论中国县级政府在公共物品提供中的职能定位

中国政府职能划分普遍存在“职责同构”现象,地方政府与中央政府在公共物品提供上存在职责不清现象。作为与居民联系最密切的县级政府,在职能划分上存在诸多困境。本文在分析了中国县级政府的职能困境和比较国外县级政府在公共物品提供方面的经验作法後,提出了县级政府在公共物品的供给土应准确进行职能定位。     

论能源安全的公共产品属性与能源安全共同体构建

能源资源是大自然对人类社会的馈赠,本质上是各国和人民都有权享受的公共资源,对这种权利的安全保障是能源安全的应有之义。能源安全本质上是一项公共产品,突出能源安全的公共属性有助于能源安全的不断完善,有助于世界经济的发展和人类福祉的提高。从国家能源安全、区域能源安全到全球能源安全,国际能源安全的公共属性不断加强。国际能源安全公共属性特征的变化为"能源安全共同体"的形成创造了客观条件,国际社会各行为体有必要在主观认识上朝构建"能源安全共同体"的方向努力。"能源安全共同体"建构可从区域经济一体化开始,强化区域经济一体化组织成员对共同体的认识,把能源安全作为实现区域一体化的又一重要抓手,改革、完善和创新有关国际组织和机制,通过"政府间主义"—"跨国家主义"—"超国家主义"的路径演变逻辑,通过功能主义的纵向整合,构建层次递进的国际能源安全共同体。     

Natural Law,Basic Goods,and Fiduciary Altruism

Even though fiduciary duties take the highest position in the spectrum of legal altruism, and legal fiduciary altruism sometimes differs from moral fiduciary altruism, natural law morality is not necessarily useless in helping to explain, determine, and justify concrete rules in fiduciary law. Five specific inspirations, in addition to divergences, can be drawn by a closer look at the seven basic goods of John Finnis’ natural law theory. First, the basic good of life may help to determine the boundary of the best interest test under the duty of loyalty. Second, the basic good of play, in particular the distinction between business community and play community may help to justify the separate treatment between civil agency and commercial agency regarding the unconditional power of immediate termination. Third, practical reasonableness may help to explain the rule against set-off under the duty of no conflict. Fourth, different cultural notions of sociability may lead to distinct understandings with regard to the no-profit rule. Fifth, different attitudes towards knowledge in various religious beliefs may create distinct understandings about the burden of informed consent.     

The young and the restless: housing access in the critical years

Abstract

How do governmental housing policies affect the ability of young people to exit the parental home? This paper makes three claims. First and most important, governments that create accessible and liquid mortgage markets make it easier for young people to launch from the parental home. Second, even in those countries with more liquid housing markets, younger generations today still have an increasingly difficult time realising their preferences compared to prior generations. Third, increasing income and wealth inequality interacts with housing markets to create this uneven playing field both within and across generations. This paper examines these relationships in 20 high-income OECD countries. Fewer adult children live in the parental home in countries with deep mortgage markets, high levels of social rented housing, tax relief for ownership, low buyers' transaction costs and high residential mobility. These countries cut across the traditional housing regime typologies, highlighting the need for additional housing-specific theory building.     

Relational Goods and Endurance of Voluntary Associational Participation: The Case of the Indigenous Mapuche in Santiago de Chile

This article analyses the reasons for the continuing membership of Mapuche associations in Santiago de Chile after the promulgation of the Indigenous Law in 1993. By following a relational goods approach, the article suggests that the constructed nature of ethnicity leads the Mapuche to create and join ethnic associations in an urban milieu. This study reveals that the main motivations for sustaining an active associational engagement are threefold: identity recovery struggle, leaving an identity legacy and bonding with their ethnic peers; all of these identified as relational goods. This investigation is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over eight months.     

China–ASEAN economic relations after establishment of free trade area*

This paper aims to contribute to an understanding about the major changes in China–ASEAN economic relations after establishment of the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) in 2010. First, China's merchandize trade balance with ASEAN has shifted from deficit to surplus since 2012. This reflects China's improving comparative advantage in manufacturing production vis-à-vis ASEAN as a whole. Second, with China's wage hike, ASEAN investors can no longer take advantage of China's cheap labor force. Concurrently, China's investment in ASEAN has been increasing and become more diversified, ranging from energy to manufacturing and services. Singapore has remained the most important investment destination for Chinese investors and the largest foreign investor in China among ASEAN countries. Third, China has comparative advantages in providing construction, telecommunications, computer and information services and other business services to ASEAN. On the other hand, ASEAN, led by Singapore, has opportunities in the financial services and tourism markets in China. Finally, the development of economic regionalism, notably the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership, will remain critical for the CAFTA's relevance in regional economic integration, as well as China–ASEAN relations in the future.     

Fresh pipes with dirty water: How quality of government shapes the provision of public goods in democracies

A large strand of research holds that democracy with its broad representation and electoral accountability is beneficial for the provision of public goods. Yet, there is a large variation in how democracies perform, indicating that democratic institutions alone do not suffice for securing citizens’ wellbeing. Recent studies have stressed the equal importance of state capacity for public goods delivery. These studies, however, rarely investigate how the lack of state capacity mutes the effects of democratic institutions on public goods provision. This article addresses this gap by using a mixed methods design. First, the conditional effects of democracy and quality of government (QoG) are tested on the previously under-researched domain of the provision of clean water. The results show that democracy is associated with higher water quality only in countries where QoG is high. If QoG is low, more democracy is even related to lower water quality. The second stage of the analysis proceeds by examining how poor QoG disrupts the effects of democracy on public access to safe drinking water using interview data from a typical case of Moldova. The analysis illustrates that democracy has a number of positive effects and incentivises politicians to focus on the visible aspects of water provision, including the expansion of the water pipe network. However, low QoG hampers adoption and implementation of long-term policies necessary for securing an aspect of water provision that is harder to achieve – namely water quality. This leaves the fresh pipes with dirty water.     

Urban trust in Kenya and Tanzania: Cooperation in the provision of public goods

Literature connecting ethnic diversity with public goods provision has found public goods to be poorly and unevenly supplied in ethnically heterogeneous communities. Scrutinising this hypothesis, the study contrasts an ethnically homogenous community in Kenya with an ethnically heterogeneous one in Tanzania, documenting levels of trust and cooperation in public goods provision. Interviews and focus groups with market-sellers of Mwanza (Tanzania) and Kisumu (Kenya) reveal how the two professionally similar populations differ starkly in the way they participate in public goods, and in an opposite direction to that which would be predicted by the current literature on ethnicity. On the topic of the organisation of security and cleaning within markets in Mwanza, ethnically heterogeneous market-sellers' sense of solidarity facilitates a greater degree of seller-on-seller trust. In Kisumu, in contrast, with participants reflective of the dominant Luo ethnicity, the lack of state provision of public services has seen a feeble and individualistic response. The findings demonstrate how ethnic distribution matters less for public goods provision than commitments amongst citizens themselves and between citizens and local authorities.     

Explaining civil protection cooperation in the EU: the contribution of public goods theory

Abstract

In recent years the European Union has taken a number of steps towards improving civil protection cooperation in Europe. European leaders regularly declare the importance of boosting cooperation to prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies afflicting member states. Those declarations have been accompanied by a flourish of policy activity, the building of new structures, and even treaty changes. On the surface, this little-known area of European integration appears to be proceeding with great success. A closer look, however, reveals significant gaps between member states' general expressions of enthusiasm and problematic cooperation in practice. We draw upon public goods theory to explain why this might be the case; more specifically, we identify likely game-theoretic obstacles to cooperation in different areas of the civil protection field. We evaluate our theoretical propositions by examining the current state of cooperation in marine pollution response, chemical contamination management, and flood response. We find that cooperation success in practice corresponds generally, but not perfectly, with the predictions of public goods theory. Our findings offer a nuanced view of civil protection cooperation in Europe and illuminate options for improved cooperation in the future.     

European internal security as a public good

Abstract

This introduction argues for a new research agenda on European internal security cooperation from the perspective of public goods. We set out our case in three parts. First, we identify new empirical puzzles and demonstrate significant explanatory gaps in the existing internal security literature which public goods theory could help address. Second, we outline the building blocks of a public goods approach and provide an overview of its application, both existing and potentially, in various areas of regional security and European integration. Third, we present three complementary ways of using public goods theory to analyse internal security in the European Union, with the aim of spurring new research questions while accepting some limitations of this theoretical approach.