The Shadow Price of Social Change and Its Evaluation

This paper analyzes the “shadow price” of social transformation. For the first time, an attempt was made to determine the approaches to measuring this value with regard to nonmarket phenomena and processes, and to apply these approaches in an empirical analysis, based on a representative survey in Russia (N = 1,000) using experimental situations.

Specifically, it quantitatively evaluates (1) the degree of divergence between the real and the ideal structure of the time budget of several important domains of social life; (2) the ratio of social ills to social benefits; (3) individual public welfare functions; and (4) the social cost, legitimated by citizens, of reproducing two fundamental public goods: “the capacity to maintain ‘superpower’ status” and “the well-being of the future generations.”

The authors introduce and operationalize the novel concept of the socially suboptimal product of labor, that is, the product resulting from alienated (or unwilling) labor, and conversely, the product that could potentially result from using unutilized willing labor. In doing so we support the idea of distinguishing productive and unproductive forms within both the notion of labor and the notion of leisure. Aggregated estimates of these values show the share of gross domestic product (GDP) that could be optimized due to a redistribution of the time budget of the population between the main areas of life, according to ideal social preferences.

The balance of social benefits and social ills resulting from the life experiences and activities of individuals is empirically evaluated. We consider this balance, which is the sum of impacts of the social environment on the individual, as a suitable model for explaining how individuals make decisions about whether or not to participate in public life.

“Individual public welfare functions” are assessed empirically, demonstrating that individual utility depends on personal and collective consumption. Empirical testing covered a wide range of nation-building areas with public investment in relevant types of merit and public goods.

Then the authors propose and test on empirical data an opportunity cost approach to evaluating socially legitimate amounts of funding for the fundamental social benefits “superpower” or “additional power” of the nation.

The cost of the public good “well-being of the future generations” is calculated for the Russian sample.

Finally, the estimates of the discount rates of human lives and “healthy and prosperous years of life” were obtained for Russia for the first time.

The findings of the study are relevant for the efficient management of complex socioeconomic systems. The authors strongly believe that revealing the structure of existing social preferences and estimating their impact on various areas of social life will help improve policymaking by explicitly taking into account the specifics of the real social contract between the state and society.     

“教、学、练、战”一体化教学模式的研究与实践

政法干警招录培养体制试点改革是司法体制改革的重要组成部分,也是司法行政系统院校加强自身建设,提升办学实力的重要途径.按照《培养体制改革试点工作实施方案》要求,在专业和课程设置上,应突出政法实务方面的教学、实训内容.在培养模式上,以政法业务综合素质培养为基础,以职业精神、基本技能和专业能力教育培养为核心,探索教、学、练、...     

发展低碳经济的几个问题

低碳经济是为应对全球气候变化而提出的一种新的经济发展模式或经济发展形态,是未来世界经济发展的重要方向。目前,低碳经济在世界各国蓬勃兴起。中国作为世界上最大的发展中国家,一直坚定不移地为应对气候变化作出不懈努力和积极贡献,大力推进低碳经济的发展。随着世界低碳经济的进一步发展,中国将采取更为积极而有效的对策和措施,以发挥在世界低碳经济发展中的领军作用。     

中央苏区时期党对妇女解放运动的认识与实践

旧中国妇女深受封建制度的束缚和压迫,中央苏区苏维埃政府从实际出发,对妇女所遭受的苦难进行分析,为解放妇女作了不懈努力。虽然在妇女解放运动中有过偏差和失误,但仍然彰显了马克思主义和中国革命实践相结合的基本特点,大大提高了妇女地位,维护了妇女权益,也推动了中央苏区不断壮大。文章针对中央苏区妇女解放的理论、法律和组织保障、婚姻自由和政治参与等四个方面问题进行分析探讨。     

国家级专项规划群体决策的组织方式及其效果研究

国家级专项规划作为国民经济和社会发展五年计划纲要的重要组成部分,具有较强的专业性且编制和实施效果将影响国家某一领域未来5-10年甚至更长时间的发展。本文重点研究了国家级专项规划编制的历史沿革、规划的群体决策机制、规划群体决策组织方式的影响因素以及群体决策组织方式的实施效果,期望通过此研究为我国国家级专项规划组织方式的完善提供理论依据。     

我国执法权配置的法律实证分析

执法权是国家权力体系中最活跃、最重要的一项权力,其行使的得当与否与每个公民的切身利益息息相关。然而,从目前的情况看,我国执法权的行使还存在着令人忧虑的问题:一方面执法权交叉重叠;另一方面执法权又行使不力。造成这一结果的直接原因是我国的法律制度在执法权配置上存在漏洞,即现行立法过多迁就旧的行政管理体制,过于强调部门的利益,执法权被支解,执法主体过多过滥;同时现行法律制度过于注重对执法行为的约束,忽略执法权的科学配置。这些问题都有待于在我国的立法过程中逐步得到解决,即加强与完善我国各级政府的组织立法,规范各级执法权。     

Turnout in Germany in the course of time: Life cycle and cohort effects on electoral turnout from 1953 to 2049

The steadily rising share of older voters could lead to them gaining an ever increasing level of political representation compared to younger voters not only because of the imbalance of numbers between the young and the old, but also because turnout rates among the old have always been above-average. The latter argument only applies if the so-called life cycle effect is assumed to be dominant. However, diverse socialisation backgrounds, captured by the cohort effect, also have to be taken into account. It is also unclear what the interplay of these two effects of time implies for future aggregate turnout. Focusing on the German case, we base our analyses on the Repräsentative Wahlstatistik (Representative Electoral Statistic, RES) and population forecasts to estimate consequences of the demographic shifts for all federal elections from 1953 until today, as well as for future elections. First, we calculate life cycle, cohort and period effects on turnout for previous elections by using cohort analysis; second, we apply these net effects to the future age distribution under certain assumptions concerning life cycle and cohort effects. Our results show that the recent decline in turnout is in particular due to negative period effects and (in West Germany) to a minor extent also due to consequences of cohort replacement, whereas changes in the age structure have had a positive effect on turnout since 1990 in both parts of Germany. Additionally, our forecasts suggest that turnout rates will decline and that the over-representation of the old will continue until around 2030 and diminish afterwards in a 'greying' population.     

Comparative Climate Change Policy and Federalism: An Overview

This commentary provides an overview of the four papers in this issue of Review of Policy Research on the politics of climate change. The papers all address in one way or another aspects of how federal‐type systems are dealing with the collective action and multilevel governance issues of climate change policy. The comparative study of federal systems provides insight into how domestic authority is so often overlapping and divided when dealing with greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Federal arrangements offer a rich array of norms, institutions, and practices for tackling these problems. Federal systems grapple continuously with the kinds of issues that are the most intractable in the climate change case, such as overcoming interregional differences of interests and values. A common federal feature is competition among subnational governments and between them and national or federated governments over climate change policy, which has been especially significant in the United States and in Canada in the relative absence of national action––although soberingly, the whole is as yet nowhere near as great as the sum of the parts. More significant, but rarer is the achievement of tighter coordination in federal systems achieved through intergovernmental co‐decision, as seen in the European Community and Australia. This has been accomplished in large part due to a consensus among all intergovernmental parties on the nature of the problem and congruence with the existing international regime, characteristics missing in the North American context.     

Public Attitudes toward Climate Science and Climate Policy in Federal Systems: Canada and the United States Compared1

Multilevel governance poses several challenges for the politics of climate change. On the one hand, the unequal distribution of power and interests can serve as a barrier to implementing coherent policy at a federal level. On the other, these features also enable policy leadership among sub‐federal units. In the context of wide variation in climate policy at both national and sub‐federal levels in Canada and in the United States, this paper utilizes an original data set to examine public attitudes and perceptions toward climate science and climate change policy in two federal systems. Drawing on national and provincial/state level data from telephone surveys administered in the United States and in Canada, the paper provides insight into where the public stands on the climate change issue in two of the most carbon‐intensive federal systems in the world. The paper includes the first directly comparable public opinion data on how Canadians and Americans form their opinions regarding climate matters and provides insight into the preferences of these two populations regarding climate policies at both the national and sub‐federal levels. Key findings are examined in the context of growing policy experiments at the sub‐federal level in both countries and limited national level progress in the adoption of climate change legislation.