Marcuse’s Hegel: Hope and Despair in the Logic of Negation

Marcuse’s Reason and Revolution found a rich reception in the 1960’s field of Hegel/Marx commentary. This rereading challenges Marcuse’s reduction of Hegel’s dialectical logic to a logic of negation. It describes weaknesses in Marcuse’s Hegel paraphrases, and argues that Marcuse’s bold leap to a Revolutionary logic rejects Hegel’s method: turning instead to Kant’s transcendental logic, and leading his readers into an antinomy of hope and despair.     

论民生型政府的治理战略创新

关注民生、重视民生、保障民生、改善民生是人民政府的基本职责。我国的现实国情和世情表明,构建民生型政府应该成为我国21世纪行政管理体制改革的基本目标。为了科学阐述民生型政府的治理战略,我们必须准确界定民生型政府的内涵,以及民生型政府创新治理战略的基本内容。     

The end of a strategic opening? The BNP's window of opportunity in the 2000s and its closure in the 2010s

ABSTRACT

Notwithstanding the endemic failure of extreme-right parties in Britain, the British National Party (BNP) observed a period of electoral growth in the 2000s. After the election of several city councillors nationwide, the BNP experienced an electoral breakthrough in the national ballot of the 2009 European Parliament elections. Yet the BNP's electoral accomplishments dissipated in the early 2010s, fuelling predictions of the party's terminal decline. Within this context, Carvalho seeks to explain the fluctuations observed in the BNP's electoral base in the twentieth-first century by exploring the structure of political opportunities alongside the strategy of the BNP's leadership. Drawing on the convergence thesis and the decline of voting along class lines, he argues that the BNP benefitted from a favourable set of political opportunities in the 2000s, reflecting the decrease in political polarization among mainstream parties, the rise in levels of public distrust, and the intense politicization of the issue of immigration. Despite a general shift to cultural xenophobia, the BNP's leadership remained attached to the ideological traits of neo-fascist parties, including the search for a ‘palingenetic rebirth’ and a national corporatist economic programme. These ideological formulae had important implications for the scope of the BNP's electoral coalition, as Carvalho demonstrates in a review of the secondary literature on the roots of the BNP's electoral support. Consequently, the BNP's electoral growth in the 2000s was the outcome of an interplay between a favourable window of opportunity in British politics and the party's electoral appeal. Carvalho goes on to link the BNP's electoral collapse in the early 2010s with the closing of the aforementioned window after the onset of the financial crisis, a temporary lack of political interest in the issue of immigration, and the formation of the coalition government in 2010.     

The Naturalistic Side of Hegel’s Pragmatism

Abstract

This paper contrasts the Hegelianism of contemporary neo-pragmatism (Brandom) and the Hegelianism of classical pragmatism as it has been reassessed in contemporary Deweyan scholarship. Drawing on Dewey’s interpretation of Hegel, this paper argues that Hegel’s theory of the spirit is in many aspects more akin to Dewey’s pragmatism than Brandom’s. The first part compares Dewey’s pragmatism with Hegel’s conceptions of experience and the theory/practice relation. The second part compares Dewey’s naturalism with Hegel’s theory of the relation between nature and spirit.     

Canguilhem: life,health and death

This paper consists of comments and reflections on the legacy of Canguilhem's work, especially in Britain. After reviewing some aspects of the reception of Canguilhem's thought in Britain, the paper defends Canguilhem's vitalist philosophy, and concludes with hints as to the political uses of Canguilhem's thought in today's bio-political age.     

Iran's foreign-policy agenda

The surprise election of Mohammed Khatami as President of Iran on 23 May 1997 has prompted much speculation about a change in the country’s domestic agenda. Change in Iran’s foreign-policy agenda is likely to be determined by internal rivalries between moderates and radicals and by the reactions of Iran’s neighbours to the new President’s moves. Although Khatami’s freedom of manoeuvre is limited, modest improvements in relations with pro-Western Saudi Arabia and Egypt might eventually herald some movement in Iran’s relations with the US.     

政策分析的主要类型及其评述

通过梳理托马斯·戴逸、卡尔·帕顿、大卫·沙维奇、威廉·邓恩、斯图亚特·S.内格尔、叶海卡·德罗尔、戈登等代表人物的重要观点,可以认为政策分析理论从不同角度看存在政策分析与政策倡议、研究型分析与快速分析、前瞻性分析与回溯性分析、内容分析与过程分析、微观分析与宏观分析、政策的分析与为政策进行的分析等六大类型。通过类型研究,可以更多了解政策分析的范畴、多样性和目标差异等。     

改革开放以来中国共产党政治纪律建设历程与基本经验

政治纪律建设是新时代推进全面从严治党的关键举措,是提高党的执政能力、巩固党的执政地位的有力保证。改革开放以来党的政治纪律建设历程表明,加强政治纪律建设要始终坚持问题导向、维护党中央权威与集中统一领导、完善党内法规制度体系、坚持严格执纪。深刻总结改革开放以来党的政治纪律建设的基本经验,为推进新时代党的政治纪律建设、解决党内政治生活中存在的突出问题、坚持"两个维护"、巩固党的团结统一提供重要借鉴。     

Cheap talk,costly talk,crazy talk: patterns in North Korea’s English language propaganda*

This article examines the patterns in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (North Korea’s) use of hostile rhetoric in its internationally-directed messaging. The article first places North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric in the context of that country’s capacity to threaten the US and its Northeast Asian allies; indeed many analysts worry that Pyongyang’s rhetoric represents a conflict escalation risk or even a casus belli. Following this, the article discusses the common explanations – irrationality/incompetence, lack of audience costs, inter alia – for why the North Korean regime employs such hostile rhetoric, and finds these explanations wrong or misleading. The main analysis section describes the results of a study of 10 years of English-language propaganda published by the KCNA (North Korea’s state news agency). A multiple regression model is used to test the relationship between North Korea’s hostile rhetoric and a set of independent variables. The statistical tests indicate a mixed correlation of North Korean rhetoric to the independent variables. One major finding is that there is no correlation between hostile North Korean rhetoric and the country’s kinetic provocations. The conclusion discusses the role that North Korea’s rhetoric plays within the country’s larger adversarial relationship to the US, South Korea, and Japan.     

The Tradition Industry: Hofstadter and Santayana on Politics,Culture and Capitalism

Richard Hofstadter’s provocative interpretation of what he called The American Political Tradition has long interested students and scholars. Often read as a response to the crisis times of the depression 1930s and interventionist 1940s, the book’s origins are actually rooted in deeper cultural changes in the United States. This paper argues that George Santayana’s earlier essay, “The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy” (1911), anticipated several key aspects of Hofstadter’s argument and proved to more accurately foresee the ideological course of twentieth century American politics.     

关于“中国国家治理”研究的方法论

科学考察中国国家治理,必须首先要搞清楚三个相互联系的方法论问题:一是,中国国家治理是处于一定的世界历史时空坐标系上的国家治理,中国现阶段的社会主要矛盾及其在当代世界历史中所处的位置,构成了这一世界历史时空坐标系。脱离开这一世界历史时空坐标系,关于中国国家治理的研究就会走入歧途。二是,新时代的中国国家治理越来越具有双重特性,即:国家作为治理对象和国家作为治理主体。国家作为治理对象与国家作为治理主体的有机统一,彰显了"新时代"中国共产党的领导、依法治国与人民当家作主的有机统一。中国国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的标准就蕴含在其中。三是,中国国家治理与全球治理既有区别又有联系。全面、正确地认识和把握中国国家治理与全球治理间的关系,对于科学考察中国国家治理至关重要。     

Foucault Contra Honneth: Resistance or Recognition?

This article deals with the relationship between the thought of Michel Foucault and that of Axel Honneth, arguing in favour of the former against the latter. I begin by considering Honneth’s early engagement in The Critique of Power with Foucault’s thought. I rebut Honneth’s criticisms of Foucault here as a misreading, one which prevents Honneth from coming to grips with Foucault’s position and hence the challenge that it poses to Honneth’s project. I then move on to offer a Foucauldian critique of Honneth’s own position, arguing for a Foucauldian alternative to Critical Theory.     

Teaching Obama: history,critical race theory and social work education

ABSTRACT

Barack Obama's first autobiography, Dreams from My Father (1995), explores themes of race and identity up to the late 1980s in the life of the first African American president. The book emphasizes Obama's personal struggle as the son of an interracial couple, and the social and environmental context that shaped his growth and transformation. Using the tools of critical race theory, Freeman illustrates how Obama's autobiography can be used in the classroom to explore an individual's developing racial consciousness in the 1970s and 1980s, and as a prism through which students can understand what it means to live in the post-civil-rights-movement era. Obama's life history illuminates how the ideas and meanings of racial progress in the United States are contested and struggled over on a daily basis at both the micro and macro level.     

Hegemonic Discourses and Their Critics in China’s Authoritarian Deliberation: A Study of Price Public Hearing Meetings

I study the content and dynamics of Price Public Hearing Meeting (PPHM) in China by analyzing 711 talking points delivered by 140 participants in six deliberative meetings on price adjustments. By examining the “modes of action” and the content of these speeches, this study demonstrates that the participants at these six PPHM’s collectively employed a set of discursive strategies to show deference to the state’s authority and, simultaneously, to expand the discursive space at the PPHM’s beyond the parameters set by the state’s hegemonic discourses. Discussion of government responsibilities and criticism of the state-sanctioned price hikes took place in this new space. The Confucian political value of “people’s livelihood” (minsheng) was widely drawn upon by grassroots representatives to stress the government’s role as the guardian of people’s welfare.     

我国资产定价权缺失与期货市场价格发现功能的联系分析

国内市场自身对资产"定价权"和"话语权"的缺失是制约国内资本市场发展的黑洞之一。随着中国资本市场在经济体系中的地位日益重要,这种被垄断的资本定价权和话语权的状况势必成为中国金融安全的极大隐患。为了加强我国的资产定价权,期货市场发挥着重要作用,谁影响了期货市场价格,谁就掌握了资产定价的主动权。分析我国期货市场价格发现功能不完善从而导致国际定价权缺失的原因,并相应提出了相关对策。     

Transformations in Discourse,Figure

This review essay critically maps the Anglophone reception of Lyotard's Discourse, Figure onto the text's own two-part organization. Earlier deconstructive readings tended to focus on the critique of structuralism presented in Discourse, Figure’s first half, under-emphasizing (and even criticizing) the post-Freudian philosophy of desire developed by Lyotard in the text's latter stages. This essay instead presents Lyotard's first major work not as two separable or opposed parts, but as a coherent trajectory responding to a specific philosophical problem, namely, the Hegelian account of sense-perception and signification as outlined in Hyppolite's Logic and Existence. In so doing, this review essay seeks to isolate key references and clarify the stakes for future readings of Lyotard's text.     

论“和”

":和"是中华文明的根,是延续中华文明的一根线,它内在的强大生命力使它在新时代又重焕发光彩。2006年中共中央提出构建和谐社会,由此带来了"和"文化研究的高潮。那么,"和"的起源是什么?什么是"和"?"和"在中华传统文化中居于什么位置?如何评价"和"?"和"有什么用?诸如"和谐"之类与"和"有关的词还有哪些?对以上问题进行了深入挖掘和思考。     

Learning and Change in 20th-Century British Economic Policy

Despite considerable interest in the means by which policy learning occurs, and in how it is that the framework of policy may be subject to radical change, the "black box" of economic policy making remains surprisingly murky. This article utilizes Peter Hall's concept of "social learning" to develop a more sophisticated model of policy learning; one in which paradigm failure does not necessarily lead to wholesale paradigm replacement, and in which an administrative battle of ideas may be just as important a determinant of paradigm change as a political struggle. It then applies this model in a survey of U.K. economic policy making since the 1930s: examining the shift to "Keynesianism" during the 1930s and 1940s; the substantial revision of this framework in the 1960s; the collapse of the "Keynesian-plus" framework in the 1970s; and the major revisions to the new "neoliberal" policy framework in the 1980s and 1990s.     

Malaysia 13th General Election: A short note on Malaysia's continuing battle with ethnic politics

Malaysia's Barisan Nasional (a coalition of mainly ethnic-based parties) secured a narrow win in the country's recent election. Reacting to the dismal result, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak blamed his party's losses on the “Chinese Tsunami”, which he described as the overwhelming support of Chinese voters for the opposition party – the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). This note believes that the debates on “Chinese Tsunami” highlight a larger imperative; Malaysians' constant struggle with race relations and what constitutes the character of Malaysia's political economy. Improving Malaysia's ethnic relations in the next five years remains daunting. The BN's weaker mandate and the PR's eagerness to assume leadership threatens to recycle more populist policies that can do more damage to Malaysia's ethnic relations.     

中国边疆民族政策的实证调查

边疆多民族地区的经济建设和社会发展,是政府主导型的一个社会进程,中国政府在这个过程中承担着重大的政治责任和社会责任。本文通过对中国政府在边疆多民族地区经济、社会领域若干政策的回顾,以及对边疆多民族地区社会现状的调查,指出长期以来“效率优先”的改革思想,地方政府“效率单边独追”的畸形发展方式与中央政府“民族主义”的政策导向,是造成边疆地区对中央政府政策认同度低的重要原因。