Social capital and democracy in Russia

The two basic objectives of this study are to determine whether or not Russia has stocks of social capital upon which to draw as it seeks to democratize, and to examine the nature of the relationship between social capital and democracy in Russia. I present both qualitative and quantitative evidence that social capital exists in many parts of Russia. After a quantitative analysis of social capital and democratization, which identifies a strong positive relationship, I suggest that if the center is able to sustain democracy, Russia should be able to consolidate democratic rule.     

Discursive democracy and the challenge of state building in divided societies: reckoning with symbolic capital in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Current approaches to democratic state building place serious conceptual limits on policy options. A democratic future for Bosnia's people will require far more searching engagement with identity formation and its politicization than reform efforts have so far contemplated. Theories of discursive democracy illuminate how this might be possible. We deploy the discursive idea of symbolic capital to show how one might identify the lines along which people in Bosnia could constitute meaningful, internally legitimated political communities – or that would indicate the experiment was not worth attempting. Unless advocates of democratic state building can articulate, rather than assume, a sufficiency of common ground among the populations' multiple, overlapping and conflicting identities, they may have to revert to the default of separate political communities.     

Corruption and identity politics in divided societies

Corruption is a major problem for populations in various parts of the world. This article argues that to understand the problems and dynamics of corruption, we need to understand how discourses and practices of corruption (and anti-corruption efforts) are intertwined with the construction and contestations of identity. Identity politics is a salient feature in peaceful political struggles, as well as in contemporary armed conflicts, which are often characterised by the politicisation of collective identity (ethnic, national, religious) for the violent pursuit of power. The article outlines and discusses four ways in which identity politics and corruption intersect. First, it points to the often blurred lines between private and collective benefit from corruption, revealing the implications of group identity for how corruption is conceptualised. Second, it shows how corruption may exacerbate grievances along identity lines. Third, it highlights how corruption can be used strategically in identity-based conflicts. Finally, it explores how corruption may encourage cross-ethnic solidarity and mobilisation that defy conflict divides.     

Organizational commitment in public servants through civic engagement

The public service motivation (PSM) theory has emphasized the distinctive motivational character of public employees in serving public institutions. However, scarce research has explored whether public service motivation extrapolates to civic engagement as another way to participate in public affairs. We contend that public employees' stronger sense of public interest expands toward higher engagement levels in social, economic, political, and civic organizations. Using data from the most recent wave of the World Values Survey from 2017 to 2020 in 77 countries—this study compares the degree of civic engagement of public servants with general citizens' level of engagement. Results across all world regions, except Africa, support the hypotheses that public servants are more willing to participate in civic organizations. However, public employees' civic engagement is contingent on organizational type (modern vs. traditional) and bureaucratic rank (top- vs. street-level), for street-level bureaucrats participate more in traditional but not modern organizations.     

Trust,confidence and social environment in post-communist societies

This paper looks at trust and confidence in people and institutions in eight of the countries that have undergone transformation since the breakup of the Soviet Union. While the questions are not identical to those asked in previous research in post-Soviet societies, our findings are comparable—greatest trust in relatives and friends, less in people in general and least in politicians and institutions of social control. Levels of trust are not high, and there are interesting differences between the countries, giving support to the view that trust and confidence are eroded by sudden and dramatic negatively perceived change.     

巴西利亚--超凡脱俗的国都

凡去过巴西首都巴西利亚的人,无不被它那新颖的市政布局、超前的建筑风格、优美的生态环境所倾倒.因而这座城市不仅总是游人如织,也是各国城市管理者观摩学习的对象.     

Globalization and private capital movements

This paper examines the power topography of international private capital movements with specific reference to FDI and portfolio equity flows. A number of important development conclusions emerge from the paper. There exists little relationship between incomes and levels of FDI participation, although developed and resource-endowed economies have received greater inflows. While greater liberalization from the mid-1980s has stimulated the explosive growth of portfolio equity capital flows, it has also exposed developing economies to serious systemic risks. Contrary to neoliberal arguments, developing economies that have managed to utilize FDI effectively and to prevent systemic volatility generated from portfolio capital movements from seriously destabilizing them, have generally relied on effective governments. Inter-country economic development has become increasingly unequal in the period 1980-97. While the material conditions of the majority of developing economies have improved, those located in Africa and South Asia in particular have remained seriously disadvantaged.     

Increasing income inequality and wealth concentration in the prosperous societies of the west

Since about 1980, personal income and wealth inequality in many western societies has increased. This is a reversal of the trend of diminishing socioeconomic inequality during the larger part of the twentieth century. Both trends are explained by relating them to the long-term growth of networks of interdependence. When and insofar as the development predominantly took place within national states, it led to the diminution of power differences between socioeconomic classes. In recent years, however, transnational relations of interdependence have intensified to such a degree that they bring about a weakening of interdependence within national states and increase inequality. Nico Wilterdink teaches sociology at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He also occupies the Norbert Elias chair in social sciences at Utrecht University.     

Overcoming the past: De-communization and reconstruction of post-communist societies

In several of the central and eastern European nations, the fall of Communism has initiated a new round of political intolerance that threatens to destroy the foundations of their fragile democratic regimes. Campaigns of lustration (political “cleansing”) have imposed ideological tests for employment and political participation in the Balkan countries and in parts of the former Soviet Union. The small, poor nation of Albania has been especially seriously impacted by this atmosphere of vengeacean against ex-Communists and their families. Justified by the principles of destructive entitlement—reminiscent of ancient cultural rituals of blood retribution—journalists have been arrested, members of the opposition have been imprisoned, and University programs have been suspended. In response to Albania’s plight, and to a similar pattern of civil rights abuses in neighboring countries, social scientists have begun to analyze the powerful role played by the “past-in-the-present” in current reconstruction efforts. As Jurgen Habermas, Adam Michnik, Seymour Martins Lipset, and others have noted, a new “culture of forgiveness” may well be a necessary condition for the development of stable and authentic democratic societies in the region. Fatos Tarifa is currently at the Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Tirana in 1985. He is director of the New Sociological Research Center (NSRC) in Tirana, Albania, and is the author of several books and journal articles, including a 1991 bookIn Search of the Sociological Fact (published in Albanian). Jay Weinstein is a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University. He has travelled widely in the Third World and in Central and Eastern Europe. Author of numerous books, journal articles, and chapters, he is currently working on a volume entitledSocial and Cultural Change: Social Science for a Dynamic World (forthcoming in 1997 by Allyn & Bacon Publishers).