State Mineral Production Taxes and Mining Law Reform

Fuel and leasable minerals mined in the United States have historically been subject to federal royalties while locatable minerals have not. In recent years there have been multiple attempts to alter this policy and subject locatable minerals to federal royalties as well; most recently the preliminary 2011 Obama budget included a gross royalty on hard-rock mining on public lands. This paper analyzes the issue of imposing such federal royalties from both a legal and economic perspective. From a legal perspective, it is argued that the state of western property rights precludes royalties on currently extant claims so revenues from a royalty would not be realized for many years. From an economic perspective, it is argued that the effect on revenue would be smaller than one might anticipate due to such a royalty crowding out state levies or encouraging vertical disintegration on the part of mining firms to avoid much of the burden of the royalty.mining, taxation, royalties

Rawls’ two principles of justice: their adoption by rational self-interested individuals. In A Theory of Justice.

The present paper aims in a first stage, to exploit succinctly the cardinal argument – the contract argument - acquainted in “A Theory of Justice”, which provides incentives for the two principles’ general adoption. In a second stage, a discussion appraising the feasibility of these two principles and their subsequent empirical adoption will be dealt with. This contributes to the provision of counter-arguments and the highlighting of weaknesses

Is the Human Distinguishable from the Animal by being a Rational Animal? \ud In Principles of Nature and Grace by G. W. Leibniz

The present paper aims to proceed to a succinct analysis of Leibniz"s Principles of Nature and Grace (section 5), by exploiting the cardinal arguments acquainted in it – namely, is he human distinguishable from the animal thanks to his capacity of being endowed with rationality? Henceforth, for answering this question, the herewith paper obeys to a linear analysis and presents a corpus structured in three main parts. The first two parts aims to highlight the text, through furnishing explanations on the main concepts and concerns, while the third part of the corpus offers at prima facie a criticism towards the Leibnizian principle – according to which humans are rational – in order to finally strengthen this latter principle, by emphazing that there are no solid disparagements (confutatio) towards it

What does Marx mean by the "fetishism of commodities" ?

The present paper aims to analyse Marx’s concept of “fetishism of commodities” by explaining the mechanism of a social genesis of determined illusions, arising in the sphere of production and circulation of commodities. It highlights the existence of an auto-sustained autarkic system of 4 variables – reification, objectification, duplicity and habit - sustaining and leading to the fetishism of commodities

Acute poverty alleviation through women’s targeting by microfinance programs

The present paper aims to adduce succinctly the reasons and arguments sustaining female-targeting microfinance programs, predominantly because of their capacity of offering an effective and operational tool against poverty. The herewith paper basically follows a double-axis organization. The first axis (embracing the 3rd and 4th part of the corpus) focuses on the benefits of microfinance, through stressing its economical and social dimensions and consequences - while contributing to enhance the holistic character of poverty reduction. With regard to the second axis (composed by the 5th part of the corpus), it emphases the potential criticisms oriented towards microfinance - thus highlighting its weaknesses - and also offering potential answers (even if only embryonically designed) for palliating them. By offering this former bi-axed structure, this essay contributes to underline the positive corollary existing between the targeting of women by microfinance programs, on the one hand, and the consequent decrease of poverty, on the other hand, hence contributing to sustain the quasi exclusive femaleoriented character of microfinance.Women; microfinance; microcredit; poverty; development; alleviation; targeting; economic aspects; social aspects

Microfinance: Champion in Poverty Alleviation and Failure in Female Empowerment

In the past few years the provision of financial services to low-income clients via microfinance programs has drastically increased due to its positive effects on development. There are plenty of policy concerns surrounding the triad of microfinance, poverty reduction, and female empowerment. Microfinance programs provide an effective and operational policy tool which is successful in reducing poverty »holistically,« in the sense that women tend to share their income with others more than men. However, the rigidity of microfinance programs does little to enhance female political empowerment. Thus, it is important to go beyond the mainly economics-centred literature and to draw on examples from less developed countries and to propose ways of overcoming the programs’ weaknesses. As a result, a positive correlation between targeting women with microfinance programs has to be found that consistently decreases overall poverty.Microfinance ; Empowerment ; Limits ; Targeting

Is force ever justified in preventing a State from acquiring nuclear weapons?

In order to provide a grounded argument, the present paper asks the following questions. Why do States acquire nuclear weapons? Why do finally States tend to prevent this acquisition? What does the use of force imply? This logical structure adduces the argument sustaining the avoidance of the use of force as a viable preventive tool. It concentrates exclusively on States instituting a threat and on the force-led circumventive strategies’ implications used by non-threatening States to prevent acquisition. Through first, stressing the security model it emphasise the security-stability reasons for which countries are willing to acquire the nuclear weapon. However, secondly it punctuates the tangible side effects faced by this model. Therefore, it highlights the move towards the vicious-circle logic. Owing this vicious-circle logic, prevention must be advocated. Nonetheless, the third part evidences, via the building of my inferential model (confere Figure 1, p.8), the fact that any prevention based on the use of force must be refrained on account of its consequences - it nourishes the vicious-circle logic.Force, Nuclear weapons, Prevention, Acquisition, Security model, Vicious-circle logic, Pride, Inferential Model

Neo-liberalism, consequences on the prospect of democratization in Latin America

The present paper aims to analyze the consequences of neo-liberalism on the prospect of democratization in Latin America, by concentrating on two case-studies, Brazil and Chile. The analysis is done on a double level. In a first part it considers the consequences of neo-liberalism on the first dimension of the infra-State level, the State itself and the government. In a second part it moves to the analysis of the second dimension of the infra-State level, the society. This double level of evaluation highlights the deficiency of an efficacious political democratization at the level of the State and the lack of the application of civil rights at the level of society. The neo-liberal context has accentuated democratic lacunas, because it has been ineffective in providing monitoring capacities in the field of democratic norms and institutional implementation.Neo-liberalism; Latin America; Democratization; Democratic deconsolidation; Depolitization; Public sphere

PUBLIC PENSION GOVERNANCE AND ASSET ALLOCATION

This paper analyses the relationship between governance, asset allocation, and risk among state and local government-operated pension systems in the United States. It is argued that governance influences investment decisions and risk profiles of public sector pension systems, creating the potential for agency problems to exist between decision makers, plan members, and taxpayers.public pension governance, portfolio management.