The analytical research question of this contribution is twofold. (1) To develop (and to proto-type) a conceptual framework of analysis for a global comparison of quality of democracy. This framework ...also references to the concept of the “Quadruple Helix innovation systems” (Carayannis and Campbell). (2) The same conceptual framework is being used and tested for comparing and measuring empirical quality of democracy in the different OECD and European Union (EU27) member countries. In theoretical and conceptual terms, we refer to a Quadruple-Dimensional structure, also a Quadruple Helix structure (a “Model of Quadruple Helix Structures”) of the four basic (conceptual) dimensions of freedom, equality, control, and sustainable development for explaining and comparing democracy and quality of democracy. Put in summary, we may conclude for the USA that the comparative strength of quality of democracy in the USA focuses on the dimension of freedom. The comparative weakness of the quality of democracy in the USA lies in the dimension of equality, most importantly income equality. Quadruple Helix refers here to at least two crucial perspectives: (1) the unfolding of an innovative knowledge economy also requires (at least in a longer perspective) the unfolding of a knowledge democracy; (2) knowledge and innovation are being defined as key for sustainable development and for the further evolution of quality of democracy. How to innovate (and reinvent) knowledge democracy? There is a potential that democracy discourses and innovation discourses advance in a next-step and two-way mutual cross-reference. The architectures of Quadruple Helix (and Quintuple Helix) innovation systems demand and require the formation of a democracy, implicating that quality of democracy provides for a support and encouragement of innovation and innovation systems, so that quality of democracy and progress of innovation mutually “Cross-Helix” in a connecting and amplifying mode and manner. This relates research on quality of democracy to research on innovation (innovation systems) and the knowledge economy. “Cyber democracy” receives here a new and important meaning.
With the comprehensive term of "Mode 3," we want to draw a conceptual link between systems and systems theory and want to demonstrate further how this can be applied to knowledge in the next steps. ...Systems can be understood as being composed of "elements", which are tied together by a "self-rationale". For innovation, often innovation clusters and innovation networks are being regarded as important. By leveraging systems theory for innovation concepts, one can implement references between the elements of a system and clusters (innovation clusters) and the selfrationale of a system and that of networks (innovation networks). One advantage of this approach is that it makes the tools of systems theory effectively available for research on innovation. Based on original research about the European Union, also the concept of a multi-level hierarchy promises conceptual opportunities. Further integrating systems theory, we can speak of multi-level systems of knowledge (following different levels of aggregation) and multi-level systems of innovation (also following different levels of aggregation). The popular and powerful concept of the national innovation system is being chronically challenged by continuous and ongoing processes of supranational and global integration. Conceptually unlocking the national innovation systems in favor of a broader multi-level logic implies furthermore to accept the existence of national innovation systems but, at the same time, also to emphasize their global embeddedness. Our suggested catch-phrase of "Mode 3", therefore, integrates several considerations that want to relate systems theory, knowledge, and innovation more directly to each other, and this should be understood as a contribution to a dynamically evolving general discourse on the topics of knowledge and innovation.
How Islamic are Islamic Countries? Rehman, Scheherazade S; Askari, Hossein
Global economy quarterly,
05/2010, Letnik:
10, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In the post 9/11 era, there is growing interest in the complex relationship between religion, economics, finance, politics, law, and social behavior. This has brought with it a disagreement on how to ...investigate the impact of religiosity, whether religion affects the economic, political, and social outlook of countries or whether these factors affect religiosity? In other words, should religion be viewed as a dependent or an independent variable? In this paper we ask what we believe to be the precursor question to such linkages, namely, do self-declared Islamic countries, as attested by membership in the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference), embrace policies that are founded on Islamic teachings? We believe that only once this question is addressed can one begin to estimate how Islam adherence to Islam may affect economic, political and social behavior. In the first part of the paper we present what we believe should be the characteristics and scaffolding of an “Islamic" country. We base our depiction on the Quran, and the life, practices and sayings of the Prophet Mohammad the two principal channels that provide Muslims with the road map. In the second part, we develop an index to measure the “Islamicity" of Islamic and non-Islamic countries. This IslamicityIndex (or I2) measures 208 countries adherence to Islamic principles using four sub-indices related to economics, legal and governance, human and political rights, and international relations.
Corruption: A View from the Persian Gulf Rehman, Scheherazade S; Arfaa, Noora; Askari, Hossein
Global economy quarterly,
03/2012, Letnik:
12, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Corruption has been and continues to be evident in all societies, with differences only in manifestation and degrees. We focus on the manifestation and impact of corruption in the Persian Gulf ...oil-exporting countries and benchmark these countries against a set of non-oil-exporting Islamic countries and major non-Islamic oil-exporting countries. We first measure the degree of corruption in these countries using five of the most widely accepted direct and indirect indices of corruption. We then examine the relationship between corruption and various indicators of economic, social, and human development. Finally, we examine the association between corruption and oil endowment and the Islamic label, two common characteristics of the countries in the Persian Gulf. As such, the key focus of the paper is on the manifestation and impact of corruption in the Persian Gulf oil-exporting countries from a political-economy stand point and measurement of the impact of corruption on economic, social, and human development in the region. It should be mentioned that this paper was written before the blossoming of the “2011 Arab Spring.†The major reasons, to varying degrees, for the protests in the Mideast and North Africa have been because of decades of economic deprivation, autocratic rule, political injustice, institutional corruption, and human rights violations.
From Development as Democracy to Innovation as Development: Current local, regional, and global economic and financial conditions and trends make the need to trigger, catalyze and accelerate high ...quantity and quality entrepreneurial initiatives that are based on high quality and quantity innovations. Given the uncertainty and change inherent in the innovation process, management must develop skills and understanding of the process: a method for managing the disruption. Technology changes the way society functions. The dramatic advances in technology over recent decades have collaterally precipitated wide sweeping and profound change to the functioning of almost every form of human exchange, the world over. Income inequality in the US has being growing since the late 1970s, but easy credit and rising asset prices had allowed American households to increase financial leverage to finance consumption. Now an increasing number of academics and intellectuals recognize that the growing income inequality is one of the key aspects behind the financial crash. The first step in understanding how the income re-distribution can lead to innovation and help an economy move from a stagnant state into a new sustainable economic growth path is to understand how long-term trends in rising and falling income inequality affect the market environment that firms must survive in. In the late twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, numerous scholars and practitioners such as Peter Drucker have identified knowledge as a crucial and most important key input and output factor of economic activity. The knowledge-based economy can be characterized as fractal. It is non-linear, unstable, and stochastic. From Development as Democracy to Innovation as Development: and back to from Innovation as Development to Development as Democracy.
This paper provides insight into the evolving EU-wide corporate governance systems and discusses these changes within the context of the political-institutional, economic, legal and social features. ...In doing so, asking where are they, and where might they be headed? Specific attention is given to the comparison of the German and French system to the U.S. system. Moreover, this article also examines the evidence that varying legal and social traditions and rule of law directly impact corporate governance styles and efficiency. It is our contention that during the 1990s the EU nations experienced strong pressures to develop more effective corporate governance systems, tending toward the Anglo-Saxon model as applied in the U.S. and that this trends continues today especially among the large global multinationals.
This paper examines the perception of corruption that exists throughout Latin America, and analyses the importance of the institutional environment in Latin American countries, which are both richly ...endowed with and dependent on oil and natural gas. First, the authors look at corruption generally in the region and then carry their analysis by looking at various countries' GDP per capita versus several indices measuring different dimensions of countries' economic development, political progress, and social performance. The authors also combine corruption indices and separate them by typology of corruption in order to investigate the particular facets of corruption that pose the greatest impediment to economic growth. The paper's finding is that corruption has a differential impact on business as opposed to political environment. In investigating the business environment, they find that the "business/legal system" component, which captures corruption as perceived by a number of stakeholders, including foreign investors, indeed plays a significant role in the context of corruption and economic growth.
The euro as a global trade currency Rehman, Scheherazade S.
The International trade journal,
19/3/1/, Letnik:
12, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The creation of the European Union's (EU's) Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and its euro is one of the most important international monetary developments of the post-Bretton Woods era as it will ...cause an unprecedented change in the world's monetary and trade structure since the collapse of the fixed exchange rate system. The implications are far from clear. A change of such a magnitude will have profound effects not only on the world's trading system but also on foreign exchange and the distribution of central bank reserves. It is the objective of this paper to provide an analysis of the potential of the euro as a global trade currency alongside the U.S. dollar and its subsequent impact on the distribution of central bank reserves and on the foreign exchange markets.
How the European EMU and its euro will affect the rest of the world depends largely on two related questions. First, will the euro challenge the U.S. dollar as the world's main trade, reserve, and investment currency? Second, will the European EMU project make the global monetary system more or less stable? The answer to these questions will depend on the membership of the EMU, on the European Central Bank's ability to ensure price stability in the presence of asymmetric shocks, on the EMU governments' ability to maintain socially acceptable levels of employment, and on EMU's credibility as perceived by financial markets.
Although the euro will immediately assume an international role, it is unrealistic to expect it quickly to supersede the U.S. dollar in global trade and financial transactions. It does, however, have the potential easily to surpass the current trade and investment role of the deutsche mark if it remains stable and if a number of potential problems are resolved by the EU in general and the future EMU member nations in particular.
PDF
