Informal institutions and foreign investment in China

During the reform era, China has been very successful in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) for its economic development. That this has taken place despite a rather weak legal system in China challenges conventional institutional theories, which emphasize the centrality of effective state institutions to economic development and international cooperation. This article suggests that the solution to the puzzle lies in the informal institutions underlying FDI development in China. On the basis of extensive interviews in the mid- and late 1990s, I find that networks of personal connections (guanxi), which are pervasive in Chinese society, have played a major role in facilitating FDI flows to China. They have done so by complementing and compensating for the weak Chinese legal system. This article dispels a number of misconceptions about the nature of guanxi, discusses its relationship with friendship, bribery, and social capital, and analyzes the conditions underlying the transnationalization of guanxi networks. It concludes with some important caveats to the major thesis and a discussion of possible future scenarios of institutional development in China.     

中国公共政策制定中的政府俘获及其解决对策

中国公共政策制定中的政府俘获主要有国有垄断企业有力影响政府的决策、地方支柱企业绑架地方政府的决策、向政府官员提供非法的个人所得三种表现形式。政府俘获产生的原因包括企业与政府形成利益共同体、以GDP增长为核心的政绩考核体系、政府反腐败不力及廉政建设滞后、各社会群体参与不均衡、政府权力缺乏制约,法治不健全等方面。解决这一问题应从以下几方面采取措施:减少政府对市场经济的干预、保障民众的结社权利,培育公民社会、实现政策制定的公开透明和广泛参与,严惩政府官员腐败行为、加强廉政制度建设,建立以科学发展观为指导的政绩考核体系。     

中国城市化进程中的社区与社区警务

随着改革开放的不断深入,中国社会正在经历前所未有的社会转型和快速城市化,各种不同社区类型逐渐形成,并成为城市人居环境、城市文化、城市人文生态的主要载体。尤其是城市化进程中伴生的一些新型社区存在着各种潜在的社会问题,正不同程度地影响城市社会秩序的健康发展,而且各种不同类型社区居民在社区认同度、社区参与度以及对警察的信任度等方面呈现出不同的测量水平。探讨和研究城市化进程中社区社会资本与社区警务-e．．N的关系,对于深化社区警务理论及创新社区警务体制具有一定的积极意义。     

社会整合视野下党的青年群众工作探析

在中国走向现代化的过程中,国家需要领导,社会需要整合,青年需要组织.中国共产党作为领导党和执政党,始终居于社会发展的核心地位,从确立价值认同、构建组织网络、综合利益表达、创建和谐秩序等方面整合社会、整合青年.中国社会持续变革,青年群体持续流动与分化.共青团、全国青联、全国学联等党的外围组织需要加强对各自团体成员的组织覆盖和内在影响,不断为党的青年群众工作探索新路径.     

A Review of the Use of Social Support in Anti-Bullying Programs

Abstract

Bullying is a significant problem in schools across America. Educators are dealing with the problem of bullying through the implementation of various anti-bullying programs. Additionally, researchers are studying the problem and have begun to focus on the importance of contextual factors surrounding bullying such as social support (Beran & Tutty, 2002; Demaray & Malecki, 2003; Furlong, Chung, Bates, & Morrison, 1995; Malecki & Demaray, 2004a; Natvig, Albrektsen, & Qvarnstrom, 2001; Rigby, 2000; Rigby & Slee, 1999). Social support is an important contextual factor to consider in the bullying cycle. However, the use of social support in anti-bullying programs and interventions is often not explicit or is lacking. This paper provides an overview of the research on social support as a contextual variable in bullying behaviors and reviews six existing anti-bullying programs with a specific focus on how they incorporate social support elements into their interventions.     

Fear of School Violence and the Ameliorative Effects of Student Social Capital

Abstract

Data from the Canadian National Survey of Children and Youth are employed in order to investigate hypotheses regarding the relationships between students' social connections and their feelings of vulnerability to criminal danger. The analysis is preceded by a review of the research relating to school fear and social capital. Findings point to the importance of the social capital inhered in the students' relationship with parents, friends, and teachers as well as their own personality characteristics. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the broader theoretical and policy implications which emerge from this analysis.     

Critical Theory,Democratic Justice and Globalisation

Abstract

One way of providing a focus for critical theory today is to articulate those substantive and robust norms of egalitarian justice that would appear to be presupposed by the idea of a republican and democratic constitutional order. It is suggested here that democratic justice requires the equalisation of effective communicative freedom among all structurally constituted social groups (SCSGs) and that this will have far-reaching implications that entail the deconstruction of all social hierarchies in both domestic and global orders. This argument is presented in three sections. The first defends the focus on groups rather than individuals in theorising democratic justice. The second intervenes critically in contemporary debates surrounding the theoretical relation between various aspects of justice including the demands of redistribution, recognition and political empowerment. The third turns to the challenges for critical theory presented by a complex and multifaceted process of globalisation and it defends a qualified form of cosmopolitanism and high lights the need for a radical democratisation of the international order.     

The Tragic and the Political: A Parallel Reading of Kostas Papaioannou and Cornelius Castoriadis

Abstract

The fundamental difference between Castoriadis' and Papaioannou's accounts of the link between tragedy and the political is that Castoriadis insists on a political form (the democratic regime) whilst Papaioannou insists on a social actor (the masses). The starting point for this essay, then, are two thinkers: one whose main interest was a political and philosophical reflection on the social-historical and one whose main interest was a philosophical reflection on the arts. Surprisingly, however, the end situation is one where Castoriadis gives us a political explanation of the link between tragedy and the political whilst Papaioannou gives us a social explanation of the same phenomenon. How can this difference be accounted for? First, distinguishing their respective conceptualisations of the political allows us to see that where one thinker privileges restlessness and revolution, the other privileges law and regime. Second, looking at their depictions of the essential aspects of tragedy places them on opposing sides of the couple hubris-dike, in a way that leads to two radically different conceptualisations of the relation in question.     

Why Overcoming Prejudice is Not Enough: A Rejoinder to Richard Rorty

Abstract

Misrecognition, taken seriously as unjust social subordination, cannot be remedied by eliminating prejudice alone. In this rejoinder to Richard Rorty, it is argued that a politics of recognition and a politics of redistribution can and should be combined. However, an identity politics that displaces redistribution and reifies group differences is deeply flawed. Here, instead, an alternative ‘status’ model of recognition politics is offered that encourages struggles to overcome status subordination and fosters parity of participation. Integrating this politics of recognition with redistribution enables a coherent Left vision that could redress injustices of culture and of political economy simultaneously.     

加强和创新四川藏区社会管理的实践与思考

近年来,四川藏区在对牧民定居点、寺庙及僧人、流动人口与特殊群体、境外非政府组织和民间组织的服务管理中,树立以人为本、服务为先的理念,开展了一系列加强和创新社会管理工作,努力化解影响社会和谐稳定的突出问题,有力推进了藏区跨越式发展与长治久安。但在工作中也存在覆盖面不广、人员经费不足、重管理轻服务等问题。未来应进一步扩大工作覆盖面、创新服务管理方式、建立常态工作机制、加强人员经费保障,推动四川藏区社会管理再上新台阶,为维护全省社会和谐稳定做出新贡献。