东北亚各国经济合作开发与开放政策比较研究

东北亚各国的合作开发与开放政策研究不仅具有理论意义,而且具有更为重要的现实意义。东北亚各国合作开发与开放政策的共同点体现在东北亚各国都把区域合作与本国经济发展相结合,开展各国间的经济合作,并结合本国的产业结构调整,加快开发区、自由贸易区或新区建设,以此作为对外开放的窗口,同时各国政策又有着明显的不同之处,它反映了各国在国际社会中所处的地位不同,反映了本国的国情。     

Organising home‐based workers in the global economy: an action‐research approach

This article describes an action‐research project which has the multiple objectives of mapping the range of home‐based work in different countries, investigating the ways in which such work is embodied in local or international production chains, and developing a methodology which will facilitate the establishment of sustainable organisations of home‐based workers. The article focuses mainly on Latin America and Eastern Europe, though the project is also active in India and has begun to explore the possibilities of working in China.     

Modelling trust and contractual arrangements in a local economy

This article investigates trust among dairy value-chain actors to understand the innovative process in a local productive sector in Tunisia. It uses a sample of 45 smallholder farmers chosen randomly nearby existing collection centres in the region. A trust variable is constructed employing 11 ordinal variables based on principal component analysis, and institutional arrangements then modelled to examine the effect of trust on contracting decisions and cooperative membership. The results show that trust is defined by values such as “integrity”, “competence”, and “existence of credible information”, which are preconditions to sustainable contracts. The article contributes to the growing literature which considers social capital, networking and trust as determinants of farmer’s behaviour, as opposed to the classical model of rationality.     

Sustaining multilateral trade cooperation in a multipolar world economy

The deadlock in the WTO Doha Round has been accompanied by an increased focus on the negotiation of preferential trade agreements, including so-called ‘mega-regionals’. This paper discusses possible implications for—and possible responses by—excluded countries that have little prospects of participating in most of the mega-regionals. A number of complementary avenues are identified through which such countries might attenuate the potential downsides of preferential trade liberalization among large countries, as well as some proposals that would expand the scope to pursue cooperation on regulatory policies in the WTO as opposed to PTAs.     

Private-sector development in a transition economy: The case of Vietnam

Since Vietnam introduced its Doi Moi reform policy in 1986, the development of the private sector has been a main policy concern for the government and the ruling Communist Party. The main development challenge for Vietnam is how to sustain economic growth and reduce poverty as the labour force continues to expand. It is envisaged that the private sector will play a major role in that respect. This article looks into the issue of whether the private sector can live up to widespread expectations. High and stable economic growth indicates that reforms have been consistent but also that private-sector initiatives have moved ahead of formal institutional changes. Private-sector development is new in Vietnam and starts from a low level. The public and foreign investment sectors are major players compared to the domestic private sector, which comprises many small firms. Poverty reduction has been impressive but it is only now that private-sector development is becoming an important contributor. Stemming the growth in inequality remains a challenge where the private sector's contribution to increasing public revenue has yet to materialise.     

The political economy of DDR in Liberia: a gendered critique

This paper examines the reintegration component of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme in Liberia from a critical gendered perspective. Building on previous arguments pertaining to the securitisation of reintegration in Liberia, the paper considers the highly gendered impetus and impact of both the reintegration project and the securitising act. I argue that Liberian DDR was devised and justified according to assumptions that are default male, thus causing the programme to overlook women except as passive victims of conflict, or as add-ons secondary to the ‘real’ purpose of reintegration. Accordingly, the programme both naturalised specific gendered binaries and favoured moves that would buttress and extend them, for example, by problematising male unemployment and privileging male entry into the formal economy. The paper first explains the securitisation of reintegration in Liberia, before turning to a gendered critique focusing on the political-symbolic and political economic impacts of said reintegration.     

The political economy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: a US perspective

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed in February 2016, is the most ambitious free trade deal of the postwar era. The 12 TPP countries account for nearly 40 percent of the world's economy. Coupled with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—which is still being negotiated between the United States and the European Union—the TPP represents an attempt by the Obama Administration to lead in promoting regional trade and investment arrangements despite the failure of the Doha Round to reach a comprehensive global trade deal under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. Although the agreement among the 12 TPP countries has been reached, ratification by their legislatures is pending. Ratification by the US Congress remains uncertain due to complex economic and political factors in the United States, including the presidential election of 2016.     

Judicial economy and moving bars in international investment arbitration

The Review of International Organizations - Historically, international investment law has centered on protecting foreign investors from direct expropriation, but much of modern law includes legal...     

Decentralising urban health activities in developing countries

While there is considerable documented experience of decentralising health services in rural areas of developing countries, the decentralisation of health services in the urban context is rarely analysed. Urban development literature usually fails to address health issues, while the literature on the decentralisation of health services tends to ignore the urban sector. This article addresses the relationship between a Ministry of Health and a City Council, and identifies key issues to consider in the decentralisation of urban health activities: roles and responsibilities; legislation; coordination and communication; and resource constraints. The case-study from Maseru, Lesotho, highlights aspects of planning which need to be considered by national and local governments which are trying to strengthen urban health activities by decentralisation.     

The political economy of exchange rate regimes in transition economies

We show that political economy factors play an important role in shaping the exchange rate policies of transition economies. We argue that tradables producers prefer a floating rate to allow active exchange rate policy to affect their competitiveness, while internationally exposed sectors prefer a fixed rate to provide currency stability. We find support for that argument using data on de facto and de jure exchange rate behavior for 21 countries during the period from 1992 to 2004. Our empirical results serve as the basis for predictions regarding the adoption of the euro in the EU accession countries and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.     

Strengthening civil society: Participatory action research in a militarised state

ABANTU for Development embarked on a regional programme to strengthen civil society capacities for engaging with policy from a gender perspective. An early programme activity involved an in-depth study of NGO capacities for policy engagement which ABANTU carried out in Nigeria during the recent period of military rule. In keeping with ABANTU's commitments as a regional human resources network dedicated to promoting development and gender equality from an African perspective, the local research team used a participatory action methodology to gather and interpret the findings in a way that privileged local NGO perspectives and understandings of gender and policy. The exercise generated hitherto unavailable information and experiential case study material, and simultaneously identified and involved a core group of NGOs in the development and planning of the subsequent training programme. More importantly, it also furnished the regional training network with an understanding of indigenous cultures and local gender politics. These were found to be infused with diverse local cultural dynamics, as well as with the contradictory legacies of the military's state-driven programmes for women, both of which constrain the extent of gender activism, especially when this is monitored through instances of direct policy engagement.     

Remittances and varieties of democratization in developing countries

ABSTRACT

How do remittances affect democratization in developing countries? In this paper we reconcile divergent findings in the literature by examining the effect of remittances on procedural and liberal democracy in developing countries at various stages of their democratic development. Remittances are primarily sent to middle-class individuals and bypass government control. Yet, governments in countries receiving remittances want to tax this remittance income. Government officials therefore need to incentivize participation of the middle class in the formal economy by reducing the threat of expropriation. Improving procedural democracy, which assures citizens of improved property and rule of law protections, is one way to accomplish this. We argue that this relationship should only be present in mixed regime types, with the democratizing effect of remittances waning as the country’s level of democracy or autocracy strengthens. Further, we expect elements of liberal democracy, such as civil rights and equality under the law, to remain unchanged in all remittance-receiving countries. The middle class and governing elite are less incentivized to improve liberal democracy to limit the power and mobilization capacity of the poor and prevent increased redistribution. We test our theory on a dataset of developing countries from 1975 through 2011.     

Collaborative research as an anti-poverty tool: a research partnership between police and indigenous Australians

This paper reports on a collaborative research project that shows how participatory social research can be used as a strategy for combating social exclusion. The Crime Prevention Partnership Project brought together dominant and disempowered groups to explore social issues of mutual concern and identify potential solutions. Indigenous Australian undergraduate students played a central role in this project, working with the police as customer service trainees and with the university as members of a project research group. This project became an opportunity to train and empower new researchers who, as people from disadvantaged groups, brought their own knowledge, concerns, and worldviews to a research process that they helped design and carry out themselves. The result was a learning process for all involved, referred to here as multi-directional empowerment. It led to tangible bridge building between mainstream, powerful institutions and a disadvantaged community. The project process offers a model for using participatory research as a framework in which to address development issues.     

信息化时代推动吉林省产业结构升级的战略研究

目前,吉林省老工业基地产业结构层次低, 3次产业结构偏差突出、信息产业规模偏小。同时,吉林省产业结构与辽、黑两省产业结构存在同构严重等问题。为了加速吉林省产业结构的升级,必须按照信息时代的要求,加快发展信息产业,推进信息化的发展,通过提出改革国有资产配置结构、融合信息产业的牵引、利用外资的产业关联效应和竞争效应等战略来实现吉林省产业结构的优化和升级。     

Corporate citizenship: Creating social capacity in developing countries

A corporation has only limited ability to create social capital through philanthropic activity, and, in the context of a decline in official aid, the corporate sector is increasingly assuming a de facto developmental role. The presence of social capital assists communities in moving towards sustainable development and may contribute to the business case for corporate–community partnerships. While it is not the role of corporations to deliver social services, their ability to enhance social capital by partnering with community organisations can contribute both to development and work to their own commercial advantage. Such partnerships, whether philanthropic or commercial, will be more effective if delivered through balanced and transparent relationships with community organisations that help to create social capacity at the local level.     

Transatlantic burden sharing: suggesting a new research agenda

ABSTRACT

Current studies on NATO burden sharing are only able to show some weak statistical trends between selective variables; they are unable to explain and show why this trend exists and why it occurred at particular times (or not). This is due to the dominant deductive and hypothesis testing research designs that prevent researchers to produce richer causal explanations or intersubjective understandings of how states, for example, construct and assign meaning to burdens or what forms of social representation, values, norms and ideals influence the making of (national) burden sharing decisions. Thus, we charge, the literature needs to adopt an eclecticist approach to studying NATO burden sharing – that is to combine rationalist with sociological approaches and methodologies highlighting the importance of intersubjective meanings and the role of social forces, norms, beliefs, and values. The article lays out what such a research programme might look like and how one could operationalise it.