A view from the policy community: a new strategic narrative for Europe?

ABSTRACT

Reflecting on the results presented in articles in this special issue, European leaders should take greater account of external perceptions in crafting the European Union's strategic narrative and guiding its actions. Failure to do so has impaired external policies like the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. Leaders emerging from the Arab uprisings perceived the EU as complicit with their countries’ former anciens régimes and Russian leaders see EU support for democracy and the market economy in former Soviet states as duplicitous and instrusive. Awareness of such perceptions should be filtered into EU decision-making, without validating views that European officials and diplomats consider misleading.     

Beyond royal politics: state transformation and foreign policy in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi politics is commonly portrayed as reflecting a system of centralised personal rule in which decision-making power trickles down from the tightly knit power circles within the House of Saud. In contrast, this paper draws attention to the empowerment of quasi-autonomous state organisations in Saudi Arabia as a result of state transformation and regional integration. At its most extreme, state transformation in Saudi Arabia has created institutional and regulatory enclaves with vested interests and areas of competence that cross Saudi borders. This paper illustrates the foreign policy ramifications of transformed statehood in Saudi attempts to further Gulf regional integration in the context of the Gulf Monetary Union project.     

创新与我国的大学生创业促进

创新是时代的命题,大学生创业是一种积极的就业措施,创新会给大学生创业带来良好机遇。大学毕业生是高等教育的"产品",促进大学生创业要进行高等教育"供给侧改革",实行适应市场的高等教育运行机制,扩大国家和社会对人力资本的投资,基于市场需求定位进行人才的培养。促进大学生创业有内外部两方面的措施:内部措施即提升大学毕业生的创业综合素质,包括专业知识技能、广博知识才学、优秀创业素质、创业实操技能和市场经济观念等;外部措施有发挥创业指导服务机构的作用,提升大学生创业教育的实效,拓宽大学生创业资金的来源,推进大学生创业立项审核制和招标制,持续帮助已立项的大学生创业项目等。     

Socio-political tensions in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) development in low-income Asian cities

International development agencies, with the help of the central government, support building state of art Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in low-income Asian cities. However, BRT investment over indigenous modes of mobility is creating socio-political tensions at the local level. This article uses multi-level governance as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among actors in BRT investment decisions in Bandung and Surabaya, Indonesia. The research finds that local stakeholders can distort national and supranational policy initiatives totally or in a way that while projects are delivered, they are of limited use to the local communities they intended to help.     

An Ideational Approach to Gendered Institutional Change: Revisiting the Institutionalization of a New Prostitution Regime in Sweden

Recent work in the field of feminist institutionalism has made important progress in furthering our understanding of gendered institutional change. I argue that gradual ideational changes play an essential role in processes of gendered institutional change, and that examining the interaction between ideas and gendered institutions is of great importance for gaining a better understanding of processes of this type. This article revisits an empirical study of gendered institutional change in Swedish prostitution policy in the effort to specify two idea-based mechanisms that are conducive to gendered change, namely, consensus concerning the problem and gendering of the problem.     

Applying Stone in a Western Landscape: Ranchers,Conservationists, and Causal Stories in the “American Serengeti”

As the emergence of nongovernmental conservation efforts generates conflict among various stakeholders, the causal story that each party articulates regarding conservation and the causes of land degradation reflects their unique interests. This study uses existing literature to evaluate causal stories surrounding a contemporary conservation effort: Montana's American Prairie Reserve. Through qualitative review of web‐based documents and newspaper articles, it generates a preliminary account of key stakeholders' causal stories. The case study suggests that parties who might be disadvantaged by ascribing responsibility for environmental harms in an adversarial fashion may instead elect to articulate causal stories that are more neutral than existing approaches might forecast. The study concludes by suggesting that further development of causal story literature may enable it to better address contemporary conservation efforts.     

Mobilising the Periphery: Brazil's My House My Life Programme and the Homeless Workers' Movement

Brazil's Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST, Homeless Workers' Movement) has grown dramatically in recent years. This growth was partly provided for by the use of a large government housing programme, Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV, My House My Life), which allowed the MTST to construct housing for its members and swell its ranks with thousands of new members. Yet some have argued that the MCMV programme used by the MTST may compromise the autonomy of civil society organisations. This article, by contrast, argues that while the MCMV programme encouraged bureaucratic practices, it also helped to promote the cultural politics of the MTST.     

共同富裕目标下相对贫困治理的逻辑与机制

我国贫困问题的主要形态已从绝对贫困转向相对贫困，顺应相对贫困治理的需求，有必要系统构建贫困治理的逻辑与机制。在分析相对贫困的概念、特征和治理需求的基础上，文章从系统观念出发，提炼并阐释了以党领导为核心，以自治、法治、共治和技治为手段的“1+4”相对贫困治理逻辑。通过分析浙江安吉“生态扶贫”和山西“吕梁山护工”治理实践表明，由于地方推动共同富裕的基础条件具有差异性，治理的侧重点会有不同——安吉重视绿色发展理念和共同富裕示范机制建设，吕梁重视护工就业培训和脱贫增收机制构建，但其治理逻辑存在共识，能有效地将中国特色社会主义的制度优势和党的领导优势转化为地方治理效能。基于此，文章在“1+4”相对贫困治理逻辑基础上结合地方经验，从组织机制、内在动力机制、法律机制、协同共治机制、监测机制、示范引领机制六个方面提出贫困治理长效机制的基本框架，尝试为全国推动共同富裕提供理论指引。     

未来十年增长潜力预测与“十四五”时期战略目标、战略重点

“十四五”时期是我国从全面建成小康社会向基本实现社会主义现代化迈进的关键过渡期。基于数量和质量双重维度，采用趋势外推法预测未来经济增长潜力，未来十年中国的潜在经济增长率呈现明显下降态势，而经济增长质量潜力则出现显著上升趋势。“十四五”时期建设社会主义现代化国家的战略目标包括以推动高质量发展为基本导向、以提升国家核心竞争力为集中体现、以增进人民福祉为最终目的、以推进国家治理现代化为重要保障。在此基础上，“十四五”时期的战略重点是更加有力的创新驱动、更加优化的经济结构、更加完善的基础设施体系和更加现代化的发展道路。     

Simple Rhetoric and Complex Punitiveness: Federal Criminal Justice Responses to White-Collar Criminality

Abstract

Though criminological literature shows that the manifestation of punitiveness in the criminal justice system is complex, it rarely differentiates between responses to different kinds of crimes. This constitutes a significant gap in knowledge, as it is widely believed that white-collar crimes are treated leniently. In light of the “heating up” of political rhetoric, the expansion of federal criminal law, and the increased maximum punishments on conviction, the article aims to explore whether prosecutorial and judicial responses to white-collar crimes have become more punitive, employing rarely used datasets from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) between 1996 and 2014. It is demonstrated that these responses are more complex and less consistently punitive than the rhetoric and policies advanced by politicians. It endeavors to capture the complexity of punitiveness in practice by measuring numerous variables and multiple points in the criminal justice process, studying punitiveness from multiple angles, using prosecution and sentencing data.