Using threshold models to explain international relations

The outcome of political opposition or revolution is a public good, which suggests that free riding will diminish the effectiveness of these forms of collective action. The private gains from contributing to collective goals are increased, however, if individuals place some value on ideological conformity or group identity. Nevertheless, some external stimulus is often needed to set in motion a tendency toward social motivation that is strong enough to outweigh the free rider incentive. This paper investigates the extent to which international pressure and demonstration effects can serve to signal support for the objectives of domestic groups in a target country and thereby mobilize collective action in pursuit of their goals. It is of interest to know not only the extent to which inherent barriers to effective collective action are overcome by outside support, but also to show how foreign economic policy can have an impact on political processes in the target country even when that policy itself has minimal economic effects.     

国际关系主体生长和国际政治的转变

国际关系主体可分为国家行为体和非国家行为体.国际关系主体随着国际政治的发展而朝多元化方向发展,并对国际政治产生深刻的影响.特别是非国家行为体的增生,冲击了传统的国际政治理念,促进了国际政治向合作参与型、制度化方向发展.     

Development policy and international administrative relations: The aspect of education and training

Within the framework of administrative co-operation, transnational arrangements of education and training constitute a delicate activity. Many reverberations of colonial and early post-colonial times can still be felt in this domain. Nevertheless, the problems of transfer, be it doctrine, technical implementation or practical experience, are still very apparent and will probably continue. This article traces the progress of education and training through post-colonial history until the present, discusses the merits of the different approaches taken by the most active Western institutions and identifies the major experiences and lessons regarding the various problems of transfer. The debate concentrates on the specific activities and experiences of the most recent programmes offered by the Graduate School of Administrative Sciences in Speyer in co-operation with the public administration branch of the German Foundation for International Development.     

Southeast Asia in the study of international relations: The rise and decline of a region

Three features stand out from the literature on Southeast Asia's international relations, written over the last fifty years: the dominance of extra‐regional scholarship; an overwhelming emphasis on regional security, and a related preponderance of realist perspectives; and the appearance, consolidation, and ebbing of the perceived utility of Southeast Asia as a useful analytical region. During the 1990s, there has been a questioning of the realist assumptions which have underlain international relations writing on the region, and there has been increased emphasis on economic issues. Southeast Asians are making an increasingly important contribution to the study of their own region's international relations, though mainly in terms of policy‐oriented research. The most important recent development has been the questioning of Southeast Asia's usefulness as an analytical region, in view of the growing intensity of economic and security relations between Northeast and Southeast Asia.     

The Globalization of Rights: From Citizenship to Human Rights

Globalization is shifting the balance away from membership-based citizenship towards universal human rights, thus we ask: how are new human rights generated? We argue that the movement for human rights follows on the heels of the much older and richer tradition of citizenship, as can be seen from the fact that many of the new claims put forward by human rights activists seek to define traditional citizenship rights as universal human rights. Most recently, we witness attempts by NGOs and CSOs to bring health, rights-based development, and identity rights under the umbrella of human rights. We examine the changing but continuous relationship of these two rights traditions, the gains made by human rights activists and the global solidarity and national enforcement capacity needed to underwrite their further progress.     

Democracy and the Violation of Human Rights: A Statistical Analysis from 1976 to 1996

Most studies posit and identify a linear and negative relationship between democracy and the violation of human rights. Some research challenges this finding, however, suggesting that nonlinear influences exist. Within this article, we examine the structure of the relationship between democracy and repression during the time period from 1976 to 1996. To conduct our analysis, we utilize diverse statistical approaches which are particularly flexible in identifying influences that take a variety of functional forms (specifically LOESS and binary decomposition). Across measures and methodological techniques, we found that below a certain level, democracy has no impact on human rights violations, but above this level democracy influences repression in a negative and roughly linear manner. The implications of this research are discussed within the conclusion .     

权利二重性:解读农民自杀问题的一个视角

权利二重性是理解30年来农民自杀率变迁逻辑及其区域差异现象的重要理论视角。其中,权利启蒙论认为,分田到户以来,市场改变了资源的代际分配结构,农民的权利意识不断被启蒙,农民的行为逻辑逐渐从义务本位向权利本位转变,从而引发了农民家庭权力结构和家庭伦理秩序的适应性调整,使农民自杀现象在社会转型期得以凸显。权利规约论认为,农民的权利表达一旦失去有效的规约机制,就有可能在农村社会形成不利于老年人的自杀秩序;而如果能够得到村庄内部结构性力量的有效规约,农民代际之间的权利与义务关系就会在新的水平上达成均势状态,农民的自杀率随之就会出现明显的下降现象。     

进入城市的农民:个体权利与集体权利

自20世纪70年代后期以来,中国的城市化进程提速。随着农民大规模进入城市,横亘在城乡之间的二元体制逐渐为城市权利所瓦解。由于土地的集体所有,长期以来农村的集体耕作与农业生产启发了农民集体权利的形成,因此,在这场世界最大规模的城市化移民过程中,农民进城体现为个体城市权利的实现,本质上却是集体城市权利的实现。为了维系城市的空间安全,城市政府通过积分落户等城市政策实现农民的个体权利,但是这一政策事实上形成农民精英的个体抽离,从而削弱了农民集体性权利的实现。     

Equality and Human Rights Commission: A Decade in the Making

This article traces the origins of the Commission over the decade before it opened its doors in October 2007, and the contentious debates and political trade-offs which led to its emergence in its current form; a history which throws light on the challenges it now faces. Inclusion of human rights in a 'single equality body', concessions on disability, the promise of a single Equality Act and the Commission's third arm, community relations, were major fault lines in debates complicated by devolution and fragmentation of responsibility in Whitehall but strengthened by an unusual degree of engagement with external stakeholders and by the scrutiny of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in Parliament. The outcome extends beyond establishment of a Commission with a powerful mandate. A process that began with separate equality interests competing to ensure their constituency did not lose out, fostered enthusiasm for collaboration to achieve the vision of society the Commission is tasked, by S3 Equality Act 2006, to deliver.'     

European Integration and Citizens' Rights: A Comparative Perspective

The prospects for European Union citizenship are sometimes discountedby reference to homogeneity in the United States compared todiversity in the European Union. This article suggests thatthere may be more similarities between the two systems thanis sometimes supposed by many observers. Even though there areimportant differences, both systems have had to address similarquestions about how to combine the benefits of integration andthe protection of rights. In discussing the common and divergentfeatures, the author argues that comparison also reveals thepossibility that it is diversity, not homogeneity, that is necessaryto the protection of citizenship's rights.     

NGOs invite attention: From the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to the Human Rights Council

This article first reviews and compares Human Rights Council and University Period Review (HRC/UPR) research published during and shortly after the institution-building period (2006–2009) to more recent work (2010–2014) to identify patterns of scholarly interest in NGO roles and behavior at the HRC/UPR. It divides research into that which either “ignores” NGOs or offers “indirect” attention, “direct” attention, or “foregrounds” NGO activity, concluding that NGOs are surprisingly underexamined, given remarkable new participatory opportunities in the HRC/UPR and the centrality of NGO information provision to the success of the new body. Empirical analysis of NGO statements from the CHR to the HRC indicates sharply increasing NGO participation, particularly among domestic, regional, and Southern NGOs. The increased volume and changing characteristics of participating NGOs may have important effects on the HRC/UPR and should also encourage further analysis.     

Civil Rights and Political Human Rights: Contesting Human Rights Failures within the Minimally Democratic State

Allen Buchanan argues that democracy ought to be added to the list of basic human rights, but he limits the conception of democracy to a minimum of electoral representation within the nation state, effectively collapsing human rights into civil rights. This, however, leaves him unable to address the problem of human rights failures occurring within established states that meet his standard of minimal democratic representation. In order to address this problem, I appeal to James Bohman's conception of the political human rights of all members of humanity, as opposed to the civil rights of the citizens of particular states. I argue that while this provides the basis on which to address the problem of human rights failures within minimally democratic states, Bohman's conception also entails the potential for deep tensions to arise between the different claims of civil and human rights.     

To pay or not to pay: A model of international defaults

Most lenders in international financial markets accede to reschedule overdue payments when sovereign borrowers fail to meet repayment requirements rather than foreclose and force a default. This practice provides borrowers with strong incentives to avoid prompt payment and to sak rescheduling instead. Because lenders cannot distinguish between borrowers who are unable, and those who are merely unwilling, to repay the loan, they will agree to reschedule loans of borrowers who would choose to pay rather than face outright default. This paper augments the traditional lender-borrower model by explicitly considering rescheduling, in addition to default and repayment, and places it in a game theoretic context. It develops a theory of unwillingness to pay, as opposed to inability to pay, and derives strategies by which lenders can at least partially protect themselves against rescheduling requests by borrowers unwilling, but not unable, to fulfill their obligation.