非政府组织与东南亚国家政治发展

非政府组织在东南亚国家社会政治发展进程中发挥着重要作用。非政府组织的活动已经渗透各国社会经济和政治生活的许多方面。本文在简单回顾东南亚各国非政府组织发展历史的基础上,分析各国对待非政府组织的态度和政策,及其形成这些政策的原因。随着东南亚国家政治的转型,政府对非政府组织的政策也处于进一步的调整之中,其基本趋势是,相互包容,相互促进,共谋国家发展。     

政法高职院校口才训练模式初探

口才是现代人必备的基本技能之一,但如何能更好地掌握它、自如地运用它,是摆在人们面前的一项重大课题。本文拟从政法高职院校所开设的口才课入手,对政法高职院校如何构建切实可行的口才训练模式做了粗浅的探讨。     

古罗马社会的女性、身体与政治——以莎士比亚笔下的伏伦妮娅形象为中心

普鲁塔克的《希腊罗马名人传》对莎士比亚罗马历史剧《科里奥兰纳斯》有深刻影响。不过,普鲁塔克笔下以母亲和罗马好公民双重身份三次出现在“家”和“敌营”两个空间的伏伦妮娅形象略显单薄,止于一种笼统的静态之美,而莎士比亚笔下以女人、母亲、国家政治的隐性操手三重身份六次显性在场、三次隐性在场的伏伦妮娅,展现出多维空间下的悖论之美,表现出一种理性、欲望、激情与活力交织下的女性动态之变与灵魂之美。莎士比亚从生活真实出发,在广阔的历史背景和富有时代特征的典型环境下通过对伏伦妮娅形象的重塑,反映女性在家庭领域和政治领域的生存现状。他围绕女性—身体—政治这一脉络,通过对伏伦妮娅的隐性政治参与与其家庭教育方式之间关系的想象与构建,将家庭伦理与国家政治有机联系在一起,以彰显其家国同构的思想。     

中国乡镇行政管理体制的历史沿革及其启示

在整个20世纪的“现代国家政权建设”中,我国出现了四种新型的乡镇行政管理模式,即晚清至民国时期推行的所谓“乡镇自治”、中国共产党建立的“议行合一制”的乡镇基层政权、“政社合一制”的人民公社和“乡政村治”的二元体制模式。中国传统小农经济的有限剩余根本无法支撑一个全面渗透穷乡僻壤的庞大国家机器和现代工业体系,致使我国乡镇行政管理体制频繁变动且反复无常。下一步的乡镇政府体制改革基本方向和总体目标应该是:进一步加强和改进党对农村工作的领导方式,完善“村民自治”制度,培育和发展农村新型合作经济组织和社会中介组织,加快建设适应社会主义市场经济体制的法制型、民主型、服务型乡镇基层政府,不断提高社会管理与公共服务水平。     

毛泽东晚年政治观浅析

毛泽东的晚年无疑是这个伟人一生中最为复杂和矛盾的时期。毛泽东在这一时期的政治观点,不管正确或错误,都是历史留给我们的宝贵的精神财富。     

Junior coalition parties in the British context: Explaining the Liberal Democrat collapse at the 2015 general election

The Liberal Democrats’ performance in the 2015 general election provides an opportunity to examine the only case in the post-war period of a national junior coalition partner in British politics. Comparative research highlights competence, trust and leadership as three key challenges facing junior coalition parties. This article uses British Election Study data to show that the Liberal Democrats failed to convince the electorate on all three counts. The article also uses constituency-level data to examine the continued benefits of incumbency to the party and the impact of constituency campaigning. It finds that while the incumbency advantage remained for the Liberal Democrats, it was ultimately unable to mitigate the much larger national collapse.     

Ordinary Singapore: The Decline of Singapore Exceptionalism

For decades Singapore’s ruling elite has sought to legitimate its rule by claiming to be a talented and competent elite that has made Singapore an exception among its neighbours – an exemplar of success and progress in a sea of mediocrity. In this article it is contended that this basis of legitimation has been irreversibly damaged. In essence, it is suggested that the governing People’s Action Party has lost control of the national narrative, and its achievements are increasingly regarded as being “ordinary” by the electorate. The mystique of exceptionalism, which was the basis on which the government was widely presumed to be above the need for close scrutiny and accountability, has collapsed. This collapse has substantially levelled the political playing field, at least in terms of expectations and assumptions. The government can and probably will continue to win elections and rule through its control of the instruments of institutional power, but the genie of scepticism and accountability has been released from its bottle, and it is hard to see how it can be put back in. This fundamentally changes the condition of Singapore politics: the narrative of exceptionalism is dead and the Singapore elite finds itself struggling to cope in a new and critical political environment.     

To Care and Protect: Care Workers Confronting Sweden Democrats in their Workplace

Austerity policies across European countries have encountered diverse forms of public protest and resistance. In Sweden, we have seen the emergence of a number of networks and organizations which take care workers’ professional identity as their point of departure. These networks and organizations stress the impossibility of being professional care workers in slimmed-down, neoliberal organizations. Parallel to this, and sometimes embedded into one another, female-dominated professions (e.g. social workers, nurses, doctors, and teachers) have been engaged in opposing restrictive refugee policies. This article analyses how care workers in an emergency room in Malmö mobilized against a visit by Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the right-wing, xenophobic Sweden Democrats. The article explores how workers used a gendered discourse of care and professionalism to argue that their actions were consistent with both organizational culture and their professional ethics. The article shows how, by defending their professional role of providing quality care to all in need, workers challenge both austerity and racist policies, which both impose restrictions on who has the right to care. Theoretically, the article explores how the politicization of care creates spaces of resistance, to critique both austerity policies and exclusionary understandings of national belonging. The study stresses the importance of identifying emerging forms of collective resistance among care workers at the intersection of the struggles against austerity and right-wing xenophobic parties.     

Contemporary Russian conservatism

This article analyzes contemporary Russian conservatism through the prism of ideational and positionist ideological perspectives. The author argues that Russian conservatism proposes a distinct value package through its anthropocentric nature, its plans for modernization of Russia, and its future outlook that must rest on the best elements of tradition. The author compares these trends with the Western conservative tradition, making distinct parallels between the two strands of conservative thought. The author also explores the attitude of Russian conservatism toward the post-modern world. This is intrinsically linked to the discussion of Russia's attempts to develop a political and ideational alternative to the West, introduce a distinct model for the architecture of international relations, and find Russia's position in the global world.     

Discipline and power: knowledge of China in political science

Mainstream political science treats China as an anomaly that has not followed the “right” path of development, that is, a path that confirms the worldview, normative values, knowledge, and expectations of a Euromodern origin. This essay identifies inherent biases in the discipline and shows how the dominant disciplinary approach to Chinese politics has largely remained focused on validating questionable political-scientific tenets. A tentative proposal is offered for intellectual steps toward more openness and efficacy in disciplinary knowledge production and consumption. The argument is not about overcoming Eurocentrism by promoting Chinese exceptionalism. On the contrary, it is political, and challenges the power of current organizing principles of knowledge in search of a more accurate and cogent understanding of Chinese and global politics.