Authoritarian Co-optation in the Age of Globalisation: Evidence from Hong Kong

The existing literature on authoritarian survival, implicitly or explicitly, assumes that political challenges faced by authoritarian regimes are all domestic. I argue that globalisation exposes authoritarian regimes to new sources of threat. In particular, capital mobility forces authoritarian regimes to deal with not only those who dare to voice out dissatisfaction, but also those who exit. While repression may be the best strategy to silence the vocal, co-optation would be a more effective tool to retain the runaway. It is, however, often impossible to co-opt all the capital owners. As such, authoritarian regimes have to be selective when choosing co-optation targets. I argue that authoritarian regimes would co-opt renowned firms because these firms yield the greatest demonstration effect. Hong Kong provides an interesting case to illustrate my arguments. Beijing strategically co-opted the stakeholders of renowned firms in Hong Kong in order to solve the city's pervasive confidence crisis prior to 1997. I test my arguments with data on firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. I find that firms owned by well-known and prestigious elite families were more likely to build political connections with Beijing. To test the causal linkage more rigorously, I use both the genetic matching and instrumental variable approaches. The empirical results provide strong support to my arguments.     

Environmental attitudes and concerns of the environmental protection bureaucrats in guangzhou,people's republic of china: Implications for environmental policy implementation

This article analyzes the questions of implementation failure in environmental policy in China. Using empirical data collected in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China, die article documents the environmental attitude of Guangzhou's Environmental Protection bureaucrats. In interpreting the data, the article seeks to assess and evaluate the present state of environmental administration in China. This article provides evidence that although China has made much progress in developing environmental legislation and a regulatory framework, the economic growth and devolution of power unleashed by reforms have also created new environmental stresses and, to some extent, reduced the regulatory capabilities of governments in China.     

Spirituality and punitiveness: An exploration of Christian,Buddhist, and non-religious attitudes towards crime

Studies measuring religious views towards crime and punishment have mainly focused on Christianity and its denominations in a western setting. They have also used measures that are exclusive to the Christian faith. Other major religions have largely been ignored. This study attempts to rectify this by exploring the attitudes of Christians, Buddhists and those identifying themselves as non-religious towards crime. The results indicate some apparent contradictory findings as the more spiritual Buddhists are, the more they attribute crime to both individual and environmental causes as well as greater support for both coercive and social intervention measures. When compared to the Buddhists, Christians and the non-religious are more supportive of assistance towards the treatment of offenders in this study.     

Book reviews

Clay G. Westcott (ed.), Key Governance Issues in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam (Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2001), 71 pages.

Michael Jacobsen and Ole Bruun (eds.), Human Rights and Asian Values: Contesting National Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia (Surrey, Great Britain: Curzon Press, 2000), 330 pages.

Robert H. Taylor (ed.), Burma: Political Economy Under Military Rules (London: Hurst & Company, 2001).

Satu Kahkonen and Anthony Lanyi (eds.), Institutions, Incentives and Economic Reforms in India (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000).

Kyung‐Ae Park and Dalchoong Kim (eds.), Korean Security Dynamics and Transition (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 209 pages.     

论行政机关的行政诉权

行政诉权是行政法律关系主体的一项宪法性权利。我国现行行政诉讼立法以及当下法学理论界仅仅关注行政相对人一方．一定程度上相对压制甚至剥夺以行政机关为代表的行政主体一方行政诉权，这并不利于行政机关服务于社会之积极性、主动性的发挥，无助于官民平等关系的打造。应在“平衡论”原则指导下，在监督制约行政机关行政权力的同时，适当放宽对行政机关诉权的限制，以达致行政机关与行政相对人间权利义务的结构性平衡。     

Early and late adopters of ISO 14001-type standards: revisiting the role of firm characteristics and capabilities

Environmental management standards (EMS) are important voluntary management tools that aim at reducing the environmental impact of firms’ activities. From ethical motivations through increasingly high pressure from regulatory authorities to expected financial returns, reasons to adopt an EMS are manifold. While they all certainly matter, it is still unclear from the literature which firm-specific organisational capabilities and structural characteristics significantly drive adoption. Using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) on two samples of French firms, we identify firm-specific factors associated with the early or late adoption of ISO 14001-type EMS and we test whether adoption increases labour productivity. We find that adopters are moderately large manufacturing firms that rely on ISO 9001 standards or Total Quality Management. In addition, according to the first sample, early adopters tend to be more technologically complex firms that are active in the European market. These differences are attenuated in the second sample, which may be biased towards more innovative firms. Both samples however concur with the conclusion that, whether early or late, adoption is associated with a higher labour productivity compared to non-adoption. This result still holds when we use fully interacted linear models instead of PSM, and seems to be consistent over time. Thus, implementing EMS might provide win–win opportunities to adopters, without giving any premium to “early birds”.     

Kharis Templeman,Yun-han Chu,and Larry Diamond,eds., Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan: The Ma Ying-jeou Years

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

交易费用经济学的一个新视角:国家宏观交易费用论

本文在新制度经济学交易费用分析范式基础上,提出了微观交易费用和宏观交易费用之分,并指出前者导致企业的产生,而后者的存在和进一步扩大趋势,使国家具有了存在的必要性以及国家的作用进一步强化和扩大。同时,简要概括了国家宏观交易费用论的基本框架,进一步分析了宏观交易费用的各个组成,并试图用我国市场取向改革和欧盟等一些实例来说明国家宏观交易费用论。