Elite and Everyday Social Contracts in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Pathways to Forging a National Social Contract?

ABSTRACT

The Dayton Peace Agreement ended the violence in Bosnia–Herzegovina, however, it also solidified antagonistic political identities leading to the creation of two social contracts: an ‘elite social contract’ involving primarily political elites of the main ethnic groups and an ‘everyday social contract’ involving ordinary citizens trying to manage a complex social and economic environment. The first social contract is hegemonic, however, alternative, non-nationalist views are slowly emerging. Grassroots groups, the surviving remnants of inter-ethnic coexistence, the integrating pull of market forces and the presence of a large diaspora all constitute resources for the creation of a resilient national social contract.     

Changing classes,changing preferences: how social class mobility affects economic preferences

Abstract

While many studies have identified an association between social class and economic preferences, we know little about the implications of changes in class location for these preferences. This article assesses how social class and intra-generational class mobility affect economic preferences drawing on longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey. In doing so, the article adopts a post-industrial perspective that considers horizontal and vertical class divisions. Even when time-invariant characteristics of individuals are kept constant (through fixed-effects estimation), it is found that both vertical and horizontal class location explain economic preferences. Thus, these estimations suggest that social class moulds preferences, even when accounting for factors that can lead to selection into classes. Moreover, people who change classes hold different economic preferences than their peers in the class of origin, but do not completely assimilate into their class of destination. This implies that growing intra-generational class mobility could undermine the class basis of political conflict.     

French engagement versus British commitment. Was it interlingual miscommunication or political manipulation?

ABSTRACT

The efforts undertaken to establish the contemporary European Union started many years earlier. The history of establishing a pan-European organization is interesting not only for historians and economists but also translators and linguists as it is the history of interlingual communication (negotiations and agreements). One such negotiation was allegedly ineffective due to the difference in understanding the French term engagement and its English equivalent employed by translators and interpreters, that is to say the English term commitment. The authors aim at presenting the political background of negotiations and the social semiotic analysis of the terms in question in order to provoke the reader to find the answer to the question whether the negotiation was broken due to interlingual miscommunication resulting from erroneously chosen equivalent or it was destined to failure from the very beginning due to socio-political and economic interests of negotiating parties. In order to achieve that goal, the authors have analysed notes exchanged between the governments of France and Great Britain in course of negotiation. The history of negotiation and the linguistic analysis are combined to illustrate the complexity of meaning construction and the semiotic implications of the contextual dependence of meanings of terms and their dynamic evolution in time and space.     

Lecture Versus Simulation: Testing the Long-Term Effects

Abstract

Active learning techniques are being use with increasing frequency in the classroom and more time is being dedicated to designing and implementing them. However, the literature still suffers from a lack of rigorous empirical methods to test the effects of simulations. Most of the claimed benefits of utilizing simulations, and other active learning techniques, are improved soft skills and higher order thinking like empathy, confidence, public-speaking abilities, and interpersonal skills—all of which don’t lend themselves well to scientific measurement. This gap in the literature is especially troubling considering that time spent using simulations is time not spent using other methods. This article seeks to test the differing impacts of simulations versus traditional lectures over the long-term using a simple 30-minute simulation and rigorous experimental methods. The most important results show that students learn more initially from a lecture, but that students who were exposed to the simulation were better able to retain that information over the long-term.     

Bricks in the wall: the politics of housing in Europe

Abstract

Housing has important economic, political, and social ramifications for Western Europe and beyond. Despite its importance in shaping economic and political outcomes, however, housing remains in the peripheral vision of major comparative political economy debates. This introduction to the special issue accomplishes four objectives. First it demonstrates how housing defies current political economy typologies by failing to conform to their theoretical and empirical predictions. Second it summarises the current state of housing research within political science, which still remains in its infancy. Third it highlights how the contributions in this special issue expand our understanding of how housing causes and is shaped by political and economic outcomes in Europe. Finally, this introduction concludes by outlining how the special issue contributions demonstrate housing’s importance for the welfare state, political preferences and electoral shifts, regulatory and redistributive policies, and financialisation and household indebtedness in Europe.     

浅论清末民初章士钊的政党思想

章士钊是中国近代史上著名的思想家和理论家,他注意观察和研究近代民主政治,尤其是政党政治,他强调党纲的重要性,推崇英国式的政党内阁制,并由此提出了毁党造党说,即政党和国内政治资源的重新优化组合,一方面,所谓党者尽毁之,既毁其名又毁其实,另一方面,造有党纲之党,在国内形成两大政党对抗的局面。毁党造党说轰动一时,但因不符合中国的国情而遭到失败。     

试论儒家德治思想基础、特征及其局限

儒家政治思想是中国传统意识形态的基石,儒家的德治思想又是这个基石的内核,由此形成了独特的德治思维.儒家思想家们把从事政治活动的每个人都想象成为在道德方面完善的主体,这也是中国传统政治中的主流意识形态.本文在分析儒家德治思想的基础和特征的同时,从政治思维、政治理性、方法论等方面又进一步分析了儒家德治思想的局限.     

规范网络政治参与：现代民主政治发展的新思路

网络在中国的迅猛发展,深刻地影响着公民的政治参与程度和热情,推进了现代民主政治的发展进程。本文从网络政治参与的内涵和特点入手,客观地分析了网络政治参与给我国民主政治建设、政治稳定等方面带来的双重影响,并提出规范网络政治参与的对策。     

政治道德建设中领导干部政绩观问题探讨

当代中国正处于现代化建设的伟大历史时期,中国的社会主义现代化事业必须在中国共产党的领导下才能取得成功;党必须加强自身建设,提高和完善领导水平和执政能力,才能应对危机,迎接挑战。而加强政治道德建设是坚持和改善党的领导的重要条件之一,也是迫切需要予以重视的问题。因此,当务之急是通过政治道德建设,引导领导干部树立正确的政绩观。