The Structure of Government Intervention in African Agriculture

This article examines the determinants of various rates of agricultural subsidies (output, input, exchange rate distortions, and aggregate) using commodity-level data from eight African countries in the 1980s. Econometric results indicate that structural adjustment policies were more effective in reforming exchange rate distortions than in liberalising commodity markets. Output policies are determined within the national context while input subsidies are more responsive to commodity-specific conditions. Further-more, agricultural subsidies were strongly influenced by the degree of urbanisation and by the number of people per unit of arable land in a manner consistent with cheap food policy strategies.     

Reinventing the Hong Kong state or rediscovering it? From low interventionism to eclectic corporatism

Abstract

The low-intervention state of Hong Kong in colonial times did not originate from strong neo-liberal ideological convictions. It was an artefact of the colonial political configuration, a pragmatic governing strategy adapting to the political and economic needs at the time. Political changes, economic restructuring, divestiture and marketization of state institutions since the 1980s had brought a new state form after 1997. A new business and professional elite class, embedded in an eclectic corporatist structure, evolved and brought multilateral, ad hoc and particularistic bargaining, leading to more sectoral intervention after 1997. Fragmented state institutions nonetheless weakened state capacity, making it difficult for the post-1997 state to be highly penetrative, transformative or developmental.     

经济法之政府干预的宪政解读

宪政之于经济法的法治要求,意味着国家干预经济的一切活动都应当有相应的法律依据,国家干预经济的行为应该受到制约。经济宪政是以保障基本权利为基础、以社会本位为核心价值的宪政理念。为了实现政府干预的宪政目标,应限制行政权力,要求政府干预遵循法治化的进程,以确保宪政经济权利并接受违宪审查。     

The Political Economy of State Failure: A Social Contract Approach

By employing the contract approach of state theory, this article provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of state failure phenomena which puts the emphasis on structural conditions as the root cause of state fragility and state failure. The article argues that the deep social fragility of some post-colonial societies, augmented by self-serving external interventions by foreign powers, is at the heart of their failure. Deep social fragility makes societies unable to cooperate and thus renders them powerless to discipline their leaders. Meanwhile, by linking leadership survival to the decisions and policies of a self-serving foreign power, intervention provides flawed incentives to the state leaders, which increases their predatory behaviour. In such situations, state leaders, rather than strengthening formal state institutions, again intensify the collective action problem and increase social fragility as mechanisms for survival.     

Onwards and Sidewards? The Curious Case of the Responsibility to Protect and Mass Violence in Africa

This article approaches Responsibility to Protect (R2P) from the ground up. Selecting African cases of mass atrocity in the age of R2P, it identifies key general features of contemporary violence. The article goes on to consider the nature and extent of R2P practice in each case. The argument is that R2P engagements in these conflicts display a mixture of weakness and irrelevance. The result of this is that R2P has failed significantly to reduce human suffering in any of the cases dealt with. The article notes that this clear failure does not seem to perturb the mainstream of academic R2P discourses, which, although critical at times, remain confident that R2P is making some difference and represents the best way forward. The article explores how this kind of discourse is propounded in the scholarly work on R2P. This leads us towards an argument that R2P as a discourse and international project can run in parallel with continuing mass suffering in African civil wars without being profoundly troubled.     

网络舆情预测模型研究

互联网的飞跃发展,既孕育着机遇,同时也带来了前所未有的挑战。公共危机事件网络舆情正是诸多挑战带来"副产品"。为此,本文根据网络舆情传播特性,通过建立Lotka-Volterra模型,对网络舆情的演进过程做出了合理预测。本文考虑了政府和网民在网络舆情中的相互影响,建立两者间的竞争模型,预测竞争中可能产生的结果,寻找竞争中政府与网民间平衡点的位置,为政府在公共危机事件网络舆情发展过程中的干预行为提供依据,同时为衍生舆情的产生提供一定的解释。     

Issues in Implementing a Comprehensive Intervention for Public School Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Many students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are educated separately from their typically developing peers, while others are placed in inclusive classes but without supports that would help them benefit from less restrictive placements. The needs of students with ASD who are in inclusive settings are often not planned for or met appropriately, resulting in continuing problems and movement to increasingly restrictive environments or private placements. There is a critical need for school models to fill the gap in appropriate services for this population of children with ASD. These models should include those that are inclusive and academically challenging, that can be implemented by many school districts, and that are responsive to the unique combination of strengths and deficits in these students. In the current article, the authors describe the development and core components of the model, and implementation of the ASD Nest program in public schools in New York City.     

The Design and Implementation of Early Childhood Intervention Programs: Informing Efforts to Address Risk and Promote Resilience

With the goal of narrowing disparities in children's school success, a growing number of innovative early childhood interventions have been launched. As these interventions begin to show evidence of enhancing children's development, it is important that we understand the design of these interventions and their implementation. This themed issue of the Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community includes four articles that each highlight a different early childhood intervention program, and a fifth article that provides a commentary on the main set of articles, from a community perspective. The first article focuses on children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a program that sought to integrate children with ASD into public schools. The next two articles center on children from low-income families, with a focus on preschool classrooms. The last article discusses a program that aimed to foster young children's school readiness as well as families' readiness for children's transition to school.     

看守所在押人员再犯罪的刑事介入探讨

看守所承担管理和改造在押人员的重要任务,理应是巩固和延伸法律惩戒力的重要阵地。当前的看守所规范化建设既应当加强文明执法,充分保障在押人员合法权益,也要提高对在押人员违规行为乃至重新犯罪问题的重视程度。对涉嫌又犯新罪的行为要介入刑事手段,坚决打击,使行为人罪责刑相适应。刑事介入只有有了充分的法理支撑,理顺启动和执行程序,才具备打击犯罪的应用能力,并体现看守所监管工作机制的科学有效。