纳税人诉讼制度之批判

当前我国法学研究者们将研究的重心放在纳税人诉讼制度的具体构建上,而极少有人探讨纳税人诉讼是否适合我国现阶段国情。纳税人诉讼性质和对象的不明确性导致纳税人诉讼与税务行政诉讼区分不清。纳税人法律地位的低下、知情权的缺乏以及维权意识的薄弱导致私权制衡的乏力。当前,我国应立足于现有国情,不断完善现有的预算和审计制度,以期更好地保护纳税人的权益。     

Exploring the actions of Government Affairs Managers during economic and financial crises—an exploratory study in the European Union

This paper is a response to the paucity of theoretical and empirical research into the political actions undertaken by organisations to influence policymakers' responses to economic and financial crises. By using original, primary data gathered from semi‐structured interviews conducted with Brussels‐based Government Affairs Managers of multi‐national enterprises, it reports the results of inductive, exploratory research into corporate political activity during the 2007–2011 financial crisis. Results suggest that not all firms are in favour of increased regulatory intervention during times of economic upheaval. They also imply that, during recessions, firms are more likely to seek long‐term as opposed to short‐term relationships with policymakers, they also have a greater propensity to engage in collective political action than individual political action and they use information strategies more frequently than constituency‐building and financial‐incentive strategies. These results are subsequently used as the basis for a conceptual framework that draws on numerous theoretical traditions to capture the antecedents of firms' political behaviours during economic crises. Given the absence of theoretical and empirical work that actively engages with this issue, the research makes important contributions to the existing literature on corporate political activity. It also has practical implications for corporate political strategists and policymakers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“闽台共同市场”的构想及实现探析

建设闽台共同市场,是加强两岸交流与合作的重要途径。从长远看,闽台共同市场作为两岸共同市场的试点,其建设和发展必将推进海峡两岸以共同市场为纽带的经济合作制度化。文章在分析闽台加强经贸合作的战略需求的基础上,阐述了构建闽台共同市场的条件与基础,提出了闽台共同市场的基本原则、运行机制和重点内容,并探索了实现这一构想的关键模块及相关对策。     

Natural resource rents and elite bargains in Africa: Exploring avenues for future research

This article explores the recent debate over the quality of Africa's growth episode of the past decade, specifically insofar as it pertains to the pitfalls of commodity-dependent growth and the hypothesised ‘resource curse’. In addition, the article focuses on why political and economic institutions are important, and why they are indicators for the likely development impacts of Africa's evident mineral and hydrocarbon wealth. Third, it suggests a useful theoretical framework for understanding these indicators, especially with regard to the differing constraints under which foreign investors operate and interact with host countries. Developing on the latter points, the article looks at the nature of Chinese foreign investment in Africa's extractive industries. Finally, the article suggests an agenda for future research that could better inform development policy for the purpose of promoting high-quality growth in Africa.     

Knowledge generation,political action and African development: A polycentric approach

ABSTRACT

Knowledge generated to meet societal needs is the bedrock of development. Africa's development crisis is marked by the persistent gap between the application of intellectual rigours and political action. Despite abundant development potential (human and natural resources, and scientific knowledge), coupled with reform declarations and commitments by African leaders over the past four decades, development remains illusory. This article examines the relationship between key development players (African public officials and African scholars), and how generated knowledge is applied to respond to the needs of African citizens. Using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (otherwise known as new institutionalism) this article examines weaknesses in the interaction of knowledge, political action and development, while at a local level African citizens, through shared strategies and problem-solving interdependency, are effectively transforming indigenous knowledge inherited from their parents to confront daily challenges. The article suggests ways of bridging the gap between development players by proposing an African Development Institutional Mechanism (ADIM) aimed at enabling key development players to operate in synergy.     

Establishing a health promoting setting: an experience in an albanian polyclinic

A “health promoting polyclinic” based on the “health promoting setting concept” has been developed in Tirana, the capital of Albania. This paper discusses the implementation and intervention of the project, whereas the final evaluation results will be presented in another article. An important aspect of the whole program is the training of the administrators and staff members in the necessary skills relating to their allocated roles, such as creating a healthy environment, health education, outreach activities and total quality management. In this approach the International Relief Organization (IRO) acting as an external agent took the initiative of enabling, mediating and advocating, as well as providing support for the polyclinic's staff and its clients. The model appears to be effective in promoting health at the secondary health care level (the polyclinic). This may encourage health planners to adopt a similar concept at other settings i.e. general or specialized hospitals.     

A framework for the systematic study of election quality

This article offers the beginnings of a methodology for assessing the quality of a national election, its freeness, fairness and administrative efficacy. The historical lack of a comprehensive framework of analysis has compelled election observers to make pronouncements on the basis of incomplete evidence, usually gathered on the day of the vote and count. It has allowed international observation missions to ‘call’ the results of elections on the basis of political expediency rather than the facts of the case. The intent in this article is not to offer a foolproof method for categorizing election quality but rather to lay out a framework which we believe is more comprehensive and meaningful than anything that has come before. To illustrate its workings the article scores six multi-party elections: two in established democracies – Australia and Denmark 2001– and four in fledgling democracies – South Africa 1994 and 2004, East Timor 2001 and Zimbabwe 2002. The framework outlined here will make it possible to identify patterns of success and failure in the fairness of elections. It should enable all kinds of observers from academics and election administrators to election observers to spotlight the weak areas of election administration, where a government might then choose to focus its efforts to improve the quality of subsequent elections.     

Populism and Downing Street E-petitions: Connective Action,Hybridity, and the Changing Nature of Organizing

This article explores ongoing debates about whether new media empowers individuals at the expense of formal organizations, and how the nature of organizations/organizing is changing. Focusing on Downing Street E-petitions, it presents a content analysis of over 33,000 accepted petitions, analyzing who or what ‘sponsored’ each petition alongside interviews with petition creators. The analysis finds a wide range of ‘affiliations’, from formal groups to personal information, though many formal groups chose not to use the platform. In apparent support of the populist position, and contradicting resource mobilization theories, individuals created 19 of the 20 most signed petitions. Bennett and Segerberg’s (2013) theory of connective action, and Chadwick’s theories of organizational hybridity (2007) and the hybrid media system (2013) inform a detailed qualitative analysis of how petitions were promoted, and the nature of organization that underpinned this. The analysis finds that organizational structure(s) underpinning successful individual petitions were complex, with extensive organizational hybridity and petitioners exploiting hybrid media logics. Connective action was also apparent, though this did not fit as easily with practice on Downing Street E-petitions.     

On The Outside Looking In: Reflections on the Role of Inspection in Driving Up Quality in the Criminal Justice System

This article examines the role of external inspection in enhancing the quality of a criminal justice system. It seeks to answer six foundational questions: how should we understand the nature and purposes of criminal justice inspection? what methodologies ought it to employ? who should do it? what values should it respect? how much does it cost? and does it ‘work'? The article reveals that the difference between inspection and other forms of scrutiny activity is largely a matter of emphasis; that the same is true of the difference between inspection and research; that ‘lay’ involvement in inspection can be beneficial; that independence is a core value for inspection, albeit one that is best understood as independence of judgement; that transparency is a further key value but not always honoured; and that evidence that inspection improves service delivery and hence justifies its costs is weak and further research is needed.     

Event Data on Armed Conflict and Security: New Perspectives,Old Challenges,and Some Solutions

This article presents the Event Data on Conflict and Security (EDACS) dataset, discusses the inherent problems of georeferenced conflict data, and shows how these challenges are met within EDACS. Based on an event data approach, EDACS contributes to the growing number of novel georeferenced datasets that allow researchers to identify causal pathways of violence and the dynamics of (transboundary) violence through spatiotemporal disaggregation. However, the unreflected use of any of these datasets will give researchers unjustified confidence in their findings, as the pitfalls are many and propagating errors can result in misleading conclusions. To identify and handle the different challenges to overall event data quality, we argue in favor of transparency in the data collection and coding process, to empower analysts to challenge the data and avoid cascading errors. In particular, we investigate how the choice of news sources, the handling of geographic precision, and the use of auxiliary data can bias event data. We demonstrate how the EDACS dataset design enables the analyst to deal with these issues by providing a set of variables indicating the news sources, possible sources of bias, and detailed information on geographic precision. This allows for a flexible use of the data based on individual analytical requirements.