Back to the Suitcase? Emigration during the Great Recession in Spain

The complex and multidimensional economic crisis experienced by Spain since 2008 significantly altered migration patterns in this country. Large scale unemployment contributed to slow down migrant inflows and accelerated out-migration flows in Spain. The media coverage of these processes created a distorted image of the patterns of migration affecting Spain during the crisis. Although the incipient economic recovery has not had a major impact in terms of modifying the migration dynamics triggered by the crisis, the media attention to this issue has substantially decreased without questioning its previous approach to the phenomenon. This article presents extensive data from a wide range of sources covering the period 2008–2016 to extract detailed information about the reality of crisis-era migration flows in Spain, and discusses the extent to which the media treatment of the issue has contributed to a partial and misleading view of the causes and consequences of the new Spanish emigration.     

“哈尔斯坦主义”与西德外交(1955-1970年)

冷战时期曾一度影响西德对外关系、特别是与东欧邻国关系的"哈尔斯坦主义"(1955-1970年)一直尚未得到系统的研究。它在战后重建欧洲和平与安全中到底起到了哪些作用?波恩政府坚持这一原则时,阿登纳及其幕僚是否考虑到他们有限的能力与影响?实际上,由于在外交实践中陷入困境,"哈尔斯坦主义"到1963年就开始失去意义。将"哈尔斯坦主义"置于整个西德外交的视角下进行考察,可以发现,"哈尔斯坦主义"不仅未能实现西德外交的预期目标,而且也反映出德国人在外交理念上的传统风格,即在对现实政治目标的追求中带有焦躁与鲁莽的心态。     

对社会转型期加强中国共产党执政基础建设的认识与思考

我国进入社会转型期,人们的行为方式、生活方式和价值观念都发生了明显的变化。这些变化,给党的执政基础建设带来了广泛而深远的影响。针对这些影响,在社会转型时期,加强党的执政基础建设,要努力做好夯实党执政的意识形态基础文章,做好拓展党执政的绩效基础文章,做好构建党执政的法理基础文章,做好坚持执政为民和密切党群关系的文章。     

德国非营利组织:现状、特点与发展趋势

近年来,非营利组织成为德国政界和学界的中心议题之一,并被赋予了重塑(现代化)德国社会的重要使命.本文将在德国福利制度转型的宏观视野下,运用现有文献资料,梳理和介绍德国非营利组织的类型、结构体系、活动领域、收入结构、雇员及志愿者规模、劳动力市场份额等现状与特点,并就德国非营利组织的发展趋势做简要描述和分析.     

我们应该关注什么:关于公共行政学“大问题”的争论

身份危机一直困扰着公共行政学,由此也产生了诸多关于什么是公共行政学大问题的争论。对公共行政学大问题的回答并不主要依赖于我们的知识视野和理论建构,相反它可能更依赖于我们的信仰,依赖于我们如何认识公共行政在社会中的身份和角色。依据范畴(boundary)、焦点(core)、关键词(key words)与论题(issue)等四个要素,公共行政大问题可界定为三个维度:制度层面的合法行政大问题所回答的是,公共行政始于何处;组织层面的有效行政大问题所回答的是:公共行政自身如何运行;价值层面的责任行政所回答的问题是:公共行政归于何处。公共行政学大问题之所以是一个问题,并不是因为我们找不到答案,而是因为这本身可能就不存在一个标准的答案。公共行政学能否回答这些大问题,与公共行政学的知识获得模式紧密相关,也与研究者的理论自觉有关。     

Constructive Ambiguity: Comparing the EU’s Energy and Defence Policies

This article explores the paradox of constructive ambiguity. Based on a focused, longitudinal comparison of the European Union’s energy and defence policies, it analyses the role played by strategies of ambiguity in European integration. Ambiguity is found to be an attractive strategy for political entrepreneurs when member state preferences are heterogeneous and the EU’s legal basis is weak. It is likely to be effective, however, only if it is embedded in an institutional opportunity structure – that is, a formal-legal context – that entrepreneurs can fold into their strategic repertoire of ideas. While ambiguity can be strategic in circumstances where clarity would create strong opposition, it is not sufficient to entrench a European policy if it does not rest on an institutional basis. This suggests that European political entrepreneurs should be wary of relying on coalition building by ambiguity only.     

The Non-Procedural Determinants of Responsiveness

This article starts from the remarks by Peter Mair on the growing gap between responsiveness and responsibility – or middle-run responsiveness – and the declining capacity of parties to bridge that gap. It focuses on the empirical analysis of the association between economic and substantive democratic dimensions and responsiveness, which are highly relevant to the way in which parties compete and govern within contemporary democracies. Following an introduction of the topic, the second section puts forward key concepts and hypotheses; the third presents the operationalisation of the variables and the applied method; the fourth and primary empirical section of the article analyses the non-procedural determinants of political and economic responsiveness, including freedom and equality as well as several key economic structural factors. The concluding remarks recapitulate the main empirical findings and submit a number of aspects that party leaders ought to take into account when addressing the thorny issue of responsiveness.     

Policy Advocacy in Hard Times: The Impact of Economic Performance on Gendering Executive Attention

Securing executive attention for new policy demands is notoriously difficult as governmental agendas are crowded by established or ‘core’ policy issues. This article investigates whether it is harder for new and costly policy issues to reach the government agenda when the economy is performing badly. It examines whether, and the extent to which, costly gender equality issues regarding women’s access to the labour market, equal treatment at work and care activities, are more likely to achieve executive attention when the economy is performing well. Using the Comparative Policy Agendas database, a systematic, quantitative analysis is conducted of when and why policies promoting sex equality in the division of labour reach executive agendas. The findings confirm that advocacy for costly gender equality measures is easier to make in times of economic growth. It is also found that female representation in parliament strengthens advocacy for executive attention and reduces friction on policy agenda change.     

From Financial Assets to Financial Statecraft: the case of China and emerging economies of Africa and Latin America

Over the past few decades, China has accumulated over US$3.4 trillion of official foreign exchange reserves as it rises to become a global power. Do China's financial assets increase its ability to pursue its national interests internationally? With the globalisation and rising influence of Chinese state-owned enterprises, state-owned banks and sovereign wealth fund, as well as China's growing clout in several regional groupings, it is clear that China does possess the necessary mechanisms to assert its financial power. This article examines the efficacy and limitations of these mechanisms in Africa and Latin America, in the economic and political domains. In the economic domain, China has consistently used foreign oil contracts and acquisitions to secure direct oil flow from developing nations. An analysis of recent cases shows that while China is able to successfully harness its financial power in its pursuit of oil, it needs to fulfil its promises to the satisfaction of the recipient countries in order to maintain the value of its offers. In the political domain, China has used its financial assets to purchase diplomatic allegiance from various African and Latin American countries in support of its One-China policy. Studying both successful and unsuccessful cases reveals that while China is generally able to use its financial power in third-world countries against Taiwan successfully, its national goals have, in recent years, shifted to the economic realm, even with countries that still recognise the Taipei government.     

Workforce Localization among Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Ghana

Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have gradually localized their workforce since they began operating in Ghana in the 1980s. Examining their workforce localization patterns, the Chinese SOEs in Ghana appear to be diverse in their business practices and highly autonomous from the Chinese state. Our hypothesis on the substantial autonomy of Chinese SOE overseas subsidiaries, which is consequent to the lack of management control from the Chinese central authority since the Chinese economic reform, contrasts the dominant assumption in the China–Africa debate, in which Chinese SOEs are depicted as closely linked to the Chinese state and/or as the arms of the new Chinese policy in Africa. The workforce localization process of Chinese SOEs in Ghana is largely determined by factors like profit maximization objective, market competition and political pressure. The localization experience is similar to those of Western companies in Africa where complete workforce localization takes a long time to achieve.