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Contingent liabilities have gained prominence in the analysis of public finance. Indeed, history is full of episodes in which the financial position of the public sector is substantially altered-or its true nature uncovered-as a result of government bailouts of financial or nonfinancial entities, in both the private and the public sector. The paper discusses theoretical and practical issues raised by contingent liabilities, including the rationale for taking them on, how to safeguard against the fiscal risks associated with them, how to account and budget for them, and how to disclose them. Co

This article examines the role of strategic appropriation of public urban space for Vietnamese lesbian (les) community formation in contemporary Saigon. Through twenty-one months of ethnographic research of les events that are "hidden in plain sight," contingent invisibility is theorized as a threefold process of appropriation for les community formation and individual maneuvering around social stigma. By contingent, this article refers to invisibility that is "dependent" on a postsocialist state policing of urban space and "strategic" for les who gatekeep events. Contingent is also used as a double entendre—through familiarity and use of les spaces, a contingent becomes a "community." Contingencies of invisibility for les are demonstrated through ethnographic analysis of open-air sidewalk cafés in which les congregate, rented space for a les event, and a les-only café in Vietnam's largest metropolis. Queer invisibility is theorized as contingent and intentional, rather than a symptom of social marginalization.

In Scandinavia the Normalization principle has had great influence on social services for people with cognitive disabilities. The principle refers to the idea and overall goal that the living conditions of people with cognitive disabilities should be as close as possible to the mainstream of society and that people with cognitive disabilities should have the same rights as all other citizens. However, the political landscape is changing and over the past two decades social policy in Europe has increased the focus on cost-effectiveness and economic and social outcomes. Active welfare state reforms have been implemented in most European countries with the main aim of combatting unemployment – partly by reducing social benefits to increase incentives to take up work, and partly by introducing various forms of activation aiming to improve the employability of unemployed individuals. Originally these reforms were targeting unemployed groups with no problems besides not having a job, but over the years individuals with severe disabilities and health problems have also been included as target groups, and activation policies have gradually permeated the field of social policy. The reforms lay stress on improving the disabled individuals' workability and increase sanctions and the threat of sanctions if the disabled individual is not making suitable efforts to improve his or her situation. Yet, little knowledge exists on what this means for social work with individuals with cognitive disabilities, who are too disabled to respond to financial incentives and are unable to develop sufficient workability, and what the consequences are for these groups. In this presentation we will analyze the consequences of active welfare state reforms and the political focus on effectiveness in social services for individuals with cognitive disabilities in Denmark. Based on policy analysis of the Danish reforms and drawing on qualitative and quantitative empirical results from three recent Ph.D. dissertations, we will discuss the transitions in the living conditions for people with cognitive disabilities. More specifically, how the possibilities of social citizenship becomes contingent, when active welfare state reforms are implemented and when 'being active' – formally or informally – becomes the condition for receiving financial and social support. The findings from the dissertations show that when 'activity' and supporting development of a particular 'active behavior' among individuals with cognitive disabilities becomes the aim of social work, care and equal dignity for people who depend on assistance are left in the background. Thus, despite the aim of inclusion, the efforts to 'activate' those unable to engage in paid work and 'a normal everyday life' have had counterproductive consequences, when it comes to social marginalization and social citizenship, in particular for adults with cognitive disabilities.

In this paper we ask how to construct a tariff or quota schedule which depends on the behavior of a domestic monopsonistic monopolist in order to achieve the best tradeoff between two objectives of a government. We consider various political and economic tradeoffs which could face the policy maker: aggregate welfare versus industry profits, output and imports; and trade barrier revenue versus industry profits and domestic price. In all cases considered, performance contingent protection which takes the form either of a tariff which depends on domestic output or a quota which depends on the price charged is generally superior to a fixed tariff or quota and is sufficient to achieve optimality.