后现代主义身份政治的衰颓与新民粹主义的崛起

20世纪70、80年代,资本主义进入一个相对稳定的发展时期,大规模阶级斗争相对缓和,新自由主义乘势崛起。作为新自由主义主流运动的补充,后现代主义身份政治发展起来。后现代主义身份政治从经济决定论转向文化和意识形态决定论,从大规模集体行动的逻辑转向分散的斗争。美国金融危机以来,大规模社会运动复兴,经济议题回到政治运动的中心,后现代主义身份政治的文化和自我意识革命逐步衰颓,新民粹主义乘势崛起。在聚焦经济议题和强调集体行动方面,新民粹主义和后现代主义身份政治迥然不同,但是从强调族群的文化和身份差异的角度来说,新民粹主义又把后现代主义身份政治发展到了极端。后现代主义身份政治是与金融资本的上升期相适应的,新民粹主义是与金融资本的下降期相适应的,但二者都因不理解金融资本的本性而把民众运动引向了错误的方向。只有社会主义民主运动才能赋予民众运动以正确的方向。     

Green Politics and the New Class: Selfishness or Virtue?

The predominantly new middle-class social composition of the green movement has become a matter of increasing interest in the wake of the success of green parties and the growth of an international green movement. This paper considers the concept of the 'new class' in relation to two explanations for the social composition of the green movement. The class-interest argument seeks to show that green politics is a means of furthering either middle-class or new-class interests while the 'new childhood' argument claims that the development of the green movement is the result of the spread of post-material values, the main bearers of which are the new class. Against these arguments a more comprehensive explanation is presented, which focuses on the education of the new class and its relative structural autonomy from the production process.     

Politics, Robinson Crusoe, Harold Laski and Plato: A Response to Burns

In a recent article, Tony Burns (2000) challenged the traditional view that politics is necessarily restricted to relations between human beings. However, what such a challenge does not take into account is that the values of non-human nature cannot be conveyed from their source to the humans that represent them. Indeed, such values are estimated by nature's human representatives. The ideas of Harold Laski and Plato can be invoked to support the argument that Robinson Crusoe's relation to nature is not a political one.     

Politics and Mass Media: A Response to John Street

This short article is a response to an overview of research on media-political relations written by John Street and published in the Political Studies Review in 2005. The usefulness of the exercise is recognised but issue is taken both with the organising concepts of Street's account and the way he excludes a significant body of research from his assessment, raising questions about his characterisation of the field under scrutiny. A case is made for assessing the tensions and the varieties of work in this broad area by the use of other categories, including the play-off between media-centric and politics-centric accounts, the continuing strand of work informed by critical theory and the sheer variety of the topics upon which researchers have chosen to focus as a way into a broader agenda. The importance of work engaging with issues at an international level is emphasised together with the value of new comparative studies. In conclusion, the state of the area is judged more positively than in Street's assessment. Questions of power are argued to be the principal point at issue in comparing research approaches and the need for further explicitness and clarity here is noted.     

Tradition and Change: Four People A Response to the Politics of Paradox

Helen Goodman, the Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland has responded to the Blue Labour Publication The Politics of Paradox, with Tradition and Change: Four People. Blue Labour's thesis is that a return to the ideas and practices prevalent at the foundation of the Labour Party—solidarity and reciprocity, can form the basis of significant social change. Helen views the thesis from the perspective of two communities—first the hill farmers of Teesdale, a paradigmatic community whose rights and way of life on the Commons have existed for over 600 years. Then she looks at the Durham Miners’ Gala and the needs of the former coalfields. Helen argues that in both cases, only government can take the national and international action they need. Secondly she looks at the stories of a mother and a priest. The importance of the welfare state in providing security and opportunities becomes clear. Helen confronts Blue Labour's criticism of women's independence and prays in aid the Archbishop of Canterbury on the need for a feminist analysis. She accuses Blue Labour of ‘drum and trumpet jingoism’.     

The Rise and Decline of Turnout in Congressional Elections: Electoral Institutions,Competition, and Strategic Mobilization

Considerable debate exists over the impact of electoral institutions on turnout in U.S. national elections. To address this debate, I exploit the rich variation in electoral rules present throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Using a newly constructed dataset of district‐level turnout results for the U.S. House from 1840 to 1940, I find that electoral institutions and political competition jointly provided incentives, and by the turn‐of‐the‐century disincentives, for political leaders to mobilize the electorate. The results demonstrate that changes in electoral institutions and varying levels of political competition help explain congressional turnout across districts and over time.