Suchergebnisse

State monopolization or taxation are supposedly justified because of negative externalities from alcohol consumption, but recent research questions the efficacy of such policies, suggesting that their actual goals may be revenue-generation. Consideration of this hypothesis is facilitated by estimates of the implicit taxes charged in monopoly states, which generally are substantially higher than taxes in non-monopoly states. Evidence that monopolization & high taxes do not affect the level of externalities is also explained by adjustments that rational individuals make to avoid the consequences of such policies, thus providing further support for the revenue-maximization hypothesis. 6 Tables, 1 Appendix, 21 References. Adapted from the source document.

Jelena Subotić's Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism has already received such broad recognition and numerous awards that its invaluable contribution to memory studies likely does not need repeating. It is not only a study of Holocaust remembrance in particular, but contributes broadly to our understanding of memory appropriation by the state, through a careful and vivid analysis of its transformation over time in several Eastern and Central European countries. Subotić provides a study of how memory can serve as a strategic tool for reinforcing state interests. The central argument of the book is that the states in question – Croatia, Lithuania, and Serbia – engage in memory appropriation in order to qualify their ontological insecurities (14). The strategies include "memory inversion," appropriating the Holocaust to emphasize crimes against them (primarily in Serbia), "memory divergence," placing blame for the genocide on German Nazis (Croatia), or "memory conflation," wherein Holocaust memory is combined and equated with Communist crimes (Lithuania, 15). These appropriation strategies, which overlap and are combined in the various states, allow states to paint themselves as the ultimate victims, absolving them of responsibility for their role in Holocaust crimes. The danger, of course, is that this not only set ups the false equivalence between victims of Communism and of the Holocaust, allowing for the relativization of Nazi collaboration as anti-Communist resistance, but also because it banalizes and trivializes the specific suffering of the Jewish population.

THIS SECTION REVIEWS UN RESOLUTION 225 WHICH PLEDGES IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE TO STATES WHO FORGO THE ACQUISITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS. SOME OF THE NEGATIVE ASSURANCES THAT HAVE BEEN DEMANDED IN RECENT YEARS, FORMAL GUARANTEES BY THE NUCLEAR WEAPON STATES THAT THEY WOULD NOT USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGAINST NON-NUCLEAR WEAPON STATES, ARE REVIEWED. SECURITY ASSURANCES MUST BE CONSIDERED AS A LEGITIMATE MINIMUM QUID PRO QUO FOR RENOUNCING NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

This book analyses the immediate challenges from headlong cuts, root-and-branch restructuring and the longer-term pressures from population ageing. It demonstrates that a more humane and generous welfare state that will build social inclusiveness is possible and shows how it can be achieved.

Cybercrime and other cybersecurity harms are gaining increasing political and public attention across many countries. One of the most serious and fastest growing categories of such harms relates to ransomware attacks. Many of the groups responsible for ransomware attacks have come under political pressure in recent years as they have become more aggressive in their methods and targeting. On a geopolitical level, an area attracting increasing interest is the complex relationships between ransomware groups and states, in particular, Russia. This paper introduces the concept of state crime to ransomware groups. Starting with the concept of proxies before turning to the historical examples of privateering and piracy, we focus on the notion of "cyber privateers" to analyze two select ransomware groups—DarkSide and REvil—that are believed to be affiliated with the Russian state. We argue that approaching these ransomware groups as cyber privateers engaged in state crime has the potential to enhance our understanding of how these groups operate. We further posit that a state crime perspective also assists in identifying how ransomware may be countered, highlighting the need for policy responses that are effective even when ransomware groups may be tacitly protected by a state.

Learning disabilities is one of the hidden disabilities that affect one or more of the processes people use in learning and developing oral language, reading, writing, mathematics, social skills, executive functions, memory, and motor skills. Being a disability that is not readily observable because there are no outward signs, many pupils with this condition are often misunderstood or overlooked. Some instructors and administrators suspect that pupils' who claim to have learning disabilities are faking it, playing the system, or lack the intelligence needed to succeed. The need for a diagnostic procedure for the identification of these conditions is but a necessity. Being a qualitative study the researcher used the phenomenology design and sampled 10 headteachers as participants in the study. The researcher with the aid of an interview guide conducted interviews with all 10 headteachers from ten government-owned primary schools in the North West and South-West regions of Cameroon. The results showed that seven categories of learning disabilities were these schools as recognized by the teachers and headteachers they include reading, attention, mathematical, spelling, comprehensive, memory and writing problems. Numerous challenges abound as headteachers struggle with the practice of identifying learning disabilities. As such, the ministry of basic education in Cameroon should establish a protocol of assessment wherein the steps of identification are presaged clearly alongside the various professionals to coordinate the process and actually conduct early identification and assessment of children with special needs.

Nosheen Ali. 2019. Delusional States: Feeling Rule and Development in Pakistan's Northern Frontier. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. xiv + 304 pp. Maps, figures, notes, bibliography, index. ₹795 (hardback).

AbstractIn the literature on policy advice and analytical communities in democratic settings, think tanks are often assumed to be carriers of new ideas that serve as an informed and independent voice in policy debates. However, how much intellectual independence do think tanks have in authoritarian environments? This article tackles this question in a case study of Russian think tanks' discursive responses to two protracted crises: the COVID‐19 pandemic and climate change. The study employs a combination of deductive and inductive techniques to identify the discursive strategies used by think tank experts in their publications covering the crises. The findings suggest that there are differences in how think tanks communicate crises, which can be attributed to their institutional structures and position vis‐à‐vis the state. In some cases, the think tanks resort to polarization and discreditation of Western governments' crisis response, while openly endorsing the Russian state. In other cases, they engage in rationalization and more neutral analyses of the pandemic and climate change. However, regardless of these differences, they rarely concentrate on domestic challenges. Instead, they geopoliticize the crises, overemphasizing problematic developments elsewhere in the world, thus shifting attention in the public discourse away from domestic emergencies.