An Ideational Approach to Gendered Institutional Change: Revisiting the Institutionalization of a New Prostitution Regime in Sweden

Recent work in the field of feminist institutionalism has made important progress in furthering our understanding of gendered institutional change. I argue that gradual ideational changes play an essential role in processes of gendered institutional change, and that examining the interaction between ideas and gendered institutions is of great importance for gaining a better understanding of processes of this type. This article revisits an empirical study of gendered institutional change in Swedish prostitution policy in the effort to specify two idea-based mechanisms that are conducive to gendered change, namely, consensus concerning the problem and gendering of the problem.     

The transition from limited access orders to open access orders in the post-communist Europe

This paper attempts to explain the process of institutional transition of post-communist countries applying conceptual framework proposed by D.C. North, J. J. Wallis, and B. R. Weingast. The first part of the article is devoted to outline the theory of North, Weingast, and Wallis. The second part the theory is used to analyze transformation processes in post-communist countries. An important conclusion of this paper is that cultural, religious and historical factors have crucial impact on formation of new coalitions of elites in the transitions countries. In the countries where Western values were present the transfer of the market and democratic formal institutions was easier. Also, the process of transformation was strongly influenced by external factors, especially the prospect of integration with the European Union, which encouraged elites to take action that benefited the opening of both political and economic markets. These observations suggest that, in general, the success of transformation in transition countries did not depend on the intentional actions of ruling elites.     

Vote Blue,Go Green? Cameron's Conservatives and the Environment

How genuine is the Conservative party's rediscovery of the environment? Would a Conservative government led by David Cameron implement a wide‐ranging and progressive environmental policy? This article explores why Cameron has embraced the environment so enthusiastically when Conservative governments have had a poor record of environmental protection and the Conservative party has traditionally shown little interest in the issue. It assesses the impact of Cameron's strategy both on his own party and on the wider world of environmental politics and it evaluates the continuing commitment of the Conservatives to the issue by assessing what kind of policies a future Conservative government might implement. Although Cameron remains committed to the issue and he has already had a positive impact on Labour government policy, he has not yet convinced his party or its supporters, so a future Conservative government would probably represent continuity rather than significant change in environmental policy.     

Climate Change Policy Implementation: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Why would countries invest resources to protect the global atmosphere, a global common‐pool resource? After all, this is an open‐access resource with no restrictions on appropriating its benefits. Furthermore, why would they do so under the aegis of a weak global regime (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) that has virtually no provisions for sanctioning noncompliance and when the largest contributor to the problem is not participating in the regime? This article examines why a number of countries have implemented the UNFCCC. I hypothesize that countries implement UNFCCC because they corner domestic environmental benefits, namely reduction in local pollution. In my empirical analysis of 127 countries, employing an ordinal logistic regression model, I find that local air pollution is associated with higher levels of implementation of the UNFCCC. Thus, I conclude that the incentives to implement a relatively weak global regime can be found in the domestic political economy.     

气候变化与美国国家安全:美国官方的认知及其影响

气候变化的影响超越它本身所带来的直接环境后果,对美国国家安全提出新挑战。美国官方对这一问题的认知从形成到发展,大体经历了酝酿、萌芽和完善阶段。促成美国对该问题的战略认知与政策实践的原因复杂,涉及国际社会的政治议程、美国国内的科学议程以及国会的影响等因素。当前,美国的安全体系不仅正视气候变化对美国国家安全产生的威胁,而且已经开始制定战略性方针不断将气候变化因素纳入该体系的战略规划和日常实践。在国际层面,美国已经开始谋求与其他国家就气候变化影响国家安全与国际安全的问题达成共识甚至采取行动。本质上,这是美国在全球气候谈判博弈中增加筹码的一个重要抓手,希望以此来影响和主导全球减缓气候变化行动。预计未来美国应对气候变化安全后果的政策走势趋强,将对美国气候政策、对外关系乃至国际格局产生重要影响,同时将给中国特别是中国与发展中国家的合作关系带来挑战。     

People must change before institutions can: a model addressing the challenge from administering to managing the maltese public service

The Maltese public service is currently undergoing major organisational changes to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness in its service delivery. The great majority of these changes have focussed on re‐organising the macro‐level, namely strategy, processes and structures. This is not an easy feat as local external power forces leave their impact in the process. It is argued, however, that one way to circumvent these resisting forces is to empower the real agents of change: the administrators of the public service. For some reason, the micro‐level has been neglected and has been generally absent from the agenda of the major change programme with a few exceptions. This article throws light on this level by proposing an intrapersonal, psychological and pedagogical model for change that may complement and accompany the larger macro changes. The authors suggest that the model can be developed in a practical way to motivate change from within the person and not just push change around the person. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

苏联剧变是信仰危机还是体制危机——兼与杨金华商榷

苏联剧变是20世纪影响世界的大事,其根本原因在于苏共的社会主义实践出了问题。经过70多年的探索,苏共并没有找到适合苏联特点的社会主义建设之路,因此,戈尔巴乔夫的改革发展成改向,在抛弃斯大林模式的同时,也放弃了社会主义道路。这一教训值得共产党人深刻总结,但把苏联剧变的主要原因归为信仰虚无主义危机,是本末倒置。苏联剧变不是信仰虚无主义的问题,是放弃对苏联模式的社会主义的信仰,转而信仰其他选择的问题。发生这一切的根本原因不在于公开性、民主化,而在于原有的信仰空洞无物,未给民众带来实惠。     

社会性别和气候变化

气候变化已经成为一个重要的可持续发展问题和全球问题。已有的研究和事实显示：气候变化使本已存在的性别不平等进一步加剧。在应对气候变化过程中纳入社会性别视角的重要性已得到国际社会的认可和重视．一系列国际公约、宣言、纲领等国际法律和文件中已将社会性别主流化纳入其中。将性别平等纳入应对气候变化政策和行动的重点关切领域包括：适应行动、缓解行动战略、技术发展战略、气候变化筹款机制。当今在全球，社会性别主流化在气候变化和减少灾害风险方面取得了一定进展，这种国际趋势、价值观和良好做法，对于我国应对气候变化、推进性别平等和履行国际责任具有积极的意义。     

租:公共政策的意蕴

本文从布坎南关于"租"的论述出发,运用新制度主义方法重新审视"租"的公共政策意蕴,认为公共政策是一种正式制度安排,本质上是关于规定个体和集体选择集的制度安排结构;在制度变迁中,由于不同体制、权利和组织设置而获得的额外收益就是"租",这是公共政策存在的理由;寻租是有成本的,表现为政治交易费用,政府创租和利益集团寻租是不同的两种政治交易过程,表现为公共政策议程;有效率的公共政策选择依赖于制度结构,是制度结构赋予成本和收益以意义。     

Globalization and institutional competitiveness

Only dead institutions do not change and only rarely do institutions change by themselves. To maintain performing institutions takes institutional entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks and who possess the capacity and the talent to innovate. A regulation discourse, in contrast to a marketization discourse, would not picture the relationship between globalization and institutional change as a deterministic one. Rather, it would expect that all kinds of actors play a large number of different roles in the course of ongoing institutional change. The result of such complex institutional change, at the level of welfare states, multinational businesses, public administration, and training systems, to mention just a few of the empirical areas covered in this special issue, cannot be fully understood by applying an overly rigid, static, and dualistic approach to modern capitalist economies. The concept of institutional competitiveness, on the contrary, allows for institutional entrepreneurship and institutional hybrids constituting pulsating polities.