A New Revenue Sharing Act and a New Stability Pact for Austria – No Fundamental Changes
The new Austrian domestic Stability Pact aims at the achievement of a zero deficit until 2008. At the federal level, the Maastricht-relevant deficit is to be reduced to 0.75 percent of GDP, states and municipalities together are obliged to obtain a surplus of 0.75 percent of GDP in 2008. The new revenue sharing agreement will not change fiscal relations fundamentally. The weight of shared federal taxes will increase; most of them will be distributed according to uniform revenue shares. The revenues of the smallest municipalities from the horizontal apportionment of shared federal taxes will increase. The states' strong dependency on intergovernmental transfers will not be reduced, the tax autonomy of the subnational levels of government will remain low.
Medium-Term Budgetary Frameworks - Lessons for Austria from International Experience
The Austrian government is about to introduce a new fiscal management framework. The first step is to introduce a medium-term budgetary framework, including an expenditure rule. The paper focuses on this first step. The purpose is to describe and evaluate the Austrian model in light of other countries' experiences with their frameworks. An attempt is made to identify features that have proven to be effective elsewhere and that can be applied to the Austrian case. The paper also identifies potential challenges and possible trade-offs when implementing the framework.
Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
PART I: The Pre-Islamic Middle East Chapter 1 Mesopotamia Chapter 2 The Mediterranean Middle East PART II: Founding Discourses Chapter 3 Women and the Rise of Islam Chapter 4 The Transitional Age Chapter 5 Elaboration of the Founding Discourses Chapter 6 Medieval Islam PART III: New Discourses Chapter 7 Social and Intellectual Change Chapter 8 The Discourse of the Veil Chapter 9 The First Feminists Chapter 10 Divergent Voices Chapter 11 The Struggle for the Future Conclusion Notes Index.