Systemic interaction opportunities and war behavior∗

State leaders must often address domestic and foreign-policy concerns simultane-ously, though doing so can be complicated and risky. One way in which leaders can seek to satisfy domestic demands and pursue foreign policy goals simultaneously is by implementing policies that complement one another; i.e., the implementation of one policy influences the ease with which the other policy can be implemented. For instance, one manner in which leaders can placate domestic audiences is via distributive policies such as social insurance payments that provide economic security to individuals. By providing economic security guarantees, leaders may gain greater discretion over other policy areas, including foreign policy. However, while the social insurance effort may satisfy an audience and enable a leader to take foreign- policy action, especially high payment levels may indicate that a leader must devote an inordinate portion of his budget to domestic concerns, making foreign policy more difficult to implement. Thus, guarantees of economic security might provide leaders with greater foreign policy latitude until domestic expenditures reach sufficient levels that foreign-affairs budgets are reduced. We employ zero-inflated event count models to estimate the relationship between social-insurance levels and the number of Militarized Interstate Disputes in which states engage. Our analyses include 69 states between 1975 and 1990. Our models support the hypothesis that lower levels of social insurance lead to greater numbers of disputes, but that, after a certain level of insurance effort is passed, dispute involvement declines. Our findings suggest a differential effect of social insurance on a leader's ability to act in the foreign policy arena and support the notion that leaders may employ the welfare state to enhance their foreign-policy capabilities, though they appear to meet with conditional and limited success.     

当代国家治理模式的变革及其启示——对福利国家、发展型国家和转型国家当代发展的考察

20世纪80年代以来,全球化和新自由主义的兴起对国际政治经济环境产生了深远的影响,引发了有关国家和政府能力的激烈讨论。从发达资本主义国家福利改革、东亚政府主导型经济的衰退到苏东地区社会主义制度的垮台,全球范围内的国家治理模式发生了广泛而深刻的变革,国家解决国内问题的能力受到限制,国家和社会关系的平衡向着有利于市场和私有权力的方向转变。然而这些变迁也表明,并不是所有的制度都趋向"正统"的自由市场经济模式,相反,制度变迁表现出多元化的特征,与此同时,全球化也为国家和政府能力的增长提供了新的空间,战后以来的国家治理模式正在经历新的调整和重组。     

Retirement pensions and gender： The Spanish case from the European perspective

The European Union in its task of coordinating the different social protection systems recommends member countries to take steps to prevent economic imbalances caused by ageing populations. Spain and other European countries-such as Sweden, Italy or Germany, follow the trends marked by the European Union with regard to pensions. In recent years, these countries have carried out reforms to be entitled to benefits, increase the proportionality between contributions and benefits and introduce formulas similar to private funded systems. These reforms will lead to retirement pensions linked to contributions becoming an airtight system, thus excluding the most vulnerable workers from them. This work aims to show that this type of restrictive measures despite being formulated in a neutral way, fail to correct-and actually increase-the differences between women and men in employment, since women are more affected by unstable working conditions than men. Lower wages for women and higher incidences of their careers being interrupted to attend to family duties will make access for women to retirement pensions even harder. The shortfalls in the protection of retirement pensions contrast sharply with a common European employment policy which aims to raise the employment rate of women. Having examined the incidence of this type of reforms from a gender perspective, the final aim of the work will be to show whether the European directive against discrimination regarding Social Security, headed by Directive 79/7 and displayed in the European Court of Justice＇s case law, constitutes an adequate regulatory tool to neutralize those reforms which lead to indirect discrimination.     

珠江流域公益林生态补偿的困难与对策——以贵州省为例

珠江流域地区面临沉重的生态压力,补偿路径受限、补偿标准较低是其面临的主要困难。增强林权保护意识、适当提高公益林生态补偿标准并加强省际合作,加强公益林生态补偿的横向机制和纵向机制有助于解决贵州面临的公益林生态补偿困难,并最终有助于珠江流域地区公益林的建设。     

市场呼唤面向社会服务的司法鉴定机构——对148起物证技术鉴定案件的总结

司法鉴定是服务于审判活动的科学实证活动 ,司法鉴定进入诉讼领域 ,实际上就是科学进入司法工作。我国现行的司法鉴定体制已经暴露出诸多弊端 ,这种现状与当前提出的以司法公正为核心 ,以司法公开为重点的司法改革目标直接相违背。公正与效率是 2 1世纪司法改革的主旋律 ,司法部决定创建新的司法鉴定制度 ,并对原有鉴定体制进行整合 ,其中心工作就是强化面向社会服务的司法鉴定 ,使其成为创建有中国特色司法鉴定制度的突破点。     

Von einem liberalen zu einem post‐liberalen Wohlfahrtsstaat: der Wandel der gewerkschaftlichen Sozialpolitik in der Schweiz

The article reconstructs the development of the Swiss welfare state against the background of the transformation of trade unions' social policy activities. It detects a sequence of trade unions' activities in social policy which runs uniformly to the development of the welfare state. While in the liberal phase of the Swiss welfare state trade unions were sceptical of national social policy and preferred mutual insurance and collective bargaining, in its post‐liberal phase they have become proponents of national social policy legislation.     

The effectiveness of an ICWA Court at achieving improved ICWA implementation and outcomes: A pre-post intervention study

This article presents findings from a quasi-experimental study of the St. Louis County (Duluth, Minnesota) ICWA Court examining its effectiveness at achieving improved ICWA implementation and a better case process and outcomes for Indian families. Using a case file review method, cases prior to implementing the ICWA Court were compared to post-ICWA Court cases on demographics, case characteristics, application of ICWA requirements, presence of parties at hearings, achievement of child permanency outcomes, and permanency timeliness. Compared to pre-ICWA Court, this study found several statistically significant improvements in the ICWA Court's handling of cases, including taking less time to confirm the case as an ICWA case, greater appearance of tribal representatives by the Dispositional review hearing stage, more active efforts findings, more placements with relatives at earlier stages of the case, more placement with relative outcomes when reunifications were not possible, and timelier permanency.     

“I didn't Know You were Fighting So Hard for me”: Attorneys' Perceptions of Youth Participation in Child Dependency Proceedings

This study examined attorneys' perceptions of youth participation in child dependency proceedings. Surveys and semi‐structured interviews were conducted with attorneys who represent adolescents in child dependency proceedings. Three dimensions of participation were identified: receiving information, providing information, and self‐advocacy. Barriers to youth participation included individual‐level factors, such as the youth or the attorney not wanting the youth to attend, and system‐level factors, such as the scheduling of court hearings, large caseloads, long waits, and cases being adjourned multiple times. Recommendations for enhancing youth participation in child dependency proceedings are presented.     

And the question is? Knowledge growth in welfare policy research

This study examines how federally sponsored research questions about welfare policy have evolved from 1981 to 2001, through a content analysis of Requests for Proposals (RFPs). We treat the RFP as a document that identifies what information is sought as well as what is treated as established knowledge. Results show that research questions represent a mixture of constancy and change. The greatest similarity in research questions is in the areas of employment and earnings/income, with greater variability in the areas of family formation and child outcomes. The research questions, notwithstanding their sophisticated terminology, often boil down to who the poor are, how welfare recipients can be coaxed or forced into the labor market, whether fundamental work supports such as health insurance and reliable childcare are helpful in sustaining employment, and whether welfare is implicated in pregnancy, marital behavior and multi-generational poverty. We interpret these findings in relation to concepts on research utilization.