A typology of U.S. suburban places

Abstract

Suburbs are becoming increasingly diverse as they continue to comprise larger portions of the metropolitan population and employment. Former perceptions of suburban uniformity are being eroded by the variance in form and function that now characterizes them. This article analyzes data collected on 3,567 non‐central‐city, incorporated, metropolitan places in the United States along the dimensions of population, place, economy, and government. Specifically, a hierarchical clustering procedure, combined with discriminant analysis, identifies 10 distinct types of suburbs in the data.

Level, composition, and combinations of wealth, employment, and race drive the distinctions among suburban clusters, many of which do not fit our traditional characterizations of suburbia. In fact, only about half of all the suburbs considered are strongly characterized by these traditional traits, and these suburbs contain less than one out of every three residents considered in the analysis.     

Searching for Livelihood Security: Land and Mobility in Burkina Faso

The incremental approach to land reform in sub-Saharan Africa constitutes a rapprochement between proponents of the introduction of private property regimes and their critics. The incrementalists recognise that local tenure regimes can change and that they should be the basis of any land-reform programme. This article argues that an important gap remains with regard to the dynamics of tenure arrangements observed in a highly insecure environment, because the incremental approach retains a western-type of tenure security as its ultimate goal. Geographic mobility of actors and fields is essential to the protection of livelihoods in the north-central region of Burkina Faso. This mobility not only is made possible by the prevailing land tenure regime but also underpins its flexibility and allows the merging and shifting of rights. All of this argues against the establishment of western-type tenure security and in favour of the maintenance of flexible resource tenure regimes - a model discussed in recent years in relation to pastoral land use in drylands. This would have the additional advantage of integrating understandings of, and approaches to, pastoralists' and crop-farmers' land use in regions where these population groups already intermingle.     

Admitting a Bad Influence: Contracting the Public Service

Abstract

Emulation of the private sector is a longstanding controversy in public administration, but could it constitute a bad influence, of the kind that parents seek to guard against by scrutinizing their children's peers? Effectiveness provides a perspective on how helpful or harmful private sector influence has been for the public service. The practice of contracting-out under the A-76 process receives particular scrutiny relative to maintaining the effectiveness of public agencies. A second perspective on private sector influence examines, through the theoretical perspective of transaction-cost economics, the promise of cost savings that justified recent acceleration of contracting-out. The author, himself a government contractor, also bases his analysis on personal experience.     

土地开发增值收益分配制度的法理基础

土地开发权的性质是公权力,其基本内容是土地用途管制和规划管理,土地开发权决定土地资源的初始配置,它是土地资源市场配置的基础。土地利用的公法调整是私法调整的基础。土地开发权是产生土地开发增值收益的决定因素,这是构建和完善土地开发增值收益分配制度的法理基础。国家应当以土地管理者身份参与土地开发增值收益的初次分配和二次分配,以实现土地开发增值收益社会分享的政策目标。作为土地所有权人的国家和集体以及其他民事权利主体,依据民事权利参与土地开发增值收益的初次分配。     

Policy or person? What voters want from their representatives on Twitter

Social media have the potential to transform democracies as they allow for direct contact between representatives and represented. Politicians can use social media to show their policy positions but they can also give insight into their private lives. Based on survey experiments in Germany and Switzerland we show that social media messages about politicians’ private lives rather deter voters. Instead, we find that voters prefer candidates that communicate policy positions. The effect of a policy-oriented communication style on Twitter can even lead to appreciating a politician from a different party in Switzerland, which has an electoral system that gives a strong incentive to cultivate a personal vote.     

土地关系宏观调控规范若干问题探讨

由于我国没有宏观调控法 ,土地关系中的宏观调控规范欠缺基本指引。我国现行土地法规范、土地规划制度、土地用途管理制度都有待探讨完善 ,而对土地法中的宏观调控问题理论上鲜有涉及 ,必须加强研究探讨 ,促进土地宏观调控规范的制定和实施 ,尤其要根据目前的新情况 ,关注、重视土地关系宏观调控决策的民主性 ,以完善土地法规范。     

Title Assurance and Incentives for Efficient Land Use

This paper develops an economic analysis of a general class of land title systems, focusing specifically on incentives for efficient exchange and investment in land. The analysis abstracts from certain institutional features of actual title systems, and is therefore largely normative in nature. Nevertheless, the results are relevant for a complete evaluation of alternative systems, especially for countries where land development (or redevelopment) is a primary objective. The results suggest that in most cases, land registration is preferred to the recording system on exchange and investment grounds, holding other factors constant.     

Land governance as grey zone: the political incentives of land reform implementation in Africa

Weak state capacity has often been in focus when explaining why land reform in sub-Saharan Africa is not implemented. However, an analysis of the deeper politics of land reform brings our attention to a set of incentives which allow rules governing land to be open to interpretation. This article demonstrates that in Uganda, the need to maintain the ruling coalition in a clientelist political settlement to build electoral support, and the desire to attract economic investors, constitute political incentives to maintain land governance as a grey zone, even if there is apparent political will to implement land reforms.     

中国农村土地流转问题的法律思考

近些年土地流转在广大农村悄然兴起 ,它是继安徽凤阳县小岗村土地承包改革之后 ,来自农村的又一创新之举。它是市场经济在农村土地承包制度改革中的进一步深化 ,它不仅抑制了农村土地抛荒 ,而且还解决了农村土地资源的有效配置。但同时又存在着这样那样的问题 ,诸如 ,土地流转无法可依、农民土地承包权得不到有效保障、土地流转形式较乱、造成了一些纠纷等。当务之急是加强农村土地流转的法制建设 ,确认、巩固土地流转改革成果和解决存在的问题。首先是修改现存法律有关内容 ,其次尽快出台《农村土地承包法》 ,再是尽早制定《农村土地流转法》 ,明确土地流转的原则、形式、程序、监管和责任 ,使农村土地流转纳入法制轨道。     

民营化中的观念嬗变、公众参与及政府再规制——从公交民营化缘何受挫谈起

作为在公用事业领域公私合作治理的有益尝试,公交民营化缘何屡屡受挫？以湖北十堰公交民营化＂夭折＂为例,分析出其症结所在即＂民营化＂理念存在误读、＂公众参与精神＂缺失、政府监管缺位。针对这三个面向上存在的问题,从而提出,公用事业领域民营化的有效推行需要围绕＂民营化＂观念的嬗变、＂公众参与精神＂的塑造以及政府的再规制三个维度展开。