Capitalism and Bonded Labour in India: Reinterpreting Recent (Re-) Interpretations

Examined here is the way the link between capitalism and bonded labour has been interpreted and reinterpreted in the debate over the past half century about rural development in India. A number of those who initially equated debt bondage with a pre-capitalist production relation, and dismissed arguments that unfree labour and accumulation were compatible, changed their minds and espoused the interpretation they had previously opposed. Among the resulting errors perpetuated by more recent entrants to this debate is a misinterpretation of Marxist theory about both relational and systemic transition. The ensuing confusion has prevented them from understanding either the genesis of the debate about the role of unfreedom in advanced capitalism, or why – in the form of deproletarianisation – bonded labour currently serves the ends of the agribusiness enterprise.     

The politics of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: government action and public response

A decade ago it seemed likely that African governments would be destabilised by the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This article tests some of the presumptions in such forecasting with an examination of the South African case. It begins with an assessment of the effects on the public health system of the South African government’s efforts to cope with the illness. Efforts to implement universal treatment of people who are HIV-positive appear to have strengthened government, while the costs have been affordable. The efforts have extended the embrace of the public health system and prompted the engagement of civil society in policy formation and implementation. Survey evidence suggests that the government has gained public approval and that its health service delivery has become more socially accountable. Civil protest to engender political reforms in the treatment of AIDS patients has enhanced the role of constitutional checks on executive authority.     

Monetary Orientalism: Currency Wars and the Framing of China as Global Cheater

China stands as a paradigmatic sign of deep angst for the United States in late stage capitalism, a menacing spectre of foreignness and otherness that organises Western popular anxieties at a time where nothing is fixed within international markets. Focusing on the so called “currency wars” debate that erupted in the early twenty-first century, when the PRC was accused of devaluating its currency, this article contends that PRC’s representation as a prime currency manipulator and cheater can be conceptualised through what I am calling monetary Orientalism or the ways imperialising thoughts circulate around monetary flows in relation to a rising Asiatic superpower. This framework serves as a prime lens for situating US nationalist sentiment and its sense of an exceptional global self against what it perceives as a global other.     

Explaining race,poverty, and gender disparities in advanced course‐taking

We use panel data on Florida high school students to examine race, poverty, and gender disparities in advanced course‐taking. While white students are more likely to take advanced courses than black and Hispanic students, these disparities are eliminated when we condition on observable pre–high school characteristics. In fact, black and Hispanic students are more likely than observably similar white students to take advanced courses. Controlling for students' pre–high school characteristics substantially reduces poverty gaps, modestly reduces Asian–white gaps, and makes little dent in female–male gaps. Black and Hispanic students attend high schools that increase their likelihood of taking advanced courses relative to observably similar white students; this advantage is largely driven by minorities disproportionately attending magnet schools. Finally, recent federal and state efforts aimed at increasing access to advanced courses to poor and minority students appear to have succeeded in raising the share of students who take advanced courses from 2003 to 2006. However, secular trends (or spillovers of the policies to non‐poor, non‐minority students) have spurred faster growth for other students, contributing to widening demographic gaps in these years. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

中国文化软实力及其产业竞争力的SWOT分析报告

借助于SWOT分析方法来分析文化产业本身的一些深层次问题.有利于从产业经济学层面认识文化产业发展的内在规律和特点.运用SWOT分析模型,可以明确我国文化软实力发展及其产业竞争力提升所面临的竞争优势、竞争劣势、机会和威胁等.在合理假设的前提下,通过对SWOT矩阵的分析,将四要素相组合所设计出的在不同情况下提高我国文化软实力的发展策略,有助于为我国文化战略和政策制定提出建设性意见,推进我国文化产业的发展.     

中国行政法治三十年

改革开放的三十年就是中国行政法治发展的三十年。平稳的动力机制之下,行政法治稳步推进。对改革开放以来中国行政法治进行比较全面的考察并进行反思,以期引起学术界对中国行政法治更广泛和深入的思考。     

试论娱乐服务场所公安机关治安管理的机制建设——以沐浴行业治安管理为例

入世以后,我国娱乐服务场所在扩大就业、提高人们生活质量、方便群众需求等方面发挥了积极的作用。但由于法律法规不完善、场所自管意识不强、治安主体关系模糊等原因,导致场所管理秩序混乱,持续发展乏力。以沐浴行业为个案,分析沐浴行业公安机关治安机制中存在的问题,探讨构建符合时代要求的娱乐服务场所治安管理工作的新机制。     

社会主义新农村建设中的政府能力——公共产品的视角

社会主义新农村建设是我国现代化的一个关键环节.从一定意义上说,社会主义新农村的建设过程就是农村公共产品供给效率的改善及供给结构的优化过程.从公共产品的视角出发,有利于深入探讨社会主义新农村建设中政府能力的本质、问题与成因,政府与乡村自组织的关系等重要方面.我们认为,政府是农村公共产品的主要责任者,政府供给农村公共产品的程度与质量是政府能力的重要表现;农民的自组织化是提高农村公共产品供给效率及促进基层民主发展的内在要求;厘清政府与乡村自组织的关系是社会主义新农村建设的应有之义.推进社会主义新农村建设,要求政府既能够承担农村公共产品的供给责任,又能够在公共产品供给中处理好与乡村自组织的关系,为此,应当划分好政府在农村公共产品供给中的责任;改革乡村治理结构,提升基层政府的能力;培育农村自治组织,提高农村公共产品的供给效率;处理好政府与农村自组织的关系,促进农村基层民主的发展.     

Rejoinder

Abstract

Many of Mr. van Walt's criticisms are based solely on fabrications of his own making. For example, I am accused, twice, of referring to myself as a “scholar” and to my article as “scholarly.” I could find no trace of either. I am further accused of considering all Tibetan refugee accounts as “unreliable.” To be sure, I believe that one cannot base the study of historical events solely on refugee accounts, but that does not make all of these stories “unreliable.” After all, Dawa Norbu, a refugee himself, wrote in Red Star Over Tibet, “I never saw or heard of any case of misconduct by a Red soldier.” I would never argue that this statement was unreliable. We are further told that I refer to Tibetans as Chinese when in the second paragraph of my review I wrote, “… Tibetans [are] only one of 56 minority nationalities.” Chinese citizens yes, ethnic Hans no. A final example, although there are many more, is Mr. van Walt's attempt to attribute to me the opinion that

… the only importance to the Western academic world is that the situation in Tibet can teach us how to eliminate a “mystical religion” and that “it gives clues as to how Peking will integrate a capitalist Taiwan into a Communist China in the future”. (emphasis added)