Six Deadly Flaws

Following publication of the Brahimi Report on the future of UN Peacekeeping Operations under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter, the author, a former Operations Officer with UNTSO-OGL on the Israeli-Lebanon border, casts a critical eye over the report's recommendations and identifies areas that raise some concern.     

IAS/IFRS and insurance： A gradual shifting from insurance to finance

Financial year 2005 marks the gradual introduction of the international accounting standard （IAS） as part of a broad project promoted by the EU to achieve consistency and comparability and, consequently, greater transparency in corporate accounts, with benefits for the users and institutions who make use of, or exercise control over them. The present paper will not address all the related complex profiles （e.g., actuarial methodologies, financial evaluation models, cash-flows scenarios generation techniques）. Actual aim is to bring evidence for the gradual shifting of perspective promoted by the financial community as far as the insurance companies are concerned： Once considered as unknown ＂black-boxes＂ because of their peculiarities, western countries＇ most authoritative agencies and largest private investors felt for a long time uneasy to manage insurance companies＇ disclosures. More recently, since the industry has been absorbed in the world-wide trend toward global conglomerate encompassing banking, finance and insurance, western regulators have undertaken a sound effort to move insurance disclosures from a technical to a financial view, boosting a dramatic homologation to other financial institutions （Cesarini ＆ Varaldo, 1992; Forestieri ＆ Moro, 1993; Locatelli, et al., 1999）. The trade-off, the authors intend to show, is now between more transparent outlook and an insider＇s knowledge of an industry whose peculiarities are inescapable.     

Risk management for targeting customs controls in developing countries: a risky venture for revenue performance?

Customs authorities in developing countries are often reluctant to forget systematic inspections for fear of risking revenue loss. Such physical inspections however, impede rather than facilitate trade. Control selectivity is therefore a key issue in customs administration reform. This paper shows how a sophisticated risk management method can facilitate trade by automatically and rationally selecting transactions, with the end result of actually enhancing revenue performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Labour market risks and political preferences: The case of temporary employment

The political economy literature has gathered compelling evidence that labour market risks shape political preferences. Accordingly, insecurity fuels support for redistribution and left parties. This article analyses this argument for temporary workers, a so far neglected risk category which has increased dramatically in the past two decades. Temporary workers also have been in the focus of recent insider‐outsider debates. Some authors in this line of research have argued that temporary work leads to political disenchantment – for example, non‐instrumental responses such as vote abstention or protest voting. This contradicts risk‐based explanations of political preferences. The article discusses both theoretical perspectives and derives conflicting hypotheses for the empirical analysis of temporary workers' policy and party preferences. The review reveals considerable ambiguity regarding the questions which parties temporary workers can be expected to support and what the underlying motives for party choice are. Synthesising arguments from both perspectives, the article proposes an alternative argument according to which temporary workers are expected to support the ‘new’ left – that is, green and other left‐libertarian parties. It is argued that this party family combines redistributive policies with outsider‐friendly policy design. Using individual‐level data from the European Social Survey for 15 European countries, the article supports this argument by showing that temporary, compared to permanent, workers exhibit higher demand for redistribution and stronger support for the new left. Neither the risk‐based nor the insider‐outsider explanations receive full support. In particular, no signs of political disenchantment of temporary workers can be found. Thus, the findings challenge central claims of the insider‐outsider literature.     

次贷危机与我国金融安全

随着美国次贷危机的蔓延,资产证券化的风险对金融安全的影响不容忽视。结合对美国次贷危机诱因及目前资产证券化风险的分析,提出防范风险的核心是建立一套与我国金融安全相适应的一系列机制。     

中国政府执行行为动力机制构成的实证分析——以湖北省为例

政府执行行为动力机制是政府执行行为维持、运作与演变的内在力量源泉。当今西方公共管理主流理论有关政府行为动力机制的核心理论前提是所谓自利经济人假设,政府工作人员一切公务行为的唯一动机就是追求个人利益的最大化;公共利益不构成政府执行行为的动机前提。本文实证分析表明,当前中国各级政府执行行为已经形成了以公共性价值取向价值因子为导向与核心,以公共性利益因素、机关外部动力因素、制度因素等三类政府执行行为影响因素为主要内外影响因子,密切相关、内在稳定的一个主流动力机制功能体系。不过,这一体系并没有完全排斥个体性利益与价值追求。中国政府执行行为动力机制的制度化、规范化水平有待进一步提升。     

Effective Communication and Frame Persuasiveness for Food Safety Controversies： The Young Male Consumer＇s Perspective

This study explored effective risk communication for food safety targeting young male consumers who frequently dine outside by examining the controversy of US beef importation in Taiwan in 2012. Guided by risk perception theory and framing theory in issues management, the researcher developed a risk profile of young male consumers based on interview data. Persuasiveness of message frames used by the government was analyzed according to three distinct communicative objectives： to reduce risk perception, to motivate beef consumption, and to gain support for beef importation. The study suggested that the young male consumer＇s knowledge of US beef was formed by news reports and information from family members with experts as the most trusted source. They perceived US beef as risky but safe to eat if they wished. They seldom actively sought information about the beef. The new media were the most used by them for seeking and receiving such information. Frame persuasiveness varied across communicative objectives and was associated with the schemata employed in the configuration of risk-benefit trade-offs for each targeted behavior.     

廉政风险防控机制构建范式及理论基点

廉政风险防控机制是惩治和预防腐败体系的基础,是提升反腐倡廉建设科学化水平的重要途径。实证主义和行为主义范式诠释了腐败行为产生的内在发展规律和外在影响因素,揭示了腐败行为产生于权力运行主体以及权力运行过程中的风险点。人本管理理论、发展生态理论、风险社会理论、风险管理理论等蕴含丰富的廉政风险防控思想,是构建廉政风险防控机制的理论依据。要不断加强廉政风险防控机制的建设,探索以预防为核心、适合中国国情的腐败治理模式,推进风险防控的理论研究,实现理论向实践的转化。     

Sensory speculations:Visual discourse and the vision of visuality

It is now commonplace within the discipline of art history and visual culture to speak to theories of vision and visuality. Recent questions concerning the subject of vision, sexed positionalities and discourses of viewing are indebted to theories of visuality, which now occupy a privileged place within the study of visual culture. Theories of visuality have revealed both the terms of cultural visibilities and significantly the how of what we see. And yet despite this engagement of the opacity and duplicity of the visual, recent work into visuality has been plagued by a re‐occurring myopia regarding the corporeal This oversight within the visibilites of visual discourse is the unchallenged idea of a ‘human vision’ within the social constructivist project. In this article I assess how this universal operates as the matter for theories of visuality and of the ramifications of this for the project of the critique of vision.