Super-optimizing china: reunification as an example

Whereas political issues and problems in China are complicated, efforts to “super-optimize” are essential and can be fruitful. The reunification issue is discussed to illustrate even highly politicized problems in China are amenable to super-optimum solutions. At the moment, some reunification options have been proposed: KMT-CCP negotiation on equal footing; KMT's military takeover; CCP's military takeover; the “one country, two systems” formula, convergence by democratization, and incremental convergence through trading and communication. Yet, neither parties find the alternatives desirable in terms of optimal satisfaction. By applying SOS rule # 2 (finding items that will provide large benefits to one side but only small costs to the other side), # 5 (combining the conservative and liberal alternatives where they are not mutually exclusive), and # 6 (removing the source of the conflict), reunification and democratization are made feasible and all parties concerned are better off. The specific proposals are that Taiwan should introduce a wholesale buy-out scheme that costs US$30 billion, that a new republic be established, and that legislative powers should be shared among the majoritarian and non-majoritarian institutions. Together, these arrangements could ensure stability and result in democratization.     

Beatings,Beacons, and Big Men: Police Disempowerment and Delegitimation in India

It is a truism that police in India generally lack legitimate authority and public trust. This lack is widely understood by scholars, policy analysts, and police practitioners as being rooted in the institution's colonial development as a means of oppression, and its alleged corruption and criminalization in the postcolonial period. The social facts of situational hyper‐empowerment and the widespread decadence of police do much to explain their poor image and performance, but these explanations do not account for the fact that police in India are also structurally disempowered by cultural‐political and legal‐institutional claims to multiple and conflicting forms of authority that challenge and often overwhelm the authority of police. This structural disempowerment and its performances in everyday interactions between the police and the public constitute an ongoing social process of delegitimation of police authority in contemporary India. Following ethnographic analysis of this process of delegitimation, I explore the implications of focusing on police disempowerment for theorizations of the sources and capabilities of state legal authority more generally.     

Widows,children and assistance from society in urban Northern Europe 1890–1910

The increasing urbanisation and industrialisation of the late 19th century promoted migration of families and individuals into the growing towns. As a consequence the protective network of kinship and village was lost. In the process the access to household production was also severely decreased. After the death of a husband in a labourer's household the widow had to face a difficult situation. The aim of this paper is to assess the standard of living of poor widows in the Nordic countries. To estimate the proportion of intrafamilial contributions, the role of the wider kinship group and to calculate level of support from poor relief authorities and other possible sources.     

The Portuguese Appeasement Policy in Macau's Church and State Relations

For the last four centuries, under the policy of the Portuguese Padroado1454, the Macau Catholic Church has been closely associated with the Portuguese rulers of Macau in governing this ‘Chinese territory under the Portuguese rule’. This church–state relationship in Macau before the Chinese takeover (1999) and after has become a client–patron relationship under the shadow of the Portuguese appeasement policy. In the context of the appeasement policy, this paper aims at discussing: (1) the close alliance between the Portuguese government and the Catholic Church in Macau, offering special privileges and convenience to the Church but weakening church capacity in evangelization and spiritual leadership; and (2) the interactions of the three actors in the triangular relationship among the Vatican, China and Macau.