“Burning Money” and Institutional Decline During Zimbabwe’s Hyperinflation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Matteo Miller ◽  
Thandinkosi Ndhlela
Keyword(s):  
Burning Money ◽  
Institutional Decline

Buddhism in Crisis? Institutional Decline in Modern Japan

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Reader
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Japanese Population ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Japanese People ◽  
Death Rituals ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
Modern Japan ◽  
Institutional Decline

Concerns that established temple Buddhism in Japan is in a state of crisis have been voiced by priests in various sectarian organizations in recent years. This article shows that there is a very real crisis facing Buddhism in modern Japan, with temples closing because of a lack of support and of priests to run them, and with a general turn away from Buddhism among the Japanese population. In rural areas falling populations have led to many temple closures, while in the modern cities people are increasingly turning away from the prime area in which Japanese people have traditionally engaged with Buddhist temples — the processes of death and their aftermath. Partly this is due to competition from new secular funeral industries, but partly also it is because public perceptions of Buddhism — which has become over-reliant on death rituals in Japan — have become highly negative in modern times. Even practices which have often been seen as areas in which Buddhist temples have been able to attract people — such as pilgrimages — are proving less successful than in the past, contributing further to a sense of crisis that threatens to undermine Buddhism’s roots in Japan.

The Corrupting Sea

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Bond
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The Law ◽  
Institutional Decline ◽  
Roman Administration

The chapter focuses on a period that has often been described in terms of a moral and institutional decline. It interrogates both legal and literary sources pertaining to imperial Roman administration, and asks to what extent do they offer evidence of increasing corruption or merely greater awareness of its debilitating effects. In addition, it also explores the extent to which the rhetoric of corruption itself can be seen as an anticorruption tactic on the part of some elites, with the power to shape norms outside the formal remit of the law. Ultimately, what it shows is that, though corruption may not have been a problem unique to the later Roman Empire, the array and severity of anticorruption tactics introduced during this period do distinguish it from previous eras of Roman history.

De-unionization and Drug Death Rates

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert DeFina ◽  
Lance Hannon
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Union Density ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
Drug Deaths ◽  
Drug Death ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Institutional Decline

Drug death rates in the United States have risen dramatically in recent years, sparking urgent discussions about causes. Most of these discussions have centered on supply-side issues, such as doctors overprescribing pain killers. However, there is increasing recognition of the need to go beyond proximate causes and to consider larger social forces that bear on the demand for pain-relieving drugs. Informed by sociological research linking labor unions to community health, we empirically examined the relationship between union density and drug death rates for the years 1999 to 2016. We found that states experiencing greater declines in unionization also tended to experience greater increases in drug deaths. Estimates from our fixed-effects models suggested that a one standard deviation decrease in union density was associated with a 42 percent increase in drug death rates over the period. Although the incorporation of a variety of statistical controls reduced this association, it remained negative and significant. Beyond variation in the availability of substances to misuse, our findings underscore the importance of considering institutional decline and broader social conditions as deeply relevant for contemporary drug death trends.

Iraq's stunted growth: human and economic development in perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bassam Yousif
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Public Services ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Economic Liberalization ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Stunted Growth ◽  
Institutional Decline

This article studies Iraq's recent economic development. It views development as a process mediated by institutions and driven by the attainment of human capabilities and capacities, including state capacity. This approach departs from the two prevalent sets of models that have been used to explain Iraq's lacklustre economic performance: theories that highlight the negative effects of oil on economic outcomes as well as those that stress the importance of the, often formulaic, application of policies that advocate economic liberalization and marketization. This study posits that many of Iraq's economic difficulties, including those of the provision of public services and realizing investment, are best comprehended as the result of prolonged institutional decline and decay in human capabilities, especially since 1990. What is more, the article contests some basic maxims concerning Iraq's recent economic history. For example, the post-2003 era is viewed primarily as a continuation of the sanctions period to the extent that it has been characterized by continued deterioration in both human capabilities and economic institutions, despite radically changed political and economic arrangements.

Making things on the side: creativity at a time of institutional decline

Hot Metal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Adams Stein
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
English Language ◽  
Work Time ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Institutional Decline ◽  
Customary Practices ◽  
Over Time

A ‘foreign order’ is an industrial colloquialism referring to a practice whereby workers produce objects at work – using factory materials and work time – without authorisation. This is an under-explored but global phenomenon that many names, including homers, side productions, government jobs, and la perruque. There are silences about these clandestine acts of creative production in English-language studies. This chapter considers this practice from the interdisciplinary perspective of labour history and material culture studies. Using oral and archival sources, the chapter traces the ancestry of foreign orders to seventeenth century English customary practices of the Commons. It provides an account of a playful and creative culture of pranks and making in a printing factory, and identifies the workers’ motivations for creating foreign orders. Finally, the chapter explains how the making of foreign orders became more overt and politicised over time, as workers sensed their insecurity. This practice of making ‘on the side’ enabled print-workers a degree of agency and the ability to narrativise their own plight.

Innovative management

1984 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-378
Author(s):  
Anil Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Commercial Sector ◽  
Corporate Sector ◽  
Innovative Management ◽  
Countervailing Power ◽  
Institutional Decline ◽  
Corporate Turnarounds ◽  
Governmental Control ◽  
Natural Calamity ◽  
Developing Society ◽  
Management Issues

Innovative management features brief accounts of novel, off-beat management. These are accounts of creatively managed organizations or of innovative handling of management issues. As for the others, we invite contributions and comments from readers for this feature too. Vikalpa has published many accounts of corporate turnarounds. This, however, is an account of how an institution on the decline, devastated by a natural calamity, was rejuvenated by a kind of leadership all too rare in the developing world, especially in the institutional, non-commercial sector. A combination of circumstances—bureaucratic structure, governmental control, pay scales below the corporate sector, lack of competition or countervailing power, and other factors seem to cause institutional decline that a developing society can ill afford. The present study provides an insightinto how forceful leadership can reverse this trend.

scholarly journals Southern Europe's Institutional Decline

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edouard Challe ◽  
Jose Ignacio Lopez ◽  
Eric Mengus
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Decline
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