Hope and reality in Vietnam and Myanmar

When IIPS Senior Research Fellow Hisahiro Kanayama embarked on this project, he found that information on Vietnam and Myanmar was often biased or insufficient. This article is based on a month‐long factfinding trip to Southeast Asia, where he interviewed analysts in government, international organizations, research institutes, and diplomatic circles. Kanayama notes that Vietnam and Myanmar may become—as part of an enlarged ASEAN—a force ranking fourth in regional political clout after the US, Japan and China. Neither excessive expectations nor indifference to neighbors is an appropriate response from Japan, he states. His research was conducted prior to Myanmar's release of Aung San Suu Kyi. The article has since been updated.     

泰国马来西亚的政府金融干预

泰国和马来西亚政府金融干预在保护本国金融部门发展、推动社会均衡发展方面成效显著,但在支持本国支柱产业的建设、促进工业化进程方面效果欠佳.这主要与两国金融体制的局限性和政府的社会发展政策有关.金融危机后推行的改革措施,正推动两国政府金融干预机制向更科学、更合理的方向发展.     

Prorogation and partisanship in Tasmania and South Australia

SUMMARY

The historical evolution of the Westminster Parliament left the constitutional power over the summoning, dismissal, and temporary suspension of that body in the hands of the sovereign. As ‘Westminster-style’ parliaments developed in Britain's colonies, this aspect of the prerogative came to be exercised by colonial governors. As ‘responsible government’ evolved in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, both at Westminster and in its progeny, conventions developed whereby the ministerial executive advised the Crown on the exercise of this aspect of the prerogative power. Thus, while prorogation is a perfectly legitimate, routinely used device in Westminster-style parliamentary systems, ministries sometimes use it as a partisan tool, as it provides the opportunity for the executive to manipulate the parliamentary calendar for political advantage. This study examines cases of just such ‘partisan political use’ of prorogation in the Australian states of Tasmania and South Australia. Conditions commonly associated with this type of use of prorogation in these two states are identified as: the existence of a proximate issue of a highly controversial or partisan nature; minority or near-minority status in the lower chamber; and a novel context leading to general uncertainty and higher than usual partisanship. In addition, a question is raised regarding whether the institution of a fixed-term parliament regime may increase the likelihood of a particular variety of partisan use of prorogation. The findings are situated in a comparative context.     

Labor and democratization in South Korea and Taiwan

The article examines the recent work by Rueschemeyer et. al. (1992) and revisits the classic issue of the social basis of democracy. It argues that Rueschemeyer et al. are biased in their definition of democracy, have focused too narrowly on the postures of individuals classes, and have produced a one-sided picture of the role of the workers in democratization. Using the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, the article argues that the extent of workers's involvement in the democratic struggle depends on their experiences of state domination. The latter, in turn, is influenced by the workers' market positions and the nature of the labor regime in question. The article also argues that workers affect democratization in a macro-structural sense, both by influencing the agenda of the oppositional movement and by shaping the contour of socio-political conflict of society.     

Media and Punitive Populism in Argentina and Chile

Punitive populism is common throughout Latin America. It involves political and public opinion support for more police officers, greater police autonomy, and tougher laws to punish crime—options that often perpetuate old police practices and resist police reform efforts. This article critically examines the role of the media in fostering punitive populism by examining the sources used by journalists. Comparing the ‘most different’ cases of Argentina and Chile and drawing on interviews conducted from 2009 to 2015, I argue that the choices made by journalists regarding their sources are affected by neoliberal media policies in a particular way that favours tough‐on‐crime discourses.     

Overcoming Phobias and Asymmetries in Israel and Palestine

This article argues that in order to reach future breakthroughs, vis-à-vis the Israeli political and discursive limitations, two main principles would need to be approached. Firstly, any future formula will need to correspond with the changing reality (the physical impossibility of the old-fashioned two-state solution) by pushing forward a political solution that highlights a safe Jewish existence in the region of Israel/ Palestine, irrespective of whether this safety will be highlighted in relation to a one-state, confederative or a parallel two-state solution. Secondly, it will need to acknowledge the attachment – be it historical, religious or legal – of Jewish-Israelis to the land. These principles are related to the Israeli phobias mentioned and analyzed in the article, and are crucial for any future solution that will see Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians living either side by side or on the same side, but with equal citizenship, a paradigm that can happen in two parallel states, in a state of all of its citizens, or in two states with open borders and joint institutions.     

Labor Unrest and Movements in 1989 and 1990

An American political scientist analyzes the Soviet miners' strikes of 1989 and their consequences during 1990. Focusing on the three coal-mining regions of the Kuzbas, Donbas, and Vorkuta, the paper is based on rare access to official and unofficial local newspapers and interviews. Included are analytical accounts of similarities and differences in the strikers' demands and strategies, as well as of efforts to form and sustain new local, regional, and national labor unions. The conceivable outcome of the unrest and organizations emerging in 1989 is discussed in light of developments through the end of 1990. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 830.     

Democracy and Social Welfare in Uruguay and Paraguay

This article aims to assess how democracy affects social welfare by analyzing Uruguay and Paraguay, one country with a vibrant democratic history and a progressive political landscape, the other with a generally authoritarian past and a conservative dominant party. The article maintains that welfare systems in these countries have been critically shaped by the impact of democracy, or by its absence, and by the strategies adopted by major social and political actors, especially parties; these strategies have been determined, in turn, by parties' ideologies and by the workings of electoral competition. The article also emphasizes that the impact of democracy on social welfare is critically mediated by the role of previous welfare legacies, the presence of welfare constituencies defending acquired rights and privileges, and social and economic variables, such as overall wealth levels, the formal or informal nature of labor markets, and the political organization of domestic economies.     

African women and the wars of resistance and dispossession in the Cape Colony and Xhosaland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

ABSTRACT

The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century colonial wars in the Cape Colony and trans-Keian territories in South Africa are usually represented as conflicts primarily involving male antagonists. The roles and experiences of indigenous women are usually overlooked or, at best, mentioned in passing. Closer examination of the wars that took place in what is now the Eastern Cape province of South Africa suggests that women were deeply affected by the various wars in a multitude of ways. They experienced first-hand death, disruption of their families and society, destruction of their homesteads and crops, and the looting of their livestock and other resources and were seized for forced labor. In the midst of the conflict, they developed different strategies to mitigate the effects of the wars and to survive, playing an active role in the wars as leaders, emissaries, and war doctors and in providing intelligence and commissariat support.     

"太平洋主义"与21世纪亚太地区体系和秩序

随着中印俄等新兴经济体的兴起,亚太地区在世界格局中的地位不断上升,世界地缘中心正在由大西洋向太平洋转移.同时,太平洋两岸的美中日印俄澳等主要力量越来越关注地区秩序、体系等问题,并试图确立本国在上升的亚太地区及将形成的地区体系中的地位,建立有利于本国的地区体系框架,融合、制约和平衡其他地区力量.因此,亚太地区正在酝酿、出现和形成某种以地区主要力量为若干中心和框架的地区体系和秩序.在此情况下,本文倡导容纳亚太地区主要力量的"太平洋主义"结构、体系和秩序,以全面反映21世纪亚太力量格局的发展变化,融合亚太地区大国问的共同利益和共识,确定地区经济政治的制度安排,确保亚太地区长期和平与发展.