From patronage politics to community deliberation: the recent experience of democratic school management in Brazil

The article discusses the limits and possibilities of school empowerment within education systems plagued by pervasive patronage politics. The analysis focuses on reform initiatives implemented by Brazilian sub‐national governments throughout the 1980s and 1990s to allow for the election of school principals by parents, teachers and students. Until the implementation of this reform, state and local authorities had relied on the school system as a source of patronage resources, and principals were nominated according to political criteria. The new system of democratic school management was expected to undermine this patronage‐based system and foster community participation in school decisions. The article relies on secondary evidence to assess the impact of school elections in what concerns the participation of parents, students and teachers in school affairs and the relationship between schools, party politicians and education administrators. It concludes that high levels of social inequality and the lack of a universalistic and effective system of welfare provision constitute serious obstacles to the empowerment of disadvantaged groups in developing societies such as Brazil. On the other hand, the article argues that school empowerment has the potential to undermine resilient patronage structures, by introducing universalistic mechanisms of decision‐making and making school administrators more accountable to their constituencies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

看守所“政治攻势”不力的主客观因素及矫正方法

“政治攻势”是看守所配合深挖犯罪、打击严重刑事犯罪的一项重要工作,同时也是当前看守所工作中比较薄弱的环节。主要原因是看守民警素质低,缺乏竞争奖励机制。解决的办法是要制定切实可行的制度,并使之规范化,真正发挥看守所在深挖犯罪中的“材料库”作用,为打击刑事犯罪服务。     

关于建设社会主义政治文明的思考

发展社会主义民主政治,建设社会主义政治文明是党在社会主义初级阶段基本路线的坚持和发展,是全面建设小康社会的需求;党中央强调社会主义政治文明建设,提出"三个文明"要协调发展,既是对社会主义发展的规律性认识,也是对社会主义国家执政党建设的规律性认识;建设社会主义政治文明首先要加强社会主义政治制度文明建设。     

思想政治教育意蕴的人文精神——思想政治教育学科名称的几点思考

思想政治教育这一名称是特定历史阶段的特殊产物,在我党思想政治教育史上发挥过积极作用,但随着我国市场经济的逐步完善和市民社会的逐步发育,这一名称的弊端凸显。为适应以人为本的执政理念和对人的终级关怀,理应使用人文教育取而代之。     

政治资源基本理论初探

政治资源是社会资源体系的一个重要组成部分,政治资源是指能够使政治行为主体对政治客体发生作用,从而影响政治变迁、维护政治稳定、推动政治发展的物质与非物质因素的总和。政治资源具有有效性、稀缺性、阶级性、流动性、可塑性等特点,在理论研究上和实践中都有重要价值。     

西方政治思想研究的方法论选择——文本中心主义与语境主义的争论：以马基雅维里为例

文本中心主义和语境主义是政治思想史研究中的两大竞争性方法论,它们都致力于重新发掘出古典政治思想文本的真实意图,但取向和侧重却迥异.本文以这两个方法论的代表人物列奥·施特劳斯和昆延·斯金纳对马基雅维里的研究为标本,探究了文本中心主义和语境主义两种方法论在还原文本真实意图上的基本特性以及各自的优越性和可能的缺陷.     

Institutional Inconsistency and Political Instability: Polity Duration, 1800–2000

This article examines how political institutional structures affect political instability. It classifies polities as autocracies or democracies based on three institutional dimensions: election of the executive, constraints on executive decision-making authority, and extent of political participation. It hypothesizes that strongly autocratic and democratic regimes will exhibit the greatest stability resulting from self-enforcing equilibria, whereby the maintenance of a polity's institutional structure is in the interest of political elites, whether through autocratic or democratic control. Institutionally inconsistent regimes (those exhibiting a mix of institutional characteristics of both democracy and autocracy) lack these self-enforcing characteristics and are expected to be shorter-lived. Using a log-logistic duration model, polity survival time ratios are estimated. Institutionally consistent polities are significantly more stable than institutionally inconsistent polities. The least stable political systems are dictatorships with high levels of political participation. The most unstable configuration for polities with an elected executive is one where the executive is highly constrained, but the electorate is very small.     

他信政府的危机及其启示

今年年初以来,泰国政坛发生了一场政治危机。本文首先回顾了此次泰国他信政府政治危机的由来与发展过程,然后分析为什么颇有作为和成就的他信政府会面临一场自1992年以来大规模的反政府示威活动,最后作者试图从这场危机中找出一些令人深思的教益。     

网络的发展对我国政治安全机制的冲击

网络的发展使我国政治安全机制的各个层面面临巨大冲击,主要表现是网络成员身份数字化、电子化,安全工作对象变得难以识别和掌握;网络使政府对信息的控制力下降,统一舆论难以再续;网络催生全球化理念的张扬,国家和民族意识趋于淡化;网络成为少数西方国家对我国进行"和平演变"的工具,防腐反侵难度加大;网络开辟了信息窃取和破坏的新途径,政治安全防范面临全新挑战.面对上述冲击,我们必须居安思危,未雨绸缪,在实践中不断探索和完善我国的政治安全机制.     

人权的本性与价值位阶

只讲人权的阶级性 ,否认普遍性 ;只考虑“多数人的人权”而忽视“少数人的人权” ;片面强调“主权高于人权”、“集体人权高于个体人权” ;或只讲“生存权是首要人权” ,忽视政治人权居先的价值地位 ,这些观点都有失偏颇。人权是自然性与社会性、阶级性与普遍性的统一 ,抽象地强调“主权高于人权” ,有可能为以“主权压人权”的专制政权提供理论支持。当今中国的首要人权应是政治人权。