A Review of Volume 5 of the Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics,Parts III and IV

This paper reviews parts III and IV of the recent Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics. Many of the surveys within the Handbook relate to two phenomena of interest: the recent boom and bust cycle in U.S. housing markets, and the striking growth of home prices in a few global “Superstar Cities.” Real Estate and Urban economists have made progress in modeling these phenomena. There is considerable room for future research, however. There is no coherent story explaining U.S. home price movements in the 2000s that does not run afoul of important stylized facts. We also have not yet identified the relative importance of supply constraints and demand growth in the rise of Superstar City prices.     

The Hemeila Riddle: Genealogical Reconfigurations of Pre-colonial Encounters in Southwestern Mauritania

This article will focus on a seldom-considered aspect of Saharan social contexts: the incorporation of European/Christian characters into tribal sociopolitical frameworks. Supported by data from my fieldwork, I will discuss contemporary portrayals of a mid-seventeenth-century woman, Hemeila, whose mother is recognized as a European Christian of Iberian origin. These two women are presently incorporated in different genealogical narratives from Southwestern Mauritania. The research dealt with in this article also relates to discussions of social hierarchy familiar to Mauritania’s Arabophone populations, with a particular focus on groups holding a “religious” (zwaya) status. Additionally, this article discusses the role of the anthropologist as a producer of social facts, which in this context has led to a direct intervention in the reassessment of Saharan historical traditions.     

Aeroponic gardens and their magic: Plants/persons/ethics in suspension

Out of the fire bombed ruins and food deprivation of the Second World War came one innovator’s prototype for growing edible plants, suspended above earth and requiring a minimum of water. His aeroponic apparatus would later be referred to as The Genesis Machine, from the movie Star Trek II. This paper travels with roots in air into different spheres where the relations of persons, plants, and technology conspire to place future – growing into ethical suspension. The aim is to open questions for an anthropocenic future: Are plants ‘for’ persons or persons ‘for’ plants? Is it ethical to separate growing plants from earth/Earth and from earthlings? Where might ‘responsible innovation’ and ‘innovative eclecticism’ find a place in post-genomic discourse? And might a commitment to a dividual ethics guide lives in co-becoming to devise (as Latour recognizes in like terms) a scitech-diplomacy capable of resisting the programmatic pressures of new climatic regimes?     

内蒙古自治区成立之历史考察

本文通过对第二次世界大战后中国共产党统一内蒙古的过程的分析,论述了１９４７年５月１日内蒙古自治政府成立的意义。着重考察了内蒙古的政府组织与政党组织建立的相关问题以及中国共产党统一内蒙古与实行民族区域自治之间的关系。     

建设公共服务型政府之我见

建设公共服务型政府,是发展社会主义市场经济、贯彻和落实科学发展观、实现社会和谐发展的客观要求。目前,我国在建设公共服务型政府方面,既取得了明显的成就,也存在着一些亟待解决的问题。笔者认为,建设公共服务型政府,必须转变执政理念,改进服务方式,提高行政能力,转变行政职能。     

The British Parliamentary Labour Party and the Government of Ireland Act 1920

Immediately after the First World War the British Labour Party was forced to reconsider its relationship with an increasingly militant Irish nationalism. This reassessment occurred at the same time as it was becoming a major political and electoral force in post‐war Britain. The political imperative from the party's perspective was to portray itself as a responsible, moderate and patriotic alternative governing party. Thus it was fearful of the potential negative impact of too close an association with, and perceived sympathy for, extreme Irish nationalism. This explains the party's often bewildering changes in policy on Ireland at various party conferences in 1919 and 1920, ranging from support for home rule to federalism throughout the United Kingdom to ‘dominion home rule’ as part of a wider evolving British Commonwealth to adopting outright ‘ self‐determination’ for a completely independent Ireland outside both United Kingdom and empire. On one aspect of its Irish policy, however, the party was adamant and united – its opposition to the partition of Ireland, which was the fundamental principle of Lloyd George's Government of Ireland Bill of 1920 which established Northern Ireland. Curiously, that aspect of Labour's Irish policy was never discussed in the party at large. All the running was made by the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in the house of commons in 1920. The PLP's outright opposition to the bill acted as balm throughout the wider party, binding together the confusing, and often contradictory, positions promulgated on the long‐term constitutional future of Ireland and its relationship with Britain.     

湖湘文化视域下的刘显世

文化以稳定的心理积淀隐藏在人的心灵世界中,并形成固定的文化观念支配人的一切,以至于人在日常的思维和行为方式中都会表现出鲜明的文化特征。刘显世是民国时期贵州督军、省长,“兴义系”军阀的领军人物,其祖籍为湖南,他在深受湖湘文化影响的大家族中成长起来,湖湘文化作为一种固定的心理意识在支配着他,并形成其文化品格,这就使其思维及行为方式都表现出鲜明的湖湘文化的特征,那就是：兴办教育、重视人才;尚变求新、机敏睿智;经世致用、勇于任事。本文通过文化人类学的解读对他一生作出最合乎逻辑的阐释。     

南京国民政府时期国营煤矿事业经营的典型——以建设委员会与淮南煤矿为例的考察

南京国民政府时期国营事业的经营均不甚理想,然而20世纪30年代,在安徽北部怀远、凤台与寿县三县交界处,南京国民政府建设委员会自主开发经营的淮南煤矿,经营管理却颇为良好,它在一定程度上是建设委员会经营首都电厂与戚墅堰电厂所需燃料和京沪杭一带出现能源供应紧张的必然结果。建设委员会通过对淮南煤矿6年的精心经营,使其成为抗战前华东地区最大的煤矿。淮南煤矿的开发与经营,使20世纪30年代京沪杭一带能源供应紧张的形势得到了一定程度的缓和,尤其重要和明显的是,它使安徽中北部的经济得到了迅速发展,从而直接促成了皖北一个新的工业城市——淮南的形成。     

试论抗战时期国民政府的粮食供应与配给

抗战时期,为了支持抗战,维持军心民心,确保国统区人民生活的基本稳定,国民政府在实施田赋征实的基础上对全国军公民粮实行定量供应和配给。这一战时特殊粮食统制措施的实施,保障了抗战后期军粮民食的供应,稳定了后方社会秩序,成效较为明显,为坚持抗战作出了一定贡献。     

中国国民党“党国”体制述评

在西方政党政治潮流及苏俄体制的影响下,中国国民党总理孙中山形成了一套颇有特色的"党治"理念,为此后中国国民党执政体制奠定了理论基础.1926年,广州国民政府初步建立起中国历史上第一个"党国"体制.1927年4月,伴随着南京国民政府成立和全国统一,中国国民党继续实施其"党国"体制."党国"体制的核心在于,作为执政党的中国国民党,以党的意识形态作为治国的基本原则,以"党政双轨制"的权力管理体系作为自上而下的行政运作模式.这一独具特色的行政管理体制,既是西方政党政治理念特别是苏俄政党体制进入中国政坛的结果,也是传统中国政治文化与西方现代政党体制及理念相互作用的产物.由于理念与利益的分化,"党国"体制不仅形成了中国现代政治制度及其运作模式的重大变革,成为中国国民党统治体系内党、政、军利益纷争的根源,也由于党、政两条管理系统并存且关系滞碍而导致行政成本倍增,进而演变为中国国民党政治制度上的一大顽症.