Double Lives, Double Narratives: Tracing the Story of the Family in Rousseau, the Swiss Civil Code and the Fathers’ Rights Debates

A recent parliamentary postulate in Switzerland calling for joint custody as the legal norm argues that fathers are discriminated against in Swiss divorce law. This postulate has incited a debate which circles around issues of equality, the role of fathers and mothers, and the good of the child. Our article, uniting approaches from literature, cultural studies, and science and technology studies, examines the arguments sparked by the debate with a view to different takes on gender and family. In doing so, it traces the roots of contemporary Swiss family law in the Rousseauian narrative of family life in Emile ou de l’education; it explores the manner in which scientific knowledge is marshaled to lend political legitimacy to current debate; and it asks finally how narrative bridges the gap between public discourse and lived experience.

Challenging Privatization: A Conceptual and Theoretical Argument

This is the second of a three-part polemic against the destruction of state owned enterprises in China (the first, “Against Privatization: A Historical and Empirical Argument”, is published in JCPS 13:1, 2008). It critically examines the ideology of privatization and argues for alternative guidelines of reform. The central contention is that a healthy market economy does not require domination of private property; rather it relies on apposite political-legal-ideological power and regulatory-monitoring regimes of accumulation and distribution socially legitimated within a given public culture. Rejecting the fallacies of ownership determinism and precision requirement on property rights for morality and efficiency, this essay clarifies distinction between the notion of exclusive properties and the vision of their socialized utility and management. Justifications for reforming state and private sectors alike in accordance with a unifying commons of social defense and feasibilities of innovative reform measures and policy proposals in that direction, will be elaborated in a third essay titled “Overcoming Privatization: A Strategic and Institutional Argument”.

Salience‐Based Congruence Between Parties & their Voters: The Swiss Case

Policy congruence between parties and their voters is a prerequisite for the latter's representation. Related research typically focuses on the left‐right dimension. We contribute to this literature by conceiving the alignment between citizens and political elites as congruence on issues that individual citizens consider important (salience‐based congruence). Furthermore, we approach salience from the citizen's perspective and measure it at the individual level. Based on data from the Swiss Election Study (2007), we demonstrate that the assessment of party representation changes once we take salience into account. Policy congruence on salient issues is high and niche parties perform better than mainstream parties. Our arguments and findings about the role personal issue salience plays at the individual and party levels have important repercussions for contemporary debates on representation and policy congruence.     

对民进党“对中政策扩大会议”的观察——兼论现阶段民进党两岸政策调整及其趋向

2014年1月9日,民进党历经半年多、9次“对中政策扩大会议”讨论形成了“2014对中政策检讨纪要”,这是该党现阶段两岸政策调整的集中体现。民进党虽然主张开放面对大陆,但仍抱持“台独”立场,对两岸交流“阻挠多开放少、防范多善意少、对抗多合作少”。在两岸关系和平发展新形势、民进党自身结构性问题、美国对台两手策略等因素的影响下,民进党两岸政策仍会继续调整,较可能的方向是走一条既不同于陈水扁也不同于马英九的“务实台独”之路。     

两岸区域发展一从大陆台商融资困境看台湾银行业的契机

两岸经贸关系日益紧密,台商大多采用离岸金融中心（OBU）方式融资,面对台资企业未来的发展需求,引进台湾银行业有助于协助解决台商融资问题,也有利于拓宽竞争激慰的大陆市场。两岸签订金融监管合作备忘录（MOU）及经济合作架构协议（ECFA）,为台湾银行业带来新契机。台湾银行业如何发挥自身优势,结合策略伙伴进入大陆企业金融市场,服务中小企业利基客户,是首先要面对的挑战;大陆消费金融潜力适合台湾经验,两岸银行业的竞合,是未来发展的趋势,并影响着两岸区域经济体共同的利益。     

欧盟区域政策对我国区域发展的启示

随着社会经济的不断发展,我国日益面临区域发展不平衡、"三农"问题、就业问题、工业化地区衰退问题、发达地区城市问题等区域问题的挑战。20世纪70年代以来,欧盟在解决上述类似问题的过程中,形成了完整的区域政策体系,积累了丰富经验,例如,确立坚实的法律基础、明确目标,制定阶段性发展规划、使用专门的区域政策工具、遵循严格的运行机制、实施积极的就业政策、促进农村经济的发展等,对我国制定区域发展政策具有十分重要的借鉴意义。     

Conduit or contributor? The role of media in policy change theory

The policy change literature is contradictory about the role the media plays in policy change: a conduit for policy participants, with media accounts transmitting multiple policy beliefs of those involved in policy debates or a contributor in the policy process, with media accounts supplying consistent policy beliefs with congruent narrative framing strategies to construct a policy story. The purpose of this study is to empirically test whether the role of the media is that of a conduit or contributor in the policy change process. This study tests whether there are differences in policy beliefs and narrative framing strategies between local and national print media coverage of two contentious policy issues in the Greater Yellowstone Area between 1986 and 2006, that of snowmobile access and wolf reintroduction. In the Greater Yellowstone Area policy arena, local media accounts are believed to be aligned with the Old West Advocacy Coalition, whereas the national media accounts are thought to be part of the New West Advocacy Coalition. With a methodology informed by narrative policy analysis, one hundred seventy five local and national print newspaper accounts were content analyzed to determine whether these media accounts were policy narratives, with embedded policy beliefs and narrative framing strategies. The results indicate that there are statistical differences between local and national media coverage for five of the seven hypotheses. Media accounts are generally policy stories, suggesting that the media’s role is more of a contributor than a conduit in the policy change process.

当代中国传媒、民意与公共决策的互动探析——以电话初装费政策调整和取消为案例

描述和分析了1990年末期以来由传媒参与、促进公共政策议程的个案。在该个案中,社会意见表达得以实现,促成了公共讨论,并导致了政府对在公共讨论基础上形成之民意的政策回应。对这一进程的发生及促成因素进行了分析和解释,研究表明:传媒、民意与公共决策的互动过程有三个重要关节点:民意表达、公共讨论、政府回应。在这个过程中,传媒起到了关键性作用,它充当了形成公共意见的"公共领域"的角色与功能。除了探讨传媒、民意与公共决策的互动过程与机制之外,对本个案中表现出的遗憾与局限也做了讨论。通过本个案研究,希望为当代中国传媒、民意与公共决策互动问题提供一个微观视角。     

中国住房制度改革的政策评析

中国的住房制度改革是渐进式的,渐进式的房改避免了激进式改革中因利益关系迅速调整而引发的社会震荡,较好地实现了房改深化、经济发展和社会稳定的共同目标。根据不同时期中国住房制度改革的背景和特征,可以将其划分为四个阶段,即初步实践阶段(1980年6月—1994年6月)、综合配套阶段(1994年7月—1998年6月)、全面推进阶段(1998年7月—2007年7月)和结构调整阶段(2007年8月至今)。在对各阶段的房改政策进行梳理、分析与评介的基础上,可以发现:政府在房地产市场中的有效介入,居民住房消费梯度观念的形成,房地产开发商责任感的增强,分层住房供应体系的完善,全国住房普查的适时开展以及其他配套改革的整体推进,将是影响今后中国住房制度改革的顺利推进和在全国范围内实现"住有所居"目标的关键。此外,受社会经济发展状况和资源环境条件的制约,中低收入家庭的居住问题往往表现出住房支付能力不足的特征。因此,如何完善住房保障体系,为中低收入家庭提供满足其基本生活需求的居住条件是构建和谐社会的重中之重。     

出生性别比偏高治理中的公共政策失效原因分析

为了分析我国出生性别比偏高问题治理的公共政策失效的原因,通过国家官方网站和中国期刊网检索了出生性别比偏高问题治理的56项政策文本和43篇政策分析类文献,并基于社会性别公平理念和公共政策系统协调性分析框架,采用内容分析方法对上述政策文本和文献进行了深入分析。结果显示,公共政策系统的不协调是出生性别比偏高问题未能得到有效治理的主要原因,该不协调体现在政策的主体子系统内部、客体子系统内部、主体与客体子系统之间、本政策系统与其他政策之间以及本政策系统与环境之间五个方面。研究结论对于中国出生性别比偏高问题的治理、国家关爱女孩行动的顺利开展等都具有一定的借鉴和指导意义;同时也丰富和发展了政策评估方法。