Self-determination,group identity and the common will

ABSTRACT

Anna Stilz defends a political autonomy account of self-determination that, she argues, best explains our intuitions about why colonization, annexation and foreign occupation are wrong. These are wrong, on Stilz’s view, because they unilaterally coerce individuals living under those systems of government. I argue that Stilz does not show that her account of self-determination explains our intuitions about autonomy in these kinds of cases, because she does not have a separate argument for the value of belonging to particular political groups.     

The international rule of law

ABSTRACT

The rule of law is a moral ideal that protects distinctive legal values such as generality, equality before the law, the independence of courts, and due process rights. I argue that one of the main goals of an international rule of the law is the protection of individual and state autonomy from the arbitrary interference of international institutions, and that the best way to codify this protection is through constitutional rules restraining the reach of international law into the internal affairs of a state. State autonomy does not have any intrinsic value or moral status of its own. Its value is derivative, resulting from the role it plays as the most efficient means of protecting autonomy for individuals and groups. Therefore, the goal of protecting state autonomy form the encroachment of international law will have to be constrained by, and balanced against the more fundamental goal of an international rule of law, the protection of the autonomy of individual persons, best realized through the entrenchment of basic human rights.     

三农问题背景中的村民自治

三农问题的解决,需要宏观上的努力,更需要微观上的努力。村民自治,是中国村民自主解决农村公共问题,进行公共管理,提供良好公共服务的重要制度安排。要发展良好的村民自治,关键之一是需要有一个良好的法律安排。因此,系统分析村民委员会组织法的具体规定,着眼于如何完善村民自治,分析其存在的缺陷,提出修改思路,是在制度上解决三农问题的微观保障。     

Character-building and freedom in education

Educators, parents, and policy-makers in the United States, as in other countries, are concerned about the apparent inability of many schools to contribute to the development of character and civic virtue in their pupils. The answer, experience shows, is not for government to require a pedagogy of state-defined character education which, in a pluralistic society, would inevitably create new conflicts. Instead, education policy should take advantage of the growing interest on the part of educators in creating autonomous, distinctive schools, and the continuing interest, on the part of parents, in being able to choose what school their children will attend. Schools which exhibit a distinctive character based upon a shared understanding of the goals of education are effective not only in teaching academics but also in developing positive character traits in their pupils. Charter schools and educational vouchers are two means of encouraging and supporting such coherent schools. The article concludes with a series of policy recommendations designed to balance the autonomy of schools against the need for public accountability. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中国农村基本制度的历史沿革和启示

中国农村基本制度的历史变迁大体可分成五个阶段。通过考察研究得出中国历史上的乡村基层制度在整体上是合理有效的。其中,乡村自治、乡绅参与和有限政府是三个重要经验。这些对当前中国的农村改革有着重大的启示。     

村民自治在实践中存在的问题与对策

村民自治在实践中遇到了经济结构、政治变迁、文化观念、家庭影响等方面的问题。因此,必须采取相应的对策才能达到制度创设的目的。     

村民自治条件下农村基层党组织领导方式的调查与思考

山西农村党组织发挥领导核心作用的状况是 :30 %发挥作用多 ;6 0 %属于中等 ;10 %发挥作用比较差。转变农村基层党组织的领导方式势在必行 ,这是执政党实现领导的本质要求 ;是执政党执政规律的内在要求 ;是实行村民自治的迫切要求     

The Correlation Effect of Land Finance to Basic Public Service:An Empirical Study on Compulsory Education,Health and Social Services

Local governments are constantly disturbed by land finance about the supplying effectiveness of basic public services. With the steady deepening of the financial reform, this disturbance has reverse effect on the local government reform process. Through literature review of existing land finance and public service, this research constructs the relational theory model of land finance and product supply of basic public services, in order to theoretically interpret the relations between land finance and economic or non-economic public service products, for better distinction. With the aid of random and fixed effect model regression analysis, this paper clarifies the significant impact of land transfer and financial autonomy for the supply of basic public services. Furthermore, with the robustness test, it is found that increasing land finance basic public service provision would generate negative external tropism. Therefore, we suggest proper adjustment of the relationship between the central and local land fiscal configuration, optimizing the structure of land tax, enhancing fiscal autonomy of local governments, and promoting the reform of land finance, for the effectiveness of basic public service provision.     

日本地方治理中的公民社会组织参与模式——以自治会为例

公民社会组织的参与是治理体系的重要构成部分。其中地方治理强调地方分权和地方居民自治背景下的治理体系,地方居民为主体的公民组织是其重要参与者。日本的自治会作为地方社区的基层公民组织,无论从数量上还是分布规模来看都是日本最大的公民组织,是日本地方治理中的重要参与者。同时自治会又具有辅助行政功能的色彩,与市区町村的地方政府保持良好的合作、协调关系是其特色。因此自治会在参与地方治理中表现出了"行政媒介型公民参与模式"的特征。自治会一方面发动地方居民的力量参与地方治理,实现地方居民的主体性参与;另一方面通过参与协助地方政府的行政,和地方政府保持良好的合作关系进而达到影响地方政府的目的。