Politisk økonomi

Against a backcloth of tumultuous events in Europe, the EU faces once again the fateful question of moving towards federal union or let flexible integration guide the Union. The sixth volume in Interdisciplinary European Studies explores the coexistence of deepening political integration and flexible patterns of integration in the EU. The book brings together scholars from economics, law, and political science to provide insights into issues with a bearing on the future of the EU: the crisis of rule of law and political values, the move towards a European defence union, the power of the new European public prosecutor¿s office, the prospects of financial stability through the Recovery and Resilience facility, and the state of European parliamentary democracy. The chapters are based on up-to-date research findings and succinct assessments of the current state of affairs and ongoing debates. They conclude with policy recommendations for decision-makers on European and national levels.

This book provides an insightful guide to the economic challenges currently defining Europe. With a particular focus on the Czech economy, it examines the impact of rampant inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the energy crisis and evaluates the social impacts of them. Through an empirical analysis, the asymmetric effects of these shocks are highlighted in relation to different social groups. Furthermore, it engages with related issues such as migration and integration policies, the evolution of the labour market, disparities in inflation¿s impact, and household energy expenditure.This book presents a practical policy framework for addressing inflation, the impact of the Ukraine conflict, and the energy crisis. It will be relevant to scholars, researchers, and policymakers interested in the political economy, labour economics, and economic policy in general.

Over the course of the last few decades, South Korea has witnessed a remarkable change in terms of technological innovation and cultural influence. It has evolved from a nation that was torn apart by war to a worldwide powerhouse that is at the forefront of the digital revolution. The book "Technological Leap: Korea's Digital Cultural Revolution" offers a perceptive investigation into the complex relationship that exists between technology and culture. It reveals the diverse journey that led to Korea's transition into the digital era.The introductory chapter establishes the stage by describing the historical setting of Korea's ascent to prominence. It sheds light on the difficult journey that the nation navigated from the devastation of war to becoming a beacon of scientific excellence. It is now clear that the digital revolution in Korea has had a significant impact on the country's cultural landscape, which lays the groundwork for a more in-depth investigation.The second chapter goes into the fundamentals of the digital wave, providing a detailed account of the early developments that established the platform for Korea's rise to the forefront of technological advancement. To provide a more nuanced view of the strategic measures that propelled Korea's technological leap, this article examines government efforts and regulations that are geared at stimulating innovation in industries such as electronics and semiconductors.In the third chapter, titled "Internet and Connectivity," the narrative of Korea's rapid adoption of the internet and the widespread dissemination of high-speed broadband is dissected. The way in which Koreans engaged with technology and with one another underwent a paradigm shift as a result of this transformation, which altered communication, entertainment, and lifestyle.The topic of "Gaming Culture and E-Sports" is the primary focus of the fourth chapter, which sheds light on South Korea's rise to prominence as a global gaming hub. In this chapter, we investigate the emergence of competitive gaming and e-sports, shedding light on the significant impact that gaming has had on the culture of young people in Korea, as well as the following impact that gaming has had on the gaming community around the world."K-Culture Goes Digital: K-Dramas and K-Pop," which is the title of the fifth chapter, delves at the impact that technology has had in propelling Korean entertainment onto the international arena.It is the proliferation of internet streaming platforms and the pervasiveness of social media that have been instrumental in the global dissemination of Korean dramas and Korean pop music. These developments have also contributed to the development of thriving fan communities and have reshaped the landscape of popular culture.In the sixth chapter, titled "Technological Innovations in Film and Animation," the development of Korean animation and film is discussed in detail. This chapter examines the ways in which technology has driven Korean narrative into the world cinematic stage. Topics covered include technological breakthroughs in filmmaking, national acknowledgment of Korean films and animation content, and international awareness of Korean filmsThe final chapter of the book is titled "Digital Economy and Future Prospects," and it is here that the book investigates the economic impact that the digital cultural revolution in Korea has had. In addition to providing a forward-looking view on Korea's place in the ever-evolving global digital landscape, it digs into the blooming culture of start-ups and technical advancements.

For self-employed individuals negotiating the ever-changing gig economy, Ayaan Khurana's "The Freelancer's Guide to Lifelong Learning" provides an exhaustive and illuminating road map. Drawing on his extensive background as a freelancer, Khurana sheds light on the importance of lifelong learning in this comprehensive guide. With the freelance industry changing at such a rapid pace, Khurana delves into the importance of a dedication to lifelong learning to keep up with the competition. To help freelancers learn new things, adjust to new trends, and always be one step ahead of the competition, this book dives into practical solutions, providing a wealth of information and methods. Khurana discusses the difficulties freelancers encounter in juggling their tasks and making time for professional and personal development through interesting stories and real-life situations. If you want to be successful as a freelancer in this dynamic industry, "The Freelancer's Guide to Lifelong Learning" is a must-have reference for everything from taking classes online and making connections to developing a development mindset. Insightful advice from Ayaan Khurana guides freelancers in the right direction, encouraging them to see learning as a path to success.

Elinor C. Ostrom, a Nobel prize winning political economist, made important contributions to common pool resources, economic governance, and polycentricity. Viviana A. Zelizer, a prominent economic sociologist, has done groundbreaking work on how culture shapes our economic lives. Together, the work of Ostrom and Zelizer spans the disciplines of economics, sociology, political science, and public policy by exploring the social relations and community-based organization of everyday life. Both scholars examine the norms, social connections, and cultural impacts of exchange and governance. This volume explores their contributions and builds off of their research programs to explore the social movements, community recovery, and war, and women¿s issues across a variety of disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, history, and archaeology.Inspired by Zelizer¿s 2019 Ostrom Speaker Series lecture for the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, this volume explores the connections between the work of Elinor Ostrom and Viviana Zelizer. Beginning with a lead chapter by Zelizer where she reflects on the connections between her work and Ostrom¿s oeuvre, the volume brings together scholars who tease out some of the important concepts and implications of Ostrom and Zelizer¿s research. This volume furthers economic inquiry by ensuring that the critical examinations of these timely and important themes are made available to students and scholars.

This book comprehensively investigates the position of Chinäs working class between the 1980s and 2010s and considers the consequences of economic reforms in historical perspective. It argues the case that, far from the illusion during the Maoist period that a new society had been established where the working classes held greater political and economic autonomy, economic reforms in the post-Mao era have led to the return of traditional Marxist proletariats in China. The book demonstrates how the reforms of Deng Xiaoping have led to increased economic efficiency at the expense of economic equality through an extensive case study of an SOE (state-owned enterprise) in Sichuan Province as well as wider discussions of the emergence of state capitalism on both a micro and macroeconomic level. The book also discusses workers¿ protests during these periods of economic reform to reflect the reformation of class consciousness in post-Mao China, drawing on Marx¿s concept of a transition from äclass-in-itself' to a ¿class-for-itself¿. It will be valuable reading for students and scholars of Chinese economic and social history, as well as political economy, sociology, and politics.

This book is novel in that it reveals significant issues of economics, management and business fields currently observed in network industries such as public utilities and transportation, and provides empirical evidence of their mechanisms and policy implications from various perspectives. This is a holistic collection of literature on public utilities economics and management, since the industries discussed include a wide range such as electricity, water supply, sewerage, transport, and postal service, which compound social infrastructure as public benefit service, and the issues examined contain not only economics topics such as cost, efficiency, and productivity, but also management topics such as governance, strategy and organizational restructuring. The book also investigates general private companies to derive future implications for policy and governance of public utilities, and covers multiple countries such as Japan, the US, and Vietnam. It demonstrates various empirical approaches and methodologies for public utility analysis through 17 chapters by experts in each field, which contributes to further cultivation of empirical studies in public utilities.

Late Hirschman: Theoretical exercises in "Self-Subversion" draws from the Colorni-Hirschman intellectual tradition the author has developed with close colleagues: recalls and rationalizes personal memoires that come from the long collaboration of the author with Albert Hirschman; learns ¿ once again ¿ in depth from his work; desires, if possible, to make progress on some vexed questions; and breaks away from all forms of ritualism. Hirschman, homme libre, did not like orthodoxies or intellectual boundaries and the like. He certainly would not have liked to be now pigeon-holed by a part of the Academia. Gradually exploring alternative directions, Meldolesi proposes, therefore, in this book a group of exercises. They have been suggested by the late Hirschman¿s self-subverting phase of intellectual elaboration that, starting from the "interpretive social science" point of view elaborated in the late ¿70s of last century together with Clifford Geertz and other leading intellectuals at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton N.J.), touched later on numerous aspects of the long experience of Hirschman developed in three continents, and mirrored cautiously in his extraordinary work. The ambition of these exercises lies in helping the "triggering off" the cultural, economic and political potential that might be stemmed from late Hirschman: for understanding some key aspects of the past, exploring hand in glove the world we live in, and acting accordingly.

This two-volume textbook teaches about the uniqueness and the difficulty of the European unification project. It describes, as clearly as possible, what Robert Schuman declared in 1950, that "... Europe will not be made all at once¿". Navigating the nexus of four academic fields - political science, institutional analysis, economics, and history - the book serves as a reference work for accurate, exhaustive, and well-researched information on the creation and functioning of the European Union. Supported by numerous photographs, diagrams, maps, and sources, volume 1 sets out in a concise and readable way the European historical origins, the important steps in the creation of the European Union, and the treaties and historical events that have marked its course so far. Providing a comprehensive picture of the unification process and the functioning of this sui generis edifice of a united Europe, the book will serve as an essential textbook for undergraduate and graduate students studying the subject of European integration, as well as a useful resource for a broader audience interested in the European integration process.

Lobbying is not only the subject of ongoing, heated debates in politics and the public sphere but has also been a focus of the social sciences for decades. This edited volume provides an overview of the current state of research on lobbying from the perspective of Public Choice as a subfield of political science and economics. After a brief introduction to the field, Part I provides an overview of basic concepts and political-economic theories of lobbying from the standpoints of various subfields of Public Choice. Subsequently, Part II investigates the various channels used by interest groups to influence policymakers, such as party donations, informational lobbying, hiring politicians, etc. These chapters also discuss the possibilities and limits of regulating the respective channels. Lastly, Part III sheds light on lobbying in selected regions (i.e., the United States, European Union, Russia, and China).

This book answers why anti-trade forces in developing countries sometimes fail to effectively exert pressure on their governments. The backlash against globalization spread across several Latin American countries in the 2000s, yet a few countries such as Peru doubled down on their bets on free trade by signing bilateral agreements with the US and the EU. This study uses evidence from three Latin American countries (Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia) to suggest that geography can play a significant role in shaping trade preferences and undermining the formation and clout of distributional coalitions that seek protectionism. Because trade liberalization can have uneven distributional impacts along regional lines, trade liberalization losers can find themselves in unfavorable conditions to associate and engage in collective action. Under these circumstances, few coalitions emerge to battle for protection in the policy arena, and when they do, geographic distance from decision-makers in the capital city can be a significant barrier to realizing their interests. As a result, even where a majority of the population living in regions that have not benefitted from trade elect a leftist president, trade reform reversal will not occur unless protectionist interests are close to the capital city. The contrast between Peru, on one side, and Argentina and Bolivia, on the other, highlights the powerful influence geography can have on reversing trade policy or preserving the status quo.

Rising inequality, the advance of far-right populism, ecological and climatic catastrophe and the scourge of global pandemic disease ¿ these are among the defining crises of our time. Addressing the governing challenges posed by each requires a more expansive vision of the scope and possibilities of state action than political scientists and economists have furnished to date. In Statecraft and the Political Economy of Capitalism political economists Scott G. Nelson and Joel T. Shelton examine several key social and political dynamics of advanced capitalism for insights into the fate of equality, community and solidarity. In chapters addressing divergent problems and spanning several centuries, statecraft is presented as a conceptual lens through which the art and practice of public action is continually rearticulated in response to the shifting economic, social and political conditions of a given epoch. The authors examine several consequential moments in the long tradition of political economy in relation to the governing predicaments of the present day, highlighting those predicaments that bear upon the well-being of all people, especially society¿s most vulnerable. The book thus reintroduces the creative and purposive aspects of governing to the study and practice of Political Economy, a field that has been too preoccupied with technical, institutional and procedural aspects of economic management. Framing problems of governing national and global economies in relation to the craft of the state means searching out continuities between capitalism's early promise and present peril.

This book examines the intellectual ideas that underpin our understanding of capitalism. Framing these debates through the work on John Stuart Mill and Joseph Schumpeter, the development of democracy and its relationship with capitalism is explored to provide insight into the rationality of individuals and the distribution of power. By analysing the evolution of economic systems, ideas relating to democracy, capitalism, liberalism, competition, and elites are also defined.This book aims to inform current economic and political debates and to highlight new forms of democracy and capitalism. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in the political economy and the history of economic thought.

This edited collection develops a more balanced understanding of the dilemmas, challenges and opportunities associated with youth policy formulation and implementation in contemporary Saudi Arabia. It does so by considering the dilemmas, challenges and opportunities present in the contemporary Saudi sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural spheres, as well as ways and means by which these can be addressed. Underpinning this is a comprehension of the necessity in understanding policies and processes as related to youth policy formulation and implementation. With regards to Saudi youth policy, decision makers want to be able to prioritize the most important issues. As such, policy and decision makers need ¿direction¿ in terms of policy formulation, policy recommendations and policy implementation - that is, they are often searching for viable policies that resonate with young Saudis. Furthermore, lessons can be learnt from previous youth policy initiatives by asking: Why was thispolicy successful? If this policy failed, what were the reasons? Did this policy resonate with young nationals? This edited book unpacks the ways in which comprehending policies and processes are important for youth policy development and implementation in Saudi Arabia. It is relevant to policymakers, as well as scholars in Gulf Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies more broadly, as well as those in youth studies, area studies, and social studies.

This book explains the roles of the industrial location in vitalizing regional economies in various economic environments created due to the progress of globalization. Here, this book elucidates the impact of industrial location and locational factors on regional economies. It clarifies the effects on industrial location of regulations and corporate tax. And the book explains the regional economic influence of the employment and agglomeration that are factors influencing the location. It also focuses on some countries and examines the relationships between the industrial location and the vitalization of regional economy in each country. This analysis covers the automotive and high-tech industries in the northeastern region of China, the impact of urban systems on regional development in the Philippines, and firms in revitalization in the northern region of Sweden. And it reveals achievements and challenges in each region. Finally, the book clarifies that the level of achievement in regional development is related to the educational environment. It also suggests that the industrial composition of a region is influenced by the level of regional cooperation with other regions. The analyses in the book show that a region must select the industries that match its newly emerged regional characteristics for vitalization.

In this important book, Gallas asks what strikes in non-industrial sectors mean for class formation, a critical question which has been largely unaddressed by the current literature on global labour unrest. A mapping of strikes around the world and case studies from Germany, Britain and Spain cast new light on class relations, struggles around waged and unwaged work and labour movements in contemporary capitalism to bring class theory back to labour studies. This is a valuable resource for academics and students of employment relations, sociology and politics. This second volume focuses on empirical strike research.

This book delves into the intricate dynamics between economic elites and the political party system in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, particularly during their democratization phases in the twentieth century. It introduces a novel framework for comprehending the diverse political strategies adopted by these countries¿ economic elites during this critical period. The central premise of this book is that the interplay between the cohesion of economic elites and the mobilization of popular sectors at specific historical junctures profoundly influences the nature of elite political involvement.While existing literature has extensively discussed the strategies employed by economic elites to safeguard their interests, this book takes a fresh approach by considering three primary configurations of relationships between economic elites and political parties. It explores cases where economic elites are the primary constituency of parties they have founded, as well as instances where upper-class interests are predominantly defended outside the party system through mechanisms such as the armed forces, pressure groups, and lobbying. Additionally, it examines scenarios where economic elites align themselves with parties boasting a polyclass constituency, exerting limited influence over these parties.This book goes beyond traditional analyses by proposing a theory that elucidates how the interaction between elite cohesion and popular sector mobilization determines the specific forms of elite political involvement. It also charts the historical sequences of this process, emphasizing the evolution of the causal relationship over time.To illustrate this theory, the book employs a comparative historical analysis, scrutinizing the three aforementioned cases to identify factors that account for the different forms of economic elite political participation. It discerns that the level of cohesion among economic elites and the degree of mobilization among popular sectorsare pivotal factors shaping elite-party relationships.