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AbstractThe economy‐wide liberalization reforms implemented from the 1980s onwards in major capitalist economies had deep impact on financial markets. Public financial regulation has been replaced by self‐regulation, financial innovations proliferated and gave rise to many diversified and complex speculative operations that financialized most economic decisions and actions. Recurrent instabilities and crises became common ground in advanced as well as in emerging market economies and converged on the global systemic crisis in 2007–08, notwithstanding the efficient market doctrine that kept supporting financial liberalization. This crisis raised concerns about the relevance of market‐based financial regulation with regard to the systemic viability of capitalist economies and brought forward the central role of financial regulatory framework in the sustainable working of open societies. This article considers financial stability as a collective action problem through the lens of the literature on the commons and public goods. It seeks to contribute to the development of a relevant paradigm of collective action in the provision of a particular public good, financial stability, through a particular public action, financial regulation. After recalling the broad outlines of the evolution of financial markets and the institutional environment in the last decades, the monetary and financial characteristics of a capitalist economy are presented. The monetary and financial structure turns out to be a public infrastructure. The criticalness of financial transactions for the whole economic society together with the non‐rivalrousness and non‐excludability of financial stability determine the very publicness of the latter. The continuity of financial relations fundamentally needs a viable financial system. However, this is a complex issue as it falls into the classical opposition "private vs public" and calls for a collective action framework consistent with the characteristics of a financialized economy. This article argues that financial stability cannot be ensured through individual‐decision‐based market relations because of the endogenous limits of individual actions and the systemic nature of instabilities they can provoke. A specific treatment of finance as a public utility and of financial stability as a public good is then required. The study on the organization and management of financial markets, namely financial governance issue, ultimately leads to consider financial regulation as a collective action problem that calls for a public supervision framework through an extra‐market macroregulation, apt to allow economy to work in a viable way.

This study presents comparative, multi-disciplinary research (including public management, health, political science, sociology, economics, and law) that develops an explanatory framework for understanding how governments formulate and implement addiction policies in Europe. Through an in-depth analysis of the twenty-seven EU member states, plus Norway, it presents four European models and visions of governance of addictions, based on two axes, strategy and structure. For this purpose, four substances are taken into account - heroin, cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the major problems affecting the public enterprises today and to recommend specific steps toward their resolution. Given the present constraints on Sierra Leone's public finance and balance of payments situation, measures to improve the financial performance of the public enterprises assume critical importance, though these must be taken in the context of broad economic and social objectives as well

"Although Christianity is the world's largest religion, there is confusion over what it means to be Christian within contemporary society. For individuals it is difficult to find, form, or receive a Christian identity, let alone maintain a Christian identity, within a secular world. Within organizations such as the church and professions there is often a disconnection between public and private identities and the reality of being Christian in our culture. For society there is the problem of disparate portrayals of Christianity, the marginalized status of Christianity with an associated lack of influence of Christians on our society, and the ongoing shaping of Christian identity by the public arena itself. Associated questions are: should Christians try to engage in, and even shape, the public arena and if so, how? This volume examines the problem of confused and misunderstood Christian identity in a post-Christian age. It suggests ways of shaping Christian identity for the benefit of individuals and for the common good. The importance of well-formed Christian identities is illustrated by research and analysis of selected professions so that the public life of Christians can be more fulfilling and effective. This book will be valuable for all those who are interested in religious identity within a secular society. People of faith and religious organizations will benefit from a penetrating analysis of what it means to be Christian today. Similarly, those whose work involves the church, counselling, education and the performing arts will find specific applications that address concerns about faith in the workplace"--

The article focuses on the state regulation and financing of public wealth in the USA. The author analyses historical trends in managing of state social programs within the system "federation – states – local units". Special attention is given to the concepts and practices of federative relations in the context of US socioeconomic development. The article also evaluates the reforms of state machinery conducted during the terms of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush (Jr.) and Barack Obama administrations.

"American Public Policy provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the policy-making process from procedural approaches and policy instruments to in-depth analysis of specific policy issues. Not shying away from the complexity of governmental procedure, B. Guy Peters ensures that the mechanisms of the policy process are understandable through discussion of topical policy areas. The twelfth edition covers how the background for policy in the United States has changed dramatically over the past several years in the midst of political polarization and gridlock, unemployment and recessions, and calls for greater diversity and inclusion. New topics include the eroding trust in government, COVID-19 pandemic and relief packages, the expanding national debt, the rising costs of health care and calls for "Medicare for All" or a public option, the rollback of environmental regulations under the Trump administration, and the rebuilding of alliances abroad"--

Competition policy in the provision of Vietnam's health services with opportunities and challenges / Thanh Bao Truong and Nhung Tuyet Thi Ho -- State investment in health services in Vietnam : situation and problems raised / Thanh Vinh Nguyen, Thanh Bao Truong, Dung Ngoc Thi Pham, Binh Thanh Nguyen and Tho Sy Le -- State investment in education services in Vietnam : current situation and issues / Hoan Van Hoang, Thanh Bao Truong, Minh Dinh Hoang, Nga Thi Do, Du Chu Nguyen and Lam Khanh Hoang -- The regulation of community interpreting in Europe : a comparison between Germany and Spain / Ingrid Cobos López, Isidoro Ramírez Almansa and María del Carmen Balbuena Torezano -- NGO interpreting : a case study based on experience at the Spanish Commission for Refugees/ Gisella Policastro Ponce -- New techniques, skills and opportunities in language interpretation for public services / Aurora Ruiz Mezcua -- Development of purchasing competence in service procurement : case transportation public agency / Mika Matela and Jukka Hallikas.

In the study of social bots, one of the important trends is the transition from a technology-centered understanding of bots as a threat to information and computer security to a broader, socially-focused understanding of bots as a new tool of informational influence used by various social actors in online social networks. This transition is of value to modern sociology. As one such actor, the authors consider a group of civic activists who use bot-technology to construct and solve the problem of defrauded equity holders. The novelty of the article lies in the interpretation of this group's activities in the context of the concept of public arenas. The botnet "Deceived equity holders of LenSpecStroy" was detected thanks to the author's complex methodology that combined the method of frequency analysis of messages, profiling of bot accounts, including static and behavioral analysis of user profiles, statistical analysis of texts, analysis of the botnet's structural organization, analysis of the content of its publications, and analysis of bursts of network publication activity. Analyzing these bursts of publication activity and the content of botnet publications showed how bot-technologies aided in implementing effective techniques aimed at constructing and maintaining the social problem of defrauded equity holders: expanding the capacity of the public arena, realizing (creating) dramaturgical novelty and emotional richness in discussing the problem, taking into account the organizational specifics of the public arena, directing interest in the problem towards other (related and equally important) public arenas (media, legislative and executive power, political parties).

AbstractThe practice of ecological restoration is the attempt to repair ecosystems that have been damaged or degraded, most often by past human activities. Restoration includes everything from removing dams to planting native trees, grasses and wildflowers to bio-reactivating soil to controlling invasive plants to recontouring land. Beyond this, ecological restoration is the attempt to restore humans' relationship with nature. In the actual activities of restoring land, humans are in important ways restored to land. This paper argues that one of the ways in which restoration practice reconnects humans to nature is in a spiritual-moral sense. In addition to performing ecological work, restoration performs sacred work and serves as a form of public witness; and it can engender spiritual-moral experiences within participants. For these reasons, we can view restoration not only as a promising contemporary environmental practice, but also as a burgeoning public spiritual practice.

Justifications that invoke moral claims are highly effective in shaping public opinion. But moral justifications ("I am obeying the dictates of my conscience"; "This policy is in the community's best interests") are difficult to verify as to their truthfulness, raising the possibility that they can be used deceptively. In this article, the psychological and political literatures are reviewed to illustrate why it is so difficult to detect deceptive moral justifications. The difficulty arises because (1) people are not very good at detecting deception in general; (2) the mediated nature of political communication eliminates the nonverbal cues that are most predictive of deception; (3) social judgment biases lead people to focus on the individual and inhibit suspicion; (4) the norms of political culture constrain politicians from accusing each other of lying, so that the public is not prompted by other sources to regard moral claims with suspicion.