Could Privatization Increase the Efficiency of Tax Administration in Less-Developed Countries?

In spite of the fact that state tax collection systems in less-developed countries generally are characterized by high levels of tax evasion and official corruption, little experimentation with privatized tax collection has occurred in these countries. This is due in part to: (1) The fact that the literature on privatization has not focused on tax collection, and (2) the existence of prevalent misconceptions regarding the effects of privatized tax collection in earlier periods. This paper uses agency theory and privatization research to discover the conditions under which privatized tax collection may be an efficient alternative to state tax collection, and to show that these conditions are present in many less-developed countries.     

James Matthews excavation A second interim report

Les fouilles de James Matthews. Second rapport prelimhaire P. BAKER AND G. HENDERSON Les auteurs décrivent dans ce rapport les méthodes utiliées et les résultats obtenus en 1975–77, sur une épave coulée par faible fond sur la côte ouest d'Australie. Ils présentent, en détail, l'utilisation d'un carroyage rigide, facilement manoeuvrable et servant en même temps de plate-forme pour une tourelle - photo pyramidale. Les avantages et les limites de la photogrammétrie, pour les relevés subaquatiques, sont aussi exposés.     

A probable ankylosaurian (Dinosauria,Thyreophora) from the Early Cretaceous of New South Wales,Australia

Bell, P.R., Burns, M.E. & Smith, E.T. October 2017. A probable ankylosaurian (Dinosauria, Thyreophora) from the Early Cretaceous of New South Wales, Australia. Alcheringa 42, 120–124. ISSN 0311-5518.

We describe an isolated osteoderm from the Albian Griman Creek Formation where it is exposed near the town of Lightning Ridge in central-northern New South Wales, Australia. Several lines of evidence allow referral of this element to the Ankylosauria—a group that epitomises body armour and ubiquitous osteodermal coverage among dinosaurs. Despite the abundant record of fossil vertebrates from this interval, ankylosaurians have not been previously reported, although, they have been described from penecontemporaneous deposits in western Queensland and Victoria. This discovery, therefore, provides an important link between the northerly faunas (including the Griman Creek Formation) that flourished at the edge of the epeiric Eromanga Sea, with those from the sub-polar rift-valley system of Victoria during the mid-Cretaceous.

Phil R. Bell [pbell23@une.edu.au], School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale 2351, NSW, Australia; Michael E. Burns [mburns3@jsu.edu], Department of Biology, Jacksonville State University, 700 Pelham Rd N., Jacksonville, AL 36265-2138, USA; Elizabeth T. Smith [elizabethtsmith@exemail.com.au], Australian Opal Centre, Lightning Ridge 2834, NSW, Australia.     

Notes on contributors

Australian governments are facing some confusion about public sector accountability. This paper argues that the opaque nature of accountability which persists is the result of changes being wrought, separately and together, by a number of macro factors of which public sector reform and corruption inquiries are but two. This explanation is developed by an examination of some fifteen specific issues which are symptomatic of the lack of transparency in Australian public sector accountability, and simultaneously, contribute to it. The paper contends that clarity is likely to emerge only slowly as gaps and anomalies are recognised and gradually remedied. The paper seeks to contribute to the process by offering a definition of accountability and an outline of several different types of accountability frameworks now operating in Australian governments.     

‘Unlike Vancouver … here there’s nothing’: imagined geographies of idealized health care for LGBTQ women

This article explores imagined geographies of health care among Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) women in Halifax and Vancouver. In expressing the possibilities and limitations of accessing care, participants frame their own experiences through spatialized narratives of how LGBTQ people are thought to be treated elsewhere. Participants’ explicit connections and distinctions between Halifax and Vancouver gave insight into how their perceived difficulties in one health care context are sometimes framed by imagining more ease in accessing care in the other. We explore here the implications of these imagined, idealized spaces, which may set up false expectations that things are always better elsewhere. We reveal imagined geographies and senses of place as highly relevant features in LGBTQ women’s accounts of experiences with and access to health care and expand conventional arguments about physical access to care.     

Korean unification: a solution to the challenges of an increasingly elderly population?

South Korea experienced below replacement fertility for the first time in 1983, which also marked the point from which fertility rates continued to decline over the next 20 years to reach a low of 1.2 in 2003. In spite of recent pronatalist policies, the fertility rate has remained near this level and has not increased appreciably. The reasons for sustained low fertility in South Korea are complex and solutions remain elusive. One option that has been suggested is reunification with North Korea, which could address the eventual decline in the population and mitigate the increasing proportion of the elderly. Although the conditions surrounding the German reunification experience were vastly different than what Korea will likely undergo, it is informative to look at Germany as a guide to the demographic parameters of reunification. Three projection models for 2015–2050 are presented; even the highest fertility models show that reunification will not be the answer to population restructuring already underway in South Korea as a result of sustained low fertility.