Is global inequality getting better or worse? A critique of the World Bank’s convergence narrative

The dominant narrative of global income inequality is one of convergence. Recent high-profile publications by Branko Milanovic and the World Bank claim that the global Gini coefficient has declined since 1988, and that inter-country inequality has declined since 1960. But the convergence narrative relies on a misleading presentation of the data. It obscures the fact that convergence is driven mostly by China; it fails to acknowledge rising absolute inequality; and it ignores divergence between geopolitical regions. This paper suggests alternative measures that bring geopolitics back in by looking at the gap between the core and periphery of the world system. From this perspective, global inequality has tripled since 1960.     

The blind spots of liberal citizenship and integration policy

Governments across Europe have stepped up their efforts to manage social diversity politically, often specifically targeting Muslim populations. Lewicki interrogates the policy tools that the British and German governments deploy to ‘integrate’ an increasingly stigmatized and racialized population, zooming in on whether and how they problematize patterns of inequality. Complicating the ‘one country, one citizenship’ rationale of the citizenship regime literature that assumes a one-dimensional interpretation of history, cultural identity, political institutions or legal norms, she points to four salient liberal citizenship discourses that currently frame policies of diversity management. These are civic republicanism, multiculturalism, civic universalism and cosmopolitanism. Her analysis demonstrates that all four liberal citizenship discourses have blind spots when it comes to problematizing structural hierarchies and the logics of racism. Over the last two decades, liberal citizenship and integration policy frameworks have thus contributed to the retention of binary distinctions between superior citizens and inferior Others, distinctions that can now easily be exacerbated and used for mobilization by right-wing populist movements.     

“Orbiting the Core”: Politics and the Meaning of Dialect in Chinese Linguistics, 1927–1957

In 1956, the Chinese Communist state launched its official language policy, which included the promulgation of a standard spoken language, called Putonghua. Their justification for this policy and their methods for implementation were guided by intellectual and ideological frameworks that formed during decades preceding the policy's rollout. In particular, Communist language reform was predicated on the conceptualization of Putonghua as a holistic language meant to serve the national body—and of local dialects, called fangyan in Chinese, as dependent on Putonghua for their very definition. This article interrogates the history of this framework. Focusing on dialect surveys from the 1930s, Chinese interpretations of Marxist linguistic theory in the early years of the Communist state, and methods of Putonghua promulgation in the late 1950s, this article reconstructs the epistemological regimes that gave meaning to the concept of independence and autonomy as they related to language in modern China.     

Forests lost and found in tropical Latin America: the woodland ‘green revolution’

Forest dynamics in the Latin American tropics now take directions that no one would have predicted a decade ago. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has dropped by over 80 percent, a pattern mimicked elsewhere in Amazonia, and is down by more than a third in Central America. Forest resurgence – increasing forest cover in inhabited landscapes or abandoned lands – is also expanding. In Latin America, woodland cover is increasing, at least for now, more than it is being lost. These dramatic shifts suggest quite profound and rapid transformations of agrarian worlds, and imply that previous models of understanding small-farmer dynamics merit significant review centering less on field agriculture and more on emergent forest regimes, and in many ways a new, increasingly globalized economic and policy landscape that emphasizes woodlands.

This paper analyzes changing deforestation drivers and the implications of forest recovery and wooded landscapes emerging through social pressure, social policy, new government agencies, governance, institutions, ideologies, markets, migration and ‘neo-liberalization’ of nature. These changes include an expanded, but still constrained, arena for new social movements and civil society. These point to significant structural changes, changes in tropical natures, and require reframing of the ‘peasant question’ and the functions of rurality in the twenty-first century in light of forest dynamics.     

人的发展与人的尊严:再思人的安全概念

“人的安全”概念的提出促使人们对安全内涵和如何提供安全进行更深刻的思考。但是,人的安全概念提出后引发了很多争议,也产生了不少误区,其中之一就是将人的安全中“免于恐惧的自由”与“免于匮乏的自由”相互对立起来,以至于将前者视为西方的概念而后者为东方的概念。在这种话语中隐含了“免于恐惧的自由才是人的安全中优先考虑的因素”,其产生的后果是在全球范围内存在的贫困、饥饿等严重危害人的尊严的安全问题可能被置于安全考虑范围之外。回顾人的安全概念之争,探讨人的安全的核心理念及其相关概念,比如安全与发展、直接暴力与结构暴力之间的关系,可以矫正这种误区,并证明人的安全概念既不是西方的也不是东方的,它是以人类最基本的价值、需求和尊严为中心的,具有普遍意义的和道德说服力的综合性理念。这种综合性界定自然要求安全维护的方式不应停留在被动和短期应对层面而应寻求早期预防、长期建构、能力提升等积极手段以便实现“积极安全”。     

国际民用航空组织争端解决机制司法化改革论析

1944年《芝加哥公约》第18章赋予国际民用航空组织理事会裁判与公约的解释与适用有关的国际争端的权能。但过往裁判实践表明,国际民用航空组织争端解决机制的结构性缺陷导致理事会司法功能未有效发挥。一方面,《芝加哥公约》第54条与第84条存在适用冲突,使得理事会在实践中更愿意以政治角色介入争端解决,导致《解决分歧规则》的司法效能被弱化。另一方面,理事会成员国代表司法能力不足且缺乏司法中立性,使得理事会对争端的解决难以提供高效的法律产出。国际民用航空组织应在2018年所启动《解决分歧规则》修订进程中对争端解决机制进行司法化改革,避免国际民用航空业沦为国际政治对抗的工具。     

城乡、区域就业结构性失衡及应对

城镇就业比重是衡量我国城乡、区域就业结构性差异的重要指标.研究对城镇就业比重变化、城乡和区域就业结构差异度、影响城镇就业比重的因素进行了分析.研究发现:(1)全国层面城镇就业比重稳步上升,南北方城镇就业比重同步上升,京津冀、长三角、粤港澳起步差距不大,粤港澳2012年后大幅提升;(2)全国省份间的城镇就业比重不平等呈现...     

国际关系理论与实践:研究邓小平外交思想的新视角

本文从几种国际关系主流理论对外交决策的要求出发,分析了邓小平外交决策和外交思想是如何适应国际关系发展规律的。传统现实主义、新现实主义、自由制度主义等理论提出了国际体系中影响国家对外政策中的不同关键因素,反映着国际关系的总体要求。邓小平外交思想就是这样一种理性的、符合中国国情和国际体系要求的思想结晶。     

From a ‘success’ story to a highly indebted poor country: Ghana and neoliberal reforms

Drawing on the experience of Ghana, which the World Bank itself proclaimed as an African success story in the early 1990s, this paper sheds important light on why neoliberal policies have had limited success in Africa and what strategies are likely to be necessary to foster growth and industrialisation in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. In 2001, a few short years after being proclaimed as an economic miracle, Ghana joined the growing ranks of highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) – an especially humbling development for this once proud nation. Why did Ghana's economy collapse after recovering so well? Ghana's experience highlights both the promise and limitation of neoliberal reforms.     

关于构建我国用益物权体系的思考--以三个物权法草案的设计比较为线索

三个物权法草案关于用益物权体系设计的基本指导思想和研究路径基本一致,代表了目前我国用益物权研究的水平。但三个物权法草案对传统与现实、外国经验与中国国情、整理与创新、结构与内容把握的程度不同,其设计的用益物权体系的结构亦同中有异。笔者认为,建立一个科学完善的用益物权体系,应体现以下基本要求:充分反映我国现实生活的需要,具有现实基础和国情特色;用益物权的概念应当体现其质的规定性,界定科学;用益物权的种类应当具有概括性和特定性;用益物权的体系应具有系统性和开放性。在现阶段,我国的应以现实的土地物权利用关系为基础,以房屋和资源的物权利用关系为补充,以使用权为基础概念构建用益物权体系,按土地的用途不同设立建设用地使用权、农用地使用权、地役权、空间使用权;以房屋的物权利用不同设立典权和居住权;另设资源特许使用权。