Voting methods, problems of majority rule, and demand-revealing procedures

Gordon Tullock made fundamental conceptual contributions to the understanding of collective choices. Tullock balanced an optimism about the capacity of political choices to facilitate gains from exchange with a pessimism about the negative externalities attending having majorities control power and dictate choices for all. Tullock’s work on both sides of this divide is surveyed, examining both the problems of voting procedures, and the promise of the demand-revealing process he helped invent, in guiding the choice of political institutions.     

Some aspects of science-based technological promotion

Scientific research car for scientific purposes. As such, scientific research will necessarily be evaluate scientific terms. However, scientific research can also be supported for such nonscientific purposes as economic development, industrialization, education, etc. In that case, evaluation of scientific research will be based on economic, educational, etc., yardsticks. This paper attempts to seek evaluation criteria for the public support of science for the purposes of technological promotion. Such a public investment is shown to be a risky process. The “riskiness” of the process is discussed within the framework of a model of science-based technology and expressed in stochastic terms. A decision-making framework is then developed on the basis of expected utility hypotheses.     

Fighting corruption in developing countries: Some aspects of policy from lessons from the field

Corruption persists in developing countries despite the proliferation of legal, institutional, and other measures that have been put in place to fight said corruption. The cancer of corruption has therefore spread exponentially in most developing countries with devastating socioeconomic and governance consequences. This practitioner perspective draws on the author's field experience and backed up by the research literature. It identifies, outlines, and discusses some aspects of policy in 3 areas—institution strengthening, the development and implementation of national anticorruption plans/strategies, and political will and leadership—and the conclusions that can be drawn from them for policy development and implementation in the ongoing quest to fight corruption in developing countries.     

Some political aspects of taxation and distribution in federal governments: An application of the theory of the core

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to study questions about taxation and revenue sharing n federal systems. It is particularly concerned with the effect of the heterogeneity of regions on the pattern of taxation and distribution and on the capacity of the central government to retain revenue for its own purposes. It is argued that one useful way to study such questions is to treat federations as coalitions that try to maximise their returns from taxations schemes. This approach is developed using the theory of the core from cooperative game theory. Emphasis is placed on the political constraints on the capacity of the central government.     

The equalization pattern and process of gender educational inequality in Taiwan： Some evidence for the threshold hypothesis

The existing literature on women＇s educational attainments and gender inequality in education excludes the pattern and process of gender educational equalization. In this research, we review the relevant literature first and then set hypotheses to be tested based on the different expectations of modernization theory and the threshold hypothesis. We have access to the 1990-2001 data files of the Taiwan social change survey and the 1950-2000 data files of the Statistical abstract of national income in Taiwan to obtain the information which is used in this research. We employ the bi-variate logistic regression model to estimate the net effect of gender on the likelihood that the subject completes his or her high school education or earns a degree from a college or a university from 1950 to 2000. Our empirical results show that, when compared with the educational attainments of men, the women＇s relative disadvantage in terms of educational attainment diminishes with economic development, but the extent of such a decline varies with the different levels of economic development and stages of educational expansion. This indicates that the equalization pattern of gender inequality in education is not linear, but rather ladder-like, and is consistent with the assumption of the threshold hypothesis. Furthermore, the equalization process of gender educational inequality differs according to socio-economic backgrounds. A boy with an upper class background is more likely to complete his high school education or obtain a degree from a college or a university than a girl with an upper class background, followed by a lower class male, and a lower class female, respectively.     

Behavioral and psychological aspects of the retirement decision

The majority of research on the retirement decision has focused on the health and wealth aspects of retirement. Such research concludes that people in better health and those enjoying a higher socioeconomic status tend to work longer than their less healthy and less wealthy counterparts. While financial and health concerns are a major part of the retirement decision, there are other issues that may affect the decision to retire that are unrelated to an individual's financial and health status. Judgment and decision-making and behavioral-economics research suggests that there may be a number of behavioral factors influencing the retirement decision. The author reviews and highlights such factors and offers a unique perspective on potential determinants of retirement behavior, including anchoring and framing effects, affective forecasting, hyperbolic discounting, and the planning fallacy. The author then describes findings from previous research and draws novel connections between existing decision-making research and the retirement decision.     

中学思想政治课教学的五个环节

实施素质教育是一项全新的系统工程,真正贯彻这一工程就要着眼于教学活动,从学生到教师、从课外到课堂上,每一步、每一层面都要下工夫。根据素质教育的基本指导思想,应该培养学生的兴趣,优化教学效果,提高学生的实践能力。因此,就中学思想政治课教学的现状,提出了优化教学效果的五个基本环节。     

关于创新的理论思考

创新的内涵十分丰富 ,主要包括理论创新、制度创新和科技创新 ,从本质上讲 ,它是一种自由自觉的创造性活动。创新的方法虽然呈现出多样化 ,但也有共同的规律可以把握 ,如实事求是的方法、辩证扬弃的方法、系统整合的方法、内外统一的方法。创新是人的能动性、积极性和创造性的发挥。因此 ,要激发人们的创新能力 ,必须营造必要的人文环境和社会氛围。