Regional disparities and economic growth in Russia: new growth patterns and catching up

The regional disparities in Russia are increasing since transition started in the 1990s, as result of the structural processes of reorganisation and reallocations of resources taking place in the territory. The scopes of this contribution are two folds: to clarify the theoretical and policy background in analysing regional development in the transition and in particular in Russia, and to analyse the specificity of the spatial development and the regional disparities patterns in Russia. The economic geography is recognised among the different theories, very useful for helping to understand in particular the recent phenomena of new concentration pattern in Russia, giving a key of analysis of new polarisation trends: new trends toward urban concentrations in the Western regions, de-population of the Eastern regions, rural decline in those regions faraway from large urban agglomerations. In fact the empirical analysis indicates two dominant phenomena in the up-surging of regional disparities: the increasing weight of the capital city, Moscow as agglomeration effects brings the polarisation phenomena; and the strengthening of the natural resources and energy endowed regions. There is the question whether Russia, at this stage of development, can pursue an active regional policy toward equity targets or whether, for the target of sustaining macro-economic growth, there is the urgency to keep selected priorities based on the best performing poles. A difficult balance between the two targets would be the most suitable answer.     

论现阶段我国农村教育政策变革与创新

现阶段我国农村教育政策的变革与创新对农村教育的发展起着有力的推动作用.农村教育政策创新主要表现在:重新明确农村教育的重要作用与地位、进一步完善农村教育的管理体制、建立农村义务教育保障新机制、实施农村人力资源开发新战略等方面.推进社会主义新农村建设必然要求农村教育有着新的发展,这也要求教育政策继续创新.创新农村教育政策需要新思维、新视野.     

Arbitration of Environmental Insurance Claims: It's Not All Bad News for Policyholders

Most environmental insurance policies contain provisions calling for arbitration of claim disputes. Arbitration generally is confidential; it prevents development of the common law and is geared toward compromise. Standard policy arbitration provisions also are often used to curtail traditional policyholder protections. For these and other reasons, arbitration is generally not favorable to policyholders and should often be avoided. About a dozen states recognize this and bar coverage arbitration. There are other ways to avoid arbitration depending on the circumstances. However, if arbitration ultimately is required, there are several practical ways to make it fairer.     

促进吉林省金融发展的对策思考

金融部门是现代市场经济的核心部门,区域金融发展也是区域经济增长的核心力量。本文对吉林省金融发展的状况以及存在的主要问题进行了梳理,着重分析了旨在促进吉林省金融发展进而促进经济增长的政策取向,认为从宏观和省域两个层面采取相应政策对促进吉林省金融发展有重要的作用。     

Territorial justice and access to knowledge: the distribution of high-level legal skills in the regions of England and Wales

This paper conducts a mapping for the regions of England and Wales of legal specialisms which are explained in terms of spatial forces of gravitation. There are geographic barriers to access to justice arising out of the ‘friction of distance’. There is a filter effect which varies, depending on the type of legal problem which correlates with distance in respect of some categories of legal work which, in turn, raises considerations of territorial justice. Whether the role of law in this respect is thought of as a matter of access to justice or of access to competitive advantage raises important issues as to the effectiveness of the current organisation of the legal profession. Significant questions arise as to the capacity of solicitor firms within the regions of England and Wales to support the development of regional knowledge-based economic strategies. In turn, this has implications for the reform of the court structure in England and Wales and also various policy considerations in respect of nurturing the development of high level legal skills within the regions.     

Innovation capacity in the healthcare sector and historical anchors: examples from the UK,Switzerland and the US

Innovation is an integral part of economic development in developed economies. In the post 2008 period, a key policy agenda is that of sustainable development, which calls for innovation in all aspects of value-chains. In this paper, we focus on innovation from the biotech—pharma perspective to see whether or not this will lead to a sustainable future for the regions where there are clusters of firms in this sector. We examine data from a recently completed European Union study of innovation in the Healthcare sector from the UK and Switzerland, countries with an historical base in pharma, to understand how innovation pathways vary at the regional level in the broader life sciences, which incorporate biotech and more. Innovation in the healthcare sector in two regions, Oxfordshire in the UK and Zurich in Switzerland are compared. We contextualize our discussion by drawing on studies that focus on the sector in the US, specifically Boston. The analytical framework comprises three elements: innovation systems and national and regional economic development theories are the first two, followed by approaches which consider organizational or institutional activity. This framework is used to help explain and understand the complexity of how innovation is organized at the sub-national level. The overall context is that it is increasing becoming a condition for government financing of research that it has more immediate application in industry or have the possibility of commercialisation (e.g., translational research).     

A research topic in education law and policy: The development of regionalism and federalism in Europe and their impact on educational policy and administration

There has been an “upgrading” of the regional level in the European policy process which also has implications for educational policy and administration. At the same time federalism has become a model not only for nation states but also for the construction of Europe. While regionalism and federalism has attracted more and more scholarly attention there has been a neglect of the implications for the educational field. The article starts by looking for models of regionalisation and federalisation as a legal and political technique of conciliating between the different levels in education. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On Where We Differ: Sites Versus Grounds of Justice,and Some Other Reflections on Michael Blake’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Justice and Foreign Policy</Emphasis>

Blake’s book conveys a straightforward directive: the foreign policy of liberal states should be guided and constrained by the goal of helping other states to become liberal democracies as well. This much is what we owe to people in other countries—this much but nothing more. The primary addressees are wealthier democracies, whose foreign policy ought to be guided by the idea of equality of all human beings. My approach in On Global Justice bears important similarities to Blake’s, but with those similarities also come equally important differences. The purpose of this piece is to bring out these similarities and differences and in the process articulate some objections to Blake.     

Mandating – a likely scrutiny instrument for regional parliaments in EU affairs?

ABSTRACT

Scrutinising governments lies at the heart of parliamentary activities in EU affairs. This applies to national as well as to regional parliaments, most of which possess a toolbox of scrutiny instruments, including the power to mandate, allowing for the strongest form of scrutiny vis-à-vis governments. The article investigates the existence of mandating tools in the 70 regional parliaments equipped with legislative competences in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, whose role in EU affairs has been strengthened by stipulations in the Lisbon Treaty. It is argued that mandating tools are, first, not widely used; second, they are more commonly applied in cases where national parliaments act as ‘policy shapers’ – enabling policy transfer – and if meso-level factors involving territorial politics create further incentives. In sum, the regional parliaments in six member states are still trying to find a place in the maturing EU multi-level parliamentary system.     

共享发展新坐标:时代价值、阻滞因素及实践进路

党的十九届五中全会提出2035年"全体人民共同富裕取得更为明显的实质性进展"的目标,成为我国进入新发展阶段后党制定的关于共享发展的新坐标,这是以人民为中心发展思想的生动体现,也是实现全体人民共同富裕和人的自由全面发展的必由之路.但实现这样的目标还面临着思想观念、现实生产力、体制机制等主客观阻滞因素,为此本文提出从高质量...     

Judicial Reform and Rationalization: The Diffusion of Court Reform Policies Among the American States

Explaining the diffusion of judicial reform policies among the American states is an elusive task. Are such policies simply part of the larger policy process revealed in the comparative state policy literature? Or b court reform a policy arena unto itself, responding to factors uniquely legal or professional in nature? Our inquiry begins with Max Weber's sociology of law from which we adopt his concept of rationalization as a schema of policy development. According to Weber, the “rationalization” of legal institutions would accompany the advancement of capitalism in modernizing nations. Thus, we might expect specific judicial reform policies expressly aimed at rationalizing the structure and process of state court systems to be closely associated with each other and with commonly accepted indicators of economic development among the states. As part of our investigation, we relate court reforms to broader policy innovations among the states, drawing on earlier “diffusion of innovations” research. Our data indicate a strong connection between judicial reform and more general patterns of innovation diffusion among the states, but provide only modest support for Weber's assertions about the rationalization of legal systems under advancing capitalism. Three of the selected reforms cluster together and are largely explainable by indicators of economic development. Two other reforms do not fit this pattern, and their “behavior” requires additional discussion and research. Thus, the diffusion of judicial reform policy is partly accounted for by factors found in explanations of general policy innovations across states, but other, as yet unidentified, factors apparently influence certain aspects of judicial reform. The connection between Max Weber's legal sociology and policy development among the American states might at first blush seem remote or tenuous. However, this article attempts to use Weber's insights into modern legal systems to (1) examine a specific area of state policy making–judicial reform–and (2) establish a connection between policy development in the court reform area and the larger literature on general policy innovation in the American states. This inquiry is inspired by the lack of theoretical integration apparent in the literature on court reform, on the one hand, and the absence of empirical analyses connecting court reform data with “diffusion of innovation” policy studies, on the other.     

The Regional Innovation Paradox: Innovation Policy and Industrial Policy

This paper explores the regional innovation paradox and its policy implications. The regional innovation paradox refers to the apparent contradiction between the comparatively greater need to spend on innovation in lagging regions and their relatively lower capacity to absorb public funds earmarked for the promotion of innovation and to invest in innovation related activities compared to more advanced regions. Empirical analysis of the nature of the paradox shows that there are strong complementarities between business, education and government spending on R&D and that technology/innovation policy and industrial policies tend to work in opposite directions. Our analysis suggests that resolution of the paradox requires policies that: (i) increase the innovation capacity of regions by working both on the demand and the supply side of the system to increase both private and public sector investment in innovation activity; and (ii) integrate technology policy and industrial policy by encouraging expenditure on innovation activity within mainstream industrial policy programmes. The penultimate section of the paper outlines and assesses policy initiatives/experiments along these lines and suggests how they might be developed in the future.     

Economic Growth and Structural Changes in Employment and Investments in China, 1985–94

This paper uses a shift-share method to quantify the components of economic growth and structural changes in employment and investments at both the national and regional levels. The results indicate that rapid economic growth has been characterized by significant shifts in employment and investments between industries in China. Such structural changes have a distinct regional pattern which has important policy implications regarding spatial disparities in economic growth and income. The results shed some important light on the understanding of Deng's development thought that is formalized in this paper as a multi-tier and multi-stage development strategy for a large developing economy.     

区域经济协调发展的财税政策选择——以广东省为例

广东省作为第一经济大省,其省内区域经济发展出现了非均衡现象,珠三角与东西两翼和粤北山区的经济发展差距远远超过全国东西部地区差距。这种较大的区域发展差距严重地制约了广东经济持续健康的发展。财税政策作为一个行之有效的宏观经济杠杆,对促进区域经济协调发展和构建和谐社会发挥了巨大的作用。本文立足广东省内,就财税政策如何促进区域经济协调发展进行研究和探讨。     

跨区流域生态补偿如何实现横向协同? ——基于13个流域生态补偿案例的定性比较分析

【问题】流动的水资源与相对固定的区域分割形成一个治理难题,跨区流域生态补偿面临犬牙交错的权责关系。在此背景下,如何实现跨域政府间联防联治、构建全流域共同治理机制?本文试图探究如下问题:影响跨区流域生态补偿横向协同效果的因素有哪些?流域生态补偿协同治理的作用路径是什么?【方法】本研究构建了影响跨区流域生态补偿横向协同效果的动力模型,以建立跨区流域生态补偿协同治理机制的13个流域试点为案例,以地方统计年鉴、生态环境部门公开数据和政策文本等资料为数据来源,使用模糊集定性比较分析法(fsQCA)对数据进行分析。【发现】fsQCA条件组态分析发现实现跨区流域横向协同的两个条件组合路径:(1)跨区流域生态补偿横向协同效果=强政治势能*政策环境支持;(2)跨区流域生态补偿横向协同效果=弱组织支撑*地区经济差异*政策环境支持。两条路径总覆盖率约为72%,表示这两个组合能够解释大多数案例,是促进跨区流域生态补偿横向协同的典型组合。【贡献】研究发现了实现跨区流域生态补偿横向协同的两条路径:“高位主导”型协同路径和“辐射带动”型协同路径。因此,进一步优化我国跨区流域生态补偿协同治理机制应从差异化治理入手,完善跨区流域机制协同,构建横向自主协同新路径,全面提升流域—区域联动治理水平。     

美、日区域经济政策及其启示

区域经济发展不平衡是全世界普遍存在的问题,也是各国政府宏观调控的一个重要目标。美国、日本是世界上最发达的资本主义国家,但仍然存在区域经济发展不平衡问题,为此,美国和日本政府采取了多项措施,制定区域经济政策,以缩小区域发展差距。借鉴美国、日本的成功经验,对促进我国区域经济协调发展具有重要的意义。     

Spatio-Temporal Change of Crime at Provincial Scale in China—Since the Economic Reform

China has undergone tremendous social changes during the transition since the Economic Reform, and this paper did a comparative study on crime change patterns among provinces both spatially and temporally. The results indicated that (1) regional differences on crime levels and temporal change trends were largely influenced, or even been shaped, by the outcomes brought by economic reform, such as priority developmental policies, geographical location, transportation facilities, etc. For example, spatially, more developed areas with more governmental policy supports not only saw dramatic development during the economic reform but also showed higher criminal rates and greater criminal rate variation. (2) The relationships between criminal rates and corresponding contextual conditions vary by temporal scales (long-run and short-run), regions, target areas’ features and their different development policy priorities; (3) experiences from Western theories and empirical studies cannot be applied directly into the Chinese society, without taking into consideration of the spatial-temporal scales and target’s specialities; it is also suggestive to local policy-makers and governmental agencies that crime reduction and prevention measures should not be identical to other places and need to be made according to local characteristics.     

中国区域产业协同发展与《区域产业结构调控法》的制定

区域产业结构趋同是我国区域经济发展中的一个重要问题。这种趋同的根本原因是区域主导产业的选择和布局不是建立在资源禀赋和比较优势上,而是基于地方政府和官员的价值目标和地方利益。区域产业结构的同化,一方面使得各区域产业缺乏规模效益,加剧市场的恶性竞争,另一方面又使得本已匮乏的资源进一步恶化,激化了人与资源的矛盾,阻碍了我国经济进一步协调发展。中央政府先后出台了一系列产业调控与协调发展的政策,旨在扭转失衡的区域产业结构,但效果并不明显。本文分析了我国区域产业结构趋同的深层次原因,认为要从根本上解决这一问题,不仅要制定一系列调控区域产业结构的政策,更应适时地使一部分成熟的政策上升为法律,并在对我国区域产业实证分析的基础上,就制定《区域产业结构调控法》的重要性、调整对象、基本原则、主要内容提出了看法。     

论现代新型政府及实现的根本途径

随着国内外形势的发展,构建新型政府已成为我国各级政府的历史性任务。现代新型政府,即现代责任政府,具有民主政府、法治政府、服务政府等特征。构建现代责任政府是我国行政改革的最终目标,而提高执政能力是实现这一目标的根本途径。     

跨国知识产权侵权管辖原则的新发展——对传统地域管辖原则的突破

知识产权的地域性特点决定了知识产权管辖权极强的地域性原则。对于知识产权的侵权诉讼一般应在被授予权利的地域内进行,并在该地域范围内生效。但随着科学技术以及经济全球化的发展,欧美等西方国家要求突破地域管辖原则的呼声越来越高,并在实践中做了许多有益的尝试。我国作为发展中国家,知识产权的发展水平仍然不高,恪守传统的地域管辖原则对我国更为有利。