Reforming sacred institutions: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Roman Catholic Church compared

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) are both conceptualized as sacred institutions, with many features of ideology/theology, hierocratic structure, and policy process in common. After periods of exclusion, they both also faced strong pressures to adapt to changes in the modern world, both internal and external, and to reduce status differentiation within the hierarchy and between the clergy/apparatchiki hierarchy and the laity/population. The present article compares and contrasts de-Stalinization under Khrushchev (1956–1964) with the results of Vatican II (1959–1965), and Gorbachev’s reforms (1985–1991) with the efforts of Pope Francis to reform the RCC (2013–present). The comparisons validate the explanatory power of the noted similarities between these sacred institutions, while also highlighting significant differences in structure, mission, and process, which explain why Pope Francis has adopted an incremental strategy for reform of the RCC, in contrast to Gorbachev’s revolutionary strategy for reforming the CPSU.     

Understanding the changing role of public sector performance measurement in less developed countries

This article develops a framework for understanding changes in the demand for and supply of performance information in public sector organizations in less developed countries (LDCs). New Institutional Sociology (NIS) is used to argue that pressures from specific stakeholders stimulate organizations to produce particular performance information. The article distinguishes three groups of stakeholders (i.e. funding bodies, statutory boards and purchasers), and elaborates on the performance dimensions these stakeholders are interested in. The group of funding bodies, with their interest in financial performance information, used to be the most important group of stakeholders. However, statutory boards and purchasers are gaining importance as a result of recent public sector reforms, which include decentralization, marketization and the implementation of anti‐corruption programs. As a consequence of pressures coming from these stakeholders, new performance dimensions, such as the quality and quantity of services and the political governance structure, will be added to organizations' performance measurement (PM) systems. Whether these and other—often more traditional financial—performance dimensions will be balanced and integrated throughout organizations depends on the power positions of the various stakeholders. The arguments presented in this article intend to stimulate public sector organizations in LDCs to design and redesign PM systems as a response to changing stakeholder interests. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do FDI patterns differ between manufacturing and service sector in CEE countries

In the paper, we presented results of the research, realized with the goal to test main determinants influencing on FDI stock in manufacturing and services in transitional countries, precisely CEE countries. Some of the conceptual issues identified under possible differences of FDI determinants in manufacturing and services we started with were： （1） What are the most important determinants of FDI in manufacturing and services？ （2） Are there significant differences between the main influencing determinants/factors between manufacturing and services？ （3） Are there significant differences between FDI determinants for developing countries/transitional countries and industrial countries？ （4） What are the implications for policies and strategies to attract FDI in different industries for developing countries？ Dependent variable used in this paper is the FDI stock p/c （NACE 1-digit） into manufacturing and service sector for each observed CEE country, in the period 1999-2006. In case of our sample countries, a set of possible FDI determinants was selected from the pool of traditional and institutional-related determinants in the literature, and relevant indicators available. Empirical analysis was conducted by the regression assessment of panel data, using the set of data for CEE countries, studied over eight years. We estimated fixed effects model and OLS with panel-corrected standard errors （PCSEs） using Prais-Winsten to take into account the AR（1） process. Two out of four traditional variables showed differences between the manufacturing and service sector： （a） Inflation, as the indicator of macroeconomic instability, was not statistically significant for manufacturing sector but it was significant for service sector; （b） wages had statistically significant influences on the FDI in manufacturing sector, but had no influence on service sector. Looking at the results of testing indicators we had found significant differences between all indicators： （a） Privatization influenced on FDI attractions in manufacturing sector and it was significant for service sector, with negative influence; （b） wages had statistically significant influences on the FDI in manufacturing sector, but had no influence on service sector; and finally （c） other two traditional variables-market size indicated through GDP p/c and openness of economy had the same results for both, manufacturing and service sector.     

我国民主政治发展的路径依赖及路向选择——基于路径依赖理论的分析视角

从路径依赖理论的视角来考察,我国民主政治的发展在取得诸多成就的同时,也存在着思想观念、民主制度体系、民主组织行为等方面的非良性路径依赖,阻碍了我国民主政治的发展。加快我国民主政治发展必须打破非良性的路径依赖,实现路径替代,需要在更新民主观念、深化市场经济体制改革、推进政治体制改革、以及扩大公民有序政治参与等方面做出努力。     

社会正义与制度建设

正义是社会制度的首要价值。然而,中国当代的正义存在一些缺损问题,即正义取向出现了偏差,形式正义与实质正义、算术正义与比例正义、交换正义与分配正义等正义形式出现了缺损。本文提出通过加强制度建设来改善正义缺损问题的现状,因为制度最基本、最重要的功能就是保障社会的公平正义。     

浅议淫秽物品犯罪的界定

淫秽物品犯罪是指走私、制作、贩卖、传播淫秽物品的行为以及组织进行淫秽表演的行为。这类犯罪侵犯了我国社会风尚中的善良性风尚和性道德。尽管不同国家 (地区 )在不同的时期受到宗教、文化传统、意识形态等因素的影响对某物品是否为淫秽物品的认识存在着差异 ,但淫秽物品最终还是进入人们道德评价、法律评价的视野。     

双转型、可信承诺与公共服务供给

公共服务供给必须对双转型中的社会断裂与失衡作出相应的制度调整和重建,基于可信承诺的公共服务制度安排应该是:改革属地化管理的行政逐级发包制度,规范中央—地方政府责任;建立基于主体功能区的政绩考核机制;延长地方官员任期。     

Analyser les réformes institutionnelles sur le terrain: l'exemple de la réforme de l'armée suisse «Armée XXI»

L'étude des réformes de l'administration et des institutions publiques suisses a considérablement délaissé la problématique des conséquences des changements sur le terrain et surtout n'a pas analysé le vécu des acteurs administratifs de base. Notre étude vise, au niveau analytique, à rendre compte du vécu des réformes à l'échelon des «petits fonctionnaires»; sur un plan méthodologique, une enquête de nature ethnographique est introduite pour étudier ce questionnement. Notre enquête sur la réforme de l'armée suisse «Armée XXI» sert d'illustration. Si notre démarche permet de parvenir à des résultats intéressants sur les conséquences et le vécu de cette réforme, elle comporte également des enjeux empiriques spécifiques articulés autour de la question centrale de la relation du chercheur à son terrain. Au final, une microsociologie ethnographique du vécu des réformes par les acteurs de base nous semble susceptible de contribuer à un enrichissement de la recherche sur les transformations récentes des institutions publiques en Suisse.     

Preliminary results of an investigation on postmortem variations in human skeletal mass of buried bones

Extreme fragmentation can complicate the inventory of human skeletal remains. In such cases, skeletal mass can provide information regarding skeleton completeness and the minimum number of individuals. For that purpose, several references for skeletal mass can be used to establish comparisons and draw inferences regarding those parameters. However, little is known about the feasibility of establishing comparisons between inherently different materials, as is the case of curated reference skeletal collections and human remains recovered from forensic and archaeological settings. The objective of this paper was to investigate the effect of inhumation, weather and heat exposure on the skeletal mass of two different bone types. This was investigated on a sample of 30 human bone fragments (14 trabecular bones and 16 compact bones) that was experimentally buried for two years after being submitted to one of four different heat treatments (left unburned; 500?°C; 900?°C; 1000?°C). Bones were exhumed periodically to assess time-related mass variation. Skeletal mass varied substantially, decreasing and increasing in accordance to the interchanging dry and wet seasons. However, trends were not the same for the two bone types and the four temperature thresholds. The reason for this appears to be related to water absorption and to the differential heat-induced changes in bone microporosity, volume, and composition. Our results suggest that mass comparisons against published references should be performed only after the skeletal remains have been preemptively dried from exogenous water.     

An Aquatic Decomposition Scoring Method to Potentially Predict the Postmortem Submersion Interval of Bodies Recovered from the North Sea

This study aimed to develop an aquatic decomposition scoring (ADS) method and investigated the predictive value of this method in estimating the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) of bodies recovered from the North Sea. This method, consisting of an ADS item list and a pictorial reference atlas, showed a high interobserver agreement (Krippendorff's alpha ≥ 0.93) and hence proved to be valid. This scoring method was applied to data, collected from closed cases—cases in which the postmortal submersion interval (PMSI) was known—concerning bodies recovered from the North Sea from 1990 to 2013. Thirty‐eight cases met the inclusion criteria and were scored by quantifying the observed total aquatic decomposition score (TADS). Statistical analysis demonstrated that TADS accurately predicts the PMSI (p < 0.001), confirming that the decomposition process in the North Sea is strongly correlated to time.