On Democratic Peace and Democracy Exporting

Democratic Peace and Democracy Exporting are two relatively young theories in the Western IR theory family.The authors believe both are questionable assertions.Democracy,whether as personal consciousness or a political mechanism,can only arise when the productivity of a nation reaches a certain level. Fundamentally,even if we agree with the assertion that democracy leads to peace,the real reason is level of productivity;democracy is only a result.Secondly,the close relationship between democracy and capitalism means that democracy can not be exported randomly.To treat democracy as a universally adaptable commodity exportable to any nation without considering the level of productivity can hardly be successful;in fact,it may be harmful to some nations.     

印度尼西亚的多元民主改革及前景

印尼多元民主改革始于宪政改革,并效仿美国一些政治制度,在具体实践中遇到了严峻的挑战。经过10年的改革,印尼基本建立起多元民主体制。印尼的民主改革的前景并非一片坦途,最终还需与民主治理、政府效能结合起来,印尼民主改革才能具有生命力。     

Between Liberal Autocracy and Democracy: Democratic Legitimacy in Hong Kong

The partial democracy in Hong Kong is an experiment with limited suffrage in a liberal, self-governing society. This article examines the impact of system dissatisfaction and fundamental cultural values on democratic legitimacy, using logistic regression analyses of data drawn from an electoral survey in 2000. It is found that widespread public dissatisfaction with the economic downturn has not been generalized to the abstract, structural level of regime legitimacy. Equally widespread discontent with the political situation matters; but it has strengthened public support for democracy, rather than weakened it. Finally, democratic legitimacy is grounded in liberal, post-material and individualist-competitive values. In recognition of the plausible durability of these fundamental cultural norms and in view of the relative lack of support for non-democratic alternatives and strong support for partial electoral reform, we conclude that Hong Kong is very likely to remain on track toward a fuller democracy by incremental steps.     

巴西银行改革中的外国资本问题

巴西在银行业改革中 ,允许外资进入其金融领域。改革中引进了混合经营模式 ,建立最低银行资本标准制度 ,促进银行间的兼并与收购 ,推动了行业竞争 ,加强了银行审计工作的力度和管理 ,建立起中央信贷风险系统和银行内部的控制体系。外资进入巴西金融业对巴西银行业发展产生了积极的影响 ,优化了巴西银行资产 ,扩大了银行资产的规模 ,丰富了其金融体系 ,提高了巴西银行的效益 ,同时也带来新的市场理念 ,对巴西的金融体系起到了稳定作用。外国金融资本的进入确实存在挤兑、抽逃资金等问题 ,也增加了中央银行控制资本流动和进行宏观调控的难度。但这是正常的市场现象 ,其深层原因是对外国资本的过度依赖和国内的高利率。这也正是今后的金融深化改革所要解决的问题。     

Jump-Starting Democracy: Adult Civic Education and Democratic Participation in Three Countries

In countries emerging from authoritarianism into democracy, citizens have little preparation for participating in the new political dispensations they face. Adult civic education promises a way to jump-start the lifelong socialization experience that their counterparts in the long-established democracies enjoy. But do these brief crash-courses in democracy really have any impact? Recent surveys of civic education efforts sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development in the Dominican Republic, Poland and South Africa find that those taking part in the programmes do participate significantly more in local level politics and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in politics more generally as well. There is also evidence that non-elites can benefit more from such programmes and begin to close the participation gap that separates them from traditional elites. The overall gains in participation are, however, modest. But given that political participation in absolute terms has been quite low in both old and new democracies, it can be argued that even modest gains are important and make investment in civic education worthwhile.     

Democracy and Islam: Implications for Civilizational Conflict and the Democratic Peace

The extent to which democracy and Islam are mutually exclusive is tested empirically with implications for civilizational conflict and the democratic peace. Three measures of democracy are used: a political rights index, an index of liberal democracy, and a measure based on institutionalization. Environmental variables such as sea borders and rainfall that minimize external threat to democratic systems are found to predict better to the more rudimentary political rights index, while cultural variables, including Islam in a negative direction, are more clearly associated with liberal democracy. The measure of democratic institutionalization behaves in a manner intermediate between the two. Divergence of the structures of explanation for these measures suggests that conclusions concerning the likelihood of war between democracies can depend on the specific index of democracy employed. The absence of a significant negative association between Islam and the political rights index under controlled conditions suggests that the probability of civilizational conflict is low.     

联合国的民主及其治理

冷战结束后,联合国在众多国际领域的治理及其影响日益广泛,对联合国的民主问责便成为理论和现实中的一种必然要求.本文从联合国成员内部的民主、成员间民主和全球民主三个层次考察了联合国的民主之内涵.在此基础上阐述了联合国的民主治理及其治理机制完善的主要变革途径.     

Democracy and Human Rights in the Mexican States: Elections or Social Capital?

Why does the relationship between a government and its citizens deteriorate to violence? Large-N cross-national quantitative analyses of human rights violations have found an inverse relationship between democracy and violations. These analyses, however, have not been able to address the central finding of an influential subnational analysis of democracy that stresses the importance of a single dimension of democracy, social capital. In this article we combine these two streams of research with fresh data from the Mexican states to investigate how and why democracy inhibits violations. Theoretically, we connect a policy interest in protecting human rights to politicians' office-seeking goals and to the level of social capital. Empirically, our data allow us to disentangle two principal components of democracy, elections and social capital, and include important control variables, notably ethnic diversity, which have been largely left out of the cross-national analyses. Our central finding is that the electoral components rather than social capital produce important consequences for the protection of citizens' human rights.     

欧盟的中东民主治理：以阿富汗为例

欧盟作为新的国际行为体,在新的历史时期积极参与全球治理,尤其是在中东地区的民主治理。欧盟的中东民主治理体现出了相互区别又相互联系的两种角色：规范的角色和民事的角色,而其民主治理的动力、动机和方式无不根植于此并充满逻辑联系。阿富汗作为新的国际秩序下的破碎国家,其政治重建和民主化发展意义尤为重大,欧盟以异于美国的战略将其纳入中东民主治理之下来促进。欧盟与阿富汗的互动促进了欧盟规范在阿富汗的内化及该国民主化的发展,这在一定程度上实现了欧盟的初衰。     

Economic Reforms and Ethnic Nationalism in the Context of Transition to Democracy: The Case of Four Eastern European Nations

The end of communism stimulated an increase of nationalism in east central European countries. It is argued that this resurgence of ethnic sentiments is a consequence of prior severe suppression during the communist rule. An important research question that arises is whether nationalism is compatible with the goals of democratization and economic reform that east central European countries set out to accomplish. This article explores the relationship between the choice of economic reforms and the use of nationalistic rhetoric as a mobilization tool. It proposes that the commitment made by any one government to liberal economic reforms is likely to be negatively correlated with the nationalism expressed in social policies. It analyzes the issue by constructing specific indicators reflecting levels for both economic reforms and nationalism embedded in social policies. The research includes four countries: Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine, over a period of six years. Results lend support to the hypothesis that the commitment of a government to liberal economic reforms is associated with low levels of official nationalism.     

Endangering women's health for profit: health and safety in Mexico's maquiladoras

This article focuses on the situation of women in Mexico's maquiladoras (assembly plants). There are approximately 1 million Mexicans working in over 4000 maquiladoras in which violations of worker's human, labor, and health rights exist. The specific dangers of work in maquiladoras and the double burden of domestic and factory work that women already bear all contribute to a wide range of health hazards for women. These workplace hazards include toxic chemicals, unsafe equipment, poor workstation design, and excessive heat or cold, poor ventilation and lighting, harmful noise levels, and dangerously high production quotas. Since most maquiladoras illegally dump hazardous waste and spew contaminants into the surrounding environment, residents of maquiladora communities are exposed to additional health hazards simply because they live near the plants. In response to this problem, workers have organized themselves into community-based groups and democratic unions. The need for worker-controlled organizations was emphasized because workers who are organized have greater possibilities of addressing their concerns about health, safety, wages, and job security than those who are not.     

论正义与发展党执政下的土耳其民主模式

正义与发展党有浓厚的伊斯兰主义背景,且有广泛的社会基础,但就该党性质而论不属于伊斯兰主义政党.正发党执政以来奉行温和、务实的政策,以民主保守党自居,积极推进民主化进程,在宗教与世俗间寻求平衡,在不改变国家政权世俗性质的前提下,竭力维护伊斯兰文化传统和习俗,强调伊斯兰价值观的重要性.正发党主导下的民主模式对土耳其政治发展道路有重大影响.与此同时,宗教与世俗间的较量复杂多变又决定了这种民主模式内涵的模糊性和不确定性.     

NGO Structural Adaptation to Funding Requirements and Prospects for Democracy: The Case of the European Union

Most studies on voluntary organisations and advocacy groups focus on their contribution to democracy through participation in the policy-making process. The uniqueness of this study consists in shifting the emphasis to participatory democracy at the implementation stage of the policy process. We argue that public donors may affect the democratic potential of voluntary organisations at this stage. To this purpose, we explore the European Union's structuring effects. Firstly, the European Union manufactures a non-governmental organisation (NGO) landscape through a top-down process of redistribution of resources. Secondly, our attention is drawn to NGOs' adaptations of EU requirements, which entails a transformation process often at odds with participatory practices. In order to grasp the European Union's differential impact, we include in our analysis two sectors (humanitarian NGOs and social voluntary organisations) and two Member States (France and Spain).     

墨西哥医疗卫生制度的变迁与改革

作为拉美地区的主要国家,墨西哥医疗卫生制度建立已近百年,期间经历了曲折的改革和发展过程,到目前为止已初步建立全民医保的制度体系。本文通过对墨西哥医疗卫生制度变迁和改革过程的梳理和研究,提出适用于发展中国家医疗卫生制度改革的一些基本经验:一是必须确立优先的改革目标;二是必须妥善解决融资来源稳定性问题;三是要不断整合医疗资源并提高医疗效率;四是权衡个人享有的社会权利和国家所能提供财力之间的关系。     

主权民主:普京对俄罗斯民主理论与实践的探索

普京执政以后,主张在加强国家权威主义的基础上发展符合俄罗斯国情的民主政治。普京的“主权民主”思想,既是维护俄国家政治、经济、军事权益的现实需要,也是为保证后普京时代俄国家政治体制得以继承与发展的一项战略举措。     

Democracy in Latin America: Problems and prospects

This essay examines, by way of a series of brief country sketches, the current state of democratization in Latin America. It argues that in the formal sense progress has been significant but that only in a handful of countries has the economic development which democracy requires taken place. Many serious impediments (corruption, party weaknesses, public alienation, and poor policy implementation among them) remain. It will be decades before a definitive judgement can be reached.     

一分为二看待拉美的经济改革

一　关于拉美经济改革的指导思想苏振兴教授在《改革与发展失调》一文 1 中 ,专门谈到了新自由主义对拉美经济改革的影响 ,主要表现在限制拉美经济改革的自主性、在改革与发展关系上的误导、在国家与市场关系上的误导等 3方面。他特别谈到 ,西方国家要求众多的拉美国家都按“华盛顿共识”这个惟一的处方实行改革 ,力图将拉美国家的决策者引向新自由主义的轨道 ;它们不是把新自由主义单纯看作是一个经济学流派 ,而是要用这种思想来规范拉美国家的政治取向。笔者认为 ,指出这一点是十分重要的。对不少拉美国家来说 ,新自由主义确实是祸水。诺…     

埃塞俄比亚教育及其改革

长期以来,埃塞俄比亚教育领域存在着投入不足、发展不平衡、师资短缺等严重困难。为了发展国家经济,摆脱贫困,埃塞政府制定了优先发展教育事业的策略。埃塞建立了比较完整的教育行政管理系统和教育培训体系;加大投入,改善办学条件;实施教学语言多样化;鼓励女童入学,努力解决教育发展不平衡状况;采取多种措施,应对师资短缺问题;加大在防治艾滋病方面的教育力度。但如何使教育和经济社会协调发展,仍然是摆在埃塞政府面前的一道难题。     

对拉美民主的解析--读《拉丁美洲的民主:公民民主的未来》

20多年前拉美民主化进程启动时,拉美精英阶层、普通民众以及国际社会都对拉美民主化发展充满期待。然而,进入新千年以来,拉美民主化进程正面临着前所未有的危机,拉美国家已有多位总统迫于民众压力提前卸任;一些国家的选举投票率下降,民众示威抗议等活动时有发生。2004年4月,联合国开发计划署发表了由专家学者完成的关于拉美18国民主现状的报告《拉丁美洲的民主:公民民主的未来》(UNDP,DemocracyinLatinAmerica:TowardsaCitizens’Democracy,Argentina,2004)。这份理论与事实并重的报告对拉美民主问题进行了独到的解析,为深入了解拉美民…