Parliament on its Knees: MPs' Expenses and the Crisis of Transparency at Westminster

In May 2009, revelations made in The Daily Telegraph about the way that MPs had used and abused the House of Commons expenses and allowances regime threw the British political system into turmoil, forced the resignation of the Speaker of the Commons along with a number of implicated MPs, and ignited talk about a crisis in parliamentary democracy and a collapse of public trust in politics. This article explores the events that led to this situation, from the structure of MPs pay and allowance system, the Freedom of Information context that framed the disaster, and the crisis of transparency which the House of Commons has itself precipitated. It argues that, talk of parliamentary reform aside, MPs must radically rethink the way that they approach their representative role and the nature of their broader engagement with the public they claim to serve.     

金融危机下中东欧转型模式再评估

新兴市场国家经济与政治体制转型是转型问题研究的焦点,而中东欧国家的转型模式也作为一个范例持续得到来自理论和实证研究上的关注.本研究以金融危机发生、演化为背景,旨在检测金融危机背景下中东欧国家的整体经济表现与金融市场表现,并通过分析对国际学术界公认的"转型优等生"中东欧国家的转型模式进行再评估和反思.     

《社会保险法(草案)》存在问题研究

《社会保险法(草案)》存在一些亟需解决的重要问题:立法宗旨和基本原则不清晰,适用范围较窄,政府作用不具体,工会作用不突出和立法技术不科学等。在完善社会保险立法的过程中,应坚持公平正义、互助共济、安全稳定的社会保险立法理念,充分发挥工会在社会保险立法中的优势作用,加快社会保险立法一体化,促进我国社会保险法与国际接轨。     

广东高职院校创新性技能人才培养模式研究

培养创新性技能人才,是时代发展和社会进步对高职教育提出的新要求。广东高职教育作为广东高等教育大众化的主体,伴随着珠三角地区的产业结构升级和调整,企业加大了创新性技能人才的需要。而当前高职创新性技能人才培养的不足,导致广东省高职创新性人才培养不能满足社会经济发展的需求。因此,要适应时代发展和社会进步的要求,广东高职院校需要构建创新性人才培养模式,增加创新课程开发,加强校企合作,改革教育考核模式来提高学生的创新能力。     

充分发挥工会在创新社会管理中的重要作用

工会要站在巩固党的执政地位、维护国家长治久安、保障人民安居乐业的高度,充分认识参与创新社会管理的重大意义,找准参与创新社会管理和构建和谐社会的切入点和着力点,要在组织动员广大职工,促进科学发展上下功夫;在发展和谐劳动关系,促进社会和谐稳定上下功夫;在改善民生,解决职工最关心最直接最现实的利益问题上下功夫.不断提高工会干部参与创新社会管理的能力和水平,在党和国家工作大局中更好地发挥工会组织作用.     

Stage model for female criminals: business school students’ perceptions of white-collar offenders

We know that half of the population in Norway is female, and we know that females represent 6% of the white-collar crime prison population. In the stage model overview, we derive percentages from the literature into the gender model to explain stepwise reduction from 50% to 6%. In our empirical research, we asked two groups of business school students to come up with their own estimates for the stages in the model for female criminals. While estimates from executive students resulted in 3% women in prison, bachelor students’ estimates resulted in 10% women in prison. The most obvious discrepancy between the research literature and our two survey groups is related to relative convictions. Based on the literature, we suggested that female defendants receive more serious convictions because they may perceive and feel more guilt for a crime, for example in terms of regret, shame and depression. Thus women may have a tendency to confess more easily. Both executive students and bachelor students disagree with this estimate of 140%, as they suggest 62% and 69% respectively. One reason for their suggestion of less serious convictions for female white-collar criminals – sometimes labelled pink-collar criminals – might be that family situation and other elements are taken into account before a verdict is passed on a woman. Another substantial discrepancy is related to detection risk. The literature suggests a low detection risk for women, but may be not as low as we estimated at 30%. Both executive and bachelor students believe that the gender difference in detection likelihood is not that formidable, as they suggest 75% and 65% respectively.     

劳模精神、劳动精神和工匠精神探析

党的十八大以来,在习近平总书记关于工人阶级和工会工作的系列重要讲话中,多次强调要坚 持弘扬劳模精神、劳动精神、工匠精神。认真领会劳模精神、劳动精神、工匠精神的科学内涵以及它们之间的 逻辑关系,对于实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦、增强文化自信和全面提升我国产业工人队伍整体素质有着重 大的理论价值和现实意义。劳模精神和劳动精神是整体和部分的关系,劳模精神和工匠精神是外力和内力的关系, 劳动精神和工匠精神是共性和个性的关系。总之,劳动精神,工匠精神,劳模精神存在逐步递进的逻辑。劳动 精神是成为人的精神,工匠精神是成为更加优秀的人的精神,劳模精神则是成为影响别人的人的精神。     

关于新时代背景下工会干部角色的思考

中国特色社会主义进入了新时代,工会组织必须团结带领广大职工在决胜全面建成小康社会中充分发挥主力军作用,这是工会不可推卸的重要责任。广大工会干部是落实工会各项工作的组织者、推动者和实践者,应牢牢把握工会工作的时代主题,认清自身的角色,全面发挥自身作用,推动工运事业和工会工作实现新发展。     

Attitudes towards highly skilled and low‐skilled immigration in Europe: A survey experiment in 15 European countries

To what extent do economic concerns drive anti‐migrant attitudes? Key theoretical arguments extract two central motives: increased labour market competition and the fiscal burden linked to the influx of migrants. This article provides new evidence regarding the impact of material self‐interest on attitudes towards immigrants. It reports the results of a survey experiment embedded in representative surveys in 15 European countries before and after the European refugee crisis in 2014. As anticipated by the fiscal burden argument, it is found that rich natives prefer highly skilled over low‐skilled migration more than low‐income respondents do. Moreover, the study shows that these tax concerns among the wealthy are stronger if fiscal exposure to migration is high. No support is found for the labour market competition argument predicting that natives will be most opposed to migrants with similar skills. The results suggest that highly skilled migrants are preferred over low‐skilled migrants irrespective of natives’ skill levels.