Foreign Direct Investment and economic transition: Panacea or pain killer?

This article sets out to make an assessment of the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and economic growth in transition countries through a review of the empirical record to date. The first part reviews the phases of transition in combination with policy efforts to attract FDI. In the second part, different growth studies across levels of analysis are juxtaposed to better understand the overall growth impact of FDI in transition countries. Since foreign firms have a large direct effect on performance at the level of the firm it is often assumed that they automatically contribute to the economic growth of host countries. The missing link in this discussion is the concept of ‘trickle down’. Superior direct effects in terms of productivity and profitability are hypothesised to trickle down to the host country both as spillovers, or catalysing effects on local firms, and through the expected increase in income that such direct and indirect effects in combination will generate through labour income and taxes. The review shows that such trickle down effects are quite fragile in terms of being demonstrated to exist in transition countries. Combined with widespread usage of tax holidays, subsidies and acquisition discounts, it is not certain that positive direct effects equate with economic growth in these countries.     

From a discipline without a subject to a subject without a discipline.

This article suggests an approach to the classical issues of the public administration theory, through the so-called new institutionalism. It argues that public policies could be taken by public administration theory as a new object of study, which this theory has gradually lost in the past. Nevertheless, whether the policy sciences can be useful1 or not to develop public administration as a discipline depends on the theoretical bridge offered by the new institutional approach. To propose how and why is the main objective of this article, based on the Mexican academic debate.     

我国应当建立“和解不起诉”制度

相对于犯罪人而言,被害人是弱者。如果能够使被害人从被犯罪人欺辱的状态,变为教育挽救加害者的力量,才能认为被害人已经成为强者。我国现行的《刑事诉讼法》仅赋予被害人“准当事人”的法律地位。实践证明,司法权包揽的刑事诉讼实际效果并不理想;“暂缓起诉”是在法律规定之外由检察院设定了“考察权”,有违“法律面前人人平等”的原则。和解不起诉有利于对加害人、被害人的双向保护,足以促使犯罪嫌疑人真诚悔罪,以和解不起诉终结案件,有利于建设和谐社会。