FEATURE REVIEW

Between 1987 and 1996 Chinese exports increased by an average of 14% each year. During this decade, export growth became a crucial determinant of overall economic growth. However, as a consequence of the East Asian financial crises, Chinese export growth slowed, threatening the successful implementation of plans to restructure the domestic Chinese economy. This paper traces the reasons for the rapid growth and subsequent slowing of Chinese exports, and asks whether the strategy provides a solid basis for the long term development of the Chinese economy. In particular, the paper focuses on the role and significance of the processing trade in boosting Chinese exports. The high proportion of imported components in processed exports questions whether China is really benefiting as much from export growth as aggregate trade figures seem to suggest.     

Change and Stability in Eastern Asia: Nationalism,Communism, and British Policy, 1948–1955

British policy in Eastern Asia, 1948–55, aimed to combine the attainment of change leading to stability, to be secured through cooperating with nationalism against the growing threat from communism. After initial errors, ministers and officials revealed realism and flexibility, as shown in policies towards Burma, Malaya, and China. As regards Japan, the United States dominated decisionmaking and British views were rather negative towards the viability of political reform in the longer term and towards economic revival. The collapse of French authority in Indo-China pushed Anthony Eden towards compromise with the communist powers at the Geneva conference in 1954: Britain diverged from the US in supporting a strictly defensive alliance (SEATO), which was linked with an ambivalent approach to the future of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.     

Regulation and Human Rights in Socio-Legal Scholarship

This article sets the scene for a special issue of Law & Policy that brings together the themes of rights and regulation. The articles explore a number of settings where rapid changes in political commitments and economic systems, often stimulated by international developments, place pressures on rights regimes. The articles deploy a variety of methods to draw out differences in both focus and approach in the understanding of rights, when compared with regulation. This introductory article provides a more detailed analysis of these differences in approach, and is suggestive of ways in which they may complement each other. We argue that the articles collectively demonstrate the added valued in juxtaposing rights with regulation. They are suggestive not only of a richer understanding of the impact on rights of broad changes in regulatory frameworks, but more particularly argue for the importance of understanding how processes of institutionalization can underpin or undermine rights regimes, and that regulatory measures may form a key aspect of such institutionalization.     

A STRUCTURAL MODEL OF DRINKING AND DRIVING: ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION,SOCIAL NORMS,AND MORAL COMMITMENTS*

A structural model based upon data from a random sample of 1,000 U.S. drivers accounted for 56% of the variation in alcohol-impaired driving, with total monthly alcohol consumption as the strongest predictor. Significant contributions of age, sex, peer group values, and preference for beer suggested the operation of socialization to group norms. There was a substantial contribution of personal moral commitment against drinking and driving. However, there was no significant inhibitory influence of legal knowledge and perceived arrest risk. These findings are consistent with Andenaes's view that general deterrence should be more broadly construed to include the moral component as well as the fear component of the law