Revisiting the role of civic organizations in Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan: Confidence,membership, and democratic practice

In many emerging and authoritarian countries, civil society organizations that focus on political or sensitive policy issues are being cracked down upon, while service-oriented ones are given a relatively greater ability to operate. What might the consequence of this be for democratic practice given the important role civic organizations play in this process? We examine this question by considering whether the absence of confidence in a country's governing institutions is related to membership in service-rather than governance-focused civic organizations, and how such membership is associated with elite-challenging, political activities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. We find that individuals who have no confidence in state institutions are less likely to seek membership in governance-focused civic organizations, but not necessarily in service-focused ones. At the same time, membership in both types of civic organizations is associated with participation in political activities, while beliefs that a country is run democratically decreases it. This suggests that a variety of civic organizational types, even those without an explicit governance-focus, contingent on perceptions of democratic governance and other covariates held constant, enhance democratic practice.     

Regulatory intermediaries and value conflicts in policy implementation: Religious organizations and life-and-death policies in Belgium

This article makes important contributions to governance research by studying the implementation of policies with high potential for goal incongruence between intermediaries and regulators. Building on a regulatory intermediation framework and prevailing theories from organizational institutionalism, we propose an original typology that classifies intermediaries' strategies for coping with challenging regulations. Furthermore, we explain the choice of these strategies based on intermediaries' value systems, the degree of interdependency with the regulator, and policy ambiguity. The empirical strategy is based on the case of Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim religious organizations engaged in the implementation of abortion and euthanasia policies in Belgium. These latter constitute a typical case of policy implementation that prompts value conflicts between permissive official regulations and intermediaries' conservative values on life-and-death issues.     

Why International Organizations Should Bring Basic Needs Back in

An important milestone in the development debate is the recognition of poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon via the capabilities approach. However, a challenge remains in that many governments in less-developed countries continue to avoid prioritizing issues of absolute deprivation. This paper demonstrates how and why existing efforts to operationalize capabilities may distract policy makers from giving sufficient weight to issues of basic survival. We propose that international organizations can address this challenge through a method of triangulation: (1) identify how countries rank on universal goals of human development; (2) identify how countries rank on universal goals of basic needs provision; and (3) promote participatory poverty assessments. This approach ensures that absolute deprivation issues are addressed, and it establishes an acceptable (and necessary) balance between standardization and local complexity.     

充分利用基层党组织的团体作用力--构建共产党员先进性长效机制的思考

着力加强基层党组织建设,有效利用基层党组织的团体作用力,是构建共产党员先进性长效机制的有效路径。     

非政府组织与世界贸易组织争端解决机制

本文叙述了非政府组织作为“法庭之友”参与WTO争端解决机制的理论与实践及其纷争,对此作了较为深入的价值分析和理论阐释,进而提出了解决这一问题的可能思路、制度设计和情境设置,并指出了其对于国际经济法理论与实践发展趋势的意义蕴涵。本文认为,“法庭之友”问题表明WTO争端解决机制必须谋求外交方法与司法方法的平衡,尤其应该确认争端解决机制的司法独立和自由裁量,并应从多重视域中谋求一种多元互动的解决之道。     

农村基层组织人员职务犯罪立法及法律适用问题研究

文章通过对本辖区农村基层组织人员职务犯罪情况进行调查和对相关立法的学习与思考。笔者认为,在立法上,构成农村基层组织人员犯罪的主体还不够明确,某些本应构成犯罪的行为也未在立法上规定为犯罪;在法律适用方面,对于农村基层组织人员职务犯罪的量刑普遍存在着轻刑化等问题进行了探讨。     

Means of production versus means of coercion: can Russian business limit the violence of a predatory state?

In their most recent works, North and his coauthors (North, D. C., J. J. Wallis, S. Webb, and B. R. Weingast. 2012. In the Shadow of Violence: Politics, Economics, and the Problems of Development. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; North, D.C., J. J. Wallis, and B. R. Weingast. 2009. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) name the formation of organizations capable of effectively restricting violence in society as a necessary condition for transition from developing societies to societies with sustainable economic growth. However, the mechanisms of emergence and conditions for the operation of such organizations in contemporary developing countries remain unclear. We follow the logic of formation of such organizations using the case study of collective actions of the Russian business community aimed at restricting “state violence” against business. We seek to identify the conditions leading to a shift in the choice of strategies from attempts at informal agreements with extortionists controlling means of coercion to cooperation of businessmen and trace the further evolution of organized forms of collective action. Finally, we assess to what extent the created organizations can be efficient and self-supporting in the long term.     

关于基层党组织发展力的思考

增强基层党组织发展力,是加强和改进新形势下党的建设的现实需要,也是党更好地贯彻落实科学发展观的基础。基层党组织发展力包括发展民主的能力,统筹协调的能力,开拓创新的能力,知人善任的能力,维护稳定的能力和驾驭网络媒体的能力。"六种能力"构成了基层党组织发展力的基本要件。     

The challenges of fractionalized property rights in public‐private hybrid organizations: The good,the bad,and the ugly

Policy designers seeking to harness profit‐driven efficiency for public purposes are increasingly creating organizations with fractionalized property rights that distribute “ownership” among public and private actors. The resulting hybrids are quite diverse, including mixed enterprises, public‐private partnerships, social entrepreneurship organizations, government‐sponsored enterprises, and various other hybrid forms. Marrying public purposes to private sector efficiency and strategic flexibility provides a tempting rationale for mixing public and private owners in hybrid organizations. Because public‐private hybrids involve fractionalized property rights, however, they exhibit tension among owners over both strategy and, more importantly, goals. To understand public‐private hybrids, we assess them in terms of six dimensions of property rights: fragmentation of ownership, clarity of allocation, cost of alienation, security from trespass, credibility of persistence, and autonomy (of both owners and managers). The unclear allocation of fractionalized ownership rights facilitates the appropriation of financial residuals and asset ownership opportunistically. Other weaknesses in the property rights configurations of public‐private hybrids create managerial dissonance or opportunistic behavior that typically leads to a narrowing of goals, but sometimes also to organizational failure.     

中国工会研究 40 年 —— 对国内工会研究基本脉络与特点的评述

对国内近40年间的中国工会研究文献进行分析发现,中国工会研究一直表现出强烈的时代特点和现实关怀,其学术规范性在日趋增强,研究内容和方向也趋于多样化。今后中国工会研究应将结构分析与机制分析相结合,同时应加入历史维度。