South Africa continues to battle against the constantly increasing unemployment rate despite the major improvements in the massification of higher education. Young people, in particular, are at the receiving end of the stubborn unemployment problem, and the increasing graduate unemployment is a cause for concern. This paper thus explored the perspectives of unemployed young graduates regarding the association of nepotism, favoritism, and the struggle of young graduates to find employment in South Africa. The study employed the lens of social capital theory to explain the “connections phenomenon” in relation to graduate unemployment in South Africa. Primary qualitative data was solicited through face-to-face semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 graduates. The findings indicate that young graduates perceived nepotism and favoritism as significant factors that determine the probability of finding employment, particularly in South Africa’s public sector institutions. The findings revealed that the connections phenomenon in South Africa occurs through family members, relatives, friendships, political affiliations, and professional networks. Thus, graduates without connections, particularly from poor families, are disadvantaged in the labor market. This paper concluded that high unemployment is a driving force for nepotism and favoritism in South Africa’s labor market. Therefore, addressing nepotism and favoritism largely depends on increasing the labor force demand in South Africa.
Research objectives and hypothesis/research questions
The aim is to critically analyze the challenges and inequalities in the management of the financing of the tasks of local government units (LGUs) in Poland, with particular emphasis on the impact of legislative, political, and financial factors on the effectiveness of their tasks.
Research questions:
1. Does the presence of councilors employed in units subordinate to local government units lead to a conflict of interest, which negatively impacts the transparency and independence of financial decisions made?
2. Does the amount of subsidies and subsidies awarded depend solely on the economic situation of municipalities, or is it also influenced by political links between local authorities and the ruling party at the central level?
3. As a result of underestimating the educational subsidy, are local government units forced to redirect their funds to finance educational tasks at the expense of other public activity areas?
4. Do the currently used algorithms for the distribution of subsidies reflect the real needs of local government units, and, as a result, there is an optimal allocation of public funds?
5. Is there equal access for local government units to European and national funds?
Research methods
1. Analysis of empirical data: Examination of data from local government units (LGUs) between 2019 and 2023.
2. Comparative analysis: Evaluation of financial indicators for LGUs based on their size, own revenues, and political affiliations.
3. Statistical analysis: Investigation of differences in the allocation of financial resources to identify disparities.
4. Analysis of source documents: Review legal documents, Supreme Audit Office (NIK) reports, and local budget data from LGUs.
5. Case study: Analysis of municipalities in the Radomsko focusing on underestimating educational subsidies and conflicts of interest.
6. Critical literature review: Examination of domestic and international literature to provide context and identify relevant issues.
Main results
1. The amount of subsidies and grants awarded often depends on the political affiliations of local authorities with the ruling party.
2. Educational subsidies fall short of covering actual educational costs, straining resources for other public responsibilities.
3. Councilors employed by subordinate LGU units cause conflicts of interest, harming transparency and financial independence.
4. Under governmental support programs, grant allocation processes lacked transparency and clear criteria, enabling abuses and discretionary fund distribution.
5. Financial support was unevenly distributed, worsening inequalities between wealthier and poorer regions.
Implications for theory and practice
For theory: the research brought a new perspective to the analysis of decentralization and self-government, showing the impact of political, legislative, and financial factors on the functioning of local governments. In particular, the results confirm the importance of political distribution theory, pointing to the practice of favoring individuals associated with the ruling party, reflecting the phenomenon of political allocation of resources. The problems of unequal allocation of resources and underestimation of education subsidies bring new elements to the theory of distributive justice, highlighting the imbalance in access to public resources between regions.
For practice: research indicates an urgent need for legislative reforms aimed at simplifying and stabilizing the regulations governing the activities of local government units. Recommendation for the introduction of more transparent mechanisms for allocating public funds. Emphasize the importance of support for less developed local government units, which would reduce regional inequalities and make more efficient use of available funds.
Management. Industrial management, Management information systems
Research inspired by collective action theory has provoked a rethinking of premodern governance, including state formation. We briefly summarize key elements of this theoretical turn, first, by demonstrating that, as predicted by the existing theory, political collective action is enhanced when the provision of good government motivates taxpayer compliance. Beyond that key process, our cross-cultural comparative investigation identified a suite of corollary social and cultural factors, including civic ritual, that, side-by-side with good government, served to undergird the institution of political collective action. We investigate, in particular, policies and practices that fostered the transformation of what had been a dominated and socially fragmented subaltern into a politically engaged and conditionally compliant citizenry. We discuss this process in relation to administrative policies and practices and in relation to evidence we found for directed cultural change purposed to enhance consensus and forbearance in the face of social divisiveness and political inequality.
In the article, we address the emergence of the anti-gender movement in Slovenia. Based on content analysis of studies on the anti-gender movement in Slovenia, the main actors of the movement, their arguments, discourses, action strategies,
transnational links with ideologically related foreign movements, and the reasons for their successful mobilisation are discussed. We frame the overview of these topics by considering the thesis of the anti-gender movement’s double “legacy” according to which on one hand the movement’s activities indirectly created a
political opportunity for the legalisation of marriage equality and, on the other, reshaped the structure of the public debate on sexual and gender rights via the successful introduction of “gender theory” as a mobilising concept. Through the mentioned thesis, we highlight the complexity of the social effects of the anti-gender movement, which constitutes neo-conservative opposition in the field of equality policies today.
The purpose of the article is to study the theoretical and legal discourse of the modern definition of the motivational component of the legal protection of public morality in the activity of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. As a result of the conducted analysis, it is necessary to state that motivational orientation should be interpreted as a category of philosophical praxeology, which is most closely related to the concept of determination, and therefore, taking into account that motivation is an element and axiological, it is appropriate to emphasize the importance of confidence and conviction of a person in the correctness and reasonableness their own aspirations. This is possible provided there is a clear regulatory basis, especially when it comes to protocol and such responsible work as law enforcement. The article establishes that the motivation of a law enforcement officer closely interacts with legal deontology, which, by its very nature, determines the basic moral and social principles of interpersonal relations, which motivate in what way a law enforcement officer should understand his professional purpose, how exactly to interpret his mission, and, at most, to realize why the law enforcement profession exists at all. It was established that when investigating the motivational determination of the legal protection of public morality within law enforcement agencies, it is advisable to, first of all, talk about the implementation of the function of legal protection as a professional duty of representatives of law enforcement agencies, which follows from legal norms. It has been established that the problem of the relationship between public morality and the axiology of law enforcement activity is not only a complex topical question and a complex cognitive process, but, in fact, a new epistemological mechanism of scientific immersion in the ideological social foundations of the era of law enforcement system reforms, the era of revolutionary changes and, unfortunately, military realities of modern Ukraine. It is suggested that the motivational determination of the protection of public morality by law enforcement agencies, or their moral self-regulation, should be interpreted as a very comprehensive process, characterized by external and internal determinants, conditioned by the object of legal protection itself and dependent on the specifics of a specific law enforcement agency and its structural unit.
Education (General), Theory and practice of education
What has been the evolution of the Italian Political Science community in the past 20 years? Have there been relevant differences from the career level, geographical, or gender-related viewpoints? This article aims at answering these questions, which are even more interesting on the eve of the start of a new career path for Italian academics, which should markedly modify especially the early stages of career. After discussing the numerical growth of Italian Political Science from 2002 until 2022, the article explores the differences related to career levels and geography. On the former point, there has been an increase in the importance of Associate Professors but also Non-tenure-track academics. In this regard, if the trend experienced in 2018-2022 continued in the following years, we would face a situation where the relative majority of political scientists do not hold a tenure-track position. On the latter aspect, universities located in Northern regions continue employing a relevant sector of the Italian Political Science community, with Central and, especially, Southern universities having a much more marginal role. Finally, the article explores gender-related differences. While there are noticeable signs of a growing prominence of women from the numerical and the growth rate viewpoints, opposite indicators point to a marked difficulty of women to climb the academic career ladder.
Ricky Zulfauzan, Charles Hutapea, Nur Elysa Mitharie
This study was motivated by the low voter turnout in the 2020 Regional Head Election for Governor and Vice Governor in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The Banjar ethnicity was chosen because the Banjar ethnicity is the third largest ethnic majority in Central Kalimantan, so the behavior of the Banjar ethnicity can determine political contestation in Central Kalimantan. This study aimed to find out and analyze the behavior of the Banjar Ethnic voters. Qualitative research methods with a descriptive approach. The focus of the research is the behavior of ethnic Banjar voters, with research benchmarks using the Voter Behavior theory as follows: (a) Rational Voters, (b) Critical Voters, (c) Skeptical Voters (d) Traditional Voters. The results of the study, after the informants were interviewed, it was found that the behavior of ethnic Banjar voters mostly claimed to be rational voters, but the characteristics shown were closer to traditional voters. The critical behavior of ethnic Banjar towards prospective candidates did not combine a high orientation towards the performance of political parties and skeptical behavior towards ethnic behavior. Their Banjar is not oriented towards ideology or party and candidate policies. The behavior of traditional voters in Ethnic Banjar can be classified as traditional voters because issuing voting rights prioritizes socio-cultural closeness, origin, ethnicity and religion. This study concludes that the Banjar Ethnic voters’ behavior belongs to the Traditional Voters.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) proposes “peaceful” religious discourse by supporting religious scholars such as Hamza Yusuf and Abdallah bin Bayyah and institutions such as the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies and the Emirates Fatwa Council. The UAE has attempted to present itself as promoting a moderate form of Islam to counter political Islam. This study is based on data from religious verdicts (<i>fatwās</i>), speeches, and conference records of these scholars and institutions. The main point of the research is to show to what extent providing additional support to recently established religious institutions and emerging scholars is used as soft power to promote the UAE’s version of Islam and present the UAE as a moderate and tolerant country. Applying critical discourse analysis, the study aims to uncover the existing connection between emerging religiopolitical discourse and UAE-based legal verdicts of scholars (<i>ulamā</i>) and the organizations that they initiated. This study further argues that “moderate Islam” and “tolerance”, used as religious soft power, are other tools that the UAE has applied in line with expectations for influence and power-seeking based on small state theory.
<span class="abs_content">In this article, I draw on feminist and new social movement literature to analyse contemporary Mexico's Women's Collective Action (WCA) through a framework of prefiguration. I challenge traditional epistemological analysis of social movement theory by engaging with Icaza's (2019) body-mind-spirit framework and Ahmed's (2004) cultural politics of emotions in my analysis of the cultural outcomes of the women's movements. By analysing emotions as cultural practices rather than psychological states, we can understand the intricate and at times contradictory reciprocal emotions at the inside of the women's movements. Similarly, analysing direct action through the body-mind-spirit framework, allows for a complex reading of direct action that transverses the body/mind cartesian dichotomy, instead understanding the body as the primary territory of defence in the healing, re-imagining and (re)building process of new relationships of doing and being. By engaging with an analysis of the contemporary Mexican feminist movement, I argue the WCA in Mexico is part of a new wave of hope movements which engage in a process of prefiguration through the construction of alternative, anti-patriarchal worlds in the present. Rather than one united front with a series of political goals, the only strategy this movement embodies is its desire to build (an)other worlds.</span><br />
Aliya Ahmad Shaikh, Warda Najeeb Jamal, Syed Muhammad Javed Iqbal
et al.
The current study aims to sociologically categorize the generations of the Pakistani workforce. For this purpose, similar to Schuman and Scott (1989)’s research methodology of identifying generations on the basis of their collective memories of formative events, the current study deploys a quantitative research design. Particularly, this is done by incorporating the socio-economic, political, and technologically significant events (SPTSE) into a questionnaire survey. These events have already been identified as generational pointers of the three Pakistani generations by Shaikh, Jamal, and Iqbal (2021). The Chi-Square results of the current research verify that the Pakistani Baby Boomers (Born during 1942-1961), Pakistani Generation X (Born during 1962-1981), and Pakistani Millennials / Generation Y (Born during 1982-2001) differ in recollecting certain SPTSE which they encountered during their coming-of-age years. Hence, having lived a particular set of formative eras, their generational characteristics, particularly with regard to their attitudes, values, and behaviors, are influenced, which are different and unique from that of the Western generations. This way, the generational pointers serve as a basis for the classification of the three Pakistani generations, and so prove the Asian context-specific application of the theory of generations.
Business, Production management. Operations management
Исследование элит сквозь призму понятия «экология» направлено на характеристику элит с позиции интерпретации тех ценностей и качеств, которыми они должны обладать в идеальной модели своей деятельности, чтобы исключить искаженную интерпретацию данных качеств.
Актуальность заданной тематики обусловлена изучением комплекса ценностей, целей и навыков, представляющих ценностно-целевой аспект мотивации инаправленных на формирование экологии элит. Изучение основ ценностно-целевого аспекта мотивации в процессе развития «softskills» – это путь к поиску устойчивых связей в цепочке причин и поведенческих реакций на них для создания идеального образа современной элиты.
Цель данной статьи заключается в рассмотрении ценностно-целевыхаспектов мотивации для того, чтобы создать «чистый смысл» тех качеств, которыми должна обладать элита. Такая необходимость обусловлена различением элиты и псевдоэлиты. Экология элиты - это исключение квазиформ ее самоактуализации.
suggest that market concentration at aggregate level has a significant structural impact on the wage differential between white-collar and blue-collar workers. Both phenomena are increasing as larger firms are more inclined to employ and pay more white-collar workers, in order to increase and/or maintain their market share by way of innovative tasks carried out by white-collars such as R&D, design and product differentiation, financial/capital market operations, market research, advertising and sales operations, etc. The causality from market concentration to wage differential runs through an effective demand channel and one based on the diffusion of innovations. The innovative contribution of the paper is to reveal this relationship of structural causality, and to provide a new measurement of aggregate market concentration which is calculated as the reverse of the break-even point. The argument is tested for the case of the USA between 1964 and 2007 using Vector Error Correction Model. The findings confirm the existence of a long-run positive relationship from market concentration in the nonfinancial corporate sector to the wage differential.
Purpose: While emergency department nurses in Indonesia are critical to quality care, the role lacks recognition and standard practices and regulation of scope of practice are absent. This research explored the role of nurses in Indonesian EDs. Method: The conceptual lens applied in the research was grounded theory. The main data source was 51 semi- structured interviews with 43 ED nurses, three directors of nursing, three nurse leaders and two nurse educators. Data were also generated through observations and memos. Results: Two key categories were constructed; shifting work boundaries and lack of authority. Shifting work boundaries was symbolic of a lack of professional authority and legitimized knowledge. Lack of authority reflected the dimension of professional autonomy through the nexus of power and knowledge. The interrelationship of these two concepts constructed a core category, securing legitimate power, which underpinned the positioning of nursing in Indonesia. Conclusions: The interconnection between political gains, tertiary knowledge, professional regulation and implementation of gender-sensitive policies was critical to the development of the ED role, the positioning of nursing within the health care system and improvement in quality of care.
This article presents two interlocking arguments for epistemic political egalitarianism. I argue, first, that coping with multidimensional social complexity requires the integration of expertise. This is the task of political parties as collective epistemic agents who transform abstract value judgments into sufficiently coherent and specific conceptions of justice for their society. Because parties thus severely lower the relevant threshold of comparison of political competence, citizens have reason to regard each other as epistemic equals. Drawing on the virulent “peer disagreement debate,” I then analyze the epistemic significance of political disagreement. I contend that citizens ought to pursue epistemic conciliation, an idea I contrast to the ideals of compromise and of consensus. Subsequently, I introduce insights from public choice theory and empirical findings which show that and why multi-party electoral competition coupled with equal rights to participation tends to produce conciliatory outcomes. We thus have reason to endorse political egalitarianism on epistemic grounds.
Globalization generates new structures of human interdependence and vulnerability while also posing challenges for models of democracy rooted in territorially bounded states. The diverse phenomena of globalization have stimulated two relatively new branches of political theory: theoretical accounts of the possibilities of democracy beyond the state; and comparative political theory, which aims at bringing non-Western political thought into conversation with the Western traditions that remain dominant in the political theory academy. This article links these two theoretical responses to globalization by showing how comparative political theory can contribute to the emergence of new global “publics” around the common fates that globalization forges across borders. Building on the pragmatist foundations of deliberative democratic theory, it makes a democratic case for comparative political theory as an architecture of translation that helps deliberative publics grow across boundaries of culture.
The application of the sliding-scale for regulating the remuneration of labour was introduced for the first time into Italy in 1945 to meet conditions arising from war-time and post-war time inflation, and has been gradually extended to the several branches of the national economy. In Part I, the present study presents a detailed picture of this process of extension and sets forth the complicated mechanism and the different ways by which the sliding-scale is applied to the wages of the several groups of workers. In Part II the author discusses the problem of the reciprocal reactions between price rises and the wage rises induced by the sliding-scale. The examination of Italy’s special experience during these years leads the author to conclude that the sliding-scale system (a) has not been a causative factor for the inflationary upsurges; and (b) has proved inadequate for fully safeguarding, by itself alone, the purchasing power of the working class.
JEL: E24, E31, J31, J38
The work considers the arguments for and against the indexation of personal income taxes. The author first reviews the effects of inflation on personal income and tax liabilities. The four analytical adjustment schemes that have been proposed in the literature to correct for the impact of inflation on personal income tax liabilities are then described and some particular problems with the adjustment schemes are highlighted. Finally, practical applications of indexation in several countries are assessed.
JEL: E31, H24
This article uses recent empirical results from a comparative Southern European study to show that the participatory practices commonly developed in this area are quite different from some of the common ideas related to deliberation in the English-speaking world. One of the main differences lies in the characteristics of the promoters, since most of them are top-down experiences organized by public authorities. The other main difference lies in the role played by equality concerns, which are quite marginal in most of these processes. In other aspects, like the role of participation professionals or the existence of important inequalities in the participation of different groups of citizens, the experiences developed in this area are not as different from what most of the comparative research has shown.