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.     

Middle School Children's Perceptions on Welfare and Poverty: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study

This study was undertaken to determine how middle school children assess the effects of welfare reform on their daily lives. The study consisted of thirty interviews with children and their mothers recruited from a middle school in a large, metropolitan area. From the children's perspective, multiple jobs and evening/night hours interfered with the child-parent relationship. Other consequences included grades going down and not getting to school on time. All the children stated that mothers should work, but most children felt mothers should only work when their children are in school. Welfare and poverty were issues about which children were teased at school.     

Open Road or Blind Alley? Welfare Reform, Mothers, and Children with Disabilities

Welfare reform was examined for 39 Michigan families whose children have significant health or intellectual and behavioral disabilities. As a group, these families received little specialized assistance or services to address their unique needs. Family-cited barriers to self-sufficiency included poorly trained welfare caseworkers, limited public transportation, and inadequate child care. Having an older child was the only discriminating variable between working and non-working mothers. However, working mothers only had temporary positions with no benefits and low pay. All families, whether employed or not, lived below the poverty line.     

对林业税费的经济学分析

该文运用经济学的基本工具———供给和需求曲线 ,以商品林为研究对象 ,探讨了林业税费的作用机理和内涵。该文认为商品林生产具有正的外部性 ,市场失灵使生产者将不能提供社会真正所需要的商品林数量。在封闭的市场条件下 ,林业税费会直接成为价格的一部分 ,商品林生产者应当能够获得正常利润 ,与税费高低无关 ,但会使一部分林地退出生产。林业补贴是一种负的林业税收。在开放市场经济条件下 ,国内商品林供应量低于没有林业税收时的商品林供应量 ,更低于考虑社会生态需求时的商品林供应量 ,造成巨大的社会福利损失 ,应减免林业税费、增加林业扶持、取消价格管制。该文进一步研究了与林业税费密切相关的森林采伐限额政策 ,认为对商品林应该完全取消采伐限额政策     

西部大开发新观念初探

要使西部大开发卓有成效 ,观念的转变是基本前提。当前需要树立的新观念是 :区域经济新观念、经济发展新观念、政策措施新观念 ,要根据新形势下出现的新问题 ,善于从多角度去研究和探讨解决问题的新方法     

以人为本的科技管理模式与构建

运用人本管理理论,在分析目前高校科技管理存在问题基础上,探析了知识经济时代以人为本的科技管理的内容与模式,包括中心型、激励型、机制型、多赢型的人本管理模式,并据此提出了一系列构建措施。     

市场经济条件下环境保护的措施

环境保护是我国的基本国策。国家对环境保护越来越重视。而要做好环境保护的具体工作,就必须遵循市场经济的运行规律。那就是要充分利用价值规律,要发挥竞争规律的作用,要支持资源的优化配置。     

国际贸易和直接投资:基于产业经济学的分析

传统的国际贸易和投资理论习惯于从国家级的宏观水平上,对一个国家的总体贸易流和投资活动作出解释。产业经济学对贸易流和投资的分析却有自己的传统,其特点是在产业级的微观水平上进行分析。在经济全球化条件下,产业经济学国际化研究的一个重要的主题是揭示来自外国的竞争对本国市场绩效的影响和作用机制,主要利用产业层面的模型去揭示市场结构对进出口和外国直接投资的影响。这种方法把市场结构的构成要素(规模经济、产品差异度、交易成本等)作为决定贸易流和外国直接投资的动力机制。在ＷＴＯ的规则下,这种产业经济学国际化的研究对指导中国的对外开放实践和国内竞争政策的制订具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

腐败行为的经济学分析--"五毒书记"张二江案例研究

腐败指的是公职人员利用公共权力为获取不正当的个人收益而收受第三方支付、并损害国家或公众利益的行为.腐败产生的原因是多方面的,本文分析了腐败产生的个人和制度等方面的原因,并指出要遏制腐败,必须构造一种较为系统和完备的权力设置、控制、监督和使用的运行机制,并采取加强意识形态教育等多种措施.     

'Polyphonic' welfare: Luhmann's systems theory applied to modern social work

This article applies a series of concepts from Niklas Luhmann's systems theory in an analysis of modern welfare organisations. The point of departure is that social help in late modern welfare states has become 'polycentric' in that 'help' is today being defined by various different agents: public, voluntary and private care providers. Empirically, this article investigates re-housing work with homeless people, a kind of social work which involves several different welfare organisations. The case study shows how these organisations define themselves by making internal constructions of their surroundings, and how their self-enclosed nature creates a certain 'insensitivity' towards one another. How to coordinate and translate within this 'polyphony' of incomparable observations and values represents a major managerial challenge for present-day social workers.