Inequality,Wealth and Thailand’s Politics

ABSTRACT

Acemoglu and associates argue that resistance to democratisation will be stronger where inequality is high. Piketty shows that shifts at the upper end of the distribution may be historically more significant than overall measures of inequality. In Thailand, the high level of income inequality has eased slightly since 2000, but there is a “1% problem” as peak incomes are growing faster than the average. Newly available data show that inequality of wealth is very high. At the top of the wealth pyramid, family holdings of commercial capital are growing. A significant proportion of top entrepreneurs have emerged within the past generation. A second tier of the wealth elite has developed over the past generation from rising property values, financial investments and professional incomes. Although their individual wealth is much less than the corporate elite, their numbers are much greater. The existence of the prospering “1%” and the emergence of the second-tier wealthy may corroborate Acemoglu’s proposition, but there are tensions within the wealth elite which may favour democracy.     

The (Il)legitimacy of EU state building: local support and contention in Kosovo

This article investigates legitimacy of EU state building and conflict resolution as a continuous and collective process through which local stakeholders, as the direct bearers of EU policies, ascribe meaning and support for the EU actors and actions on the ground. Contrary to the static and narrow understanding of legitimacy in the EU literature, the article offers a dynamic framework of legitimacy based on two main aspects: (i) sources of legitimacy (input and output) and (ii) objects of legitimacy (diffuse and specific support) in order to trace the complicated relationship between the EU and different local groups (the government, parliamentary opposition, local NGOs and public opinion) in Kosovo. The main argument is that the EU fails to generate local consent and faces a worsening erosion of support in Kosovo due to the limited participation of local stakeholders into the EU-promoted political decision-making structures and the contested ability of the EU to foster outcomes that have salience for local actors.     

巨额财产来源不明罪的法律困境及其完善

现行刑法中规定的巨额财产来源不明罪在立法上存有重大缺陷,导致司法实践处境尴尬。更为重要的是,其规定导致了刑法体系的不协调,制约了对腐败行为的打击力度。因此,有必要在立法上和制度上对巨额财产来源不明罪加以完善。在立法上,关键是要提高巨额财产来源不明罪的法定刑。在制度上,应在完善国家工作人员财产申报制度的同时,还应建立和健全金融监管机制。     

法律渊源：司法视角的定位

虽然我们可以从理论上把法律渊源分为实质渊源和形式渊源,但从规范法学的角度看,法律渊源是一个描绘司法过程的概念。在多数法学著述中,它是指法官在哪种法律形式中探寻针对个案的法律。因而我们应站在司法立场上来理解、认识法律渊源。法律渊源与法律形式的结合使我们看到法官发现法律的场所,而与法律发现的结合使我们看到其方法论意义。从司法的角度看,法律渊源实际上就是法官法源。     

关注民生 优化税收制度

党的十七大特别关注民生问题,在报告中明确提出了我们党关于民生问题的努力方向——"使全体人民学有所教、劳有所得、病有所医、老有所养、住有所居,推动建设和谐社会。"关注民生,优化税制,建立科学、公平、效率的税收制度,是以人为本,坚持科学发展观的具体体现,是新时期税收的一项重大任务,税收必须为全面建设小康社会,构建和谐社会做贡献。关注民生,应改革个人所得税、消费税,建立完善的城乡社会保障体系。     

国有企业职工阶层分化研究--对一家国有企业职工阶层关系的调查和分析

本文在对一家大型国有企业的问卷调查和数据分析的基础上,分析了该企业不同层级职工的经济收入、社会地位、职工对职业稳定性评价等方面的差异.研究了该企业职工阶层分化的特点.提出在国有企业,职工阶层分化的过程已经基本完成.在新的阶层关系下认识工人阶级的地位和作用是我们面临的又一课题.     

Social Inequality and the Perceived Income Justice Gap

This paper attempts to answer the question whether justice evaluations of income inequality in a society are determined more by country differences or by the social position an observer occupies. In very general terms what we study is whether, in shaping justice beliefs, cultural factors are more important than social-structural ones, or vice versa. In view of transformation societies, country differences are conflated with differences in the transformation processes the countries are experiencing. This is why we distinguish different types of transmations with regard to the postcommunist countries of Eastern and Central Europe testing empirically whether these transformation types exert influence on the justice beliefs, and how this influence compares to that of positional effects. With International Social Justice Project (ISJP) data of 1991 and 1996, we study the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, East Germany, and—as a western referent society—West Germany. Main results are that in the early phase of transformation the different transformation types as well as social positions matter in shaping justice evaluations, over time, however, the types of transformation clearly lose influence. In 1996, compared to 5 years earlier, the countries have become similar in that most of the variation in the perception of the income justice must now be attributed to the positional differences of individuals. We conclude that the characteristics of the transformation processes decrease in importance for determining public views about social justice. In this respect, the transformation societies of Eastern and Central Europe may well be on the route to becoming more like western societies.     

论我国工会在收入分配领域的维权职能

在建立社会主义和谐社会的过程中,我国工会维护劳动者权利的重点是维护其获得劳动报酬权利。劳动报酬不仅包括劳动力价值部分,还应包括劳动者能与其他要素所有者共同分享改革开放和经济发展带来的成果,而这仅从微观层面的维权中很难做到,这就要求工会的维权应扩展到宏观领域,通过提高劳动报酬标准来实现广大劳动者的这一权利。     

论增加农民收入的财政与金融对策

党的十六届五中全会把建设社会主义新农村作为我国现代化进程中的重大历史任务,为此要千方百计增加农民收入。应借鉴发达国家的经验,运用好“绿箱政策”和“黄箱政策”,尽快提高我国的农民收入,同时,还必须解决农民融资难的问题。