Governance and Economic Transformation in Taiwan: The Role of Politics

This article analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the developmental‐state approach as compared with a broader and more flexible developmental‐governance approach – in relation to economic transformation in a single case country, Taiwan. It argues that both approaches have strong and weak points, and comes down in favour of the view that it is only through a ‘thick’ study of political forces, processes and circumstances that the reasoning behind developmental policies and institutions can be understood and the processes of economic transformation explained.     

Culture, state and varieties of capitalism: a comparative study of life insurance markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan

This article examines the interplay between local culture, the state, and economic actors' agency in producing variation across markets. I adopt a political-cultural approach to examining why life insurance has been far more popular in Taiwan than Hong Kong, despite the presence of a cultural taboo on the topic of premature death in both societies. Based on interview data and documentary references, the findings reveal that as an independent state, the Taiwanese government heavily protected domestic insurance firms during their emergence. These domestic firms adopted a market-share approach by re-defining the concept of life insurance to accommodate the local cultural taboo. The colonial Hong Kong government, on the other hand, adopted laissez-faire policies that essentially favoured foreign insurance firms. When faced with the tension between local adaptation and the profitability of the business, these foreign firms chose the latter. Their reluctance to accommodate local cultures, however, resulted in a smaller market. I argue that state actions mediate who the dominant economic players are and that the nature of the dominant players affects the extent of localization. Specifically, the presence of competitive domestic players alongside transnational corporations is more likely to produce varieties of capitalism.     

集体耕作制时期农村人口增长分析

通过文献参阅,运用现代经济学和社会学相关理论和方法,探索性地分析集体耕作制时期,农地产权残缺、社会的高度封闭性及平均分配主义的影响和中国农村人口的快速增长。改革开放30年来,影响中国农村人口快速增长的诸因素和人口低生育水平反弹的压力基本消除。面对人口长期负惯性增长的新趋势,中国应及时调整生育政策。     

Multiculturalism and welfare state integration: Swedish model path dependency

The present article offers an account of Swedish integration policies in the post-war period. The theoretical purpose is to assess Christian Joppke’s hypothesis that recent trends of integration policy convergence have rendered the national model approach analytically useless. The analysis shows that Sweden deviates, in some important respects, from the European trend by not formulating demands that link integration achievements to immigrants’ access to fundamental rights. The conclusion is that the Swedish case does not support Joppke’s hypothesis, but rather indicates that path dependency of national models is a valid explanation to ongoing developments. It is argued that the Swedish exception should be understood as an expression of the persistent impact of a policy logic according to which integration requires that all citizens have equal and universal access to certain fundamental rights. The article builds on general comparisons with European policy developments and uses Denmark as a more specific reference point.     

论商业登记的法律性质

商业登记是创设、变更、终止商事主体人格的法律事实 ,其性质应按私法的规律运作 ,以促进社会秩序良性发展。     

Ideas, private institutions and American welfare state 'exceptionalism': the case of health and old-age insurance, 1915–1965

Traditional theories of welfare state development divide into two camps: societal accounts and institutional accounts. The aim of the present article is to amend and enrich the institutional approach to US social policy by reconsidering key aspects of the genesis of the American welfare state: 1) showing that concepts such as 'policy feedback' and 'path dependence' need to be extended to encompass the effect of private social policies; and 2) taking policy paradigms and agenda setting more seriously than is the norm in institutional scholarship. The empirical analysis is divided into two parts. The first part explores the activities of the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) in the decade beginning in 1910 and the genesis of Social Security in the 1930s, while the second part examines the effect of the private benefit developments on policy choices between 1935 and 1965.     

民国海疆版图演变与南海断续国界线的形成

南海诸岛,主要是指处于南海之上的东沙群岛,西沙群岛,中沙群岛和南沙群岛。历史上这些群岛,分别以"涨海崎头"、"磁石"、"千里长沙"、"万里石塘"为名归入中国版图。但是到了清末民初,外国列强屡屡犯边,其中,日本和法国曾相继占领和控制了南海诸岛部分岛礁达40年之久。本研究从新近陆续查核到的历史地图证实,中国的海疆界线经历了一个从清末全面收缩到民国末年的部分恢复的过程。并指出,我国南海断续国界线主张与同期美国提出的大陆架主张、南美国家提出的200海里领海权主张一样,都是主权国家主张海洋边界的模式,因而理应得到国际法的尊重。     

Determinants of Social Expenditure in Sri Lanka

The study examines the determinants of social expenditure in Sri Lanka for the period 1970–2010. The data are from a new data set assembled by the authors. The social spending data are collected from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on education, health, and also on welfare spending. The study explains the determinants of social spending considering the demand‐side and the supply‐side driving forces and finds that inequality issues have been a major concern of social policy in Sri Lanka. Similarly, this study implies the influence of political behavior to satisfy voters as explained by the fiscal illusion theory. The globalization is not significant for social expenditure as commonly assumed in developed countries. Even the consequences of the self‐interested behavior of bureaucrats are not evident in the Sri Lankan welfare sector.     

The Middle‐class in the German Welfare State: Beneficial Involvement at Stake?

The working‐class is typically regarded as the driving force of welfare state development. Yet, some argue that the middle‐classes' beneficial involvement in the welfare state is crucial for its financial sustainability and popular legitimacy. Against this backdrop, we investigate how recent welfare state reforms in Germany which affect the status of the middle‐class are viewed and discussed by this group. Germany is a particularly interesting case because its welfare state is seen to be centred on the desires of the middle‐class, especially through its focus on status maintenance and horizontal redistribution over the life‐course. However, the move from status maintenance to minimum income support in unemployment provision and the strengthening of private old age provision challenge this assumption. Thus, we ask how the German middle‐class views the emerging abandonment of the principle of status maintenance and the shift from collective to individual responsibility. Based on qualitative material from focus groups, we find that individual responsibility is generally supported, but that the state is still assigned responsibility for providing basic levels of social security. Furthermore, for those groups seen as less capable of acting individually responsible (e.g. the poor or long‐term unemployed) the ‘inducement’ of – or assistance for – individually responsible behaviour by the state is demanded. Overall, while the principle of ‘individual responsibility’ seems to find some resonance among the middle‐class members interviewed, they still try to balance individual and collective responsibility.     

Emergency Law in China: Its Formation,Present State and Future

中国非常法律的形成, 是为了应对紧急事件。这类法律由法律法规、应急预案和 军事法规等组成, 规定了战争状态、紧急状态和应急状态三种非常状态, 致力于建构 专业化大分工基础上的综合统一体制。在实践中, 应急预案取代了法律法规, 成为紧 急事件治理的基本规范依据; 政府和武装力量处于主导地位。中国非常法律基于必要 而形成, 其适用具有临时性, 主要内容具有授权性和预防性。非常法律未来发展的主 要目标是: 与中国特色社会主义法律体系衔接, 制定紧急状态下的基本法, 完善非常 法律的各项具体机制。

关键词: 非常状态 综合治理 执行主导 预防性法律

China’s emergency laws have emerged as a result of dealing with crises. They comprise laws and regulations, emergency plans, and military regulations, and define three exceptional or emergency states: war, emergency and emergency response, with the aim of constructing a comprehensive integrated system based on the specialized division of labor. In practice, however, emergency plans take the place of laws and regulations and provide the fundamental normative basis for tackling emergencies, with government and the military playing the dominant role. Developing out of necessity and possessing temporary applicability, China’s emergency laws are characterized by authorization and prevention. Integrating emergency law with the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, formulating basic law for emergency situations and improving the specific mechanisms of emergency law should be regarded as major steps in its future development.