Analyzing welfare effort: An appraisal of comparative methods

How do we measure and rate the social welfare efforts of nations? Most people consider the U.S. and Japan welfare laggards when compared with European countries. This view derives from a widely used measure of “welfare effort”—direct government outlays for social programs as the percentage of a nation's gross domestic product (GDP). This article challenges several assumptions implicit in the conventional measure and suggests an alternative approach in assessing “welfare effort.” By incorporating indirect tax expenditures and controlling for the differences in tax burdens and social need for welfare spending among countries, the alternative measure (the NET index) not only broadens the conceptual boundaries of welfare effort, but also affords a more meaningful standard for comparative analysis. To illustrate, this study compares the welfare effort levels of ten developed nations measured under several versions of the NET index.     

France in ten slices: An analysis of aggregate data

Many causal relationships cannot be detected by national averages, whether based on regression analysis of aggregate data or on survey data, because the local social context explains an important part of the variance. An analysis by deciles of aggregate data shows the great territorial diversity of social contexts in France. The unit of analysis is the French canton. The 2,450 cantons are distributed by deciles of such variables as religious practice, social structure, and vote. In the second part, six extreme deciles are analysed: the most leftist part of France, the most rightist, the most industrialized, the most agricultural, the most devout, and the most irreligious. For a country with such a territorial diversity, generating a polymorphism of parties, the national averages based on aggregate data or on survey data are largely fallacious, particularly those concerning the causal relationships. Slicing in deciles is the most efficient method for analysing aggregate data     

An appraisal of agro-based cooperatives in Peninsular Malaysia

This appraisal of agro-based cooperatives in Peninsular Malaysia assesses performance in relation to savings mobilization, rural credit, land development and the provision of marketing facilities. The article points to the limited extent of their achievement and argues that while the cooperatives have achieved less measurable goals, without improving their performance in relation to economic goals, they will be unable to achieve their social purpose.     

The Future of Socialism and New Labour: An Appraisal

Recently, much controversy has been generated about what Tony Crosland would have made of New Labour. Critics and supporters of the Blair project alike have laid claim to Crosland's legacy. For some it is evidence of New Labour's integrity; for others it confirms the party's betrayal of social democratic values. An examination of the arguments in The Future of Socialism indicates that it is neither. In this article, I offer a new appraisal of that text that challenges the orthodox analysis of it. Most accounts present the volume as a theoretical and original statement, one seeking to align British socialism with Swedish social democracy. I argue that the volume does not offer this kind of original contribution to debates about socialism. It is neither primarily a theoretical volume nor one that breaks decisively with the insularity that has shaped the trajectory of British socialism. I maintain that the importance of Crosland's legacy is emotional and symbolic: it offers Labour a charismatic and reassuring image of the party's past.     

Globalization,state, and innovation: An appraisal of networked industrial policy

One of the most pressing questions in comparative social science is whether, and to what extent, the rapid advance of globalization has negatively affected states’ capacity to initiate successful economic and social policies. This paper puts forward the notion that states continue to be relevant because they have the potential to build and sustain networks of production and learning, which are sorely needed in the current era of globalization when productive arrangements are dominated by decentralized production networks. The paper argues that government efforts aimed at building and sustaining such networks, labeled as “networked industrial policy,” have become predominant. The study features a series of fixed‐effects time series cross‐section (TSCS) regressions linking innovation performance to several networked industrial policies in 17 countries from western and central Europe. The study finds that several of the policies have a robust effect on innovation performance and technology competitiveness, even after controls are included. These findings constitute considerable support for the notion of networked industrial policy. However, the results of the present study must be treated less as a definitive answer to the research question and more as a first step in an ongoing research process.     

社会主义本质论：对传统社会主义观念的新突破

为了解决多年来存在的对社会主义理解的这个问题，邓小平首先把我们党的解放思想、实事求是的思想路线运用到对社会主义的理解上来，他强调说不解放思想不行，甚至于包括什么叫社会主义这个问题也要解放思想。什么叫解放思想？就是说要在马克思主义的指导下打破习惯势力和主观偏见的束缚，把思想从迷信、禁锢、精神枷锁下解放出来，从不合时宜的观念、做法和体制的束缚下解放出来，从主观主义和形而上学的桎梏中解放出来，适应于发展变化的新形势，研究新的历史条件下出现的新问题，有针对性地提出解决办法。在对社会主义理解的问题上解放…     

混合经济:民主社会主义的实践与中国特色社会主义的超越

民主社会主义建立的混合经济模式致力于克服资本主义市场经济的弊端,在资本主义私有制上加入更多的公有制成分,在分配方式上更重视按劳分配和社会福利,在市场机制中强调计划调节。我国混合所有制经济的起点和主体都是公有制经济,这同民主社会主义的混合经济有本质不同,但我们可以借鉴民主社会主义在这方面的成功经验,在高起点和高目标上实现对民主社会主义混合经济模式的超越。     

France in Mali: rapid reaction

On 11 January 2013 France initiated military operations against Islamist rebels in Mali in order ‘to stop the terrorist aggression … make Bamako safe … and enable Mali to recover its territorial integrity’. It hopes that the current ground and air offensive will be limited in duration. But this will depend on several factors, including the effectiveness of its planning and intelligence, and the tactics of the opposition. If Bamako is to reassert its authority over the country's ungoverned north, the capacity of Mali's military will need to be dramatically enhanced.     

中国特色社会主义不是民主社会主义

中国特色社会主义不是民主社会主义,而是科学社会主义的基本原则与中国实际相结合的产物,是科学社会主义的中国形态.民主社会主义本质上仍是资本主义.对于民主社会主义,我们可以借鉴,但不可迷信.     

Usable information for policy: An appraisal of the U.S. Global Change Research Program

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was established in law in 1990 (P.L. 101–606) with a mandate to provide policymakers with usable information. The law gave a White House Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) responsibility to implement the program with respect to its policy mandate. In 1994 CEES was replaced, in part, because it failed to provide usable information. This article, documenting the development of the program's policy mandate and CEES implementation of the USGCRP, finds a performance shortfall. The shortfall is attributed to a breakdown in the legislative process, participant perspectives, and the structure of post-World War II science policy. The purpose of the article is to explain the CEES performance shortfall in hope that its successor can improve USGCRP performance with respect to its legal mandate based upon the lessons of experience.     

Introduction to Lavigne: Money and Socialism

In a continuation of his earlier work on the history and structure of psychiatry and psychoanalysis Bercherie examines Frued's views on epistemology and then identifies the presence of four metapsychological models in his writings. The models are then related to the four major currents in post-Freudian psychoanalysis: Kleinian analysis, ego-psychology, Lacanianism and the more diffuse ‘marginal’ current. He ends by expressing the hope that the prevailing climate of theoretical dogmatism will give way to a new spirit of synthesis and tolerance which will lead to major developments in both the theory and the practice of psychoanalysis.     

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.     

Ethnoreligious Politics in France: Jews and Muslims

This article focuses on the relationship between the two major ethnoreligious communities – the Jews and the Muslims – and the state in France, as reflected in lobbying, electoral behaviour, and public policies. It shows how the evolution of that relationship, an aspect of the politics of ethnicity, religion and multiculturalism, has been both a cause and a consequence of modifications in approaches to secularism, communitarianism and affirmative action. Finally, it deals with the question to what extent this development corresponds to a pluralist or corporatist model of politics and argues that changes in the relationship between state and society suggest an evolving accommodationist pattern increasingly similar to that of the United States.     

Decentralization in France

In France decentralization of the government was part of the socialist platform for the 1981 presidential election. The issue was immediately put on the agenda by the minister in charge of “interior and decentralization.” The law was published on March 2nd 1982. Ten years later, decentralization is considered a decisive reform toward the modernization of the state. Local governments are engaged in the process of learning the politics of autonomy. But the law maintained the prefet. Therefore the institutional pattern establishes two authorities in charge of the same territory at the level of “département” and “région.” It could be said that the goal of the 1982 reform was to authorize the expression of a local demand while the equality and qualify of public services would be preserved, thanks to deconcentration of the national apparatus. This scheme implies dramatic changes both in the local political system and in the national bureaucracy. The latest is reluctant to assess the evolution. In 1994 public administration in France is in transition. Its centralized structure and rationale has offen led to strategies directed toward the conservation of the old habits and privileges. The role of the prefect is still unsettled. Perhaps more important, serious institutional limits have been imposed on the process of change.