Female Ministers, Governance and Reforms

In this paper, we test whether the gender composition of government affects the quality of governance and reform efforts, thus connecting the literature that documents the effects of gender on decision making to the literature on the determinants of reforms. We find that countries with a higher share of female ministers and a higher share of female MPs tend to score somewhat better in terms of regulatory quality and government effectiveness, and in terms of reforms in these areas, but also that tackling possible endogeneity shows most of these effects to be insignificant. Our results thus do not provide support for the claim that ‘conducting reforms is not women’s business’, they rather suggest that reform is as much women’s business as it is men’s business.female ministers, gender, governance, reforms

The Blurring Politics of Cyber Conflict : A Critical Study of the Digital in Palestine and Beyond

This thesis explores how the politics of cyber conflict redefine violence, sovereignty, and territory in and through cyberspace. It does this by studying how the digital mediates different facets and experiences of conflict and security in Palestine. Through a comprehensive and context-informed approach, this research theorizes cyber conflict as a phenomenon spanning beyond the conventional sites, agencies, and categories of international cybersecurity and warfare. Paper I analyzes the game scenarios of international and national cyberwar exercises to understand how military strategists envision cyberwar and normalize the idea of cyberspace as a domain of warfare through the creation of simulacra of war. Paper II develops a disembodied perspective on the violence of cyber conflict by highlighting its harmful informational aspects through a reflection on how these have affected the process of knowledge production during the fieldwork of this dissertation. Paper III engages with the Palestinian national strategy for cybersecurity (and the lack thereof) to disentangle infrastructural/informational elements of the cyber/digital sovereignty narrative and reveal its emancipatory potential for actors other than the state. Paper IV interrogates the extent to which Israeli and Palestinian policies and strategies articulate cyberspace in territorial terms and reproduce its diverse spatial realities of annexation, occupation, and blockade in cyberspace. Paper V examines the relationship between conflict, technology, and freedom to critique the inclusion of internet access into the agenda on human rights by analyzing the political dynamics of connectivity in Palestine. Paper VI unravels how the video game's augmented reality of East Jerusalem constructs a spatial imaginary of the city that, by erasing the Palestinian urban space from digital representation, neutralizes the experience of play through a diminished reality. Paper VII explores how algorithms rearticulate security practices by making Palestinian users and contents hyper-visible to surveillance while also creating an aesthetics of disappearance through the erasure of Palestine from cyber and digital spaces. Through this comprehensive empirical approach, this research also contributes to cybersecurity scholarship by problematizing the epistemological relevance of traditional categories and thresholds of warfare and security for shedding light on the blurring politics of cyber conflict. Besides revealing the inadequacy of framing conflict in cyberspace as only an issue of warfare and security, the study of cyber conflict in Palestine also shows how the construction and operationalization of these narratives ultimately affect political life and individual liberties via (the seizure of) the digital

Corruption, Governance and Security: Challenges for the Rich Countries and the World

Traditionally, national governance and corruption challenges have been seen as: i) particularly daunting in the poorer countries, with the richer world viewed as exemplary; ii) anchored within a legalistic framework and focused on formal institutions, iii) a challenge within public sectors, and, iv) divorced from global governance or security issues - seen as separate fields. Through an empirical approach based on the analysis of the 2004 survey of enterprises by the World Economic Forum, we challenge these notions and portray a more complex reality. We suggest that the undue emphasis on narrow legalism has obscured more subtle yet costly manifestations of misgovernance, which afflict rich countries as well. Emphasis is also given to measurement and analysis of misgovernance when the rules of the game have been captured by the elite through undue influence. We construct a new set of ethics indices, encompassing forms of (legal) corruption not subject to measurement in conventional (illegal) corruption indicators. It is found that manifestations of legal corruption may be more prevalent than illegal forms, such as outright bribery, and particularly so in richer countries. Further, we find that governance constraints, and corruption in particular, is a key determinant of a country's global competitiveness. These findings challenge traditional notions of what constitutes the country's 'investment climate', and who shapes it. It is also found that illegal forms of corruption continue to be prevalent in the interaction between transnationals of the rich world and the public sectors in many emerging countries. Finally, we suggest an empirical link between governance and security issues

Abortion information governance and women's travels across European borders

The World Health Organization considers the provision of information about safe, legal abortion essential for good-quality abortion care, but the question remains about who is responsible for providing information to people whose needs are not met in their own countries. Using data from a mixed-method research conducted with women travelling from France, Germany, Italy, and Ireland to seek abortion care in the UK, the Netherland, and Spain, we map the trajectories through which people receive information about accessing abortion abroad. We analyze the role of health professionals, activists, and online sources in people's accounts of information gathering. We argue that different formal approaches to information on national and international services distinctively affect women's experiences, and that transnational information flows occupy a crucial role in women's ability to travel. We also argue that managing information is an important aspect of how governments, practitioners or other actors navigate and exercise reproductive governance

Corruption, Governance and Security: Challenges for the Rich Countries and the World

Traditionally, national governance and corruption challenges have been seen as: i) particularly daunting in the poorer countries, with the richer world viewed as exemplary; ii) anchored within a legalistic framework and focused on formal institutions, iii) a challenge within public sectors, and, iv) divorced from global governance or security issues - seen as separate fields. Through an empirical approach based on the analysis of the 2004 survey of enterprises by the World Economic Forum, we challenge these notions and portray a more complex reality. We suggest that the undue emphasis on narrow legalism has obscured more subtle yet costly manifestations of misgovernance, which afflict rich countries as well. Emphasis is also given to measurement and analysis of misgovernance when the rules of the game have been captured by the elite through undue influence. We construct a new set of ethics indices, encompassing forms of (legal) corruption not subject to measurement in conventional (illegal) corruption indicators. It is found that manifestations of legal corruption may be more prevalent than illegal forms, such as outright bribery, and particularly so in richer countries. Further, we find that governance constraints, and corruption in particular, is a key determinant of a country's global competitiveness. These findings challenge traditional notions of what constitutes the country's 'investment climate', and who shapes it. It is also found that illegal forms of corruption continue to be prevalent in the interaction between transnationals of the rich world and the public sectors in many emerging countries. Finally, we suggest an empirical link between governance and security issues.

Corruption, Governance and Security: Challenges for the Rich Countries and the World

Traditionally, national governance and corruption challenges have been seen as: i) particularly daunting in the poorer countries, with the richer world viewed as exemplary; ii) anchored within a legalistic framework and focused on formal institutions, iii) a challenge within public sectors, and, iv) divorced from global governance or security issues - seen as separate fields. Through an empirical approach based on the analysis of the 2004 survey of enterprises by the World Economic Forum, we challenge these notions and portray a more complex reality. We suggest that the undue emphasis on narrow legalism has obscured more subtle yet costly manifestations of misgovernance, which afflict rich countries as well. Emphasis is also given to measurement and analysis of misgovernance when the rules of the game have been captured by the elite through undue influence. We construct a new set of ethics indices, encompassing forms of (legal) corruption not subject to measurement in conventional (illegal) corruption indicators. It is found that manifestations of legal corruption may be more prevalent than illegal forms, such as outright bribery, and particularly so in richer countries. Further, we find that governance constraints, and corruption in particular, is a key determinant of a country's global competitiveness. These findings challenge traditional notions of what constitutes the country's 'investment climate', and who shapes it. It is also found that illegal forms of corruption continue to be prevalent in the interaction between transnationals of the rich world and the public sectors in many emerging countries. Finally, we suggest an empirical link between governance and security issues.Corruption, governance, security, development, ethics, indicators

Myths and Realities of Governance and Corruption

A number of popular notions and outright myths on governance and corruption are addressed in this chapter. We distinguish clearly between governance and anti-corruption, while probing the links between both notions. In so doing we challenge the conventional definition of corruption as being too narrow, legalistic and unduly focused on the public sector, while underplaying the role of the private sector. We then challenge the notion that governance and corruption cannot be measured, showcasing the latest worldwide governance indicators, measuring six dimensions of governance and cover over 200 countries, based on multiple sources, including the EOS. Thanks to these governance indicators and related datasets, it has been possible to study the extent to which governance and anticorruption matters. Consistent with the adage that 'sunlight is the best disinfectant', the potential gains of embarking on a transparency reform strategy is given particular prominence in this chapter, and a detailed 12-point 'scorecard' for countries to rate themselves in terms of the implementation of concrete transparency measures is presented. The chapter then concludes with a call for a global compact on governance and anti-corruption, where the G-8 and other rich countries, the multinationals, IFIs, civil society and the government leadership in the emerging economies share responsibility in making concerted progress.corruption; transparency; governance

Contract Meta-Interpretation

This Article provides a general framework for resolving the contract law’s ambivalence between textualism and contextualism, one of the most difficult questions in modern contract interpretation. Simply put, the Article’s argument is that courts need to determine the parties’ preferences as to how their contracts should be interpreted; this “meta-interpretive” inquiry can then direct the court’s interpretation or construction of the parties’ substantive rights and duties. Moreover, the Article argues that while contextualist interpretation is not, and should not be, mandatory for all interpretive questions under contract law, contextualism is necessary to resolve the initial “meta-interpretive” question: What interpretive regime do the parties prefer? Recognizing this distinction, and applying this twostep inquiry, can resolve some of the academic and practical debates between textualists and contextualists, and it can also explain some features of modern contract law

Contract Meta-Interpretation

This Article provides a general framework for resolving the contract law’s ambivalence between textualism and contextualism, one of the most difficult questions in modern contract interpretation. Simply put, the Article’s argument is that courts need to determine the parties’ preferences as to how their contracts should be interpreted; this “meta-interpretive” inquiry can then direct the court’s interpretation or construction of the parties’ substantive rights and duties. Moreover, the Article argues that while contextualist interpretation is not, and should not be, mandatory for all interpretive questions under contract law, contextualism is necessary to resolve the initial “meta-interpretive” question: What interpretive regime do the parties prefer? Recognizing this distinction, and applying this twostep inquiry, can resolve some of the academic and practical debates between textualists and contextualists, and it can also explain some features of modern contract law