Localism and regionalism are normally seen as conflicting, conceptions of metropolitan area governance. Localism is the belief that the existing system of a large number of relatively small governments wielding power over such critical matters as land use regulation, local taxation, and the financing of local public services ought to be preserved. Regionalism would move some power to institutions, organizations or procedures with a larger territorial scope and more population than existing local governments. Regionalism appears to be a step towards centralization, and the antithesis of the decentralization represented by localism. Yet, in the metropolitan areas that dominate America at the end of the twentieth century, regionalism is not just the enemy of localism: It is also localism's logical extension. Localism is based on a set of arguments concerning the role of local governments in promoting governmental efficiency, democracy, and community. But in contemporary metropolitan areas, the economically, socially, and ecologically relevant local area is often the region. In these areas, concerns about efficiency, democracy, and community ought to lead to a shift in power from existing localities to new processes, structures, or organizations that can promote decision-making on behalf of the region. Regionalism is, thus, localism for metropolitan areas. Localists, however, do not become regionalists when they live in metropolitan areas. Indeed, resistance to regionalism is intense in many metropolitan areas. Localism is not simply a theory intended to advance certain normative goals. It is also a means of protecting the interests of those who receive advantages from the existing governance structure. Local self-interest, rather than the political values localism is said to advance, plays a central role in the opposition to regionalism. This essay explores the relationship between localism and regionalism. It considers the meaning of regionalism in contemporary urban policy debates and the reasons why regionalism currently enjoys so much attention from academics, urbanists and policy analysts. It reviews the arguments for localism, and explains how, despite the asserted conflict between localism and regionalism, the theories underlying localism actually make a case for regionalism in contemporary metropolitan areas. Finally, it examines the role of local self-interest in the resistance to regionalism, and the efforts of regionalists to respond by making the case for regionalism in terms of local self-interest as well.
In the last two decades the Israeli educational system has undergone major changes which have transformed it from a state-controlled, overly bureaucratic and almost fully state-financed system into a decentralized, partly locally controlled and increasingly privately financed system. Advocates of this transformation of the educational system appeal to the ideal of parental choice. They argue that the implementation of parental choice programs in education shows more respect to the children and their unique talents, take their self-realization seriously and promotes equal opportunities in education. The ideal of parental choice is also upheld in relation to value of cultural pluralism. Supporters of educational autonomy advocate the restructuring of schools in a way allow ing them to develop a unique climate and curriculum consistent with respective communities and parents' preferences. The aim of this paper is to assess critically the changes that Israeli educational system has undergone against the background of the principle of equal educational opportunities. The main claim of the paper is that these changes undermine this principle. It will be argued that these changes actually cater mainly to the educational interests of middle and upper middle classes in Israeli society.
This paper presents a new password authentication and key agreement protocol, AMP, based on the ampli ed password idea. The intrinsic problems with password authentication are the password itself has low entropy and the password le is very hard to protect. We presentthe ampli ed password proof and the ampli ed password le for solving these problems. A party commits the high entropy information and ampli es her password with that information in the amplifed password proof. She never shows any information except that she knows it. Our ampli ed password proof idea is very similar to the zero-knowledge proof in that sense. We adds one more idea ïżœ the ampli ed password le for password le protection. Aserver stores the ampli ed veri ers in the ampli ed password le that is secure against a server le compromise and a dictionary attack. AMP mainly provides the password-veri er based authentication and the Di e-Hellman based key agreement, securely and e ciently. AMP is easy to generalize in any other cyclic groups. In spite of those plentiful properties, AMP is actually the most e cient protocol among the related protocols due to the simultaneous multiple exponentiation method. Several variants such as AMPi,AMPn,AMPn+, AMP +,AMP++, and AMPc are also proposed. Among them, AMPn is actually the basic protocol of this paper that describes the ampli ed password proof idea while AMP is the most complete protocol that adds the ampli ed password le. AMPi simply removes the ampli ed password le from AMP.Intheend,wegive a comparison to the related protocols in terms of e ciency. This manuscript is a preliminary version of our paper available from the IACR eprint archive,
Differential Power Analysis (DPA) methods and Statistical Zero-Knowledge (SZK) proofs depend on discrimination between noisy samples drawn from pairs of closely similar distributions. In some cases the distributions resemble truncated Gaussians; sometimes one distribution is uniform. A log-gamma family of probability density functions provides a 2-dimensional metric space of distributions with compact support on [0, 1], ranging from the uniform distribution to symmetric unimodular distributions of arbitrarily small variance. Illustrative calculations are provided.
K. Kwiatkowski, PatrĂcia Flatley Brennan, David L. DeMets, Karen Dahlen · 5 authors
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Health Sciences Schools are currently in the planning stage of developing an Integrated Advanced Information Management System (IAIMS). The planning phase of this project attends to the unique opportunities that are found at the flagship campus of a large state university system. Statewide teaching and research initiatives and accelerated campus-level capital development challenge the planners to create an IAIMS plan that anticipates an emerging health science environment. Additionally, UW-Madison has an organizational culture with a strong tradition of faculty governance, which provides a very desirable and flexible decision-making environment for a cross-discipline collaborative information management initiative. Development of a shared IAIMS vision conflicts with a governance model that most directly supports intradepartmental decision-making. The challenge presented here for an IAIMS initiative has less to do with hard wiring a technical infrastructure and more to do with increased stakeholder cooperation in a highly decentralized organization with autonomous information systems.
This memo describes the Open Digital Asset Protocol (ODAP). ODAP is an
asset transfer protocol that operates between two gateway devices. The
protocol includes a description of virtual or digital assets held on
distributed ledgers in an open and interoperable format, a session
negotiation part and message passing flows between gateways connecting
disparate distributed ledger technologies (DLTs).
Abstract. In this work we use cryptography to solve a game-theoretic problem which arises naturally in the area of two party strategic games. The standard game-theoretic solution concept for such games is that of an equilibrium, which is a pair of âself-enforcing â strategies making each playerâs strategy an optimal response to the other playerâs strategy. It is known that for many games the expected equilibrium payoffs can be much higher when a trusted third party (a âmediatorâ) assists the players in choosing their moves (correlated equilibria), than when each player has to choose its move on its own (Nash equilibria). It is natural to ask whether there exists a mechanism that eliminates the need for the mediator yet allows the players to maintain the high payoffs offered by mediator-assisted strategies. We answer this question affirmatively provided the players are computationally bounded and can have free communication (so-called âcheap talkâ) prior to playing the game. The main building block of our solution is an efficient cryptographic protocol to the following Correlated Element Selection problem, which is of independent interest. Both Alice and Bob know a list of pairs (a1, b1)... (an, bn) (possibly with repetitions), and they want to pick a random index i such that Alice learns only ai and Bob learns only bi. Our solution to this problem has constant number of rounds, negligible error probability, and uses only very simple zero-knowledge proofs. We then show how to incorporate our cryptographic protocol back into a game-theoretic setting, which highlights some interesting parallels between cryptographic protocols and extensive form games. 1
The Molly Blooms of âPenelopeâ: Reading Joyce Archivally Alyssa J. OâBrien (bio) Positioned at the end of the book, after the radical innovations with representation and form in the later chapters of Ulysses, âPenelopeâ appears to confirm Hugh Kennerâs consideration of it as manifesting, âfor once, no style.â 1 Long viewed in terms of what Karen Lawrence describes as âthe sound of one mind thinking,â âPenelopeâ has seemed a retreat from linguistic experimentation. 2 Such interpretations are clearly informed by the visual presentation of words on the page: the stylistic crafting of the text creates the illusion of a flowing monologue emanating from a single female consciousness. Consequently, the critical history of this episode, beginning with the assumption that Joyce offers us a single, womanâs voice at last, has not been able to avoid imposing upon it what Derek Attridge calls âunexamined gender stereotypes.â 3 But a reconsideration of Joyceâs writing process for the episode challenges this premise and provides a way to re-evaluate the significance of âPenelope.â If we consult Joyceâs manuscripts, typescripts, and proofs, we are compelled to question the common critical assumption that Molly Bloom signifies a knowable character with a transparent consciousness. Reading âPenelopeâ archivally, we find that it is not Molly who negotiates colonial and patriarchal discourses (as Brian Shaffer and others have argued), 4 but rather that [End Page 7] Joyceâs language continually ruptures the consolidation of a character who might signify a construction of such discourses. In other words, Joyce negotiates social scripts shaping Irish female identity not so much through one characterâs subversive masquerade or mimicry, but rather through his refusal to capitulate to any cultural representation of gendered subjectivity. What is at stake in reading multiple Molly Blooms in âPenelopeâ is that we can see Joyce engaging with the sexual and imperial politics of early twentieth-century Dublin in a way that navigates the polarities between feminists and conservatives, cultural nationalists and colonialists. He offers an alternative vision of subjectivity, one fashioned through his experimentation with language. In a small scribbled hand, Joyce added a phrase to the typescript of âPenelopeâ: âshe had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God help the world if all the women were like her.â 5 Although the line is often read as the sentiment of Molly Bloom, we might see the inserted phrase as pointing to a multiplicity of femininities, a plurality of possible women. This, in turn, suggests that Joyce may be advancing his vision of ontological mutability in the final, often reductively read episode. Transformation, metamorphosis, and metempsychosis are clearly cardinal interests for Joyce throughout Ulysses. 6 Buck Mulliganâs parody of transubstantiation introduces the lietmotif of mutability; the theme is continued through Stephen Dedalusâs philosophical musings in âProteusâ (âGod becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountainâ), and through Bloomâs speculations in âHadesâ (âIf we were all suddenly somebody elseâ). 7 The later episodes actually embody in textual terms the ontological mutability pondered and presented narratively earlier in the book. In âNausicaa,â Bloom becomes the hero of a popular sentimental romance, The Lamplighter, through Joyceâs use of the language of sentimental Victorian novels. In âOxen of the Sun,â Joyceâs language causes characters to be repeatedly transported through centuries, into and out of different bodies and across various locations: Bloom transforms from a âwayfaringâ man â[o]f Israelâs folkâ to âsir Leopoldâ to âMaster Bloomâ to âLeop. Bloomâ to âMr Leopoldâ to âMr Canvasser Bloomâ to âyoung Leopoldâ to âMr L. Bloom (Pubb. Canv.)â and, finally, to âold man Leo,â âBloo,â and âPold veg.â Joyce puts Bloom through what Joyce termed âfive or six different [End Page 8] suitsâ in âCirce,â 8 yet the changes are more drastic than costume. Bloom transforms from mayor to sex slave; he grows a vulva and gives birth to eight yellow and white children. 9 In this fantastical Walpurgisnacht episode, all characters and objects mutate into different forms. Bloomâs and Stephenâs mothers are reincarnated to play a role, and even a bar...
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Australia and New Zealand extensively deregulated their economies to create two of the most open markets in the industrialized world. Drawing on interviews with more than 180 leading policymakers in Australia and New Zealand - including former prime ministers, ministers of finance, treasurers, and public servants - Shaun Goldfinch analyzes the factors that made the deregulation process different in each country. Describing specific policies - including liberalization of financial and capital markets, lowering of trade barriers, the floating of the exchange rate, and privatization - he compares the crash-through approach that characterized reform in New Zealand with the bargained consensus that underpinned change in Australia. In Australia, influences on policy were relatively diffuse and implementations open and decentralized. New Zealand's more centralized government structure resulted in a concentration of influence and less deliberation. He contrasts rapid and gradual change, arguing that the latter may yield better policy results and prevent political instability. Shedding new light on the economic policymaking process, including the role of economic ideas, institutions, and policy elites, this book will appeal to both students and professionals in interested in public policy, comparative politics, and economics.
With an introduction to the overall underdevelopment of higher education in China compared with the American counterpart, this article briefly examines the main trends of over two decades of development of the governance and financing systems of China's higher education sector. This article analyzes the resource allocation from governments and revenue generation in institutions under the reform policies of administrative decentralization and financing diversification. ...
This paper gives an interpretation of the recent diffusion of the processes of productive outsourcing founded on two explanatory points. The first is that such processes replace a hierarchical paradigm of information diffusion with a decentralized paradigm in which independent subcontracting firms autonomously collect and process part or all of the prominent information. The second is constituted by the change of the modality of production innovation, becoming the result of autonomously developed inputs that are successively made complementary by the work of the network through an encapsulation process of the information. This is made possible by the fact that after an initial phase in which a new input is jointly projected by the contractor and the subcontractor and in which the information comes shared, a phase follows in which the prominent information for the specification of the characteristics of the product and for the solution of the local and unforeseen problems is collected and processed in a sequential manner and then encapsulated in the input by autonomous production units. In comparison with the vertical integration (make) or the market (buy), this form of governance (subcontract) allows for the organization in more efficient manner of the processing of the information, for the reduction of the informative costs and for the minimization of the risk of spillover.
Problems of `soft budget` constraints in intergovernmental relationships are currently at the frontier of research in local public economics. This paper reviews the Italian experience in the field, starting from the mid-1970s up to the present period, compares it with that of other countries, and uses it to comment upon the state of the literature. The paper argues that the soft budget constraint problem has been a rampant one in Italian local public finance, generating efficiency losses, lack of political accountability and undermining the soundness of public finances. The paper inquires into the causes and possible solutions to the problem, and in particular describes and comments upon the decentralization process of the 1990s. Finally, the Italian debate on fiscal federalism of the 1990s is also reviewed, arguing that some of the suggestions of this debate may be of interest more generally.
Because the locus of information in Korea differed from that in the United States, the two societies developed different patterns of organizational structure, recruitment sys-tems, and career paths. Since the financial crisis of 1997, however, Korea has tried to emulate the American model in the reconstruction of its information channeling struc-tures. We caution against the blind emulation of the American model, since it would require vast investments in education and could result in social disintegration among old and young generations. In this paper, we present a network-specific information system as an alternative. Multi-directional, autonomous, and decentralized, the net-work-specific information system will bridge the information-channeling gap between the United States and Korea.
A proof is concurrent zero-knowledge if it remains zero-knowledge when run in an asynchronous environment, such as the Internet. It is known that zero-knowledge is not necessarily preserved in such an environment; Kilian, Petrank and Rackoff have shown that any 4 rounds zero-knowledge interactive proof (for a non-trivial language) is not concurrent zero-knowledge. On the other hand, Richardson and Kilian have shown that there exists a concurrent zero-knowledge argument for all languages in NP, but it requires a polynomial number of rounds. In this paper, we present a concurrent zero-knowledge proof for all languages in NP with a drastically improved complexity: our proof requires only a poly-logarithmic, specifically, Ï(log 2 k) number of rounds. Thus, we narrow the huge gap between the known upper and lower bounds on the number of rounds required for a zero-knowledge proof that is robust for asynchronous composition. 1
Private-ownership of roads in Nigeria is still at the deliberation stage. In other words roads (tarred and untarred) are owned by Federal, State and Local authorities in Nigeria. Most of these roads, however, share a common characteristic of being âunsafe at any speedâ, at any time of the day. This is as a result of the low quality of the road components, structures and patterns. For example, road surfaces are undulating and rough. Also, the poor standard of road infrastructure like guard railings/barriers; pavement marking and signs; illumination levels, traffic signals, horizontal/vertical alignment and sight lines contribute largely to the increasing carnage on Nigerian road network. This trend persists because authorities in Nigeria have practically relegated to the background regular road safety audit operations. This is an inevitable aspect of modern methods of road administration and management, which determines a number of traffic potentials concerning highway high collision locations; protection of errant vehicles from light poles, trees, ditches, replacement of damaged and missing signs, street lighting, capacity and level of service analysis. Finally, this paper suggests commissioning of a National Road Research Fund, with a view to developing an efficient road safety audit operational system. Also, the introduction of private initiatives and a Community-based Approach in road administration, as well as decentralization of road administration framework at all levels, will greatly help âengineer outâ potentially unsafe features across Nigerian roads, towards a better road traffic environment in the 21st century.
The sustainable management of water quality has policy, technical, institutional and financial components. In many developing countries restricted funding is usually combined with fragile or unstable institutions and limited technical capabilities to deal with an expanding range of water quality problems. Therefore, there needs to be a priority on establishing a coherent and realistic national policy response to water quality management so that limited funds and strengthening of capacity are strategically focused on essential issues, and institutional inertia or competition is eliminated. For example, the present state of many national data programs, for which there are no clear data objectives and no defined users of the data, represents an expensive failure of national policy. At the technical level, there has been great progress in western nations in developing more cost-effective monitoring, analytical protocols, and assessment methods. This flows not only from better scientific knowledge, but also from recognition that conventional monitoring programs are inefficient, expensive, and often not very useful. Regrettably, financial institutions and ODA programs tend to reinforce conventional approaches in developing countries with the result that these countries have little opportunity to develop a new, more appropriate and more sustainable data paradigm. In lesser developed countries where public health is the major concern, the traditional model of a centralized monitoring program often does not work, suggesting that a new model of decentralized community-based monitoring would be more effective. Growing national priorities for remediation of water quality in lake and river basins demonstrate the gap between needs and abilities in developing countries. This gap has a profound effect both on the types of interventions that are being (or should be) implemented and on how these can be sustained in developing countries. The increasing need for defensible, rational, remediation programs argues for a new model for capacity building so that the role of the consultant (company) is reduced to one of facilitator and not the primary implementer. Conventional approaches to river and lake restoration, such as dredging, are often ineffective and expensive. Alternative technologies that are more effective and sustainable are usually not considered because they do not fit into conventional engineering solutions. Financial sustainability is not a simple problem. It requires, in the first-instance, a well-defined and targeted program that meets specific management needs. It includes potential for cost-avoidance and cost-reduction as well as cost-recovery and income generation. It also depends on management and business skills at the program level and on fiscal policies and accountabilities at the state level that permit earnings retention and reinvestment. Experience suggests that redesign of national water quality data programs, including technical, institutional and legal components, is an effective first step to achieving cost-efficiency.