Neither Hayek nor Habermas

The rise of the blogosphere raises important questions about the elicitation and aggregation of information, and about democracy itself. Do blogs allow people to check information and correct errors? Can we understand the blogosphere as operating as a kind of marketplace for information along Hayekian terms? Or is it a vast public meeting of the kind that Jurgen Habermas describes? In this article, I argue that the blogosphere cannot be understood as a Hayekian means for gathering dispersed knowledge because it lacks any equivalent of the price system. I also argue that forces of polarization characterize the blogosphere as they do other social interactions, making it an unlikely venue for Habermasian deliberation, and perhaps leading to the creation of information cocoons. I conclude by briefly canvassing partial responses to the problem of polarization.     

Parliament and Political Disengagement: Neither Waving nor Drowning

Concern about political disengagement is prevalent in British politics, and this article seeks to examine what the Westminster Parliament has been doing to address it. Recent reforms and recommendations from various parliamentary committees are examined, including increased use of the Internet to disseminate information about Parliament, the use of online consultation mechanisms, and the tentative extension of parliament's petitioning processes. The discussion is couched in the representative origins of Parliament, its adaptation to democratic politics and the extent to which its response to political disengagement is contextualised by its representational, rather than its democratic, role. The article addresses whether Parliament can approach these issues in a 'holistic' fashion, and as a 'unified' institution within the political system.     

Neither decline nor sclerosis: The organisational structure of the German environmental movement

The conventional view of the life‐course of social movements is that they institutionalise, develop hierarchical structures and, as a consequence, de‐radicalise. This article assesses this image by examining the recent history of the German environmental movement, using two surveys of national and Berlin‐based environmental groups. The analysis suggests that there are no indications of a decline or sclerosis in the movement. Contrary to what some observers have claimed, we find at least a stable number of groups, an increase in the size of their membership and other resources, as well as the maintenance of a decentralised movement structure. Moreover, empirical evidence does not lend support to the idea that the movement, at the aggregate level, has been pacified in terms of its protest.     

Neither treason nor conspiracy: Reflections on media coverage of the Gulf war 1990–1991

Conflicts such as the Gulf war of 1990–1991 raise a range of issues pertaining to the role of force in the foreign policies of democratic states, and to the role of the media during such conflicts. The controversies that raged over the Gulf war tended to fuse these questions: those opposed to the War saw the media as collusive with illegitimate western policies, whilst those backing war tended to regard the media as either supportive, or not supportive enough, of the western campaign. This article focuses upon three aspects of this media coverage: first, the character of that coverage itself; second, the issues upon which, with hindsight, distortion can be said to have occurred; and third, the political and ethical issues raised in discussion of the media coverage. This analysis, of the functioning of the media during war, serves both to probe underlying assumptions about the functions of the media in democratic society and to re‐examine debate on one of the most controversial international events of recent times.     

Neither skepticism nor romanticism: the ASEAN Regional Forum as a solution for the Asia-Pacific Assurance Game

Abstract

This article fills the void left by the existing literature that has failed to capture the utilities of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) to the member states. From a rational institutionalist perspective, this article argues that the ARF is an institutional solution for a particular type of collective-action problem – the Assurance Game – that emerged in the post-Cold War Asia-Pacific region. In the Assurance Game, a weak and loose institution is sufficient because cooperation only requires efficient information transmission among players. This conception of the ARF finds empirical support in various features as well as the birth process of the multilateral institution. Thus, neither structural realists' skepticism nor constructivists' romanticism toward the ARF is warranted.     

The New Right and family politics

Political concern for the family has historically been intermittent; the present context is that there are considerable consequences for individuals, families, and personal life. Socioeconomic and cultural changes brought the rise of the New Right; The Thatcher (UK) and Reagan (US) administrations were committed to strengthening the traditional family. The emergence of the family as a social problem and the political agenda are discussed. The costs of liberalism were felt in a recessionary economy. The US political agenda of Carter to hold a White House Conference on the American Family never materialized. Reagan used the restoration of the traditional American family as a way to get the economy back on its feet. Moral crusaders and the new evangelical Christian movement merged with the political right; the "Gang of Four" (Republican Party right) politicians involved morally conservative communities normally outside the political area into the New Right. Grass roots organizations were mobilized on the Right. The British situation is explained; differences existed in that there were no antiabortion and moral lobby groups tied to the Right although their influence was felt. Pressure group politics is relatively novel to Britain. The Moral Majority in the US and right wing pressure groups on the Tory government are but 1 part of the New Right; it is characterized as populist, proclaiming the Radical Conservatism of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. The approach in this article is to show the complex interactions of theory, biography, and public opinion in the practical politics of the New Right. Policy outcomes are not predictable because of ideological differences in New Right attitudes toward the family. The attitudes of the moral order and the family is exemplified in the work of Roger Scruton's neoconservative stand on social order, Robert Nozick's Kantian proposition that human beings are ends with natural inviolable rights of individual freedom, Hayak and Friedman's efficacy of the market in guarantees of freedom, and Ferdinand Mount's concern for family based in humanist, secular, and anticollectivist thought. Thatcher and Reagan both incorporated the ideological contradictions of the aforementioned positions. The failure of the New Right in implementing policy is explained. The greatest obstacle was the major demographic, economic, social, and cultural shifts which impacted on the role of women. The camp was divided. Economic policies did not strengthen the traditional family. It is likely that the family will remain as a political pressure point.     

The New Right and family politics

In all the main industrial countries of the West since the 1970, the family has become in issue which excites media attention and public debate and which has become a prominent item on the agenda of the major political parties. The family has become politicized.

This has been particularly the case in America and Britan where it has been associated to different degress with the electoral successes of a revived conservatism under Thatcher and Reagan which committed itself to policies to strengthen the ‘traditional’ family. This article argues, contray to number of left and politics. A number of reasons are offered for this. It is argued that the sheer weight and momentum of the major demographic economic, social and cultural shifts in the

sub-stratum of the advanced industrialized societies, particularly since the Second World war, have had such enormous impact on women and consequently on the family that they are unlikely to be reversed. it is also suggested that counter campaigns and the role of professional groups in the formulation, implementation and evaluationof public

policy have inhibited attempts to return to ‘Victorian values’, Yet another reason advanced is the difficulty that recent conservative governments have experienced in aligning their economic objecrtives with politicies to strengthen the traditional family.

However, the article argues that an important factor in any explanation of this lack of success lies in the nature of te New Right itself. The revived conservative parties of the 1970s were in fact an amalgam of number of different ideological stands on the right of the political spectrum, for which the family became an important unifying sumbol in its capacity to align radical liberal economic policies with traditionalist conservative concerns, and its rhetorical value in translating these into a popular political discourse. While this enabled them to attract a number of different constituneices and widen thie electoral base, particularly with new voters, this eneasy coaliation was itself a major obstacle to te realization of any consistent and coherent family policy.     

The New Right in Central Europe I: Czechoslovakia

'The New Right', as it has come to be known, derives from at least two major intellectual sources, free market theory and social conservatism. The question how far these are compatible is frequently raised. The aim of this two-part article is to explore the impact of 'New Right' thinking in East Central Europe (specifically in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary) in order to show that, in the conditions of 'real socialism', free market and social conservative ideas seem to arise naturally from the same root conceptions. The first part deals with Czechoslovakia—specifically with the thought of Patocka, Havel and Bratinka, and with the conservative wing of the Charter movement. It argues that, while many writers would specifically reject labels like 'conservative' or 'right-wing', the actual content of their thought is very close to that of the New Right in the western hemisphere. In particular, the call for a 'de-politiciza-tion' of society, for responsible accounting, and for a lived historical identity which will be both national and European, are indistinguishable from long-standing themes of social conservatism.     

国有产权代表制度新探

现代企业制度是建立在出资者所有权与法人财产权相分离的产权关系基础上的 ,由此形成了企业出资者与经营者之间的委托 -代理关系。降低委托代理成本 ,确保其效率最大化 ,是现代企业制度研究中的重要课题。近年来 ,我国在以建立现代企业制度为目标的国有企业制度创新过程中 ,也遇到了上述问题。2 0世纪 90年代以来 ,作为改革试验场的深圳市在这方面进行了积极的探索 ,逐步形成了规范国有出资人与企业经营者之间委托 -代理关系的国有产权代表制度。这种探索 ,具有非常重要的理论价值和实践意义。其实施时间虽然不长 ,但它代表了国有企业深化产…     

The New Right in Central Europe II: Poland and Hungary

'The New Right' as it has come to be known, derives from at least two major intellectual sources, free market theory and social conservatism. The question how far these are compatible is frequently raised. The aim of this two-part article is to explore the impact of 'New Right' thinking in East Central Europe (specifically in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary) in order to show that in the conditions of 'real Socialism', free market and social conservative ideas seem to arise naturally from the same root conceptions.
This second section deals with Poland, and examines the new 'market sociology' propagated within universities, together with the metaphysical and political ideas surrounding the Polish Nationalist movement.     

新世纪的西欧右翼政党

新世纪以来,为研究“共产党的执政规律”,有关政党问题的论著相继问世,其中不少论著涉及西欧政党问题。但能够既系统又简要且具学术性地反映出政党发源地——西欧国家冷战后政党基本状况的论著并不多见。本组笔谈力图达到这个目的。     

关于新型农村合作医疗基金所有权——在福利多元主义的视角下

通过对农村合作医疗基金所有权的历史考察,可以正本溯源,明晰我国农村合作医疗制度发展演进的历史。在目前实践中,"国家所有、政府办理"的农村合作医疗基金所有权管理模式虽有其合理性,但是存在产权归属模糊、产权管理不科学等弊端,容易导致财政补助资金不能及时到位和挪用、虚报冒领等问题。在福利多元主义的视角下,新型农村合作医疗基金应当采用"法人所有、法人管理"的模式,并应在此基础上完善基金管理与监督制度,以保证基金安全。