Out of Sight,Out of Mind? External Voting and the Political Representation of Portuguese Emigrants

Over recent decades, emigrants have gained expanded voting rights on a global scale. Despite the normative debates about this issue, there are few empirical studies on why states decide to implement external voting and how electoral systems perform. This article seeks to fill this gap by looking at the Portuguese case. Our study suggests that a combination of political and socio-economic factors explains the implementation of external voting. On the other hand, the interests of political parties and the low level of civil society engagement are key to determining the failure of electoral reforms and the attempts to overcome the shortcomings of external voting.     

印尼华人的民族权利与华文教育问题

2006年7月,印度尼西亚国会通过的争议多年的新<国籍法>,取消了已存在半个多世纪的在印尼国籍问题上带有族群歧视性的条款.新<国籍法>不仅为包括华人在内的印尼外来族群获得平等的生存权利提供了法律上的保障,而且也为印尼华文教育的发展带来了新的曙光.本文试从印尼华人民族权利的角度出发,分析探讨印尼华文教育多样性发展的可能前景,希冀能够抛砖引玉,引发更多关于印尼华文教育可持续发展的思考和讨论.     

论华侨权益保护制度的法治化问题

随着我国对外开放的深入发展,华侨数量不断增长,华侨回国探亲及回国投资活动日趋频繁,华侨权益的法律保护问题凸显。我国现行的华侨权益保护制度已不能满足华侨权益保护的需要,其原因在于华侨权益保护制度的法治化不足,主要表现为该项制度法理价值的茫然性和法制定位的欠缺性。基于此,应在把握华侨权益保护制度法律属性的基础上,进行该制度的法典化改造,从而实现华侨权益保护制度的法治化。     

Somalia: federating citizens or clans? Dilemmas in the quest for stability

This paper is concerned with the theoretical analysis of the legitimacy challenges faced by the federalist structure of the Somali state, as established with the 2012 constitution. Understanding federalism in Somalia, I argue, is not a simple question of political power distribution: there is also a dichotomy between a predominant European-based conceptualisation of the state and the bulk of often-neglected Somali notions of communitarian organisation, to which the clan is a part. If the decentralised structure of clans in Somali tradition seems to realise a certain convergence with the current federalist project, the dichotomy is rather evident when it comes to the definition of ‘(civil) society’ in Somalia. Thus, in order to assess both the progression of the federalist project, more than four years after its launch, and the factual legitimacy it holds among the Somali population, this paper will focus on the complex relation between state and citizens.     

Narrations of Shifting Maya Identities

Three anthropological ways of narrating the historical formation of Maya identity have recently been outlined in an article by Kay Warren on intergenerational struggles of Mayan families in Guatemala. According to the anti-racism scheme, Maya identity forms as a reaction to ethnic opposition. The cultural continuity approach treats identity formation as persistence that occurs in spite of ethnic oppression. The third, ' mestizaje ' school of thought argues that assimilation has eroded indigenous identity to the extent that it only makes sense to speak of an intermediary ladino (or mestizo ) category. Warren argues that the previous antagonism between ethnographic approaches has obscured the coexistence of these narrations in families, where discontinuity and rejection of traditional Maya identities interplay with continuity and revitalisation. In this paper, I compare the narrations of shifting identities in Guatemala to local representations of socio-cultural change in Yucutan. Based upon research in Oxkutzcab, I attempt to show how the interpretations of intergenerational changes in language, dress, and occupation relate to a set of local and regional events that evade the mutually exclusive meta-narratives of change.     

Taking Cantonal Variations of Integration Policy Seriously — or How to Validate International Concepts at the Subnational Comparative Level

Abstract: Subnational varieties of immigrant integration policy, which are particularly salient in federal states, remain largely neglected by migration studies. Following Lijphart, who long demanded to verify international research at the subnational level, this study aims at capturing subnational policy variations using the example of Swiss cantons. In line with international approaches, cantonal integration policies are conceptualized and measured in terms of immigrants’ ease or difficulty of access to civic, political, socio‐structural, as well as cultural and religious rights and obligations. The transfer of an international concept to the subnational level facilitates a validation of the former, which constitutes a second neglected research field. Finally, a look at the empirical evidence allows testing the construct validity of our measurement: in line with theoretical assumptions, our data reveal a clear linguistic divide, an institutionalised “Röschtigraben”, with German speaking cantons exhibiting overall more restrictive policies than Latin cantons.     

Banking on Folk Art: Banamex‐Citigroup and Transnational Cultural Citizenship

This article offers two readings of The Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art, a travelling exhibition of the Fomento Cultural Banamex, AC's folk art collection that coincided with Citigroup's buyout of Banamex, Mexico's second largest bank. The first, a political economic critique, situates the exhibition within the neoliberal economic reform of the Mexican banking system and the designs of US‐based transnational banks on migrant remittances. The second, a material culture approach, focuses on the exhibitionary strategies employed to incentivise folk art consumption as a mode of cosmopolitan citizenship.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:
Moreno Cebrián El virreinato del marqués de Castelfuerte 1724–1736: el primer intento borbónico por reformar el Perú
Schwaller The Church in Colonial Latin America
Uribe-Uran Honorable Lives: Lawyers, Family, and Politics in Colombia, 1780–1850
López-Alves State Formation and Democracy in Latin America, 1810–1900
Bieber Power, Patronage, and Political Violence: State Building on a Brazilian Frontier, 1822–1889
Scott Slave Emancipation in Cuba: The Transition to Free Labor, 1860–1899
Suárez Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870–1920
Hora The Landowners of the Argentine Pampas. A Social and Political History 1860–1945
Brennan and Pianetto Region and Nation: Politics, Economy and Society in Twentieth Century Argentina
Klarén Peru: Society and nationhood in the Andes
Grandin Streets, The Blood of Guatemala. A History of Race and Nation
Serbin Secret Dialogues: Church-State Relations, Torture, and Social Justice in Authoritarian Brazil
Kingstone and Power Democratic Brazil. Actors, institutions and Processes
Piedra and Sonnleitner (eds) Democracia en tierras indÕgenas: Las elecciones en Los Altos de Chiapas (1991–1998)
Harris To Make the Earth Bear Fruit: Ethnographic Essays on Fertility, Work and Gender in Highland Bolivia
Agier Anthropologies du Carnaval: la ville la fête et l'Afrique à Bahia
Wade Music, Race, and Nation: Música Tropical in Columbia     

马来西亚“伊斯兰国”与民族国家:争论、影响与趋势

伊斯兰党在20世纪80年代转型后,致力在马来西亚建立"伊斯兰国"。"伊斯兰国"与巫统主导下的民族国家建构是完全不同的建国方向,两者在最高权力的来源、统治阶层、意识形态三方面有着显著的差异。伊斯兰党现阶段重提伊斯兰刑法后,引起马来西亚两线制的重新分化与组合。由于政党之间的建国理念相异,马来西亚未来的建国方向大体上有三种:马来人主导下的民族国家、伊斯兰国和多族群国家。另外,伊拉克与大叙利亚伊斯兰国组织在中东的崛起,令身处伊斯兰世界的马来西亚民族国家体制也面临着来自外部的强烈冲击。     

Mayahood Through Beauty: Indian Beauty Pageants in Guatemala

The election of a Ra'bin Ajaw constitutes the climax of the National Folklore Festival ( Festival Folklórico Nacional ), which since 1969 has taken place in Cobán during the last week of July. All participants are Maya Indians and must wear the traditional folk costume of their native township. The intention of this and other Indian pageants has been to preserve and reinvigorate traditional forms of cultural expression. Different from Ladina beauty queens, Indian queens are elected not so much on the basis of their looks as on their aptitude for representing cultural 'authenticity'. However, as the notion of the authentic relates to how cultural identities are constructed in the present, the beauty pageant has increasingly been troubled by a tension between a traditional folklorist type of orientation and a more recent and politicised Mayanist one. Indeed, the Indian pageants, originally formed within a folklorist paradigm, have become important arenas for the communication of Maya consciousness and identity.     

软法与硬法的冲突和对抗:重塑国际贸易体制的新路径选择

作为治理国际贸易问题的两种不同属性的规则系统,软法与硬法之间有时候以相互补充和相互协调的关系出现;然而,冲突与对抗也是二者关系的表现形态。在利用软法以软化、修正和改变硬法,进而影响或塑造新的国际贸易利益分配制度框架方面,发达国家和发展中国家均有过成功的实践。当前,国际经济结构正在经历变革,作为负责任的发展中大国,中国可以且应当善用软法,积极有效地参与国际贸易体制的调整与重塑,使国家经济利益在以WTO为中心的国际贸易体制中得到应有和恰当的表达。     

日本《社会保险劳务士法》及其对中国的启示

中国《社会保险法》在实施过程中存在诸多问题。这些问题存在的原因之一就在于社会保险服务专业化与规范化不够。社会保险服务专业化和规范化已经成为影响中国《社会保险法》有效运行的核心因素之一。从国际经验的角度来看,日本的《社会保险劳务士法》很好地解决了这一问题。日本的《社会保险劳务士法》启示我们,建立社会保险师制度是社会保险服务专业化和职业化的客观需要,要在对社会保险师准确定位的前提下,完善相应资格考试制度,推动社会保险师制度的建立。     

Photographing Children in Mexico City's Red‐Light Districts

This paper analyses Mexican photographer Maya Goded's representations of children living in one of Mexico City's red‐light districts. Drawing on interviews with the photographer, the practical and ethical difficulties in portraying vulnerable children are analysed to examine the representational limitations of photography in confrontation with child sex exploitation. Through close visual analysis of the images, the paper examines the children's representations as both externalised repositories of their parents' aspirations and their keen imitators. The figure of the child becomes a locus for interpolating critiques of sex work, demonstrating how photographs forge a cultural space where they become politically salient records of vulnerability in the face of neoliberal deregulation and economic rationality.     

社会中的马来西亚国家:意象与实践

本文旨在以第13届国会选举之后马来西亚政治、经济、社会诸领域的状况为主要依据,对作为意象的马来西亚国家和作为实践的马来西亚国家进行考察,进而展开以下两方面的论证:(1)马来西亚国家各组成部分的实践过程如何形塑着马来西亚国家的主导原则与主导功能;(2)马来西亚国家建构与政治制度化的不足及其出路。     

陆权与清代“海禁”政策

清代前期实行的海禁政策包括移民限制、物品出口限制、外商来华贸易规定以及民船建造规格等多项内容.这种海禁政策的性质并非惯常认定的“闭关锁国”,而是中国传统陆权战略的一部分,其制定具有深刻的历史背景.清代海禁政策在当时的条件下,取得了重大成效,但鸦片战争之后,随着世界形势的剧变,这种战略尽显弊端.