从中国与“天下大势”解读“中国模式”

近年来,有关"中国模式"或"中国道路"、"北京共识"成为各国政治家和学者竞相谈论的话题.所谓"中国模式",实际上就是"中国特色社会主义道路"、"中国特色社会主义理论体系"在国外政治家和学者视野中的另一种话语形式."中国模式"造福于中国与世界,它是中国的,也是世界的文明成果.本文将"中国模式"置于20世纪70年代末以来中国这段很不寻常的历史和当代世界的"天下大势"中作一审视与解读.     

An International Perspective on the African Famines

This article examines the practice of male circumcision among the migrant Yao people in Zimbabwe with the goal of showing circumcision's importance as a platform for social mobilisation against HIV and AIDS. The work looks at how the practice has health benefits and creates a new form of identity to fight AIDS. It therefore examines the role of the rite in the creation of a collective Yao identity that facilitates mobilisation against the pandemic within the community. This mobilisation is a complex and contentious process, which involves various levels of negotiation, reconstruction and reconfiguration of Yao identity and the circumcision practice (the surgical act and teachings about it), both within and outside the group. The article argues that the practice can be viewed as a form of an African social movement that is largely driven by a complex but self-conscious collective identity and is also induced by the global donor interest in the circumcision–AIDS debate.     

The Impact of EU Export Refunds on the African Continent: An Impact Assessment

The EU’s export refund policy has long been a source of controversy for its perceived impacts on third country markets. However, the EU Commission maintain that these concerns are largely historic as CAP reforms mean that export refunds are now used infrequently. The purpose of this article is therefore to assess the impacts of refunds in the wake of the 2003 reform of the CAP using two complementary analyses: first, an analysis using a computable general equilibrium model and second, two case studies to assess the potential impact of export refunds in selected African developing countries.     

The dynamics of welfare gains and losses: An African case study

This article uses panel survey data for Côte d'Ivoire to investigate the determinants of welfare gains and losses of households over time. A first‐difference model is estimated which takes account of initial conditions. For urban areas, it was found that human capital is not only a key explanatory factor for levels of welfare, but also the most important endowment to explain welfare changes over time. In rural areas, physical capital, especially land and farm equipment, mattered most. Household size and composition and socioeconomic characteristics of the household also affected welfare changes. Policy implications are discussed.     

An Alternative Understanding of Political Participation: Challenging the Myth of Political Indifference in Hong Kong

Abstract

The characterization of Hong Kong's political culture as one of indifference deserves further examination as the inquiries conducted by proponents of the indifference framework have all used a narrow definition of political participation. This paper begins with a critique of the inherent narrowness of orthodox definitions of political participation: political participation as acts making demands on a government; as lawful activities; and as activities vis‐a‐vis one government. Contrast these assumptions, the author contends that political participation needs to be understood as activities that include both making demands on and showing support for a government, as well as both lawful and unlawful activities. Furthermore, the author refutes the one‐government‐locus theme of the orthodox concept and proposes a three‐government‐loci theme that is more relevant to the historical experience of the colonial Hong Kong. The political relevance of the social domain and its implications on broadening the definition of political participation are discussed. Finally, the author argues for the importance of considering discursive participation as a form of political participation in Hong Kong.     

Understanding Multilevel Governance Processes through Complexity Theory: An Empirical Case Study of the Quebec Health-Care System

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of multilevel governance processes. We do so by focusing on the in-depth examination of the institutional changes recently implemented in the Quebec health care delivery system that require a close collaboration between interdependent actors acting at various levels of governance. Our three research questions are: (1) How does multi-level governance emerge in a pluralist institutuional context? (2) How do multi-level governance processes shape the adaptive capacity of the organization to its environment? (3) How does institutional context influence these multi-governance processes?Our empirical investigation is inspired by the theory of complexity which invites us to pay attention to three processes: self-organization, eco-self organization and co-evolution. This study shows that the effectiveness of multi-level governance processes do not only go through the implementation of instruments aiming at aligning the action of lower government levels with the objectives of the upper levels as suggested by numerous existing works. More precisely, it suggests that more distributed and coordinated processes favor a more homogenous form of adaptation (Miller and Page, 2007) taking into account the interdependence between stakeholders.     

Understanding Belarus: Belarussian identity

In the first of this three-part series of articles the linguistic situation in Belarus was analysed. The research questions that inform this second article are: 1) What kind of ethnic identity evolved in Belarus that makes most Belarusians insensitive to ‘their own’ national symbols and attached to those embodying their kinship with neighbouring countries? 2) What is the status of the Belarusian national movement when viewed through the prism of the most reputable theories of ethnic nationalism? My attempt to respond to these questions stems from my field observations and familiarity with scholarly studies and other material. Anthony David Smith's classic volume on ethnic origins of nations and Miroslav Hroch's perceptive book on national movements in Europe's ‘small nations’ are of special importance. A quintessential piece on Belarusian identity is Yanka Kupala's play ‘Tuteishiya’; written in 1922 and published in 1924, it was banned by the Soviet authorities primarily because Russian expansionism in regard to Belarus was painted by Kupala as a mirror image of Polish expansionism. The play is every bit as topical today as in the 1920s.