The EROI of agriculture and its use by the Via Campesina

Via Campesina supports peasant and small farmer agriculture both in the South and in the North. Its basic doctrine is that of ‘food sovereignty’. It is a movement that defends an ‘ecological neo-Narodnism’. Among the analytical tools used by this international peasant movement is the comparison between the energy efficiency of traditional small farm agriculture and modern industrial agriculture. This article briefly recalls the history of agricultural energetics, and then looks at the use of the concept of EROI (energy return on energy input) by Via Campesina when it claims that ‘industrial agriculture is no longer a producer of energy but a consumer of energy’, and that ‘peasant agriculture cools down the Earth’. The absence in Marxism of a tradition of analysis of energy flows is also reviewed here, since it is of interest in order to bring together the classic economic concept of decreasing returns with the more recent notion of a declining EROI. The article also draws on work analysing how environmental activists use concepts from ecological economics, while at the same time ‘activist knowledge’ contributes to ecological economics in a two-way communication between activism and science.     

政党现代化：执政党面临的重大课题

随着现代化不断带来的社会结构、化和意识形态的变迁,以往党借以对整个社会政治经济化进行领导的体制、机制、方式方法,以及党自身的运作方式,都需要根据新的历史条件作出相应的变革,这是一个会给党的建设带来巨大变革的革命性因素。研究政党现代化,既要借鉴和吸纳国外政党建设的合理内核,又要在以往传统经验的基础上进一步探索和创新,更应着力于探讨并不断完善党的运行机制;而促进党的活动的科学化、制度化和规范化则是政党现代化的基本内容和目标。     

加强正规化建设推动"三基"工程建设全面、协调、持续发展

近年来,一些地方面对公安部先后部署的正规化建设和"三基"工程建设,存在着二者关系处理不好的突出问题,背离了部党委加强"两个建设"的初衷。实践中,必须用科学发展的眼光,把握三个关键,解决三个问题,推动"两个建设"全面、协调、持续发展。     

论美国的证人安全项目

在美国,证人安全项目已经成为打击有组织犯罪等严重犯罪的利器。通过了解证人安全项目的现状及运作情况,能够客观地评价该项目的重要意义及面临的问题,并且为我国提供积极的参考信息。     

Social Return on Investment Analysis of Government Purchases of Social Service Projects

Whether government purchases of public services is worth？It draws great attention from the public, but the objective method has not been found to respond to this issue. Concerning the value measurement in government purchases of social service projects, this paper examines the applicability of the existing evaluation methods, reconstructs evaluation models based on the Social Return of Investment (SROI) analysis model, and makes a preliminary study of one case. The study found that SROI not only can fully describe all the stakeholders’ input, output and outcome in the project, but can quantify the cost, effect and a return on investment, which checked whether services have created a default value of efficiency, quality, effect and fairness. However, SROI still faces restrictions on calculating cost and effect, collecting assessment data and effect pricing of stakeholders. Consequently, this paper suggests to establish evaluation criterion of project value, to build information platform of public service evaluation, and to develop relevant analysis tools, thus we can construct value measurement framework of government purchases of social service projects.     

Generating and using evidence to guide public policy and practice: Lessons from the Campbell Test-bed Project

This paper offers lessons from a three-year Test-bed project that tested systematic review practices developed by the Campbell Collaboration and the Cochrane Collaboration. Under the Test-bed project 14 systematic reviews were completed of interventions in crime prevention, social welfare, and education. (References to the products of these test-bed reviews are included in the reference list, preceded by an asterisk). Building on this experience, the authors recommend structuring future reviews around well-defined review topics more explicitly focused on particular interventions, and constraining literature search to evaluations of relevant interventions. Reviewers should analyze and report findings from RCTs separately from non-RCT studies and report on impact estimates in natural units, instead of relying solely on effect size metrics. Further, reviewers should report intent-to-treat estimates as the causally valid outcomes from RCTs. Analyses of impacts for treated sub-groups should be reported as non-experimental findings. More attention should be given to the minimum detectable effect a study can support, as well as any information on the possible costs and benefits of the intervention. Pooling results from studies of disparate interventions, populations, and contexts is not recommended. Meta-analysis should be reserved for homogeneous clusters of interventions studies. Forest plots are helpful for presenting study findings and confidence limits. However, simple bar charts preserve important information on the base levels for the outcomes. Finally reviewers should define a priori the minimum data set or required elements that allow study inclusion, and use this information systematically in making decisions about what evidence to admit into the review.     

政府行政成本畸高的成因及对策

政府作为社会公共权力的执掌者在为社会提供公共服务的过程中,发生一定的成本支出是必须的,但如果通过权利"缺位"与"越位"进行寻租,偏离为社会服务的轨道,异化为集追求公共利益和自身利益为一身的混合体,则必然导致平庸、无效率和腐败,从而产生严重的社会问题。因此,规范政府运作方式、决策行为,强化外在约束,改革预算管理制度、财经制度,建立严格的审批责任追究制度、违规惩戒制度成为当前行政改革的一项紧迫课题。     

Development-driven forced displacement and compensation-based resettlement: experiences from the Jamuna multi-purpose bridge project

In 1998 the Jamuna Multi-Purpose Bridge (JMB), the largest infrastructure development project in Bangladesh was completed. Huge numbers of households were affected by the project and many were displaced. Only a handful of displaced people were resettled by the project. The JMB was the first development project in Bangladesh that included resettlement activities as an integral part of the project and introduced a resettlement action plan. In principle, the Revised Resettlement Action Plan endorsed the primary principle of Operational Directives 4:30 of the World Bank. The resettlement project's core objective was to improve the living standards of project-affected persons above their previous level, or at least reinstate their pre-project standard. To meet the goals, various grants and supports were given as compensation. The project has earned international admiration as an example for other projects to follow. This study investigates the extent to which Jamuna Multi-Purpose Bridge's compensation-based resettlement succeeded in reconstructing displaced households, and identifies discrepancies between policy and practice. It concludes with major findings and comparative analysis on the compensation principle, and provides opinions based on information gathered from the field.     

建筑工程质量司法鉴定实践过程中若干问题探讨

建筑工程质量司法鉴定是司法鉴定行业的一个重要专业分支。由于该类司法鉴定相关法律法规尚不完善,整个行业还处于探索发展阶段,因此存在着诸多问题。根据司法鉴定行业相关规范,结合近年来司法鉴定从业经验,对目前建筑工程质量司法鉴定实践过程中存在的问题进行探讨并提出了一些建议。     

“国家犯罪及其刑事责任”理论争鸣与发展研究

在国际立法和司法实践中,有关"国家犯罪及其刑事责任"的理论争论旷日持久,但终因各方观点不一而予以回避。学者对该问题的理论研究主要集中于,国家主权与国家的对世义务、国家犯罪和刑事责任的合法性、集体犯罪和集体惩罚的合法性、实现国家犯罪刑事责任的可行性、国家作为抽象实体有无犯罪意图、国家责任的性质六个方面,分为支持与反对两种观点,彼此针锋相对。基于国际政治现实与国际法治追求的考虑,为了有效遏制最严重的国际犯罪,在国际司法实践和学术研究中出现以"政府犯罪"代替"国家犯罪"的新思路。