印度地方政党及其政治影响

印度的地方政党总体上有种族民族主义政党、教派主义政党和种姓政党三大类型。它们的产生与独立以来社会阶级结构和种姓结构的变化有关,是国大党高度集权体制催生的地方主义兴起的产物。它打破了传统的权力平衡,改变了人民院的权力结构,也使得印度的政党政治走向地方化,改变未来联邦—邦的关系模式。     

India and Pakistan: Interpreting the Divergence of Two Political Trajectories

While suggestions were made in the 1990s that Pakistani and Indian political trajectories were converging as Pakistan took steps towards democratisation and India showed increasing signs of authoritarian centralisation, the following analysis offers a more historically sensitive view that suggests the opposite is true. In over fifty years of independence, institutional and societal structures have worked to create the political systems that we see on the Indian subcontinent today, and have helped define the potentially explosive Indo-Pakistan relationship so threatening in today's world. By analysing the ways in which different historical legacies act upon the current political cultures in both India and Pakistan, we engage in a fuller understanding of the contributing factors to the status quo in each. Further, historical analysis may shed some light on the expected trajectories of these two countries as they attempt to reinvent themselves at the beginning of the twenty-first century.     

Political Economy of Government Finance in India

This article analyzes important developments in Indian public finance from developmental, redistributive, and political economy perspectives. The detailed analysis of policies relating to tax, expenditure, deficits, and debt brings out the failure of these policies in achieving their objectives, which to a considerable extent is attributable to the constraints posed by political economy developments and particularly, the influence of special interest groups. The analysis of tax policy brings out the low revenue productivity on the one hand and severe distortions caused by it. The analysis of expenditure policy shows the proliferation of subsidies and transfers crowding out productive expenditures on social and physical infrastructure. The analysis of deficits and debt shows the inability of the central government in calibrating sustainable fiscal policies and underlines the need for an independent fiscal institution to monitor the budgetary process and report to the Parliament.     

Political leadership at state level in India: Continuity and change

ABSTRACT

Possible explanations are discussed in this article for the paucity of studies regarding political leadership, especially at the state level, in a well-functioning electoral democracy such as India with many parties and leaders. The article argues that such studies can be useful in making sense of the political and economic changes/shifts and developments of a particular state over a period that may have national impact. The article further argues that there has been a perceptible shift not only in terms of social composition but also in the “language” of politics used by the emergent generation of political leaders cutting across the party lines. The change has coincided with the rise of state-level parties and leaders in the post-Congress era followed by the ascendance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).     

Democratic institutions,political representation and women's empowerment: The quota debate in India

This article reflects upon the debate on quotas for women in representative institutions of government. It poses the question whether current debates about quotas for women are relevant to debates on women's empowerment. In doing so, it points to the bases upon which the arguments for and against quotas have been presented within the Indian political system, taking into account the historical debates on caste, the emergence of coalition politics, the strength of the women's movement, and the engagement of women's groups with the politics of difference. The central argument of the article is that unless the issues of class‐based and caste‐based differences are taken seriously by women's groups in India, the wider question of empowerment cannot be satisfactorily answered. The conclusion assesses whether the Indian example is of relevance to wider debates on quotas as strategies of empowerment.     

Recent Political Developments in India and Their Effects

In March 2017,Narendra Modi led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to victory in state elections,among which he gained parliamentary election of Uttar Pradesh (state in northern India),known as the weather vane of Indian elections.Back in 2014,the BJP had already won a simple majority in Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament),bringing an end to more than 30 years of coalition government.Now,the BJP is exhibiting stronger presence as a one-party-rule at both federal and local levels,with no counter-balance from the Indian National Congress,local parties,or left wing parties now or in the foreseeable future.This increases the likelihood of Modi's re-election as prime minister in 2019.Obviously,Indian political development is characterized by complexity,accidental factors and intrinsic logic,which will definitely exert great influence on the future of India.     

Exploring the representation of xenophobia in a South African television drama series: A Zimbabwean audience's perspective

Abstract

A great deal of research has been conducted on minorities and their representation in the media in various parts of the world (Evra 2004: 67; Miller 1996; Vicsek & Markus 2008: 124). Fundamentally, the reason for this is political, as ‘the cohesion or rupture of a social world depends on relations among groups who perceive themselves as disadvantaged either as groups or as individuals’ (Staiger 2005: 13). Television programmes, as elements of the media, are a source of information that contributes to these perceptions. Many scholars are of the view that television creates, reflects and reinforces social relations and functions as a mediation of the social world (Evra 2004: 13). In South Africa relatively little research has been conducted on the representation of minorities in local media. Particularly the representation of black immigrants and their representation on South African television has been largely ignored (Kiguwa 2008: 67; Nyamnjoh 2006). The focus of this article is not on the analysis of the representation of foreigners on television, but rather on how a specific group of viewers perceives the representation of Zimbabwean immigrants in the drama series Usindiso (Redemption), broadcast on the South African Broadcasting Corporation's SABC1. The central research question posed by this article is: How does a selected group of Zimbabwean immigrants living in Hillbrow in South Africa perceive the representation of Zimbabwean immigrants in Usindiso?     

Explaining Civil-Military Relations in Complex Political Environments: India and Pakistan in Comparative Perspective

This article argues that military intervention into politics can only be understood by studying both the nature of threats and of domestic political arrangements. I offer a theory of the military in politics built around the interaction between threat configuration, political institutionalization, and civilian government legitimacy. The argument is tested with paired-comparison case studies of Indian and Pakistani civil-military relations since independence. Despite their similarities at the time of partition, these two militaries took completely different political trajectories. The cases reveal how structures of domestic politics interact with military threat perceptions to explain civilians' ability to maintain varying levels of control over the military.     

中印共同崛起的国际政治意义——从地缘政治范式到全球"大同"范式

中国崛起和印度崛起,已经成为当今国际政治的最显著现象之一;中印共同崛起,并非历史的巧合,而是亚洲崛起的支柱和必然要求.尽管我们仍然处于现代化、线性进化论阶段,感叹技不如人的非西方世界自然存在对西方的崇拜心理,国际政治中西方观念的主导地位也有其存在的合理性;但一旦进入多元化、非线性发展的后现代阶段,未来将螺旋式地回归历史,文明的底蕴才会彻底呈现出来,文明的和谐将取代文明的冲突.中印共同崛起无疑为此展示了最大的希望,是打破西方殖民体系数百年影响的时代呼唤,并将推动国际政治范式从地缘范式和其他西方范式走向世界大同的东方范式.这就是中印共同崛起的国际政治意义.     

Minority representation in a semi-democratic regime: the Georgian case

This article suggests that in most semi-democracies, the same solution might not be that favourable to minorities. Many semi-democratic countries either restrict party competition or limit parties of ethnic minorities, including: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgistan, Cameron, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Gabon, Kenya, Mauritania, and Congo (Brazzaville). This article highlights the impact of the electoral system and the importance of political plurality and electoral district design in such contexts. The article argues that the interests of minorities are best protected if they can elect their representatives in small, ethnically homogeneous electoral districts. Plurality or majority voting systems offer minorities the possibility to run with independent candidates. The case study in this article elections to municipal councils in Georgia in 2006 under a mixed electoral system seem to reflect the hypothesized pattern.     

印度宗教文化对中国企业投资的影响

与中国文化相比,印度文化的宗教性特征十分明显,宗教文化是印度文化的本质。印度宗教文化对中国企业投资印度产生了深刻的影响,并以宗教文化对中国企业的进入模式、投资运营、内部管理等各个方面的影响为代表。准确把握和认识印度宗教文化特性,处理好中印文化差异所带来的问题,对促进中印经贸合作与人文交流具有十分重要的意义。     

Funding development in Rwanda: the survivors' perspective

Why has the humanitarian world already forgotten the people of Rwanda? And why do the survivors of the Rwandan genocide continue to be sidelined, particularly those women who were raped and deliberately infected with HIV/AIDS in a campaign of systematic sexual violence? The focus of humanitarian organisations shifted from Rwanda after 1994, and these women – most of whom have to maintain their households alone – are needlessly dying because they have no access to treatment. Humanitarian and development efforts will not achieve lasting benefits without better coordination and the ability to act on lessons learned.     

Revisiting the crisis of representation thesis: the Indian context

This article addresses the ‘crisis of representation’ thesis by examining some of the findings of a survey conducted in Delhi in 2003. On the basis of the data collected during the course of the survey, it revisits two rather significant questions that have been thrown up by the thesis. First, how valid is the assumption that people have lost confidence in the capacity of political parties to represent them in forums of policymaking? Second, have people really come to believe that civil society groups, such as non-governmental organizations, can better help them resolve the oft intractable problems of everyday life? The answers to these questions could help to throw light on two vital political and theoretical issues: the relationship between citizens and the world of representative politics in particular, and the adequacy of representative democracy in general. The findings of the research project tell us that the crisis of representation runs deep and that people seem to have lost confidence in the ability or indeed the political will of all organizations, whether they belong to the political or the civil domain, to address their basic problems.     

Comic Relief: Using Political Cartoons in the Classroom

Political cartoons are an excellent classroom tool to build students' critical thinking skills, to generate lively classroom discussions, and to get students excited about politics. Cartoons should be treated as serious commentary on political affairs. Interpreting a cartoon requires that the viewer be familiar with current issues and debates, savvy about the cultural context, and capable of analytical judgments. This technique capitalizes on the visual learning style of many students and interjects an added interactive dimension to classroom discussions. This article discusses some of the challenges of using cartoons in the classroom, including where to locate them. The text is accompanied by several representative cartoons.     

Information terrorism: Political violence in the information age

Information warfare represents a threat to American national security and defense. There are two general methods in which a terrorist might employ an information terrorist attack: (1) when information technology (IT) is a target, and/or (2) when IT is the tool of a larger operation. The first method would target an information system for sabotage, either electronic or physical, thus destroying or disrupting the information system itself and any information infrastructure (e.g., power, communications, etc.) dependent upon it. The second would manipulate and exploit an information system, altering or stealing data, or forcing the system to perform a function for which it was not meant (such as spoofing air traffic control). A perennial dilemma of combating terrorism in a democratic society is finding the right balance between civil liberties and civil security. The special problems associated with IT are examined. The US national security establishment needs to use a flexible, integrated response to counter information terrorists ‐ one which employs information warfare tactics tailored to counter gray‐area phenomena, but which also pools resources from ‘conventional’ counter‐terrorism and law enforcement authorities.