Joined-Up Government for Welfare Administration Reform in Norway

One of the largest public sector reforms in Norway is the welfare administrative reform of 2005. The aims are to get passive beneficiaries back into work and to make the administration more user-friendly, holistic and efficient. The aims are to be achieved by increasing the administration’s capacity to address “wicked issues” by cutting across existing policy fields and administrative levels. This joined-up-government approach poses three main challenges: 1) to get a merged central government agency to work, 2) to establish constructive cooperation between the central and local authorities and 3) to coordinate front-line services with user-oriented employment and welfare offices. The article shows that increasing the capacity of government to cut across existing policy fields and handle transboundary wicked issues are still struggling to be implemented. Cooperation between sectors is however easier to achieve than cooperation between levels. The joined-up-government-approach also tends to make accountability relations more ambiguous.     

Fatigue effects of noise on aeroplane mechanics

Abstract

Subjective fatigue and reaction time performance were measured in a group of 24 aeroplane mechanics, during 1 week of high noise exposure and 1 week of low noise exposure. Subjective ratings were collected before and after each work day. On the last day of each week subjects also completed a reaction time task before and after work. The mechanics felt more sleepy and less energetic during the high noise week. This effect was most evident towards the end of the day and there was a build-up of the effect during the week. Reaction times were prolonged during the high noise week. Possible confounding factors are discussed and found to be less likely explanations of the effects.     

Nuptiality,fertility and reproduction in Norway

The vital and census statistics of Norway for the last 25 years are analysed in order to compute the average family size of different marriage cohorts, and to assess the extent to which the Norwegian population is replacing itself. Methods are devised to overcome the gaps in some of the statistics caused by the war. The conclusion is reached that replacement level has been reached in the post-war years, though the conventional net reproduction rate overestimated the replacement index by 16%.     

Organized Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Ukraine: Structure,Influence and Ideology

In the wake of the Orange Revolution, Ukraine has witnessed a substantial growth in organized anti-Semitism. Central to this development is an organization, known as the Interregional Academy of Human Resources, better known by its Ukrainian acronym MAUP. It operates a well-connected political network that reaches the very top of the Ukrainian society. MAUP is the largest private university in Ukraine, with 57,000 students at 24 regional campuses. MAUP is connected to the KKK; David Duke is teaching courses in history and international relations at the university. Funded by Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran, MAUP’s printing house publishes about 85% of the anti-Semitic literature in Ukraine. Until very recently, Ukrainian President Yushchenko and Foreign Minister Tarasiuk served on its board; former President Kravchuk still does. This paper is a study of anti-Semitism in Ukraine, of its intellectual roots, influence and strength. It traces the Soviet, Christian, German and racist political traditions and outlines the political ambitions of organized anti-Semitism in post-Orange Revolution Ukraine.     

绿党观点：一种对绿党政纲的分析

对世界主要绿党纲领性文献的分析表明,可持续性/循环经济、性别平等/女性主义、非暴力、生态智慧、社会正义、参与/基层民主、国际合作、全球团结、生活质量而非数量、人权/自由、生物多样性、文化多样性、公平贸易、自给自足等,构成了绿党批判现实世界与重构一个绿色未来的主要价值和观点。这些价值和观点也许不是严格意义上的绿色意识形态,但无疑是一种具有内在一致性的绿色思维方式,并已强大到足以将遍布全球的数以百计的政党和团体、成千上万的政治运动家团结起来,共同为建设生态和谐的世界而奋斗。     

Optimal Taxes on Fossil Fuel in General Equilibrium

We analyze a dynamic stochastic general‐equilibrium (DSGE) model with an externality—through climate change—from using fossil energy. Our central result is a simple formula for the marginal externality damage of emissions (or, equivalently, for the optimal carbon tax). This formula, which holds under quite plausible assumptions, reveals that the damage is proportional to current GDP, with the proportion depending only on three factors: (i) discounting, (ii) the expected damage elasticity (how many percent of the output flow is lost from an extra unit of carbon in the atmosphere), and (iii) the structure of carbon depreciation in the atmosphere. Thus, the stochastic values of future output, consumption, and the atmospheric CO₂ concentration, as well as the paths of technology (whether endogenous or exogenous) and population, and so on, all disappear from the formula. We find that the optimal tax should be a bit higher than the median, or most well‐known, estimates in the literature. We also formulate a parsimonious yet comprehensive and easily solved model allowing us to compute the optimal and market paths for the use of different sources of energy and the corresponding climate change. We find coal—rather than oil—to be the main threat to economic welfare, largely due to its abundance. We also find that the costs of inaction are particularly sensitive to the assumptions regarding the substitutability of different energy sources and technological progress.     

BOGDAN MUSIAL AND THE QUESTION OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE POGROMS IN LVIV IN THE SUMMER OF 1941

This paper demonstrates that the rescue operations that saved thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust were in part the result of coordination and cooperation between the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), via a network of local relief organisations in Europe and worldwide. A landmark decision in building this network was the creation in 1927 of a new agency – HICEM, an abbreviation of the names of three resettlement organisations: HIAS, an American organisation with its headquarters in New York; the Paris‐based Jewish Colonisation Association, and Emigdirect, based in Berlin. During the Nazi period, as Jews were gradually pushed out of German social and economic life, HICEM was able to connect dozens of local Jewish committees throughout the world and bring thousands of Jewish refugees to safe havens in the United States, South and Central America, the Far East and Australia. The study also shows that, despite tension between HIAS and the JDC, both organisations stood firm in their mission of rescuing Jewish refugees.     

Development of a New Approach to Guided Self-Help via the Internet: The Swedish Experience

ABSTRACT

This article describes the development and empirical status of guided Internet-delivered self-help. The treatment approach combines the benefits of bibliotherapy with book-length text materials and the support given online via web pages and e-mail. Interactive features such as online registrations, tests, and online discussion forums are also included. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) guided the research and clinical implementations of this approach, as it lends itself more easily to the self-help format compared with other presently available psychotherapy approaches. We include an overview of the research, current issues and research in service delivery, lessons learned through a program of research, and directions for future investigations.     

Outsourcing in the public refuse collection sector: exploiting old certainties or exploring new possibilities?

An outsourcing process in a medium-size city, by Norwegian standards, provided the background for our study. In 1996, the city council decided to contract out the refuse collection in half of its total area (the western part of the city), and to let the public refuse collection enterprise continue to collect in the other half of the area. The public enterprise also participated in the competitive tender, without success, however. The bid submitted by the public refuse collection enterprise was used as the basis for a benchmarking process performed by the chief administrative officer of the city in May 1999. The process resulted in the requirement that the public enterprise downsize its number of refuse collectors by 27 per cent. The city thus acquired a more cost-effective refuse collection system both in the western part, now run by a private company, and in the rest of the city, where the collection remained the responsibility of the public enterprise, in its newly pared-down and reorganized version. Detectable changes in the refuse collectors' health status in the three-year period immediately following the outsourcing constitute our main focus in this study. We found that the downsizing and reorganization of the public enterprise had a negative impact on the refuse collectors' health status. One year after the downsizing, six of the 27 refuse collectors remaining in the public enterprise had been diagnosed with heart problems or musculoskeletal pains that were sufficiently serious to form the basis of their individual approaches to secure a disability pension, which all six were in the process of acquiring. The registered sick leave among the refuse collectors showed a dramatic increase during the same period. We found clear indications that the refuse collectors remaining in the employment of the public enterprise had no alternatives in the labour market. Although not the focus of this study, we found that the totality of costs and benefits, not only for the enterprise in question, but also for local and national authorities, needs to be considered in any realistic assessment of the impact of public sector outsourcing of activities.