城镇化进程中的政治与经济问题对城市犯罪的影响

城镇化是人类社会现代化的必然趋势。但是,城镇化进程中产生的各种城市问题却对城市的生存与发展造成了诸多困扰。城市问题是城市犯罪孕育、发生和发展的温床,从整体层面上研究城市问题对犯罪的影响具有重要的现实意义。在所有的城市问题中,城市政治问题和经济问题是两种主要的"城市病",而且二者之间联系密切、关系复杂,其互动效应与联动效应对城市社会治安大环境的形成,对城市犯罪问题的衍变,对犯罪行为的主体与受体的塑造等,都有十分深刻的影响。建国后我国城市犯罪在政治与经济问题的综合影响下,曾形成了4个犯罪高峰期,目前仍居高不下。     

专业课教学中进行思想政治教育的可行性

在高校专业课教学过程中进行思想政治教育,是有效提高大学生思想政治素质的重要途径。然而,由于受到传统教育观念的影响,一些教师在专业课中进行思想政治教育还存在着认识上的误区。文章从教师存在的认识误区入手,分析了专业课与思想政治教育结合的必要性和可行性,并进一步探讨了两者结合的有效途径。     

中国近代两幕立宪活动的闹剧

在中国近代史上,曾经坚决反对立宪政治的封建顽固势力,为挽救摇摇欲坠的清王朝继续封建专制统治,以慈禧太后和袁世凯为代表的封建顽固势力,先后扯起立宪的大旗,中国政治似乎走上了现代化的道路,人们渴望立宪能把中国人民从封建专制中和帝国主义的压迫中解放出来。然而,立宪不过是封建顽固势力欺骗人民维护皇权复辟帝制的工具。中国人民的解放,中国政治的现代化,不仅仅是制定几布宪法,而是人民政治自由的实现。     

近20年来崇祯研究综述

崇祯是明朝的末代皇帝,他以兄终弟及的方式即位于危难之际,在内忧外患中执政17年,最后在风起云涌的农民起义的步步紧逼下,吊死煤山。近20年来,学界对崇祯的研究取得了比较丰富的成果,他的经历留给后人很多的思考。     

Institutions and Economic Performance: The Use and Abuse of Culture in New Institutional Economics

Important research programs within New Institutional Economics advance culturalist arguments to explain failures of economic development. Focusing on the work of Douglass C. North and Avner Greif, this article argues that such arguments rely on an essentialist conception of culture that is both historically inaccurate and analytically misleading. Greif’s work in particular rests on a selective use of empirical data that ultimately distorts the deductive models that are at the core of his work. As a result, both scholars use culture to account for outcomes that are more adequately explained as the product of social conflict and political struggles—struggles in which culture plays a far more contingent and destabilizing role than the one they attribute to it. What is needed, I argue, is to link arguments about the persistence of inefficient institutions with a sociologically informed conception of culture as an ensemble of resources that enhance rather than constrain the scope of individual agency. To come to terms with the effects of culture on institutional formation and change it is necessary to replace the essentialism articulated by North and Greif with a strategic-instrumentalist view in which culture is compatible with a wide spectrum of economic behaviors, individual actions, and thus institutional trajectories.

Lessons of Russian in Afghanistan

The experience of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan (1979–1989) is considered through the prism of institutional transfers. Afghanistan has a long history of attempts to implement Muslim, Soviet and Anglo-Saxon institutional designs. Most of them have failed. This failure can be attributed to the lack of ‘elective affinity’ between traditional and new institutions imported from more developed countries. It is argued that a careful examination of the degree of elective affinity must precede any attempt of institutional transfers. An analysis of Ph.D. dissertations defended by Afghan students at Soviet and Russian universities complements logical arguments and references to historical facts.

Eyes wide shut? Reforming and defusing checks and balances in Argentina

How effective are autonomous audit agencies (AAAs) in curbing corruption and improving fiscal governance in emerging economies? AAAs are autonomous oversight agencies tasked with scrutinising government finances. However, they are not as effective as they could or should be, partly because of the political constraints they face and the political economy context in which they are embedded. This article assesses the performance and trajectory of the Argentine AAA. It suggests that AAAs can have only a limited impact when formal fiscal institutions are undermined by informal practices and undercut by adverse political incentives. It further highlights the limits of radical reform strategies based on the import of exogenous institutional models. This research has important research and policy implications for the reform and strengthening of AAAs in developing countries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Political accountability,fiscal conditions and local government performance—cross‐sectional evidence from Indonesia

Why are some local governments more successful than others in managing resources and delivering services? And even more vitally, how can malfunctioning governments be reformed so that they perform their responsibilities more effectively? This article contributes to our understanding of theses overarching questions by exploring the interactions between political institutions and public sector performance in the context of decentralisation and local governance. It shows–both theoretically and empirically–that performance outcomes are determined by the extent to which people can hold their governments accountable through political institutions. The basic hypothesis underlying this research is that political accountability, either by encouraging sanctions upon non‐compliant public agents or simply by reducing the informational gap regarding government activities, will create forceful incentives for elected officials and civil servants to reduce opportunistic behaviour and improve performance. Using a cross‐sectional regression the hypothesis is empirically tested against evidence from newly empowered local governments in Indonesia. The empirical findings broadly support our hypotheses. Improved public services on the ground, both in terms of quantity and quality, require informed and well functioning decision‐making processes that allocate resources to priority areas that meet the demand of the broader community. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

韩国政治转型与中产阶级的作用

在韩国政治转型过程中,中产阶级的政治文化实现了从臣民政治文化向臣民——参与者政治文化的转型。韩国中产阶级突出的特征是具有变革与保守的双重性,既是民主政治改革的推动者,也是权威政治的维护力量。在韩国由权威政治走向民主政治的过程中,中产阶级造就了公民社会与国家的分离互动发展,形成多元政治自主权对国家权利的分割与制衡。由此给我们的启示是,迅速成长的中产阶级在后发型国家实现民主法治过程中成为不可抗拒的历史洪流。     

现代经济学的方法论特征

注重研究方法的科学性和自洽性;突出模型分析和数学方法及数理逻辑的应用,并把对经济现象和经济活动的研究过程纳入一个可控制的系统中,这不仅增强了理论本身的可靠性,同时又使之获得了广阔的发展空间.