A New Dynamism in World Politics: Increasingly Skillful Individuals?

Our inquiry is the first phase of a project designed to explore systematically whether individuals are becoming more equipped to play a central role in world affairs. It hypothesizes that individuals have undergone a skill revolution, leading them to be more analytically competent, emotionally capable, and politically effective in assessing events, developing alternatives, and executing effective political action. The first phase is confined to the skills of elites: we tested the predicted generational changes by analyzing the skills of three types of individuals—elected officials in the U.S. Congress, witnesses at congressional hearings, and contributors to the daily press in three countries—in two widely separated epochs as they evaluated events across three issue areas—foreign affairs, international trade, and human rights. In doing so we randomly selected nearly one thousand paragraph-sized statements and coded them according to the methodology prescribed by the Integrative Complexity Coding Manual. All in all, our findings supported the hypothesis: the skill level of the sampled individuals was found to have increased over several generations by a statistically significant (P < .001) average greater than 10 percent. Each issue area also showed gains in the same direction between the two epochs and across all types of elites; and all of these results also met the 95 percent confidence level for statistical significance. Inasmuch as this finding does not negate the possibility of a long-term trend toward more capable publics, it points to the need for further research into the dynamics whereby world politics may become increasingly sensitive to demands at the micro level.     

论人工生殖子女的法律地位

现代生殖技术的问世大大冲击了人类传统的自然生殖方式,与此同时,也冲击了现代伦理观念,并带来了一系列法律问题。随着人工生殖子女数量的增多,相关法律纠纷也日益增多。因此,本文对于人工生殖的一个基本问题———人工生殖子女的法律地位进行了深入的探讨。着重论述了人工生殖子女的分类,相应的父母子女关系的确定及权利义务关系。同时对代孕母亲所引发的法律问题进行了探讨。     

论我国饮用水源保护法律调控的基本指导思想

因世界性饮用水源紧缺和污染所导致的饮用水源危机,不仅严重威胁着人们的生命健康和生存,而且随时可能引发国际政治问题。因此,饮用水源的保护被提上了世界各国的议事日程,并成为国际社会共同关注的焦点。可持续发展战略作为一种新的发展模式,是当代人类的普遍共识。本文在分析的基础上提出我国饮用水源保护立法应当以可持续发展为基本指导思想,以期对完善或创新我国饮用水源保护法律调控的理论和实践提供依据和思路。     

Punishment as language: Misleading analogy for desert theorists

I should like to thank Anthony Duff, Igor Primoratz, and Don Scheid for helpful comments on one or another early draft of this paper. I should also like to thank those who discussed the penultimate draft at a sessio of the Mid-western Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, 27 April 1991, especially Jacob Adler, my official commentator, for helping to give the paper its final polish (without polishing it off).     

THE DECLINE OF ELITE HOMICIDE

Criminological research consistently shows that interpersonal homicide is largely confined to low-status people. Yet, anthropological and historical materials reveal that in earlier and simpler societies homicide was found throughout the status hierarchy. Using theory developed by Donald Black, I argue that a critical factor in the decline of lethal conflict among social elites is the increased availability of legal means of handling conflict. An implication is that since a focus on modern societies and their developed legal systems yields a limited and even distorted empirical picture of lethal violence, criminologists should strive to formulate theories that are cross-cultural and historical in scope.     

榕江苗族的栽岩文化

苗族自古无文字。在最先的苗族社会活动中,集会议事所产生的结果,只凭口传心记。为了体现民族的意志、大众的决策以及协议某一区域内的规矩,在苗族古代社会中便产生了“栽岩议事活动”。由于这一活动涉及的村寨和人是相对固定的,这就进一步产生了苗族的“栽岩议事组织”。苗民每次集会、议事,形成决议或法规之后,便于村口寨头或集会地栽一岩石(半截在土中,半截露出地面),以作凭据,并警告后人,这就是苗族历史上千古不朽的石头“文字”。