Public services and local government: the end of the principle of ‘funding following duties’

Recent attention to local government finance in England has focused on the substantial cuts in grant funding during the 2010–15 Parliament. However, the newly introduced Business Rates Retention Scheme, which links the distribution of central funding to business rate revenue raised in each local area, constitutes a historically significant disjuncture in the funding of English local authorities. Since the nineteenth century, with the exception of one short period, funding of English local government has followed statutory duties set by Parliament, a principle which underlay a variety of central control and audit regimes throughout the twentieth century. The new system breaks that link, implying a rejection of responsibility for local services by central government. This plays into demands for greater ‘autonomy’ currently emanating from local authorities, but this may not be a panacea for the stretched financial situation that many of them are experiencing at present.     

试论工商行政管理职能转变的实质和方向

改革开放以来 ,工商行政管理在监督对象、目标、领域和方式等方面发生了一系列变化 ,其实质是经济体制转变对政府职能转变的要求。今后应在把握体制转变方向的基础上 ,重视相关制度创新 ,才能完成这些转变 ,建立真正与市场经济体制相适应的市场监管新体制     

论商务英语在对外贸易中的应用

自从中国走上了改革开放之路,综合国力与日俱增,国际地位一路攀升,我国的对外贸易也取得了令人瞩目的辉煌成绩.在对外贸易领域,进出口总额进一步增加,继续提升着中国在世界上的大国形象.在对外贸易交易中,商务英语一直作为基础性的语言工具,起着毋庸置疑的桥梁作用.对外贸易中如何更好发挥商务英语的语言艺术,是国际交流与合作成功的重要保证.     

Broadening ‘business’, widening ‘peace’: a new research agenda on business and peace-building

ABSTRACT

What role does business play in peace-building and conflict reduction? This special issue tackles this complex question, exploring varied business efforts to bring peace through six rigorous qualitative cases in Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somaliland, Brazil, Guatemala and El Salvador. Three main findings cut across this issue. First, local context is paramount to success; there is no one universal formula that a regulator, business or peace practitioner aiming to advance a business agenda for peace can employ for operational success. Second, rather than compartmentalising ‘peace’ into projects that often carry ‘win-lose’ consequences for local communities, business-peace projects must first understand who they are empowering so that they do not unwittingly make the conflict worse. Third, investment and access are deeply intertwined in fragile and conflict-affected areas, and business-peace projects that simply try to improve business access typically exacerbate inequalities favouring elite actors. We close with a discussion on how to take the business and peace-building agenda forward with scholarship and policy, stressing that business-peace projects must be assessed at the societal and not project level if their impact is to be truly beneficial for a political economy of peaceful development.     

商事主体终止的制度检视及其结构优化

商事制度之完善不能偏囿于入口端的登记,还应关注出口端的终止。终止制度对市场风险出清、债权债务处置、要素资源优化具有重要作用。终止的面向大于破产,还有庭外解散和停止经营的进路,终止流程包括去除营业资格的清算和剥离主体资格的注销。现有商事主体终止制度面临双线困局:外线解散过罚不当、清算概念混用、注销虚化空转;内线破产类型狭窄、终端注销衔接不畅。近年来,作为改革突破口的简易注销和强制注销渐次推出,但面临法律正当性阙如之虞。破解困局当有结构化方案,以主体分类、繁简分流为主线,辅以歇业登记、注销回转的补充,通过公司法、破产法、登记法的联动修改,可助益于商事主体终止的理念更新和制度优化。     

广西北部湾经济区建设背景下工商管理专业人才需求特征及对策建议

文章采用问卷调查法、历史资料分析法和产业推理法,探讨广西北部湾经济区建设背景下南宁、北海、防城港、钦州4城市企业对工商管理专业人才需求的新特征,提出了工商管理专业人才培养的对策建议:实施"教育复合化战略",走"内涵式"和"外延式"相结合的道路;实行"模块化教学",加大"第三产业型"工商管理人才培养;实施人才培养层次结构升级战略。     

网购合同协议管辖条款纷争化解路径探析——从优化营商环境之诉源治理视角

在电子商务迅速发展的今天,格式合同因其简单、快捷的特点得以广泛适用。与此同时,格式合同中有关协议管辖条款的效力争议问题在逐年增多,且相应的司法裁判尚未统一。因此,有必要寻求消费公益诉讼与协议管辖格式条款争端问题的契合点,推动消费公益诉讼制度在该问题上的广泛应用。在引入该制度的过程中,需适当增加消费公益诉讼程序启动的法定主体,推行格式条款协议管辖的“黑名单”制度,并对格式条款公益诉讼的溯及力规范予以重构,从而化解网络购物合同之协议管辖权分歧,实现经营者与消费者的良性互动。     

Developing Business Education Infrastructure in Eastern Europe: Albanian Experience

Abstract

Because of its unique characteristics, Albania is faced with severe challenges. Business education is no exception. The baggage of its tragic past, under a ruthless communist dictatorship, especially the isolation of its people from free thought for almost 50 years, still lingers in people's thinking and behaviors. Generally, the Albanian schools system is well developed and there is a tradition of sound education. However, Albanian institutions of higher education are ill prepared to provide modern business education to the future leaders. The University of Nebraska—Lincoln (UNL), under the leadership of the first author, has helped modernize business education infrastructure in Albania through multiyear funding from the United States Agency for International Development and Soros Foundation. This article reports several important initiatives for business education launched by UNL: (1) the first ever MBA and MPA (Master of Public Administration) programs in Albania at the University of Tirana; (2) training more than 5000 university faculty, entrepreneurs, and government officials; (3) establishment of Business Assistance Centers at four universities; (4) development of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) chapters at most universities in Albania; and (5) focused training for faculty research, teaching methods, teaching evaluations, curriculum development, and outreach services.     

From parish register to the “historical table”: The Prussian population statistics in the 17th and 18th centuries

This overview deals with the development of population statistics in Germany and Prussia, where different streams and trends in the field of statistics can be observed until the end of the 18th century: (1) the so-called university statistics (Staatenkunde); (2) political arithmetic; (3) table statistics; (4) “German Kameralia;” and (5) Prussian financial science. The most important sources for historical demographic research are the parish registers. In Germany, they start in the early or high Middle Ages as baptismal lists. In Prussia in the 16th century, parish registers consisted of entries and items of baptisms (births), marriages, and funerals (deaths). Based upon these parish registers at the end of 17th century in the Brandenburg Electorate, population lists were set up as registers or tables of population movement, as “general registers of the born, the married, the deceased, and the communicants.” Physicians and such Prussian medical authorities as the Collegium medicum and the Collegium sanitatis collected data about the causes of death and the longevity of human life (people more than 90 years old). In the course of 120 years during the 17th and 18th centuries, about 350,000 immigrants came to Brandenburg-Prussia. The Prussians developed excellent migration and census statistics in the form of historical tables. From the founding of the Prussian Office of Statistics in 1805 until its reorganization in 1809–1810, historical tables were set up using population statistics.     

Small Business’ Place in the South Korean State–Society Relations

Korean small businesses have come a long way as sources of industrial power more important than heretofore credited. The nation's undemocratic dirigisme had largely slighted small businesses to the country's disadvantage. Although the government's policy bias against them started to change in the early 1980s, its support of them remained less than fully-fledged. Despite tough socio-economic conditions, however, both the first and second generation small entrepreneurs have strived to prove their self-worth as viable business enterprises and constantly—and increasingly over time—contributed to the incremental improvement of the economy. By shedding light on the little-known motivations, perceptions, and performances of the small business people, this article offers a more balanced and nuanced account of the past and present state of small businesses in the country, which provides a tentative basis for considering alternative vision for future development.