Executive summary The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the emerging health profile of the changing climate. The 2020 report presents 43 indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerabilities; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. This report represents the findings and consensus of the 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies that make up the Lancet Countdown, and draws on the expertise of climate scientists, geographers, engineers, experts in energy, food, and transport, economists, social, and political scientists, data scientists, public health professionals, and doctors. The emerging health profile of the changing climate 5 years ago, countries committed to limit global warming to “well below 2°C” as part of the landmark Paris Agreement. 5 years on, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions continue to rise steadily, with no convincing or sustained abatement, resulting in a rise in the global average temperature of 1·2°C. Indeed, the five hottest years on record have occurred since 2015. The changing climate has already produced considerable shifts in the underlying social and environmental determinants of health at the global level. Indicators in all domains of section 1 (climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerabilities) are worsening. Concerning, and often accelerating, trends were seen for each of the human symptoms of climate change monitored, with the 2020 indicators presenting the most worrying outlook reported since the Lancet Countdown was first established. These effects are often unequal, disproportionately impacting populations who have contributed the least to the problem. This fact reveals a deeper question of justice, whereby climate change interacts with existing social and economic inequalities and exacerbates longstanding trends within and between countries. An examination of the causes of climate change revealed similar issues, and many carbon-intensive practices and policies lead to poor air quality, poor food quality, and poor housing quality, which disproportionately harm the health of disadvantaged populations. Vulnerable populations were exposed to an additional 475 million heatwave events globally in 2019, which was, in turn, reflected in excess morbidity and mortality (indicator 1.1.2). During the past 20 years, there has been a 53·7% increase in heat-related mortality in people older than 65 years, reaching a total of 296 000 deaths in 2018 (indicator 1.1.3). The high cost in terms of human lives and suffering is associated with effects on economic output, with 302 billion h of potential labour capacity lost in 2019 (indicator 1.1.4). India and Indonesia were among the worst affected countries, seeing losses of potential labour capacity equivalent to 4–6% of their annual gross domestic product (indicator 4.1.3). In Europe in 2018, the monetised cost of heat-related mortality was equivalent to 1·2% of regional gross national income, or the average income of 11 million European citizens (indicator 4.1.2). Turning to extremes of weather, advancements in climate science allow for greater accuracy and certainty in attribution; studies from 2015 to 2020 have shown the fingerprints of climate change in 76 floods, droughts, storms, and temperature anomalies (indicator 1.2.3). Furthermore, there was an increase in the number of days people were exposed to a very high or extremely high risk of wildfire between 2001–04 and 2016–19 in 114 countries (indicator 1.2.1). Correspondingly, 67% of global cities surveyed expected climate change to seriously compromise their public health assets and infrastructure (indicator 2.1.3). The changing climate has downstream effects, impacting broader environmental systems, which in turn harm human health. Global food security is threatened by rising temperatures and increases in the frequency of extreme events; global yield potential for major crops declined by 1·8–5·6% between 1981 and 2019 (indicator 1.4.1). The climate suitability for infectious disease transmission has been growing rapidly since the 1950s, with a 15·0% increase for dengue caused by Aedes albopictus in 2018, and regional increases for malaria and Vibrio bacteria (indicator 1.3.1). Projecting forward, based on current populations, between 145 million people and 565 million people face potential inundation from rising sea levels (indicator 1.5). Despite these clear and escalating signs, the global response to climate change has been muted and national efforts continue to fall short of the commitments made in the Paris Agreement. The carbon intensity of the global energy system has remained almost flat for 30 years, with global coal use increasing by 74% during this time (indicators 3.1.1 and 3.1.2). The reduction in global coal use that had been observed since 2013 has now reversed for the past 2 consecutive years: coal use rose by 1·7% from 2016 to 2018. The health burden is substantial—more than 1 million deaths occur every year as a result of air pollution from coal-fired power, and some 390 000 of these deaths were a result of particulate pollution in 2018 (indicator 3.3). The response in the food and agricultural sector has been similarly concerning. Emissions from livestock grew by 16% from 2000 to 2017, with 93% of emissions coming from ruminant animals (indicator 3.5.1). Likewise, increasingly unhealthy diets are becoming more common worldwide, with excess red meat consumption contributing to some 990 000 deaths in 2017 (indicator 3.5.2). 5 years on from when countries reached an agreement in Paris, a concerning number of indicators are showing an early, but sustained, reversal of previously positive trends identified in past reports (indicators 1.3.2, 3.1.2, and 4.2.3). A growing response from health professionals Despite little economy-wide improvement, relative gains have been made in several key sectors: from 2010 to 2017, the average annual growth rate in renewable energy capacity was 21%, and low-carbon electricity was responsible for 28% of capacity in China in 2017 (indicator 3.1.3). However, the indicators presented in the 2020 report of the Lancet Countdown suggest that some of the most considerable progress was seen in the growing momentum of the health profession’s engagement with climate change globally. Doctors, nurses, and the broader profession have a central role in health system adaptation and mitigation, in understanding and maximising the health benefits of any intervention, and in communicating the need for an accelerated response. In the case of adaptation in national health systems, this change is underway. Impressively, health services in 86 countries are now connected with their equivalent meteorological services to assist in health adaptation planning (indicator 2.2). At least 51 countries have developed plans for national health adaptation, and global spending in health adaptation rose to 5·3% of all adaptation spending in 2018–19, reaching US$18·4 billion in 2019 (indicators 2.1.1 and 2.4). The health-care sector, which was responsible for 4·6% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2017, is taking early but important steps to reduce its own emissions (indicator 3.6). In the UK, the National Health Service has declared an ambition to deliver a net-zero health service as soon as possible, building on a decade of impressive progress in reducing delivery of care emissions by 57% since 1990, and by 22% when considering the service’s supply chain and broader responsibilities. Elsewhere, the Western Australian Department of Health used its 2016 Public Health Act to conduct Australia’s first climate and health inquiry, and the German Federal Ministry of Health has established a dedicated department on health protection and sustainability responsible for climate-related matters. This progress is becoming more evenly distributed around the world, with 73% of countries making explicit references to health and wellbeing in their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, and 100% of countries in the South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions doing so (indicator 5.4). Similarly, least-developed countries and small island developing states are providing increasing global leadership within the UN General Debate on the connections between health and climate change (indicator 5.4). Individual health professionals and their associations are also responding well, with health institutions committing to divest more than $42 billion worth of assets from fossil fuels (indicator 4.2.4). In academia, the publication of original research on health and climate changed has increased by a factor of eight from 2007 to 2019 (indicator 5.3). These shifts are being translated into the broader public discourse. From 2018 to 2019, the coverage of health and climate change in the media increased by 96% world-wide, outpacing the increased coverage of climate change overall, and reaching the highest observed point to date (indicator 5.1). Just as it did with advancements in sanitation and hygiene and with tobacco control, growing and sustained engagement from the health profession during the past 5 years is now beginning to fill a crucial gap in the global response to climate change. The next 5 years: a joint response to two public health crises Dec 12, 2020, will mark the anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, with countries set to update their national commitments and review these commitments every 5 years. These next 5 years will be pivotal. To reach the 1·5°C target and limit temperature rise to “well below 2°C”, the 56 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) currently emitted annually will need to drop to 25 GtCO2e within only 10 years (by 2030). In effect, this decrease will require a 7·6% reduction ev
In recent decades, special districts have come to outnumber general purpose governments in the United States. Yet, little is known about special district workforces and how they compare to general purpose government workforces. Special districts and general purpose governments provide many of the same services (e.g., parks maintenance, drinking water and sewer provision, libraries) and ostensibly have similar workforce needs for similar functions. This study explores how political institutions shape politicians’ preferences for different levels of human capital investment, which in turn shapes overall workforce quality. Leveraging data on water utility operators working at special district and general purpose water utilities in Texas, I investigate differences in human capital investments across two types of political institutions. I find that special districts invest more in human capital than general purpose governments. This study innovatively explores the role of institutions in shaping workforce quality.
Global Higher Education (GHE) is undergoing direct and indirect underfunding, which results in institutional instability. Direct underfunding refers to the abrupt withdrawal of state subsidies to the public university, as witnessed by the political reaction of the Trump administration to Palestine solidarity movements in American higher education, among many others around the world. Indirect underfunding refers to the austerity measures being applied to the public university by governments advancing the neoliberal world system. These two connected underfunding measures birth systemic attacks on the civil liberties of students and staff, and they erode the core purpose of the public university. An underfunded public university in the market economy is compelled to take on debt to survive, and this creates an institutional crisis of instability. Paul Zeleza’s reading of GHE as a triad of a nationalist, developmental, and neoliberal university provides the theoretical depth to this study of this global phenomenon from its origins of colonial hierarchy, particularly from the six regions of the world with contested traditions of higher education: North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The article adds two perspectives to critical studies of GHE: a critique of debt culture as the dominant option of running the public university, and a proposal to return to the original and liberating promise of the public university.
Medical students around the world face unusually high levels of psychological stress due to the demanding nature of medical training. Numerous international studies consistently show that the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and burnout among medical students is far higher than in the general population. While global anxiety rates in the public hover around 4%, roughly one-third of medical students experience significant anxiety¹. Similarly, depressive symptoms affect about 27–28% of medical students, a stark contrast to the ~5% rate in the general population3. A meta-analysis across nearly 200 studies found that 27.2% of medical students screened positive for depression², and distress affects one-third to one half of students worldwide3 . In Asia, more than 50% of medical students report high stress4 , prompting experts to describe stress in medical training as a growing global crisis. Gender differences are consistently observed, with female medical students reporting higher levels of anxiety, depression, and perceived stress than their male peers. Some studies show anxiety rates of 38% among women compared with about 31% in men, and depressive symptoms are also slightly higher in women5. These differences reflect broader global mental health trends and may be magnified in the competitive and emotionally demanding medical school environment. Female students often describe heavier expectations, higher self-doubt, and greater pressures related to balancing academic and personal responsibilities. Stress levels are especially elevated in low- and middle-income countries where systemic challenges intensify academic burdens. Across the Asia-Pacific and South Asia, stress, anxiety, and depression rates repeatedly exceed those reported in North America and Europe. In India, depression affects approximately half of medical students, while in Bangladesh, nearly 59% report depressive symptoms6. WHO data highlighting high disability from depression and suicide in South Asia further underscores how regional pressures shape student mental health. Students in these regions often face overcrowded classrooms, hierarchical teaching models, resource shortages, and limited access to support services. Competition for postgraduate placements is intense, political and economic instability influences academic progression, and financial pressures add further strain7. Within Pakistan, studies consistently indicate that 40–60% of medical students experience moderate to severe stress. Stress tends to be higher among female students and those transitioning into clinical years. Compared with students in engineering, business, or social sciences, medical students report substantially greater stress linked to fear of academic failure, overwhelming study loads, prolonged training, expectations of excellence, and limited postgraduate opportunities. Higher scores on DASS-21 and the Perceived Stress Scale support the evidence that medical students carry a significantly heavier psychological burden than most other student groups8. Several core causes of stress are commonly reported by medical students. Heavy academic workload and high-stakes examinations place persistent pressure on students who often describe the content volume as nearly impossible to manage. Many worry that failure in major exams could disrupt their entire career trajectory. Clinical years bring long hours, night calls, and unpredictable schedules that reduce sleep and personal time. Chronic sleep deprivation then weakens cognitive and emotional resilience. The emotional weight of patient care further contributes to student distress. Early exposure to suffering, death, and medical errors generates anxiety and moral distress among students who may feel ill-equipped to process their reactions. Lack of mentorship and limited access to psychological support compound these challenges. Counselling services may be insufficient or stigmatized, leading many students to avoid seeking help even when overwhelmed. Social and cultural expectations also shape student stress. In many families, success in medicine carries profound social and economic significance, making academic setbacks deeply distressing. Financial burdens, including tuition, accommodation, and transportation, add additional strain for students from lower-income households. Uncertainty about future career prospects, especially the competition for residency placements, perpetuates long-term anxiety. Students worry about choosing a specialty, securing training positions, and finding stable employment, making the transition to professional life a chronic source of stress9. These pressures create a cycle in which academic overload disrupts sleep, sleep loss impairs concentration, impaired concentration worsens performance, and deteriorating performance heightens anxiety. This self-reinforcing pattern often leads to burnout marked by emotional exhaustion, detachment, and a reduced sense of accomplishment. Alarmingly, many medical students exhibit burnout symptoms well before graduation, presenting risks not only to their personal well-being but also to future patient care. Efforts to reduce student stress require both institutional and individual strategies. Curricular reforms such as shifting from numerical grading to pass/fail systems are shown to reduce stress without compromising academic outcomes. Streamlining course content, reducing redundancy, and allowing more protected study time similarly improve student well-being. Wellness initiatives, including mindfulness training, stress-management sessions, and structured physical activity, help students build coping skills. Student-led groups provide peer connection and healthier outlets for emotional strain. Peer mentorship significantly benefits students by connecting juniors with experienced peers who can offer guidance, reassurance, and practical advice. Collaborative learning environments, rather than competitive ones, further support mental well-being and foster a sense of belonging. Improving access to mental health services is essential. Students strongly prefer confidential, on-campus counselling staffed by professionals familiar with the realities of medical education. Embedding counsellors within institutions and reducing stigma through targeted awareness efforts encourage early help-seeking10. Faculty play an important role in shaping the learning atmosphere. Training teachers to recognize signs of student distress, communicate supportively, and adjust assessment practices can have substantial benefits. Some experts have suggested incorporating resilience measures or psychological readiness assessments during admissions or early training to better support vulnerable students, though such strategies remain controversial. Long-term improvements require systemic change, such as enforcing work-hour limits, establishing healthier duty rosters, improving learning environments, and expanding residency opportunities. Without addressing these structural issues, individual-level coping strategies may have a limited impact. Stress among medical students remains a multifaceted global concern with serious implications. If unaddressed, it contributes to burnout, dropout, reduced empathy, impaired academic performance, and poorer patient care. Evidence consistently demonstrates that institutional reforms such as pass/ fail grading, counselling access, supportive faculty, wellness programs, and peer mentorship significantly reduce distress. Implementing these measures is essential not only for protecting student health but also for ensuring a resilient and effective future physician workforce.
Climate change demands not only scientific and political responses but also effective communication in the public sphere. The reportage of climate issues has therefore been under a lot of research, yet few studies have examined how climate change is communicated in Vietnam’s English-language press. This study is an attempt to fill such a gap, applying Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA) to a self-compiled corpus of 116 climate-related articles from a major English-language online newspaper in Vietnam – Sai Gon Giai Phong News (SGGP). The analysis identifies four prominent semantic domains: environmental effects, sustainable development, institutional cooperation, and regional specificity. The most frequently constructed values are Eliteness, Impact, and Timeliness, which renders Personalization, Consonance, and Unexpectedness notably infrequent. The qualitative analysis reveals that SGGP frequently frames Vietnam as a proactive and solution-driven actor. However, climate discourse is largely elite-driven, privileging institutional voices while side-lining the perspectives of ordinary citizens. Coverage is also highly localized, with emphasis on the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City. Equally notably, Impact is constructed through a dual narrative of both consequences and future-oriented strategies, portraying Vietnam as vulnerable yet resilient. These findings contribute to the growing literature on DNVA in Southeast Asia and point to the need for more inclusive, people-centred approaches to climate communication in Vietnamese media and beyond.
The article contains the results of a pilot study conducted by young researchers as part of the project “Russia Today and in the Future: Factors of Attractiveness”, organized by the National Research Institute for Communication Development. Based on analysis of information sources, results from foresight sessions and a survey of young people from the Middle East and Africa studying in Russia, the authors concluded that the countries in question have a solid basis for educational interaction.The flow of Arab students coming to Russian universities is increasing every year. Russia and the Arab world have long-standing relations in various areas of foreign policy and diplomacy. One of the main factors of cooperation is opposition to Western monocentricism. Many Lebanese applicants, who have problems with admission to their only public university, want to enroll in Russian institutions, because they appreciate the quality of Russian education, take cultural and historical connections into account, and also consider the favorable socio-political climate for Middle Eastern representatives. Russia is popular among modern Egyptian students as a foreign country for education, where medicine, engineering, and international relations are in demand. For Palestinian, Nigerian, and Angolan students, in addition to historical and cultural ties, the attractiveness of education in Russia is associated with the relatively low cost of studying at universities (compared to local “native” universities as well as universities in the EU and USA). The youth of Arab countries and Africa focus on a positive image of the Russian people, their friendly attitude, and religious tolerance. At the same time, Russia is not a key country for students from the analyzed countries to obtain higher education. Most of them focus on grants, olympiads, and quotas allocated by Russia for foreign students, while facing a language barrier. This actualizes the need for improving the positioning system of Russian education abroad and developing international academic mobility. Russia has an undeniable competitive advantage in the “Eastward movement” - the experience of the Soviet Union, and many countries in Asia and Africa gratefully remember the times when Soviet projects were implemented. Intensifying Russia’s cooperation with African and Middle Eastern countries requires a well-planned and clearly formulated strategy and tactics.
Introduction. The territorial organization of Inner Asian polities underwent significant transformations in the first quarter of the 20th century, which resulted in a need for its visualization. Goals. The article attempts to reconstruct the system of key public governance institutions in Mongol-inhabited lands of China in the mentioned period, and to describe tools of their visualization supposed to spot the former across present-day geographical points of the region. So, the study aims to examine some basic institutions of princely power and khoshun administration, religious and aimag/league-level authorities, impacts of the Chinese colonization on Mongol-inhabited territories, investigate sources, tools and methods instrumental in spatial localization and visualization of territorial /governance structures across the lands. Materials and methods. The work focuses on two groups of sources, namely: unpublished materials from P. Dudin’s doctoral thesis (manuscript) (Statehood of Inner Mongolia: Late 19th to Mid-20th Centuries) discussing public governance structures of Mongolian banners (counties); and unique maps of 1914/1925 mentioning khoshuns, aimags and leagues of almost all Mongol-inhabited domains. The research methodology rests on an interdisciplinary approach, methods of historical science to comprise the ideographic (descriptive-narrative) and retrospective ones, a narrative approach, and principles of historicism; knowledge of political science yields an opportunity to employ functional and behavioral approaches. The geographical methods involved rest on the scheme of analysis proposed in works of O. Medushevskaya (1957) and L. Goldenberg (1958), as well as on some analysis of the data generalization degree. Results. The work has reconstructed the early 20th-century system of key Mongolian public governance institutions, outlines how the system of princely power functioned, how khoshun-level administrative bodies took shape and worked, identifies the governance role of religious institutions, while insights into different levels of the administrative/territorial organization facilitates further understanding as to actual scopes of power attributed thereto, and makes it possible to visualize the investigated space with the aid of contemporary tools and techniques. Conclusions. The paper points to the efficiency of the then management system where it was the khoshun that had served — and remained — a key structural element. The latter’s detailed illustrations on V. Surin’s maps make it possible to restore the ancient territorial organization of Mongolia using the GIS system, free access be provided for researchers of the region.
Sistem Negara Kesatuan yang terdesentralisasi di Indonesia telah dicanngkan semenjak berdirinya Republik ini, namun demikian perdebatan tersebut terus berlanjut sampai dewasa ini dan tetap menarik seperti tanpa mengenal kata akhir. Konsep desentralisasi dalam kenyataannya tetap menjadi konsep yang utopi yang sulit diwujudkan, diatas kertas kita tetap ingin mewujudkan desentralisasi, tetapi dalam pelaksanaan bukanlah desentralisasi yang diterapkan tapi sentralisasilah yang digunakan.
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Lenar F. Abzalov, Marat S. Gatin, Ilyas A. Mustakimov
et al.
Introduction. The article examines a yarliq from the medieval Persian treatise Dastur al-Katib to characterize the institution of ulug bitigchi that used to be widespread in the Mongol Empire and states of Genghis Khan’s descendants. Goals. The study attempts an interdisciplinary analysis of the historical monument — one yarliq appointing an ulug bitigchi (head of scribes) and contained in Dastur al-Katib fi Tayin al-Maratib (A Scribe’s Guide to Determining Ranks) compiled in the mid-14th century by Persian official Muhammad ibn Hindushah Nakhchivani. Materials and methods. The paper focuses on Dastur al-Katib and the mentioned yarliq proper, involves related medieval sources on Mongol Iran and other Chinggisid states, including works by Juvayni, Rashid al-Din, Fasih Khwafi, etc., official documents of the Chinggisid chancelleries. The work employs a series of historical and legal research methods, such as those of source criticism, diplomatics analysis, comparative historical research, formal legal approach, historical legal and comparative legal analyses. Results. The paper introduces the yarliq appointing an ulug bitigchi from the medieval Persian treatise Dastur al-Katib into Russian-language scientific discourse and supplements it with a detailed interdisciplinary analysis. The work clarifies specific features of an ulug bitigchi’s legal status — including his functions, rights, requirements for candidates in Chinggisid chancelleries — and traces its evolution. It also shows reasons for the survival of the institution in those states even after the official conversion to Islam and shaping of a corresponding government system in accordance with traditions that had existed across the Volga Region, Iran and Central Asia long before the Mongol conquest. Conclusions. The fact that the institution of ulug bitigchi did survive the subsequent Islamization was to primarily position of Ilkhans as heirs of the Mongol Empire where it had first been established as well as to seek a compromised approach in governing their various subjects — nomadic and sedentary peoples, Turko-Mongols and those who spoke Iranian languages, Moslems and adherents of other religions.
History of Asia, Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Water is central for a variety of livelihoods, development, economic growth, and food production. It is also very important in the large deltas of South and Southeast Asia. Yet, water is turning into a scare resource and global climate change is making its availability more unpredictable. Commercial interests and infrastructure development are also competing for water resources, sometimes at the expense of local smallholders. This report, which is a desk study combined with stakeholder interviews, aims to map out the issues and the previously unknown challenges to efficient water and land management for poverty alleviation and food security. It also serves as a basis for an empirical case study on the same topic. The report illuminates the political economy of land-water resources in the floodplains around the Tonle Sap Lake which constitutes the upper part of the Mekong River Delta and shares seasonal fluctuations and livelihood patterns. The report identifies key challenges for land-water integrity and multi-functionality in food security, nutrition and income impacts for different local producers. The versatile delta landscape and its livelihoods are a complex ecosystem; the driving factors include seasonal water flow variations, the construction of upper Mekong dams, climate change, and the minimal regulations of local resource governance. This evidently makes the governance challenge both immense and urgent. This report maps out opportunities from national to local levels for promoting more systematic, productive and inclusive land-water management. The roles of formal and informal actors within political spaces, their influence on policy and practice, and opportunities to influence these actors are of particular interest. In pursuing the above, the report applies a political economy approach, where the role of the state, its policies and resource allocation are in focus. This also includes the presence of politically and commercially vested interests and how civil society is involved in the general strife for food security and poverty alleviation. The political economy approach constitutes a holistic analysis of how a society is governed and who possesses and utilises which power in order to pursue their interests. At the core of the political economy approach is therefore the illumination of power (and powerlessness) through analysis of actors or a group of actors and their particular interests. The empirical realms in this report focus on contemporary resource management, its institutions and actors. The conclusions are as follows: The conclusions are as follows:The policies and legal frameworks are tentatively progressive, but still sectoral and sometimes fragmented. Institutional structures and agency interests in horizontal coordination and vertical implementation are considerably weaker than the laws and policies themselves. While concerned ministries have achieved a lot, they have not managed to effectively collaborate and work across sectors and ministries. They continue to treat landscapes in a segmented manner. Many policies fall short because there are a lack of adequate resources and local incentives to implement and follow-up on the ground. To systematically monitor the implementation of policies, studying their true weaknesses, feeding back to the concerned ministries and amending the policies according to their existing weaknesses, would further the efficacy of the system. The decentralisation reform programme at the sub-national level is one of the most promising governance reforms in post-war Cambodia. However, in its current version, it is not sufficient, because the scale of the problems at stake are typically greater than the commune jurisdiction. To complete the halfway reform of a “unified administration” at the district level, integrating agriculture, environment and water mandates may be the most important reform for the long-term future. This is a hypothetical scenario since the commune councils may not be as accountable to their local constituency as they were pre-2017. Overall, increased agricultural output, green revolution, mechanisation, and efficien market access are favoured in many policies and plans. Yet, fisheries, especially small- scale ones, are partially neglected in spite of the huge value, poverty alleviation abilities, and nutritional quality. The policy recommendations include: The national government system would benefit from an establishment of mandatory cross-ministerial meetings on a regular basis, facilitated by existing/new coordination structures leading to monitorable cross-sector and cross-agency actions towards more integrated water and land management. A systematic empirical monitoring of the rollout of policies would be very valuable since our analysis revealed that the weakest links in the policy work are the implementation, the upholding of the quality of interventions, and the safeguarding of the sustainability of already established policies. To further support the IWRM implementation, a planning process based on hydrological units (basins and sub-basins), resource inventories, development priorities for key social indicators (e.g., poverty, nutrition and gender), and arising trade-offs needs to be established. The recent decision to integrate water, agriculture and environment at the district level needs to be given full support, bringing in fisheries to the mandate. The rules for il/legal fisheries need to be clarified and the absence of efficient monitoring of fishing practices needs to be addressed. The government has recently promoted a partnership between public, private and farmer agents to enhance agricultural production and productivity for better food security. To push this further is a worthwhile opportunity.
combination of external and internal factors. The outbreak of World War I is not in itself a sufficient explanation for why women’s suffrage was delayed in Britain. Another insight, resulting from a comparison of the British case to the United States, is the important role of institutions for long-term developments. For example, in the U.S. the legislative text uses a negative formulation, i.e., that “the right of citizens to vote... shall not be denied... on account of sex” (355). It is argued that this way of formulating voting possibilities opens for “a myriad of other reasons by which to prevent those deemed undesirable from casting a vote” (355). What is brought up in the book is the idea that the U.S. legislative text, compared to the British text where rights are formulated in positive language granting voting rights, has, in the US, enabled the persistence of barriers facing black voters and voters of working-class origin. The weaknesses of the book relate to the question who is the intended audience? All texts are well written and, combined with the clear thematic structure, this indicates an intention to reach an audience beyond academic scholars. However, it would have been a help to have a timeline over events and a chart spelling out links between various organizations. Such pedagogical tools would not have undermined the selling point of the book, i.e., the aim to show nuances and complexities, but would have been a useful reference point for readers with less knowledge about this particular period. Another reflection is that the afterword could have been put in the beginning of the book and replaced the current foreword. The afterword does a good job of spelling out the more general patterns that emerge from the various case studies whereas the current foreword is highly specialized on questions of peace and women’s political involvement. The afterword also raises important questions about why countries choose to portray important phases of history the way they do. Finally, it is reasonable to say that celebrations like the one in 2018 give an overly simplistic view of history. The solution however is not to stop celebrating such events but to encourage more research and public discussions on driving forces in important transition periods such as the development from male-only regimes to gender inclusive democracies. In order for such research to flourish, I would encourage more of cross-country comparative studies and the use of research methods equipped for the testing of various hypotheses on factors behind success and failures that can be extracted from the in-depth case studies in this edited volume.
The analysis of the problem field is a serious problem from the methodological and methodical point of view. The solution of this problem becomes particularly difficult in cases when the object under study is characterized by a high level of structural and process diversity, has a dynamic character, i. e. it is constantly evolving, and exists in many variants with the presence of the invariant enshrined in international acts and legislation of most states. The end of the last century was a period of rethinking of many concepts that define the complex processes of political and social interaction of various levels and elements of the system of power and public administration in Russia. The adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993 put forward fundamental problems that needed to be solved to move the country along the path of democratization, build a market economy and form an effective governing system. Article 12 of the first chapter establishes the autonomy of local self-government as an institution, guarantees its protection from excessive state influence. This provision reflects the global trend of consolidating the right to local self-government in democratic states. However, the European Charter of Local Self-Government includes a provision on the independence of local self-government in resolving issues of local significance only within the framework of state legislation, i. e. it establishes its subordinate nature. The latter provision automatically makes local self-government part of the unified system of public power and public administration, which is reflected in the corresponding amendment to Ch. 8 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation “Local self-government” in 2020. This makes t relevant he problem of the local authorities ‘ own powers, the division of functions between them and state authorities to achieve the fundamental goal of the modern state — to ensure an optimal uniform quality of life throughout the territory. The purpose of the article is to characterize the problem field in which the concepts of “public power” and “public administration” are defined and analysed in the context of considering local self-government as a key actor of both systems. The objectives of the research are to determine the boundaries of this problem field, its structure, as well as the difference in approaches to this problem in the works of Russian and foreign authors, including scientists from Central Asian countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed enormous governance deficits globally. Several populist strongmen practiced “medical populism” – ignoring scientific advice, proffering denials, and blaming others. More technocratic leaders recognised its severity, implementing strict lockdowns. But some failed to adopt more flexible restrictions once testing improved due to local enforcement difficulties, termed “blunt force regulation.” Although neither a pandemic denialist nor an obtuse technocrat, Philippine president Rodrigo R. Duterte's response combined aspects of both approaches with blame shifting and one-size-fits-all lockdowns while also securitising the crisis. Utilising methods developed during his bloody “war on drugs,” Duterte imposed a heavily militarised approach, scapegoated supposedly disobedient Filipinos ( pasaway ) and bullied local politicians. While the Philippines has been among the worst pandemic performers globally, Duterte's approval ratings remained robust. It is argued “brute force governance” undermined the dynamics of accountability, enabling him to win public approval despite policy failure.
International relations, Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrated its centenary, its expanding role in penetrating, regulating, and reshaping social organisations (社会组织, shehui zuzhi ) seemed to signal a decisive shift in not only the arrangement, but also the balance, of power between the state, the voluntary sector, and the party in favour of the latter. Beginning with the recent reform “decoupling” professional associations and chambers of commerce (行业协会商会, hangye xiehui shanghui ) from state management, which has been cited in official documents as a model for “separating the state from society” and an initial step in further reducing the state management in other realms of activity, this article considers broad trends in the CCP's historical relationship with social organisations, particularly alongside its shifting relationship with the state apparatus after 1949, over time. Working through both the CCP's governing practice of “documentary politics” and, more recently, initiatives to expand “rule by law” under Xi, I argue that the party has vastly increased its power, presence, and control over both as it marked its centenary, albeit at times donning the mask of the state to do so. I conclude that the party's continued advance under Xi is occurring at the expense of both the autonomy of the state administration and that of social forces.
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only), Social sciences and state - Asia (Asian studies only)
Tax is the main source of financing for state expenditures in order to improve people's welfare. Given the important role of taxes in the country's economy, in fact, there are still many problems and obstacles that must be faced in collecting local taxes in Indonesia. One of the efforts of the Surakarta City government to overcome this problem is through innovative technology-based local tax services in the form of the Electronic Solo Destination Tax Payment (EPPSON) feature. This study aims to determine the typology of local tax service innovation through EPPSON by using the typology dimension of innovation according to Perry, which consists of product innovation, service innovation, process innovation, conceptual innovation, policy innovation, and systemic innovation. The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative, data collection techniques through interviews, observation, and documentation. The results showed that in its implementation, EPPSON innovation had met the criteria of product innovation, service innovation, process innovation, and systemic innovation. In addition, the EPPSON innovation has helped overcome local tax problems before the creation of this innovation.
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Drug shortages have been identified as a public health problem in an increasing number of countries. This can negatively impact on the quality and efficiency of patient care, as well as contribute to increases in the cost of treatment and the workload of health care providers. Shortages also raise ethical and political issues. The scientific evidence on drug shortages is still scarce, but many lessons can be drawn from cross-country analyses. The objective of this study was to characterize, compare, and evaluate the current systemic measures and legislative and organizational frameworks aimed at preventing or mitigating drug shortages within health care systems across a range of European and Western Asian countries. The study design was retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive, and observational. Information was gathered through a survey distributed among senior personnel from ministries of health, state medicines agencies, local health authorities, other health or pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement authorities, health insurance companies and academic institutions, with knowledge of the pharmaceutical markets in the 28 countries studied. Our study found that formal definitions of drug shortages currently exist in only a few countries. The characteristics of drug shortages, including their assortment, duration, frequency, and dynamics, were found to be variable and sometimes difficult to assess. Numerous information hubs were identified. Providing public access to information on drug shortages to the maximum possible extent is a prerequisite for performing more advanced studies on the problem and identifying solutions. Imposing public service obligations, providing the formal possibility to prescribe unlicensed medicines, and temporary bans on parallel exports are widespread measures. A positive finding of our study was the identification of numerous bottom-up initiatives and organizational frameworks aimed at preventing or mitigating drug shortages. The experiences and lessons drawn from these initiatives should be carefully evaluated, monitored, and presented to a wider international audience for careful appraisal. To be able to find solutions to the problem of drug shortages, there is an urgent need to develop a set of agreed definitions for drug shortages, as well as methodologies for their evaluation and monitoring. This is being progressed.
Dibandingkan sampai 3 dekade, Jakarta lebih berubah secara signifikan. Disamping perubahan positif, harus diakui bahwa saat ini muncul banyak sekali kompleksitas permasalahan yang tidak terjadi pada masa-masa sebelumnya. Diantara berbagai persoalan tadi, kondisi lalu lintas yang makin smerawut dan arus urbanisasi yang tidak terkendali, bisa ditunjuk sebagai masalah kronis yang dihadapi Jakarta. Itulah sebabnya tulisan iini memfokuskan pada kedua permasalahan tadi, kemudian mengajukan satu solusi dengan cara memindahkan ibukota ke wilayah lain. Perpindahan ibukota ini secara teoritis akan memnguragi beban Jakarta sekaligus mendorong pertumbuhan ekonomi dan perkembangan fisik ibukota yang baru, asal dilakukan dengan cermat dan bertahap.
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Paradigma pelayanan publik di tanah air mengalami pergeseran. Sehubungan dengan pergeseran paradigma dimaksud tulisan ini akan memuat kajian akademik mengenai nilai-nilai organisasi berkinerja tinggi dalam kaitannya dengan kualitas pelayanan publik yang diselenggarakan pemerintah. Isi tulisan akan memfokuskan pada peningkatan kinerja kelembagaan instansi pemerintah dalam rangka mewujudkan kualitas pelayanan sebgaimana diharapkan oleh masyarakat/konsumen.
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Opinion on the concept of state has a deep root in the history of western political thought. Although there have been brief and marginal studies in this area in ancient Greece, we notice more attention to the concept of state and its coordinates since the Renaissance. Germany, during eighteenth century, is one of the most important arenas on this concept. As one of its thinkers and contemporary of Hegel, Schopenhauer has also paid attention to the issue of state during his discussions. The problem of the present study is the nature of state in Schopenhauer's political thought. The hypothesis of the present paper is that Schopenhauer's theory of state as opposed to Hegelian thought, rejects the totalitarian and the Hegelian ideal state on one hand, and, based on the rule of the concept of evil and how he views metaphysics in its philosophical apparatus on the other hand, takes on a minimalist and protective nature.
Political institutions and public administration (General), Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Governmen Internal Control System (SPIP) is a process that is integratedo the actions and activities THAT carried out continuosly by the management and all employees, to provide reasonable assurance of achieving organizational objectives through effective and efficient, the reliability of financial reporting, security of state aset, and compliance with laws and regulations. SPIP is supported by the five elements of internal control of the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring internal control followed by elements of an effective control environment
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)