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3341. Regional Inflation in a Currency Union: Fiscal Policy vs. Fundamentals

Author:
Margarida Duarte and Alexandar L. Wolman
Publication Date:
07-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
We develop a general equilibrium model of a two-region currency union. There are two types of goods: non-trade goods, and traded goods for which markets are segmented. Monetary policy is set by a central monetary authority and is non-neutral due to nominal price rigidities. Fiscal policy is determined at the regional level by each region's government. We find that productivity shocks alone generate significant variation in inflation across the two countries. Government spending shocks, in contrast, do not account for a significant portion of inflation variation. Varying relative country size, we find that smaller countries experience higher variability of their inflation differential in response to shocks to productivity growth. Moreover, we show that regional governments can suppress incipient inflation differentials associated with shocks to productivity growth by letting the income tax rate respond negatively to inflation differentials.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States

3342. Cities as Economic Development Tools

Author:
Nigel Harris
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Increasing globalization – the economic integration of national economies – and the resulting governmental decentralization have obliged cities in many countries to take seriously the economy of the city. On the other hand, unless cities can be made to work, national economic growth is seriously impeded. Hence, city managers become increasingly important in economic management. The old fatalism – that economic growth is a matter exclusively for national governments – comes under threat.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Government, and Politics

3343. Against the Feminization of Policy

Author:
Ananya Roy
Publication Date:
11-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
In recent times, there has been avid policy interest in paradigms of enablement. From declarations that the poor are “heroic entrepreneurs” (de Soto 2000) to recommendations on how to capitalize on the social capital of poverty, there is a loud call to help the poor help themselves. I want to focus on a key characteristic of the enablement framework: the attention to women. The policy investment in poor women now spans a range of institutional actors – a kinder and gentler World Bank, the UN shelter debates, and the NGOs that crowd the stage of development. Microcredit programs targeting women, mothers' clubs in squatter settlements, female farming cooperatives have become standard fare. One could say that women have become the currency of this latest round of development, the “instrument,” as Jackson (1999) puts it, of enablement. Drawing upon a rich corpus of feminist research, I want to critically examine the implications of this feminization of policy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Civil Society, Development, and Politics

3344. Assessing Democratic Oversight of the Armed Forces

Author:
Sander Huisman
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
There is no such thing as the model for democratic control of the armed forces. Perhaps more influential than constitutional arrangements; historical legacies and political cultures are setting conditions. However, a few essentials or principles of democratic oversight can be discerned. This paper aims to provide an overview of the efforts of different post-communist states in establishing democratic oversight over their armed forces. The comparative analysis is based on a study that the staff of the Centre for European Security Studies has conducted last year (Organising National Defences for NATO Membership - The Unexamined Dimension of Aspirants' Readiness for Entry) and the experiences gained from a three-year multi-national programme that CESS has started in 2001 (Democratic Control South East Europe: Parliaments and Parliamentary Staff Education Programme - DEMCON-SEE). This programme is running in seven countries: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia-Montenegro.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Democratization, and Development
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro

3345. Evaluation of Security Sector Reform and Criteria of Success: Practical Needs and Methodological Problems

Author:
Wilhelm Germann
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This paper intends to contribute to a systematic consideration of what constitutes success (or failure) in the conduct of Security Sector Reform (SSR). It deliberately refrains from commenting on the substance of the latter. Starting from the premise that realizing the principle of democratic control of armed forces in democratizing and developing countries represents the Archimedean Point and driving element within the overall reform of their respective security sectors the purpose of this paper is to review the need for a normative and methodological framework for evaluation of progress and assessment of success or failure. consider the problems involved in determining, assessing, evaluating and verifying criteria, conditions and factors that are supposed to be instrumental for the achievement of related results.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Democratization, and Development

3346. Security Sector Reform: Concepts and Implementation

Author:
Timothy Edmunds
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Security Sector Reform (SSR) has emerged as a key concept in policy and academic circles in recent years. Its origins stem from two main areas. First, from the development community, who have increasingly acknowledged the important role that the 'security sector' plays in issues of economic development and democratisation. Second from the field of civil-military relations (CMR), particularly in relation to developments in central and eastern Europe, where post communist circumstances have led many analysts to think more holistically about key aspects of the CMR debate. SSR takes a holistic approach to the security sector that manifests itself in two ways. First, by recognising the importance of militarised formations other than the regular armed forces in (civil-military) reform efforts. Second by recognising that the role of security and security sector actors in political and economic reform is important and complex, and not simply limited to questions of military praetorianism and civilian control over the armed forces.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Democratization, and Development
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

3347. Lessons Learned from Security Sector Reform and Democratisation in Bulgaria

Author:
Valeri Ratchev
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The objective of this paper is to contribute to the international efforts in setting up a general framework and agenda for security sector reform. The text is organized in reference to the model presented by Zoltan Martinuzs. It reflects the unique Bulgarian experience from the last decade and examines the democratic credentials of the country, particularly as a candidate-member to NATO. It concentrates on the transitional issues and identifies the obstacles to a more complete democratic transformation in the overall security sector.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, and Development
Political Geography:
Europe and Bulgaria

3348. New Challenges, New Opportunities, The Security Sector Reform in Romania

Author:
Liviu Muresan
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The international security environment registered a dramatic change after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. The instrument, training, scare budgets, lake of inter agencies cooperation could be sometime not only insufficient but also inadequate.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Development
Political Geography:
Europe and Romania

3349. Democratic Transformation of the Security Sector in Russia: A Sad Saga of Failure

Author:
Yuri Federov
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The motto "Yet who could guard the guards themselves?" used as the epigraph is often quoted in academic and political literature on civil-military relations. Indeed, it consists of two questions in one; both of which related to the essence of democratic transformation of the security sector in post-totalitarian societies: firstly, whether civil institutions are able to "guard the guards", in fact to control military and law-enforcement agencies, and, secondly, whether these institutions are democratically formed or they are of authoritarian or totalitarian nature.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, and Development
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

3350. Security Sector Reforms in Slovenia: Waging Success and Failure Before the End of Transition

Author:
Ljubica Jelusic
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Until Ten-Day War in 1991, and independence after it, Slovenia was one of the six republics of the Socialist Federal republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Therefore, its security sector was part of broader Yugoslav national security system, established on the basis of a total national defence doctrine. The police was organised within republics and was controlled by the Government of the Republic. It had responsibilities towards the Federal Ministry of Interior, for example, in forming joint special police units, in common border control, etc. but it was allowed to form its own education system and to carry some special insignia, which differentiated the policemen from different republics. Since Autumn 1968, the federal armed forces had consisted of two components, federal standing army The Yugoslav People's Army (YPA), and militia units, organised within republics, Territorial Defence (TD). The system of rescue and self-protection was a part of total national defence and was also organised within republics, which followed the reality, that the types of the most dangerous natural catastrophes were very different in each republic, so, rescue and self-protection units had to be expertised in different kinds of rescue operations.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Development
Political Geography:
Europe