Beyond royal politics: state transformation and foreign policy in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi politics is commonly portrayed as reflecting a system of centralised personal rule in which decision-making power trickles down from the tightly knit power circles within the House of Saud. In contrast, this paper draws attention to the empowerment of quasi-autonomous state organisations in Saudi Arabia as a result of state transformation and regional integration. At its most extreme, state transformation in Saudi Arabia has created institutional and regulatory enclaves with vested interests and areas of competence that cross Saudi borders. This paper illustrates the foreign policy ramifications of transformed statehood in Saudi attempts to further Gulf regional integration in the context of the Gulf Monetary Union project.     

美国工会对中美经贸关系的影响

近年来,美国工会对国际经贸乃至世界经济的影响日益凸现,我国政府和企业应积极采取相应措施积极应对。本文分析了美国工会的特点及对中美经贸活动的影响,并提出了一些应对之策。     

对建立健全劳动关系三方协商机制的思考

在我国建立健全劳动关系三方机制中充分认识三方协商机制的重要意义,规范三 方协商的内容、职责和企业方代表的主体地位,强化机制建设,提高工作水平。     

培育公民文化

作为一种现代政治文化,公民文化是民主政治的文化基础.公民文化以民主的价值理性和形式理性为基本理念,又包容了民主的社会心理基础,对民主政治影响深刻.中国应培育与民主政治相适应的、有中国特色的社会主义公民文化.     

The evolution of European legal integration

This article contributes to the development of theories on European integration by testing and exploring statistical models on the long-term development of legislative activity of the European Commission. Drawing on legal information gained from the European Union’s PreLex database and analyzing it with the help of statistical analyses, we map out growth patterns of EU law between 1976 and 2003. We construct time-series models and models based on non-linear regression. While the performance of models based on the traditional theoretical approaches, intergovernmentalism and neo-functionalism, is rather poor, the analysis suggests that nonlinear dynamic models might be an interesting avenue for future conceptualizations of the EU integration process. This article is based on a paper presented at the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union Second Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, “Implications of a Wider Europe: Politics, Institutions and Diversity”, 24–26 June 2004, Bologna, Italy. We would like to thank the seminar participants for useful comments.     

关于构建工会文化的认识与探讨

王兆国主席在全总十四届十三次主席团(扩大)会议上的讲话中指出,工会组织应在构建共同建设、共同享有和谐社会的进程中,充分发挥工人阶级和工会组织的积极作用,推动建设社会主义核心价值体系这个和谐文化的根本,大力推动和发展先进的工会文化,充分展现工人阶级的先进性。因此,我们应深刻认识到创建工会文化是现实的要求、是历史的选择、是未来的呼唤。创建工会文化还必须知晓工会文化的内涵、特征和作用,了解工会文化的核心,探索创建工会文化的路径,真正把共建共享的要求落到实处。     

社会转型过程中的中国工会

中国从计划经济到市场经济的变革,对社会生活的各个方面都产生了巨大的影响。在这个社会转型期中产权关系、劳动关系、社会结构等方面所发生的一系列的重大变化,对中国工会来说是挑战也是机遇。中国工会要抓住机遇,勇于创新,发挥自己应有的重要作用。     

论欧盟法对欧盟成员国的效力

作为目前世界上最成熟和最发达的区域性国际组织,欧盟在很多方面有值得其他国际组织借鉴的地方。本文主要探讨了欧盟法对欧盟成员国的效力的问题。其中包括了欧盟法对欧盟成员国的时间效力范围和空间效力范围、欧盟法的效力优于欧盟成员国国内法、欧盟法在欧盟成员国的直接效力和间接效力以及欧盟法律与欧盟成员国法律之间的配合关系效力,以希望从中可以引出一些有益的启示。     

Democracy and the governing party (执政党): A theoretical perspective

The Fourth Plenum of the Communist Party of China held in September 2004 outlined a course of reform aimed at establishing the Party as a permanent governing party (zhizheng dang 执政党). This aim shares some of the values and procedures of legislative democracy, but is fundamentally different in structure. There are no existing cases of party-state democracy as envisioned in the governing party idea, so the theoretical question is asked, is party-state democracy possible? The paper considers the course of development and the limitations of the theory of legislative democracy and contrasts it to the course of Chinese political development. It then presents the essential elements of a democratic system, concluding with a discussion of the feasibility of party-state democracy.     

西方新城市管理：理论轮廓与反思

近十几年来,公共服务途径经历了重大转型。一个多世纪建立起来的公共服务精神受到了新公共管理理论的挑战。新公共管理理论主要依赖私部门管理实践,强调将竞争引入公共服务领域的重要性。实践中,新公共管理力求将市民(公民)定义为产品的消费者或公共服务提供者的顾客。研究显示,尽管新公共管理运动促进了某些城市服务的改进,但也存在严重局限。主要表现在它不能释放改进公共服务的关键动力———市民和社区能量。作为一个整体,城市领导者与管理者在重塑公共服务改革议程中有着关键作用。作为改进城市治理质量,必须处理3大关键挑战。并将这一途径称为“新城市管理”,以寻求管理变革与地方政治复兴的融合。