The Relationship Between State Government Performance and State Quality of Life

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between government performance and quality of life in the American states. We contend that the management capacity of state governments should have direct, tangible impacts on the overall social and economic well‐being of state citizenry. In order to test this idea, we examine the influence of state management capacity (using the 1999 Government Performance Project grades), alongside other economic and political variables, on two prominent measures of state quality of life—The Morgan Quitno “Most Livable State” Index and State Policy Reports' (SPP) “Camelot Index.” We find that both state economic conditions and governmental policy priorities have significant impacts on state performance levels. But, our results clearly indicate that the management capacity of state governments also contributes directly to improving the overall quality of life for state citizens.     

Cao Yu’s Peking Man and Literary Evocations of the Family in Republican China

Abstract

Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was home to communities and musicians from all parts of the world. Among the over 20,000 Russians living there, a significant population of musicians contributed to the musical life of the city, particularly the Conservatory of Music founded in November 1927. This article reveals an overlooked phase of musical exchange between China and the West by 1) tracing the context and early development of the Conservatory; 2) identifying and discussing the activities of the Russian pedagogues (including Boris Zakharov, Vladimir Shushlin, and Sergei Aksakov amongst others) and their more notable Chinese students’ (including Li Delun, Ding Shande, Wu Leyi, and Yi Kaiji amongst others) reaction to them; 3) assessing the role that Russians played in the affairs of the Conservatory; and 4) demonstrating how Russian pedagogues influenced the development of Western classical music in China through their students’ notable achievements.     

Little Teachers: Children's Drama,Traveling, and Ruptured Childhoods in 1930s and 1940s China

This paper examines and problematizes complex relationships among war, the construction of “children,” and pursuit of national salvation and modernity in wartime China through case studies of children's traveling troupes. Children have received less attention than women and the masses in relation to modern Chinese literature and culture: wartime conceptions of children can contribute to rethinking ideas about orphan and refugee children's role in the national rescue movement during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945). Influential reformer Tao Xingzhi's radical educational philosophy of “little teachers” liberated children's power and organized them for war propaganda. Shaped into a potent cultural symbol, self-administered children's troupes like the Xin'an Traveling Troupe and the Children's Drama Troupe demonstrated the politicization of Tao's slogan “Life is Education.” The children's “long march,” narratives of their travel experience, and amateur performances became a political means to educate themselves as responsible citizens and motivate the nation in wartime.     

American Criminal Justice Exposed

In The Ethics of Capital Punishment: A Philosophical Investigation of Evil and Its Consequences, Matthew Kramer argues that none of the standard rationales used to justify capital punishment successfully vindicates it and that a new justification, the purgative rationale, justifies capital punishment for defilingly evil offenders. In this article, it is argued, first, that a version of retributivism that adheres to the lex talionis as Kramer understands it does seem to call exclusively for the death penalty. Second, it is submitted that the purgative rationale is over-inclusive inasmuch as Kramer considers it applicable to certain offenders with abusive or deprived backgrounds, some offenders indoctrinated to adhere to pernicious ideologies that have impelled their crimes, and wrongdoers who have sincerely repented. Third, doubts are expressed about whether the purgative rationale justifies the execution of any offenders. Even if it is true that the continued existence of an extravagantly evil offender represents an affront to humanity, as Kramer suggests, a moral obligation to execute him does not follow. Since repentance is intrinsically valuable and since repentance would extinguish the affront to humanity, the community in which an unrepentant evil offender abides is duty-bound to foster repentance on the part of the offender by imposing banishment or life imprisonment, sanctions that afford the offender the most extensive opportunity for repentance. The community is therefore obligated to impose one of these sanctions instead of capital punishment.     

青年生命教育与生态文明建设

生态危机是生命教育的基本背景,人类若要避免各种危机,必须从青年生命教育做起。青年生命教育以生态文明未来建设者的青年为教育对象,是生态文明对教育的需求,也是生态文明建设的重要内容和途径。在我国,近年来努力开展青年生命教育,取得了一定成效,但在对生命的认识、生命观的认识上与生态文明的要求等方面,与预期还存在一定差距,现状还不容乐观。生命教育中应树立"生态人"教育目的观、"天人合一"的生命观、生态道德观、可持续发展观和生态幸福观,学校、家庭、社会各方面应为生命教育创造生态教育环境。     

The Contingent Public Value of ‘Good Design’: Regulating the Aesthetics of the Australian Urban Built Environment

The proposition that the urban built environment can, and indeed should, be made more visually attractive is a long‐standing feature of the governance of Australian cities. In this vein, this paper examines how ‘good design’ in terms of visual aesthetics is currently pursued including through the development assessment process and the work of government architects. The paper begins by tracing the background of contemporary regulatory practice from long‐standing ideas around beauty and its value through to the urban design movement of today. Next, it considers in more detail various rationales for aesthetic governance and what might be better forms of regulatory practice. In short, it will be argued that while there can be scope for regulation to deliver superior outcomes, this practice must be sensitive to a high degree of contingency in what the public values and that deliberate empirical inquiry into the latter is desirable.     

论人的双重生命与价值

价值表达的是一种以主体尺度为尺度的主客体关系,即客体的存在、属性和变化对于主体人的意义。人不同于动物的生命,人具有自然生命与自由生命的双重性。作为价值客体的双重生命,相对于价值主体的人与社会来说,其有个体、社会生命的延续的价值和创造价值的价值。正确认识人的双重生命与价值,对于树立正确的生命价值观具有重要的意义。     

中西诚信伦理的主要差异

中西方对“诚信”的研究和应用有悠远的历史,并在目前的企业管理中有成功的实践。从各自发展历史看,中国传统的道德诚信与西方文化中的道德诚信具有基本相同的内涵和要求,但由于社会制度和文化传统的差异,在具体的理解上,两者存在着实质性的区别,并由此影响了不同文化背景下诚信行为表现特征上的差异。     

IS THE ANTISOCIAL CHILD FATHER OF THE ABUSIVE MAN? A 40‐YEAR PROSPECTIVE LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON THE DEVELOPMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE*

This prospective longitudinal study examined whether early childhood risk factors contributed to explaining and predicting intimate partner violence (IPV) in midadulthood. Participants included 202 men from the Cambridge longitudinal study who were in an intimate relationship in their mid‐40s. Neuropsychological deficits and the presence of a criminogenic family environment were measured between ages 8 and 10. Antisocial behavior was measured between ages 8 and 18. IPV was measured at age 48 using a self‐report instrument completed by the participants' female partners. Perpetration and victimization rates were relatively high; violence was mostly mutual, and men were more likely to be victims than perpetrators. Findings indicate that a criminogenic environment increases the risk of IPV by fostering the development of antisocial behavior and neuropsychological deficits. A link also exists between a high level of antisocial behavior during adolescence and the risk of IPV later in life. The results suggest the presence of both continuity and discontinuity of antisocial behavior as childhood risk factors that increase the likelihood of future involvement in IPV, but the role of these risk factors is modest.     

法律、民生与民间规则——兼论两岸交流制度中民间规则的作用

法律是社会交往和社会需要的产物,因之,法律也是主体交往中日常生活的公共产品。它不仅作用于人们日常的物质生活,而且也作用于人们的精神生活。更重要的是,法律作为正式制度,还缔造着人们的制度生活。但法律的规定并不是完全自足的,一方面,需要关注作为非正式制度的民间规则的作用,另一方面,当法律规定有所遗漏,或者法律规定对公民的日常生活不能调整、规范时,民间规则对救济法律的不足,就可能会派上用场。甚至即使法律对相关社会关系有所规定,在实践中也免不了法律和民间规范相互交叠地发挥作用。基于这种认识,在两岸有关民生的交流中,应当把民间规则纳入保障两岸民生、促进两岸往来的重要社会因素中。