Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences
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Coalition government or federalism? The relationship between policy distance and institutional design
Get PDFAbstract. This study theorises the political system after the introduction of democracy through one mechanism: federalism and coalition government. This study shows that if a stable ruling party can be constituted by a coalition government without a federal system, then either the coalition government is maintained or a single party runs the state government as the ruling party, without devolving as much power to the regions as in a federal system. However, if there is a strong opposition party and the ruling party cannot be expected to have sufficient policy effectiveness, and if the opposition is strong enough in some regions to be the opposition party in the national government but the ruling party in the regions if federalism is introduced, then both the ruling party and the opposition party will benefit from federalism. Incentives then arise for both the ruling party and the opposition to reduce the powers of the state as a state and increase the powers of local government. Institutional designers choose whether to introduce federalism or to constitute a coalition government as a way of optimising investment for policy by the parties as well as the balance between policy distance between parties and the size of the parties.Keywords. Coalition governments; Federalism, Policy distance, Relation-specific investment.JEL. P26; P48; L38
The relation between timing of vaccinations and levels of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in society: When to roll out vaccination to minimize infections?
Get PDFThis study analyzes the relations between doses administrated of vaccines for Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and confirmed cases from March to May 2021 to find out the optimal level of doses administrated per 100 inhabitants, which can lead to a reduction in the diffusion of COVID-19 cases. Findings reveal that a delay of vaccination in population, it moves up the optimal value of doses administrated per 100 inhabitants from 58.5 to more than 86 per 100 people, with consequential damages and long-run deterioration of socioeconomic systems. This study suggests that the optimal policy to pandemic threats is the early, rapid, nationally vaccination rollout for an effective reduction of the spread of infectious disease that reduces negative effects in society.Keywords. Pandemics; Vaccines; Vaccinations; Infection control; Health Planning; Crisis management; Policy responses.JEL. C52; L25; M14
Determinants in the emergence of viral agents: the SARS-CoV-2
Get PDFAbstract. The objective of this paper is to clarify, whenever possible, the determinants in the emergence of biological agents to improve aspects connected with public health and biosecurity. Case study of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is investigated to assess the likely emergence from a wildlife spillover and/or scientific research in labs with unexpected accident. Using a meta-analysis, results suggest that a natural spillover of SARS-CoV-2 that has generated more than 5.2 million of deaths, in analogy with natural disaster, seems to have a remote probability, instead a lab accident in the process of scientific research has a probability of occurrence of about 15-30%. These results here are important to support decision making of policymakers for global biosecurity strategies with appropriate responses to prevent the future diffusion of vital agents similar to SARS-CoV-2 in environment and society.Keywords. Viral agent; Biological agent; SARS-CoV-2; Novel coronavirus; Zoonoses; Natural disaster; Lab accident; Laboratory biosafety; Biosecurity risks..JEL. C52; L25; M14
The financing of the long and medium term needs of SMEs: A contextualization of the rule of minimum financial balance
Get PDFThe main aim of this study is to highlight the breaking of the minimum financial balance rule by companies and propose ways of financing the long and medium term needs of SMEs in a context of excessive rationing of bank credit in order to obtain a balanced financial structure. We data from two surveys, the first based on the observation of 70 Cameroonian SMEs in 2011 in which we focus on the frequencies of the alternative methods of financing the long and medium term needs of SMEs. On the data of the second survey performed between 2013 and 2016 on 452 SMEs in Cameroon, we apply a Logit regression to empirically explain the probability of the choice of the mode of financing made in the presence of credit rationing and use the techniques leading to a mode of financing to highlight the modes of financing chosen by SMEs. Our results show the following modes of financing: For the first survey; equity, savings and loan associations (tontines), assistance from friends and family members, microfinance institutions, intercompany credit, leasing institutions, and bank credit. For the second survey: savings and loan associations, microfinance institutions, intercompany credit, help from friends and family members, contributions of partners, leasing institutions, and the issue of new shares are found as the main modes of financing. These findings can be important in line with the Modigliani and Miller, Myers and Majluf, and Quintart models if the question of the financing of SMEs in the context of excessive credit rationing is to be addressed.Keywords. Financing; Needs; Balance.JEL. C52; L25; M14
Why return to an electoral authoritarian state?
Get PDFAbstract. This study provides theoretical conditions for a stable political system. This study has the trade-off that military support for the rulers simultaneously encourages military build-up, resulting in closed authoritarianism, electoral authoritarianism and stabilising military regimes, while at the same time giving the military a stronger voice, which is a cost for the rulers. Democracies that are not aligned with the military are shown to be unstable. Despite the assumption of a path-dependent model, electoral authoritarianism is a stable system in countries where the initial political system is strengthened, but where the balance between citizens and the military is struck and the amount of real resources is not sufficient for the number of resources demanded by the citizens.Keywords. Path dependency; Democracy; Electoral authoritarian; Closed authoritarian; Military.JEL. P16; P26; P48
The presence and failure of big government in the coronavirus crisis
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on people across the world and leaders have had to tackle unforeseen challenges. From the time the outbreak was first identified in December 2019 to the time of publication, more than 24 million cases of coronavirus had been reported globally, resulting in more than 824,000 deaths. Many countries have taken various measures to combat the virus, but the wildly different responses and response timelines around the world resulted either in failures or successes, leaving people questioning which strategy works best. In this paper, the author examines the accounts of government failure in coronavirus responses in China, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States that contributed to the outbreak reaching unprecedented extremes. These government failures are contrasted with Sweden’s successful laissez-faire approach which serves as a crisis response model. In sum, in the attempt to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, governments expanded and squeezed out individual freedoms and liberties which will ultimately have lasting consequences in the post-pandemic world..Keywords. Big government, Government failure, Coronavirus.JEL. F21, F68, O53, K23
Critical decisions for crisis management: An introduction
Get PDFIn the presence of crisis, such as global COVID-19 pandemic crisis, governments have more and more take critical decisions to cope with consequential environmental threats in the presence of highly restricted time. This chapter provides a simple description of techniques of decision making in different environments/conditionsof crisis management and how that process is influenced by manifold social, economic and/or technical factors; ultimately it is presented how the approach of improvisation can support the process of decision-makingto cope with unforeseen and new events, rapid changes, turbulent environment and/or specific situations of emergency.Keywords. Critical decision, Decision making, Decision support, Uncertainty, COVID-19, Crisis management, Problem solving, Bounded rationality, Improvisation.JEL. F21, F68, O53, K23