Three-Fifths a Racist: A Typology for Analyzing Public Opinion About Race

Is race politics primarily about symbolic racism, principled conservatism, or group conflict? After almost three decades, this debate among some of our best scholars seems scarcely closer to resolution, yet the theoretical, empirical, and normative issues at stake remain enormous. All three parties to the debate falsely assume that the causal structure driving opinion about race policy is homogenous. I reorient and advance the debate by showing how a methodological shift to a data-driven taxonomy of subjects can elucidate how race politics really is complex. I use this taxonomy to run new analyses, and to explain and assess the seemingly contradictory results of previous contributions to the debate. Each of the major parties to the debate is partially right in their account of public opinion about race politics, but about independently identifiable sub-sets of subjects.     

地方党政关系的宪政思考

地方党政关系是中国地方政治结构的重要组成元素之一,地方党政关系的发展对于地方政治发展具有重要影响。从宪政视角看,地方“党”与“政”之间要形成和谐稳定的党政关系,需做好两方面的工作：在法治方面,通过法治形成对地方党政关系的刚性规范;在制度安排方面,重新分配地方党委和地方政府的权力和职能,地方党委享有决策权,地方政府拥有执行权。     

妇女参政议政问题研究

妇女参政议政不仅是检验男女是否平等的一个重要标志,而且体现着国家的文明程度。我国妇女的进步与发展,不仅对我国的改革开放和现代化事业,而且对整个人类进步都将产生深远影响。因此,正确认识我国妇女参政议政的现状,分析我国妇女参政议政存在的问题和成因,并积极探寻提高妇女参政议政能力的途径和对蓑,对于加强社会主义政治文明建设,促进女性与社会和谐发展,具有十分重大的意义。     

‘Men are not born fit for citizenship,but must be made so’: Spinoza and citizenship

The modern conception of citizenship contains often unacknowledged key background assumptions – about the role of rights in citizenship, about the citizen modelled on a liberal autonomous and rational individual, and about the equality of citizens within a democratic state. Spinoza's political works give us a useful perspective on the historicity of these assumptions. Whereas the modern conception is abstract, universalist, and depoliticised, Spinoza's sense of the citizen's belonging is adamantly specific, particularist, and political, and offers a way forward for rethinking citizenship. The key concepts of freedom and republicanism are analysed, and a political reading is developed of Spinoza's view of citizenship in terms of a way of conducting politics.     

Resource powers? Minerals,energy and the rise of the BRICS

The rise of new economic powers has seen increasing attention focused on the international role of the BRICS countries. Importantly, a common feature uniting the BRICS is that they are all resource-rich, and many analysts (and some BRICS governments) have argued that natural resources are one of the key factors propelling the rise of the group. This article explores the BRICS’ emerging status as ‘resource powers’, examining how resource wealth underpins their economic development and foreign policy strategies, and thus contributes to their growing influence in international affairs. It is argued that through the use of nationalistic mining and energy policies, the BRICS governments have exploited natural resources for both domestic economic and international diplomatic objectives. However, there are several challenges and emerging risks facing the BRICS’ resource strategies, which mean that resource wealth is making a positive – though inherently limited – contribution to the growing international status of the group.     

Towards agonistic peacebuilding? Exploring the antagonism–agonism nexus in the Middle East Peace process

Many contemporary conflicts are framed as antagonistic and difficult to resolve because of their zero-sum framing among the disputants. This article addresses the antagonism–agonism nexus and the political and contested nature of building peace. It has a three-fold aim: (1) to critically assess the interplay between constructive and destructive dynamics; (2) to analyse the circumstances under which conflict may move from antagonism to agonism; and (3) to advance the novel notion of agonistic peacebuilding. The Middle East Peace process is used as a critical case of intractable conflict to elucidate the enabling and restraining conditions for agonistic peacebuilding.     

El análisis comparativo: algunos aportes latinoamericanos en la segunda mitad del siglo XX

In this article the importance of comparative analysis is explored as a tool of understanding for Latin American reality, through the identification of some problem axes that dominated the Latin American socio-political thought during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Specifically, we focus on the second half of the last century, when, from a historical and sociological perspective, these axes appear reformulated in the work of authors like Sergio Bagú, Antonio Garcia, and Fernando H. Cardoso, through concepts such as “commercial capitalism”, “situations of dependency”, and “agrarian reform”     

Police reform in Russia: the policy process in a hybrid regime

Do hybrid regimes have policy processes distinct from other regime types? This article explores this issue through a case study of police reform in Russia, focusing specifically on the adoption of a new Law on the Police from 2009 to 2011. Drawing on concepts from the comparative policymaking literature, the study traces the policy enactment process and shows how the public parts of the process were largely (but not entirely) a façade behind which the real policy process took place.     

Social dynamics and nationhood in employment politics in the Trepça mining complex in Socialist Kosovo (1960s)

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the interconnection of socio-economic divisions and nationhood in Socialist Kosovo through a case-study of employment politics in the Trepça mining complex during the 1960s. The article first describes the shifting cadre politics in Trepça, which aimed to increase the degree of skills of the work collective and to address the dramatic under-representation of Albanians in management and specialist positions. It then analyses the departure of Serb and Montenegrin specialists from the enterprise and the internal dispute over the proportional relevance of socio-economic and national grounds for this trend. The second half of the article situates these developments against two levels of social division in the enterprise: vertical social divisions between manual production workers and specialist cadres and horizontal divisions at the top management level. The article argues that the divisions between low-skilled production workers and management personnel was not politically relevant. Such vertical social divisions were depoliticised and denationalised. The outspoken national dimension of cadre politics for specialist personnel and the pluralist tendencies in the management culture of Yugoslav enterprises during the late 1960s, on the other hand, nationalised and politicised the competition between a new generation of Albanian technically-schooled specialists and the predominantly Serb, politically-appointed managers in function.     

Day labourers,radical unionism and collective action in Andalusia

This article analyses the strategies and the collective action of radical agrarian trade unions in Andalusia (the southern region of Spain) from the Political Transition until today. It traces the origins, evolution and recent transformations of the radical day labourer organisation, the Land Workers Union (Sindicato de Obreros del Campo) and the Andalusian Union of Workers (Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores). The article outlines the main factors for the survival of these organisations by using a synthetic and eclectic theoretical approach to collective action.