RURAL POVERTY, WELFARE ELIGIBILITY, FARM PROGRAMS, AND THE NEGATIVE INCOME TAX

This paper develops four models depicting types and causes of rural poverty in the United States. The recent farm financial crisis has exacerbated rural poverty problems, and many farmers who were not in poverty a few years ago are now in poverty. Policy options for dealing with rural poverty among those farmers who only recently became poor, as well as policy options for dealing with the persistently poor subsistence farmers, are discussed. Implications and options for dealing with poverty within the rural nonfarm sector are also stressed.     

Road to Zambales: Impressions of barrio immersion as a training and development technique in the Philippines

The wide range of management training programmes for public servants in the Philippines is closely integrated into career development plans and involves practical work by trainees at village level. Trainees are required to reside in a village for varying periods of time to familiarize themselves with life among the rural poor. The aim is to train local people in self-reliant project management as well as to train civil servants in rural development. Close relations with villagers provides an invaluable experience for city-based officials. However, little effort is made to identify the needs of the rural poor. Client groups are selected at meetings dominated by local officials. Officials tend to be “hosted” by relatively wealthy families. Linkages with government agencies at the local level are not made and there is little organizational development among the rural poor to ensure the continuation of projects after the withdrawal of trainees. Nevertheless, the “barangay immersion” approach to management training for rural development has considerable potential.     

新时代农村基层党组织推进乡风文明建设的逻辑理路

乡风文明建设,不仅关乎农村社会稳定发展,还是新时代实施乡村振兴战略的精神保障。农村基层党组织是党在农村全部工作的基础,新时代农村基层党组织推进乡风文明建设具有一以贯之的内在逻辑。在新时代的历史方位中,农村社会进入全面转型期,这不仅给农村基层党组织推进乡风文明建设带来了诸多机遇,还使其面临农村集体经济式微、农村基层党组织公信力减弱、农村文化发展失魂、部分农民不良陋习与"等靠要"贫困心理滋生等现实挑战。有鉴于此,巩固、扩大乡风文明建设已有成果,需要农村基层党组织以发展壮大农村集体经济为主要抓手、以获取农民对农村基层党组织的信任为突破点、以传承发展农村优秀传统文化为核心、以移风易俗实践活动为主要治理手段、把消除贫困农民精神贫困作为重要内容,积极探索乡风文明建设的新路径。     

TOWARD THE PUBLIC INTEREST: REDEFINING RURAL POLICY NEEDS

From the perspective of a political theorist, the author advances a basic concept of the public interest derived from the work of Brian Barry. Policies for rural areas are too often monopolized by agricultural income support programs which go to an assignable interest. They, however, do little to benefit or advantage the bulk of the rural populations whose interests are quite heterogenous.     

农村低保：新式乡村治理手段

农村最低生活保障制度的实施旨在保障农村贫困群众维持最低生活水平,它有利于缩小城乡差距和维护社会公正,然而这项重要制度却在具体的实施过程中转换成为乡村干部对乡村秩序进行规范与整合的治理手段。     

Rapid rural appraisal: Rationale and repertoire

Decision makers need the right information at the right time but in rural development much information generated is too costly and inappropriate. Rapid rural appraisal forms part of the attempt to learn about rural conditions in a cost effective way. Such appraisal involves avoiding the traps of quick and dirty or long and dirty methods and using instead methods that are more cost effective. To do this means ignoring inappropriate professional standards and instead applying a new rigour based on the two principles of optimal ignorance—knowing what it is not worth knowing—and proportionate accuracy—recognising the degree of accuracy required. The article reviews a range of approaches and techniques for rapid rural appraisal that are less rigid and exhaustive than many traditional methods and yet more rigorous in relation to cost and use. Time is emphasized as a critical factor in effective appraisal and rapid rural appraisal methods increase the chance of reducing the bias against the poorer rural people in the promotion of rural development.     

Social capital formation: The role of NGO rural development programs in Bangladesh

Social capital can be generated by the expectations of the rural poor who are victimized by government and market failures. The demands of the rural poor of Bangladesh for economic and social goods and services, for example, have been instrumental to their economic and social well-being. Cooperation based on mutual trust and norms of reciprocity contributes to the creation of other kinds of capital, especially economic and human capital, that are mutually reinforcing. Both governments and the NGOs make use of social capital as a tool for implementing poverty policies.     

Health insurance in a democracy: Why is it public and why are premiums income related?

Many democracies have public health insurance systems which combine redistribution from the rich to the poor and from the healthy to the sick. This paper shows that such systems can be in the interest of the poor and the rich from a constitutional perspective. Necessary conditions are that insurance markets are incomplete and that income inequality is neither too low nor too high. Then even the rich can prefer a public health insurance system financed by income-dependent contributions compared to a system financed by a flat fee or a private health insurance system.     

Targeting State Aid To Distressed Rural Communities

Recent rural economic problems have prompted some states totarget economic development assistance to distressed rural areas.The most common way to target these programs has been to allocateaid based on unemployment rates. This may be a questionablepractice, however, because the unemployment rate is a poor indicatorof economic difficulty in many rural areas. This article assessesthe strengths and weaknesses of alternative economic, social,and fiscal indicators that are available for allocating aidto distressed rural communities. It concludes with some specificsuggestions for improving the effectiveness of state aid fordistressed rural areas. Background information is provided concerningrural economic and fiscal difficulties in the 1980s and recentstate initiatives.     

我国城市贫困儿童的现状、问题及对策

我国城乡二元结构的体制,在一定程度上导致了对我国城市贫困儿童问题的忽视。笔者在对武汉、西安、福建三地调研基础上得出以下结论:我国城市贫困家庭中的儿童的生存与发展现状并不乐观。我国城市反贫困政策在儿童保护方面仍存在许多缺陷,需要进一步完善。     

如何突破中国农村反贫困政策的瓶颈

改革开放以来,我国农村的反贫困政策取得了举世瞩目的成就。但是,目前我国农村反贫困政策实际上陷入了某种瓶颈之中。要突破中国农村反贫困政策的瓶颈,就必须在全社会确立起让全体社会成员共享社会发展成果的基本理念。在此条件下,针对中国农村社会政策存在的问题分别采取以下几项实际的对策:缩小城乡反贫困政策之间的差距;启动农村的职业培训;将公益性(救济式)扶贫与生产性(开发性)扶贫有效地结合在一起;对失地农民需要采取力度更大的扶持政策;重视极端贫困地区的搬迁式扶贫。     

The planning and management of integrated rural development in Drylands: Early lessons from Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands programmes

In Kenya a new generation of area-based, multisectoral rural development programmes has been started, targetted on the country's extensive arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL). By mid 1983, six such programmes were operational, each supported by a foreign donor and implemented by the Government of Kenya. Six years after the detailed planning of the first programme began, the record looks patchy. District level planning and co-ordination hold promise, and some programme activities are going well. However, problems of slow and cumbersome planning and mobilization, a lack of community involvement in planning, too few technical successes, and remote prospects for institutionalizing the programmes if and when expatriate support is withdrawn are apparent. Behind these problems lie a number of basic obstacles, including the structure and orientation of the government's lack of support for the drylands among politicians, and the technical difficulties of raising dryland production. Faced with these obstacles, the ASAL programmes look set to run into continuing problems. Overcoming them will depend on both the success of recent government moves to deconcentrate, and patient support from both the government and the donors. Historically the prospects for such support are poor.     

乡村社会研究的难题与话语群的观察对策

话语群理论是在传统的乡村研究理论遇到一系列难题之后应运而生的,是对我国乡村研究中的长期模式,即关于乡村社会"传统—现代"的二元分割结构认知模式的突破,也是基于西方语言学方法遇到自身困惑,即语境建构出现泛滥趋势的基础之上提出来的。     

Driving Development from Below: The Advantages and Limitations of Vernacular Politics in the Bolivian Altiplano

Anthropologists studying the Andean community politics have increasingly emphasised the role of pragmatic, informal ‘vernacular’ political strategies in achieving material and political empowerment of the poor. However, while the concept of vernacular politics marks an advancement over binary and often polarised discussions of the role of local communities in development processes, studies have not fully explored the full range of implications of vernacular strategies on development processes. While researchers have demonstrated the substantial agency that local community actors have to influence development processes, the extent to which this influence effectively resists or reinforces the logic of public policy implementation has not been studied. This article explores the techniques used by rural communities in their interactions with public institutions in rural Bolivia. It shows that community organisations' vernacular political strategies have mixed outcomes: on the one hand, they allow the rural poor to assert their own agendas vis‐à‐vis the state so that they can benefit from public spending, while on the other hand, their tactics have the potential to entrench the influence of local power brokers and perpetuate inefficient uses of public funds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decentralization of road administration: case studies in Africa and Asia

A study of decentralization of road administration in developing countries has been undertaken, including a literature review, and field studies in Nepal, Uganda and Zambia. The findings are reported under the headings of: constitutions and governance; policy and planning; financial and fiscal aspects; institutions, management and human resources; operations; and contribution to poverty alleviation. Decentralization of road administration has potential for improving the delivery of rural transport infrastructure services. But the evidence from this study suggests that it is proving difficult to realize fully the expected benefits. Problems include: lack of local government powers to exercise political influence; insufficient financial resources; lack of management capability; and a lack of accountability mechanisms. Limited data also suggest that there is little evidence of existing decentralized systems being particularly responsive to addressing the needs of the rural poor. There is a need for the poor to be involved more actively in the planning, financing and implementation process. Different models for administrative decentralization are described and recommendations are made for approaches likely to be the most appropriate for rural transport infrastructure administration and management. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

关于文登市新型农村合作医疗的调查报告

通过封文登市新型农村合作医疗的调查发现,现在参加新型农村合作医疗的农村居民参与度低、个人缴费少,80％的资金来源于各级政府,待遇支付管“小”不管“大”,客观上造成“帮富不帮贫”,政府成为新型农村合作医疗的主角,制度的建立不能解决参加新型农村合作医疗的农村居民因病致贫和因病返贫问题。针对上述问题,本文建议加强宣传,增强农农村居民的保险意识,提高参加新型农村合作医疗的农村居民本人的缴费比例及数额,政府加大封农村居民中弱势群体的补助,取消新型农村合作医疗家庭账户,调整新型农村合作医疗支付结构,变保“小”为保“大”,加快医药卫生体制改革,有效地防止参加新型农村合作医疗的农民因病致贫和因病返贫。     

Development Programs in Bangladesh: Hardware versus Software

Development programs in Bangladesh have been affected in the past by unequal emphasis on infrastructure and people-building. Some programs emphasize the hardware of development, which provides physical facilities that are supposed to make life more comfortable for rural citizens. The hardware must be supplemented by software, which will enable rural inhabitants to make optimum utilization of physical facilities. This important aspect has been neglected in the past, although some programs made halfhearted attempts to provide education and health-care training to the rural poor. The recent proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh has been beneficial in the sense that the software component of development is receiving more attention, and programs are now being designed with the assumption that the software of development is the most crucial element for success.     

农村财务管理中的腐败现状及其惩防模式构建

近年来,农村财务腐败问题从反腐败“盲区”变为社会关注的焦点之一,违纪违法案件也呈现出数量由少到多、案值由小到大的发展态势,成为影响农村经济社会和谐发展的重要制约因素。当前农村财务腐败的行为表征体现为：违规操作,牟取私利;巧立名目,虚假冒领;肆意隐瞒集体资产与收入;票据使用不规范,收支管理混乱;现金管理不合理,白条列支严重等方面。究其原因,主要是主体自律与他律意识呈现“双弱”态势,村级财务管理体制不规范,监控体系不完善,对现有的农村财务腐败案件的惩处力度也不够严厉。因此,要构建以教育反腐为基础、群众反腐和社会反腐为保障,技术反腐、体改反腐、司法反腐为手段的农村财务腐败惩防体系,为农村基层党风廉政建设奠定坚实的基础。     

从“救济”到“治理手段”？——当前农村低保政策的实践分析：以河南F县C镇为例

作为国家推行的一项福利政策,农村低保要实现对农村贫困人群的救助。然而,在现实中,低保政策经历了从“绝对贫困”到“相对贫困”、从以户为单位到以人为单位的扭曲和变通,以至低保政策在某种程度上成为了基层政权的一种治理手段,从而背离了政策的本意。事实上,低保政策执行中出现的种种问题既是监管力度不够及制度建设不到位所导致,更与税费改革后乡村组织的治理困境密切关联。在这个意义上,基层政权的治理状况既是保障低保政策能否顺畅执行的根本,也是一个现代国家基本治理能力强弱的重要体现。     

The impact of Public Distribution System on poverty in India

Assessing the poverty reduction in terms of food subsidies through Public Distribution System (PDS) is an important means by which the income transfer between poor and rich expenditure classes can be analyzed. The study intends to analyze the impact of PDS on poverty on rural and urban regions. It also makes a comparative assessment between the subsidy transfers among the poor and rich expenditure classes of households. The data for this objective are adopted from 68th round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on PDS and other sources of household consumption (2011–2012). The impact of PDS on poverty is measured monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) decile wise by using income transfer method for major 17 states in the NSSO report. The impact of PDS on poverty is estimated through subsidy or implicit income transfer. The results of the study for all India across the rural and urban areas showed that the impact in terms of percentage increase in real MPCE is more for the poorest expenditure class in topmost MPCE deciles for all the states.