试论发展广西与周边国家的民族文化旅游

中国-东盟自由贸易区于2010年1月1日如期建成。广西是边境民族地区,作为中国-东盟的连接地带,能用于国际贸易的商品很少,要在自由贸易区中争到更多贸易份额,需要发展民族文化旅游资源丰富的优势,发展与周边国家的民族文化旅游。要把广西建成旅游大区、强区,建成中国连接东盟的旅游大通道,同时开发广西与东南亚的海洋文化之旅,使广西成为与周边国家连成一片的国际旅游目的地。     

中国与东盟社会主义国家政治交往实践：现状、成果及问题

中国与越南、老挝这两个东盟社会主义国家的政治交往内容丰富,形式多样,富有成效。这种政治交往加深彼此了解,增进友好互信,扩大各领域互利合作,推动各自国家的社会主义建设,提升社会主义的影响力,促进中国与东盟的合作,维护地区和世界的和平稳定与发展。中越、中老的政治交往也在一些问题上存在着矛盾和分歧有待解决。     

Why International Organizations Should Bring Basic Needs Back in

An important milestone in the development debate is the recognition of poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon via the capabilities approach. However, a challenge remains in that many governments in less-developed countries continue to avoid prioritizing issues of absolute deprivation. This paper demonstrates how and why existing efforts to operationalize capabilities may distract policy makers from giving sufficient weight to issues of basic survival. We propose that international organizations can address this challenge through a method of triangulation: (1) identify how countries rank on universal goals of human development; (2) identify how countries rank on universal goals of basic needs provision; and (3) promote participatory poverty assessments. This approach ensures that absolute deprivation issues are addressed, and it establishes an acceptable (and necessary) balance between standardization and local complexity.     

英美刑法的正当防卫制度之优劣

正当防卫作为一项最古老的辩护制度,历来是世界各国刑事立法、刑事司法和刑法理论关注的焦点。由于历史文化传统的不同,英美法系国家关于正当防卫制度的规定与我国以及大陆法系各国存在着较大的差异。     

从松花江跨境污染事件透视企业环境责任的重要性

1972年《斯德哥尔摩宣言》的签署标志着由联合国主导的世界性环境保护运动的开始。21世纪,人们对企业的社会责任越来越重视,企业社会责任的内涵也从企业对员工的责任延伸到企业对环境、社区以及客户的责任。松花江跨境污染事件提示我们应结合国际环境保护运动的背景,从道义、国内程序法和国际法三个不同角度正确认识企业环境责任的严格性和特殊性,引导企业树立科学的发展观,积极履行环境保护的法律义务和社会责任。     

Moving to the Gulf: an empirical analysis of the patterns and drivers of migration to the GCC countries, 1960–2013

The migration system in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf is among the largest such systems in the world. This article identifies the major interacting elements of this system, which primarily includes countries in South Asia and the Middle East, and discusses its generating forces and developments over the past five and a half decades. Departing from panel data from the World Bank and the UN’s population database, which hitherto have been largely under-analysed, we investigate the dynamics of migrations in the period 1960–2013. The panel data are combined with cross-sectional outlooks of contemporary trends and are related to political and economic developments in the region. It is suggested that the patterns of migrations in the Gulf may be explained with reference to the economic, political and demographic idiosyncrasies of the system, and to the migration policies of the GCC countries. In short, the key drivers of GCC migration patterns include: (1) socio-economic realities, in particular income differentials between migrant senders and migrant receivers as well as impressive growth rates in the Gulf region; (2) historical, cultural and institutional proximity among the constituent states in the system; and (3) the particularities of the Gulf states’ liberal labour-migrant regimes, which contrast starkly with their restrictive refugee and naturalisation policies.     

Assessing Revenue Authority Performance in Developing Countries: A Synthetic Control Approach

In many developing countries, comprehensive reforms have been undertaken in tax administration during recent years and the implementation of semiautonomous revenue authorities (SARAs) constitutes one of their most visible expressions. To date, no comprehensive assessment has been undertaken to investigate how successful these SARAs have been in improving revenue collection in these countries. Therefore, this article attempts to fill this gap by assessing revenue collection trends in 20 developing countries after the SARA has been implemented. Using the synthetic control method, we show that in most countries, the implementation of a SARA did not significantly improve government revenues.     

Innovating Public Service Delivery in Transitional Countries: The Case of One Stop Shops in Kazakhstan

This article analyses the implementation of managerial ideas in Kazakhstan using the case of a combined public service delivery called “One Stop Shops”. Several public services are provided in a single building rather than different government offices in a business-like style of service delivery and in a modern physical environment. The service integration policy is an attempt of Kazakhstani government to improve the quality of public services and reduce corruption. Some positive progress in improving the accessibility of public services has been noted. However, as this article argues, the country-specific model of “alternative-access” service delivery was not able to implement in-depth changes in the work of the public sector and improve service quality. Implementation of the managerial ideas has been limited and constrained by the institutional framework and culture prevailing in the Kazakhstani bureaucracy. The main conclusion is that the governments of transitional countries need to critically analyze the pros and cons of the new policies and reflect on their cultures before making further steps to adopt Western managerial initiatives.     

Not so Fair after All? Perceptions of Procedural Fairness and Satisfaction with Democracy in the Nordic Welfare States

The Nordic countries are known for their well-functioning public administrations. In indices measuring control of corruption and the quality of the rule of law, they frequently occupy top positions. However, as we demonstrate in this article, a country's top position in comparative indices does not automatically imply that citizens view the state of affairs in the same way as depicted by experts. The observation is in no way trivial: Drawing on theories of procedural fairness, we go on to show—statistically, using individual level data—that widespread public perceptions about the unfairness of civil servants may have a negative effect on the legitimacy of the political system even in so-called high-trust and “least corrupt” settings such as the Nordic ones.     

Land grabbing in post-Soviet Eurasia: the world’s largest agricultural land reserves at stake

‘Land grabbing’ in Africa by China, and other populous, high-income Asian countries such as South Korea, has received considerable attention, while land grabbing in post-Soviet Eurasia has gone largely unnoticed. However, as this article shows, foreign state and private companies are also acquiring vast areas of farmland in this region. The article first discusses the factors that make post-Soviet Eurasia such an attractive region for international investment, arguably encompassing much greater agricultural land reserves than most regions of sub-Saharan Africa or Asia. Second, in view of the use of media and web-based data in this article, the methodological limitations of researching land investments are discussed. Third, an overview is given of the processes of land accumulation and farm acquisition. Both domestic and international accumulation of land are dealt with in the domestic context of agricultural development and institutions. Furthermore, the main actors (investors) involved in land grabbing are distinguished (according to their country of origin and legal or institutional form). Fourth, the article outlines the main obstacles (and points of contention) concerning the emergence (and effectiveness/performance) of domestic, and especially international, agroholdings in the region. Some preliminary findings are presented on the possible effects of land grabbing on local populations in this region.