This book investigates the relationship between the character of political regimes in Russia's subnational regions and the structure of earnings and income. Based on extensive data from Russian ...official sources and surveys conducted by the World Bank, the book shows that income inequality is higher in more pluralistic regions. It argues that the relationship between firms and government differs between more democratic and more authoritarian regional regimes. In more democratic regions, business firms and government have more cooperative relations, restraining the power of government over business and encouraging business to invest more, pay more and report more of their wages. Average wages are higher in more democratic regions and poverty is lower, but wage and income inequality are also higher. The book argues that the rising inequality in postcommunist Russia reflects the inability of a weak state to carry out a redistributive social policy.
In February 2022, Vladimir Putin, under the pretext of defending Russians in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, launched an all-out attack on sovereign Ukraine. Since then, Russia has violated multiple ...principles of just warfare. We consider the question of accountability for these crimes, outlining two scenarios: (1) the Putin regime remains in place, and (2) it is succeeded by a post-war regime that undertakes transitional justice as part of a broader effort at democratization. We review international institutions adjudicating criminal responsibility and domestic transitional justice mechanisms that eschew criminal approaches to accountability in favor of personnel policies. Combining limited purges with truth-revelation can prevent the accumulation of grievances and help rebuild a democratic culture. Although normative standards of justice might demand harsh punishment of Russian leaders by criminal tribunals, focusing on broad personnel transitional justice - purges and lustrations - carried out domestically can be conducive to long-term democratic stability in Russia.
The article analyses the interaction between the COVID-19 pandemic and social inequality in the United States, taking the state of Maine as a case study. The pandemic has revealed the effects of high ...economic inequality on public health in the United States, where in comparison to most developed capitalist democracies, the health care system is expensive, inefficient, and highly skewed in quality and accessibility. Likewise, for industries that were already losing jobs, the pandemic has accelerated a painful transition and intensified the harsh social and economic consequences of high and rising inequality, especially for low-wage workers. The case of Maine underscores the point that policies aimed at reducing the disparities in the distribution of income, health care, education, and opportunity will reduce inequality, protect public health, and stimulate economic growth.
This paper reviews recent educational initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the United States, asking to what extent experiential learning methods are being ...incorporated into STEM education. We draw on a combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence. The quantitative evidence is from an analysis of the proposal s for all 11,406 of the STEM education and workforce development‐related projects funded by NSF grants from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2022. The qualitative portion of the paper analyzes results from a number of scholarly studies of local initiatives from the last 10 years drawn from a range of published and conference papers, reports and media stories, and project websites, drawn from education research databases, secondary literature, and websites of specific organizations. We seek to classify and describe patterns observed among the projects examined, identifying common patterns and combinations of features. We believe that the paper represents the first comprehensive study of efforts to employ experiential learning methods in STEM education to link formal and informal aspects of learning.
In many countries, the rapid evolution of digital platform technology has triggered significant shifts in competition law. Many have interpreted China's recent moves as signaling a broader crackdown ...on private entrepreneurship. In Russia, even before the invasion of Ukraine, government policy became increasingly restrictive toward foreign internet platforms. This paper analyzes the development and enforcement of competition law in Russia and China. We show that both technologically driven changes in the ability of digital platform firms to exercise market power and changes in the external political environment affect the relative strength and coalitions of interested bureaucratic actors and influence policy outcomes.
This article analyzes the formation of a stable dominant party in an authoritarian regime as a commitment problem between two sides: the ruler and other elites. After defining a dominant party regime ...and outlining the costs and benefits that such a regime entails for each side, the authors examine the efforts made in Russia to establish United Russia as a dominant party and argue that the Kremlin and regional elites have overcome their commitment problem through mutual investment in the United Russia party. In contrast to previous party-of-power projects, United Russia represents an equilibrium arrangement between the federal center and other political and economic elite actors.
Upgrading skill formation has become an increasingly urgent task for societies facing the challenges of rapid technological change and globalization. However, reform of systems of vocational ...education and training (VET) poses severe challenges for aligning the interests of schools, firms, households, and governments, even in societies with relatively efficient markets for labor and education. Where market institutions are poorly developed, these challenges are particularly acute, resulting in endemic mismatches between the supply and demand of skill. Currently governments in many countries, including the United States, Russia, and China, are seeking to adopt elements of the German dual education model. The Russian federal government has undertaken several initiatives designed to upgrade VET by encouraging closer cooperation of vocational schools and firms at the regional level, including the adoption of dual education programs. This paper focuses on one such project: a 2013 pilot program administered by the Russian Agency for Strategic Initiatives, to foster the development of new models of dual education. The paper compares the 13 pilot regions with regions that submitted proposals but were not selected and with all other regions along multiple economic, social, demographic, and institutional dimensions. The findings suggest hypotheses about the conditions that enabled the pilot regions to take advantage of federal policies encouraging the adoption of dual education. More generally, the paper sheds light on institutional solutions to collective action dilemmas in skill formation in transitional and developing societies.
This article considers Russian income inequality in relation to the trend toward rising inequality in the U.S. and in most parts of the world. Income and wealth inequality in Russia has been rising ...except in periods when the economy is in recession, and wealth inequality in Russia is
now highest in the world. The analysis shows that inequality trends in Russia share some characteristics with other developed and developing economies, including technological change, increased integration in the global economy, and the capitalization of rent streams. Financialization and
dependence on natural resource extraction contribute strongly to both cross-sectional and cross-regional inequality in Russia. The absence of institutions for aggregating broad competing social interests-whether corporatist or partisan-restricts the capacity of the political system
to set agreed rules governing the distribution of the burdens and benefits of economic growth. As in other political systems, both democratic and authoritarian, high inequality undermines the state's ability to provide public goods that would contribute both to inclusive economic growth and
a growing middle class.
Around the world, governments, educators and employers have expressed growing interest in German-style methods of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In such countries, schools ...and firms share responsibility for providing technical and vocational education, a model often called the 'dual system of vocational training and education.' The dual system means that occupational training occurs at two linked sites, educational institutions and workplaces. Dual education aims at matching the demands of a dynamically changing economy with the skill profiles of those graduating from educational institutions. To a large extent, dual education systems enable young people to acquire not simply technical and occupational skill, but broadly defined competencies that serve as the foundation for rewarding careers and social esteem. Little wonder that many countries have turned with renewed interest to the dual TVET system. However, actual implementation of the dual system outside the core Germanic countries in Europe has proven to be extremely challenging. Successful examples of institutional transplantation are rare. However, in some countries, local partnerships embracing elements of dual education have formed, uniting educational institutions, government entities and firms in partnerships to upgrade TVET. This paper discusses some of the characteristic patterns of such partnerships in the U.S.
Ordoliberalism Revisited Remington, Thomas F.
Changing societies & personalities (Online),
01/2022, Letnik:
6, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The recent publication of Kenneth Dyson’s book Conservative Liberalism, Liberalism, Ordo-Liberalism, and the State offers an occasion to reconsider the body of ideas known as ordoliberalism. The ...books reviewed here represent much of the most recent scholarship in English on the subject. In this essay, I undertake two tasks: first, to clarify what the term properly refers to and in particular how it is related to “neoliberalism,” and, second, to consider its influence on postwar German policies and institutions. I argue that much of the recent discussion of ordoliberalism and neoliberalism overlooks important differences between early ordoliberal thinking and the ideas associated with neoliberalism. Over time, as neoliberalism evolved and particularly as it became an ideological justification for policies and institutions justifying the accumulation of concentrated market power, these differences have become wider even as they have been obscured by misreadings of ordoliberalism. A better understanding of ordoliberalism can also provide insights relevant to the contemporary debates about the crisis of liberal democracy and capitalism. Is it in fact a “third way” for ordering an economy, an alternative to neoliberalism and socialism?
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