Parallel Systems and Human Resource Management in India's Public Health Services: A View from the Front Lines

There is building evidence in India that the delivery of health services suffers both from an actual shortfall in trained health professionals and from unsatisfactory results of existing service providers working in the public and private sectors. This study focuses on the public sector and examines de facto institutional and governance arrangements that may give rise to well‐documented provider behaviors such as absenteeism that can adversely affect service delivery processes and outcomes. We analyze four human resource management (HRM) subsystems: postings, transfers, promotions and disciplinary practices from the perspective of front‐line workers—physicians working in rural healthcare facilities operated by two state governments. We sampled physicians in one “post‐reform” state that has instituted HRM reforms and one “pre‐reform” state that has not. The findings are based on both quantitative and qualitative measurements. The results show that formal rules are undermined by a parallel modus operandi in which desirable posts are often determined by political connections and side payments. The evidence suggests an institutional environment in which formal rules of accountability are trumped by a parallel set of accountabilities. These systems appear so entrenched that reforms have borne no significant effect. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The international diffusion of electoral systems: The spread of mechanisms tempering proportional representation across Europe

There is an assumption in much of the electoral engineering literature that domestic episodes of electoral system choice occur in a vacuum, isolated from international influences. Yet this assumption remains largely untested, despite the comparative focus of much of that literature. This article focuses on part of this gap by considering two electoral mechanisms that seek to limit party system fragmentation under proportional representation – low district magnitudes and high electoral thresholds – and shows that the mechanisms have spread across many European countries during the post‐1945 period. Analyses reveal that national legislators are more likely to adopt one of these electoral mechanisms when a large number of peer countries have made similar choices within the last two or three years. This effect is robust to various model specifications and to the inclusion of multiple controls. The article also offers some qualitative evidence from case studies and parliamentary debates.     

十八届四中全会司法改革新举措之解读

党的十八届四中全会《决定》明确了一系列司法改革新举措,对司法体制改革作出新的重大部署。最高人民法院设立巡回法庭,探索设立跨行政区划的人民法院和人民检察院,建立领导干部干预司法活动、插手具体案件处理的记录、通报和责任追究制度,从制度和体制上防范和禁止地方行政权力干涉,保障审判权、检察权依法独立行使;推进以审判为中心的诉讼制度改革,实行审判权和执行权相分离体制,探索建立检察机关提起公益诉讼制度,实行立案登记制,从司法权运行机制和职能定位上强化司法权威,促进公正司法,保障国家和公民权益。     

Transportation Access,Rental Vouchers,and Neighborhood Satisfaction: Evidence From the Moving to Opportunity Experiment

The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is designed in part to expand the neighborhood choices of assisted households, thereby enabling assisted households to find a living environment that simultaneously meets their housing and neighborhood preferences. While several studies have examined the impact of rental subsidies on neighborhood satisfaction, few have examined whether access to adequate transportation enables HCV recipients to locate housing in more desirable locations. This article relies on data from the Moving to Opportunity experiment to examine the impact of transportation access, rental housing vouchers, and geographic constraints on neighborhood satisfaction. We find that access to both vehicles and public transit positively influences neighborhood satisfaction, and the influence of vehicle access varies with transit proximity. These findings point to the importance of transportation in helping low-income assisted renter households locate housing in more desirable neighborhoods.     

Residential Segregation,Housing Submarkets,and Spatial Analysis: St. Louis and Cincinnati as a Case Study

This article considers how spatial analysis of housing submarkets can advance research into residential segregation. While an emphasis on housing submarkets has been proposed as a new construct for modeling housing prices, its use in analyzing residential segregation has been limited. Recent advances in spatial analysis and geographic information systems present new opportunities for researchers to exploit the potential of housing submarkets as constructs that offer a more precise way to examine residential segregation. The article synthesizes literature related to residential segregation and housing submarkets and demonstrates how to delineate housing submarkets using publicly available data. It examines the spatial distribution of housing submarkets and how the socially disadvantaged are represented across housing submarkets in St. Louis, Missouri, and Cincinnati, Ohio, to conclude that St. Louis's housing market is more polarized and racially segregated than Cincinnati's. Spatial analysis of housing submarkets, in conjunction with archival analysis, provides a promising avenue for identifying residential segregation as a multidimensional phenomenon, and a means to explore local processes of urban inequality.     

Disability,right to culture and copyright: which regulatory option?

Access to knowledge and participation in cultural life for persons with disabilities has always constituted a tough challenge. Recent studies show that only 5% of published works are available in accessible format, and the number plummets to 1% in developing countries. Coupled with the high costs of production and distribution, and the full reliance on public funds and intervention of public or non-profit organizations, copyright has traditionally represented an additional obstacle on the path for a broader availability of accessible works. Recently, the situation has worsened with the tilting in the balance between rights and exceptions caused by the legislative response to digital threats, when the unprecedented opportunities offered by new technologies to foster accessibility have been largely trumped by copyright law. Still, the last decades have witnessed the beginning of a paradigm shift, originating from the human rights arena, and moving towards a new definition of the interplay between authors’ rights and the right to take part in cultural life, both at a general level and with particular regards to persons with disabilities. This article offers a diachronic overview of the path that, from the rediscovery of Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights through its General Comments to Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, has led to the adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty. It then analyses, with a focus on the European Union and its Member States, the national and regional responses to the new human rights obligations, looking at the relations between legislative exceptions and model or collective license agreements. The assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the two main regulatory options lays the groundwork for proposals of further areas of intervention, necessary to fully comply with the international human rights obligations and to achieve the fullest access to and participation in culture possible for persons with disabilities, by using the tools offered by international and national copyright law.     

论WTO中的发展权

发展权是作为个体的人和作为人的集体的国家和民族自由地参与和增进经济、社会、文化和政治的全面发展并享受发展利益的一种资格或权能,是全体人类对全面发展的本质要求。发展权已超越国际人权法的特定范围,成为指导包括WTO在内的国际关系各领域的一般国际法原则。WTO规则的实体规范和程序规范均包含了有利于发展中国家和人民发展权实现的因素,但其在整体上有利于发达国家而不是发展中国家。将发展权这种综合性的人权纳入WTO,可以在整体上矫正GATT/WTO运行以来所奉行的传统发展理论对人权的漠视和侵害,并按照人权的要求对WTO进行民主化改革,强化WTO以人为本的精神,以人权的规尺推进全球公平正义的实现,而不是将其作为已有特殊和差别待遇的辅助措施。     

农村集体土地制度的宪法解释

八二宪法的集体土地制度包括所有权层面和使用权层面。无论是五四宪法还是八二宪法,从农民土地所有权到集体土地所有权的变化无非是国家管理农村经济手段的变化。但八二宪法的土地承包经营权之确立既带有国家管理手段变化的色彩,也带有基本权利的色彩。土地承包经营权的出现与自留地的保留一样,也是农民用生存权进行抗争的结果。因为其生存权属性,土地承包经营权具有对抗国家性,当然这种对抗国家性是伴随着现代法治观念的传播逐渐增强的。同时,由于其内在缺陷,生存权无法完全有效对抗国家权力,农村土地承包经营权需要从生存权本质转向自由权本质。     

论程序参与原则在刑事诉讼管辖中的制度实现－兼论刑事诉讼管辖中的当事人权利保障

程序参与是诉讼主体理论在刑事诉讼中的贯彻与反映,是落实诉讼民主,维持诉讼结构平衡的现实需要。把握程序参与原则的内涵和实质要求并予以程序实现,也是管辖冲突的有效解决与管辖制度完善应予解决的问题。在管辖制度设置上应为当事人提供足够的程序参与机会,保证诉讼当事人及其代表对管辖事项的知情权,在管辖权确定过程中赋予诉讼当事人一定的异议权,在管辖权确定程序产生相关裁定或决定后,应该赋予诉讼当事人相关的救济途径。     

Access to Reliable Public Records as Evidence for Freedom of Information in Commonwealth Africa

Abstract

International attention to the benefits of openness for empowering citizens, strengthening economic performance and ending poverty has emphasised the importance of achieving accountability and transparency through freedom of information and open data. The ability to achieve openness depends upon the quality, completeness and accessibility of government records and data. However, chronic problems in managing this information in many Commonwealth countries, particularly in the digital environment, undermine the ability to achieve these goals. There is a critical need to develop and share solutions for managing this essential resource as a basis for digital governance across the Commonwealth, especially in relation to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.