Military coups in the people’s republic of China: Failure,fabrication, or fancy?

The most blatant and dramatic type of political act by soldiers is the coup d’etat. Scholars of civil-military relations often argue that communist states are virtually immune to coups because of effective mechanisms of party control over the army. In the case of the People’s Republic of china (PRC), many scholars contend that there have been no successful military coups, although some assert there has been at least one abortive attempt—by Minister of Defense Lin Biao in 1971. Chinese sources have reported many botched coup plots and some sinologists have accepted there as fact and/or labeled various events in PRC history as military coups.     

A Preferential Option for the Spirit: The Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America's New Religious Economy

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), the Latin American church's largest and most dynamic lay movement, demands scholarly attention for its extraordinary appeal among Catholic laity and its unanimous approval by national episcopacies. If the church is finally using mass media and other Protestant techniques for evangelization, it is because of the Charismatics, whose missionary zeal rivals that of their chief competitors, the Pentecostals. This study uses the tools of religious economy to analyze the reasons for the Renewal's rapid growth and acceptance. In attempting to explicate the CCR's success, the study also examines the major ecclesial trends during the movement's three decades in Latin America.     

European governance and the transfer of 'new' environmental policy instruments (NEPIs) in the European Union

This article examines the use of 'new' environmental policy instruments (NEPIs), particularly market-based instruments (for example, eco-taxes) and voluntary agreements, in the European Union (EU). It focuses on the actor motivation behind the recent increase in the adoption of new and innovative instruments in EU (and member state) environmental policies while also taking account of the external international arena. The article assesses whether new ideas put forward by policy entrepreneurs, such as member governments, EU institutions, expert groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), are the main motivation behind the EU adoption of NEPIs, or whether market and harmonization pressures are the main driving forces. It concentrates on eco-taxes, voluntary agreements and eco-labels, using the following three theoretical perspectives: (1) policy learning and transfer/ideational; (2) garbage can; and (3) institutional approaches.