Making social policy work for economic development: the Nordic experience

The Nordic welfare states offer some lessons in a development context. A main achievement has been sustainable poverty reduction. Another important lesson is that, while democratization often leads to greater pressures for social policy expansion, social policy can also contribute to democratization. The Nordic countries further demonstrate that is possible to unify social protection with a competitive and growth-oriented economy. In a number of policy areas, particularly in relation to social services and labor market policy, the Nordic countries have also become leading modernizers. The women-friendly dual-earner model not only combats poverty among families with children, but also enables women to participate in the labor market. The future sustainability of the Nordic model of social policy hinges on the number of taxpayers that can be mobilized. In order to be successful in this, governments need to take a combined, or holistic, approach, and consider both micro motives and macro considerations.     

The impact of cash-benefit reform on parents’ labour force participation

This paper evaluates the impact of a recent Norwegian family-policy reform. The reform provides benefits of up to NOK 3,000 (approximately € 400) per month to families with one- to three-year-old children, who do not utilize state-subsidized day-care centres. We investigate the reforms effect on parents labour force participation. We find that, on average, the reform reduced womens labour force participation and increased the specialization of work between couples. We find that the effect of the reform depends on womens schooling. Specifically, the labour force participation of highly educated mothers fell by more than that of mothers with less education.I am grateful to Associate Professor Espen Bratberg and Professor Alf Erling for their valuable comments. My special thanks to Kjell Vaage, Arild Aakvik and Afsane Bjorvatn for helpful suggestions. This paper was presented in a seminar at the Department of Economics, University of Bergen, Norway. I am thankful to the participants of the seminar for their positive feedback. The paper has also benefited from the reports given by three anonymous referees. I am also thankful to Professor Heather Joshi for helpful remarks on the paper. Responsible editor: Christoph M. Schmidt.     

The Quality of Stakeholder-Based Decisions

The increased use of stakeholder processes in environmental decision making has raised concerns about the quality of decisions these processes produce. Some claim that stakeholders make inadequate use of scientific information and analysis and are all too ready to sacrifice technical quality for political expediency. This article looks to the case study record to examine the quality of the decisions from stakeholder-based processes. The data for the analysis come from a "case survey," in which researchers coded information from 239 published case studies of stakeholder involvement in environmental decision making. These cases reflect a diversity of planning, management, and implementation activities carried out by environmental and natural resource agencies at many levels of government. Overall, the case-study record suggests that there should be little concern that stakeholder processes are resulting in low-quality decisions. The majority of cases contain evidence of stakeholders improving decisions over the status quo; adding new information, ideas, and analysis; and having adequate access to technical and scientific resources. Indeed, data suggest that it is the more intensive stakeholder processes--precisely those that have aroused recent concern--that are more likely to result in higher-quality decisions.     

《醒世恒言》被动句式考察

对《醒世恒言》中的被动句式进行分类统计,从用量及结构等方面探讨“于”字式、“见”字式、“为”字式和“为……所”式这些上古汉语传统模式的衰微、“被”字式在近代汉语中的进一步发展以及“教”字式、“与”字式、“吃”字式这些近代汉语才产生的被动式的特点,从而阐述被动句式在近代汉语中的发展概貌。     

当前学校管理中亟待关注的几个问题

体现着时代精神的课程理念正深刻的影响着教育的每一个角落 ,带来了令人振奋的变化 ,其所倡导的观念、行为上的诸多转变不仅局限于教师和学生这一层面 ,作为学校的管理者必须选准新的立足点 ,本着有利于学校的可持续发展以及“以人为本”、“以校为本” ,促进“人、校”共同发展的根本宗旨 ,赋予管理新的内涵 ,创造管理新概念 ,从而进一步提高管理层次和管理效能 ,为课改的实施扫清障碍 ,保驾护航。     

贯彻“三个代表”重要思想，以人为本，做活宣传思想工作

本文在坚持用“三个代表”重要思想统领宣传思想工作的基础上 ,着重强调了树立以人为本的宣传思想是贯彻“三个代表”重要思想的本质要求。进而指出做活宣传思想工作 ,必须把握“三个代表”重要思想的精髓 ,做到“三贴近” ,抓好“三个报道” ,提高宣传质量。同时 ,做活宣传思想工作 ,还必须努力建设一支自觉实践“三个代表”重要思想的高素质的宣传思想工作队伍     

The role of market-oriented relations in public relations: The differing perspectives of managers and practitioners in the U.S. and Taiwan

This study explored the role of market-oriented public relations. The study involved two surveys; one explored the perspectives of business managers and another of the perspectives of public relations practitioners, and compared their views concerning market-oriented and non-market-oriented relations. While business managers and public relations practitioners of non-market-oriented relations valued the contribution of market-oriented public relations to organizational effectiveness in terms of revenue generation and cost reduction, practitioners of market-oriented public relations ascribed their contribution to organizational effectiveness in terms of media publicity and exposure. This paper concludes with a discussion of practical applications and theoretical implications.     

礼貌原则在公关语言中的运用

语用学和公共关系学是近几十年新发展起来的学科,而礼貌原则是语言运用中要遵循的一项原则,简单介绍语用学和公共关系学的概念之后,阐明礼貌原则的提出和实质内容以及为什么要以利奇所提出的礼貌原则的内容作为理论基础,然后简单介绍公关语言的分类,最后通过实例来详析礼貌原则在公关语言中的遵守与运用。通过分析可以进一步了解到公关语言并不是来适应某项准则,它是为在公关活动中实现某种目的而服务的。     

新形势下大学物理课程建设与改革的思考

针对新形势下对高素质人才培养的需求,介绍了在理工科院校以"加强教学内容改革、重视课堂教学、培养能力、提高素质"为核心的大学物理课程的教学改革。     

《醒世恒言》中词素“了”的构词分析

在《醒世恒言》中,"了"作词素构成的词有"便了"、"罢了"、"了了"、"了然"、"了不得"、"不得了"。本文首先具体描写这些词的用法,然后解释其来源,最后得出结论。