Japan's Lessons for China

The United States accuses China of subsidizing its entire export economy through artificially undervaluing its currency. China accuses the United States of fiscal profligacy while flooding the world with easy credit to keep its economy afloat. This dispute reflects the reality that the world's two largest economies are built on opposite dynamics of production and savings vs. consumerism and debt. In Europe, the wages of unsustainable debt that financed the welfare state have also come due. Rebalancing the global economy in this context is not only a matter of fixing exchange or interest rates and extending the retirement age. It must also involve a recalibration of democracy in both East and West. Two Nobel economists, the Greek prime minister, a ranking Chinese economist and the former chief economist of the IMF address these issues.     

Environmental cooperation among Swedish local governments

Recent contributions to the literature on collective action towards common pool resources (CPR) hold that for such action to become institutionalized among the principals sharing the CPR, there must develop “trust and a sense of community.” Using data on existing environmental cooperation among Swedish municipalities, as well as data from a 1991 survey of Chief Environmental Inspectors in those municipalities, this article analyzes whether the content, intensity and patterns of the cooperation and contacts across municipal borders do in fact contribute to such a development. Using the results of this analysis, the article ends with a discussion of the odds for a supply of CPR regimes across municipal boundaries in Sweden.     

Swiss Lessons for European Federalism

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

瑞典公共外交评析

瑞典王国位于北欧斯堪的纳维亚半岛东南部,国土面积约45万平方公里,人口929万,是一个国土面积狭小,人口、资源稀少的富裕小国。瑞典向来非常重视在国际舞台上发出自己的声音。在冷战期间,     

智利反腐倡廉的经验及其启示

20世纪90年代以来,拉美地区发生了多起腐败大案要案,在拉美地区和国际社会都引起了强烈震动.然而,智利却是拉美地区少数几块净土之一.自1995年透明国际设立"腐败印象排行榜"以来,智利是拉美地区惟一进入相对清廉前20位的国家(1996年、1997年和2005年曾列第23位和第21位).     

瑞典的弱势群体保护机制

瑞典是典型的高福利国家,一贯重视保护弱势群体,其较为完善的弱势群体保护机制,对我国进一步加强弱势群体保护、构建社会主义和谐社会具有一定的借鉴意义.     

戈尔巴乔夫政治体制改革的教训

苏联问题的根子在政治体制,进行政治体制改革是苏联改革的题中应有之义。苏联改革政治体制的核心是解决公民与政权分离的问题,消除经济改革的障碍机制。但是,在选择政治体制改革的方向和目标上,戈尔巴乔夫不切实际地试图恢复列宁所提出的一切权力归苏维埃,想通过全民选举苏维埃代表来实现公民与政权的结合,实践的结果证明在现代条件下这么做行不通。这一选举导致了苏联的政治过热和混乱,更使苏共威信丧失,难以控制局面,最后不得不实行总统制。匆忙推行的总统制仍难以挽回局面,反而促进了民族分离主义的发展,最后使苏联倾倒,苏共失去了政权。     

Crooked Lessons from the Indian Wars

One aim of this article is to chide the U.S. military—and Americans overall—for not paying sufficient attention to our historic relations with American Indians. After all, American Indians are the non-Westerners we Americans should know best. A review of American Indian history can shed important light on our current encounters with tribal peoples elsewhere. At the same time, however, great care needs to be taken. Instead of just citing similarities—as analogies lead us to do—we must also take note of differences, which we can best do by using history as a foil.     

瑞典社民党执政的"力学效应"

成立于1889年的瑞典社会民主党(又称社民党或社会党),自1917年首次进入政府取得执政地位以来,就稳居瑞典政党的第一把交椅。从1932年带领瑞典步入所谓的“中间道路”开始,在西欧政坛上,瑞典社会民主党一直处于“常胜将军”的地位。在实行比例代表制多党民主政体的条件下,它们在过去的71年中居然执政(包括单独和联合组阁)     

Lessons for the West from Asian Capitalism

As the global financial crisis emanating from the United States shuts down world markets, can globalization survive? Will the resurgent intrusion of the state—and thus politics—into the market lead to protectionism and collapse, as was the case in the early 20th century? Or will the new interconnectivity of climate change and mutual economic dependence—especially between China and the US—deepen global links? The former mayor of Shanghai, legendary Nobel economist Paul Samuelson and Third Way guru Anthony Giddens ponder those questions in this section.     

Socioeconomic Development and Voluntary Associations in Swedish Municipalities

Abstract

This paper explores the link between voluntary associations and socioeconomic development in Swedish municipalities. According to previous research in the field of social capital, the causal flow goes from having many associations to a high level of socioeconomic development. It has been argued, however, that the causal flow from the level of socioeconomic development to the level of social capital is so weak that it can be ignored. This paper tests a simple simultaneous equation model in order to test whether the causal flows from socioeconomic development to social capital and the inverse are simultaneous. The study is carried out at an aggregated level (the municipalities) that corresponds to the lowest administrative level in Sweden. The results indicate that the socioeconomic development cannot be ignored and that there is a simultaneous relationship. Moreover, the empirical findings indicate that the relationship is negative between the variables expressing socioeconomic development and associational density.