6,322 research outputs found

    National and urban public policy agenda in tourism. Towards the emergence of a hyperneoliberal script?

    Get PDF
    Following the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), some national governments have been pursuing a counter-reform of the public sector characterised by further policy centralisation and the ‘hollowing out’ of regional authorities. Public expenditure and sovereign public debt reductions have become the pretext for the implementation of hyperneoliberal development agendas aimed at the attraction of inward capitals and a further ‘competitive’ repositioning of major cities within a global market. Tourism and the visitor economy have been used as leverage for the attraction of capital and skilled people in the long-term development strategies of cities. This article illustrates how crises have led the way in the recent restructuring of the public sector and of destination management organisations (DMOs) in particular. Findings from national and urban development strategies recently implemented in New Zealand suggest a strong, market-driven agenda that follows a hyperneoliberal script

    The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies

    Get PDF
    In theory, democracy is a bulwark against socially harmful policies. In practice, however, democracies frequently adopt and maintain policies that are damaging. How can this paradox be explained? The influence of special interests and voter ignorance are two leading explanations. I offer an alternative story of how and why democracy fails. The central idea is that voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational -- and they vote accordingly. Despite their lack of knowledge, voters are not humble agnostics; instead, they confidently embrace a long list of misconceptions. Economic policy is the primary activity of the modern state. And if there is one thing that the public deeply misunderstands, it is economics. People do not grasp the "invisible hand" of the market, with its ability to harmonize private greed and the public interest. I call this anti-market bias. They underestimate the benefits of interaction with foreigners. I call this anti-foreign bias. They equate prosperity not with production, but with employment. I call this make-work bias. Finally, they are overly prone to think that economic conditions are bad and getting worse. I call this pessimistic bias. In the minds of many, Winston Churchill's famous aphorism cuts the conversation short: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." But this saying overlooks the fact that governments vary in scope as well as form. In democracies the main alternative to majority rule is not dictatorship, but markets. A better understanding of voter irrationality advises us to rely less on democracy and more on the market

    Welfare economics, political economy, and policy reform in Ghana

    Get PDF
    Welfare economics develops the logic of how the gains of the gainers and the losses of the losers should be weighed against each other, in a specific ethical framework. Political economy develops the logic of how they will be weighed against each other, in the context of sociopolitical institutions. The author applies the disciplines of both welfare economics and political economy in this evaluation of policy reform in Ghana. When considerations from both disciplines are aligned, he explains, policy reform not only should be enacted but is also likely to be enacted. Often, though, there is no such alignment, so reforms that might improve social welfare do not succeed. Analysts, says the author, should consider past reforms from both perspectives, and should learn from history, in evaluating proposed reform -- so they can assess both the desirability and the feasibility of reform. Policy makers, on the other hand, should work toward organizing and mobilizing the gainers from reform that would advance social welfare, so that resistance to such reform by the losers can be overcome. In an example from history, the author explains that Britain's debate over the Corn Laws -- basically a device for protecting domestic production of grain from cheap imports -- dominated for more than a decade in the nineteenth century. It eventually split the Tory party. Britain's transformation from an agrarian nation to a manufacturing one spelled the decline of the power of the landed aristocracy and the ascendance of manufacturing. In the end, the Corn Laws were repealed because of the growing power of the urban masses and their employers, and the debate soon turned to protection against imports from fast-industrializing France and Germany. Such episodes from history help us understand the protection of rice in Japan today, for example, and the focus of this paper -- the past decade of reform in Ghana, and the decade that awaits. The author argues that the political economy of policy reform in Ghana is likely to prove tougher in the second decade than in the first, for three reasons: 1) the economic situation in the second decade isno longer one of absolute disaster, with only one way to go; 2) in the second decade, policy reform will have to coincide with the transition from military to constitutional rule; and 3) the nature of the reforms to be undertaken in the second decade is different from that of those undertaken in the first.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Achieving Shared Growth,Inequality,Economic Policy, Institutions and Governance

    A rush of blood to the head: Temporal dimensions of retrenchment, environment and turnaround performance

    Get PDF
    In this work we test the general assumption in the turnaround literature that time is critical for firm survival, especially during the retrenchment stage.We study three time dimensions of change at this stage: timing, speed and rhythm. Drawing on the downward spiral and threat-rigidity perspectives, we posit that the positive impact these time dimensions have on turnaround performance is highly contingent on two types of environment. Our findings, based on a sample of 263 declining US firms over a 26-year period (1983e2009), demonstrate that an early timing of retrenchment has a positive impact on performance when the environment is munificent. On the contrary, an early timing has a negative impact when the environment is dynamic. We also note that a fast pace of retrenchment positively impacts firm performance in dynamic environments. Finally, we find that declining firms display better performances when following an irregular rhythm of retrenchment, both in highly munificent and highly dynamic environments. Our results indicate that, in general, declining firm performance improves with time-aggressive retrenchment actions in both types of environment. We discuss the contribution of our research to the turnaround literature, and the downward spiral and threat-rigidity perspective

    “Under Fathoms of Salt Water:” Canada’s Ammunition Dumping Program, 1944-1947

    Get PDF
    This article examines Canada’s ammunition dumping program in the mid-1940s and pays special attention to the practical and technical dilemmas that influenced policy making and implementation. A pressing logistical crisis followed the end of the Second World War as crowded armaments depots ran out of storage space for leftover ordnance. In July 1945 a major explosion at the Bedford Magazine in Halifax Harbour heightened public safety concerns and influenced future disposal policies. From a range of imperfect destruction methods, dumping emerged as one of the most efficient alternatives; whenever possible conventional and chemical munitions were submerged. Although the quantities sunk by the Americans, British, and Russians dwarf the amount dumped by Canada, the Canadian dumping program was no less important to the nation’s postwar transition or without serious ramifications for Canadians and their coastal environments
    • 

    corecore