抓住有利时机,推动西藏跨越式发展(二○○二年三月五日)

去年,党中央、国务院召开第四次西藏工作座谈会,确定了西藏工作的大政方针,描绘了新世纪初西藏发展的宏伟蓝图,西藏的发展由此翻开了新的一页.在这一会议精神指引下,全区各族干部群众乘庆祝西藏和平解放五十周年的东风,团结奋斗,锐意进取,夺取了西藏改革开放和现代化建设的新胜利,实现了"十五"开门红.     

对1957年反右派的两个问题的再认识

毛泽东在1957年5月15日就已经下定反右派的决心,但直到6月8日才开始公开进行,其中原因并非仅仅为了"引蛇出洞",反击的准备和部署也需要时间.从卢郁文事件来看,还有一个没有引起研究者重视的重要原因,就是毛泽东一直在等待发动反击的时机.作为反右派斗争发动标志的<人民日报>社论<这是为什么?>一文,并非出自毛泽东之手.     

文化新诠

关于文化的概念,长期以来未能形成一个大体统一的认识。文化的主体是人,人只有掌握了知识才拥有文化,因此可将文化定义如下:文化是人类在语言、文字等符号系统的基础上所创造的全部知识体系及其在实践中的运用和它的物化结果,是受这些知识体系所指导而形成的价值体系、价值观念在人类行为中的体现,是在这些知识体系、价值体系基础上所形成的征服自然的生产工具体系和管理人类社会的制度工具体系。     

政府主导型的社会主义新农村建设路径探析

新农村建设的本质是实现城乡共同富裕,体现城乡居民的平等发展权利,目标是农村经济、政治、文化和社会事业的协调发展。因此,仅仅依靠市场的主导力量是不够的,需要充分发挥政府在制度安排、财政投资、示范引导和组织协调等方面的主导作用。     

科学发展观研究的生态文明视角

人类的文明史从原始狩猎文明经农业文明到现在的工业文明,给世界创造繁荣的同时,人类也面临资源枯竭、环境恶化的生态危机。文章通过对生态文明建设在科学发展观中的地位和作用的分析,认为生态文明是人类社会发展的必然指向,是人类文明发展的必由之路,符合当代中国实际和时代潮流,而生态文明的最终实现也必须以科学发展观为基础。     

Institutions and Caribbean Economic Performance: Insights from Jamaica

We explore the impact of social institutions on economic performance in Jamaica through a reinterpretation of the plantation economic model. In its original form, the plantation model fails to develop a causal link between the plantation legacy and persistent underdevelopment. Despite its marginalization, the model remains useful for discussions on growth and development. Consequently, we offer a reappraisal using the causal insights from Kenneth Sokoloff and Stanley Engerman. We use two examples to demonstrate how inequality encourages the formation of institutions that are inconsistent with growth, and an empirical analysis to confirm the hypothesized relationship between inequality, institutions, and economic development. Since inequality is expected to influence growth indirectly, we use a structural specification, which follows William Easterly’s recent test of Sokoloff and Engerman’s argument. Our reliance on a time-series specification is unique. We demonstrate that the expectation that, on average, inequality and growth is negatively related and that institutions may compromise growth are accurate for Jamaica, the most cited Caribbean nation in the current discourse. Our results carry several policy implications, including support for the recent calls in Jamaica for political restructuring. However, both the paucity of similar studies and the importance of the implications for sustainable growth and development demand further analyses.

The International Monetary Fund: A review of the recent evidence

A review of recent quantitative studies on the International Monetary Fund reveals that much of the conventional wisdom is incorrect. Recent studies have demonstrated a new degree of methodological rigor, have drawn more heavily upon insights from political science, and have asked a number of new questions. We review studies of participation in IMF programs, design of IMF conditionality, implementation and enforcement of IMF conditions, conventional program effects and catalytic effects. At every stage, we find substantial evidence of the influence of major IMF shareholders, of the Fund’s own organizational imperatives, and of domestic politics within borrowing countries. We conclude that very little is known with certainty about the effects of IMF lending, but that a great deal has been learned about the mechanics of IMF programs that will have to be taken into account in order to obtain unbiased estimates of those effects.

Debt,democratization, and development in Latin America: How policy can affect global warming

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis conjectures a nonlinear relationship between pollution and economic growth, such that pollution per capita initially increases as countries economically develop, but then reaches a maximum point before ultimately declining. Much of the EKC literature has focused on testing this basic hypothesis and, in studies that find evidence of an EKC, estimating the “turning point” level of development at which the per capita pollution‐growth relationship changes sign. This approach has not emphasized the policy relevance of specification issues or the potential role of policy variables. This research explores a modified EKC specification which conditions the pollution‐growth relationship on a country's level of debt and degree of democratization. These variables turn out to be significant, implying that different political and economic contexts can shift EKCs and their turning points. These findings suggest that policies to relieve debt burdens and institute political reform, in addition to their usual justifications, also could be used as a strategy to reduce carbon emissions from developing countries. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.