Public Participation and Environmental Impact Assessment in Mainland China and Taiwan: Political Foundations of Environmental Management

This article explores the role of agro-ecological factors associated with agricultural growth and poverty outcomes in India. Using a new operationalisation of agro-ecological factors and incorporating within-State variations in poverty and other variables we show that agricultural growth and poverty reduction appear to depend on underlying agro-ecological conditions which are favourable to the spread of irrigation and hence agricultural development, which in turn in associated with poverty reduction. Promotion of agriculture in less favoured areas in unlikely to have similar effects on agriculture in less favoured areas is unlikely to have similar effects on agricultural growth even if the effects of agricultural growth on poverty remain similar, unless conditions for irrigation are favourable or rainfall is sufficiently abundant and reliable. This suggests that considerable caution may be needed in drawing policy conclusions from empirical analysis by state alone, and without regard to their underlying factor endowments.     

The Role of FDI,Exports and Spillover Effects in the Regional Development of China

The objective of this analysis is to assess the impacts of export expansion, inward FDI, domestic investment and labour on the growth of China's Eastern, Central and Western regions using panel data over the period 1984 to 1998. A major contribution of the study is its tests for the presence of interregional spillover effects. The study indicates that both inward FDI and domestic investment stimulate growth in all three regions and for the PRC as a whole and that export expansion stimulates the growth of the PRC, Eastern and Central China, but not the West. Labour enhances the growth of the more traditional Western region, but not the more capital intensive Eastern seaboard or the PRC in its entirety. Finally, output growth spills over from the East to Western and Central China and from the Central area to Western China. These results are fully explained in the text.     

Central America,civil society and the ‘pink tide’: democratization or de-democratization?

In the literature on the turn to the left in the wider Latin American region, Central America has generally been neglected. The aim of this article is to seek to fill that gap, while specifically assessing the left turn's impact on prospects for democratization in the sub-region. Using three case studies – El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua – the article questions the usefulness of transition theory for analysis and instead offers a framework based on state/civil society interaction within the context of globalization. Four key conclusions are made: First, democratization is not a linear process, but can be subject to simultaneous processes of democratization and de-democratization. Second, continued deep structural inequalities remain central to the region's politics but these often provoke unproductive personalistic and partisan politics which can inhibit or curtail democratization. Third, interference from local and/or international economic actors can curtail or reverse democratization measures, underlining the influence of globalization. Fourth, Central America is particularly revelatory of these tendencies due to its acute exposure to extreme oligarchic power and outside influence. It hence can help shed light on wider questions on the blurring of boundaries between state, civil society and market and its impact on democratization, especially within the context of globalization. In this way the article contributes to the analysis of Central America in the current context of the ‘pink tide’, underlines the importance of continued analysis of Central America for democratization studies, and brings new insight to debates on transition theory.     

中央苏区“八一”纪念初探

1933年,中共基于＂扩红＂与筹款的现实需要,在苏区开展了一场前所未有的纪念活动——＂八一＂中国工农红军纪念日活动。经由党、苏维埃、军委的组织与配合,举办了形式多样的纪念活动,进行了＂八一＂阅兵仪式的操演。这次纪念活动既实现了既定的政治动员目标,又透露出一种建构革命军队集体记忆的指向,由此奠定中共此后纪念活动的基本模式。     

中东欧国家政治-行政体制的制度背景

自从苏联解体之后,中东欧国家面临着政治行政体制转型的多样选择。基于新制度主义的理论基础,论文旨在探析中东欧国家政治行政体制的改革背景。论文指出,在新制度主义理论视角下,出于文化和历史对政府结构的影响,中东欧各国家的改革进程、转型路径和制度体系存在着巨大的差异性。在分析了中东欧各国政治行政体制差异的文化根源和因此产生的特殊转型路径,以及各国政治行政体系改革模式之后,论文指出,中东欧国家政治行政体系转型并不存在唯一的最优解决方案,成功的改革模式可以借鉴但不能复制。     

刑罚权运作的秩序——刑事法制中的“中央与地方”问题研究

刑事法制中的中央与地方问题,表现为与惩治犯罪相关的中央权力与地方权力的分配及其相互关系中出现的紊乱状态。一些地方司法机关根据本地区实际制定施行准司法解释、推出刑事司法制度创新等做法,在一定程度上构成了对统一刑事法制的离心力。合理分配刑事法制中的中央权力与地方权力,理顺二者关系并使之形成良性的运作机制,一方面要完善刑事立法权的行使并通过强化司法权的方式来强化中央权力,另一方面要将脱序的地方公权力行为重新纳入到统一法制中,并主要通过强化司法权的行使实现对地方权力的制约。     

我国商业银行的营销策略

借助SWOT分析法,对我国商业银行自身反我国宏、微观的银行营销环境进行综合分析,提出选择目标市场、进行金融服务定位、不断创新产品和服务、树立自己的品牌形象、制定适当的价格策略、建立通畅的分销渠道等一系列适合我国商业银行实际的市场营销策略。     

周恩来对中央苏区第四次反“围剿”胜利的重大贡献

在中央苏区第四次反“围剿”斗争中,周恩来和朱德等领导同志一道排除各种干扰,审时度势,果断决策,采取了灵活机动的战略战术,为此次反“围剿”战争的胜利作出了卓越的贡献。他的重要贡献主要体现在：是中央苏区第四次反“围剿”在前线负主持战争全责的最高领导人和直接指挥者;坚决抵制“左”倾军事路线,坚持正确的作战原则,集中兵力,在运动中各个歼灭敌人;充分利用山区和根据地的有利条件,创造了红军战争史上前所未有的大兵团伏击战的成功范例。     

Lessons learned from the World Commission on Dams

The World Commission on Dams was an independent international body created under initiatives of the World Bank and the World Conservation Union in order to address environmental and social impacts of large dams. It published its final report in November 2000 after 2.5 years of extensive studies, public hearings, and discussions. The report included recommendations that were expected by some to become internationally acceptable standards for the planning, assessment, design, construction, operation, and monitoring of large dam projects. However, to date, none of these recommendations have been either officially accepted by major international financial institutions, including the World Bank, or by a large number of national governments, including China and India, which are the world’s top and third largest dam-building countries. Several factors have prevented their broad acceptance: (1) the World Bank lost its stake in the development of policy as the original scope of the review expanded from solely Bank-funded projects to cover all large dam projects in the world; (2), the World Bank was neither included in the secretariat nor did it provide Commissioners, thereby providing the Bank with an excuse not to accept the recommendations; (3) the Commission had the heavy tasks of carrying out both scientific study and developing policies, under serious time constraints, resulting in premature recommendations that were difficult to apply in the real world; (4) the character of the final recommendations was not clearly explained in the report, giving stakeholders unrealistic expectations.

从委托-代理理论看国有银行的金融风险

我国国民经济的金融依存度越来越高。国有银行是国民经济发展中最重要的力量之一。在市场经济条件下,国有银行应本着追求利润最大化原则进行市场交易,而不是一种国家权力保护下的信用工具。可是,我国金融业由于体制改革滞后以致国有银行成了经济生活中主要的风险承担者,金融风险的过度集中和扩大已对金融业和国民经济整体构成威胁。应用委托—代理理论,通过分析金融风险形成机理,探讨新形势下的我国银行金融风险的特殊原因,并尝试提出一些解决之道。