Revisiting Transnational European Consociationalism: The European Union a Decade After Lisbon

This article discusses the notion of consociationalism as applied to the EU and assesses whether the institutional and procedural changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) and by the management of the Euro and refugee crises still warrant considering the EU as a case of consociational democracy. Our contention is that the changes introduced by the ToL bore the promise to strengthen the consociational structural traits of the Union but that the further institutional and procedural changes engendered by the management of the Euro and refugee crises have made the behavioral dimension of consociationalism all the more necessary just as the accommodating orientation of the political elites had begun to evaporate. We support this argument by looking at empirical evidence which allows us to offer a set of propositions on the effects of the recent crises on the attitudes of the European elites towards the future of EU democracy.     

Against Localism: Does Decentralising Power to Communities Fail Minorities?

The continued decline in levels of political engagement among British citizens has led many politicians, commentators and academics from across the political spectrum to advocate a move toward a more direct form of democracy via some kind of localism. The claim is that citizens feel increasingly estranged from the democratic process, and from those organisations on which they have historically relied to represent them within the political system. Consequently, localists argue, there now exists a gap between the people, the institutions which are supposed to work on their behalf, and the decisions made in their name, so the system needs to be reformed in such a way as to give individuals and local communities more of a direct input into the decision-making process. Calls for a more direct form of democracy via localism are popular among members of the progressive left and the 'new Conservative' right, and have become so dominant in political discourse that it is often suggested that 'we are all localists now'. This article raises questions about the localist agenda, and suggests that the adoption of a more direct form of democracy in Britain may not only fail to address the decline in political engagement, but may also result in the exclusion, marginalisation, and oppression of minority groups.     

Liberal Democracy Series I, 1972–1988: Definition, measurement, and trajectories

The purpose of this paper is to provide the definitional and empirical background to the Liberal Democracy Series I Index of democracy that is available in Bollen (1998) but whose rationale has not been published. More specifically, the paper (1) gives a definition of liberal democracy that has guided the formation of this index, (2) describes measures that correspond to this definition, (3) provides a measurement model that links the indicators of democracy to the latent variables that represent the concept, (4) explains the construction of the Liberal Democracy Series I Index, and (5) compares the Series I democracy measure to two other widely used democracy measures in a latent curve model. The Liberal Democracy Series I Index provides a simple unweighted measure of liberal democracy that minimizes the bias in expert ratings, is highly reliable and highly correlated with the latent liberal democracy variable. The evidenced reviewed here suggests that its measurement properties are superior to the Polity and Vanhanen democracy indices with the exception that it is available for a more limited period of years than these latter two.     

Relativism

Modern democracies increasingly confuse civic or political equality with a radical relativism that calls into question legitimate principles of hierarchy and the very idea of reasonable value judgments. This confusion reflects a “corruption,” in Montesquieu’s sense, of democracy rooted in a refusal to recognize distinctions that are integral to both human nature and social life. A moderate form of cultural relativism is a genuine intellectual achievement that helps combat ethnocentrism and allows one to better appreciate the full range of human experience. But criteria of meaning and truth are by no means entirely dependent upon cultural context. Our contemporary awareness of the “relativity” of cultures and historical experiences must be complemented by a robust appreciation of the universality of Reason and citizenship.

政府公权力异化的微观经济机理研究

公权力问题是吏治的一个核心问题,政府公权力异化的预防和治理是当代中国法治政府和责任政府建设的一项重要内容。从微观机理探讨公权力异化的成因,以此为基础构建公权力治理的多种途径,对于当代中国吏治研究具有重大的理论和现实意义。     

Preferred learning style： Gender influence on preferred learning style among business students

Past studies indicate that there was a correlation between gender and students＇ preferred styles of learning. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the influence of gender on the learning style preferences of business students based on the VARK （Fleming, 2002b） learning style survey, consisting of the V（isual）, A（ural）, R（ead-Write） and K（inesthefic） learning styles. The sampling design used for this study was non-probability sampling and the sampling technique conducted was convenient sampling on 207 male students and 199 female students from the business school. The study found that gender only influences the V（isual） and A（ural） learning styles of business students. In addition to that, even though both male and female students exhibited a similar response towards both these learning styles, female students were found to demonstrate slightly higher preference for the V（isual） and A（ural） learning styles as compared to the male students. The findings draw attention to facets of learning that may exist in pre-university and tertiary classrooms with a combination of female and male students, which could have an impact on teaching and managing these students.     

试论构建“东亚共同体”的思想文化基础——从历史启迪与未来追求的视角

创建共同合作、协同发展的“东亚共同体”,业已成为不可抗拒的发展趋势。历史事实证明:东亚地区是世界历史上最早“一体化”的区域;它既有成功的、进步的古代“东亚文化圈”,也有反动的、失败的近代“大东亚共荣圈”,还有设想中的“东亚共同体”。然而,现实中的“历史认识问题”,是直接关系到“东亚共同体”能否迅速建立的前提条件。为促进未来“东亚共同体”区域内的沟通和交流,需要在汉字的基础上创建共通文字,这不是复旧,而是与时俱进的创新。当人们思考构建“东亚共同体”时,在普遍关注经济协作的情况下,尤应重视思想文化观念的问题,因为东亚各国间的政治的、经济的、外交的问题,不能光靠政治的、经济的、外交的手段来解决,而确实需要从思想文化观念方面去寻求解决问题的办法。     

国家安全领导体制的变革与东北亚地区安全

以国家安全委员会为代表的国家安全领导体制是现代国家安全决策、协调和咨询的最核心机构。从理论上讲,国家安全领导体制关系到国家安全战略的每个环节,可以结合外交政策分析的不同视角,同时又具有比较政治研究的重大意义。从实践上来看,美国、英国、法国等世界上主要大国都已建立起较为完善的国家安全领导体系,而东北亚中、日、韩三国从2013年开始也相继进行了国家安全领导体制的变革,建立了国家安全委员会及其常设机构。尽管从人员构成、战略目标、运行模式等方面来看,三国变革后的国家安全领导体制还有差异,但是国家安全领导体制的变化对东北亚局势还是造成了深远影响。中日关系、朝鲜半岛问题、东北亚地区的安全架构都出现了新的变化;同时,各国国内安全问题,特别是非传统安全问题已成为新的国家安全领导体制的主要涉及领域。东北亚地区国家安全领导体制改革是全球范围内国家安全转化和重构的一部分,未来的国家安全领导体制建设要从理论上探讨如何规避其中的官僚政治特别是小集团思维因素,在理念上要与国家安全观紧密结合起来,在实践上要充分考虑其长期性、复杂性,并为体制变革提供强有力的法律保障。     

亚太地区的安全稳定与俄中利益

亚太地区出现一个全新的局面。一方面,区域内的国际合作正在拓展,一个能够带来区域稳定和安全并得到普遍认同的体系正在形成。另一方面,亚太国家之间争夺地区内影响力的对抗和竞争的危险性日益加重,甚至有可能导致公开冲突并阻碍区域一体化的进程。为此,继续构建一个囊括地区内所有国家的,以合作、互信、对等安全为基础的新机制十分重要。亚太地区的发展直接影响俄罗斯联邦的利益,俄罗斯倡导要确保地区的稳定和安全,以及囊括所有亚太国家的建设性合作。近年来,俄罗斯政府特别重视促进东西伯利亚及远东地区的经济发展,该地区是俄罗斯实现亚太地区一体化的一个重要载体。开展同中国的合作,进一步开发俄罗斯远东地区,对于俄罗斯贯彻经济战略、实现经济现代化、融入亚太地区的经济空间,都具有原则性的重要意义。     

全球化进程中法治基础的转变——以世界主义民主理论的全球治理为出发点

全球化进程使以主权国家为核心的世界秩序发生变化,以世界主义民主理论为基础的全球治理理论的兴起给传统法治理论提供了新的研究思路。在全球化背景下,从世界主义民主的视角来看待法治理论所面临的问题,就是要重新审视全球化背景下民族国家法治的政治基础问题,这也是中国法理学面临的重要问题。