Reflections on the Anniversary of the August 1991 Coup

A sociologist whose area of expertise is communism and nationalism examines the causes of Soviet and Yugoslav dissolution, with special attention to political-cultural factors. The work of Serbian and Russian intellectuals is used as the basis for examination of the different political-cultural attitudes of Russians and Serbs towards the state, historically and during the twentieth-century breakups of these multinational states     

Governing in a constrained environment: Policy making in the Greek banking deregulation and privatisation reform∗

The deregulation and privatisation programmes of the Greek banking system in the late 1980s and early 1990s were both largely due to EC pressures. However, in each case the patterns of policy making differed although in neither did a policy network’ type of governance emerge. This intra‐sectoral dissimilarity reflected the interrelation of macro‐political institutional variables with different organisational arrangements and traditions between the Central Bank, on the one hand, and state‐controlled banks on the other.     

The Effect of Mandatory Seat Belt Laws on Seat Belt Use by Socioeconomic Position

We investigated the differential effect of mandatory seat belt laws on seat belt use among socioeconomic subgroups. We identified the differential effect of legislation across higher versus lower education individuals using a difference‐in‐differences model based on state variations in the timing of the passage of laws. We find strong effects of mandatory seat belt laws for all education groups, but the effect is stronger for those with fewer years of education. In addition, we find that the differential effect by education is larger for mandatory seat belt laws with primary rather than secondary enforcement. Our results imply that existing socioeconomic differences in seat belt use would be further mitigated if all states upgraded to primary enforcement.     

论行政公文规范化管理的发展历程及现实选择

行政公文规范化管理的基本依据是最大限度地体现依法行政、规范行政、简约行政和科学行政的价值。在我国,行政公文规范化管理不容乐观:依法行文理念还比较淡薄,正式行文操作有失水准,制度化管理流于形式,行文失责追究不到位。规范化管理行政公文的现实选择是:重塑依法行文的价值理念,提升公文制作人员素质与技能的培训,建立健全行文失责追究机制。