第一次印度支那战争与美法关系的变化

在第一次印支战争期间,围绕着战争目标和各自利益问题,美法双边关系经历了一个发展演变的过程。在1949年以前,美国基本采取观望态度,法国独自作战：新中国成立后,美国逐步插手印支事务,对法实行经济军事援助,美法关系比较密切;1954年,随着战争结局的明朗,美国渐有取代法国之势,法国对美离心倾向日益明显。     

美国2008年大选与奥巴马政府的政策趋向

本文在对美国2008年大选奥巴马和民主党获胜的原因进行分析的基础上,探讨了大选结果对美国政治和社会的影响,以及奥巴马政府内外政策的趋向.文章认为,2008年大选是美国选举政治史上最引人瞩目的一次历史性的选举.奥巴马获胜的主要原因是美国金融危机引发的经济严重衰退,选民对布什处理伊拉克、阿富汗战争的不满,以及奥巴马作为美国有史以来第一位非洲裔总统竞选人所激起的黑人、拉美裔和年轻选民的投票热情.大选的结果将对美国政治走向和美国社会的种族关系产生重要和深远的影响.中左将是今后四年美国政治的基本走向.民主党16年来第一次同时控制白宫和国会、公众的期望和支持率高,这些为奥巴马政府实施其内外政策主张提供了有利的条件,但它仍然面临诸多严峻的挑战.     

政策话语转变与社会救助改革：德国的经验与启示

20世纪90年代后,德国与社会救助相关的政策话语从再分配话语转变为社会融合话语。伴随着政策话语的转变,德国社会救助制度的改革也在酝酿之中并于2003年经联邦议院通过,最终在2005年得以实施。改革把社会救助与失业救助合并在了一起,这表明,受助者不仅是被同情的弱势群体,不再是单纯的权利享受者,政府开始承认他们必须承担促进社会经济发展的义务,并希望通过改革促使失业者不再依靠社会救助,而是重返劳动力市场,更好地融入社会。通过对德国经验的考察,可以获得如下启示：第一,与社会救助相关的政策话语的转变对社会救助制度改革具有重要影响;第二,在相关政策话语的构建和转变方面,学术界能够发挥积极的作用;第三,社会救助政策话语的选择只有符合本国的国情与时代要求,才有助于制度的良性发展。     

泰国民主政治的怪圈

泰国实行宪政以来经历了多次军人政权和民选政权的交替,形成了政治循环的怪圈,而且每个周期的更替多伴随着暴力冲突和政治动乱.近两年来,泰国政治进入了新一轮循环周期,政治动荡更是此起彼伏.本文重点回顾了2008年的政治危机,分析了危机的根源,并对泰国政治制度发展前景作出预测.     

Audit for Whom? Time to Review Roles of Independent Auditors in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has been reforming its laws regarding accounting practices in recent years, to pre-empt problems similar to that of Enron. It correctly recognizes an opportunity to enhance and distinguish the financial system in Hong Kong and create a competitive advantage for Hong Kong. The sixty-five billion dollar question is: what is the right approach for accounting practice reform? One obvious approach is to model reform after the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). The SOX increases personal liabilities of senior management and introduces extremely cumbersome compliance processes (s 3 (b)(ix) of Minutes of Bills Committee of Financial Reporting Council Bill. (19 July 2005)). While this approach may be the right move for the United States, because rescuing investor confidence is paramount, a similar approach may not be optimal for Hong Kong. Hong Kong relies, to a great degree, on foreign investments and a heavy-handed approach may scare investments away (Charles E. Schumer &; Michael R. Bloomberg To Save New York, Learn from London, Wall Street Journal 1 Nov 2006). This paper, argues that failure of independent auditors was mainly caused by bad incentives. In particular, auditors were hired by and responsible to the management of companies. Thus, there is no surprise that auditors were less diligent in finding problems caused by management. Furthermore, proposing of an alternate to the SOA’s approach. Specifically, a new legal approach should be enforced that allows shareholders to sue auditors when failure to uncover accounting issues causes loss of shareholders’ values.     

Organized Activity Involvement,Depressive Symptoms,and Social Adjustment in Adolescents: Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status as Moderators

The current cross-sectional study investigated the links between various dimensions of organized activity involvement and depressive symptoms, loneliness, and peer victimization in an ethnically and economically diverse sample of adolescents (N = 152; 58% female). Results indicate that adolescents who were involved in organized activities for more years also reported lower levels of loneliness. There was evidence of diminishing returns when adolescents were very highly involved in organized activities; those who were either under- or over-involved reported the highest levels of depressive symptoms. Conversely, findings indicate that adolescents who participated in a narrow or wide range of activity contexts reported the lowest levels of depressive symptoms. In addition, results suggested that the relation between organized activity involvement and adjustment differs among adolescents from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Findings from the current study also underscore the importance of considering multiple indices of activity involvement when assessing its association with adjustment.

Parents and Peers as Social Influences to Deter Antisocial Behavior

Growth curve analyses were used to investigate parents’ and peers’ influence on adolescents’ choice to abstain from antisocial behavior in a community-based sample of 416 early adolescents living in the Southeastern United States. Participants were primarily European American (91%) and 51% were girls. Both parents and peers were important influences on the choice to abstain from antisocial behavior. Over the four-year period adolescents relied increasingly on parents as influences and relied less on peers as influences to deter antisocial behavior. Significant gender differences emerged and suggested that female adolescents relied more on social influences than did male adolescents but that as time progressed male adolescents increased the rate at which they relied on peers. Higher family income was associated with choosing peers as a social influence at wave 1, but no other significant income associations were found. Understanding influences on adolescents’ abstinence choices is important for preventing antisocial behavior.