中国共产党破解历史周期率难题的路径选择——从民主、法治到治理的历史演进

历史周期率是我国历史上封建王朝、封建政权摆脱不了的宿命。历代封建王朝盛极而衰、农民起义军先胜后败,一个共同的也是极其重要的原因,就是自己解决不了自己的问题。中国共产党在破解历史周期率难题的艰辛探索中,终于找到了破解这一难题的根本出路:既要靠民主,又要靠法治,还要靠治理,从而形成了“从民主、法治到治理”这样一条切实可行的政治发展路径。可以说从整体上实现了政治合法性与政治有效性两方面的有机统一。并且,这一发展路径既体现了发展的阶段性,即不同历史时期在处理合法性与有效性关系问题上侧重点的不同,同时又体现了历史的延续性,即不同发展阶段之间并非相互替代而是逐步递增的过程。而从实践维度看,则表现在新的时代背景下对执政党的执政理念也有了新的要求,那就是适应新的时代发展需要,在推进民主法治建设的同时大力突出治理的重要性,于是,提高执政党科学执政、民主执政、依法执政水平的要求便势在必行。     

Interest group dynamics in a weak and transitional state: the case of Bolivia

Bolivia's political development has been characterized by elitist control set in an environment of political instability and a weak decentralized state. Since the 1980s and Bolivia's transition to a limited form of democracy, this elitist control has been successfully challenged from the left and, since the early 2000s, particularly by the indigenous population. In fact, Bolivian contemporary politics and interest group activity have been shaped mainly by the rise in political power of the left and indigenous interests. This rise, given a weak state transitioning to limited democracy, has had several consequences for interest group activity that add increasing complexity to the group system. One consequence of Bolivia's course of political development is that, although it exhibits many common elements of interest group activity explained by existing group theories, aspects of its group development are not adequately accounted for by these theories. In addition, there are questions about whether the new configuration of interest groups promotes or undermines democracy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

State of the Art: Addressing the INGO 'Legitimacy Deficit'

While the numbers and competencies of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) have increased dramatically in the past few decades, questions have been raised about the legitimacy of their new activities. A number of scholars have identified significant tensions between INGOs' legitimacy claims and the realities of their working practices. We examine the current state of the debate on INGO legitimacy in two contrasting literatures: normative work on global governance and its implications for the role of INGOs, and policy-oriented work on INGOs' legitimacy. The first shows how INGO involvement in global governance opens the door to a range of alternative conceptions of world order, rooted in notions of universal human rights, democracy, and theories of redistributive justice. The latter set of voices is concerned less with locating INGOs' roles as agents in global normative structures than with analysing concrete problems arising from increased INGO participation in the development process. Future research might take into account key questions concerning the sources and the scope and nature of INGO legitimacy.     

The importance of input and output legitimacy in democratic governance: Evidence from a population-based survey experiment in four West European countries

The study of subjective democratic legitimacy from a citizens’ perspective has become an important strand of research in political science. Echoing the well-known distinction between ‘input-oriented’ and ‘output-oriented’ legitimacy, the scientific debate on this topic has coined two opposed views. Some scholars find that citizens have a strong and intrinsic preference for meaningful participation in collective decision making. But others argue, to the contrary, that citizens prefer ‘stealth democracy’ because they care mainly about the substance of decisions, but much less about the procedures leading to them. In this article, citizens’ preferences regarding democratic governance are explored, focusing on their evaluations of a public policy according to criteria related to various legitimacy dimensions, as well as on the (tense) relationship among them. Data from a population-based conjoint experiment conducted in eight metropolitan areas in France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom is used. By analysing 5,000 respondents’ preferences for different governance arrangements, which were randomly varied with respect to their input, throughput and output quality as well as their scope of authority, light is shed on the relative importance of different aspects of democratic governance. It is found, first, that output evaluations are the most important driver for citizens’ choice of a governance arrangement; second, consistent positive effects of criteria of input and throughput legitimacy that operate largely independent of output evaluations can be discerned; and third, democratic input, but not democratic throughput, is considered somewhat more important when a governance body holds a high level of formal authority. These findings run counter to a central tenet of the ‘stealth democracy’ argument. While they indeed suggest that political actors and institutions can gain legitimacy primarily through the provision of ‘good output’, citizens’ demand for input and throughput do not seem to be conditioned by the quality of output as advocates of stealth democratic theory suggest. Democratic input and throughput remain important secondary features of democratic governance.     

Paradoxes of Constitutional Democracy

Drawing on the work of Frank Michelman and Jürgen Habermas, I outline two interconnected paradoxes of constitutional democracy. The paradox of the founding prevents a purely democratic constitution from being founded, because the procedures needed to secure its legitimacy cannot be spontaneously self-generated. It displays an infinite regression of procedures presupposing procedures. The paradox of dynamic indeterminacy heads off any attempt to resolve this problem through constitutional amendment. It shows that we cannot evaluate the legitimacy of a dynamically evolving constitution based on projections of its future development. To do so, we would need a stronger basis for making probabilistic judgments about the constitution's future path. After exploring the problems of using constitutional patriotism as such a basis, I outline an alternative built on the ideas of dynamic constitutionalism and reflexive citizenship. It shows how a dynamically evolving constitution can promote its own legitimacy from within, simultaneously resolving both paradoxes.     

Organizing consent: The role of procedural fairness in political trust and compliance

Abstract.  Political theory often attributes democratic legitimacy to the fairness of the processes by which collective decisions are taken; empirical research by contrast has primarily investigated whether citizens' approval of democratic institutions derives from satisfaction with the substantive output of those institutions. This article examines whether assessments of decision-making processes shape public willingness to consent to authority. The role of procedural fairness in institutional legitimacy has previously only been investigated in the context of the United States, and has fallen short of demonstrating that procedural assessments actually have a causal effect on institutional legitimacy. Panel survey data of attitudes in a large-scale land use issue provide the empirical base of the analysis. The results indicate that assessments of procedural fairness have a bearing on two conceptualizations of subjective legitimacy: respondents' trust for the authority and their willingness to accept a decision outcome.     

Theorizing Islamism and democracy: Jamaat-e-Islami in India

Liberal reading often posits Islamism as obverse of modernity and reason. Phil Briscoe's statement that Hitler's Mein Kampf might be kept in libraries but not the books by authors like Jamaat-e-Islami's founder's (Maududi) amply illustrates it. This article calls such an understanding into question. On the basis of my historical-ethnographic fieldwork on India's Jamaat-e-Islami and its offshoot, Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), I examine the interrelationships between Islamism and democracy showing Jamaat-e-Islami's moderation and SIMI's radicalization. It is my contention that Islamism and democracy are not antithetical to each other; they cohere in complex ways. When democracy is responsive to the traditions and aspirations of its Muslim citizens, Muslims relate to pluralism and democracy. But when democracy becomes majoritarian and a theater of entertainment and violence against Muslims, Islamists turn radical. I also suggest that radicalization such as SIMI's symbolizes a complex dynamic of democratization and demonopolization of religious authority. By foregrounding the salient transformation of Indian Islamism, this article aims to advance a nuanced, fresh understanding of both Islamism and democracy.     

The secular contract: sovereignty,secularism and law in Australia

What does it mean to say that a nation-state is secular? Secular law typically begins when a state has no religious competitor for authority. For this reason, it can be said that the Australian state is secular because its authority is derived from its own laws. What makes Australian law sovereign, the highest authority within the state, is its secularity. However, given Australia's colonial heritage, it is not just the absence of religious authority, such as a state religion, that gives the state its secularity. The law's foundations in colonial violence and the extinguishment of Indigenous sovereignty as a competing authority are also a crucial way in which secular Australian law can continue to operate as the sovereign authority within the state. Using the work of Charles W. Mills, I will critically interrogate how legal and political characterisations of the law as secular work to disavow the state's racialised foundations in colonial violence in the form of a “secular contract”. In developing this notion of a “secular contract” I hope to show that secularism be must re-thought of as not simply the operation of law without religion, but also, as complicit with the ways indigenous sovereignties in (post)colonial states are negated.     

Celebrity Culture

Although the idea of a celebrity has been around for a long time, its mutation into an important cultural force is a relatively recent development. In recent decades the meaning of a celebrity has altered and is now often applied to those who are famous for being famous. The ascendancy of the celebrity has been fuelled by society’s uneasy relationship with the question of authority. Often celebrity provides an alternative source of validation. The tendency to outsource authority to the celebrity represents an attempt to bypass the problem of legitimacy by politicians and other figures.     

Legitimacy and the Privatization of Environmental Governance: How Non–State Market–Driven (NSMD) Governance Systems Gain Rule–Making Authority

In recent years, transnational and domestic nongovernmental organizations have created non–state market–driven (NSMD) governance systems whose purpose is to develop and implement environmentally and socially responsible management practices. Eschewing traditional state authority, these systems and their supporters have turned to the market's supply chain to create incentives and force companies to comply.
This paper develops an analytical framework designed to understand better the emergence of NSMD governance systems and the conditions under which they may gain authority to create policy. Its theoretical roots draw on pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy granting distinctions made within organizational sociology, while its empirical focus is on the case of sustainable forestry certification, arguably the most advanced case of NSMD governance globally. The paper argues that such a framework is needed to assess whether these new private governance systems might ultimately challenge existing state–centered authority and public policy–making processes, and in so doing reshape power relations within domestic and global environmental governance.     

Legitimacy,citizenship and state redress

This article explores how state redress programmes work to legitimate the state. The primary thesis concerns how state redress aims to restructure citizenship identity. This restructuring enables civic identification by victims of state wrongdoing which in turn enables greater legitimacy. Consequently, redress constitutes a movement by the state from lesser to greater legitimacy. The article illustrates the legitimating thesis by examining two Canadian responses to state wrongdoing with regard to indigenous peoples, Gathering Strength (1998) and the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat). This context provides material for contrasting the legitimating thesis with a competing approach – redress as ‘therapy’.     

Confidence in an election authority and satisfaction with democracy: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of a failed election in Sweden

Contemporary research on electoral integrity has focused on the functioning, evaluation, and legitimacy of electoral processes in emerging democracies. By contrast, this study investigates whether a failed election in a well-established democracy can affect individuals' evaluations of the electoral management body, the Election Authority, and whether those evaluations affect satisfaction with democracy. Using the case of a Swedish regional election in 2010 that had to be rerun due to procedural mistakes in the vote handling, we found that, in the short term, individuals’ confidence in the Election Authority was reduced after it was announced that the election had to be rerun because of the mistakes. Subsequently, this decreased confidence was strongly associated with less satisfaction with democracy at the regional and national level. As good news for the authority, after a successful rerun election, confidence rebounded to the levels prior to the failed election.     

Disrupting the Settler Colonial University: Decolonial Praxis and Place-Based Education in the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia)

This article demonstrates how decolonial Placed-Based Education can disrupt a settler colonial academic status quo. We begin by situating our analysis in the unceded Syilx Territories of the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia, Canada) and proceed by illustrating how both taken-for-granted colonial epistemologies and banal exnominations of white supremacy remain orthodox within mainstream Canadian higher education. We next define “decolonial praxis” by drawing from insights offered by critical feminist, anti-racist, and Indigenous scholars and community organizers before moving into a summary of how we embraced theories and strategies of decolonization coupled with Place-Based Education in an introductory Gender and Women’s Studies course. We conclude with our response to the ongoing exclusions being reproduced by neoliberal universities that result from the primacy they grant to Western knowledges and rationales. The piece reveals how decolonial place-based methods can be leveraged against settler colonial institutions, discourses, and logics to unsettle their claims to legitimacy, land, and authority over learning.     

Norwegian Local Councils as Democratic Meta‐governors? A Study of Networks Established to Manage Cross‐border Natural Resources

Focusing on democracy, the question raised in this article is whether it is possible for local councils to play a role as democratic meta-governors in situations with cross-border conflicts over interests. According to the authors' definition, democratic meta-governance implies that the local councils assure that all interests are taken into account in governing networks. The analysis is based on data from extensive studies of two Norwegian networks dealing with cross-border natural resources. Not surprisingly, the authors' answer is rather negative. Based on analysis of who actually participates in the networks and the way the involved local councils deal with the question of democracy, this may be explained by the fact that each local council represents a specific defend interest held by the majority in their constituency. Instead of opening up and allowing the required participation, which may give the networks the legitimacy they need, the local councils are closing the networks in order to better get their interests heard. It should therefore be considered whether responsibility for securing democracy in the management of cross-border natural resources should be given to a regional or national authority, above the level of local government.     

Bringing the Outside In: Somaliland,Statebuilding and Dual Hybridity

International norms of what it means to be a state dictate domestic policy within developing and unrecognized states but must co-exist with internal demands. With a mutual dependence between internal and external considerations and, indeed, legitimacy, at the fore of Somaliland’s statebuilding project and its stability, it is a useful study in achieving ‘success’ in statebuilding and in what success can mean in bringing together internal and external demands. This article examines the impact of the hybrid inclusion of traditional authority in the central democratic government as the marriage between internal and external demands. This article argues that the Somaliland state is successful because it is a flexible process rather than a project; a process that reflects the demands and expectations of society, an aspect that is often absent in statebuilding projects.     

The New Elites in the Baltic States: Recirculation and Change

Regime change is closely connected to elite change. although classical theories of elite rule would predict considerable elite continuity. The basic question is how the downfall of communist regimes and introduction of democracy have affected elite patterns in the three Baltic states. The data indicate a combination of continuity and change: circulation of indigenous elites has taken place, while Russians are excluded from power in important state institutions. Elite continuity is explained by lack of "alternative elites" and a need for competent leaders in the state building process. Elite change is explained by ethnic cleavages which raise the issue of indigenous control over power positions.     

What comes first,democracy or human rights?

Minimalists about human rights hold that a state can have political legitimacy if it protects a basic list of rights and democratic rights do not have to be on that list. In this paper, I consider two arguments from Benhabib against the minimalist view. The first is that a political community cannot be said to have self-determination, which minimalists take to be the value at the heart of legitimacy, without democracy. The second is that even the human rights protections minimalists take to legitimize institutions cannot be had without democracy. These rights can only be adequately interpreted and specified for any social context if the interpretations and specifications result from democratic processes. Here, I bring out some important problems with these arguments and so conclude that they do not represent a robust case for rejecting minimalism.     

Governance Delegation Agreements: Shared Sovereignty as a Substitute for Limited Statehood

Governance delegation agreements—international treaties allowing external actors legal authority within host states for fixed terms—succeed in simple and, under certain conditions, complex state‐building tasks. These deals are well institutionalized and have input legitimacy because ratification requires sufficient domestic support from a ruling coalition. In order to obtain that input legitimacy, however, host states constrain external actors commensurate with their level of statehood: Stronger states delegate less legal authority. This article argues that these constraints, which produce joint rather than complete authority, require external actors to work within state structures rather than substituting for them, and thus make coordination of complex tasks more difficult. A quantitative overview of data on consent‐based peacekeeping missions complements a qualitative analysis focused on comparative case studies in Melanesia and Central America to test the theory. The results support the theory and suggest that these deals hold promise particularly for accomplishing complex tasks in especially weak states.     

Transnational Parliamentary Assemblies: A Remedy for the Democratic Deficit of International Governance?

While international governance may improve the legitimacy of its policies by producing better outputs, it reduces legitimacy on the input side as decisions are taken further away from the citizens. This article examines transnational parliamentary assemblies and assesses whether they might add legitimacy to decision-making beyond the state. While the parliamentary route to legitimacy is often belittled within the realm of international relations, many such assemblies already exist. The study gives an overview of such assemblies and compares the European Parliament, the Nordic Council and the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in detail. They represent three types of transnational parliamentary assemblies: parliament, assembly and conference. The article reaches the conclusion that a parliament can further democratic legitimacy in supranational contexts, whereas assemblies can provide additional legitimacy to processes of international cooperation. The conference type does not fulfil the criteria set for democratic legitimacy.