American Progressivism and the Obama Presidency

US progressivism is half espoused, half rejected, by an ambivalent if talented President. The Republican image of the President as ‘socialist’ is one which the social democratic Democrats wish were true. The President's readiness to compromise has not tempered the extreme hostility of the Republicans. It has been exploited by the political agents of business and finance. It has used by the permanent war party: the campaign against ‘terror’ enables it to retain mastery of foreign and military policy. The New Deal's heirs, seeking more social democracy and less militarism, are bereft of new forms of political action. US democracy is threatened by an eruption of cultural and religious fundamentalism, racism, and xenophobia, as well as a compulsive refusal of social solidarity. Withal, the situation is open as well as complex, and the President in the long run may be much more successful than his angry detractors and disappointed supporters allow.     

Barack Obama and the American island of the colour blind

ABSTRACT

Kuryla maps a metaphorical American island of the colour blind—in law, public rhetoric and culture—in the process locating the first black president of the United States on it, evaluating the claim that his presidency represents a colour-blind or post-racial politics. Barack Obama rejects colour blindness as a fact in the present yet gestures to its ‘better history’ (his modern transposing of Lincoln's ‘better angels’) while refusing any theoretical resolution of the idea. Obama, in public pronouncements and by sheer fact of his being and his biography, reveals the epistemic irony of the colour-blind idea, its persistence amid the conditions of its impossibility.     

改革开放前后的社会流动与人的全面发展

改革开放前,"先赋性因素"严重地限制着人们的社会地位或工作环境的改变,不仅使人的全面发展受到严重限制,也使社会失去了竞争和活力。改革开放改善了社会流动环境,激活了社会流动机制,推动了社会流动的不断拓展,"获致性因素"逐步成为影响社会流动的主导因素。社会流动环境的变迁,对人的全面发展产生了积极影响。矫正现阶段我国社会流动中存在的问题,必须进一步完善与社会主义市场经济相适应的经济和政治体制。     

The Obama Administration,the Left and Narratives of Failure

Barack Obama's election as US president gave rise to hopes of radical reform. Indeed, comparisons were drawn with 1932 and there were references to ‘realignment’. Many on the left were quickly disappointed by the limited character of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the abandonment of proposed reforms, and the concessions that were made to ensure the passage of healthcare legislation. Some explained these failures through agency‐based accounts and pointed to what they saw as personal weakness. Others stressed the structural constraints imposed by the asymmetric character of partisan polarisation, the political weight of capital, and the institutional character of the American state. The article argues that the character of the ‘Obama coalition’ should also be considered. It has been relatively narrow particularly when compared with the ‘Roosevelt coalition’. In particular, it failed to draw business fractions into its ranks.     

当代劳动新特点

本文深刻地阐述了当代劳动具有的5个新特点,即由体力劳动为主转变为脑力劳动为主,由重复性劳动为主转变为创新劳动为主,劳动及各要素在生产经营中的地位有明显差别,管理和科技劳动的地位日益重要,由依附性劳动转变为自主劳动。     

时代的逻辑嬗变与中国的改革开放——一种对改革抉择的历史本体分析方法

当代中国社会的发展遵循特定的逻辑运演"原则".改革前的30年,本本至上和概念先定的"原则",在纷繁迷离的历史表象后面起着绝对的支配作用.由于这种"原则"所隐含的内在矛盾的尖锐化和极端化,旧的逻辑"原则"的坚硬外壳终于被实践的逻辑力量所冲破,在主体的觉醒和观念的变革中,一个全新的逻辑"原则"在时代变革的凤凰涅中脱颖而出,这就是通过对"什么是社会主义、怎样建设社会主义"的历史追问所反映出来的一种反思和创新的"原则".这种新的逻辑"原则"既是20世纪70年代末时代所作出的改革抉择的历史本体根源,也是引领当代中国改革和发展的不可逆转的必然逻辑.     

乡镇政府改革与新农村建设

建设社会主义新农村,县、乡政府是关键。如何发挥乡镇政府在新农村建设中的作用,笔者认为应该以目前的乡镇政府改革为契机,合理确定乡镇政府在新农村建设中的主要职能,同时为保证这些事权真正到位,还必须根据这些事权赋予乡镇政府应有的财权,并对乡镇政府的财政使用进行管理监督,以保证这些财政资金真正用于新农村建设,保证新农村建设取得实效。     

新世纪政府管理改革的新课题

新世纪的到来给各国政府管理改革带来了新的课题。新世纪是信息通讯技术高度发达,公民参与政府管理及政策制定的机会和期望不断增强的朝代;新世纪将是政府机构改革和组织变革需要不断按照企业精神和再造模式广泛推进的时代;新世纪将是政府官员需要在思想观念和行为方式上革心洗面,脱胎换骨,从而要求行政教育培训目标和模式进行相庆变革的时代。这些新的课题正日益引起各国政府和专家学的关注和兴趣,如何积极主动地迎接新世纪     

Perceived electoral malfeasance and resentment over the election of Barack Obama

Controversies over voting outcomes, and subsequent laws to seemingly curb irregularities, have led to increased scrutiny over the process of voting day activities. While studies find evidence that majorities perceive rampant fraud, the explanations for these opinions have mainly pointed to political predispositions, largely ignoring the influence of racial attitudes. We propose that contemporary opinions on electoral malfeasance are shaped by the context of a popularly elected African American president, Barack Obama, and subsequent racial resentments. Analyses of data from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study reveals that racial resentment significantly predicts higher perceiver electoral malfeasance, even after controlling for political predispositions. Surprisingly, significant racial resentment effects exist among both Obama and McCain supporters, and these effects are strongest among those who perceived Obama won because of his race. Our results highlight the hyper racialized spill-over effects into judgements about the political system.     

Barack Obama and the South: demography as electoral opportunity

ABSTRACT

Barack Obama was more successful in the South in the 2008 election than many previous Democratic presidential nominees had been. While John McCain continued Republican dominance in the conservative region, it was a major breakthrough for a northern liberal Democrat, especially an African American from Illinois, to win three southern states and secure 55 electoral votes. Florida, North Carolina and Virginia were good opportunities for Obama because, demographically, they had come to resemble other large states outside the South. In these ‘converging’ southern states, the Latino and Asian communities had grown substantially. The percentage of college-educated Whites had increased and there had been large-scale migration from other regions of the country. The states that Obama won in the South were not as ‘southern’ as they once were. In some southern states, those called the ‘neo-Confederate South’ in this article, white support for Obama was less than John Kerry had received in 2004. This decline in white voting for the Democratic presidential nominee occurred despite the difficult economic times that enveloped the country in the months preceding the election, and the general unpopularity of the incumbent Republican administration headed by George W. Bush. Some of these states, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, had been among the most intransigent states in resisting the claims of the civil rights movement for social and political equality for African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. In the future it may be more accurate to speak of more than one South, rather than refer to the region as an undifferentiated whole.