State-owned enterprises,state capitalism and social distribution in Singapore

State-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds have ‘insured’ Singapore's domestic economy against financial crisis and restructuring interventions from multilateral institutions, engendered elite cohesion and political stability, binding middle class employees to the political system. This essay analyses paths by which the Singapore government established state-owned enterprises and transformed them into global enterprises. It also examines how sovereign wealth funds contribute to government social expenditure without increasing taxes. Such redistribution through state capitalism resonates with the People's Action Partys social democratic origins, inviting comparisons with contemporary developments in Chinese state-capitalism.     

Uzbekistan's diplomacy in the modern international relations system

The article is dedicated to the issue of Uzbekistan's diplomacy in the 21st century. It shows the evolutional path of Uzbek diplomacy that plays an important role in pursuing national interests on the global scale in the framework of foreign policy. Article shows that Uzbekistan has clearly defined foreign policy priorities; it will follow in the foreseeable future. Such aspects as more active participation in the multilateral cooperation and at the same time retaining healthy pragmatism as a result of pursuing bilateral relations both with neighboring countries and great powers are also underlined. The main advantage and novelty of the article are that the author provides clear‐cut periodization of Uzbekistan's diplomacy—a feature that has never been met in any of Uzbek or foreign researches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

扎实推进惩治和预防腐败体系建设的新视角

党的十七大报告把坚决惩治和有效预防腐败,定位为“党必须始终抓好的重大政治任务”,提出要“把反腐倡廉建设放在更加突出的位置”,这表明我们党对腐败问题认识的更加理性和科学,反腐工作更加注重推进惩治和预防腐败体系建设。文章从腐败生成条件的新视角就扎实推进惩治和预防腐败体系建设问题作了初步探索。     

Tertiary institutions and capacity building in Ghana: challenges and the way forward

The last two decades have seen tremendous growth in tertiary education in Ghana. The prevailing consensus is that universities play a crucial role in development by making it possible to generate human capital in key areas such as health, agriculture, and engineering, also contributing to the attainment self-sufficiency. Whilst contributing to capacity building, this paper argues that universities in Ghana have had to contend with a number of challenges: low female access to universities, especially in science and technology-related courses; inadequate funds; poor research activity; and large class sizes. Making research a priority, designating strategic planning teams with appropriate institutional and financial support, developing cooperation with private universities, expanding access through the use of external degree centres and distance learning, and deepening universities’ relevance to societal needs, are identified as central to the enhancement of capacity building in Ghana.     

“Bad enough governance”: state capacity and quality of institutions in post-Soviet autocracies

This article contributes to current discussions on state capacity, quality of institutions, and political regimes. Our analysis demonstrates that the J-curve argument (“good institutions” in autocracies as compared to hybrid and transitional regimes) may not be generic and is not well supported by empirical evidence from the sample of post-Soviet countries. An explanatory model of the “King of the Mountain” is instead provided. Its focus is on the monopoly of political rent as a precondition for extraction of economic rent. It demonstrates an inverse correlation between the quality of institutions and the extraction of political and economic rent, and explains why an autocrat may not have an incentive to improve institutions that may make his/her monopoly vulnerable, and rather would prefer to preserve a low quality of institutions and “bad enough governance.” An analysis of a variety of external and domestic factors that may endanger this monopoly is provided. Finally, the autocrat's alternative strategic choices are analyzed. It is argued that better payoffs for the autocrat – paradoxically – may result from partial reforms and improvement of the quality of institutions. However, for various reasons, this is not occurring in post-Soviet autocracies.     

Empowering peace: service provision and state legitimacy in Nepal’s peace-building process

There is growing demand for an understanding of peace beyond the absence of violence. As such research focuses increasingly on the issue of state legitimacy as a tool to assess and understand peace processes. In this paper the relationship between service provision and state legitimacy is studied to assess whether the provision of services like electricity to rural communities of war-torn countries through state actors contributes to the consolidation of the post-war political system. The qualitative analysis of two localities in post-war Nepal highlights that service provision in the form of electricity through micro-hydropower yields tremendously positive socio-economic effects for rural communities. However, socio-economic development in combination with interactions among villagers has strengthened local autonomy through emphasising alternative local governance structures. This highlights that the relationship between service provision and state legitimacy is more complex than previous research anticipates. The absence of a positive effect on state legitimacy raises the question of whether in its current case-specific form service provision is conducive to the broader peace-building efforts in post-war Nepal, because it stresses the divide between state and society.     

Support seeking,system avoidance,and citizenship: Social safety net usage after incarceration

Scholars have long described the American penal state and welfare state as joined by a common logic of social marginalization. But researchers have only recently begun to explore how the individuals who pass through the carceral system also interact with welfare state programs. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, in this article, I explore how formerly incarcerated individuals make claims on the welfare state and how participation varies across social programs and states, as well as by race, drawing on theories of social welfare rights-claiming and system avoidance. In so doing, I provide the first nationwide estimates of the extent to which previously incarcerated adults use social safety net resources. I find that participation in welfare programs varies with incarceration history, program structure, and race. Rather than finding patterns consistent with system avoidance, I find that previously incarcerated White Americans seem to engage in active rights claiming, participating in public assistance programs more than similarly eligible never-incarcerated counterparts. All formerly incarcerated individuals, however, have limited access to more generous social insurance programs, and the shift to an increasingly employment-based social safety net seems likely to further limit access to the welfare state for the growing population of Americans leaving prison.     

业主的建筑物区分所有权之评析（上）

建筑物依土地之承载得其成就,人类因建筑物之依归而创建文明。因此,建筑物之于人类发展,占非常重要地位。建筑物之所有权及利用权,更是物权法规则的核心之一。而建筑物区分所有权之渊源,由来久远,于古老之埃及、巴比伦及希腊之律法即有迹可寻。19世纪初,区分所有权的形式即已为各国地区之民事立法所采用,二次世界大战结束后,建筑物区分所有权制度,更发展为各国地区不动产所有权法律上之重要制度。我国为因应城市公有化、福利型住房制度转入商品化住房制度的社会客观性需求,暨顺应我国城市化进程的加速,并为取得多层或高层住宅之城市居民提供立体物权的规范依据,于《物权法》第六章专章规定了“业主的建筑物区分所有权”。但检视《物权法》关于建筑物区分所有权制度的规定,仍存有不足以规范区分所有权法律关系之处。为此,本文试图从建筑物区分所有权理论分析角度入手,检视《物权法》第六章的立法取向及其基本内容,并提出其存在的相关问题与解决对策,俾作为日后最高人民法院为司法解释或法院判决之参考依据。     

对我国被害人国家补偿制度的研究

在我国,虽然现实中已经有了对犯罪被害人给予国家补偿的个别做法,但被害人补偿并未制度化和法律化。建立被害人国家补偿制度符合被害人权利保护的发展趋势,对推进我国的人权保障和司法制度产生重要影响。特别是在"构建社会主义和谐社会"的今天,对被害人的补偿,无疑对被害人的正常生活、对社会秩序的稳定、防止被害人因为被害而走上犯罪道路均有重要意义。     

论国际环境犯罪与国家刑事责任的承担

国际环境犯罪正严重威胁着人类的生存环境,国际社会已意识到各国应共同合作,以刑法的手段保护我们的家园。但是,国家在特定情况下能否对特定环境犯罪行为承担国家刑事责任,学界至今未能达成一致意见。鉴此,从理论的角度阐述国际环境犯罪的范围,并对国家承担刑事责任的必要性和法定要件进行界定．将有助于问题的妥善解决。