22 June 2006

144721 Essay 2

Some of you may already have given thought to the document that you might use as a subject for assignment 2. A good place to start looking is the Beehive website, or the websites of policy ministries. I can help you find a specific example if need be, but here are some general guidelines. Clearly it will need to be a document that concerns issues that are of intellectual interest to you personally and that have wide ramifications for an analysis from the perspective of political economy. You will need to read around the subject so that you can form your own analysis. Be careful about choosing policy work in which you may have a personal involvement or responsibility. While you may know a lot about it as an 'insider', sometimes this has the disadvantage of making your analysis too one-sided, or distracting you from the importance of the wider international literature on the topic. Please contact me if you need assistance with this.
As a matter that is perhaps more relevant to 144724, I thought I would invite comments on this question: Should the Minister of Energy have resigned (as called for by the Opposition) over the recent power blackout in Auckland?

1 Comments:

At 9:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

From what I hear on the news (always a hazardous position to start from!), the power failure resulted from a faulty bracket, which could have been picked up by routine maintenance, but wasn't - plus the bad weather. Given that the system is run by an SOE, it's unfair to lay the blame with the Minister. SOEs are required to manage their operational affairs independently. On the other hand, given the costly consequences (even though it was a relatively minor accident), the Minister would be irresponsible not to investigate and require preventive actions. It seems that this is being done. In short, the Minister can keep his job for the time being.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home