Institutions, Social Norms and Well-being

This paper discusses the intrinsic and instrumental value of governance and social norms to the well being of New Zealanders. The interaction between informal social norms and formal institutions is also discussed. An attempt is made to identify the channels and precise mechanisms through which governance and social norms respectively may impact on well-being. Empirical evidence on these effects is cited, and the relevance of the evidence to New Zealand is assessed. A range of suggestions is then presented for strengthening the governance of public institutions in New Zealand, focusing on improvements to transparency, accountability and integrity within existing constitutional arrangements. Finally, some tentative remarks are made on the potential role of government in influencing the evolution of social norms, and managing tensions between conflicting norms in New Zealand.Norms; governance; well-being; public institutions; transparency

Review of Evidence on Broad Outcome of Public Sector Management Regime

The paper summarises research material on the outcomes of the public sector management regime, with an emphasis on material produced from 1995 to 1999, covering the core public sector and Crown Entities. It identifies an apparent consensus about the strengths and weaknesses of the regime and evidence to support the consensus. Strengths include: more efficient production of outputs; a more responsive and innovative public sector delivering better services; improved financial accountability; and improved overall fiscal control. The main weaknesses identified relate to the effectiveness of the regime in delivering outcomes. The paper notes a widespread perception of a lack of empirical data on the effects of the reforms and comments on areas where further evaluation may be desirable.

Reversing the Degradation of New Zealand’s Environment through Greater Government Transparency and Accountability

This article proposes greater transparency in and accountability for environmental governance, addressing widespread concerns about the degradation of New Zealand’s natural environment. It assesses national environmental reporting in New Zealand against a recognised international framework and compares the wider governance framework for environmental management with other policy domains, particularly fiscal policy. It proposes significant changes to the Environmental Reporting Act 2015, together with mechanisms to integrate environmental stewardship more effectively into the formulation of government strategies, policymaking and the Budget cycle, including a new chapter in the annual Fiscal Strategy Report on fiscal policy and the environment

Integrating Economic and Environmental Policy

Integrating environmental policies into economic policy making is vital for environmental sustainability. This article explores three keyintegration mechanisms: enhanced national state of the environment reporting, expanded environmental target setting, and mainstreaming the environment in fiscal policy and the annual budget cycle. The article discusses environmental reporting, resource management and wellbeing budgeting in New Zealand, including recent reviews and proposed reforms. It outlines the rapidly developing international practices in green budgeting. Entry points are identified for operationalising the current wellbeing budgeting framework by progressively exposing environmentally harmful fiscal policies, highlighting win–win tax and expenditure policies that are good for both the environment and the economy, and exposing trade-offs for more transparent deliberation

The TINZ National Integrity System Assessment 2013 and the Open Government Partnership: From findings to recommendations and on to implementation

The 2013 National Integrity System Assessment conducted by Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ) has been attracting increased attention recently with the inclusion by the government of a commitment in NZ’s first Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan to consider and respond to the recommendations in the NIS assessment. This paper is intended to increase understanding of the TINZ National Integrity System Assessment recommendations and the process by which they were produced, and to discuss their implementation in the context of the OGP. The paper is part of a series of IGPS papers on the National Integrity System Assessment and on the Open Government Partnership. This article begins by discussing the key findings from a system-level analysis of the pillars of the National Integrity System; briefly discusses how the NZ findings compare to NIS assessments in other countries; provides an overview of the recommendations and the process by which they were generated; and discusses implementation of the report’s recommendations, in particular through NZ’s membership of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The recommendations in the NIS assessment are reproduced in full in Annex 1

Ancient Egypt 1916 Part 1

Part 1 of the 1916 Ancient Egypt books. Contents include Egypt in the Grail Romance, French and Italian Egyptology, the Grenfell scarabs, and the end of the Hittites.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/kweeks_coll/1005/thumbnail.jp

Ancient Egypt 1916 Part 2

Part 2 of the 1916 Ancient Egypt books. Contents include the Gorringe collection, an early figure of Taurt, Egypt in the Grail Romance, and the queenly title, XXIInd dynasty.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/kweeks_coll/1006/thumbnail.jp

Jurisdictional Integration: How Economic Globalisation Is Changing State Sovereignty

Despite intense debate over the impact of globalisation on state sovereignty, there is a gap in the literature on conceptualisation, measurement, and research on the depth of international policy cooperation. This thesis introduces a new concept, jurisdictional integration, defined as international agreements that constrain, to varying degrees, a state's jurisdiction to make or enforce policies free from external involvement. State jurisdiction - the recognized authority to govern by domestic law - is a more coherent and tractable concept than the traditional concept of Westphalian sovereignty. A generic spectrum of points of increasing integration of state jurisdiction is presented, together with a taxonomy of points of increasing depth of international economic policy cooperation. The practicality and value of the framework is illustrated in two ways. First, an empirical analysis is presented of the depth of jurisdictional integration in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), using WTO data, to test hypotheses of the relationship between economic integration and the depth of policy cooperation in RTAs. The results indicate that the average frequency of occurrence of the deep policy cooperation provisions increased by 118% in RTAs signed 1990-1998 compared to those signed prior to 1990. Secondly, international cooperation in competition policy is analysed through compilation of a new database of stand-alone Competition Enforcement Agreements (CEAs), and the provisions in the Competition Policy Chapters of RTAs. Ordinal indices of increasing depth of jurisdictional integration with respect to competition policy are developed. New families of agreements are identified through vector analysis. Ninety-two international agreements are ranked on an enforcement cooperation index, and are used to test descriptive propositions about international competition policy cooperation. There are an increasing number of North-South agreements; and there has been both a widening and deepening of enforcement cooperation over time. Contingency table analysis is conducted of the relationship, given the existence of an agreement, between depth of enforcement cooperation and predictor variables. Whether all signatories are OECD members is a very good predictor of deep enforcement cooperation. A lack of similarity between substantive competition laws is a very good predictor of low enforcement cooperation. The level of trade integration is a moderately good predictor of the depth of enforcement cooperation; while geographic proximity is a good predictor for RTAs but not for CEAs. The depth of cooperation is almost independent of the level of economic asymmetry between signatories. These results are consistent with theories of regulatory competition and elite norm diffusion as causal mechanisms of increased international economic policy cooperation. The depth of enforcement cooperation is also found to be a very good predictor of whether agreements are "intergovernmental" or transgovernmental. The thesis suggests that the concept of jurisdictional integration can make a significant contribution to measuring the depth of all types of international economic cooperation agreements, and potentially also to cooperation in noneconomic domains; to research on the causes and consequences of international policy cooperation; and to policy development and public debate on the management of globalisation

Ancient Egypt 1921 Part 3

Part 3 of the 1921 Ancient Egypt books. Contents include discoveries at Herakleopolis, the survivals of ancient Egyptians, oracular responses, and the Coptic New Year.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/kweeks_coll/1016/thumbnail.jp

Ancient Egypt 1922 Part 1

Part 1 of the 1922 Ancient Egypt books. Contents include the tree of the Herakleopolite Nome, the sarcophagus of Pa-Ramessu, and knots.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/kweeks_coll/1018/thumbnail.jp