Livelihood strategies and performance of Ghana's health and education sectors: exploring the connections

The public sector in Africa is riddled with widespread ineffectiveness. Although some countries have implemented various reform programmes with the support of international development agencies, the results so far have been disappointing. One reason for the failure is that the policies have focussed more on achieving macroeconomic stability than making the organisations effective. This article explores a fundamental problem of the policies—the need to focus on the human component of organisational performance. Using education and health organisations in Ghana as examples, the article advances a hypothesis that the livelihood strategies of public sector employees and the performance of their organisations are interconnected. Specifically, it is argued that as public sector employees have become more dependent on multiple sources of income, they have developed multiple social identities, which influence the culture of their organisations. The organisational culture may have encouraged employee effectiveness in some cases, but for most organisations, it has resulted in practices that perpetuate inefficiency and poor performance. To be successful, public sector reform policies must therefore involve deliberate efforts to change organisational cultures. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Caribbean electricity restructuring: an assessment

This article assesses the privatisation of the electricity sector in two Caribbean countries, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, to determine if they have been successful and whether they have contributed benefits to the respective societies. Two general methods are applied in assessing the success of the divestments; attainment of governments' stated objectives and commonly used utility performance metrics together with social and customer focus indicators. The results indicate that the stated objectives were broadly achieved, and the privatisation and its attempts brought benefits to the consumers and the society in general. The short to medium term benefits were accrued through lower labour costs per unit of electricity, higher performance of plant and operations and business led decision‐making. Long‐term benefits are accrued through the reduction or elimination of electricity supply deficits. However, although the basic privatisations were successful, the absence of an adequate regulatory framework in one case may have reduced the quantum of benefits through failure to enforce continuous improvement in the privatised generation company, and reductions in worker rents in the public distribution company. Further, benefits were reduced by long divestment processes, accompanying strategic drift, opportunity costs from delayed sale proceeds and efficiency enhancement, and the costs to sustain interim operations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

国际商事仲裁协议的司法审查——对并入提单中的仲裁条款的司法审查

对国际商事仲裁协议的司法审查是确定仲裁条款有效性的重要途径.其中对并入提单中的仲裁条款的司法审查是最为常见的.航次租船合同的仲裁条款并入提单,随着提单的转让,在承运人和非租约当事人的提单持有人之间的效力问题,在相关法律和司法实践中比较混乱.仲裁条款能否并入提单,并入的仲裁条款是否约束提单持有人等都要通过法院的司法审查解决.     

首都社会治安整体防控理论述评

首都社会治安整体防控理论的主要内容包括:整体防控的战略部署,四张网络的立体架构,防范控制的精确指导,专业力量的精确打击,队伍建设的全面推进.首都社会治安整体防控理论的科学价值在于:它建立了一套特定的概念体系,提出了一系列科学的判断,解答了新时期社会治安工作面临的系列难题.该理论对治安情况复杂地区的社会治安防控体系建设工作具有普遍的指导意义.     

检察机关派员列席审委会制度的反思与建构

从历史渊源考察看,检察机关派员列席审委会制度经历了"实践——虚置——实践"的循环型发展过程。当前检察机关派员列席审委会作为一项司法改革内容被提上实践日程,是在现行司法体制和司法环境下检、法两家对自身定位重新反思后做出的理性选择。该制度承载着强化审判活动监督、提高诉讼效率、降低诉讼成本的重要价值,这也是该项制度存在的正当性根据。当前这一制度实施,缺乏必要的法律保障和规范化制度建设,有必要对列席的人员范围、案件类型、列席人员的权利义务、列席程序启动予以具体规定。     

埃及违宪审查制度研究

埃及的违宪审查属于专门机关审查模式,由最高宪法法院行使违宪审查权。最高宪法法院在行使违宪审查权的过程中,创造性地吸收和运用了其他国家,尤其是美国,在宪法监督制度方面的成功经验。同时,将国际人权条约、非洲人权公约等国际人权文件所规定的人权保护条款与埃及伊斯兰的传统相结合,扩大了埃及宪法在人权保护方面的作用。     

Adolescent Siblings’ Looking Glass Self-Orientations: Patterns of Liabilities and Associations with Parenting

A looking glass self-orientation refers to the tendency to incorporate the opinions of social partners to form a self-representation and approve of one’s self. These orientations were assessed for two adolescent siblings in 438 families with surveys accessed on-line. Younger (M = 11.6 years, SD = 1.8) and older (M = 14.3, SD = 2.1) siblings and their mothers (82.7% European-American) participated. The siblings shared similar orientations in relying on either classmates or the other sibling for approval, prior to self approval. Relying on classmate approval was significantly associated with adjustment and academic performance as reported by both the self and mothers. Siblings were also identified as sources of approval with implications for adjustment, but the magnitude of the associations with adjustment were lower. Comparisons of the older and younger siblings revealed that both groups were equally as liable to poor outcomes when reflecting the opinions of classmates or siblings. The results of SEM analyses implicate parenting characterized as coercive, rejecting, and chaotic in association with the tendency to rely on others for approval. A mediating role for looking glass self-orientations in associations between parenting and depressive symptoms, anxiety or academic performance was also found.

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.

我国台湾地区的刑事搜查制度与借鉴

我国大陆与台湾地区刑事搜查制度各不相同,然而搜查一般都应遵循司法审查、特定性、合理根据、人格权保障等原则。为加强两岸间交流和保护人权,我们可以借鉴台湾地区刑事搜查制度的经验,逐步完善我国的刑事搜查制度。     

试析越南的金融改革

自越共“六大”后,越南在经济改革和金融改革的推动下,经济增长保持了比较快的速度。本文认为越南的经济之所以能够取得比较大的成效,很大程度上得益于在经济改革的同时对金融部门进行了改革,特别是利率的自由化和汇率政策的调整,促使越南的银行规模有所扩大,效率相比改革前得到明显提高。因此本文的主题就是对越南的金融改革进行一个梳理,明白金融改革所带来的绩效以及改革中存在的问题,明确下一步改革的方向。