Local Governments Out of Pocket?

正Owing to authorities'efforts to tackle public debt,local governments now face difficulties in securing funding for urbanization By Wang JunAccording to a report issued by the National Audit Office,local government debt in China had totaled 17.9 trillion yuan($2.9 trillion)by the end of June 2013.Of this,local governments are responsible for     

高等农业院校贫困生资助育人体系实践研究

随着我国高等教育体制改革的深入开展,高校贫困生问题日益突出。经不完全统计分析,目前我国高等农林、师范类学校中,贫困生的比例高达30%。在当前形势下,探索建立高效合理的资助育人体系,切实解决学生困难,是我国高等农业院校教育亟待解决的难题。现以山东农业大学为例,在广泛调查的基础上分析了解学生情况,在建立健全评价体系的基础上探讨解决方法,切实改善高校贫困生的学习生活和心理状况。     

Regulating party politics in the Western Balkans: the legal sources of party system development in Macedonia

Party regulation in general and its systemic consequences in particular have not been a matter of concern for scholars until very recently. Despite recent efforts to study how political parties are regulated in post-authoritarian democracies and in conflict-prone societies, the question of how party legislation affects party formation and party system development in the Western Balkans still remains a mystery. Adopting a multi-disciplinary (that is, legal and political) approach, this article attempts to fill a gap in the literature by analysing how different party (finance) regulations shaped the party system in Macedonia, one of Europe's most recent (and under-researched) democracies, while controlling for changes in electoral regimes. There are two main findings. On the one hand, registration requirements had the strongest impact on the party system format, even when the electoral system pushed in the opposite direction. On the other, public funding, rather than “cartelizing” the system, mainly facilitated the survival of (both big and small) parties. Finally, the article also points to the need to explore the role of shadow financing and corruption when analysing the effects of party finance in new democracies.     

Public Nursery School Costs and the Effects of the Funding Reforms in Japan

Using a panel dataset of 983 municipalities across Japan, this article investigates the impact of the funding reforms in 2004 on public nursery schools’ operating costs. We found that municipalities responded differently to the reforms, depending on their fiscal strength and city scale. In areas with relatively large populations, fiscally stronger municipalities were likely to spend less on public nursery schools in the wake of the reforms, while municipalities in smaller cities spent more. Besides, municipalities that were not compensated for the loss of the national subsidy reduced expenditures in large cities. In small cities, on the other hand, such municipalities actually increased expenditures.     

Who Will Pay for Better Care?

In launching its review of adult social care in May 2008, the Government acknowledged that this is one of the biggest challenges for the 21^st century. With our ageing population and the increasing expectations of baby boomers, the current system simply isn't fit for the future. But what kind of care system do we want for this and future generations and critically how are we going to pay for it? There are no easy answers but what is certain is that we will all have to pay more for better care. In this article Stephen Burke examines the care crunch     

Using Shields as Weapons: Third-Party Funding Assisting China-Related Arbitration under Belt and Road Investment

In the summer of 2017, Hong Kong became the first jurisdiction in China to codify formal financing arbitration and to make it clear that third-party funders with no legitimate interest in the disputes could be allowed to inject capital to support funded parties in arbitration cases. With the latest Code of Practice coming into effect in the spring 2019, Hong Kong is ready to guide the funders in detail on delivering investments into the arbitral procedures in the harbor seat. By examining these legislative processes in Hong Kong, it can be proved that financing arbitration will enable enterprises to dispose of their disputes with easier access to justice, promote the quality and efficiency of dispute resolution, and improve the welfare of society as a whole. Therefore, it is justifiable to adopt third-party funding in China-related arbitration to promote the Chinese mainland’s arbitration practices and support the international proceedings involving Chinese parties, particularly the international ones arising from investments related to the Belt and Road Initiative.     

Local government reform in South Africa: An analysis of financial management legislative compliance by municipalities

South African local government has undergone radical transformation. The reform process included a local government financial management best‐practice technical assistance programme (MFMTAP) targeting financial management and especially budget quality reform. Dollery and Graves (2009) earlier examined the efficacy of the South African National Treasury (NT's) municipal budget funding compliance technique for measuring adherence to the Municipal Finance Management Act's (MFMA) budget funding requirements using a single metropolitan municipality case study. This article further evaluates the robustness and validity of the funding compliance instrument as a reform performance measurement tool by comparing the results of four geographically and demographically different municipalities. Also introduced is a performance ‘trend’ instrument similar to a ‘Likert scale’ for comparing municipal performance. Optimal tax revenue theory is invoked to examine this key revenue variable for producing a compliant budget. The article finds the ‘budget funding’ reform component of the Best‐Practice Technical Assistance (BPTA) programme presently ineffective and unsustainable. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.