Three firms recognized

I don't know much about the writing trade, son. But if you're going to take it up, you'll have to give it your best.

That little bit of homespun wisdom was delivered by Daddy John Walton to his son John, Jr., in a made-for-TV movie called "The Homecoming," the precursor of "The Waltons," a celebrated television show of the 1970s. One would guess that most dedicated fathers would give that advice to their young ones at one time or another. "Whatever you do, give it your best."

The Target Markets Program Administrators Association (TMPAA), an organization dedicated to improving the image and performance of program administrators, is only five years old. But the TMPAA is already looking for the best from its 250 member organizations. For that reason, the association last year implemented its Best Practice Designation and bestowed that honor on three of its members-Distinguished Programs, The Mattei Companies and Professional Underwriters.

"One core element of the TMPAA mission is to promote excellence for this most elite segment of insurance intermediaries who are program administrators/MGAs," says Art Seifert, past president of the association. "The three agencies receiving the designation exemplify the standards we are setting for program business."

eifert adds: "Target Markets has developed a great process to evaluate the program business operations of association members who apply for this designation. We feel that participation in a Best Practice evaluation will encourage applicants to review their current level of functioning, look for greater efficiencies in the way they currently do business and, ultimately, be recognized by other program business professionals. The designation will benefit members not only through critical reviews and improvements in agency function, but through enhanced market image and product promotions."

Gregory B. Katz, deputy managing partner of the New York office for the law firm Wilson Elser, was one of the evaluators for agency members seeking the Best Practice Designation. "We used review criteria developed by Target Markets in order to evaluate program business operations in various areas," Katz says. "The results of the evaluation were then submitted to a Target markets review panel for final determination on granting the Designation. The checklist included: use of technology, checks and balances, internal quality control, claims handling (where appropriate), document retention, training and supervising underwriters, low turnover and other quality control measures. The evaluation criteria were sent to the program administrators prior to the on-site evaluation."

Katz went on to say: "Wilson Elser is excited about this opportunity to assist Target Markets with this initiative. Our firm is uniquely qualified to conduct the required on-site evaluation, given our experience in this area and years of experience representing MGAs and insurance carriers. We are very cognizant of the confidentiality issues involved in this process and have carefully constructed a process that addresses this issue."

Jeremy Hitzig, CEO of the New York-based Distinguished Programs, says that he and his staff are very gratified to have received the Best Practice Designation. "Our agency was excited about the possibility of demonstrating the systems and controls developed to run a successful program," he says. "The evaluation provided us the opportunity to reevaluate our operation and look for additional efficiencies. Given the growing industry status of the TMPAA, earning this Best Practice Designation is also a good investment in our business. With our focus on the real estate industry, we have instituted controls for catastrophe modeling, predictive modeling and the use of technology. We have quick turnaround in quotes and policy issuance and, overall, we use technology to provide better services for our customers."

John Solari of Professional Underwriters explains that his agency is focused on public entities. "There are many MGAs out there who deal with a variety of classes of business. We believe that our focus on public entities has allowed us to develop expertise in responsible underwriting and risk control for this market. We have 42 individuals in our agency and expect to put on more people in 2007. All of our people are specialists in the public entity market. We are very happy to have received the Best Practice designation."

Richard Mattei, CEO of The Mattei Companies, says that the evaluation process for the Best Practice Designation was a confirmation that his company has taken the right steps to develop an efficient, well-run operation. "This designation is a testament to our staff that deserves the credit for the award," he says. The Mattei Companies is based in Seattle and has programs for agribusiness, forest products, wholesale distributors, moving and storage, waste haulers and Alaska Commercial Insurance.

David Jordan, senior vice president of AIG Programs, praised the new TMPAA Best Practice Designation. "Recognizing the expertise of program specialists and acknowledging the administrators who run 'Best in Class' program operations is an important function for the association," he said. "The Best Practice Designation raises the bar for the program business segment of the industry. Target Markets has become a considerable force in this business segment, which is why we have been strong advocates for and a member of the group since its inception in 2001."

"HUMAN DEVELOPMENT" (HD) HAS BECOME THE NEW BUZZWORD in the development literature during the last quarter-century and is now the professed aim of some prominent development agencies. In the not too distant past, quantitative economic growth was the sole desideratum of developing nations, but "human development" encompasses more than mere material growth. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), arguably one of the most influential advocates of the new agenda for "quality of growth," has defined HD as "creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests" (UNDP 2001: 9). Sen (1998) elaborates the idea of HD by stressing the increased possibilities for people to lead freer and more fulfilling lives; it is, according to Sen, allowing individuals to "flourish as human beings" (1998: 734). (1) This broader view of development emphasizes opportunity improvement in the dimensions of education, health, and civil participation rather than annual flow of goods and services at market prices (Sen 1996; Streeten 2000; Thomas et al. 2000). Advocates of HD claim that it has the added benefit of generating positive social externalities that can, in turn, help boost economic development. For example, social cohesion, strong civil participation, and more equitable distribution of income are expected to increase with HD.

This study thus conducts a standard cross-national research to empirically test the hypothesis that political democracy improves HD. Compared to previous research designs, this study involves more countries in the analysis, uses a wider variety of HD measures, and compares the impact on HD of recently developed democracy measures with that of economic and government factors in DCs.

THE LITERATURE HAS PROPOSED THE HYPOTHESIS that political democracies influence HD. From the resources redistributive perspective, it is frequently argued that when the general population is allowed to vote, the government tends to redistribute public resources toward the consumption of the general population. That is, low-paid workers and the poor are more likely to benefit from a government that "responds." In perhaps the most authoritative definition of democracy, Lipset (1981: 27) defines democracy as "a political system which supplies regular constitutional opportunities for changing the governing officials, and a social mechanism which permits the largest possible part of the population to influence major decisions by choosing among contenders for political office." In this political system, majority rule allows the general population to exert its political influence, and consequently to enhance its social and economic welfare. The accountability of the government to the people derives from a power distribution structure that tilts favorably toward the masses.

Contrasting with Lipset's focus on civil participation in a democracy, Olson contended that a democracy tends to constrain the redistributional behavior of the ruling group. Because public resources (as well as the income difference between the ruling majority and the ruled minority) are maintained by collecting more taxes, the dominant majority in a democracy tends to "limit the dead-weight losses it imposes on society because it bears a substantial proportion of these losses" (McGuire and Olsen 1996: 86). Since the individual rights of the members among the majority (not exclusively the working class) are asserted in the first place, the state necessarily refrains from capturing enormous returns in the markets (Olson 2000: 192). In contrast, an autocracy, namely, government by an absolute ruler or a small elite, has an incentive to adopt a very short-term perspective and limit redistribution to itself.