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When the Arab Spring broke out, the United States was in a quandary over how to handle the crisis in its attempt to balance its moral obligations and ideals without undercutting its strategic interests and those of its close allies. Flaws in US diplomatic approach have contributed to one of the most serious foreign policy crisis for a US administration to date with consequential upheaval and erosion of the US-built balance of power. The reactions and policy responses of the Obama administration highlight the difficulties in grasping with the new reality in the Middle East and in enunciating a policy platform that could combine American interests and values. Adapted from the source document.

An examination of the information flow between Washington, DC, & the US Embassy in Iran in 1978 shows that US policymakers had sufficient knowledge of severe troubles in the Shah's regime. Documents from the State Dept files restored after shredding suggests that despite evidence for several months indicating a possible coup d'etat, the long-standing US policy toward Iran overrode any change in actions toward the Shah. The Embassy reported & was aware of significant turmoil caused by conservative religious nationalism in the country by mid-1978. It is suggested that the documents' degree of classification & inconsistent interpretation of events led to the intelligence failure. 37 References. J. Sadler

Machine generated contents note: 1 INTRODUCTION -- 1.1 Overview -- 1.2 The Democratic Commitments to Government -- Involvement in the Macroeconomy -- 1.3 The Evolution of the Policy Commitments and of -- A/acroeconomic Performance -- 1.4 Explaining Policy and Outcome Variation across -- Democracies over Time -- 1.5 The Political-Economic Implications -- 1.6 Conclusion -- 2 THE DEMOCRATIC COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL -- INSURANCE -- 2.1 Introduction: Motivation, the Explanandum, and a -- Road Map -- 2.2 Economic Inequality and Demand for Transfers in -- Pure Democracy -- 2.3 Democratic Management of Transfer Systems by -- Elected Governments -- 2.4 The Data and Empirical Methods -- 2.5 Empirical Evaluation of the Positive Political -- Economy of Transfers -- 2.6 Discussion, Conclusions, and Implications -- 3 FINANCING THE COMMITMENTS: PUBLIC DEBT -- 3.1 Introduction: Motivation, the Explanandum, and a / -- Road Map -- 3.2 Democratic Management of Public Debt: Theories, -- Measures, Stylized Facts -- - -- 3.3 Empirical Evaluation of the Positive Political -- Economy of Public Debt -- 3.4 Discussion, Conclusions, and Implications -- 4 MONETARY MANAGEMENT OF THE -- MACROECONOMY -- 4.1 Introduction: Motivation, the Explanandum, and a -- Road Map -- 4.2 Monetary-Policy-Making and Wage-Price-Bargaining -- Institutions -- 4.3 A Proposed Synthesis and Extension: -- Institutional-Structural Interactions -- 4.4 Empirical Evaluation of the Positive Political -- Economy of Monetary Policy Making and -- Wage-Price Bargaining -- 4.5 Discussion, Conclusions, and Implications -- 5 COMPARATIVE DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL- -- ECONOMY AND MACROECONOAI C -- POLICY MAKING -- 5.1 Concluding Themes -- 5.2 A Prospective Overview -- References -- Index

The financial crisis has affected the real economy in stages yet nevertheless at an unexpected rate and with all regions being affected simultaneously. It advanced almost independently of the regions' exposure to the actual initial causes, among them the subprime crisis, innovative financial products, dubious microeconomic incentives, inefficient regulation and macroeconomic imbalances. The following analysis poses the question how the national economic structures can be made more resilient to a shock (be it a financial crisis or any other form of shock) and how economic policy can act in order to stabilise the economy before and after such a shock. This analysis supplements studies on the causes of the financial crisis, proper macroeconomic responses to the crisis and regulatory reforms on a national and international level. It enlarges the list of the traditional instruments of economic stabilisation policy by combining them with structural policies. Measures in five policy areas which could be the key to more effectively preventing a further crisis are discussed. However, a resilient economy is not in itself a political goal; it is only a necessary condition for a successful growth and employment policy. Furthermore, economic policy to increase resilience against shocks should not contain any protectionist elements since these lead to losses in income and employment levels.

Abstract: This Article examines the desirability of the universal recognition of the right of public access to legal information as a human right and therefore as part of a legal framework for improving national and global access to legal information. It discusses the right of public access to legal information as a legal right and the importance of its international human rights framework. The Article argues that every person has the right of public access to legal information, which casts a legal and moral duty on every government and every intergovernmental organization (IGO) with judicial and legislative functions to provide adequate and free access to its laws and law-related publications. It argues further that every government can afford the provision of adequate public access to its legal information and that the lack of political will to do so is the preeminent factor responsible for inadequate—and in some cases extremely poor—public access. Additionally, this Article advocates the universal recognition of the right of public access to legal information as a human right and makes a proposal for a UN Convention on the Right of Public Access to Legal Information. It provides the essential contents of the proposed UN Convention which incorporate The Hague Conference Guiding Principles to be Considered in Developing a Future Instrument. These contents provide valuable input for urgent interim national and regional laws and policies on public access to legal information, pending the Convention's entry into force. The proposed UN Convention will significantly enhance global access to official legal information that will promote widespread knowledge of the law. It will also facilitate national and transnational legal research and remedy the chronic injustice from liability under inaccessible laws under the doctrine of "ignorance of the law is no excuse"—which is similar to liability under ex post facto and nonexistent laws—and promote the proposed doctrine of "ignorance of inaccessible law is an excuse." Keywords: Human right of public access to legal information; Public access to law as a human right; United Nations Convention on the Right of Public Access to Legal Information; Ignorance of inaccessible law is an excuse; Huricompatisation: human rights-compliant public access to the customary law of indigenous communities; Ignorance of the law is no excuse; Public access to legislation; Public access to judicial decisions; Public Access to administrative memoranda; Public access to government legal documents;Public access to regional and international legal instruments; Free access to law; Free access to law movement; Legal information institutes Leesi Ebenezer Mitee , HND Town Planning and LLB (Rivers State University, Nigeria); BL (Nigerian Law School, Lagos); LLM (University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom); PhD Candidate, Tilburg University Law School, The Netherlands; Chief Lecturer in Law, Institute of Legal and Global Studies, Port Harcourt Polytechnic, Rivers State, Nigeria; former legal research consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1998, on a project that provided the juridical foundations for the ECOWAS Declaration of a Moratorium on Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons in West Africa (31 October 1998) which culminated in the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and other Related Matters 2006. I thank, immensely, the following persons for their most valuable insightful comments on the draft of this Article: Prof. Dr. Ernst M. H. Hirsch Ballin, Tilburg University and University of Amsterdam / Asser Institute, The Netherlands; and Dr. Sofia Ranchordás, Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden Law School, The Netherlands, and Affiliated Fellow of the Yale Information Society Project, United States. Any error is mine. Email: leesimitee@gmail.com . The Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Advocacy Website: https://publiclegalinformation.com

Current policy encourages 'partnerships' - between statutory organisations and professionals; public and private sectors; with voluntary organisations and local communities. But is this collaborative discourse really as distinctive as the Labour Government claims? How far do contemporary partnerships exemplify an approach to governing which is based on networks (as distinct from hierarchies and markets)? These claims are critically examined, using evidence from a wide range of welfare partnerships, including health and social services, regeneration, pensions and community development.

Affirmative action is still a reality of the American workplace. How is it that such a controversial Federal program has managed to endure for more than five decades? Inside Affirmative Action addresses this question. Beyond the usual ideological debate and discussions about the effects of affirmative action for either good or ill upon issues of race and gender in employment, this book recounts and analyzes interviews with people who worked in the program within the government including political appointees. The interviews and their historical context provide understanding and insight into the policies and politics of affirmative action and its role in advancing civil rights in America.Recent books published on affirmative action address university admissions, but very few of them ever mention Executive Order 11246 or its enforcement by an agency within the Department of Labor - let alone discuss in depth the profound workplace diversity it has created or the employment opportunities it has generated. This book charts that history through the eyes of those who experienced it. Inside Affirmative Action will be of interest to those who study American race relations, policy, history and law.

This book delves deeply into modern surrogacy arrangements, responding to both practical and ethical critiques by offering a radically new model for surrogate motherhood. Current practice distinguishes between two models of surrogacy - the altruistic (unpaid) model and the commercial (paid) model, both of which present social, ethical, and conceptual challenges. This book proposes a novel arrangement for surrogate motherhood - the professional model. Inspired by professions, such as nursing, teaching, and social work, the professional model acknowledges the caring motives that surrogate mothers have while at the same time compensating them for their work. Walker and Van Zyl adopt an evidence-based approach to explain that the professional model enables trust between intended parents and surrogates, provides professional support at every stage of the relationship, affords legal protections against exploitation and commodification, and recognizes the rights and interests of all parties, including the intended baby. The model applies to both transnational and domestic surrogacy and will be of great interest to policy makers, social researchers, bioethicists, legal scholars, fertility professionals, clinicians, and graduate students in psychology, philosophy, medicine and ethics.

The global economic crisis of 2008/2009 has had a broad impact far beyond economic concerns. Most importantly, it has been seen as a crisis of governance and debates have not just questioned specific regulations, e.g. of global financial markets, but have additionally challenged the appropriateness of underlying governance concepts not only in global markets, but also at the national level. For the post-socialist countries, which adopted market-oriented governance mechanisms less than two decades ago, the global crisis was the first stress test after the post-socialist recovery. The contributions in this book focus on the impact of the crisis and related reform attempts in two important areas. The first area is financial and monetary policy, which is at the core of the global crisis of 2008/2009. The second area is relations between business and state actors, where corruption and weak institutional frameworks can both seriously hamper reform attempts. The volume comprises essential contributions on how the post-socialist countries have tried to cope with the first global economical crisis they saw themselves confronted with

The Rebirth of the Greek Labor Market provides evidence of the macroeconomic evolution of the Greek economy, as well as current conditions in the labor market, to suggest potential areas of growth following the crisis. The contributors of this collection focus on three main issues that make the overall volume distinctive. Firstly, the authors develop a macro-econometric model for the Greek economy, which is flexible in terms of policy analysis and provides reasonable forecasts for the period between 2014-2020, under three scenarios. Secondly, the authors analyze the dynamism in the Greek economy, as well as the problematic Greek labor market. Lastly, using the estimations provided by the macro-econometric model developed, an input-output analysis is conducted - for every one of the three scenarios - in order to investigate and quantify the impact of the economic crisis, not only to the total employment but also in the number of employees by occupation, for all productive sectors of the economy. Using this structure, this indispensable new volume identifies the occupations, professions, and sectors with the greatest losses, as well as those showing a positive momentum, up to 2020.

Der internationale Emissionshandel wird prominent als Instrument zur Vermeidung der globalen Treibhausgasemissionen diskutiert. Ziel der in dieser kumulativen Dissertation zusammengefassten Artikel ist ein detaillierteres Verständnis der ökonomischen und politischen Implikationen dieses klimapolitischen Instrumentes. Die Dissertation identifiziert fünf plausible Szenarien für die Weiterentwicklung des internationalen Kohlenstoffmarktes und analysiert diese hinsichtlich ihrer Umwelteffektivität, Kosteneffektivität sowie politischen Machbarkeit. Es zeigt sich, dass die Wahl zwischen top-down und bottom-up Ansätzen einen Zielkonflikt zwischen der Umwelteffektivität einerseits und politischer Machbarkeit andererseits aufwirft. Ein umfassendes globales Handelssystem und der Kyoto-Ansatz können sofort einen Großteil der globalen Emissionen abdecken, wodurch größere Emissionsreduktionen und ein besserer Schutz gegen die regionale Verlagerung von Emissionen möglich sind. Doch während eine hohe Teilnehmerzahl aus Sicht der Umwelteffektivität vorteilhaft ist, erschwert sie die politische Koordination. Probleme entstehen hinsichtlich unvermeidlicher Verteilungskonflikte sowie der Notwendigkeit internationaler Koordination von regulatorischen Details. Hinsichtlich der Kosteneffektivität ist die Option der Verknüpfung regionaler cap-and-trade Systeme der beste Ansatz. Die Analyse der Verknüpfung regionaler cap-and-trade Systeme identifiziert eine Reihe von Vor- und Nachteilen aus der Perspektive regionaler Entscheidungsträger. Potentielle Vorteile sind Effizienzgewinne; die Möglichkeit eines globalen Emissionsreduktionseffektes durch Verlinkung sektoral fragmentierter cap-and-trade Systeme mit asymmetrischen Sektoren in Entwicklungsländern durch den internationalen Güterhandel; erhöhte politische Stabilität durch die Einführung einer zusätzlichen vertikalen Steuerungsebene in der Regulierung heimischer Emissionsquellen; Eliminierung der Befürchtung von Wettbewerbsnachteilen auf Grund asymmetrischer Emissionspreise; und das politische Signal einer multilateralen klimapolitischen Initiative. Mögliche Nachteile sind Wohlfahrtsverluste durch verschlechterte terms-of-trade, sowie die Verstärkung negativer Auswirkungen bereits implementierter suboptimaler Politiken; eine Reihe von möglicherweise nachteiligen Verteilungswirkungen; und die Notwendigkeit der engen Koordination der Systemregulierung und der damit verbundene Verlust an Souveränität. Schließlich wird die Option der Einbeziehung der Straßenverkehrsemissionen in cap-andtrade Systeme untersucht. Eine empirische Analyse der Einbindung des Straßenverkehrs in das EU ETS zeigt, dass diese Option keine Gefahren bezüglich der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit europäischer Industrien auf Grund steigender Zertifikatspreise birgt. Die Einbindung der Straßenverkehrsemissionen sollte upstream erfolgen. ; International emission trading is prominently discussed as a policy instrument for mitigating global greenhouse gas emissions. The articles assembled in this cumulative thesis aim at enhancing the understanding of the economic and political implications of this climate policy approach. Five potential future international carbon market configurations are identified and analyzed with regard to their environmental effectiveness, cost effectiveness, and political feasibility. It turns out that the choice between top-down and bottom-up architectures entails a trade-off between environmental effectiveness on the one hand, and political feasibility on the other. The basic reason is that at least initially a full global trading regime and the Kyoto approach promise to cover a larger fraction of global emissions, thus enabling more significant global emission cuts and providing better protection against carbon leakage. But while a high participation rate is beneficial from the global environmental point of view, it complicates political coordination due to the larger number of political parties, especially regarding the inevitable distributional challenges as well as the need for regulatory coordination. Regarding cost effectiveness, bottom-up linking of regional trading systems is the superior approach. The analysis of linking regional cap-and-trade systems from a policymaker's perspective identifies a number of merits and demerits of this approach. Potential benefits include standard gains from trade; the possibility of 'anti-leakage' from linking a sectorally fragmented cap-and-trade system to asymmetric sectors in developing countries; enhanced policy stability by creating an additional vertical layer in the multi-level governance of domestic emission sources; elimination of competitiveness concerns across linked systems; and the political signal of a multilateral climate policy initiative. Potential disadvantages include welfare losses from deteriorating terms-of-trade and intensification of disbenefits from suboptimal policies; a range of distributional concerns; and the need for close regulatory coordination across linked systems and the related loss of souvereignty due to the inevitable spillovers of regulatory decisions. Finally, this thesis examines the option of including the road transport sector into cap-and-trade systems. An empirical analysis of EU ETS road transport inclusion shows that this option does not raise competitiveness concerns from rising EU allowance prices. The point of regulation should be chosen upstream.

Ex-post impact studies of genetically modified crops indicate that society is capturing sizeable gains in agricultural biotechnology. In Europe, in contrast, due to limited adoption, research has been largely restricted to ex-ante technology and policy impact assessment of GM crop cultivation. In this study we assess the impact of a hypothetical introduction of herbicide tolerant sugar beet in the global sugar sector under both the former and the actual European Common Market Organization for sugar. The model starts from a farm- level analysis, introducing a perfect corporate pricing strategy under restricted monopoly power, which is expanded to a partial equilibrium model of the world sugar trade. We show that even under the given condition of private market power, significant gains accrue to farmers and consumers, while a smaller part goes to the seed sector (gene developers and seed suppliers). The global value of HT sugar beet for society in the period 1996-2014 is estimated at €15.4 billion, of which 29% is captured by EU farmers, 31% by farmers and consumers in the rest of the world, and 39% by the seed sector. However, the global sugar sector is foregoing most of this value, as the technology is currently only accepted by the US sugar industry. ; Includes bibliographical references

AbstractThis article describes the elements of a support framework based on the Japanese concept Ikigai, "that which gives your life meaning and purpose." The basic assumption is that understanding and attaining life meaning and purpose are both the main goal and the main pathway to achieving optimal quality of life. The Ikigai framework recognizes the characteristics of people with disabilities—both their capabilities and their limitations—and contends that these need to match expectations for autonomy and choice making, but always supported and enhanced by lifelong learning. The three main pillars of the framework (environment, skills, and approaches) offer an outline for effective support planning that reduces the need for behavior support plans and enhances opportunities to develop life meaning and thus optimal quality of life.

AbstractHealth represents the dynamic balance of physical, mental, social, and existential well‐being in adapting to conditions of life and the environment. Health is essential for the quality of life (QoL) of all individuals, including those with intellectual disability (ID). People with ID experience health inequities and barriers to quality health care that must be addressed to foster the QoL of this population. This paper illustrates how poor health negatively impacts each of the eight domains of the QoL model proposed by Shalock and Verdugo (2002) (e.g., health conditions limit work performance, decreasing opportunities for personal development and self‐determination). Suggestions for healthcare practices and behaviors that would improve the quality of healthcare provided to people with ID, and thus their health and QoL, are offered (e.g., engaging people with ID in the medical conversation, talking to them in plain language and without jargon enhances the personal development, self‐determination, interpersonal relationships, and social inclusion domains of QoL). Finally, we suggest actions that people with ID and their families might implement to maximize their health and wellness (e.g., maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and using the health promotion resources provided by disability organizations).

AbstractGroup Stepping Stones Triple P (GSSTP), is an evidence‐based intervention for parents of children with intellectual disability that aims to improve child behavioural difficulties. GSSTP was designed to be delivered face‐to‐face, but during the COVID‐19 pandemic some services started delivering it remotely. The evidence base for remote intervention is growing, but few studies have focused on the experiences of practitioners delivering the interventions and the consequences of their service provision. We aimed to explore UK practitioners' experiences of delivering remotely GSSTP. The objectives were to identify the advantages and disadvantages of remote GSSTP, to determine whether adjustments were made to enable delivery, and to assess perceived acceptability. Participants were identified using consecutive sampling from the Triple P UK practitioner network. Eleven practitioners, who had experience of delivering GSSTP remotely and face‐to‐face, reported their experiences in an online survey. Ten participants also took part in semi‐structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. According to 55% of practitioners, parent attendance had increased with remote delivery, and 73% of practitioners found remote GSSTP equally or more effective than face‐to‐face. Survey findings about managing parent engagement remotely were mixed and building rapport with patients was considered equally or more difficult remotely. The key themes from the thematic analysis were the practitioners' 'sincere enthusiasm' over the advantages of the remote GSSTP provision, the 'person‐centered strategies' that characterised their practice, the emergence of 'remote delivery as the way forward' for parenting services and finally, the 'challenges of remote delivery'. Remote GSSTP was perceived to be acceptable to participants and practitioners; the advantages of remote delivery appeared to outweigh the disadvantages. Practitioners reported strategies to prompt engagement and recreate group interactions in the remote setting that could be integrated in the practice of other group parenting providers.