Democracy Exporting Will Not Work

The basis of the US democracy exporting policy,Democratic Peace is an international relations theory that began only in the 1980s.This relatively new branch of international theory must be seriously critiqued because aggressive US democracy export practice in recent years targets other countries' political structures.In China,political stability and economic development are under siege precisely because of this thinking.Analysis of Democratic Peace theory and US democracy exporting policy conflicts with Marxist principles and disregards the rules of social development.While commonsense shows it will be impossible for American policymakers to reach their advocated goals,even worse is the disaster these attempts create in a misguided country that becomes a democracy importer.     

Making Government Work: Pragmatic Priorities for Interagency Coordination

Numerous studies outlining what needs to be done to improve the U.S. interagency system have been conducted in the past few decades. Together, these studies reflect a growing consensus on the range of changes needed across the government, from personnel reform, to changes in processes and structures. This article does not quibble with this consensus. Rather, in light of the current economic crisis and the challenges we face in Iraq and Afghanistan, this piece argues that dramatic reform may be a luxury we cannot afford right now. Instead of offering another proposal for large-scale reorganization, the author suggests a way to get started now; one that focuses on winning the fights we are currently in while setting the trajectory for long-term change.     

玻利维亚的“社群社会主义”

玻利维亚的"社群社会主义"是拉美具有代表性的"社会主义"模式之一,是莫拉莱斯政府进行政治和经济变革的指导理论和思想."社群社会主义"主张实现社会正义,以人为本,建立参与式民主和社群民主,改善教育和医疗卫生条件,捍卫处于贫困和边缘地位民众的权益等."社群社会主义"在政治、经济和社会领域已取得了重要进展,但由于政府与反对派在地区自治等问题上存在分歧,"社群社会主义"的实施在很大程度上取决于莫拉莱斯及其政府政策的持续性.     

玻利维亚的天然气管道风波

20 0 3年 9～ 1 0月 ,玻利维亚爆发大规模的群众抗议活动 ,反对政府的天然气出口计划。由于政府的镇压 ,群众的抗议活动升级 ,最终导致洛萨达总统下台。此次的天然气管道风波之所以引发剧烈的政治动荡 ,有其深刻的政治经济原因 ,是近年国内经济、社会及民族矛盾长期累积的结果。洛萨达总统的辞职并没有使国内的政治经济及社会矛盾得到解决。这些矛盾对玻利维亚政治的发展仍构成严峻的挑战。     

The European Endowment for Democracy and Democracy Promotion in the EU Neighbourhood

The European Endowment for Democracy (EED) is a recently established instrument of democracy promotion intended to complement existing EU tools. Fashioned after the US National Endowment for Democracy, the EED’s privileged area of action is the European neighbourhood. Meant as a small rapid-response, actor-oriented ‘niche’ initiative, its main task is to select those actors, from both civil and political society able to produce a change in their country. The EED represents a step forward in the EU’s capacity to foster democracy, but does not necessarily go in the direction of more rationality and effectiveness. Not all EU member states support the EED with the same enthusiasm and it is still not clear how it fits into the EU’s overall democracy promotion architecture. Its actions may be successful in a very constrained timeframe. However, recent crises at the EU’s borders would seem to call for a strategy that takes into consideration systemic hindrances, post-regime change complexities, regional dynamics and finally rival plans of autocracy promotion.     

Translation in cross-cultural research: an example from Bolivia

Translation raises ethical and epistemological dilemmas inherent in cross-cultural research. The process of communicating research participants' words in a different language and context may impose another conceptual scheme on their thoughts. This may reinforce the hegemonic terms that Development Studies should seek to challenge. The article explores the idea that a reflexive approach to translation can not only help to overcome the difficulties involved in cross-cultural research, but also be a tool with which to deconstruct hegemonic theory. It addresses the epistemological and political problems in translation, techniques of translation, and the impact of translation on the author's own research, which is used to illustrate some of the ways in which translation can support deconstruction and highlight the importance of building a framework for talking with rather than for research participants.     

对拉美民主的解析--读《拉丁美洲的民主:公民民主的未来》

20多年前拉美民主化进程启动时,拉美精英阶层、普通民众以及国际社会都对拉美民主化发展充满期待。然而,进入新千年以来,拉美民主化进程正面临着前所未有的危机,拉美国家已有多位总统迫于民众压力提前卸任;一些国家的选举投票率下降,民众示威抗议等活动时有发生。2004年4月,联合国开发计划署发表了由专家学者完成的关于拉美18国民主现状的报告《拉丁美洲的民主:公民民主的未来》(UNDP,DemocracyinLatinAmerica:TowardsaCitizens’Democracy,Argentina,2004)。这份理论与事实并重的报告对拉美民主问题进行了独到的解析,为深入了解拉美民…     

Sanctions and Democracy

How do economic sanctions affect democratization, and should the former be used to promote the latter? Imposing economic pain on large swaths of an already vulnerable population in order to nudge democratic change poses thorny issues. Does it work, in terms of securing democratic outcomes? Even if it did, is this way of achieving change justifiable? We explore the connections between the normative and positive sides of the argument for sanctions in light of theoretical and normative progress in two decades of post-Cold War research on democracy. We argue that some sanctions policies used under specific conditions are more justifiable, but there are other sanctions policies that are less justifiable.     

民主与非洲的政治发展

“民主”与“政治发展”是两个在历史渊源和内容上都有重大差别的概念。与“民主”相比 ,“政治发展”的内涵和外延更大 ,更具张力和持久力。在强调大众参与和政治民主的同时 ,“政治发展”还关注政治文化的形成、政治结构的分化 ,以及社会稳定、法制秩序和经济发展 ,等等。民主是影响政治发展诸多变量中的一个关键变量。兼顾效率(经济发展 )和秩序 (社会稳定和法制 )的民主可以极大地促进政治发展。反之 ,则会造成政治衰败 (或称政治不发展 )。当前非洲的政治发展必须通过民主变革加以推进 ,要强调法治以及社会体制的一种稳定和有序的变化 ,建立“有法治的民主”。另外 ,政治发展还要兼顾效率和经济发展 ,并注重有非洲特色的新型政治文化的培育、形成和发展。     

非洲在民主的道路上"蹒跚学步"

编者按:本文以西方人的视角重点介绍评析了刚果(金)、布隆迪、科特迪瓦、尼日利亚、多哥、津巴布韦等非洲国家在实行政治民主化过程中的一些动态和非洲民主化总体情况,或许对读者了解和深入研究非洲相关情况有些许帮助,现刊发如下.本文仅代表作者的观点.非洲是一个不断向前发展的大陆.     

韩国民主的美国因素

一个国家的民主化主要依赖于内部诸条件的发育成熟,但外部因素也是影响民主化进程的重要变量之一。由于特殊的历史原因,韩国民主进程受美国因素的影响特别大。在制度上,美国坚决地把韩国纳入资本主义世界体系之中,全面介入韩国的军事、经济和文化等各个方面。在政治上,美国奠定了韩国的基本政治制度,支配了韩国的主要政治人物,干预了韩国的重大政治事件。美国对韩国民主化的影响具有两面性,既促进了韩国民主化的发展,又扮演了韩国威权政权保护人的角色。美国因素的影响也是有限的。韩国民主首先应归功于韩国人民不屈不挠的民主斗争,韩国的国情使得韩国政治朝着自主性方向发展。     

主权民主:普京对俄罗斯民主理论与实践的探索

普京执政以后,主张在加强国家权威主义的基础上发展符合俄罗斯国情的民主政治。普京的“主权民主”思想,既是维护俄国家政治、经济、军事权益的现实需要,也是为保证后普京时代俄国家政治体制得以继承与发展的一项战略举措。     

1985～1989年:玻利维亚的经济稳定化与结构改革

1985年以后玻利维亚经济政策的右转是其内部经济危机、外部经济和政治压力共同作用的结果。与70年代智利激进的新自由主义改革不同,玻利维亚“正统”的经济稳定计划吸收了“非正统”稳定计划的合理因素,并在结构调整中避免采取极端自由主义的改革政策,从而使稳定化和结构调整取得了一定成效。     

Challenges and lessons learnt from a sanitation project in rural Bolivia

The University of Arizona chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA has faced multiple challenges involving community participation in rural development, in the Andean community of Marquirivi, Bolivia, both in rural design and in community participation. Despite successful construction of a shower house in 2014, the EWB-USA UA team experience with community participation revealed the numerous complexities involved in engaging successfully with communities. The importance of previous aid in a community with development projects also emerged as critical in shaping actions. This article discusses lessons learnt and recommendations for rural infrastructure projects, as well as the EWB-USA model of sustainable development.     

Democracy and the multinationals

The relationship between western multinational corporations' perceived commercial interests and democratic quality in developing markets is more varied than habitually argued. While autocratic policy making and low-intensity democracy have been judged to provide benefits to investors, they are also increasingly recognized to generate features prejudicial to commercial operations. Many investment trends reflect the adverse impact of democratic limitations in developing markets. Multinational companies can be faulted less for a uniform effort to frustrate democratic improvements than for a failure to develop a coherent or proactive engagement in relation to the international democracy promotion agenda.     

Informal Institutions and Democracy

Informal institutions have grown in relevance for the analysis of new ‘third wave’ democracies. The research strategy receives its impetus from the debate on neo‐institutionalism theory, which offers a productive perspective for structuring the field of analysis. This article explains the distinguishing factors between formal and informal institutions. It addresses five basic types of informal institutions, examines the ways in which they function and discusses their relevance in terms of democracy theory. Each type is characterized by the way in which it enacts its respective means of political influence. The study distinguishes between forms of specific relationship (clientelism), of material exchange (corruption), of violent exertion of influence (putsch threat), of civil resistance (civil disobedience) and of legal practice (custom law), and discusses their relevance to democracy. The central argument maintains that a differentiated study of informal institutions is crucial to addressing this question. The necessary typological differentiation allows us to make an appropriate assessment ‐one that does not manifest itself in a simple clear‐cut choice of affirmative or negative answers.