Credit policies for Kazakhstani agriculture

This paper reviews the characteristics of the agricultural credit policy in Kazakhstan with a particular focus on emerging rural financial institutions. It is not easy to evaluate the real effect of credit policies due to the limited funds directed at agricultural production. Kazakhstani experience shows that commercial banks are used almost exclusively to provide agricultural producers with credit, while the new specialized credit institutions emerging in the agricultural sector only cater to a very small fraction of the total demand for credit. Presently, there are discussions in Kazakhstan concerning the creation of a specialized agricultural bank; however, this idea has some shortcomings that should be taken into consideration. Lack of credit is one of the main reasons for insufficient investment in agriculture. The underdeveloped land market in Kazakhstan makes formal credit institutions very cautious about accepting agricultural land as collateral.     

Making Sense of the Sacred

In this note I examine the concept of sacred values. Some commentators have recommended avoiding the question or postponing negotiations until other issues have been settled, whereas others have suggested that few sacred values cannot be rendered into some form of trade‐off (i.e., they are pseudosacred). Here, I follow Scott Atran and Robert Axelrod and argue that ritual and the sacred can be an important component of negotiation and, when addressed effectively, have great potential to break impasse. I first examine the notion of the sacred and its near synonyms, the priceless and the intrinsically valuable. I then look at the issue of valuing life and show that although society places limits on lives as a matter of policy, it paradoxically funds heroic acts, such as mine rescues, which defy economic justification. These acts turn out to fulfill an important symbolic and ritualistic function. Finally, I draw out three implications of the framework for negotiators: negotiators should engage in some form of values clarification among the parties, material compromise by one party does not necessarily indicate that that party's values were not ultimate or that these have been relinquished, and considerable weight should be placed on ritualistic and symbolic gestures with regard to values.     

激发公安院校大学生学习《大学语文》的兴趣

本文以公安院校《大学语文》教学改革为契机,揭示《大学语文》教学中教法单一、学生厌学、课堂缺乏活力、教学效率不高等瓶颈问题,并在此基础上提出了加速构建模块教学体系、整合教学资源、优化多媒体教学环境、倡导互动研讨式教学和创新教材编写理念等建义,旨在提升学生学习《大学语文》的兴趣,使之教学更贴近现实,更赋予时代性和实用性。     

老年人健康权直接保障义务之让渡——从政府导向型向市场导向型转变

健康权乃基本人权之一,应得到充分尊重并保障实现。老年人为社会弱势群体,其健康权的保障更应受国家及社会的重视。一般认为,国家是保障公民基本权利实现的义务主体,但养老服务机制下由国家直接保障老年人健康权的实现有其缺陷。在公共服务社会化趋势的背景下,政府将该直接义务让渡于市场服务行业,亦即使健康权的保障由单一的政府导向型转向多元化的市场导向型,对老年人健康权的保障具有灵活、专业、高效等优势。基本医疗制度下通过竞选资质优厚的医疗卫生服务机构来保障老年人健康权,当属充分保障人权的有效举措之一。     

论当代大学生的关怀教育

"学会关心"是当代教育的主题。文章分析了当代大学生的"关怀缺失"现象,认为关怀教育刻不容缓。进一步阐述了大学中的关怀教育的关怀自我、关怀他人及关怀社会的内涵。最后提出了大学可以从思想政治理论课、心理咨询系统、班主任和辅导员、志愿服务活动和校园环境等几个方面,实施关怀教育。     

Treatment as punishment: Forensic psychiatry in The Netherlands (1870–2005)

This article provides an overview of the development of forensic psychiatry in the Netherlands from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. The first part addresses the ways forensic psychiatry established itself in the period 1870–1925 and focuses on its interrelatedness with forensic practice, psychiatry's professionalization, the role of the government, the influence of the so-called New Direction in legal thinking and (Italian and French) anthropology of crime, and the debates among physicians as well as between psychiatrists and legal experts on the proper approach of mentally disturbed offenders. From the mid-1920s on the so-called ‘psychopaths laws’ anchored forensic psychiatry in the Dutch legal system. The second part zooms in on the enactment of these laws, which formalized special measures for mentally disturbed delinquents. These implied a combination of sentencing and forced admission to and treatment in a mental institution or some other form of psychiatric surveillance. The article deals with the meaning, reach and consequences of this legislation, its debate by psychiatrists and legal experts, the number of delinquents affected, the offenses for which they were sentenced and the (therapeutic) regime in forensic institutions. The goal of the Dutch legislation on psychopaths was ambiguous: if it was designed to protect society against assumed dangerous criminals, at the same time they were supposed to receive psychiatric treatment to enable their return to regular social life again. These legal and medical objectives were at odds with each other and as a result discussions about collective versus individual interests as well as about the usefulness and the effects of this legislation kept flaring up. To this day the history of this legislation is characterized by the intrinsic tension between punishment and security on the one hand and treatment and re-socialization on the other. Whether at some point one or the other prevailed was largely tied to the social climate with respect to law, order and authority.     

完善基层协商民主制度的有效路径

社会主义民主的本质是人民当家作主。基层协商民主是我国社会主义民主政治的特有形式,是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要环节,在促进人民理性参与政治生活、密切党群关系方面发挥着不可替代的作用。当前,我国基层协商民主在运行过程中仍然存在着一些消极因素。完善协商民主制度,各级基层党组织必须着眼于保障公民权利和提高治理能力,培育协商民主理念、完善基层协商民主机制、创新协商民主方式,积极推进协商民主广泛、多层、制度化发展,进而从机制上保证党同人民群众之间的血肉联系。     

Federalism and Decentralization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Five Patterns of Evolution

Abstract

The 1990s were marked by democratic reforms throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. This went in tandem with decentralization reforms which either created or strengthened subnational levels of government. More than twenty years later it seems everywhere to the south of the Sahara there is a gap between the institutional/constitutional blueprints introducing the reforms and the facts on the ground. Understanding and explaining this gap in the workings of federalism and decentralization is important to both theorists and practitioners. This article proposes five benchmarks in order to map out the evolutionary patterns of the last two decades: a) symmetrical recentralization; b) differentiated performance; c) legitimizing traditional authority structures and indigenous conflict resolution; d) politicization of local conflicts over land, water, and other natural resources; and e) federal extinction.     

Transnational partisanship: idea and practice

That parties might successfully organize transnationally is an idea often met with scepticism. This article argues that while certain favourable conditions are indeed absent in the transnational domain, this implies not that partisanship is impossible but that it is likely to be marked by certain traits. Specifically, it will tend to be episodic, structured as a low-density network and delocalized in its ideational content. These tendencies affect the normative expectations one can attach to it. Transnational partisanship should be valued as a transitional phenomenon, e.g. as a pathway to transnational democracy, more than as a desirable thing in itself.     

2012-2013年北京市海淀区放射卫生量化分级监督管理情况对比分析

找出北京市海淀区内开展放射诊疗工作的医疗机构在放射卫生管理中存在的问题,并为下一阶段海淀区卫生监督所的监督管理重点指明方向。方法：采用普查的方法,于2012年和2013年,用自制的《北京市海淀区医疗机构放射卫生量化分级表》对辖区内已取得《放射诊疗许可证》且开展放射诊疗活动的医疗机构进行量化评级。结果：（1）2012年和2013年分别调查了269和257家医疗机构。与2012年相比,2013年A级单位所占比例由30.1%提高到了72.0%;C级和D级单位数和构成比都有了很大程度的下降,差异具有统计学意义。（2）一级以下医疗机构中A级单位增加的比例和三级医疗机构C级单位减少的比例最大。一级及以下级别的医疗机构中的C、D级单位数占全部医疗机构的比例最大。（3）2012年量化分级情况中,卫生管理、放射人员证和工作场所三个大项合格率较低,合格率分别为56.5%、61.0%和64.7%;而2013年这三项的合格率均得到较大提高,分别为81.3%、81.0%和83.7%。（4）除个人剂量检测管理和建设项目管理的合格率分别为71.6%和70.8%外,2013年其他八项管理项目的合格率均达到80%以上。结论：三级和一级以下医疗机构实行量化分级监督管理最有成效;2013年海淀区放射卫生合格率反映出个人剂量检测和建设项目管理为下一年的监督管理重点。