This study has applied some basic principles of economic theory to the history of political institutions in England and America, and has also compared them with some political institutions in the history of China. It is argued in this paper that the relationship between local governments and the national government is vital to the success of great nations. To illustrate this point, the development of four important point institutions in English and American political history has been analyzed：the medieval Court of the Exchequer, the English common law, the English Parliament, and the American system of federal democracy. The Court of Exchequer was an important institution around 1200 in the early development of the English monarchy, which guaranteed that high officials were being appropriately judged for rewards or punishments. Each sheriff, governor of one of the provinces in medieval England, met the treasurer who was the representative of the central government twice a year at the Court of the Exchequer to settle the sheriff's accounts. And a large subset of the most powerful people in England gathered also at the Court of the Exchequer just to watch and verify everything that they did. Everything that the sheriff had been doing was publicly recorded there at the Exchequer. Therefore, local governors were motivated by the promise of large moral-hazard rents. The great common law in England, which had really begun to develop under Henry II around 1170, leaded directly to the legal tradition that we have in America and Britain today. After a long civil war between Henry's mother and his uncle Stephen, Henry who became the king in the end developed a court system that combined elements of centralization with a decentralized dependence on local governments to assure members of rival political elites that their ability to enjoy certain privileges would be protected under a new national leader. The English common law and the Confucian civil service examinations have some similarities both in historical origins and in their functions.A century after Henry II, around 1300, his great-grandson King Edward I developed Parliament as a way of strengthening the state. The early Parliament gave representation to the local officials who exercised the power of the state at its lowest level. Such parliamentary representation strengthened the state by creating decentralized protection for moral hazard rents of thousands of local government officials. The Parliament was just the Court of Exchequer for the local gentry. The fact that towns were represented in Parliament made them particularly effective as engines of economic growth in the early modern era. On the other hand, the fact that rural gentry were represented in England's Parliament was also important in the 1700s for the creation of some companies called turnpike trusts that built toll roads throughout England, giving England the best transportation system of the 18th century, and thus setting the stage for the industrial revolution. When looking for an analogue of Parliament in traditional China, the closest institution is the Confucian system of circulating memorials by scholar-officials. It gave a national political voice to government officials.A successful democracy requires more than just elections; it also requires alternative candidates who have good democratic reputations. Local governments provide the most opportunities for leaders to begin cultivating such reputations. Democratic development in America actually began with decentralized local democracy, and democracy in America has always been federal, in the sense of having separately elected offices at the local, provincial, and national levels. Local democracy can reduce barriers against entry into democratic competition at higher levels of government, and thus local democracy can make elections at higher levels more competitive. On the other hand, elections at higher levels of government can also help to sharpen the competitive incentives for good government in local democracy. Successful democratic development may depend on an interaction between democracy at different levels of government, from local to national.

The comprehensive leisure participation framework,identifies the global (i.e.,personality traits,physiological and psychological needs),contextual (i.e.,intrinsic motivation,extrinsic motivation,and amotivation),and situational (i.e.,attitudes,subjective norm,perceived behavioral control,intention,leisure constraints,leisure constraint negotiation) factors that are presumed to affect actual leisure participation,as well as the presumed relationships among them.It is important to note that all three levels are encompassed by culture,which suggests a universalistic approach such that these factors and relationships are construed to be largely similar across cultures but that important differences can and do exist. Some of the concepts that compose the comprehensive leisure participation framework vary cross-culturally especially between Canadian and American,and Chinese and overseas Chinese,people while also maintaining that most of the framework's concepts likely function in a similar manner across cultures.

The concept of well-being rests on the presupposition that,to achieve it,people must be proactive,must exercise personal agency to arrive at this state .Well-being is therefore also a goal,which when reached will demonstrate a person's overall happiness .Happiness is therefore further explained by our willingness to work toward our well-being and an agreeable quality of life . Moreover,psychological and sociological positiveness are sources of happiness .Happy people are positive about their lives,whether at the moment or over a long period of time .Leisure can generate happiness,but is not itself happiness .By contrast,leisure is activity;it is what we do in free time to make life attractive and worthwhile .In general,to be happy with leisure activity is,at least in part,to be satisfied with it .Although leisureis not happiness,it clearly plays a pivotal role in generating this state .We in leisure studies should never lose sight of this relationship with one of today's most vibrant spheres of life,for to do so would be to miss an opportunity to promote leisure's relevance to matters that count with science and the general public .

The potential contributions of leisure to health have receivedincreasing attention from a public and population health perspective . While leisure constraints have been studied for four decades in North America,there are no previous studies on exploring relationship between leisure constraints and health . Therefore,the purpose of this study is to explore how leisure constraints influence individual's health .Thefindingof this studyindicates that social andself-imposed constraints (e .g .,study pressure,spouse decision,taking care of children) affected individuals'p hysical condition (medical treatment and physical pain) and psychological constraints (e .g .,lack of energy,lack of motivation) also influence meaningful lifestyle (e .g .,quality of life,acceptance of bodily appearance) and physical health . The result of this study provides new perspectives for leisure constraints and health in East Asian big cities (e .g .,Seoul,Tokyo,Beijing,Shanghai and Hangzhou) .

Recently,some Human Security discourse has been still rooted in the traditional language of the aid-agency/UN development/economic growth models that emerged from the 1950s onwards . However,new ideas that appeared in the past decade,such as security in urban areas,populations within developed economies,aboriginal peoples,the role of commercial interest groups,″new global governance″and tri-sector partnerships,should be taken into the studies of Human Security Agendas . Among these innovation factors of security,the role of MNCs in conflict-management,resolution and peace-building promotes theinteractive cooperation relationship between governments,society and enterprises . And organization mechanism which combines″m ultifactor governance″with″m ultilevel governance″may break traditional negotiation approaches among nations .In general,we can not develop a sustainable Human Security until we take societal security as″incremental″,Human Security as″radical″,environmental security as ″ultra-radical″,and expand security-building measures with the times .

Political risk is taken as the starting point for assessing overseas investment projects,and it is also a crucial factor which influences the success of foreign investment . Therefore,to analyze the factors influencing the political risk and to construct a sensitive early warning system of political risk is of great practical and theoretical significance . Although there are some professional institutions worldwide that are specialized in measuring political risk,their assessments are simply conducted based on the host countries'o wn political,economic and social environment,ignoring the specific political risk of foreign direct investments regarding to a particular home country and a particular host country . Moreover,most of the political risk researches focused on risk assessment and prevention,but few of them paid attention to the early warning system . As a supplement of the previous researches,this paper aims to provide macro-levelpolitical risk information for Chinese overseas investments by constructing an early warning system of political risk in26 countries where Chinese investment flow abroad . On the basis of the summary of the relevant researches on political risk,this paper has explained the formation mechanism of the political risk and analyze the main factors influencing the political risk,which can be considered in the political,economic and social dimensions . We have proposed an indicators system to assess and predict the macro-political risk faced by Chinese OFDI . The indicators system suggested in this study consists of indicators such as political stability,the distance of the democracy degrees between China and the host country,the distance of the corruption levels between China and the host country,the host country's law culture,the host country's dependence on China,per capita income of the host country,GDP growth,inflation rate . With the annual data on the8 indicators of the indicators systemfrom2002 to2009,we have given scores to26 host countries according to principal component analysis in terms of their macro political risk . Then this paper further classifies the political risk of these years into four levels : danger,alerting,basically safe and safe . Additionally,this paper has constructed an early warning system in political risk for foreign investment of Chinese companies based on BP Artificial Neural Network,through which we also predict the political risk of Chinese foreign investment in2010 . Based on the empirical study mentioned above,we argue that Chinese investors should guard against risk arising from political factors in politically and economically less-developed countries,against risk arising from economic factors in politically and economically moderately developed countries which also maintain good diplomatic relations and have less cultural differences with China,and against risk arising from political,cultural and social factors in politically and economically highly developed countries .

To some literary scholars,the Malay pantun(s) are probably a perfect mirror of the Malay world,and a Malay soul . Passed down orally through the generations,the pantun is a form of oral literature that finds its roots amongst a great many kinds of people .The focus of this paper is the Malay and Malaysian Chinese Peranakan pantun(s),some of which were collected directly from informants in Malacca and Singapore . The Malay pantun's penchant for nature in the first couplet of a pantun,which is reiterated in the Malaysian Chinese Peranakan pantun,becomes the focus of this analysis . Besides,it is the contention of this paper that the reiteration of nature reflectors is the″mirror effect″o f the collision between the Malay andChinese Peranakan pantun(s) .The natural phenomena presence in both types of pantun(s) emphasizes daily lives which were closely associated with the natural surroundings of the Malay and Malaysian Chinese in those days and at the same time formed the uniqueness and the beauty of their pantun(s) .

as Liu Shang in the Tang Dynasty,Wang Anshi,Li Gang and Wen Tianxiang in the Song Dynasty .The″Jiju Poem″written by Wang Anshi,also known as the″lines collection poems″,are″fast paced″,″good in antithetic parallelism″and″better than the original″. Wang's writing style of lines collection poems is identified as″Jinggong Ti″,and his version of″Hujia Shibapai″is considered one of his most remarkable works andis known for its uniqueness .Li Gang's version of″H ujia Shibapai″w as not created to highlight the misery in Cai Yan's poem,but to express his own feelings instead .In terms of artistic achievement,Li's version of″H ujia Shibapai″did not have a clear narrative structure .The images of the whole poem were highly concentrated,coupled with a lot of repetitive obscure literary allusions .Therefore,his version of″H ujia Shibapai″is not as fluent as that of Cai Yan,nor as natural as that of Wang An Shi .Comparatively speaking,Wen Tian Xiang's version of ″H ujia Qu″was more musically inclined than Wang An Shi's and Li Gang's versions .Its one hundred and sixty lines were all quoted from Du Fu's poems .″H ujia Qu″combined the styles of Cai Yan and Du Fu,and mixed Wang Anshi's meticulous lines collective writing style with Li Gang's intention of″w riting poems to reproduce history″.The poem″Hujia Qu″is thus a piece of work which integrates loyalty,love and intimacy . As for the content of these three poems,Wan Anshi adopted an objective point of view when describing Cai Yan's life story,Li Gang did not include any historical facts about Cai Yan,and Wen Tianxiang used Cai Yan's tragic experience to describe his own turbulent and vagrant life,which renders the three poems unique in their own way .In Wang Anshi's version of″Hujia Shibapai″,he employed the first person perspective to narrate the story,and sometimes he would change to the observer's omniscient perspective .In general,his narrative tone and structure were quite similar to Cai Yan's″Hujia Shibapai″.In Li Gang's version of″Hujia Shibapai″,the author deliberately removed the descriptions of Cai Yan's tragic life experience,and made use of the structure to narrate the history of the″An Shi Rebellion″. Wen Tianxaing,on the other hand,encountered the same tragic experience of separation from his children as Cai Yan did,so his version of″Hujia Qu″is characterized by his empathy .In this way,Wen Tianxiang not only portrayed a macro-historical picture,but also uttered his own endless frustrations and bitterness . This paper aims to focus on Li Gang's and Wen Tianxiang's versions of″Hujia Shibapai″as well as a comparison with Cai Yan's original poem .In conclusion,Li's and Wen's versions have three significant features :(1)They were a continuation of Wang Anshi's″H ujia Shibapai″writing style,which imitated how Cai Yan narrated her tragic life experience .(2) They established the literary status of Du Fu's by setting up his poems as theclassicexample of lines collection poems . (3) They realized the concept of″reproducing history by poetry″and expanded the referral meaning of the concept .

For almost half a century,scholars,editors,translators,and university professors did not pay much attention to William Faulkner,the world-famous American novelist .Faulkner was first introduced to Chinese readers by Modern Times Magazine in the1930s,which,however,did not stir up much interest .In 1950,when Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature,some Chinese scholars became interested .Unfortunately,political campaigns,especially the Cultural Revolution,interrupted further study of Faulkner .The neglect of Faulkner in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China was no surprise as translations and discussions of the former Soviet Union and East-European literature dominated the field of foreign literature studies .It was not until the late1970s that a new wave of Faulkner scholarship was initiated .The decade of1979 1989 witnessed Faulkner's growing popularity among Chinese readers,writers as well as scholars .Young writers likeZhao Mei,Mo Yan and Zhang Kangkang all acknowledged his influence .Focusing on The Sound and the Fury and″A Rose for Emily″,literary critics mainly discussed the characters and themes of his novels,and his use of stream of consciousness and other modernist techniques .The study of Faulkner in China reached its height during the1990s,accompanied by large-scale translation and readings of Faulkner's novels and Faulkner studies in the West .Critical studies on Faulkner in this period focused on introducing his life and art,but with increasing comprehensiveness and sophistication .Remarkably,there is a lasting interest in Faulkner's reflections on women and race among literary critics at home and abroad .An examination of the essays publishedin China in the1990s demonstrates that Chinese scholars have engaged in a dialogue with their Western counterparts sharing in-depth views on research topics and methods .Faulkner studies in China have made rapid progress since the beginning of the new century,featured by the involvement of an increasing number of young scholars,a broadening interest in Faulkner's works besides TheSound and the Fury and″A Rose for Emily″,a diversification of research approaches,and a gradual increase in academic papers and books in terms of comparative criticism .On the whole,Faulkner studies began rather late in China but have developed fast since the late 1970s .Chinese scholars of Faulkner have made great achievements in spite of some overlapping and repetitive discussions around such topics as race,gender,the fictional kingdom,and the function of time .Further studies on Faulkner's later works and his use of realist techniques are therefore recommended .

For almost half a century,scholars,editors,translators,and university professors did not pay much attention to William Faulkner,the world-famous American novelist .Faulkner was first introduced to Chinese readers by Modern Times Magazine in the1930s,which,however,did not stir up much interest .In 1950,when Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature,some Chinese scholars became interested .Unfortunately,political campaigns,especially the Cultural Revolution,interrupted further study of Faulkner .The neglect of Faulkner in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China was no surprise as translations and discussions of the former Soviet Union and East-European literature dominated the field of foreign literature studies .It was not until the late1970s that a new wave of Faulkner scholarship was initiated .The decade of1979 1989 witnessed Faulkner's growing popularity among Chinese readers,writers as well as scholars .Young writers likeZhao Mei,Mo Yan and Zhang Kangkang all acknowledged his influence .Focusing on The Sound and the Fury and″A Rose for Emily″,literary critics mainly discussed the characters and themes of his novels,and his use of stream of consciousness and other modernist techniques .The study of Faulkner in China reached its height during the1990s,accompanied by large-scale translation and readings of Faulkner's novels and Faulkner studies in the West .Critical studies on Faulkner in this period focused on introducing his life and art,but with increasing comprehensiveness and sophistication .Remarkably,there is a lasting interest in Faulkner's reflections on women and race among literary critics at home and abroad .An examination of the essays publishedin China in the1990s demonstrates that Chinese scholars have engaged in a dialogue with their Western counterparts sharing in-depth views on research topics and methods .Faulkner studies in China have made rapid progress since the beginning of the new century,featured by the involvement of an increasing number of young scholars,a broadening interest in Faulkner's works besides TheSound and the Fury and″A Rose for Emily″,a diversification of research approaches,and a gradual increase in academic papers and books in terms of comparative criticism .On the whole,Faulkner studies began rather late in China but have developed fast since the late 1970s .Chinese scholars of Faulkner have made great achievements in spite of some overlapping and repetitive discussions around such topics as race,gender,the fictional kingdom,and the function of time .Further studies on Faulkner's later works and his use of realist techniques are therefore recommended .

First introduced in the 1920s,English novelist Jane Austen has attracted numerous readers and has received extensive attention from critics in China .Most of the early articles on Jane Austen's novels appeared in magazines based in Shanghai,such as English Weekly or Literature Journal .During the first 16 years of the People's Republic,Austen was more or less marginalized,because of an overwhelming emphasis on the social/political function of literature at that time .During the following 10 years of″C ultural Revolution″,the study of Austen's novels was brought to a standstill .It was in the1980s that her works reemerged in China's literary field and was held,unprecedented,in high esteem .Scholars and readers tried to discover the artistic features and themes of her novels,and compared them with the famous Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions .Quite a number of crucial western writings on Austen were also translated into Chinese .Since the 1990s,the translation and publication of Austen's novels have become very ″hot″,and movies or TV series adapted from Austen's novels magnetized a great number of fans . From1990 to2009,Austen studies made rapid progress .Partly due to the growing importance of doing research to teachers and postgraduate students in universities,partly due to the expanding influence of Western contemporary theories,discussing Jane Austen's novels became more and more an academic activity—t he topics increasingly diversified,various efforts were made in response to the Austen studies in the West .Recent developments may be tentatively summarized as follows :(1)studies focusing on techniques or aesthetic values quickly increased;(2)traditional reflections on″content″,i .e .,inquiries into ethical,ideological,social and historical aspects,are being radically″refreshed″;(3) western feminist criticisms and gender studies inspired many followers or imitators;(4)interdisciplinary researches that may be loosely termed as″cultural study″f ormed a promising area;(5)non-scholarly essays should not be neglected .Overall,Austen studies in China in this period produced very fruitful results,in spite of some occasional shoddy work that are hastily patched together,and some plain plagiary .Yet,considering the Austen craze in Western countries,the wide popularity of her novels and related movie/TV products in China,as well as our massive commentaries on some other English writers (Hardy,for example),our intellectual interest in Austen is far from adequate .

The factors which have an impact on the innovation of social science research methods can be divided into three categories :″subjective factors″,″guarantee factors″and″m otivation factors″. Firstly,″subjective factors″are the most direct factors,which can be further divided into two types :the researcher's innovation ability and innovation motivation . Secondly,″guarantee factors″include material conditions,management system and mechanism,cultural atmosphere,and team building . These factors provide material support,policy support,cultural support and organization support respectively to the innovation of social science research methods .To look at it closely,material conditions are a prerequisite for scientific innovation,and research funds are the most important factor . Management systems and mechanisms relate to the allocation system of research funds,the way programs are evaluated,the way professional ranks are evaluated,the teachers's alary system,the system of achievement evaluation in scientific research,etc .. They are the fundamental factors impeding the innovation of social science research methods . The cultural atmosphere in research teams,universities and countries plays an important part in the innovation of social science research methods . Additionally,since cooperation has become moreimportant today,team-buildingis another factor that plays a greater role in the innovation of social science research methods . Thirdly,government support,technology development and social needs provide developing motivation for the innovation of social science research methods . Specifically,government provides guidance and support in the aspect of policies .Moreover,the development of natural sciences also helps push forward the innovation of social science research methods,and the changing society also demands innovations of social science research methods .Each factor is both independent and interrelated . ″Motivation factors″and″guarantee factors″both affect the innovation of social science research methods via″subjective factors″. Therefore,″subjective factors″are an intermediate variable . Many methods can be used to promote the innovation of social science research method,which includes : increase investment,reform the management system and mechanism,support team-building,encourage innovation,provide platform of exchanges and so on . Finally,this research only provides a framework and a theoretical discussion of the factors which affects the innovation of social science research method . Further empirical research is needed to understand better how these factors interact with each other .

As an important part of academic papers which comply with the norms of social science research,citations themselves are of great research value . On the basis of the collection of citation data from top Chinese journals in economics,sociology,law and politics and on the basis of internal and international comparison research,we find that economics and sociology are more open to research abroad while law and politics are less open . And in these subjects,the level of citations to other social sciences is comparatively low . We also find that the percentage of self-citation in economics decreased significantly while that in sociology,law and politics increased moderately between 1998 and 2008 according to the results of the comparison of interdisciplinary citations . On the other hand,the percentage of interdisciplinary citation of sociology and law to economics are quite high,while the percentage of interdisciplinary citation of politics to economics is low . We think that the lack of interdisciplinary journals and the lack of researchers are two key reasons for the underdevelopment of interdisciplinary research in China .

Quality Management Practice (QMP),is a set of practices and measures that firms adopt to accomplish quality goals and plays a key role in improving business performance and competitiveness . To explore the internal mechanism of the impact of QMP on business performance,Flynn et al . have classified QMP into soft factors and hard factors . The former focuses on measures related to non-mechanism and social behaviors and others,while the latter focuses on measures related to mechanism,process and technology and others . Though some studies have shown that both soft and hard elements of QMP affect performance,controversy remains on their functional mechanism . Moreover,there has been little research done on the effect of firm characteristics on QMP and performance . This research systematically investigates the constitution of the soft and hard elements of QMP based on Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Criteria . Based on an empirical study of 424 manufacturing companies in Zhejiang province,this paper examines the relationship between QMP and performance with firm characteristics as a variant . We make use of spssmaro script which is developed by Preacher to test the mediating effect of quality performance and by the aid of sub-group regression we examine the moderating effects of firm characteristics as a variant . The results indicate that soft and hard elements of QMP are not only positively associated with firm performance,but also have an indirect effect on firm performance through quality performance . Through the comparison test of sub-group regression coefficient,we found that :(1) Compared with the effect on smaller firms,the QMP has a greater significant moderating effect on the firm performance of larger firms . (2) Firm size significantly moderates the relationship between QMP and firm performance .(3) The implementation time of QMP has a significant effect on the relationship between QMP and performance . The earlier it implemented,the better the performance of the firm . (4) The differences of QMP's moderating effect on performances of publicly-owned firms and private firms,and on performances of capital-intensive firms and labour-intensive firms are not significant . The key implications of these results are that compared to developed countries,firm size has different effects on manufacturing companies . Therefore domestic manufacturing companies need to adjust the implementation of QMP based on the firm's characteristics . There is no significant relation between the nature of the firm and the degree of capital intensity on the relationship between QMP and firm performance . This confirms that QMP has a certain″universality″i n the context of China .

The singular or the plural of circumstance for sentencing should be determined in the context of particular cases . The primary issue is to distinguish the circumstances for sentencing from the constituent elements of crime . The derivative constituent elements of crime should not become circumstance for sentencing . Among the comprehensive constituent elements of crime,only one will be taken as the constituent element,and the other elements will be converted into circumstances for sentencing . When there appears a combined relationship,an inclusive relationship or a competing relationship between circumstances for sentencing,we only regard one of them as the sentencing circumstance;and when the subject has committed several crimes,one Meritorious Service of this subject can only serve as a singular circumstance for sentencing while the minor identity and the circumstance of recidivism should serve as plural circumstances for sentencing .