Economics,security, and individual-level preferences for trade agreements

Empirical research on the determinants of individual-level support for trade liberalization has focused almost entirely on the economic effects of trade. Yet, international relations scholarship has long recognized that commerce also has a variety of security implications. This paper explores if and when security considerations influence individual attitudes toward trade. In this study, we ask two questions: First, to what extent do expectations about the security implications of trade affect individual-level attitudes toward trade agreements? Second, does the introduction of security concerns into the discussion of trade agreements influence how heavily individuals weigh their economic costs and benefits? We employ an original experiment embedded in a conjoint survey to investigate the relative impact of a variety of economic and security considerations on respondents’ support for trade. Our findings suggest that security information matters and undermines the appeal of some, though not all, economic arguments for trade liberalization among our respondents.     

新时代“工会坚持自觉接受党的领导”再探析

党的十八大以来,习近平同志反复强调：“中国共产党的领导是中国特色社会主义最本质的特 征。”“坚持党的领导”作为习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要内容之一,有着重要指导意义,为新 时代工运事业指明了方向。工会为什么要坚持党的领导,可以从理论、历史和现实三个视角加以考察分析;工 会怎样坚持党的领导,则需要辩证地处理好坚持党对工会的领导与工会独立自主地开展工作之间的关系,处理 好工会组织“公转”与“自转”的关系。     

服务型工会公共平台建设研究

服务型工会平台建设是实现工会组织公共服务供给的重要方式,其在理论上与公共服务供给理 论有契合之处,也是公共服务供给侧改革的重要内容。因此,在“互联网 +”背景下建设服务型工会公共平台具 有重要意义。在实践中,服务型工会平台建设存在职工认可度不高,工会工作处于信息孤岛状态,缺乏长效机 制和专业性,存在信息隐患等问题。为此,在建设中必须突出党的领导,强化互联网思维,打造统一的工会“互 联网 +”普惠服务体系,加快建设会员实名制数据库。     

关于新时代背景下工会干部角色的思考

中国特色社会主义进入了新时代,工会组织必须团结带领广大职工在决胜全面建成小康社会中充分发挥主力军作用,这是工会不可推卸的重要责任。广大工会干部是落实工会各项工作的组织者、推动者和实践者,应牢牢把握工会工作的时代主题,认清自身的角色,全面发挥自身作用,推动工运事业和工会工作实现新发展。     

“互联网 +”语境下工会服务职工的路径探析

探索"互联网+"语境下工会服务职工群众的路径有助于进一步明晰新业态、新关系下工会的工作机制和服务方式,增强组织凝聚力,实现工作创新突破,更好地开展服务。面对当前工会运用"互联网+"服务职工存在整体规划模糊、信息共享不足、数据价值发挥不够充分等问题,建立权威的、全国工会层面的工会移动互联网服务平台,可以实现信息互通、资源共享,促进社会合作,为职工提供更精准、更深层、更长远的服务。该平台应以移动互联网应用程序即App为主,侧重服务、互动、综合信息的分析与发布,其建设需要工会工作人员和技术人员共同深度参与、持续完善。     

从“争福利”到“谋福利”：中国工会福利工作的演变及创新

工会与福利之间具有先天的、主动的联系,工会与福利联系的结果就是工会福利,就是工会的福利工作。我国工会福利工作的演变历程呈现为争取福利、包揽福利、发放福利、谋取福利四个阶段。工会传统福利工作具有历史的和现实的意义,但也存在着以偏盖全、以点代面、越俎代庖等诸多问题,产生了不同层面的危害。今后工会福利工作的重点在于"谋福利",工会要更好地为职工谋福利,需要在思想上实现从发福利到谋福利的观念转变,在实践上搞清楚谋什么福利、为谁谋福利、怎样谋福利等关键问题。     

转型期员工心理健康服务研究：工会模式- 以辽宁省为例

转型期员工面临较大的压力,心理健康问题比较突出。工会在提供心理健康服务方面兼备效率和效果的双重优势,采用分段购买方式与专业机构建立"委托—代理—共建"关系,以"心理健康服务共享中心"(PHSSC)为核心,将会费作为服务经费的主要来源,由专业人员提供服务并收集相关数据进行分析和趋势预测,制定相应的管理与监督机制,通过专业服务保障并提升员工心理健康水平。     

Seal the Deal: Bargaining Positions,Institutional Design,and the Duration of Preferential Trade Negotiations

Multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization have stalled. This has contributed to a steep rise in preferential trade agreements (PTAs). At the same time, negotiations for PTAs have not always proven quick and painless: While some treaties are sealed within a few months or days only, other agreements are preceded by protracted bargaining processes in trade and trade-related issue areas. In this article, we provide a theoretical explanation for this empirical variation. More specifically, we argue that PTA negotiations take longer the greater the distance between the prospective partners’ initial bargaining positions. Moreover, we contend that negotiation processes become more protracted the higher the relative ambition of the prospective PTA. Due to the limited links to the domestic political arena in autocracies, we expect this latter effect to play out for groups of democratic bargaining partners only. We test these two hypotheses for 198 preferential trade negotiations using novel measures for bargaining templates and the ambition of PTA clauses. In our two-stage survival models, we find support for our argument. In line with qualitative evidence from recent preferential trade initiatives, our models indicate that services, investment and intellectual property rights are particularly sticky agenda items for democratic leaders at the international bargaining table.     

The EU and the Global Order: Contingent Liberalism

Abstract

Politicians, diplomats and analysts commonly assume that commitment to multilateralism and liberal norms is part of the EU’s very DNA. Increasingly, however, the EU’s commitment to the liberal global order is more selective. We demonstrate the shift to a more contingent liberalism by examining the EU’s recent record in relation to four different challenges: international trade; US leadership; Russian actions in the eastern neighbourhood; and security in the Middle East. We speculate on what this may portend for the EU’s self-identity, European interests and the integrity of the prevailing global order.     

Trying not to lose: The electoral consequences of unilateral reform efforts and the social pact formation process

The existing social pact literature claims that governing parties offer social pact proposals because they anticipate they will receive an electoral benefit from social pact agreements. Yet the available data on social pacts inform us that in a substantial minority of cases social pact proposals fail to become social pact agreements. In an effort to better determine the political calculations made by governments before they propose a social pact, this article examines the effect of implementing reform legislation unilaterally, social pact proposals, social pact proposal failures and social pact agreements on the vote share of government parties in 15 Western European countries between 1981 and 2006. It is found that social pact proposals do not have any electoral consequences for governing parties, unilateral legislation and social pact proposal failures reduce the vote share of governing parties, and social pact agreements provide an electoral benefit to parties in minority governments only. These findings suggest that governing parties propose social pacts in a good faith effort to complete a social pact agreement; and that such an agreement is not a way for these parties to gain votes, but to avoid the electoral punishment associated with enacting unpopular reforms unilaterally.