Corporate Governance of Nonprofit Organizations: Cooperation and Control

Abstract

This article explores the limits of institutional economics regarding the cooperation of boards of directors and executive directors of nonprofit organizations. The normative separation of power between these central actors resulting especially from arguments derived from institutional economics is being reflected using the analytical approach from the resource-based view and empirical evidence based upon group and motivational theory. After analyzing the board’s role and the individual board member’s role within a nonprofit organization, the paper explores the limits to decision-making within governing bodies. The paper shows why a unitary board can improve the quality of decision-making within nonprofit organizations by raising the incentives for the executive director to act as desired. The paper also explores the impact of trust and different types of control upon the key actors within the governance process in order to derive the suitable form of control from that analysis.     

What's in a Name? The Nature of the Individual in Refugee Studies

The category of refugee has been problematic for both practitionersand social scientists because it is difficult to define an objectivecategory that satisfactorily brings the real world, ethics,and theory into harmony. In recent years many critiques havebeen made of the assumptions built into the legal refugee frameworkand efforts have been made to refine the concept from multipledisciplinary perspectives. This paper examines several underlyingassumptions of these discussions, including the category offorced migration, through a discussion of the example of Salvadoransin the United States in the 1980s. One assumption has been notedbut insufficiently theorized: the centrality of the individual.The person assumed by both the refugee and human rights regimesof the United Nations is a culturally-specific construct definingthe relationship between the individual and society in a waythat precludes an adequate understanding of refugees.     

Buufis amongst Somalis in Dadaab: the Transnational and Historical Logics behind Resettlement Dreams

The Somali word buufis is commonly used in the Kenyan refugeecamps of Dadaab, referring to a person's dream of resettlement.It is an ambiguous phenomenon, bringing hope and remittancesinto the camps but also removing investments from the regionand, when the dream cannot be reached, sometimes having adversepsychological effects. Buufis is triggered by the fact that,due to transnational flows of remittances and information, refugeesin remote camps like Dadaab can compare their lives in the campsto those of others elsewhere. This illustrates how the opportunities,constraints, hopes and dreams that refugees experience locallyare often determined by transnational factors. Whereas the resettlementdreams analysed in this article are thus likely to occur inother contexts as well, it is argued that they are more intenseand elaborate amongst refugee communities with a strong cultureof migration, like the Somalis.     

Protracted Refugee Situations: Parallel Health Systems and Planning for the Integration of Services

The international community typically responds to refugee situationsby establishing ‘care and maintenance’ programmesspecifically for refugees. Limited resources may also be directedto hosting communities, but donors often channel the bulk offunding through UNHCR and its implementing partner NGOs, whoin turn create service delivery structures that are operatedin parallel to local structures. Although there may be causefor this approach in a short-term emergency phase, particularlyif the host country systems are very weak, this eventually becomesfinancially problematic if refugees continue to live in exilefor years at a time. In the short term, it can also engenderan inequitable and inefficient use of scarce resources. Thispaper traces the evolution and impact of implementing refugeehealth services in parallel to local systems using observationsfrom Uganda, and offers Quality Design as a model for planningthe local integration of services.     

西方经济分析法学在中国

经济分析法学坚持效率应当被看作是法律的基本价值 ,法律的效益价值理论和经济分析方法是法学研究理论领域和方法论上的重大突破 ,经济分析法学对我国市场经济条件下的法治建设具有重要意义。     

经济学的"忧郁"和可持续发展

经济学的“忧郁”是指以李加图、马尔萨斯、马寅初等为代表的一批经济学家对经济可持续发展的一种早期的“忧患”意识。虽然他们的理论在不同时期都不同程度地遭受过人们的误解甚至是批判 ,但他们的理论却揭示出人类社会可持续发展过程中将会遇到的最根本的问题即人口、资源和环境等问题。因此 ,对经济的可持续发展具有奠基的作用和震撼的意义。     

马克思主义经济学的人文关怀与人的全面发展

人自身素质的提高和全面是社会发展目标和发展价值的一个重要组成部分。资本主义生产方式在促进人的普遍流动和发展人的能力的同时，又使人成为市场体系的附属物。马克思正是出于对人和人类劳动的深切关怀，在阐述经济社会发展时一再强调：这一历史过程就是要实现“人的解放”，实现人的个性的全面发展。     

The Informational Role of the Arbitration Clause

We analyse the role of an arbitration clause as a quality signal. We model a contractual relationship between one buyer and two sellers, one of which offers a high-quality product, the other a low-quality product. With a certain probability, the product is defective. The sellers have the choice of either taking the case to court if the product is defective, or including an arbitration clause in which case an arbitrator determines the indemnity payment. Under some conditions, only the high-quality seller offers an arbitration clause, which then serves as a quality signal.     

论犯罪经济学的研究对象及其与相邻学科的关系

犯罪经济学的研究对象一般由两大内容构成 :一是犯罪人犯罪的原因 ,二是犯罪的社会预防和控防对策。犯罪经济学的基本学术观点包括 :犯罪人与普通人没有本质差别 ;刑罚威慑犯罪 ;保留死刑 ;提倡多用罚金刑 ;广泛采用辩诉交易。犯罪经济学的相邻学科很多 ,主要涉及的有经济学、犯罪社会学和犯罪文化学等几种。     

The Evolution of a Fiscal Constitution When Individuals are Theoretically Uncertain

In contrast to the contractarian approach to constitutional economics, we follow Voigt (1999) in assuming that constitutional rules are closely connected to informal institutions and that their evolution is a matter of interest group activity and implicit re-interpretation. We add to this the assumption of theoretical uncertainty of individuals regarding the working properties of constitutional rules. Collective learning processes are considered as the third driving force of constitutional evolution, and at the same time as the source of path-dependencies which allow suboptimal constitutions to persist. Finally, it is argued that direct legislation offers more protection than a written fiscal constitution.