Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Anno 2013: Reframing The Comparative Method's Seminal Statements

This review article examines the ways in which QCA is being (re)framed by some main authors in the field, in a context of expansion and diversification of this approach and set of techniques. Charles Ragin's seminal The Comparative Method (1987) is first synthetized in the form of eight statements which are then confronted to eight recent book‐length publications: three QCA textbooks and five methodological volumes also touching upon QCA. On the whole, it appears that most statements have been considerably refined, both conceptually and technically, whereas only one statement is not taken on board anymore. In addition, QCA is being reframed and extended in different ways beyond Charles Ragin's initial statements.     

法国土地征收公益性审查机制及其对中国的启示

在法国,只有国家可以为了公共利益的需要征收私人土地,并且按照司法最终原则,由行政法官判断土地征收的公用目的性。最高行政法院在长期审判实践中形成了"损益对比分析理论"。该理论的应用加强了对土地征收公用目的宣告行为司法审查的力度。在加强对行政机关裁量权司法监督的同时,损益对比分析机制并未超越行政行为合法性审查的界限,它为行政机关在多个合法方案间自由选择保留了足够的裁量空间。     

中德(日)犯罪成立体系比较分析

我国刑法界目前正在进行"犯罪构成体系重构或者完善"的讨论。"重构说"强调应以德国及日本的犯罪成立体系为参照,对源自前苏联的我国通说性犯罪构成体系进行全面改造,而"完善说"对通说体系的态度则以调适修补为基调。因而,站在解说中国问题的立场对德日体系之利弊得失作出评析,便尽显必要。     

西方自由贸易理论与发展我国劳动密集型产业的思考

我国拥有丰富而且廉价的劳动力资源,以劳动要素和资源禀赋差异形成的比较优势参与国际分工。带动了国内劳动密集型产业的快速发展。但这种优势目前正在面临挑战。要努力实现人力资源优势由数量型向质量型的转变,将比较优势转化为竞争优势,营造核心竞争力,推动产业升级。     

Measuring the impact of law enforcement on organized crime

This article explores the possibility of measuring the impact of law enforcement on organized crime in a reliable and accountable manner, both in general terms and with a practical focus on the Canadian context. In considering measures to combat organized crime, a focus on process measurement has obscured the more substantial question of progress as regards the dependent variable itself: the bottom line of reducing the impact of organized criminal behaviour. While outcome measures are more challenging to identify than process measures, this fact alone does not minimize the need to demonstrate the connection between organized crime enforcement and its presumed outcomes to a greater degree of certainty. To date, this has not been realized to any significant degree, as revealed by a review of existing international approaches to measuring the impact of enforcement activity. The article argues that a multidisciplinary focus on community level indicators of crime, if initially less accessible than process measures of impact on organized crime groups, offers promise as a measurement of absolute and relative impact of state investment in enforcement.

Organized Crime in Asia: A Review of Problems and Progress

This paper provides a preliminary overview of research on organized crime in Asia drawing on selected papers from a symposium held at the National University of Singapore in June 2007. We draw on these contributions to emphasize the enterprise nature of organized crime and the common problems encountered by law enforcement in controlling and preventing the many harms inflicted by serious criminal activity. Recent attempts to address the changing character and forms of transnational organized crime, especially through the strengthening of mutual legal assistance by regional bodies such as ASEAN, are noted. These measures have yet to develop into the cross-border institutional frameworks now found in Europe, and the level of effective co-operation can only continue to improve. Countering organized crime in Asia also faces additional difficulties arising from the cultural diversity, relative weakness of law enforcement in some states and the lack of common strategies in respect to illicit markets.

A comparative analysis of regionalism in the Global South: The security and defence dimension of Unasur and the African Union

The aim of this article is to compare Unasur and the African Union with regard to their institutional structure, agenda and performance. Although some scholars have made comparative assessments of regional institutions in the same region or comparisons between regional projects worldwide and the European Union, there are still few academic contributions which develop a cross-regional comparison among regional initiatives from different regions of the Global South. By assessing the cases of Unasur and the African Union, and particularly Unasur’s Defence Council and the AU’s Peace and Security Council, taking into account their institutional structure, performance and limitations, and the role of regional leaders and exogenous actors in both cases, we have elaborated an analytical framework aiming to identify and explain the similarities and differences between two regional institutions outside Europe. Based on the contributions of comparative regionalism and the evaluation of Unasur and the AU, we conduct a comparative analysis of both regional organisations, giving specific attention to their security and defence agendas, moving forward the empirical and analytical agenda of comparative regionalism.     

The impact of EU multi-level regionalism strategy on Bulgarian local authorities: qualitative comparative analysis among nine border areas

This article suggests a new perspective on the analysis of the EU multi-level regionalism strategy (EUMRS) by emphasizing the important role of local authorities in border areas. The EU, indeed, has been pursuing a multi-level strategy formed by three action layers corresponding to three new regional trasnational spaces: (1) the European Union itself; (2) the strategic macro-regional actions – such as the EU Strategy for the Danube Region; (3) cross-border cooperation. Particularly, the article tries to explain why local officers working for different Bulgarian municipalities perceive the EUMRS in a different way. The perception of the EUMRS represents the internalization and impact of the EUMRS among the interviewed local officers of nine borderland Bulgarian municipalities. The research is grounded on a qualitative comparative analysis to identify and explain the different combinations of causally relevant conditions linked to the specific outcome.     

Civic integration in Western Europe: three debates

Since the late 1990s, civic integration has become the dominant immigrant integration policy in Western Europe. This article reviews three debates surrounding the new policy: first, whether there is policy convergence or persistent variation along national models of integration; secondly, whether civic integration marks a retreat from multiculturalism, or is merely layered on resilient multiculturalist policies; and, thirdly, whether the new policy is liberal or illiberal, and whether it entails a return of cultural assimilation. It is argued that civic integration converges cross-nationally with respect to policy goals and instruments, while extant variation is often incoherent or touching more on the form than the substance of policy; that civic integration is national-level policy that tends to coexist with ongoing de facto multiculturalism, especially at local level; and that civic integration mostly remains in a liberal register, as it is still integration and not assimilation, which would connote forced identity change.     

Targeting the Motivated? Ethnicity and the Pre‐emptive Use of Government Repression

Research on government repression often focuses on the comparison between states over time and provides little insight about the targets of repression within a state. This article unpacks government repression against different ethnic groups. It argues that non‐democratic governments use pre‐emptive and targeted repression against ethnic groups that are discriminated, strong, or have a history of protest or rebellion in order to prevent future ethnic rebellions. For democratic governments, on the other hand, the cost of pre‐emptive repression is too high. The article tests this argument in a quantitative analysis of government‐group dyads. It finds at least partial support for some implications of the argument: Autocratic governments use more repression than democracies against discriminated groups, but only when they are also weak, and against groups with a history of protest. There is little evidence that regimes of either type respond to previous violent mobilization or group strength with repression.