The last twenty years has seen an extensive and exhausting debate on how to improve the institutions of African states. But progress has been patchy at best. Many of the problems arise from a ‘partial-reform equilibrium’; initial reforms are undertaken, but then strong resistance is encountered, and reform is not completed. Consequently, although donors may be heartened to find governments spea...

All reform countries in Central and Eastern Europe require a rapid and comprehensive restructuring of their public pension schemes for macroand microeconomic reasons. The paper argues that pension reform, economic restructuring, and the growth options for these countries are closely related, and that by pursuing a reform which is at least partially directed towards private and funded pensions, ...

despite the serious confrontation of iranian seminaries and religious communities against a flood of western modernistic ideas and institutions, the modernistic tendencies increased in qom seminary, during the leadership of ayatollah boroujerdi. modernists often sought reforms in organization, educational programs and propagation system of seminaries and offered various reform projects to ayato...

In several European countries, including Norway, polices to increase patient choice of hospital provider have remained high on the political agenda. The main reason behind the interest in hospital choice reforms in Norway has been the belief that increasing choice can remedy the persistent problem of long waiting times for elective hospital care. Prior to the 2013 General Election, the Conserva...

This qualitative inquiry project investigates the political and policy discourses related to education reform in Taiwan. Specifically, it examines the science education reform policies and policy leaders’ vision for the reform. This work also reveals the unique challenges involved in implementing contemporary science education approaches in a Confucian learning culture. Data sources included re...

Debates over urban school reform have become voluminous and heated, and scholarly research has focused primarily on the impact of various reforms. Research should also trace the impact of conflicts over political reform on voting in school board elections. We examine three school board elections in St. Louis between 2003 and 2006. In each election, the mayor organized a supported a slate of ref...

We examine the impact of the economic reform programme on the financing choices of Zimbabwean listed companies. Using the published accounts of a sample of companies we show that listed firms rely heavily on external finance, especially short term bank financing. We estimate an eclectic econometric model of firms’ capital structure based on key predictions from the theory of finance, augmented ...