Constitutional Design and Political Communication

This paper models the constitutional design process, and points out the importance of political communication (defined as the level of information about the social distribution of policy preferences that individuals hold, at the time of this process) on the "extent" of "democratic restraints" of the socially preferred constitution and on the welfare derived by the society from its implementation. The results demonstrate that the level of political communication has a positive effect on the level of democracy of the socially preferred constitution and on social welfare. Moreover, it is proved that, even if there exist no tolerance for dictatorship by societies in general, the level of democracy demanded by the society, reaches the maximum possible level, only if political communication is "perfect". That is, the socially preferred constitution in cases of "imperfect" political communication incorporates both dictatorial and democratic elements.constitution, political communication, democracy

Stability of Scheduled Message Communication over Degraded Broadcast Channels

We consider scheduled message communication over a discrete memoryless degraded broadcast channel. The framework we consider here models both the random message arrivals and the subsequent reliable communication by suitably combining techniques from queueing theory and information theory. The channel from the transmitter to each of the receivers is quasi-static, flat, and with independent fades across the receivers. Requests for message transmissions are assumed to arrive according to an i.i.d. arrival process. Then, (i) we derive an outer bound to the region of message arrival vectors achievable by the class of stationary scheduling policies, (ii) we show for any message arrival vector that satisfies the outerbound, that there exists a stationary ``state-independent'' policy that results in a stable system for the corresponding message arrival process, and (iii) under two asymptotic regimes, we show that the stability region of nat arrival rate vectors has information-theoretic capacity region interpretation.Comment: 5 pages, Submitted to 2006 International Symposium on Information Theor

State of the art of inflation targeting

Inflation targeting has been adopted by an increasing number of central banks as their monetary policy framework. At the start of 2010, some twenty seven central banks were considered fully fledged inflation targeters, and many others are in the process of establishing a full inflation-targeting framework. In this Handbook we publish details of the key features of the inflation-targeting frameworks in each of the 27 inflation targeting central banks around the world. These data enable us to analyse the state of the art of inflation targeting: the legal and institutional arrangements; the design of the inflation target; the decision-making body and process of decision-making; the models and forecasts used by central banks; the accountability mechanisms in place, and the communication and publication strategies. This handbook was written in June 2009 and updated in 2012.Forecasting banknotes

Appropriate Accuracy of Models for Decision-Support Systems: Case Example for the Elbe River Basin

Given the growing complexity of water-resources management there will be an increasing need\ud for integrated tools to support policy analysis, communication, and research. A key aspect of the design is the\ud combination of process models from different scientific disciplines in an integrated system. In general these\ud models differ in sensitivity and accuracy, while non-linear and qualitative models can be present. The current\ud practice is that the preferences of the designers of a decision-support system, and practical considerations\ud such as data availability guide the selection of models and data. Due to a lack of clear scientific guidelines the\ud design becomes an ad-hoc process, depending on the case study at hand, while selected models can be overly\ud complex or too coarse for their purpose. Ideally, the design should allow for the ranking of selected\ud management measures according to the objectives set by end users, without being more complex than\ud necessary. De Kok and Wind [2003] refer to this approach as appropriate modeling. A good case example is\ud the ongoing pilot project aiming at the design of a decision-support system for the Elbe river basin. Four\ud functions are accounted for: navigability, floodplain ecology, flooding safety, and water quality. This paper\ud concerns the response of floodplain biotope types to river engineering works and changes in the flooding\ud frequency of the floodplains. The HBV-D conceptual rainfall-runoff model is used to simulate the impact of\ud climate and land use change on the discharge statistics. The question was raised how well this rainfall-runoff\ud model should be calibrated as compared to the observed discharge data. Sensitivity analyses indicate that a\ud value of R2 = 0.87 should be sufficient

Geosciences for Elementary Educators: A Course Assessment

Geosciences for Elementary Educators engages future elementary teachers in a hands-on investigation of topics aligned with the third and fifth grade Earth/Space Science and Scientific Inquiry benchmarks of the Oregon Content Standards. The course was designed to develop the content background of elementary teachers within the framework of the science described in the content standards, to provide an opportunity for future teachers to explore the content area in relation to what takes place in the classrooms of elementary schools, and to initiate a community of learners focused on teaching science to elementary students. The course focused on four themes: the classroom teacher as an activity and curriculum developer using diverse resources to keep the content current and alive; the classroom teacher as educator dealing with the diverse backgrounds of students in a developmentally appropriate manner; the classroom teacher as reflective practitioner exploring the links among pedagogy, content, and student learning; and, the classroom teacher as citizen staying current with emerging policy issues and debates that impact education. In a course where process is extremely important, participants are assessed on what they can do with content and process knowledge through preparing lesson plans, presenting lessons in a simulated classroom environment, and developing a portfolio and journal. Lesson plans demonstrate participant understanding of inquiry, using models, deductive and inductive approaches, links between communication skills and content knowledge, and effective use of technology, including the Internet. For each topic, the mixture of demonstration, experimentation, inquiry, and lecture models are explored through investigation, discovery, and analysis

Government Policy Communication in Poverty Alleviation in the City of Makassar

One of the economic development policies in a country is based on the accelerated pace of poverty alleviation in society, which is increasingly becoming a problem for the government The poverty rate in Makassar City is relatively high, so it is very important for the government to optimize policy communication by the government in poverty alleviation. The purpose of this study was to determine the process of communication on government policies in poverty alleviation in Makassar City. This research uses a qualitative method and a phenomenological approach. The study focuses on policy communication on the aspects of transmission, clarity, and transparency of information using data analysis techniques of qualitative interactive models. The results of this study indicate that the communication of Makassar city government policies in reducing community poverty is considered less effective; this is indicated by one of the poverty reduction policies through the Productive Economic Enterprises (UEP) assistance program and the Joint Business Group assistance program (KUBE) whose distribution is not well targeted to the community due to the lack of information provided by the Makassar city government to the sub-district government to assign the sub-district party the task of identifying and collecting data on poor citizens. Apart from that, the Makassar city government also, according to the program policy, did not provide clear and transparent information on the amount of the budget allocated to each community group and the budget allocation for the development needs of the program, because of the UEP and KUBE policies. The findings of this study also assessed that the communication process for poverty alleviation policies did not work according to community expectations because of the sectoral ego of the city government which was politicized by seeking benefits to be obtained by several parties who were not responsible for the implementation of the UEP and KUBE programs. Keywords: policy communications, government, povert