Silent partners: archaeological insights on mobility,interaction and civilization in Central Asia’s past

ABSTRACT

Civilizations are as complex as the human relationships that engendered them, and outlining these relational qualities within open notions of mobility and interaction frames a reconceptualization of Central Asia’s past. Recent Eurasian archaeological research deconstructs deterministic political-economic or hierarchical typologies of civilization and the overly simplified narrative that roots it in urban centres perpetually juxtaposed with nomadic groups. Archaeological evidence from the Oxus Civilization, Central Asia’s earliest complex polity (ca. 2500–1400 BCE), reveals the deep roots of sedentary–mobile interactions. I argue that Oxus–steppe relationships helped maintain the long-term structural cohesion of the Oxus Civilization as a multicultural entity, with implications for subsequent Central Asian polities. As we begin to balance the lopsided conversations about the social formations of Central Asia’s past and present, the silent partnership that characterized the Oxus Civilization is given a voice that forces us to reconsider who, exactly, belongs inside our notions of civilization.     

Investigation of nocturnal oviposition by necrophilous flies in central Texas

The need to accurately estimate the postmortem interval (PMI) has prompted research into factors affecting fly oviposition (i.e., oviposition and/or larviposition) on a corpse. Research efforts have focused on whether or not diurnally active flies oviposit during nighttime hours. This study reports that nocturnal oviposition (defined as occurring between 2100-0600 h CDST (Central Daylight Savings Time)) did not occur on freshly killed white rats or mice, on beef (fresh or aged up to 48 h), on freshly thawed pigs, nor, usually, on thawed pigs that were aged for up to 48 h. Limited oviposition did occur between 2100 and 2120 h on one bloated pig at a lighted rural site. Necrophilous flies were present and active at lighted and dark sites (urban and rural) before and immediately after sunset, but fly activity on the bait ceased within 50 min postsunset and did not resume until after 0600 h. These observations support other studies reporting that diurnally active flies do not oviposit during the nighttime.     

对如何进一步强化新时期中心城区公安基层基础建设的思考

公安部党委将2006年作为全国公安机关的“基层基础年”,组织全国公安机关抓基层,打基础,苦练基本功。要确保公安工作的可持续发展,必须用战略眼光、从全局的高度认识基层基础建设的客观性和必要性,正视基层基础建设中存在的问题并客观深入地分析其原因,从重点和热点问题入手,全面提升公安基层基础建设的水平。     

中央苏区群众运动反腐败的基本特点和重要启迪

特定的历史背景和时空定位,是具体考察腐败与反腐败的必要前提和基本原则。始终被国民党军阀封锁、"围剿"的中央苏区,腐败是从内部危害红色政权生存和帮助敌人"围剿"的最大的消极因素。在中国共产党和临时中央政府领导下,中央苏区开展了轰轰烈烈的群众运动反腐败斗争,其基本特点包括:群众运动反腐败反对"一切官僚腐化贪污浪费消极怠工份子",群众运动反腐败贯穿于一切运动和工作中,群众运动反腐败"是执行苏维埃一切战斗任务不可分离的部分"。其反腐败取得伟大成就的重要启迪是:"让人民监督权力"是反腐败的标本兼治之策。     

经济中心城市的集聚与扩散规律研究

经济中心城市具有集聚和扩散这两种基本运动形式。它们遵循着三条基本规律,即经济中心城市的集聚和扩散力随着其综合实力的提高而增强（增强律）,随着运输费用的提高而衰减（衰减律）,并趋向生产力布局的优区位（指向律）,根据这三条基本规律,城市的引力公式应修改为：两城市之间的引力与城市的质量成正比,与运输费用的平方成反比。     

中东欧和独联体转型国家国有农地制度研究述评

许多独联体和中东欧地区国家转型后对农地所有制进行了变革,但并不彻底,还有一定规模的国有农地被保留。相应成立的土地基金等国有农地管理机构,通过出租、出售等经济手段对国有农地进行管理,目的是形成规模合理的农业生产单位,解决农业所有制转型后存在的土地碎片化和生产单位二元结构等问题,提高农业效率,促进农户生产和现代农业发展有机衔接。一些国有农地管理机构还担负着农村公共服务职能。本文的研究表明,通过农地所有权、承包权和经营权“三权分置”,确保租约稳定,完善配套的法律制度和土地交易制度,优化市场环境,对于提高国有农地的使用效率和增强土地利用的可持续性至关重要。     

全球经济进入"低增长陷阱"背景下的中国财税改革研究

随着全球经济进入低增长阶段,政府宏观政策的多样化和有效性在经济周期中的调控作用不断提高.政府进行的新一轮财税制度改革既是应对全球经济低增长、国内经济换挡、中美贸易战等的重要举措,也是延续分税制改革、缓解土地财政压力和降低地方债务风险的必然结果.新一轮财税制度改革通过维持增值税"五五分享"比例以稳定和调整增值税留抵退税分担机制,后移消费税征收环节并稳步下划地方以保障地方财政收入和提高地方财政支出能力,减税降费以刺激企业创新,合理化收入分配制度以扩大内需,最终实现经济的稳定增长.新一轮财税制度改革取得预期效果,还需要完善转移支付制度、预算管理制度、债务管理制度、信息披露制度等,保障政策落到实处.     

How oil autocracies learn to stop worrying: Central Eurasia in 2008 global financial crisis

Autocracies in developing countries are more likely to collapse during economic crises. Some influential works and popular media extend this argument to oil-rich autocracies, but cross-national empirical studies find little evidence to support this view. Yet, while the causes of their stability during boom periods are well understood, how oil-rich autocratic regimes remain stable during busts is underexplored. This article advances an explanation that refines and complements existing accounts. I argue that we need to take into account three interrelated factors that currently are likely to stabilize oil-rich autocracies: considerable savings, policy learning, and sustenance of coercive capacity. Leveraging evidence drawn from 40 original interviews, documents, news media, and academic literature, I investigate the role of these factors through a comparative case study of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan during the 2008 global economic turmoil. The findings highlight the ruling elites’ ability to amass sizeable savings that later provide safety cushions, to update their know-how through drawing lessons within and beyond fiscal policy, and to sustain coercive capacity without resorting to overt repression. Through economic crises, they may learn to not escape the “resource curse,” but to escape despite the “resource curse.”     

Land reform by default: uncovering patterns of agricultural decollectivization in Tajikistan

Like that in other post-communist states, Tajikistan’s agricultural decollectivization was initiated through top-down measures. However, the implementation process has not been uniform across the state’s territory; in some districts collective farms were quickly and thoroughly broken up, while in others the process is just now beginning. In this paper, we investigate spatial variation in Tajikistan’s decollectivization process. Through analyses of diverse data, we reveal that low cotton yield is a necessary condition for farm individualization in districts that are distant from the capital. We interpret this result as indicating that farm managers responsible for unproductive farms often have little incentive or capacity to resist the break-up of farms. In contrast, managers of productive farms have both an incentive and the capacity to maintain collective farming. Furthermore, although human capital dimensions, including family size, off-farm income and education, affect an individual farmer’s preference for private farming, these are not necessary conditions for widespread farm individualization at the district level. In other words, we did not find evidence that farmers had the capacity to directly determine collective farm dissolution.     

The Theory of International Media Diffusion: Political Socialization and International Media in Transitional Democracies

Despite the long-standing normative assumption that, for individuals in transitional states, exposure to Western media cultivates stronger attachments to Western political and economic values, the evidence presented here suggests otherwise. Using mass public survey data from the mid-1990s in five Central and Eastern European countries, this article demonstrates a general lack of support for international media’s positive contributions to individuals’ democratic attitudes and preferences for market economies. This finding is particularly unexpected because the countries under investigation represent ideal cases based on their proximity to Western democracies and international (Western) media sources’ capacities for extensive transnational media penetration into the region. Yet this failure to find persuasive evidence of the influence of international media diffusion on the development of Western political values sharpens our understanding of the process of political socialization in democratizing countries by eliminating an assumed source and is thus relevant to students of democratization, international development, and mass media.