Good Administration: Why We Need It More Than Ever

This article relates the concept of 'good administration' to a range of key constitutional issues, including The Governance of Britain , the debate about a British Bill of Rights, the creation of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, and the Law Commission's consultation on public law remedy. It argues that 'good administration', far from being remote from these issues, is a critical component of much that we value most in public life. By drawing upon, for example, the Parliamentary Ombudsman's publication of Principles of Good Administration and the Court of Appeal judgment in a case concerning the Ombudsman's report on occupational pensions, the article suggests that the principles of deliberative democracy, human rights and restorative justice combine to make the Parliamentary Ombudsman an effective instrument for 'humanising the bureaucracy', as first envisaged when the Office was created by the Wilson government in 1967.     

The Moral Community and Immigration

In “Which American Dream Do You Mean?” David Stoll never justified his assumption that Guatemalans who want to immigrate to America have a moral claim on our attention. The “conversation” he describes really involves only Americans as only they are held responsible for immigration. Some advocates justify immigration on the basis of rights while others appeal to compassion, but both assign all responsibility to rich Americans and none to the sending societies. A huge moral asymmetry separates the West, which is assumed capable of achieving civic values from the non-West, which is not. Americans hunger for a more candid conversation about how to distribute the responsibility for immigration. That is essential to legitimizing immigration policy and preserving the civic character of American society.     

都市佛教的实证考察——以福州K寺为例

本文运用田野调查等实证研究方法,以福州开元寺个案,归纳分析都市佛教社会参与的变化,观察都市佛教在社会功能上的转型。本文对这个问题进行探索,目的是以之为都市佛教在现代社会的存适提供一个个案研究实例的参照。研究结果表明,以佛教社会学的角度。对僧团进行多学科的个案研究,以反映出都市佛教不断转型的历史轨迹,也是有价值的。     

苏东社会结构转型的社会学分析:阶级与阶层的视野

本文通过对苏联东欧社会变迁的实证分析,从社会结构分层的视角探索苏东社会转型的原因及过程.首先,高度工业化与城市化所导致的城乡社会结构的改变,是苏联东欧社会转型的根本原因,这是它与东亚、拉美等国或地区的社会转型具有深层关联性的一面.而农民迁移到城市的结构性流动所产生的复杂流动机制和分层机制,对苏东社会转型带来了直接的影响和冲击.苏东社会的中间阶层,其价值观、社会功能和政治态度对激进的制度转型具有不可低估的作用.其次,先是深层次的社会结构发生转变,即由农民向城市工人的阶级分层发生变化,然后才是表层的社会结构发生转变,即在市场化背景下,苏东社会的阶层分层因利益多元化而发生分化.苏东社会结构转型的具体过程明显地分为这两个阶段.     

试论东南亚庇护主义的形成与发展——以威权体制下的资本政治为视域

庇护主义在东南亚由来已久,传统的庇护主义渗入到威权体制的资本政治形态中,资本政治形态则赋予了庇护主义以新的内涵与发展.一方面这是由威权体制本身的性质所决定的,另一方面则是基于资本政治的建设.不同威权体制下资本政治的庇护主义模式存在差异性,如泰国是一种兼具合作与掠夺的混合型模式,而菲律宾则是私利取向的掠夺型模式.威权体制与资本政治形态的变迁动摇了庇护主义的存在基础,庇护主义的发展直接影响到威权体制的民主转型.     

Escaping Poverty and Securing Middle Class Status: How Race and Socioeconomic Status Shape Mobility Prospects for African Americans During the Transition to Adulthood

This article draws on extant research from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and economics to identify linkages between individual, family, community, and structural factors related to social mobility for African Americans during the transition to adulthood. It considers how race and class together affect opportunities for social mobility through where African Americans live, whom they associate with, and how they are impacted by racial and class-related stigma. Of particular interest is social mobility as accomplished through academic achievement, educational attainment, employment, economic independence, and homeownership. Research on five issues is reviewed and discussed: (a) the unique vulnerabilities of newly upwardly mobile African Americans, (b) wealth as a source of inequality, (c) racism and discrimination, (d) the stigma associated with lower-class status, and (e) social and cultural capital. The article concludes with a summary and directions for future research.

The Role of Youth’s Ratings of the Importance of Socially Supportive Behaviors in the Relationship Between Social Support and Self-Concept

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived frequency and perceived importance of social support with youth’s self-concept. Data from a large representative sample of 921 children and adolescents in grades 3 through 12 were analyzed. Results indicated that the relationships between the frequency of social support from parents, teachers, classmates, and close friends with self-concept were significant. However, only the perceived importance of social support from teachers was significantly related to self-concept. Finally, an interaction was found between the frequency of social support and the importance of social support from classmates and close friends on self-concept. These results suggest that self-evaluations of the importance of teacher support may be especially influential for youths’ self-concept, and that the ability to discount the value of support from classmates and friends, when it is lacking, may be protective to the self-concept of children and adolescents.

Contextualism, Feminism, and a Canadian Woman Judge

Feminist legal scholars have never cut the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada as much slack as the second. Yet the first, Justice Bertha Wilson, introduced the contextual method into the Court’s jurisprudence. Her approach to contextualism is consistent with one of three feminist legal methods that Katharine T. Bartlett identifies. More specifically, it is consistent with Bartlett’s feminist practical reasoning. However, Justice Wilson’s contextualism is not without its critics. The most challenging, Ruth Colker, contends it must work in conjunction with a distinctive substantive principle. Justice Wilson took a different approach, aligning the contextual method with the constitutional principle of proportionality. Thus construed, this paper argues, contextualism represents a new approach to feminist judging.

Are There Any Global Egalitarian Rights?

This article considers whether or not there are any global egalitarian rights through a critical examination of the political philosophy of Ronald Dworkin. Although Dworkin maintains that equal concern is the special and indispensable virtue of sovereigns and the hallmark of a fraternal political community, it is far from obvious whether the demands of equality stop at state borders. While some scholars in the field—most notably Thomas Pogge—posit the existence of negative rights in relation to social and economic inequalities at the global level, here I try to defend the existence of positive global egalitarian rights by appealing to Dworkin’s own two principles of ethical individualism. I also set out the framework for a version of what I call global luck egalitarianism based on Dworkin’s equality of resources and try to respond to David Miller’s charge that comparative principles of justice do not apply at the global level.

民营资本主动融资方式阻碍因素的初步分析

中央政府各部门近年来出台了一系列"引入民间资本进入基础设施领域"特许经营政策法规,来推动新一轮的基础设施建设的浪潮。虽然PFI方式(主要是BOT模式)有很多的优点,然而其运作结果和过程都存在着颇多争议的问题。对若干阻碍PFI的因素进行比较分析,确定其重要性程度,以期对今后政府出台相关保证PFI运作的政策起到一定的借鉴作用。从国内对PFI和民间资本在基础设施建设的有关文献中识别出23个阻碍因素,这23个因素按归属划分为现存体制、政府行为和企业素质三个方面,并通过问卷调查和运用数理统计方法得出":缺乏权益保障"和"阻碍融资渠道的畅通"是两个最关键的风险因素;被调查者的工作性质,如政府部门或民营企业,对阻碍因素的关键性程度没有产生明显差别的影响。