汇率及其波动与日本对华直接投资

日本是我国重要的贸易伙伴和外商直接投资来源国。影响日本企业对我国直接投资的因素可能有多种,本文拟从汇率因素切入,并以日本对华直接投资的事实数据和特征为背景,研究日元与人民币双边真实汇率对日本对华直接投资的影响。首先通过GARCH模型对双边真实汇率的波动进行测算,然后以此变量和真实汇率变量为基础,通过脉冲响应函数和方差分解技术,研究真实汇率水平及其波动对流入我国的日本FDI带来的影响。模型结果显示,双边真实汇率及其波动均对FDI产生了显著影响,而且该影响同理论预期相吻合,说明真实汇率是影响日本对华直接投资的重要因素,现阶段保持人民币汇率的相对稳定性有利于日本对华直接投资的增长。     

韩国与中国台湾地区的不同发展道路

韩国与台湾地区的发展道路有重要不同。韩国是“指导的资本主义”道路,倾向于追求增长效率与市场经济的规范化,培育出了私营大企业群体,从而为进一步的发展提供了动力;台湾地区则在“民生主义”意识形态指导下走的是倾向于“均富”的道路,对市场经济和私营大企业的发展持谨慎态度,结果形成以中小企业为主的“草根经济”局面,造成工业升级和技术创新的瓶颈。韩国与台湾地区在20世纪80年代后发生经济地位的转换,与它们在高增长时期所奠定的不同基础密切相关。     

走向社会政治与中国共产党现代化

在中国社会“双重转型”的背景下,中国政治现代化的过程可以被描述为走向社会政治、实现政治关系社会化的过程。这个发展过程引起的政治生态环境的变迁,必然对中国共产党自身的结构、功能、机制、活动方式和政党文化提出新的挑战,要求党不断适应这种变化着的环境,实现自身的现代化。适应社会双重转型和走向社会政治的要求,实现中国共产党现代化,可以从实现党的功能转换、推进党的民主和创新政党文化等几个方面来推进。     

Cab fair: taxi driving and South Asian labor activism in New York City, 1985–1999

Abstract

The labor strike of 13 May 1998 was an historic event for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA). Under the leadership of Bhairavi Desai, 98% of New York City’s 24,000 yellow cab drivers refused to work. The strike disrupted the flow of city life, but it also shattered the belief that taxi drivers were atomized and therefore unable to organize, effectively exercise power, or earn basic working rights for themselves. This unprecedented strike was thus an act of self-assertion for taxicab drivers in the 1990s, who were predominantly of South Asian origin and had been victims of unjust violence and discrimination in the city. This article questions how immigrant taxi cab drivers came to cooperate with one another in the late nineties to fight for fair wages. It also explores how members of the NYTWA overcame class disparities and ethnic differences among themselves to serve common goals.     

Forging feminism within labor unions and the legacy of democracy movements in South Korea

Abstract

Although most scholarship stresses that ‘male regular worker-centeredness’ is a trait of mainstream Korean labor unions, the specific reasons why feminism has failed to spread within Korean unionism have not been clarified. In order to answer this question, this article focuses on the entangled interrelations of feminism with broader social movements, maintaining that the historical legacy of the victory of the 1987 Great Worker Struggle – led by male workers from the heavy and chemical industries – is still a powerful factor in discouraging the spread of feminism, even though a fundamental transformation in the nature of Korean labor unions from being primarily class conscious to economistic has taken place. This article also highlights that Korean women’s movements have raised little criticism against the gender-blindness of labor unionism largely because Korean labor unions have been positioned as a ‘moral force’ in bringing about democratization. Furthermore, I stress that conflict between old feminists (socialist feminism) and young feminists (radical feminism), who tend to reflect on the dichotomous relations between gender and/or class, has actually been counterproductive to the proliferation of feminism within Korean labor unions.     

NGO–business collaboration following the Indian CSR Bill 2013: trust-building collaborative social sector partnerships

The CSR Bill of 2013 introduced systematic corporate participation into social development in India. In the light of this law, this article argues that NGOs will play a decisive role in determining the benefits of corporate involvement and recommends that NGO–business partnerships are needed for meaningful social change. The article identifies a trust deficit between NGOs and businesses in India as a key obstacle to the success of NGO–business collaborations in the social sector. It suggests practices that could be adopted by NGOs to build trust in their partnerships with business partners, using a case study of one NGO, SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action).     

The politics of resonance: Transnational sustainability governance in Argentina

Why do private governance initiatives trigger greater participation in one country than another? This article examines the domestic dimension of transnational regulation through a case study of private sustainability governance in Argentina. Drawing from theories of contentious politics, the argument poses that the resonance of transnational private governance is shaped by the semantic compatibility of “incoming” sustainability programs against national political culture. Analyzing the limited participation of Argentine actors in contemporary sustainability initiatives, the article claims that the validity and relevance of sustainability programs is affected by three dimensions of national political culture accentuated over the last decade: a politicized model of state‐society relations, the low visibility of environmental matters, and a widespread anti‐corporate culture. By examining the ideational fundamentals of the “politics of resonance” in Argentina, the article makes a relevant and original contribution to transnational regulation literature, highlighting the need for theoretical accounts and empirical analyses that address domestic and cultural variables as fundamental pieces in transnational norm diffusion and effectiveness.     

Lost in Transition: The Liberal International Order in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus

Abstract

While espoused by the newly independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the liberal order has not taken root in interstate relations and is now openly contested in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. However, the challenges presented (primarily by Russia) to the international order also trigger growing contestation, in several Eastern European and South Caucasus countries, of an existing regional order premised on Russian hegemony. Therefore, the picture that emerges from these multiple contestations is not an alternative regional order, but rather overlapping orders in a fragmented region.     

Factors influencing working conditions of small enterprises in Sylhet City,Bangladesh

This article looks at variables that affect the working lives of small business entrepreneurs in Sylhet City, Bangladesh, and whether microfinance ensures decent working conditions in small ventures. The findings show that social dialogue among borrowers and their enterprise stability have the largest impacts on work and non-work life, and that social discussions among borrowers have the most significance in achieving harmony between work and non-work life. The results suggest that loan organisations need to draw in their borrowers more by using social relations in empowering decent working conditions.     

Making innovations work: local government–NGO partnership and collaborative governance in rural Bangladesh

This article reports on a local government–NGO partnership in rural Bangladesh. The findings suggest that BRAC’s Strengthening Local Governance initiative, through partnership with Union Parishads (the lowest tier of the existing local government structure), has been successful in strengthening the governance of Union Parishads by changing the mindsets of Union Parishad officials through building their capacity and mobilising people in the community to become involved in the Union Parishad’s service delivery process. As a result, the service delivery process has been streamlined, corruption reduced, and accountability and transparency increased.