This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The Politics of Distributing Social Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia provides a systematic analysis of the political processes shaping the distribution of social transfers in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In doing so, the book addresses a notable gap in recent research on social protection concerning the politics of implementation. While considerable attention has been devoted to debating the merits of different policy designs and the political factors shaping the adoption and diffusion of different policy models, ultimately the ability of any social transfer programme to deliver on its promises is dependent on the effective implementation and distribution of social transfers in line with intended objectives. The chapters in this book examine international and sub-national variation in programme implementation in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and Rwanda, drawing on a common analytical framework that highlights the importance of state capacity and reach, rooted in histories of state formation, and contemporary political competition in shaping the distribution of social transfers. Comparative analysis of the case studies supports the view that variation in the capacity and reach of the state within countries is a centrally important factor shaping the effectiveness and impartiality of distribution. Yet state capacity alone is insufficient. Rather political competition and power relations shape how this capacity is actually deployed in practice. As such, the book underscores the inherently political nature of implementation and questions common technocratic efforts to improve implementation by de-politicizing the social protection policy process.
This book offers an in-depth examination into genocide law by focusing on one of the lesser examined, yet practically significant, issues: the ‘substantiality requirement’. This refers to the requirement in international law that intended destruction should be directed towards a ‘substantial’ part of a protected group in order for an atrocity to qualify as genocide. This comprehensive and detailed study draws connections between different judicial approaches to ‘substantiality’ and the varying theoretical presumptions about the constitutive concepts of the crime. This prima facia doctrinal problem is used as a springboard to scrutinise the broader theoretical problems underlying the legal conceptualisation of genocide. The book systematically explores how the individualistic and collectivistic conceptions of the crime have been able to co-exist in case law and how the different approaches to assessing substantiality have played a backdoor role between these two conceptions. The work demonstrates that these two philosophical standpoints are far from effectively representing the reality of the protected groups and fully explaining the harm inherent to group destruction. The book revisits the recent philosophical and sociological studies on the crime and, considering ideas from the emerging ‘relational approaches to genocide’, offers a third way to understand the existing legal representation of the crime and, consequently, the idea of ‘substantiality’. It demonstrates the practical significance of its theoretical debates and applies its novel perspective through a case study on South Sudan. This book will be highly useful to students and scholars with an interest in genocide studies, international criminal law and legal theory. It will also be of interest to policymakers engaged with issues around genocide.
Background: By the turn of the new millennium 84% of families in rural coastal Ecuador had difficulties to access health services. A health reform some years earlier to improve this situation had not been implemented. In 2001, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Foundation Human Nature together with a rural population established a primary health care center in North-Western Ecuador. A public private partnership with the Ministry of Public Health was formed. Services depended on out-ofpocket payments, restricting the poor’s access to care. In order to increase access to primary and emergency care, Foundation Human Nature planned to establish a community-based health insurance. In the meantime, a major health reform was initiated by a new government in 2008. It aimed at universal health coverage, providing qualitative services for all based on primary health care, while ensuring protection from financial hardship. The aims of this thesis were to appraise the feasibility of community- based health insurance in Ecuador; to study how rural stakeholders perceived the 2008 reform and its effects on rural health services; to explore the local population’s perception of the NGO in service delivery; and to measure the scope and describe the nature of perceived emergencies, the related health care seeking behavior and health expenditure. Methods: Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to tackle the research objectives. Data collection for the health insurance study and the study of perceived emergencies was carried out through cross-sectional household surveys. For each of the studies 210 households were sampled with two-stage cluster sampling. Structured questionnaires were used with on the spot household interviews. Focus group discussions with local stakeholders were performed to explore their perceived effects of the 2008 health reform. The population’s perception of the NGO was also studied through focus group discussions, which were complemented by key-informant interviews with local stakeholders. Inductive qualitative content analysis, focusing on the manifest content was applied. Results: 69% of interviewees were willing to join the presented community- based health insurance scheme for 30 US$ per household and year. Attitudes towards the scheme were positive and 92% of interviewees stated they would increase their health service utilization with affiliation. The implementation of the 2008 health reform was perceived as topdown, lacking communication. However, the reform’s effects were mainly perceived as positive with free medical attendance and drugs. Increased service utilization was described as leading to a relative shortage of drugs and appointments. Access problems for remote dwellers were found, who were described of having to seek private care, also in emergencies. The NGO and its services were perceived positively by the population due to health care improvements in the region. The structure of the public private partnership was unclear, leading to dissatisfaction. Community participation was found to be rather weak. Perceived emergencies occurred to at least 90/1,000 inhabitants in the past year. Fever, traumatic injury and abdominal pain were the most frequent chief complaints. The first contacted providers in 57% of all cases were private for-profit providers, including traditional healers. Public health services treated one third of all cases. Health expenditure was found to be high and catastrophic health expenditure occurred in 24% of all cases. Conclusions: Prior to the 2008 reform community-based health insurance was found to be feasible in the study region. This financing instrument may have a role in the post-reform system, to cover services that the government does not yet sufficiently provide. The effects of the 2008 reform were mainly perceived positively, but an adjustment of the system is needed to improve the relative lack of drugs and appointments, especially for remote dwellers. Free health services may not be sufficient to reach universal health coverage for patients with perceived emergencies. Changes in public emergency departments and improved financial protection for emergency patients may improve the situation. The NGO’s role was perceived positively by the population. A lack of communication about the public private partnership and relatively weak community participation restricted the NGO’s full potential and should be improved.
In 2017 the Olympic Studies Centre of the German Sport University organized a workshop on Sport Development and Olympic Studies. This book resulted from the presentations and discussions they engendered around identifying new international collaborative research fields and deepening research on the Olympics, the Olympic Movement and sport development. The effective application of the hermeneutical method unifies the chapters. The interpretive strengths of this method sharpen the analytical perspective of the chapters, with the strict requirements for the use of primary sources meaning that the contributors have conducted extensive archival research. Assuring thematic coherence, the studies assembled for this book focus on the analysis of processes of continuity, transformation, and development across four areas: sport institutions and their policies; commissions within and policies of governing bodies of sports; legacy discussions; and sport events within the summer and winter Olympic Games transformed into political and cultural spectacles. Bringing together experts in the field, Sport Development and Olympic Studies will be of great use to scholars of Sport Development, Sport History, The Olympics and Sport Sociology. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.
The 2018 Malaysian General Election will stand as a major defining event in Malaysian history, when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition unexpectedly lost power in the country they had ruled for over half a century. This volume brings together scholars who assess one fundamental factor that brought about this game-changing event in Malaysian politics: intra-elite feuding in the leading Malay-based political parties. This study provides an analysis of individual state politics as well as national trends shaped by the actions of leaders in government and the opposition. An indispensable guide for scholars studying the politics of Malaysia and of Southeast Asia more broadly, it will be of great interest for all readers with an interest in Malaysian politics.
The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law aims to publish peer-reviewed scholarly articles and reviews as well as significant developments in human rights and humanitarian law. It examines international human rights and humanitarian law with a global reach, though its particular focus is on the Asian region. Volume 8 of the Yearbook covers a wide range of topics focusing on accountability under various legal regimes, which have been organized along four parts: Governance and Accountability, Justice and Accountability, Economic and Social Justice and Violence and Accountability.
The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, challenges, past and present global issues and debates in this exciting subject. The first collection of its kind, this volume comprises over 25 chapters by a team of international contributors. This Handbook is divided into five parts, each taking global developments in the field into account: Theoretical Reflections Power and Authority Conflict, Radicalization and Populism Dialogue and Peacebuilding Trends Within these sections, central issues, debates and developments are examined, including religious and secular press; ethics; globalization; gender; datafication; differentiation; journalistic religious literacy; race and religious extremism. This volume is essential reading for students and researchers in journalism and religious studies. This Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as sociology, communication studies, media studies and area studies.
