National identity and Taiwan's Mainland China policy

Taiwan is a mildly divided society—divided essentially along the lines of national identity. Indeed, there is no doubt that national identity is the dominant factor affecting Taiwan's mainland China policy. Other factors such as business interests and security concerns may enter the picture from time to time, but they often get bogged down in the national identity controversies. As a matter of fact, there is high correlation between people's attitudes toward business and security concerns and their positions on the national identity issue. The key to understanding Taiwan's mainland China policy is thus the distribution of voters on the national identity issue and how it is translated into the political fortunes of various political parties in the electoral game.     

North American first peoples: slipping up into market citizenship?

This article explores the nature of Aboriginal demands for a citizenship regime grounded in a substantive recognition of cultural difference and inherent rights in Mexico and Canada. It provides an overview of the different evolution of Aboriginal citizenship in each country but focuses on two recent development projects, the Puebla Panama Plan in Mexico and the Mackenzie Valley pipeline in Canada. These cases demonstrate the ways in which neo‐liberal globalism is reshaping the substantive recognition of Aboriginal cultural difference and inherent rights. While contemporary neo‐liberal rhetoric recognizes cultural difference, the models of development employed effectively separate territory from the ideas of self‐government, culture and identity. The article concludes that the neo‐liberal turn in the construction of Aboriginal citizenship undercuts potentially much richer conceptions of Indigenous citizenship offered by the First Peoples of North America.     

Decentralisation of service delivery as adopted by the Central District Council in Botswana

The Central District Council (CDC) in Botswana expanded service delivery to five sub‐districts in January 2000 using a model adapted from the South Somerset District Council, UK. As little data were available on the effectiveness of decentralised service delivery, officials and councillors throughout CDC were interviewed regarding their perception of the process. They not only provided recommendations for enhanced implementation but also identified some of the tensions resulting from it. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palestinian state‐building: police and citizens as test of democracy

This article explores police‐society relations by assessing the impact of current state‐building efforts by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank. The article presents an outline of the emerging civilian policing model and its wider implications for citizens’ rights and the dominant political order. The specific focus of the paper rests on an examination of the potential tensions associated with the perceived need for strong coercive security structures (including the civil police) as part of state‐building efforts and the desire by the population for increased freedom and pluralism. This issue is further complicated by the ambiguous nature of the current experiment in limited autonomy underway in those areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip where Israeli redeployment has taken place.     

The Shi'a of Saudi Arabia: a minority in search of cultural authenticity

This article focuses on the transformation of Saudi Shi'a resistance from one which centred on military confrontation in the 1980s to one which invokes searching for cultural authenticity (al‐asala al‐shi'iyya) in the 1990s. Today the struggle of the Shi'a for equal status among the Sunni majority draws attention to the attempts of Shi'a intellectuals to write their own regional history. Shi'a intellectuals and opposition leaders deconstruct official representations of themselves and provide alternative historical narratives which anchor their community in Saudi history and society, thus dismissing suggestions that they are a non‐indigenous community. This article examines Shi'a historical narratives in an attempt to understand the transformation in their struggle against discrimination in Saudi Arabia.     

2004年军事法学研究进展述要

2004年中国军事法学研究有了新的进展,学术活动频繁,学术成果突出。全年出版军事法方面的著作10余部,发表论文210余篇。学者们就下面问题作了广泛而深入的研究。一、军事法基本理论研究有所突破本年度学者加大了军事法基本理论研究的力度,在军事法研究的路径、军事法的基本范畴等方面有了一定突破。(一)关于军事法研究路径。有人提出以价值取向和方法论为宏线,从态度、方法和理论工具入手,为学科自治提供理论研究的方法论平台。由此,军事法学不能简单照搬普通法学的划分方式而将其子学科分为军事立法、军事行政法、军事刑法、军事经济法…     

Risk management for targeting customs controls in developing countries: a risky venture for revenue performance?

Customs authorities in developing countries are often reluctant to forget systematic inspections for fear of risking revenue loss. Such physical inspections however, impede rather than facilitate trade. Control selectivity is therefore a key issue in customs administration reform. This paper shows how a sophisticated risk management method can facilitate trade by automatically and rationally selecting transactions, with the end result of actually enhancing revenue performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

农村土地承包经营权财产性与社会保障性的冲突之解析——以贵州农村土地承包经营权流动现状为基础

农村土地承包经营权具备财产性和社会保障性双重特质,由于自身所追求价值目标的不同和外在所强加的使命,农村土地承包经营权财产性与社会保障特质相互冲突,财产特质无法反映现代市场经济的需求,造成了效率的低下及其他经济、社会问题的产生。因此,有必要在法律层面和实践层面进行修正和努力,以促进农村绿洲社会的发展和维持社会的稳定。