Postmodernism is beginning to enter organization studies. After introducing the contours of the debate, some of the early contributions are critically reviewed and then subjected to sympathetic scrutiny. A distinction between the periodization 'post-modern' and a 'postmodern' epistemology is explored in terms of its conse quences for writing about organizations. Each position is shown to have diffi culties attached to it and the political ramifications of these are explored. Some tentative suggestions are made to explain the rising popularity of the 'post' within organizational writing.
The paper presents a more efficient noninteractive zero knowledge proof system (NIZK) for 3 colorability. The length of the proof is 1/3 and the length of the reference string is 1/4 of those of Blum et al. (1988) respectively. The proposed NIZK is based on the quadratic residuosity assumption.>
The final tensile fracture of any composite structure is primarily due to the failure of its constituents, namely fibers and matrix in the present case. To date, no experimental data exists, to the authorâs knowledge, to define the behavior of constitutive fibers of a composite structure throughout its life span. The prime candidate for a fiber-based investigation is unidirectional zero-degree composite coupons. But unidirectional coupons do not demonstrate any significant loss of stiffness during fatigue cycling compared to other lay-ups. Even if stiffness degradation was significant, due to the nature of damage in this material system it would be impossible, practically, to monitor that change using conventional techniques (e.g. an extensometer) because the damage and failure process destroys the integrity of the contact between those devices and the material, under cyclic conditions. This investigation presents the findings of a fiber-based investigation of unidirectional composite material systems. In particular, a unidirectional graphite/epoxy system was studied, and the influence of applied load level on fiber fractures, and their influence on damage growth documented. A damage monitoring technique (patent pending) was developed to accurately record the state of damage in this material system without the usage of extensometers or strain gages. Following this method, two new damage norms were introduced, namely, âpercent phase damageâ and âpercent gain damageâ. Fiber fracture, strength degradation, and the life of unidirectional specimens were investigated and recorded as a function of various load levels. Fiber fracture, in general, showed no definitive growth pattern during fatigue cycling. It appears that the majority of the broken fibers that occur over nearly 90% of the life are due to the initial applied load cycle. This is one of the key findings of this investigation. âProof testingâ which is a common practice in industry for âverifyingâ the integrity of a structure, could very well be causing significant subsequent reductions in life. With these findings as a base, it is now possible to postulate the first well-founded mechanistic model of fiber-dominated fatigue degradation under tensile loading.
Over successive fiveâyear development plans, Indonesia has channeled large sums of foreign loans and domestic funds into water supply projects with the aim of providing clean water for a majority of households. Most projects have been planned and financed through the central government's public works ministry, though a growing share of rural water projects are being funded through earmarked grants provided to local governments. This paper examines how these central government transfers, in the aggregate, have responded to various indicators of expenditure needs. Overall, past allocations have matched existing demand and supply levels closelyâfunding has generally favored provinces with large populations, large numbers of water enterprises, extensive distribution networks in place, and high production capacity. They have not, however, worked in favor of either equalization or economic productivity objectives, as reflected by per capita income or GRDP growth rates. This analysis suggests that equity would be promoted either by including incomeârelated factors in future block grant allocation formulas or by shifting funding emphasis in the water supply sector from grantsâinâkind controlled by the central government to sectoral grants controlled mainly at the local level. Such policy reforms would also further promote the nation's professed goal of decentralizing infrastructure development.
Ten years after the decentralization laws were adopted by the French Parliament, the once-and-for-all effects of the changes introduced have had time to work themselves out and the observed evolutions can safely be assumed to reflect the permanent functioning of the French system of local goverments in their new institutional environment. The present paper reviews some of the major consequences of the reforms, mostly on local public finance. It stresses the potential dangers of a system in which, due to the disproportionate share of some taxes and to the important role of central government in financing, locally elected authorities may well not be «accountable» enough. In addition, the equalization properties of existing inter-governmental grants seem much too limited compared to the tendencies, inherent in the current system of local finance, to strong polarization of economic development and to geographic segregation of population according to income levels.
This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing societal responses to women battering in Israel. The model of policy analysis consisted of three specific dimensions namely: 1) descriptive-operational; 2) analytic interpretive; and 3) chronological. Allocation provision delivery and financing of interventions with the abused Israeli women and their families were conducted from 1986 to 1988 through telephone surveys. Data indicate that due to strong religious influences on family life and political factors poor services were provided to abused women. The influence of social welfare in response to women battering were as follows: 1) intervention in woman battering was specific rather than universal; 2) services have been decentralized since their inception; and 3) intervention has been influenced by a collectivist residential orientation to welfare services. Furthermore government agencies and nongovernmental agencies provide only limited services for physically abused women.
With almost 27% of land in Costa Rica protected to some extent the country is at the forefront of national conservation efforts. National parks and biological reserves constitute fully 12% of the country. Efforts began in 1969 to create parks and protected areas. Lands were expropriated and preserved accordingly over the next decade. State financial resources were scarce however and many landowners were forced to wait years before receiving full compensation for lands expropriated through these government initiatives. Economic conditions worsened in the first half of the 1980s impacting adversely upon protected areas. Populations in buffer zones encroached and protected areas were left to deteriorate. The conservation environment grew green however following the election of President Oscar Arias in 1986. His administration consolidated conservation efforts and made institutional reforms. President Arias met the multiple challenges of slowing the nationwide deforestation rate improving park management and providing survival alternatives to populations in buffer areas in the following manner; he consolidated conservation power under one ministry; developed a decentralized system to link and manage protected and buffer areas; created new financing mechanisms; and developed technical capacity to describe and catalog species and their potential uses in Costa Rica. If Costa Rica realizes its objectives as set forth in its National Conservation Strategy almost 95% of the flora and fauna in the country will be preserved. These represent 5% of all plant and animal species known to exist. Costa Ricas experience demonstrates how sustainable development requires creativity innovation and a capacity to implement new programs and policies. Other countries might call upon lessons learned in Costa Rica as they develop their respective institutional structures for conservation and link conservation and development across national regional and local levels.
This article examines the mechanics and attributes of concerted debt reduction agreements that offer creditors a choice between exit and relending options. The menu approach sets prices for different choices that implement a decentralized equilibrium. When banks can commit to choose from the menu and are not allowed to free ride, a menu can be designed that assures that the price paid for debt repurchased is equal to the marginal value of the debt claims. This can be achieved by taxing the gains that accrue to nonexiters with a request for new money. The equilibrium amount of debt reduction rises when the new money request is increased. The importance of banks' heterogeneity for menus to dominate simple concerted buybacks and the case in which debt reduction can be financed by loans from international financial institutions are discussed.
Throughout early modern Europe, one of the most extraordinary royal fund-raising schemes was the seizure and sale of church property to finance foreign wars. The monarchs of Habsburg Spain extended these seizures to municipal property and used the revenue to maintain their empire. They sold charters of autonomy to hundreds of villages, thus converting them into towns, and sold towns to private buyers, thus increasing the number of seigniorial lords. In Hapsburg Spain, therefore, absolutism did not mean centralization. Rather, the kings invoked their absolute power to decentralize authority and allow their subjects a surprising degree of autonomy.
Various ways of financing health care expenditures by communities are studied in this chapter. The first method is direct payments by patients for drugs. Application of this method presupposes that other health care expenditures are financed by other agents such as international donors and central, district or local government. A fee-for-service arrangement constitutes the second method. This is more general in that fees may cover other recurrent expenditures as well as drug expenditures. Salaries of health personnel and depreciation allowances may also be included in a fee-for service system. The third method consists of prepayments for health care or decentralized forms of health insurance. Finally, we consider community labour as a means of financing health expenditures. In the last section, evaluation criteria for projects in community financing are examined.
Healthcare Policy and Management
Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy
Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
IntroductionThe challenge for land use management in the nineties is to initiate a people- centered development process which creates opportunities for local people to make their own choices about which development strategy to follow. This need is felt in particular for upland areas where government initiated blue- print programmes for land use management have a record of failure. The major reason is that these programmes are often not adjusted to cope with the complexity and diversity of the uplands. Land use management encompasses both short-term and longterm benefits and is confronted with rapid changes. The differing role of private, state and communal lands in combination with a complex system of control and utilization makes land use management difficult to fully understand. This study responds with the development of an alternative strategy for planning sustainable land use programmes at local level and has the following objectives:- to develop a strategic model for people-centered planning of sustainable land use programmes;- to develop a flexible planning method that can serve as land use management tool at local level;- to test the feasibility of the strategy for the uplands of East Java, Indonesia.Strategic modelThe two major principles of the strategic model are:- Programmes are planned and implemented through a learning process in a local and organizational dimension. The local dimension includes a learning process of planning, implementing and monitoring of small scale programmes. The planning process is short, but planned interventions are regularly adjusted based on new insights and changing conditions. In the organizational dimension the learning process proceeds through three different phases of trial, development and expansion. In this dimension, the government can learn how to manage the strategy of implementing local level planning and how to change attitudes, norms and organizational competence of organizations in order to do so. This dimension embraces local, regional and national governments.- Three major variables have to be considered in programme planning: land use system; interventions and organizations. Sustainable land use programmes are only possible if a good fit between these variables is achieved.In the strategic model these two principles are combined; a fit between the variables is achieved through a learning process. Because achieving a fit between the three variables is a complicated matter, it requires a phased approach which consists of the following three steps: a trial phase, a development phase and an expansion phase. In the trial phase, the focus is on achieving a fit between interventions and land use system in the local dimension. This is achieved through the implementation of trial cases in local level planning in which villagers, field workers of organizations and local leaders become acquainted with this new approach of planning sustainable land use programmes at a local level. In the development phase, attention is focused on achieving a fit between organizations and land use system. Through the development of human resources and extension processes the skills and attitudes of those involved may gradually change to become more people-oriented. In the expansion phase the focus is on achieving a fit between interventions and organization. In this phase the planning approach is accepted and applied at a national level. Changes in government structures and procedures, such as decentralization and strengthening of local leadership need to be achieved. By dividing the process into phases, the complex problems associated with planning sustainable land use become manageable, and step by step the ultimate goal of achieving a fit between all three variables can be reached.Planning methodIn order to reach an optimal fit between the three variables of the strategic model in the trial phase, a planning method should be applied to collect and analyse data that can be transformed into the design of effective programmes. No 'off-the-peg' planning method is available, instead a combination of existing approaches, methods and techniques is needed.Three development approaches can be distinguished to this end: planning of land use development; extension approaches and project management approaches. Generally speaking, each approach covers a different side of the strategic model. Land use development focuses on achieving a fit between interventions and land use system; extension processes can be used in achieving a fit between land use system and organizations; and the fit between interventions and organizations can be accomplished with the help of project management techniques.For planning land use development in the trial phase a number of current methods and techniques are discussed. These are Farming System Analysis, Land Evaluation, Agroecosystem Analysis, Landscape Planning, Rapid Rural Appraisal and Gender Analysis. The criteria set by the strategic model determine which aspects of these present planning methods and techniques are useful for the development of a new planning method. None of these methods and techniques as such are ideal as an operational planning method for realizing the first phase of the strategic model. A synthesis of all useful features into a new land use planning method is proposed.For the trial phase the focus is on planning land use development while opportunities to develop extension processes and to influence project management are limited. Therefore plans should basically be tailored to the existing competence of organizations. Within these limitations some attention can be paid to extension processes and management techniques by introducing an additional step to land use planning, called programming which includes the preparation of a detailed design and a programme planning matrix.Planning environment on JavaThe environment for the planning of land use development programmes is diverse and complex in the uplands of East Java. Farmers react to the wide diversity in the land use system by developing a large number of different land use strategies. By contrast, government organizations use standardized programmes with uniform and mostly inflexible procedures for planning and implementation. Village development planning procedures exist, but do not yet function properly. Local organizations responsible for village development planning do not yet possess the skills and capability to develop such plans, and centrally organized sectoral agencies still dominate this 'bottom-up' planning process. The dominance of the central government can be explained by the incorporation of a number of socio-cultural features in their policy, such as the principles of 'sole authority', consensus, and harmony. The government uses these principles to encapsulate autonomous local organizations in the government administration, orienting the local leaders more to government rules and procedures than to the needs of the local population.This orientation towards government administration has two major implications for the current planning of interventions. Firstly, the interventions are adjusted to the competence of implementing organizations rather than letting the organizations develop their competence to implement the tasks of locally planned interventions. Secondly little more than lip-service is paid to the participation of villagers in planning.Notwithstanding these shortcomings in the present village development planning process, official government policy has some room for improvement. This may allow for a more balanced planning process new approach.Secondly, constraints which can be expected while applying the model on Java are described. The feasibility of the trial phase of the strategy is evaluated based on experiences with implementing the trial cases on Java. In this evaluation the question is raised as to what extent the results of local level planning on Java can respond to the research objectives as formulated at the start of this study. No experience has been gained as yet with implementing the development and expansion phase. One programme that provides some valuable lessons for the feasibility of the phased learning process of the strategic model is the Java Social Forestry Programme (JSFP). This programme has followed a comparable phasing strategy and has already reached the expansion phase.Conclusions and policy recommendationsThis evaluation results in a number of conclusions on conditions to be fulfilled for successful implementation of the strategy. To sum up:- although the strategy is aimed at the local level, it cannot be realized at local level only as it requires involvement of regional and national government organizations to deal with changing communication processes and organizational structure;- objectives in village development planning should be set realistically in the knowledge that short term results will always dominate long term benefits, tangible results will get higher priority than social changes, while top-down influences from sectoral agencies will prevail;- in addressing the organizational dimension a choice should be made between following an approach of 'decentralized trial cases' versus 'centrally guided bottom-up process'. Whichever strategy is chosen it needs careful management to avoid difficulties in institutionalization or a too rapid expansion respectively;- it is necessary for the government to be shown better results in terms of sustainable land use development programmes at local level implemented by highly committed villagers. Only then may they be motivated to accept such a participatory approach at the cost of losing some power or consensus;- implementing a participatory planning process is an initially slow process, to which government agencies need to be committed.These conditions are translated into a number of policy recommendations for donor agencies and governments pertaining to: long-term and continuous com
We look at the question of how powerful a prover must be to give a zero-knowledge proof.We present the first unconditional bounds on the complexity of a statistical ZK prover.The result is that if a language possesses a statistical zero-knowledge then it also possesses a statistical zero-knowledge proof in which the prover runs in probabilistic, polynomial time with an NP oracle.Previously this was only known given the existence of one-way permutations. Extendingthese techniques to protocols of knowledge complexity k(n) >0, we derive bounds on the time complexity of languages of "small" knowledge complexity.Underlying these results is a technique for efficiently generating an "almost" random element of a set S E P.Namely, we construct a probabilistic machine with an NP oracle which, on input 1" and 6 > 0 runs in time polynomial in n and lg 6-1, and outputs a random string from a distribution within distance 6 of the uniform distribution on S n {O, l}~.
In order to describe adequately the national organization of police, it is necessary to distinguish the number of autonomous forces, the coordination of jurisdictions among them, and the territorial and functional distribution of commands within them. Among the five English-speaking countries of Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States, the number as well as the coordination of forces varies sharply. As a result, differences in scale are so great as to call into question the value of using either forces or police stations as units of managerial analysis. Surprisingly, the scale of jurisdictions does not affect the number of command levels within forces. One implication of this is that the concept of centralization/decentralization must be grounded in considerations of scale. Differences in national structures of policing depend on political settlements achieved at the time countries were formed. Differences in functional organization are smaller among countries than structural ones, and they depend on professional outlooks shared internationally. Finally, very little is known about the effects of police organization on goals and objectives. The entire subject is shrouded in unexamined assumptions often unintelligently applied.
A zero-knowledge proof system of knowledge is a protocol between two parties called the prover and the verifier. The prover wants to convince the verifier that he âknowsâ the proof of a given theorem without revealing any additional information. This is different from a zero-knowledge proof system of membership where the prover convinces the verifier only of the veridicity of the statement. Zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge are very useful tools in the design of secure protocols. Though, the concept of a proof of knowledge is a very subtle one and great care is needed to obtain a satisfying formalization. In this paper, we investigate the concept of a zero-knowledge proof of knowledge in the noninteractive model of [5, 61. Here, the prover and the verifier share a short random string and the only communication allowed is from the prover to the verifier. Although this is a simpler model than the interactive one, still formalizing zeroknowledge proofs of knowledge is a delicate task. The main results of the paper are the following e We present formal definitions for the concept of non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs
A zero-knowledge proof system of knowledge is a protocol between two parties called the prover and the verifier. The prover wants to convince the verifier that he 'knows' the proof of a given theorem without revealing any additional information. This is different from a zero-knowledge proof system of membership where the prover convinces the verifier only of the veridicity of the statement. Zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge are very useful tools in the design of secure protocols. Though, the concept of a proof of knowledge is a very subtle one and great care is needed to obtain a satisfying formalization. The authors investigate the concept of a zero-knowledge proof of knowledge with a non-interactive model. Here, the prover and the verifier share a short random string and the only communication allowed is from the prover to the verifier. Although this is a simpler model than the interactive one, still formalizing zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge is a delicate task.>
In this note, we present new zero-knowledge interactive proofs and arguments for languages in NP. To show that x Δ L, with an error probability of at most 2-k, our zero-knowledge proof system requires O(|x|c1)+O(lgc2|x|)k ideal bit commitments, where c1 and c2 depend only on L. This construction is the first in the ideal bit commitment model that achieves large values of k more efficiently than by running k independent iterations of the base interactive proof system. Under suitable complexity assumptions, we exhibit zero knowledge arguments that require O(lgc|x|kl bits of communication, where c depends only on L, and l is the security parameter for the prover. This is the first construction in which the total amount of communication can be less than that needed to transmit the NP witness. Our protocols are based on efficiently checkable proofs for NP[4].
Introduction - new perspectives on the Cultural Revolution, William A. Joseph et al. Part 1 Politics: learning from trauma - the Cultural Revolution in post-Mao politics, Lowell Dittmer Cultural Revolution radicalism - variations on a Stalinist theme, Andrew G. Walder agrarian radicalism as a rural development strategy, 1968-1978, David Zweig the Cultural Revolution as an unintended result of administrative policies, Lynn T. White, III factional politics in Zhejiang, 1973-1976, Keith Forster. Part 2 Economics: neither plan nor market - Mao's political economy, Carl Riskin industrial policy during the Cultural Revolution - military preparation, decentralization, and leaps forward, Barry Naughton the Maoist reconsidered - local self-reliance and the financing of rural industrialization, Christine P. W. Wong central-provincial investment and finance - the Cultural Revolution and its legacy in Jiangsu Province, Penelope B. Prime. Part 3 Culture: arts policies of the Cultural Revolution - the rise and fall of Culture Minister Yu Huiyong, Richard Kraus models and misfits - rusticated youth in three novels of the 1970s, Richard King dramas of passion - heroism in the Cultural Revolution's model operas, Ellen R. Judd.
This document reports the findings of an examination of a variety of state government efforts to assist local government in obtaining infrastructure, particularly water supply, wastewater treatment, and solid waste disposal facilities. The project team sought examples of innovative practices that could serve as models for other state and local agencies. The scope of this effort did not permit the team to evaluate in-depth these state programs. The information is presented under nine topics, which are also chapter heading for chapters 2 through 10: (2) terms and conditions, and special requirements; (3) scope of financial assistance programs; (4) project selection process; (5) providing technical assistance; (6) decentralized decision-making; (7) bond banks; (8) monitoring and evaluation; (9) assessing statewide future needs; and (10) privatization. The first chapter is an introduction to the report and the final chapter (11) contains recommendations to the Federal government.