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The 21st century has seen a gradual shift from overwhelming sanctions, mainly trade embargoes, towards targeted or "smart" sanctions. The latter target designated natural and legal persons associated with a country's government, while ostensibly imposing minimal hardship on its general population. However, many empirical studies prove the existence of significant spillover effects and collateral damage from targeted sanctions. This research aims to determine whether "smart" sanctions are a reality, or a myth created to legitimize their use. The analysis shows that targeted sanctions against Russia have had spillover effects beyond the targets. The authors consider four types of spillover effects—economic, political, legal, and psychological (or reputational) ones—and suggest the criteria that determine how targeted a sanction is.

Sweden's management of the coronavirus pandemic, beginning in early 2020, has been much discussed because it deviated from other countries' equivalents. Set in the context of scholarly debate about the balance between politicians and experts in political decision-making, we argue that a necessary condition for this case of Swedish exceptionalism was the manner of policy-making adopted by the Swedish authorities. In this article, we describe this policy-making procedure, which involved a radical form of delegation by elected politicians to appointed experts, and seek to explain how it came about. We focus on the 1st year of the pandemic, and use media reports and other public documents, including parts of a public inquiry, as our empirical material.

Today's challenges for special education funding are rooted in a complex regulatory and policy environment that reflects little forethought about who can and will pay special education costs. Despite the fact that states and school districts are legally required to ensure a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities, the federal government does little to fund the special education that students with disabilities receive, which places the overwhelming burden on states to implement and pay for programs. This brief examines the complex policy framework that creates this precarious funding system, and provides specific and immediate steps for federal policymakers to create a new, more coherent system of ensuring equal educational opportunities for all students with disabilities.

The currency regime and exchange rate policy of the country are among the main factors determining the investment climate and the competitiveness of national producers, macroeconomic stability and financial security of the state. Investment activity, the pace of modernization of the economy and its structural adjustment, the achievement of its sustainable growth, and the increase in the level of well-being of the population largely depend on the currency regime used. It is the exchange rate policy chosen by the government that largely determines the stability of the national currency, its protection against external shock influences, the country's sufficient foreign currency to fulfill obligations on external debts, maintain the saturation of the consumer market, and import investment goods.

Despite existing policies of regional development and cohesion at the national and the EU level, economic regional inequalities or disparities stay relatively high or decrease too slowly. In this context, policies to reduce economic regional disparities in the European Union are a constant concern both for policy-makers and for theoretical and empirical research because of the strong impact on sustainable development in general. In this study we combine elements of theoretical and policy discussions with the empirical assessment of economic regional development in the European Union in order to identify the state of regional disparities, what factors are favouring unbalanced growth in different regions of the EU and to find an appropriate theoretical setting to understand, explain and reduce with regional inequality in the EU

Why does the fiscal burden of the welfare state inspire more protest in some societies than others? Quantitative analysis of fiscal protest in 13 European countries from 1980 to 1995, combined with in-depth comparative-historical analysis of selected countries, shows that fiscal protest was most prevalent where there was a poor fit between tax policy and social spending commitments. Policy incoherence produced pressure for fiscal reforms, which in turn provoked protest. The findings are consistent with the theory that the choice of appropriate tax instruments may help to explain why welfare states persist. They also imply that scholars should not conflate tax protest with welfare backlash, nor assume that tax protest in welfare states is aligned with neoliberal interests. Adapted from the source document.

The Arab Spring shed glaring light on years of a failed EU-Mediterranean policy. In sharp contrast to its heavy rhetoric on democracy promotion, the EU had followed since 9/11 a policy approach that was informed by security interests and that resulted in the factual backing of Arab autocracies. The contribution analyses reactions to the Arab Spring of diverse actors within the EU. To what extent is the EU willing and able to learn? Theoretically the contribution draws on a new concept on the Logics of Action within a Euro-Mediterranean political space, determined by changing structures. The Arab Spring has changed the EU's Logic of Action to a far lesser extent than expected. Adapted from the source document.

A strategically weighed discussion on the reasoning, history and consequences of the Nordic balance. After the Second World War, large security and defense policy decisions were made that affected Scandinavia when the Soviet Union wanted a higher stake in Finland and Norway and Denmark sought to protect themselves against another occupation by joining NATO. In practice this came to mean that foreign policy in Finland was virtually dictated by the president, Sweden remained neutral but strongly defended, and the strategic importance of Denmark diminished. The balance remained functional as long as Norway kept permanent NATO bases and nuclear missiles outside its borders and Finland prepared a strong defense force against possible NATO and Soviet attacks. L. Pitkaniemi

The author of this innovative study argues that key politicians and their policy ideas, through "ideational leadership", have played an important role in the passing of structural reforms in the change-resistant German welfare state. This argument is based on in-depth case studies of individual reforms in health care, pensions and unemployment insurance since the early 1990s as well as a concise analysis of recent changes in family policy. Stiller concludes that Germany, traditionally a Bismarckian welfare state, has embarked on a path of 'hybridisation' that confronts German politics with growing societal divisions. This thought-provoking title is highly recommended for policymakers, scholars and students interested in the past and future reforms of the German welfare state, leadership, and the role of ideas in policymaking.

One way to examine legislative behavior when roll-call votes are unavailable is participation in debates. Deputies can publicize problems & modify bills, making the Congress a "policy refinery." Studying the Honduran Congress, we find that the deputy who is most likely to be a frequent participant in debates is a lawyer from a prosperous department of large district magnitude, from the governing party, & who has served at least one previous term in the Congress. This indicates limitations to who can use the legislature for input to policy making. Given the design of electoral & party institutions in Honduras, it is understandable that a small number of deputies dominate Congress debates. 5 Tables. Adapted from the source document.