Institutions and Economic Performance: The Use and Abuse of Culture in New Institutional Economics

Important research programs within New Institutional Economics advance culturalist arguments to explain failures of economic development. Focusing on the work of Douglass C. North and Avner Greif, this article argues that such arguments rely on an essentialist conception of culture that is both historically inaccurate and analytically misleading. Greif’s work in particular rests on a selective use of empirical data that ultimately distorts the deductive models that are at the core of his work. As a result, both scholars use culture to account for outcomes that are more adequately explained as the product of social conflict and political struggles—struggles in which culture plays a far more contingent and destabilizing role than the one they attribute to it. What is needed, I argue, is to link arguments about the persistence of inefficient institutions with a sociologically informed conception of culture as an ensemble of resources that enhance rather than constrain the scope of individual agency. To come to terms with the effects of culture on institutional formation and change it is necessary to replace the essentialism articulated by North and Greif with a strategic-instrumentalist view in which culture is compatible with a wide spectrum of economic behaviors, individual actions, and thus institutional trajectories.

The More Assertive and Pragmatic New Energy Policy in Putin’s Russia: Security Implications for Northeast Asia

The article examines Russia’s New Energy Policy (NEP) and its impact on Northeast Asian security and the development of the Russian Far East. In contrast to analyses highlighting competition between China and Japan for Russian resources, to the contrary it is argued here that greater cooperation among consumer states in Northeast Asia would be beneficial for Russia. Although the NEP has resulted in changes in the composition of foreign investors in Russian energy projects, the author suggests that Moscow is interested in multinational cooperation in the energy sector because it would help diversify the regional energy market and contribute to the development of the Russian Far East and eastern Siberia.

Lessons of Russian in Afghanistan

The experience of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan (1979–1989) is considered through the prism of institutional transfers. Afghanistan has a long history of attempts to implement Muslim, Soviet and Anglo-Saxon institutional designs. Most of them have failed. This failure can be attributed to the lack of ‘elective affinity’ between traditional and new institutions imported from more developed countries. It is argued that a careful examination of the degree of elective affinity must precede any attempt of institutional transfers. An analysis of Ph.D. dissertations defended by Afghan students at Soviet and Russian universities complements logical arguments and references to historical facts.

略论知识经济与学报编辑工作

２１世纪是知识经济的世纪,知识经济强调产品和服务的数字化、网络化、智能化,它更是人性化的经济。知识经济给学报编辑工作带来诸多挑战,使之须在知识经济理念的指导下,在人才培养、学报内容、编辑手段和体制等方面进行思想和行动上的创新,以推动学报编辑工作的发展。     

紧紧围绕新世纪公安工作需要培养新型高素质预备警官

适应新世纪警务工作的需要 ,建设高素质公安队伍 ,关键在教育。针对青年的思想实际 ,抓住思想政治工作生命线 ,坚定不移地走政治建校道路 ,培养学生坚定的政治思想素质 ;贴近公安工作实践 ,紧紧瞄准实战需要 ,培养学生过硬的公安业务素质 ;强化警体技能和实战技能训练 ,锻造学生强健的体魄和过硬的自卫擒敌本领 ;加强科学文化素质教育 ,培养具有广博知识面、良好人文精神和博大人文胸怀的新型现代警官     

新经济时代中国电子商务的现状及发展前景

在经济全球化背景下,新经济是以信息技术革命带动的、以高新科技产业为龙头的知识经济.新经济具有低失业、低通货膨胀、高增长的特点.作为新经济的组成部分,电子商务是IT技术涉足经济领域与网络经济发展的产物,是各国经济增长的强大动力.我国正处于电子商务发展的初级阶段,在网络基础设施、信用体系、物流配送、网络安全、法律制度等方面都需进一步加强和改进,以适应新经济发展的要求.     

思想政治工作实效性刍议

如何提高新形势下思想政治工作的实效性 ,是当前一个紧迫的现实问题。思想政治工作实效性的内涵 ,影响实效性的因素 ,对当前思想政治工作存在的问题进行分析 ,从七个方面提出了有针对性的对策建议。     

大力推进经济结构的战略性调整

经济结构调整是经济发展的重要基础.社会主义市场经济体系的不断完善和经济全球化的趋势,要求我们加快经济结构调整步伐.我们要调整农业的种植品种结构,推进农业产业化进程.加快工业的改组改造,发展高新技术产业.加快城市化建设步伐,努力实施西部大开发战略,继续调整和完善所有制结构.     

改进新时期思想政治工作必须处理好几个关系

要改进新时期的思想政治工作,实现思想政治工作的创新,就必须突出理性教育,重视非理性教育,使二者紧密结合;用大道理统揽小道理,用小道理阐发大道理,使二者相互补充;坚持指导思想一元化,正确对待多元化观念,用一元化统领多元化.     

现代经济学的方法论特征

注重研究方法的科学性和自洽性;突出模型分析和数学方法及数理逻辑的应用,并把对经济现象和经济活动的研究过程纳入一个可控制的系统中,这不仅增强了理论本身的可靠性,同时又使之获得了广阔的发展空间.