Political leadership at state level in India: Continuity and change

ABSTRACT

Possible explanations are discussed in this article for the paucity of studies regarding political leadership, especially at the state level, in a well-functioning electoral democracy such as India with many parties and leaders. The article argues that such studies can be useful in making sense of the political and economic changes/shifts and developments of a particular state over a period that may have national impact. The article further argues that there has been a perceptible shift not only in terms of social composition but also in the “language” of politics used by the emergent generation of political leaders cutting across the party lines. The change has coincided with the rise of state-level parties and leaders in the post-Congress era followed by the ascendance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).     

The Sacred and the Profane: Judaism and International Relations

The author contends that one helpful way to look at Judaism and international relations is to imagine a continuum with a sacred ideal at one extreme and a profane reality at the other. Drawing on historical examples, he illustrates these polarities.     

透析印度崛起问题

印度是世界第二人口大国和幅员大国,在经济、科技、军事等领域都有重大发展,又有着较为稳定的政治结构,为未来成长为世界大国奠定了良好基础.印度崛起将是一个长期的过程,也是一个必然趋势.这将对亚洲以至世界地缘政治和战略格局产生重要影响.印度崛起与中国的发展壮大是并行不悖的,两国不会变成战略竞争对手,而将成为共同前进的合作伙伴.     

印度失业问题浅析

失业和贫困是印度长期以来难以解决的问题。这两个问题不仅严重阻碍了印度的经济发展 ,而且对政治社会生活产生消极的影响。这两个问题又是互为因果。失业带来了贫困 ,贫困加深了失业。本文主要探讨印度的失业问题。首先介绍印度失业问题现状 ,然后分析印度失业问题的原因 ,还有失业问题所产生的社会政治影响以及政府的对策。     

Redefining community–state partnership in natural resource management: a case from India

This article examines the role of the state in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in the northern province of Haryana in India. In the past two decades, significant developments pertaining to institutional reforms in promoting community–state partnerships in protecting and managing forests have been undertaken in the province. By reviewing the experiences in management of water-harvesting structures and lease of forest area to local communities, the article demonstrates that the adoption of ‘joint management’ rhetoric does not guarantee successful partnerships at the field level. The implementation of the programme calls for a radical redefinition of the role of the state in order to establish credible commitments to the local communities in terms of both policy and practice.     

印度推动印度-东盟自由贸易区建设的动因探析——基于国际政治经济学的分析

随着国家间复合相互依赖的增强,国际政治经济学视角下的区域合作已成为主权国家追求权力、获取财富的重要机制和手段。冷战结束以来,印度积极参与亚洲经济区域一体化进程,主动加强与东盟国家的交流合作,并积极推进印度—东盟自由贸易区（IAFTA）的建立发展,其动力源也不乏是对两者的追求与获取,但具体到印度推动IAFTA建设的根本原因,其对权力的追求更优先于对经济利益的获取。     

Crafting competitive party systems: Electoral laws and the opposition in Africa

After the resurgence of democracy in the 1990s, as was the case after independence, dominant party systems are predominant in Africa. This has occurred irrespective of the particular electoral system used. Both scholars and practitioners have so far failed to appreciate the fact that not fragmentation but concentration of the party system is the main challenge and that a choice between proportional representation or a plurality electoral system will do little to change the fortunes of the majority party and the opposition. This article goes beyond the current debate by suggesting that opposition parties in Africa could be crafted through a minority premium, preferably in combination with a majority ceiling. Such electoral engineering would in the long‐term contribute to the emergence of a two‐party system, generally recognized as the environment most congenial to a strong parliamentary opposition. In the short‐term, adoption of a minority premium would increase competitiveness.     

印俄海军合作浅析

冷战后，印俄两国在互利贸易的基础上建立了合作研发的新型海军合作关系，合作深度和广度大幅提升。印俄海军合作的目标中有一定的针对中国的因素。近年来其合作面，恪着印度与美国等西方国家海军合作的压力，但俄罗斯对印度海军的影响将是长期的。     

中印能源关系的博弈分析

中印两国自身的油气资源不能满足国内需求而不得不依赖海外油气资源。因此，两国政府都积极支持本国的国有石油公司“走出去”，获得份额油气。在具体实践过程中，两国既竞争又合作。本文通过运用两阶段动态博弈模型分析研究显示，竞争与合作都是中印两国在寻求海外油气资产博弈中的子博弈完美纳什均衡的结果，这是两国根据成本一收益计算所采取行动的结果。     

中美印围绕新丝绸之路的竞争与合作分析

中美印三国在建设新丝绸之路的方案上具有不同的战略,其差异在于,美国新丝绸之路战略的主要目标是保护美国在阿富汗的战争成果,并服务于美国的中亚和南亚战略,维护美国的世界霸权;中国和印度则将新丝绸之路作为贸易拓展、能源供给和文化交流的通道。三国新丝绸之路战略中,印度跟美国更为相似,路线走向也更为一致;中国的战略包容性更大,持续性更强。若中美印三国在新丝路建设上进行良好合作,将给亚洲一体化带来动力;若展开恶性竞争,则将为亚洲带来地缘政治动荡。中国应当尽力规避地缘政治风险,优先与政治关系良好的邻国开展跨境交通建设,不断促进新丝绸之路的连通。     

Bargaining over local public good provision in nested social dilemmas: A comparative study of variation from South India

In rural India, decentralized government schemes and assembly constituency development programs represent major channels through which local public good provision is realized. This polycentric governance structure confronts local leaders with a distributional conflict, which is nested in a social dilemma situation. Based on a controlled case study approach, we investigate the provision of small-scale infrastructure in three South Indian communities. Apart from roads and drinking water facilities that directly appeal to the residents of a community, local leaders bargain over infrastructure contracts, which serve as patronage resources in interactions with politicians from higher government levels. A comparative game-theoretic analysis of the results suggests that coordination through political party identities has translated into alternative bargaining strategies and hence varying distributional outcomes regarding contracts and local public goods in the communities under review. The study concludes with recommendations for polycentric institutional design.     

印巴在克什米尔问题上的困境——博弈论视角的解读

博弈论作为国际关系理论中的一种不可或缺的方法论,对分析印巴两国在克什米尔问题上的困境有着重要的启示意义。在克什米尔问题上,印巴关系经常出现类似博弈论中的“囚徒困境”、“死结困境”等模式。印巴双方为追求各自收益的最大化,更多地是采取了的“不合作策略”,而不是“合作的策略”,这样使得克什米尔问题上长期得不到妥善解决。     

The Panama invasion and the laws of war

This article considers the conduct of armed parties in the invasion of Panama on 20 December 1989 by United States forces, in relation to the standards established by the international laws of war and the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The article confines itself to the conduct of US and Panamanian armed forces from the commencement of hostilities, and does not consider arguments for or against the invasion itself. The authors, on behalf of the US‐based Americas Watch, a human rights monitoring organization, visited Panama in January 1990, and collected information contained in the article. The article concludes that US forces failed in their Geneva Convention obligations with respect to the detentions of Panamanian POWs and civilians. It also concludes that US forces failed to exercise precautions to minimize collateral civilian casualties in the attack on the Panamanian military headquarters. It finds that Panamanian forces put non‐combatant civilians at risk by dressing in civilian clothes and firing from civilian‐occupied structures. It estimates the number of Panamanian civilian dead at approximately 300. The article further considers protection of human rights under the new Endara government, and the plight of refugees left homeless by the invasion.     

Political representation in India: Enlarging the perspective

ABSTRACT

Democratic theory has recently been marked by a renewed interest in political representation that is manifest in, and proceeds from, a series of theoretical works that radically open up the concept of representation. This introductory article briefly presents some of the key theoretical propositions that are brought forward by this body of literature, but also by anthropological works on South Asia, namely (i) the intrinsic plurality of the meanings and forms of political representation; (ii) the centrality and pervasiveness of representation processes in political life; and (iii) the constructivist dimension of political representation. As I introduce the four papers in this Special Issue, which collectively demonstrate the heuristic value of an engagement with such debates to understand contemporary Indian politics, I insist that what is at stake is not so much a “crisis” of political representation as a series of events and evolutions that question received knowledge about political representation in India.     

Engaging the narrative in ontological (in)security theory: insights from feminist IR

Ontological security theory (OST) provides a unique account of how state Self-identity is formed and reformed in international relations. OST postulates that state Self-identity is usefully understood by inquiring into the foundation of a state's sense of Self: its autobiographical narrative. We seek to amend this line of argument by further suggesting that the autobiographical narratives of states are ‘gendered’. Feminist theorizing about the relationship between gender and power implies that the dominant autobiographical narrative of state Self-identity is ‘gendered’ masculine. The power of this masculinized autobiographical narrative flows from an ‘internal othering’ process of counter ‘feminine’ autobiographical narratives that exist alongside the masculinized autobiographical narrative. Our goal is to suggest that opportunities do arise for counter ‘feminine’ narratives to challenge the dominant autobiographical narrative due to their interdependence and we explicate two practices by which masculinized narratives can be engaged, challenged and disrupted.     

印度社会保障体系概述

本文通过翻译、整理有关印度社会保障的书籍资料和印度官方网站的相关文件,试图对印度社会保障体系的概况做出一个比较详细的介绍,重点关注印度社会保障的几个重要的组成部分——养老保障、医疗保障以及非正规部门劳动者的社会保障等。鉴于印度与中国的社会状况在一定程度上的相似性,笔者还在介绍印度社会保障的某些方面时,对中印两国的社会保障情况做了简单的比较分析。