Search results

The purpose of this research is to provide a cross-state comparison of the role that the Secretaries of State play in their given state as well as the influence it has on national politics. In order to evaluate the role of the Secretary of State, this research will examine states in the Northwest region of the U.S. (i.e. Pacific Northwest) to determine how their formal and informal powers affect their role in their respective state. The driving research question is: what role does this position play in impacting state and national electoral politics in the U.S? In an attempt to address this question, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with staff at the five offices in the Pacific Northwest. Moreover, public administration theory will be applied as a descriptive framework to examine the interview responses. The Secretary of State's office is an agency that 47 out of the 50 states in United States have in their government – this office can play an essential role in defining U.S. elections and politics more broadly. Moreover, 12 out of the 47 states that have a Secretary of State either appoint via governor or state legislature, while the remainder of the states elects their Secretary of State via the general public. The duties and level of participation of the Secretary of State's office varies based on the state's government and the powers that have been allotted to them by their respective state constitution. This research will provide a first hand account of the work that is being done in each office and the broader societal implications.

"This book provides a pioneering study of the historical interaction between the city and the natural environment from the colonial to the contemporary era in South Asia. The book provides a multi-disciplinary analysis examining the environmental history of the city and bringing together contributions from environmental experts and practitioners as well as academics. Focusing on case studies stretching from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to the Indian subcontinent, the chapters trace linkages between the contemporary and earlier patterns of urban expansion and their environmental effects and consider lessons that can be drawn with respect to preventing future environmental degradation and mitigating the effects of climate change. An important contribution to the field, this book studies the contemporary environmental issues arising from rapid South Asian urbanization. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of South Asian Studies, world history and environmental history"--

The object of this research is the national economy of Ukraine. The subject of the thesis is the economic growth under conditions of globalization. The purpose of the research is to identify the impact of globalization factors on the economic growth of Ukraine and to develop on this basis main guidelines for foreign economic policy which needs improving. Research techniques are the method of logical abstraction, systematic approach, historical method, deductive method, monographic method, comparative approach, typology, economic and statistical analysis, retrospective analysis, econometric methods such as regression analysis, least squares method and methods of testing statistical hypothesis. The actual data for this paper are based on official Ukrainian and foreign statistical databases including State committee of Statistics of Ukraine (SCSU), National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), International monetary fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), committees of United Nations organization, World trade organization (WTO), the US National bureau of economic research (NBER), Ukrainian and foreign publications, proceedings of international conferences. All econometric computations are performed by means of EVeiws and MS Excel software. In the issue of the research globalization indicators influencing economic growth in Ukraine are developed. They include openness of Ukrainian economy to trade in goods and services (general and according to its structure), openness to financial globalization (FDI and portfolio investment flows, external debt, and international reserves as a share of GDP), growth rates of world and Russian GDP, world price indexes on oil and metals, index of economic freedom of Ukraine. The impact of these indicators on economic growth is defined and mathematically proven. Of all abovementioned indicators the following proved to be statistically significant: openness to trade in ferrous and non-ferrous metals, in machinery, in services, growth rates of Russian GDP and world oil price index. These results show that main orientations of foreign economic policy of our country should be differentiation of foreign trade structure, development of market institutions, improvement of FDI attracting schemes, development of equity market and sever restriction of shadow economy.

Human rights, democracy and governance concerns are prominent elements in the development cooperation policy of the European Community. The relations between the European Community (EC) and 71 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) have proved to be a laboratory for developing ideas on these matters, for translating them into binding treaty norms, and for applying them in practice. The experiences gained in the ACP-EC relationship carry special value because they are the product of dialogue and joint decision-making between groups of developed and developing states. Therefore, 25 years of ACP-EC cooperation under the Lomé Convention provide a rich learning ground for anybody involved or interested in (the debate on) linking development cooperation to human rights and to human rights related concerns. This book explores the international law aspects of the subject. It first investigates the general international legal basis for linking development cooperation to human rights, democracy and good governance. Both the negative and positive ways of making such a linking (by punitive and supportive measures) are addressed. The book then delves into the evolution of Lomé treaty norms on the subject, and into the concrete human rights practices that took shape under them. It explores the contributions to and influence of both the EC and ACP states on those treaty provisions and practices. A comprehensive overview is provided of the support measures and sanctions resorted to in response to the human rights situation in ACP countries. The book assesses the overall experiences gained and presents a synthesis of factors that proved to be constraints or conducive to the efforts to integrate human rights fully into ACP-EC development cooperation. The insights gained could well inform similar efforts undertaken by others

Money in Asia examines two chronic problems that faced early modern monetary economies in East, South, and Southeast Asia: The inability to provide sufficient amounts of small currencies to facilitate local economic transactions and to control currency depreciation.

The article considers some methodological aspects of interaction between economic theory and applied economic research. It is shown that to use theoretical conceptions and principles directly in applied studies does not make sense since one always needs specific forms of knowledge as an intermediate level. The reason for relative autonomy of theoretical and applied economic knowledge is that a theoretician and an applied researcher face different types of entities in cognition and entertain different types of practice.