Entrepreneurship and Participation in Public Management Reforms at the Local Level

This article seeks to discuss who the policy entrepreneurs are and who participates in the policy-making process of public management reforms at the local level. In order to answer the research questions, a multi-unit and multi-case research study was carried out in three municipal governments: Barcelona, Boston and Turin. The subjects of the study were 15 innovations in management implemented between 1992 and 2007. The first conclusion is that politicians predominantly take the entrepreneurial role in introducing innovations in public management, regardless of the technicality of the innovation. As far as political participation is concerned, public management reforms are still dealt with as in-house matters, even when public managers want to be recognised as promoting the positive values of political participation.     

Botswana

Botswana is known to be Africa's oldest stable democracy. But its parliamentary system is still dominated by the executive and the political opposition remains weak.     

国际私法中“直接适用的法”的概念

"直接适用的法"是国际私法的重要范畴.但是,我们对其研究并不够,仍然有许多问题需要弄清楚.本文拟通过对"直接适用的法"理论产生和实践运作的探讨和分析,结论其特点、界定其概念.     

刑法规范定义之检讨

在刑法学著述中论及刑法规范正在成为一种时尚。然而,中外刑法学者对其定义的认识普遍存在分歧。有关分歧主要涉及三个问题,即:如何对待刑法规范的归属,如何处理其定义中的种差以及如何理解其定义的数量。其实,从逻辑上看,应当承认:刑法规范可以有多种归属,但把其归属于法律规范也许更为可取;如果这样,只要是其区别于其他法律规范的特殊性都可以在其定义中担当种差;相应地,其定义在数量上可以有多种。     

关于确定量刑基准方法的新思考

作者借助刑罚轻缓化这一司法理念在审判实践中的量化,在量刑基准理论中引入了“刑罚轻缓平均浮动系数”这一概念,从而对量刑基准点进行了大致、直观、科学的判断,提出了确定量刑基准的方法,即以“谦抑中间格”方法确定犯罪的量刑基准。     

蒙古族聚居地区纠纷解决机制的实证研究

研究一个社会纠纷解决的整体情况,必然涉及其组成部分--一个个小型社会/次群体的各种因素.每一个群体都拥有自己特有的生活方式和精神世界,具体到纠纷解决方式,亦各有不同,蒙古族牧民也并不例外,因其特有的背景和环境,展现出另一番独特的景象.     

西部大开发与东西部联动法律规范的思考

西部大开发——东西联动是有序的,这个“序”就是法律秩序。其法律规范的构成:以国家立法的形式使西部大开发战略固定化、法律化,使西部地区获得更多的发展机会和东部地区的帮助成为一项法定的权利;东西联动的法律规范重点在新机制的培养(促进体制转换),应当确认、支持和保护特殊的投资诱导政策。西部各省区市的法规、规章要有差异性,要呈“分类指导”的态势,具有较深的区情切入;并要成为防止地方保护主义的有力武器。     

Doing business in Yabaolu Market,Beijing: (inter-)ethnic entrepreneurship,trust and friendship between Caucasian and Chinese traders

ABSTRACT

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in China and Georgia, this article traces the origins and describes current practices of post-Soviet tourist trading in Yabaolu Market in Beijing. While traders from across the Caucasus visit Yabaolu, my focus is on Georgian traders who today perceive themselves as biznesmeny. Focusing on a typical trade visit, the article explores the role of ethnic and kinship ties in the organization of this trade. It questions the notion of ethnic entrepreneurship and the idea that ethnic cooperation itself may serve a basis of trust and underpin traders’ activities. Instead, the article illustrates how enduring transnational linkages are built on other forms of reliability and reputation. These are framed in the lexicon of friendship, as well as kinship and pseudo-kinship vocabulary, and facilitate commercial transactions between traders of different ethnic, social and religious backgrounds in an environment where state regulation and legal law enforcement are almost absent.     

Fuel for thought? South Africa's position on the multilateralisation of the nuclear fuel cycle

The proponents of international nuclear fuel banks maintain that these banks will contribute to nuclear non-proliferation, whereas those opposing it maintain that nuclear weapon states support these banks in order to control and multilateralise the nuclear fuel cycle, thus preventing developing states from developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Global inequalities pertaining to nuclear energy continue to persist despite developing states’ efforts to reform the international nuclear energy regime. Moreover, some developing states maintain that these nuclear fuel banks perpetuate inequality in international relations. This is one of the reasons why some leading developing states, such as Brazil and South Africa, oppose these banks. South Africa, for example, intends to re-establish its nuclear fuel cycle and has declared uranium a strategic resource. Against the aforesaid, this article, following a constructivist approach, analyses the emergence and social construction of nuclear fuel banks as a practical expression of nuclear non-proliferation norms. The discussion also considers the inter-subjective understanding of these banks, as well as South Africa’s opposition to them. The article concludes with an analysis of the implications of these opposing views for global equity, equality, nuclear non-proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.     

Individual values and delinquency: on considering universals in the content and structure of values

The systematic relation between delinquency and the overall spectrum of individual values has not been a particular topic of psychological research in the past. To fill this gap, we refer to Schwartz’s [(1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65] theory of universals in the content and structure of values (TUV) and re-interpret the results of Hermann’s [(2003). Werte und Kriminalität. Wiesbaden: Springer] criminological research on individual reflexive values, norm acceptance, and self-reported delinquency against this background: We verify to what extent the Individual Reflexive Value Scale (IRVS) covers the overall spectrum of values defined by TUV. We validate this match by content analysis and multidimensional scaling (MDS) and compute IRVS-based basic and higher-order value scores. Confirmatory and spherical MDS with these scores yield the circular value structure postulated by TUV. Structural equation modelling (SEM) reveals systematic relations between basic values, norm acceptance and self-reported delinquency in accord with the ‘sinusoid curve hypothesis’. Moving around the value circle yields the highest negative correlations of self-reported delinquency with tradition and conformity and the highest positive correlations with hedonism and stimulation. These values are indicators of the higher-order value dimension ‘conservation’ versus ‘openness to change’. The significant impact of this value dimension on norm acceptance and delinquency is documented by means of SEM.