Chernobyl': Observations on the Fifth Anniversary

A Canadian Sovietologist with extensive research experience relating to the accident at the Chernobyl' nuclear power plant in 1986 surveys some of its major consequences in light of new information on the fifth anniversary of the disaster in 1991. The author outlines and analyzes varying interpretations of the cause of the accident (operator error vs. design flaw), the extent and density of the radiation release, and the severity of its impact on public health in contaminated areas. Appropriately noted are the jurisdictional disputes over the clean-up and other remedial efforts-most rooted in the current political crisis in the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, Q20, Q40.     

东盟成立四十周年回顾

2007年是东盟成立40周年,它被誉为是世界上除欧盟外最成功的地区组织,取得了令人瞩目的成就.随着世界和地区形势的发展与变化,东盟未来发展面临许多挑战,为此东盟已采取了应对措施.中国和东盟关系也得到了迅速发展,具有重要影响和深远意义.     

Electoral Systems in Latin America: Explaining the Adoption of Proportional Representation Systems During the Twentieth Century

This article explains the twentieth-century Latin American shift from majoritarian to proportional representation (PR) electoral systems. It argues that PR was introduced when the electoral arena changed significantly and threatened the power of the dominant party. The adoption of PR was therefore an effort by the established party to retain partial power in the face of absolute defeat. Majoritarian systems remained in place when the incumbent party was strong enough to believe that it could gain a plurality of the votes despite electoral changes. An empirical analysis of 20 countries over 104 years (1900–2004) provides support for this argument.     

Reflections on the Anniversary of the August 1991 Coup

A sociologist whose area of expertise is communism and nationalism examines the causes of Soviet and Yugoslav dissolution, with special attention to political-cultural factors. The work of Serbian and Russian intellectuals is used as the basis for examination of the different political-cultural attitudes of Russians and Serbs towards the state, historically and during the twentieth-century breakups of these multinational states     

Lebanese Shi‵ites and The Marja‵iyya: Polemic in the Late Twentieth Century

The marja‵iyya (rank of legal exemplar among Twelver Shi‵ites) is part of a complex system of legal guidance, socio-religious management, economic administration and political negotiation at the seminaries, and in local, regional, and international settings. In Lebanon, the crisis of the modern state, the Shi‵ites' ambiguous national position, deterioration of their rural regions, struggle with Israel, and the Civil War (1975–1990), valorized political Shi'ism, and its spokesmen. Common Shi‵ites searched for new readings of spiritual and temporal leadership in modern society. Yet, neither proposals for a hierarchical structuring of the marja‵iyya, nor for its systematization under Iran's vali-ye faqīh (deputy of the jurist), succeeded in gaining majority support in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the muqallidūn (emulators of a marja‵) benefited from the non-institutional base and non-hierarchical character of Shi‵ite legal-spiritual authority of the marja‵iyya to achieve a measure of control over the ‘post’ through the dynamics of civil society. Facing a large number of competing marāji‵(pl. of marja‵), the laity felt empowered to give or withdraw critical support from a potential marja‵ and to defy formal designations of marāji‵ by Najaf and Qum within their locales in Jabal ‵Amil (south Lebanon), the Biqa‵ and Beirut.     

一项泽被后人的学术工程——写在《费·陀思妥耶夫斯基全集》出版之际

<正>由陈燊主编、刘文飞和白春仁任副主编的《费.陀思妥耶夫斯基全集》近日由河北教育出版社出版。该《全集》是十一五国家重点图书,也是国内第一部名副其实的陀氏作品的全集。     

Upon the 70th Anniversary of the Constitution: Summary of Debate on the Constitution of Japan

On November 3, 1946, the current Constitution of Japan was promulgated. Immediately before it came into effect on May 3, 1947, I was elected for the first time in the general election in April 1947 and entered national politics as a member of the House of Representatives. Since then, the Constitution of Japan moved through its 70-year-history, which overlaps my life as a politician at 99 years of age.