俄罗斯政治制度变迁与中国转型

俄罗斯的政治制度变迁有其特殊性,其当代的政治体制用“委任民主”、“可控民主”来界定有其合理性。目前,中国的转型是转型国家中成功的特例之一。虽然中国与俄罗斯在整体社会变迁的前提上具有同质性,但转型采取的路径不同,因而表现也有差异。中国应在汲取俄的教训及吸收自己阶段性成功经验的基础上进行新的尝试。     

过渡经济学规范性问题的思考

运用历史归纳法,对各种过渡经济的特殊形态进行归纳概括,是科学解答过渡经济学规范性问题最根本的方法。从逻辑上探讨“过渡经济”的一般性规定和特殊性规定,可以为历史研究提供理论思路,从而有助于科学、系统地解答过渡经济学的规范性问题,推动过渡经济学范式的形成。     

中国女性伦理文化的历史传统、近代转型与未来发展

女性伦理是性别文化和伦理道德相结合的产物。中国女性伦理文化以男权主义为其生成背景,具有悠久的历史传统和鲜明的中国特色。时至近代,中国女性伦理文化在西方思想和女权主义的冲击下,在中国社会自身发展动力的推动下发生了重大转型,从而也奠定了现代中国女性伦理文化的基本雏形。进入21世纪,中国女性伦理文化又面临着未来发展问题,何去何从成为中国女性伦理文化研究的新问题。     

当代中国文化形态及其走向

中国的改革开放和社会转型,带来了传统与现代、本土与外来的文化交汇,催生了各种不同的文化形态,这大致可分为主流文化、精英文化与大众文化三种形态。社会和谐发展的前提应该是主流文化、精英文化与大众文化良性互动。然而在全球化背景下,这三种文化形态内部关系紧张,同时精英文化与大众文化深受消费主义的影响,出现了精英文化商品化与大众价值观扭曲现象,这是今后我国社会主义文化发展繁荣亟需解决的重要课题。     

POLICY TRANSFER IN IMMATURE POLICY ENVIRONMENTS: MOTIVES,SCOPE, ROLE MODELS AND AGENTS

The present study aims to contribute to the existing policy transfer research by examining the immature policy environments of post‐communist countries. To determine the main factors explaining the process of policy transfer, the establishment of probation systems in Estonia and Latvia is analyzed by applying a comparative case study design. The study demonstrates that timing is an important variable in the policy transfer in a transitional setting. A transitional context in itself is likely to lead to policy transfer because of urgent decision‐making needs, a shortage of domestic expertise and of financial resources. The process of policy transfer can be characterized as quite fortuitous: the choice of role models is limited to the existing or first contacts with foreign partners who are able to provide financial assistance. Improvement of administrative capacity is seen as a key factor in the shift from haphazard policy copying to responsible policy transfer. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Macroscopic and microscopic analysis of knife stab wounds on fleshed and clothed ribs

Stab wounds upon bone are analyzed to interpret the weapon used and the physical context in which the attack occurred. The literature demonstrates that most research conducted pertaining to wound patterns has been carried out on defleshed and unclothed bone samples, not adequately replicating actual circumstances. For this research, six half pig torsos (Sus scrofa), fleshed (including muscle, fat, epidermis, and dermis layers) and clothed, were stabbed using three knife types, applying both straight and downward thrusts. Analysis conducted macroscopically and through a scanning electron microscope with an environmental secondary electron detector revealed a general lack of consistency in wound pattern and associated secondary effects. Consequently, it was not possible to establish wound pattern per knife type as suggested in previous research or relate it to stab motion. Advantage of microscopic analysis was evident in recognizing wound traits and observation of trace evidence not visible macroscopically.     

Branding K-REDD+ and its implications for South Korea's middle power diplomacy

ABSTRACT

The need for new and stronger middle power diplomacy is growing as global challenges are increasingly governed by various horizontal inter- and trans-national networks. Climate change is one of the most complex and urgent global challenges that require collective action, and it is an issue for which more middle power leadership is greatly needed. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has been successful in becoming a primary actor in green growth governance, and its success has been attributed to its strategic middlepowermanship, integrating both material and ideational contents. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in tropical developing countries has been lauded as an immediate and effective solution to mitigate climate change. ROK's unique history of forest transition before rapid economic growth highlights the fact that improving forest management is possible even with imperfect governance, rapid population growth, and low economic development. The lessons learned from ROK's forest transition can be developed as a distinct contribution to the international effort to address forest-related impacts on climate change, and offer an important opportunity for ROK to play a constructive role and achieve enhanced stature within the international community.     

Changing contexts: A quasi-experiment examining adolescent delinquency and the transition to high school

In a quasi-experiment, we examine whether changing schools during the transition from 8th to 9th grade influences adolescent delinquency, using a sample of more than 14,000 students in 26 public school districts (PROSPER study). The dataset follows students for eight waves from 6th through 12th grade and facilitates a unique, direct comparison of students who change schools with those who remain in the same school during this period. Results show that students who transition between schools report significantly less delinquency after the shift than those who do not, and that this difference persists through 10th grade. This decline is most pronounced when adolescents from multiple middle schools move to a single high school (i.e., multifeeder transitions). Students who transition between schools have fewer delinquent friends and participate in less unstructured socializing following the change in school environment, which partially mediates their reduced delinquency. Results provide some support for theories of differential association and routine activities. Our findings highlight the role of a crucial, yet understudied, life transition in shaping adolescent delinquency. The results from this quasi-experiment underscore the potential of alterations in social context to significantly dampen juvenile delinquency throughout high school.     

Working Overtime in East Asia: Convergence or Divergence?

Working long hours has become a routinised part of life in East Asia. The different patterns of overtime across this region are understudied, however. This study represents a first systematic attempt to analyse overtime and its determinants in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China by testing hypotheses that specify the distinctive influences of employment status and job contracts on work hours. Class exploitation, post-industrialism and flexibility theories are mobilised to identify distinctive but supplementary factors in long working hours. Using data from a recent four-country survey, a Tobit regression analysis of full-time workers’ hours reveals that employers and self-employed people work longer hours than hired workers across this region. Despite this convergence, there is a contrast across occupations. In Japan, overtime is positively associated with occupational prestige, while a reverse pattern operates in China, where low-skilled workers work more overtime. Contract workers in the private sector in South Korea and China also have longer overtime when compared to public sector employees. In sum, this study highlights more divergence than convergence of working conditions within East Asia.     

Ian Turner’s The Australian Dream and Australia’s “settler transition”

Focusing on radical labour historian Ian Turner’s The Australian Dream (1968), this article reflects on the evolution of Australia’s settler colonial imagination. During a few crucial decades in the nineteenth century, colonial traditions were overcome by settler colonial ones. The former espoused a system where British rulers would paternally manage a colonial environment and all its populations (pastoralists, free settlers, convicts, emancipated convicts, and Indigenous peoples); the latter advocated the establishment of self-reliant agricultural communities of free settlers. In Replenishing the Earth (2009), James Belich distinguished between settler “transition” and settler “revolution”, and emphasised the imaginative elements that underpin and precede the shift to settler self-government. As the global settler transition took hold, locales usually associated with the perception and expectation of degenerative processes were reconfigured as propitious sites for experimenting in sociopolitical regeneration. Following and expanding on Belich’s framework, this article links Australia’s settler transition with its historiography.