Discount Rates for the Evaluation of Public Private Partnerships,by David F. Burgess and Glenn P. Jenkins (Eds.)

This article provides a critical overview of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Russia and Kazakhstan and examines the rationale underpinning such partnerships. The analysis discusses the reasons why governments in Russia and Kazakhstan focus principally on concessions as a form of PPP and goes on to provide a critical assessment of the key approaches and situational factors relating to concessions in these two countries.

The article finds that external globalization impulses pressed Russia and Kazakhstan to align their policies and institutions with western orthodoxy and perceived international best practice. An ever-increasing emphasis on use of PPPs has been a key feature of this alignment. However, the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan have increasingly resorted to concessions as progress with the development and implementation of Western style PPP models has stalled. This article concludes that the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan have demonstrated an overly optimistic approach to PPP and as a result may have substantially understated their overall concessional risks and costs. Features of Russian and Kazakhstani PPP arrangements such as ambiguity in output specification and extensive reliance on government subsidies, combined with lack of expertise of private partners, may significantly decrease concession benefits.     

The Welfare State in Transition Economies and Accession to the EU

Welfare state reform in East-Central Europe can be divided into two phases: in the first phase, when liberalisation, stabilisation and privatisation were of primary importance, only minor or absolutely necessary reform steps were taken. This soon led many countries into fiscal problems that triggered the second phase of substantial pension and health system reforms. Having been already part of the European welfare state tradition in the pre-communist period, the countries of East-Central Europe were not prepared to take over the essentially private three pillar model of the World Bank. Instead the forerunners of reform, such as Hungary, Poland and Latvia, are developing, together with some incumbent EU members, a new European four pillar model with a specific public-private mix. Even if the social acquis communautaire is not very restrictive for the candidate states, they seem keen to join the European welfare state culture.     

The concept of flexible engagement and the practice of enhanced interaction: Intramural challenges to the ‘ASEAN way’

Abstract

This article examines the challenges to the diplomatic and security culture of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as posed by Thailand's spurned proposal for ‘flexible engagement’ and the pursuit of ‘enhanced interaction’ by some ASEAN members in intramural relations. It asks whether these challenges should be understood as turning points in the way in which regional leaderships in Southeast Asia interact. The article argues that while the ‘ASEAN way’ is indeed changing, this change, at least for the moment, focuses mainly on extending the range of issues and contexts traditionally defined as internal affairs in which other ASEAN governments may now legitimately become involved. Considerations about ASEAN cohesion, regime security and regional influence do not suggest an imminent or complete abandonment of ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture. The likelihood that enhanced interaction will continue to be pursued by ASEAN leaderships should therefore not be seen to imply that principles such as quiet diplomacy or restraint have already become obsolete.     

能动与重构：公私合作背景下行政诉讼制度路径抉择

在公私合作背景下,行政行为和行政法律关系趋向复杂化,传统的行政诉讼制度出现缺失。时下,司法能动主义在我国法院系统和法学理论界备受关注。为适应公私合作背景下纠纷问题解决的需要,我国的行政诉讼制度面临选择司法能动还是制度重构的抉择。结合中国法治实践,行政诉讼制度的重构,是比较符合中国现实国情的。     

Epistemic stance in orchestral interaction

An interactional participant's epistemic status relies on their access to “epistemic domains” which exist beyond the unfolding interaction in which they are expressed. Heritage argues that comparative access and epistemic status can be described along an “epistemic gradient” and that it is the expression of this status which, in the interaction, exists as the taking, aligning to, and challenging of epistemic stance. This paper describes some of the resources musicians use in interaction to encode the epistemic domains from which knowledge comes during orchestral rehearsal. As “sound-hearing” and “instrument-playing” are central to the work of musicians, the discussion will focus on how perceptions of auditory and corporeal experience are deployed as part of musicians' epistemic stance taking. I will argue that these epistemic stances, as expressions of graded and differential access to epistemic domains, form part of the construction of authority in orchestral rehearsal.     

The emergence of learnables in music masterclasses

In music masterclasses instruction is delivered in response to successive learners' performances, with masters having no recourse to lesson plans or other prepared materials. As a result, topics emerge discursively and spontaneously through interaction. In this paper we describe four ways in which masters develop matters for improvement (learnables). Masters may present learnables as being based on master expertise; on masters' direct displayed experience of the student's performance; on the elicited direct experience of the student-performer; or on the elicited direct experience of the audience. By using a conversation analytic approach, we detail the emergence of learnables in five recorded instances.     

中日双边互动的战略性思考

中国的和谐世界理念与日本外交战略的互动,表现为两国战略分歧与战略对话并存:中国坚持走和平发展道路与日本"普通国家论"阐释的大国化战略路径相异,导致两国业已存续的冲突与纷争时有显现、结构性矛盾日益突出,因而构筑基于共同战略利益的互惠关系成为发展双边关系的战略选择。寻求中日双边良性互动,要将两国关系置于国际体系的坐标中进行战略定位,在考量构建中日战略互惠关系相关因素的基础上,突破既往双边关系的局限性,理性调控中日战略互惠关系的互动及走向。     

行政权力合理配置视域下政府与社会之和谐互动

该文指出,行政权力的配置是指行政权力在不同行为主体之间的调配,行政权力的配置与行政授权不同,行政权力的配置包含＂下放＂和＂外放＂双重含义。处理好政府与社会之间的关系是合理配置行政权力的应有之意,政府与社会之间的和谐互动又会推动行政权力的合理配置。