Democracy and Development: Cruel Dilemma or Symbiotic Relationship?

The paper dissects the hypothesis that democracy is inimical to economic development. The historical origin of this perspective is presented and its key theoretical and empirical assumptions are examined and assessed. The chief conclusion is that there is no necessary tradeoff between democracy and development. When compared to authoritarian regimes, democracy is more likely to foster an environment that facilitates the innovative and entrepreneurial process so essential for sustained development. On the other hand, democracy is better for development only when accompanied by an expansion of markets and competition. Democracy without markets is unlikely to deliver significant growth. In this context, liberalized international trade can act in a productive symbiosis with democratic institutions to promote development by facilitating bilateral flows of ideas, knowledge, goods, services, and technology.     

Development, democracy, and mass killings

Using a newly assembled dataset spanning from 1820 to 1998, we study the relationship between the occurrence and magnitude of episodes of mass killing and the levels of development and democracy across countries and over time. Mass killings appear to be more likely at intermediate levels of income and less likely at very high levels of democracy. However, the estimated relationship between democracy and probability of mass killings is not linear in the full sample. In the XXth century, discrete improvements in democracy are systematically associated with episodes involving fewer victims.When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe. – Elie Wiesel– Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1986.     

Democracy,Development and Comparative Institutional Advantage in Africa

Development in Africa has been stalled for decades in a vicious cycle of poverty, underdevelopment, corruption, and conflict. In this paper, we argue that donors should focus on democracy and accountability as a first priority in development aid. We use the theory of comparative institutional advantage to identify the key institutions that are most likely to facilitate economic development in communities in the modern world. These institutions include an efficient non-corrupt government sector. Subsequently, we discuss how a lack of democracy and accountability inevitably undermines development efforts and investment, referring especially to the Ethiopian experience but also considering the experiences of other African dictatorships. Finally, we discuss how donors, by emphasizing democracy and accountability along with other policies that support democratic institutions, have a greater chance of effectively contributing to African economic development.     

Is democracy good for growth? — Development at political transition time matters

Is democracy a better political regime for economic prosperity than autocracy? This paper shows that the answer depends on the initial economic development level during the democratic transition when the foundation of institutions was laid. Democracy facilitates growth only in countries that already have adequate development at transition time. These countries are more likely to create and sustain growth-enhancing institutions than others. Without appropriate development, democracy does not improve growth; this applies to about 40% of the third-wave democratized countries. These results are based on a sample of 153 countries in 1960–2010 and robust to various specifications and endogeneity issues.     

国家级开发区开发公司发展模式研究

目前,开发公司的发展模式与成立初期在出资人、发展速度和组织特征方面已呈现出截然不同的特征,在我国开发区,尤其是国家级开发区“二次创业”的发展阶段,开发区的主要开发主体——开发公司应遵循其发展规律,构建与公司发展战略相适应的组织结构模式,为国内开发公司确定自身的发展模式提供依据和参考。     

Democracy-growth nexus and its interaction effect on human development: A cross-national analysis

This paper examines the democracy-growth nexus and its interactive effect on human development by using cross-national panel data spanning over 20 years incorporating the effect of democratization process. We find evidence that the effect from democracy to human development is nonlinear and varies depending on the levels of growth and democracy. The results confirm that the interaction effect of democracy-growth nexus has a positive impact on human development but the effect is sensitive to democratization process and the level of a country's economic development. It is established that democracy is more crucial in developed countries, whereas economic growth is vital in developing countries. The findings imply that the role of democracy in enhancing human development should not be overemphasized as economic growth is vital in the developing countries.     

Does democracy foster financial development? An empirical analysis

This paper examines whether democracy promotes financial development. While cross-section results show a positive association between democracy and bank development, this relationship disappears in panel regressions. The data also reveals that democracy is not positively related to stock market development.     

The growth effect of democracy and technology: An industry disaggregated approach

The theoretical and empirical sides of democracy-growth literature fail to offer a consensus on the impact of democracy on growth. This paper provides a disaggregated manufacturing approach that reveals different effects of democracy across industries within countries. I surmise that the interplay between democracy and technological development is crucial to the economic performance of industries. A panel dataset of 61 manufacturing industries from 72 countries between 1990 and 2010 is employed, along with a wide variety of democracy measures. The results point to a technologically-conditioned effect of democracy. Political regime changes towards democracy are growth-enhancing for industries close to the World Technology Frontier but have a negative effect on backward industries. This evidence is robust to specification changes and alternative estimation techniques, and prevails once the possible dynamics of manufacturing growth are tackled.     

城乡统筹发展背景下的农村土地征用制度改革

现行农地征用制度与城乡统筹发展的矛盾日益加剧,制度变迁过程中的农地征用制度困境表现在城市土地国有制与农地集体所有制的矛盾、农地集体所有制与农民土地权益保护的矛盾。产权的自我保护与政府保护是农民土地权益保护的两大举措。     

当前中国发展基层民主的途径探索

发展基层民主、保障人民享有更多更切实的民主权利是发展社会主义民主政治的基础性工程。改革开放以来,学者们就如何推进和发展基层民主的方法、途径和措施等方面进行了深入地研究,取得了一系列成果。在把握当前中国基层民主发展现状的基础上,进一步探索有效发展基层民主的途径,对于加强社会主义民主政治建设具有重要理论和实践意义。     

沟通在新产品开发中的作用:研究现状与未来方向

根据对1990—2009年新产品开发中沟通研究文献的检索结果,对相关研究文献进行了梳理。结果显示:新产品开发中沟通问题研究的焦点已转向虚拟化、全球化、开放条件下的沟通有效性问题;沟通内容从信息转向知识,关注知识的获取、传播、共享与创造;全过程的新产品开发思路已凸显,但不同开发阶段的沟通问题的研究焦点存在较大差异。最后梳理了新产品开发中沟通研究的发展趋势,并展望了未来的研究主题。     

Fiscal decentralization and government size: The role of democracy

This paper examines how the level of democracy in a country affects the relationship between fiscal decentralization and government size. We argue that political regimes, proxied by their democracy levels, are important for different decentralization theories to predict the impact of fiscal decentralization on government size. We test this argument using panel data from 76 developed and developing countries during 1972–2013. We find strong and robust evidence that fiscal decentralization is negatively associated with government size and that a higher level of democracy tends to mitigate the negative impact of fiscal decentralization. Therefore, our study contributes to the literature by offering a novel insight on mixed results regarding the relationship between fiscal decentralization and government size in the literature.     

家族企业特性与中国的家族企业发展

本质上,家族企业是一个不完全市场性的合约组织,具有自己的组织特性。我国的家族企业发展经历了一个由避光生存到向光成长、由体制外逐步向体制内转移的过程,通过了生存检验并充分体现了其组织有效性。在未来发展取向上,中国家族企业正逐步打破对家族资源的偏重依赖,积极探索外融性发展模式。     

Financial Intermediation and Occupational Choice in Development

This paper presents evidence that the spread between the marginal product of capital and the return on financial assets is much higher in poor than in rich countries. A model with costly intermediation is developed. In this economy, individuals choose at each instant whether to work or to operate a technology. Entrepreneurs finance their business with their own savings and, if necessary, by borrowing from banks. I find that in this framework intermediation costs are not equivalent to a tax on the return of capital. The equivalence fails because costly intermediation affects not only the capital accumulation decision but also the occupational choice decision. I show that intermediation costs have important effects on per capita output and average business size in the economy. I conclude that taxing financial intermediaries can be a very bad policy for development. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E20, E60, O11, O16.     

独立学院可持续发展问题探究

经过近年来教育水平的快速、健康、有序的发展,独立学院开始成为中国民办高等教育的重要组成部分。独立学院在发展过程中还遇到很多问题和困扰,如自身成长和外部环境,所以我们必须仔细研究和执行国家政策法规,对这些问题和困扰及时并且有针对性地加以解决,使独立学院的发展能够走出困境,并向可持续发展的道路前进。     

论提高执政党领导人民发展社会主义民主政治的能力

必须适应新的历史要求,改革和完善党的领导方式和执政方式,从＂政策治国＂转变为依法执政。提高执政党领导人民群众发展社会主义民主政治的能力,把握我国政治体制改革的客观规律。积极探索党的领导、人民当家作主和依法治国统一起来的结合点。其具体形式就是,在发展民主的进程中注意处理好党内民主与国家民主的关系,政治发展与维护稳定的关系,社会主义民主与资本主义民主的关系。     

中国网络民主发展问题研究

随着科技的进步,互联网技术发展日新月异,网络信息技术迅猛发展,其影响已经渗入到社会生活的方方面面,网络技术的应用也为全面突破传统民主形式的局限注入了新的生机,对民主建设有着不可或缺的作用和深远的影响。但是由于中国的网络民主仍然处在发展的初级阶段,其本身必然存在一定的问题。因此,通过对网络民主的定义、发展现状及存在问题加以分析研究,进而对中国网络民主发展的完善策略进行探讨。     

经济全球化对发展中国家经济发展的影响与对策

随着经济全球化的发展,经济全球化自身存在的诸多不足与局限也日益显现.这些不足和局限对发展中国家的经济发展也带来了多方面的消极影响.对此,发展中国家需要在国内和国际两个层面建立起有效的发展机制,才能实现自己的经济发展目标.     

西藏文化旅游业发展的空间布局及路径研究

旅游空间结构是区域旅游经济系统中各子系统、各要素之间空间组织关系的集成反映,其合理性对旅游业发展的影响作用显著。立足于西藏文化旅游产业发展的特殊性和文化旅游资源的保护性开发,以＂核心—边缘＂理论为指导,通过统计学方法定量分析了西藏文化旅游业发展的空间结构特征和发展状态,运用模糊综合评价法建立指标体系划分了文化旅游业发展的核心区域和边缘区域,构建了＂一带、四点＂空间布局结构,并提出了强化区域空间发展定位和联动发展、加强特色产品开发等实现空间结构布局的路径和政策建议。     

风电产业对张家口经济发展的影响

风电产业在张家口的快速发展必然要促进其经济结构的调整。文章针对这一情况,就如何调整战略以跟上时代的发展步伐,提出了建议。