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151. New Bottle, Old Wine: China’s Governance of Hong Kong in View of Its Policies in the Restive Borderlands

Author:
Bill Chou
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper reviews Beijing’s Hong Kong policy, arguing that the policy mirrors China’s policy towards its restive borderlands represented by Tibet and Xinjiang. The rule of Hong Kong and other borderlands in China will be understood in an analytical framework that highlights four broad policies of governing borderlands: prom- ises of a high degree of local autonomy; extension of politico-admin- istrative control; cultural assimilation; and economic integration and domination. These policies may be conceptualised within the term “coercion.” It is argued that before Hong Kong’s retrocession to China in 1997, the PRC’s approach to the territory, in comparison to its approaches to Tibet and Xinjiang, was the least coercive – that is, China initially promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy over domestic affairs. The degree of coercion was stepped up when Hongkongers were perceived as becoming increasingly alienated from the new regime.
Topic:
Culture, Borders, Local, Assimilation, Autonomy, and Domestic Policy
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Hong Kong

152. Whose Side Are You Om? Identifying The Distributive Preferences of Local Politicians in India

Author:
Mark Schneider and Neelanjan Sircar
Publication Date:
08-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Abstract:
The literature on decentralized public programs suggests that errors in the targeting of anti-poverty programs are rooted in the capture of these programs by local elites or local politicians. Consistent with the literature on moral economy in political science and experimental economics, we argue that voters in contexts of rural poverty prefer local leaders who target subsistence benefits to the poor. In a high- information village context, where voters and leaders know each other, we argue that local elections lead to the selection of local leaders with pro-poor preferences over the distribution of these benefits. We show this with a novel theory of local politicians’ social preferences. We test our theory with unique data from a behavioral measure, conducted in the context of a lottery with a modest cash prize in rural India, that captures a scenario in which local leaders have full discretion and anonymity over allocation among members of their rural communities. We analyze our data using a novel estimation strategy that takes the characteristics of the pool of potential beneficiaries into account in decisions over allocation under a budget constraint. We find that local leaders have strong preferences for targeting the poor, and particularly those they believe supported them politically in the past. This article suggests that free and fair elections at the local level can powerfully encourage pro-poor targeting even in contexts of weak institutions and pervasive poverty. It also makes a fundamental contribution to research on distributive politics by challenging research in this area to demonstrate the effect of electoral strategies and other distortions on allocation relative to local leaders’ baseline distributive preferences.
Topic:
Elections, Domestic Politics, Rural, Local, and Decentralization
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

153. Helmand on the Move: Migration as a Response to Crop Failure

Author:
David Mansfield
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This paper provides an account of how the shift in security provision from a combined ISAF and ANSF operation to one driven by local actors has impacted upon a number of different locations in central Helmand. It is based on 140 in-depth interviews conducted in ten research sites in May 2015, and draws on a more extensive body of research consisting of fieldwork in many of the same locations dating back to May 2008.
Topic:
Security, Military Strategy, Non State Actors, and Local
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

154. Bank Ownership, Lending, and Local Economic Performance During the 2008-2010 Financial Crisis

Author:
Nicholas Coleman and Leo Feler
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
While the finance literature often equates government banks with political capture and capital misallocation, these banks can help mitigate financial shocks. This paper examines the role of Brazil's government banks in preventing a recession during the 2008-2010 financial crisis. Government banks in Brazil provided more credit, which offset declines in lending by private banks. Areas in Brazil with a high share of government banks experienced increases in lending, production, and employment during the crisis compared to areas with a low share of these banks. We find no evidence that lending was politically targeted or that it caused productivity to decline in the short-run.
Topic:
Economics, Financial Crisis, Governance, Local, Lending, and Banking
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

155. Do Small Businesses Still Prefer Community Banks?

Author:
Allen N. Berger, William Goulding, and Tara Rice
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
We formulate and test hypotheses about the role of bank type small versus large, single-market versus multimarket, and local versus nonlocal banks in banking relationships. The conventional paradigm suggests that "community banks" small, single market, local institutions are better able to form strong relationships with informationally opaque small businesses, while "megabanks" large, multimarket, nonlocal institutions tend to serve more transparent firms. Using the 2003 Survey of Small Business Finance (SSBF), we conduct two sets of tests. First, we test for the type of bank serving as the "main" relationship bank for small businesses with different firm and owner characteristics. Second, we test for the strength of these main relationships by examining the probability of multiple relationships and relationship length as functions of main bank type and financial fragility, as well as firm and owner characteristics. The results are often not consistent with the conventional paradigm, perhaps because of changes in lending technologies and deregulation of the banking industry.
Topic:
Business, Banks, Local, and Community
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

156. Enhancing public budgeting transparency in Botswana: Why and how

Author:
Gape Kaboyakgosi
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
This policy brief discusses the need to make Botswana’s budget process more transparent. Transparent or open budgets both facilitate and support timely, relevant public access to budget information, enhancing citizen participation in the budgetary process. Transparent budgets also strengthen the role and independence of oversight institutions such as Parliament and Supreme Audit Institution (SAI)-or the Office of the Auditor General. The objective of this brief is to advocate for the opening up of Botswana’s budgetary process, hence the paper concludes by making recommendations on how to enhance budget transparency in Botswana.
Topic:
Economics, Governance, Budget, Local, and State Funding
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

157. The Wolesi Jirga in Flux, 2010: Elections and Instability I

Author:
Anna Larson
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This paper critically analyses the effects of elections in the current context of 2010, with a specific focus on the Wolesi Jirga, its members and new candidates. It is part of a series on elections in 2009-10. It draws on extensive research compiling over 200 interviews conducted with MPs, their constituents and new candidates, both at the centre in Kabul and in two case study provinces of Balkh and Paktia. It also exists as a parallel study to another discussion paper in the series, written on elections and instability with a focus on constituent perspectives at the local level.
Topic:
Elections, Democracy, Local, and Parliamentarism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

158. Meeting the Challenges of Decentralisation in France

Author:
Stephanie Jamet
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Despite France’s previously well-deserved reputation as a highly centralised state, a significant number of responsibilities have been devolved to regional and local government over the past two decades. The process has not been easy. The extremely large number of very small municipalities makes economies of scale in the implementation of policies hard to realise, and measures to overcome this have been at best only partially successful. Competence is often shared between levels of government, obscuring accountability, and the central government has often retained an arguably unnecessary degree of prerogatives. Reorganising the system to avoid overlapping responsibilities and improving transparency and accountability in local government finance provide some difficult challenges.
Topic:
Accountability, Local, Transparency, and Decentralization
Political Geography:
Europe, France, and Western Europe

159. Supporting Local Romani Coordinators: A Practical Guide to Integrating Roms in Municipal Government

Author:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
Abstract:
The purpose of this brief publication is to encourage replication and continuation of the pioneering work of the 3 main initiators with the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) as implementing agent in building the capacity of local Romani coordinators (RCs) and their nonRomani counterparts in thirteen municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. To this end, the guide brings together materials for relevant actors in Serbia and potentially other countries in the broader Balkan region interested in increasing and improving integration and contacts between Romani communities and local authorities.
Topic:
Minorities, Ethnicity, Local, and Integration
Political Geography:
Europe and Balkans

160. Provincial Governance Structures in Afghanistan: From Confusion to Vision?

Author:
Sarah Lister and Hamish Nixon
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This briefing paper examines the roles of provincial councils and provincial development committees in the context of the government’s vision for reforming subnational governance.
Topic:
Governance, Reform, Local, and Community
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East