What is mixed in welfare mix? Welfare ideologies at stake in the Lithuanian case of social service delivery

The article deals with the development of social welfare and social services in Lithuania by describing cultural contexts and disclosing evaluations of social service providers and recipients and needs of social service delivery. The authors of the article discuss the changing role of the state, pose a question as to what the institutions and the actors are and to what extent should they participate in the creation of social welfare. One of the aims of this paper is to describe the development of the welfare mix in Lithuania, by showing that welfare is inevitably woven into the historical, economic, political and social context; the distinctive cultural configuration of the welfare mix in social services delivery in Lithuania is revealed. Empirical research (survey of social services recipients and providers) presented in the article discloses that actors of social services delivery experience tension and ambiguity between the demand of neoliberal policy to choose and be responsible and the expectation that the state will participate in the social service market. At the same time social services recipients and providers express a need for different actors to take an active part in the welfare system.     

Polish complementary schools in Iceland and England

Since 2004, the opening of labour markets has spurred a considerable number of Poles to emigrate e.g. to Iceland and England. Families with school age children have had the challenge of adapting to foreign environments and school systems. Polish complementary schools have played an important, albeit ambivalent, role in this process. Through focus group interviews with students in Polish complementary schools in one city in Iceland and one city in England, we gathered information showing common threads between both schools as well as differences in their structure, role, origin and the student motivation to participate. Saturday schools abroad are considered to be less demanding by students than regular schools back in Poland, but more so than regular Icelandic/English schools, which many rate as unsatisfactory in terms of their academic development. The tension between the need for freedom and high expectations for the academic outcome of education influences student opinions, not only about schooling, but also about the host society.     

法律原则的效力标准——基于系谱抑或内容?

法律的效力是法律存在的标志,因此法律原则的效力标准就是法律原则在本体论意义上的存在条件。德沃金主要借由法律原则在个案适用时相对于法律规则的特点,认定法律原则与规则之间的逻辑差异。然而,并不能由此简单地说法律原则的效力标准只是基于内容或道德论证的。实际上,同样存在基于系谱或来源的法律原则。同时,如果将法律原则的存在与其在个案中的适用剥离开来,则法律原则的存在即便需要借助道德论证,这种论证的过程本身也有可能是基于来源或系谱的。因此,法律原则与法律规则在本体论上的差异不应该被夸大。     

以“史”观“文”:抗战前清华国学院同学的古代文学研究

清华国学院在短短四年(1925～1929)间培养出诸多学有所成的学界中坚,形成20世纪文史研究领域的一股重要力量,映照着中国现代社会学术转型的历史背景。在当时"国学"语境下,清华国学院的教育训练,以小学和史学为主,而清华国学院的70余位同学中,只有少数同学选择从事中国古代文学研究,视野多偏"历史",所涉时代多为宋前。上述特点,是清华国学院教育培养的偏向所致,也与当时"国学"研究多关注中国历史和传统学术的文化倾向息息相关。考察清华国学院的教育训练、时代思潮与同学研究之间的关系,有助于理解中国古代文学研究在20世纪二三十年代的学术生态及其特征,管窥现代学术在"国学"场域中的展开过程,并反思学科专业化后所带来的研究误区。     

非政府组织概念再认识

非政府组织的概念缘起于联合国宪章。当前对非政府组织概念的认识有四种不同视角:公共管理的视角、结构和价值导向的视角、突破政府——市场二元结构的视角、基于中国语境的公民社会视角。非政府组织概念的结构化定义应该建立在以上视角之上:非政府组织是指由公民个人或其他团体、机构为实现公益或互益目标发起的,具有一定治理结构、独立自主运转的、提供社会服务的社会自治组织。这一新定义可从以下几点理解:后工业社会是理解非政府组织概念的时代背景、非政府组织的发起主体是多元的、道德取向和伦理精神是非政府组织的根本特征、非政府组织是承担社会服务的社会组织、非政府组织需要有规范的"治理结构"、非政府组织须具备独立性和自主性。     

城镇密集地区政府合作型跨境区域治理研究——以大珠三角西岸地区为例

在当代中国地方政府主导型市场经济发展背景下,促进区域政府合作是实现区域一体化的理性选择。大珠三角西岸地区“一国两制”背景下的跨境治理过程中,政府干预型协调模式的应用是弥补市场制度供给不足的一种必然选择。本文梳理了澳门与珠西地区从民间自发经贸合作到政府主导下的制度性协作的渐进发展过程,考察了大珠西地区跨境治理在组织架构、制度架构、规划指引和空间平台等方面的主要构成特征,指出了存在的主要问题和缺陷,并从制度、组织、规划、经济和设施等五个方面提出了区域整合的策略,以期在现有合作基础上建立起更大范围、更高层次、更加规范化的合作关系,来推动大珠西地区跨境区域治理机制进一步走向成熟。     

Modeling of paired zero-inflated continuous data without breaking down paired designs

Paired data have been widely collected in the efficiency studies of a new method against an established method in environmental, ecological and medical studies. For example, in comparative fishing studies, ability of catching target species (fish catch) or reducing the catch of non-target species (fish bycatch) is usually investigated through a paired design. These paired fish catches by weight are generally skewed and continuous, but with a significant portion of exact zeros (no catch). Such zero-inflated continuous data are traditionally handled by two-part models where the zero and positive components are handled separately; however, this separation generally destroys paired structure, and thus may result in substantial difficulty in characterizing the relative efficiency between two methods. To overcome this problem, we consider compound Poisson mixed model for paired data with which the zero and non-zero components are characterized in an integral way. In our approach, the clustering effects by pair are captured by incorporating relevant random effects. Our model is estimated using orthodox best linear unbiased predictor approach. Unlike two-part models, our approach unifies inferences of zero and positive components. Our method is illustrated with analyses of winter flounder bycatch data and ultrasound safety data.     

Analysis of Double Single Index Models

Motivated from problems in canonical correlation analysis, reduced rank regression and sufficient dimension reduction, we introduce a double dimension reduction model where a single index of the multivariate response is linked to the multivariate covariate through a single index of these covariates, hence the name double single index model. Because nonlinear association between two sets of multivariate variables can be arbitrarily complex and even intractable in general, we aim at seeking a principal one‐dimensional association structure where a response index is fully characterized by a single predictor index. The functional relation between the two single‐indices is left unspecified, allowing flexible exploration of any potential nonlinear association. We argue that such double single index association is meaningful and easy to interpret, and the rest of the multi‐dimensional dependence structure can be treated as nuisance in model estimation. We investigate the estimation and inference of both indices and the regression function, and derive the asymptotic properties of our procedure. We illustrate the numerical performance in finite samples and demonstrate the usefulness of the modelling and estimation procedure in a multi‐covariate multi‐response problem concerning concrete.     

The Role of Consultative Democracy under the Constitutional Framework and the Associated Rule of Law*

The logical sequence of China’s state governance is “governing party—consultative conferences—people’s congresses—the people.” The “governing party—consultative conferences” link in the chain involves political consultation through people’s consultative conferences. The “governing party—consultative conferences—people’s congresses” link involves a process of obtaining legitimacy for the Party’s views based on political consultations which are then translated into the national will by the system of people’s congresses. The “people’s congresses—the people” link involves the two-pronged logic of elections and governing the country according to law. The “governing party—the people” link is an illustration of the party’s mass line, which essentially involves social consultation. Consultative democracy usually includes the political consultation in the “governing party—consultative conferences” link and the social consultation in the “governing party—the people” link in the chain, both of which are connected through the system of people’s congresses. This logically determines the inner relations between the Party’s leadership, consultative democracy and the people’s congress form of representative democracy and shapes the institutionalization of consultative democracy. That is, in the process of democratic decision-making, a circular system consisting of “political consultation—legislative consultation—social consultation” is created to guide development of the actual system.     

RANKING DISCLOSURE POLICIES IN ALL‐PAY AUCTIONS

In this paper, we study information disclosure policies in all‐pay auctions with incomplete information. Two symmetric players have either high or low private value. The contest organizer observes players' values ex post, and can commit ex ante to four different symmetric information policies exhaustively: She can fully disclose or conceal the players' types, and she can disclose their types if and only if when both are high or if and only if when both are low. We characterize the unique equilibriums, and completely rank the four policies by various criteria. We find the full concealment policy extracts highest aggregate expected effort, followed by the policy of disclosing types if and only if when both are high. The policy of disclosing types if and only if when both are low induces least aggregate expected effort. Players enjoy highest expected payoffs under the policy of disclosing types if and only if when both are low; the other three policies yield the same expected payoffs to players. In terms of prize allocation efficiency, the full concealment policy is ranked highest and the full disclosure policy is ranked lowest. In between, the other two policies' rankings depend on the probability of high type. (JEL C72, D44, D82, D83, J48).