Books received

Since the early 2000s, the governments in ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) countries have developed ‘good agricultural practices’ (GAP) as public approaches to field-level quality assurance. Besides the primary goals of consumer food safety and quality assurance, these public GAP programs aim to support small-scale farmer inclusion in mainstream markets. This goal represents the antithesis of the prevailing trend that private GAP approaches have tightened integration with resourceful, large-scale producers in global value chains. This paper examines the compatibility of the goals of safety assurance and social justice in a public GAP approach through comparative analysis of Thailand's Q-GAP between two local contexts of fruit production and marketing. The research findings suggest that while the public GAP scheme could draw the participation of a broad cohort of local small-scale producers and serve to certify their production, its impact on changing producers' on-field practices and catalyzing their access to the global market through food safety assurance is limited. The binding factors include the lack of producers' understanding of the principles of the programme, limited additional economic merits for them, and the influence of extra-local market forces that stress economies of size and food quality rather than food safety.     

2000年政治经济学和社会主义经济理论热点问题研究综述

2000年政治经济学和社会主义经济理论热点问题集中在关于深化对劳动和劳动价值论的认识;公有制在社会主义制度中的地位;社会主义经济和有中国特色的社会主义经济的关系;政治经济学基本理论和方法的坚持与发展等几个方面.在研究和探讨中,见仁见智,推动了对相关问题的深入认识和理解.     

中国宏观经济现状与发展态势分析

当前中国宏观经济随着产业结构调整和国有企业经济效益明显好转而出现稳步回升的势头,经济质量也出现新的转机。但我国城乡经济发展极不平衡,制约经济增长的结构性、制度性问题仍未得到根本解决,经济回升的基础还不够稳固。要将转机变为战略性转折,一方面,必须继续坚持扩大内需的扩张性政策,保持较高的经济增长速度;另一方面,必须探索和推动政治体制的改革和法律制度建设,以激发经济增长的内在动力,加快经济结构调整以促进制度创新,切实提高国民经济的整体质量和效益。     

私利·公利·正义·仁义--义利关系的传统反思与现代诠释

本文首先在剖析中西义利观区别的基础上,把义和利的内涵分别分解为私利、公利和正义、仁义等不同层次.然后通过对社会主义市场经济内在本质的考察,提出理解义利关系的三大理论原则第一,以私利为动力,以公利为目标;第二,以正义为约束,以仁义为引导;第三,以利释义,以义制利,义利统一.最后根据以上原则提出社会主义市场经济条件下坚持义利统一的三个层次合理谋利即是义;增进公利即是义;自觉让利即是义.     

Strategic or Principled? The Engagement of Civil Society Organizations with the EU

This article links the literature on the Europeanization of civil society organizations (CSOs) with the literature on the contribution CSOs can make to democracy in the EU. To do so, it asks which are the pull factors that support CSOs’ Europeanization: are they mostly strategic and linked to where law-making and the money are? Or are they likewise linked to a desire to contribute to EU democracy? To explore this question, the article looks at agricultural, environmental and anti-poverty groups and combines fresh qualitative with quantitative data. The findings suggest that we need to distinguish strategic Europeanization, on the one hand, from the identification with supranational democracy, on the other. They also show that the most Europeanized organizations need not be the most interested in EU democracy, whereas organizations with a comparatively low degree of Europeanization can still be interested in EU democracy.     

The dilemmas of pursuing ‘throughput legitimacy’ through participatory mechanisms

Under pressure to open up the ‘black box’ of governance, technocratic bodies are increasingly seeking to include civil society participation in the policy process. This article draws on empirical cases from the European Commission and NHS England to assess the extent to which the participatory mechanisms pursued by these institutions have been successful in eliciting ‘throughput legitimacy’. It is shown that though these mechanisms have taken very different forms – the former a classic instance of ‘window dressing’ participation, the latter closer to ‘best practice’ in this field – they nevertheless share a number of ongoing vulnerabilities. The article outlines the shared organisational, operational and existential dilemmas that technocratic bodies face when eliciting civil society participation, and highlight their reliance on backstage negotiation to sustain stakeholder buy-in. It concludes by highlighting the prospect that the pursuit of throughput legitimacy for technocratic bodies entails inherent limitations and contradictions.     

劳动者举报行为和忠诚义务的冲突与协调 —— 比较法的启示与中国法的完善

劳动者通过举报用人单位的违法行为,可以减少监管成本,保护社会公共利益;然而,这种行 为却违反其所应该负的忠诚义务。因此,只有明晰两者之间的边界,鼓励与规范劳动者举报行为,才可以既保 护社会公共利益,又不至用人单位遭受经济损失。在比较发达国家对劳动者举报行为与忠诚义务相关规定的基 础上,研究认为,应该通过规定劳动者举报行为的合法性要件,明确劳动者忠诚义务来化解其举报行为和忠诚 义务的冲突。此外,应该通过改善对劳动者举报的奖励制度和制定举报救济措施来激励和保障其举报行为。     

An Honourable Profession: Public Employees and Identity Construction in Chile, 1880–1920

This paper analyses how public employees at two Chilean government offices constructed their occupational identities. In contrast to the vast majority of previous work, which took the 1920s as its starting point, this study focuses on the period between 1880 and 1920. Additionally, the construction of identity is analysed in direct relation to performance in the workplace. The paper asserts that public criticism of their performance prompted public employees to develop an image of themselves based on the concept of their honourability as competent and honest workers.     

From ‘Green Laggard’ to Regional Leader: Explaining the Recent Development of Environmental Policy in Chile

Environmental policy in Chile has developed rapidly in recent years, and the country has become a regional leader in renewable energy, climate change policy, recycling, and nature conservation. This contrasts with the previous neglect of environmental issues in the country and its depiction as a ‘green laggard’ (Orihuela, 2014: 251) within Latin America. In this article the recent development of environmental policy in Chile is reviewed and five factors affecting this development are analysed: international influences, institutional legacies, a window of opportunity opened by environmental movements, policy entrepreneurship, and business power.     

Bringing the Revolution to the Countryside: Rural Health Programmes as State‐Building in Post‐1952 Bolivia

Bolivia's Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, MNR) took power in April 1952 via a popular social revolution. After 1952, the party implemented state‐sponsored modernisation projects, including extending rural public health programmes. The MNR used health programmes to change rural practices, cultivate political loyalty, and expand the state's political power. Yet rural indigenous communities were hardly passive recipients of these programmes. These communities often requested government services, and they borrowed the MNR's own political rhetoric to position themselves as worthy of state attention. Public health programmes increased access to rural health care, but they also allowed state officials and rural communities to negotiate the MNR's authority.