The new regionalism in the Americas: a theoretical framework

This paper concerns the “new regionalism” of the last decade, as opposed to the “old regionalism” of the 1950s and 1960s. I first argue that the new regionalism is taking place in a world fundamentally different from that of the old regionalism, so that old-regionalism-theory is not necessarily relevant. I then present an explanation for why neighbors might integrate, relevant to why integration might occur in the Americas. This gives prominent roles to political economy, direct investment, and fundamental economic reform, and de-emphasizes the old trade creation versus trade diversion trade-off. It also implies a diversity of approaches to regional integration.     

De-Amalgamation in Action: The Queensland experience

Abstract

While a substantial theoretical and empirical literature has examined compulsory local government consolidation, little is known about de-amalgamation after forced mergers. Following the controversial 2008 Queensland local government amalgamation programme, which saw a radical reduction in the number of local councils, four forcibly merged councils have finally begun to de-amalgamate following successful plebiscites. This paper traces the extraordinary Queensland de-amalgamation process from its inception and attempts to place it in a broader conceptual framework. The paper provides a critical assessment of Queensland de-amalgamation policy development and implementation and seeks to draw broader public policy lessons for structural reform in local government.     

城市合同:法国区域治理的经验与启示

在以多中心、平等治理及和谐关系为特征的城市合同治理方式的推动下,法国构建了世界上较为成熟与成功的善治模式,体现了当今社会对善治的系列要求。法国区域治理所采用的城市合同治理模式,具有以下三点启示意义:即有计划、有步骤的市场分权是实施城市合同的必要条件和有效途径;跨界治理机构的协调参与是城市合同有效进行的保障;城市合同是有效处理区域公共治理主体间利益矛盾冲突关系的基础。     

公私合作伙伴:城市治理的新模式

随着经济全球化、市场化、信息化和网络化的发展,传统的城市管理模式被现代城市治理模式所替代,而全面构筑公私伙伴关系,又成为城市治理的新模式.本文重点对城市公私合作伙伴治理进行了理论和案例分析,并简要提出了构筑我国城市公私合作伙伴治理体系的政策选择.     

Cooperative governance under increasing member diversity: Towards a new theoretical framework

In advancing the notion of stakeholder capitalism, the great reset of management and organization theory must address governance implications of stakeholder heterogeneity. The paper contributes to this task by focusing on the governance of agricultural cooperatives whose members often have heterogeneous preferences. The key novel idea is to conceptualize cooperative governance in the light of the proposed distinction between the core and peripheral activities of cooperatives. While core activities are based on members’ truly common interests, peripheral activities include all else. This approach allows tracing governance challenges of agricultural cooperatives back to the inflation of peripheral activities. Based on this approach, cooperative managers and members are advised to minimize these activities and to draw clear boundaries between core and periphery.     

Organizational governance and the grievance process: In need of a new model for resolving workplace issues

This article begins by providing insights from the research literature on the union and nonunion grievance processes in the United States. We then take a look at the status of “voice” in the American workplace and identify both inherent and practical implementation problems in providing employee “voice” regarding workplace rules. Finally, we lay out the elements of a viable system that would best meet the criteria for procedural and substantive due process in the employment relationship.     

Hybrid structures: innovative governance,judicial and sociological approaches

Quality & Quantity - The aim of this study is to examine the new trends in the hybridity research area and clarify the convergence of interests among state actors, private actors and civil...     

Community leadership cycles and the consolidation of neighbourhood coalitions in the new local governance

The success of the new patterns of local governance depends on engaging communities in a range of partnerships at various geographic scales and administrative levels. In practice, this usually falls to a handful of community leaders in any given locality. Our research on area regeneration partnerships in the UK reveals a community leadership cycle, which proceeds through five phases. The first phase consists of the emergence of a first generation of leaders early on in a partnership, in the second phase their position in the partnership is consolidated and loyalty to the partnership developed, followed by a third phase of the cultivation of a second generation of leaders. Then comes a fourth phase in which the new generation of leaders raise their voices to challenge the established patterns of representation in the partnership. In the final phase, individual leaders exit from the partnership. This community leadership cycle is part of building multi-sector leadership coalitions in the neighbourhoods through strategies combining loyalty, voice and exit.     

Procurement mechanisms and the emergence of new governance structures in the CEECs: evidence from the Bulgarian wine industry

During transition, Bulgaria witnessed the dismantling of communist agri-food supply channels and a weakening of contract enforcement mechanisms. Wineries have had to establish grape procurement and purchasing relationships with a more diverse set of growers and intermediaries. In an attempt to overcome the weaknesses of procurement via spot markets, they have sought more interdependent contractual forms that secure greater control over the quality of inputs and minimise the possibility of opportunistic behaviour. The desired option by wineries is complete backward integration but attempts to achieve this have been limited by fragmented land ownership, credit constraints and incomplete property rights.     

Institutional quality, governance, and financial development

Using banking sector and stock market development indicators, we examine the effect of institutional quality on financial development in developed and developing countries. Empirical results are based on dynamic system generalized method of moments estimations and demonstrate that a high-quality institutional environment is important in explaining financial development, specifically for the banking sector. However, the stock market development-institution relationship is contingent one, characterized by a non-monotonic pattern. The results are robust to two measurements of institutions and governance indicators, as well as estimation methods.     

Sustainability,accountability and corporate governance: exploring multinationals' reporting practices

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in accountability pressures on particularly large global companies. The increased call for transparency comes from two different angles, which show some (potential) convergence in terms of topics and audiences: accountability requirements in the context of corporate governance, which expand to staff‐related, ethical aspects; and sustainability reporting that has broadened from environment only to social and financial issues. This article examines to what extent and how current sustainability reporting of Fortune Global 250 companies incorporates corporate governance aspects. Many multinationals, particularly in Europe and Japan, have started to pay attention to board supervision and structuring of sustainability responsibilities, to compliance, ethics and external verification. While detailed disclosures are not yet common, some notable practices can be found. Underlying dilemmas and complexities for managers in dealing with accountability to shareholders and stakeholders, and the role of auditors, are indicated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

CEO compensation, shareholder rights, and corporate governance: An empirical investigation

We investigate whether CEO compensation is influenced by the strength of shareholder rights. Our evidence reveals that CEOs of firms where shareholder rights are weak obtain more favorable compensation. It is also found that higher CEO pay is associated with a higher degree of potential managerial entrenchment. Additionally, CEOs of firms with governance provisions that offer them protection from takeovers enjoy more generous pay. We also examine the change in CEO compensation relative to the change in shareholders' wealth. The evidence shows that when there is an increase in shareholders' wealth, the CEO is able to obtain higher incremental compensation when shareholder rights are weak. On the contrary, when shareholders' wealth falls, there is no corresponding decline in CEO compensation when shareholder rights are weak. Given the empirical evidence, we argue that CEO compensation practices reflect rent expropriation rather than optimal contracting.     

Markets,governance, and university priorities: Evidence on undergraduate education and research

I investigate the effects of differences in market context and governance arrangements on undergraduate education and separately budgeted research at both public and private universities. Public universities faced with little competition and universities that rely heavily on government subsidies relative to tuition tend to have larger undergraduate enrollments, fewer small classes, lower graduation rates, and are more likely to engage in separately budgeted research than universities with the opposite characteristics. In addition, Catholic universities offer fewer small classes but have higher graduation rates than independent private universities, while other church-affiliated universities spend less on separately budgeted research.Submitted: 23 July 2001, Accepted: 29 July 2002, JEL Classification: I22, I28, L30Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 22, 2001, and the research conference on Its Better to Rely on Well-designed Institutions than on Well-behaved People, at the University of California, Los Angeles, May 18-19, 2001. I thank Dennis Coates, David Epstein, Susanne Lohmann, Robert Pahre, and Matthew Potoski for helpful comments.     

Maquiladora industrialization of the Baja California peninsula: the coexistence of thick and thin globalization with economic regionalism

This article assesses the shape of industrial growth at the western end of the US‐Mexican border, analysing the degree to which globalization has diminished and/or restructured this international division. Baja California's connection to external economies is highly variable in tourism, agribusiness and export processing, with electronic maquiladoras clustering and garment production fragmenting. Most recently, dynamism has been driven by Asian investors meeting NAFTA deadlines, and impeded by recession and increased border security. The polarizing effect of globalization is demonstrated by the unprecedented emergence of a powerful group of Mexican‐state and private‐sector technocrats, at the expense of the majority of workers whose jobs remain poor. The state government has facilitated the development of capital intensive electronics industries, has neglected small and medium domestic suppliers, and been unable to provide public security. Low extensity, or the concentration of maquiladoras in an east‐west corridor adjacent to the border, and the location of most of their owners in Southern California, indicates the strongly regional character of the maquiladora economy. However, a small number of very large capital intensive plants originate in Asia, contributing to globalization via intercontinental linkages. The findings support transformationalist and sceptical models of globalization. L'article évalue la forme de croissance industrielle à l'extrémité occidentale de la frontière américano‐mexicaine, en analysant dans quelle mesure la mondialisation a atténué et/ou restructuré cette séparation internationale. La péninsule de Basse Californie est reliée de façon très variable aux économies extérieures, par le tourisme, l'agro‐industrie et la transformation à l'exportation, avec un regroupement de maquiladoras d'électronique et une fragmentation de la production vestimentaire. Plus récemment, si le dynamisme est venu d'investisseurs asiatiques en des échéances de l'ALENA, il a été entravé par la récession et une sécurité frontalière accrue. L'effet polarisant de la mondialisation est réävélé par l'émergence d'un puissant groupe de technocrates du secteur privé et de lÉtat mexicain, aux dépens de la majorité des salariés dont les emplois restent médiocres. Négligeant les petits et moyens fournisseurs nationaux, le gouvernement a facilité l'essor de secteurs capitalistiques de l'électronique, tout en se montrant incapable d'assurer la sécurité publique. La faible extensibilité ou la concentration des maquiladoras sur une bande Est‐Ouest longeant la frontière, ainsi que l'implantation de la plupart de leur propriétaire dans le sud de la Californie, marquent le caractère fortement régional de ce type d'économie. Toutefois, un petit nombre de très grosses usines capitalistiques viennent d'Asie, contribuant à la mondialisation via des liens intercontinentaux. Les résultats corroborent les modèles de transformation et sceptique de la mondialisation.     

社会主义:混合经济,社会公正和社会所有

马恩经典作家所描述的“未来社会”是与两个等式相联系的 ,即 ,资本主义 =私有制 =市场经济 ,社会主义 =公有制 =计划经济 ,而邓小平理论则对这两个等式作了实质性的修改。按照邓小平理论和中国改革开放 2 0年的实践 ,社会主义可以用这一等式表述 :社会主义 =混合经济 +社会公正 +社会所有。混合经济是社会主义在经济上的表现形式 ,它是“看不见的手”与“看得见的手”的有机结合 ,包含有市场经济一般特征和内容 ;社会公正是社会主义的本质特征 ,离开了社会公正 ,也就没有社会主义 ,社会公正包括公平的价值观和高度的民主政治 ;社会所有是社会公正的基础 ,也是社会主义的基础 ,包含以下三层意思 :个人积累的财富很大一部分转化为社会所有 ,社会每个成员可以充分享受社会财富的积累给个人带来的好处 ,生产资料以个人所有的集合体形式出现。中国的社会主义实践正在不断丰富和深化上述认识。     

Startup team contributions and new firm creation: the role of founding team experience

The likelihood of nascent entrepreneurs making the transition from a new venture idea to a profitable business is argued to be contingent on the breadth of the resources available within the startup team. Team industry and startup experience are deemed to influence the entrepreneurs’ ability to profitably establish the venture in the market via the mobilization of team resources. Using a sample of nascent entrepreneurs in the USA, we show that team resource heterogeneity has a positive impact on profitable firm creation. Moreover, this positive effect is greater as the team has more experience in the industry in which the new business will compete.