| 1. |
- Abram, Simone, et al.
(författare)
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Six controversies in search of an epistemology
- 2005
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Public engagement in planning and siting policy has been a political priority for some time, and there are various arguments as to why successful participation consistently proves to be an elusive goal. Emphasis is often laid on the incompatibility of local knowledge and technical knowledge, on the failure to invite "public" involvement at an early stage, and so on. In this paper, we examine a set of controversies about the siting of an upgraded railway line and associated stations in six neighbouring municipalities in western Sweden. Using parallel focus group discussions with different parties to the process, we draw two main conclusions. Firstly, local knowledge may equally be technorational, yet the positioning of actors determines when and how alternative arguments may emerge. This suggests that arguments over the necessity of social capital for successful participation may be a red herring. Secondly, policy processes are long and drawn-out, and new participants appear all the way through these processes. The category of "the public" is a fictional remainder category which undermines participative approaches. We suggest that opposition should be understood as an eternal factor in participative democratic policy processes, rather than a preliminary obstacle which can be alleviated early on. Hence we challenge assumptions about the rightful temporal positioning of participative practices and query the notion that early participation leads to "public ownership" of plans.
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| 2. |
- Acocella, Nicola, et al.
(författare)
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Labor Market Regimes and the Effects of Monetary Policy
- 2005
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper we use a standard multi-union, monopolistic competition model to investigate the qualitative and quantitative responses of inflation and unemployment to monetary policy activism under different institutional arrangements in the labor market, which are defined by the rigidity of nominal wages. We show that the effects of monetary policy on the real economy depend critically on the wage formation regime, and on the ways in which the restrictiveness of policy interacts with product price competition, with union centralization, and with the weight placed on real wage premiums as compared to unemployment in unions' optimal programs. Our interpretation of the results emphasizes how the posture of monetary policy toward inflation influences the strategic calculations that drive union wage setting behavior in different institutional settings.
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| 3. |
- Bendz, Anna, 1967
(författare)
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Maktskiften i medborgarnas ögon
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- När en ny politisk majoritet tillträder som ett resultat av medborgarnas röstande i allmänna val bör följden bli konkreta skillnader i politiken. I denna undersökning ställs frågan om medborgarna uppfattar en förändring av politiken efter ett kommunalt maktskifte. Undersökningen bygger på frågor i enkätundersökningen Väst-SOM 2009. Resultaten visar att en knapp tredjedel av de västsvenskar som bor i kommuner som fick maktskifte efter valet 2006 uppfattar att det har skett förändringar i politiken. Uppfattningen skiljer sig åt mellan olika grupper där bland annat de som har försökt påverka den kommunala politiken och de som arbetar i kommunal sektor anser att det har skett förändringar i högre grad än andra.
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| 4. |
- Bendz, Anna, 1967
(författare)
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Rättssäkerhet som välfärdspolitiskt ideal: Reformer av socialförsäkringens administration från 1955 till 2008
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Projektet Rättssäkerhet och politik behandlar frågan om hur rättssäkerhet som värde kommer till uttryck i politiska beslut om socialförsäkringens administration. I detta working paper sammanfattas de empiriska resultaten från projektet. Studien utgörs av en analys av större reformer av socialförsäkringens administration från 1955 års beslut om en allmän sjukförsäkring fram till 2000-talets reformer, då försäkringskassorna och Riksförsäkringsverket ersattes av den sammanhållna myndigheten Försäkringskassan och myndigheten Inspektionen för socialförsäkringen infördes. De politiska besluten analyseras med utgångspunkt från begreppen formell och materiell rättssäkerhet och för varje reform dras slutsatser om vilken av dessa två betydelser av rättssäkerhet som har varit mest framträdande. En kontinuerlig jämförelse sker mellan de olika riksdagspartiernas syn på rättssäkerhet. Studien motiveras ytterst genom den generellt intressanta och komplicerade kopplingen mellan rättssäkerhet och legitimitet. Resultaten visar hur organiseringen av välfärdsstaten ger olika förutsättningar att uppnå formell och materiell rättssäkerhet och därmed vilar på olika grunder för legitimitet.
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| 5. |
- Binde, Per, 1956
(författare)
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What are the most harmful forms of gambling? Analyzing problem gambling prevalence surveys
- 2011
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Eighteen national prevalence surveys of problem gambling (PG), most of them from Europe, were analyzed to assess the relative harmfulness of various forms of gambling. It was found that interactive Internet gambling, casino gambling, electronic gaming machines, and high-stakes unregulated/illegal gambling are often relatively closely associated with PG, while lotteries and instant lotteries appear relatively harmless. Other forms of gambling—sports pools, bingo, horse betting, and sports betting—are typically relatively moderately associated with PG. This paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of assessing the harmfulness of various forms of gambling by analyzing prevalence survey data. It is concluded that although such analyses yield valuable insights, they should be complemented by other sources of information, such as statistics on the gambling activities of those seeking help for PG and qualitative studies of problem gambling.
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| 6. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953
(författare)
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Temporality and joint commitment in railway planning
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Decisions are seen from a phenomenological lens focusing on their characteristic temporal and flexible structure of meaning. In a bureaucratic social setting emphasizing procedural rules, legal constraints and formal rationality the temporality of decisions can prove to be problematic. The physical planning of transport systems infrastructure projects is characterized by high level of social, material, technical and regulatory complexity. Drawing on ethnographic observations of railway planning meetings this case study explores how decision processes over time are shaped by the inter-dependency of planning actors, their co-ordination of action and adaptive expectations. The paper contributes to the understanding of the interrelatedness of decision processes in organizational contexts, following a “messy” logic of practical and material considerations, negotiations of what is to be considered to be of value, and not the least, post-hoc rationalizations.
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| 7. |
- Hibbs, Douglas A., Jr. 1944, et al.
(författare)
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Institutions, Corruption and Tax Evasion in the Unofficial Economy
- 2005
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper we propose a model of how institutional benefits, taxation and government regulations affect the productive activity of private enterprises. We consider an environment in which public officials enforcing tax and regulatory obligations are potentially corruptible, and markets for corruption may therefore arise that give firms the option of producing unofficially and evading taxes and regulations. By contrast to some previous studies that view corruption and bribery as forces driving firms out of official production into the underground economy, our model features the idea that the "grabbing hands" of corrupt bureaucrats may alternatively serve as "helping hands" allowing firms to exploit profitable opportunities in the unofficial sector. And contrary to a traditional view maintaining that high tax rates are intrinsically a major cause of large shadow economies, our model implies that incentives to evade taxation and produce underground depend on statutory tax rates relative to firm-specific thresholds of tax toleration. Tax toleration is determined, among other things, by firm-specific institutional benefits available to official producers and the costs of corruption required to produce unofficially. Some core predictions of the model concerning the determinants of tax toleration and the relative size of unofficial activity and tax evasion receive broad support from empirical analyses based on firm-level data from the World Business Environment Surveys sponsored by the World Bank.
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| 8. |
- Hibbs, Douglas A., Jr. 1944
(författare)
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The 2010 Midterm Election for the US House of Representatives
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The number of House seats won by the president’s party at midterm elections is well explained by three pre-determined or exogenous variables: (1) the number of House seats won by the in-party at the previous on-year election, (2) the vote margin of the in-party’s candidate at the previous presidential election, and (3) the average growth rate of per capita real disposable personal income during the congressional term. Given the partisan division of House seats following the 2008 on-year election, President Obama’s margin of victory in 2008, and the weak growth of per capita real income during the first 6 quarters of the 111th Congress, the Democrat’s chances of holding on to a House majority by winning at least 218 seats at the 2010 midterm election will depend on real income growth in the 3rd quarter of 2010. The data available at this writing indicate the that Democrats will win 211 seats, a loss of 45 from the 2008 on-year result that will put them in the minority for the 112th Congress.
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