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A variety of innovative institutional forms have emerged within the context of voluntary attempts to address pressing social and environmental issues. Among such institutions, the prevailing wisdom is that those characterized as encompassing multi-stakeholder governance are generally seen as having greater legitimacy than other forms of voluntary action, and such institutions have proliferated as a result. At the same time, business-driven programmes that exclude societal stakeholder groups are believed to be increasingly emerging as competitors to multi-stakeholder-governed programmes. This paper explores the relationship between these two trends and, in particular, highlights the potential for competition between multi-stakeholder and business-driven programmes to lead to a diverse range of outcomes which are shaped by legitimation politics. This perspective emphasizes the open-ended and contingent nature of voluntary programme interactions and the importance of strategy and choice of voluntary programmes and their participants in shaping the institutional design of programmes. Drawing upon a review of prior research and an in-depth case study of business-driven voluntary programmes within the European multi-product retail industry, the study shows that one key implication of legitimation politicking is a divergence between the surface appearance of the governance of programmes and the programmes' actual institutional design. Adapted from the source document.

The framework developed by Lipset & Rokkan provides a strong starting point to apply the theory of cleavages to the emerging party systems of Eastern Europe. As Bartolini pointed out, the concept of cleavage contains three kind of components: empirical (which involves a differentiation among social groups), conflictual (which involves consciousness about social differentiation), & organizational (which expresses social stratification in organizational terms, to give formal defence to the group's identity & goals). This work presents a long-term analysis comparing pre-communist & post-communist party systems in five countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania & Slovakia. The main hypothesis suggests a strong impact of the class cleavage to determine the key differences in the voters alignments. More specifically, the Czech case maybe argue that the presence of the class cleavage before the communist regime improves the conditions for the development of a stable party competition, based on the western socio-economic alignments. On the other side, the absence (or the weakness) of the class cleavage in the pre-communist period, as the eastern trend widely emphasizes, maybe prevent the formation of clear political identities, making it less likely that the parties will recognize & respond to the alignments actually present in the western societies. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

OBJECTIVE--Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have stimulated price competition in California hospital markets since 1983, when the state legislature eliminated barriers to selective contracting by conventional health insurance plans. This study measures the impact of HMO-induced price competition on the rate of inflation in average cost per admission for 298 private, non-HMO hospitals between 1982 and 1988. DATA--HMO market penetration was calculated using discharge abstract data on insurance coverage, ZIP code of residence, and hospital of choice for 3.35 million patients in 1983 and 3.41 million patients in 1988. Data on hospital characteristics were obtained from the American Hospital Association and other sources. -HMO coverage grew from an average of 8.3% of all admissions in local hospital markets in 1983 to 17.0% of all admissions in 1988. The average rate of growth in costs per admission between 1982 and 1988 was 9.4% lower in markets with relatively high HMO penetration compared with markets with relatively low HMO penetration (95% confidence interval, 5.2 to 13.8). Cost savings for these 298 hospitals are estimated at $1.04 billion for 1988. CONCLUSION--Price competition between HMOs and conventional health insurers can significantly reduce hospital cost inflation if legislative barriers to selective contracting are removed. The impact of competition in California was modest, however, when evaluated in terms of the 74.5% average rate of California hospital cost inflation during these years.

Examines the likely effects of globalization on state capacity and action, focusing on three different views that address issues including the Western European welfare state, competition, political economy, and ideology, and which all conclude that globalization will not necessarily deprive states of their capacity to act but may have positive net gains; 1980s and 1990s, chiefly.

Examines the claim that states will be unable to provide high levels of employment and unemployment benefits in a time of intense global competition; based on interviews with politicians, policymakers, and others in Denmark, France, Germany, and Great Britain. Summary in French. Includes views of employers' organizations, trade unions, the voluntary sector, religious organizations, civil servants and journalists.

An introduction to mooting -- Knowledge of key aspects of the legal system -- A guide to researching your submissions and preparing for the moot -- Before the moot : preparation of skeleton arguments and bundles -- At the moot : referring to legal authorities and using your bundle effectively -- At the moot : style, presentation, and etiquette -- At the moot : demonstrating relevant legal knowledge and structure -- At the moot : responding to your opponent's submissions -- At the moot : dealing with the judges -- After the moot : reflecting on performance and dealing with feedback -- The organisation of moots and mooting competitions -- Advice on competing in mooting competitions in the UK -- Getting involved in international mooting competitions -- Further reading and viewing.

We investigate private and social incentives for standardization to ensure market-wide system compatibility in a two-dimensional spatial competition model. We develop a new methodology to analyze competition on a torus and show that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between consumers and producers over the standardization decision. Consumers prefer standardization with full compatibility because it offers more variety that confers a better match with their ideal specifications. However, firms are likely to choose the minimal compatibility to maximize product differentiation and soften competition. This is in sharp contrast to the previous literature that shows the alignment of private and social incentives for compatibility.

"An upstream manufacturer can use minimum retail price maintenance (RPM) to exclude potential competitors. RPM lets the incumbent manufacturer transfer profits to retailers. If entry is accommodated, upstream competition leads to fierce down- stream competition and the breakdown of RPM. Hence, via RPM, retailers internalize the effect of accommodating entry on the incumbent's profits. Retailers may prefer not to accommodate entry; and, if entry requires downstream accommodation, entry can be deterred. We investigate when an incumbent would prefer to exclude, rather than collude with, the entrant and the effect of a retailer cartel. We also consider the effect of imperfect competition. Empirical and policy implications are discussed"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

Since March 2024, the undertakings Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Byte-Dance/TikTok, Meta, and Microsoft must comply with the obligations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Within the first month after the 6-months implementation period has ended, the European Commission opened investigations against Alphabet/Google, Apple, and Meta for non-compliance with the obligations in the DMA. All proceedings can be traced back to related competition law cases. However, only two proceedings follow the same reasoning as their competition law role models, while the case against Meta reveals that the approaches under the DMA can and will deviate significantly to those under competition law and data protection law.

On the basis of archival documents and materials from periodicals, the article examines the involvement of voluntary sports societies (DSO) of the Voronezh region in social and political life. Sports competitions had a pronounced ideological character, designed to emphasize the superiority of the socialist system. The most massive were the annual Days of Athletes and competitions for the prizes of the Voronezh regional newspaper "Communa". Athletes participated in election campaigns to the Supreme Soviets of the USSR, RSFSR, regional and local councils of people's courts. The athletes were active participants in campaign teams, precinct election commissions. Sports competitions were an integral part of all mass campaigning events of the late Stalinist period.

AbstractThe populist use of competition policies is on the rise again, associated with the growth of big‐tech companies in the era of digital platforms. This article sees antitrust populism as a re‐emerging force in the United States and Europe via greater politicisation of competition law enforcement. It addresses the basic tenets of antitrust populism in order to expose the fundamental problems that populist use of competition law entails. I argue for a rethink of antitrust policy on the intellectual foundations laid down by what Mark Pennington describes as 'robust political economy'. We need greater regulatory humility and antitrust enforcement which takes both innovation and welfare seriously.

AbstractWe study subsidy policies for research programs when firms have private information about the likelihood of project viability, but the government cannot form a unique prior about this likelihood. When the shadow cost of public funds is zero, first‐best welfare can be attained as a (belief‐free) ex post equilibrium under both monopoly and competition, but it cannot be attained when the shadow cost is positive. However, max‐min subsidy policies exist under monopoly and competition and consist of pure matching subsidies. Under a Research and Development (R&D) consortium, the highest max‐min matching rate is lower than under competition, and R&D investment intensity is higher.

This paper examines whether and how market competition affected the political bias of government-owned newspapers in China from 1981 to 2011. We measure media bias based on coverage of government mouthpiece content (propaganda) relative to commercial content. We first find that a reform that forced newspaper exits (reduced competition) affected media bias by increasing product specialization, with some papers focusing on propaganda and others on commercial content. Second, lower-level governments produce less-biased content and launch commercial newspapers earlier, eroding higher-level governments' political goals. Third, bottom-up competition intensifies the politico-economic tradeoff, leading to product proliferation and less audience exposure to propaganda. ; MEDIACHINA