Employees Amidst Welfare Reform

SUMMARY

The impact of welfare reform on organizational functioning at the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) is measured between 1999 and 2000 using a longitudinal survey method, a large sample of employees, and multiple regression analysis. During this one year period the agency experienced a change in leadership as well as had to contend with the evolving requirements associated with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The findings indicate that a trusted leadership and an organizational climate that is receptive to and fosters effective communication can improve the chances of successfully implementing large-scale organizational change like that created by the PRWORA.     

大陆会议委员会制度的演变及影响

委员会制度是当代美国国会运作的重要方式之一，起着举足轻重的作用。这种作用在美国早期具有国会性质的大陆会议中已初见端倪。大陆会议时期的委员会制度，在当时解决了早期美国发展过程中的大量国家事务，同时由于它自身存在诸多弊端，无法根本解决大陆会议所面临的很多问题。但是，这一时期委员会制度的形成与演变是一种创新性实践，不但影响了未来邦联国会的运作，更重要的是，它的实践有助于推动行政机构与立法机构的分离，对美国早期政府体制构建起了重要作用。     

AsianWORKs

ABSTRACT

Achieving economic self-sufficiency through employment is the ultimate goal of recent changes to the welfare program. The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population is most vulnerable to failing in this goal because of language difficulty, low education levels and lack of job skills in the labor market. Many AAPI immigrants, and Southeast Asian Americans in particular, suffer from adjustment and mental health problems due to their experiences as refugees. These are but a few of the obstacles for AAPI welfare recipients to become self-sufficient, making them one of the most “hard-to-serve” populations. The goal of self-sufficiency through employment can be reached if culturally appropriate and adequate support services are provided to meet the unique needs of the population. Few programs, however, are targeted at AAPIs. Using key-informant interviews and the case material review method, this article highlights the difficulties of AAPI welfare recipients and describes a unique program serving the Southeast Asian American, particularly the Cambodian, population. The article focuses on the program components of outreach and engagement, day socialization and job readiness, and family support services, and it discusses improvement to service access and lessons learned for the practice of cultural competence.     

中国公共应急管理体制中的媒体参与分析——以王家岭矿难救援及其后续事件为例

作为中国突发公共事件应急管理体制中参与机制的主体之一,媒体在当今社会扮演着愈发重要的角色。回顾2010年初＂3.28＂王家岭矿难救援及其后续一系列事件并加以分析,可见媒体的参与表现在诸多层面上。在公共应急管理体制中,媒体正向功能的发挥对政府开展公共应急管理具有极大帮助,然而媒体在参与公共应急管理中也存在一些困境。因此,从媒体自身和政府及其他参与主体双重角度进行反思,选择适当的路径,使媒体可以更好地参与公共应急管理工作,中国公共应急管理体制也会得到相应改善。     

德日动产让与担保制度构建比较研究及借鉴

德国日本的让与担保制度都是为了充分发挥物的经济功能,适应经济需要.德国在构建让与担保制度时,既重视物、权利的"经济所有权"的实质,同时毫不忽略"法律所有权"在制度中的权利制衡价值,使让与担保制度在法律的框架下得到合乎法理逻辑的充分调整,发挥了良好的制度价值,实现了法的安定性与合目的性.日本则在让与制度构建中出现了从所有权构成到担保权构成的转变,这一转变也是从唯法律性到唯经济性变化的过程,呈现出极端化的特点,在追求合目的性的过程中违反了法安定性的要求,对习惯法在形成和持续发展的破坏性不容忽视.两国的制度发展为我国的让与担保制度构建提供了良好的借鉴作用.     

观念竞合与国际体系的变迁

观念在国际关系中的作用及重要性已是不言而喻。在过去的四百多年里，国家主义和保守主义分别主导、塑造了威斯特伐利亚体系及维也纳体系，而威尔逊式的理想主义虽然塑造了凡尔赛—华盛顿体系，但主导该时期的却是激进主义。直到雅尔塔体系时期，民族主义才终于打败了帝国主义，自由主义则成功战胜了极权主义。因此，国际体系确立的背后是观念分配竞合的结果，是主流观念取向在竞合中占据主导地位的过程。观念作为深层次因素，始终是影响、塑造国际体系的更新与变迁的不可或缺的力量。     

论清末立宪从官制改革入手之误

晚清政府欲从改革官制入手推动立宪,结果官制改革遭遇了来自官僚群体的强大阻力,在最高统治者慈禧立场转变之后,官制改革无可避免地走向龙头蛇尾的结局.虽有改变,但根本未动,效果有限,非但不能廓清积弊,反使积弊愈积愈多,愈演愈烈.龙头蛇尾的官制改革重挫晚清政府的统治威信,使其立宪之路更加艰难,自救的机会更为渺茫.清末立宪首先应做的不是改革官制,而是开议院,扩大政治参与,增强改革的力量.立宪从官制入手,无议院为助力,官制难改,立宪难行;立宪从开议院入手,先有议院,则官制可改,立宪可行.     

Workfare Oz-Style

Summary

Traditional approaches to the promotion of welfare have disappeared in Australia, replaced by a new institutional order represented by welfare-cum-workfare. This has impacted on social work—both as a collective entity and as a set of practices. This paper maps the shift to workfare in Australia and examines its impacts on and implications for social work. We briefly discuss the Australian model of social protection, illustrating our own brand of “exceptionalism,” and lay out what we have termed “Workfare Oz-style.” Drawing upon neo-institutional theory, we review and analyze two key contexts where “Workfare Oz-style” is operationalized—the Job Network and Centrelink. Some tentative conclusions are given and the dimensions of a research agenda, which will put any emerging propositions to empirical test, are proposed.     

现代科学技术发展之哲学思考

现代科学技术的发展 ,尤其是信息技术、生物技术和新材料技术发展十分迅猛 ,而控制论、信息论和系统论又为现代科学技术的发展提供了崭新的思想和方法 ,推动了各门边缘学科和综合性学科的发展 ,并随着人类认识功能的深化 ,以及科学研究方法的不断完善 ,越来越深刻地反映着大自然、人类和社会的真实图景。     

An Enhanced Double MEWMA Controller for Drifted MIMO Systems

For a drifted multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) system, the double multivariate exponentially weighted moving average (dMEWMA) controller is a popular run-to-run (RTR) controller for adjusting the process mean to a desired target. The stability and performance of dMEWMA controller had been widely studied in literature. Although the dMEWMA controller (with suitable discount matrices) can guarantee long-term stability, it usually requires a moderately large number of runs to bring the process output to approach its desired target if the initial recipe is not chosen appropriately. Due to the initial recipe possibly having an infinite number of feasible solutions for MIMO systems, “how to determine an optimal setting for the initial recipe” turns out to be an interesting research topic. In this article, by solving a constrained optimization problem, we first obtain an optimal initial setting for the input recipe. Then, motivated by this setting, we propose an enhanced dMEWMA controller. The long-term stability conditions and short-term performance of the proposed controller are also addressed. Given a fixed and finite production run, it reveals that the proposed controller has the ability of reducing total mean squared error (TMSE) better than the conventional dMEWMA controller.