Comparative Analysis of Croatian and Czech Lagging Regions

Regional development is a central subject of different scientific areas of study, and especially economy since a region in a modern context represents a universal unit of monitoring (regional) development. Independent of the level of their development, national economies mostly bear the burden of regional inequalities and, grosso modo, of the existence of regions that fall behind in development. These regions are most vulnerable in post communist and highly centralized countries such as Croatia and the Czech Republic. Croatia and Czech Republic share many similarities, for example transitional post-communist background with centralized national economies dominated by capital city regions. Considering this, the aim of this paper is to analyse regions in Croatia with respect to their economic and social development with a detailed review of the least developed region. With that in mind, a comparative display of Czech Republic and issues concerning Czech lagging regions in economic aand social development will be used to find the common denominator with similar problems in Croatian regions followed by suggestions for solutions on a regional level. This paper uses methods of description and comparative anaysis, wih an analytical review of data made available by relevant institutions

A HISTORICAL NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ROOTS AND CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES

This paper highlights a chronology of signicant historical events since pre-colonial times up to the present that have signicantly contributed to the conict in Southern Philippines. It also describes and analyzes the roots and causes of the conict and how these are being addressed at the moment both by the Philippine government and the different Islamic liberationist groups who are the main actors and players in the conict.This paper employs both historical and structural analysis to obtain a much broader and complete picture of the historical as well as socio-political, cultural, and economic realities reigning in the Southern Philippines. The study shows that the problem of conict in Mindanao is quite complex and complicated. Thus, it requires a much broader and careful understanding and analysis of the problem, as well as solutions that can be agreed upon by contending groups and factions toward a peaceful and negotiated approach to the Mindanao peace process

A Climate for Change? Critical Reflections on the Durban United Nations Climate Change Conference

Despite more than 15 years of high level efforts led by the United Nations to broker a binding agreement on emissions reduction, negotiations at every annual meeting have failed to establish a global agreement mainly due to significant disagreements between industrialized and developing countries over differentiated responsibilities in reducing emissions. In this paper I describe my experiences as a participant-observer at the 17th United Nations Climate Change summit held in Durban, South Africa during December 2011. I provide a critical analysis of the political economy of climate change and discuss power dynamics between market, state and civil society sectors as well as the shifting geopolitics that marks the emergence of China and India as major players in the climate change arena

Developing Country Responsibility for Mitigation

In the contemporary or so-called “post-2012” period of climate governance, the question of what a new future climate agreement might entail has arisen in conjunction with the initiation of negotiations on the Durban Platform on Enhanced Action in the climate regime. In parallel to this, larger states, industrial countries as well as developing countries are now dominating the UNFCCC process, seeking other ways of realizing their national climate policy, and pursuing negotiations on other governance arrangements. A key issue in this changing situation is how the responsibility for mitigation among developing countries is perceived. Do developing country conceptualizations of responsibility correspond to how this important issue is conceptualized within contemporary theories of climate governance? By performing an ideal type analysis, the conception of this responsibility within a select group of climate governance theories was elucidated and compared with how the question of responsibility was expressed in a number of important policy documents formulated by major developing countries in connection to the negotiations within the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. The investigation concluded that a) there is a subtle correspondence between Neoliberal-Institutionalists and Developing Countries in regards to the role of the state as the basis of responsibility, b) there is a subtle correspondence between Green Critical International Political Economy perspectives and Neoliberal-Institutionalists in regard to the importance of restructuring the UNFCCC, and lastly c) that the question of developing country responsibility in the climate regime reveals that climate governance is inseparable from climate politics

Varieties of populism

© 2020 The Authors Global Strategy Journal published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Strategic Management Society Research Summary: The recent electoral popularity of populism suggests our understanding of global and domestic institutions and their impact and relevance to international business may require adjustment. In particular, the literature may be omitting key variables as to what the political environment entails. We propose a framework for understanding the differing varieties of populism. We examine what channels populist thought operates through and how various strains of populism concentrate on different facets of society. We articulate an operational definition for international strategy based upon prior research in economics, political science, and history. This framework is incorporated into current research on institutional theory as applied in international business, with the goal of proposing a more nuanced and foundational view of institutional environments and how they impact global strategy. Managerial Summary: The surge of populism globally—but especially in developed economies—has highlighted new perils for business strategy. Our current models of strategic thinking have not yet caught up to the reality of populism's moment, nor have they accurately captured what are increasingly important facets of a political system, such as traits of specific leaders. This paper examines the need to incorporate new perspectives on institutions into global strategy. In particular, we highlight the various varieties of populism—whether it focuses on economic, social, or political ends—and how each approach can impact a business in a different manner. In doing so, we provide some clarity and guidance for managers faced with political turbulence

Behavioural economic applications to climate change mitigation and adaptation: public good games and risk experiments

Includes bibliographical references.This thesis contributes to the economics of climate change by incorporating insights from behavioural economics. As both mitigation and adaptation are components of any climate change strategy, the four papers presented here use laboratory and field experiments to examine different dimensions of individuals' mitigation and adaptive behaviour. The papers in Section 1 utilise framed public good games to focus on two different aspects of the public goods dilemma synonymous with climate change mitigation. In this context, the first paper 'What is fair? An experimental guide to climate negotiations' examines the degree to which the use of particular burden-sharing principles in multilateral climate change negotiations reflects self-interest. The multi-country public good game is conducted with a sample of individuals from the United States, European Union, China, India and South Africa. The results signal the use of the historical and future polluter-pays rules by American and Chinese participants to reflect self-interest. The potential for groups of heterogeneous individuals to meet a collective emission-reduction target through individual contributions is examined in the second paper: "Cooperation and Climate Change: Can Communication Facilitate the Provision of Public Goods in Heterogeneous Agents?" Heterogeneity is framed as differences in participants' marginal abatement costs. While communication promotes cooperation, even when heterogeneity is present, the non-binding nature of communication results in the two dominant contribution strategies of free-riding and perfect-cooperation. The papers in Section 2 examine the role of risk and uncertainty in individuals' adaptive strategies. The correlation between risk attitudes and individuals' flood adaptation strategies is examined in the third paper: "Risk Attitudes and Adaptation: Experimental Evidence from a Flood Prone Urban Informal Settlement in South Africa." Risk attitudes are elicited from a series of lottery tasks conducted across a sample of individuals living in a flood-prone urban informal settlement. The results indicate that individuals adopting more effective (and costly) adaptation strategies are more risk averse. The fourth paper "Risk Preferences, Technology Adoption and Insurance Uptake" uses lottery tasks and a framed insurance game to examine whether the provision of a framed index insurance product induces individuals to opt into riskier but potentially more profitable activities. Experiment participants are small-scale and subsistence urban food growers. The results indicate that risk-averse individuals are more likely to opt into traditional agriculture and are less likely to use modern farming inputs that require financing

The elephant in the room: The rise and role of India in the climate change negotiations

The climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have been ongoing since the first conference of the parties in 1995. Twenty years on there has been little progress reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the climate regime is in a state of flux and the role of developing countries therein is changing. During this period the majority of the work on climate change from within the International Relations discipline has been framed in a neoliberal institutionalist or neorealist frame. Studies in the climate policy canon have been predominantly similarly located, albeit implicitly. In its focus on India this dissertation provides a bridge between the climate policy literature and the theoretically framed climate change policy studies in the International Relations literature. This dissertation employs the Critical International Relations theoretical framework of Robert Cox. His theory outlines a 'framework for action' that enables and constrains how states act, and how they conceive of their agency. This framework, or historical structure, is created by a particular configuration of the forces exerted by ideas, institutions, and material capabilities, which when aligned, create a hegemonic historical structure. In the climate negotiations, India has been a vocal proponent of the ideas of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities from the earliest days of the Convention. India's changing material circumstances and geo-political status in the past decade raised the question of its role in the regime in relation to its long-supported ideas. This is a qualitative case study using documentary evidence triangulated with interview data from a range of key Indian stakeholders. I found that in the transition from abstract principle to operational precept the intersubjective idea of addressing climate change did not transmute into an intersubjectively shared idea of differentiation. Furthermore, once the idea of differentiation was to be operationalised in the negotiations, its primacy, indeed its very "intersubjectiveness", was contested by the idea of symmetry of obligations and responsibility. The ongoing regime flux is the outcome of this contestation between ideas held collectively by groups, as no stabilising hegemonic historical structure has been created. India's emergence has been insufficient to reinstate differentiation as an intersubjectively held idea and it is thus unable to secure a hegemonic historical structure in favour of differentiation

Translating Rule of Law to Myanmar: Intermediaries’ Power and Influence

With Myanmar‘s 2010 general election, the country‘s regime undertook a managed transition from military rule. As foreign organisations flocked to Myanmar to initiate rule of law assistance, development intermediaries emerged to mediate, translate, or broker a rule of law model proposed by foreign actors. In the broader field of development studies and anthropology, intermediaries have been identified as key subjects of analysis and as actors with significant agency and influence. However, little is known about their power and influence in relation to rule of law assistance. To address the lack of theoretical, methodological, and empirical analysis, this thesis poses the question -- How do intermediaries influence rule of law assistance in Myanmar? Through an inter-disciplinary approach and extended field work in Myanmar during 2014-2015 that involved ethnographic observation and qualitative interviews, this thesis finds evidence that intermediaries come to possess significant influence and power in the rule of law assistance field. They steer the direction of development interventions, translate global concepts selectively, and mediate and buffer disagreements between development counterparts who do not share the same values and understandings. Intermediaries also influence rule of law assistance in Myanmar because foreign development actors, who often lack cultural and linguistic knowledge, are fully reliant on them to carry out their development activities. Because those foreign actors are distrusted by local actors, including the government, intermediaries are central to trust- building. This thesis shows how a focus on intermediaries is an important vantage point from which to consider the enterprise of rule of law assistance. It is through the study of intermediaries‘ experiences, as they try to introduce a global model of rule of law ideas and practices, that the rationales and complexities of rule of law assistance can be unpacked. This thesis makes an original contribution to theory by arguing that the conceptualisation of rule of law as a model provides better insights into the enterprise of legal development assistance because it shifts analysis from debates about the content of global norms or principles, to the ways in which intermediaries are vital for the model‘s transmission, and then its adaptation and appropriation. In doing so, it provides a critical perspective on attempts to translate rule of law to new settings. Myanmar as a case study highlights in particular the difficulties of translating that model to a setting controlled by a military regime during political and economic transition. Empirically, this thesis shows that intermediaries influence rule of law assistance because they steer project allocation, deliver diffused messages of local needs, are central for trust-building between foreign, national and local development counterparts, translate rule of law selectively and recursively, and exercise the power to decide who will, or will not, be included in development activities. This thesis argues that, without understanding who these intermediaries are, and how they exercise their influence, we cannot fully grasp either the process, or the limitations of, the global transfer of the rule of law