Religious Pluralism and Democratic Inclusion: The American Recipe for Peace

There is no simple formula for religious peace in the United States, such as “separation of church andstate.” Instead, the US Constitution establishes two opposing principles -- religious freedom and civicinclusion -- that must be continually rebalanced. The legal result is a “serpentine wall” between church andstate that creates zones of cooperation as well as separation. Moreover, the relatively peaceful coexistence ofdiverse religious communities within the United States is due, not simply to the principles of the FirstAmendment, but also to the de-spatialized and de-ritualized character of American religion, and to the absence of explicitly confessional parties in the American polity.     

Statistical Critiques of the Democratic Peace: Caveat Emptor

The “democratic peace”—the inference that democracies rarely fight each other—is one of the most important and empirically robust findings in international relations (IR). This article surveys the statistical challenges to the democratic peace and critically analyzes a prominent recent critique ( Gartzke 2007 ). Gartzke's claim that capitalist dynamics explain away the democratic peace relies on results problematically driven by (1) the censoring from the sample of observations containing certain communist countries or occurring before 1966, (2) the inclusion of regional controls, and (3) a misspecification of temporal controls. Analysis of these issues contributes to broader methodological debates and reveals novel characteristics of the democratic peace. Gartzke and other critics have contributed valuably to the study of IR; however, the democratic peace remains one of the most robust empirical associations in IR.     

I'm Not That Liberal: Explaining Conservative Democratic Identification

The persistence of self-identified conservative Democrats in the electorate is puzzling. Both the ongoing Southern realignment and the recent ideological polarization should have resulted in conservative Democrats changing their party identification to accord with their discrepant ideology. Instead, the number of conservative Democrats, as a percentage of the total electorate, has held steady over the last 20 years. I propose an explanation for this phenomenon that draws upon theories of mass belief systems, as well as an element of recent political reality: the popular stigmatization of the word liberal. I argue that Democrats who are susceptible to elite cues garner positive affect toward the conservative label and negative affect toward the liberal label. They then identify themselves accordingly, regardless of their issue positions.     

The Citizen Soldier and Democratic Societies: A Comparative Analysis of America's Revolutionary and Civil Wars

This paper reviews and criticizes the argument that citizens should take active responsibility for and be willing to sacrifice their life to establish and protect a liberal democratic social order. The argument is faulted for assuming that the key for good democracy is to get people to accept their responsibilities, in particular, their responsibility to be citizen soldiers. It is at least as important to ask how the service of citizen soldiers is connected with the constitution of democratic society. The argument is also faulted for ignoring that democratic societies vary in form and virtue and that it is necessary to explain when citizen soldiers will promote the establishment of one kind of democracy or another. To correct these deficiencies, a theory is offered that ties the service of citizen soldiers during war to the quality of democratic society through the allocation and routinization of charisma. The theory is illustrated by a comparative historical analysis of American experience during its Revolutionary and Civil Wars.     

代表人民的根本利益须认识和处理好三种关系

江总书记关于中国共产党要始终代表中国先进社会生产力的发展要求 ,始终代表中国先进文化的前进方向 ,始终代表中国最广大人民的根本利益的重要论述 ,是新时期党的建设的根本指导思想。这里 ,我联系自己的思想和工作实际 ,仅就“始终代表最广大人民的根本利益”谈点学习体会。我认为作为一个党员特别是党的领导干部 ,要体现当好最广大人民根本利益的忠实代表 ,必须正确认识和处理好三种关系。一、必须正确认识和处理好对上级负责与对人民群众负责的关系我们党代表的是中国最广大人民的根本利益 ,我们每个党员干部是为人民服务的公仆。因此 ,…     

War and (the Democratic) Peace: Military Service,Citizenship, and the International Environment

Is there a significant relationship between military structure and political liberalization? If so, can military structure and organization be manipulated to influence the process of democratization for the purpose of enhancing inter-state peace? To test the implications of these questions, I will investigate a decidedly contentious premise. Military factors traditionally considered destabilizing in the international environment (to include large, well-trained armed forces organized for offensive or out-of-country operations) have, at critical junctions in the Western experience, had a distinctly positive impact on the emergence and maintenance of the liberal democratic state. If this is indeed the case, and liberal democracy can be shown structurally and normatively to produce inter-state peace, then the preferred policy of peace-desiring states should be to promote and implement military reform at home and abroad that most efficiently generates democratic structures and values, regardless of intuitive fears of international instability. In short, I will argue that if liberal democratic states do not go to war with each other, then the size, proficiency, and strength of their military forces should not be a security dilemma issue.     

Water Pollution Control In Democratic Societies: A Cross-National Analysis Of Sources Of Public Beliefs In In Japan And The United States

Postindustrial society seems to bring with it an inevitable heightening of official and public concern with environmental pollution. In light of this fact it becomes important to understand the dynamics by which public opinion is formulated in this area of public policy. What factors are associated with citizens placing concern for environmental pollution above other public policy concerns? What individual characteristics are associ- ated with the development of the view that government ought to take direct action to prevent or deal with environmental pollution? Are such factors common to postindustrial democratic societies generally? The study reported here identifies the similarities and differences in the patterns and correlates of pollution relevant beliefs and behavior in Japan (in the cities of Llishima, Fuji and Numazu in Shizuoka Prefecture] and the United States (Spokane City and County, Washington State). A comparative study of pollution policy can be especially instructive inasmuch as unique cultural, economic, historical and social patterns may generate distinctive citizen conceptions of desired policy outcomes and means to achieve them.     

Divided Government: America is Not "Exceptional"

America is thought to be an exceptional political system, and, in many of its particulars, it certainly differs from the institutional arrangements found in most of the world's democracies. Its separation-of-powers regime is thought to have spawned, in recent decades, the phenomenon of divided government in which partisan control of political institutions is divided between the major parties. By implication, it is suggested that this robust regularity in which Democrats control the legislature and Republicans the executive is a consequence of its institutional arrangements and, therefore, distinguishes America from its parliamentary counterparts elsewhere. In this article, the authors suggest that parliamentary regimes, too, experience divided government. Specifically, minority governments, in which the executive is controlled by parties that, between them, control less than a legislative majority, is the closest analogue to divided government in America. In each case, the executive needs to seek support in the legislature beyond its own partisan base. Thus, divided government per se does not distinguish parliamentary and separation-of-powers regimes. What does, however, are the constitutional roots of this phenomenon: divided governments are negotiated in parliamentary regimes whereas they are mandated electorally in separation-of-powers regimes.     

城市弱势群体“体面劳动”相关问题的探析

一、城市弱势群体的界定弱势群体是一个用来分析现代社会经济利益分配和社会权力分配不平等,以及社会结构不协调、不合理的概念,它并不是真正意义上的群体,内部没有组织化,不具备群体意识。国际社会组织和国内社会各界对社会弱势群体有一个基     

论阿马蒂亚·森比较的正义对罗尔斯公平的正义的价值颠覆

针对罗尔斯公平的正义理论存在探寻完善的正义而轻视现实的正义、关注制度的正确而轻视社会的互动、强调抽象的认同而轻视理论的可行等先验制度主义的价值缺陷,阿马蒂亚·森建构了比较的正义理论,试图以可行能力基础、实质自由原则、幸福标准等价值合理性依据,重塑一种更为合理的正义,以颠覆充满诸多困难的公平的正义。诚然,比较的正义在创新正义理论的同时,很可能将提升正义理论的实践化转向。加强阿马蒂亚·森的正义思想与罗尔斯的正义思想的比较研究,理论上有利于推进社会正义理论尤其作为西方政治哲学名家罗尔斯正义理论研究的全面深入,实践上有利于借鉴西方社会正义理论与实践的探索成果,促进我国社会的公平正义,实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦。