Why unipolarity doesn't matter (much)

This article first argues that states have not balanced against US unipolar power because the potential balancers do not view the United States as a major threat, because they believe it has benign security-seeking motives, at least with regard to other major powers. This explanation runs counter to the Brooks–Wohlforth argument, which holds that states are not balancing because the magnitude of the United States’ power advantage makes balancing essentially infeasible. The second part of the paper challenges the conventional wisdom on the benefits of unipolarity, arguing that the benefits the United States derives from unipolarity are generally overrated. More specifically, US security need not be significantly reduced by growth in China's economy that supports a return to bipolarity.     

Credibility,source identification and message acceptance: The case of political persuasion

Abstract

This paper addresses questions related to effects of source credibility on message acceptance. More specifically, we look at (a) the effects of attributed credibility of the source on message acceptance in situation of source identification versus non‐identification, and (b) the effects of attributed credibility of two competitive sources on the acceptance of their respective messages in positively versus negatively predisposed audiences.

Source identification and source competition relate to the more general problem of persuasion and inoculation. Political parties often strive to persuade partisan, hostile, or politically neutral audiences while simultaneously trying to inoculate them against the message of opposing parties. These processes of persuasion can take place in situations where the source is either identified (e.g., a well‐known politician clearly linked with a political party) or not identified (e.g., a journalist who presents a politician's point of view without naming him/her). In cases where the source has been identified, the audience may remember the message itself and yet forget who had advanced the message. This raises the question of the extent to which communicators should concern themselves with the attributed credibility of the source in situations of either source identification or non‐identification? And how important is credibility in reinforcing the support of partisans or in persuading neutral and hostile audiences? These are some of the issues we examine experimentally in this article.     

全面贯彻落实党的十七大精神 开拓乡镇工作新局面——在全区乡镇党委书记十七大精神学习班结业典礼上的讲话(节选)

认真学习十七大精神,加强和改进党的基层组织建设,是当前党建工作的主要内容。要用十七大精神指导工作,切实提高驾驭全局和应对复杂局面的能力,不断开创我区乡镇工作新局面。     

Law's Allure and the Power of Path-Dependent Legal Ideas

Gordon Silverstein's Law's Allure (2009) advances a two-part thesis on the power of legal ideas. The first is that legal precedents establish the ideological baselines on which legislative and bureaucratic policies are developed. Silverstein amply demonstrates the validity of this thesis. The second is that by establishing ideological baselines, legal precedents contribute to a version of path dependency (or the idea that early choices determine long-term developments) that is significantly more constraining than other forms of institutional entrenchment. Put simply, law shackles creativity in politics. This thesis I do not find persuasive, in part because Silverstein offers little evidence for it and in part because a growing body of literature suggests the contrary: the cross-fertilization of ideas from one field to another—law to politics, for instance—contributes to, rather than retards, creative change. Nonetheless, while its broader ambitions are not satisfied, Law's Allure's narrow thesis—that precedent profoundly shapes policy development—is important and worthy of a major book in itself.     

The New Virtual (Inter)Face of African Pentecostalism

In the absence of research on religion and the Internet in Africa, this paper examines select African Pentecostal ministries that are developing websites as a major new interface for interacting with their membership, with potential converts, competing or partnering religious groups, and organs of the media and the state. It argues that this new media platform constitutes an important site for the constitution of Pentecostal leadership in the contemporary African and diasporic contexts.