Economic grievances and political protest

How do economic grievances affect citizens’ inclination to protest? Given rising levels of inequality and widespread economic hardship in the aftermath of the Great Recession, this question is crucial for political science: if adverse economic conditions depress citizens’ engagement, as many contributions have argued, then the economic crisis may well feed into a crisis of democracy. However, the existing research on the link between economic grievances and political participation remains empirically inconclusive. It is argued in this article that this is due to two distinct shortcomings, which are effectively addressed by combining the strengths of political economy and social movement theories. Based on ESS and EU-SILC data from 2006–2012, as well as newly collected data on political protest in 28 European countries, a novel, more fine-grained conceptualisation of objective economic grievances considerably improves our understanding of the direct link between economic grievances and protest behaviour. While structural economic disadvantage (i.e., the level of grievances) unambiguously de-mobilises individuals, the deterioration of economic prospects (i.e., a change in grievances) instead increases political activity. Revealing these two countervailing effects provides an important clarification that helps reconcile many seemingly conflicting findings in the existing literature. Second, the article shows that the level of political mobilisation substantially moderates this direct link between individual hardship and political activity. In a strongly mobilised environment, even structural economic disadvantage is no longer an impediment to political participation. There is a strong political message in this interacting factor: if the presence of organised and visible political action is a decisive signal for citizens that conditions the micro-level link between economic grievances and protest, then democracy itself – that is, organised collective action – can help sustain political equality and prevent the vicious circle of democratic erosion.     

政治和技术的二分与互动——引证于“万人评议政府”绩效评估模式分析

政府绩效评估是一个由政治和技术构成的有机整体,在政治和技术二分的基础上把握两者的互动规律有助于我们更好地认识政府绩效评估的运行原理,探索提高其认同度和使用价值的方法。运用文本分析和深入访谈方法对珠海市“万人评议政府”这一个案进行了历史性分析,不仅发现了政治主导技术、技术约束政治的互动规律,而且发现了这种互动在流程上的非均衡性。基于上述发现提出的实践策略包括坚持评估目的与评估模式相匹配,选择合适的评估主体并合理分配评估权力,根据事前承诺运用评估结果。笔者基于上述理论反思和探索性分析认为,政治与技术的视角比较切合中国的政治制度,因为政治与技术的视角关注的是行政过程中的政治与技术之间的关系。     

县级政改——基于法治的视角

本文基于法治的视角，封贵州瓮安事件、重庆万州事件、安徽池州事件等“无直接利益冲突”群体性：事件进行观察与思考，提出县级政权应立即启动政改，认为县级政改应选择以保障公民基本权利为中心的法治退路，并予以分析论证。     

当代中国大众文化发展的新思考

20世纪90年代以来,中国大众文化得到了迅猛发展,它对于当代中国文化发展具有双重影响：一方面,它促进了文化繁荣,丰富了人们的文化生活,推动了文化大众化进程。另一方面,它也产生了很多消极影响,对主导文化及其价值观产生了一定的冲击。我们必须加强对大众文化的管理,实现主导文化、精英文化与大众文化的良性互动,以社会主义核心价值体系引领大众文化的健康发展。     

Northern theories,Southern movements? Contentious politics in Africa through the lens of social movement theory

ABSTRACT

The article examines the extent to, and the conditions under which theoretical approaches from Social Movement Studies, mainly developed based on empirical experiences from the Global North, are appropriate for analysing contentious politics in the South, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to answer this question, the article discusses whether social movements in Africa differ fundamentally from those in other world regions. Four main approaches from social movement theory are examined: resource mobilisation, political opportunity structures, framing, and collective identity, to find out how suitable they are for explaining empirical phenomena in Africa. It is argued that social movements in Africa are not principally different from those in other world regions. Approaches from social movement theory prove helpful in explaining phenomena in the South, although they suffer from the same weaknesses and limitations to their scope as they do regarding movements in the North.     

大众文化发展的新趋势与青年思想教育

在后现代社会 ,随着经济全球化和网络化时代的到来 ,大众文化愈来愈趋向于消费型、娱乐型、休闲型文化的形式 ,表现出文化的参与性、民主性和平民性的特点 ,呈现出文化的商品化和全球化的时代特征 ,这无疑是一种历史的进步 ,但是我们也应该清楚地看到大众文化发展的新趋势可能带来许多负作用 ,特别是在青年教育工作中给我们带来许多新的问题。     

论当代中国大众文化的发展战略

化战略就是指一个国家和地区发展化的基本指导思想、目标、方法和策略。当代中国大众化发展战略主要包括国内发展战略和国际发展战略两大部分。国内发展战略主要包括民族化战略、本土发展战略、品牌经营战略、化产业战略等；国际发展战略主要包括自主发展战略、走出引进战略、国家利益战略等。中国大众化发展战略的根本目标就是建设中国特色社会主义的大众化。     

民事再审制度改革与检察监督权的二元配置

民事再审制度面临以再审之诉为目标模式的改革,检察监督权的配置应当适合于整体制度变动的背景.在双通道单向路径的启动审查制度设计下,应增加"支持再审起诉"的民事检察监督工具,建立当事人诉权、法院审判权、检察院监督权的合理制约.     

浅析高校教学管理人员的管理技能

教学管理人员素质的高低直接影响到教学管理水平和管理效果。高等教育大众化及本科教学工作水平评估对教学管理和教学管理人员的素质、能力提出了更严格的要求。教学管理人员不仅必须具备一定的理论和知识水平,更要掌握一定的管理技能,主要包括技术技能、人际技能和概念技能,还应具备处理突发事件的技能。     

Protesting with the ballot: Diffusion of methods of electoral protest in Spain

This paper shows the pattern of diffusion of a tool of protest – blank and null voting (BNV)– in the context of Spanish national elections. It shows how the 2004 protest mobilization by Batasuna (a Basque nationalist party) predicts null voting by identifying the relationship of this form of protest with both the level of grievance of the population and the political resources of the mobilizers. The paper then demonstrates that this large and visible use of a protest tactic is followed by a heterogeneous diffusion process after the main mobilized protest event and beyond the supporters of the original mobilizer. In the 2008 national election, across Spain, citizens with grievances toward the political system and, most importantly, with political affinity with the initiators were the ones to update their individual protest repertoire with this electoral protest tool.