The GOVERNANCE blog

Governance: An international journal of policy, administration and institutions

How worries about reputation shape FDA enforcement

Public agencies care about their reputations.  In the current issue of Governance, Moshe Maor and Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explore how “the vague concept of reputation may translate into concrete regulatory outcomes.”  They examine the behavior of two enforcement divisions within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  As media coverage of the FDA becomes more positive, the agency takes longer to execute enforcement actions.  Negative coverage leads to quicker action.  This is only true, though, when press coverage is relatively intense.  “Reputational concerns,” conclude  Moar and Sulitzeanu-Kenan, “produce institutional outcomes over and above the content of rules, guidance, procedures, structures or statutes.”   FREE ACCESS to this article.

Written by governancejournal

January 16, 2013 at 4:55 pm

Posted in Current issue

Colonial legacies: A reply to Richard French

Sunila Kale and Rahul Mukherji published their commentary How Colonial Legacies Still Shape Indian Governance: Power and Telecommunications in Comparison in the January 2013 issue of Governance.  Richard D. French of the University of Ottawa has written a response to the commentary.  Here, Mukherji and Kale reply to French.

By Rahul Mukherji and Sunila Kale.  Richard French’s rejoinder to How Colonial Legacies Still Shape Indian Governance faults our commentary in Governance for not being sensitive to what we consider two significant issues in the governance of Indian telecommunications and power. First, French argues that state-level federal politics and populism rather than the legacy of the power sector’s being a part of the concurrent list of the Indian constitution should be blamed for the dismal state of electricity generation and revenue realization in the sector. In his words: “Blaming the Indian power disaster on imperial influence is like blaming illiteracy on Gutenberg.”  Second, French suggests that we have downplayed the muddled and chaotic path of telecommunications regulation in India, a process that has been especially debilitating for foreign investors. French’s provocative rejoinder is an excellent opportunity to clarify and elaborate issues that were constrained by the space allocated to an commentary. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by governancejournal

January 11, 2013 at 9:30 am

Posted in commentary

Indian regulation: What does colonialism have to do with it?

This is a response to the commentary in the January 2013 issue of Governance, “How Colonial Legacies Still Shape Indian Governance: Power and Telecommunications in Comparison,” by Sunila Kale and Rahul Mukherji.  You can also read a reply by the authors.

By Richard D. French.  In Sunila Kale and Rahul Mukherji’s recent commentary in the January 2013 issue of Governance, “How Colonial Legacies Still Shape Indian Governance: Power and Telecommunications in Comparison,” we are offered two sectoral case studies in liberalization.  The authors want to show that, despite impressions left by India’s massive power failure last summer, Indian policy-making can get things right.  Telecom is the favorable case, where we are invited to believe that policy-making has been “sharp and effective”; power is the unfavorable case, rightly called “a disaster” where policy-making has certainly been “dilatory and ineffectual.” Read the rest of this entry »

Written by governancejournal

January 11, 2013 at 9:12 am

Posted in commentary

Andrews: Why reforms in developing countries fail

Professor Matt Andrews of  Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, a member of the Governance editorial board, has just published a new book, The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development (Cambridge University Press.)  The book “explains why many institutional reforms in developing countries have limited success and suggest ways to overcome these limits.”  Pre-order on Amazon.

All individual subscribers to Governance can have their new books profiled in this newsletter.  Subscribe to Governance.

Written by governancejournal

December 27, 2012 at 10:23 am

South Korea: How new presidents appoint ministers

South Korea election
Photo by Jens-Olaf Walter.

Park Guen-hye was the winner of yesterday’s South Korean presidential election.  One of her next challenges, following her inauguration in February, will be appointing ministers in the new government.  In an article published online by Governance this week, Sung Deuk Hahm, Kwangho Jung, and Sam Youl Lee examine patterns in the appointment of ministers between 1980 and 2008.  The shift toward a democratic presidency has been accompanied by a shift away from technocratic ministerial appointments.  But presidents now have a habit of shuffling ministers too frequently.  The average ministerial appointment is now only one year — not long enough for ministers to counter the power of career bureaucrats.  Free access to the article.

Written by governancejournal

December 20, 2012 at 10:21 am

Posted in Uncategorized

The Spanish paradox: Lessons from the Spanish financial system’s resilience in the global economic crisis

By Jane Whitehead.  As the European Commission (EC) approves the Spanish government’s proposals to restructure four struggling banks, with the aid of a €40 billion loan from the eurozone’s emergency bailout fund, it might seem counter-intuitive to look to the Spanish financial sector for examples of good practice.

In fact, Spain’s largest financial institutions showed striking resilience in the initial phase of the crisis, from 2008-2010, argues Sebastian Royo, Professor in the Department of Government and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Suffolk University.  Royo’s article “How did the Spanish financial system survive the first stage of the global crisis?” has just been published by Governance.  Royo also analyzes the country’s rapid reversal of fortune after 2010, when worsening economic conditions, the implosion of the real estate bubble and weaknesses in the regulatory framework brought Spain’s financial institutions to the brink of collapse. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by governancejournal

November 28, 2012 at 8:21 pm

Posted in Profiles

Peterson Institute blog highlights “fascinating” paper on North Korea’s economic policy

A blog of the Peterson Institute for International Economics highlights an article in the current issue of Governance by Changyong Choi and Jesse D. Lecy  on patterns of economic policy change in North Korea.    PIIE’s Marcus Noland says that Choi and Lecy provide a “fascinating” analysis, using an innovative method of textual analysis to trace the evolution of thinking by North Korean policymakers.  Choi and Lecy conclude that changes to the economic system “follow a pattern of punctuated equilibrium catalyzed by political crisis — but changes are foreshadowed in the policy discourse.”  Read the article.

Written by governancejournal

November 25, 2012 at 2:12 pm

Posted in Current issue

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 72 other followers

Powered by WordPress.com