Wild property and its boundaries – on wildlife policy and rural consequences in South Africa

Against the backdrop of post-Apartheid neoliberal reform, South African landowners have gained the option to acquire full ownership over wild animals on their land. Corresponding with this, approximately one sixth of South Africa's total land has been ‘game-fenced’ and converted for wildlife-based production (i.e. hunting, ecotourism, live trade and venison production). This article analyzes the institutional process in which authority concerning access to wildlife is being restructured, and argues that the unfolding property regime leads to an intensified form of green grabbing. To demonstrate this, the article singles out three particular wildlife policy institutions which make clear (a) how private property rights to wildlife are negotiated and implemented, (b) how wildlife ownership is firmly interlocked with land ownership, (c) how natural entities are being converted to robust political and economical assets, and (d) what social consequences this has for rural South Africa.     

Trade Unions and Political Parties in Italy (1946–2014): Ideological Positions and Critical Junctures

The paper investigates party-union relationships in Italy (1946–2014) by hand-coding parties’ parliamentary speeches and trade unions’ congress motions. In line with the cartel party thesis, a time series analysis shows that the ideological closeness between the left-wing Italian General Confederation of Labour and left-wing parties deteriorated when the Italian Socialist Party (1980) and the heirs of the Italian Communist Party (1998) converged toward the centre of the ideological spectrum. Conversely, the closeness between the Catholic-inspired Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions and the heirs of Christian Democracy increased after 1994, when the former party’s leftist factions became the major part of the Italian Popular Party.     

Administrative Innovations and Accountability Failures: The Termination of the Spanish Telecommunications Agency

We discuss how far accountability practices may be relevant to the success of independent regulators in countries without a tradition of administrative autonomy. We develop a conceptualisation of agency accountability failures and develop an analytical framework to examine the life and termination of the Spanish regulatory agency for telecommunications, CMT (Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones - Telecommunications Market Commission). We argue that the CMT’s termination was related, among other reasons, to accountability failures in its institutional design. The paper relies on a variety of sources, including legislation, literature, media coverage, and semistructured interviews with agency officials and several stakeholders.     

监狱行刑社会化的再思考

监狱行刑的社会化是西方国家存继上百年的一种刑事司法实践,而在中国它却处于刚刚起步阶段并面临着诸多的观念与体制障碍.借鉴西方国家在这一方面所取得的具体成果对于我国在监狱行刑社会化的刑事司法实践具有重要意义.     

被保险人故意犯罪致保险事故发生的法律后果--从公共政策的角度分析

保险领域中,公共政策要求“一个人不能从自己的犯罪中获利”,但须区分“一个人不能从他人的犯罪中获利”之情形。被保险人故意犯罪致保险事故发生,应视保险目的与功能而异其法律后果:若被保险人因预谋犯罪而直接谋求保险金,保险人当然免责;若被保险人在投保二年后故意犯罪致保险事故发生,则保险人虽不负给付保险金之责,但应退还保险单的现金价值;若故意犯罪并非保险事故发生的直接原因,保险人不能当然免责。     

俄罗斯空天政策调整:实践与创新

近年来,世界主要国家以资金和技术为支持,以空天一体、军民融合为主要逻辑,从科技实力、人才素质培养、军队组织结构以及国际合作等多维度加强国家空天实力.在此背景下,太空军事化和太空资源争夺进程加剧,各国军用与民用空天技术竞争烈度均不断提高,美俄主导的空天领域二元权力格局被打破.鉴于上述形势,乌克兰危机以来俄罗斯政府参考世界主要国家空天战略的发展趋势,结合自身实际情况,对国家空天政策进行了一系列调整.此番调整在延续政策传统的同时,优化俄罗斯国家航天集团内部的权责关系和管理结构,注重国家实战能力和创新能力培育,展示了俄罗斯以硬实力为基础维护国家安全,以软实力为补充促进国家空天实力可持续发展和跃升的战略目标与实施逻辑.     

女大学生就业问题的公共政策选择

我国女大学生就业问题正在呈现出显性化发展态势,政府对女大学生就业提供公共政策支持尤为必要。从目前看,我国已经结束了对女大学生就业提供完全保障性公共政策的时期,而开始了市场经济条件下积极形式公共政策的实践探索。将社会性别视角纳入公共政策的制定过程对于解决女大学生就业问题有着重要的作用。     

轻微犯罪刑事政策的具体运用

应对轻微犯罪与重刑犯罪分别适用不同的刑事政策,以暂缓起诉等人文关怀方式挽救和感化轻微犯罪人,促使其尽快复归社会,实现社会治安的良性循环.立足于非犯罪化和非刑罚化的实现途径,一要实现轻微犯罪的非刑罚化和刑罚个别化;二要强化犯罪嫌疑人的权利保障意识,改变以逮捕为主导的候审羁押制度.     

打破政策“黑箱”的制度设计——基于广州政策兑现实践的研究

如何打破政策“黑箱”是学界和社会关注的重要议题。以广州市政策兑现改革实践为例,探讨如何从制度设计层面来打开公共政策过程中的政策“黑箱”。研究发现,虽然公共政策过程是一个动态且复杂的过程,但是通过统筹政策制定和政策落地两端、主观要素客观化、模糊标准明确化、重塑政府流程等,能够形成确定的决策环境,控制非理性因素,约束自由裁量权,并压缩权力寻租空间,从而可以从源头消除政策“黑箱”的形成土壤。广州市政府政策兑现改革过程中,通过“输入—转化—输出”的制度框架设计,形成了从政策制定到政策执行再到政策结果与评估的政策闭环,并对政策兑现的相关责任单位、流程和时限都进行了严格把控,进而实现对政策“黑箱”内部决策要素的控制。从政策“黑箱”本身入手,破解政策“黑箱”难题,实现政策的阳光承诺和给付,最终形成极具特色和借鉴意义的广州模式。     

Policy Adoption and Policy Intensity: Emergence of Climate Adaptation Planning in U.S. States

The United States is experiencing growing impacts of climate change but currently receives a limited policy response from its national leadership. Within this policy void, many state governments are stepping up and taking action on adaptation planning. Yet we know little about why some states adopt State Adaptation Plans (SAPs), while others do not. This article investigates factors that predict the emergence of SAPs, both in terms of policy adoption and policy intensity (goal ambitiousness). Applying the diffusion of innovation theory, I consider the relative influence of internal state characteristics, regional pressures, and test for conditional effects between government ideologies and severity of the problem. The results show interesting differences between predictors that influence policy adoption and ambitiousness. States are more motivated to adopt a policy when faced with greater climate vulnerability, have more liberal citizenry, and where governments have crossed policy hurdles by previously passing mitigation plans. The intensity of policies and goal setting, moreover, is more likely to be driven by interest group politics and diffuse through policy learning or sharing information among neighboring states in Environmental Protection Agency regions. These findings support an emerging scholarship that uses more complex dependent variables in policy analysis. These variables have the potential to differentiate symbolic from substantive policies and capture finer information about predictors of importance.