Comparing British and American conservatisms through the prism of African development

Conservatism and conservative party politics in Britain and America is associated with neo-colonial attitudes, including pursuit of national interests ahead of post-colonial development. Based on interviews conducted in Washington and London with actors involved with African development, this article examines comparative shifts in conservatives’ engagements from the late Cold War era to the G. W. Bush and Cameron governments. Greater ideological heterogeneity and distinctiveness among American conservative interests groups, combined with a bureaucratic environment in the US allowing more direct channels for ideological input into policy, results in a more clearly conservative stamp on Africa policy in the US than in Britain where ideological lines on development have become more blurred since the 1997 New Labour election victory and the creation of the Department for International Development.     

新时代党领导立法的逻辑理路

坚持党的领导是中国特色社会主义法治建设的基本经验,坚持党领导立法是我国立法体制上特色鲜明的制度优势,是立法活动中必须遵循的基本原则。随着中国特色社会主义进入新时代,社会主要矛盾的变化导致了国家立法需求的变化,加强党的全面领导对党领导立法的方式提出了新的要求。在这种背景下,党领导立法呈现出全新的时代特征和逻辑理路,主要表现为更加主动地引领立法并将党的领导贯彻到立法的全过程、有力提升了领导立法的科学性和民主性、从党内法规与国家法律衔接统一的视角加强领导立法的规范化建设等,反映了新时代党的执政能力建设与国家法治建设的重大进步。     

佩雷尔曼新修辞学的论式系统

佩雷尔曼新修辞学恢复了古典论式理论的荣耀。新修辞学论式系统是对不确定条件下推理形式的分析，虽然这些推理形式是实践中不可或缺的，但笛卡尔时代以来一直被逻辑学家和知识理论家所忽视。论式是新修辞学论辩理论的核心。在新修辞学的论式系统里，亚里士多德“更可取的”topoi被用作与价值和价值层级相关联的推理前提——论证的出发点，因而与涉及推理形式的其他辩证推理发挥不同功能。新修辞学的论式在论辩中既生成说服力，也展现合理性；既与听众及其文化环境相联系，也通过论式的相反形式与论辩攻防相联系。新修辞学的论式，尤其是“准逻辑”论式与法律论证关系密切，对法律论证的辨识、结构分析、论证构建和批评有重要意义。     

From Racial Mixture to Black Nation: Racialising Discourses in Brazil's African Affairs

The article links reflections about Brazilian race relations with institutional transnational dialogues between Brazil and ‘Africa’. I point out that although racial/cultural mixture and the ‘brown’ census category have traditionally reflected much of national identity in Brazil, Brazil today is increasingly spelling out its blackness, both on the national and international scenes. I highlight that, not by coincidence, this fact is happening at a historical moment when programmes of ‘black’ affirmative action and other differential politics in favour of Afro‐descendants are taking off in the country, and also at a time when Brazil is expanding its geopolitical and economic interests in Africa.     

Are the BRICS reformers,revolutionaries, or counter-revolutionaries?

This article argues that the five-nation BRICS group has played a significant role in pressing for reforms in the Western-dominated global order, as well as mounting some revolutionary (and as yet unresolved) challenges to that order. However, it also maintains that there is another (underestimated) aspect to the BRICS' role, viz, their conservative or counter-revolutionary challenges to liberal trends towards democracy, human rights and the progressive evolution of international law. It then discusses how ‘the West’ has responded to these pressures from the BRICS, and other rising powers, and points to uncertainties raised by the recent growth of ‘populist’ pressures within the West itself against aspects of the liberal economic, political and cultural order.     

COMESA and the Tripartite Free Trade Area: Towards an African Economic Community?

Economic integration has been an espoused goal of the African continent for several decades, and steady progress has been made through the African Union and the eight regional economic communities (RECs). The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is one of the largest and most diversified RECs on the continent, and played a significant role in the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA). This article assesses the performance of COMESA, and considers the prospects for the TFTA. It also addresses the contribution of COMESA and other RECs to the continent’s economic development and considers the prospects for a potential African Economic Community.     

The sounds of silence: American history textbook representations of non-violence and the Abolition Movement

In this paper we examine how the Abolition Movement’s approach to non-violent resistance has been silenced in four American history textbooks. Despite extensive research that reveals an extensive network of groups dedicated to the peaceful abolishment of slavery little of this historical record is included in the textbooks. Instead, a skewed representation of the movement is conveyed to the reader, one that conveys an image of a movement that contributes to a climate of social violence. Through a critical discourse analytical approach to the data we carefully deconstruct how this process of misrepresentation occurs. By employing the discursive tools of narrative framing, positioning, and stance we lift up what is often hidden from the reader and demonstrate how language use communicates powerful social messaging to the reader. We argue that student readers are left with an impoverished sense of how non-violent democratic change has occurred when presented with a limited portrayal of the Abolition Movement. We therefore emphasize the importance of equipping students with the skills needed to critically interrogate both historical and contemporary sources that purports to convey the inevitability of war to resolve complex social problems; we maintain this is both an educational imperative and a civic obligation.     

Does plot size matter? Evidence from maize production in Babati District,Tanzania

Debates about optimal farm structure and size have a long history in agricultural economics. Agricultural and development economists argue for an inverse relationship between farm size and productivity, but debates around this remain inconclusive. This article provides a case from maize production in Babati District, Tanzania. The efficiency level of 122 sampled smallholder farmers was estimated and found to be 62.3%, suggesting 37.7% of inefficiencies. A U-shape relationship between plot size and efficiency scores was found. There was high efficiency at plots <2?ha, compared to 2?ha and 3?ha, followed by efficiency at plots >4?ha. Policies stimulating small- and large-scale farms in the country are imperative.     

An analysis of well-being in urban Nigeria

Improving the well-being of Nigerians is the aim of Nigeria Vision 20:2020, the key development policy document in Nigeria. However, as well-being is an emerging and contested concept, this article explores how the well-being of urban citizens is understood in Nigeria, and identifies key trends affecting urban well-being as expressed by a selection of strategic elite stakeholders in Nigerian society. These included senior civil servants and politicians, and various senior members of civil society groups and academia. The analysis also reveals characteristics underpinning policies for urban well-being.     

民营企业参与社会主义新农村建设大有可为

建设社会主义新农村需要全社会各方面的共同努力,新农村建设为民营企业提供了重要的发展机遇,民营企业要积极主动参与新农村建设。