Economic models as devices of policy change: Policy paradigms,paradigm shift,and performativity

Can the emergence of a new policy model be a catalyst for a paradigm shift in the overall interpretative framework of how economic policy is conducted within a society? This paper claims that models are understudied as devices used by actors to induce policy change. This paper explores the role of models in Danish economic policy, where, from the 1970s onwards, executive public servants in this area have exclusively been specialists in model design. To understand changes in economic policy, this paper starts with a discussion of whether the notion of paradigm shift is adequate. It then examines the extent to which the performativity approach can help identify macroscopic changes in policy from seemingly microscopic changes in policy models. The concept of performativity is explored as a means of thinking about the constitution of agency directed at policy change. The paper brings this concept into play by arguing that the “performative” embedding of models in institutions is an important aspect of how paradigm shifts unfold that the current literature has neglected.     

Democracy or Good Governance? Globalization,Transnational Capital,and Georgia's Neo-liberal Revolution

Western aid donors merge democracy and good governance in theory and practice. Yet, since the 2003 Rose Revolution, Georgia's governance indicators have soared while its democracy scores have plummeted. The good governance–democracy merger constitutes an attempt by the transnational capitalist class to cultivate consent for its hegemonic project of neo-liberal globalization. This article highlights the personal and institutional networks connecting Georgian elites with the organizations involved in globalizing governance and democracy. It shows how these organizations are dominated by the representatives of transnational capital. Finally, it shows that Georgia, as an undemocratic but effective ‘governance state’, is not an exception.     

Crafting a Region While Intervening? Regional Discourses on Burundi

Peacemaking interventions do not only intend to facilitate desirable order in crisis contexts but, thereby, the participating interveners also struggle to attach meaning to their own position in the world. The African interveners, loosely organized around the ‘Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi’, engender an image of the self that affects the possibilities for political cooperation on the regional scale. Based on a discourse analysis of an extensive corpus of diverse voices from East and South Africa, it is shown that intervention politics increased regional awareness—but not in a linear manner. The idea of a progressive and autonomous East Africa was strongest in the first years of regional facilitation between 1996 and 1999, when the revival of the East African Community (EAC) was also simultaneously being negotiated. This regional impetus decreased with South Africa's more active participation in the intervention, which envisioned increasing its own country profile instead.     

北京市新生代农民工城市融人意愿研究

根据国家人口与计划生育委员会2011年和2012年"流动人口动态监测项目"北京地区调查数据和北京市人口与计划生育委员会2012年"北京市流动人口的生存状况与未来预期"项目数据,目前北京的新生代农民工已占农民工整体的一半以上,受教育程度有所提高,面临较大的婚育压力。在城市融入意愿方面,大多数新生代农民工积极评价北京的变化,具有强烈的融入意愿;制约新生代农民工城市融入的主要障碍,有户籍制度等制度性因素,市场能力等经济性因素,以及社会参与不足、人际交往狭窄、居住空间隔离等社会和心理因素。为解决以上问题,需要正确认识与处理控制北京市人口规模与促进新生代农民工的城市融入的关系;创新社区管理体制,调动新生代农民工参与社区服务、社区活动的积极性与主动性,推动新生代农民工实现社区融入;加强对新生代农民工的职业培训,逐步实行城乡统一的劳动力市场就业制度;营造一个有利于新生代农民工融入城市的和谐宽容的社会心理环境。     

主权财富基金性质相关问题研究

近年来,主权财富基金一直是公众关注的焦点。中外学者对于主权财富基金的研究多从公司治理入手,鲜有学者对主权财富基金的性质属性进行论述。主权财富基金的性质关系到其发展方向以及治理模式,具有重大的现实意义。本文以主权财富基金的性质为出发点。重点阐述其“新型国家资本主义属性”与“理性经济人”属性,在此基础上指出二者存在的逻辑悖论。文章通过分析认为主权财富基金应当坚持“理性经济人属性”优先原则,采用“去主权化治理模式”,推动主权财富基金海外投资的商业化,避免附带过多的政治主权色彩。     

区域环境治理中地方政府协调机制的构建

环境问题是一个关系到人类生存发展和社会进步的全局性问题。随着社会的发展和人类生活水平的提高,人们对于生活中的环境问题的重视程度也越来也高,对环境的治理越来越要求政府发挥更大作用。但是,环境治理是一个系统工程,需要众多的主体综合协作才能够取得好的成绩。各级地方政府要加强协作,构建和谐的区域性综合治理机制。     

新生代农民工的城市适应与社工专业的介入

农民工群体内部正发生着代际转移,第二代农民工已开始进入“城市舞台”成为农民工的主体,这些新生代农民工的群体特征和生存状况成为社会关注的重要问题。文章试图在已有的调查和文献研究的基础上,进一步剖析新生代农民工在城市适应和融入中所遇到的双重困境,希望介入社会工作的专业助人方式,为缓解新生代农民工在城市适应问题提供一定的策略和解决途径。     

Policy Reforms and Evolution of Market Structure in an Emerging Economy: The Case of India

Policy reforms have facilitated entry of quite a few transnational corporations (TNC) into Indian industries. This has important implications for the evolution of competitive industrial structure. This article focuses on the issue of the response mechanism of local firms to competition from new entrant TNCs and the possible strategies of TNCs in penetrating the Indian market. It develops a conceptual framework by incorporating elements of intangible assets theory and new institutional economics into a simple sequential entry oligopoly model. This yields interesting insights into qualitative behaviour of firms in the post-reforms period. A few hypotheses drawn from the conceptual framework are empirically tested on the basis of firm level panel data drawn from a set of Indian industries.     

Germany and European security governance: how well does the Birmingham model perform?

Abstract

The expansion of the security agenda after the end of the Cold War, propelled by the blowback of 11 September 2001, raises questions about the German ability and willingness to contribute to the regional and global security governance tasks facing Europe and Germany's continuing fidelity to its post-war European avocation. It also calls for a reconsideration of the Birmingham model of foreign policy analysis, particularly its emphasis on (and interpretation of) the ideational and institutional factors defining the German foreign policy agenda and shaping German foreign policy behaviour, at least with respect to the implementation (rather than formulation) of European Union security policies. Towards assessing the continuing utility of the Birmingham model, this article proceeds in three steps: the presentation of the Birmingham model and its restatement as six conjectures; a discussion of the security governance functions undertaken by the EU and the collective action problem facing Europe (and Germany) in executing them; and an empirical investigation of Germany's contribution to the EU as a security actor since 1990.     

Making sense of EU comprehensive security towards conceptual and analytical clarity

Abstract

European leaders frequently vaunt the European Union's distinctiveness in adopting and pursuing a comprehensive approach to security. The EU's profile as an international actor is designed to span across all dimensions of security. As a result, its security policy portfolio involves a large number of institutional actors and policies that need to be coordinated. The ambition of the EU to provide security in a comprehensive manner raises challenges at the politico–strategic level, at the level of operational and policy planning and in day-to-day implementation. So far, the field is lacking an inclusive analytical framework for the analysis of providing security through a distinctively comprehensive civil–military, economic and political organisation. This article seeks to close this gap by providing suggestions for how the wide range of issues related to comprehensive security could be structured, and by framing the matter theoretically and with reference to existing conceptual work and empirical research.