This paper argues that India's Goods and Services Tax Network has already produced, through tax incentive rather than cryptographic consensus, the supply chain properties — traceability, transparency, fraud reduction, and audit trail — that the blockchain literature proposes to deliver through distributed ledger technology. The argument is not that blockchain does not work. It is that the mechanism that produces tamper-resistance is the incentive, not the technology, and India already has that mechanism at national scale. The paper's original theoretical contribution is a two-player simultaneous-move game formalizing the bilateral incentive structure that the VAT self-enforcement literature has assumed in prose but never derived from primitives. The unique Nash equilibrium (F,D) — formal supplier, demanding buyer — is obtained by iterated elimination of weakly dominated strategies and sustained by a single precise condition: τv > c_B, the input tax credit exceeds the buyer's cost of sourcing from a registered alternative. No audit is required at the transaction level. The ITC does the work that enforcement cannot. The upstream formalization cascade — empirically documented by Patnaik (2026) as a doubling of effects over five years — follows directly as this equilibrium applied iteratively upstream, tier by tier, without government intervention at each stage. To the author's knowledge, this micro-foundation does not appear elsewhere in the VAT literature. Pomeranz (2015), Kleven et al. (2011), and de Paula and Scheinkman (2010) treat the self-enforcement intuition as motivation or derive aggregate implications; none writes down the strategic form game or states the equilibrium condition in falsifiable form. The empirical case rests on scale. FY2024-25 gross collections of Rs. 22.08 lakh crore (approx. USD 263 billion). April 2025 single-month record of Rs. 2.37 lakh crore (approx. USD 28 billion). 1.51 crore active registered taxpayers. Six phases of e-invoicing threshold reduction from Rs. 500 crore to Rs. 5 crore, directionally toward universal pre-validated coverage. GST 2.0 implemented September 22, 2025. The Production Linked Incentive scheme disbursing billions to Apple's contract manufacturers on the basis of GSTN-verified production data — the sovereign proof that the infrastructure is trusted for the highest-stakes commercial verification the government performs. The implication for Indian FMCG, pharmaceutical, and logistics firms is direct: private blockchain consortia built to solve domestic supply chain transparency problems are solving a solved problem at non-zero cost.
Abstract In the decade since the adoption of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, India has transitioned from a passive participant to a global architect of sustainable development. This paper explores the intricate mapping of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) onto India’s macroeconomic policies. It examines how the "Saptarishi" priorities of the Union Budget and the decentralization of targets through NITI Aayog have created a unique "Indian Model" of development. While progress in clean energy (SDG 7) and digital inclusion (SDG 8) has been exemplary, the paper highlights the persistent challenges of climate-induced agricultural volatility and the financing gap.
The article provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the fiscal decentralizatio mechanism in Ukraine and the European Union countries, with a focus on its impact on the financial capacity of local self-government. It is substantiated that fiscal decentralization is a key instrument for ensuring sustainable socio-economic development of territories, as it determines the level of budgetary autonomy, the stability of local budget revenues, and the ability of territorial communities to perform their own and delegated functions effectively. The current state and dynamics of fiscal decentralization in Ukraine during 2022–2024 are analyzed, taking into account the influence of martial law and war-related challenges on the structure of local budget revenues and the degree of dependence on interbudgetary transfers. The study conducts a comparative assessment of key quantitative indicators of fiscal decentralization in Ukraine and selected EU countries, including the share of local budgets in the consolidated public budget, the proportion of own-source revenues, the role of intergovernmental transfers, and the level of tax autonomy of local authorities. The results demonstrate that EU countries are characterized by higher financial stability of local governments, a greater share of own revenues, and more effective fiscal equalization mechanisms. Based on the analysis, quantitative benchmarks for adapting European fiscal decentralization practices to the Ukrainian context are proposed, aimed at strengthening the financial capacity of territorial communities. The findings may be used in shaping public finance policy, particularly in the context of European integration and post-war recovery of Ukraine.
Trust underpins democracy and monetary systems, yet centralized intermediaries—election commissions and central banks—increasingly betray this trust. India's recent electoral crises (in 2025), including Bihar's removal of 6.5 million voters and documented irregularities across states, expose democracy's vulnerability to manipulation by single authorities. Simultaneously, inflation at 6.7% erodes savings as central banks devalue currency through unchecked money printing. This essay argues that blockchain technology offers a revolutionary solution by replacing corruptible human gatekeepers with mathematically verifiable, distributed ledger systems. Drawing parallels between electoral fraud and monetary devaluation, I demonstrate how decentralized technologies can restore trust through transparency and eliminate single points of failure. However, the critical choice remains: will societies adopt truly decentralized systems, or embrace government-controlled digital currencies that deepen surveillance and control? The future of democratic and economic freedom hangs in the balance.
Pakistan's economic trajectory is defined by a structural trap: stabilization followed by consumption-led expansion that inevitably triggers a balance of payments crisis, renewed borrowing, and deepened fiscal vulnerability. This paper proposes a comprehensive 20-year transition strategy to break this cycle by replacing debt-financed consumption with an investment-led, export-oriented model grounded in the principles of riba-free finance. The framework synthesizes the disciplined interventionist state model of 1960s South Korea with the decentralized, borderless opportunities of the 21st-century digital economy through a Dual-Track Growth Engine covering both physical industrialization and virtual services expansion. The strategy further proposes a Digital Public Infrastructure architecture centered on the Raast payment system and blockchain-enabled supply chain transparency to formalize Pakistan's shadow economy, estimated at over $450 billion. On the financing side, the paper develops an equity-based paradigm for mobilizing diaspora capital through Mudarabah-based instruments, replacing domestic sovereign debt with Sukuk and Ijarah certificates, and executing structured debt-for-equity swaps with bilateral creditors including China. A phased 20-year roadmap is provided, with mathematical risk assessment through the Contingent Claims Approach, and a candid treatment of academic critiques including IMF framework conflicts and principal-agent problems in equity-based financing. The objective is economic self-sufficiency by Pakistan's centenary in 2047.
Con el pasar de los años, los individuos han perdido la capacidad de ver la realidad por sí mismos. Se ha vuelto costumbre en la humanidad, necesitar de una institución, por perversa que sea, para que diga que es verdad o mentira, que existe y que no. La institución que más relevancia ha tomado para expresarse sobre lo anterior es el Estado. A través de él se ha negado la verdad por años. Ahora, el presente trabajo busca establecer si el Estado, a través del ordenamiento jurídico, intenta desconocer otra realidad. A lo largo de este texto, estudiaremos, en primer lugar, la cadena de bloques o Blockchain, aquel invento innovador y tecnológico que es utilizado para realizar las transacciones en criptomonedas toda vez que permite que su funcionamiento sea descentralizado, seguro y casi imposible de falsificar. En segundo lugar, estudiaremos el Bitcoin, un revolucionario desarrollo tecnológico que se convirtió en un medio de intercambio y que se constituye en una alternativa de libre elección a las monedas de curso legal. Estudiaremos su origen, qué es y cómo funciona. La problemática radica en que, a pesar de que esta criptomoneda se utiliza como dinero, no cuenta con el reconocimiento de la mayoría de los Estados, consecuencia de ello, no se le da tratamiento de dinero. En tercer lugar, exploraremos la teoría evolutiva del dinero. Esta teoría es de vital importancia, pues nos permite entender cómo determinado bien que tiene ciertas cualidades se convierte en un medio universal de intercambio y, con ello, en dinero. En este punto, también revisaremos las funciones del dinero que se derivan de su principal función: ser un medio de intercambio. Esto, con la intención de establecer si el Bitcoin, a la luz de la teoría evolutiva del dinero, puede o no ser considerado como tal así el Estado se niegue a reconocerlo.
Decentralization of fiscal policy is a key factor in the formation of financial independence of local governments and strengthening the economic stability of regions in modern democratic states. Its relevance for Ukraine is determined by the need to strengthen the financial basis of territorial communities in the process of implementing administrative-territorial reform. The purpose of the study is to determine the decentralization of fiscal policy as a mandatory condition for obtaining an independent status of local communities; the object is the system of intergovernmental relations in democratic states. The methodological basis is comparative-legal and quantitative-analytical approaches, based on official statistical data Open Budget, World Bank Boost Data, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the State Statistics Service. The results of the study showed that in 2018–2024 the share of income without transfers, tax revenues and own resources of communities increased, which confirms the increase in the level of fiscal autonomy. Legislative amendments to the Budget Code ensured the expansion of local revenue sources, the introduction of basic and reverse subsidy mechanisms and the strengthening of horizontal equalization. It was found that the Ukrainian model of fiscal decentralization is gradually approaching European practices, forming institutional prerequisites for the sustainable development of communities and strengthening their financial independence.
This paper examines the challenges hindering rooftop solar (RTS) deployment in India and explores how a U.S.-India partnership can unlock its full potential. RTS, a decentralized and scalable renewable energy solution, is critical to India’s renewable energy goals, including its target of 40 GW of RTS capacity under the National Solar Mission by 2022 which remains unmet with only 10.9 GW installed as of 2023. Key barriers include high upfront costs, limited financing options, policy fragmentation, and resistance from distribution companies (DISCOMs). The paper identifies actionable solutions, leveraging U.S. expertise in innovative financing models, net metering policies, and grid modernization. Collaborative initiatives, such as USAID-backed loan guarantees and green bonds, could alleviate financing gaps, while technical assistance from the U.S. can support DISCOMs in integrating distributed solar. The paper also emphasizes the need for performance-based incentives, consumer awareness programs, and community solar models to accelerate adoption. A successful U.S.-India collaboration can address systemic challenges, enhance RTS scalability, and contribute to global climate goals. By leveraging shared expertise and resources, this partnership offers a pathway to strengthen India’s renewable energy transition while fostering bilateral cooperation in clean energy development.
The topic of financial resilience of territorial communities has gained significant relevance in the context of full-scale war, which has substantially affected public finances in Ukraine.The decentralization process granted new financial autonomy and decision-making possibilities to local powers.However, ongoing military actions have led to decreasing of financial flows, destruction of infrastructure and population displacement, which negatively influenced the financial sustainability of communities.This article aims to explore theoretical approaches to defining financial resilience of territorial communities, analyzing its key determinants and formulating an author's approach.The research identifies that financial resilience is a multidimensional concept incorporating self-financing capacity, effective resource management, debt burden control and adaptability to economic shocks.Additionally, resilience extends beyond financial stability to include proactive risk mitigation strategies that enhance the long-term sustainability of local powers.The morphological and functional analysis of the term "financial resilience" reveals its critical role in ensuring balanced economic and social development, particularly in crisis conditions.Key determinants influencing financial resilience include resource potential, financial inclusion, financial literacy, social capital, and strategic budget planning.Empirical observations suggest that communities with diversified income sources, sound financial planning, and efficient financial control mechanisms demonstrate higher levels of resilience.Moreover, interactions with external support systems, including governmental assistance and international funding, play an important role in maintaining financial stability.The study emphasizes that financial resilience is not solely dependent on internal financial management but also on broader socio-economic factors and governance efficiency.In the context of post-war recovery, financial resilience will serve as a foundation for rebuilding and strengthening local economies.Future 4(14) 2025 271 research should focus on refining financial resilience assessment models and developing targeted policies to support communities in navigating economic uncertainties and structural changes.
Yongsheng Guo, Ezaddin Yousef, Mirza Muhammad Naseer
This study investigates the key drivers and the economic and social impacts of cryptocurrency adoption. Based on panel data across 37 countries from 2020 to 2023, this research examines the interplay between cryptocurrency adoption and technology development, monetary policies, and economic and social development. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research incorporates panel data analysis across multiple countries to explore correlations and causal relationships between these variables. The study found that technology development, measured by the Network Readiness Index (NRI) enables cryptocurrency adoption. Economic conditions measured by higher national inflation rates and monetary policy indicators, including lower interest and exchange rates are the key drivers for cryptocurrency adoption. The empirical findings reveal that cryptocurrency adoption has negative relationships with economic development measured by the GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, and social development represented by the governance quality corruption index. It implies that cryptocurrency is used as a virtual anchor (digital gold) for national inflation. Findings reveal how network readiness, economic conditions, and monetary policies contribute to fostering cryptocurrency adoption, while resulting in impacts on economic growth, labour markets, and governance. The research contributes to the literature by integrating technological, economic, and governance perspectives to elucidate the role of cryptocurrency in reshaping the global economic and social systems.
Dr. Aashka Thakkar, Satyajitsinh Gohil, Nitesh Mishra, Mistry Neelam
The present research examines the most prominent five cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin, Ethereum, Biance Coin, Tether, and Solana—that are accessible in India according on the value of their market caps. It additionally highlights the benefits and drawbacks of each type of cryptocurrency as well as the advantages of some over alternatives. The article additionally outlines important aspects of the prominent digital currencies that are accessible in India. The study also concentrates on price assessment of the top five cryptocurrencies during the last year (1 years) as well as this study also indicate the contrasting of prices volatility of cryptocurrencies.
The fields of education, science, and sports are fundamental pillars of social infrastructure and represent a priority direction of Ukraine’s budget policy, especially in the context of ongoing decentralization and post-crisis recovery. The aim of this study is to examine the principles of funding for public institutions in these sectors based on assessments and analysis of short-term trends in their financing from the general fund of the State budget. The study presents the structure and management of budget expenditures in accordance with the provisions of the Budget Code of Ukraine, with particular emphasis on examples of institutions in the Odesa region for the period from 2022 to 2024. Methodologically, the study employs a combination of comparative analysis, synthesis, generalization, and methods of logical reasoning (induction and deduction), scientific research methods, and the tabular method. Budget data for local and regional institutions, including educational institutions, research organizations, and municipal sports enterprises, are analyzed to assess funding trends and identify systemic patterns. The study results show an overall positive trend in the increase of funding for education, science, and sports at the regional level. However, the analysis also reveals uneven community development: while some receive considerably larger expenditures to support infrastructure development and program expansion, others exhibit slower but more stable growth, likely due to differences in institutional maturity or strategic planning capacity. In particular, the sharp rise in expenditures for sports facilities in smaller communities may indicate deliberate government efforts to promote inclusive development and the decentralization of public services. The practical significance of the study lies in its potential to inform policymakers and local administrators about the effectiveness and fairness of existing budget allocation mechanisms. The study highlights the importance of improving the efficiency and transparency of government expenditures, enhancing planning tools, and aligning budget policy with the actual needs and capacities of local institutions.
Obtaining higher education in the United States of America is a key catalyst for social mobility of the population, public confidence, which provides many individual advantages in modern society. In 2023-2024, graduates of higher education institutions in the United States will make up a larger share of employees in both public and private enterprises, compared to those with a lower level of education. The economic and social development of Ukraine, as a world leader, requires investment in education. In this regard, it is relevant to study the implementation of STEM education in higher education institutions in the United States of America, since over the past three decades the importance of STEM education for the country's economic competitiveness has been recognized by the United States Government as a level of official resolutions, laws and regulations, as an area that supports the development of ideas and solutions necessary to solve the country's global problems. The article examines the impact of the decentralization of the US higher education sector on the strategy, oversight, and accreditation of higher education institutions in the United States. The presence of independent and autonomous accreditation agencies in the US that can assess the performance of US higher education institutions is analyzed. The procedure for assessing the performance of US higher education institutions, which is implemented through funding for needs-based research, innovative programs, and individual federal loans, is analyzed, and covers such university areas as student education, management, academic programs, faculty and staff qualifications, and finance. The specifics of the distribution of STEM degrees in the field of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in private and public institutions are considered. The concept of «conceptualizing culture» in undergraduate STEM education is investigated. The influence of curators and teachers of STEM disciplines on the ability of students to succeed in STEM education is investigated. It has been determined that STEM education in the United States is characterized by support from the Federal Government and is the national educational framework of the United States, which ensures the competitiveness of the state in the field of future employment.
The Indian music industry, like its global counterparts, faces significant challenges in protecting intellectual property IP and ensuring fair compensation for musicians. With the rise of digital platforms and increasing instances of piracy, musicians are finding it difficult to maintain control over their works. However, emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence AI, and smart contracts offer innovative solutions to these challenges. This research paper explores the role of these technologies in enhancing IP protection and streamlining royalty distribution in India’s music industry. By focusing on the potential of blockchain for copyright management, AI for automated content monitoring, and smart contracts for transparent and efficient royalty distribution, this study highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing these technologies in the Indian context.
Financial provision of rural territorial communities in conditions of sustainable development is an important aspect of the country's economic and social development. The successful functioning and development of such communities depend on their ability to attract and effectively distribute the financial resources needed to improve infrastructure, education, health care and other vital areas. In the conditions of sustainable development, which involves a balance between economic growth, social well-being and environmental protection, the financial support of rural communities becomes especially important for the preservation of their unique natural and cultural heritage. That is why the purpose of the presented work is to determine the features of financial support of rural territorial communities in conditions of sustainable development. The methods that were used in the formation of the current study are: methods of analysis and synthesis to determine the key aspects of the development of rural territorial communities; methods of induction and deduction to determine the features of the financial provision of territories; method of comparison; logical method; graphical and tabular methods for visual display of research results. Also, as a result of the study, it was proved that the necessity of diversifying the sources of financing is a prerequisite for the financial provision of rural territorial communities. In particular, such communities should actively attract local tax revenues, state support, as well as use the opportunities of international grants and technical assistance programs. At the same time, effective management of resources aimed at the implementation of sustainable development programs, which includes energy saving, development of local businesses and support of environmental initiatives, becomes an important task. In the context of reforming the financial system in Ukraine, financial decentralization is of particular importance, which opens up new opportunities for strengthening the financial independence of rural communities, at the same time placing greater responsibility on them for the rational use of funds. Rural communities can direct the received finances to improve infrastructure, develop social services, support local entrepreneurs, as well as to environmental and energy-saving initiatives.
The article closely reads a discussion paper by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog and a strategy paper by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) advocating non-financial use cases of blockchain in India. By noting the discursive shift from transparency to trust to adjustably transparent enacted in these two documents, and consequently the Indian state's redescription of blockchain, the paper foregrounds how blockchain systems are being designated as "decentral" but have recentralizing effects where the state reinvents and re-establishes itself as an intermediary. The paper illustrates how discursive shifts concerning trust, transparency, (de)centralization and (dis)intermediation are crucial sites for investigating redescriptions of emerging sociotechnical systems.
José Alexander Manjarres Márquez, Ramiro Enrique Salazar Ramos, E. Pérez
This article reviews the Colombian regulatory system, which has developed various forms of transferring resources from the national level to the local level for financing social expenditures, primarily in education, which is the sector with the highest allocation. Subsequently, the current system is described, which grants the most representative transfers from the nation to territorial entities to address sector-specific social expenditure. To analyze the resources allocated to the education sector in the Sucre department during the period 2010-2020 in practice and to determine if the transfer system effectively aims at fiscal decentralization, coupled with strengthening local and departmental capacities to autonomously manage transferred resources and efficiently manage tax collection and the acquisition of own resources. The work was developed using a mixed-method methodology, allowing for the approach of quantitative data to support qualitative analyses of the research using primary and secondary sources, as well as the observation of socioeconomic phenomena, establishing concurrent triangulation design.
There is a debate among investors about the benefits cryptocurrencies can take to a portfolio and how their prices move in the market.It's not hard to see that cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, but that doesn't stop investors from pouring large sums of money into cryptocurrency investments.Generate huge returns or catastrophic losses.One of the main challenges facing cryptocurrencies is determining how they perform with assets such as stocks and the rest of the market.The purpose of this article is to investigate whether cryptocurrencies provide diversification benefits and whether individual cryptocurrencies move similarly against each other.Of particular interest is whether there is a connection between the cryptocurrency market and the stock market.The cryptocurrencies chosen for the project were primarily benchmarked against stocks in the information technology-focused Nasdaq 100 Index, as well as a number of other assets.
The article examines the relationship between the process of financial decentralization and the stability of the development function of regional economic systems based on the interdependence of these components of social transformation. After all, the motivational determinism of local finances activates the process of creating new jobs through the formation of the investment attractiveness of a particular region, the innovative progress of broad segments of the population, and the coordination of business, society, and subnational public authorities. The article reveals that the revival of the economy at the spatial level should be based primarily on the activation of innovative activities in the production and infrastructure sectors. Despite the decentralization of power functions, institutional bottlenecks, and the challenges and threats of decentralization, we believe that inclusiveness is quite high and is not conditioned by state regulation. The article states that the strengthening of the role of territorial communities gives rise to the need to reassess the place and function of each region in the coordinate system of the economic space, which must make institutional decisions that provide conditions for further development. Decentralization opens huge opportunities for the development of clusters of agro-industrial parks but provides an inclusive way for the development of the spatial economy, leveling the existing asymmetry and ensuring decent working and living conditions for the rural population. Proof of this is the EU agro-industrial complex, which convincingly confirms that land management within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy of the third millennium means much more than food security and export growth, as this cannot be achieved without the simultaneous inclusiveness of sustainable development. A sound strategy for the development of a single national land community through the creation of industrial complexes and the integration of regional economic systems will allow us to move away from budgetary materialism to a paradigmatic strategy of financing spatial development and economic accumulation.
Анатолій Карпук, Vasyl A. Holian, Rostyslav A. Butsenko
It is substantiated that the main capital of forestry economy includes the technical-technological, production-economic and natural-resource components, which requires the formation of a modern model of ecological and economic regulation of its reproduction to prevent the processes of exhausting and unbalanced forest use. It is determined that at the present moment the decisive influence on the paces, proportions and scale of reproduction of the main capital of forestry economy is exercised by the processes of European integration, digitalization and decentralization, which to some extent is reflected in the State Strategy for Forest Management of Ukraine until 2035. Studies have shown that in 2013–2021 in the dynamics of most articles of capital expenditures for the purchase of production equipment, cars, devices, machinery and mechanisms, there is an upward trend, owing to both the real growth of capital investments and devaluation-inflationary processes. It is revealed that in 2013–2021 there is a reduction in total capital expenditures for the purchase of road construction equipment, which reduces the ability of permanent forest users to develop a network of forestry roads. It is substantiated that deepening the digital transformation of the forest management system and the movement of forest products requires an increase in capital expenditures in the acquisition of modern software and other information and digital technologies, which will lead to an increase in the share of intangible assets in the structure of main capital of forestry economy. It is found that in recent years certain institutional prerequisites have been formed for diversification of sources of financial and investment support for the reproduction of fixed capital of forestry economy due to an increase in the volume of bank lending and additional attraction of foreign investments. It is proved that a perspective institutional form of diversification of sources of financing for the reproduction of main capital are public-private partnership agreements, which will ensure the consolidation of resources of the public and corporate sectors to accelerate the processes of expanded reproduction and economic development of the forest resource potential of the country.
Rasha Ali El Ashmawy, Amany Ragheb, Ghada Ragheb, Dalia Abdelrazik
Many developing countries as well as some developed countries suffer from the problem of slums. They constitute a real defect in the economic and social development plan of the concerned countries. The methods used to finance development projects in countries vary according to the different social, economic, and legislative influences. The process of providing the expenses required for these projects is one of the most important problems that governments face. The study aims to establish some rules and principles in a proposed theoretical framework and to document some of the experiences of supporting cities globally as well as in the African and Arab countries, by using a general analysis model that includes Egyptian experiences to understand the most important problems related to sustainable development and how to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the development of urban planning and management. An analytical study is conducted to the experience of participatory development of Manshiyet Nasser is presented and the proposed development programs to determine their advantages and disadvantages. The study concluded to identifying several recommendations for dealing with slums and setting an integrated urban development model for low-income areas that can be replicated in other similar sites. The study also concluded that in development projects, focus is placed on popular participation and decentralization in decision-making, seeking to solve existing problems in society and taking the initiative to experiment new methods from which the government refrains for fear of failure.
The financial support of territorial communities is proposed to be considered as a process of formation, distribution and use of financial resources in order to satisfy the needs and interests of citizens in the sphere of all life activities in the relevant territory. At the same time, the main form of financial support of territorial communities remains budget financing, the quality of which depends on the level of their economic and social development. The state of financial support for the development of territorial communities under conditions of decentralization in Ukraine was analyzed. It was found that during the studied period the number of UTC grew quite quickly and by the beginning of 2022 was 1469 units. It was well founded that the main source of formation of own and fixed incomes of local budgets is precisely tax revenues. However, in the conditions of the war, the budgets of the communities underwent significant transformations, became more dependent on transfers from the central budget. Communities had to cut capital spending and direct it to defense and the reserve fund. The financial decentralization of local self-government helped the communities to withstand the conditions of large-scale Russian aggression. Keywords: decentralization, financial support, territorial communities, development.
Hugh D. Whittaker, Timothy J. Sturgeon, Toshie Okita and Tianbiao Zhu, Compressed Development: Time and Timing in Economics and Social Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. 295 pp. £ 60.00 hardback. Graham Harrison, Developmentalism: The Normative and Transformative within Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. 304 pp. £ 58.74 hardback. At the turn of the 21st century, development research witnessed the consolidation of a socio-economic transformation paradigm centred around individual agency (and freedoms) and localized processes of empowerment (and stable forms of change). Within this paradigm, development processes are mainly mediated through markets and enhanced by good governance institutions. Neoclassical economics, as well as humanist approaches to development advanced by the capability approaches of Amartya Sen (1999) and Martha Nussbaum (2000), provide theoretical foundations to this paradigm. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Agenda for 2000–2015 was a clear manifestation of this established consensus at the turn of the century (United Nations, 2000). Aligning with a liberal tradition, these theories have promoted research in development policies and the implementation of institutional market failure fixes that deliberately avoid a direct engagement with the political economy of structural transformation, the developmental role of the state, and the full reality of development in context. Examples of the transformative structural dynamics that the conventional development discourse struggles to grasp include changes in the organization of global production and their impact on the development of countries; technological changes driven by information and communications technology and, more recently, digitalization; the rise of China and the ‘great doubling’ in the global labour markets. There have been several calls for new syntheses, integrating alternative research frameworks which can address the current reality of global development. These include a call to rediscover high-level theories of the classical political economy and developmentalist traditions.11 See, for example, Chang and Andreoni (2021) and other contributions in the special issue on ‘Bringing Production Back into Development’; Kholi (2004) on the developmental state; and Kvangraven (2021) on the ‘dependency research programme’. The widening contradictions between the dominant development research agenda and the reality of local and global development have been addressed mainly by scholars ‘trespassing’ across disciplinary boundaries (Hirschman, 1981). This includes economists working in the classical political economy tradition — Marxist in particular but also Structuralists, Schumpeterians and Old Institutionalists — alongside anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists. This essay considers two recent books whose authors breach these traditions and disciplines. They both make a significant, and in many respects complementary, contribution in pushing ahead a new wave of high-development theory better equipped — both theoretically and empirically — to address development and underdevelopment in the 21st century. The first of these two books, Compressed Development: Time and Timing in Economic and Social Development (hereafter Compressed Development) by Hugh D. Whittaker, Timothy J. Sturgeon, Toshie Okita and Tianbiao Zhu, advances a new theoretical synthesis within which the global matrix of technological and organizational change (and their co-evolving relationships) is framed and linked to state and markets relations (and their embedding and disembedding dialectics). The authors use these theoretical constructs to identify and document distinctive features of the current ‘era’ of development — what they call ‘compressed development’. In their view, there is something unique in the regime of compression experienced by countries from 1990 onwards. Compressed development is a historical phase of global capitalist transformation characterized by ‘out-of-sequence’ and ‘simultaneous’ phenomena. For example, the authors point to the coexistence of ‘premature de-industrialisation’ in developed economies and ‘thin industrialisation’ among several middle-income countries (p. 23). Furthermore, Compressed Development highlights how ‘transmission mechanisms’ such as global value chains (GVCs) and the disembedding of global markets lead to the spread of phenomena like financialization and interdependence across developed and developing countries. Indeed, the book points to mutual interdependencies between countries whereby national dynamics shape (and are shaped by) state–market and organization–technology relationships unfolding in different countries. For example, the compressed development framework highlights how imperial powers shaped the development journey of ‘the rest’ through ‘policy space compression’, as well as showing how the rise of the rest — China in particular — has affected early and late industrializers including America and Japan (the so-called ‘China shock’). These structural interdependencies pose new development trade-offs in the forms of ‘dual challenges’, especially for countries aspiring to achieve socially inclusive industrialization. This is perhaps the second most important contribution of this book — pointing out that social policy was a key, although implicit, ingredient of late industrialization (Mkandawire, 2004) and that this key policy has become increasingly difficult to deliver under compressed development. ‘Recent developers now face simultaneous challenges in social development which early and late developers confronted sequentially’ (p. 160). Education and health are sectors in which the double burdens and challenges are most acute and difficult to address. In the education sector, for example, the need for inclusive ‘basic education’ co-exists alongside the need for ‘advanced education’ towards technological and innovation capabilities development. These complex relationships and policy challenges are finally addressed in Chapter 8 of Compressed Development with the introduction of the idea of an ‘adaptive developmental state’ and the discussion of the need for ‘dynamic state‒civil society relationships’ (p. 185). Building on the case of China, the authors convincingly point to the importance of understanding the opportunities offered by multilevel governance structures and incentives, including ‘local developmentalism’; they also highlight new problems posed by decentralization projects for overall policy coherence and integration at the time when these are increasingly necessary. The book adopts a political economy lens to advance a stylized theory of an adaptive developmental state. However, it does not fully engage with the problems that ‘the rest of the rest’, that is, countries that have not even managed to reach their middle-income status, are facing in their efforts to initiate and sustain their infant processes of capitalist transformation. This is where Compressed Development finds an interesting interface and starts a dialogue with the second book reviewed in this essay. The second book, Developmentalism: The Normative and Transformative within Capitalism (hereafter Developmentalism) by Graham Harrison, offers an ambitious critical political economy framework that takes on — directly and forcefully — the ‘normatively pleasing’ approach to development embodied by capability approaches and germane liberal development perspectives (p. 48). The key historical anchor of the book is that while romanticized historiographies of capitalist transformation should be avoided, we cannot escape from acknowledging the fact that developed capitalist societies have achieved generalized conditions of material progress which are historically unprecedented. Within developed capitalist societies these conditions of material progress are so ‘pervasive and obvious’ that they are often not recognized — even though ‘they are very easily recognizable if one does not live in these conditions’ (p. 7). Using Tanzania as a standpoint — a country where a radical transformation in the material conditions of people's daily lives has still to come — the book centres the analysis on the tension between progress and agency, as a tension between the normative and the transformative. This is central to development understood as a process of capitalist transformation, an untidy process that is in fact intrinsically (p. Within the theoretical framework advanced in of development with a process of and transformative from changes in and of the many in the of this is, a and not a for capitalist development. this process of capitalist political and are to direct this process of towards a structural transformation in the socio-economic and institutional of the Indeed, capitalist transformation is developmental to the that it political and political for is in this as a political economy within which development is intrinsically and — the of state — and it if it is not At the of this political economy there is a process of state whereby the state the and of a capitalist and, in so both the and of the capitalist transformation. However, the state is of the political that is, to deliver of governance and policies that sustain their The to which the state a of a one of and also is historical and is not a of institutional good In the two and dynamics can and are both of as in the of historical in the second of the book These historical case the of capitalist transformation — their and They include both countries in which and in which it is still and are the most among these and highlight the of capitalist development. China, and are as of the and efforts in capitalist transformation and the different political projects their development In the development of these the is on the developmentalist the transformation of these countries (p. and the to which their capitalist transformation has opportunities for new forms of social and political The tension between the normative and transformative takes in this while of the structural dynamics in the global matrix of technological and organizational change in Compressed Development to be In the the two theoretical frameworks advanced in these new books to highlight their contributions and — especially in to their of the role of the state and forms of the developmental state. the and between the new theoretical perspectives offered by the two books, and their for development In development theory and social have been out among of structural change and their and these on of analysis (and and a of structural change whereby countries are to from to and in their capitalist development. Compressed Development how these can ‘out-of-sequence’ their is boundaries become increasingly The of the book is that the time compression experienced by countries in the current of development has it does not with these In Chapter of Compressed the manifestation of time compression in development is with to two key development phenomena — industrialization and to the the authors point to the complex of simultaneous industrialization and and is, in at of The book highlights the fact that across developing ‘thin industrialisation’ and ‘out-of-sequence’ as are perhaps the most phenomena of the current by also on forms of de-industrialisation’ across developed the these dynamics have been by by changes in structures and a in In they have been with social compression and market disembedding from their of such and their of the time compression of the current of the authors of Compressed Development their framework in a and In Compressed the first of the framework is centred around state–market relationships and their At the country these relationships are framed by idea of a double of and of markets and it to the and in the state. The disembedding of markets from social and institutional a to state and market (and These co-evolving state–market relationships are not make these relationships dominant powers — such as in early and late development the and early and America in development and the current of compressed development — use their of to policy space in other countries. In this dominant powers are of state–market relationships in these countries and their industrialization. The second a on development is and The development often to as the of was characterized by a of Compressed Development the of the current of compressed development in the tension between and especially in America and the late in these was and was on the to the of the by a from the of in the dominant economy a This to market which spread through — the disembedding of markets. on and Furthermore, the governance of that from the was by a of This to a financialization of the economy at both the and At the the of the state as the of and in by central At the the of as the to a from and to and with a impact on innovation and and 2000). on the financialization of has developed the and has to the complex and processes across countries and sectors and Compressed Development how financialization is across middle-income countries and how it to forms of ‘premature (p. In the Compressed Development through and the authors a direct between the relationships of disembedding and on the one and the on the other This is is central in within and organizational The book takes a turn by the in which and in technology alongside and in dominant organizational (the the by the most important in dominant The book the dynamics the of new with more recent contributions more on the of and their and This integration the authors of Compressed Development to their relationships and how they have to compressed development This synthesis is a contribution of the on important on changes in example, Sturgeon, and with important to on the authors provide a analysis of the in which the of and the rise of the of production is central to understanding the of the current of development. The authors are to point out that this was not a of driven by the of production but also a social for which the social conditions for innovation and across In within often and and not with to — to from — as it was in (p. The from the and implementation the for the rise of the organizational the especially in the of the organization to production and In was in the that from a to one by market This was not the case in Japan in the where forms to a is that and — and the of — was as the organizational to and as well as to This is a that has in many respects in both dominant countries and developing countries. of — from the in to the of and more the global — have this global organizational of several problems with of in advanced countries; as well as ‘thin across developing where production transformation is most The to which and the rise of a new be a an both in different of industrialization in developing countries is something that to be is a in the Compressed Development from and in historical and understanding of the co-evolving organization–technology The to which countries have historically been to under different of development and under different forms (and of compression on many Compressed Development and to the historical analysis of several country and policy the is on the different institutional to the and global challenges posed by different development The authors advance two key forcefully with an of Japan and The first is that countries and in development The second is that institutional development is and This that institutional which in a in even if they are the to the new opportunities and challenges posed by organization–technology In a was on the institutional between and this has 1990 under compressed it has and has of changes In China has as a in the compressed development institutional and the the of direct and forms of governance have to a and more of production and development as well as integration into and These in institutional in Japan and China, and their from different of are in the education and and are in impact on education to with — time compression — while China was and of Compressed Development are important into two key policy and institutional and and social In these the authors from the institutional analysis of China and Japan Japan in the to on China as a middle-income country The key contribution of these two is to highlight an in the capitalist development and policy is the fact that production transformation be socially The authors even when they that ‘the key in the of compressed development is not so technological and although this is difficult it is to a between technological development on the one and inclusive and social development on the (p. This the current on the so-called middle-income in it convincingly highlights under compressed we need to at new of and it how now face the of developing an education while of both social and production it that need to a to and and the of and (p. Education and social policy are not and they have become an for of state–market (p. In in developing in the of policy and we have witnessed the of and in these two reality the whose are is from and (p. This book in in the of institutional development and impact for development. The of this synthesis is by the that the authors as well as that the can country research In Compressed the contradictions and challenges in the education and social sectors are linked to the of compressed and the this of capitalist transformation. we these and contradictions at a more of capitalist frameworks can to are the dominant of development that from these contradictions and This is where an dialogue between the authors of the two books reviewed in this essay Compressed Development on the key and the of dynamics capitalist transformation, book the of an historical within which policy is as a of of and In and is and is state social to and and is on a process of that is intrinsically (p. is, the in which political is to has a of the dynamics of between the state and of the coherence and social of the of and their to stable projects of social the to which state and and the dynamics of and in of the The features by cannot be more from the of development in Amartya of as and other normative political theories of and In Chapter of the a critical of the theoretical foundations of the capability approach — in — and normative points out how the within capability approaches is the one of the and this is where individual for social structures agency are as a to individual forcefully liberal traditions for their of understanding of the political economy of structural transformation and is not to that also from the institutional fixes promoted within the good governance agenda and by Economics This agenda the manifestation of social phenomena with their For example, is framed as a even in most development and to for ‘the of (p. which as the structures and relations central to the capitalist this can be understood by the between institutional development and Indeed, it was capitalist and inclusive that institutional change and state the book is framed within a Marxist tradition theory of so to that the phenomena and the — that is, the structural and capitalist social relations that their forms of and has not a process of and markets are and not into of labour is a of the by and the of by are to the to a to provide material for The second — in which is and, is not (and — is the most one in of the engagement with this is one that takes from approaches calls such as ‘dependency In view, these approaches not engage with the of capitalist development in the alongside approaches such as of Production and that on to for example, Within these the of is fully In the of markets and and the of are key of state and capitalist transformation. In this the of the capitalist state is not it is the of a historical and political framed so takes a and to address this This is one of the key contributions to development research and the of a approach to centred around approaches to development are on a in which are to the These what is and (p. Within this if conditions of processes and of the development of state points out how this of the state to as a of implementation a for the of normative (p. In view, this is to as not they are in (p. alternative of of the state and the political can be in on this approach to identify as a political as one important of among which from socially and historically In we can an interesting with political and on the role of institutions. Harrison, one In book the so-called ‘basic that the state to achieve a of of and is in of and the conditions of (p. to Harrison, the of is also a political theory with a critical and the of the most a for This is the to forms of are so that their and are their (p. this and under forms of that are to in the of for it is to forms of governance such as the of of In and a historical and political economy of how in America and their for capitalist — from and to society and and is in this the developmentalist state, and a dominant one which shaped through the global space for development. Indeed, the first of as a to this and the from like and and policy America achieved through policy of the of was more the rest of the This capitalist and of including and the of However, in both America and as their economies the to a and the state to address this to and late and development in countries such as China, and for most of these countries there is a still to highlight important political economy and contributions to the contributions in the have to the capitalist transformation of of these countries — in — by developmental and on the process of state and and the rise of a capitalist within a material of capitalist transformation. In this the of China and are as of we on the from both books, Compressed Development and the is with a of the importance and of integrating these research into a new ‘compressed This essay has key contributions by Compressed Development and that understanding of and the political economy of capitalist transformation. books a of development whose can be to classical political economy and on and political economy structures and their books from an to make of a production Compressed Development with a the of a late and very within the and on the of in (p. This of the and the new — something that in developing countries often — is difficult to within a of development and in Andreoni with an in which the Tanzania with an Tanzania in when has in this become dominant (p. This is centred on the and of the The in to Tanzania to a capitalist transformation under and the of the 21st century an to this analysis the developmental of Tanzania with that of books also a of development as capitalist transformation in which production transformation is with social and institutional and state They also the idea that the developmental state is to the that it can deliver social that is, be inclusive (and does not in of the books, their and but this is with their Compressed Development on the in which the state is by good and social under a compressed development on the in which the state can a through of (and This is in fact an ingredient of the development In Compressed double of and disembedding are central in the of a theory of the while is to the In a Marxist lens is to and dynamics in the process of state both books a that is, the integration of theory and In the case of Compressed this integration for an framework in which and historical time and agency is This does not that there is agency, but that development in a and This tradition can be to the of classical development economists — from to — but also to scholars of technological change and such as and In the case of the historical is mediated by the it is directly in Marxist political economy and a approach to In and can be to the of and are these books in the of a political economy of developmental between the books can be as an approach that is liberal approaches to but an approach in the reality of and material of the state. For Harrison, — a approach to — is a to a change that is within as and the historical of is on In Compressed the authors are mainly on towards a developmental state. recent contributions in Development and have at the for example, Chang and Whittaker, Sturgeon, Okita and a new of developmental state whose is to be the of multilevel governance and local in China Chapter Compressed Development points to opportunities offered by projects in a time of compression such as and also points to the fact that this two local but it does so at the of policy coherence and the of is more in a time of but the of many social and on the address of these contradictions and and in society an important the state–market and co-evolving They call for state‒civil society (p. a often but difficult to in especially at a time when forms of such as political and have been in This is perhaps where the two books reviewed in this essay to even on the of the we society we the society in capitalist countries like and Tanzania in so-called advanced countries like the This an but it is a central In both the of and policies as in Compressed as well as the political of and a material of social change that the state and a of for as in These two books, in this other and from two different an important contribution to these and for the Andreoni is of Development Economics at University of is also University of and an of the of Development has on the political economy of development and
The article is devoted to the study of the administrative and legal status of local self-government bodies in the process of implementing the decentralization reform. Currently, Ukraine is undergoing a decentralization reform. Its beginning, in its current form, is considered to be the approval by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of the concept of reforming local self-government and territorial organization of power in Ukraine in 2014 and the approval of the action plan for its implementation, which launched the decentralization reform. In 2020-2021, a new stage of decentralization is taking place in Ukraine, which was characterized by a number of significant legislative changes. The article examines the administrative and legal status of local self-government bodies. It is argued that the term “local self-government body” is understood as an autonomous, non-sovereign legal entity of public law, which was created and received its power from a law adopted by Parliament. The degree of independence of local self-government in decision-making is determined by the nature and structure of administrative relations with state authorities. It is concluded that during the implementation of the reform, the legislation on local self-government and related legislation should be revised and improved in such a way as to expand the powers of local self-government bodies and contribute to the better performance of their functions, especially in the management of personnel issues, financial affairs and in determining their own priorities in the provision of public services. Despite the revision and amendment of the legislation on local self-government and other relevant legislation, the analysis of scientific sources gives grounds to assert that the exercise by local self-government bodies of their statutory powers and the performance of the functions assigned to them largely remained under the influence and control of the state authorities.