A Multifunctional Case Study for Teaching International Political Economy: The World Economic Forum as Shar–pei or Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?

The protests against the WTO in Seattle and against the World Economic Forum in Davos and New York present vivid images of conflicting interests in the global economy. Teachers of International Political Economy have an opportunity to use a series of recent or ongoing dynamic case studies to introduce students to theory, history, empirical investigation, and current issues. The evolution of the WEF is a strong example of a multifunctional case study, as it links a current, ongoing issue with high media visibility to many of the major theoretical traditions and debates in IPE. Over its first thirty years of operation the WEF controlled the narrative of its own evolution, portraying itself as a unique venue for business leaders and public officials to discuss issues and solve problems. However, the telecommunications revolution made the WEF's agenda of self–promotion a victim of its own success. The effectiveness of the WEF's efforts to market itself as a key communication channel between major participants in the predominant liberal market configuration of the global economy, symbolized by the meeting of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates at Davos 2000, attracted critics, such as NGOs that embraced alternate visions of globalization. Some critics in turn have become participants, which has shifted the discourse of the WEF in ways unintended by its corporate members and thereby created the possibility for the WEF to become a site for contesting the existing structure of the global economy.     

经济间谍的刑法规制

由于经济利益驱使等原因,当前国际社会上经济间谍活动日益频繁。经济间谍非法获取他国的经济秘密,带来巨额经济损失、影响国家经济安全等诸多危害。目前我国尚无专门规制条文,经济间谍犯罪的刑事立法势在必行。     

An assessment of Bayesian and multinomial logistic regression classification systems to analyse admixed individuals

Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) has been applied to the prediction of hair and eye colour. Here we apply it to the prediction of biogeographical ancestry (BGA) in a test set of 1092 admixed and non-admixed genotypes from the 1000 Genomes Project using a training set of 571 non-admixed genotypes from the HGDP CEPH cell line panel. Predicted BGAs are consistent with those of Structure, a naïve Bayesian classifier.     

民主之用:呼吁机制与发展的稳定性

对于发展而言,民主有何功效?着眼于发展的稳定性,本文运用"退出-呼吁"模型分析了民主制度的经济意义。发展不仅意味着增长速度,还意味着稳定性,两者缺一不可。民主制度对促进经济绩效恢复、维持发展的稳定性有着重要的积极作用。其所以如此,主要在于民主制度所蕴含之有效的呼吁机制。无论垂直呼吁还是水平呼吁,都从不同方面、以不同机制化解了经济运行中的波动与风险。非但如此,在全球化的背景下,呼吁的重要性将愈发凸显,同时也将面临更高的要求。     

大湄公河次区域经济走廊建设与中国的参与

经济走廊建设是推进大湄公河次区域经济合作(GMS)的重要发展战略,其核心是将次区域交通走廊的建设与经济发展相结合,把交通走廊转变为经济走廊。2008年6月,大湄公河次区域经济走廊论坛在昆明正式成立,标志着GMS交通走廊将逐步发展成为全面成熟的经济走廊。本文认为,经济走廊建设是新形势下进一步深化大湄公河次区域合作的重要路径和突破口,同时也是中国参与大湄公河次区域合作的重要形式,并将对中国与东盟的经贸合作产生深远的影响。     

非营利组织与经济发展的内在关联机理探析

本文在传统的非营利组织经济分析方法基础上,以非营利组织与经济发展的内在关联机理为切入点,从国际经验分析了非营利组织对经济增长的贡献,从我国经济发展实证角度发现非营利组织发展与经济发展具有较强的外在一致性,最后提出关于非营利组织与经济发展的内在关联机理的四个理论推断。     

Corporate governance,property and democracy: a conceptual critique of shareholder ideology

Despite the resilience of national institutions and practices there are increasing signs that national systems of corporate governance are giving way to an idealized American model of shareholder activism and liquid equity markets. These pressures are ideologically backed by 'shareholderism', which consists of three claims: a prudential, a functional and a moral claim. The prudential one claims superior efficiency for shareholder control and market allocation of capital. The functional one bases its claim for shareholder control on the contribution of risk-carrying capital. The moral one is based on a liberal doctrine of ownership that grounds exclusive control rights in title-holders. This paper addresses the functional and moral claims. It argues that public equity markets do not contribute capital and that the Lockean conception of property is both untenable and morally reprehensible. Instead corporate democracy is proposed as a way to accommodate the conflicting claims of stakeholders. To do so an intelligent division of democratic labour is required. The paper ends with a sketch of such a model, through short outings to the real world of Dutch corporate governance.     

Time,social justice and UK welfare reform

While analyses of time have never strayed too far away from those of social justice, and vice versa, this article's premise is that they have so far failed to converge as directly and coherently as they might. The aim of this article is to facilitate a greater degree of convergence by working within a framework of liberal equality and establishing similarities in the work of the two theorists who have gone furthest in bringing the various debates together. These are Robert Goodin and André Gorz, and the article explores the respective strengths and weaknesses of their ideas. A liberal theory of socio-temporal justice is derived from their work and is then used to critique some recent developments in UK welfare reform.     

Economic voting in Hungary, 1998–2008

This study investigates retrospective voting and issue voting, and their change over time in a transitioning country. Sociotropic, as well as egocentric economic evaluations, and policy issues of parties are expected to play an increasing role in party preferences of citizens over time. Data consist of 41 Hungarian cross-sectional surveys, between 1998 and 2008. Results of conditional logistic regression models reveal that voters reward incumbent parties when they see improvements in their personal or the national economic situation, and punish them if the economy deteriorates. Distance from a given party on the left–right scale also decreases the chance of voting for that party. Voting behavior is changing during transition. The evaluations of the national economy and personal situation have an increasing impact on party preferences over time. We found educational heterogeneity in the extent of economic voting.     

Migrants' remittances and economic voting in the Mexican countryside

This study advances and tests hypotheses about the effects of migrants' remittances on political behavior. Analyzing new survey data from Mexico, I find that despite being very poor, respondents who receive remittances tend to view their income as more stable than neighbors who do not receive this money. As a result, remittance recipients have relatively fewer economic grievances and tend to feel more optimistic about economic matters than neighbors who do not receive remittances. According to the economic voter thesis, citizens who are more satisfied with the economy are also less likely to pressure and oppose politicians, particularly incumbents. Analyses indicate that respondents in this sample who receive remittances are indeed less likely to lobby local officials for economic assistance. They were also less likely to mobilize against and punish the incumbent party in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.