Cohousing For Whom? Survey Evidence to Support the Diffusion of Socially and Spatially Integrated Housing in the United States

Cohousing is a resident-led neighborhood development model that clusters private dwelling units around collectively owned and managed spaces, with potential to address long-term social and environmental challenges in American metropolitan regions. To date, however, the cohousing model has been slow to diffuse beyond a demographically narrow following. This limited following may signal to policymakers that cohousing is an unappealing housing model, and therefore an impractical policy objective. Drawing from a survey of 1,000 American residents, the results of a multivariate regression model suggest that (a) many of the characteristics of the current resident population of cohousing in the United States have no statistical association with the individuals who indicate interest in cohousing nationwide; (b) other characteristics serve as better predictors of interest in cohousing; and therefore (c) the slow diffusion of cohousing is likely the consequence of inaccessibility rather than low appeal. Overcoming these challenges demands shifts in policy.     

Conflict,choice or geography? Explaining patterns of democracy in continental Europe

The ‘character’ of democracy is regularly summarised using political‐institutional measures of, for instance, ‘consensus’ or ‘majoritarian’ democracy. Yet, there is little quantitative‐comparative research on the origins of such configurations. Drawing on literature on endogenous institutions and constitutional design, this article proposes a model for the explanation of empirical patterns of democracy. Using a novel database of 26 continental (neighbouring) European democracies and Bayesian spatial modelling, the results indicate that while today's empirical patterns of democracy in terms of proportional power diffusion can be traced back to waves of democratisation rather than historical partisan power configurations, decentral power diffusion can partially be explained by socio‐structural factors, and spatial dependencies exist for all variants of power diffusion.     

Institutional design of ecolabels: Sponsorship signals rule strength

Ecolabels are designed to help consumers identify environmentally superior products and services; however, they are not all created equal. Some ecolabels have strong rules that promote environmental improvements, while others have weaker rules that permit free‐riding. Because information about ecolabel design and rule strength is typically not readily available at the point of purchase, consumers struggle to differentiate stronger ecolabels from weaker ones. We investigate whether ecolabel sponsorship is a signal that can help consumers distinguish between ecolabels according to the quality of their institutional design. Using data of 189 prominent ecolabels, we find that while most ecolabels have basic rules for environmental performance, monitoring, and conformance, the strength of these rules varies across labels according to sponsoring organization. Independent sponsors have the strongest ecolabel rules, followed by governments. Industry sponsored ecolabels have the weakest rule structures. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that sponsorship may provide important information about whether an ecolabel is designed with rules that effectively condition firms to promote meaningful environmental improvements.     

Can the best interests of young people be met in residential care? An Ireland case study

The search for factors essential to the achievement of congruence in residential youth care services in Ireland led to the discovery of five critical success factors, each of which affects all three organizational levels of such services. These critical factors included: needs-led, not regulation-driven, care; senior managers with workforce responsibility require domain expertise; shared vision and purpose across three organizational levels; practice-led planning and service development; and bureaucratic policies and practices that are congruent with corporate parenting obligations to provide developmental care that serves each child's best interests.     

中国专利强制许可制度的完善

专利强制许可制度是保护社会公众利益和防止滥用专利垄断权的重要手段。TRIPS协议允许WTO的成员在一定情况下使用专利强制许可制度。我国社会保障制度不健全,现行立法对专利强制许可制度的使用限制亦过严,没有充分利用WTO规则所赋予的灵活性,许多规定甚至超过TRIPS协议的要求。这种状况与我国的经济发展水平和社会公共利益需要不相适应,有必要通过修订法律加以完善。     

基层警务绩效评价的程序设计

基层警务绩效评价是一个复杂的系统工程,在这个系统中,基层警务绩效评价的程序是一个很重要的要素。程序设计如何,直接关系到评价的最终结果。因此,本文在遵循绩效评价的基本原则基础上,结合我国公安机关警务实际,提出了基层警务绩效评价的程序方案。     

对峙性抓捕问题研究

对峙性抓捕是公安机关对持有杀伤性武器与公安机关进行公然对抗的犯罪嫌疑人实施的一种特殊的抓捕行动。在对峙性抓捕中,犯罪嫌疑人具有一些特殊的心理活动,公安机关必须遵循抓捕的安全性原则,充分考虑抓捕策略,尽最大可能减少抓捕可能造成的危险。有备型抓捕方案的设计和遭遇型抓捕方案的设计是比较常用的对峙性抓捕方案。     

论专利侵权中的临时措施

本文以我国新专利法为背景 ,根据TRIPS协议 ,结合其他国家和地区的相关规定 ,对专利侵权中的临时措施进行了探讨 ,以期达到引玉之意。     

城市设计中的政府行为分析

随着城市市场经济的不断发展和公众参与意识的不断增强,城市设计无论在思想观念上还是在管理体系及制度等方面都不同程度地遇到了前所未有的新问题。本文强调了政府在城市设计中应尽的职责,从公共政策与社会学视角对规范城市设计的政府行为路径选择进行了思考,阐述了政府通过完善城市设计相关法规制度、行政机制来完善政府在城市设计中的主导作用,以期实现政府行为的有效性来引导城市设计,塑造高品质的城市公共空间。     

专利侵权救济中永久禁令的法律工具化诠释——以解读“专利渔翁”为中心

＂专利渔翁＂是当今专利领域面临的国际化难题。＂专利渔翁＂的存在本质上实为专利侵权救济中永久禁令的法律工具化结果。具体而言,＂专利渔翁＂是基于专利强势保护趋势盛行、专利爆炸性增长、专利质量急剧下降和专利赔偿溢价猛增等因素而产生,其负面影响渐次扩大,日益威胁到社会实体经济产业的发展、危害到技术创新的效率、阻碍了＂专利丛林＂问题的解决。对＂专利渔翁＂进行理论分析和实证研究是寻求制度上应对策略的必然之举,同时也有助于专利救济理论体系的重塑和禁令制度的优化。