Half a Century of Cross-pressures: a Thesis Reconsidered

Cross-pressure was introduced as a concept in political analysis half a century ago. While different forms of political cross-pressure have been noted, they are generally considered to have the effect of making citizens withdraw from politics. However, this conclusion is not always supported by data. A modified proposition is suggested in order to account for other reactions to cross- pressure that have been registered from time to time.     

深刻认识和把握马克思主义的理论品质

与时俱进是马克思主义本质意义上的科学论断。坚持马克思主义理论品质要从我们正在做的事情为中心,要不断深化对“三大规律”的认识。     

基于复合空间视角的超大城市韧性建设路径思考

面对复合型城市危机,复合空间视角可为超大城市韧性建设提供新的研究方向.以风险发生的可能场所为标准,复合空间可划分为物理、虚拟、经济、社会与规范空间.基于系统理论,通过分析国内七个超大城市韧性建设现状与困境,借鉴域外超大城市韧性建设经验可知:只有明确复合空间系统结构、充分剖析各子空间的相互作用机制,才能实现空间潜力的最优配置与整体效益最大化.研究发现,不同空间组成的"三生空间"可以基本涵盖超大城市韧性需求,未来须保障生态空间山清水秀、促进生产空间集约高效、推动生活空间宜居适度,形成超大城市韧性建设的支撑系统.     

Confessions of a Dinosaur

The old time budget officer has been all but wiped out—the species having been deprived of its natural habitat by the great smoke cloud that began to spread after the great cataclysm of 1974 when the Budget Act began to change all the rules. This, of course, is an overstatement. But it is clear—at least from the perspective of this old dinosaur—that the job of the budget officer has changed over the years, from what many perceived of as a master of financial magic to just another serf (or supervisor) in the bureaucratic feudal system.
This is not a polemic against the Budget Act or the changes that have taken place. The only thing constant about the budget process is change. Rather, it is a discussion of how these changes have affected budget officers over the decades that I have been involved in the budget business.     

行政透明化：打造“善治”政府的切入点

二十世纪末以来,随着经济的发展和公民社会力量的壮大,善治理论得以提出,并引起社会的广泛关注。从相关国家实践的结果来看,“善治”政府是符合现代社会历史发展需求的,具有强大的生命力。处于转型时期的中国要在政府职能转变的过程中进一步促进经济发展和社会稳定,就必须提高善治水平,而善治水平的提高离不开行政透明化建设。可以说,行政透明化是打造“善治”政府的切入点,是实现善治的关键。善治视角下我国行政透明化建设的思路在于:首先,要完善制度保障,建立健全促进行政透明化的信息披露机制;其次,要加强国家立法,尽快制定并完善关于行政透明的相关法规;最后,要加强电子政府建设,充分重视网络对行政透明化建设的影响。     

凝视中的权力——对多丽丝·莱辛《屋顶丽人》的解读

"凝视"是多丽丝·莱辛的小说《屋顶丽人》中的一个重要母题。本文从男性通过对女性的凝视,以规范其所谓的社会行为和女性对男权社会的解构出发,阐释了凝视中的权力对抗。     

Towards a multimodal ethnohistorical approach: a case study of bookplates

ABSTRACT

This study uses four examples of bookplates printed in Edwardian Britain (1901–1914) to demonstrate how the adoption of an ethnohistorical approach to social semiotics can vastly strengthen multimodal analysis. It argues that situating choices of image, colour, typography and materiality in archival research and the broader sociohistorical context of the Edwardian period can help to uncover the external motivations for a bookplate’s structure. The case study reveals that bookplate designs were primarily influenced by the social status and wealth of owners, as well as the specific, well-established norms of the bookplate genre. It also highlights the significance of connecting semiotic choices to the traditions of Edwardian society and the ways in which meanings can shift over time. The findings demonstrate the importance of grounding hypotheses concerning the function and form of artefacts in concrete historical documents, in addition to the vast potential of this methodology for exploring other texts within a particular historical period.     

Experimenting with a national sample: a Dutch survey of prejudice

The notion that beliefs and attitudes are flexible and often inconsistent has become a commonplace in social and political psychology. Beliefs and attitudes adapt to varying circumstances, issues and argumentative positions. This was the starting point for a Dutch survey on prejudice towards immigrants carried out in 1998. Measures of beliefs and attitudes were constructed in order to capture diverse aspects of prejudice. Some of these measures focused on negative evaluations of the characteristics of immigrant groups, others on the implications of prejudice, such as opinions on the rights and obligations of immigrants. In order to determine the flexibility and variability of prejudice, key aspects of the attitudes were experimentally manipulated, such as the (characteristics of the) target immigrant group, the arguments leading to these attitudes or the external support they received. The results show that prejudice is a variable set of attitudes for which a precise line between subjective bias and realistic concerns about immigrants cannot be easily drawn.     

The probability of casting a decisive vote: The effects of a caucus

We study the effects of caucus formation upon a voting process with the aid of a Pólya-Eggenberger probability model. The model contains a parameter interpretable as cohesiveness between voters in a voting body. We examine relationships among members' voting power, satisfaction, and group cohesiveness. We also explore the likelihood of a distortion of opinion resulting from the caucus.     

Semiotizing a product into a brand

A product is simply something that is material or substance of some kind. In order to be transformed into a brand with its own code of meanings and system of rhetorical allusions, it needs to be semiotized. And the marketing and advertising industries have become semioticians in this sense, semiotizing a product by assigning it a name, a visual sign (logo), a system of language forms (slogan, taglines, etc.), and then textualizing the brand by creating appropriate ads and commercials for it. This paper will show how this network of semiotizing events coheres into an overall macrotext to produce the brand as a sign system.     

Ethnography of a policy process: a case study of land redistribution in Bangladesh

Throughout the developing world, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are involved in various aspects of an increasing number of policy interventions. The donor community has lent considerable support to this strategy. One of the key assumptions behind the strategy is that the greater involvement of NGOs in policy processes will result in more resources being distributed to the poor, and will also facilitate the establishment of a policy process which is more inclusive and egalitarian. Here the involvement of NGOs in an important land redistribution policy initiative is used to examine both these assumptions. While there is strong evidence that more land was redistributed to the poor as a result of NGO involvement, the actual mechanism or process for deciding the distribution of land was not found to be all inclusive or completely egalitarian. This ambivalence serves as a timely critique to the naive optimism and simplified assumptions underpinning development thinking and practice. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

律师与公证员调查权之比较

在我国,调查权的性质只能从权力(利)行使者的角度去判断。对于除国家机关及其工作人员以外的其他主体的调查权,法律总是表现出一定的漫不经心。现行体制和法律都没有明晰律师和公证机构的性质,因此对这二者调查权的分析也就无法明确身份。但通过对二者的比较,还是可以发现问题:律师与公证人员在社会定位和职业要求上的巨大差异,凸现出目前我国法律对公证机构的错误定位。     

图书馆是知识经济发展的积极推动力

知识经济是一种全新的经济形态,本文从科技、教育、文化、信息等角度,论述了图书馆是知识经济时代发展的积极推动力。     

Brazil: The Prospects of a Center-Constraining Federation in a Fragmented Polity

Although there have been deep changes in the federation as aconsequence of redemocratization and decentralization, Brazilcontinues to exhibit profound imbalances among regions. Theseimbalances create contradictions and tensions in Brazilian federalism.The central problem addressed in this article is to identifythe main difficulties facing federalism, and to assess theirconsequences on the prospects of federalism should tensionscontinue unabated. Brazilian federalism has always been a meansof accommodating deep-rooted regional disparities. Althoughthere are political and fiscal mechanisms to offset some ofthe problems of regional disparities, such mechanisms have beeninsufficient to counteract a long history of uneven regionaldevelopment. Because of the country's inequalities, the capabilitiesof subnational governments to respond to Brazil's current demandsand agendas are highly uneven.     

Designing a tax incentive scheme: The case of a wage tip

Governments are constantly attempting to use their tax systems for purposes other than the collection of revenue. Each such use entails difficult decisions of both design and administration. Consideration of a tax-based policy that might reduce wage inflation—a so-called TIP—serves to reveal the wide range of difficult choices that need to be made. In addition to problems of measuring the behavior of the tax payer who is to be benefited or penalized, the analyst must settle on such questions as whether the program should be permanent or temporary, whether it should emphasize rewards or punishments, and whether it should be administered by existing government agencies or by special agencies. None of these problems is insuperable. But lurking behind all of them is the question whether, is the end, the chosen policy will actually contribute to reducing wage inflation.