The primacy of political security: contentious politics and insecurity in the Tunisian revolution

The removal of Ben Ali's regime in Tunisia signalled the start of the Arab Spring. The abrupt nature of the regime change raises questions about why it happened in the way it did. This article examines the contextual factors that precipitated the regime change through the lens of political security. The aim is to examine how political insecurity in society led to the emergence of opposition sufficiently organized to unseat Ben Ali. The paper develops a framework to consider how the loss of legitimacy by the regime opened the space for opposition. Attempts to restrict opposition failed to address underlying claims, leaving the way open for the opposition to unite following the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi.     

导入ISO9001:2000背景下地方政府绩效考核指标体系述评

地方政府在导入ISO质量管理体系的背景下,其绩效如何考核?国际标准化组织设计了一套完整的指标体系,包括"好政府的制度发展、经济的可持续发展、全面的社会发展和环境的可持续发展"等四个维度。本文对这套指标进行了介绍,并结合中国的具体情况进行了分析,目的在于为地方政府导入ISO质量管理体系进行理论上的指导。文章认为,导入这套指标体系符合我国建设和谐社会和落实科学发展观的要求,有利于促进政府职能转变,有利于解决当前我国的社会问题。因此,它在我国具有相当强的可适用性。     

Actively Cultivating Policy Similarity. A Regional Strategy in Education Policy in France and Germany

Regionalization processes across Western Europe have triggered analyses of regional policy divergence. Yet, in a number of cases, regional governments appear to have deliberately strived to achieve policy conformity. Previous research tends to emphasize exogenous explanations of regional policy convergence. In contrast, this paper addresses the issue of regional policy convergence by focusing on endogenous explanatory factors. Its objective is to carry out an investigation of when, how, and with what effect a ‘desire for conformity’ arises, and contends that regional governments may actively cultivate policy similarity as a strategy to develop or secure their policy capacity. Specifically, the paper argues that the adoption of this strategy is contingent upon two requirements that may or may not be met, and that its outcome is the convergence on targeted dimensions of regional policies. The two requirements are: (i) a countrywide public preference for policy uniformity in the policy area of concern, and (ii) the presence of a threat posed to regional policy capacity by various political entrepreneurs, including the central state, who blame regions for providing divergent policies on particular dimensions. This paper is based on the comparison of two case studies where regional governments deliberately pursued policy conformity on targeted dimensions of their education policy: school-building policy in France and curricula policy in Germany. The two case studies also present dissimilar features that make it possible to investigate the effects of institutional setting and policy distribution on the adoption and operation of the active-cultivation-of-policy-similarity strategy.     

Geographic and technological R&;D spillovers within the triad: micro evidence from US patents

This paper aims at assessing the magnitude of R&D spillover effects on large international R&D companies’ productivity growth. In particular, we investigate the extent to which R&D spillover effects are intensified by both geographic and technological proximities between spillover generating and receiving firms. We also control for the firm’s ability to identify, assimilate and absorb the external knowledge stock. The results estimated by means of panel data econometric methods (system GMM) indicate a positive and significant impact of both types of R&D spillovers and of absorptive capacity on productivity performance.

成年人民事行为能力——从行为主义到意思主义

我国的成年人民事行为能力采用传统大陆法系的禁治产和准禁治产制度,主要分为完全民事行为能力,限制民事行为能力和无民事行为能力三类,并对非完全民事行为能力人设置了宣告制度,随着时代的进步和发展,自我决定和正常化理念的深入人心,发达国家都改变了自己的成年人行为能力理论,逐渐回归意思主义。文章主要以英国的意思能力法为参考对象,对比我国的制度不足,从法律理论和实践的角度论述我国成年人民事行为理论的改革。     

信贷歧视、产能过剩与中国经济波动：基于金融冲击的视角

通过建立民营企业与国有企业间存在信贷歧视的动态随机一般均衡模型,考察金融冲击的宏观经济效应。研究结果表明,尽管积极性金融冲击有助于实现宏观经济稳定,但信贷歧视削弱了积极性金融冲击的宏观经济效应,忽略信贷歧视评价金融冲击的影响将导致结论偏误。在此基础上,进一步考虑了由信贷歧视引致的产能过剩问题的影响。结果显示,产能过剩进一步削弱了积极性金融冲击的实际效应,并扩大了其对通胀等名义变量的影响。而二阶矩分析的结果则表明,信贷歧视以及由信贷歧视引致的产能过剩加剧了宏观经济波动,降低了实际变量的持续性,同时提高了通胀惯性的影响。因此,为有效发挥积极性金融冲击的作用,稳定宏观经济,需要采用相关政策有效缓解信贷歧视以及产能过剩问题。     

论检验报告的证据能力

检验报告是解决刑事案件专门性问题的科学证据。其与鉴定意见、专门性问题报告或专业人员推断结论等有着显著的区别。作为科学证据,检验报告具有证据能力的条件是具有刑事证据的形式要件和实质要件,且以检验报告的证据相关性为核心,判断检验报告的证明价值。检验报告应用于刑事诉讼中特别类型的专门性问题,检验报告的制作主体应具有科学共同体的专业资格,检验程序符合科学即特定的规范操作流程。检验报告具有明确的适用范围和证明对象,检验报告的技术标准应以国家或国际官方颁布的标准为准。指导性案例重申了检验报告作为刑事证据种类的实践价值。在大数据时代,检验报告应成为刑事证明理论和刑事司法实践可供选择的科学的证明方法。     

对制约我国开征社会保障税因素的思考

开征社会保障税是一种较好的社会保障基金筹集方式 ,但是我国目前开征社会保障税存在许多制约因素。要顺利开征社会保障税必须完善开征该税的法制环境 ,均衡量能负担与公平原则 ,合理界定纳税人范围 ,提高就业水平和居民消费需求     

证据认证模式刍议

证据的认证亦即对证据的证据能力和证明力进行审查判断,是人民法院查明案件事实、正确适用法律的前提。目前,立法上对证据的认证规则缺乏明确的规定,司法实践中对证据的认证模式也比较混乱。规范证据的认证模式,明确二步认证的证据认证模式无疑有利于提高案件的审判质量。     

法国商事法律制度中夫妻商事能力和商事责任研究

[摘要] 夫妻配偶在当代社会都获得了商事能力，可以共同或者单独从事商事活动；夫妻商事能力的获得是男女平等原则在商法领域的反映，体现了社会的进步；夫妻在从事商事活动时除了要享有相应的权利之外还应承担众多的义务和责任；为了保护与配偶商人从事商事交易活动的第三人的利益，配偶商人应当承担公示夫妻财产制的义务。