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Advocates for economic development often call for greater transparency. But what does transparency really mean? What are its consequences? This breakthrough book demonstrates how information impacts major political phenomena, including mass protest, the survival of dictatorships, democratic stability, as well as economic performance. The book introduces a new measure of a specific facet of transparency: the dissemination of economic data. Analysis shows that democracies make economic data more available than do similarly developed autocracies. Transparency attracts investment and makes democracies more resilient to breakdown. But transparency has a dubious consequence under autocracy: political instability. Mass-unrest becomes more likely, and transparency can facilitate democratic transition - but most often a new despotic regime displaces the old. Autocratic leaders may also turn these threats to their advantage, using the risk of mass-unrest that transparency portends to unify the ruling elite. Policy-makers must recognize the trade-offs transparency entails.
As difficult as it might seem to define governance, it appears to be that much more difficult to measure it. Since the World Bank Institute launched the Worldwide Governance Indicators in the late 1990s, the governance indicators field has flourished and experienced significant advances in terms of methodology, data coverage and quality, and policy relevance. Other major initiatives have added to a momentum that propelled research on governance indicators seen in few other academic fields in the economic and social sciences. Given these developments and the prominence and policy relevance the field of governance indicator research has achieved, the time is ripe to take stock and ask what has...
Shows how global ratings and rankings shape political agendas and influence states' behavior, reframing how we think about power.
Why do governments turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with what effects? This book argues that governments enter IMF programs for economic and political reasons, and finds that the effects are negative on economic growth and income distribution. By bringing in the IMF, governments gain political leverage - via conditionality - to push through unpopular policies. Note that if governments desiring conditions are more likely to participate, estimating program effects is not straightforward: one must control for the potentially unobserved political determinants of selection. This book addresses the selection problem using a dynamic bivariate version of the Heckman model analyzing cross-national time-series data. The main finding is that the negative effects of IMF programs on economic growth are mitigated for certain constituencies since programs also have distributional consequences. But IMF programs doubly hurt the least well off in society: they lower growth and shift the income distribution upward.
Increasing economic transparency benefits democracy: it helps elections work. Yet under autocracy, transparency contributes to political instability.
Almost everyone loves a lei--the making, giving, receiving, and wearing of the lei is a cherished Hawai'i tradition recognized worldwide. With the renaissance in Hawaiian culture sweeping the islands, growing plants that provide lei materials can be a source of pride and pleasure for the home gardener, an economic opportunity for green-thumb entrepreneurs, and can reduce gathering pressure on the few precious remaining areas of native Hawaiian vegetation. This book contains information on growing 85 plants that can provide flowers or foliage for lei. Some are traditionally used native species; others are relatively new introductions with a potential place in the lei industry. In addition to ...
The primary focus of this manual is on fishpond production benefits as an economic outcome, but we also hope that revived interest in traditional fishponds creates opportunities for potential new science curriculums for Hawai'i's youth.
Lei are the very expression of traditional Hawaiian culture and were once an essential part of community and family life. Following in the footsteps of Samuel Kamakau, Abraham Fornander, and others, the authors have collected here a wealth of written and oral information to reveal the significance of making and wearing lei and their role in Hawaiian ritual and dance. This volume covers eighty-five flowers and plants (and another dozen color variations) used in traditional lei construction. They are arranged according to their Hawaiian names and accompanied by botanical information and descriptions gleaned from legends and chants that illustrate the cultural uses and special meanings of lei p...
This book investigates the ways governments trade money for favors at the United Nations Security Council.