evade authoritarian controls and regain internet access? How can democratic governments support these efforts and push back against governments that shut down and block the internet? The short answer is that there is a multitude of responses available to democracies and civil society organizations to push back against internet blackouts and network disruptions. Democracies can exert meaningful pressure against repressive governments to ease internet blocks, and citizens are able to exercise creative options to circumvent internet controls. The paper walks through different tools available to citizens to evade internet controls. It examines where internet shutdown trends are headed and incentives for particular regimes to adopt new modes of censorship. It then presents a multifaceted strategy for democracies, civil society organizations, and technology developers and companies to counter internet shutdowns.
- Topic:
- Government, Science and Technology, Democracy, and Internet
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Global Focus
40. Why the Opposition Win in Barinas, Venezuela Matters
- Author:
- Ociel Alí López
- Publication Date:
- 01-2022
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- The victory of opposition candidate Sergio Garrido in the governorship race in the state of Barinas on January 9 changes the symbolic map of Venezuela’s internal diatribe. The result barely affects the country’s political-territorial map; the governing party swept the regional elections on November 21 with 19 of 23 governorships and 210 of 335 mayoralties. However, it does mark a tremendous change in the sensibility with which the opposition and the government have participated in a political environment that is, if you will, hospitable—for the first time in many years.
- Topic:
- Government, Elections, Domestic Politics, and Opposition
- Political Geography:
- South America and Venezuela