Greening growth in the South: practice,policies and new frontiers

Today's development model promotes the exploitation of natural resources regardless of the consequences for the environment or the impact that the quality of the environment has on people's lives and livelihoods. Without a shift in current consumption and production patterns, a sustainable model of development is out of reach. The 1992 Earth Summit acknowledged the need to marry growth and environmental sustainability, but more than 20 years later the world still lacks concrete goals, commitments, benchmarks of progress and frameworks to secure benefits across social, economic and environmental dimensions. The global South is emerging as a green growth laboratory, with innovation and creativity to tackle these concerns. This article analyses these efforts in the context of public policy, and shows that both positive and negative patterns in practice and policy are emerging, which should be considered as broader global green growth efforts are further consolidated and the post-2015 development agenda is being defined.     

FLYING BLIND? EVIDENCE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORM AGENDAS,IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOMES IN LOW INCOME COUNTRIES

Although considerable resources and attention have been allocated to recent ‘good governance’ public management reform in low income and fragile states, there is little evidence as to what degree this agenda has been implemented nor as to whether it has led to improved services and outcomes for populations. To address this lacuna, we conduct a review of the large but almost entirely qualitative literature on good governance reform in the 49 countries classed as low income by the United Nations. We find only a small number of documents that link good governance public sector reform agendas with implementation. Fewer still assess outcome. We conduct an empirical analysis of the relationship between reform agenda (using data from the literature review), implementation, service delivery and outcomes, as measured by performance on Millennium Development Goals indicators. We report that there is little, if any, empirical evidence that reform enhances service delivery. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Approaching the EU and Reaching the US? Rival Narratives on Transforming Welfare Regimes in East-Central Europe

Post-communist welfare regimes are frequently portrayed as a hybrid consisting of the relics of communist social policy and a neophyte imitation of the US model of welfare. Both components of that hybrid are regarded as incompatible with the 'European social model'. At the same time, most welfare reformers in East-Central Europe try to avoid falling into the trap of first, conserving the statist, inefficient and pseudo-egalitarian character of the old system of social policy; second, seeking new forms of welfare collectivism along the national-conservative/populist 'third roads' between capitalism and communism; third, triggering popular discontent by dismantling the old welfare regimes too rapidly, or in a haphazard way; and fourth, targeting an end-state which has become unsustainable in the Western world during the past two decades. Meanwhile, the emerging welfare regimes in the region are far from being identical and the reformers do not find stable institutional arrangements in the West to copy. In an effort to make sense of this complex picture, the paper examines what has 'really' happened in the welfare sectors in the region during the past decade by presenting three dominant narratives of the social transformation: 'leaping in the dark', 'marking time' and 'muddling through'.     

经济全球化进程中发展中国家的历史定位

经济全球化作为一股强劲的时代潮流 ,是任何国家都不能回避的 ,但不同类型的国家对经济全球化的态度却是迥然不同的。发展中国家对经济全球化普遍持悲观或谨慎态度 ,这与发展中国家在全球化进程中的历史定位直接相关。在近现代世界历史进程中形成的不利于发展中国家的“初始条件” ,使发展中国家在今天的全球化进程中注定要处于相对弱势的地位     

Some Aspects of the Principle of " common="" butdifferentiated="" responsibilities""="

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, one of the key concepts of sustainable development, has dual grounding; the pressures developed countries place on the global environment; and the technologies and financial resources they command. Though the developed countries are reluctant to admit the first grounding, the developing countries have a strong leverage to induce the former to accept differentiated treatment in their favor.Thus, this principle has become to be reflected in some conventions in the field of environment and development. The reflection of this principle takes two forms: one is "double standards" in environmental protection standards as well as their implementation in favor of developing countries; and the other is assistance by developed countries for sustainable development of developing countries. At present, "double standards" seem to be inevitable, but, they must be temporary measures in view of the integral and interdependent nature of global environment. And, in order to overcome these "double standards", the attainment by developing countries of their sustainable development seems to be indispensable. In a substantial number of environmental conventions, developed country parties assume obligations to assist development country parties. However, these obligations are confirmed to "incremental costs" necessary for implementation of the convention concerned, and do not extent to assistance for sustainable development in general. Changing consumption and production patterns seems to be one of the most important aspects of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, since this concept takes issue, for the first time, with the pattern of development pursued by developed countries. However, this concept has much difficulties in translating into international legal terms.Though it may be difficult at present to characterize the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities to be a customary norm of international law, it is surely a basic principle of international law, and as such, may operate as a guiding principle for law-making, as well as for the interpretation and application of conventions in the field of environment and development.     

试析发展中国家的环境安全

冷战后,低级政治”领域的安全问题凸显。“环境安全”作为一个联系环境问题和安全考虑的新概念出现。与发达国家相比,发展中国家的环境安全形势尤为严峻。本文力图从环境安全的概念出发,分析发展中国家环境安全的成因及后果,探讨获得环境安全的途径。     

欧盟关税优惠案对发展中国家的影响

欧盟 2 0 0 1年 12月 10日通过的第 2 5 0 1/2 0 0 1号理事会条例就向发展中国家提供优惠关税作出了包括反药品生产在内的五种安排 ,给予 12个发展中国家优于其他发展中国家的关税待遇。印度由此向世贸组织提出申诉 ,认为欧盟条例 (后将其指控限定在药品安排 )违反了关贸总协定第 1条第 1款的规定 ,且不能以授权条款作为抗辩理由。专家组于 2 0 0 3年 12月 1日公布报告 ,支持印度的指控。欧盟就专家组的报告提起上诉。针对欧盟的上诉和其他当事方的意见 ,上诉庭明确了授权条款的地位问题、指控方应承担的提出证据的标准问题、以及非歧视待遇的内涵问题 ,据此 ,欧盟的药品安排被裁定不符合授权条款的规定。上诉庭的裁定意见将对发展中国家在世界贸易组织内享有的权利产生消极和积极两个方面的重要影响     

马克思主义关于东方农民问题的理论

马克思主义经典作家指出,俄国农民被旧制度置于"活不成也死不了的境地";由于英国的殖民统治和掠夺,印度农民"被投入苦海".由此在俄国革命过程中,农民"是真正的革命民主派";在东方其他国家,农民已经接受了苏维埃的思想,可以在这些国家建立农民苏维埃.从马克思、恩格斯关于俄国农村公社应该得到全社会帮助的思想里可以获得东方新政权帮助农民的思想启示;列宁则就新政权从生活上和生产上帮助农民提出了一系列重要思想.     

马克思世界历史观的当代表现与启示

马克思世界历史思想因全球化浪潮日渐深入而重新为人们所重视,但学术界对此并未达成共识。本文从另一视角考察马克思的世界历史观,试图将该思想与全球化的现时代结合起来,从中得出解决现实问题的启示。