When government fails us: trust in post-socialist civil organizations

The research for this article was motivated by a noticeable discrepancy between levels of participation and trust in post-socialist civil organizations. While civic participation in Central and Eastern Europe is almost nonexistent, levels of trust in post-socialist civil organizations compare favourably to those in Western Europe. The first aim of this article is to understand why citizens place relatively high trust in post-socialist civil organizations. The political context, within which civil organizations operate, reveals one explanation for the high levels of trust in civil organizations: government corruption dissuades citizens from relying on state institutions and creates a void that is filled by informal networks of association and civil organizations. Empirical evidence demonstrates that trust in civil organizations focused on socioeconomic and political development is higher among citizens who express concern about corruption in their country. The second aim of this article is to understand the discrepancy between levels of trust and civic participation. A novel interpretation of past findings suggests that civil organizations' effectiveness, professionalization, transactional capacity and orientation toward service provision may garner citizens' trust while parallel neglect of grassroots mobilization leaves civil organizations short of capitalizing on that trust. Civil organizations' limited focus on interest aggregation, mobilization and representation raises doubts as to whether observers of civil society in the region should look to these organizations as its core component.     

Youth Resilience: Can Schools Enhance Youth Factors for Hope,Optimism, and Success?

Resilience research requires attention to the factors that promote youth development and success. Youth success is associated with youth having adults in their lives who care about them and set high expectations for them to succeed; oftentimes these adults are presumed to be the children's parents. Because youth spend a great deal of time in schools, school settings may be a place where youth resilience can be fostered. In 2004, 6th-grade youth in 5 schools in Maricopa County, Arizona, were surveyed to determine if they had factors to promote their resilience. In these schools, teachers had been trained by an agency called Kids at Hope. Kids at Hope presupposes that “all children are capable of success, no exceptions” and offers an alternative paradigm to kids at risk. The results of this research show that youth who believe that they are successful and who are optimistic about themselves and their schools are more likely to find their schools to be places where they can be successful and optimistic.     

政府公共服务外包中的风险管理研究

政府公共服务外包是创新公共服务体制机制、构建高效服务型政府的一种重要方式,也是政府体制改革的重要内容。本文在对政府公共服务外包内涵进行界定的基础上,以公共服务外包中的风险管理作为研究对象,结合交易成本理论和信息经济学的相关理论,从风险主体、风险客体和风险因素三方面对公共服务外包中的风险进行了较为系统地分析,提出了政府公共服务外包风险管理策略,以期推动公共服务外包的成功运作,提升公共服务质量。     

Seeking Systemic Change: Risk and Protective Factors Affecting Low-Income Urban Youth

This themed issue presents five articles tackling the topic of risk and protective processes affecting children and adolescents living in urban poverty. Through their research, the authors seek understanding of the particular challenges that low-income urban youth face, with the ultimate goal of understanding how best to intervene at various levels of the ecological system. Within this broad theme, studies examine specific stressors, mediators, and moderators that impact the mental health of youth living in urban poverty. The final article presents a data-driven, community-based intervention for this population.     

当代大学生犯罪心理形成原因的典型案例分析及预防——时代的宠儿抑或上帝的弃婴

复旦大学投毒案的发生,使大学生犯罪问题再一次引发了社会的广泛关注。从马加爵案、药家鑫案、清华朱令案以及最近的安医大情杀案可以看出,虽然犯罪类型和犯罪原因各不相同,但究其根本,均归于其生活环境和家庭教育。大学生犯罪心理的形成受其家庭环境、学校环境及生长的社会环境这些变量因素的影响,只有对症下药,分析并找出影响大学生犯罪心理形成的相关因素,才能有效预防和制止更多的大学生走向违法犯罪道路。     

Labour market risks and political preferences: The case of temporary employment

The political economy literature has gathered compelling evidence that labour market risks shape political preferences. Accordingly, insecurity fuels support for redistribution and left parties. This article analyses this argument for temporary workers, a so far neglected risk category which has increased dramatically in the past two decades. Temporary workers also have been in the focus of recent insider‐outsider debates. Some authors in this line of research have argued that temporary work leads to political disenchantment – for example, non‐instrumental responses such as vote abstention or protest voting. This contradicts risk‐based explanations of political preferences. The article discusses both theoretical perspectives and derives conflicting hypotheses for the empirical analysis of temporary workers' policy and party preferences. The review reveals considerable ambiguity regarding the questions which parties temporary workers can be expected to support and what the underlying motives for party choice are. Synthesising arguments from both perspectives, the article proposes an alternative argument according to which temporary workers are expected to support the ‘new’ left – that is, green and other left‐libertarian parties. It is argued that this party family combines redistributive policies with outsider‐friendly policy design. Using individual‐level data from the European Social Survey for 15 European countries, the article supports this argument by showing that temporary, compared to permanent, workers exhibit higher demand for redistribution and stronger support for the new left. Neither the risk‐based nor the insider‐outsider explanations receive full support. In particular, no signs of political disenchantment of temporary workers can be found. Thus, the findings challenge central claims of the insider‐outsider literature.     

反贪工作风险评估预警机制的构建

检察机关在反贪办案中构建独立的风险评估预警机制,不仅能促使检察机关正确行使职务犯罪侦查权,而且有利于检察机关参与并创新社会管理,防范社会风险。检察机关应在准确把握反贪工作风险评估预警的基础上,全面、严格实施评估预警方案,提升执法公信力,维护社会和谐稳定。     

从“支付宝事件”析VIE模式的法律风险与监管对策

马云转让支付宝股权事件发生后,中国企业在境外上市所采用的VIE模式开始进入学界的关注视野。从公司法和金融监管的角度探析VIE模式中的法律风险,在梳理自上世纪90年代开始对企业境外上市的监管法规的基础上,尊重VIE模式的市场生成逻辑,树立实质主义的监管思路,建构对VIE模式的监管体系。     

互联网金融的风险评估及对刑法适用之影响

互联网金融的快速发展对我国金融创新、金融环境的优化以及中小企业融资产生巨大的推动作用,同时也会带来一些风险,并对刑事法律的适用产生较为深远的影响。互联网金融可能导致洗钱犯罪、信用卡诈骗、盗窃、诈骗、职务侵占等犯罪的加剧,也使得非法吸收公众存款罪、非法经营罪、擅自设立金融机构罪的适用范围面临调整。刑法应当充分尊重互联网金融存在的合理性,肯定金融创新。一方面,坚持刑法调整的补充性;另一方面,对于确因互联网金融而引发的金融犯罪行为,刑法介入应坚持及时性、准确性和适度性,从而发挥刑法对金融秩序和社会稳定的屏障作用。     

中国农村传统“熟人社会”的治安作用探析

费孝通先生在《乡土中国》一书中提出了"熟人社会"的概念,从本质上来讲,当今中国农村仍然是熟人社会的写照。我国农村的熟人社会基于传统关系网络,以礼为行为准则形成了自身的秩序机制,为维护我国农村社会治安起到了引导、教育、惩罚、纠纷调节和共同防御的作用,在对农村进行治安管理时应当充分发挥农村的自治作用,尊重农村风俗习惯,合理引导农村的关系网络。