Competition between regional governments and the federal culture of fiscal equalisation

Since federation, regional economic development in Australia has been shaped by fiscal competition among state and Commonwealth governments. Variations in the fiscal capacity of the different governments to provide goods and services, together with the Commonwealth's increased revenue collection powers since 1942, has led to vigorous political competition between the states over their share of the general purpose funds through a process known as fiscal equalisation. The state premiers themselves have been at the forefront of the debates over fiscal equalisation and, as events surrounding the 1992 June Premiers’ Conference have indicated, competition over an equitable share of the fiscal resources highlights the strong federal orientation of economic development. The aim of this paper is first, to explain the significance of the Commonwealth Grants Commission's equalisation process in the wider economic and political context of competitive state federalism and, second, to explain the historical importance of regional political values that contribute to the shape of state economic developments.     

我国政府角色归位的对策和建议——以湖南省情为研究背景

我国政府角色归位应该从影响政府定位因素的诸多关系出发。从处理政府与社会关系来看,要落实好以人为本;从处理政府与市场关系来看,要谋划好市场规划;从处理好政府与社会关系来看,要培育好公民社会;从处理好政府与政党关系看,要调整好权力格局;从处理好政府与自然关系来看,要坚持科学发展观。     

Innovation vs inertia: Entrepreneurial governments in 21st-century rural Alberta

Rural development in Alberta is a long-standing challenge, with local communities and economies often stuck between economic cycles, fiscal largesse from the Provincial Government, and a historical pattern of conservative leadership that seeks to leave the private sector unimpeded. As a result, many rural communities now face significant economic, social, political, and ecological challenges that, while not unique to Alberta, are marked by only modest innovation and a tendency to return to previous developmental initiatives. This paper is focused upon identifying the common challenges facing municipal government in the province, but also accounting for the inertial dynamics within municipal politics. Drawing from qualitative data collected from rural municipalities, it seeks to situate contemporary adaptive economic strategies and initiatives within the dominant public ideology of the province. This paper argues that while reform initiatives undertaken in the province broadly align with pragmatic municipalism as a necessary response to decades of neoliberal austerity and inertia, that pragmatism is tempered by a provincial rationality that limits, rather than enhances, the likelihood of meaningful change. This rationality, and its effects, are explained through four fallacies: home rule, agency, the Golden Age, and homogeneity.     

Power or policy: a comparative study of the cohesion of Italian coalition governments in the First and Second Republics

In the 1990s the Italian political system witnessed momentous changes that have severely impinged upon the country's political parties and party system. What has been the resulting effect on the cohesion of Italian governing coalitions? Has the effect on the nature and workings of governing coalitions been a product of the changing motivations of political parties? This article attempts to tackle the following questions by using the general framework of several formal coalition theories complemented with an analysis of the specific features of the Italian political context.     

Transnational turns for archaeological heritage: From conservation to development,governments to governance

National sentiments have historically overwhelmed global ones in the modern era. Archaeology was born in the service of the nation-state, as a technical means for engaging with the past within a specific calculus of territory, sovereignty, and nationhood. Significant shifts are currently underway, however, towards transnational modes and mechanisms of governance that have arisen in the wake of international dysfunction and neoliberal reforms. Within this emerging field of action it is development, rather than conservation, that shapes the diverse work of archaeological practice in the world. Transnational sociopolitical contexts for archaeological practice most visibly gained traction with multilateral development banks’ turn to heritage development in the 1990s, built around the tenets of participation, capacity-building, and sustainability. From these roots a second generation of concerns has emerged—transnational communities, heritage rights, and global climate change—for archaeological practice attuned to a “politics of engagement” (Mullins 2011 Mullins, P. R. 2011. “Practicing Anthropology and the Politics of Engagement: 2010 Year in Review,” American Anthropologist 113(2): 235–245. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01327.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in a transnational key.     

关于日俄战争历史地位的再认知

1904-1905年的日俄战争是当代东北亚地区国际格局形成的一个起点。从政治思想史的若干范畴来探讨日俄战争在国际关系史上的历史地位,诸如帝国和帝国主义、东方和西方、民族主义和宪政革命、亚洲区域主义、战争中的超国家和非国家行为体等等,有助于对这一问题的理解,并取得对于当代国际关系发展和中国对东北亚地区的战略和政策的若干启示。     

清末银钱比价波动与地方官府赋税征解(1901-1911)

清末十余年间,在国内外种种因素交互作用下,银钱比价波动具有阶段性特征与区域性特征.受银钱比价波动阶段性的影响,地方各级官府的赋税征解经历了一个由征钱解银到征银解银发展演变的过程.地方各级官府在赋税征收中私自采取的种种抑勒浮收行径,是造成银钱比价波动具有区域性特征的不可或缺的因素.地方官府财政税收行为与货币金融市场之间构成一种复杂的恶性互动关系.这种恶性互动关系的进一步发展演变,则导致清末币制更趋紊乱,吏治更加腐败,国家财政日益困窘,商贸运营严重受阻,民生愈益艰难,从而大大加剧清政府统治的危机.     

豳公盨与益启传说的再认识

豳公盨铭文的再读,对弄清迄今争讼不绝的启益关系的悬案的来源有很大帮助。现存的战国以后文献的分析与豳公盨铭文的佐证指向“启干益位”说;“益干启位”说有可能是源于西周中期以后,人们对豳公盨“益奸懿德”一句的误读;“益启揖让”是孟子对上古时代禅让故事的深化。     

Questions of deception: contested understandings of the polls on WMD,political leaders and governments in Australia,Britain and the United States

The weapons of mass destruction (WMD) Saddam Hussein was said to possess were central to the justification the Australian Prime Minister gave for Australia's decision to go to war in Iraq. When no WMD materialised, poll data suggested that the public felt misled. But the same data suggested that support for both the government and the Prime Minister was unaffected. Among critics of the war, this generated a moral panic about Australian democracy and the Australian public—its commitment to the end justifying the means, its failure to receive a lead from the Labor Party, its widespread apathy. It also led to an intense debate about why the charge of not telling the truth had weakened public support for Blair and Bush but not for Howard. This article explores the concerns expressed by critics of the war in the face of polling that suggested that Australians were prepared to support a government and its leader that had misled them—deliberately or otherwise. It raises questions about the contrasts drawn between polled opinion in Australia, Britain and the United States. And it argues that the differences in the pattern of opinion across the three countries were not marked and that what had cost governments support were views about how the war was going, not the failure to find WMD.     

宝宁寺明代水陆画造型艺术再认识

水陆画虽然大部分是反映神佛鬼魅、天堂地狱的宗教画,但其中不乏反映人世的悲苦、恐惧和怜悯,表现众生的感叹、虔诚,以及渴望美好生活的现实画。复制水陆画的过程也是心灵崇拜的过程,这里不仅仅有绘画技巧,还有一种与原画作的精神互通。从这些水陆画中,不难感受到古代民间匠人在幽暗的寺庙里默默无闻的挑灯作画,终其一生。他们甚至没有留下自己的姓名,却给后人留下了一大批珍贵的物质文化遗产。     

明刘彦昺生卒年考略

刘彦昺是元末明初的一位名士,其生卒年一直未得其详。今据嘉靖十二年刘氏六世孙刘塾刻本《春雨轩集》所载《自序墓志铭》及文后刘氏后裔之小注,考定刘彦昺生于元文宗至顺二年(1331)九月初三日卯时,卒于明洪武三十二年(1399)四月初三日寅时。     

汉语 汉字 汉文化的投射

汉语、汉字与汉文化联系十分紧密,极为广泛,汉字不仅反映了先民的礼仪、制度、风俗、艺术,而且通过汉字记录的汉语词汇折射出汉民族灿烂的历史文化。     

德国承认汪伪国民政府史料一组

本组史料包括德国外交部与驻日使馆、驻北京代表处来往电,反应了德国在承认汪伪国民政府问题上的态度,可供研究参考。     

Recognition and Classification of Urban Shapes

This paper is concerned with a methodology that is able to recognize and classify geometric shapes, in particular urban shapes. The main objective of this study is to develop a shape index that will address Whyte's category of “spatial form” (1968), that is, the external appearance or outward form, in contrast with the “internal form,” which is the structural form. We first review methodologies of shape recognition and classification. Next, we propose a viable formulation for such an endeavor by drawing from the aforementioned methodologies, and we aim to overcome some of their limitations by formulating a new index. We will apply the resulting shape index to an illustrative case in order to recognize urban shapes.     

对清代朝贡体制地位的再认识

长期以来朝贡制度被认为是古代中国与边疆民族及周边国家和地区交往的惟一持久而普遍的关系,但却忽视了这一制度本身的发展特点,尤其忽视了朝贡制度在明清两代的差别。本文认为,清代虽然延续了明代的朝贡制度,但实质已经转化为一种处理与周边国家关系的政治方式,剔除了明代中原王朝与边疆民族之间、中国与西洋诸国之间形成的藩属关系,且朝贡中的贸易性质也远不同于明朝。本文对学术界混淆朝贡体制与朝贡贸易体制的观点进行了批驳,阐述了清代朝贡体制的地位与特点。     

殖民文化视角下的“协和语”认识

出现在近代中日关系中的协和语,是一种伴随着殖民入侵而出现的语言现象,在一个世纪以上的历史跨度中,一方面极具生命力,是日本人与中国人民间语言交流的一种文化现实;另一方面,又是语言规律之外的一个怪胎,呈现出日本语与中国语混淆使用的基本面目,从未有过登堂入室的体面经历.本文从协和语概念的界定、协和语发展的三个不同阶段,以及作为殖民语言的本质特征等几个方面,讨论了关于协和语的初步认识.     

Political Structure and the Limits of Recognition and Representation in Ghana

Recent studies of democratization in sub‐Saharan Africa often focus on government recognition granted to traditional authorities. This article examines northern Ghana, where chiefs of a minority group are denied formal recognition but pressure state officials to recognize their status as land custodians. This leads to contests and debates between state officials, chiefs and communities over whether the customary institutions have in fact been recognized for what they claim to be. The article uses episodes of contention to nuance conceptualizations of recognition as a specific relationship between actors and institutions, and as a question of government policy or choice. Recognition and non‐recognition are contested in a grey zone of social constructions. Non‐recognition persists as a continuation of colonial policy, state law path trajectory, and state officials’ endeavours to stay out of ‘traditional’ affairs. However, customary rights to land are validated by the new local government institution, and chiefs use newfound positions to expand their jurisdictions. Stakeholders affirm unequal social categories underpinning different understandings of recognition. The article examines contentions that hinge on interpretations of who is recognizing and not recognizing whom, and actors’ efforts to reshape and reproduce political structures.     

《侯子钦墓志》释考

本文对侯子钦墓志原录文提出文字上的修改意见。考证侯子钦的家世及入周以前的任官,猜测侯子钦为北齐高氏亲信。考察侯子钦降周时的具体情形,认为齐军救援之不至,晋州“公私扰乱”的局面,周齐战略态势的强弱易势及其北齐朝政的昏乱是促使侯子钦降周的远近原因。而侯子钦的出降直接导致了晋州的陷落,对于周灭北齐而言,这是势关全局的转折点。侯子钦降周后所受的待遇印证了北周政权对北齐降人的政策：在灭齐战争中,优渥北齐降人;灭齐后,转而疑惧北齐降人。