贪污:文化的?抑或制度的?——西方学者关于清代贪污的研究

有关清代贪污的记述与研究在西方世界中并不鲜见.西方传教士和商人一踏上中国这块土地,与地方或中央政权相关机构直接或间接地接触后,贪污的研究也便开始了.     

Local Democracy and Local Government Efficiency: The Case of Elected Executives in Australian Local Government

In the international context it has been argued that institutional reform to leadership in local government can improve the sector in terms of both its democratic legitimacy and its operational efficiency. In Australia, despite two decades of far-reaching reform processes across state government jurisdictions, focused heavily on structural change, local government still faces daunting problems, yet the potential of reform to political leadership as a method of alleviating these problems has not been fully explored. This paper thus examines the applicability of alternative leadership models to Australian local government, in particular the elected executive model which characterises some American and European local government systems. We argue that the introduction of elected executives could prove problematic in terms of accountability and representation in Australian local government.     

The Consequences for Wilderness Conservation in the Development of the National Park System in Tasmania,Australia

Statewide extents of wilderness are mapped and calculated for four historic time‐slices that reflect major periods of national park development in Tasmania. The representation of wilderness in the Tasmanian reserve system is calculated for 1937, 1970 and 1992. National parks were established in wilderness areas during all major periods of reserve development. While the total core wilderness area in Tasmania decreased by 63% between 1916 and 1992, the core wilderness area captured in the reserve system increased by 618%, with the largest increase being in the post‐1970 period. However, those parks established prior to 1970 suffered an enormous attrition of their wilderness resource. This reflects man‐agement policies inconsistent with the maintenance of wilderness during early periods of national park development. The huge increase in wilderness area captured in the reserve system after 1970 suggests that wilderness conservation only became a significant motive behind the expansion of the reserve system in the later decades of the twentieth century.     

Inter-Firm Linkages and Regional Impact of Transnational Corporations: Company Case Studies from Shanghai, China

By undertaking two company case studies in Shanghai, this article reveals that the actual regional impact of direct investment from TNCs is much greater than FDI data themselves may indicate. Such impact extends far beyond foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) as well as the invested regions. The joint venture with the local side controlled by a regional government tends to have fewer suppliers from other regions than the other with the local side owned by a state ministry. Through the extensive linkage networks with FIEs, industrial growth, technology transfer, management improvement and job creation have been indeed spread over many domestic enterprises. The government in the relevant region should employ proper measures to develop these linkages, especially in regions that have difficulties in attracting TNC investment. The two companies studied mirror the general situation in the automotive and the electronics industries, respectively. Further study on the indirect supply linkages with FIEs appears inviting.     

Control Over Government: Institutional Isomorphism and Governance Dynamics in German Public Administration

The era of public management change is said to challenge traditional "command and control" modes of governance, encouraging a move toward either more informal forms of (co-) governance or market-type incentives and competition. Regardless of whether these claims are made by reform advocates or by more sceptical observers within the wider governance debate, less attention has been paid by either side on the mechanisms that are supposed to facilitate the spread of new forms of control. This article seeks to advance this state of affairs in two ways. First, it utilizes the notion of institutional isomorphism to explore the nature of change of modes of control. In particular, it assesses the mechanisms for change, whether control mechanisms are changing due to coercive, mimetic, or professional mechanisms. Second, it explores the impact of these mechanisms in the federal context of Germany in two policy domains, prison and local government supervision (in the field of building administration). Finally, this article suggests that cultural theory offers considerable insights for the study of institutional isomorphism by emphasizing conflicting worldviews and the diversity of related policy ideas as driving forces of change in modes of governance.     

The Club of Rome A Case Study of Institutional Innovation

Abstract

The Club of Rome had its origin in 1967 when Dr Aurelio Peccei, an Italian industrialist, met the present author, a British scientist. They agreed on what later became the central concern of the Club of Rome: to find solutions to the tangle of interacting problems, now facing all mankind. So far the Club's greatest impact on world opinion was the report it commissioned from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Limits to Growth. The interdisciplinary concept is predominant in this and the Club's five subsequent reports. Regular meetings of Club members with Heads of States and other high officials is a further important activity; all these aspects are here fully reviewed. Like its small and local precursor, the Lunar Society of Binningham, two hundred years ago, the international Club of Rome derives its strength from its eminent membership of private citizens, working together as a catalyst and a spur to the world's conscience without budget, organization or constitution. They desire no political power nor do they invoke any new ideology.     

Transnational Corporations,Industrial Policy and the ‘War of Incentives’: The Case of the Argentine Automobile Industry

In the context of intensified internationalization of production, automobile firms in Argentina face a profoundly different structure of incentives to the prior decades of import substitution industrialization. Recent policies in the Argentine auto industry have been aimed at a recovery through a reorientation towards exports. Two initiatives set the context for changes during the 1990s: an industry–government–labour agreement and the implementation of a commercial partnership with Brazil. The dramatic recovery of the sector is an apparent validation of the policies implemented. This article questions this recovery by drawing on case‐study work at a number of auto plants and components suppliers. The effects of these policies on changes in the structure of production and industry and on externalities supporting domestic firms are examined. Lessons are drawn for the role of government policy in supporting the contribution of transnational corporations to domestic technological and organizational development.     

Economic Restructuring,Coping Strategies and Social Change: Implications for Institutional Development in Africa

Since the early 1980s, most African countries have experienced unsatisfactory rates of economic growth and profound changes in livelihood systems, which have affected the way their modern institutions function. However, when confronted with evidence of poor economic performance in countries undergoing adjustment, the international financial institutions often blame governments for their lack of political will in regulating the activities of bureaucrats and vested interests. They recommend policies aimed at restructuring public sector institutions through privatization, public expenditure cuts, retrenchment, new structures of incentives and decentralization. Despite efforts to implement these measures in a number of countries, the problems of low institutional capacity remain. Two key contradictions appear to explain why institutions have been largely ineffective in crisis economies in Africa: the growing contradiction between the interests of bureaucratic actors and the goals they are supposed to uphold; and the contradiction between the institutional set-up itself and what goes on in the wider society. To understand how these contradictions work, it is necessary to look more closely at the set of values and relationships that anchor institutions on social systems. The issues here are social compromise and cohesion; institutional socialization and loyalties; overarching sets of values; and political authority to enforce rules and regulations. The crises in these four areas of social relations, which are linked to the ways households and groups have coped with recession and restructuring, have altered Africa's state institutions so that it has become difficult to carry out meaningful development programmes and public sector reforms without addressing the social relations themselves.     

Forty-Two Degrees South: The Archaeology of Late Pleistocene Tasmania

Over the past 18 years the results of archaeological field research in many parts of Australia have challenged the view of late Pleistocene archaeological unity and homogeneity. Debates are increasingly focused on issues of identifying regional behavioral variability and away from a normalization of Australia's prehistory. Prior notions of cultural transformations from simple (late Pleistocene) to complex (late Holocene) social behaviors, technological homogeneity, and the timing of colonization are being increasingly scrutinized. One such area that has become a spearhead of this challenge is Tasmania, which continues to demonstrate its ability to confront preconceptions about the nature of past human behaviors.     

Challenging the Australian Government Approach Towards Expatriate Voting: The Case of Italy

In 1999 the Australian government dropped its objections to the Italian legislation that contemplated postal voting and parliamentary representation for its Italian citizens resident abroad. This was a significant turning point for the Australian government approach on the question of voting rights for expatriate communities in Australia voting in their homeland elections. Based on undisclosed government sources and interviews with former Australian diplomatic and government officials, this paper will recall and examine the Australian government's reaction to the Italian political debates leading up to, and eventual passage of, the Italian expatriate vote legislation.