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Despite being the biggest beneficiary of industrial policy, South Africa's automotive industry has struggled to remain competitive relative to its peers. This is partly a result of increasing global competition, structural shifts and changing demand. At the same time, the local industry remains constrained by a slowdown in economic growth, increasing labour costs and insufficient economies of scale. By analysing the role of policy in improving competitiveness and export performance in South Africa's automotive industry, this paper provides an overview of driving forces, challenges and trends in the local industry. The study uses benchmarking data to analyse productivity improvements in the industry. It finds that South African component firms have implemented lean and world class production techniques, improving their operational competitiveness with significant improvements in quality, inventory reduction and delivery reliability to customers. Although South Africa appears to be catching-up to its competitors, it still ranks poorly among auto-producers in emerging markets. Its competitors in the Far East, South America and Eastern Europe enjoy low production costs, rising FDI inflows and proximity to end markets. Policy interventions influence competitive advantages. This therefore highlights the important role of government in developing a policy mix that aims to increase firm-level competitiveness through minimising operational costs, improving production flexibility and encouraging higher local content to foster industrial development.

Die Familienpolitik wird weithin als ein Teilbereich der Sozialpolitik verstanden, in dem es darum geht, die Familie durch eine Verbesserung ihrer Lebensbedingungen zu schützen und zu fördern. Nach neuerem ökonomischem Verständnis und entsprechend der Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts dagegen wird die Notwendigkeit einer Familienpolitik aus den positiven externen Effekten abgeleitet, die mit der Erfüllung der Aufgaben der Familie verbunden und für die Entwicklung der Gesellschaft unverzichtbar sind. Der Verfasser stellt die Aufgaben der Familie und die dadurch bewirkten externen Effekte systematisch dar, leitet den Wert des Beitrags der Familien zur Humanvermögensbildung ab und erläutert die Bedeutung der Familien und der Familienpolitik vor dem Hintergrund der Schrumpfung und Alterung der Bevölkerung, der Ziele wirtschaftliches Wachstum und Mehrung des Wohlstands sowie der Anpassungsbedürfnisse, die sich aus der Globalisierung ergeben. ; Family policy usually is regarded as a section of social policy, aiming at the protection and support of families by improving their living conditions. According to newly developed economic understanding and following the jurisdiction of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany) the necessity of family policy is based on the positive externalities, emerging from the performance of family tasks. These externalities are a necessary presupposition for the development of societies and therefore should be appreciated and honored. The author describes the tasks of families and the externalities connected with their performance, estimates the contribution of family work to the building of human capital and illustrates the importance of family as well as of family policy especially in view of the decline and aging of population, economic growth, increasing welfare and the necessity of flexibility to meet the requirements of globalization.

While the history and methodology of laboratory experiments in economics have been extensively studied by philosophers, those of field experiments have not attracted much attention until recently. What is the historical context in which field experiments have been advocated? And what are the methodological rationales for conducting experiments in the field as opposed to in the lab? This article addresses these questions by combining historical and methodological perspectives. In terms of history, we show that the movement toward field experiments in economics has two distinct roots. One is the general orientation of medical and social sciences to evidence-based policy evaluation, which gave rise to randomized field experiments in economics (e.g., behavioral public policy, poverty alleviation policy). The other is an awareness of several methodological limitations of lab experiments in economics, which required practitioners to get out of the lab and into the field. In these senses, the movement is a consequence of influences from both outside and inside economics: the general evidence-based trend in policy science and an internal methodological development of experimental economics. In terms of methodology, we show that these two roots resulted in two somewhat different notions of "external validity" as methodological rationales of field experiment. Finally, we suggest that analysis of experiments as exhibits highlights a methodological strategy in which both strands complement each other.

Improving resilience in forests relies on an understanding of the values, knowledge and practices associated with forests. In this paper, based on a case study from the UK, we present qualitative data on how the concept of resilience is understood by decision-makers, the effectiveness of existing policy tools to promote resilient forests and the current boundaries and social acceptability of different management options. Our research reveals that the articulation of actual, possible and needed policy responses reflects the challenge that resilience is a multifaceted concept with an array of potential implications, connected with a diverse set of forest ecosystems. Our research suggests that the collaborative development and promotion of an overarching vision for resilience, which recognises the needs and contexts of different owners and managers in the sector, might begin to overcome the current challenge of fragmented policy and lack of policy tools. This will necessarily involve discussion and coordination across different areas of government and involve those agencies and organisations responsible for the science behind resilience approaches and applications. In particular, there is a need to contextualise and communicate resilience in line with stakeholder needs, and to articulate the uncertainty associated with resilience measures in a range of situations so public agencies, forest owners and managers can make informed choices.

Objective: Including and prioritising community voice in policy development means policy is more likely to reflect community values and priorities. This project trialled and evaluated a storyboard approach in a deliberative community forum to engage Australian Aboriginal people in health policy priority setting. Methods: The forum was co-constructed with two Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. A circle storyboard was used to centre Aboriginal community knowledge and values and encourage the group to engage with broader perspectives and evidence. The forum asked a diverse (descriptively representative) group of Aboriginal people in a rural town what governments should do to support the wellbeing of children and youth, particularly to encourage them to eat well and be active. Results: The storyboard provided a tactile device to allow shared stories and identification of community issues. The group identified policies they believed governments should prioritise, including strategies to combat racism and provide local supports and outlets for young people. Conclusions: An informed deliberative storyboard approach offers a novel way of engaging with Aboriginal communities in a culturally appropriate and inclusive manner. Implications for public health: The identification of racism as a major issue of concern in preventing children from living healthy lifestyles highlights the need for policy responses in this area. ; Jackie Street, Heather Cox, Edilene Lopes, Jessie Motlik, Lisa Hanson

AbstractThis paper presents the editors' introduction for a symposium on Second and Third Best Theory forthcoming in The Pacific Economic Review, 22:2, May 2017. Unusual in such cases, the editors are the major protagonists in the debate. In the symposium Ng maintains that second‐best theory appears to preclude giving theory‐based policy advice because full second‐best optima can never be determined in practical cases. While agreeing about second‐best optima, Lipsey disagrees with Ng's conclusion regarding policy and discusses the development of context‐specific policies not based on the theory of optimal resource allocation. To allow for theory‐based policy, Ng offers his theory of third best. The major disagreement over this theory concerns its proposition: first‐best rules for third‐best worlds under Informational Poverty (not enough is known to determine the desirable direction of change of some the policy variable from the first‐best value). Lipsey argues that, if correct, this rule would upset the main result of second‐best theory that the sign of the change in the objective function may be either positive or negative when first‐best rules are fulfilled piecemeal in second‐best worlds. Woo supports Ng's third‐best theory and derives additional rules, while Boadway surveys the application of second‐best theory in several cases from the literature of public economics.

The idea of 'Global IR' generated a growing interest in 'national schools' of IR and their contribution to understanding the diversity of international relations. As a part of this discussion, the current study is set to explore what has been presented as Russian IR theory and its utility for understanding Russian foreign policy and international relations. Our contention is that there is still not a Russian 'national school' of IR with a distinct set of concepts and theories, research methods, and standards for assessing its legitimate contributions to global knowledge. Strongly influenced by the theoretical developments in the West, Russian IR has produced a number of conceptual innovations for the study of IR, but its highly ideological and relativist character limits its global appeal. The dominant Russian IR perspectives resonate with the world imagery and foreign policy agenda of the Kremlin administration not because they offer a novel and productive way of studying Russian foreign policy, but because Russian theoretical perspectives have been shaped, by and large, by political rather than academic considerations. To map out the complex theoretical landscape of Russian IR and how it relates to perspectives of Russian foreign policy-makers, this study employs discourse theory to analyse the co-evolution of the study and practice of Russian IR.

Person-centered dementia care is widely accepted as a value-based commitment to supporting people with dementia and is a guiding principle in care services. Policy ambitions to put people at the center of their own care are being developed internationally. These may be seen as part of the evolution of person-centered care which has its origins in critical perspectives on practice and social responses to people with dementia. In England, one further development of person-centered care has been personalization – a government policy to extend individuals' choice and control over their social care and, latterly, ways to meet their health care needs. This paper charts the evolution of the concept of person-centered care to the policy of personalization (which has international comparators) and summarizes emerging and conflicting evidence about the implications of personal budgets in England on older people with mental health problems such as dementia and their families. It focuses on the evidence base of personalization and on emerging lessons for practice, drawing from the implementation of personalization and the adoption of personal budgets by this group. While personalization may be one policy initiative, the values and practices of person-centered dementia care remain fundamental to practice and are inspiring new ideas related to rights and justice for people with dementia.

Today, interesting and important interconnections have been made that promise great leaps forward for innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems - especially operating at the regional or sub-national level of the space economy. Of course, there are politics in such relationships. Most notable are those that are critical of anything that 'interferes' with market hegemony (neoliberal bias) which has weakened commitments such as those pioneered in South Korea in the early years of the twenty-first century, later to be followed by numerous Scandinavian policy experiments (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) as well as austerity policy to enlarge regional governance spaces, as in Germany and France (not to mention the dismantling in 2010 of Anglo-regional governance in the UK). Meanwhile, however, it can be seen that good progress in regional innovation policy and entrepreneurial accomplishment at regional level proceeds apace. This is known as the "co-operative bias" in contemporary political economy. Entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional innovation systems are excellent examples of "generative growth" mechanisms (floated in Cooke, P, Generative Growth, Knowledge Economies and Sustainable Development: implications for Regional Foresight Policy, 2002) as a counter to Romer-style individualistic endogenous growth theory. The paper explores the virtues of variety against those of linearity in innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in exemplary empirical instances.

The paper examines the new flood risk policy discussion in England and Wales. The summer floods in England in 2007 caused large damages to the environment, economy and humanity. Following this key flood event, the Government has started to redefine the national flood and coastal risk management policy in England and Wales. The key issue in the new policy agenda is to encourage the responsibilities of local authorities and reduce the central role of flood risk management. This decentralisation in flood risk management has a series of consequences in the development of new governance structures. The main reason for this shift from central to local level is the belief that local authorities deal with public administration tasks in a more efficient way. Nevertheless, the main problem is the gap between the delegated tasks and the lack of transfer of resources, especially the issue concerning funding is still unclear and unresolved. This constraint will go with fiscal and administration cuts. The consequences will be (1) 'hollowing out' of the Government with the downscaling of the responsibility towards local actors and (2) without proportional transfer of resources to local authorities they will not be able to deal with new tasks. Therefore, in practice there are many limitations, barriers and concerns with the new policy direction.

Person-centered dementia care is widely accepted as a value-based commitment to supporting people with dementia and is a guiding principle in care services. Policy ambitions to put people at the center of their own care are being developed internationally. These may be seen as part of the evolution of person-centered care which has its origins in critical perspectives on practice and social responses to people with dementia. In England, one further development of person-centered care has been personalization-a government policy to extend individuals' choice and control over their social care and, latterly, ways to meet their health care needs. This paper charts the evolution of the concept of person-centered care to the policy of personalization (which has international comparators) and summarizes emerging and conflicting evidence about the implications of personal budgets in England on older people with mental health problems such as dementia and their families. It focuses on the evidence base of personalization and on emerging lessons for practice, drawing from the implementation of personalization and the adoption of personal budgets by this group. While personalization may be one policy initiative, the values and practices of person-centered dementia care remain fundamental to practice and are inspiring new ideas related to rights and justice for people with dementia.

Belgian anti-THB policy is often pointed as exemplary given its broad definition of the crime of trafficking for labour exploitation, as being the work or service carried out in conditions contrary to human dignity, in which the coercion element is not compulsory. However, hardly any policy initiatives in Belgium tackle specifically demand-side aspects in labour exploitation and THB in the domestic work sector. Recent policy changes in the domain of domestic work at diplomatic households and the formalisation of live-out domestic work with a service voucher policy have positive effects on the sector. Undocumented domestic workers in the shadow market and possibly regular migrants under temporary work permits are, though, still largely unprotected. The main obstacles to prevent exploitative situations within the sector are the migration and employment policies applying to domestic work. Indeed, this paper argues that when migrant workers are without the possibility to regularise their migration status maintain them in a vulnerable situation: migration status is a key issue for giving people the real possibility to access and defend their rights. Only the full respect of (all) workers' rights will reduce their vulnerability to labour exploitation and trafficking. ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 612869.

In the field of child and youth support, preventive and parent-oriented support programs are currently emphasized. This is understood as a new paradigm of parenting support, which is sometimes referred to as "the turn to parenting." Using Campbell's (Annual Review of Sociology, 28:21–38, 2002), Yee's (Organization 50(1):69–108, 1996) and Hall's (Comparative Politics 25(3):275–296, 1993) theories concerning the processes of policy making, this study investigates whether such a turn has indeed taken place. We first trace back the concepts of parenting and parenting support in policy documents of the Netherlands. Hereafter, we study the implications for practice by quantitatively analysing developments in the implementation and use of child and youth support interventions from 1990 onwards using a Dutch database of effective youth care interventions. The results suggest a trend towards preventive and targeted preventive interventions. Contrasting the turn to parenting, we find a statistically significant rise in early education programs. The findings suggest that ideas around the importance of parenting and parenting support have been ongoing, and that policy and practice have mutually influenced each other during the time-frame of this research project (1990–2010). International ideas and national actors have changed the policy discourse, but the impact on practice is ambiguous.

RESUMENEn este artí­culo se analiza el desarrollo de la polí­tica social por parte del gobierno de Venezuela en la última década, desde la perspectiva del nuevo paradigma que se intenta configurar para lograr la efectiva universalidad de los derechos sociales. Para ello se expondrán los rasgos esenciales de la polí­tica social implementada por los gobiernos anteriores, el contexto sociopolí­tico y el programa económico gubernamental, junto con una cuantificación del gasto social, lo cual permitirá identificar las rupturas y continuidades existentes. Asimismo, el estudio aborda tres ámbitos de la polí­tica social: la educación, la sanidad y la alimentación.Palabras clave: gasto social, educación, sanidad, alimentación, misiones sociales. The progressive construction of a new social policy paradigm in Venezuela.ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the development of the social policy by the Venezuelan government in the last decade, from the perspective of the new paradigm, which is tentatively assembled to achieve the effective universalization of the social rights. For this purpose, we will expose the essential features of the social policy developed by prior governments, the social-politic context and the governmental economic program, alongside a quantification of the social expenditure, which will allow to identify the existing ruptures and continuances. Furthermore, it addresses three areas of the social policy: education, health and nutrition.Keywords: social expenditure, education, health, nutrition, social mission.

Russia's cooperation with international community in finding ways of addressing global energy security, serves its national interests on international arena. International Institute of Energy Policy and Diplomacy (IIEPD) was established at MGIMO University in February 2000, in accordance with the decision of the Academic Council of the 30 th of November 1999 and in the framework of an agreement with the International Academy of the fuel and energy complex. IIEPD combines two important aspects of foreign policy studies - energy and diplomacy. For the first time in Russia it launched a multi-level training in the field of energy diplomacy and geopolitics, and international energy cooperation. The immediate cause of the creation of IIEPD was an urgent demand on the part of major government agencies and leading oil, gas and energy companies for specialists with qualifications necessary to address the issues in the international energy cooperation and integration of the Russian fuel and energy sector in the world economy: - Energy Policy and Diplomacy; - International law; - World Economy and Finance; - International Management and Marketing. The idea of creation of the International Institute of Energy Policy and Diplomacy was supported by the State Duma and the Federation Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Economic Development. The Supervisory Board is headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.