DANGER ZONES OF CORRUPTION: HOW MANAGEMENT OF THE MINISTERIAL BUREAUCRACY AFFECTS CORRUPTION RISKS IN POLAND

This article examines the relationship between management of the ministerial bureaucracy and the risk of high‐level corruption in Poland. Four danger zones of corruption in the ministerial bureaucracy are distinguished, comprising the personalisation of appointments, the emergence of multiple dependencies, the screening capacity of the personnel system and the incentive of bureaucrats to develop a reputation of honesty and competence. Empirically, the article investigates the case of Poland from 1997 until 2007 and sets the findings in a comparative East Central European perspective. The article shows that corruption risks in the ministerial bureaucracy increased in most but not all danger zones after 2001 and, in particular, during the period of the centre‐right governments that were in office between 2005 and 2007. The increase in corruption risks is reflected in Poland's deteriorating corruption record during the same period. The conclusion discusses the findings with regard to alternative causes of corruption and the relationship between civil service professionalisation and corruption in other East Central European countries. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge and the economy: some critical comments

Abstract

In the 1990s central banking in Europe and the United States witnessed a paradigm change. A central tenet of the new paradigm was that a central bank which acts in a transparent and predictable manner reduces uncertainty for economic actors and will be better able to control inflationary expectations. Thus, central bankers set out to enhance their institution's transparency. In this paper, I argue that transparency is not limited to the release of economic data or information about decision-making procedures. It entails producing a new type of market order and results in a new agencement. This paper focuses on the European Central Bank (ECB) and on one actor it relies on: the media. Based on ethnographic data, I analyse the role of the media in the production of a transparent market order. I find that prevailing new rules, new frames and reward systems preclude journalists from playing the role the ECB would like them to play: the instrumental role of a neutral transmitter of information. The struggle between the two actors is a struggle with words, in which both journalists and central bankers want to manipulate markets with their communicative utterances, albeit in different and frequently opposing ways.     

南非法院对外国仲裁裁决的承认和执行

南非法院对外国仲裁裁决的承认和执行既可根据南非的普通法,也可根据南非的《承认与执行外国仲裁裁决法》进行。根据南非普通法,如果外国仲裁裁决不是终局的,或缺乏有有效的仲裁协议或自然公正,或裁决是通过欺诈方式获得的,或裁决的承认和执行违反南非的公共政策,南非法院就不会承认和执行该裁决;而南非的《承认与执行外国仲裁裁决法》是为实施《纽约公约》而制定的,不过,二者在内容上存在着不同。     

社区类型与邻里关系特质——以北京为例

受传统主义、社会主义和市场经济三大因素的影响,我国城市社区形成了三种基本类型:第一种类型是街道平房社区;第二种类型是社会主义工业化建设时期的单位社区;第三种类型是20世纪90年代以后兴起的商品楼社区。值得注意的是,我国城市在出现“富人区”与“穷人区”分化的同时,也出现了不同居住阶层居民混住的特征,而市区之外不同居住层次的小区则出现了分区混在的特点。探索在社区空间中消除居民之间阶层差异的机制,以生活主义为基本原理重构居民生活体系,是我国城市社会面临的一个重要课题。     

英国中央银行法律制度的最新发展以及对中国的启示

本文对英国中央银行法改革作了五个方面的总结,并逐一与中国的中央银行制度进行比较,提出可资中国借鉴之处.这五个方面包括中央银行的本质、中央银行的独立性、中央银行工作的透明度、对中央银行权力的制约机制以及规范性与灵活性的关系.     

Social Support Choices for Help with Abusive Relationships: Perceptions of African American Women

A recent national telephone study of the African American community found that over 90% of respondents would feel comfortable talking to a family member or friend who was being abused about the abuse, with the majority advising she get help from a domestic violence program. The purpose of this study was to understand how comfortable abused women would feel talking to members of her support system about the abuse and how comfortable women who have not experienced partner abuse would feel if they were abused. Over 70% of women who have experienced abuse reported at least some comfort getting assistance for abuse from a friend, clergy/spiritual leader, Black community member, family member their age, or physician. Women who reported never experiencing physical or sexual partner violence were less likely to perceive feeling comfortable getting assistance from their social support systems (both formal and informal) if they were abused. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

切实加强参政党自身建设——学习中共十六届四中全会的理论思考

中共十六届四中全会提出的执政能力建设理论,对新时期参政党如何加强自身建设有许多启示.本文对此作了富有说服力的分析.     

The Microphysics of Participation in Refugee Research

This paper examines the involvement of refugees in the productionand reproduction of knowledge of which they are ultimately meantto be beneficiaries. By using examples from research with CentralAmerican refugees and Rwandan displaced children, it considersforced migrants’ roles as participants in research, theirposition in ‘participatory’ research, and the representationof refugees’ voices in refugee-centred research. Poweris intimately connected to the diverse ways in which participationunfolds, and the last part of the paper examines refugees’participation in research in terms of ‘power that circulates’(Foucault) to show that they are not more or less powerful butvehicles for the circulation of power, simultaneously undergoingand exercising it.     

论国家统计管理体制的重构

我国现行的统计管理体制改革,势在必行。强化统计调查体系的相对独立性、提高效率、强调中国特色,是改革现行统计管理体制必须遵循的原则。实行中央和地方并行、省以下统计部门派遣制的统计体制,是我国统计管理体制的改革目标模式。中央统计机构与地方统计机构的分设,不仅是必要的,而且也是可行的。