INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH & METHODOLOGY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE VOL. 3, NO. 2 APR - JUN, 2017 QUARTERLY JOURNAL ISSN 2415-0371
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International Journal of Research & Methodology in Social Science Vol. 3, No. 2, p.2 (April – June 2017). ISSN 2415-0371
BOAD OF EDITORS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH & METHODOLOGY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE is a peer reviewed scientific journal in social science and its interdisciplinary fields. The journal is published quarterly. The Boards of Editors oversee the acquisition, review, and publication of quarterly research papers in social science. Editorial inquiries may be sent by email directly to: EditorIJRMSS@gmail.com. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paul T.I. Louangrath
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TABLE OF CONTENT Beyond the Decisions-Making II: Methodological Aspects ………………………. Salatino, D. R. Tanzania under Dependency and Neoliberalism periods: Examination of Economic Theories since Independence ………………….. Mandalu, M., Thakhathi, D.R., & Costa H. The Inequities in Health Shaped by Political Forces: A Critical View ……………. Monte-Serrat, D.M., Kabir, R. & Arafat, Yasir, S.M. An Extended Meaning of the Concept of ‘Public Space’: A Semiotic Analysis of French ‘Burqa Affair’ Arêas, Camila
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Awareness and Attitude towards Public Pension: A Case of Informal Workers at Saba saba Market in Dodoma Municipality, Tanzania ……………………………… James, S., Hauli , E. & Mosha, P. Knowledge and Attitudes of Male Employees towards Paternity Leave in Iringa Municipality, Tanzania Nzali, A.S. & Philipo, F. Thailand 4.0 Readiness Louangrath, P.I.
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Beyond the Decision-Making II: Methodological Aspects Dante Roberto Salatino
About the author Dante Roberto Salatino is a researcher of the Institute of Philosophy and of the Institute of Linguistics - Lecturer in the General Psychology Department - Faculty of Philosophy and Letters Teacher and Researcher in Artificial Intelligence in the Mechatronics Career - Faculty of Engineering - National University of Cuyo - Email for correspondence: dantesalatino@gmail.com
ABSTRACT The objective of this work is to show that the determinants of conduct and subjective behavior that govern research in Social Sciences, especially in Economics. Both the investigative process and the economy have at their base the same relational pattern that determines subjective reality. We used the method based on the Transcurssive Logic that is apt to investigate the subjective reality, of which the economy forms part. Individualistic methodological proposals and the one based on unification are adjusted. It constitutes a methodological contribution in Economics. Keyword: Economics, Psychology, Methods, Social Sciences. JEL Code: A12, B41 CITATION: Salatino, D. R. (2017). “Beyond the Decisions-Making II: Methodological Aspects.” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 6–24. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371.
1.0 INTRODUCTION All attempts that scientists have made over time to control social phenomena have been limited by the constitutive complexity of human society. This complexity comes from conflicts that operate in it and the laws that govern its behavior. This situation was evident in the late s. XIX. (Sumner, 1883) The appetite for power always has been part of mankind. It has conditioned even part of the research in the social science. Perhaps the Economy, as a social science, is one of the most affected since it has to do with the management of scarce resources and their distribution. No one can deny that this function, generally in charge by the government and the powerful companies is a determinant of power. As we saw in an earlier paper (Salatino, 2017), the individual or social subject, that makes a community meaningful, is never taken into account. From time immemorial and after an unpleasant learning subject has been able to find a way to 'survive' biologically, psychically and socially, and -6-
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thus was molding their conduct in front of others. Increasingly, that imposed conduct has been nullifying their behavior and annihilating their beliefs. If we take the economy as a cooperative game it has become a 'zero sum' game; that is, what others gain comes at the expense of common individual who, instead of being enabled to generate conduct based on genuine economic behavior, sunk into abandonment thus, becoming the 'forgotten man'. (Sumner, 1919, pp. 466) The aim of this work is to show that both the process of scientific research applied to the economic phenomena and the economy itself as a science, including its rational and subjective approaches, as it happens with other branches of scientific knowledge (biology, physics, psychology, etc.), responds to a common relational pattern. This 'universal' pattern is the same as that proposed by the Transcurssive Logic (TL) (Salatino, 2017) to explain the importance of the subject in the determination, analysis and understanding of real facts. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW It is done through the approach of the economic conduct from the subject (1) and the existence of patterns common among the different ways of seeing the economy (2). 2.1 Economic conduct from the subject John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher, politician and economist representing the classical economic school who theorized about utilitarianism and in his book A system of logic (1843-1889-1950) says, referring to the social phenomena derived from a psychological law: "Taking into account that they have no origin in other social facts and that no other circumstance can interfere , gave rise to have created a department of science called: Political Economy", making clear allusion to its subjective roots. In contrast, in the chapter devoted to the definition of economic policy, it says: “Economic Policy can be defined as the science of laws which regulate the production, distribution and consumption of wealth. Wealth is defined, as all material objects useful or agreeable to mankind, except such as can be obtained in indefinite without labor.” (ibid., p. 412) Austrian school of economics: this line of economic thinking emphasizes that individuals do not act automatically and in response to a rational elaboration which requires a total knowledge of the ends and means. An individual acts as a consequence of cognitive processes that allow him to perceive, recognize patterns, learn and understand the social reality that will determine the means and ends appropriate to his subjectivity to face an economic decision. That is, an individual’s decisions will always be individual and subjective. Some of the outstanding figures of this school: Carl Menger (1840-1921) (Subjective value theory, Menger, 2007, p 114); Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) (Praxeology: logical structure of human action, Mises, 1998, p. 30) Methodological individualism: all social phenomena, including economics, can be explained from individuals, their goals, their beliefs and their actions, Mises, op. cit., p. 41); Friedrich August von Hayek (18991992): the methodological norms adopted by Hayek are a direct reflection of his perception of the subject. According to Hayek: "It is probably not an exaggeration if we say that any important advance in economic theory during the last hundred years was a further step in the constant application of subjectivism" (Hayek, 1955, p. 31) William Graham Sumner (1840 – 1910), an American academic at Yale University. A polymath with numerous books and essays published on United States history, economic history, political theory, sociology and anthropology, whose essay, The Forgotten Man (1883) shows that politics had already been subverted by a series of 'measures of relief', that which are generally economic, and which, although they attract public attention, always go to the detriment of the common man. Sumner was a promoter of the free markets and defender of the anthropological approach of the economy. 2.2 Common patterns Carl Gustav Hempel (1905-1997), a logical empiricist philosopher and epistemologist, who in his Philosophy of Natural Science states: “What scientific explanation, especially the theoretical ... is -7-
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achieved by a systematic unification, by exhibiting the phenomena as manifestations of structures and common underlying structures and processes that conform to specific, testable, basic principles. If such an account can be given in terms that show certain analogies with familiar phenomena, then very well.” (Hempel 1966: 83) (Metaphorical by analogy method (Salatino, 2009).. Milton Friedman (1912-2006) in one of the most influential works in economic methodology writes: “A fundamental hypothesis of science is that appearances are deceptive and that there is a way to looking at or interpreting or organizing evidence that will reveals superficially disconnected and diverse phenomena to be manifestations of a more fundamental and relatively simple structure." (Friedman, 1966, p. 33). 3.0 METHODOLOGY Supported by the TL the method based on: (A) economic facts, because they belong to the social sciences, depend on the subjective reality and not on the objective reality that frames traditional natural science; (B) the basic elements that intervene in the definition of the fact or phenomenon analyzed must form a relational pattern; (C) the minimum pattern thus formed must form a group (See Appendix) to demonstrate the presence of symmetry (Salatino, 2016); That is, it must give evidence of the conservation and invariance of the fundamental laws governing the fact or phenomenon being studied; and (D) the ontological projection of the developed scheme emphasizes the presence of a common relational pattern (Salatino, 2012) which link together different real facts seemingly unrelated, such as economy with the determinants of conduct and human behavior, or mathematical models and reality. 4. FINDINGS & DISCUSSION 4.1 Scientific investigation In the first half of the last century the science of economics, according to prevailing theories, had to be evaluated either by the accuracy of its predictions or by operationally significant theorems leading to an empirical verification. One of the central concepts, proposed by Samuelson, was that of 'revealed preference'. (Serrano, 2007). We must add that this last proposal ignores both the moral principles derived from ethics and, therefore, the character of the subject that select, as well as the subjectivity of the preference. The second half of the last century was invaded by dynamic econometric models and methods that were based on non-experimental data. They were understood as a learning process where theoretical information was incorporated through mathematical models and the empirical information through statistical models. (García, 2007). Here, we invoke an 'information generating process' as the only representative of 'reality' and Bayesian inference that structures the learning of that reality. One of the paradigms of economic thought of the twentieth century was the methodological individualism, in which a defined equilibrium is promoted in terms of a theory of perfect competition (Mas-Colell, 2007). It is a very particular 'individualist' view, since it deals with social reality as a 'collection of individuals', that is, where it is the group that defines what is an individual called 'consumer' or more generically 'agent', when in fact, as we will see, it is exactly upside down. Game theory, the great contribution to economic methodology, began with the book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior of John von Neumann's and Oskar Morgenstern of 1944, reached its highest recognition with the Nobel Prize awarded to John Forbes Nash in 1994 by the discovery of necessary equilibria in theory, is based on decision making when there is an uncertainty associated with any of the alternatives. It is considered as one of the most important contributions to human thought since it can explain how cooperation arises in conflict situations. (Ferreira García, 2007) It is not a faithful representation of reality, but simply a simplification of the way of saying the relevant things. Other methodological ventures, such as dynamic macroeconomics, experimental or behavioral economics, or the theory of evolutionary games (Diaz-Giménez, 2007; Brandts, 2007; Thomé, 2007), just to name a few of the most recent, leave aside the ethical and the ontological, -8-
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while the epistemological is taken from Cognitive Psychology as is also the case with Neuroeconomics, or of the Darwinian and Neo-Darwinian theory of evolution used as metaphors devoid of content. As we saw in a previous paper (Salatino, 2017), research in a social science as the economy must be approached: (i) from the ontological or through a set of elements whose existence can be known by a subject; that is, it belongs to its subjective reality; (ii) from the epistemological or from the nature of that knowledge or the beliefs that arise in the exchange with such reality; (iii) from the methodological point of view or through the procedure and the norms used to acquire, control and systematize this knowledge, including the strategies used; that is, a way of defining the behavior and conduct of an individual; and finally, (iv) from the ethical or starting from the set of psychic and affective qualities that form the character as an expression of a knowledge or experience and condition the behavior of each individual in his real world. It is clear that research is not always about strictly objective questions, but especially in human and social sciences, we must take into account that observed and observer are the same subject. Therefore, it is imperative to take into account the conditioning factors that determine observation and observed. In short, social research must be based on a simultaneous assessment of human behavior and conduct. To understand how these two elements are integrated, let us observe the following scheme of the subjective reality (Salatino, 2017).
Figure 1. Subjective reality S: subject – O: object – V: external transformation - : internal transformation If we look at the previous figure, we can see the relations between the three real systems that make up the subjective reality, namely: socio-cultural system (SCS), bio-external system (BES) and psycho-internal system (PIS). Each of these systems is structured as PAU, which makes them absolutely homeomorphic. On the other hand, they also form a PAU. The real element unifying them is the subject (S). The dynamic sequence in the previous scheme is as follows:
As can be appreciated, behavior is strictly individual and unconscious and strongly biologically rooted, whereas conduct becomes manifest exclusively when we relate to others. Both respond to the following fundamental elements.
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Figure 2. Fundamental elements of behavior and conduct Character refers to the peculiar and exclusive way of being of each subject that conditions the behavior, attitude, reactions, emotions. In short, the affections before any challenge that life proposes to an individual. “Things” are everything that exist outside the psyche of the subject; that is, the immediate surroundings with what interacts which includes their own body. In other words, it includes everything that occupies the so-called 'subjective space' (Uexküll, 1934) from where the subject 'cuts' its surroundings to configure its 'surrounding world' (Umwelt) composed by the 'perceived world' (Merkwelt) and the 'world of action' (Wirkwelt). The rules represent the norms to which the subject has to adjust their behavior, that is, the ways of acting in front of society or what is the same, the ways of elaborating their conduct, which are not the formal, prescriptive rules designed and imposed and applied by an exogenous authority through the administration of certain incentives. Social norms do not represent solutions achieved through coordination, but emerge when there is a conflict between individual interests and collective interests. (Bicchieri, 2006) Beliefs embody 'truth' or what for the subject has 'sense' (or what is useful to survive biologically, psychically or socially) in the 'perceived world' and that, prior to adequacy with behavior in their psycho-internal system, can be projected as conduct in its 'world of action', that is, socially. In the PAU to the conduct correspond the code 11, that is, that of the rules because, like them, it is the final result of the assemblage between the character of a subject and the 'things' or 'objects' that they come from the outside, instead, the behavior corresponds to the code 00, that of the beliefs, because the behavior is neither subjective nor objective but biological. As in any science, the objective of the Economy is to study the real economic facts. Being consistent with what has been developed so far, we must define what is a real fact for the TL. From our point of view, it is considered as a real fact the relations between a subject (S) and a object (O) generics by means of a double transformation: an evident one that connects subjective and objective aspects through a function and a hidden one that puts in relief the subjective structural aspect. These relations determine that the subject is the source of these transformations or changes and the object the destiny of them. Going back to the initial approach, it may now be easier to understand the link between the different ways of approaching social research.
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Figure 3. Forms of social research CH: character – TH: things – RU: rules – BE: beliefs Starting from a specific object of the study, any research should conform to the norms of the scientific method and apply them according to ethical principles and criteria; that is, to observe a conduct adapted to different social and cultural spheres. As antithesis, from a comprehensive perspective of truth based on science or justified belief, knowledge with a biological support determines a behavior that allows the cognitive projection (Salatino, 2014) on what the empirical shows, for its purification, explanation and justification or rejection if it turns out to be a derivative of dogma or reflection of everyday concerns and prejudices. 4.2 Economic models The factual sciences, whose object of study are the real facts, require both observation and experimentation. In natural sciences, such as biology, physics or chemistry, this is basically ensured because it is easy to separate the observer from the observed; however in the social sciences, such as economics, for example, this is very difficult if not impossible, because such separation is infeasible. One way of achieving a certain approximation to the scientific method as applied to the natural sciences, when trying to investigate economics, is to vary the point of view, or better, to adapt the real frame of reference. Mathematical procedures were chosen, long ago, to analyze the phenomena of economic reality through its formal methodology, assigning the weight of the decisions to supposed rational agents. This type of approach has at least two problems. On the one hand, they are considered unreal by the important distance that separates them from the facts that occur in the economic reality; on the other hand, when assigning the decision making to rational agents all their results are crossed by the rules that govern the logical thinking, whose main sustenance is a theory. Every theory, necessarily represents an abstraction of the real world. Given the immense complexity that economic reality show in this case, in order to be able to analyze even though it is a small part of that reality, characterized perhaps by the appearance of a particular economic phenomenon, there is no known mechanism other than theorizing on the apparent relationships that show us the primary factors revealed as those that define the problem which will be the object of our study. Everyone is aware that this crude 'skeleton' or 'economic model', as it is called, is nothing more than a deliberate simplification for analytical purposes. There is a variety of economic models, but here we will only address, by way of example, those dedicated to the static comparative analysis. (Chiang & Wainwright, 2005). What is it that is compared in these models? The comparison is made between different states of equilibrium that are associated to different sets of parameters and external variables. This simple proposition is useful for modeling, for example, an isolated market, or the national income, or the ratio between total utility and marginal utility.
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If in the evolution of the model there is an imbalance manifested as a change in the value of some of the parameters or external variables, the initial equilibrium must be updated, and therefore, the internal variables of the model will suffer a certain adjustment. How is the process of comparison between a new state of equilibrium and the previous one? Ignoring what happens to the variables, the above is restricted to comparing the initial state of equilibrium (before the change) and the final state of equilibrium (after the change). But if we do not exclude the possibility of equilibrium instability, then it is clear that the problem under consideration is essentially different and should focus on the 'rate of change' which evaluates how quickly an internal variable changes relative to the change of a parameter or external variable to the system. It is at this point that the concept of derivative becomes important in the static comparison. In general, one could consider the rate of change of one variable y in response to a change of another variable x, and where both variables are related through a function.
y  f ( x)
(1)
Applied to the context of the static comparison y represents the equilibrium value of an internal variable (dependent variable), while x represents some parameter or external variable (independent variable). As an example, we will consider an element that is part of the microeconomic theory, specifically the theory of consumption and, within it, the demand or the relationship that links prices and quantities required by the consumer. (GarcĂa, 2000, p.29). To understand the above relationship, concepts of total utility and marginal utility are necessary, which are by no means synonymous. The price is explained through the utility that gives us the last unit consumed of a product. The total utility derives from the sum of the utilities provided by the successive units consumed, in contrast, the marginal utility is the utility that derives from additional unit consumed and that represents a decreasing value, unlike the total utility that is a value which grows logarithmically to a maximum point and then falls. Formally, marginal utility (UMg (x)) is the first derivative (or the partial derivative if we consider more than one product) of the total utility (u (x)).
Figure 4. Marginal and total utility The mathematical procedure that relates a function to its derivatives is called differential equation. The method for solving these equations also responds, structurally, to PAU (Universal Autonomous Pattern), as shown below. Of the numerical methods for solving differential equations, Euler's is one of the most imprecise. By including in the calculation an average of two next slopes remarkably adjusts the results, much closer to the real calculation obtained by the analytical method. -12-
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Recall that the method of Euler has the form: New value (dependent variable) = Previous value + h x Slope
(2)
where h = step (increase of the independent variable). The enhanced Euler method, suitable for solving first-order differential equations with initial values, will have the form: (3)
New value = Previous value + h x Average of slopes
Figure 5. In Figure 5, we can see the elements that intervene in the application of the improved Euler method. The codes come from the attached attribute mapping table. Xn and Yn have no difficulty in assignment. As for the code of predictor slope (superficial) arises from the apparent relationship that binds directly the independent and dependent variables, transformation that we can call 'organization', since it comes from a structural relationship. On the other hand, the code of the corrective slope (profound) does not depend on a structure, but on a function in which the variables intervene, indirectly; we can call it 'disorganization and reorganization' due to greater complexity to the system achieves a greater approximation to the real value. The result in K1 is obtained by the evolution of the superficial level through applying XOR (), while the result in K2 is achieved by the evolution of the profound level through applying the opposite operation to that of composition, that is, the Equivalence (). Both levels cycle in the opposite sense and do it simultaneously each time the independent variable is increased in h. Formal definitions follow: dy/dx = f(x,y) y(x0) = y0 (Initial values) h = paso Un+1 = Yn+1 Un+1 = Yn + h.f(Xn, Yn) = Yn + h.K1 Xn+1 = Xn + h K2 = f(Xn+1, Un+1) Yn+1 = Yn + h.K K = (K1 + K2)/2 Prediction: Un+1 = Yn + h.f(Xn, Yn) Correction: Yn+1 = Yn + h.½(f(Xn, Yn) + f(Xn+1, Un+1))
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(4) (5)
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Figure 6. Euler enhanced method
The previous figure shows the good approximation achieved with the Euler enhanced method to the real values. In summary, the analysis the evolution of the PAU proposed by the Transcurssive Logic can explain and understand perfectly how this method of solving a mathematical problem works. This operation is as follows: from the initial values the first value of the curve is calculated after adding h. This prediction (apparent or superficial estimate) has a gross error with respect to the correct real value. This 'difference' (error) is not dissipated, but accumulates. When the sum of the differences exceeds a predetermined threshold, the system goes to the deep level where a new calculation is made with the same h and the average between the two results is estimated (corrective calculation), projecting the final result, again, towards the superficial level to estimate the degree of coincidence with the real value, with which there may be a small disparity but that should always be much smaller than the error estimated in the first step, somewhat corroborated in the chart above. According to what we have seen, we can say that this relational system (PAU) is able to demonstrate that the system obtained after evolving from an initial situation is more complex than the one from which we started, because it 'learned' to solve more adequately and properly a problem, as if it had 'adapted' (sit venia verbo) to the new demands of its surroundings. All the previous development is not enough to justify that the economy, as a social science, is being approached 'scientifically', because here the participation of the subject is relegated to a mere equivalent, to comply with the forms, is established as real reference. Or presented in another way, utility is a subjective concept that can not be measured; maybe it can be simulated using utility functions that relate the value of utility (arbitrarily assigned) to the quantity consumed of certain goods or services. 4.3 Decision Making: Prisoner's Dilemma A variant in the rationality hypothesis is 'Game Theory', an area of applied mathematics that uses models to study the interaction between formalized incentive structures (games). This development contradicts the fundamental idea suggested by Adam Smith: "Individual interest drives human beings towards the common good" (Smith, 2015), ensuring that individual interest, selfishness and rationality in making decisions, lead humans to a non-optimal situation. Among the different types of possible 'games' we will only mention two: cooperative game, where two or more players do not compete, but collaborate to achieve the same objective by forming coalitions and therefore win or lose altogether, and the game does not cooperative in which players make decisions independently for their personal benefit, which does not prevent those decisions from favoring or harming all, as happens in cooperatives.
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John Forbes Nash in 1950 presented in his doctoral thesis an analysis of a situation of equilibrium that occurred in non-cooperative games. There, he defined the concept of balance as follows: “An equilibrium point is [a set of strategies] such that each player ... maximizes their gain if the strategies of others are kept fixed. Thus, the strategy of each player is optimal compared to that of others.” (Nash, 1950, p. 3). A pair of strategies is in equilibrium only in the event that it is true that if these strategies are chosen by the players then none of them could achieve a better individual outcome by switching to another strategy. (Peterson, 2015, p.6) What Nash proposes approximates the rationality to the subjectivity a little (Tohmé, 2011) taking into account not only the decision of the others but also the individual's decision. The equilibrium can be interpreted as a pair of expectations about the choice of each person such that when one of them reveals his choice, neither wants to change his conduct. In other words, it showed that decision-making is an interactive question where selfishness ('the intention to survive', in this case, socially), and that the best results for the group, At least in the short and medium term, although decisions are taken individually, are achieved when a very particular type of equilibrium is reached between pairs of opposing and simultaneous strategies. Let us analyze the above through the example of the 'Prisoner's Dilemma', an expression coined by Albert W. Tucker in 1950 during a conference in which he discussed the work of his then postgraduate student John F. Nash. (Peterson, 2015). The TL focuses on the analysis of this intellectual puzzle, not as a simple mathematical model, but, as Peterson asserts, a type of situation frequently encountered in real life. Considering this dilemma in the context of the subjective reality is expressed in estimating that the subgroups that constitute, the levels in reality represent each and in an alternative form, the subject with their behavior ( = 00) and their conduct (V = 11), in front of another subject that the TL considers as object. Throughout the evolution of the system and alternately, the 'object' will become 'subject' and vice versa. Returning to the 'Prisoner's Dilemma' we can add that the 'game' alternatives are given until either of them breaks the 'Nash equilibrium' and loses the game. Speaking of Nash equilibrium, it is important to realize that this form of analysis reveals the transfer of an unstable equilibrium or uncertainty (00 given by the behavior of each player) to a stable equilibrium or certainty (11 given by the conduct of each player) which is the Nash equilibrium (See Figure 7).
Figure 7. Conduct and behavior under Nash equilibrium The transfer of a balance to the other is done through an intermediate step, that is the one that allows the decision to choose the best strategy. In short, we have demonstrated that decisionmaking is not, as gambling theorists assert, a rational question of an agent that becomes a -15-
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maximizer of a given utility because its preferences obey a set of structural conditions, such as completeness, transitivity , independence and continuity (Peterson, 2015, p.10), but an assemblage between the behavior and conduct of an individual. In this example of the Prisoner's Dilemma, we will make the following fictitious proposal (Figure 8):
Figure 8. Two players game theory A police, investigating a bank robbery, has detained two well-known criminals (A and B) for illegally carrying firearms. But as there is a suspicion that these people are responsible for the assault on the bank the previous week, his interrogation begins, and this is what is said to each one separately: for carrying an illegal weapon is a 2 year prison sentence, but as we are sure that you and your partner have robbed the bank last week, we need your confession. If you confess and your partner does not, you add only 1 year of jail, that is, you would get 3 years in total, and to your partner we will get another 10 years. Of course if you do not confess, but your partner will you are the one who will receive the 10 years, while your partner will receive only 3 years in prison. In both cases and individually, they see the convenience of confessing and they do so, both of which will be sentenced to 3 years in prison. What is the dynamics of the system reflected in Figure 8? We start from a situation of uncertainty given by a basic behavior, which is to stay as short as possible in jail. The problem is that not confessing on the part of both is an unstable equilibrium since the final result does not depend on the behavior of each other, but on the conduct of the other. This uncertainty and the possibility of reaching a new equilibrium are reflected in the binary operations between the codes that identify the four possible situations. (See Appendix) These operations tell us that in the case of A if starting from a non-confession decides to persist in it and B confesses, his sentence would increase in 10 years; therefore he decides to confess, something similar happens with B. All of which leads to confluence in a new situation of equilibrium, now stable (where both confess) known as Nash equilibrium, where each player has opted for his best strategy and knows the strategy of the other, and where in addition, he will lose the game if he decides to change strategy again while the other player remains unchanged. The latter situation can occur in both A and B and this is shown by the remaining binary operations, which in both cases allow it to return to the initial unstable equilibrium state, loses the game one who returns to that equilibrium. From what is shown through the example, it follows as a corollary that a decision making, is an assemblage between the individual behavior and the conduct that a subject shows according to the relationship he has with others, all of which can be weighted. That is, in spite of its -16-
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mathematical approach, we see that it is possible to approach the fundamental subjective aspects that give referential frame to the solution of a problem, something that is not usually considered in the habitual scientific method where math is used. Without sharing the optimistic prediction of Siegfried (2006) when he believes that game theory could someday become the nexus that brings together all the pieces of the scientific puzzle, we must leave it as a precedent that the contribution of Nash can act as a catalyst in a useful way to understand individual behavior and social conduct, such as TL. 4.4 Economy In life survival is the imperative need to be satisfied; in society the satisfaction of material needs (food, clothing, housing, etc.) and not material (education, health, leisure, etc.) is the determinant of that survival in society, which could be called 'acceptance' or 'recognition' by others. The traditional definition tells us that economics studies both the basic behaviors of individual agents and global behaviors when they manage scarce resources to produce goods and services and distribute them among the individuals. (Mochón Morcillo & Becker, 2008, p.2) According to Bicchieri (2006), the games that social norms solve are called games with multiple motives. Such mixed-motivation games are not co-ordination games (such as cooperative) at first, but social norms can transform games with mixed motives into co-ordination. This transformation, however, depends on each individual hoping that other people also follow the norm. If this expectation is violated, an individual will return to playing the original game and behaving "selfishly" (non-cooperative game) (Bicchieri, 2006, p.3). In this work, we see economics as such rather as a game, but not as does the game theory of von Neumann and Morgenstern or Nash where the analysis is done from a language exclusively mathematical, but from the relational approach that proposes the TL between a structure and a function or between individual behavior and social conduct to explain the subjective need to choose, which is the backbone of the economy.
Figure 9. Framework of decision making CH: character – TH: things – RU: rules – BE: beliefs
The above figure is intended to reflect a real framework for decision making something different from what was previously discussed. The variant is the fact of focusing the problem from the subject and not only what results from their interaction with others. In other words, making a decision here is much more selfish than in the case of non-cooperative games, since what is really at stake here is 'life' itself. The illustration in Figure 9 may well represent a situation similar to that evidenced in a noncooperative game between two players: a subject with his character and, therefore, with his ethics, and the environment with his things and his other individuals. There are two well-defined levels: the superficial or apparent level or that where the future of the players is settled according to a strategy chosen consciously and unconsciously by the subject according to certain rules that are the product of a conflict; and the profound level, where the rules of the game (structure) are proposed that depend on the individual beliefs and to which cannot access or modify neither of the players (the structural is neither conscious nor unconscious is biological). -17-
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A system (couple of players: the subject and its environment) represents a dynamic state of repose that accuses a certain organization (determines a specific behavior), a certain stable imbalance that promotes an exchange that is projected as evident action (a conduct adjusted to norms or rules). The irruption of a proposal or challenge by the environment the equivalent of the 'stimulus' specified in a previous point that causes a deviation in that subject (S) that perceives. This forces the subject to submit that previous 'organization' to the rules of the game. Those general rules that define the generative structure of their behavior before the situation, as something disorganized that the profound structure reorganizes. Elaborating either a defense that is arrived at as an adaptive response to the environment (O), or as a change of level of complexity. It is now possible, by means of strategy, to respond with an attack, which causes that the environment to become the 'subject' that receives a challenge and to repeat the alternatives of the game until one of the two does not adapt and 'die', that is, lose the game or come to an agreement and is terminated. 5. CONCLUSION We have tried to approx repeat, the sequence that would follow an investigator that proposes to study social phenomena like those that occur in the economy, but raised from the subject’s perspective. We can see in the diagram (Figure 10) that from the methodological approach and the use of tools such as mathematical models, to the application of theories that consider the behavior of others and the relationships with individual behavior, have in their basis a common relational structure. To this disposal, we could equate it with a kind of ‘universal pattern’, since it encompasses the different strata that define this universe of study (Salatino, 2009), which also contains a similar provision among its components. This type of structure behaves in much the same way as a fractal does in that the same structure is repeated at different scales, and its deepening or superficialization allows to study or analyze the dynamic relational structure of different real facts that apparently are not related, as in this case the economy with the determinants of conduct and human behavior.
Figure 10. Universal pattern
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REFERENCES Bicchieri, C. (2006). The Grammar of Society – The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms – New York, Cambridge University Press. Brandts, J. (2007). La economía experimental y la economía del comportamiento - En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. Chiang, A. C.; Wainwright, K. (2005). Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics. New York, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Díaz-Giménez, J. (2007), Modelos y métodos en la macroeconomía dinámica - En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. Ferreira García, J. L. (2007). La teoría de los juegos, sus aplicaciones - En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. Friedman, M. (1966).Essay in Positive Economics. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. García, H. S. (2007). Modelos y métodos econométricos dinámicos - En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. García, V. F. (2000). Para entender la economía política (y la política económica). México, Centro de Estudios Monetarios Latinoamericanos. González, W. J. (2012). Scientific Realism and Democratic Society. The Philosophy of Philip Kitcher. Leiden, Rodopi. Hayek, F. A. (1955). The Counter-Revolution of Science. Studies on the Abuse of Reason – London, The Free Press of Glencoe, Collier-Macmillan Limited. Hayek, F. A. (1958). Individualism and Economic Order – Chicago, Illinois, The University of Chicago Press. Hempel, C. G. (1966). Philosophy of Natural Science – New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc. Mas-Colell, A. (2007). La teoría del equilibrio general. En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. Menger, C. (1871-2007). Principles of Economics – Alabama, Ludwig von Mises Institute. Mill, J. S. (1889). System of Logic. Ratiocinative and Inductive. Being a connected view of the principles of evidence and the methods of scientific investigation – London, Longmans, Green, and Co. Mises, L. von (1949-1998). Human Action. A Treatise on Economics – Alabama, The Ludwig von Mises Institute. Mochón Morcillo, F; Beker, V. A. (2008). Economía Principios y Aplicaciones – México, McGraw-Hill Interamericana. Nagel, E. (1950). John Stuart Mill’s Philosophy of Scientific Method – New York, Hafner Publishing Company. Nash, J. F. (1950). Non cooperative games – Tesis Doctoral – Universidad de Princeton. Peterson, M. (2015). The Prisoner’s Dilemma – Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Salatino, D. R. (2009). Semiótica de los sistemas reales – Tesis Doctoral en Letras especialidad Psicolingüística por la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina – Director: Dra. Liliana Cubo de Severino. Salatino, D. R. (2012). Aspectos psico-bio-socioculturales del lenguaje natural humano. Introducción a la teoría psíquica del lenguaje – Mendoza – Argentina, Autoedición – ISBN: 978-987-33-2379-9. Salatino, D. R. (2014). PSYCHE – Structure and Function – Mendoza – Argentina, Desktop Publishing – ISBN: 978-987-33-5702-2. Salatino, D. R. (2015). La verdadera historia de la Lógica Transcursiva. (Vol. 3) – Mendoza – Argentina, Autoedición – ISBN: 978-987-33-6655-0. Salatino, D. R. (2016). La importancia de la simetría. En Educación en Ciencias Empíricas en Facultades de Ingeniería. (ECEFI 2016), pp. 1-29. Ed. Cuadrado, G.; Gómez, L. – Mendoza, Argentina, Facultad Regional Mendoza –Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. (In press). -19-
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Salatino, D. R. (2017). Beyond the decisions-making: The psychic determinants of conduct and economic behavior. Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol. 3, Nº 1: pp. 6-26 (Jan. – Mar. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371. Samuelson, P. A. (1965). Foundations of Economic Analysis – New York, Atheneum. Schmoller, G. von (1901) Grundriß der Allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre – Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot Serrano, D. T. (2007). Los economistas como metodólogos – En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. Siegfried, T. (2006). A Beautiful Math. John Nash, Game Theory and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature. Washington, Joseph Henry Press. Smith, A. (2015 -1776) La riqueza de las naciones – Edición ePub libre de Carlos Rodríguez Braum. Sum, N-L; Jessop, B. (2013). Towards a Cultural Political Economy. Putting Culture in its Place in Political Economy. Cheltenham – UK, Edward Elgar. Sumner, W. G. (1919 – 1883). The Forgotten Man – In “The Forgotten Man and Other Essays”, pp. 465 - 495 – Ed. Keller, A. G. – New Haven, Yale University Press. Tohmé, F. (2007). Evolución y teoría económica - En “Sobre la Economía y sus métodos” – Editor: Juan Carlos García-Bermejo – Madrid, Editorial Trotta. Tohmé, F. (2011). Consideraciones epistémicas en juegos: nociones de solución y conocimiento. En: “Consideraciones Epistémicas en Juegos: Nociones de Solución y Conocimiento” – Serie Progresos en Economía – Asociación Argentina de Economía Política pp. 87-99 – Compiladores: Arozamena, L.; Weinschelbaum, F. – Buenos Aires, Temas Grupo Editorial SRL. Uexküll, J. von (1934). Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen: Ein Bilderbuch unsichtbarer Welten. Berlin, J. Springer. Von Neumann, J; Morgenstern, O. (1944). Theory of Games and Economic Behavior – Princeton, Princeton University Press.
APPENDIX Groups and symmetry in Transcursive Logic The notion of group is unfailingly associated with the concept of structure. In fact, the oldest structure known and studied is the group that was discovered by Galois in 1832. A group, according to the modern definition (Salatino, 2015, p. 122), must show a series of properties to be considered. To certify such properties, we will take as a guide a generic group. We see in Figure A1 different ways of representing this type of group according to what we want to emphasize in its structure.
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Figure A1. Group representation
The structure of this type of group consists of two opposing static elements (A, B) and two dynamic elements arranged in opposition (V, ). Each alternately occupies each of the four vertices of a rectangular parallelogram. All elements have a binary code that identifies them and that arises from a table of assignments with at least two basic attributes (, ). The static elements besides opposing are complementary and concurrent (simultaneous). Of the dynamic elements, one of them (V) has the function of “transformer link”, in apparent form, between both static elements. From the logical point of view behaves as a disjunction and its code corresponds to the co-presence of both attributes, which is equivalent to the union of the elements by their differences, so we will also know as 'organization' and is represented by the composition operation that governs the superficial level of this structure: XOR (). The other dynamic element () represents a 'hidden transformation' whose function is to break the previous ligature, which will enable the future evolution of the system. It behaves as a logical conjunction and its code arises from the co-absence of attributes, which amounts to a separation of elements by similarities; also known as 'disorganization' and is represented by an operation opposite to the composition operation of group: Equivalence () that disorganizes and subsequently reorganizes the profound or hidden level of this structure. The geometric projection of the tetrahedron in the figure is only to emphasize that the two levels that form this structure and its temporal evolution in the opposite sense represent, in reality, the 'shadow' of a topological arrangement of the elements of the group in a superior dimension.
GROUP PROPERTIES Having done the elementary definitions, we will analyze if this arrangement we have proposed (PAU) complies with the basic properties of a true group. Closure: For a set of elements to be closed under a certain transformation, the response to its application to any possible combination of its elements must be the production of an element belonging to the set. In order to demonstrate the above, it is essential that we identify more precisely the applied transformation. Every group must have a 'composition operation', which represents the transformation that must be applied in order for the group to evolve in an evident way; that is, to cycle through the different constituent elements (static and dynamic), in any sense until the element from which it departed and thus demonstrate the presence of symmetry (see
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below). The presence of cycles is only admissible if in response to the application of the transformation we obtain the subsequent element. In our case, the apparent transformation will be XOR or exclusive disjunction, a logical Boolean operation that allows us to work with the binary codes of the elements. Figure A1 is represented by a logical sum and tells us that is taken into account of the simultaneous presence (copresence) of the attributes that distinguish each element, (Figure A2). Exclusive disjunction (AB: is read A unless B): It is true (1) only when one of its disjunctives is true (1) and the other is false (0). When their values are equal, the exclusive disjunction is false (0).
Figure A2.
It can be observed in the previous figure the dextro-rotatory cycle (Dx) or in the sense of the needles of the clock, that causes the continuous application of a transformation, checking itself thus two things: first, the property of closure of the set, since always, in response to the application of the transformation we obtain an element of the set, and secondly, the symmetry of the set as a system, since after applying the successive transformations we arrive at the same element from where it was depart. Something equivalent to the above would be to say that the equilateral triangle has undergone three successive rotations of 120º, whereupon the system returns to its initial state. Identity property: There must be an element of the set such that by affecting by a transformation to another element of the same set, do not modify it. (Figure A3).
Figure A3. Inverse property: all the elements of the set must have their inverse, such that the composition between them give as answer the neutral element. For this to be effective, an operation opposite to that of composition is needed. This operation is the Equivalence () or double implication where a proposition is true (1) only in the case where both components have the same truth value. If their values are different from each other, then it is false (0) (Figure A4).
Figure A4. -22-
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Associative property: all the compositions achieved by a given transformation are independent of their grouping. (Figure A5).
Figure A5. If a set satisfies the properties of closure, identity, inverse and associative, it is said that this set constitutes a group. The set presented here (PAU) complies with the previous properties and this allows it to evidence a symmetry by rotation. But in addition, it must comply with another property that we could call the closure of the conjugate. Closing the conjugate: if we look closely at Figure A2 we will see that the closure is partially fulfilled because the neutral element or identity (00) never appears in response to the successive transformations. This has an explanation. (Figure A6)
Figure A6. If we analyze the previous figure, we can see that our supposed group is really it and its reflection through a flat mirror (- - - -). The elements arranged at the vertices of the reflected triangle (blue) constitute a group that can respond in a closed manner to the continuous application of a transformation. Unlike the original group, here the non-apparent (or hidden, if it fits) transformation is the Equivalence (), which as we have already said is the opposite operation to XOR. The evolution shown in Figure A6, where the neutral element (00) appears as an answer, makes it clear that this 'mirrored' group also observes a rotational symmetry since, after three turns of 120 °, it returns to its initial position, although rotating in reverse direction to the original group; that is, in the left-hand (Lv) or anti-clockwise sense. If we speak of complex or hypercomplex numbers, we could say that the set we are analyzing represents a group and its conjugate or reflex. We recall that the conjugate of a complex -23-
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number is another complex number that is obtained by symmetry with respect to the real axis, that is, changing sign or denying its argument or imaginary part. In our example, the sense of rotation is also included. In the same figure, finally, we can review the basic tables of the minimal finite bodies that represent the two levels of our group: a superficial level whose internal operation is the logical sum () and the apparent transformation is XOR; and a hidden or profound level whose internal operation is the logical product () and its transformation the Equivalence ( which in reality is an exclusive AND, better known as XNOR). The third table represents the generalized correspondence between these finite bodies and the group that is called the Galois Connection (an opposition mediated by another opposition) and where both levels are integrated and where the product of rotation Dx certifies the closure of the superficial level generated by the apparent transformation, whereas the product of rotation Lv does the same in the profound level by means of the hidden transformation. In summary, we have verified the existence of symmetry both rotational and reflection of the group formed by the essential aspects of a problem, which meets the requirements set out in the methodology. Other composition operations Both XOR () and Equivalence () are applicable when we must specify the dynamics of a structural PAU, which is where its two levels represent a single system that must interact with its environment. A different case is the functional PAU or those where each subgroup (level) of the system represents a different subject that must interact with the one near to it, but to which it is not subordinate (that is, neither is an ad later of the other, both are independent) The type of composition operation to be used in functional PAUs is what we have called 'hybrids'. Let's see what this is. (Figure A7)
Figure A7. What do the symbols mean: ? They represent the hybridization between XOR and XNOR (or equivalence). This means that both operations are applied partially to each column. The is applied on the spin side, that is, in the right column in the Dx spin and in the left column in the Lv spin. Anyway, the arrow of the symbol indicates the same thing; that is, it is enough to apply one or the other to the elements involved in each turn: 00, 01 and 11 in the Dx spin and 00, 10 and 11 in the Lv. To this symbol we will know as XENIA: X because both operations are exclusive (XOR = exclusive OR, XNOR = exclusive AND) and ENIA (of Irish): what unites two people (levels) to face the demands of their environment and the elements what’s up in it. -24-
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Tanzania under Dependency and Neo-Liberalism Periods: Examination of Economic Theories since Independence Martin Mandalu, D.R Thakhathi, and Hofisi Costa
About the author(s) Martin Mandalu is a lecturer at Stella Maris Mtwara University College at Saint Augustine University of Tanzania P.O. BOX 674 Mtwara, Tanzania). Corresponding author: mpmandalu@yahoo.com D.R. Thakhathi is a Professor of Public Administration at the University of Fort Hare . Hofisi Costa is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Faculty of Public Management and Administration at North West University.
ABSTRACT The paper discusses development theories that underpinned Tanzania’s economy in the past five decades in the pursuit of development and poverty alleviation. The paper discusses modernization, dependency, and neo-liberalism. It proposes and discusses an alternative development model that the country can adopt to realise development and accelerate poverty reduction. Tanzania became a developmental state during the period of the state-led economy under the influence of dependency theory, through Ujamaa. However, due to some domestic and international factors, the country abandoned that development pathway and moved on to attaining its development agenda without a specific model. Findings have revealed that both dependency and neo-liberal policies had limited success in achieving the country’s development agenda and poverty reduction. Therefore, the paper proposes that Tanzania adopts an alternative development model and shifts the attention from economic growth to economic development. Keywords: Development Theories, Tanzania, Ujamaa, Developmental State JEL CODE: E12, E13, O10, O40
CITATION: Mandalu, M. Thakhathi, D.R., and Costa H. (2017). “Tanzania under Dependency and Neoliberalism periods: Examination of Economic Theories since Independence.” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 25–38. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371.
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1.0 INTRODUCTION This paper discusses the theoretical framework that Tanzania followed to realise its economic potentials. These development theories influenced the development agenda in Tanzania. The paper analyses and relates development theories in Tanzania since independence in 1961. The development theories are necessary in any country since all development agenda need a guiding philosophy to lead it, and the Tanzanian economy is no exception. The theories examined in this paper are modernization, dependency and neo-liberalism. At the end of the paper, an alternative development model is proposed and discussed. The paper argues that the proposed model can successfully help achieving the development agenda in Tanzania as modernization, dependency and neoliberalism theories have either been struggling for more than half a century or failed in the war against poverty in the country since independence in 1961. 2.0 METHODOLOGY This paper has uses a documentary review methodology. The study utilised documentary review in collecting relevant data. Mogalakwe (2006) and Scott (1990) depict the documentary method as the technique used to categorize, investigate, and interpret written documents from private and public sectors. Documentary analysis deals with reliable documents which are cost-effective and reliable. Documents needed for the study in the documentary approach should have high accuracy, authenticity, credibility, and representativeness; thus the paper yielded valid findings (Mogalakwe, 2006; Scott, 1990). The researchers used official documents, journal articles, dissertations, magazines, websites of relevant government ministries to strengthen their observations on development theories. The methodology is suitable since the development theories information is found in these sources. 3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 Modernization In the 1960s, Tanzania, had a vision of transforming its society from an under-developed to an industrialized one by improving the socio-economic status of her citizens through service delivery and human development. Immediately after independence in 1961, the country identified three enemies that it had to fight namely ignorance, diseases and poverty (United Republic of Tanzania, 2012:1-2; Wangwe & Charle, 2005). The philosophy guiding development agenda at the time of her independence was modernization. When the developed world became interested in the development of the under-developed countries, industrialized states became the role models. Capital accumulation and industrialisation were the forces of the developed economies of which sub-Sahara Africa could follow (Todaro & Smith, 2009). Modernization theory is deeply rooted in the concept of growth and economic dualism. The dualism found in the industry and agricultural sectors had been presented as “tradition” vis a vis modernity. Modernization is the process of transition from the traditional society to modern society. It comprises social and cultural frameworks that facilitated the development of technology: it is argued that through application of science and technology, underdeveloped countries will attain similar levels of development as industrialized economies (Siddle & Swindell, 1990). McMillan and Harttgen (2014) and Lewis (1954) proposed the idea of dual sectors in which under-developed countries could achieve economic growth by shifting workers from the “traditional” agricultural sector into the “modern” industrial sector. Lewis (1954) argues that underdeveloped countries have a surplus of unproductive labour in the agricultural sector. These workers are attracted to the industry sector where there are higher wages. Lewis argues further that entrepreneurs in the industry sector will make profit which will be reinvested in the business in the form of fixed capital. The industry’s productive capacity increases and leads to a greater demand of labour. More employees will be engaged from the surplus in the agricultural sector. The process -26-
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continues until all surplus workers from the agricultural sector have been engaged. The industry sector would have grown, and the economy would have moved from traditional to industrialized society. Critiques of modernization, including Andre Gunder Frank (1969), argued that modernization theory ignored the historical experience of colonialism in under-developed countries. The existence of the under-developed countries is necessary to the development of developed economies, which extract resources from them. Therefore, it is impossible to simply transfer labour from the traditional to the industrialized society without affecting their relationship. Thus, such critiques led to the birth of the dependency theory. After independence in 1961, Tanzania continued with the colonial capitalist economic system governed by market economy. The market economy benefited only a small segment of the population (Ngowi, 2009). During that economic system, farmers cultivated cash crops such as coffee, sisal, and cotton for export and for some local industrial processing. The idea and practices of the economy tended to follow the modernisation thinking as that was the practice of the period. However, the majority of Tanzanians did not benefit from that economy, which was contrary to the objectives of fighting for independence; thus, the government of the day called for change of approach. The failure of the modernisation theory to stir economic change and improve people’s lives in the country influenced the change from market economy to a state-led economy. This change was influenced by the dependency thinking of industrialisation through revolution and socialism (Arndt et al., 2016: 238; Siddle & Swindell, 1990) 3.2 Dependency The dependency theory was very much vivid in the Tanzanian economic history as the country embraced the theory when it opted for African socialism, Ujamaa, as a guiding philosophy in her development agenda. Ujamaa failed the country and so did the dependency theory as the country was obliged to embark on neo-liberalism. Dependency theories became popular in the 1970s; they were championed by academics of the under-developed countries (Todaro & Smith, 2009). Leading dependency theorists, such as Celso Furtado, F.H Cardoso, Samir Amin, Andre Gunder Frank were concerned with the stagnation of under-developed countries. They look at under-developed countries as positioned at the boundaries of capitalist systems of production and exchange. They see economic stagnation in under-developed countries as result of the development of capitalism in Europe. However, dependency theorists differ with scientific socialists in the belief that capitalism is arrested and will not develop further in the under-developed countries (Siddle & Swindell, 1990). The dependency theorists argue that the ruling classes in poor countries have little interest in industrializing the economy of their countries because they have a beneficial relationship with the multinational companies which extract wealth from the under-developed countries and impoverishing them further. Dependency theorists believe that under-developed countries can only industrialize through revolution and socialism (Siddle & Swindell, 1990). Critiques of the theory find that theorists committing an error by treating under-developed countries as homogenous. Each country has its own characteristics, and thus requires a development theory suitable to its needs. The dependency theory fails to come up with an alternative approach as it confines itself in the criticism of modernization. Tanzania wanted to improve rapidly the economic status of its citizens so as to meet the objectives of fighting for independence (Ngowi, 2009). The dependency theory offered such ideas that a country could industrialise through revolution and socialism (Siddle & Swindell 1990), thus following the objective of ameliorating citizens’ economic status, it became logical for Tanzania to adhere to Ujamaa. When Tanzania embraced the dependency theory through Ujamaa , it succeeded in some areas and failed in others. Tanzania made great progress in the human development area through provision of good quality education and health care; however, its economy deteriorated badly due to weak economic policies under the Ujamaa policy (Arndt et al., 2016; Tanzania Human
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Development Report, 2014; Edwards, 2012). Thus, after such failures, the country in mid-1980s resolved to neo-liberal policies to guide its economy. 3.3 Neo-liberalism In the 1970s, pro market economists became vocal as under-developed countries were struggling to find their way after independence. The focus is on the relationship between the state and the market in the process of economic development (Moreira & Crespo, 2012). The central argument was that under-development in Africa was caused by the state heavy hand on markets, incorrect pricing policies that caused misallocation of resources (Todaro & Smith, 2009). Tanzania under Ujamaa went through this experience as the government controlled major means of economy (Edwards, 2012; Leys, 1996; Sandbrook, 1995). The theory has three different approaches, namely: the free market approach, the public choice approach and the market friendly approach. The free market approach holds that markets alone are competent and capable of determining investment in new economic endeavours. The labour market responds accurately to the demands of the new industries, producers know the demands of the market and know how to respond efficiently and profitably (Todaro & Smith, 2009). However, in under-developed countries, governments intervene in the market functions by manipulating prices of agricultural products by fixing them with low prices while industrial wages are kept high compared to agricultural prices. The government intervention distorts pattern of resource allocation and consequently, efficiency and welfare are reduced. Thus, the free market is preferred as it ensures efficiency and economic growth (Moreira & Crespo, 2012). The public choice approach was introduced in the 1980s as neo-liberalists concluded that African governments were the major cause of under-development in the continent (Moreira & Crespo, 2012). The public choice theory argues the government distorts economic activities because it is a composition of politicians and bureaucrats who work for their personal benefits. They use the power and government authority to fulfil their interests. Krueger (1990) in (Moreira & Crespo, 2012) argues that the state’s economic control in under-developed countries is associated with bureaucratization, corruption and nationalization of private property. The neoclassical theorists prescribed liberalisation of under-developed economies as a remedy to stagnant economies. It was argued that liberalization of the economy would encourage economic efficiency and growth. Underdeveloped countries were asked to privatize state owned enterprises, promote free market, increase export diversification and welcome investors from developed countries (Edwards, 2012; Todaro & Smith, 2009). The market-friendly approach intervened as an alternative to the two previous approaches to development. This theory recognizes that markets are imperfect and, at times, the market produces imperfect goods. Theorists realized that such imperfection could be addressed by the state. The state can invest in physical and social infrastructure such as roads, railways, health care facilities, educational institutions and provision of favorable environment for private business to flourish (Skinner, 2011; Todaro & Smith, 2009). Since mid-1980s, Tanzania adopted the neo-liberal policies to guide its economy following failure of the dependency theories through Ujamaa (Tanzania Human Development Report, 2014; Edwards, 2012; Wangwe & Charle, 2005). In the era of neo-liberal policies, there have been impressive economic growth in the country; however, this economic growth fails to reduce poverty significantly amongst the rural people who are the majority in the country (Arndt et al., 2016; Tanzania Human Development Report, 2014; World Bank, 2015; Kessy et al., 2013; Mashindano, 2011; Mkenda et al., 2010, Twaweza, 2009). It has been more than two decades of economic liberalisation and neo-liberal policies in Tanzania, yet the majority rural people, who are majority in the country, continue to be poor; this suggests that neo-liberalism is inefficient remedy poverty in that sub-Saharan country: hence there was a call for an alternative approach to drive the development agenda in Tanzania.
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3.4 Towards an alternative development approach in Tanzania From the development theories reviewed, there is no single theory that was able to address underdevelopment effectively in the country; consequently, an alternative approach is necessary. The scrutiny of development theories exposes the role that Tanzania and development partners have to play for the development of the country. This paper urges the Tanzanian government to reposition itself and become a developmental state since historical evidence depicts that African states are capable of becoming successful developmental states like their East Asian counterparts (Hofisi, 2013; Mkandawire, 2001). A developmental state takes an active role in planning and acting in the development process of its economy; through diversification of export structures, industrialisation and engagement in new international economic order through negotiations with industrialized economies (Ubhenin & Edeh, 2014). Even though Tanzania has to take its development role on its own, partnership with industrialized countries is necessary to help in attracting foreign investment, application of science and technology in the industry sector and stimulation of the private sector. Thus, while calling for Tanzania to become a developmental state, this paper proposes the fusion of dependency and neo-liberalism theories to bring a new approach to drive the Tanzanian economy. This alternative approach is evidenced by the South Korean experience: South Korea adhered to and integrated ideas from both the dependency school by employing industrialisation strategies, state intervention and neo-liberalism strategies such as institution reforms, use of innovation and technology in the local industry (Kasahara, 2013; Heywood, 2013; Hansen, 2010). The input from the two schools of thought saw South Korea succeed industrialisation. This experience can also be realised in Tanzania. 3.5 Developmental State Kasahara (2013) defines a developmental state as that which facilitates structural transition from a traditional/ agricultural to a modern/industrial society. The developmental state is expected to take the role of restructuring the national economic system for industrial development. In most cases, the facilitation of growth is influenced by accumulation of agricultural surplus that can be invested for the development of an industrial society. This thinking is related to the Lewis (1954) argument of modernization based on unlimited supply of surplus labour from the non-productive agricultural sector. Mkandawire (2001), on the other hand, defines a developmental state as an ideologystructure nexus. As an ideology, the developmental state is principally one whose ideology underpins ‘developmentalism’ because it conceives its objective as that of ensuring economic development, usually understood to mean high rates of accumulation and industrialisation. Castells (1992) in Mkandawire (2001) and Mkandawire (2001) in Hofisi (2013) maintain that such a state establishes, as its principle of legitimacy, its ability to promote sustained development, understanding by development the steady high rates of economic growth and structural change in the productive system, both domestically and in its relationship to the international economy. The developmental state emphasises capacity to implement economic policies ‘sagaciously’ and effectively. Such capacity is determined by various factors including institutional, technical, administrative and political (Mkandawire, 2001). Undergirding all these is the autonomy of the state from social forces so that it can use these capacities to devise long-term economic policies unencumbered by the claims of myopic private interests; it is usually assumed that such a state should be a ‘strong state’ in contrast to what Gunnar Myrdal (1968) referred to as the ‘soft state’ that had neither the administrative capacity nor the political will to push through its developmental project. Finally, the state must have some social anchoring that prevents it from using its autonomy in a predatory manner and enables it to gain adhesion of key social actors (Kasahara, 2013; Mkandawire, 2001). On the state and development in Africa, there are a number of opposing discussions. One outstanding feature in those discussions is the disjuncture between an analytic tradition insisting on the impossibility of developmental states in Africa and a prescription literature presupposing their -29-
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existence. The analytical tradition which argues for the impossibility of developmental states in Africa is mainly based on a number of reasons including: (i) dependence, (ii) lack of ideology, (iii) softness of the African states, (iv) lack of technical and analytical capacity, (v) past poor performance, and (vi) mismatch between international and local policies (Mkandawire, 2001). Prescription literature believes in the possibility of developmental states in the continent (Ibid). While it is true that African states are the least developed states in the world, the analytic traditional view on Africa’s impossibility of developmental states is wrongly informed. We discuss some of the misinformation about the continent briefly, as our area of focus in this paper is mainly on Tanzania. Much of the impossibility literature is based on misunderstanding of the economic history of Africa. The Berge report presented a brief history of Africa’s post-colonial development and the state’s role in that development. It described both post-colonial policy and performance as absolute and indistinguishable tragedies (World Bank, 1981). While there were some facts in the report, to a large extent, the report falsified economic performance in the continent. Additionally, the report underestimated the importance of the global influence on Africa; when the world market performs well, African states do well too and vice versa. Moreover, some of the policies followed by African states were formulated by respectable world international institutions, thus making them responsible in bad economic policies, which lead to failure in the continent, but the report saddles all blame on Africa (Hofisi, 2013; Mkandawire, 2001). Furthermore, despite a number of challenges in their economic policies, up until the second "oil" crisis in the late 1970s, some African states had performed comparatively well. Evidence reveals that some countries such as Kenya, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Malawi had growth rates of more than 6 percent for more than ten years, and this growth was mainly based on agricultural and industrial expansion. An interesting feature here is that much of this growth was sustained principally by local savings. The rates of savings and investments compared relatively well with those of East Asian states, though African savings and investments tended to produce lower growth rates. The states played a central role in the whole planning process and some states such as Ivory Coast and Tanzania were highly interventionist and “dirigiste” with the state taking the development role in the agricultural export activities through state enterprises. Therefore, this proves that Africa has had states whose ideology was clearly “developmentalist” and that they pursued policies that produced fairly high growth rates in the postcolonial era and attained significant social gains and accumulation of human capital. Moreover, some governments extended infrastructure and social services to degrees never thought of under colonial regimes. In addition, many African states were able to maintain peace and security in their countries. Thus, we realise that “developmental states” are not entirely something new in Africa (Mkandawire, 2001; Sandbrook, 1995). In response to the impossibility of the developmental states in Africa, Mkandawire (2001) argues that Africa has had, even though they were less successful, and can have successful developmental states today. He maintains that the arguments for the impossibility of developmental states in Africa are “not firmly founded either in African historical experiences or in the trajectories of the more successful developmental states” (Mkandawire, 2001 in Hofisi, 2013), hence the call for a developmental orientation of Africa and Tanzania, in particular, which empowers the state to formulate policies and (and more significantly) execute them efficiently and effectively for the transformation of all people’s aspects of life in the country. Mkandawire’s argument sought to respond to critiques, who in the 1980s and 1990s, argued that African States couldn’t become developmental states as did the East Asian states because of weaknesses in African states cultural background, lack of ideology, softness of the African states, lack of technical and analytical capacity, structural reasons and the dependence of rent seeking. This argument serves to substantiate the proposition of an alternative development model to address poverty reduction successfully.
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4.0 DISCUSSION 4.1 Tanzania and the Developmental State When Tanzania became independent in 1961, it inherited a colonial market economy. The country’s economy was performing relatively well, but the benefits of the economy were felt by a small group of individuals, mainly English and Asian businesses who had the major share of the economy. This market economy was a capitalist model whereby major means of economic production were in the private sector. Subsequently, the Tanzanian government did not have the authority to intervene even when market forces failed, yet the state wanted all citizens to experience economic benefits in a newly independent state (Ngowi, 2009). When it became clearer to the state that it was not possible to realise its development agenda of poverty reduction and bringing equality amongst the people through the same market economy, Ujamaa - a state-led socio, political-economic ideology - was seen as the right strategy to drive the government development agenda (Cornelli, 2012; Kaiser, 1996 in Ngowi 2009). Under the Ujamaa strategy, the state became responsible in all economic affairs; it became a real developmental state as argued by Mkandawire (2001) when it became a “dirigiste economy”, planned and “governed the markets” for the purpose of effective accumulation for industrialisation. At this stage, the state became the defender of public order and public property rights responsible of social and physical infrastructure and macro-economic executive. The state also assumed the roles of economic planning, regulator and to some extent, entrepreneurship, and the private sector disappeared (Sandbrook, 1995). The scenario in the Ujamaa era had some similarities to what was happening in the 1960s and 1970s in the interventionist policies in the Republic of Korea. However, the Korean developmental state differed from the Tanzanian “developmental state” as Korea’s economic policies relied profoundly on very close consultations between the state and business leaders and very large diversified corporate multinationals (Kasahara, 2013). Since the Tanzanian developmental state under Ujamaa strategy appropriated all the economy and major means of production, and consequently, the private sector disappeared. It was not possible to have alternative economic ideas from business leaders in the country. Therefore, the state failed to realise its development agenda, contrary to what happened in the republic of Korea (Tanzania Human Development Report, 2014; Edwards, 2012; Nord et al., 2009; Todaro & Smith 2009). The failure of Ujamaa as an economic policy led to economic and structural reformation starting in the mid-1980s following fierce pressure from the donor community and the Bretton woods institutions; thus, Tanzania returned to the market economy which is a neo-liberal approach driven by market forces (Wangwe et al., 2014; Edwards, 2012; Nord et al 2009). When African states became independent in early 1960s, Dumont (1966) in Sandbrook (1995) argued that it would have taken two decades for sub-Sahara Africa to kick out poverty completely; however, as argued by Sandbrook (1995), by 1980s, African states were poor or even poorer than they were twenty years earlier. Borrowing the same argument from Dumont (1966), two decades on since adoption of neoliberalism in Tanzania, the country has neither become a developmental state nor has it been able to attain its development agenda on poverty reduction. Since independence, Tanzania has experimented both in the state-led economy through Ujamaa (Fouéré, 2014; Edwards, 2012; Nord et al., 2009; Ngowi, 2009; Ibhawoh & Dibua 2003) and the market led economy in this era of neoliberalism for more than two decades (Tanzania Human Development Report, 2014; Edwards, 2012; Nord et al., 2009). However, both perionds have failed to bring real substantial progress. Despite impressive economic growth in recent years of neoliberal economy, poverty continues to trouble many Tanzanians, especially the majority of those who live in the rural areas (Tanzania Human Development Report, 2014; Wuyts & Kilama, 2014; Martins, 2013; Mashindano et al., 2013; Mkenda, Luvanda, & Ruhinduka 2010; Policy Forum & Twaweza 2009). At this juncture, it is necessary to rethink a new approach for development. This paper proposes for a unification of dependency and neoliberal thoughts by adopting the Republic of Korea’s development approach which enabled the republic of Korea become a developmental state and thus industrialized. -31-
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Tanzania can become a developmental state and attain its development agenda by merging the two experiences it has had of state driven and market-led economy. During Ujamaa period in 1967- 985, Tanzania adapted the developmental state trajectory as its pathway to development (Kieh-Klay, 2015; Sandbrook, 1995). Therefore, developmental state is not a new concept to Tanzania. The question, however, is why did the developmental state in the country fail? A number of factors, both internal and external, forced Tanzania to abandon the developmental state (Kieh-klay, 2015). Some of the factors included: lack of a vibrant private sector, failure of attracting FDIs, use of obsolete technologies in the industries, and poor economic polies, such as too much state economic intervention (Tanzania Human Development Report, 2014; Ubhenin & Edeh, 2014; Leys, 1996; Sandbrook, 1995). This paper proposes developmental state as the appropriate model to attain successfully the country’s development agenda and poverty reduction. Tanzania has already experienced the developmental state model. Therefore when it addresses the factors that made it fail to realise its objectives in the first place, it can strive to achieve its plans successfully this time. Moreover, the country has experienced both state-led economy under the influence of dependency school of thought and the open market economy under the influence of neo-liberal policies. Both schools have their strengths and weaknesses. These factors have influenced the country’s economy accordingly. The paper proposes that Tanzania builds its developmental state model based on the strengths found in the two schools of thoughts. In order for Tanzania to become a successful developmental state, there should be a guiding theory. When Tanzania became a developmental state in the period after independence especially from 1967-1985, it was informed by the dependence school. Whereas since mid-1980s to date, it does not have a distinct development model and is being informed by the neo-liberal school. , The paper commends the use of combination of revised dependency and neo-liberal schools. The dependence school calls for revolution and socialism for an economy to industrialise (Siddle & Swindell, 1990). Tanzania employed the dependence ideas through Ujamaa for about twenty years; there were both successes and failures.. Socialism in this combination refers to the state that takes the leading role in its economic growth and development, however, without nationalising the major means of production. Economic development will ensure poverty alleviation and thus attain the country’s development agenda. By revolution in this aspect, we refer to the change of a developmental model from the current status of no specific development model to a democratic developmental state. The neo-liberal school of thoughts calls for strong reformed institutions, free market and vibrant private sector for an economy to industrialise. Tanzania’s economy has, for about thirty years, been informed by neo-liberalism which promoted economic growth. However, neo-liberalism has failed to reduce poverty significantly, especially among the majority rural people because the growth was neither pro-poor nor inclusive (Kessy et al., 2013; Mashindano et al., 2011). Moreover, neo-liberalism operated in an époque where there was no development model in the country. Therefore, in order for economic growth to be inclusive and pro-poor for poverty reduction and attaining the country’s development agenda, this paper proposes that Tanzania becomes a developmental state while governed by the amalgamation of revised dependency and neo-liberal schools of thought. This model should shift the attention from economic growth, which has failed to reduce poverty significantly, to economic development which adopts new technologies, transiting from an agriculture-based to industry-based economy that improves the standard of living and economic health of a population. Kieh-Klay (2015) proposes that African countries become developmental states by adhering to important factors that would enable African states become developmental. They include: the type of state – in this case a democratic developmental state; these factors are the same as those that the paper argues for and calls upon Tanzania to embrace these conditions for a successful developmental state. The factors in the discussion are the same ones in different vocabularies that Kasahara (2013) argued for when explaining the success of South Korea as a developmental state. -32-
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However, Kieh-Klay (2015) adds the aspect of democracy as a factor for development; this is a new factor which adds value to a developmental state and argues for democratic ones contrary to South Korea which was authoritarian but became successful; this is different from Tanzania which was somewhat authoritarian but failed to succeed. When Tanzania adapts and adopts these factors, then it will be possible for the country to become a successful developmental state this time and thus meet the country’s developmental goals and poverty reduction. Tanzania has favourable conditions of becoming a developmental state as the Republic of Korea did because it has some crucial factors and can continue to improve the necessary conditions for becoming a developmental state as long as the political will is there. In East Asia, in general, and in the Republic of Korea in particular, the factors that facilitated the project included good macro-economic management and stability, a competent bureaucracy, interdependence between the public and private sectors, publicly controlled financing for development and industrial policy in a much wider sense (Kasahara, 2013). The factors are summarized into two main categories: competent bureaucracy and embedded economy. Competent bureaucracy: Amsden (1989) in Kasahara (2013) argues that competent bureaucracy was one of the necessary factors that made it possible for the developmental state in the Republic of Korea. The country created a pilot agency that was staffed with the country’s finest workforce that was given the task of directing the course of the country’s development. The pilot agency was empowered with authority to keep on employing outstanding personnel and utilised policy tools to facilitate their work competently. Consequently, the Republic of Korea was able to develop the greatest state capacity both to formulate the right development policies and to execute them efficiently (Kasahara, 2013). Embedded autonomy: A competent bureaucracy should be able to maintain an effective relationship with the domestic private sector, specifically on the direction and funding in the industrial sector. Evans (1995) in Kasahara (2013) coined the slogan “embedded autonomy” to explain the ideal relationship between the developmental state and the local business sector. It was argued that a successful developmental state needs to be sufficiently embedded in society so as to attain its development agenda by acting through “social infrastructure”, but the state should not be too close to the business class to the point of being influenced by particular interests of the private sector and forget its major objective of the development agenda (Kasahara, 2013; Mkandawire, 2001). Tanzania has necessary conditions for becoming a developmental state and thus attaining its development agenda. The government of Tanzania (2005) acknowledges the importance of the private sector as a key development partner; the government advocates for public, private partnership in the country; this is a good avenue for consultation between the state and the business leaders. Moreover, the country has a strong political will and commitment to continue implementing necessary policy changes and institutional reforms across priority sectors so as to meet the development agenda (USAID, 2014). The political will can facilitate the formulation of the right policies and implement them similarly to the Korean model. Tanzania continues to be a peaceful state - a condition necessary to attract FDI, multinational companies and absorption of technology and innovation for development, which is more attainable in developing countries like Tanzania (Kraemer-Mbula & Wamae, 2010). 5.0 CONCLUSION This paper has discussed the development theories that have applied in the country during the course of over five decades in the pursuit of development and alleviation of poverty amongst the population. In the paper, the study has proposed and discussed a new development approach that the country can adopt to realise development and accelerate efforts on poverty reduction. Through the theoretical literature review, findings revealed that Tanzania was one of the pioneers of the developmental state in Africa. Tanzania became a developmental state during the époque of the state-led economy under the influence of dependency theory, through Ujamaa. However, due to some domestic and -33-
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international factors, Tanzania abandoned that pathway to development, and moved on to attaining its development agenda without a specific development model while following features of both dependency and neo-liberal policies. Findings from the reviewed literature have revealed that both dependency and neo-liberal policies had limited success in achieving the country’s development agenda and poverty reduction at different eras. The paper proposes that Tanzania becomes a developmental state and shifts the attention from economic growth to economic development.
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Ibhawoh, B. & Dibua, I.J. (2003). Deconstructing Ujamaa: The legacy of Julius Nyerere in the quest for Social and Economic Development in Africa. African Journal of Political Science, 8(1). Kaiser, P.J. (1996). Structural Adjustment and the Fragile Nation: The demise of social Unity in Tanzania, Journal of Modern African Studies 34(2): 227-237. Kasahara, S. (2013). The Asian Developmental State and the Flying Geese Paradigm. United Nations, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Discussion Papers No.213. Kieh-Klay, G. (2015). Constructing the Social democratic developmental state in Africa: lessons from the Global South. Journal of the Global South: a Springer Open Journal. Accessed on 31st May 2017 at https://bandungjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40728-014-0004-4 Kraemer-Mbula, E. & Wamae, W. (2010). The Relevance of Innovation Systems to Developing Countries,’ in Innovation and the Development Agenda, eds Kraemer-Mbula, E & Wamae, W. OECD/IDRC: OECD Publications. Krueger, A. (1990). Government Failures in Development. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4(3). 9-23. Lewis, A.W. (1954). Economic Development with unlimited Supplies of Labour. The Manchester School, 22 (2):139-191. Leys, C. (1996). The rise and fall of Development Theory. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers. (general reference) Martins, P. (2013). Growth, Employment and Poverty in Africa: Tales of Lions and Cheetahs. Overseas Development Institute: Background paper for the World Development Report. Mashindano, O., Kayunze, K., Corta, L & Maro, F. (2013). Growth Without Poverty Reduction in Tanzania—Reasons for the Mismatch’ in Kessy et al. Translating Growth into Poverty Reduction: Beyond the Numbers, Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota. Mashindano, O., Kayunze,K., Maro, F., Corta, L. & Shepherd, A. (2013). Agricultural Growth and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania-Emerging Issues and Major Recommendations’ in Kessy et al. 2013, Translating Growth into Poverty Reduction: Beyond the Numbers, Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota. Mashindano, O. & Maro, F. (2011). Growth without poverty reduction in Tanzania: Reasons for the Mismatch’, Working Paper No.207, Chronic Poverty Research Centre. Mashindano, O., Kayunze, K., Corta, L. & Maro, F. (2011). ‘Agricultural Growth and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania 2000-2010: Where has Agriculture worked for the poor and what can we learn from this? Working Paper No.208, Chronic Poverty Research Centre. McMillan, M. & Harttgen, K. (2014). What is driving the African growth miracle? National Bureau of Economic Research, Working paper 2007. Mkandawire, T. (2001). Thinking about developmental States in Africa. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 25, 3. Mkenda, A.F., Luvanda, E.G. & Ruhinduka, R. (2010). Growth and distribution in Tanzania: Recent experience and lessons. Dar es Salaaam: Repoa. Msambichaka, L., Luvanda, E., Mashindano, O. & Ruhinduka, R. (2010). Analysis of the Performance of Agriculture Sector and its Contribution to Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction. Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in Tanzania. Msyani, M.C. (2013). Current Status of Energy Sector in Tanzania: Executive exchange on developing an Ancillary Service Market. Washington DC: USEA. Mogalakwe, M. (2006). The use of documentary research Methods in social research. African Sociological Review, 10(1) 221-230. Moreira, B.S. & Crespo, N. (2012). Development Economics from the traditional approaches to the New concepts: New Challenges of Economic and Business Development. Latvia: University of Latvia. Ndulu, B.J. (1994). Tanzania’s economic development: lessons from the experience and challenges for the future, in M, L.A, Msambichaka, H.P.B. Moshi & F.P. Mtafikolo (Eds) Development -35-
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Challenges and strategies for Tanzania: An agenda for the 21stcentury, Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam Press. Ngowi, P.H. (2009). Economic Development and change in Tanzania since independence: The Political leadership factor. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 3(4):259-267. Nord, R., Sobolev, Y., Dunn, D., Hajdenberg, A., Hobdari, N., Maziad, S. & Roudet, S. (2009). Tanzania: The Story of an African Transition. Washington, D.C: International Monetary Fund. Policy Forum & Twaweza. (2009). Growth in Tanzania: is it Reducing Poverty? Accessed on 11th November 2014 at: http://www.twaweza.org/uploads/files/Groth%20in%20Tanzania_Policy%20Forum.pdf Rydenfelt, S. (1986). Lessons from Socialist Tanzania. Retrieved: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/lessons-from-socialist-tanzania On 25 June 2014. Scott, J. (1990). A Matter of Record, Documentary Sources in Social Research. Cambridge: Polity Press. Shephard. A. (2010). Growth and Poverty Reduction Policy implications from qualitativeResearch. Chronic Poverty Research Centre, Policy Brief No 21. Siddle, D. & Swindell, K. (1990). Rural Change in Tropical Africa From Colonies to Nation- tates. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Skinner, G. (2011). The Neoclassical Counterrevolution and Developing Economies: A Case Study of Political and Economic Changes in the Philippines. Social Sciences Journal,7(1): 12. Tanzania Human Development Report. (2014). Economic Transformation for Human Development. Dar es Salaam: Economic and Social Research Foundation. Todaro, M.P. & Smith, S.C. (2009). Economic Development. Boston: Pearson Addison Wesley. Todaro, M.P. & Smith, S.C. (2012). Economic Development (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson Addison Wesley. Ubhenin, O.E. & Edeh, N.J. (2014). Asian Developmental states: Lessons for Africa. Yonetim Bilimleri Dergisi, 12(1):7-42. United Republic of Tanzania. (2012). The Tanzania Five Year Development Plan 2011/12 – 2015/16: Unleashing Tanzania’s Latent Growth Potentials. Dar es Salaam: President’s Office, Planning Commission. United Republic of Tanzania. (2014). Tanzania Human Development Report 2014: Economic Transformation for Human Development. Dar es Salaam: Ministry of Finance. United Republic of Tanzania. (2015). Ministry website on ‘Health service in Tanzania. Accessed on 9th May 2015 at http://www.moh.go.tz/index.php/health-services-in-tanzania USAID. (2014). Country Development Cooperation Strategy October 3, 2014 – October 3, 2019: Tanzania’s Socio-Economic Transformation toward Middle Income Status by 2025 Advanced. Wangwe, S. & Charle, P. (2005). Macro-economic Policy choices for Growth and Poverty Reduction: The Case of Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Economic and Social Research Foundation. World Bank (1981), Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action (Washington, D.C.: World Bank). World Bank. (2013). Tanzania Economic Update, Opening the gates: how the Port of Dar es Salaan can transform. Tanzania: Washington: World Bank. World Bank. (2015). Tanzania Mainland Poverty Assessment. Washington DC: World Bank. World Bank. (2015). Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015: Ending Poverty and Sharing Prosperity. Washington, DC: World Bank. Wuyts, M. & Kilama, B. (2014). The Changing Economy of Tanzania: Patterns of Accumulation and structural change. Dar es Salaam: ESRF and REPOA.
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APPENDIX Table1: Tanzania: Income Poverty and Non-income poverty Indicators 1967-1975 During the time of dependency theory – The Ujamaa period Some Income Poverty Indicators Real GDP Growth (%) Per capital GDP growth (%) Inflation, consumer, prices annual (%) Official Exchange rate (Tsh/US $ -period average) Exports (% of GDP) Imports (% of GDP)
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
4.8 1.7
5.1 2.0
2.3 -0.8
6.0 2.8
3.8 0.6
5.3 2.0
3.5 0.2
2.5 -0.8
5.9 2.7
12.2
15.6
16.4
3.5
4.8
7.6
10.4
19.6
26.1
7.14
7.14
7.14
7.14
7.14
7.14
7.02
7.13
7.37
26.5 26.2
24.2 26.7
24.7 24.4
24.0 28.4
24.1 33.0
24.6 29.8
22.4 29.3
21.3 34.8
18.2 31.0
Populations (millions) 12.4 12.8 13.2 13.6 14.0 Life Expectancy at birth 45.6 45.9 46.3 46.7 47.0 Primary School Enrolment 33.8 35.2 (% gross) Secondary School 2.7 2.7 Enrolment(% gross) Source: Adapted from Edwards, 2012, Table 4 and Table 5
14.5 47.4 37.2
15.0 47.9 40.2
15.5 48.3 43.5
16.0 48.7 53.1
2.7
2.8
3.0
3.1
Some Non-Income Poverty Indicators
Table 1: Tanzania: Income Poverty and Non-Income Poverty Indicators 1976- 1985 During the time of dependency theory - The Ujamaa period Some Income Poverty 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Indicators Real GDP Growth (%) 5.4 0.4 1.2 3.4 3.0 0.5 0.6 2.4 3.4 4.6 Per capital GDP growth 2.2 -2.8 -1.9 0.2 -0.2 -2.7 -2.6 -0.8 0.2 1.4 (%) Inflation, consumer, 6.9 11.6 6.6 12.9 30.2 25.7 28.9 27.1 36.1 33.3 prices annual (%) Official Exchange rate 8.38 8.29 7.71 8.22 8.20 8.28 9.28 11.1 15.3 17.5 (Tsh/US $ -period average) Exports (% of GDP) 21.7 19.5 14.6 14.1 13.2 12.2 8.5 8.0 9.0 6.8 Imports (% of GDP) 23.9 22.8 29.7 26.9 26.3 20.7 17.7 14.1 16.7 16.8 Some Non-Income Poverty Indicators Populations (millions) 16.5 Life Expectancy at birth 49.0 Primary School 63.1 Enrolment (% gross)
17.0 49.4 71.1
17.5 49.7 90.7
18.1 49.9 94.2 -37-
18.7 50.2 95.6
19.3 50.4 97.2
19.9 50.6 93.3
20.5 50.8 91.5
21.1 50.9 86.9
21.8 51.1 76.4
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Secondary School 3.2 3.3 3.3 3.4 3.3 Enrolment(% gross) Source: Adapted from Edwards, 2012, Table 5 and Table 6
3.1
3.0
3.1
3.1
3.3
Figure 1: Annual real growth rates of Gross Domestic Product 1998 -2010 This was during the neo-liberalism period (Growth increased without significant poverty reduction)
Growth rate 9 8 7 7.2
6
6.9
7.4 6.7
6
5 4 3
7.8
4.8
7.1
7.4
7 6
4.9
4.1
2 1 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 S ource: adapted from Mashindano & Maro (2011) Figure 1.
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The Inequities in Health Shaped by Political Forces: A Critical View Dionéia Motta Monte-Serrat, Russell Kabir, and S.M. Yasir Arafat About the author(s) Dionéia Motta Monte-Serrat is a Collaborating researcher at IEL-UNICAMP. Doctoral degree in Psychology, FFCLRP-USP. Doctoral degree program partly completed at Université Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle (2010, CAPES-BEX). Internship at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (2012, FAPESP). Lawyer and faculty member (Assistant Professor in the Undergraduate Law Program) at RibeirãoPreto University (UNAERP) since 2013. Professor in the Master's Program in Health and Education at University of Ribeirão Preto (UNAERP) since February 6th, 2017. For correspondence: E-mail di_motta61@yahoo.com.br Russell Kabir is Senior Lecturer in Research Methods, Department for Allied and Public Health, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK. Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Perceptions in Public Health. Email: russellkabir@live.co.uk ,russell.kabir@anglia.ac.uk S.M. Yasir Arafat is Resident, Department of Psychiatry, Level 11, Block-D, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Shahbagh, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. MD in Psychiatry at BSM Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Editor-in-Chief- International Journal of Perceptions in Public Health; Editorial Member - International Journal of Psychiatry, EC Psychology and Psychiatry, South East Asia Journal of Medical Sciences; Scientific Advisory Member-Journal of Behavioral Health; Adjunct Faculty at MPH Program, ASA University Bangladesh. Email: arafatdmc62@gmail.com
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to analyze critically how the State Power is formed and influences health. We use Discourse Analysis Theory to analyze, in discursive materiality (laws, regulations, determinations) as indications of the ideological effects that prevent citizens from perceiving the fact stated in the WHO report (2008). That report places the State in a paradoxical situation: as responsible for changes in the social determinants of health and, at the same time, as the main cause of health inequities. Ten years after WHO report on this subject was still being produced as a letter of intent on the demand for new ways of thinking and acting on health. How can this happen: the State itself is one of the main causes of health inequities and seems to be another political institution being challenged? In analyzing the topic of “health inequities”, we can shed some light on the effects of meaning generated by this ambiguity: the category of a legal subject is subjected and its action of challenging the unfair distribution of social resources must necessarily take place according to the laws, within the limits set by the State itself. The appearance of an “object of choice” is in reality located within limits, leading subjects to misery. How to get around the inequities in health brought by the State? We believe that the way out lies in the construction of such social conditions to promote solidarity. It is in this context that health promotion becomes an end in itself and legitimates actions in health that overcome inequalities. Key words: Health; Inequities; Political Forces; Discourse Analysis CITATION: Monte-Serrat, D.M., Kabir, R. and Arafat, Yasir, S.M. (2017). “The Inequities in Health Shaped by Political Forces: A Critical View.” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 39–47. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371. -39-
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1.0 INTRODUCTION WHO (2008) establishes that there are inequities in health, avoidable health inequalities, which “arise because of the circumstances in which people grow, live, work, and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness”. It also establishes that the conditions in which people live and die are shaped by political, social, and economic forces. The mentioned report was promoted by World Health Organization (WHO, 2008) through the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), titled “Closing the gap in a generation”. Its conclusion is that “social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death”. Although inequity in power interacts, according to WHO, in four main dimensions: political, economic, social and cultural, we focus our attention on the role that the State plays as one of the major causes of inequity in health: “poor and unequal living conditions are the consequence of poor social policies and programs, unfair economic arrangements, and bad politics” (WHO, CSDH, 2008). The Commission on Social Determinants of Health indicates a better distribution of power within society as a solution in the following cases takes as example: “[…] Urban planning […] that produces sprawling neighbourhoods with little affordable housing, few local amenities, and irregular unaffordable public transport does little to promote good health for all (NHF, 2007) […] trade policy that actively encourages the unfettered production, trade and consumption of foods high in fats and sugars to the detriment of fruit and vegetable production is contradictory to health policy, which recommends relatively little consumption of highfat, high-sugar foods and increased consumption of fruit and vegetables” (Elinder, 2005). (WHO, 2008, p. 10). We will critically analyze how the State Power is formed and the political aspects of the protection given by the State to health. These analyses will be made in light of the Discourse Analysis Theory (Pêcheux, 1988) which seeks discursive materiality (laws, regulations, determinations) indications of the ideological effects that prevent citizens from perceiving the following: the fact that the WHO report (WHO, 2008) places the State in a paradoxical situation, that is, places it as responsible for changes in the social determinants of health and, at the same time, as the main cause of health inequities. The term “inequity in health” will also be analyzed under the methodology of the Discourse Analysis Theory in order to understand that the relationship between citizens and the State places the latter in a “supposed” role of achieving Social Well-Being. It is a “supposed” role because if we look at reality, many efforts have been put forward to propose new attitudes towards health since 2008. Texts on the subject were still being produced in 2013. We are in 2017, and there is a letter of intent on the demand for new ways of thinking and acting on health. There has been a discursive functioning hidden in the discourse of outlining strategies over so many years. The efficacy of ideology - related to this discursive functioning and “concealed under the strategy of reference to evidence” (Zizek, 1999, p. 13) -structures our perception of reality in advance, making it “indiscernible from its ‘aestheticized’ image” (Ibid, p. 21). 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Concept of State Before we proceed to the analysis, we need to make some statements about what is the State. Cesar Luiz Pasold (2008), in an article on the “Conception for the Contemporary State”, affirms that the notion of State has not always been the same. For that author, the concept of State is historical and concrete, and it cannot be applied indistinctly for all ages, but only for the period in which the idea and practice of Sovereignty arose. According to Pasold, the Contemporary State is conceived as a -40-
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political institution whose purpose is the Common Good, and it places itself as an “effective instrument at the service of the Social Whole” (op. cit.). Paulo Buss (2000, p. 174) also identifies that Sovereignty when he defines the Contemporary State as a “new conception [...] that (re)establishes the centrality of its public character and its social responsibility, that is, its commitment to public interest and common good”. This State’s sovereign power over citizen’s life makes State interests prevail, whatever one claims that the State promotes well-being. 2.2 Health and the State The topic of international health protection is part of the international protection of human rights, which is the responsibility of the United Nations Organization (UNO), an entity created at the end of World War II which currently comprises 191 of the 193 States of the world. Its purpose is to maintain peace, uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms and promote the development of countries on a world scale. Human rights are protected in a comprehensive way, - including economic, social and cultural rights - and they are intended to protect the human being, not the State, by means of instruments, such as treaties and resolutions, applied both at global (UNO) and regional (States) levels (Batista, 2008). Regarding the application of human rights, Batista (2008) affirms that there is interaction between international law and domestic law, and “primacy is always given to the norm that best protects human rights”. In order for international standards to be met, it is necessary for the States that have adopted them to undertake foreign and domestic policies so as to comply with what has been agreed upon (Batista, 2008). In the interest of protecting human rights, States should report to UNO on the measures they have taken will be forwarded to the Economic and Social Council and specialized agencies so that they can draw up appropriate recommendations, to help solve problems and make decisions. With regard to health, the specialized agency to carry out this task within the United Nations is the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO was established in 1946, when it was necessary to fight epidemics internationally, since domestic measures were insufficient (Batista, 2008). Over the years the tasks became more complex and, in 1986, WHO produced the “Ottawa Charter”, which became a reference for health promotion by innovating with the idea of community participation in actions aimed at improving quality of life and health. “The concept of health as well-being transcends the idea of healthy forms of life; health promotion transcends the health sector [...] the conditions and requirements for health are: peace, education, housing, food, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice and equity” (Buss, 2000, p.170). According to WHO, health is conceptualized as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (Batista, 2008). This organization has the task of promoting debate on health as well as the purpose of implementing, in the various States of the international community, Commissions on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), composed of representatives of the most diverse sectors of society in order to “gather scientific knowledge and evidence, make a diagnosis of the main problems and define recommendations for coping with the situation” (Jornal da Ciência, 2008). Both WHO, at the international level, and CSDH, at the national level, play the role of giving general policy guidance related to the social determinants of health (SDH). 2.3 Health and the Law Under the focus of health and based on human rights, we see the State as the formulator of its supreme law, the Constitution, which outlines the fundamental guarantees of citizens. When the law deals with human rights, it discusses guarantees for life, freedom and social life, in the pursuit of happiness. -41-
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Such human rights have not always existed. They began to be discussed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in order to ensure the rights and freedoms of individuals against the despotism of the state (Dirhum, 2008). Social rights, in turn, date back to the twentieth century and constitute guarantees for paid work and social assistance, which later evolved into universal health care (Idem). Rights and freedoms arose as limitations to the State’s power over the individual and his private life, as they resulted from social movements which, in the mid-nineteenth century, aimed at protecting workers. An individual’s rights may be civil, political or social, depending on the institution that administers them. Social rights include the services rendered by the State to the individual in order to provide him with well-being, including the rights of education, work and health. The right to health is given a special category because its holders are not individuals, but the people, the family, the nation or regional groups (Dirhum, 2008). Social rights gained from the “Constitution of the World Health Organization in 1946 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1976” (Dirhum, 2008); and its strengthening took place in the twentieth century because, with the tendency to equalize individuals, they conflicted with the capitalist system of social classes, which was responsible for the growth of social differences (Dirhum, 2008). Once recognized, human and social rights began to be realized through public policies and State benefits in relation to the individual, both to recognize special rights for patients and to prevent health problems (Dirhum, 2008). According to Buss (2000, p. 171), the discourse of health promotion blends with the idea of public sector accountability, “not only for the social policies that it formulates and implements (or for the consequences when it fails to do so), but also for economic policies and their impact on the health situation and the health system”. According to the WHO’s final report, “Closing the gap in a generation” - organized by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, (see WHO, 2008) - it is the State’s responsibility to promote health and guarantee its necessary conditions. However, such guarantees, which have a constitutional nature and are recognized by governmental entities, suffer limitations, since, in addition to the need for economic resources that are presently scarce, they require a limit of equilibrium between individual rights and freedoms (which implies in the State’s not intervening in people’s private lives), on the one hand, and social rights (which lead to State’s intervention in individuals’ private lives), on the other (Dirhum, 2008). There is also difficulty in making them effective, thus preventing health inequities from occurring. Although, for example, “women with no education are likely to suffer more from domestic violence than who have some education or higher education” (Ferdous et al., 2017), how the State could intervene in the private life of citizens? “Health, once recognized and proclaimed as the fundamental right of the human being, makes it possible, at the same time, to recognize the existence of duties and responsibilities of governments and the society in general [...] This implies, therefore, the State’s obligation to establish a legal order such that the enjoyment and exercise of these rights are fully guaranteed [...]” (Dirhum, 2008). The law imposes limits to the State’s action regarding health: public policies are designed and outlined by law. Therefore, a policy is public only if it meets the requirements of the law (Dirhum, 2008). 2.4 Inequalities, Inequities and Determinants in Health The concepts of “inequality”, “inequity” and “determinants” are of crucial importance in the work performed by WHO and the National Commission on Social Determinants (CSDH). Inequalities, according to the World Health Organization report “Closing the gap in a generation” (WHO, 2008), are systematic differences in the health situation of population groups. Inequities are health -42-
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inequalities which, in addition to being systematic and relevant, are avoidable, unjust and unnecessary (Buss, 2008, CNDSS). The social determinants of health (SDH) are perceived, according to Buss (op. cit.), in the comparison of differences or inequalities in the health status among individuals or between groups. The health of a group of young people, for example, differs from the health of a group of elderly persons due to inequalities caused by diseases that are typical for the age of members belonging to each of these groups. This situation is regarded as “natural” and results from inequalities arising from the social conditions in which such people live. These conditions arising from social inequalities are referred to by WHO (2008) as the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) and, unlike the “natural” inequalities, they are unjust and unacceptable and, therefore, called “inequities”. An example of inequity in health is the greater likelihood of a child’s dying before reaching the first year of life simply because this child was born in one region of the country and not in another or because his/her mother did not attend school. The relationship between SDH and their effects is complex, and it cannot be regarded only as a cause-effect relationship. The Social Determinants of Health (SDH) include cultural, environmental and socioeconomic conditions, as well as human conditions of life and work, such as sanitation, housing, health services, work environment and education. It is “the social, economic, cultural, ethnic or racial, psychological and behavioral factors that influence the health standards of individuals” (Jornal da Ciência, 2008). If a group in society is excluded from a benefit that should be available to all, according to the Constitution, that will reflect on the determinants of the health standards of such group. Modifying this situation, which imposes differences of treatment among individuals, and interfering directly in these SDH imply assessing and exercising influence on State policies and programs. The necessary political support to that end will only be achieved if society is aware of the serious problem that health inequities The WHO report, “Closing the gap generation” (2008), states that the national government should strengthen the political and legal systems to ensure that they will promote the equal inclusion of all in the political process in order to strengthen health initiatives oriented towards equality in health. WHO also points out the importance of social movements as to the fact that they should have space for challenging and questioning. It concludes by stating that a society that is concerned about better and fairer distribution of health is one that challenges power relations through participation, thus ensuring that all voices are heard and respected in the decision-making process related to health equity. (WHO, 2008, Chapter 14). 2.5 The juridical discourse on health The State legislates on health. The fact that the legal discourse takes place in the juridical body, for enforcement purpose, implies notions of obligation, of the imperative of the law, which will influence the materiality of language and the origin of the subjects’ enunciation. Law, as a science that is said to be “neutral”, erases the historical origins of its impositions. In this article, we seek to understand how the “neutrality” of Law emerged, going beyond the idea of transparency and legal idealism. Thus, we understand Law as a mode of reproduction of a social functioning that reproduces the State, and which, at the same time, wants to be seen as detached from social phenomena. Michel Pêcheux (1988) states that social phenomena are not explained politically or ideologically, but have a structural causality. Pêcheux proposes a materialist theory of discursive processes, in which he approaches the concept of “subject evidence” to the concept of “evidence of meaning” by stating that the unconscious and ideology have the common characteristic of concealing their very existence within their own functioning (Pêcheux, op . cit., p. 153) and that there is a play of ideological effects in every discourse: ideology, concealed by “use” and “custom”, determines “what is” and “what must be” and the legal subject is constituted under such evidence (ibid, p. 160). Thus, “the law progressively takes the lead, ensuring other more insidious forms of closure that will paradoxically pass through the apparent autonomization of the subject” (Haroche, 1992, p. -43-
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70-71). Such “autonomization” takes place by means of a new form of subjection. Ideology, which is present in language in an insidious way, leads to an ‘internal’ subjection of individuals, who are gradually constituted into “free legal subjects” (Haroche 1992, p. 71, emphasis added). It is in this discursive functioning which Haroche claims that the “juridical subject of linguistics” exists, in whom there is an “interiorization of the subject’s dependence [...] on the ideology of power”. The term “subject” is taken according to the conceptualization given to it Althusser (1976, p. 121), with the following ambivalence of meaning:1)free subjectivity: a center of initiatives, the author is responsible his actions; 2) a subjected being, submitted to a higher authority, therefore, devoid of all freedom, except that of freely accepting his submission [..] it is no longer a situation of understanding or questioning, but only of understanding to submit oneself (Haroche, 1992, p. 84, emphasis added). Haroche explains that the specificity of juridical language is what guarantees the power of the State: “By establishing jurisdictions, laws and regulations, the real power develops the power of the State apparatus: it cannot, on pain of renouncing such establishment, vulgarize the meanings of juridical language, which is in fact its best guarantee” (Haroche, 1992, p. 87). Wam (1980) states that the subject theory cuts across the divisions of human and social sciences, ranging from the metaphysical to the linguistic, and takes part in a basic problem relates to the description and conception of the meaning of enunciations and discourses to state that “The legal discourse is one of those linguistic forms that express ‘ideology’, hiding the enunciating subject, but allowing, for that very reason, for him to subsist and retain his dominant ideology” (Edelman, 1980, p. 15). Such subject is constituted for the Law, in the legal subject category. Althusser ([1970]1974, p. 29) adopts the thesis that ideology interpellates individuals into subjects. He also takes the idea that the term “subject” arises with the advent of bourgeois ideology and, above all, of juridical ideology (the one who adopts the legal category of a legal subject to make it into an ideological notion: man is by nature a subject) (Edelman, 1980, p. 20). Edelman (1980, p. 21) cites Althusser to state that the subject category is constitutive of all ideology. According to the theory of Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 1988), there is an identification of the subject with a dominant discursive formation which unconsciously subjects it. Discursive formation (DF), within Pecheutian Discourse Analysis, is a set of enunciations with similar formation rules which determines what can and what must be said in a historically determined social place. It will be under this perspective that we will approach the inequities in health. There is, according to Haroche (1992, p. 20, emphasis added), a “passivity of the subject” before the institutions: “the power, the State and the law coerce the subject, insinuate themselves in him discreetly”; there is “a form of power that classifies individuals into categories, identifies them, binds them, imprisons them in their identity”. It is important to stress that the active participation of citizens in coping with inequities in health, WHO (2008, chapter 14) points to the right to a legal identity which is essential in this process, because people cannot claim their rights - access to education, social well-being, health care, civic participation and security - without a legalized identity. According to the theory of discourse (AD, Pêcheux, 1988), the subject is not “born” and does not “develop”, but he is constituted, and such constitution, which also includes the constitution of the subject of the unconscious, is articulated to the social plane, where there is the apparent autonomization of the subject, a “‘freely consented self-repression’ that is induced by the State in the individual” (1992, p. 26, footnote). The notion of State, according to Filomeno's lesson (2006, p. 11), includes: “a territory, a population and the law, to which power is necessarily coupled”. The simple sum of the individuals who inhabit a certain territory does not correspond to the notion of State; there is something else that makes its unity possible: -44-
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“Old customs would not suffice to define rights and duties in a society such as this, with its high standard of living, its unequal distribution of wealth, and the vast field that it offered to the fight for personal interests; new measures of social control would become necessary, measures that could hardly be put into practice by any means other than the institution of a government with sovereign authority and submission to that government; in other words, by the creation of a State” (Burns, 1959, p. 23, In Filomeno, op. cit., p. 9). State and legal subject are interdependent concepts, therefore: the word subject means “submitted to sovereign authority”, “which is subordinate” to the State (Haroche, 1992, p. 158). 3.0 DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS 3.1 Discursive Analysis of Inequities in Health The concept of inequity in health, as discussed in the WHO report “Closing the gap in a generation” (WHO, 2008), is explained in Part 1.0 above. Chapter 14 of the abovementioned report points to the State as the main cause of inequities in health. It so happens that Chapter 10 of the same report contains recommendations for the implementation of equity in health, and places the same State as responsible for it. We found the coexistence of such paradoxical relationship between public policies and health strange, as it generates harm instead of benefits; that is, it created “morbid social environments that produce sociopathies and psychopathies” (Buss, 2000, p. 173). Within the concept of legal discourse (Pêcheux, 1988), we can “apprehend the paradoxical nature of these complex realities”, the contradictory and paradoxical effects of the evidence of inequities in health, since there is the “invisible”, the “absence” of a power working on “the relations of domination/resistance. We believe that such “invisible” power is inscribed in the linguistic forms of the juridical discourse in the literate discourse (Zoppi-Fontana, 2005, p. 55). In its commissions, WHO defines strategies to promote public health (Buss, 2000, p. 172). The juridical discourse on health is, therefore, a technical discourse generated by certain members of society. It has a juridical nature. The WHO report (2008) offers suggestions and the treaty member States adopt these suggestions, which become law in their territories. These laws are not equally intelligible to “all subject”, and they create the need for interpreters (Haroche 1992, p. 84), a role played by a “cultural elite” that uses hermetic language in which the juridical system misapprehends meanings and guarantees the submission of the subject to the laws (Haroche 1992, p. 87). While suggesting strategies for promoting public policies for health, WHO (2008, chapter 14) places the State as a cause of inequities in health and makes suggestions for the solution to this problem by proposing a change in the distribution of power within society and the challenge to the unfair distribution of social resources. Here again, ambiguity seems to be present, a political institution suggesting that another political institution be challenged. There is even a suggestion that the State itself should implement a “new social institutionality” defined as “the set of state agencies charged with the design, coordination, execution and financing of social policies, including health policies” (Buss, 2000, p. 175). How can this happen if the State itself is one of the main causes of health inequities? By discursively analyzing the topic of “health inequities”, we can shed some light on the effects of meaning generated by the ambiguities above. A citizen can only claim for his rights if he has a legal identity conferred by the State, therefore, if he is a legal subject. The legal subject is subjugated; the term “subject” arises with the advent of the bourgeois ideology and of the juridical ideology. The category of a legal subject is ideological; man is, by nature, a subject (Edelman, 1980, p. 20). If the legal subject is subjugated, his action of challenging the unfair distribution of social resources, as suggested by WHO (2008), must necessarily take place according to the laws, within the limits set by the State itself. Thus, there is the appearance of an “object of choice”, but in reality, it is “a subjected-challenge” within the legal limits placed by the law-creating State. Within -45-
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these limits the ideology of law is denied by its practice, showing to be “the illusion of illusion: the belief that there may be a "revolutionary right” (Edelman, 1980, p. 23). Law, within the capitalist mode of production, emerges as the concrete and ideological organization of the circulation and functioning of market categories, “whose names are freedom, equality or will”, and reveals the concrete content of legal humanism: “The exploitation of man by man” (Edelman, 1980, p.21, emphasis added). The idea of the legal subject implies that “in the universe of centralist institutions, there is only one possible discourse and that no one can advance with an open face by having to hold one’s own whishes” (Legendre apud Haroche, 1992, p. 158, emphasis added). Therefore, we ask ourselves how a citizen, as a “legal subject” with a legal identity conferred by the State, can accommodate and subject himself to situations of miserableness in relation to health, financial, housing and education matters. Edelman (1980, p. 26-27) points out a pathway by stating that the loss of identity of the revolutionary class lies in the absorption of the bourgeois juridical and political forms by the proletariat: “The legal discourse is one of those linguistic forms that express ‘ideology’, hiding the enunciating subject, but allowing, for that very reason, for him to subsist and retain his dominant ideology” (Edelman, 1980, p. 15). The legal subject, who is constituted from the State, in its image and likeness (Gaufey, 1998), as the big Other, lives his situation of miserability waiting for the State, so that the latter, with its strategies, will give such subject something that is not exactly what he expects. There is subjugation, but no challenge. Contrarily to the strategies of the State, which tries to reaffirm its actions within productive processes marked by inequality, there are tactics, which consist in a subconscious and constant struggle against institutions (Michel de Certeau,1994). When describing everyday practices, Certeau (1994, p. 45) asserts that the law and culture develop tensions, to which “symbolic equilibria, contracts of compatibility and more or less temporary commitments are provided”, and he adds: “Hence, I prefer to use a distinction between tactics and strategies. I call “strategy” the calculation of the relations of forces that becomes possible from the moment the subject of will and power is isolable from an “environment” [...] Political, economic or scientific nationality has been constructed according to this strategic model [...] Contrarily, I call “tactics” a calculation that cannot count on its own, and, therefore, nor on a boundary that distinguishes the other as a visible totality [...] the tactic depends on time, watching to “capture in flight” possibilities of gain [...] It has to constantly play with events to turn them into “occasions”. Without ceasing, the weak should take advantage of forces that are alien to him” (Certeau, 1994, p. 46-47, emphasis added). 4.0 CONCLUSION The subjection of the legal subject is sterilizing and “places all emphasis on the subject’s structure” (2005, p. 114). It involves a paranoid alienation in which the legal subject submits to conditions that are imposed by the State and lead him to misery. How to get around the inequities in health brought by the State in charge of implanting social well Well-Being? We believe that the way out lies in the suggestion by Certeau (1994, p. 46-47), in the tactic, which does not “count on its own”, which is not a “subjected challenge”, but transforms events into occasions by capturing in flight” the possibilities of gain. The tactics hide behind the mask of conformity. Would solidarity be a tactic to combat State strategies in its “supposed” role of promoting social Well-Being? While the State continues to produce inequities in health, the subjects organize themselves in strategies of solidarity that make such social Well-Being a reality. We believe that the overcoming of inequities in health -46-
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lies in the construction of such social conditions that promote solidarity. It is in this context that health promotion becomes an end in itself and legitimates actions to overcome inequalities.
REFERENCES Althusser, L. (1976). Positions, Éd. Sociales, Paris; p. 121. Althusser, L. (1974). Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d’Etat, Revue La Pensée, n° 151, mai-juin, 1970,trad. Cast. Editorial Laia, Barcelona. Batista,V., A proteção internacional do direito à saúde. Available at<http://scholar.google.com.br/scholar?q=direito+internacional+natureza+juridica+de+decis% C3%B5es+da+OMS&hl=pt-BR&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart>.AccessedonDecember08, 2008. Buss, P. (2000). Promoção da saúde e qualidade de vida, Ciência e Saúde Coletiva, 5 (1); 163-177, Fiocruz. Buss, P. (2008). Comissão Nacional sobre Determinantes Sociais da Saúde (CNDSS). Available at <http://www.crics8.org/agendas/program/public/documents/P3-02--CRICS8-PauloBuss204656.pdf> Accessed on November 29, 2008. Burns, E., História da Civilização Ocidental, Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Globo, 1959, p. 23. Certeau, M., A invenção do cotidiano: 1. Artes de fazer; Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 1994. Dallari, D., Determinantes Sociais da Saúde. Available at <http://www.google.com.br/search?hl=ptBR&q=dalmo+dallari+determinantes+sociais+da+sa%C3%BAde&start=0&sa=N>.Accessed onNovember 29, 2008. Dirhum, A saúde como garantia fundamental e a política pública como seu limite. Available at: http://www.mp.rs.gov.br/dirhum/doutrina/id537.htm Accessed on November29, 2008. Edelman, B., La PracticaIdeologicadelDerecho: elementos para uma teoria marxista del Derecho, trad. Roque CarrionWam, Madrid: Editorial Tecnos, 1980. Elia, L. (2004). O conceito de sujeito, Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Ferdous, N.; Kabir, R., Khan, H. T., & Chowdhury, M. R. K. (2017). Exploring the relationship of Domestic violence on Health Seeking behavior and Empowerment of Women in Pakistan. In Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health, 14(1). Filomeno, J. (2006). Manual de teoria geral do Estado e ciência política, 6ª ed., Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária. Gaufey, G. (1998). El lazo especular. Unestudiotraversero de launidad imaginaria, trad Graciela Leguizamón, Argentina:Edelp SA. Haroche, C., Fazer dizer, querer dizer, São Paulo: Hucitec, 1992. Jornal da Ciência. Availale at http://www.jornaldaciencia.org.br/Detalhe.jsp?id=57293 Accessed on November 29, 2008. Pasold, C., Concepção para o Estado Contemporâneo. Available at http://www.google.com.br/search?hl=ptBR&q=dalmo+dallari+determinantes+sociais+da+sa%C3%BAde&start=40&sa=N.Accessed on November 29, 2008. Pêcheux, M. (1988). Semântica e Discurso: uma crítica à afirmação do óbvio, Campinas: Ed. Unicamp. WHO, Closing the gap in a generation. Available at <http://www.who.int/social_determinants/final_report/en/>. AccessedonDecember10, 2008. Zizek, S. (1999). O espectro da ideologia, In ADORNO, W., Um mapa da ideologia,SlavojZizek (org.), Rios de Janeiro: Contraponto, p. 7-38. Zoppi-Fontana, M. (2005). Objetos Paradoxais e Ideologia, In Estudos da Linguagem, n° 1, Vitória da Conquista, junho 2005, p. 41-59). -47-
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An Extended Meaning of the Concept of “Public Space” A Semiotic Analysis of French “Burqa Affair” Camila Arêas
About the author Camila Arêas, Researcher at Paris II University, Carism (Centre d’analyse et de recherche sur les medias). Address: 5/7, avenue Vavin - 75006 Paris, France. Contact: cc.areas@gmail.com
ABSTRACT This paper examines the national press coverage of French “burqa affair” (2009-2010) from a semiotics approach within communication studies. By using theories of discourse analysis (such as enunciation, argumentation, rhetoric and pragmatic), we propose to observe how the actors that integrate these debates (among journalists, politicians, religious, experts) assignee different meanings to public spaces and places according to their interests, strategies, political projects and dominant discourse in their work or institutional field. While most academic works about French veil affairs focus on the question of Islamic increasing visibility, the aim of this study is to investigate the issue of Islamic spatiality, which remains as a blind spot for the media debate. Motivated by a spatial or geographical problematic of analysis, the objective of this paper is to retrace the discursive process between 2009 and 2010 that lead to the redefinition of the notion of “public space”. More precisely, we intend to observe how the concept of “public space” is conceived, appropriated and re-signified in and by the press coverage of “burqa affair”. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how this press debate legitimated an extended meaning of the concept of “public space”, bringing to light social, political, normative and affective dimensions of contemporary public spaces and places. Keyword: Semiotics, discourse, press, “burqa affair”, public space.
CITATION: Arêas, Camila (2017). “An Extended Meaning of the Concept of ‘Public Space’: A Semiotic Analysis of French ‘Burqa Affair.’” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 48–59. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371.
1.0 INTRODUCTION This paper examines the press coverage of the “burqa affair” in France (2009-2010) from a semiotics approach within communication studies, centred on discourse analysis and focusing on spatial, geographical or “territorial” problems. While most academic works about French veil affairsi focus on the question of Islamic increasing visibility in public sphere, our propose is to investigate the issue of Islamic spatiality, which remains as a blind spot of this public debate. In the aim of filling this academic gap, our approach of analysis consists in observing how the concept of “public space” is appropriated and re-signified in and by the press debate. This discursive process is -48-
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conceived as a symbolical operation and a collective elaboration. We intend to observe how “burqa affair” brings to light some core dimensions of contemporary “public spaces”, such as their social, political, normative and affective qualities. By this procedure, we intend to demonstrate how this press debate legitimated an extended meaning of the concept of “public space”. Some of the questions that constitute our problematic of study are: How do recent media debates about Islamic veils (scarf, niqab, burqa, burkini) visibility at schools (1989-2004), public way (2009-2010), nurseries (2008-2015), enterprises (2013), universities (2013-2015) and beaches (2016) stimulate critical and deep reflections about the meanings and uses of the concept of “public space”? How do these media debates spur on a redefinition of the boundaries between private and public spheres? How do political, juridical and media actors taking part at the press coverage of “burqa affair” participate at the semiotic construction of “public spaces”? How do these actors speak about the spaces that they contribute to configure in and by this press debate? To answer these questions with regards to “burqa affair”, we assert two hypothesis: (1) increasing visibility of Islamic veil in France has less to do with the return of a religiosity pressed down by modern secularism than with a new visibility construction, transformed and empowered by the media; (2) Islamic visibility covers spatial problems not yet explored within academic works. In a previous study, we showed that “burqa affair” and 2010 law determining that “no-one in a public space may wear an outfit intended to hide the face” raised a different problem than the one posed by the “headscarf affair” and 2004 law banning all “signs and dress that conspicuously show the religious affiliation of students”. The spatial problematic inaugurated by the “burqa affair” is unprecedented: it is precisely the first time in modern French history that a ban on religious signs applies outside institutional spaces, such as schools, hospitals, courts and other state public services facilities. Between 2004 and 2010, the geographic perimeter/limit of Islamic veil ban amplifies considerably. The first and the second perimeters/limits cannot be superposed, but rather they complete each other, the latest (public way) enabling to expand the former (public school). As we can see, the study of French veil affairs under a “space” problem gives evidence about a juridical and semiotic transformation concerning the relation to public spaces and places, as well as their meanings and practical values. This paper looks into the press coverage of the “burqa affair” with the objective of retracing the discursive process between 2009 and 2010 that lead to the redefinition of the notion of “public space”. We intend to analyse the concerted, yet polemical, re-signification of the concept of “public space” in the context of press debate whose dispositive favours numerous discursive disputes and rhetorical confrontations. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW The privilege accorded to discourse analysis in this paper engages us in some theoretical considerations. Language, statements, discourses and speeches are at the heart of meaning process at different levels and degrees and constitute central elements of analysis in a semiotic approach of the “burqa affair”. With regards to these notions, we should first stress that we reject a presupposition coming from philosophy of language and considering that thinking or mental categories do not exist out of the language. Instead, we consider a reciprocal presupposition of relations between discourses, perceptions and material reality. Yet, if communication exceeds verbal language, this one is still a privilege way for intelligibly elaborating thoughts. Nevertheless, it is worthy to question: which verbal languages are we talking about? Which notions are used to examine discourses in the materiality of language? 2.1. Statements and discourses First of all, let’s look into the notion of “statement”. Based on Oswald Ducrot (1980, 1984, 1991) linguistic theory, we treat this concept as a unity provided with meaning, feasible by the means of language and having no equivalent to the phrase. We consider that statements differ from phrases in so far as phrases are linguistic constructions out of use that allows us to produce multiple statements according to a variety of contexts and communication situations. Unlike discourses, statements do -49-
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not need a subject of enunciation because enunciation is more like a linguistic event than a speech act. We will then use the notion of statement when we want to highlight the problem of meaning, enunciation and subjectivity inside language. The second key word of this study is “discourse”. Following language specialists Patrick Charaudeau (1992) and Dominique Maingueneau (2002), we use this term to refer to a complete unity of meaning (regrouping one or more phrases), produced by a subject, guided in accordance to intentions and purposes (a form of action over the other), governed by norms (discourse and social laws), caught in inter-discourses and self-developing in a precise time-space that works as a condition of discourses production, circulation and reception. In this paper, we use both notions of discourse and statement, without neglecting that the term of “discourse” is more appropriate to refer to speeches or texts produced by someone under situational constraints. 2.2. Language and discourses With regards to linguist Ferdinand Saussure’s (1972) classical distinction between language (intrinsic linguistic constants) and speech (extrinsic linguistic) – that has been updated within Language, Information and Communication Sciences –, we suggest to overlook this dichotomy in order to conceive that language and discourses are inseparable. Based on Roland Barthes’ semiology studies (1984, 1985) and the philosophical language semiotic theory proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1980), we reject such a distinction between language and speech, and affirm that language is an informative-representative system dependent on social and political practices. By mobilizing these authors, we deny the possibility of disentangling language and discourse in order to consider: (1) the language as a semiotic object in continuous variation, that is, as a practice among others; (2) the language as part of the “real” and not as a representation of it; and (3) the discourses of our corpus as intrinsically presenting some social, political and pragmatic dimensions. 2.3. Discourses’ conditions and stakes To complete this theoretical framework centred on the discourse issue, Michel Foucault’s “The Order of Discourse” (1971) configures the third outline of the theory of this research. The philosopher conceives discourses as some regular and distinct series of events that are dependent on external conditions. Foucault stresses the importance of analysing discourses according to their condition of possibility and eventuality, instead of their source or subject of enunciation. Based on this theoretical framework, we seek, not to unveil a unique and hidden meaning behind them, but to enlighten the stakes, restrictions and conditions that make their enunciation possible and meaningful. As Foucault (1971) describes, our analysis procedure will consist “not to go from discourses to their hidden and interior core, to the heart of a thought or of a meaning that would manifest on it, but from the very discourses, their appearance and regularity, to go towards their extern conditions of possibility, to what create a random series of this events and that set their limits” (p.54). 3.0 DATA & METHODOLOGY The corpus of analysis includes all press articles published in national newspapers Le Monde, Libération, Le Figaro between 16 June 2009 and 14 September 2010. For this data collection, we used the online databases Factiva and Europresse regrouping main newspapers worldwide and employed keyword such as “niqab” “burqa” “tchador” “integral veil” to look for texts covering the “burqa affair”. From a total of 1701 news articles published in that period, we selected 171 of which content responds better to our problem of study, that is developing the issue of spatiality. From this pre-selected corpus, we collected for this paper only the discourses or statements that develops, in a more precise and direct way, some of the main issues of this study. The method of this study is based on a semiotics approach of discourse analysis (enunciation, argumentation, rhetoric and pragmatic) to examine public speeches (mostly political, juridical and journalistic) in “burqa affair” press debate. Under discourse analysis method, we -50-
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propose to examine the social, political, symbolical, enunciate, argumentative and pragmatic dimensions of these public speeches. First of all, concerning the social and symbolical dimensions of discourses, we follow Patrick Charaudeau (1997, 2005) in order to inscribe our discursive scope inside the field of public communication (mostly, media and political). In this field, the meaning of objects – like Islamic veil – is apprehended as a social construction, that is, as the result of discursive disputes concerning the legitimate order and the constitution/dissolution of social groups and political positions. In this paper, we also assume that the type of discourse interaction mediated by press devices contributes to feed symbolic systems, which update and reconfigure the social and political relations of actorsinterlocutors in the media debate. Secondly, with regard to the political dimension of public speeches, we rely on Patrick Charaudeau and Jacques Gerstlé (2008) works with the objective of analysing discourse strategies mobilized in “burqa affair” not as modes of deployment of political action but as actions themselves. Discursive practices and enunciation arrangements are inextricably imbricated to power devices. Thirdly, referring to the enunciation dimension of public discourses, we follow linguists Emile Benveniste (1970, 1974) and Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni (2009) conception of enunciation as a subjectivity stake related to the positioning, the identification and the personal implication of actors. We follow as well Oswald Ducrot (1980, 1984, 1991) linguistic theory sustaining that the enunciation – more precisely, the image or the description of enunciation – constitutes the meaning of discourses in a self-reference way. The idea is that the discourses meanings (the “said”) are influenced by the semantic structure of phrases that gives overall instructions, such as context, target, intentionality and interlocutors’ relations to grasp the enunciation event (the “saying”). In this enunciation perspective, we move from the “said” to the “saying” in order to consider the meaning of enunciation as a kind of representation that the speaker gives of his own enunciation. In what concerns the argumentative dimension of discourses under analysis, we rely on linguists Ruth Amossy (2006) and Oswald Ducrot (1984, 1991) whose works enable to treat argumentation in a linguistic (semantic, meaning) and rhetorical (context, interlocutors relations) sense of the term. The idea is to analyse discourse argumentation in the materiality of language and to consider the chaining of the phrases as an argumentative orientation that informs about the meaning of discourses. Sizeable in the language, argumentation is considerer as a public act. Finally, with regard to the pragmatic dimension of discourses, we lean on linguist Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni (2008) in order to grasp speech acts from a semiotic approach considering the senses they acquire in the “burqa affair” and the communication situation created by the press. As stressed by Kerbrat-Orecchioni, statements can only act by means of a semiotic process that is anterior to any action. Then, the problem is about knowing in which measure we can “modify a state of things X by producing a meaning Y” (p.30). By means of this discursive analysis method, our objective is to observe how actors, who integrate these debates (journalists, politicians, religious, experts) assign different meanings to public spaces and places according to their interests, strategies, political projects and dominant discourse in their work or institutional field. 4.0 FINDINGS & DISCUSSION Having presented this introductory overview, lets bend on the analysis and findings of this study highlighting an unprecedented spatial stake concerning Islamic veil’s visibility in France. Our goal is to analyse the relations and meanings given to public spaces in the media and political discourses of the “burqa affair”. We observe that politicians on the parliamentary scene and the law experts interviewed in the press establish a political-juridical dialogue about the notion of “public space” that highlights the way in which the concept has been thought, appropriated and redefined in this media affair. The lexicometric analysis of all spatial terms used in this public debate sets the following cartography: 176 texts containing the term “public space”, 116 “street”, 75 “territory”, 47 “public -51-
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way” and 29 “public institutions” (See Appendix). In this press coverage, we note that the concept of “public space” appears as an object of discursive controversies among social, political and media actors that dispute over the meaning, the legitimacy, the legality and the applicability of it. While the centrality of the concept of “public space” serves as an evidence of this press debate, it also contrasts with a lack of precision of the notion. This is at the basis of some specific semiotic stakes, such as: the elasticity of the signifier (does this term refers to institutional settlements or to public spaces like square, street, market, beach?), the vagueness of the signified (which can refer to different quality of publics spaces, such as geographical, social, political, normative or affective) and a blurred meaning (at last, where can we situate the boundary between public and private spaces?). This semiotics performance has sustained an extensive interpretation of the concept of “public space”, especially within the political and parliamentary debate covered by the national press. We observe that the semiotic stakes opened a large field for argumentative manoeuvres in favour of prohibitionist discourse. This is precisely the object of study of this paper. 4.1. Redefinition of “public space” within prohibitionist discourse: limits and meanings By the end of 2009, when the government proposed a new law establishing that “no-one in a public space may wear an outfit intended to hide the face”, we stated that numerous actors (politician, journalists, juridical experts) called into question the definition and the precision of some terms of this legal text. How to define the concept of “public space” and which spaces should we include under this category? Public institutions, services, hospitals, universities, transport, street, and public way: up to which limit would it be justifiable and constitutional to apply integral veil ban? Or yet: which place (physical and symbolical) is reserved to Islam inside French society? All these questions coming up from the political and parliamentary debates about the “burqa affair” are central to our study problem. Thus, let’s look into the most emblematic discourses of the prohibitionist camp that shaped the “burqa affair” through the national press. Called by president Nicolas Sarkozy’s imperative question - “one must further clarify the concept of public space, too vague. What to do with a woman dressed in a burqa that circulates on public ways inside a car, which by definition is a private domain?” (Le Parisien, 2010) - the most important political actors following the prohibitionist alignment of the government, expressed their opinions immediately thereafter: - Xavier Darcos (Minister of work, Right wing leading party): “I recommend some caution to those tempted to follow the precedent of the 2004 law banning religious signs in schools because [...] the wearing of the full veil intervenes in an indeterminate space where the expression of opinions, even religious, is a fundamental right. I decline to rule on the university, on transport or on the street because that would be subject to legal controversy. (...) I promote an uncovered face Republic.” (Gabizon, 2009). - Brice Hortefeux (Minister of Interior, Right wing leading party): “I advocate a minimum solution by applying a law that circumscribes the niqab ban to public services (post, prefectures, transport) in order to avoid the risk of unconstitutionality from Constitutional Council and European court of human rights.” (Auffray & Coroller, 2009). -Éric Besson (Minister of Immigration, Right wing leading party): “I promoted the general prohibition of the niqab in all of the public space that is to say, in public services and buildings open to the public, but also in the street. Regarding the risk of legal constraints of a total prohibition, the prohibition should be on the imperative of public order.” (Auffray & Coroller, 2009). - Jean-François Copé, Nicole Ameline, François Baroin and Éric Raoult (Right wing leading party): “It is clear that the burqa has no place in public services and public -52-
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buildings or private places open to the public, such as shops. [...] Still, remains the question of a general prohibition on public ways. For some, it would be disproportionate or being misunderstood. Some legal experts also highlight the legal obstacles. The ban must so be based on the need for public order.” (De Malet, 2009). - Manuel Valls, Aurélie Filipetti, Philippe Esnol (Socialist Party): “We advocate banning the niqab in public space and services (town halls, schools, prefectures, social security) and on all public ways. The formula “uncovered face” is an imperative of public order.”(Libération, 2009). By observing these emblematic statements, we note two main general trends of the prohibitionist discourse within this press debate: the strong use of enunciation markers, as well as an argumentative construction by “connectors chaining”. In what concerns the enunciation dimension, we note the use of “I” or “we” personal pronouns as marks of individual or collective recognition, as well as a mode of engagement that contributes to fabricate a specific discursive “ethos” (Charaudeau, 2005, p.65) of these actors and reinforce their visibility and authority. In this sense, while in Sarkozy’s question the pronoun “one” refers to an “undetermined subject of enunciation” (Benveniste, 1960, pp.12-18) that regroups together the enunciator and co-enunciator, these quotes show that political actors have taken ownership of the president’s question and assumed the position of subject of the enunciation, carrying all responsibilities that it implies (coherence, sincerity, legal liability etc.). Imperative verbs such as “recommend”, “promote” and “advocate” operates as “assertive” and “declarative” illocutionary “speech acts” (KerbratOrecchioni, 2008) performing and acting by means of discourse effects. The pragmatic dimension and performativity force of these discourses refers to the fact that they carry authority and decisionmaking power (Charaudeau, 1997, p.184). In this sense, these discourses can be considered as political actions. In the second prohibitionist discourse camp, we observe that the argumentative dimension of theses quotes relies on a linguistic and rhetoric procedure of two steps: (1) taking in consideration an adversary discourse (legal experts and prohibitionist camp) and showing their personal and political awareness with the constraints posed by national and international legal frameworks in order to, (2) sustain the prohibitionist discourse that intend to by-pass the secular legal framework and promote an extensive meaning of the concept of “public space”. This “argumentation by chaining” (Ducrot, 1984, pp. 40-45/ Ducrot, 1991, pp.81-91) consists in advancing one “pragmatic topoi” – a common idea or opinion (Amossy, 2006) about legal framework concerning public spaces – that will then legitimate and support the prohibitionist discourse. Those “polyphonic statements” (Ducrot, 1984, p.169) reveal about a “co-enunciation” process (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 2009, p.18) in which the subject of statement stages, in a second discourse, the prohibitionist interlocutor with the objective of preventing a “counter-discourse” and producing a “pro-discourse” (Amossy, 2006). This shows how the interlocutor works as the dynamic force of the statement, guiding and motivating the message. The statements of our corpus regarding the idea of “public space” constitutes many ways of seeing (discriminate and classify) and judging (to assign a value) the spatiality of Islamic religion. We observe Nicolas Sarkozy judging “too vague” the concept of public space, while Xavier Darcos speaks in terms of an “indeterminate space”. All other terms illustrate a discursive dispute concerning the legitimate meaning given of “public space”, which reveals how the concept has been redefined, during two years, the “burqa affair” press coverage. They show multiple and extended meanings that the concept of “public space” acquires in this debate (schools, university, post, prefecture, transport, shops, street, services and buildings open to the public, public services, public buildings, private places), as well as some of the political discourse strategies concerning the use of the notion of in terms of 2010 law. These political statements suggest that the main legal constraints posed by a broad interpretation of the concept is based on the inclusion of “public way” and “street” under the -53-
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category of “public spaces” legally controlled by national state contradicts the principle of liberty. For example, the European convention of human rights states, in its article 9, that the liberty to manifest it’s own religion can’t be the object of others restrictions than the ones previewed by the law. Therefore, we can observe how prohibitionist discourse circumvented legal barriers posed by secular principles (like the one establishing the neutrality of appearances of state staff) by engaging the argument of “public order” and the formula of “uncovered face” to legitimize 2010 law. In this sense, unlike the debate concerning headscarves in schools, in the “burqa affair” it is no more the “neutrality” principle, but the one of “transparency” and “public order” that defines the quality of public spaces according to republican “regime of visibility” (Deleuze, Guattari, 1980). The report of the “Information mission on the practice of wearing the integral veil on the national territory” (2010), written by the right-wing deputy Eric Raoult and communist André Gerin, is illustrative on this matter. The question of the legitimate argument and the extensive definition of the notion of “public space” are seizable by these titles of the report summary: B. To forbid integral veil in public space? 1. An interdiction would be possible in regards to the Constitution? a) The laïcity, an inoperative foundation. b) The dignity of human person, a notion with an uncertain content. c) The Public order, the less tricky track. These observations enable us to seize the semantic blur of the concept of “public space” as a political strategic action and a discursive performative act, which contributes to produce an extensive definition of the notion that favours prohibitionist political discourse. We observe that the new legal framework inaugurated by the mediatization of the “burqa affair” and 2010 law contributed to redefine the practical value of public spaces of relative freedom (of thought and expression). In this sense, we can affirm that this legal device determines a new social reality. It legitimates the submission of these spaces to the State grid in accordance to a Republican “regime of visibility” which prescribes the transparency of actions and the neutrality of appearances. Therefore, the meaning of “public space” is more political – a security and order matter – than social, which would suppose the social recognition of Muslim actors and a sense of togetherness. As a consequence, we argue the mediatization of “burqa affair” displaces the meaning of "public" on the side of Republican State and its power, rather than of the side of civil society, common good and interest. As sociologist Sylvia Ostrowetsky suggested in this regard “the appropriation of public spaces means the denial of itself” (Paquot, 2009 p.104). Or yet, as proposes Thierry Paquot, “the choice for open and welcoming urban places is a political act. No more, no less”(Paquot, 2009 p.105). Following this same critical perspective, sociologist Nilüfer Göle remembers that “the empowerment of public space toward the State is considered as a condition of exit from State authoritarianism” and also that the “emergence of a Islamic subject has revealed the limits of this space and its imbrication with the Republic” (Paquot, 2009 p.115). Indeed, in the “burqa affair”, we note that the 2010 law has reinforced a convergence between the public space and the Republic by implying that both are synonyms. Legal devices are revealing about a certain type of relation between government and citizens. In this sense, the press coverage of “burqa affair” raises the question about the type of State that is under construction under V French Republic. Journalists, social and political actors taking part in this debate put into question the role of political power in regulating religious issues and constructing a legal agenda about Islam in France. Considering that the legal instruments of political action participate at the construction of interactions, practices and social representations, we can affirm that “burqa affair” produces a specific representation about Islam and its place in French society. We observe that by an extensive interpretation of the concept of “public space”, 2010 law constructed a new representation and meaning of Islamic full-face veil that is then connoted as socially blameable and illegal. The 2010 law is at the basis of a semiotic requalification (social and -54-
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symbolical) of integral veil concerning the relation between law and customs. If, before the law, integral veil is represented (by means of images and discourses) as politically suspect and religiously radical, after the law this Islamic sign is also considered as socially dangerous (public order and security). Therefore, the wearing of its sign becomes an illicit practice. In this sense, as legal device, the 2010 law delimits the spatial legal perimeter of Islamic visibility and also states the weak symbolical recognition of integral veil in France. We move from identity representations to spatial ones et vice-versa: if the stigmatization of Islamic veil legitimize 2010 law, the geographical representation (spatial disorganization) inaugurated by this law reinforces in return the identitarian representations of contemporary Islamic visibility (social disorganization). The 2010 law is then a product and a producer of identity representations that are inseparable from their spatial dimension. The press discourses analysed in this paper show to what extent the actors inscribed in this public debate look for legitimatizing a legal agency of space property as a way of controlling the representations and the practices that are considered legitimate. In this sense, the displacement and requalification of the concept of “public space” throughout this press debate reveal more about a power stake than a power instrument. Considering that public space only exists in relation to a daily use of it and to the actors that practice them, we can assert that it is at once a social, political, economical, communicational and historical instrument of power. As it is put by phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “the space is essential and the existence is spatial” (De Certeau, 1990, p.172) 4.2. When a third space emerges within the “burqa affair” Among all articles of our corpus, we find a title of a news item published at Figaro newspaper that resumes at best the spatial problematic inaugurated by the “burqa affair”: “Three spaces, three rules?”. In this article, journalist Cécilia Gabizon remarks that in the context of this debate, the High Council for the Integration (HCI) proposed the distinction of three spaces controlled by its own rules: (1) the public space defined by the secular principle of neutrality that concerns the staff of public service and sometimes their users; (2) the civil space that includes the public domain of circulation and private enterprises open to the public, where freedom prevails if it doesn’t disturb public order; and (3) the intimate space that is for essential the one of the house, where freedom prevails. The distinction of these three spaces (public, civil and personal) in the context of “burqa affair” allowed the High Council for the Integration to preconize the reinforcement of “laïcity” inside spaces in which the public authority prevails. Which are of these spaces are submitted to political jurisdiction and control? Inside the civil space, place of recent tensions about Islamic veil, which are the boundaries between freedom and public order? What type of laïcity prevails within it? We can observe how the experts and journalists taking part in this press debate constitutes a complex thought or discussion about the spatial problem of “burqa affair” with regards to secular principles that mark public spaces: - Alain-Gérard Slama, (editorial writer at Figaro): “The problem posed by integral veil is, indeed, new. (...) The use of burqa, more and more frequent on the streets and public places of peripheral areas, exceed the competence field of 2004 law that forbids using a conspicuous sign at school, at public administrations and hospitals. At the exterior of these spheres, in the name of which criteria a secular society can it be founded to forbid the exhibition of a dress sign that claim a religious membership, for the only reason that it covers completely the face? This is a first question.” (Slama, 2009). - Caroline De Malet (journalist at Libération): “Unlike the law about conspicuous signs in schools, which was voted by a majority and which resolved the problem immediately at all schools establishments in France, the law about integral veil poses a problem that is not quite the same because its perimeter of interdiction is different.” (Caroline De Malet, 2009). -55-
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- Cécilia Gabizon (journalist at Figaro and member of the High Council for the Integration): “The 1905 law didn’t said anything about the civil space because it hasn’t anticipated society mutation, the affirmation, each day more important, of particularisms on public way, such as adolescents tribes, gaudy looks or yet religious membership. The increasing power of Islam, religion of collective rites, has also shaken up a secular society. These last years, numerous affairs have burst in this juridical blur.” (Gabizon, 2010). - Rémy Schwartz (State adviser and former reporter of Stasi commission about laïcity at school): “There is a crucial difference between the rules able to be enacted in public service and the constraints that is possible to impose to citizens in public space because in this one, freedom is the principle and the restriction, without talking about the interdiction, is the exception. The government has the right to forbid officers and students from public schools to manifest conspicuously their confession. However, as State Council has stressed in a recent notice, the Parliament can’t invoke laïcity to forbid women to wear integral veil on the street.” (Perrault, 2010). These press quotes highlight how the meaning of public spaces – as they can be discursively considered in their materiality – are different from the scarf and the burqa affairs. The comparative perspective putting together these two media debates is a common approach of analysis within the press coverage of “burqa affair” and the aim of this parallel is to objectify a historical process moving towards an enlarged conception of “public space”. We note in the first and third quotes that the connectors “however” and “unlike” do not only enable the comparison between veil affairs, but they also perform the “argumentative force/orientation” (Ducrot, 1984, pp.27-30/ 1991, p.208) of these statements, consisting in convincing the lector about the new spatial “problem” posed by burqa affair, which “is not quite the same” or “is, indeed, new”. These comparative connectors are also an essential element to grasp the meaning of these statements. Based on these findings, we can argue that the journalists and experts participating in the press debate are more concerned about putting into question the spatial problem posed by the “burqa affair” than looking for a legal framework to justify or extend the State’s control of public ways. Unlike political discourses, journalists and juridical experts raise more questions than answers. However that does not mean that they have no personal or political interest in the subject. On the contrary, their statements represent the institutional instance of each one of their subjects of enunciation. For journalists Alain-Gérard Slama and Caroline De Malet, it is worthwhile to create a “public problem” concerning the Islamic veil visibility (polemic content and audience matter) than following the political definition of the concept of “public space”. For Cécilia Gabizon, member of the High Council for the Integration, the stake is about promoting the idea of a “third space” in accordance to the notice publish by this same institution. Finally, for Rémy Schwartz the matter is about defending the rule of law and, as so, the legitimacy of legal power in face of political decision-making. These media and expert discourses illustrate how “burqa affair” pursued for an historical update of the concept of “laïcity”. Following 1905 law, secular principles distinguish only two spaces, the public – in which prevails the neutrality of public services staff and users – and the private space – in which predominate the freely expression of religious convictions. Such a binary segmentation characterizes the specificity of republican political organisation by shaping the “public space” as a place of State sovereignty that is defined by the negative, that is, the absence of religious distinction marks. In contrast, the private space is defined as an intimate dimension that expresses itself by means of Greek term of “aidôs”, referring to the notion of modesty “that manifests as much a reserve as a shame”, as describes philosopher Thierry Paquot (2009, p.47). This etymological meaning illustrate the political stake that underlies the burqa law: religious distinction is no more legitimate, or even worthy, of public manifestation. The risk of such a social representation of Islamic headscarf concerns the consolidation of State control over public spaces, when they should defined by a “common” quality and a sense of “shareable”, that is it’s opening to -56-
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the deployment of otherness expressions and multiple qualities. At this point, we can argue that these extracts underline a shift from 2004 to 2010 law regarding the practical and the symbolic relation to public spaces. As suggested by the quotes of journalists and legal experts, “burqa affair” inaugurates a new discussion with regards to a third space, the civil one. These discourses give sense to this “third” or enlarged space emerging within this public debate, by defining it as a place of “freedom”, “particularisms expressions” and “collective religious rites”. We note that by engaging such a semantic field, these media and juridical actors promote a more liberal conception of public space than the political statements of prohibitionist actors. 5.0 CONCLUSION The semiotic analysis of discourses constructing the press coverage of “burqa affair” shows how the secular questions posed by the “headscarf affair” have overtaken the school framework and put into question the republican concept of public places and spaces. The 20 years of media debate about Islamic veil widened the scope of religious expression interdiction, which is more and more intrudes to private spaces. The legal redefinition of the concept of "public space" operated by the 2010 law shows how French public spaces are now partly defined by reference to the Islamic visibility. Since 1989, public spaces and places are redefined, re-signified and re-qualified with regards to an increasing media visibility of Islamic signs in recent public debates. We stress that when the meaning of “controllable public spaces” exceeds the state institutions settlements to enclose the street or public ways, we have a quantitative and a qualitative leap that is not measured in centimetres, but can be understood as a “segmentation matter” (Deleuze et Guattari, 1980, pp.254-281). In both cases, the question is about organizing and distributing religious signs in secular republican spaces and, as so, about framing Islamic religious visibility, in a politically and juridical way. This historical process moves from the free circulation of fluxes and practices towards a segmented organization (always dichotomous) of new laws that delimit religion to intimate space. In this sense, we can understand the veil affairs and the laws they generated as products of the media and legal instruments that strengthen the dichotomous distribution of space – such as public/private, male/female and religiosity/secularism – instead of a three-way distribution corresponding to the emergency of “civil space” described by journalists and legal experts. That's not all. The spatial raster of Islamic visibility, emerging as the result of twenty-five years of public debates about Islamic veil, is still taking place today. As evidenced by the proliferation of public debates since the end of the “burqa affair” in 2010 and all the new proposals of veil ban in others public spaces (like universities), private places (like businesses enterprises) or semi-public ones (like nurseries in the so called “Baby-Loup affair”), we remark that other spatial boundary lines may be exceeded in favour of an enlarged state grabbing of private and semi-public spaces.
REFERENCES Amossy, Ruth (2006). L’argumentation dans le discours. Paris: Armand Colin. Barhtes, Roland (1984). Le bruissement de la langue. Essais critiques IV. Paris: Seuil. Barthes, Roland (1985). L’aventure sémiologique. Paris: Seuil. Benveniste, Émile (1974). Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard. Benveniste, Émile (1970). “L’appareil formel de l’énonciation”. Langages, 5ᵉ année, n°17, 1970. « L’énonciation ». pp. 12-18. Charaudeau, Patrick (1997). Le discours d’information médiatique: la construction du miroir social. Paris: Nathan. Charaudeau, Patrick (2005). Le discours politique. Les masques du pouvoir. Paris: Viubert. Charaudeau Patrick (1992). Grammaire du Sens et de l'Expression. Paris: Hachette. De Certeau, Michel (1990). L’invention du quotidien I. Arts de faire. Paris: Gallimard. Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix (1980). Mille plateaux. Paris: Minuit. -57-
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Ducrot, Oswald (1980). Les mots du discours. Paris: Minuit. Ducrot, Oswald (1984). Le dire et le dit. Paris: Minuit. Ducrot, Oswald (1991). Dire et ne pas dire. Paris: Éditions Hermann, Éditeurs de Sciences et des Arts. Foucault, Michel (1971). L’ordre du discours. Paris: Gallimard. Gerstle, Jacques (2008). La communication politique. Paris: Armand Colin. Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine (2009). L'énonciation de la subjectivité dans le langage. Paris: Armand Colin. Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine (2008). Les actes de langage dans le discours : Théories et fonctionnement. Paris: Armand Colin. Maingueneau, Dominique (2002). Dictionnaire d’analyse de discours. Paris: Le Seuil. Paquot, Thierry (2009). L’espace public. Paris: La Découverte « Repères » Saussure, Ferdinand (1972). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Payot. Press corpus Auffray, Alain & Coroller, Catherine (2009). Récit; Ministres en mission sur le voile. Libération, 17 December. Slama, Alain-Gérard (2009). Le voile intégral, la loi et les mœurs. Le Figaro, 2 December. De Malet, Caroline (2009). Voile intégral : une loi indispensable. Le Figaro, 16 December. Gabizon, Cécilia (2009). Les députés UMP souhaitent une interdiction totale de la burqa. Le Figaro, 16 December. Gabizon, Cécilia (2010). Trois espaces, trois règles ?. Le Figaro, 17 March. « ÉLYSÉE - Nicolas Sarkozy veut aller vite sur la burqa » (2010). Le Parisien, 5 May. « Il faut bannir la burqa de l'espace public » (2009). Libération, 21 December. Perrault, Guillaume (2010). La dignité de la femme, base juridique du futur texte. Le Figaro, 23 April. (i) We should remark that the correct terms to denote the veil covering all the body, but not the eyes, are “integral veil”, “full-face veil” or “niqab”, while the term of “burqa” very used by the by media actors, denote the veil covering also the eyes that is not the object of the debate, neither of 2010 law. Nevertheless, we keep using the expression “burqa affair” to point out this specific media debate. (ii) By using this term, we refer to the philosophical conception of territory as a space that is not only geographic and physic, but also psychological, mental, spiritual, so metaphysics. See: Deleuze & Guattari (1980, pp. 386-402). (iii) Amiraux, Valérie (2014). Visibilité, transparence et commérage : de quelques conditions de possibilité de l’islamophobie… et de la citoyenneté. Sociologie n°1, vol. 5. / Tevanian, Pierre (2005). Le voile médiatique : un faux débat : "l'affaire du foulard islamique". Paris: Raisons d'agir editions. / Bouamama, Saïd (2004). L'affaire du foulard islamique : la production d'un racisme respectable. Paris: Geai ble. / Lorcerie, Françoise (2005). La politisation du voile : l'affaire en France, en Europe et dans le monde arabe. Paris: l'Harmattan. / Ferrari, Alessandro & Pastorelli, Sabrina (ed.) (2012). Religion in public spaces : an European perspective. UK: Ashgate./ Brems, Eva (2014). The experiences of face veil wearers in Europe and the law. UK: Cambridge University Press. (iv) Arêas, Camila (2016). Quand les signes religieux font débat dans les arènes médiatiques et scientifiques. Régimes de visibilité et reconfiguration des espaces publics dans les affaires du voile en France (1989-2010). Paris II University, France. (See http://www.theses.fr/2016PA020024) (v) When communist deputy André Gerin proposes to create a parliamentary commission of inquiry about the practice of wearing an integral veil on national territory”. (vi) When the law banning the “dissimulation of the face in public space” was approved in the Assembly. (vii) Le Monde: 583, Figaro: 522, Libération: 354, Le Parisien: 242. -58-
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APPENDIX Spatial cartography of “burqa affair” press coverage
Lexicometric quantitative statistic of all geographical terms mentioned in this media debate
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Awareness and Attitude towards Public Pension A Case of Informal Workers at Saba saba Market in Dodoma Municipality, Tanzania Stephen James, Emmanuel Hauli, and Peter Mosha About the Author(s) Stephen James, Corresponding author and can be reached at Email: skamugisha@irdp.ac.tz Emmanuel Hauli, Department of Development Finance and Management Studies, P.O.BOX 138, Institute of Rural Development Planning, Dodoma, Tanzania. Peter Mosha, Department of Population and Development Planning, P.O.BOX 138, Institute of Rural Development Planning, Dodoma, Tanzania. ABSTRACT The study was conducted at Saba saba market in Dodoma Municipality with the objective of assessing awareness and attitude towards public pension. Study design was cross-sectional with the sample size of 282 respondents and 6 key informants. Sampling procedures consisted of both random and purposive sampling. Methods of data collection were interview and focus group discussion in which the structured questionnaire, Likert Scale and check list were tools of data collection on awareness and attitude of the respondents. Quantitative data were analyzed by Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) computer software by using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequencies, percentages and chi-square test ( 2 ) to determine association between socio-demographic characteristics and awareness on public pension. Qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. Findings revealed that majority of respondents never heard about public pension. The findings also revealed that among the minority with awareness, it was 26 to 35 years of age which was more aware than less or more years of age. Marital status with more awareness on public pension was the married than the rest. Female sex also was more aware than males. Level of education which had more awareness on public pension was the primary education group than less or higher levels of education. However, the overall findings from ( ) test revealed that sex and marital status were socio-demographic characteristics which were significantly associated with awareness on public pension whereby ( 2 = 3.840; p = 0.050 and 2 = 9. 725; p = .021). Age and levels of education were negatively associated with awareness on public pension whereby the results of 2 = 5.797; p = 0.215 and 2 = 4.085; p = 0.252). The findings further revealed that majority of the respondents had unfavorable attitudes towards public pension. Based on these findings recommendations have been indicated. Key words: Self-employed, urban, pension funds, information, television
CITATION: James, S., Hauli , E. and Mosha, P. (2017). “Awareness and Attitude towards Public Pension: A Case of Informal Workers at Saba saba Market in Dodoma Municipality, Tanzania.” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 60–69. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371. -60-
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1.0. INTRODUCTION Public pension is an element of social protection and social security. This makes it to be one of the social security rights for all as agreed by United Nations General Assembly (1966) on social security. All the working people from the formal or informal sectors of the economy have to be entitled to the pension benefits. Public pension guarantees an individual inflow of income during retirement. Stewart & Yermo (2009) argued that pensions play a vital role in poverty alleviation of the elderly which constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in any society. The results in Brazil demonstrated that poverty rates in household with pension beneficiary were 13% lower than the households without pension beneficiary (Afenyadu, 2014). According to Dorfman (2015) there are four pension designs in which the first is the noncontributory pension (Zero-pillar) in which the state or employers may transfer financial assistance to the old age universally or by means test without requiring the beneficiaries to make financial contribution for benefits in advance before retirement. The second, is the mandatory contributory pension schemes (1 or 2nd pillar) which is entirely based on pay-as-you go. Mandatory contribution pension is further divided into the defined benefits and defined contribution (Wang et al, 2014; Heenkenda, 2016). In defined contribution scheme, the contribution to the investment come from the predetermined fraction of the worker’s salary while the benefit payout at retirement is usually not specified. The worker and employer contribute and deposit the cash into the individual worker’s account for the retirement benefits provided on the basis of investment performance. In defined benefits pension scheme, workers make contribution during their working age and at the age of retirement they earn annuities based on formula taking into consideration of the period of service and average earnings (Kayitare, 2016). Tanzania pension system takes features from both schemes because the workers and their employers from the formal sector for instance are required to contribute to pension saving of twenty percent of their salaries (Government Retirement Benefits Fund, 2013; Public Service Pensions Fund, 2017; PPF Pensions Fund, 2015). But the mechanism of financial percentage to be contributed by workers and employers vary between these public pension funds. Informal workers too are also supposed to contribute part of their income to pension funds but based on their level of incomes from self-employment activities. In spite of contribution to pension funds, the harmonization rules of 2014 defines the pension benefits formula to be used to compute enrolled members’ benefits at retirement (United Republic of Tanzania, 2014). Advance information on the amount of cash plus interests can be easily understood by pension participants. The third pension design according to Dorfman is the voluntary, regulated occupational or personal saving and insurance arrangements often known as the third pillar. It can be organized by different sectors of employment to cater for their members. The fourth is the other informal voluntary saving arrangements such as the household assets, savings or transfers which support the old age. Out of all these pension designs the mandatory contributory pension arrangements under the public pension funds also constitute some element of the voluntary design in which the informal workers are invited to contribute for the retirement benefits as is the case in many public pensions funds of Tanzania. In spite of the room being left for informal workers contribution in public pension, the pension coverage in Tanzania has been among the minority (World Bank, 2014) similarly like Rwanda (Ntibitura, 2013). According to International Labour Organization (2001) those who tend not to be covered are those who work in the informal economy. But, it has not been clear as to whether the informal workers had awareness and positive attitude as important individual characteristics for enrolment and participation in the public pension schemes. This paper therefore aims to assess the awareness and attitude of the informal workers at Saba saba market towards public pension. Empirical data on these self-employed workers’ awareness and attitude will act as a base for policy formulation among stakeholders in order to promote coverage of the informal sector by public pension at the market. 2.0. DATA AND METHODOLOGY 2.1. Study Area -61-
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The study area was Saba saba market which had self-employed workers in petty businesses. The market was located in one of the central locations of Dodoma Municipality. Many of the selfemployed workers at this market were engaged mainly in the sale of consumable goods and services. Consumable goods consisted of vegetables, fruits, cereal crops in shops and kiosks, clothing, and utensils. Some of them were offering services such as restaurants, hair salon, barber shops, furniture and pubs. Others offered transport services by motor pick-ups, motor cycle riding and carts. The market had leadership such as the chairperson, secretary, bursar and various committees’ members as stipulated by the market association constitution (2014). 2.2. Data Collection Data were collected through a cross-sectional study design at the market. Population of the study was 1,200 registered self-employed workers. Sample size was 282 respondents while key informants were six individuals drawn from among the market leadership and committees’ members. Random sampling by lottery was used to constitute the sample elements while purposive sampling was applied to obtain the key informants. Methods of data collection consisted of interview in which the tool was structured questionnaire that also included the statements to be responded on five points Likert Scale to generate quantitative data on awareness and attitude. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) also was used through a check list as a tool to collect qualitative data from the key informants. 2.3. Data analysis Data were edited and entered into Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 as a tool for data analysis. Quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages on public pension awareness. A chi-square test ( 2 )of independence was also used to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics and awareness on public pension at 5% levels of significance. Furthermore, analysis of respondents’ attitude was analyzed from the responses on the Likert scale that were rated with five points scale whereby 5 = strongly agree, 4 = agree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 2 = disagree and 1= strongly disagree of which had to be indicated by respondents on the attitudinal statements. Qualitative data from the key informants was analyzed through content analysis by formulation of themes regarding the awareness on public pension and presented by quotation. 3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Socio-Demographics of Respondents Most of the respondents constituting (44.3%) ranged from 26 to 35 years of age of which belonged to the youth age group. Those who ranged from 36 to 45 years of age were 24.1% followed by 16 to 25 years and 46 to 55 years of age as shown in Table 1. The respondents who were in the age category of 56 to 65 years formed the minority group and could be referred as individuals who had to receive the retirement pension benefits (United Republic of Tanzania, 2014). The findings also revealed that the most leading sex of respondents at the market were females (61.0%) while males comprised (39.0%). However, these results at the market differed from those which were found by Mohd (2015) in Kuala Lumpur among the service workers, shop and market sales workers, craft and related trades where the number of males and females respondents in the study about the provident fund was almost the same. Probably, the results differed from Kuala Lumpur because as argued by Daudi (2011) in an African context, women have been more represented in the informal labor force than males. Furthermore, the marital status of the majority of the respondents was married (65.5%) followed by the singles (29.1%). Other respondents’ marital status constituted the widow and the separated as shown in Table 1. Level of education of the respondents was mainly primary education (59.9%) and secondary education (31.2%). Others had completed tertiary education while nonformal educational achievers were the minority. The findings at the market were contrary from -62-
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Amlan & Shrutikeerti (2016) who found the majority of the respondents in their study on the defined contribution pension scheme had college and university education. This was attributed to the fact that India had higher rate of enrolment in tertiary education consisting of 18% (British Council, 2014) while Tanzania enrolment still lagged behind to 5.5% as found by the United Republic of Tanzania (2014). Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, n 282 Socio-demographics Frequency Age 16 – 25 52 26 – 35 125 36 – 45 68 46 – 55 29 56 - 65 8 Sex Males 110 Females 172 Marital Status Married 184 Single 82 Widow 14 Separated 2 Education Non-formal 5 Primary 169 Secondary 88 Tertiary education 20
Percentage 18.4 44.3 24.1 10.3 2.8 39.0 61.0 65.2 29.1 5.0 .7 1.8 59.9 31.2 7.1
3.2 Awareness on Public Pension Respondents were asked if they had ever heard about public pension. Table 2 below shows that about one third (32.3%) who responded to the question had ever heard about public pension while two third (67.7%) never heard about it. The findings at the market is in line with Ainooson (2011) who also found that the majority of the respondents were not aware about the Social Security National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) that was responsible to administer pension in the Ghanaian informal sector. Similarity in results implies that there has been inadequate availability of pension awareness campaigns by public pension funds in Tanzanian and Ghanaian informal sector workplaces. The study further assessed the pension benefits members knew to have been provided by the public pension. The majority mentioned retirement benefits (75.8%) and withdrawal benefits among others as shown in Table 2. Most participants in the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) that was conducted also reported: “Public pension schemes like the National Social Security Fund, Parastatal Pensions Fund provide retirement benefits that consist of gratuity lump sum, annuity and withdrawal benefits for members who may wish to cease membership or lose income for contribution.” (FGD participants). Surprisingly, a good number of the respondents still had knowledge of withdrawal benefits being one of the pension benefits provided to the members by public pension funds. This was a misinformation among respondents because according to the Social Security Authority (2016), the government had finalized a plan to restrict the pension contributors from withdrawing their contributions once they lost income or jobs. Instead, arrangements in the pensions funds were made -63-
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to pay a certain monthly percentage of income as unemployment benefit until the individual obtained a new job or stabilized the income sources. According to the authority, this could protect individual pension contributions whose goal was to support members once they retired from employment of which began at fifty five or sixty years of age as per United Republic of Tanzania (2014). However, the overall findings about pension benefits which had been heard at the market were a bit contrary to Goursat & Pellerano (2016) who found that most of the informal workers in Zambia had no idea about the benefits offered by the National Pension Scheme Authority. The noncompliance of results was because of the fact that in Zambia it was much harder to access information from public agencies and institutions unlike Tanzania (African Platform on Access to Information, 2013). Data from Table 2 also reveals that the majority of respondents who heard about public pension gained information from the television (48.4%) and radio (39.6%) than pension staff, friends, co-traders and newspapers. These findings at the market partly did not comply with Aboagyewaa (2013) who found that most of respondents from informal sector in Accra had obtained information about the old age retirement pension benefits; withdrawal accounts benefits, death and survivor benefits provided by SSNIT mainly from the fund officials and friends. The results differed because in Ghana the SSNIT was primarily a public pension fund that was dealing with the informal sector workers. Therefore, its staff spent their working time with the informal sector workers than the Tanzanian pension funds staff which were mainly concerned with formal sector employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pension than the informal sector (The Mohanna, Foundation, 2014). As displayed by Table 2 the study findings also revealed the age of respondents which had more awareness on public pension ranged from 26 to 35 years old (45.1%) followed by 36 to 45, 16 to 25, 46 to 55 and 55 to 56 years of age. The results to some extent contradicted Arnone (2004) argument that older individuals were likely to be more knowledgeable on pension financial matters than the younger age. The reason for these differences in results probably was based on the fact that the majority of the younger age at the market was curious in seeking information from various sources that could improve their financial wellbeing than the old age that approached and or were in terminal exit age. The results also indicated that age was negatively associated with awareness on public pension among the study population whereby the = 5.797, p = .215. This implied that information on public pension had not adequately reached the various age groups in the study population. Sex of the respondents which had more awareness on public pension at the market was females (52.7%) than males (47.3%). These results also were contrary to Ulrichs (2016) who found that females had limited awareness about the public pension schemes. The reason behind is that once females in an urban area had access to self employment in the informal economy, they could seek more information about their future income security than males. The findings also revealed that sex at the market was significantly associated with awareness on public pension whereby the = 3.840; p = .050 which indicated that both males and females had efforts in becoming conversant with public pension but at different levels. Table 2 further shows that the marital status which had more awareness on public pension was the married (73%) than the single, widow and the separated from their partners. This indicates that those in marriage had efforts in collecting information about the financial matters of which it was shared probably to seek the means to improve the future income security of their families than the counterparts. However, the findings also revealed that marital status was significantly associated with awareness on public pension in which the = 9.725 , p = .021. These results do not comply with Njuguna & Otsola (2011) who found that marital status did not influence the level of pension awareness and knowledge in Kenya. The results did not comply because the informal workers at Saba saba market and those in Kenya were located in different areas which had divergent information needs in their marital relationship. Comparatively, Table 2 also indicates that primary education had more awareness on public pension (52.8%) than non-formal education, secondary and tertiary education. The results among informal workers at the market were contrary to Hastings et al (2011) argument that individuals with higher education had more knowledge on financial and pension matters than those with lower levels of education. Non-compliance of the results at the -64-
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market possibly emanated from the fact that respondents who had achieved primary education constituted the majority than those with secondary and tertiary education. However, the level of education results showed that it was negatively associated with awareness on public pension whereby the 2 = 4.085, p = 0.252 suggesting that education system around the market put less emphasis on pension and social security matters. Table 2. Awareness on public pension among respondents, n 282 Responses Frequencies Have you ever heard of Public Pension 91 YES 191 NO Knowledge of Benefits from Public Pension Schemes *** Retirement benefits 69 Withdrawal benefits 26 Maternity benefits 25 Health insurance benefits 20 Loan for education 10 Funeral grant 10 Invalidity pension benefits 5 Survivor benefits 5 Sources of Information about public pension benefits (n= 91)*** Television 44 Radio 36 Pension staff 19 Friends 19 Co-traders 10 Newspapers 11 Socio-demographics Awareness on Public Pension frequency Percentage
Percentage 32.3 67.7 75.8 28.0 27.5 22.0 11.0 11.0 5.5 5.5 48.4 39.6 20.9 18.7 11.0 12.1
Chisquare
Pvalue
2 Age 16 – 25 26 – 35 36 – 45 46 – 55 55 - 56 Sex Males Females Marital Status Married Single Widow/widower Separated -65-
12 41 22 11 5
13.2 45.1 24.2 12 5.5
43 48
47.3 52.7
66 18 4 2
73 20 4.4 2.2
5.797
.215
3.840
.050
9.725
.021
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Levels of Education 1 1 Non-formal 52.8 48 Primary 36.3 33 Secondary 9.9 9 College/University Significant association p 0.05, non-significant association p 0.05 *** Multiple responses and percentage exceed 100
4.085
.252
3.3 Attitude towards Public Pension A five point Likert scale with five attitudinal statements was used to measure the attitude towards public pension among those who had heard about it. The respondents were required to indicate whether they strongly agreed, agree, neither agree nor disagree, strongly disagree or disagree to the attitudinal statements. Table 3 shows that the majority (52.7%) strongly agreed that public pension increases financial independence during the old age and thus they were in favor of the statement. These findings at the market were similar with those found in Enugu, Oyo, Kano, Lagos and Rivers states in Nigeria by the National Pension Commission (2014) among the informal workers. The convergence in results indicates that informal workers viewed public pension as a mechanism which exactly ensured income security in future like their counterparts in Nigeria. Further, the public pension funds which existed in pension system being the safer custody for informal sector pension saving was disagreed by the majority of respondents (40.7%). These findings comply with Ansah (2013) who found negative attitude toward pension scheme saving among the market women at Madina in Accra, Ghana. These results suggest that the informal workers did not have trust and confidence in pension funds. The respondents also viewed that fifteen years of duration for pension contribution did not favor the informal sector workers as the majority (41.8%) disagreed to the statement. These results indicate that pension duration contribution as stipulated by the United Republic of Tanzania (2014). The findings suggested that common application of the duration of contribution in pension for both formal and informal sector was not appropriate for encouraging favorable attitude. On the other hand, the respondents also were not in favor that public pension funds had effective recruitment efforts of pension participants from the informal sector as almost two third (62.0%) disagreed to the statement that: “there is effective recruitment of pension participants from the informal sector by public pension funds.” Hence, as it was earlier argued by the Mohanna Foundation above, the public pension funds were more allied to recruiting many participants from the formal sector employees. On top of these results, more than half of the respondents (53.8%) also disagreed that there is adequate public pension information at the market. Possibly, this situation at the market existed because as it was argued by Maduga (2015), pension social security providers in Tanzania often provided partial information which failed to go deeper enough to address information needs of the potential clients. Furthermore, almost half of the respondents (49.5%) agreed to the statement that low income in the informal sector was a barrier to public pension participation and thus they were in favor of the statement. As argued by Collins-Sowah et al, (2013) low income among the informal workers created difficulties for their integration in pension schemes which galvanized the financial support for them to access capital for income expansion. Table 3. Respondents’ Attitude towards public pension, n 91 Attitudinal statements
Public pension increases financial independence during old age
Responses %
SA
A
NA/ ND
D
SD
TOTAL
52.7
4.4
4.4
26.4
12.1
100
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Public pension funds in pension system are safer custody for informal sector pension saving Fifteen years of pension contribution favors informal workers There is effective recruitment efforts of pension participants from the informal sector by public pension funds There is adequate public pension information at the market Low income in informal sector is a barrier to participation in public pension
4.4
6.6
13.2
35.2
40.7
100
28.6
8.8
8.8
41.8
12.1
100
7.6
10.9
9.8
62.0
9.8
100
7.7
20.9
12.1
5.5
53.8
100
15.4
49.5
13.1
8.8
13.1
100
Key: SA = Strongly Agree, A = Agree, NA/ND = Neither Agree nor Disagree, D = Disagree, SD = Strongly Disagree 3.4. Overall attitudes of informal workers at Saba saba market towards public pension Based on the attitudinal statements used to determine the attitudes of Saba saba market workers towards public pension presented on Table 3, the findings from adding all the scores from each individuals revealed that minimum and maximum points were 8 and 25 respectively with a total mean score of 16.69. From the attitudinal scores, the data were ranked such that out of all those who responded to the attitudinal statements with scores less than the mean value of 16.7 were considered to have unfavorable attitude while those who had total scores above the mean score were considered to have favorable attitude and those who fell over the mean had uncertain attitude towards public pension. The results indicated on Table 4 revealed that about half of the respondents (47.2%) had unfavorable attitudes towards public pension, 44.0% had favorable and for the minority (8.8%) it were uncertain. Table 4: Saba saba market workers towards public pension Overall Attitudes Counts Unfavorable 43 Uncertain 8 Favorable 40 Total 91
% 47.2 8.8 44.0 100
4. 0. CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Sab saba market had the majority of respondents who never had awareness on public pension. Among the minority who had heard about it, mainly knew the retirement benefits being offered from the public pension schemes. Also public pension awareness at the market was associated with sex and marital status while age and education had negative association, thus being independent of awareness on public pension. Regarding the attitudes towards public pension, it was unfavorable among many respondents. The study derives the following recommendations: awareness campaigns on public pension should be organized directly at the market by the National Social Security Regulatory Authority for all regardless of their age and levels of education. Depth clearer communication strategy based on pension information needs assessment at the market and a tradeoff in recruitment efforts of pension participants from informal and formal sectors could help in changing the negative attitudes towards public pension. Policy makers also should adopt a more favorable shorter duration of pension contribution of the informal workers at the market considering their employment challenges which may differ from formal sector employment.
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African Platform on Access to Information. (2013). Access to information in Africa: Examining Progress since APAI Declaration. Friedrich-Ebertstiftung. Windhoek. Namibia. p. 75 – 81. Arnone, W. (2004). Educating Pension Plan Participants. Pension Research Council. University of Pennsylvania p. 32. Ansah, D. (2013). Saving Practice of Madina Women on Social Insurance. Masters Dissertation in Social Policy. University of Ghana, Legon p. xi. Aboagyewaa, A.A. (2013). Emerging New Patterns in Social Security in the Informal Economy in Accra, Ghana. MA Social Policy Dissertation. University of Ghana, Legon pp. 45-50. Ainooson, B. B. (2011). Providing Social Protection in the Form of Pension Funds to the Informl Sector in Ghana: A Case Study of SSNIT Informal Sector Fund. MBA Masters Thesis. Institute of Distance Learning p. 16. Amlan.G & Shrutikeerti. K. (2016). Factors Influencing the Participation in Defined Contribution Pension Scheme by Urban Unorganized Sector in India. Journal of Global Economics. Vol. 4 No.1 p. 6. Afenyadu, A. (2014). A Study of Petty Traders in Ghana to Identify the Barriers to Participation in ISF Pension Scheme. Masters of Science in Capacity Development Thesis. University of Guelph p. 3, British Council. (2014). Understanding India: The future of Higher Education and Opportunities for International Cooperation. p. 4. Castel, P. (2005). Voluntary Defined Benefits Pension System Willingness to Participate: The Case of Vietnam: Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs p. 29. Chris,U.K. & Attamah.N. (2015). Impact of Contributory Pension Scheme on Workers’ Savings and Investment in Nigeria.: Anambra State Case Study. IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance. Vol. 6. Issue. 2. pp. 9-20. Collins-Sowah, P.A, Kowornu.J.K.M & Tsegai, D. (2013). Willingness to participate in Micropensions Schemes: Evidence from Informal Sector in Ghana. Journal of Economics & International Finance. Vol. 5(1).pp. 21-34 Dorfman, M. (2015). Pensions Patterns in Africa. Discussion Paper. World Bank Group p. 4. Daudi, Z.A. (2011). Challenges facing Women Informal Sector Operations in Balancing Child Caring and Productive Roles. Case of Women in Food Vendors in Ilala Municipality. Masters of Arts in Social Work. Open University of Tanzania. p. 4. Goursat, M.P & Pellerano.L. (2016). Extension of Social Protection to Workers in the Informal Economy in Zambia. Irish Aid p. 21. Government Retirement Benefits Fund Act, 2013. United Republic of Tanzania. pp. 1-65. Hastings, T, Mitchell. and O. Chyn. E. (2011). Financial Literacy and Pension Fund Fees. Retrieved: http://www.tiaa-crefinstiture.org Heenkenda, S. (2016). Determinants of Dropouts from Voluntary Pension Scheme: Evidence from Sri Lanka. International Journal of Business and Management. 1 (1) p. 11. International Labour Organization. (2001). Facts on Social Security. Geneva. p . 1. Kayitare, E. (2016). Factors Affecting Rwandan Informal Sector Workers Participation in Public Pension Scheme. PhD Thesis. Walden University p. 41. Keizi, L. (2006). Barriers to Pension Scheme Participation by Workers in Informal Economy. Retirement Benefits Authority. Research and Policy Analysis, p 11. Maduga, F.C. (2015). Public Communication and Social Security in Tanzania. PhD Thesis. University of West London p-iv, PPF Pensions Fund. (2015). Operations Guide. pp. 2 – 3; Public Service Pensions Fund. (2017). Ijue PSPF. p. 15. National Pension Commission. (2014). Incorporating the Informal Sector in Nigeria into the Contributory Pension Scheme. Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFINA)) p. 8 Mohd,S. (2015). Provident Fund for Informal Sector: A Case Study of the informal Sector Workers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Kajian Malaysia Vol. 33 Supp. 1 pp. 53-67. Ntibitura, J. (2013). Assessment of the feasibility to extend the Pensions Scheme Coverage to Selfemployed in Rwanda. Master Thesis. University of Mauritius p. 1. -68-
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Njuguna, A.G & Otsola.J.K. (2011). Predictors of Pension Finance Literacy: A Survey of Members of Occupational Pension Schemes in Kenya. International Journal of Business and Management. Vol. 6. No. 9 . p. 105. Stewart, F & Yermo, J. (2009). Pensions in Africa. OECD Working Papers on Insurance and Private Pensions. No. 3 p. 4. Saba Saba Market Traders. (2016). Constitution of Saba saba Market Association. Dodoma Municipality. pp. 8-10. The Mohanna Foundation. (2014). Social Security Schemes in East and Central African Countries: An Actuarial Paper. p. 6. The Social Security Regulatory Authority. (2016). Pension Fund Withdrawals to be restricted in new plan. Seminar presentation by Director of Legal Services. The Citizen Paper. The United Republic of Tanzania. (2014). The Social Security Schemes (Pensions Benefits Harmonization) Rules. Social Security Regulatory Authority p. 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5. The United Nations General Assembly. (1966). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Article 9 p 3. Ulrichs, M. (2016). Informality, Women and Social Projection: Identifying barriers to provide effective coverage: Working paper 435. DFID p. 50. United Republic of Tanzania. (2014). Education for All 2015 National Review for Tanzania Mainland. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. p. 64. Wang,P. Han,M, Shan,R, Kerry, E. (2014). Retirement, Pension Systems and Models of Pension Systems. Economics Working Papers. p. 3. World Bank. (2014). Public Expenditure Review: Government Pension Obligations and Contingent Liabilities: Policy Note p. 3.
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Knowledge and Attitudes of Male Employees towards Paternity Leave in Iringa Municipality, Tanzania Nzali, A.S. and Philipo, F.
About the Author(s) Agnes S. Nzali is affiliated with University of Iringa, P.O. Box 200, Iringa, Tanzania, Department of Community Development. For correspondence: aggy.nzali@googlemail.com Frank Philipo is affiliated with University of Iringa, P.O. Box 200, Iringa, Tanzania, Department of Community Development.
ABSTRACT This study aims to establish the knowledge and attitudes of male employees towards paternity leave in Iringa Municipality. A cross-sectional research design and multistage sampling technique were used to select 150 male employees from private and public sectors. Respondents’ awareness on paternity leave was captured by using open and closed ended questions. Attitudes of male employees towards paternity leave were captured by using a five-point Likert Scale. Findings show that the majority of male employees were not aware of paternity leave in the study area. The study found that the majority of male employees were aware of paid paternity leave did not apply for. Furthermore, the study revealed that male employees had unfavourable attitude towards paternity leave. The study recommends for workers’ trade unions to increase efforts in educating their members about paternity leave and its benefits as it will help to change male employees’ negative attitude towards paternity leave. Key words: Awareness attitude, paternity leave, employee benefits
CITATION: Nzali, A.S. and Philipo, F. (2017). “Knowledge and Attitudes of Male Employees towards Paternity Leave in Iringa Municipality, Tanzania.” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 70– 77. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371.
1.0 INTRODUCTION Paternity leave is often discussed as a policy measure to encourage greater gender equality both in the family and in the labor market. It strengthens women’s position in the labor market, reduce the gender wage gap and give children a chance to bond with their fathers, it also increases men’s involvement in child caring. In this study the male employees’ awareness and attitudes towards paternity leave were assessed (Burtle and Bezruchka, 2016). In Tanzania, Employment and Labor -70-
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Relations Act No. 6 entitled three days paternity leave to employee if the leave is taken within seven days of the birth of the child and the employee is the father of the child (URT, 2004). Despite the paternity leave entitlement under Tanzania Labour Act of 2004, very little empirical evidence is available about males’ awareness and attitude towards paternity leave. This study was undertaken to fill that gap using a case of Iringa Municipality, Tanzania. In the Employment and Labour Relations Act no. 8 of 2006 section 34 sub-section 1, it is stated that: “During any leave cycle, a male employee shall be entitled to at least three days paid paternity leave if (i) the leave is taken within seven days of the birth of the child and (ii) the employee is the father of the child”. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Paternity is the legal term for the relationship between a father and his child. Paternity leave is a leave of absence from work granted to a father to care for an infant or a period of paid or unpaid absence from work granted by an employer immediately after the birth of his child (Moss, 2012). United Nations (2012) defines paternity leave as an employee benefit that provides paid or unpaid time off to care for a child or make arrangement for the newborn’s welfare. Williams (2004) defines paternity leave a period of paid or unpaid absence from work granted to a man by his employer immediately after the birth of his child. The United Nations (UN) explains that male employees receive special leave (Paternity leave) for the birth of the child. Internationally recruited male employees are granted a period of up to four weeks and those who work at non-family duty may receive up to eight weeks paternity leave. This period of the leave may be taken continuously or in separate periods during the following the birth of the child (United Nations, 2012). According to Field-Office Memorandum No. 67/2001 of the United Nations, paragraph 11 “Paternity Leave is not a mandatory, and the employee may choose to use it fully or not to use it at all. It may be taken in conjunction with or independently of other approved forms of leave such as annual leave, special leave, and uncertified sick leave. However this applies to internationally employed males. Such other forms of leave continue to be subject to existing criteria and provisions of employers. In the United Kingdom, paternity leave was introduced in 2003 with a minimum of two weeks off work, paid at a minimum of 120 Euros and above per week. The leave allows a male parent (the father) to stay home with a newborn, recently adopted or foster child (Fisher, 2014). In the United States of America (USA), it is reported that only 10% of private sector employees access the leave if an employee is well paid, works in a managerial or professional occupations or working in a company having at least 100 employees. On the other hand, only four percent (4%) of workers with low paid may access the paternity leave (Miller, 2014). In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), new fathers in the private sector are granted to another type of leave such as annual leave or unpaid leave in order to support their wives and welcome their new child (Lewis, 2015). In some parts of Africa, there are some laws guiding paternity leave in the private and public sectors. The Zambia Labour Act, for instance, provides that paternity leave will allow a working father to spend seven days supporting and looking after partners and the newly born babies (Mywage, 2013). In South Africa, there is no paternity leave for employees. However, workers who have been employed for longer than four months may take at least three days off – paid leave for family responsibility (paternity leave) where an employer may request an employee to provide reasonable proof of a birth certificate if the employee’s child before the employee is paid (Cloud, 2015). 3.0 STUDY AREA, DATA AND METHODOLOGY This study was conducted in Iringa Municipal Council, Iringa regional. The core activities in Iringa Municipality are business, tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing industries. It is a fast growing town accelerated by the fast growing population which has fostered the booms in demand for different forms of services together with the industrial products. The study used a cross sectional research design. Purposive technique was used to select the respondents. This technique is appropriate when respondents are tied with particular characteristics (Palys, 2008). In this case respondents were to be male employees. The study involved male -71-
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employees from both private and public sector, where 96 men employees were selected from public sector and 54 men employees from private sector making a sample size of 150 respondents. The study also involved key informants based on their positions they hold in different organizations or companies. They included Human Resource Officers, CEOs and the Heads of Sections or Departments from the employees’ work place. The Municipal Labour Officer was also selected for the study. A questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions was used to male employees after being pretested to ensure its reliability. The questionnaire also included a five-point Likert scale with four positive and four negative attitudinal statements to determine the attitudes of men employees towards paternity leave. The scale was rated with 1 to 5 points, where 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Undecided, 4=Agree and 5=Strongly Agree. Interview guide was used to collect information from the key informants concerning the issue under the study. Data from questionnaire were analysed by descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, and percentages using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The responses from interviewees were interpreted, categorised and summarised by merging similar ones to have categories of information based on the study objectives. Mayring (2000) argues that aspects of interpretation following the research objectives may put into categories, which are carefully found and revised within the process of analysis. 4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Male Employees’ Background information More than a half (64%) of respondents were taken from the public sector. Results from the study reveal that about one third (33.3%) of respondents were employed as teachers from secondary schools and primary schools followed by Agricultural Officers who were less than a quarter (16.7%). Very few (3.3%) respondents were police officers who were picked from the public sector only. Only security guards can be employed by the sector and these were ten percent in this study. Other respondents were social workers (13.3%), lecturers (13.3%), and health workers (10%). Table 1. Male Employees’ Background Information ( n 150 ) Variable Sector Public Private Total Age category 26 – 30 31 -35 36 -40 41 – 45 46- 50 Total No. of children 1 to 3 4 to 6 More than 6 Total Occupation Teacher Agricultural Officer Social worker Lecturer Security guard Health worker Police officer Total
Frequency
Percent
96 54 150
64 36 100
15 21 32 42 40 150
10 14 21.3 28 26.7 100
88 48 14 150
58.7 32 9.3 100
50 25 20 20 15 15 5 150
33.3 16.7 13.3 13.3 10 10 3.3 100
4.2 Male Employees’ Awareness of Paternity Leave by Sector -72-
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Results show that majority (54.2% and 63.0%) of the respondents from both public sector and private sectors respectively were not aware of existence of paternity leave. This indicates that employers at their work place had not fully informed male employees on their rights. Awareness is lower in private sector than in public sector which might imply that in the private sector most employers were more reluctant to inform their male employees about paternity leave. The results also reveal that those who were aware of it, more than a half (59.5%) came from the public sector and received information from Trade Unions at their work place, while the minority (30%) from the private sector received information from the mass media and trade unions (Table 2). The implication of this situation is that employers in private sector may not be willing to inform employees because by doing so male employees might apply for paternity leave and hence reduce productivity. Ladden (2014) also argue that it is a challenge in the private sector that longer leave period such as maternity or paternity leaves reduce production and income unless the beneficiary is replaced. Table 2. Male Employees’ Awareness of Paternity leave ( n 150 ) Variable Awareness Aware Not aware
n 42 52
Public sector % 45.8 54.2
n 20 34
Private sector % 37.0 63.0
Total
96
100
54
100
Trade Union
25
59.5
6
30.0
Employer
12
28.6
3
15.0
Mass media
4
9.5
6
30.0
Colleagues Total
1 42
2.4 100
5 20
25.0 100
Source of information (n=62)
4.3 Male Employees’ Application for Paternity Leave Nearly three fifths (59.5%) of respondents who were aware of paternity leave from the public sector did not apply for the leave while all (100%) who were aware from the private sector did not apply (Table 3). This difference between the two sectors might concur with the argument by Ladden (2014) that the biggest challenge in private sector is that longer leave periods like maternity or paternity leaves reduce production and incomes unless the beneficiary is replaced by another person in the job. Therefore employers in the private sector tend not be ready to replace employees on leave, these employers would rather not informing employees of such a leave benefit. The results might also imply that being aware of the leave does not mean that men employees feel that paternity leave is important for them to help their wives in taking care of the new baby and, therefore, would apply for it. Williams (2004), in a research on men and paternity leave, it was found that 70% of working fathers did not take paternity leave due to social stigma attached to it. William also found that 40% of men who opted to take time off for childcare stayed in the office instead. This suggests that social stigma against men taking time off for childcare is hindered by social stigma. This stigma is culturally constructed. Table 3. Respondents’ Application for Paternity Leave by sector ( n 62 ) Application for paternity leave Applied Did not apply Total Reason for not applying (n = 45)
Public sector n 17
% 40.5
25 42
59.5 100
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Private sector n 0 20 20
% 0.0 100.0 100
Very few days Loss of job/deduction of salary It is worthless Not well informed Total
International Journal of Research & Methodology in Social Science Vol. 3, No. 2, p.74 (April â&#x20AC;&#x201C; June 2017). ISSN 2415-0371 4 20.0 10 40.0 0 7 8
0.0 28.0 32.0
25
100
3 3 10 20
15.0 15.0 50.0 100
During interviews, respondents were requested to give reasons why they did not apply for the leave even if they were aware of their right to do so. It was revealed that the reasons for not applying paternity leave include: the time (three days) for the leave is very short and therefore the leave is just useless, worry due to salary deductions especially in the private sector, worry of loss of job, as many employers in the private sector would prefer to have unmarried men to avoid absenteeism at work and others said they feel shy to apply for the leave. McLynn (2014) asserts that many employers enhance statutory maternity entitlements but were reluctant to do so for shared parental leave, because of fear that there would be a massive take-up of such entitlements from eligible male employees. Weber (2013) also comments that leave is the norm for women, but men have only become a part of the discussion as traditional housewife and breadwinner roles have shifted. 4.4 Activities during the Three Day Paternity Leave Respondents who applied for paternity leave were requested to explain what they did during the leave. About three quarters (70.6%) of them reported to be out of home and doing other activities like business, visiting friends and colleagues and having leisure rather than helping their wives. The reason was that during this time other female relatives like mother in-law, sister in-law or aunt come at home and help the wife with the new born. Respondents also said that their culture did not allow them to perform household tasks like washing and cooking for their wives and that if they do so their relatives would not allow that. They also added that men who requested paternity leave were being stigmatized because they were perceived to have negative traits that are used to stigmatize women, showing weakness and uncertainty, not masculine and ambitious. This gives an implication that culture is still a barrier for men to be involved in women dominated activities (household tasks). The implications are also harsh for gender equality in the workplace as well as at household. At household level women do the bulk of the chores and primarily responsible for looking after the children (Schober and Scottt, 2012) During interviews with some employers, it was found that many men, who openly identify with their parental role at work, face pressure or resentment from co-workers. Men who are active caregivers get teased and insulted at work more than so-called traditional fathers and men without children. It is as if society dictates that men are incapable of giving the same amount of care to a child as a woman would do. One of the men employees said: Table 4. Activities done by Respondents during Paternity Leave ( n ď&#x20AC;˝ 17 ) Activities done during leave time
Frequency
Percentage
Do other activities out of home
12
70.6
Stay at home and help the wife with the new born
5
29.4
Total
17
100
The rest (29.4%) stayed at home and helped their wives by performing different roles like cooking, washing, doing shopping, and clean their houses. However, they said that they had to do so because they had no relatives to help in their homes as they were living far from their relatives especially the in-laws who could take care of their wives and the new born. Only two respondents said they would help their wives even if their relatives come and stay in their homes during their leave time. -74-
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The results are contrary to those in America, Australia, Britain and Denmark where fathers who had took paternity leave were more likely to feed, dress, bathe and play with their children during their leave and after the period of leave had ended (Koune, 2015). Weber (2013) asserts that increased father-child interaction at an early stage helps children with their development later in life. Miller (2014) and Luden (2014) also argue that fathers who take longer leaves are more involved in child care even some months more after returning to work. This implies that providing paternal leave is about more than just giving time to men with their new born, but it gives babies the sense of security and nurturing, and creates men (fathers) who understand parenting role. Mason (2013) adds that paternity leave is aimed at helping parents to share the load of caring for a newborn, to help fathers play a greater role in the earliest of stages of their child’s life, and enable the mother to return to her normal health earlier than when she is doing it alone. However, the contrary results show that in Tanzania culture dictates the gender roles for men and women. In this case the role for child care is primarily left for women alone. 4.5 Male Employees’ Attitude towards Paternity Leave A five-point Likert scale with eight attitudinal statements was used to measure male employees’ attitudes towards paternity leave. Four of the statements had positive connotations and four had negative connotations on which men were required to indicate whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, were uncertain, agreed or strongly agreed. The points scored were added up to determine the overall attitude of the respondents. The results (Table 5) show that majority (37.28% and 40.6%) from public and private sectors respectively strongly disagreed that men employees were well informed about paternity leave, thus they were not in favour of the statement. The time given for paternity leave was also found to be not enough as majority (35.2% and 40.6%) of the respondents from the two sectors respectively did not agree with the statement that: ‘The time for paternity leave is enough” Table 5. Male Employees’ Attitude towards Paternity Leave by sector ( n 150 ) Attitudinal statement Men employees are well informed on paternity leave Men co-workers usually apply for paternity leave The time for paternity leave is enough Paternity leave is important for men to help their wives Paternity leave is costly to employers Paternity leave is worthless Men employees are reluctant to apply for paternity leave Men employees do not need the leave as it is for mothers only
prvt
Response (%) U A pblc prvt pblc prvt
SA pblc prvt
1.5
1.4
2.4
1.0
14.0
0.0
1.0
0.0
100
7.0 8.0
32 35.2
38.2 40.6
2.2 1.0
1.0 2.0
2.0 3.0
0.0 4.0
1.3 0.0
0,0 0.0
100 100
2.8 3.2 7.2
0.0 0.0 7.4
9.0 29.0 22.0
8.0 23.0 28.0
2.5 7.0 4.8
0.0 9.8 3.0
30.7 7.0 19.0
43.2 18.0 16.8
2.6 0.0 0.0
1.4 2.0 1.8
100 100 100
2.2
0.0
13.0
9.0
8.0
10.8
28.0
25.0
2.0
3.0
100
4.0
0.0
27.6
23.0
5.3
2.5
20.0
16.8
0.8
0.0
100
SD pblc prvt
D pblc
37.2
40.6
10.2 6.0
Total
Key: SD=Strongly Disagaree; D=Disagree; U=Uncertain; A=Agree; Strongly Agree Pblc = Public; prvt = Private Majority of the respondents (30.7% and 43.2%) from the public and private sector respectively viewed that; paternity leave was costly to employers. Some male employees also viewed paternity leave as worthless. This might be explained that male employees did not regard that helping their wives in taking care of their newborn as an important task and, therefore, there was no need for paternity leave. However, it was also revealed that some men employees needed paternity leave, as they did not agree with the statement that: ‘Men employees do not need the leave as it is for mothers who are responsible of taking care of young babies. This response gives an implication that men employees would like to have paternity leave but they did not apply for it because of stigma at their work place and that majority of them were not aware of their right to the leave as asserted by Weber (2013). Another reason might be the time -75-
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for the leave is too short (3 days). The cultural aspect also would not be forgotten as stereotypes on this issue had a great role to play in hindering men from applying for paternity leave. 4.6 Overall Attitudes of Male Employees towards Paternity Leave Based on the attitudinal statements used to determine the attitudes of male employees towards paternity leave the findings revealed that the minimum and maximum overall attitude points were 21.0 and 40.0 respectively with an average point of 32.2. Out of the maximum of 40.0 points, all the points up to 23.0 indicated unfavourable attitudes; neutral attitude was represented by 24 points and favourable attitude was represented by 25 to 40 points. The results revealed that almost three- fifths (61.3%) of the male employees had unfavourable attitude towards paternity leave, 25.4% had favourable attitude towards paternity leave and the rest (13.3%) were uncertain. Table 6. Male Employees’ Overall Attitudes towards Paternity Leave ( n 150 ) Overall attitudes Unfavourable Uncertain
n 92
% 61.3
20
13.3
Favourable Total
38 150
25.4 100
Mason (2013) asserts that men are too often mocked in the work place for wanting to go part time or leaving early to care for their children. Due to this fact which in most cases is caused by cultural issues, male employees may not apply for maternity leave. 5.0 CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATION The study set out to establish the knowledge and attitude of males’ towards paternity leave in Tanzania with special reference to private and public sector employee of Iringa Municipality of Iringa Region. The study draws the following recommendations: workers trade union should increases effort to ensure more employees have the right knowledge about existence of paternity leave and its associated benefits to their members in order to change their negative attitude towards paternity leave. There is a need for policy makers particularly the employment policy, to increase the number of days for paternity leave to give more time for males to engage on activities that support their wives on caring the new born as a significant number of male employee said that the time for paternity leave was short. There should be programmes to create awareness on the importance of paternity leave to male employees at work place to reduce the cultural stigma among them
REFERENCES Burtle and Bezruchka (2016). Population Health and Paid Parental Leave: What the United States Can Learn fromTwo Decades of Research. Journal of Healthcare, (4) 30: 1-16. Cloud, J.R. (2015). Men do not take enough paternity leave: Does it make a difference?[https://rotacloud.com/blog/men-do-not-take-enough-pate] Site visited on 28/07/2016. Fisher, A. (2014). Most new dads take time off, without calling it paternity leave [http://www.bsa.natcen.ac] Site visited on 28/07/2016. Koen, G. (2015). Paternity leave creates super dads [http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Paternity-leave-creates-superdads-20150620] Site visited on 30/06/2016. Lewis, K. (2015). Understand Your Paternity Leave Options http://workingmoms.about.com/bio/Katherine-Lewis-45523.htm -76-
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Site visited on 27/07/2016. Ludden, J. (2014). More Dads Want Paternity Leave. Getting: It is A Different Matter http://www.npr.org]. Site visited on 28/07/2016 Mason, R. (2013) Fathers being able to share parental leave. The Guardian, Friday 29 November, 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/nov/29/jo-swinson-conflict-jobs-family-life Site visited on 27/07/2016. Mayring, Philipp (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis [28 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114fqs0002204] Site visited on 21/01/2017. McLynn, L. (2014). Why shared parental leave could create more problems? http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk Miller C.C.(2014). Paternity Leave: The Rewards and the Remaining Stigma http://www.wsj.com/articles/] Site visited on 28/07/2016. Moss, P. (2012). International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2012 Institute of Education University of London, London. Mywage, B. (2013) Salary analysis, benefits and working time. [http://www.mywage.org/tanzania/home/in-the-workplace/maternity-work/maternity-paternityleave] Site visited on 28/07/2016. Palys, T. (2008). Purposive sampling. In L.M. Given (Ed.). The Sage Encyclopaedia of Qualitative Research Methods. (Vol.2). Sage: Los Angeles, pp. 697-8 Schober, P. and Scott, J. (2012), 'Maternal employment and gender role attitudes: Dissonance among British men and women in the transition to parenthood', Journal of Work, Employment and Society, 26(3): 514-530. United Nations (2012). United Nations Common System of Salaries, Allowances and Benefits. United Nations, New York. United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2004). Employment and Labour Relations Report. URT, Dar es Salaam. United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2012). Iringa Municipal Council Population Projection Report. URT, Dar es Salaam. Weber, L. (2013). Why Dads Don't Take Paternity Leave? [http://www.wsj.com/articles/] Site visited on 28/07/2016. Williams, F. (2004), Rethinking Families, London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
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Thailand 4.0 Readiness Louanglath, P.I.
About the author(s) Louangrath, P.I. is an Assistant Professor in Business Administration at Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand. He could be reached by email at: Lecturepedia@gmail.com
ABSTRACT This paper presents a situation analysis for a development policy called Thailand 4.0. Thailand 4.0 aims to achieve economic prosperity, social well-being, human values and environmental protection. Two research questions are presented. Firstly, does Thailand have characteristics of a developed economy? To answer this question, we use the 10-Factors Test of developed economy. Secondly, does Thailand have sustainable economy? We tested 20 factors of ADB’s standards for sustainability. Macroeconomic data from annual reports of ADB, WEF and IMF were used. Thailand scores U 0.29 0.08 or has 29% of the developed economy characteristics using Kahnman-Tvertsky prospect theory. The test for sustainability looked at improving and deteriorating factors. Improving factors include: participation prior to primary school, proportion women in parliament, GDP growth of employed persons, commercial banks, mobile phone coverage, household income, GDP growth, value added to GDP, investment, and fiscal balance. Deteriorating factors include: Gini coefficient, global poverty, national poverty, maternal mortality, infant mortality, traffic death, and external debt. Among the ASEAN group, Thailand showed one significant indicator. Within ASEAN, Thailand shows no significant improvement. According to the 10 characteristics of the First World Economy, Thailand scores 0.295 or achieved 29.5% probability of the expected value or succeeded 57.84% in achieving FWE status. According to the ADB’s partial indicators for sustainable economy, Thailand still has not met the standard. Keywords: Development model, prospect theory, Thailand 4.0 JEL Code:
B12, B13, C10, F63
CITATION: Louangrath, P.I. (2017). “Thailand 4.0 Readiness.” Inter. J. Res. Methodol. Soc. Sci., Vol., 3, No. 2: pp. 77–86. (Apr. – Jun. 2017); ISSN: 2415-0371.
1.0 INTRODUCTION The economic development of Thailand is divided into three stages. The first stage was called Thailand 1.0; the country was an agriculture based economy. The second stage was called Thailand 2.0, the country’s developmental engine came from light industry. The third stage was called Thailand 3.0; the country focused on heavy industry as the engine of growth. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Thailand realized that it was caught in a developmental trap of (i) being -78-
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middle income country, (ii) income inequality, and (iii) socio-economic imbalance. In response, Thailand announces Thailand 4.0 development policy. Thailand 4.0 aims to achieve economic prosperity, social well-being, human values and environmental protection. These goals will be achieved through raising competitiveness in four main sectors. First, in the agricultural sector, Thailand 4.0 calls for the transformation of traditional farming to “smart farming.” Second, traditional SMEs will be transformed into “smart SMEs.” Third, where the economy had long been sagged with low value services, Thailand 4.0 wants the country to focus on “high value services.” Fourth, unskilled labor will be transformed into “skilled labor.” To achieve economic prosperity, Thailand 4.0 calls for the use of technology, innovation and creativity. Specifically, the country will commit 4% of the GDP to R&D and raising the per capita earning to $15,000 by 2032. To achieve social-well being of the first world economy, Thailand 4.0 will introduce smart farmers in 5 years and having a functional welfare system in 20 years. The problem in income inequality will also be lessened. To achieve the rise in human value, the new development policy will create a new Thai 4.0 citizenry that would equate Thais to first world citizen. The HDI will be raised to 0.80 from its current position of 0.74. In 20 years time, at least 5 universities in Thailand will be in the top 100 universities of the world. Lastly, on the environmental front Thailand 4.0 will create the world’s 10 most livable cities in Thailand, reduce carbon emission, adjust to climate changes and reduce terrorism. The ultimate goal of Thailand 4.0 is to transform Thailand from a developing economy into a developed economy or First World Economy (FWE). This paper presents two research questions. Firstly, does Thailand have characteristics of a developed economy? To answer this question, we use the 10-Factors Test of developed economy. Secondly, does Thailand have sustainable economy? We tested 20 factors of ADB’s standards for sustainability. Macroeconomic data came from annual reports of ADB, WEF and IMF. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW The literature on economic development may be categorized into 3 lines of thinking, namely classical, neo-classical and contemporary models of economic growth. Among the classical school, there were three prominent models. First, the linear-stages-of-growth models asserts that economic growth depends on savings and investment (Rostow, 1960; Harrod, 1948; and Domar, 1947). Second, the structural change model of the classical school contends that economic growth comes from the transferring of economic resources from low-productivity to high-productivity activities. For instances, resources from the agricultural sector are allocated to the industrial sector (Lewis, 1954, and Cheenery, 1960). Third, international-dependence model was the last school of the classical thinking. International-dependence model advocated the withdrawal from the international economy and pursue self-sufficiency or autarky (Cohen, 1973, and Dos Santos, 1973). The second line of economic development model is the neo-classical school. This school of economics calls for liberalization, stabilization and privatization. Liberalization means the elimination of price distortion by government interference in the market, such as protectionism, subsidy and public ownership (Bauer, 1984; Lal, 1983; Johnson, 1971; and Little, 1982). Stablization may be achieved by increasing capital and improving technology (Solow, 1956). In contrast to the classical and neo-classical theories, the third line of developmental model advocates the new growth theory. According to the new growth theory, technological changes must also bring about the production of knowledge in order to achieve growth (Romer 1986; Lucas 1988; Aghion and Howitt 1992). Growth comes from the increasing return of the use of knowledge, not just a combination of labor and capital. The role of investment shifts to human capital, infrastructure and R&D. Whereas governmental interference in the market had been condemned by neo-classical theorist, contemporary developmental theorists embraces the state’s role in promoting human capital formation and knowledge-intensive industries (Meir, 2000). Thailand 4.0 is the application of the contemporary economic development theory. However, the contemporary developmental school is not without criticism. The theory has been -79-
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criticized for overlooking the role of social and institutional infrastructure (Skott and Auerbach 1995). These infrastructures may include the availability of adequate capital and goods market (Cornwall and Cornwall 1994). Thailand 4.0 seems to take these facts into consideration in pronouncing its four objectives: economic prosperity, social well-being, human values and environmental protection. These objectives appear to agree with the world consensus on development. In 2000, the UN announced the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to include eight components, namely poverty and hunger, primary universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnership. However, unlike MDG whose development goal is specific, Thailand 4.0’s goal is more general. It intends to drive Thailand into the first world economy within 20 years. Thus, as a situation analysis paper, we ask two questions: (i) Does Thailand have characteristics of a developed economy? and (ii) Does Thailand have sustainable economy? Table 1. Thailand 4.0 compared to Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Thailand 4.0* Millennium Development Goals** 20 years target (2012-2032) 15 years target (2000 – 2015) 1. Economic prosperity 1. Poverty and hunger reduction 2. Social well-being 2. Primary universal education 3. Raising human values 3. Gender equality 4. Environmental protection 4. Child health 5. Maternal health 6. HIV/AIDS 7. Environmental sustainability 8. Global partnership *A national development policy with 20 years horizon. **Involving 191 member nations and 22 international organizations. By 2016, MDG was replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) involving 193 member nations with a target end year in 2030. The new SDG has 17 goals and 169 targets. In analysis of these two issues, we keep these three development goals as the guiding principle, namely economic growth, improving quality of life, and sustainable development. Economic growth is measured by the country’s gross national product (Todaro and Smith 2009). This growth is then quantified into per capita level to reflect the increase in economic benefits at per capita level (Jaffee 1998). Economic growth at the national level should not come at the expense of the environment and income inequality among the people. This concerned was summarized, thus: “[t]o maximize income growth, environmental considerations were left to languish on the sidelines; the standard of living was often allowed to slide; large inequalities between classes, regions, and genders were ignored; and poverty was tolerated more than it should have been in the rush to generate maximum growth” (Basu 2000, p. 64). Secondly, economic growth must come with the security of the quality of life for the people. “Quality of life” may be measured by the level of poverty, inequality and unemployment in the country (Seers, 1969). This implies that Thailand 4.0 must also include income distribution, environment, health and education Stiglitz (1998). Thailand 4.0’s commitment to well-being of the people is consistent with what contemporary growth theorists requiring that economic development must transcend the promotion of growth to the promotion of well-being (Sen,1985, 1992, 1999). In this paper, we also attempt to assess this life quality goal, i.e. health, education and the environment (Berenger and Verdier-Chouchane 2007). Lastly, in order to be successful, Thailand 4.0 must be sustainable. Sustainable development means that economic growth must involve “maximizing the net benefits of economic development, subject to maintaining the services and quality of natural resources over time” (Pearce and Turner 1990, p. 24). There had been debates as to what should be included in sustainable development. The term may be ambiguous (Redclift 1992; Daly 1996; Payne and Raiborn 2001). This ambiguity is -80-
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reduced into two questions “What should be sustained” and “What should be developed” (Kates et al. 2008). It is clear that sustainability includes economic prosperity, social equity and environmental protection. This paper assesses Thailand 4.0 on these bases. 3.0 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Data Source Secondary data were used in this paper. Macroeconomic data used in this paper came from annual reports of ADB, WEF and IMF. The 20 factors used for sustainability came from the ADB’s sustainability indicators (ADB 2017). Data on the competitiveness level came from the WEF annual report (WEF 2017). Other macroeconomic data, such as GDP and Gini coefficient were obtained from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook annual report (IMF 2017). The 10 factors used for situation analysis, of how far is Thailand from becoming the First World Economy, were constructed using the following: competitiveness index, corruption index, disposable income 1st Economy, GDP gap ratio, Gini, HDI (0.788 threshold), Industrialization, rural-Urban migration, service sector predominance, and sovereign risk. The ASEAN 10 countries were used as a bench mark group. Thailand is used as a subject country. The Z score was used as observed values and the corresponding CDF or ( z ) was used as the individual probability of each factor to calculate the Kahnman-Tvertsky index (Kahnman and Tvertsky, 1979). The KahnmanTvertsky U index is used to gauge the current situation of Thailand in comparison to the ideal condition of the First World Economy. To that end, Singapore is used as a reference country for being a developed economy in the ASEAN. The Kahnman-Tversky index is obtained by: U wi pi xi
(1)
where U = probability indicator; w = weight of the factor or 0.10 for each factor, p = probability of each factor, and x = observed value for each factor. In this case, x ( k k ) / s or the standard score of the observed factor in the ASEAN 10 countries. To answer the question of whether Thailand has sustainable economy, 20 factors were used. These 20 factors were based on the ADB’s sustainability of indicators: Gini, pop. Below $1.90/day (%), pop. Below national poverty line (%), maternal mortality per 100,000, infant mortality per 1,000, death rate due to traffic per 100,000, participating 1 year before primary school %, proportion of seats held by women in the National Assembly, pop. Access to electricity (%), real growth % GDP per employed person, commercial banks per 100,000, population covered by mobile network (%), household expenditure or income growth (%), forest area as % of total land, per capita gross national income ($), real growth of GDP, real growth of value added to GDP, domestic investment (% GDP), external debt % of GNI, and fiscal balance (ADB 2017). These 20 factors were categorized into two groups: (i) targeted low value factors, and (ii) targeted high value factors, see Table 4. The ASEAN 10 countries were used as a bench mark group. For hypothesis testing, sustainable economy is found where there is a significant low among the targeted lowvalued factors and significantly high among the targeted high-valued factors. If no statistical significance exists then sustainability is not found. 3.2 Sample size determination Macroeconomic data, such as GDP, and Gini coefficient were taken from ten years: 2008-2017. The sample size for the data is determined by log Monte-Carlo simulation approach. The minimum sample size obtained from Monte-Carlo simulation is given by:
n ln N 2
(2)
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where n = minimum sample size, N = Monte Carlo iteration counts and = level of precision. The Monte Carlo iteration is determined by: 3 N E
2
(3)
where [( x ) / z ] n taken from the components of Monte Carlo three elements: x1 max, x 2 min and x 3 (max min) / 2 ; and mid-point of the distribution curve E [(max min) / 2] 50 . This log Monte-Carlo approach yields a minimum sample size of 6.27. In the present case, macroeconomic data spanning 10 years were used. The number is consistent with the minimum sample size requirement under Anderson-Darling test for normal distribution where n 5 (Anderson and Darling, 1952). 3.3 Data Testing Test of distribution characteristics were employed to determine assess the current situation for Thailand 4.0 policy status. Firstly, skewness was used to determine the leaning of the data distribution. A normal distribution has zero skewness. If the threshold value lies above the mean and median, a positive skew means that the country falls short of the expected value. Secondly, kurtosis was used to test the peakedness or the extremity of the tail of the data distribution. Excess kurtosis means that the error spread (tail extremity) is greater than normally expected. In our analysis, excess kurtosis means that the data falls far away from the expected target. A kurtosis of less than ±3.00 means that the distribution does not have extremity in its tail. Skewness and kurtosis were determined by:
S skew
n Xi X ( n 1)( n 2) S
n Xi X Kurt ( n 1)( n 2) S
3
(4)
3( n 1)2 3.0 ( n 2)( n 3)
4
Table 2: Skewness and kurtosis of ( z ) Description
Skew
0.42 GDP gap ratio 0.01 10 factors FWE 1.66 20* factors sustainability ADB: HI = 12x 2.55 20 factors sustainability ADB: LO = 7x *Per capita GDP has been taken out due to extreme values. Per capita GDP is discussed separately elsewhere.
(5)
Kurt -3.36 -2.10 -4.03 -5.40
Result Skew Fail Fail Fail Fail
Result Kurt Fail Fail Fail Fail
4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The paper presents three main findings. First, the GDP gap for Thailand for the past 10 years (2008 – 2017) remains stable. Second, according to the 10 characteristics of the First World Economy, Thailand scores 0.295 or achieved 29.5% probability of the expected value or succeeded 57.84% in achieving FWE status. If the threshold is set at 51%, it means that Thailand has 21.5% points to climb. Third, according to the ADB’s partial indicators for sustainable economy, Thailand still has not met the standard.
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4.1 GDP gap as an indication of social inequality The general indication for economic inequality is given by the Gini coefficient. However, this number has limited information about the general distribution of income and possible social inequality in the country. In general, the Gini coefficient is determined by: n n
G
xi x j
i 1 j 1
(6)
n
2n xi i 1
where x j = income per person i in a population j . This measure cannot tell the exact amount of income inequality; it could only tell the lower half of the population that fails to participate in the income distribution. In our analysis of the 10 characteristics of FWE, we constructed a new measure called GDP gap ratio. GDP gap ratio is defined as the ratio of the difference between the reported per capita GDP and the per capita GDP earned under the country’s minimum wage: GDPgap Yreport Ymin / Yreport . This new measure provides two pieces of information: (i) gap
between the reported GDP and actual earning of the common people working at minimum wage, and (ii) whether the economic well being of the people had been achieved. Table 3. GDP gap and gap ratio from 2008 - 2017 Year GDP Actual GDP per capita Min. wage 2,215.22 4,379.53 2008 2,129.37 4,207.58 2009 2,337.96 5,065.38 2010 2,539.37 5,482.40 2011 3,476.02 5,850.30 2012 3,516.77 6,157.36 2013 3,325.12 5,921.09 2014 3,153.28 5,799.39 2015 3,060.36 5,899.42 2016 3,138.045 6,265.29 2017
Difference 2,164.31 2,078.21 2,727.42 2,943.03 2,374.28 2,640.59 2,595.96 2,646.11 2,839.07 3,127.25
Gap Ratio 0.49 0.49 0.54 0.54 0.41 0.43 0.44 0.46 0.48 0.50
Gini Coefficient 0.40 0.40 0.39 0.37 0.39 0.41 0.41 0.41 0.41 0.41
4.2 First World Economy characteristics The ultimate goal of Thailand 4.0 is to achieve FWE status, thus, a Thai citizen in Thailand 4.0 is a “First World Citizen.” In this aspect of Thailand 4.0, we ask whether Thailand possesses FWE characteristics? A negative answer to this question is a foregone conclusion. Thus, if Thailand does not possess full characteristics of FWE, how far is it from becoming FWE? In answering this question, we defined the threshold for FWE as having 51% of the characteristic, i.e. predominantly FWE if the economy manifests more than half of the characteristic found in FWE. The Prospect Theory by Kahnman-Tvertsky was used to obtain the percentage probability of FWE characteristic. The Prospect Theory is given by U wi pi xi . Presently, Thailand has 0.295. If the threshold for FWE is 0.51, Thailand has 0.215 points to climb.
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Table 4. First World Economy Indicators Characteristics of Developed Thailand Expected Prob. Economy: each weight 0.10 X obs X pi 0.5320 4.60 4.64 Competitiveness Index 0.5750 92.30 101.00 Corruption index 0.2266 12,000 5,720 Disposable income FWE 0.5990 0.48 0.49 GAP gap ratio 0.6030 0.36 0.39 Gini 0.3264 0.79 0.74 HDI (0.788 threshold) 0.2266 0.51 0.36 Industrialization 0.9930 3,168.01 12,272 Rural-Urban migration 0.5710 0.51 0.55 Service sector predominance 0.6630 0.50 0.63 Sovereign risk Total U index under Kahnman-Tvertsky: U wi pi xi
U Index Ui 0.004 0.011 (0.008) 0.015 0.016 (0.012) (0.015) 0.246 0.010 0.028 0.295
4.3 Sustainable economy as development goal The development goal for the 21st Century is no longer confined to economic growth. The growth has to be sustainable. In order to be sustainable, the economy must contribute to value additivity in people’s lives. The ADB has produced 50 indicators as relevant factors for sustainability. We selected 20 factors and used them to test whether Thailand’s economy is currently sustainable? If not, how much does it need to improve? The 20 factors are categorized into low and high targeted values. Low values are those that in order to optimize, the value must be minimal. There are 7 such factors listed in Table 5. The result of the testing shows that Thailand has two significant factors: Gini coefficient and death due to traffic accident. These two factors made Thailand failing the first category of sustainable economy. For low-value targets, Thailand achieved 0.66 while Singapore achieved 0.94. If the threshold is set at 0.80 under 80/20 rule, then Thailand has 0.14 points to climb. Table 5: Low target for sustainability indicators ADF Sustainable Economy Thailand Singapore pValue* 1 ( z) Indicator: 7 factors = the lower the better ( Z ) * ( Z ) ** 0.074 0.709 Gini coefficient 0.03 0.227 0.227 Pop. Below $1.90/day (%) 0.50 0.106 0.440 Pop. Below national poverty line (%) 0.16 0.106 0.147 Maternal mortality per 100,000 0.45 0.106 0.258 Infant mortality per 1,000 0.33 0.061 0.977 Death rate due to traffic per 100,000 0.00 0.997 0.363 External debt % of GNI 0.98 *The ASEAN 10 countries were used to obtain Thailand’s CDF. **Singapore is a First World Economy in the ASEAN. Singapore is used as a threshold value. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals Accessed May 30, 2017.
The second prong of sustainability consists of 12 factors of the ADB indicators for economic sustainability. Table 6 lists these high-value targets. Using Singapore as a reference developed economy in the ASEAN group, Thailand failed 9 out of 12 indicators for sustainability. The achievement of sustainability is determined by: 1 U where U wi pi xi . Thailand achieved 0.71 while Singapore achieved 0.78. If the threshold is set at 0.80 under 80/20, then Thailand has 0.09 points to climb. Note that under 80/20 threshold, Singapore also failed in sustainability test. -84-
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Table 6: High target for sustainability indicators ADF Sustainable Economy Thailand Singapore pValue* Indicator: 7 factors = the lower the better 1 ( z ) ( Z ) * ( Z ) ** 0.08 0.2266 0.9330 Participating 1 year before primary school % 0.00 0.4404 0.2578 Proportion of seats held by women in NA 0.03 0.9550 0.9550 Pop. Access to electricity (%) 0.03 0.2266 0.2266 Real growth % GDP per employed person 0.03 0.2266 0.2266 Commercial banks per 100,000 0.03 0.9550 0.9480 Population covered by mobile network (%) 0.05 0.2266 0.2578 Household expenditure or income growth (%) 0.13 0.3632 0.5240 Forest area as % of total land 0.05 0.2266 0.2578 Real growth of GDP 0.04 0.1977 0.2266 Real growth of value added to GDP 0.80 0.4404 0.4013 Domestic investment (% GDP) 0.03 0.2266 0.1977 Fiscal balance *The ASEAN 10 countries were used to obtain Thailand’s CDF. **Singapore is a First World Economy in the ASEAN. Singapore is used as a threshold value. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals Accessed May 30, 2017.
5.0 CONCLUSION Thailand 4.0 is a development blue print for Thailand with 20 years horizon to achieve its targets. The objective of Thailand 4.0 is to achieve economic prosperity, social well-being, human values and environmental protection. The ultimate goal of Thailand 4.0 is for Thailand to achieve a status of First World Economy. To that end, this paper presented two research questions: (i) Does Thailand have characteristics of a developed economy? and (ii) Does Thailand have sustainable economy? Our analysis showed that there are many hurdles Thailand needs to overcome in order to attain World First Economy status and the current economy still fall short of sustainability expectation. For the time being, Thailand 4.0 is a road map to reach a goal. This paper provides a situation analysis to help Thailand see where is now stands in the cross-road between being a developing economy and becoming a developed economy.
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