Institutional evolution and abrupt change: Reforming the administration of social assistance in Finland

Historical institutionalist studies have explained institutional change as resulting from critical junctures that interrupt long periods of stability or from endogenous, incremental evolution. Building on these theories, discursive institutionalists have focused on the roles of agency, ideas and discourse as explainers of change. Combining these approaches, this article analyses Finland’s decision in 2014 to transfer the administration of basic social assistance from municipalities to the central government. This study demonstrates that institutional change can be both abrupt and evolutionary. Due to sudden, exceptional political circumstances, the decision in question was made quickly and under pressure, circumventing possible veto players. However, it was possible only because of the incremental, endogenous change that had occurred in the way in which social assistance was administered at the municipal level. It enabled a change in political discourse, which eroded the credibility of the ideational frames that policy actors had previously utilised to reject the centralised model.     

State work and the testing concours of citizenship

Anyone trying to be a citizen has to pass through a set of practices trying to be a state. This paper investigates some of the ways testing practices calibrate citizens, and in doing so, perform “the state.” The paper focuses on three forms of citizenship testing, which it considers exemplary forms of “state work,” and which all, in various ways, concern “migration.” First, the constitution of a “border crossing,” which requires an identity test configured by deceptibility. Second, the Dutch asylum process, in which “being gay” can, in certain cases, be reason for being granted asylum, but where “being gay” is also the outcome of an examination organized by suspicion. And third, the Dutch measurement of immigrants’ “integration,” which is comprised of a testing process in which such factishes as “being a member of society” and “being modern” surface. Citizenship is analyzed in this paper as accrued and (re)configured along a migration trajectory that takes shape as a testing concours, meaning that subjects become citizens along a trajectory of testing practices. In contributing both to work on states and citizenship, and to work on testing, this paper thus puts forward the concept of citizenship testing as state work, where “state work is the term for that kind of labor that most knows itself as comparison, equivalency, and exchange in the social realm” (Harney, 2002, pp. 10–11). Throughout the testing practices discussed here, comparison, equivalency, and exchange figure prominently as the practical achievements of crafting states and citizens.     

改革所有制结构 促进山西产业结构调整

公有制经济比例过大 ,非公有制经济比例过小是山西所有制结构存在的主要问题 ,它对山西产业结构的调整有着一定的制约作用。发展非公有制经济 ,适度压缩国有经济比例 ,是促进山西产业结构调整的重要举措之一。     

试析我国国有控股公司的反垄断问题

认为应将国有控股公司纳入反垄断法的规制框架 ,规制的目的是为了控制市场过度集中和行政权的侵入 ,在此基础上 ,可以把国有控股公司区分为行业性国有控股公司和综合性国有控股公司 ,并提出了具体的反垄断法对策。     

高速SDRAM控制器设计的FPGA实现

同步动态存储器(SDRAM)控制器通常用有限状态机实现,对于一般的设计方法,由于状态数量多,状态转换通常伴随大的组合逻辑而影响运行速度,因此,SDRAM控制器的速度限制了SDRAM存储器的访问速度。该文从结构优化入手来优化方法,利用状态机分解的思想将大型SDRAM控制状态机用若干小的子状态机实现,达到简化逻辑的目的,不仅提高了速度还节省了资源,对该类大型SDRAM控制器的实现有一定参考意义。     

邓小平国家安全思想探析

邓小平国家安全思想的主要内容包括:最高准则是维护国家利益和主权安全,立足点是独立自主,实现国家安全的根本途径是提高综合国力以及维护国家安全的重要手段是建设现代化国防等。本文对这几个方面进行了详细的分析。     

濒危状态的赫哲语

赫哲人的语言观念如何,濒危状态的赫哲语掌握者的比例、地理分布、年龄结构、语言能力等特征都是濒危状态赫哲语值得探讨的问题。     

"民官比"不是影响政治体制改革的重要因素

在政治体制改革中,公务员或国家干部人数的多少并不是一个关键因素,重要的是必须把政府的社会定位(包括角色、权力和责任)划分清楚。与世界各国相比较,我国197.69∶1(或116.27∶1)的“民官比”并不高,因此,今后的政治体制改革不需要再把精力集中在“精简”上,而应按邓小平的部署,首先把党政分开和权力下放的工作做好。毕竟“小政府”是指“政府权力受限制”,而非“人数更少”;“大社会”是指“社会权利更广泛”,而非“人数更多”。     

最少部件数的并联备份问题

如何快速提高系统的可靠度和最少部件数的并联备份问题,一直是系统可靠性问题中的研究热点。该文从系统的任意状态(k1,k2,L,kn)出发,讨论了上述问题,并证明了在子系统可靠度最小的位置上并联相同部件可使系统的可靠度提高最快,同时给出了最优算法和实例验证。     

新时期大学生思想状况分析及对策

认真落实中共中央、国务院《关于进一步加强和改进大学生思想政治教育的意见》，准确掌握新时期大 学生的思想状况，分析大学生思想存在的不足和弱点，找出产生的问题的根源，研究思想政治工作的对策，加强和改进思 想政治工作的方法，不断探索新途径，才能提高思想政治工作的有效性。