俄罗斯的社会转型:矛盾与问题

苏联解体以后,俄罗斯开始了全面的社会转型进程。但十多年的实践证明,俄罗斯的社会转型并未实现其政治精英的理想预期,而是引发了诸多的矛盾与问题。政治上,新国家体制的建设既缺乏周密设计的制度安排,又没有对民主观念充分尊重的政治文化,导致政局动荡,权力危机频发;经济上,全面私有化并未导致自由市场经济的建立,寡头坐大与国家资本主义的较量表明俄罗斯的经济发展模式尚未最终成型;社会上,权力重组并未根除旧体制的“顽疾”,新包装下所进行的实质上的“精英延续”使很多旧的管理模式与风格仍然保留在新体制中;外交上,“国家身份”的模糊使俄罗斯的对外政策始终处于矛盾之中。俄罗斯的转轨之痛对任何一个社会转型国家都是应该警醒的教训,总结俄社会转型过程中出现的矛盾与问题,有着重要的理论与现实意义。     

中亚各国制度变迁的政治文化动因

独立伊始,中亚五国就确立了从高度集权的政治体制向宪政民主政治体制、从高度集中的计划经济体制向自由市场经济体制、从单一僵化的传统社会向市民社会转变的目标,由此拉开了各国以制度变迁为核心的国家转型历程.截至目前,中亚各国的体制变迁经历了曲折复杂的过程,鉴于制度变迁过程中制度惯性的存在,尤其是中亚政治文化传统所具有的滞后性,无论是对于中亚国家的政治改革,还是对于经济转轨与社会转型,各国传统政治文化都扮演着极为重要的角色.总的看来,中亚以脆弱性与易变性、分裂性与断裂性、专制性与对权威的顺从性为特征的政治文化传统,成为影响各国政治、经济、社会三个领域变迁的基本因素.     

沙特阿拉伯精英统治层探析

沙特阿拉伯精英统治层可以划分为一个核心和四个支柱:一个核心是王室精英,四个支柱是宗教精英、部落精英、官僚精英和商业精英.在整个精英体系中,四个支柱总是围绕着核心运作.沙特家族统治之初,宗教精英和部落精英以沙特王室精英为中心建立了国家政权,与此同时,沙特王室也赋予了这两个精英群体较高的社会地位.但是,随着沙特社会的发展,精英统治群体进一步分化,逐渐产生了新一代官僚精英和商业精英(见图1).经过不断的经营和进取,并依靠与沙特王室建立起的密切关系,官僚精英和商业精英不仅获取了有限的政治影响力,而且掘取了巨额的商业财富.     

菲律宾天主教会的再政治化与战后菲律宾社会转型互动机理研究

二战后,菲律宾天主教会以布道者和政治家的双重身份深刻影响着菲律宾战后社会政治转型,经历了一个与执政当局相互依靠并结盟,善意批评仍合作,最终决裂且抗争,民主监督与制衡的过程。教会无论是被迫“去政治化”还是主动“再政治化”都与菲律宾国内当时的社会、政治主题密切相关。天主教会通过内部的政治动员与外部的政治联盟,对社会转型施加影响力,维护教会的核心利益。     

金融危机与社会变革

此次金融危机其实是国际社会发生深刻变革的突出表征,也可以说是复合性社会转型危机中的重要一环.此轮复合危机的多种症状已经或即将在社会、政治、经济、安全和思想文化等领域全面显现.     

简析中亚国家总统制及其发展趋势——以哈萨克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦为例

独立十余年来的中亚国家相继步入了总统权力更替的关键阶段,领导层政治精英内部的权力斗争逐步上升为国家政治生活的主要矛盾,其总统权力的权威性正面临严峻考验.近期哈萨克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦纷纷通过修宪改制来维持政治精英内部的力量平衡,以保障总统权力的平稳承接.然而,不论从社会政治经济的现实基础,还是从中亚国家的政治发展轨迹看,哈吉两国近期的修宪改制是一种表面的政治策略,总统制仍将是中亚国家政治转型的必然趋势.文章主要以哈萨克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦为例,探讨中亚国家总统制的一些规律特征,并对中亚国家总统制的发展趋势提出了一些思考.     

论19世纪孟加拉地区毗湿奴教派女修士的文化活动——关于社会转型期印度民间文化走势的个例研究

19世纪孟加拉地区毗湿奴教派女修士文化活动的经历从一个侧面反应了印度社会转型时期随着政治、经济的变化社会文化的明显变化.毗湿奴教派女修士的文艺表演虽多以宗教为题材,却反映了民间的疾苦,虽歌颂宗教神祗和英雄,却借此表达妇女的痛苦,虽有宗教外衣,却不乏叛逆色彩.其文学创作、表演内容、社会含义,远远超过了宗教的意义.     

俄罗斯利益集团的演变及其对政治决策的影响

俄罗斯独立以后，虽然在政治上建立了超级总统制，而且从形式上确立了总统是俄罗斯政治决策的绝对支配者，但是，由于社会转型过程中其利益集团力量强大，对政治决策有重大影响。在独立初期，俄罗斯政治决策实际上是权力与“知识产权”的“契约式”决策；随着知识精英在政治权术的博弈中纷纷落马或蜕变，以及寡头利益集团的兴起，“俘获式”政治决策完全取代了原来的“契约式”决策，并引发了俄罗斯云波诡谲的政坛危机；普京执政后，在打击兴风作浪的寡头的同时，也有意培育并有效控制着俄罗斯新的利益集团，从而使国家机构的正常决策职能得以恢复，为俄罗斯的复兴打下基础。     

泰国社会转型过程中的“缓冲器”——制造可控的政治危机

20世纪90年代以来,泰国正经历着社会的全面转型,社会转型带来不可避免的社会动荡。然而有着自身政治发展规律的泰国却通过制造一系列可控的政治危机消减社会转型造成的过剩能量,维持着整个社会的基本稳定,推进着国内政治的发展。可以预见,在泰国社会转型没有最终完成之前,其国内政治危机仍将是社会常态。     

别样的风景与别样的心态——略谈20世纪90年代的俄罗斯文学思潮

俄罗斯的社会转型和文化转型导致了人们的价值观念和思维方式的巨大变化，并极为深刻地影响了俄罗斯文学的发展进程。由于社会的急剧转型，文坛论争比较尖锐。如何评价苏联文学是引起广泛争论的话题之一，与此相关的还有对整个俄罗斯文学功能的定位和价值评判的问题。关于大众文学和文化的讨论也是文坛的热门话题。90年代俄国出现了纯文学边缘化，大众读物走红市场的局面，它反映了社会转型时期普通民众对政治的淡漠和对功利文学原则的反叛。这种以世俗性为内涵，以消遣性为指归的文化与历来以精英文化为标识的俄罗斯传统文化形成鲜明对照。90年代俄国文坛后现代主义文学的盛行、“回归文学”热的退潮、宗教热的兴起及其对文学的影响等，也是引起文坛广泛关注的文化现象。     

Opportunities and constraints: comparing Tunisia and Egypt to the coloured revolutions

Nearly two years after removal of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia and Egypt are still in transition: gains made by early 2013 remain tenuous, and whether democracy takes root remains to be seen. This article identifies variables affecting these states' prospects for democratic development by drawing lessons from the post-communist coloured revolutions of the early 2000s, when democratic forces had difficulty consolidating initial gains. Based on these cases, we suggest that choices available to political actors, in particular the ability of democratic opposition forces to maintain unity and support a common transition platform, and their success in removing old regime elites, will be crucial in the post-Arab Spring environment. However, we also examine structural variables, including the nature of the ousted authoritarian regime and external leverage, which point to differences between the coloured revolutions and MENA uprisings and suggest limits to cross-regional comparison.     

Local actors in the driver's seat: Transatlantic democracy promotion under regime competition in the Arab world

In studies of political transition, scholars started to explore the effect of competition between foreign policies of antipodal regimes on the political trajectories of transition countries, notably between traditional Western donors such as the European Union and the United States of America and regional authoritarian powers such as Saudi Arabia. Drawing on existing accounts, this article studies the conditions under which external actors can effectively steer local elite towards democratic reforms despite illiberal regional powers’ potential counteractions. We argue that the reform-oriented political elites in the recipient country are the ultimate judges in this competition for influence. If democracy promotion is credible, they will decide in favour of democratization, but only if the expected costs and benefits of democratic engagement resist solicitation by authoritarian powers. A study of post-Arab Spring democracy promotion in Tunisia supports the pivotal role of the external donors’ credibility in times of complex donor constellations.     

The Foreign Policy Beliefs of Political Campaign Contributors

Since the Vietnam War, scholarly interest in public and elite opinion of U.S. foreign policy has grown. Because elites generally have greater access to policy makers and more consistent political views, most work on this topic has focused on elite opinions of foreign policy. Most research has defined the term elite broadly, often placing more emphasis on social status than political power. We will reexamine elite foreign policy beliefs using a different elite, presidential campaign contributors. We have two main goals in this article. First, we will assess the differences between the foreign policy outlooks of political campaign contributors and other elites. While many types of elites may influence policy, political contributors are particularly likely to gain access to policy makers. The second part of this research note offers some food for thought on the origins of these beliefs. We present evidence that foreign policy beliefs are related to the same ideological orientations that shape contributors' views on domestic issues. The origins of foreign and domestic policy views should probably be considered together.     

Democratization and Civilian Control of the Military in Taiwan

Over the last 20 years, Taiwan has witnessed an impressive transition from authoritarian one-party rule to liberal democracy. This included considerable changes in the relations between the civilian political elites and the armed forces. While under the emergency laws of the authoritarian regime the military had been a powerful political force, during democratization the elected civilians have managed to curb military political power and have successively widened their influence over former exclusively military prerogatives. This article argues that the development of Taiwan's civil–military relations can be explained as the result of civilians using increasingly robust strategies to enhance their influence over the military. This was made possible by a highly beneficial combination of historical conditions and factors inside and outside the military that strengthened the political power of the civilian elites and weakened the military's bargaining power. The article finds that even though partisan exploitation of civilian control instruments could potentially arouse civil–military conflict in the future, civil–military relations in general will most likely remain supportive of the further consolidation of Taiwan's democracy.     

Liberalization and Democratization in the Soviet Union and Russia

One of the principal challenges facing political science is understanding and explaining the changes occurring in the Soviet Union/Russia after 1985. This article argues that two concepts taken from the transition to democracy literature, liberalization and democratization, are useful for understanding the dynamics of change in this region. It argues that a policy of liberalization stimulated a process of liberalization, which in turn generated a process of democratization. However, this has not been carried through to its conclusion because of the circumstances prevailing within the political elite and because of the weakness of mass forces favouring a full‐blooded process of democratization.     

A new turn to authoritarian Rule in Russia?

Many observers have pointed to the increasingly authoritarian nature of President Putin's regime in Russia. This apparent turn away from democracy has generally been attributed either to Russian political culture or to the security background of Putin himself and many of those he has brought to office. However, analysis of the democratization literature suggests that the sources of Russia's authoritarianism may lie in the nature of the initial transition from Soviet rule, and in particular the way in which elites were able to act with significant independence from civil society forces because of the weakness of such forces. This weakness enabled successive elites led by Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin to construct a political system in which popularly based involvement and participation were severely restricted. In this sense, Putin is merely building on what went before, not changing the regime's basic trajectory.     

Civil society,democratization and development (II): Two country cases

Part II of this article applies the definition of ‘civil society’ and explores the hypotheses about its political role in the process of democratisation developed in Part I, in the context of two country case studies, South Korea and Zambia. These are chosen because of the contrasts in their developmental performance and in their level of socio‐economic development. In both countries, the forces of civil society played a major role in the transition to a democratic regime, but the prospects for sustainability vary. In the South Korean case, certain elements of civil society have grown along with the industrialization process and constitute a powerful force both to prevent an authoritarian reversion and to deepen the democratic process, in spite of the continuing strength of state elites left over from the ancien regime. The prospects for democratic sustainability are also improved by the maintenance of a growth momentum. In Zambia, however, the social and economic situations are still dire, the democratic elements of civil society are weak and divided and the state itself is in a ruinous condition. This leads one to be more pessimistic about the longer‐term prospects of democratic politics there. The article concludes by raising the issue of how democratic systems, once established, may be shaped to enhance both their political survival and their developmental capacity, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the state, political society and civil society.     

Violence and the breakdown of the political settlement: an uncertain future for Bangladesh?

Abstract

We explore the dynamics of the elite political settlement in Bangladesh after the democratic transition in 1991 and its impact on the elite interactions in the arena of competitive electoral democracy. We trace the history of how a political settlement around regime succession developed in the mid-1990s, and then experienced difficulties in multiple stages, and finally broke down in 2011. Violence was instrumentally used, by the ruling elites and the main opposition party, to influence the processes of negotiations around the succession of power. We argue that ‘partyarchy’—where political parties exert informal control of the party through formal processes and institutions—and dynastic rule prevent the political elites from reaching a stable settlement around regime succession. We also show how the changes to the rules of the game around regime succession have led to a qualitative shift in the extent and nature of violence in the political domain, and explore why democratic consolidation remains elusive.     

Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: mapping interactions and their impact

Abstract

Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as their perceptions of and their reactions to external interference. Moreover, the patterns of external–internal interactions may explain the trajectory of state-building and democracy promotion efforts. These issues deserve more attention from both scholars and practitioners in the fields of peace- and state-building, democracy promotion, regime transition and elite research. Analyses of external actors and domestic elites in post-conflict democratisation should therefore address three principal issues: (1) the identification of relevant domestic elites in externally induced or monitored state-building and democratisation processes, (2) the dynamics of external–domestic interactions and (3) the impact of these interactions on the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation.     

The political economy of stalemate: organised crime,corruption and economic deformation in post-Dayton Bosnia

‘The biggest security threat to this country is not nationalism; it’s criminality, corruption and unemployment'2 More than seven years after the end of the Bosnian war and despite some $5 billion in international reconstruction assistance, Bosnia's economy remains stagnant and dysfunctional, while the country is rapidly gaining a reputation not as an emerging market economy but as a lawless and ungovernable state dominated by organised crime and corruption. This paper assesses Bosnia's post-Dayton political economy, arguing that the nexus between organised crime and corruption, on the one hand, and nationalist political forces, on the other, represents the most significant obstacle to the development of a market economy in Bosnia and poses a growing threat to the country's peace process. This situation is the product of Bosnia's particular post-war and post-socialist environment, which has created a powerful class of elites with an interest in perpetuating the status quo of a largely unreformed economy. In this context, international efforts to impose economic reforms from above, and to encourage local authorities to embrace a reformist marketisation and rule of law agenda, have met with little success. The paper concludes by suggesting that international peace building efforts need to pay greater attention to the ‘enforcement gap’ that has en abled crime and corruption to flourish in Bosnia.