Between Domestic Learning and External Coercion: Budgeting and Fiscal Management Reform in Greece

ABSTRACT

The article examines the interplay between external pressure and domestic learning through a case-study of Greek budgetary and fiscal management reform. Pre-crisis, budgetary management inadequacies were not efficiently addressed, mainly due to lack of awareness of problems, a low uncertainty environment and a strong political propensity to maintain discretionary use of financial resources. In contrast, crisis-era bailout conditionality represented a drastic change in the environment, increasing uncertainty and encouraging domestic openness to reform. The fiscal governance framework was significantly transformed, to a point of paradigm change. While there is no doubt regarding the impact of external pressure, the analysis highlights certain aspects that point to a domestic learning process, though variable in different parts of the political-administrative system.     

科学还值得信赖吗?——对“科学是把双刃剑“的再反思

基于对人类本性的反思以及对人类生存处境的判断,尽管人类面临着种种新的生存危机,但是依然不能放弃对科学的信赖态度."科学是把双刃剑"这一看似有道理的说法,其实并非严谨的科学判断,值得人们对其进行深入反思.     

金融危机以来的印尼社会问题

印尼的社会问题由来已久。随着金融危机的加深 ,印尼的社会问题不断恶化。它既阻碍了经济的发展 ,又影响了政局的稳定。如何解决社会问题 ,是印尼所面临的重大课题。本文就金融危机以来的印尼主要社会问题的表现、成因、对策作了分析 ,并从中得出几点启示。     

Food riots and the politics of provisions from early modern Europe and China to the food crisis of 2008

The food riots of 2007–2008 jolted authoritarian regimes and international agencies into action. The riots also began to crack neoliberal hegemony over the global food system. Food riots have often driven a politics of provisions, sometimes winning relief, sometimes merely bloody repression, depending on a particular country’s political economy. Such bargaining in the politics of provisions is made possible by existing networks – of solidarity among the common people and reciprocity between them and their rulers – that extend elements of ‘normal’ politics into crises. This paper explores how riotous extensions of such sociopolitical networks shaped food politics in early modern England and China, Famine Ireland, the ‘IMF (International Monetary Fund) austerity riots’ of the 1980s and 1990s, and the food riots of 2007–2008.     

Fiscal Policy Learning from Crisis: Comparative Analysis of the Baltic Countries

The experience of a major crisis is often expected to lead to policy learning but the empirical evidence about this is limited. The goal of the paper is to explore comparatively whether the crisis of 2008–2010 has led to fiscal policy learning by civil servants in the three Baltic countries. Despite some differences in the crisis experience, the finance ministry officials in all three countries have identified the same lesson from the crisis: fiscal policy should be counter-cyclical and help to stabilize the economy. The paper also discusses how various factors have influenced policy learning, including the acknowledgment of failure, blame shifting, and analytical tractability.     

我们的法律与宗教危机——读伯尔曼《法律与宗教》有感简

梁治平先生的《死亡与再生：新世纪的曙光》一文对伯尔曼先生的《法律与宗教》一书的意义不仅仅是一篇代译序,它更是一篇《法律与宗教》中国化了的预言性文章.文章不乏真知灼见,虽属说理性文章,但作者以其敏锐的洞察力和深邃的见解力不仅为我们概述了《法律与宗教》一书的思想精髓,而且为我们开启了重新认识中国传统法律与中国宗教的大门.文章中富有深刻思想性的“我们的危机”的观念,不仅对《法律与宗教》一书中所提的西方的“整体性危机”一词有了中国化的透视,而且也形成了对生活于现代法制下国人的警醒.     

Arguing deep ideational change

ABSTRACT

How do actors come to contest previously uncontested background ideas? This is a difficult question to ask. On the one hand, deep backgrounds seem to be too foundational for actors to transform. Their political efficacy appears to end where ideas constitute their efficacy in the first place. On the other hand, ideas must not be reified. Even deeply taken-for-granted ideas do not always stay the same, and agents have a lot to do with these changes. In order to answer this question, we draw from social theory and rhetorical studies. We conceptualize the deep background as nomos, and the more easily accessible background as endoxa. We then proceed to identify three sets of conditions that make nomic change possible. These relate to opportunity, message, and messenger. Nomic change becomes possible when the need for something new has become widely established and a supply of new nomic ideas is easily available (opportunity); new nomic ideas are ‘smuggled’ into more orthodox and widely resonating arguments (message) as well as rhetorical encounters in which these arguments are made; and advocates are widely recognized as interlocutors (messenger). A plausibility probe of nomic contestation about nuclear governance provides evidence for this framework.     

Containing the Refugee Crisis: How the EU Turned the Balkans and Turkey into an EU Borderland

The events that took place during the 2015-16 refugee crisis in the southeastern EU region boosted unprecedented bordering processes. Borders were reinforced and extended and a costly and difficult deal with Turkey was undertaken; the western Balkans were turned into a vast buffer zone made up of multiple buffer states with fences of all types and sizes; while Greece was ring-fenced and to this day struggles to manage thousands of refugees stranded in camps all over its territory. By seeking to contain the refugee flows, the EU turned its southeastern region into a fortified EU borderland.     

Restoring Fiscal Balances Post the Global Economic Crisis in Botswana

This article discusses the restoration of fiscal balances in Botswana after prolonged deficit financing. Botswana is a diamond-export-dependent country; resultantly, it suffered revenue losses due to depressed demand for diamonds during the global economic crisis. Reduced revenues necessitated deficit financing between 2008/09 and 2011/12. Debt was financed through dissaving and borrowing. However, the government restored budget balances in April 2012. While this case study is Botswana-specific, there are general lessons. These are: using a crisis to introduce public finance reforms; eschewing populism aimed at short-term gains; and the need for politicians to take very bold decisions to guide fiscal policy.     

涉外民商事审判中的自由裁量权探析——以金融危机应对和指导性案例为中心

法官自由裁量权在两大法系中都是存在的，其在涉外民商事领域的功效尤为凸显。我国现行涉外民商事立法主动或被动地赋予了法官在涉外民商事审判中极大的自由裁量权。《中华人民共和国涉外民事关系法律适用法》的通过使得涉外民商事法律适用法迈进了一步，但是立法的局限性进步仅仅是在某种程度上使得自由裁量权由过去的空洞无序迈向有序。正值我国指导性案例成行之初，借助该契机，在建立我国涉外民商事审判领域指导性案例体系的同时，实现法官在该领域自由裁量权的突破，弥补和修正立法的不足，也为金融危机等情势提供应对路径。