Does China’s middle class think and act democratically? Attitudinal and behavioral orientations toward urban self-government

In the West, the middle class has been considered a potent agent of the sociopolitical transition toward democracy and the cornerstone of democratic rule. Does a middle class in China think and act democratically and hence serve as the harbinger of democratic change in that country? This study attempts to answer this critical question by examining the attitudinal and behavioral orientations of middle-class individuals toward grassroots self-government in urban China. It is based on data collected from a representative-sample survey conducted in Beijing. The findings indicate that China’s middle class expects grassroots self-government to be formed in a democratic way; yet the middle class is critical of the currently-implemented self-government system because it is not organized as democratically as they expect, and therefore the middle class is less likely to participate in the system. These findings have significant implications for the role of the Chinese middle class in the democratization of China.     

论网络环境下的高校思想政治工作

我们所处的时代是网络信息时代,网络对大学生的学习、思想、人际关系都产生着重大影响。因此,必须研究新情况,探索新方法,加强高校学生的思想政治工作。     

加强社会新阶层思想政治工作的政策选择

社会转型时期,我国社会新阶层在思想政治方面出现了许多新问题、新矛盾。我们必须正确认识这些问题,深入分析其原因,有针对性地提出相应的解决办法,做出切合实际的政策选择。     

大学生贫富差距与高校和谐校园的构建

目前,大学生贫富差距已成为影响高校构建和谐校园的严重障碍。大学生贫富差距导致的诸多心理问题主要是由于缺乏相应的思想政治教育所造成的。只有对大学生进行相应的思想政治教育,化解彼此之间的隔阂和矛盾,才能从根本上解决问题,才能真正构建起高校的和谐校园。     

经济人假设在公共领域的适用性论析

围绕经济人假设所产生的诸多争论,很大程度上源于对这一理论假设的错误理解。本文认为,经济人假设作为自由市场经济制度和自由民主政治制度建构的前提和基础,是关于人的动机模式的假设,它反映了人的社会选择和社会行动最原初的动力来自于人对自我利益的理性计算和理性追求。经济人假设既可以适用于人的经济行为取向的分析,同时与近代西方自由主义政治哲学关于人的动机模式的看法具有内在的一致性,因此也可以扩展到经济领域之外,适用于对人的政治行为取向的分析。     

探索网络时代高校思想政治教育新途径

互联网的普及,向高校思想政治工作提出了挑战,也提供了机遇。思想政治教育工作者要通过提高认识、更新观念,掌握思想政治工作的主动权;建立专门的思想政治教育网站,占领网络阵地;建设一支高素质的思想政治教育队伍等途径,提高大学生思想政治教育的实效。     

浅谈新世纪高校中的思想政治工作

面对新世纪的新形势和新情况 ,高校思想政治工作要切实加强和改进。加强高校思想政治工作 ,教职员工的觉悟和思想政治素质首先要有新的提高 ,同时 ,认识新形势、适应新变化对开创思想政治工作的局面具有重要作用。另外 ,高校思想政治工作者还要充分利用先进的科学理论和校园文化 ,使大学生具备正确的人生追求。     

论经济全球化趋势对中国政治民主化的影响与推动

经济全球化对我国政治发展的价值取向、战略选择、实践推进都产生了相当明显的影响 ,它必将推动中国政治制度的民主化法制化。中国政府应从坚定社会主义信念 ;更新政治观念 ;深化政治体制改革等三个方面推进民主化进程。     

A Tale of Two Towns: Assessing the Role of Political Resources in a Community Electronic Network

In this study we examine responses to the recent expansion of information technology in two rural Minnesota towns. One of these towns took a cooperative approach to technology access, developing a community electronic network, while the other town relied on a more individualistic, entrepreneurial model. The present study examines citizens' attitudes concerning social, political, and technological issues in these two communities, with the goal of uncovering what kinds of attitudes and resources citizens need to have in order to help support and sustain a community electronic network. Structural equation modeling is used to specify the relationships among individuals' economic, political, and social resources, technology ownership and use, and awareness of and support for the community network. Drawing on a theory of social capital, we consider the relative importance of privately- oriented social engagement versus publicly- oriented political engagement in relation to collective outcomes. Our analysis shows that in the town with the broadly- based community electronic network, individuals' political as well as economic resources are linked to knowledge and use of computer resources, whereas in the comparison community, economic stratification alone drives computer access. The implications of these findings for issues of equity, access to technology, and the development of strong community ties are discussed.     

Parental Socialization and Rational Party Identification

This article constructs a rational choice model of the intergenerational transmission of party identification. At a given time, identification with a party is the estimate of average future benefits from candidates of that party. Experienced voters constantly update this expectation using political events since the last realignment to predict the future in accordance with Bayes Rule. New voters, however, have no experience of their own. In Bayesian terms, they need prior beliefs. It turns out that under certain specified conditions, these young voters should rationally choose to employ parental experience to help orient themselves to politics. The resulting model predicts several well–known features of political socialization, including the strong correlation between parents' and children's partisanship, the greater partisan independence of young voters, and the tendency of partisan alignments to decay.