Looming Issues for Scotland and the Union

The minor electoral gains for the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2007, which made it the largest party but a minority Scottish Executive administration, have provoked a fundamental review of Scottish devolution. Political imperatives rather than reasoned argument seem to dominate the actions of those pushing for independence and/or greater powers for the Scottish Parliament. The renaming of the Scottish Executive by the SNP as the Scottish Government is creating confusion. The Scottish Executive's plans to move to independence are inadequate for the significance of the intended outcome. The unionist opposition parties could not agree to form a majority coalition but have launched a major review of devolution which includes the possibility of increased tax powers for the Scottish Parliament even when existing tax powers are not used. Federalism has been proposed by the Liberal Democrats and others but evidence from other states suggests that this is by no means a stable or certain solution.     

Borders Inscribed on the Body: Geopolitics and the Everyday in the Work of Martín Kohan

This article analyses the critique of militaristic geopolitical worldviews in two novels by Martín Kohan (Dos veces junio, 2002 and Ciencias morales, 2007). Drawing on ‘everyday nationalism’ and the insights of feminist geopolitics, it explores these novels' use of space and gendered violence to present Argentina's 1976–1983 dictatorship and the Falklands/Malvinas war as unexceptional manifestations of the relationship between the state and its citizens. This reading foregrounds Kohan's emphasis on the origins and consequences of national identity discourses, framed as powerful narratives capable of generating a vision of the nation-state that privileges the security of borders over bodies.     

印度教与印度民族主义

本文探讨了印度教对印度民族主义的负面影响 ,以及印度民族独立运动的领袖如何利用印度教来促成印度民族主义的形成、教派民族主义者如何利用印度教来为教派民族主义服务 ,并指出以印度教为基础的民族主义对印度社会的的双重作用。     

Inter-ethnic (In)tolerance between Turks and Kurds: Implications for Turkish Democratisation

Using public opinion survey data, this study investigates the determinants of inter-ethnic (in)tolerance among Turks and Kurds in Turkey. Our empirical analyses show that, compared with Turks, Kurds have a relatively higher level of tolerance towards the ethnic out-group. Our findings also suggest that different dynamics and factors mould Turks’ and Kurds’ tolerance towards ethnic out-group members. Religiosity, (ethno)nationalist orientations, inter-ethnic contact, threat perception and economic factors are the most consistent variables shaping Turks’ tolerance towards Kurds. In contrast, religion-related factors and inter-ethnic social contact do not have a statistically significant effect on Kurds’ tolerance towards Turks. (Ethno)nationalist orientations, however, appear to reduce Kurds’ tolerance.     

Underdevelopment,Urban Squatting,and The State Bureaucracy: A Case Study of Tanzania

This article investigates a part of the “story of the story” of the 1924 revolution, the first popular anticolonial uprising in Sudan to be framed by a nationalist ideology. Considering that the process that turns a past event into history is neither linear nor predictable, I draw on Trouillot's “catalogue of silences” to compare two sets of sources that correspond to two moments in the making of 1924 as history: first, the judicial records produced by the Sudan government during 1924, and second the Ewart Report, written in 1925, to “seal” the revolution. A comparison of these two sources reveals radical discrepancies in the narrative, as well as the silences imposed on and well-concealed fine-tunings of the various voices of the revolution. Of these two sets of sources, it is the Ewart Report that provides the most influential interpretation of the 1924 revolution.     

Imagined Races: From Environmental Determinism to Geographical Authenticity in Twentieth‐Century Argentina

This article explores how Argentine intellectuals incorporated the natural environment into their accounts of the racial, cultural and political features of the nation. In the late nineteenth century environmental determinism, based on the assumption of a cause–effect relationship between geographical and racial factors, entered Argentina through three main routes: Lamarckism, Darwinism and Spencerianism. By the mid twentieth century, however, anti‐positivist philosophies had been fully incorporated into a body of work that analysed Argentina's socio‐historical foundations. This article examines the shift that occurred during the first half of the twentieth century in how those seeking to define race incorporated the environment into their arguments. The raza was commonly taken to be synonymous with nation. Selected works by sociologist and legal scholar Carlos Octavio Bunge (1875‐1918) and by writer and ensayista Bernardo Canal Feijóo (1897‐1982) will be analysed as influential yet overlooked examples of how ‘the problem of Argentine culture’ could not be separated from the question of nature understood in terms of both physical and human geography. The goal will be to reveal, firstly, the extent to which the notion of the interior as geographical and anthropological desert deeply informed the political vision of the early national period in relation to race and nation and, secondly, how later interpretations of the nation recast American nature as a foundational element of cultural authenticity based on a sentiment of geographical belonging.     

民族主义话语及其表述实质——19世纪上半叶俄国文化运动及其历史影响

19世纪上半叶是俄国社会思潮和文化运动发生多元剧烈变动的关键历史时期。自1836年恰达耶夫发表著名的《哲学书简》并引起俄国思想界的震惊时起,就在精英知识分子中展开了针对俄罗斯命运与前途的民族主义双重话语表述。这种表述的大方向,是在短时期内充分学习西方的前提下,确立俄国在欧洲乃至全世界的独立文化身份和精神优势。其间,俄罗斯传统文化意识在俄国和欧洲两种文化交流与激烈碰撞背景下的生存与发展问题,成为知识界普遍关注的共同话题。这一时期的俄国文化运动紧紧围绕知识分子的民族主义话语表述而展开。     

论民族主义与近代中国司法主权意识的觉悟

近世国人的司法主权意识随着民族主义意识的形成和发展,经历了懵懂、觉醒到觉悟的过程:懵懂,使得他们在西方列强的威慑下将司法主权拱手相让;觉醒,促使国人初步认识到司法改革的必要,并提出司法改革动议;觉悟,促使他们把收回司法主权与自觉筹划司法改革与创新相结合,试图将救亡图存的民族主义意识内化为法治意识,促进司法近代化进程。近世中国司法改革的动机主要是为了收回司法主权。新中国的建立,标志着国家主权(包括司法主权)的收复,这是近世民族主义运动结出的硕果,然而,司法近代化进程也就此中止,出现了动机与结果的背反,形成畸形的中国司法近代化轨迹。一个国家和民族真正拥有司法主权,必须有强大的国力为支撑;良好法律的有效实施,则是国家民族强大的重要保障。     

论以民族主义宣传调控民众不满情绪的成败条件——基于数学模型的分析

人类历史上,许多国家执政者有时会采用煽动民族主义情绪的方式转移民众视线以应对合法性危机。但此方法会同时增加民众的民族主义诉求,当执政者可能无法满足相关诉求时,民众即会产生新的不满。在煽动民族主义情绪时,执政者必然要把握尺度,不断通过评估-调整的调控方式将民众不满情绪稳定于最低水平。通过数学建模分析可发现,此调控方式有趋于失序、趋于均衡两种结果,函数弹性差值是调控成败的关键。函数弹性差值决定于社会信息化程度、社会祛魅程度和执政者公信力。     

公务员远程网络培训模式探析

公务员远程网络培训模式正被积极地引入公务员培训系统,通过远程网络培训可以使公务员实现资源共享、实时互动交流、节约培训费用等。由于受到网络教学资源匮乏、培训师资力量不足、实践功能薄弱等因素制约,因此,远程网络培训需要加强法律法规建设以及组织管理,建立自主性学习机制,不断完善培训资源建设机制,使其真正成为公务员自觉提升素质、完善自我、实现职业发展的重要途径。