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41. The Hunger Grains: The fight is on. Time to scrap EU biofuel mandates.

Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In 2009, EU governments committed to sourcing 10 per cent of transport energy from renewable sources by 2020: they are set to meet this target almost exclusively using biofuels made from food crops. By putting a mandate in place, European governments are propping up powerful industry and farming lobbies without spending a penny from national budgets: as direct subsidies and tax exemptions are phased out, the cost is increasingly borne by the consumer. For example, by 2020 biofuel mandates are likely to cost UK consumers between £1bn and £2bn more each year—that's about £35 from every adult—and to cost German consumers between €1.37bn and €2.15bn more—up to €30 per adult. EU governments have replaced subsidies paid out of the public purse with a subsidy that consumers, often without their knowledge, pay directly to big business.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Development, Energy Policy, and Food
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, and Germany

42. The Leadership Secrets of Bismarck

Author:
Michael Bernhard
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
China is hardly the first great power to make authoritarian development look attractive. As Jonathan Steinberg's new biography of Bismarck shows, Wilhelmine Germany did it with ease. But can even successful nondemocratic political systems thrive and evolve peacefully over the long run? The answer depends on whether authoritarian elites can tolerate sharing power.
Topic:
Development and Politics
Political Geography:
China, Germany, and Peru

43. EU Assistance to Central Asia: Back to the Drawing Board?

Author:
Jos Boonstra and Jacqueline Hale
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
European Union (EU) assistance in general and to Central Asia in particular is a complicated, many sided and fairly opaque business. In 2007, a few months prior to the Council's approval of an EU Strategy for Central Asia under the German Presidency, the Commission also presented two documents: an overarching Regional Strategy Paper for assistance to Central Asia over the period 2007–13 (RSP) and a more detailed and programme-orientated Central Asia Indicative Programme (IP), from 2007 until 2010.4 Over a seven-year period, 719 million Euros were to be set aside for assistance to the region through the new EU Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI). In addition, the EU has allocated more modest funds through global thematic instruments. Meanwhile, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and more recently the European Investment Bank (EIB) are stepping up activity in Central Asia and several member states have their own assistance programmes (foremost Germany) that are likely to match the DCI amount.
Topic:
Development and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Europe, Central Asia, and Germany

44. The Political Economy of Heterogeneous Development: Quantile Effects of Income and Education

Author:
Marcus Alexander, Matthew Harding, and Carlos Lamarche
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Does development lead to the establishment of more democratic institutions? The key to the puzzle, we argue, is the previously unrecognized fact that based on quantitative regime scores, countries over the past 50 years have clustered into two separate, very distinct, yet equally-common stages of political development—authoritarian states with low levels of freedom on one side an d democracies with liberal institutions on the other side of a bimodal distribution of political regimes. We develop a new empirical strategy—exploiting exogenous world economic factors and introducing new panel data estimators—that allows for the first time to estimate the effects of development as well as unobserved country effects in driving democracy at these different stages of political development. We find that income and education have the least effect on democracy when authoritarian regimes are consolidated and that only country effects, possibly accounting for institutional legacies, can lead to political development. Ironically, it is in highly democratic and wealthiest of nations that income and education start to play a role; however greater wealth and better educated citizenry can both help and hurt democracy depending again on what the country's institutional legacies are. Far from accepting the notion that much of the developing world is cursed by unchanging and poor long-run institutions, policy-makers should take note that with democratization we also see country-specific factors that in turn condition the difference income and education make for democracy.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, China, Asia, and Germany

45. Can the West Save Africa?

Author:
William Easterly
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
The last few years have seen unprecedented attention to an attempt by Western governments to rapidly develop Africa. British Prime Minister Tony Blair called at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2005 for "a big, big push forward" in Africa to end poverty, financed by an increase in foreign aid. Tony Blair commissioned a Report on Africa, which released its findings in March 2005, likewise calling for a "big push." Gordon Brown and Tony Blair put the cause of ending poverty in Africa at the top of the agenda of the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland in July 2005. In the 2005 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, the G-8 agreed to double foreign aid to Africa, from $25 billion a year to $50 billion to finance the big push, as well as to forgive the African aid loans contracted during previous attempts at a "big push." Two years later, Germany again made Africa an important item on the agenda of the G-8 summit it hosted in Heiligendamm in June 2007. There, the G-8 again reiterated the promises made in 2005. Japan pledged to double its own aid to Africa in May 2008 over the next five years. Most recently, the G8 Summit in Japan in July 2008 agreed: "We are firmly committed to working to fulfill our commitments on Official Development Assistance made at Gleneagles, and reaffirmed at Heiligendamm, including increasing...ODA to Africa by US$ 25 billion a year by 2010."
Topic:
Development and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, United Kingdom, and Germany

46. Transport Infrastructure in Shrinking (East) Germany

Author:
Weert Canzler
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
German Politics and Society
Institution:
German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:
Policy on transport infrastructure in Germany will come under increasing pressure thanks to considerable changes in basic conditions. Demographic change, shifts in economic and regional structures, continued social individualization, and the chronic budget crisis in the public sphere are forcing a readjustment of government action. At root, the impact of the changes in demographics and economic structures touches on what Germans themselves think their postwar democracy stands for. Highly consensual underlying assumptions about Germany as a model are being shaken. The doctrine that development of infrastructure is tantamount to growth and prosperity no longer holds. The experience in eastern Germany shows that more and better infrastructure does not automatically lead to more growth. Moreover, uniform government regulation is hitting limits. If the differences between boom regions and depopulated zones remain as large as they are, then it makes no sense to have the same regulatory maze apply to both cases. In transportation policy, that shift would mean recasting the legal foundations of public transport.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Germany

47. Investment in Stadia and Regional Economic Development – Evidence from FIFA World Cup 2006

Author:
Arne Feddersen, André L. Grötzinger, and Wolfgang Maennig
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg
Abstract:
Using the case of the new stadiums for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany, this paper is the first multivariate work that examines the potential income and employment effects of new stadiums outside of the USA. This study is also the first work on this topic that conducts tests on the basis of a (serial correlation consistent) Difference-in-Difference model with level and trends. As a robustness check, we use the “ignoring time series information” model in a form that is modified for nonsynchronous interventions. We were not able to identify income or employment effects of the construction of new stadiums for the FIFA World Cup 2006, which are significantly different from zero.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Infrastructure, Sports, Regional Economy, and Stadiums
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

48. Engaging India: Ambassador Ortwin Hennig's visit to Delhi and Mumbai

Author:
Sahiba Trivedi
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Ambassador Ortwin Hennig is the Vice President and the Head of Conflict Prevention Program of the East West Institute at Brussels. His previous assignments include the Commissioner for Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peace Building in the German Government; diplomatic postings in Afghanistan, Russia, German Representation at the European Commission and the OSCE in Vienna. He has also served the Office of the German Federal President as a Foreign Policy Advisor. Ambassador Hennig is an alumnus of the NATO Defense College in Rome having specialized in arms control and security policy matters.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Development
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, India, Asia, Germany, and Vienna

49. Wer regiert wie? Für eine äquivalenzfunktionalistische Beobachtung von Governance in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit

Author:
Anke Draude
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Der Artikel problematisiert die Übertragbarkeit des westlichen Governance-Konzepts auf Räume außerhalb der OECD-Welt. Ziel ist es, einen Forschungsansatz zu entwickeln, der diesen Räumen angemessenen ist. Zu diesem Zweck werden zunächst eurozentrische Prämissen im Governance-Konzept sichtbar gemacht. Hier geht es um die zentrale Dichotomie zwischen staatlichen und gesellschaftlichen Akteuren. Die Allgegenwart dieser Unterscheidung wird anschließend mit Hilfe der (de-)konstruktivistischen Erkenntnistheorien Foucaults, Luhmanns und Derridas erklärt. Ausgehend von einem zwar unumgänglichen, aber in seinem Ausmaß variablen Eurozentrismus skizziert die Autorin schließlich eine äquivalenzfunktionalistische Governance-Forschung, die nach der Art und Weise einer Leistung, nach dem „Wie“ und dem „Wer“, fragt. So werden europäische Dichotomien in Bezug auf die Akteure und die Handlungsmodi von Governance vermieden.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, International Cooperation, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Germany

50. Der Governance-Raum als Analysefaktor - Am Beispiel von "Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit"

Author:
Matthias Kötter
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Der im Rahmen des Sonderforschungsbereichs 700 „Governance in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit: Neue Formen des Regierens?“ entstandene Beitrag entwickelt Kriterien für die Vergleichbarkeit von Governance unter verschiedenen soziokulturellen wie historischen Bedingungen. Zunächst wird vorgeschlagen, den Governance-Begriff auf empirisch ermittelbare Faktoren (Governance-Leistungen, -Akteure, -Handlungsmodi) zu beschränken, die sich in einem Mapping abbilden lassen. Da dieses Vorgehen Auslassungen im Bereich der normative Bewertung und Bewertbarkeit mit sich bringt, wird als weiterer Analysefaktor der Begriff des Governance-Raums vorgeschlagen. Mit diesem Begriff lassen sich all die gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen erfassen, unter denen Governance-Leistungen erbracht werden, die einer spezifi schen Form von Governance ihre besondere Prägung verleihen. Die Governance-Forschung kann dadurch ihr Potenzial im Bereich der vergleichenden Regierungsanalyse erweitern, ohne dass auf die mitgedachten normativen Maßstäbe verzichtet werden müsste. Das Forschungsprogramm des SFB 700 legt diese theoretische Erweiterung sogar nahe, wenn es nach Governance „in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit“ und nicht lediglich „unter den Bedingungen begrenzter Staatlichkeit“ fragt und den Raum-Bezug von Governance damit explizit herstellt.
Topic:
Development, International Cooperation, Political Economy, and Third World
Political Geography:
Germany