The internal public audit procedures have been applied since recent time in our country and this strongly influences the managers’ and employees’ perception of the internal audit relevance. The internal audit is perceived as “another form or a new form of control” due to the fact that the audit departments were organized, especially in the local public administration and in the decentralized public institutions, with the support of the internal control structure and with the participation of the personnel who was in the past responsible for control activities. This error of perception impairs the internal auditors’ work and the organization management. The sources of the research are the annual reports of UCAAPI regarding the internal public audit activity between 2004-2007, available on the site of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The obtained results partly confirm the hypotheses of the research.
Open access
Risk Management in Financial Firms
Education, Management, Technology, Human Resources
As Zero-Knowledge proof plays a more and moreimportant role in modern cryptography, the need for formalanalysis becomes more urgent. In this paper, we make use offormal methods to establish a Zero-Knowledge result. The formalmodel is Probabilistic Applied Pi and the Zero-Knowledge proofis Hamiltonian cycle. By this example, our preliminary workshows how Zero-Knowledge can be modeled in formal modelssuch as process calculi and how to establish a Zero-Knowledgeproof by checking equivalence in the model.
A new scheme of dynamic group blind signature based on elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP) which extends the dynamic group blind signature and the knowledge signature to the elliptic curve cyclic group is generalized. The scheme runs in time slice manner and can be proved security with zero knowledge proof. It supports the dynamic addition and deletion of the group members freely. And the length of signature and computational effort for signing and verifying are independent on both the number of group members and the deleted members. So the security and efficiency are enhanced.
Since the beginning of 1960s, various and sequential waves of movements have changed social and political life in Western democracies. Among those which sprang up in 1960s were public interest and citizen-action groups, community action, neighborhood and self-help groups, civil rights, anti-Vietnam war, and students movements. They were followed in the 1970s and early 1980s by women's, regional, environmental, anti-nuclear power, and peace movements. New left-libertarian and green political parties evolved, and a variety of subcultural life-styles and alternative urban milieus grew rapidly. This development was based on advancing economic growth and industrial modernization. Discussing the specifics of new social most observers agree on the following points. New social movements are not concerned with questions of distribution, economic power, or political power. Rather they stress questions of the way and the quality of life in modem, industrial societies. These movements recruit primarily from the well-educated post-war generation of the middle class, in changing coalitions with marginalized social group. They do not evolve a consistent ideological system. Instead, movements emphasize the right to uniqueness within the context of a secular, pluralist culture and on the basis of postmaterialist values. They emphasize principles of autonomous, decentralized organizations. They have conferred a acceptability on unconventional forms of political participation. This paper introduces the various aspects of the social movements, and thinks over the resemblance between the western social movements and Korean 'Candle Light Demonstration' this year.
Con ocasión de la promulgación de la Ley 15/2007, de 3 de julio, de defensa de la competencia, analizaremos los avances realizados en el proceso de descentralización iniciado en 1999. En noviembre de ese mismo año, coincidiendo con la fase final de la tramitación de la Ley 52/1999, de 28.12.1999, que reformó la Ley 16/1989, de defensa de la competencia, el Tribunal Constitucional dictó una sentencia en la que reconocía las competencias ejecutivas de las Comunidades Autónomas en materia de defensa de la competencia. Ello obligó al Gobierno a promover la elaboración de la Ley 1/2002, de 21 de febrero, de coordinación de las competencias del Estado y las Comunidades Autónomas en materia de defensa de la competencia. Posteriormente, en 2007, se llevó a cabo una importante reforma con la Ley 15/2007, de 3 de julio, de defensa de la competencia. En este artículo se analiza el proceso de descentralización y, en especial, el nuevo modelo de organización administrativa aprobado en España para la defensa de la competencia. Lehiaren Defentsari buruzko uztailaren 3ko 15/2007 Legea argitaratu dela eta, 1999. urtean hasitako deszentraliazio-prozesuaren baitan zer nolako aurrerapausoak izan diren aztertuko dugu. Urte horretan bertan, azaroan, 52/1999 Legea, urte bereko abenduaren 28koa, izapidetzeko azken pausoak ematen ari zirela (16/1989 legea eraldatu zuen), Konstituzio Auzitegiak emandako epai batean adierazi zuen autonomia-erkidegoek bazituztela lehiaren defentsaren arloko eskumen betearazleak. Epai horren ondorioz, Espainiako Gobernuak Lehia Babesteko Eskumenak Estatuaren eta Autonomia-erkidegoen Artean Koordinatzeko otsailaren 21eko 1/2002 Legea argitaratu behar izan zuen. Horren ostean, 2007an, Lehia Defendatzeko uztailaren 3ko 15/2007 Legearen bidez, erreforma garrantzitsua egin zen. Artikuluan deszentralizazio-prozesua aztertzen da, eta bereziki, Espainian lehia defendatzeko onartutako administrazio-eredua. This study takes advantage of the fact that Competition Act 15/2007, of 3rd July, has been passed to analyse the progress made in the process of decentralization started in 1999. In November of that year, as Act 52/1999 of 28th December 1999, which modified the Competition Act 16/1989, was going through the final procedural stages, the Spanish Constitutional Court announced a decision allowing the Autonomous Communities (Autonomous Regions) to exercise executive competences in protection of competition. This decision forced the government to draw up a law to co-ordinate the duties between the central administrative bodies and the newly-created autonomous bodies: the Act 1/2002 of 21st February, regarding Coordination of the State and Autonomous Communities¿ Competences on Competition Defence. Subsequently, in 2007, it has been an important amendment and Competition Act 15/2007 has been enacted. This article will analyse the process of decentralization and the model of administrative organization that has recently been approved in Spain for protection of competition. Towards a decentralizated administration for protection of competition in Spain.
When Natalie Maines spoke into her microphone in the spring of 2003, the crowd at London's Shepherds Bush Theatre responded with cheers. Said Maines: “Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas” (“Shut up and Sing”). The result—perhaps inevitable in the build-up to the Iraq War and its concurrent patriotic swell—struck Maines's group, the Dixie Chicks, from the top of the country music charts, drove them from the good graces of country music fans across the United States, and lingered for years in the form of reduced attendance and weaker album sales. Opponents were incensed that Maines—and by extension, the full trio of the Dixie Chicks—would openly criticize a wartime president and saw the comment as nearly an act of treason, particularly since the words were uttered abroad to an audience who likely needed little encouragement to disagree with the policies of George W. Bush. Within the dominant conservative element of country music, such a stance lay in stark contrast to the implied common values of that culture, and the Dixie Chicks were villainized for failing to adhere to those standards. At stake, for the vocal opponents who effectively barred the Dixie Chicks from country music radio and who discarded or destroyed old albums en masse, was the nation itself. This chink in the thematic armor of patriotic country music suggested a weakness within the resolve of the citizenry that demanded immediate and sure response. Thus, the Dixie Chicks were figuratively cast out of the nation of country music, were stripped of their citizenship and recast as dangerous outlaws—but not the good kind that popularized country music in the ‘70s. In fact, though the Dixie Chicks recently swept the Grammy Awards in 2007—winning in five categories, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album—it is notable that their success did not come within their “home” community of the Country Music Awards. The outlaw Chicks were not with the president, and were therefore against America; worse, they were not with country music, and were therefore against a culture that has increasingly become an insistent site of American identity in contemporary America. Call it Redneck America, a version of the United States that defines itself through self-identification as rural, country, working class, simple, true, patriotic. It is through this identification that a large portion of the U.S. sees itself or, more importantly, how the U.S. can define itself in the face of a globalizing force that threatens to undermine the previously unchallenged dominance of an America predicated on “traditional” values of home, hearth, heterosexuality, whiteness, and patriarchy. Country music, then, becomes an anthem for this America, as the form celebrates and shares these common ideals. There are scripts to country music, which the Dixie Chicks failed to follow, just as there are scripts for this idealized Redneck America. It is by following these scripts that individuals enact citizenship and prove their fidelity to the nation, and it is through these scripts that the U.S. sees itself, or perhaps how the U.S. can separate its citizenry into categories of proper and suspect. Under this system of classification the Dixie Chicks, of course, are suspect. The division inherent within this Redneck Nation is more than mere classification, as it serves to establish a baseline of normalcy for the broader American culture. That is to say, in the Redneck Nation model I'm employing, “Redneck” ceases to be a pejorative classification of the rural, southern, white working class, and instead becomes a new mode of the mainstream, one that is simultaneously unbound by the very real pressures of class and status that defined the “traditional” redneck or hillbilly even as it seeks to reify certain social situations inherent within a white, hetero, masculine America. As a theoretical construct, the Redneck Nation is certainly much broader than the Dixie Chicks and their criticism of war, broader than country music, even broader than the concept of scripts I am examining here. In fact, the modern iteration of the Redneck, as a socio-political construct of self-assignation, spreads throughout American literature and culture, with the roots of the Redneck Ideal in early American frontier literature, then continuing though modern and contemporary Southern literature and, now, a broader popular culture. In the current state of our Redneck Nation, individuals may choose to claim membership as a means to establish an incontrovertible American citizenship. Based in American ideals of self-reliance (consider Emerson and Jefferson as proto-Rednecks) and anti-elitism, the ethos of the modern Redneck identification evokes a distinctly American sense that can be defined by what it is not: not elite or high-falutin’, not overly intellectual, not overly-socialized and, perhaps most crucially, not not-American. Here I turn back to the Dixie Chicks and their violation of the American Redneck scripts. In this context, the issue of Patriotism looms largest, both overtly as a mechanism for displaying ones allegiance to a national power (and, here, Maines violated Patriotism by choosing to be “not-with” the nation) and covertly as a sign of acceptance of the ideals of the less-tangible Redneck Nation that defines contemporary American political/patriotic discourse. The two go hand in hand, of course, as the scripts I'm suggesting require fidelity to the national power as evidence of membership in the ideological Nation, just as full citizenship in the Redneck discourse predicates unwavering allegiance to the U.S. government. In the wake of 9/11, several country stars released hyper-patriotic songs that tapped in to the general American sentiment of shock, anger, even war-readiness: Clint Black's “Iraq and Roll,” Alan Jackson's “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”, Darryl Worley's “Have You Forgotten,” Chely Wright's “Bumper of my SUV,” and of course Toby Keith's aggressive “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue”1. Each of these, in its own way, followed the accepted guidelines of the Redneck Nation, as each song displayed a reaction that expressed emotions and reactions proper for the idealized American citizen. The shock, anger, and latent (or less-than-latent) desire for retribution fit the national Zeitgeist perfectly, just as it fit the acceptable conservative parameters of the Redneck scripts in operation. Keith, in fact, became an anthem-writer for the American troops themselves, as his melodic desire to stick a boot in the collective terrorist ass was soon adopted as an unofficial fight song for the nation. Keith himself seemed plenty willing to wave the flag, support the troops, and act the part of the ideal, masculine, aggressive, hetero citizen—an angry white man ready to do battle for the good of the nation. And, even as support of the ongoing war in Iraq declines, the determination for “true” Americans to support the troops, to display fidelity to the homeland, to emphasize and defend good old-fashioned American values, remains steadfast. Put another way, Chevy truck commercials are still on the air. Enter the Dixie Chicks, who must be considered as tangential citizens of contemporary America, as defined by the scripts of the Redneck Nation, because of their failure to fit the masculine ideal. Still, before the 2003 uproar, the Dixie Chicks fit the scripts just fine, singing their way to the top of country music, even if their brand of country might be a little too bluegrass for the usual mainstream. But so long as the Chicks acted within the accepted parameters of their scripts—as pretty girls singing pretty songs, raising pretty children—they were acceptable citizens. But in going off-book, so to speak, by criticizing the president and his desire to go to war, the Dixie Chicks exposed themselves as deviants from the Redneck Nation. Their resistance, then, immediately called into question their status as citizens. And, in fact, with their lack of maleness already working against them, they were quickly condemned as poseurs to the Redneck Nation and were summarily evicted. That their status could be no more than tangential pre-Shepherds Bush is revealed in the way that criticism against the Dixie Chicks quickly took an ugly gendered turn. Maines was called “The Dixie Bitch,” and at least one country music listener called in to a station to offer this advice: “They should send Natalie over to Iraq, strap her to a bomb, and just drop her over Baghdad” (Shut Up and Sing). Similarly, the band was relabeled as the “Dixie Sluts” or “Ditzy Twits,” who Pat Buchanan suggested were “the dumbest, dumbest bimbos, with due respect” (Shut Up and Sing). That a patriotic snafu could so quickly result in the assignation of status as Bitches, Sluts, Ditzes, and Bimbos displays how tenuous the band's citizenship in the nation had been prior to the flap. Further, that such gendered epithets were so close at hand displays the inherent masculinity and anti-feminism within the script of the Redneck Nation. Any woman who breaks from the standard line is instantly cast as sexualized and empty-headed, removing her ability to offer intelligent debate (after all, she's just a bimbo ditz!) and reaffirming the woman's role as sexual object. Following the script allows temporary relief from or, at least, sublimated patriarchal dominance. Citizenship can only be won, though, by strict submission to the ideals of the Nation; deviance risks banishment and loss of protection. Most importantly, here, are the scripts themselves, not the authenticity of the actors nor even presidential opposition itself—at least not exactly. The trick of the Redneck Ideal is that it does not require actual membership of social class. As I mentioned before, the phenomena that strikes me most is how individuals assume the role of Redneck despite socio-economic positions that would seem to nullify their inclusion. George Bush, obviously, fits this bill, as his personal image depends heavily on his role as self-acclaimed Redneck. But as Country Music Television chief Brian Philips has said: “There's a real dichotomy between the raising of the son, George W., and the way most of our audience has been raised. But God bless Karl Rove if he was able to connect those two and make people feel like he was one of us” (Willman 111). The function of the scripts, then, might be best explained as a sort of Althusserian hailing, where self-assignation as Redneck comes about because of the interpellation enacted by ideological state apparatuses, which creates an “imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence” (693). So, individuals who are not of the marginalized working class recast themselves as such and, more, themselves convert into an apparatus that demands others who are conceived as part of the imagined class act along the lines of the scripts that govern properly inclusive behavior. George Bush, here, might be considered as equally hailed as other individuals, as his presidential policy is restricted by the ideology of the Redneck Ideal: he must follow the guidelines of white, Christian, masculine America. To prove his validity as leader of the United States, he must act within the ideal, thereby offering both model and defense of citizenship. The Dixie Chicks, then, threatened the solidarity of the Ideal, acting from within the culture in opposition to the leader of that culture. Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks read it best: “It had to be somebody or some group that seemed like the All-American girls. It was perfect. It had to be the unlikely voice from what looked like the conservative heart of America saying it. That was perfect” (Shut Up and Sing). Their greatest threat to the Redneck Ideal was to disrupt the ideological image, to prove that the so-called “conservative heart of America” was a constructed heart, to reveal just how the nation hails its citizens and dictates a particular way of being. That an All-American girl group could, in fact, break from the script showed the scripts to be impermanent, which in turn called into question the accepted parameters of citizenship. Interestingly, even as the Dixie Chicks create that disruption, they cannot help but be bound by certain scripts. The documentary Shut Up and Sing, which chronicles the group's actions following their controversy, and which is clearly intended as a remediation of their image or, more, as defense of their position, places the women in the group within a clearly feminine ideal. Each is portrayed as mother, as wife, with many family scenes prominently featured. The point seems to be that the Chicks were unduly cast as rabble-rousers, that they actually fit the American ideal. Such is the power of the script: even those who break free from it find themselves inescapably written in. All of which leads me to WWE wrestling. Howdy. I know what you're all thinkin’. Now I reckon you're all a little confused out there. But I'm not what you think I am. [He pauses to put on his black cowboy hat] I ain't no foreigner. I ain't your stereotype. I ain't no Kung Fu fighter. And to me, chopsticks are just a piece of wood. Mattera fact, there ain't no yeller about me. But there's one color about me. A little red. That's right. I'm a redneck. My name's Jimmy Wang Yang. And I'm your boy. Giddyup. Yee haw (WWE website). The message is unmistakable, substituting one stereotype for another, but clearly aligning the wrestler with the Redneck Ideal instead of the foreign suspect. He marks himself visually as part of the culture, dressed in the videos in jeans, with the hat, standing in front of a pickup truck. He wears a black leather vest emblazoned on the back with the confederate battle flag. In the ring, he wrestles in a white tank top and blue jean-like trousers and wears a Fu Manchu mustache that presents an odd duality. Historically, such facial hair marks the ethnicity of the Far East, calling to mind stereotyped images of the Mongol warriors or Chinese Kung-Fu masters that Yang denies as his heritage in the video. Yet, at the same time, the Fu Manchu has more recently been adopted as a fairly typical marker of the good old boy. On Jimmy Wang Yang, the mustache could lend either way, reinforcing his Korean ancestry or helping to mark him as the redneck he claims to be. It is through scripting, however, that his appearance becomes unambiguous. He is a Redneck, as he proclaims, because he adheres to the expected, stereotypical parameters of the redneck. More, he substitutes—or, in the case of the Fu Manchu, transforms—the stereotypes of the Asian with the stereotypes of the white Southern good old boy, and in so doing eases anxieties that might appear because of his position as a minority within wrestling. In another video, he wonders why Asians are always thought to be good at math, why they are thought to set the curve. “Only curves I know is from my old lady,” he says, etching a silhouette in the air with his hands. In twenty seconds, he abdicates his role as stereotypically intelligent Asian, substituting instead a persona of the stereotypically chauvinist redneck, thereby enacting the properly anti-intellectual strain of the Redneck Ideal and proving that he is not claiming citizenship as anything other than American. As a visually obvious minority, Jimmy Wang Yang would not immediately fit the standards of the Redneck Ideal without these “credibility”-establishing establishing videos. Like the Dixie Chicks, Yang's status as minority places him in an always tangential citizenship. But unlike the Chicks, he ameliorates his position and guarantees his “naturalization” as American citizen through scripts that reinforce his desire to be American and proves through actions his willingness to be not not-American. Significantly, prior to assuming the identity of Jimmy Wang Yang, the man in the role wrestled on Smackdown as Akio, an “evil” Japanese wrestler whose unmediated Asianness proved his outsider status and guaranteed his situation as bad guy. He also used to wrestle as part of a trio of Elvis impersonators: there's surely grand significance there, even if it presently escapes me. Certainly, race is strongly in play with the case of Jimmy Wang Yang, and just as certainly, race is one of the most crucial issues in play with the Redneck Ideal. While scholars like Lucy Jarosz and Victoria Lawson see the construction of the redneck stereotype as a means for middle and upper class whites to deflect the guilt of racism—white racism is explained as “redneck” racism (11)—the self-assignation of Redneck that is so readily apparent in the case of Jimmy Wang Yang serves instead as a way to manage racism, to allow for it without accepting guilt. That is, the Redneck script exacts a strategic move that furthers the agenda of white dominance without accepting blame. Characters like Jimmy Wang Yang don't so much reinforce stereotypes as maintain them, allowing whites to both feel distance from “real” rednecks—since it's Jimmy, after all, doing the stereotyping—and to feel part of the group. The Redneck script maintains the power and prominence of traditional white values. By adopting the stance of “minority,” or by showing how a visually obvious minority can be included in the Redneck category, the Redneck can safely assume power without notice or critique. The Redneck becomes both an achieving “minority” and a permanent of The on the back of Jimmy Wang Yang's leather then, becomes a marker of his acceptance of the Redneck Ideal and a of the power of the Ideal. It has itself to the of Jimmy Wang Yang, him as part of the group and to the group's dominance. just as the ideology hails whites and them to follow the scripts of America, it hails and them the way to find membership in the nation. by adopting and accepting that which the Redneck Ideal demands can an be accepted into national citizenship. president, country or of American identity is predicated on of Redneck And increasingly in American culture, failing to status as ideological Redneck means failing to of full into national citizenship.
All bettors, including the ???House,??? experience losing streaks and winning streaks. The House typically has a ???bankroll??? that is orders of magnitude larger than that of any individual bettor, and so can survive losing streaks without going bankrupt, thus remaining solvent long enough to win. Online wagering provides a new twist to this age-old scenario. We use elementary mathematical principles together with the idea of a virtual infinite sample size and the elimination of time as a constraint to develop a fail-proof system that generates the greatest possible exponential growth of capital. Let ?? (stake) be the amount you wish to invest or wager each time and ?? (return) be your return or odds on a proposition. Let n (number) be the sum of consecutive loosing investments or number of times you can loose on an identical proposition before depleting a specified amount of investment capital called ?? ( bankroll). The resultant equation, which I call the: Investment Betters Algorithm (click on thesis to view) \nprovides the answer to remaining solvent long enough to outlast the irrationality of the simulated online ??? wagers open market ??? through a geometric progression. The augmented bankroll ?? , calculated slightly higher than the typical sum of the Geometric Series, can serve as a safeguard to capital ruin by it extreme disproportion to. Consider further the expected value of even money propositions, a virtual infinite sample size, and the elimination of time as a constraint and you have a no fail system to generate the greatest progressive exponential growth of capital. Current problems associated with financial return optimization algorithms are identified and discussed. Probable solutions to those problems are also prescribed along with improvements to diversified portfolio design.
Abstract: This article analyses the dynamics of health‐care reforms in Germany, the U.K., Switzerland, France and Italy. In light of the “New Public Management” (NPM) theory, the author discusses governments' attempts at providing better health‐care services for less. Health‐care reforms inspired by NPM meant opening up to competition and revamping service provision to improve organizational performance. These reforms also put the emphasis on outcomes measurements to improve insurers and providers' accountability, demanded greater decentralization of the decision‐making process (e.g., planning, investment and financing of health‐care services), and encouraged contracting‐out of public services and partnerships between the public and the private sector. While most features of the NPM theory were applicable to EU health‐care reforms, NPM was not a panacea: it advanced at different paces across nations, with some aspects of NPM being more appropriate in some countries but less so in others. It led to greater inequity and more bureaucracy in some, but not all, countries. Competition, a major characteristic of the NPM, did not necessarily lead to better health outcomes, and, unlike in other sectors, the application of NPM in health care meant larger providers (e.g., insurers, hospitals) and regulations have remained strong. Sommaire: Le présent article analyse la dynamique des réformes des soins de santé en Allemagne, au Royaume‐Uni, en Suisse, en France et en Italie. À la lumière de la théorie de la « Nouvelle administration publique » (NAP), l'auteur discute des tentatives menées par les gouvernements pour fournir de meilleurs services de soins de santéà un moindre coût. Les réformes des soins de santé inspirées par la NAP ont signifié l'ouverture à la concurrence et la réorganisation de la prestation des services pour améliorer la performance organisationnelle. Ces réformes ont également mis l'accent sur les mesures des résultats afin d'améliorer l'imputabilité des assureurs et des fournisseurs, ont exigé une plus grande décentralisation du processus de prise de décision (p. ex., planification, investissement, et financement des services de soins de santé), et ont encouragé la sous‐traitance des services publics et la formation de partenariats entre les secteurs public et privé. Alors que la plupart des éléments de la théorie de la NAP étaient applicables aux réformes des soins de santé de l'UE, la NAP n'a pas été la panacée : elle a progresséà des rythmes différents suivant les pays, certains aspects de la NAP étant plus appropriés dans certains pays que dans d'autres. Cela a entraîné une plus grande iniquité et plus de bureaucratie dans certains pays. La concurrence, une caractéristique importante de la NAP, n'a pas nécessairement entraîné de meilleurs résultats pour la santé et, à la différence d'autres secteurs, l'application de la NAP aux soins de santé a signifié de plus importants fournisseurs (p. ex., assureurs, hôpitaux) et le maintien de règlements solides.
Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
Pp xi, 324 , Grand Rapids , MI/Cambridge, Eerdmans , 2007 , $20.00, £10.99 . Pp xxii, 228 , Bletchley : Paternoster , 2006 , £9.99 . As the old joke might have it – you wait centuries for a good introduction to the hermeneutical significance of the history of biblical interpretation, and then two come along at once. These two books come with remarkably similar titles, with even more remarkably compatible (lengthy) subtitles, and both from writers associated with (or at) California's Fuller Seminary, one of the most accomplished and thoughtful centres of evangelical scholarship in the USA. They both arrive ready to broker the insights of this here-to-fore specialist subdiscipline to a wider world of Bible readers, and what a marvellous job they both do, in their different ways. Thompson's is a longer project heavily dependent on a wealth of case studies. A coherent theme unites them: the vexed question of how issues of gender and sex have played out in the history of the church's interpretation of scripture. Thompson is a professor of historical theology, and has previously written two scholarly tomes on aspects of this question, including his Writing the Wrongs: Women of the Old Testament among Biblical Commentators from Philo through the Reformation (OUP, 2001). Here he draws together some of the insights of his earlier work recast around the more methodologically inclined question of how we learn from the history of exegesis. Nine case studies range through topics such as ‘Sacrificing Jephthah's Daughter’, ‘Patriarchs Behaving Badly’, ‘Gomer and Hosea’, and NT studies such as Paul's view of prophetesses, and the celebrated argument of 1 Timothy 2:11–15 regarding Adam and Eve. Thompson typically explores the details of how a range of witnesses have handled these texts, frequently demonstrating his baseline assumption that this is invariably complex, hard to summarise, and needs careful contextual consideration. It will be hard for the careful reader of this book to offer broad generalisations again concerning ‘the Fathers' attitudes to sexuality’. Even Tertullian's oft-quoted line about women as the devil's gateway is here set in context, not pardoned, but placed against his more frequent attribution of the evils of the world to Adam, rather than this one rhetorical excess concerning Eve. Each chapter then ends with between two and four summary observations, along with thoughts about how this might refine our own interpretative work. Here are some samples: Hagar's story is terrifying; laments and imprecations must be appropriated (and must not be misappropriated) – only Jesus is fit to lament and curse absolutely; not all the Bible is a model for us; a hermeneutic of suspicion is not always a bad thing; the Bible's divorce texts are hard to homogenize; few ever read Paul's supporting arguments [in 1 Tim 2] as literally true; sexual violence should not be covered up – old commentators may be our allies. Each conclusion is presented with a thesis-statement summary and a page or so of further reflection. Reading these studies should persuade any reader of several things: there is great wisdom in the church's tradition without this meaning that the church, mirabile dictu, saw all our own best insights before they were culturally possible (e.g. with regard to any proto-feminist agendas in earlier ages); where we struggle it is almost sure that the church's sharpest readers struggled long before us; and perhaps most significantly, where we often, following the lectionary, resolve issues by passing over texts in silence, this was never the way of the tradition, which was always willing to voice and interrogate the issues. In one helpful summary, Thompson writes ‘Although they would never have put it like this, precritical commentators are committed to remain “within” the text – unlike many historical critics and feminist readers, who do not hesitate to challenge the authority and autonomy of texts from the outside.’ (p.103) Thompson's book lays to rest the bizarre charge that the only two options are external critique or naïve acquiescence to the text. In this world of historical traditioning we find rigorous critique and interaction, limited to be sure by the historical horizons of its world, but fully engaged with the question of how to live with the God of such texts in their own day. Two other points: first Thompson appends an invaluable ‘Finding Guide to English Translations of Commentary Literature Written before 1600’ (pp 274–301), which should make it wonderfully possible to benefit from further study in this area. Secondly, this is a very well written book, the proof perhaps lying in the ease with which it takes the reader down some scarcely trodden historical by-ways and some state of the art hermeneutical reflection all at the same time, without ever appearing unduly complex or heavy-handed. This really is a fine achievement, and the author is to be congratulated on bringing the treasures of such study to a wider audience. Parris' work is shorter, and ranges more widely in its examples, but also essentially sets out to mediate the concerns of tradition-history, or what Gadamer called ‘the history of effects’, to an audience of (generally conservative) Bible readers who are probably labouring under the misapprehension that the task of biblical interpretation is just between them and the ‘author’. Parris suggests that it is more helpful to imagine a 3-way conversation between the author, the tradition, and the reader. Informed by the concerns of ‘reception theory’, he then offers a clear and well-illustrated guide to what is at stake in such a thesis. The opening chapter explores the area by way of looking at Psalm 121 and asking how the image of ‘lifting up my eyes to the hills’ should function. There follows a study of Jonah's fish (or whale), tracing the concerns of commentators regarding the nature of the beast, and its possibilities with regard to actually swallowing Jonah. A third, lengthier chapter explores the theoretical argument about living tradition, though it is packed with thought-provoking examples about how translation and the passing on of tradition in turn effect further interpretative possibilities in the life of the text. Chapter 4 offers thoughts on how to go about exploring the history of interpretation, offering a strong case study of how Matthew 28:18–20 was read at different times in the church. Chapter 5, the book's argument in miniature, proposes three levels of reading: for pleasure, literary reading (looking for overall flow, coherence, plot …), and then ‘detailed studies’. Parris is careful to say at the beginning of the book that he is not advocating ‘reception theory’ as the only tool in the interpreter's tool box. Perhaps in the light of chapter 5 one might say that the book is nevertheless a strong defence of the indispensability of this tool alongside other, more well-known ones. A practically orientated final chapter looks at how one might make use of these perspectives in teaching and preaching. Examples here include good (brief) studies of Augustine on Romans 7, the changing shape of parable study, and the case of the ‘moon-struck’ epileptic in Matthew 17. Parris' book is shorter and more introductory than Thompson's. It includes many engaging anecdotes of his own experiences in teaching and reflecting which help to make it an easy read, even if some of the colloquialisms that ensue (such as describing Calvin as ‘the 800 pound gorilla that cannot be ignored’– p.50) presumably made more sense in some classroom context than they do on the page. There are a few misprints, and some text off-set in boxes and margins (as well as occasional missing footnotes) which interrupt what would otherwise be a very fluent text, but in terms of substance and overall aim this is a successful introduction and orientation, with perhaps a slight sense that the intended reader comes from something like a traditional evangelical perspective and would benefit from seeing things more broadly. Taken together, these two books are timely reviews of the importance of engaging with the history of interpretation. The Bible reader does it anyway – the question is how well they will do it, with due respect to the nuances and still enduring significance of interpretative paths long-since taken, or with massive generalisation and the hubris of believing that we, only we, have finally scaled the summit of interpretative wisdom. (One of the most fascinating asides, in this respect, is Parris' tracing of the changing emphasis of the saying ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’– from indebtedness to surpassing superiority over the tradition.) Interestingly neither writer explores the theoretical frameworks of ‘reception history’ much, in Thompson's case hardly at all. Nevertheless, the proof and the pay-off is in the practical case studies, with their implications which stretch far and wide. All those engaged in the many and varied tasks of biblical interpretation could profit from reading these books, and seeing in them a gateway to areas too little inhabited by commentators of recent generations.
In this article, the determinants of health care expenditure per capita in Spanish regions are analysed. The coexistence of several models concerning the degree of spending power decentralization and financing systems makes Spain a singular case and allows us to draw conclusions relevant for other countries decentralizing their health care systems. Analysing the Spanish case also serves to show a number of pitfalls affecting econometric estimation of the effects of income and demographic structure on health expenditure. Because the reliability of parameter estimates is a key issue in the literature on the determinants of health expenditure, these potential problems should be taken into account when estimating and interpreting results.
Both theory and experience in a variety of circumstances around the world suggest strongly that if fiscal decentralization is to produce sustainable net benefits in developing countries, subnational governments require much more real taxing power than they now have. Students of public finance have studied the subject, and practitioners in developing countries have installed many different versions of subnational government tax. In most developing countries there are potentially sound and productive taxes that subnational governments could use: personal income tax surcharges, property taxes, taxes on the use of motor vehicles, payroll taxes, and even subnational value‐added taxes and local “business value” taxes may all be viable options in particular countries. Still, there is no general consensus about what works and what does not. In this review paper, we try and pull together enough evidence to suggest the way forward. We also develop the argument that given political realities one cannot usually decentralize significant revenues to subnational governments without having in place an intergovernmental transfer system to offset at least some of the disequalizing effects that would otherwise occur. Nor does it make sense to think of decentralizing exactly the same package of tax choices to all subnational governments regardless of their scale and scope of operations.
This research is concerned with how bank lending relationship affects small and medium-sized enterprise financing. We particularly focus on the effect of this contractual feature on their specific asymmetric information problems. We contribute in several ways to the fields of corporate finance and financial intermediation. First, we find evidence that firms which work with more likely to provide lending relationship banks, decentralised ones, use less trade credit, social and fiscal debt and leasing. They appear to access more easily to bank credit. Second, we note that small and mediumsized enterprises choose their main bank for their ability to deal with the kind of information they can provide. Firms with hard information prefer to borrow to centralized banks and firms with soft information prefer to borrow to decentralized ones. Those which can't work with a bank of good type are more credit constrained. Third, we show that bank lending relationship improve collateral efficiency in credit contracts. It allows banks to offer separating equilibrium based on two dimension contracts: interest rate and collateral level. The information transfer during the relationship prevents agency costs associated with collateral. So good project holders can credibly signal themselves giving more collateral to obtain lower interest rate. By doing this, banks limit credit rationing in this context
Historiographical debates do not always stay put in the academic world. It may well be that they escape from the academy more often these days. Since the 1980s, this has been happening repeatedly and in different ways in connection with a number of more or less public cases that captured the attention of a larger public on such topics as the memory of slavery, Nazi gold, the war in Algeria, or anticommunist purges. The controversy set in motion by Ariel Toaff's recent book, Pasque di sangue,1 published in 2007, is such a case. The book became the source of lengthy and tense debates as soon as it came out, in Italy at first, and soon internationally. In the first two months alone, more than 150 articles appeared in the most important Italian, Israeli, American, and even French newspapers. In view of this extraordinary public debate, Toaff's work and the public reaction to it should be of interest to historians everywhere. What is at the heart of the questions raised by the continuing debate is historical method itself as well as the context within which historians do their work and the uses of the past. With this book, the medievalist Ariel Toaff stepped out of the confines of academic history to bring public attention to bear on the old accusation of ritual murder leveled against Jews. He did this by revisiting a famous trial conducted five centuries ago. His motive is to remove Jewish history from its exploitation by modern Jewish fringe groups. In the wake of Toaff's surprising book, others have spoken out: among them many historians, and also newspapers, publishers, spokesmen for various religious faiths (Jewish, Catholic, Muslim), political groups as well, various pressure groups, broad sectors of public opinion (by means of petitions and blogs)—in sum, this book quickly set in motion all the elements of a strident political and cultural battle—think of the Dreyfus “Affaire”—although in Toaff's case we have a historian intervening publicly, not to proclaim the innocence of a condemned person, but to argue that he was in fact guilty.2 I would like to show that this debate has been carried on along a series of unconnected and discordant settings. We ought to clarify the configurations and the conflicting logical positions at work in these debates so that we can try to understand what is at stake here. Before I tackle the issues at the heart of the debates, it may be useful to go back briefly to the history of the ritual murder accusations. This accusation, the Blood Libel, as it is known, refers to atrocious crimes, infanticides, and to religious hatred, but more than that is involved: the that such have a ritual The accusation of ritual murder is from the that have as of and in the of this accusation has to in which the have to or from these they have and in the memory of Jewish The accusation of ritual murder has in the but it has and in at various of with the for against Jewish even it to be in the of of The first with the of the of ritual murder in and The by the of and to in and In the of a was The by the a is with the of murder of the accusation of The is a that is to he is He as a which is the of The fact that the at a of the the of a with the of di a in in This was to for This a at the Jewish was in was not a of of or a of This modern of the ritual murder accusation a by two ritual murder as of was with a that of Jewish this the of modern In the the accusation, the against on two The trial of this in in The was was in The fact that the accusation of ritual murder to the and not in Nazi In from the and in the of in the of the old that to among groups and in the it is by the and by and In sum, what we have is a that a from to on the of the in the of the was the trial in in was to and the it was the of of against and by the of the that a months the of a His was in a the of a of the Jewish in was against a the the Jewish of of the for ritual The the at first, of the and by the to the of Jewish to by on the of the to the of two others in the a in a months more carried was among political and religious The for the and the of on a by the the as but and the of and the the trial and the a of in the of the to to the of which to the for this would be as a the of more than The trial at is important for two In the trial was the of the is to in a The as the to for accusation or This was a in which was The to of the not for to religious is was the fact that in the first of a series of a with this the to would the of religious of the ritual murder a of the a with the of to the of to the The and the of in and of The of the was to in cultural in the of and public a that would in the of as in a in of The of the of its the the to from its against the Jews. on the the in the the the accusation of against the and condemned all of the of put to of public for from the of and to Since have been to the In the came to the of by the Jewish by that among and the of back was their a of the for of the in the the of the to public In the that been to became a of In a was put in of the that to The this a in a and the of the of to with this for as a to in the of and In the of the historians have for that the of ritual murder of as they on have also to the of these in it to the innocence of the in but from that on historians have to the which they a their on the of the in the 2007, the medievalist Ariel on the of in is also of the most of Jewish history published Pasque di The on that well the case of Toaff that the among was so that the at the in in of the and against the of Toaff's is not that Jewish in the of the he that in the of was in the of and that this was a ritual to in was to the for the or the but not to the The among the of the Toaff's which is on the on two The first the of the In Toaff's the by the can be they of ritual that the not be Toaff's on the of the The fact that a number of is to of their the of ritual the of Toaff's book is its with Jewish in always to and to Toaff as to go with the and and In sum, they to have been of the of The of for in to have been most of their their from with and all this in a in the In Toaff on the to a of he the in Italy as a and and often of its or its the and often by the it is not surprising that they for to their in the he in religious and in a that was and This was a which to the of and of and to understand the of these Toaff's at a to of and Jewish In Toaff that he been the ritual murder with work in been to understand the as by the with the of the to In such as I and he that the was not a in the bring to of that been and of to the context in which the to such a method and the of the at the the and the of the he put in connection with the of Toaff's book, that in the of the and the to and the by the the by the that from the we can that what we at that to of the to the to a Toaff to but he to it with He on in of the and he on the he the and the that which the that is to the of ritual the and the of the was on this Toaff's work is in with a number of in recent in the of Jewish is a at a and of the Jewish as it in with the of has on and has also been at the for in Jewish that historians in a Jewish with a in which is for with in the and in the with such as in the of and their even in the of in the to the of by for a ritual that with He in the of the in the wake of the to their than have them to This would have been the source of the of ritual the have to their is their of would they not be of the of their the of Jewish that is in famous of in the of the to the of the and to the the of in the of of in in that Toaff and to attention to of the history of as they have been or in Jewish It is important to that the in cases and was the to to bring to the of to be Jewish In this they to the of Jewish history as a by the in this The in sum, was to Jewish to of the more of the the of The was to the as of to them as in their with their and their Ariel Toaff to that in Jewish as he is Jewish history to the history of the fact that of ritual murder have to In book, Pasque di Toaff to the of the ritual he not to of or of in Jewish he for a larger His is a he is not a the he is also the of as the of as at the of The of carried by for Toaff's book, at the The Pasque di to the of for the also is not but often The of and a such a broad the a that of of The a in He has a and a in as he is to the of a on a of can be in a The refers to the in in as the of it is as the of The the that book of the most of the history of the of this trial and of many others the the ritual and of in Jewish and the that as as is the ritual murder accusation was not always the the published in which that Ariel Toaff that the and a was the the and the Toaff's book as Toaff is for extraordinary in the of and for Toaff's of the of the it is that the should have a that it the not of the of the but of the of of have to the of the case. The of the is a as as it is the of the of on the of and the of their in the of we of of and or we that is to by the this has been The more came from the medievalist Toaff's and with from to Ariel Toaff he the not historical on and on to of the but he also the of of that have he not of that would be He with and to that is for that this was a such is to a the that the carried out by the at the may be history of the of in has been of and in at the is it so so in to that in the of the of and may have been more and less than the have and carried out atrocious of I have to that the is not and a of I that the raised by Ariel Toaff has more than been at briefly by a number of and of the and is the of the and of the a would to and such as the Ariel Toaff in and I would like to what Jewish for we can at the of the The book to be a out in two the book in the newspapers. the case at the of a and Toaff is the of the this can is to in the and with the and so as to that may have been This was not to be out of their to a the we the in the of a not with cultural the most for put so a should be with such is a book of this a been and of is can we In ways can the for this in the many it The reaction of most historians was the The first the of which on by do not historians to the of the the fact that of of ritual murder not in and of that such This may in fact that the the them to Toaff has the by the of a of in at the all the against the of ritual all the and all the and that the and the centuries in of the Toaff on the of Jewish and on such as of and in of to a is it to the of ritual murder in the cultural context the of of Jewish in to historians, Toaff did not but in to and and and with Toaff's has to do with the of the Toaff the with the he is in the of the He from within the it to the of ritual murder or that of the of the of have been as and This has not of in and in the from that they and that they of the In the of of the it on at the itself from the of This is the of to a book that the of the that and their is the of Toaff's He from source to in a back to the trial and on to the in to of and to the with the to with the and of a a of by in the at Toaff's is of may with the as the out of to to public to in the of Toaff's is in from a to the of of Toaff the and book is a It is with a of and of view that not The in which this book is the to of a The the of Toaff's book The of the Jewish has a the of for ritual the such a It is to on centuries as the of historical as as they The was that of as a of and This which to the of has was by a from Ariel Toaff's not at all in with I as well as a public to the by that the Jewish even they go as as of the their reaction in the Toaff is on the of various in the the of the of to to of such may not be historians, but they it to questions of ritual and in such quickly they have and so have well that in this case the of and the ways of have not been the public by means of is not In such academic not the religious of has been on a that has always been would that among as among can be to go from to that has and its to such crimes, is a to of the most in the this in is not the of is the that can escape from at to in the world. This to even to their as their larger of the Ariel Toaff did not this of book, at first, he of in a In of he to on the such as the accusation of ritual murder leveled against have been out of He out, and this is book, I I was of I the to that the the Jewish or the of the of that to a he book as a for is what I I in at a to that the we to and to all of religious Jewish or In the of a Jewish that is not that and is more than the the accusation of In we to and we have to remove from the of Jewish of by its of the of political he the of the did not even in the book be condemned to be in the not from I that the have their the Ariel Toaff the of the the and for the so as to to the not to the even the He that book has been and he on the of from of as he is he was with cases that be as His was on a of in a in such which to sum, the of what the the the of book, he and with a the that Jewish have ritual He ritual have was academic to the of the that the within in the by Toaff to the that from the of the he the that Italy in is not as to as He the have carried out this with a of the book should have itself to The of and of of book is in he to be in than in at I can He is In history has always been a of political has of the by and the to set Jewish history on a to the even it is by the of this than the of with the past. the and or and the by have always the Jewish to which elements to and which to The has these as have of a number of of such as the Jewish of the of the Jewish of the and the of of In of history have so so that can of the from a historical to a or from to in historical the of the and the of the the to In and the of of which the spokesmen to be important as and and has put a number of questions on the questions to the and the of the of the against the and the of public opinion the the memory of the the of the the the of to the of the of the and and the the and the Jewish of The of all issues has debates, not the academic but also in the In these the is in connection with the as Jewish the and to be of and history is a of The with it a which it from of The of to the in the of political debates can be among and also among in the to book, recent of religious as the of of the of at the of the in in or the that a from the on carried a a in the of the of the that it is for as a historian and as a to stay that he has to with the political I have to not with the but with the as I at by the of I I The of In recent history has important in the to in and and on as well debates, many and series to historical is of like the of the the and the of the of the the as a the of the all this as the of and The is often the of of or in the of the as In public debates, of Jewish history is always on the and of It may well be that this is also of the Jewish it a public of the is and and the memory of the the of a at such as Ariel the of The historical as a of has been to a This may be the the of the and that of In a Jewish has a of and that it to a for the of that of the history of and of the of to but the debate and the different positions in a which is to such It may not be that Toaff and in In Italy for that in or even the Jewish is in the of Toaff's It may be that is in a that is to such Toaff first published book in would have been in the at all the of the the book was for even in to the has been to from not to the of the did not is that and should to that so and so many against Jews. to the and of these to their In of the of the 2007, the condemned the book, on the of the it than on the a the the of Toaff's book, the its to Toaff and its at the of which to a book on the Blood in The of a in the of the book, and its by the have Jewish and the of the to the Jewish Ariel Toaff was to and to that it became more and more to within the to show the historian to on the a was that that he be is and a against the to the of the of the the against a by its the In the of the debate, and from the so as to it be to a In the quickly on to the of to the in recent at the of the of the of the to the of a of that would the of that in with and on Ariel Toaff that book was to be from the of and of book, I have to the so that I may the that have been at the on the of the of and has been from a work of to and the Jewish and to as for against Toaff that he and that he to to the as to for the of work which to the Jewish I that should of or of as for the that to the murder of of Ariel Toaff's was by that he did the with this also I would have like this from has always been a and this and book It is not by such that on to the of for the which its that the not in and that it of which the has been the This has for the of academic and for which has been at the source of the the of Pasque di political in these to but they to on the political of The first reaction is not the of the historical to the of a number of by to the was at the source of and he is a is it that the a With the of of the and the the the to the of and to that to may to be a 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to more at the ways in which historians do their It to that we should to the of such of the to questions we may be in a to the work escape all of and political questions I do not that should put to the of the do I it a to the of it important to attention to the and political of what we than as I this I in the of with is and have it is This I what it what I has to do with the of the and of different history is not a It to of opinion as historians, the first to as they on as they to do with
Early structure models of crystals go back to the 17th century.1, 2 By studying the external regularity of the crystals and their optical properties, an arrangement of the fundamental particles as shown in Figure 1(a) was suggested without actual knowledge of their size and nature. It took about 200 years until the molecular details could be ascertained, as shown for NaCl in Figure 1(b).3 Note that this was before X-ray diffraction was available for precise crystal structure determination.8 At about the same time, thermodynamics reached the present-day precision.4, 9 It represents the macroscopic tool to describe phases. Thereafter, microscopic experimental crystal structures were amassed by X-ray diffraction. Parallel, large numbers of heat capacities (at constant pressure), Cp, were determined by adiabatic calorimetry, often covering the temperature region from close to absolute zero to beyond the equilibrium melting temperature, T. Tables of the integral thermodynamic functions enthalpy, H, free enthalpy, G, and entropy, S, were collected for many substances as a function of temperature.10, 11 On the basis of the macroscopic thermodynamics and the microscopic structure, the molecular motion within the crystals was assesses by approximation and in detail.12-14 (a–d) Development of the knowledge about crystal structure (a2 and b3), phase property and size (c4, 5, 6), and the 10 basic states of matter (d7). The next step involved the evaluation of the properties of smaller and disordered crystals. As the main change in property, experiments on small crystals showed a lower melting temperature, Tm. This change in Tm could be described by the Gibbs-Thomson equation based on their surface area and the specific surface free energies.5 The same treatment was useful later, when analyzing lamellar polymer crystals.6 Figure 1(c) summarizes the historical definitions of the thermodynamic properties of macrophases and microphases, with the former being, in at least one dimension, larger than 1000 nm (1 μm). The Gibbs-Thomson equation listed in Figure 1(c) applies to the melting point lowering, ΔT, of lamellar, microphase crystals (𝓁 < 1.0 μm). The earlier suggestion that microphases in the form of colloids where a “fourth state of matter” could be discarded after understanding the effects of surface free energy and surface charges. More recently, nanophases are of general interest for objects marginally larger than the limit of a few ångstroms, set by the homogeneity of the phase due to the atomic structure and the fluctuations of the thermodynamic properties because of a too small sampling volume.15 Experiments following the glass transition of unsupported polymer spheres of decreasing size16 suggested that as long as a small phase has unchanged bulk material within its center, there is no reason to apply a different name to a small microphase.17 As one, however, approaches a size so small that the opposing surfaces leave no unchanged bulk material, it was found that there is a size-range for an entirely new phase, a true “nanophase.”15, 17 An updated thermodynamic description of phases is given in Figure 1(d). It contains a list of the possible phase types when considering not only degrees of condensation and ordering, but also the differences in modes of molecular motion. Figure 1(d) expands the basic, classical states of matter to ten.7, 18 The phases known since antiquity, have been linked in the early 19th century to their newly proven atomic nature.19, 20 The expansion with intermediate phases (mesophases) was discovered over the last 150 years.21 On the left side of the figure, it is indicated that the mesophases become increasingly more “solid” when changing in order toward the crystal. Unfortunately, crystals may have a broad range of solidity, so that the term “solid” is not a scientific, operational definition22 for their state. Glasses, in turn, have an easily measured glass transition temperature, Tg, which can be identified as a solid/liquid transition.23 The mesophases often possess a Cp close to that of the melt. On quenching, they undergo a glass transition similar to liquids. This leads to the three mesophase glasses indicated (from top to bottom: liquid crystal glass, plastic crystal glass, and condis crystal glass). Recently, it was observed, that some polymeric crystals, like aliphatic nylons and polyoxides, may even approach liquid-like mobility on heating before melting or undergoing a disordering transition. This change in mobility causes a change in heat capacity as in a glass transition, that is, the crystal displays a glass transition.24 Crystals that remain “truly” solid up to Tm become a mobile liquid on fusion. Turning to the right side of Figure 1(d), one notes that only the gas connects to all condensed phases. The entropy change of a liquid to a gas without change in the molecular structure is expressed empirically by Trouton's rule.25 The disordering of a crystal to a liquid follows the empirical rule of Richards as long as the ordering species are spherical.26 Nonspherical species follow Walden's rule,27 and for conformational disordering, a similar empirical entropy increase was observed as for spheres.28 The possible transitions between the condensed phases are marked in Figure 1(d) and their overall entropy of fusion is expressed in terms of the three types of disorder by the boxed equation.29, 30 Today, this development of the knowledge about crystal structures, phase properties and sizes, and the states of matter are supported by a wide range of experiments. The macroscopic picture is supplied by the equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics, based on calorimetry, and is supported by direct experimental evidence about the microscopic structure as well as the molecular motion. Furthermore, the enormous increase in computational capability allows to simulate molecular structure and motion. The time scale of importance, the picosecond, however, is far removed from human experience. The present summary is to establish the needed developments to attain a base for the detection of flaws in the still incomplete description of the thermodynamics and kinetics of crystallization of flexible molecules and their phase structures. In the next three sections, the often neglected problems of nucleation of a new phase of increased order will be analyzed and the nanophase structure of macromolecules will be probed as to its influence across the interfaces. In the conclusions, a view towards the enormous job of supplying details about the resolution of the indicated problems is summarized. The development of the idea of primary and secondary nucleation as they were ultimately applied to the crystallization of semicrystalline macromolecules are described in this section.31 The classical concept of crystal nucleation was already suggested by Gibbs about 130 years ago.32 The description of small phases as a function of size was discussed in Figure 1(c) and led to the free enthalpy plots describing primary nucleation given in Figure 2(a). The curves are scaled to the free enthalpies of polyethylene crystals. The boxed numbers in the graph on the right of Figure 2(a) represent the free enthalpy in convenient units at an approximately 40 K supercooling. They indicate a saddle point (*), calculated by the given equations. The system must travel across it to become stable. Obviously, at T the size of the nucleus is infinity, that is, no nucleation is possible. The larger the supercooling, the lower is the barrier for a move into the region of negative ΔG. About 60 years ago, a mathematical expression for the nucleation rate was derived by Turnbull and Fisher33 written in Figure 2(b). This was fitted to experiments on homogeneous nucleation with sufficiently small polyethylene droplets in silicone oil, eliminating the effect of accidental, heterogeneous nuclei. The result is the graph in Figure 2(b), based on the two-dimensional plot of Figure 2(a).36 There is a region of about 30 K in polyethylene where primary, homogeneous nucleation is not observed, followed by increasingly fast nucleation which slows as the melt viscosity, η, increases and reaches zero when the glass transition at 250 K is approached.31 (a–d) Free enthalpy of primary nucleation of a tetragonal crystal of dimension i = a × a × 𝓁 and expressed by the equations (a31); rate of primary nucleation, calculated analogous to part a (b31, 33); and the basic surface effects leading to secondary nucleation (c,34 d35). To assess the further crystallization after homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation, the Kossel model of a crystal was used.34 Figure 2(c) illustrates that on a cubic crystal there are five distinguishable locations of different surface free energy for crystallization or melting. Only position 3 has no change in surface free energy, that is, at position 3 crystallization (or melting) should occur at equal rates. Position 1 would require a secondary nucleation on the smooth crystal surface, and position 2, a tertiary nucleation of a new row on a step in the surface. Positions 4 and 5 would be stable and require a positive free enthalpy for removal from the crystal. This model was transferred 30 years later to the crystallization of polymers by Lauritzen and Hoffman35 by simplifying a polymer crystal as shown in Figure 2(d). It was the basis for the description of polymer crystallization for many years with numerous improvements and fine tunings,37 and is often still applied today. Figure 3(a) the for the secondary nucleation of analogous to homogeneous needed to be given for the observed crystallization in form of a but 𝓁 with a positive ΔG. Furthermore, it was that an of similar as for crystallization with a atomic step should the experiments on Early of the polymer as shown in Figure in a to the of the and from the of a molecular of one can that a with 𝓁 = nm which a crystal is only one of about In the in energy so that there is not only an but also an which of Figure temperature In present-day of secondary nucleation, the thermodynamic functions are as of temperature, the that of heat capacities are available for many for the heat capacity been measured by and was linked to its and by crystals of close to could be by crystallization in the condis phase of the condis phase to the phase by removal of the the equilibrium melting temperature was by to the from by and could be shown to the experimental equilibrium melting temperature = but the was leads to a 3 K a when small degrees of supercooling. Today, the contains and thermodynamic functions for 200 polymers and with the of the rate equation of Figure to secondary nucleation is the of the secondary polymer on a smooth crystal surface, as shown in Figure 2(d). as the on its molecular model of a surface a with new surface. This the or surface as the only to secondary It will be shown in the last of this that surfaces to to crystal Furthermore, and thermodynamic evidence of the of secondary nucleation will be in the next (a–d) and and experiments of possible secondary nucleation of all it was that for years the model for polymer crystallization was the to secondary at found The evidence for secondary nucleation was a large of on crystal as shown in Figure have an and could be fitted to nucleation rate as in Figure It was from the experimental of Figure that in the model would ultimately have to to a mathematical description of similar The direct experimental of the of secondary nucleation in polymers is about 40 years An of a of crystals of polyethylene is shown in Figure that should be for secondary nucleation can be on the surface. the was the was to melt some and to the surface with crystals. The area as in Figure is in Figure The on the surface should have secondary nucleation, but by following the crystal it is that not as crystal nucleation The crystals, however, are in indicated by their the of secondary surface of crystals of after heating to K for 3 to a small of crystals. indicate 1.0 from with from the crystallization of of was by experiments with the equilibrium phase by crystals were by up to a of about was The polymer was melting more than from the phase the of a solid This was to crystals from and from the at The after crystallization from can be and by were analyzed and the of is shown as 2 in Figure on crystallization from the melt are as 1 after the by K due to the increase of the melting temperature on of The melt was and so that the could only and were by calorimetry, was to the temperature and to on of the At the crystallization temperature, the curves up to far the by the phase as is this all curves approach the same limit at temperature, at there must be a for to the different the equilibrium melting or temperature of the given The that this is the equilibrium at the saddle point of secondary nucleation in Figure 3(a) is not Only one of many molecules could in this be by secondary On the basis of was molecular nucleation, similar to secondary nucleation was needed for of the molecular nucleation is as Figure It the step of nucleation by and the which sufficiently of the could at a different This nucleation of a could be followed by similar The in more than one form as were discovered earlier by On the molecules in different locations form a to the melting crystal. The are by after by This picture of the thermodynamics and kinetics of crystallization of flexible molecules is by years on the molecular of the of species their equilibrium melting temperature of molecular the of the of the nucleation and of and polyethylene crystals from the the description of the further developments must be In the in the of crystallization of flexible macromolecules a The possible of or at the lamellar surfaces of polymer crystals a It that were a could be found for by of the however, is based on with only by by all on it was from on to for polymer and interest It up only with a new of and new The is in the of more on the The new development with the of surface into the description of polymer crystals, or the secondary nucleation The of a was an early in the crystallization of small from the gas flexible were for the a model of was it no to the nonequilibrium of Figure suggestion of the a mesophase it is that the in Figure must intermediate order before the and a of polymers possess stable or for polyethylene (at and many mesophases are to be stable at the of following the molecular motion of of on a to a view of the crystallization in the to and follow possible in polymer crystals and to the motion involved in the of crystal but the time of to follow crystallization was still too could be To the to more was the many and the cubic an nucleation of nucleation and could be supported by the ultimately also the of molecular was in the as a new tool to and It is applied as calorimetry, Figure the limit of the of crystallization and melting of and experiments and were is a where the is about a temperature with a The were three of an of the and and broad The is to a of This limit of also with Figure where true is up to about It was that in the of glass or surfaces no in the crystallization of by homogeneous This found an by the of of long on by atomic The only K the bulk T. Figure also that the is not by the in the crystal with larger is by heating and as with Figure for As long as T is within the melting and crystallization are The and incomplete phase transitions due to time and a of the and 5 are indicated by the measured by the and the which to the and liquid heat The in Figure the of the of melting and crystallization with a of than the experimental limit of the heating rate to 30 K not change the of melting (at beyond the which was for in Figure 1 K 10 K The of in at larger than 10 K and reached a of 10 K at 30 K experiments a of the of crystallization by the enormous of possible of the in the to the no of crystal with the rate of after primary More on the kinetics of molecular nucleation and its influence on in the Turnbull and equation of Figure has not been as Today, with calorimetry, can be to as as K range of may a direct of molecular nucleation kinetics with changing molecular (a–d) of melting and crystallization of for a of melting in nucleation as step of crystallization after homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation, in to an between crystal and the melt which must influence the This effect would in the Turnbull and equation of Figure and will be in the last On of the of semicrystalline it was found when the that the glass transition was to temperature and the increase in Cp at was often smaller than from the This in was the and is as the development of it possible to heat effects from the heat capacity in the temperature range between and Tm. from the of this it was found that many crystals a of of by the melting from Cp, a glass transition could be identified for a of polymers the of the phase, for the By a transition temperature, the of a that the not only of a but represents a phase between the crystal and the bulk phases. the influence on the heat capacity by melting and the it possible to the molecular motion within the crystals in this temperature It was found that polymer crystals an of conformational motion as the melting temperature is In many this molecular motion could also be and by solid state X-ray and molecular In of which is available as material, this increase in conformational mobility was discovered to at about In some this motion even reaches a glass transition of the crystal as in the of Figure 1(d). In a of polymer crystals, a transition to a mesophase as is long for for polyethylene at and To a semicrystalline material and to its it is to and three possible phase and more than one, The influence of phases on the overall thermodynamics and the kinetics of crystallization are analyzed in this The observed on is in Figure for It at the phase and is in the temperature range were melting is also observed, a close between the small of different surface melting was earlier by X-ray In this the at the surface over a wide temperature not the crystal and at a lower temperature than the By a larger of experiments on it was that only semicrystalline with and The melting is by the of to At lower temperature the is larger and it approaches zero at the of melting. The the the is the melting. It increases with and with The effect is in Figure on the of a and melting occur to the glass transition region and are at The crystallization in Figure on at 10 K a On with only of this because of to the by the of the is The broad melting is at a temperature than the main crystallization To be linked to the the melting must be a It can be by considering the molecular nucleation of Figure The of the are from the more of the so that melting can only occur at a The however, can as a molecular nucleus for the which within the of Crystals of macromolecules with or no of melting have also been Figure the for a without At this it is to crystals of and or of no (a–d) of the melting and crystallization of a of different polymers for melting of crystals of of different of polymers are or melting was observed for of Figure a of similar as in Figure similar melting was also observed for the crystal was determined by on from It of a lamellar structure as for of a to of within the The of the polymer was in this not to the homogeneous to like an their of than the limit of The polymeric was the that the crystallization and melting are close to that of a of similar The of of the different to influence the molecular nucleation and to be The has a influence on the crystallization of flexible in there is no of the as in there is a of the glass transition to temperature in all semicrystalline the intermediate phase was proven by on This intermediate phase was and on the top and of the This intermediate phase for of the and in solid state experiments it an intermediate mobility between that of the and This has also been by a between X-ray and The size of this intermediate phase was to be about nm for melt More is a of the but from the of the Figure for The Cp for the solid and the mobile could be calculated from of the The glass transitions can easily be from the K all polymer is and the indicated equation for the can be to represent of the and the of the all three phases must be when the by K no can be determined because glass and crystal have close to the same this for the and with it the of the crystallization not apply to by X-ray diffraction. is the of a phase the melting temperature, as for and in Figure experiments of this polymer by already that there was no glass transition the melting that is, the a the the melting the crystals as but it also the The of a is not far the melting temperature, but increases sufficiently when in the phase, as indicated by the experiments in Figure The melting rate is by the glass transition and the T is the of the but melting is at and the glass transition The melting kinetics could be followed and after some of the one of could melt for three units of Note that there is also no of melting in This an not by from the melt. The glass transition is sufficiently that nucleation leads to the of the its glass transition and further To the glass transition to be by the of a On one not only of the crystals, but also the On this is transferred to the the of it was possible to this by X-ray The of the that of a similar result was with The phase structure of semicrystalline polymers is a more system than for small On the basis of the updated phase description in Figure 1 of macroscopic and as well as molecular order and a arrangement of and nanophases was the classical model of Figure 2, one can the homogeneous nucleation of crystals of small as well as large the of the term may be to to this approach to the kinetics of polymer crystals the secondary nucleation of 2 and 3 4 and 5 supported the to a molecular (or nucleation to for direct of crystal without secondary nucleation, of of molecules the equilibrium temperature of their phase and the on of the limit of molecular nucleation a given set of experimental and the on melting and their They indicate that of sufficiently long molecules with a of the macromolecules are for and one can with the to heat capacities and to the thermodynamic functions in the temperature range between and Tm. to the picture that crystal in semicrystalline polymers is by an phase that has at least a glass transition from the phase, and in many leads to a with a glass transition a nanophase semicrystalline as and the may remain and on a structure which at their with a possible heat the of and that no one picture applies to all The details of must be before a description of the thermodynamics and kinetics of crystallization is an enormous which has by only The are available for this for evaluation of the thermodynamics, its and by even the of X-ray diffraction can the structure of all may assess the molecular and the The expression shown in Figure could still describe the experimental crystal as a function of temperature in Figure however, must a set of and the step of the crystallization can be by the of Figure The of may be from at fast the entropy and energy of the The of should into the by the because the of the in Figure are not to have the should be to represent all thermodynamic functions with their temperature In the this was supported by the of and the of and of of at and by for the of The a to or the form of this or to for
Trade Unions and the State: The Construction of Industrial Relations Institutions in Britain, 1890–2000 by Howell, Chris . Princeton University Press , Princeton, NJ , 2005 , xi + 243 pp., ISBN 0 691 12106 0 , £26.95 That the history of British trade unionism in the twentieth century was a story of hubris would be widely accepted; but in this detailed, highly scholarly historical account of the case, Chris Howell proposes an original and far from widely accepted key component of that hubris. While the unions, their opponents and most academic observers have considered that the classic British system was a voluntarist one, Howell argues that union strength was always dependent on support from the state. When, by the end of the 1970s, the state withdrew that support from both unions and the institutions of collective bargaining, the apparently autonomous and resilient edifice of union power collapsed easily. Howell's account is thoroughly convincing and signals a need to reconsider much more in the history of British industrial relations, and indeed of British society. Is this a country in which civil society is so strong that it can procure its collective goods through the autonomous actions of its citizens without much action by government? Or is it one that just tries to get by with a minimum of collective goods? The author offers the following periodization of his terrain: 1890–1940, the construction of the collective laissez faire system; 1940–1979, dissension and the decentralization of industrial relations; and 1979–1997, decollectivization. The trap of the hubris is set during the second, essentially unstable period, being finally sprung early in the third. During the first period, the basic framework was established of a system that brought a degree of order and industrial relations stability to an economy that was highly fragmented, with disorganized, medium-sized firms and a highly divided workforce. It was during this period that governments more or less consistently perceived the need for some institution construction to avoid chaos and disorder. British capital, dominated as it was by the financial sector on one side and a fragmented set of manufacturing industries on another, was unable to solve its own collective action problem of establishing an order from which it would itself benefit, so government acted. Central to Howell's highly convincing account is the idea of the state simultaneously supporting and constraining the power of employers by nudging and prodding them towards collective industrial relations arrangements. Employers were being reluctantly constitutionalized in their relations with the collectivities of their employees, just as the state itself had been constitutionalized in its relations with its collective public. Because the liberal British state proceeded by nudging and prodding rather than by the elaboration of formal structures of rights and duties, unions came to believe that they had brought employers to the construction of these institutions by their own strength. They failed to notice that they gradually became dependent on government encouragement of employers' associations, on whom the unions relied in turn more or less to recruit their members for them and enforce agreements. And they came to prefer the acquisition of immunities from the free trade logic of common law to the gaining of positive collective legal rights of labour. The theoretical position that underlies Howell's account of institution creation, stability and change is that of the French régulationistes, with change being driven primarily by shifts in the forms of capitalist accumulation, although — like most contemporary régulationistes— his account is considerably more nuanced than that school's original division of pre-Fordism, Fordism and post-Fordism. Complex changes are perceived as sectors and firm types rise and fall, but towards the end of the 1890–1940 period, the new one of mass-production, primarily domestically oriented, large firms of Fordism had become evident. These corporations were better able to achieve an industrial order within themselves than the earlier generation of craft-based or smaller-scale firms, and had less need of one that was imposed externally by the machinery of state encouragement, employers' associations, unions, industry-wide collective bargaining, and collective labour law. The second period, after 1940, was therefore one in which the earlier edifice was gradually being undermined. At another, more political, level, however, that edifice was reaching the acme of its strength. The decade of the 1940s, characterized by mass mobilization for war and then by Labour government, saw a major ramification of collectivism in industrial relations. Howell's excellent account thus enables us to make sense of the labour struggles of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in ways that go considerably beyond the existing literature, extensive as that is. Government and union leaderships remained wedded to the path dependence of the earlier period: collective bargaining and the other industrial relations institutions were still definitely ‘good things’, even if unruly elements kept stimulating a need for reforms; the purpose of the reforms, including the Industrial Relations Act 1971, was still to make the model work better. On the other side, an unconscious alliance of managers seeking a firm-level model and shop stewards seeking to exploit the power of organized labour made possible by government commitment to full employment was undermining the premises of collective laissez-faire. Eventually, government was left in the hopeless position of seeking simultaneously to centralize wage-setting and decentralize other aspects of industrial relations. But both sets of actors on the labour side, central leaderships and shop stewards, continued to believe that it was organized labour's own strength that guaranteed its position in British society, that it owed little to government for its survival, and that government would have to accept its enduring presence. Given Howell's thesis that state support was always central to union strength, all that was really required to undermine that strength was a departure from the assumptions of the previous 90 years by the political class. This, of course, came with the election in 1979 of a Conservative government fully converted to neoliberal economic ideas and a leading member of the array of political and economic forces that was set to undermine most of the assumptions of the postwar political economy throughout the industrial world. Once presumptions in favour of collective action and the maintenance of full employment were dropped, the firm-level model could become one in which managers confronted, not shop stewards, but individual employees with no capacity for joint action. End of contradiction. The dramatic act that laid bare the hubris was the miners' strike of 1984–1985, conducted by a union believing completely in the myth of the autonomy of union strength. Howell possibly underestimates the role of pure political conjuncture in producing this particular dénouement. The chance occurrence of the Falklands War and the fact that the Labour Party chose to split itself in two, both occurring in the early 1980s, together gave the Conservatives an insulation from what might have otherwise been the political consequences of the abandonment of full employment policies. In that case, neoliberalism might have had to advance through the compromises with organized labour that have characterized its path in most of the rest of western Europe, leading to a restructuring of the collective system rather than its collapse. Howell would claim that the illusory nature of the British collective laissez faire model meant that the collapse was inevitable, and that sooner or later, another contingency would have occurred. This is perhaps the case, but when one considers how European systems as diverse and as potentially unfavourable to organized labour as the Irish, the French and the Spanish have all mutated into new compromises between neoliberalism and various forms of collectivism, one wonders. Howell ends his third period at 1997 and then considers in a separate chapter the changes consequent on the election of a Labour government in that year. At the time he was writing, he had only a few years of that government to write about, and he can be forgiven for not feeling able to get any kind of perspective on it. However, his historian's instincts should have warned him that a periodization that has made no concessions to events as momentous as the election of the Liberal government of 1906, the First World War, the General Strike, or the interwar depression, is unlikely to need to take much notice of a change of government between what are today two essentially neoliberal parties. In fact, his account of the post-1997 years makes it clear that, once the passing of time has afforded him better perspective, he is likely to see a continuation of the trajectory of 1979–1997: Labour has continued primarily with a model of individualized work relations, changing the emphasis a little by conceding more individual rights to employees. The more recent study of the period by Davies and Freedland (Towards a Flexible Labour Market, Oxford University Press, 2007), which has the advantage of surveying a longer post-1997 period and of concentrating on an analysis of labour law, corroborates Howell's account, and draws a further conclusion: with the exception of measures required by European Union directives, most of Labour's extensions of labour rights are designed to encourage labour force participation by groups like single mothers and immigrants who, without certain rights, might not work. British labour rights have therefore moved from being collective immunities from common law offences to being individual encouragements to work. This kind of right belongs to a discourse concerning the balance between rights and responsibilities: one acquires a right because one offers something of value. This is often opposed to a concept of rights as part and parcel of citizenship: under a universal citizenship regime, one does not have to work in order to have the right to a fair trial or to vote. This is, however, a legalistic view of citizenship. In reality, various social groups have won rights when they had something to offer that the state needed. This dates back to the original obligation on Athenian citizens to offer military service. While this can appear to undermine rights, as they become conditional, it can also be seen as strengthening them. If a right is given through benevolence or adherence to abstract principle on the part of the state, there remains doubt as to what would happen if that benevolence of adherence to principle were to slip. Such rights can be lost. Indeed, it can be said that Howell's book is a demonstration of what happens when groups become dependent on governments for their rights. In his story there is added piquancy in that the unions believed that they had won their rights, that they had offered something in exchange for them, and that they would therefore be able to reclaim what they had offered as a deterrent against withdrawal of the rights. What unions essentially have to ‘offer’ in this sense is (negatively) restraint in their capacity to disrupt society and (positively) collaboration in the pursuit of shared national economic goals. This is rather similar to the deals that medieval nobilities offered to monarchs as the latter tried to fashion systems of social peace. But it would seem, from Howell's account, that the unions' offer had over the decades become too dependent on the state's definition of its terms. They had become more like the Russian aristocracy of the nineteenth century, whose originally autonomous rights and powers increasingly became translated into a table of ranks maintained and controlled by the tsars. There is therefore a major difference between an exchange of rights for obligations when both parties maintain some autonomy over the terms of the deal, and one in which one party administers the whole. Mistaking the latter for the former is the British union weakness that Howell identifies. Different again is the contrast that Davies and Freedland identify between those collective rights and those currently given to individuals in exchange for their commitment to participate in the labour force. The exchange here is unpolitical, or rather is political on one side only. Government continues to act highly politically and strategically in framing its labour policies, but individuals in an increasingly decollectivized labour market cannot respond in the same way. They cannot offer counterplans, or try to amend the terms of the rights/obligations exchange. They are more like customers than citizens; and customers do not have rights, only products. How durable is this new model of industrial relations likely to be? Howell concludes his book by saying: . . . the third system of industrial relations has achieved the kind of political consensus enjoyed by the first system but which eluded the second, and there is a strong case for seeing this as a long-lasting, stable set of industrial relations institutions (p. 193). However, in line with Howell's régulationiste approach, one must now ask how durable is the accumulation regime on which that political consensus and industrial relations regime have been based. Also, while there have been important historical specificities in the British case, for the discovery of which Howell's historical method is ideally suited, the British case is also one of a large number of societies which have gone through certain similar experiences. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, the years from the 1940s to the 1970s constituted a period defined by growing mass prosperity and a growing size and strength of the manual working class, within which trade unions were rooted. This differed from the years of depression and repression which had preceded it, and from the neoliberal period which started, with different timings and nuances, some time from the late 1970s onwards. The so-called Fordist period was rooted in manufacturing (particularly mass production and within that particularly motor vehicles), and therefore usually associated with a mass working class, which produced organizations and had to be propitiated if it were not to present challenges to the social order. Keynesian demand management operated similarly to Fordism in making possible a mass supply of goods and services, which supply itself stimulated demand. This in turn created employment, which further stimulated demand. Keynesianism also made possible the provision of social citizenship rights, as the provision of public services and rights-based transfer payments were the basis of the large sums of government spending that demand management required. Together, therefore, the production model and demand management model served the purpose of class propitiation, from which process labour also acquired rights. For the first time in history the economic and political advance of the mass of the population was both possible and the foundation of the prosperity and stability of the whole of society. In a real sense, Marx's idea of the working class as the class that embodied the future of the whole society was realized, albeit in the form of a class compromise and not as Marx had envisaged it. It was also a far more temporary model than Marx anticipated, although it did follow his Hegelian assumptions (which he had thought would cease with the working class) about how history changes by successive periods carrying within themselves the of their own as Howell's history of his period those of with its of the Keynesian state, had an and it a different set of leading class This to be at the when the of manufacturing employment had and the class of industrial society was The neoliberal period has been rooted in services, particularly financial the important exception of public the of the services sectors not to the citizens of they demand goods and services from government and market but the they have do not need to to it, and not to to make collective In some this is because their terms and are established on an individual in labour market they the consequences for their employment of any collective action. for the social order to only from from the challenges of and the of While the neoliberal economy is one in which the purpose of government is to rather than support in the Keynesian it is even more dependent on mass than the Keynesian This is by two neoliberalism is associated with and with a major of There is therefore a growing supply of goods from with labour and of the of British other no longer on the work of other demand is by if is often the case in the are not and is can to maintain their to increasingly in it has been possible for to their and other as In like the and British into acquisition far than could be to by in and Because are in their are not considered to be and can while neoliberal is on and While the goods with their increasingly from they can also to services, which are less likely to be further stimulating the from manufacturing to services employment within the advanced world. The system can be defined as governments have been as about mass prosperity as during the previous but of to themselves through public demand they have only to and encourage the of The of Fordism and Keynesianism was this was by growing for in the growing power of organized and individual labour in the to public and the universal provision of of those The neoliberal economy has the The of in and the of the of in from have all to favour financial and all other forms of The of the concept of the of as the of a firm has further a of all economic While the model primarily through its of has more widely in the population than financial are more than any the of and therefore the to more to a in of and that had operated throughout most of the twentieth century have been during the two or decades — on when a country to the neoliberal The leading sector of the economy has therefore become financial services, and the class whose for those of the society as a whole the of and in financial if the period of the of the manual working class was associated with a in and a rise in collective goods and the rise of the financial class is associated with and a or of collective There is little in a model for something like a system of industrial relations, or social or for participation in the system by the of labour There is a need for an of the more labour that is the more for its into financial the from labour rights as collective political to individual of rights for the of The Keynesian or the period of Howell's for to on the one considers or the one The neoliberal model is now just its it of The of the in financial which is as to the model as was to might not be to but and have an is what its that believe that believe . . . that he can it is to make the model work. has been late by the fact that did not the full of that they were and and some were into of more they could all believe that this did not because they could it on to would not because he could it on . . . then all was But some did the of the It clear how far financial had Keynesianism when one how governments are to of the collapse of financial are to them in a that could not possibly be for other and are by governments and central to other even if they have little for the system is on about what there need be no as for the terms of this there is a public in And if government is this kind of it is not really a neoliberal model at the neoliberal model therefore itself in the same of time that Keynesianism to do the Or the government that are to the whole back on the While the former more given the nature of the the of any model in the neoliberalism in the during makes the latter more What has been particularly in this is the of any social or class that might appear as the of a new model — as financial institutions were to be the of It would be to write the history of the changing of the previous century and more without as Howell has to the role of in various sectors of the economy in the between them and their organizations on the one and government and on the At in the and the one can write the story of the of neoliberalism and the model without much to and their organizations at working do appear in the as and as major political if a there are also major of in relations between and But for the of work and its Howell's about a long-lasting, stable set of industrial institutions been established by the does not appear at all
Most of the current trust models in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are identity based, which means that in order for one peer to trust another, it needs to know the other peer's identity. In addition, the conventional access control mechanism is not suitable because the P2P networks is decentralize and dynamic one. We propose a neighborhood key method, authentication scheme base on zero-knowledge proof without leaking any sensitive information, each peer shares secrets only with authenticated neighbors, which generate verifiable pseudonym instead of their real identity from using a one-way Hash function. Security analysis proves that this method makes authentication can't be impersonated, while achieving better anonymity for peers, malicious peers cannot deduce a real identity. And also shows well defending man-in-middle attacks.
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç‐Kunt, María Soledad Martínez Pería
Using data from a survey of 91 banks in \n 45 countries, the authors characterize bank financing to \n small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world. They \n find that banks perceive the SME segment to be highly \n profitable, but perceive macroeconomic instability in \n developing countries and competition in developed countries \n as the main obstacles. To serve SMEs banks have set up \n dedicated departments and decentralized the sale of products \n to the branches. However, loan approval, risk management, \n and loan recovery functions remain centralized. Compared \n with large firms, banks are less exposed to small \n enterprises, charge them higher interest rates and fees, and \n experience more non-performing loans from lending to them. \n Although there are some differences in SMEs financing across \n government, private, and foreign-owned banks - with the \n latter being more likely to engage in arms-length lending - \n the most significant differences are found between banks in \n developed and developing countries. Banks in developing \n countries tend to be less exposed to SMEs, provide a lower \n share of investment loans, and charge higher fees and \n interest rates. Overall, the evidence suggests that the \n lending environment is more important than firm size or bank \n ownership type in shaping bank financing to SMEs.
Botnia S.A./Metsä-Botnia Oy's construction of the Orion pulp mill in Uruguay raised concerns regarding violations of national, regional, and international law with regard to social and environmental protection. On 18 April 2006, the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), an Argentinean non-governmental organisation, submitted to Finland's National Contact Point (NCP) a “specific instance” regarding the possible non-compliance of Botnia S.A. (a Finnish enterprise) with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD Guidelines for MNEs, Guidelines) when building the envisaged pulp mill in Uruguay. According to the Center for Human Rights and Environment, Botnia S.A. violated the OECD Guidelines for MNEs especially with respect to Chapter II “General Policies”, Chapter III “Disclosure”, Chapter V “Environment” and Chapter VI “Bribery”. Specific instances concerned with related issues were filed by the Center for Human Rights and Environment with the Swedish and Norwegian NCPs against Nordea, a leading financial services group of the Nordic and Baltic Sea area, for possible financing of Botnia S.A.'s pulp mill project and against the Finnish state bank Finnvera for providing export guarantees to Botnia S.A. Other fora that have in the meantime become involved in the issue are the International Court of Justice and member institutions of the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
This book explores the system of financing local governments in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Using evidence from the last two decades, the authors, experts on their particular countries, describe the development of the current local government finance system in each nation, and the major challenges and policy options they face. The contributions in this book provide comprehensive coverage of a transitional Europe that encompasses both modern local public finance theory and specific applications in the target countries.