中国参与东帝汶维和的原因及立场分析

1999年东帝汶骚乱的发生是科索沃战争之后影响东亚安全的第一个热点问题。2000年1月,应联合国要求,中国政府向东帝汶过渡行政当局(UNTAET)派遣了民事警察,这是中国政府首次派出民事警察执行联合国维和行动。中国对东帝汶维和的积极参与,使东帝汶问题能够在联合国的框架内得到合理解决,维护了联合国在维护国际和平中的核心地位及东亚的地区稳定。本文将从中国与东帝汶的关系入手,结合对东帝汶维和的参与过程,分析中国参加此次联合国维和行动的原因和对“人道主义干预”问题的基本立场。     

论反垄断法执法主体的设置——从执法权分配角度分析

市场经济的核心在于维护一个公平有效的竞争机制。而反垄断法因其在保护、促进竞争和维护市场秩序方面起着基础和统领作用．被誉为“经济宪法”。徒法不足以自行，光有一部精良先进的法律条文是不够的，还得通过法的实施．方能实现法的效果。在法律实施机构之间划分执法权．是法律实施体制中其他制度运行的前提，对于法律的有效实施有着重要的意义。本文主要从执法权划分角度探讨反垄断法实施体制中执法主体的设置，以及执法机构与行业监管机构在反垄断监管领域内的关系，通过比较国外的法律规定及实践，并对我国实施不久的《反垄断法》进行评述．综合分析中国现有反垄断执法主体执法权分配中存在的问题，进而提出完善我国现有反垄断执法主体体制的建议一     

When aid builds states: party dominance and the effects of foreign aid on tax collection after civil war

ABSTRACT

Does foreign aid strengthen or weaken post-conflict states? We examine the effects of aid on tax collection after civil war, an important dimension of state effectiveness. While the literature emphasizes aid’s perverse effects, the relationship between aid dependence and the growth of tax collection is unclear. We argue that the impact of aid reflects its political utility for ruling elites in consolidating their authority after civil war. While dominant parties subvert tax strengthening reforms to solidify their political base, elites in more fractionalized settings rely on external political backing to manage internal challenges to their authority, and are more likely to comply with donor conditions. We test this argument through a Latent Curve Analysis of tax collection rate growth in post-civil war countries from 1978 to 2012. We find that aid is associated with slower growth in tax collection in dominant party settings, and more rapid tax growth in politically fractionalized settings. The findings highlight the need for attention to internal political dynamics to explain aid effectiveness after civil war, and point to opportunities to strengthen institutions in some post-conflict countries.     

构建和谐社会有赖制度安排的公平与公正

和谐社会是人们长期追求的一种社会理想,它所体现的是一种社会的公平与公正。而和谐社会不会自发地产生,它需要通过制度设计,在制度安排下得以实现。构建和谐社会,实现社会公平与公正,妥善解决社会严重两极分化问题,是维护社会稳定,促进社会文明,实现国民经济持续快速健康发展,全面建设小康社会的前提。因此,我们的制度安排及实施,必须有利于营造一个公平公正、有利于人的全面发展的社会环境,使其顺民心合民意,促进社会各成员能够公平地分享改革开放带来的各项成果。     

The African renaissance and the Caribbean

In May 2010 South African President Jacob Zuma will have been in office for one year. During this time, the Zuma administration has been far less ambitious in its foreign policy than previous administrations. However, South Africa is not in a position where it is able to withdraw from foreign engagement, as regional issues — such as Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Swaziland — continue to demand attention. The Zuma administration's approach in the future, in terms of both substance and style, will need to be informed by lessons from past engagement, including South African peacekeeping efforts in countries such as the DRC and Burundi, and South African mediation efforts in countries such as Angola, Côte d'Ivoire and the Comoros. Certainly, South Africa's record of success in taking on international responsibilities over the past 10 years has been mixed, but there is scope for past experience to shape future engagement positively. Indications of this can be seen, for example, in Zuma's efforts to redress former President Thabo Mbeki's clumsy mediation efforts in Angola by deciding to make his first state visit as South Africa's president to Luanda. Zuma's approach to Zimbabwe could build on the foundation set by Mbeki's long engagement with that country.     

Challenges of the pan‐African parliament

It must be enabled to receive representation by individuals and associations whose interests have been affected by international or continental public policies or practices. In turn, it must be able to intervene decisively to protect rights in member states. By doing this, the parliament can deepen its credibility and relevance to African peoples struggling with poverty and injustice across the continent.     

An unfulfilling partnership: Ukraine and the West, 1991–2001

The political crisis in Ukraine in early 2001 and then the terrorist attacks against the US and the resulting dramatic change of international setting have sealed the trend that had emerged much earlier: the once promising partnership between Ukraine and the West has ended up in mutual unhappiness. As the West is discovering new ‘geopolitical pivots’ in the aftermath of 11 September, Ukraine has almost disappeared from the radar screen of Western attention. Yet for good reasons what happens in Ukraine, a currently uncertain and weakened country with a poor international reputation, still matters for the West. There has always been a close link between Ukraine's transition and Western attitudes towards Ukraine. This might be the moment to think afresh about past and future Western policies vis‐à‐vis Ukraine.     

Identifying neighborhood thresholds: An empirical exploration

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the threshold‐like effects of four aspects of neighborhood environment: poverty rate, adult nonemployment rate, female headship rate for families with children, and secondary school dropout rate. We used a sample consisting of virtually all census tracts from U.S. metropolitan areas. The relationship between the value of numerous neighborhood indicators in 1980 and subsequent changes in each of the four dimensions of neighborhood quality of family life from 1980 to 1990 was evaluated statistically using a regression model with a spline specification to test for nonlinear, threshold‐like processes.

Stressing the exploratory nature of the study, we find evidence of threshold‐like effects in an endodynamic relationship (poverty rate and subsequent changes in that rate), and in exodynamic relationships (occupational status and rental rates and subsequent changes in several neighborhood quality indicators). Implications for research and a spatially targeted neighborhood reinvestment policy are derived from the analysis.     

Comment on Charles C. Bohl's “New urbanism and the city: potential applications and implications for distressed inner‐city neighborhoods"—the politics of design: The new urbanists vs. the grass roots

Abstract

This article briefly reviews the origins of New Urbanism and its manifesto as emerging from the social change movements of the 1960s, which evolved out of ideas of a previous generation of American and European designers living through the rise of modern industrialization. Arising from the same turmoil of the 1960s, and parallel to the New Urbanists, evolved a more loosely affiliated network of progressive academic and practicing planners and architects who have aligned themselves with disenfranchised underclasses not benefiting from the wealth of the postwar era and who take direction not from a manifesto but from a body of thinking linked to a broader intellectual and political agenda. This group works primarily with grassroots organizations in lower‐income communities and intentionally stays out of the limelight to better serve its constituents. The article concludes with ideas for possible collaboration between these professional groups serving different ends of the socioeconomic spectrum.     

Design determinism,post-meltdown: urban planners and the search for policy relevance

This commentary explores the roles of planning and urban design in contemporary US urbanization following the global financial crisis in Fall 2008. We focus on the tendency to discuss the planning profession in recovery metaphors – a perspective that has been emphasized in establishing how the profession's past and future relevance may be asserted. In the recent past the planning profession has sought to recover its standing and policy relevance through its contributions to real estate development. In doing so, the profession has gravitated toward design and determinism in order to satisfy pluralist demands within the loosely regulated political economy of neoliberal urban growth. But while design determinism offered numerous practical advantages to the planning profession for the short term, it also served to preclude the profession from engaging with social justice, the social construction of place, and civil society.