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221. What Goes into a Medal: Women's Inclusion and Success at the Olympic Games

Author:
Marcus Noland and Kevin Stahler
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This paper examines determinants of women's participation and performance in the Olympics. Female inclusion and success are not merely functions of size, wealth, and host advantage, but a more complex process involving the socio-economic status of women and, more weakly, broad societal attitudes on gender issues. Female labor force participation and educational attainment in particular are tightly correlated with both participation and outcomes, even controlling for per capita income. Female educational attainment is strongly correlated with both the breadth of participation across sporting events and success in those events. Host countries and socialist states also are associated with unusually high levels of participation and medaling by female athletes. Medal performance is affected by large-scale boycotts. Opening competition to professionals may have leveled the playing field for poorer countries. But the historical record for women's medal achievement is utterly distorted by the doping program in the former East Germany, which specifically targeted women. At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the program was responsible for 17 percent of the medals awarded to women, equivalent to the medal hauls of the Soviet or American team in 1972, the last Olympics not marred by widespread abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.
Topic:
Education, Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
America and Germany

222. GLC Resolve Award Innovation Profile: Afghanistan

Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health has prioritized reproductive, maternal and child health by increasing access to a range of family planning methods, introducing education on reproductive health issues in schools, and working with the religious community to counter stigma on family planning.
Topic:
Development, Education, Gender Issues, Health, Human Welfare, Social Movement, and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan

223. Aboriginal Self-Determination: A Comparative Study of New Zealand, Australia, and the United States of America

Author:
Katie Saulnier
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
Abstract:
Aboriginal groups present with sub-par outcomes in key indicators of well-being across the board. Increased capacity for self-governance presents one possibility for improving these outcomes, but its implementation is complicated by historically acrimonious relationships with federal governments and the larger context of attempting to rectify the complex harms done by colonialism. The solution involves finding the right balance between creating spaces for self-governance and providing the necessary federal assistance where appropriate. This paper discusses the structure of and approaches to Aboriginal self-determination and selfgovernance in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, with a view toward assessing which approaches could prove effective in Canada. It does so through a variety of lens and by examining impact assessments in a number of key areas.
Topic:
Development, Education, Health, Infrastructure, Self Determination, Economy, History, Colonialism, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Australia, New Zealand, and United States of America

224. Education in a Free Society

Author:
C. Bradley Thompson
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Objective Standard
Institution:
The Objective Standard
Abstract:
In “The New Abolitionism: Why Education Emancipation is the Moral Imperative of Our Time” (TOS, Winter 2012–13), I argued that America's government school system is immoral and antithetical to a free society, and that it must be abolished—not reformed. The present essay calls for the complete separation of school and state, indicates what a fully free market in education would look like, and explains why such a market would provide high-quality education for all children.
Topic:
Education

225. The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves

Author:
Kevin Douglas
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Objective Standard
Institution:
The Objective Standard
Abstract:
The Beautiful Tree is the inspiring story of James Tooley's quest to discover “how the world's poorest people are educating themselves.” Tooley begins his book by describing his serendipitous discovery of low-cost private schools for the poor in Hyderabad, India. While on an assignment for the World Bank to research the contribution of high-end private schools to the education of middle- and upper-income Indians, Tooley discovered that dozens of low-cost, for-profit private schools serve the poor in the slums of Hyderabad, and that parents choose to send their children to these private schools despite the fact that government schools are available for “free.” When Tooley returned to the World Bank and told his colleagues of his amazing find, their responses were typical of those he would receive during the rest of his investigation. Many refused to believe that low-budget private schools existed. The few who acknowledged their existence attempted to dissuade Tooley from giving them much attention, because, in their view, these schools were “ripping off the poor” and were “run by unscrupulous business people who didn't care a fig for anything other than profits” (p. 21). Tooley responded to such skepticism and cynicism by redoubling his efforts to learn about such schools. Inspired by what he found in Hyderabad, Tooley searched for similar schools in the slums of Nigeria, Ghana, and China. Tooley writes that many education officials he encountered were completely unaware of the low-cost private schools in their nations, and others went to great lengths to deny their existence. For example, in Nigeria, Tooley met Dennis Okoro, recently retired chief inspector of schools for the Nigerian federal government. Initially, Okoro professed ignorance that low-cost private schools existed; then he denied the possibility of their existence. When Tooley took Okoro into the slums of Makoko and showed him several schools, Okoro concluded that what he saw could not be private schools serving the poor, because “[t]he poor by definition cannot afford to pay fees for private schools. So if this was a fee-charging private school, it couldn't be for the poor” (p. 50). Similarly, Tooley describes officials at a regional education bureau in China who “argued” that, because the Chinese government's official position is that government provides basic education to all children, rich and poor, “what you propose to research does not only not exist, it is also a logical impossibility” (p. 97). This exchange came only moments after Tooley explained that he had already personally visited five such schools. The Beautiful Tree documents how Tooley ignored the advice of “development experts” (such as those at the World Bank) and pushed past the resistance and ignorance of education officials to build a team to help him investigate the phenomenon of low-cost private schools serving the poor. . . .
Topic:
Education and World Bank
Political Geography:
China and Nigeria

226. From the Editor

Author:
Craig Biddle
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Objective Standard
Institution:
The Objective Standard
Abstract:
Welcome to the Winter 2013–2014 issue of The Objective Standard. Here's an indication of the contents at hand. The increasing popularity of libertarianism is both a problem and an opportunity. It is a problem because, although nominally for liberty, the ideology rejects the need to undergird liberty with an objective, demonstrably true moral and philosophic foundation—which leaves liberty indefensible against the many philosophies that oppose it (e.g., utilitarianism, altruism, egalitarianism, and religion). The increasing popularity of libertarianism is an opportunity because, although the ideology denies the need for such a foundation, many young people who self-identify as libertarian are active-minded and thus open to the possibility that such a foundation is necessary. Toward reaching these active-minded youth, my essay, “Libertarianism vs. Radical Capitalism,” examines libertarianism in the spirit of Frédéric Bastiat, taking into account not only what is seen, but also what is not seen in common and seemingly unobjectionable descriptions of the ideology. The article exposes major problems with libertarianism, compares it to radical capitalism, shows why only the latter provides a viable defense of liberty, and emphasizes the need to keep these different ideologies conceptually distinct.
Topic:
Education and Religion
Political Geography:
America

227. Commitment to Development Index 2013

Author:
Owen Barder and Petra Krylová
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world's richest countries on policies that affect the more than five billion people living in poorer nations. The CDI goes beyond measures of foreign aid to quantify performance in seven areas: Quantity and quality of foreign aid Openness to trade policies that encourage investment and financial transparency Openness to migration Environmental policies Promotion of international security Support for technology creation and transfer Why does the CDI matter? Because in an integrated world, the behavior of rich countries and powerful institutions can profoundly affect the lives of people in poor countries and because poverty and weak institutions in developing countries can breed public health crises, security threats, and economic crises that know no borders. Committing to policies that promote development and well-being is a global imperative: no human being should be denied the chance to live free of poverty and oppression and to enjoy a basic standard of education and health. The CDI countries all promote respect for human life and dignity; the Index looks at whether the policies of rich countries match these aspirations.
Topic:
Security, Development, Education, Health, Poverty, and Fragile/Failed State

228. Held to Account: Putting democratic governance at the heart of development finance

Author:
Cecile Untemaehrer
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The right of citizens to hold public officials to account is at the heart of democratic governance. When citizen oversight is absent and the power to allocate public resources lies in the hands of a few decision makers, it is all too easy for resources to be diverted from their intended use and abused for private gain. Such corruption denies people the health care, education, and other public services to which they are entitled, and which would otherwise give them the means to work their way out of poverty.
Topic:
Corruption, Democratization, Development, Education, Health, Poverty, and Governance

229. Who Sets the Intellectual Agenda? Foreign Funding and Social Science in Peru

Author:
Richard Snyder, Kelly Bay, and Cecilia Perla
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
This article explores the political economy of social science research in the Global South by analyzing new bibliometric and survey data on Peru, a lower-middle income country with weak domestic funding and institutional support for scholarship. The results of the analysis show that although research in Peru is heavily dependent on foreign funding, the multiplicity of funding institutions gives scholars a surprising degree of autonomy. Still, dependence on foreign funding produces conditions with potentially harmful consequences for the quality and impact of research. Five conditions are considered: multiple institutional affiliations, hyperproductivity, forced interdisciplinarity, parochialism, and a weak national community of scholars.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Education, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Latin America and Peru

230. The Laboratory and its Double: The Making of the Scientist-Citizen at TIFR

Author:
Indira Chowdhury
Publication Date:
06-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Abstract:
The first day of Indian independence is popularly identified with Nehru's famous "tryst with destiny" speech delivered at the Red Fort - the symbolc seat of power at New Delhi, the capital of the new nation. At the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, that the physicist Homi Bhabha had set up two years ago, the day was celebrated quietly, though not without its lessons for the scientists who now had to be nurtured into becoming scientist-citizens. The available records of TIFR do not have any reference to the ceremonies that took place on August 15, 1947. However, the oral history interviews of a scientist present on that day bear testimony to the relationship that was being imagined between nationalism and science.
Topic:
Development, Education, Science and Technology, and History
Political Geography:
South Asia