公共成本对权利观念与宪政理论重构的影响

＂权利的成本＂理论从＂权利依赖于税＂这一常识出发,立足于权利的可行性,厘清了传统权利观念的种种误解。法律权利的实现需要公共成本负担,因而消极权利和积极权利两分法并不适当,一切权利都是积极权利,都需要政府的积极保护。公共资源有限,权利的实现需要平衡,因此具有相对性,而非常见的绝对性。这也论证了权利与责任的内在一致性,提倡从权利话语到责任话语的重构。个人自由在本质上依靠社会合作与政府行动,私人权利也具有公共属性和促进社会整合的功能。这超越了权力与权利的零和博弈,从一个新的角度为面临危机的自由主义宪政体制做出了论证。但在中国独特的语境下,应注意保持这一理论作为自由宣言书的底色,避免其沦为行政擅权的辩护词。同时应正视税收对宪政的促进作用并完善公共预算改革。     

Testing the Hollowing-Out Thesis

In recent years, many economists have argued that governments are discarding pegged exchange rates in favor of alternative exchange rate regimes such as monetary unions and currency boards on the one hand, or floating exchange rates on the other. Capital mobility, such economists argue, has made pegged exchange rates costly to maintain for long periods, and thus the pegging option is being “hollowed-out.” Few, however, have tried to present evidence that capital mobility has a direct effect on exchange rate regime choices. I present two sets of tests using different measures of capital mobility that provide qualified confirmation that developing countries peg less as capital mobility rises. These tests indicate that direct measures of capital mobility have some correlation with de facto exchange rate regimes but not with de jure exchange rate regimes. Capital flows, a consequence of capital mobility, may have a direct effect on the choices of both de jure and de facto regimes. Governments do not make changes in their declared exchange rate policies in rational anticipation of the growing costs of pegging associated with increasing capital mobility. Rather, governments normally adapt their declared exchange rate policies after capital flows have increased and actual exchange rates have become more difficult to manage. The tests also indicate that hollowing-out has not only been the result of systemic factors such as increasing capital mobility and capital flows, but also due to domestic factors such as growing public sector indebtedness and the spread of democracy.     

Total and Marginal Cost Analysis for a High School Based Bystander Intervention

Costs of providing the Green Dot bystander-based intervention, shown to be effective in the reduction of sexual violence among Kentucky high school students, were estimated based on data from a large cluster-randomized clinical trial. Rape Crisis Center Educators were trained to provide Green Dot curriculum to students. Implementing Green Dot in schools (N = 13) randomized to the intervention, over five years, cost $1.6 M and included start-up ($58 K) and ongoing implementation ($1.55 M). Costs for adding a school ($25,510) were calculated based on the final year, where no start-up costs were incurred. Knowing the $25,510 cost estimate for adding Green Dot may be particularly useful for high school administrators or school boards when they were making economic decisions based on strong evidence of program effectiveness to reduce violence.     

关于政府成本理论与政府成本研究中的问题

本文所讨论的问题是,在合理界定政府成本概念的基础上建立科学的政府成本理论,并分析当前政府成本领域研究中存在的诸如概念模糊、研究理念相对陈旧、研究范围狭窄、研究方法与研究工具单一等问题。将突破传统地把行政管理建立在单一的政治学范畴,进一步拓宽到包括政治学、社会学、管理学、经济学等在内的研究领域,并取得在政府决策、和谐社会建立、提升政治文明以及在同等资源情况下最大限度地改善公众福利的效果。     

江、浙、沪商务成本结构性比对及差异性分析

本文对江、浙、沪商务成本结构性趋势进行比对,研究差异原因,并探讨对政府和企业的启示。研究表明：一般而言,随着经济发展,要素成本不断上升,交易成本逐步下降,而商务成本总体呈现上升趋势。经过比对,发现要素成本上海最高,江苏最低;交易成本上海最低,粗略认为浙江交易成本略低于江苏。在此基础上,本文分别从政府和企业两个角度,对政府政策与企业选址提出相应对策和建议。     

Make and Buy—An Alternative to Make or Buy? An Investigation of Four Theoretical Explanations in Danish Municipalities

The question of whether public organizations should provide services themselves or buy them from external suppliers has become increasingly relevant due to public-sector modernization. The literature has focused on it as a question of either make or buy. Contrarily, we focus on the reasons for public organizations to simultaneously produce and contract out similar services. The article investigates different theoretical explanations for concurrent make and buy. A survey of Danish municipalities shows that make and buy seems to be a steady choice. However, the results show little support for the theoretical explanations indicating the need for more public-oriented explanations.     

Delivering effective therapeutic interventions for men with severe personality disorder within a high secure prison

Abstract

The Fens Unit is a government-initiated facility for male prisoners reaching criteria for Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD). Prisoners are assessed using a standardised process; those meeting criteria engage in a five-year treatment programme using a cognitive interpersonal model. Personality disorder is seen as a combination of coping strategies, developed in response to experience, which results in dysfunctions of thinking, feeling, behaviour and interpersonal relationships. These dysfunctions are linked to offending. Therefore, in order to reduce risk, multiphasic interventions – individual and group therapies – specifically target each dysfunction area, focusing on the developmental experiences that generated them. Each man's individual risk factors become treatment targets that are addressed in every aspect of the programme. All staff on the unit, clinical and operational, attempt to improve the quality of interpersonal relationships the prisoner has access to in order to create remedial experiences that are necessary to attain the capacity to develop socially adaptive cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses. This paper describes the treatment provided to these prisoners and the outcomes for the first cohort to have completed treatment (n=18). Results indicate that there is a reduction in violent behaviour, a higher than expected attendance at therapy, a decrease in actuarial risk measures and the majority of men are successfully managed in lower security after programme completion.     

Intellectual property,indigenous knowledge,and biodiversity

ABSTRACT

This is Part 1 of an article arguing for an extended application of Karl Marx’s insight that the apparent reciprocity of free market exchange is to be understood as an ideology that obscures material processes of exploitation and accumulation. Rather than to confine this insight to the worker’s sale of his or her labor-power for wages, and basing it on the conviction that labor-power is uniquely capable of generating more value than its price, the article argues that capital accumulation also relies on asymmetric transfers of several other biophysical resources such as embodied non-human energy, land, and materials. It proposes that the very notions of “price” and “value” serve to obscure the material history and substance of traded commodities. Such a shift of perspective extends Marx’s foundational critique of mainstream economics by focusing on the unacknowledged role of ecologically unequal exchange, but requires a critical rethinking of the concept of “use-value.” It also suggests a fundamental reconceptualization of the ontology of technological progress, frequently celebrated in Marxist theory. Part 1 of the article introduces the argument on unequal exchange, the ideological function of money, some concerns of ecological Marxism, and the conundrum posed by three contradictory understandings of “use-value.”     

Expert systems and the law

ABSTRACT

The project discussed here involved an online debating activity between intellectual property (IP) law students in Egypt and the UK, using a closed group on Facebook. The aim was to harness freely available online social media technology to create a space in which valuable discussions and learning could take place. We showed that Facebook can be a powerful educational tool to encourage active learning and usefully connect learners across continents. In enabling the exchange of views between students in different jurisdictions, Facebook provides exposure to different cultures and different perspectives as well as different legal cultures and different legal systems, while also, importantly, enabling participants to identify commonalities. This debate focused on IP law, which is of increasing international importance, and specifically on the topic of access to medicines, which is highly contentious. Through the activity, students learned that they need not only to learn the law, but also to appreciate the socio-cultural and political complexity underlying policy issues in different jurisdictions. On reflection, the Facebook debate definitely enhanced the study of IP law through an interesting and enjoyable international, intercultural activity, led by staff and students, which successfully extended the classroom experience.     

中国烟草行业体制改革研究

随着全球经济一体化的不断发展,中国烟草行业面临着内部和外部的双重挑战,承受着前所未有的竞争压力,行业体制改革势在必行。本文认为,由于烟草行业的特殊性,其体制改革需要拓展新的思路,在不能大幅度扩大产量和调整价格的情况下,应以节约各项生产成本及以经营管理中的交易成本为体制创新的主导思想,进而完善现有的烟草行业管理体制。