Search results for "POLITICS"
showing 10 items of 2266 documents
City profile: Valencia
2009
Abstract The historically agrarian and provincial city of Valencia has recently been transformed into a Spanish regional capital, a Mediterranean cultural and economic center, and a major tourism destination. Valencia’s engagement with globalization and European integration has unfolded amidst complex regional politics, marked by vigorous debates about cultural difference, political autonomy, and official bilingualism (Castilian Spanish and Valenciano/Catalan). Here we survey the city’s two millennia of historical development, explore recent urban changes through five emblematic urban landscapes, and briefly discuss major urban policy and planning challenges facing the city. Valencia is a p…
The leader Programme and the Rise of Rural Development in Spain
2000
In many ways, LEADER (Liaisons Entre Actions de Developpement de l'Economie Rurale) has been a very significant intervention in Spain. Prior to LEADER, rural development policy was almost completely unknown and, for this reason alone, LEADER represented a new force in rural affairs. The invitation to form territorial collaborations was also novel and local actors were quick to perceive it as an important political tool with which to tackle both the problems of rural areas and the challenges presented by the new roles being assigned to the rural world. Furthermore, LEADER has subsequently produced material, local impacts through its ability to generate investment in development projects. The…
From political controversy to a technical problem? Fifteen years of opioid substitution treatment in Finland
2013
Abstract Background The aim of the article is to analyze changes in opioid substitution treatments (OST) in Finland. OST spread in Finland in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Phase 1). Since then, OST has become an integrated part of Finnish drug policy and is provided in various substance abuse treatment units as well as in municipal health centers (Phase 2). Methods The paper analyses the policy around the implementation of opioid substitution treatment in Finland, focusing on identifying the key factors and the relations between them that have contributed to the implementation of OST in Finland. Results OST has become accepted in Finland during the past ten years as a crucial element of a…
Saving Technologies that are not Used to Save Lives
2021
A hundred years ago in July, thanks to the advancement of medical technology, the first human received the vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin—or BCG—to prevent tuberculosis (TB), a disease that killed at least 20% of the European population during the 19th century. Since then, hundreds of millions of lives have been saved by BCG, as well as other vaccinations for dangerous diseases. However, although TB is quite preventable and curable, it remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent in the world. It is an example of how humans can invent technologies to improve and save lives but fail to do so because of unevenly distributed resources, lack of media coverage, and other ec…
The Eradication of Poliomyelitis in Spain: Projects, Obstacles, Achievements, Realities
2015
he main aim of our paper is to provide a historical approach to the complex process undertaken in Spain to achieve the official WHO certificate of polio eradication in 2002, within the framework of the initiatives launched in the WHO European Region. At the time of the first meeting of the European Regional Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication in 1996, the epidemiological situation and levels of vaccination cover (over 90%) enabled Spain, like other countries, to ensure compliance with the conditions set by the World Health Organization. This showed that the country, at the end of the twentieth century, had achieved high public health standards, which is remarkable …
Spatial Convergence Clubs and the European Regional Growth Process,1980–1995
2003
In international cross-country studies, evidence for club convergence has often been found using different methodologies (Baumol 1986; Durlauf and Johnson 1995; Quah 1996a, 1997). In the case of the European regions, Ertur and Le Gallo (see Chap. 2) and Le Gallo et al. (see Chap. 3) have shown that the convergence rate among European regions is slow and that GDP disparities seem to be persistent despite the European economic integration process and higher growth rates of some poorer regions, as highlighted as well in the European Commission reports (1996, 1999). Moreover, over the 1980–1995 period, Ertur and Le Gallo (see Chap. 2) found that the geographical distribution of European regions…
Cambios políticos y Psicología en la Argentina
2006
This paper has the purpose of characterizing the narrations in the design of Psychology considering his theoretical and academicals debates; his applied institutions, the indications of systematic professional formation and the periodical publcations. Such narrations will be analized according to the political and economic changes that took place in Argentine, since 1900 to 1957, when the formation in psychology gets his universitary inscription in Buenos Aires University. The peculiar instability of the political, social and economic situation imposes constant reorientations to the different propositions connected to the political, social and economic behavior of the actor-subject. This co…
Final Assessment of the EU-Africa Trade Deals—Ways Out?
2021
Based on the emerging country configurations (EPA groups) and the content of the EU-Africa trade arrangements, the chapter reviews the political impasse between the EU and Africa following the highly contested implementation start of the bi-regional trade agreements. Regional economic integration in Africa is considered to be in present danger with regard to the engendered fragmentation of main African RECs, namely the emerging customs unions. Suggestions are reviewed on how these and other North-South agreements can be either replaced by treaties that will be more beneficial for African countries and regions (‘grand alternatives’) or at least substantially improved (‘repair work’). New are…
New Labor Migration Trends: Evidence from Latvia
2009
Accession to the European Union and the subsequent free movement of labor in a more open labor market became a factor which promoted mobility among the residents of the EU's new member states. Latvia is one of the 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe which joined the EU on May 1, 2004. Migration in Latvia has become a topic of economic, political and social importance. The aim of this paper is to analyze the Latvian labor migration processes that have unfolded since the EU enlargement in 2004. Results from the survey showed that substantial numbers of residents have emigrated. In Latvia economic and temporary aspects of migration continue to dominate. Another important issue today is …
Does politics matter in the conduct of fiscal policy? Political determinants of the fiscal sustainability: Evidence from seven individual Central and…
2007
This paper aims at assessing the fiscal sustainability and its political determinants in seven Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. First, using the recent sustainability approach of Bohn (1998) based on fiscal reaction function, econometric findings using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) reveal a positive response of the primary surplus to changes in debt in several countries. In other words, fiscal policy is sustainable in Baltic countries, Slovenia and Slovakia, but not in Poland and in the Czech Republic. Second, by introducing political dummy variables, we test the electoral budget cycle and the…