International Insulation from Politics and the Challenge of State Building: Learning from Kosovo

Skendaj, Elton

doi:10.1163/19426720-02003009

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…If the hasty speed of adoption generated tensions between social welfare reforms that remain unresolved to this day, the international community's concerns were not unfounded. Only those parts of the administration which were insulated from political influence did not suffer from low levels of competence or did not otherwise develop extensive patronage networks (Skendaj, 2014). As soon as the authority was definitively transferred to the PISG, the pensions system become a preferred vehicle for benefits clientelism.…”

Section: The Kosovar Pensions Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Kosovar basic old age pension as universalist exception amidst clientelist fragmentation

Guardiancich¹

2018

SEER

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Kosovo's universal non-means-tested basic old age pension provides an income floor for all resident citizens aged 65 and over who do not qualify for other budget-financed schemes. It is regarded as administratively simple and cost-efficient. However, being a universal scheme, it is ill-equipped to provide for the clientelist needs of Kosovo's politicians. To liberate budgetary resources, the Labour Ministry planned in 2016 to cut the zero pillar to finance the special schemes for war veterans and their families that have mushroomed in recent years, although no further progress has been made with implementation. This article argues that dismantling the basic pension is potentially harmful to the poorest strata of the elderly population and is, at the same time, also out of touch with Kosovo's labour market realities. In its place, and to improve the design efficiency of the basic old age pension, it proposes a system of reform that, in line with the current orientation both of the IMF and the World Bank, addresses the linked problem areas of the system's eligibility, taxation, benefits structure and administration.

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Section: The Kosovar Pensions Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only Paraguay has established an independent directorate (Rofman et al, 2015). Given the lack of trained staff and the unenviable record of patronage in Kosovo, the new administration would be both inefficient and the target for abuse as regards the appointment of cronies (Skendaj, 2014).…”

Section: Design Shortcomingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Kosovar basic old age pension as universalist exception amidst clientelist fragmentation

Guardiancich¹

2018

SEER

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“…Yet what had become a functional response to a set of problems, also worked against the chances of success. According to various studies, an operation improves its chance of success when there is an appropriate balance of the technical and the local (Campbell ; Skendaj ). Yet the politics of knowledge and expertise potentially tilt this balance in a dysfunctional way.…”

Section: Humanitarian Governance Expertise and Dysfunctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accountability and global governance: The view from paternalism

Barnett

2015

Regulation & Governance

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A standard view is that global governance institutions require strong accountability mechanisms to perform effectively and legitimately. Yet these institutions are much better at preaching than practicing accountability. A standard explanation for this gap references interests. For various reasons, institutions and their creators would rather be less than more accountable, and they are quite content to live with the hypocrisy. This article points to an alternative possibility: the public interest. An article of faith is that modern governance should be staffed by relatively autonomous experts who use their specialized knowledge for the greater good; accordingly, they cannot be accountable to those who are affected by their decisions. Too much democracy, therefore, can be a source of dysfunction. Yet expert authority's virtues also can become vices; namely, insulation from those affected by their decisions can also be a source of dysfunction, most closely associated with the "iron cage." Although the possibility that expertise is both a virtue (effectiveness) and a vice (dysfunction) is well known in the literature on domestic governance, it has been neglected in discussions of global governance. Indeed, the dangers of, and dysfunctions associated with the iron cage might be greater in global governance than in domestic governance precisely because of the absence of institutional checks that often are produced by a preexisting social contract between the rulers and the ruled. I probe this possibility in the area of humanitarian governance.

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The Rule of Law, Peacebuilding, and Agenda 2030: Lessons from the Western Balkans

Edgar

2021

Crime Prevention and Justice in 2030

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International Insulation from Politics and the Challenge of State Building: Learning from Kosovo

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

The Kosovar basic old age pension as universalist exception amidst clientelist fragmentation

The Kosovar basic old age pension as universalist exception amidst clientelist fragmentation

Accountability and global governance: The view from paternalism

The Rule of Law, Peacebuilding, and Agenda 2030: Lessons from the Western Balkans

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