Personalist Politics, Clientelism and Citizenship: Local Elections in El Alto, Bolivia

The article investigates the citizenship practices of urban Aymara in a neighbourhood of El Alto, Bolivia, through an examination of the municipal elections of December 1999. Using ethnographic methods, I focus on the instrumental and affective sides of clientelism, a central feature of Bolivian elections. I argue that clientelism is a part of citizenship practice, a means of engaging with the state in the person of the politician. A majority of the Bolivian population are marginalised from the oligarchic mestizo system of government, as represented by the traditional political parties. However, at local level, and especially during election campaigns, there is more permeability, and this article sees clientelism as a set of strategies through which citizens attempt to make politics, and politicians, more representative and responsive.     

现实社会主义的生存与发展探析

苏东剧变后,全球社会主义运动遭遇重大挫折。中国改革开放20余年的辉煌成就向世界证实,能在现代生存和发展的现实社会主义只能是面向市场的、民主的、世界的社会主义。     

Is Britain Facing a Crisis of Democracy?

This article contributes to the debate in this journal about the state of British democracy. I criticise the tendency to use a ‘demand–supply’ dichotomy in interpreting the strong distrust experienced by institutions and politicians, and especially the idea that all the blame for current problems is to be attributed to the inadequateness of the British political tradition (BPT). By referring to international data on democracy and to recent British trends in both public attitudes and institutional innovations, a more nuanced picture on the state of democracy emerges. I argue that the BPT is not incompatible with incremental changes that have already introduced innovations in the way politics works in Britain today, and that the task of empowering citizens is one of the most delicate aspects in this process of innovation.     

Is governance democratic?

This paper argues that governance can engender undemocratic inequality, exclusion and populism. It does so by analysing the concept of governance, and unearthing three theoretical justifications for it: one libertarian, one radical and one republican. These justifications are in turn refuted by showing how they respectively undermine a process-view of democracy, neglect structural avenues for accountability and encourage elites to wield power.     

Against Global Parliament

Experimentation is often thought to be a key quality of any legitimate democratic system. Employing global parliamentary proposals as a heuristic, this article suggests that top‐down models for global democratization – proffered by liberal cosmopolitans and world government scholars – may create path‐dependencies which foreclose options for experimenting with alternative institutional designs in the future. Drawing upon historical institutionalism, the structure, sequence, and setting of top‐down proposals are outlined to show how experimentation with other forms of democracy may be constrained in problematic ways. Following this assessment, the article suggests that striving for democratic values under a pluralist arrangement of global governance may facilitate incremental institutional development and promote experimentation over time.     

论权力资源的法律调控方式

对权力资源实施法律调控 ,需要以民主宪政制度为基础并建立分权制衡体制。除此之外 ,还应注意对相关权力实行重点调控 ,注重以法律形式确认和保障权利 ,从法律上健全权力的责任追究制度。契约形式是区别于传统命令方式的权力资源法律调控的新形式。除法律形式外 ,权力资源的实现还有非法律形式 ,应当合理界分两种权力资源实现形式的适用范围     

治安管理处罚的民主精神简论

治安管理处罚法在立法宗旨、立法原则及处罚程序的设定等法律条文中,处处体现出社会主义民主精神,是对以往公安行政立法的发展和完善。治安管理处罚法的通过和实施,对规范和保障公安机关在治安管理处罚活动中严格执法、尊重和保障人权,构建和谐社会,都具有重要意义。     

发展党内民主势在必行

党内民主既是时代的要求也是社会主义民主政治发展的需要;党内民主可以有效地防止党内权力过分集中和腐败滋生;党内民主是党永葆先进性的根本保证。应发展保障党员各项民主权利的党内民主;发展党务充分公开、党员能自由和舒畅地表达真实想法的党内民主。为了更好地发展党内民主,应健全和完善党的代表大会制度;改革完善党内选举制度;建立健全党内监督机制。     

民主决策:新世纪条件下的战略选择

民主决策是新世纪条件下领导方式的一个战略选择。要实现决策民主,不仅领导者必须具有较高的民主素养,而且要完善和发展民主集中制,加强法律控制,改革决策机制,健全群众监督制度。在实行民主决策过程中,还应处理好集体决策与个人拍板、民主与集中先后顺序、连续性与创造性、抓大与放小的关系。