Suchergebnisse

Статья посвящена актуальной в настоящее время проблеме, связанной с развитием лесной транспортной инфраструктуры, в частности строительством лесных дорог. В статье анализируются предлагаемые в настоящее время государством финансовые механизмы, стимулирующие строительство лесных дорог, и рассматриваются проблемы, связанные с их внедрением. Авторами предлагается механизм финансирования строительства лесной транспортной инфраструктуры с использованием дорожного фонда субъекта РФ на условиях государственно-частного партнерства. ; The article is devoted to a topical issue of development of timber transport infrastructure and construction of forest roads in particular. The article analyzes current government financial mechanisms stimulating construction of forest roads and deals with the problems arising under their implementation. The authors propose an arrangement for financing the construction of timber transport infrastructure using the regional road fund under the public-private partnership.

The Geometric elliptical building found at the north slope of the Areopagus, reused as a votive deposit in VII century BC., is useful to reflect about the polis formation process and the step from the basileia to other aristocratic and associative forms of government in the origins of Athens, in relationship with some cults which are converted in references for the whole community. ; El edificio elíptico encontrado al norte del Areópago de época geométrica, reconvertido en depósito votivo en el siglo VII, sirve para reflexionar sobre el proceso de formación de la polis y el tránsito de la basileia a otras formas de gobierno aristocráticas y colegiadas en los orígenes de Atenas, en relación con determinados cultos que se convierten en referentes de toda la comunidad.

The ferroelectric domain and local structures of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-xat.%BaTiO3 (NBT-x%BT) crystals for x = 0, 4.5, and 5.5 have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the size of polar nano-regions was refined with increasing xat. %BT. The tetragonal phase volume fraction, as identified by in-phase octahedral tilting, was found to be increased with BT. The findings indicate that the large electric field induced strains in morphotropic phase boundary compositions of NBT-x%BT originate not only from polarization rotation but also polarization extension. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3673832] ; National Science Foundation (Materials World Network) DMR-0806592 ; Department of Energy DE-FG02-07ER46480 ; National Science Foundation of China 50602047 ; Shanghai Municipal Government 08JC1420500 ; China Scholarship Council

Since 1990, the number of preferential trade agreements has increased rapidly. The argument in this article explains this phenomenon, known as the new regionalism, as a result of competition for market access; exporters facing trade diversion because of their exclusion from a preferential trade agreement concluded by foreign countries push their governments into signing an agreement with the country in which their exports are threatened. The argument is tested in a quantitative analysis of the proliferation of preferential trade agreements among 167 countries between 1990 and 2007. The finding that competition for market access is a major driving force of the new regionalism is a contribution to the literature on regionalism and to broader debates about global economic regulation. Adapted from the source document.

As interest in Tony Blair's legacy persists, this article investigates his impact on UK strategic culture. The first section revisits theoretical questions about the processes whereby elites can alter collectively held strategic beliefs in the face of changing security environments. The second section then shows how Blair articulated new strategic beliefs that differed from pre-existing ones. These include embracing a broader understanding of security that recognises the impact of globalisation, and proposing that a proactive military posture was a more appropriate response than inactivity. To evaluate his impact, the third section demonstrates how these propositions were shared within collective elite circles and now shape the strategic thought of successive governments in written form through key policy documents, as well as in spoken form by cabinet ministers.

AbstractThink tanks in China simultaneously play advisory, academic and advocacy roles in the policy process. In this article, I recommend an analytical framework that evaluates think tanks by studying their specific activities in addition to their nature. Empirical data involving 301 think tanks in 25 provinces were collected through the China Think Tank Survey 2004. The 1998 regional Integrated Knowledge Development Index database was also used for the analysis. Based on these two independent sets of survey data, the article concludes that connections with the government and knowledge capacity in regions where think tanks are located are the two differing forces that drive China's think tanks to operate as either advisors or advocates. Moreover, these two determinants differentially influence the individual roles of the two types of think tanks.

In this article the authors study delegation problems within multiparty coalition governments. They argue that coalition parties can use the committee system to "shadow" the ministers of their partners; that is, they can appoint committee chairs from other governing parties, who will then be well placed to monitor and/or check the actions of the corresponding ministers. The authors analyze which ministers should be shadowed if governing parties seek to minimize the aggregate policy losses they suffer as the result of ministers pursuing their own parties' interests rather than the coalition's. Based on data from 19 mostly European parliamentary democracies, the authors find that the greater the policy disagreement between a minister's party and its partners, the more likely the minister is to be shadowed.

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), has set up six regional Supervision Centres for Environmental Protection (SCEPs) in recent years. The creation of the SCEPs reflects the "green will" of Chinese government, to reverse the ever-worsening environmental situation throughout China by strengthening vertical supervision of the environmental laws and policies enforcement. A primary analysis focusing on the South China Supervision Centre (SCSC) has clearly shown, however, that the SCEPs today can only perform well in the concrete or "small" tasks – most of them designated or handed over by the MEP – rather than in the complicated or "big" issues. To make the SCEPs do more and better, the most desirable but radical policy choice is to reshape them into fully authorised regional "sub-bureaus" of the MEP.

AbstractFor years, the United States has imposed economic sanctions to compel countries to alter their behavior. An important concern is whether government sanctions influence private foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions, the largest source of foreign capital. In the first study to assess empirically the relationship between economic sanctions and FDI, we consider whether U.S. sanctions influence U.S. FDI inflows into targeted countries. Using panel data for 171 countries from 1965 to 2000, we find strong evidence that U.S investors pull out of countries targeted for U.S sanctions prior to their imposition. This disinvestment is not permanent and investment tends to return after the sanctions are imposed. The results provide support for FDI studies that show the effect of risk on investor decision making.

Terrorist organizations, groups, cells or just 'bunches of guys' are systematically compared with other types of criminal or deviant organizations: organized crime such as the mafia, street gangs and religious sects. Of course there are many differences between them, especially where motivation is concerned, but they share the common factor that it is almost impossible or very difficult for individual members to step out. However, de-radicalization may follow analogous paths: aging out, accepting exit programs in prison or disengaging ideologically. The article discusses the obstacles that a government strategy that encourages desistance from terrorism by stepping out may encounter. It may be sufficient and more realistic to discourage radicals from using violence than to try to de-radicalize them by using counternarrative techniques.

Social work practice, irrespective of the location of practice, is shaped by local conditions, particularly the laws and policies applicable to the practice. Most governments adopt some form of institutional arrangements pertinent to local conditions to meet local needs, such arrangements in Western contexts commonly being described as the welfare state. In other contexts, notably the East Asian context, the Western welfare state has been deemed inappropriate for meeting local needs. In this discussion there will be a focus on arrangements developed in Singapore, a country in the East Asian region. Although Singapore has eschewed any notion of a welfare state, this discussion will demonstrate that it does have in place a range of policy responses to meet Singaporean needs and that these measures are consistent with the frameworks adopted by emerging Confucian welfare states.

We assess the determinants of the wide variation in the efficiency of foreign aid activities across US-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In particular, we analyze whether noncharitable expenditures for administration, management and fundraising depend on the intensity of competition among NGOs and on the degree to which they are refinanced by governments. We control for NGO heterogeneity in various dimensions as well as major characteristics of recipient countries. We find that fiercer competition is associated with more efficient foreign aid activities of NGOs, rather than leading to "excessive" fundraising. Official funding tends to increase administrative costs. Nevertheless, officially financed NGOs spend relatively more on charitable activities since they are less concerned with collecting private donations through fundraising efforts. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The paper analyzes unequal regional development in Kazakhstan. Applying the nonlinear least squares method in presence of spatial correlation we estimate the convergence rate of wages across Kazakh regions for the period 2003-2009. The estimated convergence rate is about 3% which is somewhat higher than estimates obtained for the USA and Europe. At the same time there is slight divergence in the GRP per capita. It is argued that convergence in wages which coincides with divergence in the per capita GRP is consistent with the endogenous growth model where profit maximizing firms choose the capital intensity of the technology. This implies that the inequality between regions will only exacerbate and the central government may wish to invest more in low-growth regions to alleviate disproportional development.

Социально-экономические эффекты фундаментальных исследований многообразны, но в большинстве своем опосредованы, не поддаются количественной оценке, а потому не всегда очевидны. В связи с этим правительства ряда небольших стран готовы отказаться от финансовой поддержки «высокой» науки, ссылаясь на общедоступность знаний, полученных другими государствами. Авторы указывают на негативные последствия подобной стратегии для развития экономики и общества в целом. ; Socio-economic effects of basic research are diverse, but most of them are indirect, not quantifiable and therefore not always obvious. In this regard, the governments of some small countries intend to abandon financial support of basic science, referring that relevant knowledge generated by other countries are free accessible. The authors point out negative consequences of such an attitude for the development of economy and society as a whole.

Abstract. Geological maps provide the most rapid geological knowledge of a territory; they are meant for analysis, decision and planning the management of mineral resources, environment protection and geological hazard assessment. As such, geological mapping is a key activity for geological surveying all over the world. The Geological Institute of Romania, founded in 1906, was authorized by law to provide the official geological maps of the national territory. The first geological map of Romania (The Old Kingdom), achieved in the frame of a mapping program financed by the government, was prepared by the Geological Bureau of Romania (1882-1889). This paper attempts to reconstruct the history of the main geological mapping programs of the country, covering more than a century (from 1882 to present).