In the present investigation an analysis of citizen participation takes place in the Decentralized Autonomous Government of San Lucas in 2012, it aims to determine the level of knowledge and implementation of the rules of citizen participation in Decentralized Autonomous Government members parish rural, to prepare the Annual Program of Public Policy and the Participatory budget. It is considered as rules of citizen study participation, the Ecuadorian Constitution establishes different levels of government, the Organic Code of Organization Territorial Autonomy and Decentralization that defines responsibilities and powers of the same, plus the Organic Law of Citizen Participation, the Organization Code Planning and Public Finance, and the Organic Law of the Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control. In addition the level of citizen participation in Decentralized Autonomous Government vestry San Lucas is determined, in developing the annual program of public policy and budget in 2012. Finally, the opportunities for citizen participation that promotes identified local government.
Carsten Baum, Ivan Damgård, Tomas Toft, Rasmus Winther Zakarias
We present techniques and protocols for the preprocessing of secure multiparty computation (MPC), focusing on the so-called SPDZ MPC scheme [19] and its derivatives [16,18,1]. These MPC schemes consist of a so-called preprocessing or offline phase where correlated randomness is generated that is independent of the inputs and the evaluated function, and an online phase where such correlated randomness is consumed to securely and efficiently evaluate circuits. In the recent years, it has been shown that such protocols (such as [4,31,27] ) turn out to be very efficient in practice. While much research has been conducted towards optimizing the online phase of the MPC protocols, there seems to have been less focus on the offline phase of such protocols (except for [16]). With this work, we want to close this gap and give a toolbox of techniques that aim at optimizing the preprocessing. We support both instantiations over small fields and large rings using somewhat homomorphic encryption and the Paillier cryptosystem [34], respectively. In the case of small fields, we show how the preprocessing overhead can basically be made independent of the field characteristic and present a more efficient (amortized) zero-knowledge proof of plaintext knowledge. In the case of large rings, we present a protocol based on the Paillier cryptosystem which has a lower message complexity than previous protocols and employs more efficient zero-knowledge proofs that, to the best of our knowledge, were not presented in previous work.
Brazil opted for decentralization in the provision of health services at the time of the 1988 Constitution´s promulgation. The municipalities became entirely responsible for primary healthcare provision, sharing financing responsibilities with the central government. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of health spending autonomy on infant mortality rates, using Brazilian local data from 2000 to 2007. As a measure of spending autonomy we used the share (%) of overall health expenditures financed by municipalities’ own resources. The larger the share of health expenditures which is not financed by the central government (grants), the greater the autonomy, because local governments can decide how and on what to spend these resources, and most of intergovernmental transfers to the health sector are allocated to predefined specific purposes. The fixed effects estimates, through the use of an instrumental variables approach, show that, on average, greater spending autonomy is not associated with lower infant mortality rates. However, given that local governments and populations are different in many aspects, it is reasonable to expect a heterogeneous response to decentralization. Galiani et al. (2008), for instance, assess the hypothesis that decentralization of high schools in Argentina may have increased the difference in educational outcomes. Could the same have happened to the quality of health in Brazilian municipalities? In well-managed municipalities and in which individuals participate actively and can support their preferences, fiscal autonomy ought to improve the delivery of public services. Using a measure of efficiency in the delivery of health services to split the municipalities in two groups, we got significant results for the more efficient municipalities, implying an increase in inequality. This measure corresponds to efficiency scores estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We also test for heterogeneous impacts of the Family Health Program (PSF), the most important Brazilian basic health care policy, which main expansion occurred until 2007. It is a federal Program that each municipality runs independently. Again, we find evidence of a heterogeneous response, since PSF only reduces infant mortality rates in efficient municipalities. We then confirm Galiani’s (2008) hypothesis that decentralization may help only the best to do even better.
The early Internet witnessed the flourishing of a digitally networked public sphere in which many people, including dissidents who had little to no access to mass media, found a voice as well as a place to connect with one another. As the Internet matures, its initial decentralized form has been increasingly replaced by a small number of ad-financed platforms, such as Facebook and Google, which structure the online experience of billions of people. These platforms often design, control, influence, and “optimize” the user experience according to their own internal values and priorities, sometimes using emergent methods such as algorithmic filtering and computational inference of private traits from computational social science. The shift to a small number of controlling platforms stems from a variety of dynamics, including network effects and the attractions of easier-to-use, closed platforms. This article considers these developments and their consequences for the vitality of the public sphere.
This article argues that there is at present no comprehensive and clear legal protection for Australian consumers acquiring bitcoins and/or transacting with bitcoins for goods or services.The unique nature of bitcoin as a cryptocurrency means that it is not always easy to bring bitcoin within existing legal frameworks, such as the sale of goods legislation and legislation relating to financial products and financial services. Nevertheless, consumer protection may be available under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and the Australian Consumer Law (2010). Important protections offered to bank customers and credit card users are however not available, as there is no right of charge back and the ePayments Code, Code of Banking Practice and Financial Ombudsman Services do not generally apply to bitcoin transactions. The regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies should be revisited, as they are unlikely to disappear, and piecemeal development of regulation may lead to legal incoherence. Regulation should however not restrict developments in blockchain technology because of its wide-ranging benefits.
Multi-subject co-governance is the direction of the development of social governance in China.Taking H family service center of D city,a Women's Federation key social organization in Guangdong,as an example,this paper analyses the cooperative effect of the key social organizations on the provision of community services,cultivation and hatching of social organizations,mobilization and integration of social resources and standardizing the development of social organizations from the micro perspective. The experience of H family service center shows that the institutional space of the key social organizations' effective participation in community services is the result of the selective transference of government functions and the embedded autonomous response from the key social organizations. The government should decentralize moderately to cultivate the institutional environment for key social organizations and key social organizations should initiatively seek development space,both of which could promote social collaborative governance in the process of positive interactions.
Kant, Calculus, Consciousness, and the Mathematical Infinite in Us John H. Smith Der Begriff des Unendlichkleinen, darauf die Mathematik so öfters hinauskommt, wird mit einer angemaßten Dreistigkeit so geradezu als erdichtet verworfen, anstatt daß man eher vermuten sollte, daß man noch nicht genug davon verstände, um ein Urteil darüber zu fällen. Die Natur selbst scheint gleichwohl nicht undeutliche Beweistümer an die Hand zu geben, daß dieser Begriff sehr wahr sei. Denn wenn es Kräfte gibt, welche eine Zeit hindurch kontinuierlich wirken, um Bewegungen hervorzubringen, wie allem Ansehen nach die Schwere ist, so muß die Kraft, die sie im Anfangsaugenblicke oder in Ruhe ausübt, gegen die, welche sie in einer Zeit mitteilt, unendlich klein sein. Es ist schwer, ich gestehe es, in die Natur dieser Begriffe hineinzudringen; aber diese Schwierigkeit kann allenfalls nur die Behutsamkeit unsicherer Vermutungen, aber nicht entscheidende Aussprüche der Unmöglichkeit rechtfertigen.1 [The concept of the infinitely small, which comes up so often in mathematics, is rejected straight out with presumptuous audacity as a fiction, instead of assuming that it is not well enough understood to form a judgment about it. Nature itself seems, however, to provide clear proofs that there is truth to this concept. For if there are forces that work continuously through time in order to produce movements, as it would appear is the case with gravity, then the force that effects this movement in an initial instant (or rest) must be infinitely small as opposed to the one that imparts movement in time. It is difficult, I confess, to penetrate into the nature of these concepts; but this difficulty can at most justify cautiously avoiding unfounded suppositions and not claiming decisively that it is impossible.] The question that I address in this essay is simple: what is the mathematical infinite doing at crucial moments in Kant’s philosophy? By doing I mean the way that specific notions of the infinitely small—the infinitesimal, the differential, infinite approximation, continuity—serve as metaphors in a strong Aristotelian sense; that is, they attempt to “bring before the eyes” something abstract and thereby contribute a kind of intuition to the unintuitable.2 And yet, there is something doubly ironic going on in this effort. On the one hand, although mathematics and the mathematization of nature have been criticized by Husserl for abstracting modern thought from the concrete life-world of experience, I will look to places where there is a turn to the mathematical infinite in order to be concrete.3 On the other hand, the clear [End Page 95] intuitions associated with the mathematical infinite can easily get caught up in contradictions that undermine the initial clarity.4 By exploring these moments of metaphoric and paradoxical representation, we can see how major thinkers grappled with a notion of the “immanence of the infinite” that characterizes the epochal turn of modernity.5 First, let me give a general sense of what is at stake in the notion of the mathematical infinite and the issues of representation associated with infinitesimal calculus, which was up through the nineteenth century arguably the most powerful tool for understanding the physical world. Although Kant rarely addresses calculus as such, this tool has particular relevance for him given the fundamental role that both its inventors, Leibniz and Newton, play in the development of his critical project. Consider the problem of a line tangent to a curve—that is, a straight line that touches any curved line at precisely one point. As I hope and expect has just occurred in the mind of any reader at this point, a somewhat-clear image has taken shape. This image can be rendered mathematically precise thanks to the technique of calculus; indeed, calculus was developed in large part to address this problem. The reason is that such a tangent can be considered the rate of change of the curve at any instant, which can be calculated given the curve’s function. Thus, say, a soaring baseball defines a parabolic arc at a changing rate of speed (fast at first, slowing at the peak, then ever faster as it returns to the ground). The tangents at any point indicate...
Abstract We show how decentralized individual investments can efficiently allocate capital to innovating firms via equity crowdfunding. We develop a model where consumers have privately known consumption preferences and may act as investors. Consumers identify worthwhile investments based on their own preferences and invest in firms whose product they like. In the presence of aggregate demand uncertainty, an efficient capital allocation is achieved if all groups of consumers have enough liquidity to invest. If some groups of consumers cannot invest, capital flows reflect preferences of liquid investors but not future demand. Comparing with traditional financing forms, crowdfunding in the absence of liquidity constraints can be superior unless traditional financiers are fully competitive and perfectly informed.
In this paper we present the main features of the current system of financing of local self-governments (LSG) in Serbia and propose the principles and directions for its further improvements, given the current level of decentralization. For this purpose, we analyzed the current legal framework in the area of LSG jurisdiction on the one hand, and model of financing of LSGs, on the other. In addition to that, we tried to depict a financial position of LSGs and local public utility companies (LPUCs) using financial data for the period from 2011 to 2013, in order to design principles for systematic regulation of this area, the latter being of particular importance in the dominant context of fiscal consolidation policy. The general conclusions and recommendations point to the necessity to design such a concept of financing of LSGs which has a firm link between jurisdiction, i.e. type of public services provided by LSG level, and sources for financing of these jurisdictions/services - aligned in terms of quality and availability of these services with the objective possibilities. Analysis of the financial data indicates that there is relatively firm evidence in support of the conclusion that the main source of bad financial position of certain LSGs reflected in a high level of outstanding stock of payables to suppliers, lies in the inappropriate financing of public utilities and local institutions founded by LSGs.
Cybercrime currently poses a significant threat to the infrastructure of the United States. It can exploit vulnerabilities within the Critical Infrastructure or (CI) systems that are increasingly interconnected. Although the increased interconnectedness allows for easier and more efficient communication it creates vulnerabilities that did not exist ten years ago. A lack of a standardized definition of cybercrime has made it increasingly difficult to create policy that will allow for more efficient interagency cooperation and concrete laws regarding cybercrime. Cybercrime thrives on the anonymity of the Internet with the use of specific browsers, The Onion Router for example, to access information not searchable within everyday search engines. In addition, cybercrime thrives with the increased use of peer-to-peer decentralized cryptocurrency.
Darba mērķis ir Ethereum decentralizētas programmatūras platformas pētīšana. Darbā tiek pētītas tehnoloģijas uz kurām balstās decentralizētās programmatūras platforma, programmatūras izstrādes process tajā un platformas stiprās un vājās puses. Darba praktiskajā daļā, tiek izveidots decentralizētas kopfinansēšanas sistēmas prototips Ethereum platformā.
La tecnología trajo conceptos que, fundidos con el campo económico, permitieron soluciones a problemas que la sociedad enfrentó varias veces a lo largo de su historia, como: inflación, ciclos económicos, instituciones financieras no confiables y la falta de universalización de servicios financieros a toda población. Este artículo pretende elucidar tanto la parte conceptual de Bitcoin abordando los aspectos históricos, económicos y jurídicos, así como los posibles beneficios sociales que la moneda puede traer como una primera alternativa, basada en tecnología, al dinero tradicional controlado por el Estado. El método utilizado para ello es el deductivo y la técnica de investigación es la bibliográfica, partiendo de ejemplos de la utilización del dinero a lo largo de la historia y del ascenso de Bitcoin como moneda.
Renewable energies, especially photovoltaic (PV), have started a trend towards a decentralization of energy systems. With decreasing levelized costs of energy of new renewable energies, self-consumption concepts become increasingly attractive and have even reached grid parity in some countries already. So called "prosumers" (households that are producers and consumers at the same time) start to replace grid consumers, conducting self-consumption with their locally produced electricity by the PV plants. Since complete autarky cannot be reached with a PV plant for a household, prosumers still consume electricity from the main grid. This on-going diffusion of self-consumption concepts is significantly influenced by the interplay of network externalities within the system, such as learning from peers, altering the perceived utility by households of the investment into decentral generation. The increasing penetration of PV significantly contributes to the creation of a more sustainable power supply in Europe and is considered and supported in many nations by governmental energy strategies. Nevertheless, such decentralization dynamics also lead to multiple challenges in the energy system. New investors enter the energy market, utility companies are forced to adjust their business models and grid operators face technical as well as financial challenges. The presented paper focusses on the financial challenges of grid operators caused by decentralization trends of the electricity system.
The article highlights the essence of budgetary control. The features of control in the public sector performance are grounded as well as the relationship between verifiability and the controllability. It is proved that the achievement of public finance management needs its controllability. There is no alternative verifiability by ensuring controllability of budget resources. The classification criteria of budgetary control types according to the different classification criteria are developed. It has allowed to distinguish its following types: scheduled, unscheduled, previous, current, next, state, municipal, specialized, departmental, public, external, internal, solid, selective, comprehensive, effective, ineffective, centralized, decentralized, legislative, realizable, further, active, passive, available, projected, intermediate, final, mixed. The purpose of the article is to provide a classification criteria of budgetary control development, taking into account the role and functions of control in public finance management. The subject of the study is a set of financial relationships arising during the budgetary control due to appropriation of financial resources. Methodology. The following methods have been used in the process of writing: cognition, induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis. Results of the survey. Thus, the main directions of budgetary control implementation we can consider the following ones: monitoring compliance with procedures for preparation, review and approval of state and local budgets; the implementation of revenue and expenditure of the budget at the national and local levels control; detection of theft of public funds, as well as their misuse; accuracy of accounting control; increasing the revenue base of the state budget detection; preventive measures to combat corruption and bribery in the public sector. The author’s approach to classification criteria of budgetary control types, unlike existing ones considers budgetary control as a complex in all its manifestations. It allows implementing budgetary control in full and at all stages of the budget process. It will significantly increase its efficiency and effectiveness. Value/originality is specified in the following items. Classification of budgetary control, which differs from previous approaches in more detail and grouping features has been improved according to: the degree of planning and subordination:, control entities, stages of implementation, level of activity, time direction, nature of action, implementation and assessment according to the timing, forms of implementation, the scope that makes more effective budgetary financial management control.
In this paper we propose to use the Grand Canonical Minority Game (GCMG, a highly simplified financial market model) as a model of bitcoin market to show how the lack of an income for “miners”, similar to yield earned by bond holders, could be a structural reason for high volatility of bitcoin price in a reference currency. Coherently with present analysis, the introduction of future contracts on bitcoin would have the effect of reducing the overall market volatility.