Negotiating normative premises in democracy promotion: Venezuela and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

ABSTRACT

This article analyses negotiations on democracy promotion by looking at the case of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It argues that Venezuela contested the concept of representative democracy during the Charter negotiations, advancing the notion of “participatory and protagonist democracy” and that, even if it was unsuccessful in its demands, the country contributed to deepening the debate on the concept of democracy, on which there is far from worldwide consensus. The article suggests that the main drivers of the negotiation process and the final agreement were domestic political changes in Venezuela, specific features of the negotiations, and the structural position of Venezuela in the field of democracy promotion in the global and regional contexts, which were, at the time, favourable to a compromising attitude to conclusion of the Charter, even if not to the concept of democracy.     

新时代深化群团改革的实践载体研究——以天津经济技术开发区群团组织“三基地一中心”为例

天津经济技术开发区总工会(团委、妇联)牢牢把握群团改革要求,主动服务于党政工作大局,以职工群众为中心,创新建设了“三基地一中心”综合服务阵地。“三基地一中心”具有政策宣传、孵化培育、职工服务、创新创业、企业服务等功能,在思想引领、组织拓展、助力发展、维护和谐、普惠服务五个方面取得了显著成效。调研结果显示,“三基地一中心”契合职工群众需求,有助于提高职工对工会的认可度,并受到企业管理人员的好评。其今后的运维应在宣传力度、精准服务、运行机制、形式内容、资源整合、沟通反馈等方面持续发力,让职工群众拥有更多幸福感、获得感、安全感,助力经济社会高质量发展。     

我国社会组织参与社会管理的现实性探析

改革开放后,我国社会结构发生变化,国家社会由一体化向二重化发展,社会呈现多样化,政府在社会管理中覆盖面窄、手段僵硬、效率低下的特点已不能适应现代社会的发展,急需转变社会管理方式。新时期下的社会组织获得蓬勃发展,它自主、自律、民间、灵活、高效、贴近基层的特点能够弥补市场和政府在公共领域的不足,符合我国政府职能转变的要求,将社会组织引入社会管理,能够实现政府和社会资源配置的最优化,最大程度地保障公民权益。     

International institutions and market expectations: Stock price responses to the WTO ruling on the 2002 U.S. steel tariffs

Many scholars assert that international institutions have little power to enforce laws, punish offenders, or force compliance. Others stress that international institutions are important actors, specifically in the regulation of international trade. In this paper, I show that the recent trade dispute over U.S. steel protection provides us with a critical case to evaluate the role of the World Trade Organization in settling trade disputes and specifically stabilizing expectations of market actors over future steel policy. I argue that stock prices can serve as an important tool in answering these questions. In an empirical analysis using daily steel stock prices, I find that during the 2002 WTO steel case, the WTO dispute mechanism helped market actors stabilize expectations of future trade policy.

国际组织对公共养老保险改革的影响

本文采用文献法和历史分析法,研究了国际组织在不同阶段对各国公共养老保险改革施加影响的途径和方式,尤其是国际组织在我国养老保险"统账结合"制度的建立与发展过程中发挥的作用。在此基础上,提出了针对我国养老保险制度改革的政策建议。     

The Governance of Cross-Border Data Flows in Trade Agreements: Is the Cptpp Framework an Ideal Way Out?

The regulations of cross-border data flows is a growing challenge for the international community. International trade agreements, however, appear to be pioneering legal methods to cope, as they have grappled with this issue since the 1990s. The World Trade Organization (WTO) rules system offers a partial solution under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which covers aspects related to cross-border data flows. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) have also been perceived to provide forward-looking resolutions. In this context, this article analyzes why a resolution to this issue may be illusory. While they regulate cross-border data flows in various ways, the structure and wording of exception articles of both the CPTPP and USMCA have the potential to pose significant challenges to the international legal system. The new system, attempting to weigh societal values and economic development, is imbalanced, often valuing free trade more than individual online privacy and cybersecurity. Furthermore, the inclusion of poison-pill clauses is, by nature, antithetical to cooperation. Thus, for the international community generally, and China in particular, cross-border data flows would best be regulated under the WTO-centered multilateral trade law system.     

闽台农民经济合作组织对接途径与模式研究

农民经济合作组织对接是两岸农业合作的创新模式,“海峡西岸经济区”的定位给闽台农民经济合作组织的有效对接创造了良好的条件。本文以福建与台湾农民经济合作组织的类型和特点作为研究的基础,分析新形势下拓展闽台农民经济合作组织对接的重要意义与可行性,提出闽台农民经济合作组织对接的可行途径和模式选择。     

我国非营利组织市场导向及其影响因素研究——以全国采供血机构为例

国外在非营利组织市场导向研究方面已经有十余年经验,而我国在这一领域的研究才刚刚起步.以我国采供血机构(包括血站、血液中心等)为研究对象,通过问卷调查方法对MARKOR量表是否适用于我国非营利组织、我国采供血机构市场导向的现状、管理者对采供血机构市场导向的影响等问题进行了探讨.研究发现,MARKOR量表在测量采供血机构市场导向方面总体上有较高的信度和效度,但是在"组织对信息反应"构面上,个别指标的信度和效度比较低;在采供血机构市场导向的三个构面中,"跨部门信息传播"的得分最高,而"市场信息收集"的得分最低,这与发达国家的研究结论存在较大差异;管理者的职业教育、职业精神与市场导向的状况之间存在正相关关系.并且,进一步发现,职业精神对市场导向与职业教育的关系存在中介效应.最后,对以上发现的现实意义进行了讨论并指出了未来研究的方向.     

“平安 安全守望小组”——新加坡社区反恐的重要基层组织(编译)

武力与反恐之间的必然联系已成为各国警方的传统定式思维,然而在对恐怖主义采取严厉武力打击后,包括美国在内的西方国家开始意识到武力反恐并不十分奏效,武力反恐只是反恐过程中不得已而为之的一种手段。全面审视反恐工作,认真总结反恐经验,人们开始意识到制度反恐的重要意义。作为典型的城市国家,新加坡"平安、安全守望小组"的社区反恐措施为人口密度较大、城市化进程加快的我国在制度反恐方面提供了可资借鉴的有益经验。