A critique of South Africa: The solution

South Africa: The Solution by Leon Louw and Frances Kendall Amagi Publications, Bisho (Ciskei), 1986. xvi plus 237 pages including maps, figures, diagrams, illustrations, notes, appendices and bibliography. R14,95 paperback.     

A critique of South Africa: The solution

South Africa: The Solution by LEON LOUVV and FRANCES KENDALL Amagi Publications, Bisho (Ciskei), 1986. xvi plus 237 pages including maps, figures, diagrams, illustrations, notes, appendices and bibliography. R14,95 paperback.     

Energising ties: The politics of oil

India's growing energy needs are a key driver of commercial and diplomatic initiatives with Africa. It is also an area in which competition is rife with China and the US, but also other global players. The article details developments and production in Africa's energy sector and suggests ways that India could improve its relationship with the continent in this regard.     

Employment strategies in the Third World: A critique

The recent critique and outright dismissal of the concept and practice of secularism has not been informed by sustained historical and sociological analysis of Indian society. Critics of secularism have taken their theoretical and Indological abstractions too seriously and have paid scant attention to the complex relationship between ideologies and changing social structures and institutions. Their one-dimensional focus on religion per se has obscured the structural similarities between communal violence and other types of sectarian and ethnic conflicts.

To accept the ideology of secularism is to accept the ideologies of progress and modernity as the new justification of domination, and the use of violence to achieve and sustain ideologies as the new opiates of the masses (Ashis Nandy, 1988:192).

The principle of secularism basically demands symmetric treatment of different religious communities in politics and in the affairs of the state. It is not obvious why such symmetric treatment must somehow involve “the use of violence to achieve and sustain ideologies as the new opiates of the masses”…. There are good reasons to resist the contrary enticements that have been so plentifully offered recently. The winter of our discontent might not be giving away, right now, to a glorious summer, but the abandonment of secularism would make things far more wintry than they currently are (Amartya Sen, 1996:37–43).     

The Military: A Threat to Democracy?

The military is by its very nature a potential threat to democracy, but in well-established democracies civilian supremacy has generally been maintained, though there are dangers of excessive military influence. S. E. Finer's seminal 1962 study of civil-military relations distinguished between the modes and effectiveness of civilian control in mature, developed and low or minimal political cultures. These categories are distinguished in particular by varying degrees of political legitimacy. Finer's conclusion about the prospects for political stability and democracy in most developing countries was pessimistic. But Finer's conclusions can now be challenged, primarily because the nature of civil-military relations has changed. In mature political cultures like the USA, the threat from the military-industrial complex has receded. Japan, Germany or France — key examples in Finer's second category — have now become mature political cultures; and Russia (newly in this category) is not, despite its many problems, threatened by direct military intervention. Many countries previously classified within low political culture have moved into the second category, and despite some notable exceptions the military have become more cautious about taking responsibility for government.     

Neoliberalism and Democracy in Latin America: A Mixed Record

This essay argues that neoliberalism has strengthened the sustainability of democracy in Latin America but limited its quality. Drastic market reform seems to have abetted the survival of competitive civilian rule through its external and internal repercussions. By opening up Latin American countries to the world economy, neoliberalism has exposed them to more of the international pressures for preserving democracy that intensified with the end of the Cold War. At the same time, the move to market economics has weakened leftist parties, trade unions, and other proponents of radical socioeconomic reform, reassuring elites and preventing them from undermining democracy. But tighter external economic constraints limit governments' latitude and thereby restrict the effective range of democratic choice; and the weakening of parties and interest associations has depressed political participation and eroded government accountability. The available evidence therefore suggests that neoliberalism has been a mixed blessing for Latin American democracies.     

亚洲式民主述评

多年来,国内外学者对亚洲式民主问题进行了探讨.归纳起来主要有三种观点.本文在介绍这三种观点的基础上对它们进行了比较分析.     

China and Korea: The godfather,part three

This article challenges the conventional wisdom that the People’s Republic of China, in dealing with the situation on the Korean peninsula, rules out North Korea’s imminent collapse and continues to stabilize the Kim Chong-il regime as a buffer against U.S. and South Korean advances. It suggests that Beijing has started to view short- or medium-term reunification on Seoul’s terms as a realist scenario and has been trying to influence the accompanying shift in the Northeast Asian power equation to its advantage. If this strategy succeeds, reunification would be brought about under Chinese auspices, with anti-Japanese or anti-American sentiments in both Koreas being purposely or automatically activated so as to promote a sense of national identity.     

实用主义与儒家思想的对话--评《死者的民主》

从表面上看,把实用主义和儒家思想并置,这不仅是一个时间上的错误,而且是一个空间上的错误.实用主义是一个极其现代的哲学思潮,它一般被公认为美国文化的基本价值体系,虽然现实中的美国社会与哲学意义上的实用主义并不能一一对应.而儒家思想几乎与中华文明一样古老,它虽然已不再享有往昔的荣光,却早已化为中华民族的喜怒哀乐.然而,思想史上的事件常常具有戏剧性,最古老的常常能与最现代的共鸣,东方的常常能与西方的沟通.实用主义与儒家思想的对话当属这样一种典型的文化史景观.     

印尼式民主政治的文化解读

印尼是否是真正的民主国家,至今仍众说纷纭。尤其是2009—2010年期间,正当苏西洛政府意欲大展第二任期宏图之际,国内发生的一系列重大政治事件及其进展引起舆论高度关注,各种不满声音纷纷指向苏西洛政府,认为事态处理方式非民主。笔者希望借助对爪哇文化的粗浅了解,对印尼政府对上述事件的处理方式进行解读,笔者以为印尼的民主政治深受爪哇传统价值观和思维方式影响。     

The Chinese peasantry and imperialism: A critique of Chalmers Johnson's peasant nationalism and communist power

Abstract

Chalmers Johnson's book Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power is important for several reasons. It is a complete reinterpretation of events of the Chinese revolution, presenting the revolution as merely another form of nationalist development of the modern nation-state. And it has had an enormous impact in the academic community. Most of the major works on this period of Chinese history are to some extent answers to Johnson. And its effect has extended beyond the field of Chinese studies. Almost all other studies of peasant mass movements and contemporary social change at least acknowledge Johnson's thesis and make some attempt to deal with it.     

亚洲式民主:功能及其限度

亚洲式民主是90年代以来引起广泛争议的重大国际学术问题.本文认为,亚洲式民主在东亚国家实现经济现代化的过程中发挥了双重功能,即既维持了政治稳定,又促进了经济发展.但另一方面,随着环境和条件的改变,亚洲式民主也日益暴露出局限性.文章最后指出,亚洲式民主可能是通向自由式民主的一种过渡形态.     

A Desultory Defense of Democracy: OAS Resolution 1080 and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

This article evaluates the effectiveness of OAS mechanisms for safeguarding democracy through multilateral diplomacy, what some scholars have dubbed the interamerican defense of democracy regime. Drawing on a range of international relations theories, this study derives competing hypotheses about member states' responses to democratic crises in the Americas. It then analyzes all instances in which a collective response—that is, an application of Resolution 1080 or the Inter-American Democratic Charter—was debated in the OAS between 1991 and 2002. Patterns of state behavior suggest that domestic politics, rather than the structural or systemic traits of the interamerican system, best explain foreign policy responses to crises of democracy in the region. The OAS record in confronting such crises is uneven.     

Making Referendums Safe for Democracy: A Call for More and Better Deliberation

In this essay I argue that when thinking about the design of referendums we should pay particular attention to the quality, substance, and inclusiveness of the debate and deliberation that precedes the vote. This is especially true for constitutional referendums that affect fundamental laws. I suggest that drawing out the procedure over time and including citizens’ mini‐publics might be helpful additions to our design tools box.     

从“自由民主”到“可控民主”:俄罗斯政治体制改革的经济学解析与启示

从"自由民主"到"可控民主"俄罗斯的民主政治改革引起了广泛关注.本文在梳理俄罗斯政治体制改革曲折历程的基础上,力图运用放宽了假定条件的"新比较经济学"分析框架,解读俄罗斯政治体制改革与经济绩效之间的因果关系.文章认为,关于俄罗斯实行"可控民主"制度原因的诸多分析中,历史传统回归论是正确的,所以"可控民主"在俄罗斯将具有持久的生命力.