可治理性与社会凝聚:拉美国家的经验

拉美国家的可治理性总体上处于缓慢持续提高的过程,可治理性持续改善的制度基础、体制条件、政策条件和民众基础均有所改善.但是,拉美国家在可治理性方面仍有许多难题,远未实现理想的可治理性.随着民主化进程的深化和经济转型的实现,拉美国家的可治理性缺陷更加明显,在体制、制度和政策设计、政府执政能力和执政水平、经济和社会权利等各个方面均有所体现.可治理性缺陷加剧了社会矛盾,损害了社会环境,降低了民众的认同感和对未来的预期,损害了社会凝聚.拉美国家社会凝聚的增强,在一定程度上有赖于可治理性程度的进一步改善.     

中国拉丁美洲学会第六届会员代表大会暨"社会和谐:拉美国家的经验教训学术讨论会"综述

在鞍山市委、市政府的大力支持下,2007年5月9~12日,中国拉丁美洲学会第六届会员代表大会暨“社会和谐:拉美国家的经验教训学术讨论会”在鞍山国际会议中心学术报告厅隆重举行。来自中联部、外交部、全国人大常委会、人民日报社、新华社、求是杂志社、北京大学、复旦大学、南京大学、南开大学、中国传媒大学、大连海事大学、江汉大学、中国现代国际关系研究院、对外经济贸易大学外语学院、河北大学工商学院、商务部国际贸易研究院、江苏省社会科学院、中国国际问题研究所、中国社会科学院国际合作局、中国社会科学院马克思主义研究院、中国社…     

Thinking about change for development practice: a case study from Oxfam GB

Development practice is informed by theories of change, but individuals and organisations may not make them explicit. Practitioners may be unaware of the extent to which strategic choices and debates are informed by disparate thinking about how history happens and the role of purposeful intervention for progressive social change. In the past few years, some Oxfam GB staff have been creating processes to debate their theories of change as part of an effort to improve practice. In this context, the authors introduce four sets of ideas about change, with a discussion of how they have been explored in two instances, and some of the challenges emerging from this process. Through explicitly debating theories of change, organisational decision-making processes can be better informed and strategic choices made more transparent.     

Lessons from Democratic Transitions: Case Studies from Asia

In an era when democratization is stalled or in retreat in many parts of the world, it is important to highlight the successful democratic experience of East and Southeast Asia in recent decades. Five consolidated democracies have emerged since the mid-1980s; only Thailand has seen some backsliding with the 2006 coup. The Asian cases provide insights into several major debates in the democratization literature, including the relative importance of culture, history, economic structure, and the optimal sequencing of political and economic reform. This article reviews these issues, with particular attention to the role of outside powers in underpinning democratization. Ultimately, the Asian cases offer evidence for optimism about the prospects of a Fourth Wave of democratization.     

社会保障私有化:智利经验

在智利,参加社会保障的雇员必须将月工资的10%存入储蓄账户,由高度规范的养老金管理公司管理。每家养老金管理公司只管理一支基金,并提供遗属和伤残保险。除了10%的缴费外,雇员还要向养老金管理公司缴纳管理佣金,其中一部分用于伤残和遗属保险费用,剩余部分用于弥补养老金管理公司的管理成本,并为其提供利润来源。在达到领取养老金资格时,雇员可以选择分期领取或者转化为终身年金。同时,智利社会保障系统还有一个由政府提供的最低养老保障金,其数额也是很可观的。与在保险公司购买的年金不同,这种最低养老金不是指数化的,而是由政府适时调整的。智利社会保障改革因制度能有效抵御政治风险和对资本积累、资本市场运行的积极影响而备受褒扬;但同时也在保险供给和管理成本上饱受指责。私有化的社会保障制度运行成本之高,甚至超过了它所取代的无效率的传统社会保障制度,这或许是智利改革最令人感到意外的事情。据瓦尔德斯-普列托(Valdes-Prieto)估算,1991年每个有效成员平均每年支付的管理费用是89.10美元,相当于应税总收入的2.94%,接近于强制储蓄率的3/10。虽然人均成本与其他国家私人管理的养老金制度(如美国的待遇确定型私人养老金)相比差距不大,但比起运行良好的政府统一管理的制度,管理成本上的劣势却较为明显。显然,基于私人市场的管理效率才是问题的关键所在,而不在于智利社会保障制度的高成本问题。     

Conflict Resolution: Lessons from the Dayton Peace Process

The Bosnian War (1992–1995) was one of the most brutal conflicts in Europe since the end of World War II. Thirty‐four cease‐fires failed to produce peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina until the late American diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, brokered one that set the stage for a series of negotiations—starting in the Balkans and ending in Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton peace process finally terminated the Bosnian War. The interplay of military intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and diplomacy by the United States was remarkable. This article highlights thirteen conflict resolution lessons or “Holbrookeisms” that can be learned from the Dayton peace process. Some aspects of Holbrooke's approach toward the peace process helped him to successfully mediate an end to the Bosnian War, while others contributed toward some of the existing cleavages in today's Bosnian society.     

Democracy's Quality and Breakdown: New Lessons from Thailand

In what may amount to a new phase in the study of democratization, assessments of democracy's quality have become quite common. This article attempts to assess democracy's quality in Thailand under the recent Thai Rak Thai government. It begins by enumerating some of the conceptual difficulties that bedevil these measuring exercises. The account makes use of a ‘sequenced’ framework involving electoral mandates, policy responsiveness, and accountability. Analysis reveals a ‘mixed’ record under Thai Rak Thai, one in which the government's strong mandates and high levels of responsiveness were offset by executive abuses, corrupt practices, limits on civil liberties, and gross violations of human rights, behaviours in which many elites and mass-level constituents acquiesced. It shows also, however, that when these elites and constituents sought later to impose accountability, they resorted to direct action, further eroding the quality of democracy. Thus, the article demonstrates too that democracy's quality can be diminished in ways that, far from placating rival elites, so inflame tensions that it can finally break down.     

War and Democratization: Lessons from the Portuguese Experience

The literature on democracy suggests that new democracies should have difficulty emerging during war or in the aftermath of armed struggle, yet Portugal's current democracy emerged simultaneously with the end of the nation's unsuccessful war in Africa. This article addresses the reasons and argues that democracy triumphed not simply in spite of the war but also, in part, because of it. The costs and geography of the war itself, the capacity and rootedness of the state that waged the war, the political culture of the regime's military officers, and the war-related timing of Portugal's first elections all helped prevent the emergence of an anti-democratic coalition and contributed to ensuring a successful transition to democracy. The article ends with three ideas that merit closer examination: that different sorts of wars leave different legacies for democracy; that wars that leave state bureaucracies intact or stronger are more likely to be followed by lasting democracy than those which do not; and, finally, that the ideologies of military elites are pivotal to the outcome of post-war democratic transitions.     

2004年中国拉丁美洲学会年会综述

中国拉丁美洲学会2004年年会于10月22～26日在保定市河北大学工商管理学院举行。来自中共中央对外联络部、中央党校、外交部、商务部国际贸易研究院、中国人民对外友好协会、北京大学、南开大学、河北大学、复旦大学、湖北大学、中国现代国际关系研究院、中国国际问题研究所、江汉大学、新华社、《世界知识》杂志社、上海社会科学院和中国社会科学院拉丁美洲研究所的70多位专家学者参加了会议。开幕式上,中共保定市委副书记武国堂、河北大学党委书记左晓光、中国拉美史学会理事长洪国起教授等到会祝贺;全国政协外事委员会副主任李北海和原焘…     

On Good Colonial Government: Lessons from the League of Nations

This article deals with the debate in the Permanent Mandate Commission (League of Nations), during the inter-war period about the best way to rule the dependant territories. It shows how a certain interpretation of the term “good colonial government” came to prevail through the idea of indirect rule, how this idea was seen as the best way to achieve a kind of democratic imperialism (similar to that looked for at the present time in Iraq by the Americans). It analyses the way the mandate system transformed the legitimacy of the colonial powers and the battle it triggered between France and Britain.     

Another invasion: Lessons from international support to East Timorese NGOs

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on collaboration between national and international NGOs. It argues that it is vital for the development of stable, independent, and viable civil societies that international NGOs promote a bottom-up approach in their support to and collaboration with local NGOs, especially among those emerging from situations of conflict or other profound social disruptions. From a study carried out in East Timor, the author concludes that there is a noticeable discrepancy between rhetoric and practice with regard to such support. The multiple challenges the international NGO community faces on this front persist despite the existence of abundant learning opportunities accumulated through years of development work. The author argues that such challenges are less a question of standards and rules than of basic approach, attitudes, and power relations. She maintains that if international NGOs and the wider international community do not alter their approach, they will suffocate rather than foster the development of a viable and autonomous civil society in the countries in which they operate.     

Oslo and Its Aftermath: Lessons Learned from Track Two Diplomacy

Since the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the violence that followed, many scholars have reflected upon the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Most of this analysis has focused on official negotiations without considering the substantial role that unofficial peace efforts have played in peacebuilding, both prior to and after Oslo. This article, in contrast, seeks to better understand the application of “track two” diplomacy to the Israeli–Palestinian case. It reports on a self‐reflection effort by numerous Israeli–Palestinian peace practitioners to better understand what has worked, what has not, and how new initiatives could be more effectively organized and carried out in the future. The research presented is based on an inventory of seventy‐nine track two projects that occurred between Israelis and Palestinians between 1992 and 2004, personal interviews with many of those who organized and oversaw these projects, and two focus group meetings that brought together a total of forty practitioners. In this article, we seek to better understand two issues: (1) how track two initiatives have changed in scope, organization, and intent; and (2) how track two practitioners have sought to disseminate their work beyond the participants of those initiatives. Our findings present an overall picture of the Israeli–Palestinian second track practice and identify a number of trends and common types of practice. Among the trends we have identified are the following: during the peace process years, more track two initiatives were undertaken with elite/professional participants than with representatives of the grassroots, but in the subsequent decade‐and‐a‐half, Israeli–Palestinian grassroots, track two initiatives gradually replaced senior‐level track two exchanges; most of the grassroots initiatives we studied were relationship focused, whereas those involving elite participants are outcome focused; the track two community subscribes to a set of theoretical propositions about which conditions and contexts facilitate the transmission of track two insights and ideas to the political process, but these propositions have yet to be validated; and track two specialists do little strategic planning about ways to most effectively transfer track two insights and ideas to the political process. Our research also identified four distinct, but not mutually exclusive, approaches to practice: the psychological, the constructivist, the capacity building, and the realistic interest.