Competition by regulation in energy markets: the case of Turkey

A fundamental question facing the regulatory and competition authorities is whether to delegate competition policy issues of utilities to regulatory agencies or competition authorities. While, some countries prefer ‘light handed regulation’ by competition authorities, others grant substantial power to independent regulatory agencies. Turkey followed the liberalization wave in electricity with a regulatory reform in 2001. Recently, a slight shift of tide has appeared in previously liberalized markets. Electricity markets are the forefront example of this change of course. A similar trend is apparent in Turkey as well. Increasing pressures on prices and excess demand have created more reasons for active government involvement. As political factors weigh in, economic considerations take a secondary place in electricity markets. In order to show the tension between political and economic preferences, we use the Pareto and Kaldor-Hicks criteria of welfare economics metaphorically. This paper discusses the scope of competition policy in the Turkish electricity industry. We focus on the issue of regulatory governance. The absence of a well established institutional environment reduces the potential role of competition policy in the industry and increase political meddling in all segments of the Turkish electricity market. By looking into changes in prices, market power and new entry closely, we discuss the relative success of the regulatory reform in the electricity industry. We conclude by emphasizing the consequences of a passive competition authority in establishing a competitive electricity market.     

法律与体育

法律和体育是人类生活的两大领域,也是重要的文化现象。如何从基本的理念与价值层面,揭示法律和体育内在关系的深刻社会基础与内在机制,为依法治体,构建以人为本的和谐体育法治提供基础性理论指导,就成为法学界和体育界面临的共同课题。运用比较分析方法,探讨法律与体育在构成要素、运行方式和思维模式方面的共同性或相似性,同时也分析法律与体育在价值选择、规则类型以及解纷机制上的不同点。通过对法律与体育的比较分析,期望能够对加强法律和体育之间的沟通与交流,推动当代中国体育运动的法治化进程提供一些帮助。     

医疗卫生举报投诉情况分析

本文通过对北京市朝阳区2005—2007年医疗卫生举报投诉案件登记表的数据进行分析处理,掌握了近三年来医疗卫生举报投诉的分布状况。经过对案件的分类和来源进行分析和探讨,为今后的医疗卫生监督工作和举报投诉查处提供经验和借鉴。     

Lilac? ‘Ten years of blue nurtured nature’

Abstract

The paper seeks to determine whether indicators evincing attitudes of police culture themes of solidarity, isolation and cynicism amongst SAPS officials are gender neutral as well as change in relation to Van Maanen’s and Manning’s stages of police culture socialisation. Using a survey format, the researcher employed a longitudinal design. The study established that SAPS cadets that commenced their basic training at the six SAPS basic training institutes in January 2005, entered the organisation with predispositions in furtherance of solidarity, isolation and cynicism. The period of ‘college/academy training’ (January to June 2005) did not significantly counteract these tendencies, neither the subsequent ‘field training’ (July to December 2005). Nine years on, and these attitudes intensified. The study further found that for the duration of the project (10 years), female trainees and their conversion to fully-fledged police officials had mostly stronger values exhibiting solidarity, isolation and cynicism, compared to their male counterparts.     

美国奥巴马政府南海政策研究

相对于以往历届美国政府的南海政策,奥巴马政府对南海地区国家利益和国际利益的政策表述体现了更多将南海问题推向地区化和国际化的特征。出于亚太战略和重返东南亚的需要,奥巴马政府在南海问题上更倾向于表达与东南亚各国相近的共同利益,支持东南亚各南海权益声索国,反对中国的南海权益主张,并与东南亚国家共同遏制中国日益上升的地区影响力。然而,作为调整亚太战略的一种手段,奥巴马政府的南海政策不会走向因过度干预而损及亚太利益的极端。2011年,印度尼西亚担任东盟轮值主席国,鉴于不同于越南的南海利益诉求,印尼应当不会比越南更热衷于推动南海问题的继续升温。受地区主要国家政策温和化的影响,奥巴马政府的南海政策及其对地区形势的影响将呈现相对减弱的态势。     

改革进程中的利益分化与整合

中国现代化的复杂性就在于国家要同时面对原发现代化国家所不曾遭遇到的多个时代交织在一起的问题和矛盾。既有农业社会所要解决的问题,又有工业文明所要面对的矛盾,同时又要应对信息文明时代的挑战。面对转型与发展所带来的多重矛盾和交叉压力,全面贯彻“三个代表”重要思想,在利益整合中维护社会公正,在效率和公正的平衡中继续推进改革和发展,是中国共产党领导中国人民为实现中华民族伟大复兴而作出的必然选择。     

Proliferation of neopatrimonial domination in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Literature on Turkey’s post-2011 authoritarian turn – especially after the eruption of the 2013 nationwide Gezi Protests – adopts modern concepts such as ‘dictatorship’, ‘authoritarianism’, ‘totalitarianism’, ‘one-party government’, ‘party-state fusion’, and even ‘fascism’ mainly in order to pin down the nature of the Justice and Development Party (AKP, Turkish acronym) or depict the current character of Turkey’s regime. Through engaging the pre-modern concept of neopatrimonialism, which is derived from Max Weber’s concept of patrimonialism, this paper argues that Turkey’s encounter with authoritarianism is deeply associated with the proliferation of neopatrimonial domination, into which the legacy of patronage politics, fracture of security power, and the metastasis of crony capitalism have been conflated. This article argues that neopatrimonial features have always, to a degree, marked state-society relations in Turkey. Furthermore, this article suggests neopatrimonial characteristics started to dominate Turkey’s modern legal structure under the AKP, which led to a state crisis culminating in the 2016 attempted coup. However, despite the fact that neopatrimonialism cannot be argued as a pathological deviation from modern-legal domination, this paper concludes that tension exists between the crony capitalism-based economic model of neopatrimonalism and Turkey’s decades-long market-based capitalism.     

Beyond silence and voice: gender,sexuality and antimilitarism in Turkey and Israel

Turkey and Israel project two distinct military regimes which construct gender and sexuality in specific ways as part of their respective security agendas. Despite the differences, however, both entitle women and LGBTQs to certain exemptions from the military service, and in doing so silence their antimilitarist activism. Women and LGBTQs counter this process through their acts of conscientious objection, through which they claim a voice in matters of militarism, security and war. While doing so, however, they reproduce a dichotomous conceptualisation of silence and voice, which falls short of explaining their agency as well as its outcomes. Drawing on a comparative analysis, I argue that a more nuanced understanding of agency necessitates deconstructing the dichotomy between silence and voice, each of which may have multiple meanings, connotations and consequences. Whereas silent acts of grey objection do not always point to a lack of agency and resistance, or domination, and may indeed create change; voice and visibility that follow their declared acts of objection may entail costs and loss of agency, in that not only does it come at the expense of the masculinisation/militarisation of their acts but may also result in the immediate deterioration of their rights to refuse.