Regional transport challenges within the Southern African Development Community and their implications for economic integration and development

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) seeks to deepen economic integration among its members through the SADC free trade area that came into effect in January 2008. The thrust for a progressive reduction of tariff and no-tariff barriers, which the market integration model emphasises, has serious implications for the impact of transport and communication systems on economic integration and development within SADC.

Transport and communications systems have an important bearing on economic integration and development because they can be significant non-tariff barriers. The SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology is the instrument through which transport and communications constraints are to be addressed. Through this protocol, some institutions have been established and others proposed to ensure that projects designed to deepen economic integration and development are implemented effectively.

The neo-functional integration approach is a relevant theoretical framework for analysing transport and communications issues and for implementing joint sectoral projects in areas that impact on overcoming development-related deficiencies in production and infrastructure. Transport and communications fall in this category of projects and the SADC region has benefited from functional co-operation in this sector.

As integration proceeds, polarisation of industries could occur, raising concerns about the distributional effects of economic integration as this affects development. However, polarisation is not inevitable: it depends on transport costs. This might seriously address transport and communications constraints because, if these are greatly reduced and eventually removed, weaker SADC countries need not lose industries to the core with the SADC Free Trade Area in place.     

农民专业合作社利益联接机制研究

农民专业合作社已被确立为引领农民参与国内外市场竞争的现代农业经营组织。但利益分配问题是合作社不可避免的难题,它关系到合作社的存亡和发展。所以,健全合作社的利益联接机制是规范和发展农民专业合作社的核心。     

试析村民在《村民委员会组织法》实施中的作用

当前,村民在《村民委员会组织法》实施中的作用主要表现为民主选举、民主决策、民主管理、民主监督。但由于受到利益、村民的民主权利意识、法制意识和法律制度等因素的影响,村民作用并未能充分发挥。因此,要努力发展农村经济,增加农民收入,增强村民的民主权利意识和法制观念,完善《村民委员会组织法》及配套规章制度,从而为村民作用的发挥创造良好的内部条件和外部环境。     

质的研究报告——社团组织在社区教育资源整合中的地位与作用

在我国社会发展中,社团组织具有积极力量.而支持与扶持积极、健康的社团组织,并极力促进这些社团组织的壮大与发展,对目前我国政府在社区教育投入不多的现实条件下,是一个很有前景的社会事业.调研表明,在街道的社区教育活动中,居民自发组织起来的各种社团组织在地区的社区教育活动中发挥着无可替代的作用.     

关于"服务型工会"的实践和探索

经济多元化的发展使劳动关系和职工队伍日益复杂化,而当前经济危机的发展也凸显了创建服务型工会的迫切性,建设服务型工会,不仅是中央的指示,也是来自实践的需求,服务是比维护更为宽泛的概念,服务型工会更好地处理了服务大局、服务企业和服务职工三者之间的关系。创建服务型工会必须从改革工会自身入手,实现工会的全方位转型。     

ASEAN as the ‘regional conductor’: understanding ASEAN's role in Asia-Pacific order

This paper analyses ASEAN's prominence in regional order negotiation and management in Southeast Asia and the Asia-pacific through the lens of social role negotiation. It argues that ASEAN has negotiated legitimate social roles as the ‘primary manager’ in Southeast Asia and the ‘regional conductor’ of the Asia-Pacific order. It develops an English School-inspired role negotiation framework and applies it to three periods: 1954–1975 when ASEAN's ‘primary manager’ role emerged from negotiations with the USA; 1978–1991 when ASEAN's role was strengthened through negotiations with China during the Cambodian conflict; and 1991-present when ASEAN created and expanded the ‘regional conductor’ role. Negotiations during the Cold War established a division of labour where great powers provided security public goods but the great power function of diplomatic leadership was transferred to ASEAN. ASEAN's diplomatic leadership in Southeast Asia provided a foundation for creating its ‘regional conductor’ role after the Cold War. ASEAN's ability to sustain its roles depends on maintaining role bargains acceptable to the great powers, an increasingly difficult task due to great power rivalry in the South China Sea.     

Centers of Gravity: Regional Powers,Democracy, and Trade

Classic studies on hegemonic stability and power transition suggest that concentration of capabilities favoring a single state can promote economic cooperation and discourage militarized conflict. However, tests of these arguments have been primarily limited to examining temporal variation in global capability distributions and corresponding levels of system-wide cooperation; few have examined the impact of capability concentration at the region level. In this article, we contend that concentration of regional military capabilities corresponds to lower trade costs for states throughout a region and to an incentive for weaker states to de-prioritize expenditure on the military, freeing resources that can be used to promote trade. As a result, this condition promotes higher levels of trade, particularly within the region. We also argue that democratic regional powers are better able to foster confidence in the sustainability of cooperation; thus, the trade-enhancing impact of concentrated regional capabilities is stronger when the predominant state is more democratic. We find evidence in support of our expectations in statistical models examining state trade between 1960 and 2007.     

中国农民组织化的发展空间研究——以北部湾经济区农民组织化为例

伴随着中国社会的深度转型进程,当前中国农村组织结构与农民组织方式发生了深刻变革。该文基于社会学的理论维度,以北部湾经济区农民组织化为例,着力从组织功能视角深入探讨社会转型期中国农民组织化的发展空间问题,以期更好地推进中国现代化建设进程。     

建设东北亚跨国运输走廊的设想及意义

东北亚区域经济合作的主要瓶颈之一是跨国运输和国际物流服务 ,考虑到可操作性 ,因而建设跨国运输走廊和地区国际物流中心就有希望成为启动东北亚区域全面合作的切入点。其建设的基本思路是整合“两纵两横”四条跨国走廊运输硬件设施 ,并构建跨国运输走廊有效运营的制度保障体系 ,同时建立“三大”国际物流中心之间的交流与合作机制 ,这不仅可以彻底消除冷战留给东北亚的后遗症 ,而且有利于地区经济合作 ,实现经济互补 ,创造地区经济繁荣。     

工会应急协同能力评价方法研究

工会是职工群体性事件应对的重要主体之一,而应急协同能力又是决定其应急事件处理效果的一个重要因素。因此,对应急能力的评估至关重要。研究分析了职工群体性事件的动态演化过程,找出其应急协同能力影响因素,并依据协同分析方法构建了工会应急协同能力评估指标体系。研究首次提出了工会应急协同能力及表征,即基础应急协同能力、应急处置协同能力和事后恢复协同能力,并通过实例验证了该模型的合理性。据此,在社会多主体治理框架下提出了提升工会应急协同能力的基本策略。