Financial Recession and the Wages of the Czech Employees by Educational Attainment

The present paper deals with the development of wage distribution by educational attainment in the Czech Republic in the years of 2003-2012, analyzing 50 wage distributions as the object of research and the gross monthly wage in CZK （Czech Koruna） as the research variable. It examines the development of wage distribution in time and the gross monthly wage in relation to the level of educational attainment. It also pursues the development of the minimum wage in the monitored period. The author pays special attention to the lowest guaranteed wage levels classified according to wage classes and work capability assessment, comparing the minimum wage with the wage of subsistence. The forecasts of future wage distribution are an integral component of the research. Comparison of wage levels in the world and the position of wages of the Czech employees in the international context are included, too.     

Educational Attainment and Social Norms of Voting

Political Behavior - Why does the likelihood of voting increase with education in the US? Prominent theories attribute education’s effect to human capital, which affords individuals resources...     

“香烟”弥漫的青春:作为一种“过渡期仪式”的青少年香烟消费

青少年吸烟不仅是一种健康风险行为,也是一个备受争议的学术话题。本文将青少年男性的吸烟行为视为一种"过渡期仪式",并从仪式道具、仪式剧本、仪式表演角色和仪式观众四个维度分析了青少年男性是如何借助仪式实践而顺利实现青春期的角色转变和身份认同。文章最后对过渡期仪式实践的起始与终结、男性气质与健康风险行为的内在关联进行了深入的思考。     

家庭背景、文化资本与教育获得——上海城镇居民调查

文化资本是家庭背景影响子女教育获得的中介变量。对上海城镇居民的经验研究发现:在子女初中以上教育获得中,家庭背景和文化资本的影响同时存在;低教育背景家庭借助文化活动参与实现了文化流动,高教育背景家庭通过家庭文化氛围实现了文化再生产;那些低收入家庭通过文化活动参与和家庭文化氛围实现着向上流动。     

青少年偶像崇拜系列综述之四:论青少年偶像崇拜的分型

本文提出,偶像崇拜在神灵性-世俗性、精英性-草根性、禁欲性-享乐性三个维度上存在着内在的对立关系。据此,中国大陆青少年的偶像崇拜可以被归纳为宗教性偶像崇拜、圣贤性偶像崇拜、民俗性偶像崇拜、娱乐性偶像崇拜、草根性偶像崇拜这五种基本类型。这五类偶像崇拜表现出某些特性维度上的重叠,同时又各具特点,其总和就构成了中国大陆青少年偶像崇拜类型划分的正六边形模式图。     

The Bureaucratic Approach to the Financial Revolution: Japan's Ministry of Finance and Financial System Reform

While all industrialized countries have enacted financial reforms over the past decade, Japan's Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials have crafted a distinctive approach to reform. They have managed to pursue their own agenda while at the same time responding to international market pressures and domestic political demands. This article examines Japan's "financial system reform," the process by which the MoF has recast the regulatory barriers between different types of financial institutions, such as banks and securities houses. Financial system reform represents an extreme case of a common Japanese policy pattern—the bureaucratic-led bargain—in which Japan's bureaucrats, rather than its politicians, organize the bargains that eventually emerge as policy. Two ministry policy councils deliberated for seven years before the Diet passed comprehensive reform legislation in 1992, and the ministry continues to redefine the reform at the stage of implementation today. While MoF officials have been forced to make concessions to industry groups and to adjust to unforeseen developments along the way, they have maintained overall control of the reform process. In fact, this article suggests that they have been remarkably successful in promoting their own peculiar interpretation of the public interest and in preserving and, in some cases, enhancing their own power.     

Adolescent Health: Are We Willing to Pay the Price for Inaction?

Several years ago, a legislator spoke clearly of the wishful unawareness we often confront in public health. After a session of frank exchange in his committee about teen pregnancy in Arkansas, he said, "Dr. Elders, until you became the health department director, we didn't have this problem." The facts paint a startling scenario for such people. We have not provided an environment in which our children can flourish. Instead, we have allowed the number of children who are economically, educationally, and medically disadvantaged to grow. Called "at-risk," their existence is an affront to democratic ideals, especially the belief that all have an equal chance for prosperity. It is time for true reform, but before that can happen, we must face the state of our children's health. After this, we must set to work at effective strategies.     

From Subjects to Citizens: On Educational Reforms and the Demarcation of the “Israeli-Arabs”

Based on a critical analysis of the Arab educational policy, from Israel's independence in the 1970s, this article examines the pivotal role of the state in engendering the trends of Palestinianization and Israelization that arguably characterize the attitude of the Arab minority to the Israeli state. Exploring the educational reforms of the 1960s and 1970s, it shows the contingent relation between ethnicity and the state, and also, the interrelationship between the intra-Jewish and Jewish-Arab divides. Looking at the ethnicization of social relations not as a preordained upshot of primordial realities, the history of the reforms unravels the changing patterns of inclusion and exclusion that result in demarcating the Arab minority as both Israeli and Palestinian, and in constructing the oxymoronic category of “Israeli-Arabs”. Seen from the perspective of the goals for Arab and Jewish education, this category manifests the internalization of the “Arab Question” and the shift in educational policy from preclusion to incorporation, but also the limits of inclusion. These goals thus epitomize the ways in which the new discourse of meritocracy (resulting from the liberalizing of the economy and society) had determined civic equality between Arab and Jewish citizens, but equally important, the seclusion of the Arab minority from both the Jewish (ethnic) society and the Palestinian (national) collective. In this sense, I argue, neither Israelization nor Palestinianization were a matter of choice. Rather, both constitute the inevitable dual path for social and political inclusion, limited as it is.     

Fiscal Adjustments and Their Effects During the Transition to the EMU

The transition phase to EMU hasbeen accompanied by considerable monetaryand fiscal consolidation efforts in the EU.This paper analyses this consolidationprocess and its effects on economicactivity in the EU. It is tested to what extent fiscal retrenchment efforts havedepressed or stimulated private spending. Inthe case of the latter non-Keynesian effectsdominate the traditional Keynesianexpenditure effects of government spending,taxation and transfer payments.     

The Welfare State in Transition Economies and Accession to the EU

Welfare state reform in East-Central Europe can be divided into two phases: in the first phase, when liberalisation, stabilisation and privatisation were of primary importance, only minor or absolutely necessary reform steps were taken. This soon led many countries into fiscal problems that triggered the second phase of substantial pension and health system reforms. Having been already part of the European welfare state tradition in the pre-communist period, the countries of East-Central Europe were not prepared to take over the essentially private three pillar model of the World Bank. Instead the forerunners of reform, such as Hungary, Poland and Latvia, are developing, together with some incumbent EU members, a new European four pillar model with a specific public-private mix. Even if the social acquis communautaire is not very restrictive for the candidate states, they seem keen to join the European welfare state culture.     

Transition under Eltsin: the Nomenklatura and Political Elite Circulation

It is contended that study of 'the nomenklatura' is a poor indicator of élite change in post-communist society; that current analysis of the 'nomenklatura as political élite' is inconclusive and methodologically unsound; that neither a 'circulation' nor a 'reproduction' of political élites can be determined from the reproduction of the 'old nomenklatura'. While the nomenklatura was not unitary, not monolithic and not a political élite, it is considered—following Mosca—to be a political class with different political constituencies. It is argued that the values and outlook of élites are crucial in understanding the extent of political change. Moreover, the paradigm of élite change should be analysed in terms of élite differentiation, political values, political culture and ideological affinity. Based on original interview research with members of the Gorbachev and Eltsin political élites, it is shown that the élite structure is unstable and divided and political outcomes are likely to be authoritarian.     

Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Childhood Investments on Postsecondary Attainment and Degree Completion

This paper examines the effect of early childhood investments on college enrollment and degree completion. We used the random assignment in Project STAR (the Tennessee Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio experiment) to estimate the effect of smaller classes in primary school on college entry, college choice, and degree completion. We improve on existing work in this area with unusually detailed data on college enrollment spells and the previously unexplored outcome of college degree completion. We found that assignment to a small class increases students’ probability of attending college by 2.7 percentage points, with effects more than twice as large among black students. Among students enrolled in the poorest third of schools, the effect is 7.3 percentage points. Smaller classes increased the likelihood of earning a college degree by 1.6 percentage points and shifted students toward high‐earning fields such as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), business, and economics. We found that test‐score effects at the time of the experiment were an excellent predictor of long‐term improvements in postsecondary outcomes.     

Disagreeing to Agree: Financial Crisis Management within the 'Logic of No Alternative'

The article argues that amid a cacophony of analyses of the causes of the current financial crisis, those daring to consider its implications and outcomes are decidedly cautious. Fundamentally, crisis managers appear intent on treating this as a minor glitch in an otherwise functioning market. This is a controversial claim. Nonetheless it is the legacy of the perception that neoliberalism is 'the only alternative'; it emphasises the need, however, for truly alternative voices in the ad hoc settlements and negotiations. The article argues that, through the lenses of historical materialism, this crisis is the inevitable result of the prolonged period of credit expansion and financial market reform in recent decades. With this in mind it suggests that the economists and state managers who established these conditions are themselves both unlikely to and incapable of reversing them.     

Toward Developing a Structured Approach to the Diagnosis and Resolution of Nonperforming Loans: The Case of China and India1

This article addresses the issue of nonperforming loans (NPLs) from a public policy perspective. The focus is on three aspects of NPLs that we consider essential for a proper analysis: the degree of the NPL problem, the causes of NPLs and the solutions adopted to address an identified NPL issue. This research analyses the diverse definitions and measurements of an NPL. Further, it introduces the distinction between systemic and situational causes of NPLs. Arguing that different causes require different cures, this study emphasizes a mix of short‐term and long‐term remedial measures as judicious in dealing with the NPL problem. This framework is then applied to two case studies: China and India. The conclusion identifies future directions of research, such as the study of a threshold level beyond which NPLs may pose a barrier to a country's growth and productivity.     

Peace and Conflict: Alternative Strategies of Governance and Conflict Resolution

This article examines the present discourse of conflict resolution and offers an alternative framework for analyzing the generic sources of conflict at the community, state, and interstate levels. In particular, we argue that although peace is a universal value, there are no universally best strategies to achieve it. This, however, does not mean that the path to peace is fundamentally different in every context. We claim that stable democratic political structures in general lead to peace both in the international and the domestic realms. As such, democratization does lead to peace, but the paths to stable democracy are context sensitive. Therefore, the success of efforts aimed at creating long-term peace, both among and within nations, depends on the extent to which, democratization incorporates the norms and values of the societies in question. The article begins with a brief overview of some of the problems associated with defining peace. We suggest that peace should be looked at as a universal value, as democracy has been in the recent past. We provide a more detailed theoretical assessment of the linkage between democracy and peace. Our general argument is illustrated in the South Asian, specifically the Indian, context.     

Fear and Anger in Great Britain: Blame Assignment and Emotional Reactions to the Financial Crisis

While we know that emotional reactions are important influences on political behavior, we know far less about the sources of these emotions. This paper studies the causes of fear and anger in reaction to a negative stimulus: the financial crisis. Anger should have been experienced among individuals who believed a specific actor was to blame for the crisis. Moreover, individuals should have been particularly angry if they blamed an actor who should be accountable to them, for example the national government. I test these expectations using a panel survey run in Britain between 2005 and 2010. This data shows that British citizens experienced anger if they held an actor responsible for the crisis. Moreover, they felt particularly angry if they held the Labour government (and to a lesser extent the European Union) responsible. These findings underline the importance of studying the causes of emotional reactions and show how these may be linked to common institutional distinctions between political systems.     

应对金融危机与劳动法治

一、问题的提出改革开放和入世以后,我国逐步融入日趋全球化的世界经济。这次金融危机,尽管对我国的冲击程度不如欧美,但对于企业,特别是涉外企业,也带来较大的负面影响。