Word: reformer
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...fact that an issue like tax reform generates so much excitement says a lot about the zeitgeist in Germany today--and helps explain why the government of Gerhard Schröder was voted out last month after seven years in power. Following weeks of wrangling, the country's major parties agreed last week to form a coalition government headed by Angela Merkel, 51, who stands to become the first female Chancellor in German history. The victory of Merkel and her Christian Democratic Party marks a generational shift in German politics. Young voters who once were worried about social issues say they...
...PASSED. JAPAN'S POSTAL-REFORM BILLS, by a vote of 134 to 100, in the Upper House of parliament; in Tokyo. The vote ensures the enactment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the three functions of Japan's $3 trillion postal system, including the world's largest savings bank, by 2017. A cornerstone of Koizumi's reform agenda, the bills were voted down by the Upper House in August, causing the Prime Minister to call snap elections for the Lower House aimed at silencing critics of the plan?even those in his own party. (The Lower House...
...government announced a reform program called WorkChoices and launched a mass message roll-out that might save the bonuses of the nation's advertising sales folk. "Today, as never before," said Howard, "Australia is a workers' market." The new system is designed to let the market set the price of labor. Pay and conditions will be negotiated between workers and their employers; a new Fair Pay Commission will set minimum wages. A lot of cumbersome and outdated administration will be junked, and unfair-dismissal laws will be made more sensible. The economic argument is that reform will reduce the cost...
...Howard calls the measures "major but not extreme." It's classic Howard reform. From little things big things grow, as the vernacular poet sang. If he can swing the legislation without significant alterations, Howard will have started a cultural and economic dynamic that will change Australia forever. Over the coming years, workers' capacity to strike will be limited, the income gap between workers with highly prized skills and those without will expand, the role of unions (already losing their relevance) will decline, and Australians' ideas about the relationship between bosses and workers and about a fair-wage safety net will...
...cast their ballot for the presidential candidate who had promised to raise the federal minimum wage. There are plenty of possible reasons why Kerry didn’t capitalize on the living wage movement in Florida. Many, including Jenn Kern, national organizer for the Association of Communities Organizing for Reform Now (ACORN), the group that spearheaded the Florida living wage campaign, blame Kerry. “Kerry,” says Kern, “failed to seize the opportunity to use the issue to connect with voters.” Regardless of who is responsible for Kerry?...