The Institutionalist: A Conversation with Hugh Heclo

This interview marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of Hugh Heclo's classic, A Government of Strangers: Executive Politics in Washington. This engaging conversation touches on such wide-ranging themes as Heclo's early mentorship by Aaron Wildavsky; his nurturing apprenticeship at the Brookings Institution, leading to the publication of A Government of Strangers; the increasingly intense partisanship and schism within the executive branch between career federal bureaucrats and political appointees; the conduct of presidential administrations as never-ending political marketing campaigns; the cynical harnessing of religion in the service of policy objectives; public service and institutional commitment; and the need for political leadership to engage the public honestly and responsibly on matters of fiscal concern.     

Civil Rights and Social Welfare: Some Thoughts on the Contemporary Relevance of T. H. Marshall

This article draws on T H Marshall's celebrated classification of civil, political and social rights to examine the use of the courts by individuals seeking to establish rights to particular forms or models of welfare service provision. It argues that tensions between the collective and individual aspects of social rights, the relationship of social rights to inequality, and the difficulty of quantifying (and therefore enforcing) legitimate expectations, all make the use of litigation to establish social rights intensely problematic. Drawing on the recent UK Supreme Court case of R (on the Application of McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, it goes on to suggest that it is unhelpful to think of social rights in terms of human rights: instead, we would do better to adopt Marshall's emphasis on the citizenship basis of social rights and on the social and political context within which they necessarily exist.     

The Relevance of Political Trust in Postwar Lebanon

Political trust in Lebanon is perceived to be drastically low. Instead of being regarded as agents of citizens' well-being, public officials are deemed as corrupting forces in the society. This attitude reflects people's discontent as a result of official policy. However, findings indicate that people's dissatisfaction with the government reduces political trust. This situation creates an environment in which it is difficult for those in government to succeed. The consequences of loss of trust could be detrimental to the legitimacy of the regime in question. The study derives its importance from the return to power of billionaire Rafik Hariri, a three time former premier, on the 22nd of October 2000, two years after being forced out of office and accused of corruption. Hariri hopes to reinvigorate his post-civil war reconstruction program that stalled while he was out of power. With many former ministers from Hariri's former 1992-1998 tenure reappointed and in light of Hariri's pledge to proceed with his previous policy, the survey findings indicate the low levels of political confidence that constrain the new government program to prevail over the country's bitter political situation.     

The Changing Faces of Contemporary Tourism

Tourism, a domain of considerable importance in the contemporary world, has long been overlooked by social scientists, but has recently become a field attracting a growing body of research. In sociology, the relation between tourism and modernity at first constituted the issue of principal interest, the discourse focusing on the extent to which modern Western tourists seek authentic experiences on their trip. The article discusses the changes in the terms of the discourse, contingent upon the growing similarity of the world in the wake of globalization, the emergence of the “post-tourist,” and the diversification in the composition of tourists, with the growth in the number of travelers from non-Western countries. The question of the limits of the future expansion of the tourist system is raised in conclusion.

The Continued Relevance of Local Parties in Representative Democracies

This article assesses the value of local parties. It asks why political parties value their local sections. It also considers the ways in which local parties can benefit society. Local parties act as a democratic training ground for party members, are a conduit for political communication and provide parties with a range of resources. They also act as problem solving agencies; they ensure that policy is responsive to local needs; they provide an additional channel of communication and accountability; and they link citizens with the state. The article ends with an appeal to party scholars to refocus their attention towards local parties.     

马克思生态自然观的当代价值

马克思的自然观蕴含着丰富的生态伦理思想,对解决当代生态环境问题具有重要现实价值。马克思的生态自然观确证了自然界永续存在的权利和价值,为当代生态伦理建设确立了基本价值原则,为当代生态文明建设提供了科学理论基础,同时也为最终解决当代生态问题指明了方向。     

当代社会主义的首要基本理论问题

伟大的无产阶级政治家、战略家、世纪伟人邓小平发表“南方谈话”已整整十周年了。邓小平这位历史巨人虽然离开了我们，但是他给后人留下的珍贵思想遗产——邓小平理论，是永世不朽的，它将造福子孙万代。邓小平多次指出，总括几十年的历史经验有许多条，但是最重要的是要搞清楚“什么是社会主义，怎样建设社会主义”这个当代社会主义的首要基本理论问题。这是邓小平理论的主题和主线，其它问题都是由此而派生和展开的。邓小平１９９２年视察南方谈话的意义，不仅在于回答了当时困扰人们的一些思想认识问题，从而有力地推动了我国改革开放和…     

马恩现实主义思想的当代价值

马恩现实主义思想以历史唯物主义史观为基础,使现实主义发展成为一种科学的理论,在马克思主义文艺思想中占有重要的地位。它在今天仍然是指导我们文艺创作与研究的基本原则,我们应该用发展的眼光去重点坚持其真实性原则和艺术的社会批判精神,并服务于当代的文学创作与研究现状。     

How Trust Matters: The Changing Political Relevance of Political Trust

Americans most often think about government in terms of its ability to grapple with issues of redistribution and race. However, the September 11 terrorist attacks led to a massive increase in media attention to foreign affairs, which caused people to think about the government in terms of defense and foreign policy. We demonstrate that such changes in issue salience alter the policy preferences that political trust shapes. Specifically, we show that trust did not affect attitudes about the race‐targeted programs in 2004 as it usually does, but instead affected a range of foreign policy and national defense preferences. By merging survey data gathered from 1980 through 2004 with data from media content analyses, we show that, more generally, trust's effects on defense and racial policy preferences, respectively, increase as the media focus more attention in these areas and decrease when that attention ebbs.     

The Theory and Politics of Contemporary Social Movements

Social movements of the 1960s have given rise to new theoretical perspectives such as Resource Mobilization Theory and theories of New Social Movements. Resource Mobilization Theory analyses the dynamics of mobilization: the effective organisation of social movements and their influence on mainstream political institutions. By contrast, New Social Movement theories seek to explain the anti-institutional nature of contemporary movements which are said to pursue radical social transformation through mainly cultural means. In this article, both theoretical approaches are examined but found to be inadequate explanations of the complexities of contemporary movements and their relationship with the political environment.