美国宪法的政治解释

从政治因素入手剖析1787年美国宪法制订的历程,能够从本质上揭示独立后的美国联邦政府渴求联邦宪法的深层原因。尽管制宪会议争论非常激烈,方案的分歧也很明显,但克服联邦内部混乱,消除各自为政的政治局面,建立一种新的政治制度,确保国家政治稳定,成为制订联邦宪法的根本目的。     

美国总统眼中的宪法及其启示(上)--以美国总统就职演说为分析范本

系统考察美国总统的宪法观,是"真正"了解美国宪法与宪政的必然要求,是了解"真正"的美国宪法与宪政的重要步骤,是学习和借鉴美国宪法与宪政建设先进经验的重要前提.以美国总统就职演说为分析范本,既具有合理性,又具有科学性.从美国总统的就职演说来看,给人印象最深刻的有两点一是他们认为宪法是伟大的,神圣的,令人满意的,令人崇敬的;二是他们认为宪法的权威必须得到全心全意的维护,他们将坚决捍卫宪法的尊严.这与我们一提及宪法就想到它是国家的根本大法、是治国安邦的总章程,有很大的差别.     

当代美国利益集团的内在运行机制--质疑奥尔森的集体行动逻辑

利益集团是政治学理论研究的一个重要行为体,在美国政治科学领域甚至形成为利益集团的研究路径.但是,对于利益集团的内在运作机制问题,学术界一直众说纷纭,莫衷一是.关于利益集团的内在机制问题,奥尔森运用经济学的方法对集体行动的逻辑特别是经济利益集团提供了有限的解释,并没有覆盖非经济利益集团的集体行动问题.真正周延地解决集体行动的逻辑,必须综合解决人们为什么愿意加入利益集团、集团意见的整合及其组织领导等问题,美国的政治生态为利益集团的生长和活跃提供了这些条件.     

Relationships Between Discretionary Time Activities,Emotional Experiences,Delinquency and Depressive Symptoms Among Urban African American Adolescents

Using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), this cross-sectional study examined mediated and moderated associations between different types of discretionary time activities and depressive symptoms and delinquency among a sample of 246 (107 boys, 139 girls) fifth through eighth grade urban African American adolescents. More time spent in passive unstructured activities was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms only for adolescents residing in less dangerous neighborhoods, whereas more time spent in active unstructured activities was associated with higher levels of delinquency only if adolescents resided in more dangerous neighborhoods. Alienation was positively associated with depressive symptoms and delinquency, but neither alienation nor positive affect mediated the relationship between activities and adjustment. These findings suggest the importance of considering neighborhood environment issues when determining what types of discretionary time activities are most beneficial for urban African American young adolescents.

西方之眼——论《看见十九世纪台湾》的知识生产

本文以《看见十九世纪台湾——十四位西方旅行者的福尔摩沙故事》（Curious Investigations：19th-century American and European Impressions of Taiwan）为主要分析对象,将西方人讲述的台湾故事当做西方对东方的观看和关于台湾的知识生产,探讨何种事物被选择为讲述对象,考察来自西方的“凝视”（gaze）究竟产生了怎样的台湾图景.首先,将西方旅行者对台湾自然事物的发现与19世纪西方的科学发展相联系,说明对未知世界的探险、科学化的叙述和世界范围内的知识传播是由西方主导的.而旅行者对台湾人文景观的记录则表现为观察与被观察、控制与被控制的权力关系,是西方主体对东方他者的认知投射.第二,借用文化与社会关键词的论述,将旅行者对台湾人文与社会的讲述集中于一些有代表性的词汇中,如“野蛮人”、汉人与儒家文化等,这些词汇体现了西方主体的意识与观念,呈现了当时西方眼中的台湾知识地图.原住民被作为讲述中心可能与西方眼中的文明位阶相关;汉人和儒家文化受到贬抑是中华文明衰落和西方文明崛起的世界格局所决定的.     

Manhunt Presidency: Obama,race, and the Third World

Abstract

President Obama’s commitment to a creedal narrative of American exceptionalism and his understanding of the Third World as a space of ontological deficit together made for a presidency that could neither mitigate the structural racism of the United States nor deflect a racist foreign policy premised on an unending war against terror. By examining the murders of two American teenagers – Trayvon Martin and Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki – this essay argues that the very self-fashioning narratives that propelled Obama to the presidency of the United States rendered him incapable of effecting any substantive changes in the racism than animates its domestic and foreign policies.     

A response to Steven Feierman’s ‘writing history: flow and blockage in the circulation of knowledge’

ABSTRACT

This paper responds to Steven Feierman’s ‘Writing history: flow and blockage in the circulation of knowledge.’ Feierman has noted that most of the publications produced in Tanzania, and in Africa more generally, do not circulate to America. As a result, American scholars do not have access to such publications. The consequence of this phenomenon is that American scholars have difficulty producing African historical knowledge that is rich in context. While agreeing with Feierman’s thought-provoking intervention, this paper makes three main propositions. First, while acknowledging the problem of knowledge circulation between Africa and America, the paper renders visible an equally serious and disturbing reality: that the circulation of knowledge between African institutions is far more limited than it is between Africa and America or Europe. Many Africans consume knowledge that is largely produced in America and Europe. Secondly, while agreeing with Feierman that many scholars in America have difficulty producing historical knowledge about Africa that is rich in context, the paper argues that it is still possible for historians to produce contextually-rich knowledge. To do so, it is proposed, such historians need to craft locally-based methodological strategies that are sensitive to Africans’ perspectives on their changing cultural and physical world. Finally, while recognising that the limited circulation of knowledge is an important reason for some American scholars to produce historical knowledge about Africa which is rich in context, the paper offers four additional explanations on this problem, namely the failure of some scholars to conduct sustained primary field research in Africa; lack of personal sacrifice, a proper attitude and commitment to do long-term research in Africa; the tendency of some scholars from America to make no effort to find works produced in African institutions of higher learning when they visit Africa; and the growing over-reliance on digitised sources of information for producing histories, sources which can hardly capture such things as emotions, feelings, thoughts, silences, or cosmologies that are inevitable in the production of contextually-rich historical knowledge.     

Orchestrating silence,winning the votes: Explaining variation in media freedom during elections

Restrictions on media freedom play a prominent role in the survival of incumbents in hybrid regimes. But while scholars agree that governments limit media freedom to punish opponents and mobilize supporters, less is known about the electoral incentives that explain the timing and location of restrictions. Using original microdata on government attempts to prevent the dissemination of information from Venezuela (2002–2015), I show that electoral competition at the local and national levels shape patterns of government-led restrictions on media freedom. At the local level, I find that differences in the opposition's strength incentivize governments to use restrictions to demobilize opponents where they are strongest, target marginal districts during local elections, and maintain dominance in their strongholds. At the national level, I show that as threats to the government party's primacy increase, so does the effect of local electoral competition on the hazard of restrictions.     

‘A sort of Rathmines version of a Dior design’: Maeve Brennan,Self-Fashioning and the Uses of Style

This article explores the politics of style in the writing of Maeve Brennan. Brennan's concern with style, subjectivity and power is strikingly visible in her short stories and ‘Talk of the Town’ essays for the New Yorker. While in some of her short stories published in the New Yorker in the 1950s, Brennan seems to offer an extended critique of dandyism, elsewhere in her writing self-fashioning takes on an altogether more positive value and is steeped in the political as well as literary commitments of her work. The article argues that Brennan's interest in the politics of style, both personally and in her writing, is informed by the different strategies she deployed as an Irish woman writer establishing her place amongst a New York literary elite in the mid twentieth century.     

从文化价值观透视美国的对外政策传统

文化价值观作为观念性的东西 ,其深刻内涵主要反映在心理—价值层面。美国的文化价值观主要有上帝选择的“使命观”和美国心理的偏执狂心态。在此基础上形成了其孤立主义和扩张主义、理想主义和现实主义、反共主义等外交政策传统。美国对外政策的每一步变化均未摆脱其文化价值观的束缚和制约。全面和深刻地认识美国的文化价值观对研究其外交政策具有重要意义