Urban governance and multilateral aid organizations: The case of informal water supply systems

This paper explores the different urban governance models proposed by multilateral aid organizations in accessing water through informal supply systems, to assess the rationale and the guiding principles at the basis of their different ‘governance approaches’. There can be no doubt that most developing countries are now experiencing a rapid and unprecedented urban growth, which is bringing about a rising demand for urban services, especially those concerning water supply. To cope with this pressing issue, the response of multilateral aid organizations—such as the World Bank, UN-HABITAT and the European Union––has been represented by the design and implementation of different urban governance and management systems, called to support an equitable and efficient access to urban water supply services. This paper focuses on the different urban governance approaches through which multilateral donors support informal networks and small scale providers to provide water supply in cities of developing countries. It highlights how these different urban governance approaches address the overall issues of poverty reduction whilst in reality, in certain cases, they also aim to affect and regulate domestic public policies of Third World countries. In particular, it argues that the governance model proposed––and imposed––by the World Bank continues to belong to a neo-liberal policy agenda, which considers water and urban services as commodities to be managed through widespread competition and market mechanisms. On the contrary, UN-HABITAT, and the European Union to a certain extent, highlight the need for an urban governance system that promotes the ownership of development strategies by local communities and that rests on the principles of inclusiveness and equity.

非劳动收入能缓解中国的劳动力供给紧张吗？

标准劳动供给理论认为非劳动收入的增加会减少劳动供给，但是国内外大量的实证研究对此存在 较多争议。为了应对上述争议，本研究对标准理论进行适当延展，通过考察非劳动收入对边际劳动供给的作用后 发现，非劳动收入虽然具有减少劳动时间的直接作用，但是能通过强化工资率对劳动供给的替代效应而间接增加 劳动时间供给，两者的净效应决定了非劳动收入对劳动供给的真实作用。非劳动收入对劳动供给存在正向作用的 原因在于：非劳动收入会挤占一部分享受性闲暇时间而提高闲暇的价格，从而强化人们减少闲暇时间、增加劳动 供给的“替代效应”。利用“中国综合社会调查”全国微观数据库提供的数据，本研究证实了上述观点。非劳动 收入对劳动供给的正向作用为中国应对当前的劳动供给短缺提供了政策新抓手：政府可以在不触及工资制度和假 日制度等刚性制度的前提下，通过调控非劳动收入的不同种类和形式来激活劳动供给。     

宁夏生态移民工程中教育资源合理配置问题研究——基于银川市生态移民新村教育发展现状的调研

生态移民工程是一项具有重要战略意义和深远历史意义的民生工程与民心工程。在生态移民实施过程中许多移民新村新建了多所设施一流的中小学校。但由于所处区位、办学历史、人员编制等众多因素影响,这些学校在管理水平、办学质量特别是教师队伍配置上还存在一些矛盾与问题,切实解决好这些问题是使教育更好地服从和服务于生态移民战略工程实施的关键。     

关于基层法院人力资源开发与管理的现实思考———从法院人才招录制度与人力资本成本收益谈起简

吸引并留住高层次专业人才是各级法院人才队伍建设的重点.当前我国法院的人才招录制度面临诸多困境.要提高法院人力资本投资收益,法院务必科学规划,完善人才招录与流动制度,提高人力资本投资收益的有效性,强化法院人力资源管理制度建设和机关文化建设,完善司法管理机制,并在建构科学规范的司法管理体制方面完善司法权力的运行机制和保障机制.     

社区公共危机教育供给的特征、困境与优化策略——基于复杂适应系统视角

社区公共危机教育供给系统是一个复杂适应系统,具有聚集性、非线性和共生性特征。受主体能力、关系模式、制度条件影响,社区公共危机教育供给系统面临供给动力、供给结构及供给信息多维困境考验,有待通过优化策略进一步完善现有供给机制,提高供给效能。具体包括:发挥正向标识引导,强化系统合力效应;完善协同供给规则,促发系统涌现效应;运用“互联网+”优势,放大共同体效应。     

Public Service Recruitment Practices and Implications for Sustainable Development in Ebonyi State,Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Despite several reforms in Ebonyi public service, little or no indices of sustainable development has been recorded in decades. This study aims at examining the aspect of recruitment processes and how guaranteed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) attainment is affected. The findings drawn from three different ministries in Ebonyi State Civil Service (EBSCS) reveal that the processes of recruitment are characterized by nepotism, political interference devoid of merit, and professionalism. This implies that guaranteed sustainable development in Ebonyi state is at risk of attainment. This conclusion proves the relationship between Public Service Recruitment (PSR) processes and development. In view of the above, it argues that a new PSR reform should be instituted if the country is to achieve the targets set in the SDGs. This is hoped to promote accountability, transparency, and sound administrative governance in the public sector.     

Why information and transparency about electricity matter: Fragmentation of governance and accountability under New Public Management

From 1995, Australian governments pursued efficiency benefits arising from significant structural reforms in the Electricity Supply Industry, including corporatisation and regulation of network monopolies, and introduction of competition for generators and for retailers. The restructure was motivated by the ideology of New Public Management and influenced by the field of neoliberal economics. More than two decades later, prices paid for electricity by residential and commercial customers have escalated sharply, resulting in sustained anger from all consumers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair has admitted that ‘The National Electricity Market is largely broken’. This article documents the reduction in public access to information about electricity supply, the fragmentation in responsibility and accountability for consumer outcomes, and the consequences of these changes for transparency, industry operation, and retail electricity prices. New research enabled the creation of a database of Queensland energy production, consumption, and prices; this facilitated a fresh analysis of Queensland electricity sector performance since the restructure of electricity supply.     

From salary to resistance: mobility,employment, and violence in Dibra, 1792–1826

ABSTRACT

This article traces the military employment patterns of the highlanders of Dibra in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It addresses how the Albanian highlanders found different opportunities for military employment in a period largely associated with political instability. The Albanians as ‘mountain bandits’ have been regarded as the primary culprit of the violence that ravaged the Balkans. The same bandits, this article shows, constituted at the same time the irregular forces the Ottoman army came to rely on in the late eighteenth century. By demonstrating different prospects of employment with which the Albanian irregulars were preoccupied, it provides a broader perspective to observe the turmoil the Balkans underwent in a period of political instability. This article also deals with the intricate interplay between the Albanian irregulars and the Ottoman military administration. It reinserts the Albanian bandits-cum-irregulars into the background of the military reforms. Showing how different prospects for military employment that ranged from freelance plunder to service either for the imperial army or the retinue of the rogue Albanian pashas came to clash with the discourse of military reforms, this article also traces the increasing tension between the Albanian irregulars and the modernising Ottoman army.     

公共政策合法性供给机制与走向以医改进程为中心的考察

公共政策合法性不仅是一个重要的法治理论问题,也是法治秩序得以形成的重要变量。三十年来的"医改"进程表明,公共领域正在中国蓬勃兴起,并促进了公共政策合法性供给机制的时代转向,即从内部创议走向社会动员、从公众默认走向价值回归、从符合真理观走向共识真理观、从中心的内部循环走向中心与边缘的双向互动,展现着中国公共政策的重要民主化变革。虽然其中还存在着某些需要解决的问题,但它无疑构成了对多元和谐秩序的关键支撑和推进民主法治建设的新兴动力。     

How domestic contexts shape international private governance: The case of the European Accord and American Alliance in Bangladesh

The international nature of supply chains has led to the rise of private authority in regulating the environmental and social impacts of production, which companies frequently address through corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the form of private governance (PG). Despite its claim to establish “global” rules, PG usually has national origins, and multiple efforts to address the same issue from different national perspectives frequently coexist. Numerous studies have explored the impact of national business systems on companies' domestic CSR practices, yet little is known about what factors shape CSR practices like PG internationally. Therefore, this study seeks to understand how differing domestic contexts shape approaches to CSR in the form of PG in host countries. I explore this empirically through the comparative case study of competing PG initiatives in the post-Rana Plaza Bangladesh garment industry, uniquely conceived to govern companies' practices rather than certify products. It combines empirical findings with the comparative CSR literature to hypothesize about ideal types of PG organizing in US and European contexts. It extends the analysis to also account for other influential factors, such as stakeholder pressure, thus demonstrating how institutional and agentic factors amalgamate to shape firms' choices. By explicating linkages between international PG and its domestic context, as well as between the comparative CSR and PG literature studies, this study extends our understanding of how and why international PG practices and preferences vary for firms originating from different environments.