Oakeshott's Claims of Politics

Michael Oakeshott is most commonly thought of as a political philosopher. Thinking of his work in these terms can distract attention from his main arguments in which he outlines his conception of civil association. Civil association is a much broader idea than Oakeshott's idea of politics. But in refocusing attention away from politics and towards civil association it is important that we do not forget Oakeshott's positive account of politics.
Politics, as Oakeshott understands it, is an activity which is indispensable to the practice of civil association. Politics considers civil rules, neither as authoritative conditions nor in the deliberative or injunctive idioms of adjudication or ruling, but in the persuasive idiom of their desirability. This paper explores the character of Oakeshott's conception of politics and the relation of this activity, both positive and negative, to the practice of civil association.     

Michael Oakeshott on Civility, Civil Society and Civil Association

Contemporary treatments of 'civil society' have struggled to formulate clear and explicit criteria for determining which associations ought to count as part of a truly 'civil' society and, conversely, which other kinds of groups a liberal democracy would best avoid. Michael Oakeshott's idealized distinction between 'civil' association and 'enterprise' association may prove extremely helpful in sharpening these contemporary discussions of civil society. Rather than a conservative value with exclusionary and anti-democratic overtones, as many have alleged, the virtue of civility entails immanent inclusivity, democratic equality and the active recognition of others. Understanding civility in this way argues for both its normative and conceptual value in distinguishing the good from the bad in associational life. On the other hand, the contemporary literature on civil society draws attention to ambiguities in Oakeshott's thought that make his understanding of the liberal state, for better or worse, an improbable means of encouraging a rebirth of associational life.     

Public Service Neutrality in Hong Kong: Problems and Prospects

Before 2002, Hong Kong's higher civil servants were required to play the dual role of quasi-ministers and civil servants. In such a context, can we make sense of the claim that Hong Kong's civil service has all along been politically neutral? What role has neutrality played in the governance of Hong Kong? Informed by Kernaghan's model of political neutrality and Oakeshott's idea of civil association, this article argues that the public service should not be regarded solely as an effective instrument of the government in power. In conclusion, this article proposes some institutional measures to strengthen the neutrality of the public service in Hong Kong and argues that properly understanding this will help prevent excessive or illegitimate partisan political power.     

Dignity,discrimination, and context: New directions in South African and Canadian human rights law

Conclusion The current approaches to equality law in South Africa and Canada place these jurisdictions at the forefront of serious and comprehensive judicial at tempts to give effect to substantive equality. These attempts to overcome formalism are processes, judicially acknowledged as such, and as yet far from complete. At the conceptual center of the development of substantive equality is the legal realization of human dignity: not an abstract, individualistic notion, but a concept about the relation between the individual and state, and individual and group, which is circumscribed by concern, respect and consideration. But substantive equality is not possible only through the case law. The current issues surrounding intersectional discrimination and the contextual appreciation of a claimant’s circumstances are urgent reminders that the methods and remedies afforded by the structure of litigation of equality rights claims simply cannot accommodate many instances which call for relief. The fact that these inadequacies of court enforced claims are beginning to be laid bare by some of the problems being faced by the Courts in equality claims is perhaps not a failing of equality law and the concept of dignity, but its strength. The methodology of human rights litigation in countries like Canada and South Africa supports a dialogue between court and legislature. As substantive equality develops in these jurisdictions, the limits of judicial development will be challenged. That is ultimately to be welcomed, if the legislatures are responsive to the definition of human dignity and substantive equality in development judicially, and respond with efforts to support and promote these developments.     

Revalorizing the Political: Towards a New Intellectual Agenda for African Civil Society Discourse

Who needs civil society? What is civil society useful for? While the foregoing and similar dilemmas dominated the early civil society literature on sub-Saharan Africa, this was soon followed by a steady shift to the analysis of non-governmental organizations. The shift foreshadowed the recent methodological approach to civil society research which emphasizes ‘measuring’ and ‘surveying’ civil society. In this essay, I contend that this approach, to the extent that it seems to totalize civil society as component voluntary associations that can be measured, deepens the crisis of understanding which it aspires to transcend. Yet, although I critique—and reject—this approach, I argue nonetheless that it ought to be seen as an opportunity to reinstate a more theoretically robust and politically driven imagination of civil society, one that problematizes, not just civil society organizations that are, ultimately, only an aspect of civil society, but the civil domain as a whole. While conceding that ‘measuring’ civil society has its own merits, I insist that it comes with a real danger of, first, reducing civil society to organizations, especially organizations that can be measured; and second, distracting students of African societies from the politicality that underpins much of the continent's socio-economic woes.     

Advocate or Reflection? Associations and Political Culture

This article questions one of the crucial issues of the current social capital debate: do voluntary associations necessarily contribute to the creation or maintenance of a civic culture? Based upon empirical and historical evidence this article demonstrates that associations' cultural spirit simply reflects and amplifies dominant cultural traits of a given time and a given society. Changes in public culture prompt changes in associative culture, and not vice versa. In other words, contemporary associations are more democratic and more civil because they exist within societies which are themselves more democratic and civil than societies of past times. Members in associations represent society's active parts; as activists they have a higher susceptibility to cultural trends and fashions. This susceptibility is the major reason for the modest but statistically significant relationship between membership in associations and a range of cultural attitudes. Zaller's concept of political persuasion is applied to explain the Zeitgeist dependence of voluntary associations.     

马克思“唯灵论”批判思想研究

在马克思的理论视野中，资产阶级在政治与经济领域所持有的观念形态继承了宗教（基督教）以抽象的精神观念能动地把握世界的方式，从而都具有了唯灵论特征。因而，马克思把对宗教唯灵论的批判看作是政治与经济领域批判的前提。在政治领域中，资产阶级思想家把私有财产制度抽象人格化，从简单的经济关系出发来论证自由和平等，从而使建立在这种抽象人格基础上的自由和平等等政治国家的政治理念日益抽象化，并支配着社会成员的头脑且企图实现所谓的普遍利益而具有唯灵论特征；在经济领域中，资本拜物教是商品拜物教、货币拜物教的最高峰，资本这一抽象的“死劳动”借助于雇佣劳动这一“活劳动”得以不断增殖从而具有了支配人的灵性。马克思对这三种唯灵论批判的意图在于提醒人们要搞清楚资本主义制度所包含的矛盾以及资本主义社会的现实形态和观念形态之间的差别，不被抽象观念所支配，从而唤醒工人阶级的彻底的革命意识。     

Concepts and conceptions of civil society

Abstract

This article takes issue with three rival approaches to conceptualizing the idea of civil society in the contemporary discussion, arguing that none of these succeeds as a general account of the concept. It argues instead that there is no general concept picked out by the expression ‘civil society’: uses of ‘civil society’ are theory-laden such that they can only be understood from within the theoretical, practical, and historical contexts in which they originated. This article concludes by arguing that the idea of civil society still retains critical value, provided that the theorist locates it in a particular context.     

Provoking a civil war

Nondemocratic governments under the rule of weak institutions use repression against the opposition to remain in power. Repression both muffles the opposition’s voice and strengthens the government’s supporters. Nevertheless, when repression becomes strong enough, it becomes intolerable to its victims who revolt and initiate a civil war. The government is aware of the mechanism and determines the level of repression accordingly. This paper studies the circumstances in which the ruler’s best alternative is to intensify repression to the point of provoking civil war. Although the model is abstract, its implications are discussed using the recent civil war in the Ivory Coast as a case study.     

Difference and the Concept of the Political in Contemporary Political Philosophy

A striking feature of contemporary political philosophy is the emergence of the nature of the political itself as a central theme of discussion. There are various reasons for this development, but all of them merely reinforce the problem posed in its most stark form by postmodern theory. This is the problem of determining what concept of the political, if any, can accommodate the extreme diversity that is the main feature of contemporary western life. That is the question with which the present paper is concerned.
The three currently influential concepts of the political are analysed, after which it is suggested that a fourth concept, which is a revised and reformulated version of the classical idea of civil association, provides the basis for a concept of the political best suited to modern conditions of increasing diversity.     

The Freedom of Desire: Hegel's Response to Rousseau on the Problem of Civil Society

The ever-growing body of literature on civil society can benefit from a return to the original theoretical articulation and defense of the concept in the work of G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically, this article suggests that Jean-Jacques Rousseau's influential critique of civil society remains unanswered and argues that Hegel responded with a sweeping and sympathetic institutional design that remains relevant today. Hegel agrees with Rousseau that commercial society aggravates the dissatisfaction of its members, and that educating individual desire through institutional design is necessary to solve this difficulty. However, modern states need not adopt Rousseau's extreme and impracticable solution. Hegel's concrete, market-based associations of civil society render desires satiable and elevate them to accord with the common good, while still maintaining the freedom and distinctness of a pluralistic modern society.     

The Environmental Record of the Soviet Union

ABSTRACT

This article rethinks John Holloway’s emancipatory theory by “opening” his key concept of “dignity.” It argues that, while Holloway’s use of this concept works well for emphasising the uniqueness of human beings’ ability to both resist and challenge capitalist social relations, due to its underlying Kantian heritage, it is both excessively restrictive and limits the extent to which he can unlock the full potential of his theory, particularly when considering the development of new ecological sensibilities. To this end, the article explores the possibility of supplanting the concept of dignity with that of “Self-realisation.” While not entirely unproblematic, this concept not only reinforces the uniqueness Holloway associates with human agency but also helps unravel a more substantive virtue-orientated approach consistent with his thought.     

铁路公安的性质及体制改革研究

警察的建制直接反映出一个国家的治国方略和社会调控方式。铁路公安机关的体制是计划经济时代的产物 ,现在不仅不适应市场经济的发展 ,同时它的体制设计、权力分配、管理模式等 ,也已不能顺应法治国家的要求。铁路公安机关作为依国家法律设置并依法行使行政权力和刑事司法权力的部门 ,从性质上不同于铁路运输企业这个授权性行政主体的职权性行政主体 ,是国家行政机关。所以 ,从体制上 ,不应将其置于企业的领导之下 ,使权力的运作受权利的驱使 ,也使权利的行使因为有了权力的介入而变成特权。鉴于此 ,铁路公安机关应尽早纳入国家公务员序列 ,以理顺国家权力的运行机制。     

Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy

Populism, understood as an appeal to 'the people' against both the established structure of power and the dominant ideas and values, should not be dismissed as a pathological form of politics of no interest to the political theorist, for its democratic pretensions raise important issues. Adapting Michael Oakeshott's distinction between 'the politics of faith' and 'the politics of scepticism', the paper offers an analysis of democracy in terms of two opposing faces, one 'pragmatic' and the other 'redemptive', and argues that it is the inescapable tension between them that makes populism a perennial possibility.     

公与私：中国行业协会的矛盾定位解析

改革开放以来，随着市场经济的发展，行业协会作为一种同类企业间的联合互益组织在社会经济生活中起着日益重要的作用。但由于行业协会本身所蕴含的的市场性以及我国对行业协会的特殊定位，其公益性与私益性的冲突已经成为制约我国行业协会发展的首要因素，因此唯有在认真探讨市场化的主流趋势与非营利化的新兴走向之间的异同，才能重新定义我国行业协会的发展路径，以期实现行业的善治。     

Business Routes of Influence in Brussels: Exploring the Choice of Direct Representation

This paper presents one of the first statistical analyses of the factors that determine the extent to which direct influence strategies are used by companies. New survey evidence and multivariate analysis is used to assess seven hypotheses to explain direct influence strategies. The factor of greatest significance is company size since direct influence is open only to large companies. But the extent to which direct influence is followed by large companies depends on their sector, its extent of organization, the sector's size and 'weight', and the form of the business association relevant to the sector. Direct influence is more likely where associations cover large corporate businesses (rather than owner-managers, professionals, federations or mixed associations), in sectors with a high degree of market concentration within large companies, and where their associations are relatively small. These findings are related to the logic of collective action suggesting that in sectors where there is the least chance to opt out of an association, there is a greater chance of a business also directly lobbying in order to assure itself that its interests are not being diluted and so that it can gain direct specific information or influence benefits.     

An ideology of rights: Support for civil liberties among political activists

This paper examines support for civil liberties among a large and diverse set of political activists during the Reagan era: financial donors to party and political action committees (PACs). While these activists are more tolerant than the mass public, support for civil liberties is not evenly distributed among them. Liberals and Democrats are far more tolerant than their conservative and Republican counterparts. Tolerance is related to support for substantive rights and rooted in cosmopolitan demography, and it is not linked to greater political or social participation. Thus, among political activists, tolerance is associated with broader political alignments and not elite statusper se.     

美国的公务员制度改革及其启示

“重塑人力资源管理”是美国联邦政府公务员制度自1883年建立以来持续时间最长的重大改革。这一持续8年的公务员制度改革,既是为了解决传统公务员制度的种种问题,也是为了实现制度变革与发展的愿景,即形成一种与现时代政府环境相适应的联邦政府人力资源管理理想制度。美国联邦政府的公务员制度改革,反映了当今时代公共部门人事管理的某些普遍要求,对于包括我国在内的其它国家的公务员制度改革与发展具有一些启示意义。