Global poverty and inequality: are the revised estimates open to an alternative interpretation?

The level of, and trends in, global inequality and global poverty are indicative assessments of who has benefited from economic growth. The revision of price data has led to a reassessment of those estimates. Through an extensive overview of the implications, we argue that the data can be read in different ways. Official estimates show global extreme poverty and global inequality are considerably lower than previously thought. We argue that these changes are much less significant than they at first appear, and we present a more nuanced alternative interpretation by exploring changes across the entire global distribution.     

Gendering the ‘responsible risk taker’: citizenship relationships with gender-neutral social assistance policy

This paper explores the gendered relationships among reforms to social assistance policy, concurrent transformations in citizenship rights to benefits, and low-income parents' experiences of these changes in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Policy discourse in all three provinces increasingly constructs mothers and fathers as ‘responsible risk takers’ who are entitled to income support conditional on their employability efforts (for example, attendance in welfare-to-work programmes) or market citizenship. Qualitative interviews with 41 mothers and five fathers illustrate how this ‘gender-neutral worker-citizen’ model can be gendered in application and is contradicted by parents' gendered identities and everyday realities when living on social assistance. Using the theoretical perspective of gender as a social structure, the paper draws upon these findings to provide empirical support for a dominant theoretical argument in feminist scholarship – that gender-neutral policy is gendered and has deeply gendered consequences.     

传承与发展：关于我国经侦运行机制的思考

改革开放30年来经济犯罪形势发生剧变的同时,我国经侦运行机制也随之不断完善。进入21世纪,现行经侦运行机制的不足之处日益显现,主要表现为警令不畅致使国家打击经济犯罪的决策难以彻底落实、执法活动中的地方保护主义异常严重、对经济犯罪的打防难以形成常态化的高压态势。为此,必须通过规范地方各级经侦机构建设、在全国范围内设置垂直领导的中央经侦机构等创新性举措完善现有经侦运行机制,从而以制度创新化解当前经侦部门面对的空前挑战。     

当前金融犯罪的主要特点与对策分析

当前经济犯罪的危害越来越严重,在经济犯罪中又以金融犯罪危害更为突出。目前金融犯罪大案、要案大幅度上升,作案手段呈智能化、多样化、隐蔽化,危害重大,严重影响了社会稳定,给社会造成了不可估量的经济损失,更对社会经济秩序乃至整个社会秩序产生了严重破坏。因此,制定科学、有效及切实可行的打击对策是当前公安工作的当务之急。     

An analysis of budget compliance measurement in South African local government best‐practice financial management technical assistance programs, 2001—2003

South Africa's local government financial management best‐practice technical assistance program (known as MFMTAP) was to reform municipal financial management; achieve credible, realistic budgets and prevent financial failure. We consider whether a budget compliance procedure, developed by National Treasury (NT) to measure funding requirements compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) focusing on ‘realistic’ revenue budgeting, improves our understanding of technical assistance effectiveness. We assess a metropolitan municipality's compliance before, during and after advisory assistance. The compliance procedure was robust. Potential exists for wider application to assess best‐practice technical assistance (BPTA) program financial reform effectiveness. The findings from this single, important sample suggest that MFMA funding requirements are not being sustained 4 years after MFMTAP commencement, attributable to either BPTA performance or termination effects. We conclude that MFMA financial performance can be assessed by the procedure, from analysis of the metropolitan municipality performance assisted by a BPTA advisor for approximately 3 years. The analysis raises questions about BPTA program reform sustainability, but we add the caveat that conclusions cannot be drawn from a single sample metropolitan municipality, but a larger sample need be used for further methodology development to confirm its efficacy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

构建城乡一体化的党内激励关怀帮扶机制问题研究

构建城乡一体化的党员激励关怀帮扶机制,既有利于整合党在城乡地区的不同资源,缩小和消除城乡二元结构,维护社会稳定,又有利于进一步凝聚党心、坚强组织,不断巩固党的执政基础,提高党的执政能力。     

十一届三中全会以来党的理论创新的轨迹、特点及动因分析

十一届三中全会以来,党的理论创新轨迹分为三个阶段。既继承前人又突破陈规、突出强调解放和发展生产力、维护最广大人民的根本利益、注重全面、协调、可持续发展是理论创新的四个显著特点。经济全球化、市场化及现代化则是中国共产党进行理论创新的三个重要推动力量。     

论桂林在“泛珠三角”区域合作中的借势发展

“泛珠三角”区域的合作发展战略,是促进本区域经济社会全面、协调、可持续发展的有力举措。“泛珠三角”合作正面临着国际金融危机的挑战,但也蕴含着难得的机遇。参与“泛珠三角”区域合作,是桂林市经济社会建设的又一次发展契机,充分发挥区域合作优势是桂林借势发展的最佳选择。     

Darfur and Chad: A fragmented ethnic mosaic

In this article, I examine some of the interactions between the crisis in Darfur and Chad through its increasingly complicated ethnic threads and explain how Chad slid back into authoritarianism in 2004. Factionalism broke down the mesh of ethnic politics into personalised rule and allegiances. The international response to the crisis in Darfur allowed the Chadian leadership to reinforce its position in the country. Ever since, a precarious equilibrium set in. Déby has become the longest-serving president in the history of modern Chad. Previously weakened by interfactional agreements and oil wealth expectations and then by the crisis in Darfur, the regime re-established internal and external means for preserving the status quo. Yet appearances can be deceiving. The argument is based on fieldwork and secondary literature.     

Regional transport challenges within the Southern African Development Community and their implications for economic integration and development

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) seeks to deepen economic integration among its members through the SADC free trade area that came into effect in January 2008. The thrust for a progressive reduction of tariff and no-tariff barriers, which the market integration model emphasises, has serious implications for the impact of transport and communication systems on economic integration and development within SADC.

Transport and communications systems have an important bearing on economic integration and development because they can be significant non-tariff barriers. The SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology is the instrument through which transport and communications constraints are to be addressed. Through this protocol, some institutions have been established and others proposed to ensure that projects designed to deepen economic integration and development are implemented effectively.

The neo-functional integration approach is a relevant theoretical framework for analysing transport and communications issues and for implementing joint sectoral projects in areas that impact on overcoming development-related deficiencies in production and infrastructure. Transport and communications fall in this category of projects and the SADC region has benefited from functional co-operation in this sector.

As integration proceeds, polarisation of industries could occur, raising concerns about the distributional effects of economic integration as this affects development. However, polarisation is not inevitable: it depends on transport costs. This might seriously address transport and communications constraints because, if these are greatly reduced and eventually removed, weaker SADC countries need not lose industries to the core with the SADC Free Trade Area in place.