About informal sector

About informal sector CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The informal sector makes a considerable contribution to production, consumption and income generation, particularly in developing countries. For example, it contributed about 8 percent and 68 percent to the GDP of the United States and Bolivia respectively in the years 2002 – 2003 (Schneider 2005). The sector is also a source of sustenance for the majority of the poor, unskilled and socially marginalized population, especially women. Moreover, it is a vital way of survival in an economy that suffers from deficient social safety programmers and unemployment insurance. In developing countries the informal sector not only contributes significantly to the national output but it also serves as a source of employment for most of the unskilled population (Becker 2004). According to the estimations of the World Bank (2003) in the period from 1980 to 1990, the informal sector contributed on average 40 percent of the GNP and 50 percent of the employment in developing countries. In India, the informal sector accounts for 62 percent of the GNP, 50 percent of the gross national savings and 40 percent of the national exports and absorbs 83 percent of workforce (ILO 2002). The contribution of the informal sector also tends to increase in many countries. On average, the informal sector contributed about 41 percent of the official GDP in 1999 – 2000, and increased to 43 percent in 2002 – 2003. For example in Colombia it increased from 39.1 percent in 1999 – 2000 to 43.4 percent in 2002 – 2003; in Moldova from about 45 percent to 49 percent; in Botswana from 33.4 percent to 34.6 percent and in South Africa from 28.4 percent to 29.5 percent (Schneider 2005). However, different methods of measurement were applied depending on the specific definition of the informal sector. This complicates any comparison. In Africa the informal sector is mostly composed of street vendors, retailers and in rare cas es wholesalers who trade in products such as food, clothes and electronic appliances. The manufacturing and services only account for a small share of the sector (UN 1996). For instance in countries like, Angola, Botswana and Uganda, the informal sector is dominated by the retail sector. ILO (2002) demonstrates that in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the majority of informal workers are self-employed and it makes up 70 percent of the total informal labor force and the remainder are hired employees. However, street vendors are much more common on the continent and according to Charmes (1998) they account for about 80 percent of the entire sector in Benin. In recent decades there has been greater interest in getting consensus on the definition of the informal sector as well as on the measurement. It is important to have a clear understanding of its impact and contribution to the economic growth and the welfare of the society of low income countries. Therefore, most governments in developing countries took positive steps to measure the size of the sector to ensure that it is integrated as an engine of growth and development. This is important to make policies in order to support the informal sector in a sustainable manner (Tokman 2001). The informal sector in Mozambique involves wholesalers and retailers, selling a broad range of food and non food products that are consumed not only by low income, but also medium income households (Dana & Galbraith 2006). The sector employs the majority of the labor force due to a lack of financial incentives to participate in formal activities, labor laws and complexities in the implementations of regulations. Approximately 77 percent of the labor force was involved in the informal activities in 2005 (INE 2006). Additionally, this sector accounts for 20 to 50 percent of the country’s GDP. The above mentioned factors clearly demonstrate that this sector requires legal empowerment as support for its stakeholders and enterprises (Weber, Michael & David 1992). Although the government of Mozambique designed a strategy to attract foreign investment to support and develop the linkages between the informal and formal sectors of the economy, this is not sufficient.

The Federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and Social Control Essay

The Federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and Social Control - Essay Example By 1970s, however, both progressivism and populism lost their appeal as stand-alone policies (Vito & Allen, 1981). While progressives had failed to provide an alternative to indeterminate sentencing, populism was seen as something that negated the spirit of the law and it was declared that "Federal judges are not responsive to the pulsations of humanity." These themes dominated SRA for some time and culminated in the development of Federal sentencing Act of 1984 with one primary aim i.e. to be fair in the purposes of imprisonment.The US Congress played a slight and indirect role in federal sentencing for about a century or so by vesting into the sentencing judge an unbarred discretion to figure out the appropriate punishment from usually a diverse ambit of potential sentences as been described by law. This rendered the judge to be in total control of sentencing and it was up to the judge only to envisage various aspects of sentencing the relevant aggravating and mitigating circumstan ces and how these all factors jointly contributed to the commissioning of the sentence. The judicial sentences were virtually subject to no review on appeal. The underlying rationale of the whole exercise was based upon "coercive rehabilitation." That invariably involved judge deciding an extensive punishment of long duration and the parole board contemplating release on the grounds of adequate rehabilitation. That whole system relied heavily on the personal discretion of the judge without much accountability. This was naturally bound to criticism as with problems caused as a result of authority wielding undeterred personal discretion and seen largely as foot loose and fancy free scenario. Congress was acutely aware by 1970s of the growing unease among the general public and pervasive problems in the judicial system that were emanating due to the lack of well defined parameters in sentence commissioning. The disparity in the sentencing system lead to a thorough evaluation by Congres s in 1984 in which it was known that the whole system was in the dire need of reform and had lost the necessary credibility required to sustain the public confidence to serve as a sufficient deterrent to crime. It was concluded in that study the inconsistency and disparity in the sentencing system was due to the inadequate sentencing application by the judiciary. Congress took initiative to redress the problem by enacting the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 is also commonly stated as SRA; it drew a comprehensive outline for restructuring of judicial sentencing discretion that essentially changed altogether the sentencing in the federal justice system. The SRA's prime objective was to overcome the chasm of sentencing disparity. The first step that Congress took was to reject the prevalent view of rehabilitation as the foremost goal of sentencing. It redefined the objectivity of sentence as retributive, educational, and deterrent (Howell, 2004). By enacting SRA Congress sought to bring the whole judicial process above board ultimately helping it regain the trust of masses important to discourage crime, revitalizing the system by modifying its dynamics, curbing over dependence on imprisonment and upholding the dignity and discretion of judges faculty. The important points(USSC, 1991) of SRA could be summarized as follow: 1. There should be a clear and comprehensive statement of sentencing of federal law along with

The Importance of Net Neutrality Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Importance of Net Neutrality - Term Paper Example Because of the current net neutrality legislations, these intersecting networks are able to send and receive data from one point to the other without additional payments. Devoid of net neutrality, that would not be the case. Network machinists would be able to regulate traï ¬Æ'c further closely and emphasise on making cash out of one another rather than giving reliable amenity. When net neutrality introduces certain challenges for content-providers and final-users, we trust the beneï ¬ ts exceeds those challenges. Net neutrality provides new developers the chance to share their thoughts with the world through not crippling them economically. While the cancellation of net neutrality profits broadband providers, it will bring problems to a lot of value providers. Therefore it could significantly stiï ¬â€še how the internet works, similarly as the economies that depend on its services. The machinery industry is industrializing so fast today; it is futile to say what is most desirabl e for the future. But one thing to be certain of: eliminating net neutrality would change the internet overwhelmingly for a more good or bad (Gross, 2009) Because of the magnitude of these files, such transfers are able to consume a substantial fraction of the internet’s bandwidth. Bit Torrent’s wireless connection guide offers two model downloads which it says will â€Å"max out your internet connection within a few minutes† â€Å"Digital piracy†. Examining one prominent circumstance, the operators of a Swedish website termed as â€Å"The Pirate Bay† were found guilty of copyright desecration when providing a directory of movies and extra files available in the website via Bit Torrent (Patrick & McBride, 2009). In 2007, some of Comcast’s Internet clients encountered challenges when operating with Bit Torrent. The Allied Press investigated and conveyed that Comcast was prying with the Bit Torrent decorum (Svensson, 2007), leading to