The changing role of business associations in democratizing Taiwan

This article examines the role of business associations in Taiwan. It begins by comparing the three approaches used to explain state‐society relations in modern Taiwan: capitalist, corporatist, and pluralist. Legal requirements for economic organizations reflect a corporatist impulse. However, empirical measurements of associations’ communications with government, government supervision of associations, and economic impacts on state policy demonstrate increasing pluralism. Today's business associations have greater autonomy than previously, but at the cost of reduced control over their members. SMEs and large conglomerates have growing political influence in Taiwan's changing political economy.     

Bureaucrats–Enterprise Negotiation in China's Enterprise Reform at the Local Level: case studies in Guangzhou

This article explores the implementation of SOE reform in China at the local level, using case studies in Guangzhou as illustration. It is argued that local government spearheads a reform agenda that puts locally-defined state objectives first, not necessarily favouring enterprise restructuring. A full-fledged negotiation model does not exist in SOE reforms because all enterprises are controlled by the state and have to comply with top-down policies and orders. Government-enterprise relations and the degree of entrepreneurial power depend largely on the economic strength of the enterprise, with the boomers getting a good economic bargain while the laggards fail to gain sympathy from government. Enterprise workers are largely at the mercy of restructuring decisions that come from bargaining and at times collusion between managers and local bureaucrats.     

The Local Corporatist State and NGO Relations in China

This article examines the Chinese state's interactions and influences on the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through a corporatist framework. It suggests that not only is the central state actively involved in the development of NGOs, but increasingly the successes of NGOs are determined by their interactions with the local state. We profile NGOs in Shanghai, of varying sizes, budgets and issue-areas, as a case study to understand the interplay between NGOs and the local state. The article further discusses reasons behind the growing shift from central to local state influences, and the potential future implications for state–NGO relations in China.     

行业协会在产业升级中的作用:文献评论

在当代中国,产业升级已然成为热门议题。行业协会与政府、企业一起在产业升级中各自发挥着重要作用。国内外行业协会推动经济发展、促进产业升级的作用表明,行业协会遵循对外争取资源、对内提供服务促进会员集体合作的逻辑,论者们在理论上将其归纳为影响逻辑和会员逻辑。行业协会促进产业升级的作用发挥以完善的内部治理结构、外部市场竞争压力与政府的规约激励等为前提条件。     

Grand Mediation and Legitimacy Enhancement in Contemporary China—the Guang'an model

China has seen numerous instances of collective resistance in recent years. Suppression cannot stop popular resistance. It is also hard to solve all problems through the existing judicial system, administrative method or by social means. Based on a case study in Sichuan, this article studies the Grand Mediation (GM) mechanism in Guang'an as one of the ways in which the Chinese government chooses to build institutions and channel social grievances. GM is successful in containing social conflicts and helping the state to garner legitimacy by reducing people's hostility towards local government, which could enhance the CCP's legitimacy, whose paramount goal is to maintain political stability and social harmony.     

Weak Power Bargaining with China: Mongolia and North Korea in comparative perspective

This article examines Mongolia's and North Korea's bargaining with the People's Republic of China to provide insight into Northeast Asian regional dynamics and weak state bargaining behavior. The article demonstrates how both Mongolia and North Korea (which it demonstrates are weak states) employ a variety of tactics within the categories of capitulation, neutrality and confrontation when managing their respective relations with China. The article also argues the applica`bility of the two case studies to a better understanding of the diplomatic challenges China faces as it continues its development and to China's relations with the various weak states on its periphery.     

The ‘Tianxia Trope’: will China change the international system?

The tianxia trope has been advanced as an organizing principle for post-Cold War international relations encompassing the rise of the People's Republic of China. The tianxia system is defined as a Sino-centric hierarchical relationship among unequals, governed according to Confucian principles of benevolence. As traditionally practiced, it incorporated an important role for the observance of ritual, including the presentation of tribute to the emperor as Son of Heaven, purportedly resulting in a Pax Sinica. Its supporters believe that, if adopted in today's world, tianxia would constitute a great improvement over the anarchic Westphalian system of theoretically equal states who possess sovereignty, i.e. inviolability within their own borders. Because they answer to no superior authority, the Westphalian system is by its very nature conducive to discord and war. This article will argue that both the tianxia and Westphalian systems have serious flaws and were rarely practiced as either their proponents or detractors argue. However, even states whose domestic autonomy is compromised by internal dissent and whose weaknesses prevent their playing an influential role internationally have vested interests in maintaining adherence to the Westphalian system, if only as a bargaining position. The PRC government itself has accepted the principles inherent therein through such actions as joining the United Nations and becoming a signatory of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It zealously defends its sovereign prerogatives when useful, even as it makes efforts to educate the world on the virtues of a Confucian Great Harmony, and its supporters advocate following a somewhat nebulously defined Chinese model. In the absence of compelling incentives for major players in the current international system to adopt the tianxia system, Westphalian sovereignty appears likely to remain the organizing principle of international relations for the foreseeable future, its serious deficiencies notwithstanding. To paraphrase Winston Churchill's remarks on democracy, it may be the worst form of government except for all the others.     

Local State Corporatism or Neo-Guanxilism? Observations from the county level of government in China

Chinese economic and social development in the past three decades has been typically state-led, in which capital and government officials are gradually allied through guanxi—a social psychological network that connects individuals with continued exchanges of favours, emotions and resources. This transforms many traditional characteristics of guanxi and encodes it with new features deeply rooted in institutional settings in contemporary China, which we term as neo-guanxilism. Although ‘local state corporatism’ has strong explanatory power in analysing the alliance of enterprises and local government, we argue that this type of neo-guanxilism could fill the gap uncovered by local state corporatism, mainly through emphasizing government officials as interdependent actors instead of viewing the local state as a collective, capturing not only the developmental but also the predatory aspects of local governments.     

非制度化的利益表达：对农村集体行动的思考——以H县北村为例

对一桩非制度化集体行动的经验考察发现，非制度化的利益表达是一种兼具理性和危险性的集体行动，它是在缺乏制度化利益表达机制时在体制外生成的。其生成的原因是，市场经济条件下地方政府一农民之间关系的转变；以及利益分离的制度结构的存在。     

外发工厂:拆分型劳动体制下留守女工的兼业生产

在产业转移和劳动力转移的大背景下,沿海地区代工产业如电子、玩具等劳动密集型订单开始向内地转移外发,吸引了大量农村留守妇女参与到生产中。这些妇女在拆分型劳动体制下不得不从打工地返回家乡,承担起照顾家庭的重任。女工的兼业工作对于建构自我认同以及提升其家庭地位和社会地位有很大的帮助。同时,妇女的兼业生产具有脆弱性,它不仅体现在订单的不稳定方面,更体现在国家和地方政府的政策保护不足方面。因此,要从根本上改变这种局面,必须落实农民工融入城市、加快农民工市民化等相关政策,推进城市政府公共服务均等化工作,让农民工家庭能够全面享受城市公共服务,以化解拆分型劳动体制所带来的社会问题。     

Church and state relations in China: Characteristics and trends

This article is a detailed overview of the pattern of church and state relations in present‐day China. Rooting the analysis in the context of international patterns of church and state relations, the priorities of the Chinese government and the basic policy issues that have defined the development and the present status of relations between the Chinese government and religious circles in contemporary China are examined. Future trends in the church and state relationship in China are forecast.     

辩诉交易中的检察权基础

辩诉交易制度在美国经历了百余年的发展,形成了一整套行之有效的司法制度体系。该文认为,辩诉交易在美国绝非是检察官和辩护律师之间的讨价还价,但检察官和辩护律师之间的交易是辩诉交易的核心环节,而此时检察官手中的权力对辩诉交易的形成和发展则有着决定性的影响。     

劳动教养制度存废之争及评析

劳动教养制度是一项具有中国特色的法律制度,它既是我国法学理论界争论的焦点,也是西方社会攻击我国人权状况的主要层面.本文对劳动教养制度存废争论的主要观点进行梳理,并结合法学理论对之进行评析,认为劳动教养制度不能废除,应该完善.     

党的领导制度建设思想之创新

党的三代领导集体 ,对领导制度建设都作出了重大贡献。以江泽民为核心的第三代领导集体在继承、发展的基础上 ,与时俱进 ,对党的领导制度进行理论创新、制度创新、实践创新 ,对推动依法治国、依法执政、进行政治体制改革 ,建设社会主义民主政治 ,具有深远的历史、现实、理论意义     

广西实施新型农村社会养老保险制度的难点与对策分析

农村社会养老保险是党和国家最为关注的"三农"问题中的一个方面.在广西实施新型农村社会养老保险制度,由于各地经济发展水平不同,而使全额收取养老金中的个人缴费部分、集体补助部分和养老保险金的个人缴费部分、集体补助部分标准的确定以及如何体现社会公平等成为难题.因此,在实施过程中要大力发展生产,体现政府关怀,确保实现公平,创新养老方式,使农村养老保险成为农民致富的助力.     

困境与出路:罪犯劳动体系的理想化构建

由于在劳动目的认知上的偏差,劳动组织过程中实施手段的偏离与缺失,监狱组织罪犯劳动的效果并不尽如人意。通过构建以"自食其力"为目标的罪犯劳动驱动体系、以科学手段为指导的罪犯劳动组织体系以及政府扶持为主要模式的罪犯劳动运行体系,可建立较为理想的罪犯劳动制度。     

China's Distinctive System: can it be a model for others?

The idea of the ‘Beijing Consensus’ does not accurately describe what has happened in China, nor does it represent a consensus among Chinese economists and policy-makers. This article presents six distinctive features of China's economic development, and argues that while each provides important lessons, none are easily copied by other developing countries. The intertwining of state and market in China is at the root of China's most distinctive developmental features. However, the specific character of the Chinese system and the way in which government and business relations have been structured cannot be readily replicated in other countries.     

加快农村集体建设用地管理制度创新探析

伴随中国城镇化迅猛发展,大中城市周边集体建设用地已经成为城镇化的主要区域。全国各地的集体建设用地流转试验为新型城镇化背景下转变增长方式、完善土地管理机制提供了宝贵经验。该文在总结各地集体建设用地流转试验基础上,提出在大中城市周边区域率先建立统一的集体建设用地流转制度,促进城市周边区域经济社会统筹协调发展的目标,并就完善集体经济组织主体地位,发挥政府引导、协调、管理和监督职能,鼓励、扶持产业支撑,深化城镇社会保障和就业体制改革,加快公共服务均等化改革和城乡综合管理体制创新等问题提出具体建议。     

建立完善城市弱势群体的社会保障制度

辽宁省作为中国的老工业基地之一,国有经济比重大,企业冗员负担沉重,下岗失业人员数量多,此外还有一定数量的破产企业失业人员、集体企业未参保人员等形成的贫困阶层的弱势群体。解决好这部分弱势群体的生活保障问题,是振兴东北老工业基地的一项基础性、前提性工程,是构建和谐社会的重要保障。本文根据辽宁省弱势群体的现状及问题提出了相应的对策,进而完善城镇弱势群体的社会保障制度。