Public debt stabilization: the relevance of policymakers’ time horizons

Policymakers are stuck in time. Political short-termism, policy myopia, policy short-sightedness, and similar words have been coined to emphasize the present-centric policy thinking. Politics tends to produce short time horizons, and as a result, policymakers often fail to use present opportunities to mitigate future harms. Focusing on fiscal and monetary strategic interactions, given different separate decision makers, our paper aims to explore the effects of policymakers’ time horizons on debt stabilization. To formalize our ideas, we use the novel concept of Nonlinear-model-predictive-control Feedback Nash Equilibrium (NFNE) and find that present-centric policy thinking and decision horizons matters under several dimensions.     

Reshaping State Structure and Strategy: The Reform of Railway Policy in Germany and Italy

For almost four decades, the reform of the state has been a recurrent and relevant topic for social sciences. Has the s.c. positive state been replaced by a regulatory state, or have hybrid configurations emerged? Based on a comparative analysis of German and Italian railway policies, this article aims to contribute to the literature on regulation, considering the possibility of policy mixes in which elements of the positive and the regulatory state are interrelated. Such hybridization is the result of multiple-actor policy arenas, where regulatory tools are used to restructure state’s direct intervention rather than to bring about its retreat.     

Correction to: Age Patterns in Risk Taking Across the World

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - In the original publication, the legends for Figs 4 and 5 were incorrect, such that each regression line was mislabeled with the incorrect country. Below are the...     

美国法典1404(a)与非方便法院原则辨析

由于美国法典28卷1404（a）条款的立法规定在功能与措辞上均非常类似普通法上的非方便法院原则,因此很多学者误以为该立法规定与非方便法院原则之间并不存在实质性的差异。然而,这一看法并不正确。事实上,1404（a）条款立法在法律效果、证明标准以及具体适用方面均与非方便法院原则存在显著的区别。     

论刑事回避制度——以比较法为视角

刑事回避是一种重要的刑事诉讼制度，它对刑事案件的公正、公平审判，犯罪嫌疑人、被告人以及其他诉讼参与人合法权益的保护都具有十分重要的意义。文章以国外刑事诉讼立法与司法实践为基础，以比较法为视角，全面阐述了刑事回避的启动与决定；刑事回避的适用对象与适用原由；刑事回避的法律后果与救济等内容。     

城市基层社会的数字化治理

北京市X区J街道H社区在社会文化建设、社会服务提供、基层民主选举等几个领域内所发生的“治理一应对”的运作过程说明：当前城市基层社会的治理在很多方面表现为一种“数字化治理”模式，治理对象不是社区里的人或事，而是档案、数据、文牍等数字化内容，以此达到掌控基层社会情况、增加合法性、突出政绩等目的。同时，这种治理模式也直接促使社区事务执行者在不断提高文牍技术、注重细节、追求形式化的同时，采取变通、重新解释、选择性关注等方式，形成了新的社区运作逻辑和基层应对策略。     

论我国“小产权房”合法化的实现与障碍

“小产权房”是否合法化的问题已成为“小产权房”问题争论的焦点内容.纵观中国现行法律,不难发现关于“小产权房”“违法”的相关立法之间存在着逻辑上和法律上的种种矛盾与冲突.通过对“小产权房”的立法以及相关法律规章的梳理和分析发现,在我国“小产权房”应当实现合法化.“小产权房”应当拥有明确的法律定位,并应通过立法及相关配套政策的实施促进我国“小产权房”合法化的步伐.     

改府规模与结构优化的维度与性质

政府规模与结构优化是近年来学术界与实践领域特别关注的一个问题.然而,目前的研究主要借助于经济学领域关于政府规模与结构优化的概念体系,而没有形成从公共管理的角度来探讨这一问题的概念体系,由此导致关于政府规模与结构优化的理论研究与实践探索出现某些偏颇.从公共管理的角度上说,我们认为,政府规模就是政府在社会、经济、政治、文化等领域的活动范围以及政府行为对个体或组织的行为所产生的影响;政府规模结构是指政府规模的组织构成、内容构成以及组织-内容匹配性构成.因此,政府规模与结构应该从政府活动、行为及其社会影响三个维度进行优化.     

What is the best sample for determining the early postmortem period by on-the-spot flow cytometry analysis?

The level of degradation of DNA as a means for determining the time of death has been proposed as a valid adjunct to the classic thanatochronologic methods. The twofold aim of this work was to determine which organ might reveal both a correlation between the percentage of degradation of the DNA and the time lapse since death, and would be easiest to sample and yield the most reproducible results even in technically unfavorable situations such as on-the-spot investigations at the scene of death. A comparison of the spleen, blood, and liver showed that hepatic tissue best meets these specific needs because it shows a virtually linear correlation between the time elapsed since death and the level of degradation of the DNA, and it can easily be sampled at the scene of death by use of a common biopsy needle.     

Bile analysis of drugs in postmortem cases

Bile is, in certain cases, collected together with blood from different sites (heart, brain, femoral), urine and other organs or matrices. This study reports comparative results obtained from the analysis of blood and bile for different drugs found: acetaminophen, amphetamine and related compounds, several antidepressants, several benzodiazepines, cocaine and its metabolites, dextropropoxyphene and its metabolite, hydroxyzine, methadone and metabolite, morphine and codeine, levomepromazine, thioridazine, propranolol, tramadol and its metabolite. Several findings are presented: (1) There were no significant differences in the levels of the compounds among the samples of blood obtained from different sites. (2) Levels in bile are generally several fold higher than those in blood. The mean bile to blood ratios vary from about 1 (for acetaminophen, amphetamine) to about 2000 (for desmethylclobazam). (3) In certain cases (16 over 44), although the drug or its metabolite was not detected in blood from different sites, it was detected in bile. As other authors had advocated, it is very useful to ask the pathologist to take the gall bladder with its contents together with the other samples, in order that the sample of bile can be used in the comprehensive toxicological analysis and therefore be complementary to the other fluids or matrices. An additional advantage for using bile is that the concentrations of drugs or their metabolites are generally several fold higher than their blood concentrations.