Corporate Governance Viability： Theoretical Exploration

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to try to envision how corporate governance systems and practices are evolving and what eventually determines the forms they take and the functions they perform. Practical implications especially concern different consequences that recent global economic crisis has imposed on regulatory, business, and social aspects of corporate governance. In order to encompass different approaches to this ongoing issue, the author takes into account mainly theoretical contributions that address the issue from the following perspectives： interrelations between product market competition and corporate governance, assessment of capital market pressures on corporate governance; relation between labour market and corporate governance; and actors influencing corporate governance changes in national systems of corporate governance. Since the viability of any corporate governance system and practice, at national and international levels, depends on their ability to respond to both market pressure towards competitiveness and diversified requirements by influential social, political, and economic actors of change, the author suggests that all groups of factors should continue to be in the focus of future researches. On the other hand, as global economic crisis differently affects different countries and businesses, it is of particular importance for those that shape corporate governance policies and practices to be aware of the deep relatedness between corporate governance, on the one hand, and economic, social, and environmental aspects of growth and development, on the other hand.

The Impact of Financial Distress Status and Corporate Governance Structures on the Level of Voluntary Disclosure Within Annual Reports of Firms （Case Study of Non-financial Firms in Indonesia Over the Period of 2009-2011）

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of financial distress status and corporate governance structures on the level of voluntary disclosure. We apply six independent variables, including the firm＇s financial distress status and five components of corporate governance structures, such as board independence, audit committee independence, institutional ownership, board meeting frequency, and audit committee meeting frequency. This research is carried out by examining the annual reports of 114 non-financial firms listed at the Indonesian Stock Exchange over the period of 2009-2011. To test hypotheses, we undergo two different analyses, including independent samples t-test and Multiple Linear Regression. We find that： （1） The audit committee independence and the audit committee meeting frequency have significant positive impacts on the level of voluntary disclosure; （2） The financial distress status is negatively related to the level of disclosure at various levels of significance; and （3） All the independent variables are simultaneously related to voluntary disclosure.

城市管理:“治理”缺位与权威构建

中国的城市管理,存在着“治理”缺失,如果不能有效整治,会引发强烈的社会矛盾和冲突。城内市拆迁、城市管理要公正为民,这是政府建构威信的必须选择。但在实际工作中,这种服务却被“管理”甚至“管制”取代。因而城市管理必须“治理”,必须建立一个民众监督与行政权力相互沟通、相互制衡的运行机制;政府机构必须强化亲民意识和服务功能,在平等、协调和双向互动的基础上进行城市管理,切实保障人民群众的应有权益。

Some Neglected Causes of the Global Financial Crisis and Their Implications for Effective Crisis Governance

The essay analyzes in a sociological and political science perspective several key aspects of the global economic-financial crisis which have either been neglected or not sufficiently analyzed in most scientific and media accounts. It focuses on two basic aspects： a） the coguitive framework prevailing among U. S. corporate, governmental and intellectual elites, i.e. the neodiberal conception of the self-regulating market, which deeply influenced their behaviour both in the market and in the political arena and b ） the mechanisms of pressure politics and political lobbying in the US Congress that managed to influence key decisions concerning de-regulation policy, in so far as to weaken the existing systems of institutional controls and to prevent new rules for new financial products. The last section evaluates President Obama＇s economic strategy and regulation policy in the light of the two basic aspects analysed in the first two sections, i.e. the action of lobbies and the influence of mainstream neo-hberal economics. The aim of the essay is to integrate the economic literature with a sociological and political analysis in order to gain clearer knowledge of the complex mechanisms of the crisis, which in turn can contribute to identifying key obstacles in implementing pohcies aimed at enforcing new forms of regulation of global markets.