Toward Olympics 2008: China's development in the reform period

Owen Bennett-Jones presents ‘Newshour’ and ‘The Interview’ for BBC World Service Radio. He has reported from all over the world and was the BBC Correspondent in Islamabad between 1998 and 2001. He is currently preparing a second edition of his book Pakistan: Eye of the Storm.     

East German political attitudes: Socialist legacies v. situational factors a false antithesis

This paper introduces the two main competing approaches that attempt to explain east German political attitudes in post‐unification Germany, the ‘situational thesis’ and the ‘socialisation thesis’. Furthermore, the paper suggests that these ‘either/or’ approaches are in fact inseparable and only make sense when taken together. Political attitudes in east Germany are influenced by the past, the recent past and the present. The result of both the socialisation process in the GDR and the traumatic transformation process following unification is weak civic participation and a lack of trust in formal institutions. Without trust and without a vibrant civil society, economic performance will remain low.     

1989 Revisited: Getting to the bottom of the GDR'S demise

Aufarbeitung von Geschichte und Folgen der SED‐Diktatur in Deutschland. Nine Volumes. By Enquete Kommission. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 1995.

Aufarbeitung und Versöhnung, ‘Leben in der DDR, Leben nach 1989’. Three Volumes. By landtag mecklenburg‐vorpommern. Schwerin: Stiller & Balewski, 1996.

The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945–1989. By Jeffrey Kopstein. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Der Zusammenbruch der DDR am Beispiel der mecklenburgischen Stadt Parchim. By Fred Mrotzek. Hamburg: Kramer Verlag, 1996     

Leader Influence and Reputation Formation in World Politics

The study of reputation is one of the foundational topics of modern international relations. However, fundamental questions remain, including the question of to whom reputations adhere: states, leaders, or both? We offer a theory of influence‐specific reputations (ISR) that unifies competing accounts of reputation formation. We theorize that reputations will adhere more to actors who are more influential in the relevant decision‐making process. We employ two survey experiments, one abstract and one richly detailed involving a U.S.‐Iran conflict, to evaluate ISR. We find evidence of large country‐specific reputations and moderately sized leader‐specific reputations. Consistent with the theory of influence‐specific reputations, leader‐specific reputations are more important when leaders are more influential.     

RISE OF THE DISLOYAL: INCREASING RESENTMENT IN NORTH KOREA

Why has loyalty to the Kim Family Regime and the Worker’s Party diminished over the past twenty years despite a rise in the average standard of living, greater social mobility, and a regime policy of benign neglect towards marketization? Unthinkable in the Kim Il Sung era, the increase in expressions of resentment toward the North Korean authorities represents a shift in the ideology, behavior, and motivation of the population. Four critical factors have heightened tensions between state and society in North Korea, leading to a reduction in loyalty among the general population. The author considers the impact of labor mobilizations, the declining importance of party membership, the influence of foreign media, and the rise of rent seeking and extractive policies. While all play a role, it is important and possible to identify the primary cause. Extractive policies and rent-seeking position the regime and the people in a directly adversarial relationship. All tiers and agencies of the government have become complicit in efforts to siphon off profits, control market actors through crony capitalism, rent seek, over-regulate, and compete against private market actors, causing the residents to express frustration and resentment towards a government that does not have their interests at heart.