Legitimating totalitarianism: Melodrama and mass politics in North Korean film

This article attempts to analyze the construction and maintenance of political legitimacy in North Korea through the lens of its state-produced films. After classifying North Korea’s regime as totalitarian, we then discuss the strategies of legitimation available given this classification, and highlight the importance of ideology therein. Next, we demonstrate the importance of film within North Korea’s ideological apparatus and thematically analyze six North Korean films dating from 1948-2006. From this analysis, we situate the social role of film in contemporary North Korea and argue that it will remain a crucial force amongst the country’s various attempts to maintain legitimacy.     

Framing Post-conflict Societies: international pathologisation of Cambodia and the post-Yugoslav states

This article examines the pathologisation of post-conflict societies through a comparison of the framing of the Cambodian and post-Yugoslav states. The notion of failed states fixes culpability for war on the societies in question, rendering the domestic populations dysfunctional while casting international rescue interventions as functional. The article suggests that the discourse of pathologisation can be understood primarily not as a means of explaining state crisis so much as legitimising an indefinite international presence and deferring self-government.     

人间惨剧突袭“和平绿洲”——柬埔寨首都金边发生踩踏事件

2010年11月22日,是柬埔寨重要传统节日——送水节的最后一天,也是令全体柬埔寨人民永远刻骨铭心的日子。当晚夜幕降临的时候,首都金边张灯结彩亮如白昼,大街小巷人山人海。洪森花园和钻石岛上的商户纷纷推出优惠促销活动和各种形式的表演,吸引着仍然沉浸在节日欢乐气氛中的来自全国各地的上百万民众流连忘返,整个金边呈现出一派歌舞升平、欣欣向荣的繁华景象,向世人展示着柬埔寨这片“和平绿洲”的安定祥和。     

柬埔寨人民党立足国情巩固执政地位

2009年5月柬埔寨人民党（以下简称“柬人民党”）在,首届首都、省、市、县、区理事会选举中赢得3235个席位中的2551席并包揽了各级理事会全部主席职位。这是继2006年1月在第二届参议院选举中获得61个席位中的45席,2007年4月在第二届乡、分区理事会选举中获得1621个乡、分区长席位中的1592席以及2008年7月在第四届全国大选中获得123个国会席位中的90席并全部包揽政府各部大臣职位后的又一个选举佳绩。     

东南亚王冠上的璀璨明珠--柬埔寨

提起柬埔寨，人们也许并不陌生。除了中柬友谊的缔造者、为柬埔寨独立和平鞠躬尽瘁的“小国伟人”诺罗敦·西哈努克亲于和久经沙场、叱咤柬埔寨政坛近30年的“铁腕强人”洪森这两位中国人家喻户晓的杰出政治家外，人们了解更多的可能是上世纪后期战火硝烟中流离失所的贫困人口、田野丛林中不计其数的各型地雷和“全世界最不发达国家”、“贫穷落后”等字眼。     

Poland ten years after: the church

Ten years after the collapse of communist rule, church-state relations in Poland present a mixed picture. On the one hand, the Roman Catholic church continues to enjoy a privileged position in the country and has achieved most of its cherished goals. On the other hand, its very success carried with it seeds of its future decline. This was particularly true in several areas where the church's aggressive and arrogant behavior has proved counter productive: religious education, anti-abortion legislation, Christian values in mass media, antisemitism, murky church finances, the concordat with the Holy See, and the debate on the new constitution. As a result, there has been a steady decline in popular support for the church which itself has developed some serious rifts in its supposedly united posture. It may be hypothesized that the power and influence of the church actually peaked in the early 1990s and that, having absorbed some of the lessons from its decline, its future policies may well be less triumphalist and controversial, and more accommodating.     

柏威夏寺成功申遗引发柬泰领土争端再度升温

2008年7月8日，在加拿大魁北克城举行的第三十二，届世界遗产大会将柬埔寨的柏威夏寺列入世界遗产名录，由此引发柬泰两国领土争端再度升温。7月15日，3名泰国抗议者因越过柬泰边境检查站，试图接近柏威夏寺并将一面泰国国旗插到寺中而被柬方拘捕。尽管柬方当天释放了这3名泰国人，但柬泰边境的紧张局势却从此拉开了帷幕，一度有约1000名柬埔寨军人和500名泰国军人在柏威夏寺附近地区对峙，     

The free-market city: Latin American urbanization in the years of the neoliberal experiment

We examine the evolution of Latin American cities in the last two decades of the twentieth century and in the first years of the twenty-first on the basis of comparable data from six countries comprising over 80 percent of the region’s population. These years correspond to the shift in hegemonic models of development in the region, from import-substitution industrialization to neoliberal “open markets” adjustment. We examine how the application of the new policies correlates with change patterns in four areas: urban systems and urban primacy; urban unemployment and informal employment; poverty and inequality; and crime, victimization, and urban insecurity. We present detailed analyses of each of these topics based on the latest available data for the six countries. We conclude that significant changes in patterns of urbanization have taken place in the region, reflecting, in part, the expected and unexpected consequences of the application of the new model of development. Implications of our findings for each of the four areas examined and for the future of the region are discussed. Alejandro Portes is department chair and Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of sociology, and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. His current research focuses on the adaptation process of second-generation immigrants and the rise of transnational immigrant communities in the United States. Bryan R. Roberts is professor of sociology and C.B. Smith Chair in US-Mexico Relations at the University of Texas, Austin. His most recent work explores issues of develorment, globalization, immigration, and social policy in Latin America. Data on which this paper is based were collected by theLatin American Urbanization at the End of the Twentieth Century project, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We thank our collaborators and directors of country teams, without whom this study would not have been possible: Marcele Cerruti and Alejandro Grimson in Argentina; Licia Valladares, Bianca Freire-Medeiros, and Filippina Chinelli in Brazil; Guillermo, Wormald, Francisco Sabatini, Yasna Contreras and their collaborators in Chile; Marina Ariza and Juan Manuel Ramirez in Mexico; Jaime Joseph and the Centro Alternativa research team in Peru; and Ruben Kaztman, Fernando Filgueira, Alejandro Retamoso and their collaborators in Uruguay. We would also like to thank Carolina Flores and Lissette Aliaga for their assistance in assembling and analyzing survey data-bases from the six countries. We also thank anonymous referees of this journal for their comments. Responsibility for the contents is exclusively ours.     

Ukraine twenty years after independence: Concept models of the society

This paper attempts to create an overview of the Ukraine twenty years after independence by presenting prevailing conceptual narrative models of Ukraine employed by Ukrainian and foreign experts. Based on the analysis of 58 interviews of Ukrainian political and intellectual elites and foreign experts, the study revealed several categories of conceptual narrative models employed by respondents: (1) a state without a national idea and a common identity; (2) a country in an unfinished transition and degradation; (3) a divided society; and (4) Ukraine as a colony or “wild capitalism”. The analysis of these categories helps to assess conflict potential in Ukraine and discuss some ideas for conflict prevention and resolution.     

尼加拉瓜当选总统奥尔特加:风风雨雨40年

2006年11月5日,尼加拉瓜举行大选.现年61岁的前总统、桑地诺民族解放阵线(以下简称桑解阵)总书记丹尼尔·奥尔特加以37.99%的得票率当选总统,将于明年1月宣誓就职,任期5年.     

American opinion toward terrorism: The Reagan years

Abstract

Using a variety of public opinion sources, this article explores American attitudes during the two Reagan administrations toward terrorism. It establishes the salience of terrorism in the public's mind, the perceived causes of terrorism, opinion about preventing future terrorist incidents, and attitudes on negotiating with terrorists. The paper also examines sentiments about military retaliation options and reviews beliefs about media coverage of terrorism. In this overall attitudinal context, the study touches on the theoretical relationship between public opinion and foreign policymaking, contending that the American public is responsible and sensible enough to comprehend the general nuances and basic complexities of an issue such as terrorism. Public opinion is judged to be a capable and logical determinant in foreign policy formation. The paper also concludes that there must be some symmetry between U.S. policy and public opinion on the issue for the policy to be effective.     

Ten years of transition: a review article

Ten years after the launching of the transition process, many books and reports are offering a balance sheet of the transformation that occurred in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union area. The review article looks at some of them, particularly at Grzegorz W. Kolodko's book published in 2000, “From Shock to Therapy. The Political Economy of Postsocialist Transformation”. On the basis of this book and of some recent contributions, three major issues are discussed. First, why has there been such a recession in the beginning of the transition process in all countries, and was the recession inevitable? Second, due to the dire criticisms of the standard policy applied in these countries, dubbed the “Washington consensus”, has a “post-Washington consensus” emerged? Third, as we are already engaged in the second decade of the transition process, can we state when it is bound to be over, and what role is played by the European Union enlargement in accelerating the end of transition?