The Reality of the Present and the Challenge of the Future: J. Fagg Foster for the Twenty-First Century

This paper revisits J. Fagg Foster’s early assessment of the relevance of John Maynard Keynes’s theory of institutional economics. In his view, neither institutionalists nor most of Keynes’s followers really recognized the importance of Keynes’s theoretical insights. I examine Foster’s views on economic theory, with a particular focus on monetary theory. I apply Foster’s approach to what is now called modern money theory, an approach developed by heterodox economists working in the institutionalist and post-Keynesian traditions. I argue that this approach is consistent with Foster’s, and it offers a way forward to policy formation for the twenty-first century.     

税负水平对中国投资、创业和就业的影响

鼓励私人投资和创业活动是改善民生的重要举措之一,对建立微型和中小企业、扩大就业途径和增加就业具有极其重要约作用。然而,和国际上许多国家相比,中国投资在创业约税费负担明显偏重,这种情况不利于私人投资、创业和就业,严重制约了中小企业的建立和发展,也不利于中国经济稳定增长。政府要通过制定合理的税负水平,取消各种乱收费和罚款,给投资、创业和就业创造一个宽松的社会环境。     

体面劳动问题研究的新进展与未来研究展望

全球化加剧了劳资关系的不平衡状态,强资本弱劳工的局面得以维护并日益加强,资方为追求利益最大化而忽视劳动者利益的事情屡屡发生。随着转型时期经济社会改革的深入推进,劳资关系问题也越来越引起人们的关注并成为社会的焦点问题之一,全面实现体面劳动成为各级政府的重要方针,企业、各类劳动组织以及劳动者都对实现体面劳动发出了强烈的呼声。金融危机后体面劳动研究有了新进展,未来体面劳动问题研究也大有可为。     

Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Reinterpreting the fundamental contradiction of capitalism

At a theoretical level this article discusses Piketty’s hypothesis that the distribution of income and wealth tends to become more concentrated over time when the rate of return on capital is greater than the growth rate of real output. We develop a post Keynesian model of growth and distribution showing that once capital is differentiated from wealth, the increase in income and wealth concentration actually occurs when the rate of valorization of financial and real estate assets is greater than the growth rate of real output, and that this situation may be triggered by financial liberalization.     

浅谈社会工作人才的培养

在党的十六届六中全会提出要建设宏大的社会工作人才队伍后,如何培养合格的社会工作人才的全新课题摆在了全国人民面前。在我国,由于社会工作事业起步时间较短,现阶段的社会工作者更强调必须具有社会工作专业教育背景,以社会工作为职业。我们要根据构建社会主义和谐社会的客观需要,明确社会工作人才培养的规模结构、目标任务、专业和课程设置,推进中国特色的社会工作专业教育。     

The Political Economy of Brexit and the Future of British Capitalism First Symposium

The political economy of Brexit generates new challenges for the UK’s national business model and for European capitalism more broadly. Two symposia examine the implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in key economic policy areas. These symposia contribute to two main bodies of academic literature: the political economy literature on varieties of capitalism, with a specific focus on the UK, and the political economy literature on key economic policy areas of the EU. This short introduction to the first symposium first outlines the key features of the British variety of capitalism and highlight the main questions raised by Brexit in that respect. It then summarises the main findings of the papers of the first symposium and tease out some common themes.     

Public Policy,Vested Interest,and Common People in Brazil in the Twenty-First Century

We offer an original institutional approach to analyzing policies meant to regulate the actions of common people in the Brazilian state agenda in recent years. We also address the reactions of vested interests against this agenda. Such vested interests rely on corporations’ ceremonial encapsulation of state policies — policies that were established during the decades when Brazil’s industrialization process took place. Brazilian policies for the common people, however, are a twenty-first-century phenomenon.     

我国西部城市化进程中的社区民族工作探析

西部大开发推进了西部的城市化进程,大量的少数民族人口进入城市,城市内多民族的社区增加,社区民族关系日益复杂和敏感,对城市社区民族工作提出挑战,正确处理社区民族工作是新形势下我国西部城市政府不可回避的重要问题。文章就我国西部城市社区民族工作面临的新格局、现存的问题及解决对策作初步探讨。     

浅议社会工作人才与社会工作者的关系

社会工作者是指专业从事社会工作,以社会工作为职业的人员,国际社会工作界普遍认可的社会工作者应符合以下要求：一是具有社会工作执业执照;二是具有社会工作专业教育背景;三是受社会工作专业伦理约束;四是社会工作专业组织的成员;五是以社会工作作为一种职业。但是,在社会工作相对发达的西方国家,作为社会工作者首要的一条是必须取得社会工作执业执照,而在我国,由于社会工作事业起步时间较短,社会工作者职业资格管理仍处在探索发展阶段,全国性的社会工作者职业资格考试也刚刚开始,因此,现阶段的社会工作者更强调必须具有社会工作专业教育背景,以社会工作为职业。     

The Carrot vs. the Stick in Work Team Motivation

This paper reports on the use of carrot (positive) and stick (negative) incentives as methods of increasing effort among members of work teams. We study teams of four members in a laboratory environment in which giving effort towards the team goal is simulated by eliciting voluntary contributions towards the provision of a public good. We test the efficiency-improving properties of four distinct environments: monetary prizes given to high contributors versus monetary fines assessed to low contributors, where high/low contributor is defined first in terms of absolute contributions and then in terms of contributions relative to abilities—which we call handicapping. Our results show that both carrot and stick can increase efficiency (i.e., contributions) levels by 10–28%. We find that handicapped incentives promise the highest efficiency levels, and when handicapping is not used penalties may be more effective than prizes. The implications for work teams and suggestions for practical implementation are discussed.     

社会工作视阈下思想政治教育工作的创新

思想政治教育工作面临新情况、新挑战的情况下,社会工作进入思想政治教育工作视野成为必然趋势,借鉴社会工作价值理念和方式方法,能够创新思想政治教育工作观念和工作模式。     

The Scope and Promising Future of Social Economics1

This essay explores the future potential for Social Economics. Since the beginning of modern economics, the mainstream has been steered by what might be called a material progress vision, whereby the generally unacknowledged pesumption is that economic growth will make the good life possible. Accordingly, such potential components of human welfare as more creative and fulfilling work, greater equality in the distribution of opportunity, wealth and income, and a greater degree of community can be more or less ignored for the present. Less guided by this vision, and unfettered by a pretense of value-neutrality, Social Economics does not view such components of welfare as subsidiary to economic growth. Instead, it is more focused upon the wholeness of social life, more concerned with the full requisites of the good and just society. By drawing upon recent work in psychology, sociology, and especially happiness research, Social Economics is found to offer a more promising orientation towards future economic concerns than does mainstream economics.     

浅谈工作中的辩证法

工作作为一种社会活动,是人们改变主客观世界的实践。如何让我们的工作从谋划、实施再到结果既符合客观要求又最大限度地满足我们的主观意愿以达到我们工作的目的,就必须在工作中灵活地运用辩证法原理,只有这样才能确保我们工作既有正确的方向性,又有较高的效率和效益性,真正做到事半功倍。     

西部农村老人对社会工作服务需求的研究

社会的快速转型致使西部农村养老面临巨大的挑战。社会工作作为西方的舶来品,在中国还处在本土化的过程之中,能否根据中国西部农村的实际情况,发展起能应对西部农村养老问题挑战的实践操作模式成为必须讨论的话题。在实际调查的基础上,从经济服务、生活照料及精神慰藉三方面了解西部农村老人对社会工作服务的主客观需求,以冀为社会工作在养老领域的本土化构建中提供参考。     

思想政治工作的活力在于创新和现代化

思想政治工作是党一切工作的生命线。当前正处在一个大变革、大发展的时代,国内外经济社会生活出现一系列复杂的新情况、新问题,思想政治工作要在继承优良传统的基础上,适应新的时代特点,解放思想,与时俱进,改进创新,实现科学化和现代化。     

John R. Commons and Government as Employer of Last Resort: Three Paths to a Progressive Right to Work

Abstract:

Today in the United States, a number of congressional Democrats endorse proposals that would establish a job guarantee for all Americans seeking work. Arguments for such a policy can be traced back at least to the work of John R. Commons, one of the first institutional economists. This article demonstrates that there are actually three arguments in Commons’s scholarship that provide a case for government to hire the unemployed by serving as employer of last resort. These arguments, each highlighted at a different point in Commons’s career, can be viewed in turn as legal, financial, and historical paths to public provision of work for the jobless—government employment that Commons considered part of “the right to work.” The article traces each path, highlighting insight that remains relevant and calling for greater attention to Common’s writings as a way to reclaim the right to work as a progressive cause.     

试论对高校毕业生就业困难群体的服务与指导

近年来,随着高等教育大众化的到来,高校毕业生的就业问题逐渐成为社会普遍关注的焦点问题。而作为高校毕业生的就业困难群体则成为高校就业工作的重中之重。文章对毕业生就业困难群体进行了界定,分析了高校毕业生就业困难群体的类型,并从政府、高校、毕业生本身及用人单位四个层面提出了解决其就业的对策和建议。