关于事实劳动关系的研究

实践中存在着大量的事实劳动关系,而法律又未对事实劳动关系的概念、范围等问题作出明确界定.因此,有些事实劳动关系在审理实践中难以认定,为保护劳动者的正当权益,我们应当厘清关于事实劳动关系的一些基本问题,并继续完善与之相关的法律制度.     

对《劳动合同法》实施过程中若干问题的思考

《劳动合同法》由于直接切入劳资利益分配领域,自颁布和实施以来,争论不断。尤其在国际金融危机影响下,围绕《劳动合同法》的争论再一次掀起高潮。《劳动合同法》在实施过程中屡屡引发争议,原因在于其中一些规制的设计存在缺陷和漏洞。     

漾濞民族团结与构建和谐现状

漾濞彝族自治县是一个多民族聚居的自治县,多年来,该县历届县委、政府高度重视民族团结工作,不断拓宽思路,创新举措,各民族建立起了平等、团结、互助、和谐的新型民族关系。在新的历史时期,该县深入调查研究,积极探索新形势下民族团结工作的新途径、新方法,巩固和发展平等团结互助和谐的社会主义民族关系,努力保持和不断发展各族人民和睦相处、和衷共济、和谐发展的良好局面。     

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The article examines the political origins and impact of recent managerial reform (the shift from the professional bureaucracy model of public administration to the new public management [NPM]) in UK local government. Two key drivers of managerial reform are identified: central–local relations and labour management. The former are historically complex due, partly, to the Victorian expediential justification of local government, and the tenuous constitutional status of local government in the British polity. These factors necessitate and permit central control with models of public administration a key mechanism for achieving this. In addition, as 70% of overall sector costs are made up of centrally funded labour costs, the centre's attempts to control labour management (pay and performance) is a second key driver of managerial reform. And models of public administration, again, are a major mechanism for achieving central control. The analysis is rooted in a brief historical examination of developments from the 1880s, and a longitudinal case study examining more recent developments to illustrate the general case made. Empirical findings show councillor, union and worker resistance to managerial reform. They also show job loss, work intensification, job insecurity and demoralisation of staff. Another key finding is that NPM is not new, but a regression to the Victorian era.     

Charles Stelzle: Apostle to labor

The great British miners' strike of 1984–1985 began 30 years ago. This personal reflection centres on the debate over trade union strategy during the strike. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CP) had long been an important influence in the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers, but the strike also coincided with and exacerbated divisions within the CP and the wider left about how to respond to the ‘New Right’ Thatcher Conservative Government. This article focuses on the distinctive Eurocommunist analysis of the journal Marxism Today. The political atmosphere of the time is recalled, and then the Gramscian industrial relations strategy of winning the political argument through a ‘broad democratic alliance’ is reconstructed. Arguably, this ‘social movement’ approach could have produced a better outcome to the strike, while it provides lasting lessons about the limitations of a narrowly economistic view of trade union power.     

The evolution of industrial relations in Nepal: a biological evolutionary perspective

ABSTRACT

A great deal of literature focuses on exogenous forces transforming industrial relations in liberal and neoliberal contexts. Further, most scholars claim that the transformation occupies a similar trajectory of convergence across the globe. However, very little is known about the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal. Therefore, this paper considers the labor movement of 1947, the royal coup d’état of 1960, the ban on the trade unions, and the alliance of the trade unions with the political parties and political economy as endogenous drivers in explaining the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal. Thus the objective of the paper is to investigate the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal through an evolutionary perspective. This analysis shows that the evolution of industrial relations in Nepal is a ‘punctuated’ (discontinuous or revolutionary) one compared with a traditional, incremental model, which employs the construct of the institutionalization of industrial relations, using a standard, union-based paradigm of employment relations against the growing nonstandard employment model of more flexibility and irregular work that is growing in the West and Asia. Further, the theoretical contributions are put into perspective in the context of the broader industrial relations backdrop.     

Parent–Child Relations,Conduct Problems and Cigarette Use in Adolescence: Examining the Role of Genetic and Environmental Factors on Patterns of Behavior

This study investigated genetic and environmental influences on the associations between mother–child relationship quality (warmth and hostility) and adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use. Participants included 601 mothers and adolescent twin pairs (aged 12–17 years). Mothers and adolescents provided separate reports of mother-to-child warmth and hostility. A combined measure of mother and adolescent reported conduct problems was used while adolescents provided reports of their cigarette use. Analyses were conducted using bivariate genetic analyses of correlated factors models and regression analyses of monozygotic twin differences. Genetic influences were found for most ratings of the parent–child relationship, with evidence of gender and/or rater-specificity for some measures. The relationship between mother–child hostility with adolescent conduct problems and cigarette use was influenced by genetic and environmental effects. Evidence was found for shared environment effects on the relationship between mother–child warmth and conduct problems. Examining monozygotic twin differences provided further support for non-shared environmental influence on the relationship between mothers’ expressions of hostility and low warmth and adolescent adjustment. Findings are discussed in relation to the interplay between genetic and environmental effects underlying links between parent–child relations and adolescent behavior problems.

Current challenges to multinational federalism in India

India’s multinational federation has experienced multiple challenges in the last 25 years, relating to the rise of coalition politics and the process of economic liberalization, both of which have increased the power of some of the states of the federation at the expense of others. The internal borders of India continue to be restructured, with the latest state, Telangana, created in 2014. India is often seen as a successful multinational federation, but it is important to recognize the limitations of this success, as well as the areas where the rise of an aggressive Hindu nationalism poses a powerful threat to India’s multinational federal democracy.     

Forced Civil Society? Associational Life,Philanthropy, and the Indianapolis Turnerverein in the 1920s

This study uses the case of a German American association in the 1920s as a historical case study to gain a better understanding of the integration of an immigrant group in American society. Philanthropy, membership recruitment tactics, and associational mission are used as analytical categories in the analysis of German Americans’ processes of assimilation against the background of the aftermath of the First World War and Prohibition. Philanthropy and associational membership provide a vantage point for studying dynamics of identity, assimilation, and integration. The study argues that the difficulty of transitioning from a membership of German origin to a membership of second-generation immigrants played a major role in the progressive membership decline of this organization. This study points to challenges of an ethnic-based membership association in maintaining its relevance within an immigrant community in the face major political, social, and economic transformations, while attempting to renew its membership.     

The contested spaces of civil society in a plural world: norm contestation in the debate about restrictions on international civil society support

Civil society organizations are facing increasing political restrictions all over the world. Frequently, these restrictions apply to the foreign funding of NGOs and thus curtail the space for external civil society support, which, since the 1990s, has become a key element in international democracy and human rights promotion. This so-called ‘closing space’ phenomenon has received growing attention by civil society activists, policymakers and academics. Existing studies (and political responses), however, neglect the crucial normative dimension of the problem at hand: As we show, the political controversy over civil society support is characterized by norm contestation, and this contestation reveals competing perceptions of in/justice and touches upon core principles of contemporary world order. Taking this dimension into account is essential if we are to academically understand, and politically respond to, the ‘closing space’ challenge. It is also highly relevant with regard to current debates on how to conceptualize and construct order in a world that is plural in many regards and in which liberal norms are fundamentally contested. Empirically, the paper combines an assessment of the global debate about closing space in the UN Human Rights Council with an analysis of a specific controversy over the issue in US-Egyptian relations.