Pension Reforms in Europe and Life-course Politics

In recent years, somewhat drastic pension reforms have taken place in all European countries. The pension systems developed in the last century are no longer considered to be suited to the changing demographic constellations in European countries, and the financial sustainability of these systems is under threat. Moreover, the changing political and economic set‐up in European countries is also used to justify reforming the different pension systems. Different reasons can be given to explain the various pension reform measures without, however, there being any integrated coherence. We suggest that a politics of social policy, and of pension policy in particular, based on a life‐course perspective, facilitates the understanding of the whole range of pension reform measures. In the past, the elaborated pension systems were attuned to a normative standard biography. A new standard biography, with different phases and more transitions and combinations, enables one to understand the variety of the ongoing pension reform measures. Such a life‐course perspective integrates sequences of learning, working and caring considered necessary for the polity. In other words, it is based on a conception of human potential, and it integrates, to some extent, the previously separate domains of labour market policy, education policy, care policy and pension policy. However, recent theoretical and empirical studies of the life course lead to a critical evaluation of the new standard biography, with the conclusion that the new standard is one‐sided and scientifically unsound, entailing challenges for social policy.     

Unravelling the Politics of Activation Reforms: Exploring the Unusual Israeli Trajectory

Contemporary active labour market (ALM) reforms are pivotal in the reorganization of the welfare state as they challenge and threaten some of the fundamental achievements of labour in capitalist societies: social programmes and entitlements that compensate for unemployment, and governance arrangements in which the social partners share authority and responsibility with the state. Consequently, ALM reforms may give raise to social unrest and political struggle that involves the state (the main proponent of ALM reforms), trade unions and political parties. These conflicts are important in the politicization of reforms, i.e. raising public awareness of and engagement with controversies of welfare state change. In this article, we use a non‐European perspective to ask more generally how distinct historical institutions create separate ‘politicization trajectories’ of ALM reforms, which in turn produce different policy designs and outcomes. Centring on the case of Israel, in which historically ‘abnormal’ class politics fostered indifference to the reform in both trade unions and political parties, we maintain that the preliminary de‐politicization made it possible for bureaucrats to control the reform, leading to an intra‐state conflict between competing agencies over its design and implementation. The usurpation of the reform by the Ministry of Finance made it conspicuously unbalanced, provoking many grievances. Paradoxically, the de‐politicization of the reform advanced its re‐politicization, led by non‐governmental advocacy organizations in civil society. These uncommon political actors in the politics of ALM reforms were able to lead a counter‐coalition, delegitimize the reform, and mobilize politicians to eventually terminate activation     

尼泊尔人口增长对社会发展的影响

近 2 0年来 ,尼泊尔的经济虽然有一定的增长 ,但人口增长的速度超过了经济增长的速度。人口增长对经济增长产生了负效应 ,人民群众的消费水平不升反降 ,同时在就业、住房、医疗、环境、生态等方面形成巨大压力。严重的失业现象已成为民众对政府不满的起因之一。不过 ,尼泊尔政府正在开始采取措施     

论1949-1957年北京市劳动就业制度变革

建国初期的失业压力引发了北京市劳动就业制度的变革,并最终建立起统一的劳动力介绍和招聘制度,从根本上解决了失业问题,提高了私营企业职工的政治和经济地位。这一变革在客观上推动了私营工商业社会主义改造的实现,但也对后来的经济发展产生了不利影响。     

Events,Politics and Patterns of Policy‐Making: Impact of Major Incidents on Health Sector Regulatory Reforms in the UK and Japan

This article examines the major malpractice incidents in the late 1990s through early 2000s in the UK and Japan, comparing how these incidents opened up pathways for a new type of hospital regulation in each case. Applying John Kingdon's three‐stream model of agenda‐setting and policy change, the article argues that governance arrangements as well as the policy instruments that a government has at its disposal determine how an event could be translated into a political agenda by throwing light on the problems within the public domain. The long‐term effect of such adverse events is therefore determined by how open the relevant institutional arrangements are, and is enhanced if actors constantly scrutinize the system by proactively setting the agenda. A higher level of political accountability in the UK led to British politicians taking a greater role in promoting patient‐led reforms than Japanese counterparts. However, a political system with clear accountability is more conscious of its own involvement and any potential blame it might receive for policy failures. Therefore, the political class could become more engaged in continuous reforms and the delegation of tasks rather than a constant search for remedial actions. The article sheds light on the interactive aspects of the particular triggering events discussed through the decade of regulatory developments in the two health‐care systems.     

北京市垃圾问题的系统动力学模拟分析

本文利用被称为战略与策略实验室的系统动力学方法,建立了北京市人口、经济与垃圾处理协调发展的系统动力学模型,探讨了人口随经济发展的变化、垃圾排放污染及占地损失、绿色GDP核算、居民家庭、企事业单位生活垃圾与建筑垃圾组合收费方案等问题。不仅为解决北京市人口与可持续发展问题提供了一个案例,对国内其他城市研究类似的问题也具有一定的借鉴意义。     

当前我国人口增长对经济社会发展的影响

本文着重从人口基数过大、就业人口增长过快、人口与资源环境不相协调这三个方面入手进行研究分析人口增长对经济社会发展的影响,坚持科学发展观,以人为本,统筹兼顾,以促使人口增长与经济社会发展相协调。     

人口发展规律与和谐社会建设

人口规律是随着社会经济条件的变化而变化的。在知识经济时代,世界的人口共同规律表现出一些新的特点。揭示这些规律,对于解决人口问题、构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要意义。     

透视中国的行政审判体制:问题与改革

行政审判体制问题是当前制约我国行政诉讼发展的重要因素 ,改革现行的行政审判体制已经成为我国司法改革的最主要内容之一。我国现行的行政审判体制面临的是全面性危机 ,问题突出表现为 :行政审判的独立性不强 ,法院在行政审判中的权威性严重缺乏 ,行政诉讼案件执行难 ;深层次来看 ,涉及到司法的地方化、司法的行政化、法官的官僚化等问题 ,使得行政审判中的司法公正难以实现。针对实践中暴露出的种种问题 ,文章在剖析成因后提出相应的对策 :在改革路径上应当推行整体性的结构化改革 ,在中国建构独立的行政法院制度才是改革的根本出路。     

When Past Reforms Open New Opportunities: Comparing Old-age Insurance Reforms in Bismarckian Welfare Systems

France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain have all gone through several waves of pension reforms both in the 1990s and in the early 2000s. Comparing the politics of these reforms shows some similar trends: reforms were usually postponed until European integration and/or economic recession forced governments to act. Before the first wave of reforms, the main form of ‘action’ had been to increase payroll taxes to finance pensions. In the 1990s, reforms were usually negotiated on the basis of a quid pro quo: benefits were intended progressively to decrease in exchange for non-contributory pensions being financed from general tax revenues instead of through the insurance schemes. The second wave of reforms (during the 2000s) seems to have brought more innovation, with new goals such as the development of voluntary private pension funds and the need to increase employment rates among the elderly and to stop early retirement. The article aims, first, to trace the political processes leading to these reforms; second, to reveal the commonalities in these processes between the various cases; and third, to highlight the differences between the first and second waves of pension reform. It will emphasize the role of ‘sequencing’ and demonstrate how each pension reform facilitates the adoption of the next one.     

Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World

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Philippa C. Maddern, Violence and Social Order in East Anglia 1422–1442 (1992), 270 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £35.00).

David Harris Sacks, The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450–1700 (1991), xxvii + 464 (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, $45.00).

Carla Hesse, Publishing and Cultural Politics in Revolutionary Paris, 1789–1810 (1991), xvi + 540 (University of California Press, Berkeley, $29.95).

Marc Baer, Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London (1992), xv + 291 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £37.50).

John Russell Stephens, The Profession of the Playwright: British Theatre 1800–1990 (1992), xix + 254 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £32.50).

Jonathan Sperber, Rhineland Radicals: The Democratic Movement and the Revolution of 1848–1849 (1991), xvi + 528 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, £27.50).

Donald Reid, Paris Sewers and Sewermen: Realities and Representations (1991), 235 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, £31.95).

Lenard Berlanstein, Big Business and Industrial Conflict in Nineteenth‐Century France: A Social History of the Parisian Gas Company (1991), xiv + 348 (University of California Press, Berkeley, $42.50).

Angela V. John, Our Mother's Land: Chapters in Welsh Women's History, 1830–1939 (1991), xiv + 216 (University of Wales Press, Cardiff £25.00, paperback £10.95).

Philip Jenkins, A History of Modern Wales, 1536–1990 (1992), x + 451 (Longman, £28.00, paperback £13.99).

David Ward, Poverty, Ethnicity, and the American City, 1840–1925. Changing Conceptions of the Slum and the Ghetto (1989), xiv + 263 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, paperback £9.95).

Temma Kaplan, Red City, Blue Period: Social Movements in Picasso's Barcelona (1992), xiv + 266 (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, $30.00).

Elizabeth Faue, Community of Suffering and Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915–1945 (1991), xviii + 295 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, $42.95, paperback $16.45).

Kathryn Bernhardt, Rents, Taxes, and Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Region, 1840–1950 (1992), 326 (Stanford University Press, Stanford, $37.50).

Susan Archer Mann, Agrarian Capitalism in Theory and Practice (1990), xiv + 211 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, $32.95).     

韦伯论技术政治及政治的实质

作为现代社会理论的开创者之一,韦伯从"知识宰制"(学术为业)、"心性结构"(新教伦理)以及"技术政治"(支配社会学的类型重建)等三个维度为"未竟的现代性事业"作出了巨大的贡献.其中,技术政治作为合法性论证的一条至关重要的理论进路体现在韦伯学说的各个角落.当代社会,政治科学使得政治的实质日益被中立化的知识和科学的话语外观所遮蔽,韦伯关于技术政治的论述不仅将这种外观以类型学的方式重新表述出来,而且引导我们对技术政治中政治的实质加以反思与追问.     

试析俄罗斯证券市场的改革与发展

金融体制改革是俄罗斯经济转轨的重要内容之一 ,也是俄罗斯为迎接经济全球化挑战并融入该进程而采取的一项重大举措。多年来 ,俄罗斯一直在不断探索如何建立适应社会经济发展需要的金融体制 ,并取得了一定的进展。金融体制已经发生了很大变化 ,不仅两级银行体制得以建立和发展 ,而且金融市场得到培育 ,金融自由化水平逐步提高 ,尤其是证券市场从无到有 ,从小到大 ,发展较为迅速。本文对俄罗斯证券市场的发展状况与特点进行了分析和评价 ,并提出了若干看法。