文章 - - 文章列表 - 全部

在“底层”文学、“打工”文学及“新少年写作”等文学现象中，显示了这种日常生活的平庸性所带来的新困扰，而对这种平庸性的焦虑与不安仍然是新语境下文学写作的基本主题之一。

在以赛亚·柏林后接任牛津大学经济学系主任G.A.Cohen生前最后一本著作《何不实行社会主义?》的书评。该书认为弱肉强食是目前社会的特征，希望用一个更理想的社会形式取而代之。书评作者劳埃德悲观地认为柯亨的想法超乎现实，他为了实现平等而要求人们拥有的道德，自治和品行是不可能实现的。

这种关注文本的语言和由此构成的概念史研究方法是否可以运用于关于中国近代历史问题的讨论上呢？

本文通过对华南PS街道办事处化解劳资纠纷的过程及相关事件的田野研究,提供了一个关于2008年劳动合同制度实施的具体案例分析。笔者发现,在《劳动合同法》生效以后,街道办事处在劳资纠纷中的角色由过去的放任转向了干预,并人为地降低了法律的执行标准,以预防可能出现的社会不稳定因素。笔者认为,劳动合同制度未能得到有效实施是受制于多个相互联系的社会过程——如基层政府的组织环境、城市化以后街道办事处与社区关系的变化、产业的升级转型等——的互动。本研究表明,在评估地方政府在社会转型中的作用时,需要特别关注地方背景和具体的制度条件。

台灣的民主反對運動必須得要重新清理過去的歷史，在這個過程中得有主體性的去面對日本殖民主義對台灣長遠的傷害，以及美國對於兩蔣威權體制的支持過程中對於台灣民主造成的迫害及長遠的影響，而不只是切掉歷史重要的構成，透過簡單的反中來自我正當化；這也就是要把歷史中台灣主體構成的他者多元化。

环保总局怎样才能有效保证环保政策的施行？怎样才能使禁令不在地方上成为一纸空文？

梭罗素食的原因及其他。有些人素食不是因为毛茸茸的小动物可爱，更严肃的理由有清洁，节约，反对暴力，把女性从与处理肉食相关的繁重厨房劳动中解放出来，等等。

公租房建设如今已在全国铺开，成为国家住房保障制度改革的重要载体，也成为了今年全国“两会”的一大热点。这一新事物在各地出现有哪些模式？还要突破什么瓶颈，形成长效的住房保障制度？ 昨日，记者陪同重庆和吉林两地代表团的4名全国人大代表，一起考察了位于北京鹿海园的公租房项目，并与北京住保办的官员一起，就公租房的种种焦点问题进行了对话。 开发模式 北京采取“三多一组合”方式 重庆商报：在公租房建设全面铺开后，国家也还在探索相关的指导性规范措施。以鹿海园这个片区为例，目前北京公租房建设标准是什么？ 邹劲松：按照建设部去年发的标准，公租房都必须在60平米以下。这里的户型比较大，甚至达到了90平方米。因为这是政府从开发商手中收购过来，改成公租房项目的。在发展模式上，北京市采用多元化的办法，我们叫“三多一组合”，多元的主体建设，多方式供地，多渠道筹集资金，然后就是进行建设管理。 崔坚：北京多元化建设具体怎么操作？ 邹劲松：一个是政府建，还有咱们相关的产业园区来建设，还鼓励国有企业拿出自己的用地来建，面向社会公开。同时，北京也鼓励民营企业拿出自己的土地搞公租房建设，解决本单位的职工住房困难问题。 重庆商报：重庆建设模式都比较单纯，直接由政府划拨土地，然后由国企来操作，这和北京的模式有很大的差别。 崔坚：北京调动更多的社会力量来参与公租房的建设，我认为这个做法能让社会更多的人知道公租房，支持公租房，这也是好事情。重庆的模式则能更好地保证公租房的融资，保证公租房的质量，保证公租房的数量，去年我们开工是1300万平方米，今年计划开工1350万平方米，这个量在全国可能是很多省市都没有达到的。 遭遇困惑 如何保证公租房可持续发展？ 重庆商报：从各地建设公租房的情况来看，好像政府都在“吃亏”，如何能保证这个制度不是暂时现象，而是持续发展，成为未来住房保障中最重要的一块呢？ 邹劲松：这个问题是我们现在很困惑，也是正在探索的。公租房建设必须要坚持“两个可”，首先是老百姓可承受租金。 华渝生：老百姓能够承受，经营单位就不一定能承受了。 邹劲松：所以第二个就叫做可持续。我们的公租房试验点还要做大做强，还要可持续。那么这里就需要政府要有作为，比如北京提出政府要采取一定的优惠措施，包括土地让利、税费减免等。同时对承租公租房的廉租房要进行补贴，多管齐下，才能保证老百姓能够住得起，同时还能良性循环。还有就是企业来经营，可以采用协议租赁的方式。 北京马上还会发一些措施，对于公租房建设，减免政府性的基金，减收基础设施配套费，目的都是为了大大降低它的运营成本。 柏广新：还有就是融资方面，因为政府的负债，政府不能直接融资、直接担保等等，所以需要大量的资金启动时，要靠企业解决。 崔坚：这是一个金融问题，我们现在公租房建设资金的筹集方式，和商品房资金筹集方式一样。所以，我们政策的配套性就有一些讨论空间：公租房和商品房能不能不一样，公租房能不能采用特殊的政策。现在商品房的融资模式，等于占了双重资源，首先是融资的企业付了利息，其次是融资的企业还需要用资产来进行抵押，这样成本就很高了。 从这个角度上讲，我觉得国家应该出台一些支撑政策。不过我注意到，银监会最近有一个表态，对公租房的融资给予特殊支持，这是好迹象。人大代表以建议的方式进一步的反映，应该还会推动这个事情的进展。 重庆商报：融资成本比较高，企业天生就是要盈利的，即使国有企业也不例外。过一段时间，会不会为了经营平衡，企业把公租房的租金给提高了。 崔坚：就企业本身来讲，它是一个社会的经济细胞。但国有企业为带动社会发展，就得干一些亏本的事情。但是企业成立的目的，其中有一个就是要用它未来的收益来平衡当时的支出，不平衡不给你贷款，这个要讲清楚。 各地租金 重庆的租金付利息都不够 重庆商报：现在每个地方的老百姓都很关心，公租房的租金是怎么界定和测算的？ 华渝生：重庆公租房的成本，包括征用土地成本，加上土建成本、环境配套成本、装修成本，大概每平米3000元左右。柏广新：我这次专门有一个建议，拓展公租房制度，建立国家公民公寓制度，凡是中华人民共和国公民，都应该有这个权利申请。 邹劲松：北京基本的原则是不会高于市场价，但是同时考虑成本。 华渝生：像这样的小区，租金标准能够控制在一个什么范围？比如每平方米30块钱、20块钱、还是10块钱以内？ 邹劲松：没有最终确定。像这里收购的房子，就是大体上是六七千元/平方米。 华渝生：如果不是收购，自己建设大概多少钱？ 邹劲松：目前我们政府建设的也是7000块钱左右，不同的地段价格不一样，有的地段好一些，土地费用高一些。 丛连彪：那租金就不低于40块钱一平米一个月。 重庆商报：相比之下，重庆目前每月的租金是10元左右一平方米，已经很低了。 华渝生：重庆公租房的成本，包括征用土地成本，加上土建成本、环境配套成本、装修成本，大概每平米3000元左右。按照近百分之七的利息算，一平方米一年的利息200元，而租金才120元，相当于政府一年要补贴80元/平方米，这是多么划算。反过来说，你真用三千元来买房子，就利息也不止十元钱。 柏广新：即使公租房再便宜，为什么很多市民考虑最多的还是买房？我觉得，当前最重要是引导居民消费理念的转变。在一些国家或地区，60%的人口住公租房，住商品房的很少。你想，买一栋房子，这个钱租一辈子的房都用不完。所以我们也应该追求使用权，不要追求产权。 未来方向 建议建立全民公寓制度 重庆商报：当前各地都在探索公租房的住房保障方式，如果要在全国形成一套长效的模式，下一步的发展方向会有哪些？ 柏广新：我这次专门有一个建议，拓展公租房制度，建立国家公民公寓制度，凡是中华人民共和国公民，都应该有这个权利申请。在建设的同时，起草完善一系列规范和条例，比如说购买了商品房，就要退出公寓，年均收入超过30万或者50万，退出公寓，这样使公民公寓轮流使用。为什么这样做，因为国土资源是有限的，如果现在都卖掉了，那么将来再建廉租房，我们就没有地方建了，因为土地面积是固定的。 丛连彪：我担心的是，扩大规模后，很多地方的财力可能会杯水车薪。 柏广新：可以逐步将房产税试点范围拓展，你住豪宅的人，花几千万买了，纳税就得高点，这个钱拿回来就建公寓，给普通人建。为了从根本上保障居民的公寓住房，商品房的价格就完全由市场决定去，你卖得越高，我收的税越多。 重庆商报：但同样也有个申请和退出的问题。 柏广新：可以实行公民轮候制度，我符合申请公租房的条件了，或者申请公寓的条件了，就可以申请等候，通过审批进住。各个省市可能遇到一些细节问题，比如外来的怎么办？户口所在外地怎么办？这些住建部要研究，形成一个规范。

本文基于2006年10月在“西南地区民主改革口述史”研究计划培训会上的讲座写成。

美国法学界从90年代以来有个比较引人注目的法学流派：法律与文学。它主张强调法律与文学之间的密切联系和相互影响；他们当中激进人士更主张，将法律实践本事当做一种文学活动，将控辩双方活动当做一种叙事或修辞。

中国古典思想语境中政治的本性是一切存在者的“各正性命”，它意味着，一方面，“天下有道”，存在者皆有路可走；另一方面，人们皆有家可以安居。

当前大部分关于地缘政治的讨论，均设想我们只能在单边主义和多边主义这两种维持全球秩序的策略之间作出抉择。

光伏产业，危机复兴的突破口？国家新竞争的制高点？一场围绕光伏产业的国际竞争已经展开。以光伏产业为核心打造“新能源大国”，是一个可能使中国经济一举摆脱“世界血汗打工仔”地位的最佳切入点。以国家意志、国家力量主导光伏产业的发展，是最容易汇集全民共识、最具缓解阶层利益对立的方案，可得“四两拨千斤”之效。

张承志《敬重与惜别——致日本》新书发布会暨媒体见面会记录。

著名语言学家，政治评论家乔姆斯基09年1月24日在个人网站发表文章“奥巴马论以色列-巴勒斯坦”，《信报》专栏作家做了概述。作为犹太后裔，乔姆斯基的文章批评了奥巴马不谈以色列对加沙的侵略，坚持与以色列联盟的政策。

该立案针对联邦通讯委员会去年12月发布的“保持开放互联网”通知，虽然作者认为这项议案很难通过参议院，并且奥巴马总统也声称将对其否决，但此次通过表明了重大问题。

资本主义并不只是众多历史阶段中的一个。从某种程度上说，曾经红极一时，今天却已几乎被人遗忘的福山（Francis Fukuyama）的论断是正确的：全球资本主义是“历史的终结”。

世界经济/金融危机似乎日甚一日，整个中东地区的政治和军事继续分崩离析，全球都在期待着奥巴马就任总统，在这一切之中，世界很少注意到2008年12月中旬的一个重大地缘政治事件。古巴重返舞台！

Bruce Bayfield的评论文章称，自由及开源软件(以下简称FOSS)社区最大的敌人不是微软，也不是其它什么公司，而是FOSS社区自己。FOSS社区中存在九大不利于FOSS发展的态度问题。

Forget aid-people in the poorest countries like Haiti need new cities with different rules. And developed countries should be the ones that build themLacking electricity at home, students work under the dim lights of a parking lot at G'bessi Airport in Conakry, GuineaOn the first day of TEDGlobal, a conference for technology enthusiasts in Oxford in July 2009, a surprise guest was unveiled: Gordon Brown. He began his presentation with a striking photograph of a vulture watching over a starving Sudanese girl. The internet, he said, meant such shocking images circulated quickly around the world, helping to mobilise a new global community of aid donors. Brown's talk ended with a call to action: developed countries should give more aid to fight poverty.When disaster strikes-as in the recent Haiti earthquake-the prime minister is right. Even small amounts of aid can save many lives. The moral case for aid is compelling. But we must also remember that aid is just palliative care. It doesn't treat the underlying problems. As leaders like Rwandan president Paul Kagame have noted, it can even make these problems worse if it saps the innovation, ambition, confidence, and aspiration that ultimately helps poor countries grow.So, two days later, I opened my own TED talk with a different photo, one of African students doing their homework at night under streetlights. I hoped the image would provoke astonishment rather than guilt or pity-for how could it be that the 100-year-old technology for lighting homes was still not available for the students? I argued that the failure could be traced to weak or wrong rules. The right rules can harness self-interest and use it to reduce poverty. The wrong rules stifle this force or channel it in ways that harm society.The deeper problem, widely recognised but seldom addressed, is how to free people from bad rules. I floated a provocative idea. Instead of focusing on poor nations and how to change their rules, we should focus on poor people and how they can move somewhere with better rules. One way to do this is with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of new "charter cities," where developed countries frame the rules and hundreds of millions of poor families could become residents.How would such a city work? Imagine that a government in a poor country set aside a piece of uninhabited land. It invites a developed country to enter into a new type of partnership, in which the developed country sets up and enforces rules specified in a charter. Citizens from the poorer country, and the rest of the world, would be free to live and work in the city that emerges. It could create economic opportunities and encourage foreign investment, and by using uninhabited land it would ensure everyone living there would have chosen to do so with full knowledge of the rules. Roughly 3bn people, mostly the working poor, will move to cities over the next few decades. To my mind the choice is not whether the world will urbanise, but where and under which rules. Instead of expanding the slums in existing urban centres, new charter cities could provide safe, low-income housing and jobs that the world will need to accommodate this shift. Even more important, these cities could give poor people a chance to choose the rules they want to live and work under.To understand why rules are the way to harness self-interest, and why such new cities could work where old cities have not, look again at the example of electricity. We know from the developed world that it costs very little to light a home-on average, less than one US penny an hour for a 100-watt bulb. We also know that most poor people in Africa are not starving. They could afford some light. Africans do not lack electricity because they are too poor. Indeed, reliable power is so important for education, productivity and job creation that it would be more accurate to say that many in Africa are poor because they don't have electricity. So why don't they?Why the right rules matterConsider development the other way round. US customers have cheap electricity mostly because rules channel self-interest in the right way. Some protect investments made by utilities, others stop these companies abusing their monopoly power. With such rules, companies win; efficient providers make a profit. But customers win too; they get access to a vital resource at low cost. It's the absence of these rules that explains why many Africans don't have electricity at home. It might seem a simple insight, but it took economists a long time to understand it.In the 1950s and 1960s, economic models treated ideas as public goods, meaning that once one existed it was assumed to exist everywhere. Some ideas are like this-for example, the formula for oral rehydration therapy, the mixture of sugar, salt, and water, that stops children dying from diarrhoea. No one owns it and you can find it easily online. If all ideas were like this it would be easier for poor countries to grow. But they aren't: patents and other legal rules stop some ideas spreading, while others are just easy to keep secret.When I started graduate school in the late 1970s I was convinced economists underestimated the potential for new ideas to raise living standards. The body of work that grew out of my PhD thesis came to be called new growth theory, or post-neoclassical endogenous growth theory in Britain (when it was infamously taken up by new Labour in the mid-1990s). Initially I just wanted to understand how good ideas, like those which make cheap electric light possible, were discovered. But then another topic began to interest me: why didn't ideas common in some parts of the world spread to others?Put simply, some countries are better able to establish the type of rules that help good ideas spread, while others are trapped by bad rules that keep ideas out. The rules stopping cheap electricity, for instance, are not hard to identify. The threat of expropriation or political instability stops many western electricity companies moving into Africa. Those that do set up there can exploit their power as monopolists to charge excessive prices. Often they offer bribes to stop rules being enforced, or pay bribes themselves. Good rules would stop all this. So to unleash the potential of the marketplace, poor countries need to find a way to create good rules.The challenge in setting up good rules lies in solving what economists call "commitment" problems. How can a developing country promise to keep the rules that govern investment fair? Nobel prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling illustrates this problem with the example of a kidnapper who decides he wants to free his victim. But the kidnapper worries that the victim, once released, will go to the authorities. The victim, eager to be free, promises not to-but there is no way for him to guarantee he will keep quiet. As a result, the kidnapper is compelled to kill the victim, even though both would be better off if a binding agreement could be made. Poor countries face similar problems: their leaders cannot make credible commitments to would-be investors.Rich nations use well-functioning systems of courts, police and jails, developed over centuries, to solve such problems. Two people can make a commitment. If they don't follow through, the courts will punish them. But many developing countries are still working their way down the same arduous path. Their leaders can fight corruption and establish independent courts and better rules over property rights, but such moves often require unpopular measures to coerce and cajole populations, making internal reforms excruciatingly slow. Subsequent leaders may undo any commitments they make. A faster route would seem to be for a developed country to impose new rules by force, as they did in the colonial period. There is evidence that some former colonies are more successful today because of rules established during their occupations. Yet any economic benefits usually took a long time to show up, and rarely compensated for years of condescension and the violent opposition it provoked. Today, violent civil conflicts have led some countries to again consider military humanitarian intervention, but this can only be justified in extreme circumstances. My point was that there is a middle ground between slow internal reforms and risky attempts at recolonialisation: the charter city.There are large swathes of uninhabited land on the coast of sub-Saharan Africa that are too dry for agriculture. But a city can develop in even the driest locations, supported if necessary by desalinated and recycled water. And the new zone created need not be ruled directly from the developed partner country-residents of the charter city can administer the rules specified by their partner as long as the developed country retains the final say. This is what happens today in Mauritius, where the British Privy Council is still the court of final appeal in a judicial system staffed by Mauritians. Different cities could start with charters that differ in many ways. The common element would be that all residents would be there by choice-a Gallup survey found that 700m people around the world would be willing to move permanently to another country that offers safety and economic opportunity.I started thinking about city-scale special zones after writing a paper about Mauritius. At the time of its independence in 1968, economists were pessimistic about this small island nation's prospects. The population was growing rapidly, new jobs were scarce in its only real export industry (sugar), and high tariffs designed to protect small companies manufacturing for the domestic market meant no companies could profitably use their workers to manufacture goods for export. It was politically impossible to dismantle these barriers to trade, so policymakers did the next best thing: they created a special category of companies, ones said to be in a "special export zone." The zone didn't physically exist, in that these companies could locate anywhere on the island, but companies "inside" the zone operated under different rules. They faced no tariffs, or limits on imports or exports. Foreign companies in the zone could enter and exit freely, and keep profits they earned. Domestic companies could enter too. The only quid pro quo was that everyone in the zone had to produce only for export, so as not to compete with domestic firms. The zone was a dramatic success. Foreign businesses entered. Employment grew rapidly. The economy moved from agriculture to manufacturing. Once growth was underway, the government reduced trade barriers, freeing up the rest of the economy.The history of development is littered with failed examples of similar zones. Mauritius was unusual because it had low levels of crime and the government already provided good utilities and infrastructure. The zone only had to remove one bad form of governance: trade restrictions. Yet many developing countries still can't offer the basics, another reason why building new cities is an attractive option. Cities are just the right scale to offer basic conditions. So long as they can trade freely, even small cities are big enough to be self-sufficient. Yet because they are dense they require very little land.To apply the lessons from Mauritius in countries with pervasive problems, the key is to create zones with new rules that are big enough to be self-contained. Big enough, that is, to hold a city. Then let people decide whether to enter.When I returned to Mauritius in 2008, I outlined my ideas to Maurice Lam, head of the Mauritian Board of Investment. Maurice splits his time between Mauritius and Singapore. He and I knew that Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, had experimented in the 1990s with a similar idea, establishing new cities that Singapore could help to run in China and Indonesia. These ran into difficulties because the local governments retained discretionary powers that they used to interfere after Singapore had made large investments in infrastructure. This convinced us that explicit treaties reassigning administrative control over land were needed. Maurice also said that countries in Africa would be open to this kind of arrangement. Some officials, eager to make a credible commitment to foreign investors, had already made informal inquiries about whether Mauritius would be willing to take administrative control over their special export zones.What could go wrong?Some economists have objected that a charter agreement between two countries will not necessarily solve the commitment problem that lies at the heart of development failures. The leaders of many countries enter into agreements, sometimes with the best intentions, that subsequent leaders or officials do not honour-as Lee Kuan Yew found to his cost. To guard against such an outcome, partners in a charter city must negotiate a formal treaty, like the one that gave the British rights in Hong Kong (see box, right). Under this arrangement the only way for the host country to renege on its commitment would be to invade. Even governments that resent having signed such agreements in the past almost always respect them. The Cubans hate the agreement that gave the US control of Guantánamo Bay, but learned to live with it.Another objection comes from those who study urbanisation. They point out that the location of most existing cities is determined by accidents of history or geography, and suggest, correctly, that there are geographical requirements for a city to survive. But they are surely wrong to think that all the good sites for cities are taken. Here distance matters, but it is not an insurmountable obstacle: Mauritius continues to develop despite its remote location. Flat land is cheaper to build on, but many cities have developed on hilly terrain. A river can provide fresh water and access to the sea, but with desalination, so too can any coastal location where a port could be built. Access to the sea is the only real necessity-as long as a charter city can ship goods back and forth on container ships, it can thrive even if its neighbours turn hostile or unstable. And there are thousands of largely uninhabited coastal locations on several continents that could qualify.Other urban economists fear new cities will repeat the unimpressive history of government-planned ones like Brasília, or Dubai's recent bust. But these are both extreme examples. The state was too intrusive in Brasília and almost non-existent in Dubai. Hong Kong is the middle ground, a state ruled by laws not men, but one that leaves competition and individual initiative to decide the details.The experience in Hong Kong offers two further lessons. The first is the importance of giving people a choice about the rules that govern them. Hong Kong was sparsely populated when the British took over. Unlike other colonial systems, almost everyone chose to come and live under the new system. This gave the rules proposed by the British a degree of legitimacy they never had in India, where the rules were imposed on often unwilling subjects. This is why building new cities, rather than taking over existing ones, is so powerful.The second lesson is the importance of getting the scale right. Most nations are too large to update all their rules and laws at once. The coercion needed to impose a new system on an existing population generates friction, no matter who is in charge. Leaders on mainland China understood this when they attempted to copy the successes of Hong Kong by gradually opening a few places, such as the new city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. Yet while nations are too big, towns and villages are too small. A village cannot capture the benefits that arise when millions of people live and work together under good rules. Cities offer the right scale for dramatic change.The demands of migrationAs billions of people urbanise in the coming decades, they can move to hundreds of new cities. The gains new cities can unleash are clear. Picture again the students studying under the streetlights. By themselves, political leaders in poor countries won't provide cheap, reliable electricity any time soon. They can't eliminate the political risk that holds back investment or ensure adequate regulatory controls. But working with a partner nation, they can establish a new city where millions of young people could pay pennies to be able to study at home. And as these cities seek out residents, the leaders and citizens in existing countries will face the most effective pressure for good governance-competition.We know from history that the competitive pressures created by migration can boost economic growth. But strong opposition to immigration in the world's richest economies prevents many people from moving to better systems of rules. Charter cities bring the good systems of rules to places that would welcome migrants. Indeed, charter cities offer the only viable path for substantial increases in global migration, bringing good rules to places that the world's poor can easily and legally access, while lessening the contentious political frictions that arise from traditional migration flows.Intelligently designed new cities can offer environmental benefits too, a point increasingly made by environmentalists like Stewart Brand (see p39.) For example, Indonesia emits greenhouse gases at a rate exceeded only by China and the US. This rate is partly due to logging practices in its rainforest, and efforts to clear land for palm-oil plantations and pulp-producing acacia trees. Brand has cited the experience of Panama to demonstrate the green potential of urbanisation: as people there left slash-and-burn agriculture for work in cities, forest regenerated on the land they left behind. Similar migration to new cities in places like Indonesia could do much to reduce carbon emissions from the developing world.Investment in charter cities could also make more effective the aid rich countries give. The British experience in Hong Kong shows that enforcing rules costs partners very little, but can have a huge effect. Because Hong Kong helped make reform in the rest of China possible, the British intervention there arguably did more to reduce world poverty than all the official aid programmes of the 20th century, and at a fraction of the cost. And, if many such cities are built, fewer people will be trapped in the failed states that are the root cause of most humanitarian crises and security concerns.There are many questions to be resolved before the first city is chartered. Is it better to have a group of rich nations, or a multinational body like the EU, play the role the British played in Hong Kong? How would such a city be governed? And how and when might transfer of control back to the host country be arranged? But as we begin to explore these questions, we must not lose sight of the fundamental insights that advocates of the free market underestimate. The win-win agreements that we see in well-functioning markets are possible only when there is a strong, credible government that can establish the rules. In places where these rules are not present, it could take centuries for locals to bootstrap themselves from bad rules to good. By creating new zones through partnerships at the national level, good rules can spread more quickly, and when they do, the benefits can be huge.The world's fortunate citizens must be able to provide assistance when disasters like the earthquake in Haiti strike, but we must also be wary of the practical and moral limits of aid. When the roles of benefactor and supplicant are institutionalised, both parties are diminished. In the case of Haiti, if nations in the region created just two charter cities, they could house the entire population of that country. Senegal has offered Haitians the opportunity to return to the home "of their ancestors." "If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region," a Senegal government spokesman said. Outside of the extraordinary circumstances of a crisis, the role of partner is better for everyone. And there are millions of people seeking partnerships around the world. Helping people build them successfully is the opportunity of the centuryHong Kong: the first charter city? Hong Kong was a successful example of a special zone that could serve as a model for charter cities. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the only place in China where Chinese workers could enter partnerships with foreign workers and companies. Many of the Chinese who moved to Hong Kong started in low-skill jobs, making toys or sewing shirts. But over time their wages grew along with the skills that they gained working with educated managers, and using modern technologies and working practices.Over time they acquired the values and norms that sustain modern cities. As a result, Hong Kong enjoyed rapid economic growth-in 1960, the average income was around £2,500; by 1997, it was around £20,000.Even if it had wanted to, the Chinese government acting alone could not have offered this opportunity. The credibility of rules developed over centuries by the British government was essential in attracting the foreign investment, companies and skilled workers that let these low-skill immigrants lift themselves out of poverty. As in Mauritius, authority rested ultimately with the British governor general, but most of the police and civil servants were Chinese. And the benefits demonstrated in Hong Kong became a model for reform-minded leaders in China itself.