Tocqueville, Collingwood, history and extending the moral community

No one in the English-speaking world has done more to establish the autonomy and validity of history as a form of knowledge, integral to our self-understanding, both individually and collectively, and to our understanding of others, whether they are distant in time and mental outlook, or contemporary but nevertheless different, than R. G. Collingwood. Indeed, it has recently been said that he set the agenda for all Anglophone post-war discussion of problems in the philosophy of history. This is a somewhat modest assessment of his impact because it ignores the extent to which he also had a profound influence on the intellectual giants of the continental hermeneutic tradition, Bultmann, Gadamer, Pannenberg, Lonergan and Ricoeur. In this article I explore the extent to which Collingwood advances our understanding of the process by which the moral community can be extended to embrace common principles such as fundamental human rights, while respecting human differences and cultural identities quite different from our own. I argue that in addressing these questions he explicitly rejected relativism, without subscribing to the Hegelian notion of an objective rationality.     

Patronage Politics and Contentious Collective Action: A Recursive Relationship

Based on ethnographic reanalysis and on current qualitative research on poor people's politics, this article argues that routine patronage politics and nonroutine collective action should be examined not as opposite and conflicting political phenomena but as dynamic processes that often establish recursive relationships. Through a series of case studies conducted in contemporary Argentina, this article examines four instances in which patronage and collective action intersect and interact: network breakdown, patron's certification, clandestine support, and reaction to threat. These four scenarios demonstrate that more than two opposing spheres of action or two different forms of sociability, patronage, and contentious politics can be mutually imbricated. Either when it malfunctions or when it thrives, clientelism may lie at the root of collective action.     

跨国关系与国内政治--比较政治与国际政治经济学视野下的国际关系研究

在过去的几十年中 ,各国内部政治经济越来越多地被整合到一体化的世界中 ,国际力量以前所未有的势头介入并影响着国内政治经济社会的变迁 ,可以说 ,无论在发达工业化国家 ,还是广大的第三世界国家 ,也无论在民主国家还是集权国家 ,各国内部政治经济社会被打上的国际痕迹比历史上任何时候都要明显与深刻。与此相呼应的是 ,如何从理论上认识一体化、国际化、全球化 ,或者相互依赖压力下的国内政治经济变迁 ,开始吸引了越来越多学者的兴趣。将比较政治和国际政治经济学结合起来 ,对国际关系和国内政治进行综合探讨 ,就是此项学术努力的一部分 ,…     

台湾政党政治的腐败与政治转型

近二十年来,金钱政治以一种看似矛盾和不自觉的方式,破坏着台湾执政党和政府及官员的政治形象、权力结构和统治基础,以一种潜在的力量推动着它们的政党政治和政治体制由一元的模式向多元的模式变化,从而加快了多元政治的发展;同时,在巩固民主的过程中,它以一种瓦解体制的形式阻碍着民主制度的形成和稳定.进一步来说,这种腐败在政党政治和政治发展的不同阶段可以产生不同的作用,它或是在巩固政治转型阶段推动政治转型和民主化,或是在巩固民主的阶段推动或阻碍民主的发展,但其总的表现形式都是瓦解体制.     

Local Politics and Political Power in Russia: The Case of Yaroslavl'

An American political scientist surveys local political reforms in Russia as they were proposed in 1988-1989 and implemented in 1990-1991. Using the city and provincial governments of Yaroslavl' as a case study, the author examines whether old political elites have shown themselves capable of adapting to the new political rules and retaining influence over local decision making. The paper then assesses differences in the strength of this influence in rural and urban areas and consequences of the power struggle between old and new political elites for Russian President Yel'tsin's reform program. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, H1.     

Economics and Politics: Towards a Dialogue between Economics and Political Science

In this essay, I present a sceptical point of view with regard to the introduction of the economists' models in political science. Based on examples drawn from the field of political behavior and public opinion research, I discuss the lack of realism and the limitation of the theoretical scope of the models the political scientists are expected to import. My discussion has no pretension of being original. By spelling out the unattractive implications of the narrow assumptions of the economists' theory of action for a political scientist working empirically, it rather attempts to contribute to the clarification of some of the impediments to an improved dialogue between the practitioners of the two disciplines which have long been divided by the theoretical approach of neoclassical economics.     

政党的素质与民主政治的发展--从泰国政党的历史与现状看其民主政治的前景

泰国的政党曾长期处于非法或半合法的状态,政党自身又存在着如无长远规划、聚散无常、无明确纲领、无有效的基层组织、党内关系完全是庇护关系、无法吸引一流人才等弊病,使得泰国的政党至今仍未成为真正意义上的政治力量.政党在相当长的时期内仍将处于为一党私利而争斗的恶性循环状态,在执政中必然是"政党行为大于政府行为".政党的这种素质将在相当大的程度上制约泰国民主政治的发展.     

The World Bank, Governance and Theories of Political Action in Africa

This article considers the World Bank as a political thinker. This involves an interpretation of the values, methodologies, and theoretical references contained within the Bank's governance documentation. Generally, the Bank steers away from a serious engagement with the nature of states, or the dynamics of reform execution, even in its more detailed policy documents in reform areas such as administrative reform. But, by looking at the World Bank's involvement in African states, we can understand the ways in which the World Bank works with certain expectations concerning how reforms will work. The article critically analyses the Bank's 'political vision' by comparing it with prominent theories of African politics. The article concludes that the World Bank's governance agenda misses three pivotal aspects of African politics: the unity of political and economic power, the extreme openness of African states to external pressures, and the salience of historically-embedded cultural and political relations. These three points directly raise important questions about the prospects of good governance reforms in Africa, and the involvement of the Bank therein.     

马来西亚政党政治的变化及其走向

巫统一党独大是马来西亚长期以来政党政治的一大特点 ,但是 1999年末马来西亚第 10次大选却表明这种局面正在发生明显的变化 ,这必将对马来西亚的政局产生深远的影响。本文试从马来西亚政党政治变化入手 ,分析变化的成因 ,并对今后一个时期马来西亚政党政治和政局的发展趋势作一展望。     

Protest Politics in a Changing Political Context: Switzerland, 1975–2005

This article analyses if and how recent changes within the Swiss political system have influenced different aspects of protest politics (e.g. level, issues, action repertoires, and transnationalization). We argue that opportunities for mobilization have emerged in recent years due to changes in the institutionalized political context and that these changes have at least partially led to a resurgence of protest activities in the early 2000s. In a longitudinal perspective, it is however rather moderate. Additionally, new social movements still dominate Swiss protest politics. Although social and migration‐related questions gained in salience, the changes are not as dramatic as in the case of party politics. The rise of a new integration‐demarcation cleavage has not (yet) shaken Swiss protest politics as heavily as Swiss party politics. Finally, even though they are not integrated into a pronounced new protest cycle, the early 2000s are marked by the global justice movement. In this context, we observe a slight radicalization of the action repertoire and police reactions, which is at least partially explained by the emergence of new “transnational” sites of contention.     

民主选举与社会分裂——东亚民主转型国家与地区的政治与政局

东亚民主转型国家和地区发生的社会分裂与其实行的民主制度之间存在较强的关联性。在经济发展不平衡、贫富差距大、民族国家意识淡泊及选举文化有欠成熟的情况下,参与选举的政治势力和社会群体倾向于将投票及相关活动视为扩大自身利益和削弱对方力量的机会,导致不同政治势力和社会群体之间的对立和冲突超出可控范围。     

Personal Politics and Being British: Political Rhetoric,Democracy and their Consequences in Colonial New South Wales

This paper argues that although our understanding of politics in colonial New South Wales in the period after 1856 has increased in recent times there is little appreciation of the political rhetoric employed to justify those politics. It contends that the key to understanding that rhetoric is an appreciation that politics was not understood in terms of institutional design but focused rather on the quality of political leaders. In particular, as exemplified by the case of Henry Parkes, it involved being British and being able to work British institutions. This emphasis on personal politics, rather than institutional matters such as the creation of checks and balances, helped to shape the nature of democratic institutions in Australia. In particular it encouraged a form of democracy that concentrated power. The refusal of members of the Legislative Council to oppose the Influx of Chinese Restriction Bill is an early indication of the consequences of that form of democracy.     

第三届"东亚政治社会转型"研讨会综述

2006年8月24～25日,由中国社会科学院亚洲太平洋研究所主办的第三届"东亚政治社会转型"学术研讨会在北京召开.来自全国各知名院校和研究机构的40多位学者出席了会议.与会代表围绕着"东亚:政党政治与政治参与"这一主题展开了学术交流.     

The Electoral Consequences of Direct Political Action: Evidence from Brazil

Democracy affords citizens the ability to influence policy through participation in elections and through direct political action. Though previous scholarship evaluates the impact each strategy has on outcomes, little if any work exists that examines how one strategy, direct action, affects success in the other, elections. This study analyzes the relationship between land occupations and the electoral success of the Workers' Party in Brazil between 1996 and 2006. It finds that the relationship varies in presidential and mayoral elections depending on income inequality and incumbency. Once the PT captures the presidential office in 2002, these effects disappear, suggesting that the effect of political protest also depends on who is in office.     

Doing Politics in a Depoliticised Society: Social Change and Political Deactivation in Chile

This article explores the process of political deactivation in Chile which has taken place since the military coup of 1973. Its stresses a series of political, social and cultural factors which have produced an increasing depoliticisation of the Chilean population under both the Pinochet regime and the current Concertaciòn governments. The forced depoliticisation generated by repression and fears under the military government marked the genesis of political deactivation. Since the late 1970s the marketisation of Chilean society and its increased consumerist orientation have weakened even further the readiness and interest among Chilean citizens to participate actively in party politics. In addition, in recent years politicians and politics in general have experienced in Chile a growing decrease of prestige and credibility. The media, and particularly the television, have become the main arenas in which new style politicians sell their electoral products to a depoliticised mass who expect quick and concrete solutions to their particular problems and demands.