Appropriating Nature in Crisis-ridden Greece: The Rationale of Capitalist Restructuring,Part 1

The ongoing crisis in Greece constitutes an emblematic case of repressive capitalist restructuring. In this first part of a two-paper series, we argue that public debt is used as a vehicle for furthering the neoliberal transformation of Greek society with serious implications for the appropriation of nature. We present theoretical considerations about nature in capitalism, the rationale of neoliberal capitalist restructuring, as well as the relation between nature and neoliberalism. We finally present the timeline of the Greek crisis, as well as how the three structural adjustment programs wrought a severe capitalist restructuring upon Greece.     

Institutional Agonism: Axel Honneth’s Radical Democracy*

Axel Honneth may be criticised for reducing political philosophy to moral psychology. In what follows, I argue that if his theory of recognition is reframed as one of democracy, quite another picture will appear. To do this, I systematically reconstruct Honneth’s stance as a multidimensional version of radical democracy. The question I discuss is the manner in which this framework combines the three dimensions of democratic deliberation, culture, and conflict. I then discuss Honneth’s picture from both a deliberative and agonistic viewpoint. How one understands the way in which he combines the abovementioned dimensions is dependent upon which one of these two approaches one may choose. I claim that when taken together, these three dimensions form the grounding of a radical-democratic understanding of a struggle for recognition, which I term institutional agonism.     

Reforming governance under authoritarianism: motivations and pathways of local participatory reform in the People’s Republic of China

Many authoritarian regimes use participatory political reform to maintain control over the societies under their rule and survive global waves of democratization. Recent studies of transitional governance have underscored the importance and intricacy of institutional reform; however, no consensus has been reached on an explanation of the dynamism that shapes institutional reforms under non-democratic systems. Why do authoritarian apparatchiks reform their institutions of governance? How can the varied pathways of these reforms be explained? Post-Deng China provides an ideal laboratory in which to study these issues. Since the 1990s, growing tensions between the Leninist polity and a gradually opened society have compelled local governments in China to test a vast set of participatory reforms. In an examination of three major local participatory budgeting reforms in China, this article maps the main pathways – representation, consultation, and transparency – of these recent sub-national participatory reforms implemented by the incumbent regime, and explores the driving forces that sculpt a reformist model over the alternatives. By introducing an “incentive-contingent framework”, this article sketches out the “repertoire” of participatory reforms in the authoritarian governance of China and suggests an explanatory framework for the variation in the strategies and forms of such institutional innovations.     

印度洋安全治理制度的发展变迁与重构

21世纪以来,印度洋安全治理制度进入了一个新发展阶段,在此过程中,既创建了新的制度,也有一些旧的制度被改建或者重建。例如,在海盗问题治理领域,就形成了一系列"多层次、多主体"的新制度安排。尽管这些层次不同、范围各异的制度安排大多是非正式的,但新制度安排的出现在某种程度上反映了印度洋安全治理方式的演变。印度洋安全治理制度的发展变迁受到多重因素驱动,包括外部环境变迁、制度学习和不同制度间的竞争、重要的利益攸关国家对制度建设的重视与推动以及非国家行为体积极参与相关治理实践等。由于各种原因,目前制度发展依然面临诸多困境。未来,相关治理主体在制度发展与重构过程中应该继续发挥能动性,在参与治理实践过程中从观念层面和具体操作层面不断推动制度优化发展。     

多重制度逻辑下的国有企业职工安置政策实施研究 —— 以东部某钢铁集团为例

压减产能大背景下国有企业职工的安置政策实施情况。以某东部钢铁集团为例,考察第一阶段该集团的政策实施结果,发现集团指标已经被完成,集团总人数的减少和新的竞聘方式带来了人力资源效率的提升。然而,在政策制定过程中,公司的职工代表大会流于形式,其背后是企业市场逻辑和单位逻辑间的较量。同时,在政策实施过程中,公司强制职工"自愿"居家离岗,造成政策走样。政策走样的表面原因在于政策执行过程中集团对公司有指标要求,但究其根本,是市场逻辑和人本主义逻辑间的冲突。最终市场逻辑和单位逻辑协调使政策变得扭曲。单位逻辑在处理这一冲突过程中虽然发挥了重要作用,但它的存在也牺牲了市场逻辑的部分效率。多重制度逻辑分析为政策实施过程中的政策偏离提供了综合性的理论视角。     

Ad hoc coalitions and institutional exploitation in international security: towards a typology

Abstract

While the increasingly thick web of global, regional and sub-regional security arrangements and institutions has received ample scholarly attention, the phenomenon of ad hoc military coalitions and how they impact these institutions has been relatively little explored. We examine ad hoc coalitions in international security responses and develop a tentative typology of military responses that takes ad hoc coalitions into consideration, where we differentiate in terms of institutionalisation and duration. Following a rational-choice institutionalist logic, we argue that institutional proliferation increases the chances of institutional exploitation. We illustrate this with how states apply a pick-and-choose approach in which institutional products but not frameworks are used. They use the interoperable forces, a common culture and mainstreamed doctrine, but not the formal deployment of rapid response mechanisms of eg the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the African Union. In closing, we observe that institutional proliferation in international security facilitates a functionalist approach mainly inspired by national self-interest. Future research should examine whether this could result in dwindling relevance of international institutions, first in the domain of security, but later also in other domains.     

威尼斯和法国专利特权与私权的演化机制及其启示

专利制度演化规律向来是专利制度研究的难点问题,而演化经济学中的制度演化理论对专利制度深层次演化动因的研究提供了很好的分析工具。威尼斯专利特权和法国专利私权制度的历史演变验证了这一模型的解释力和可行性。在不同历史阶段,由于技术、经济和文化的耦合程度不一样,专利制度观念可能呈现不同的形式,但专利制度变迁的主角永远是那些根植于制度框架作出反应的、具有权势优势的行为体。他们基于各自的利益目的构造和形塑了具体制度的内容和制度变迁的方向。     

The importance of policy entrepreneurs in developing countries: A systematic review and future research agenda

How and with what effect policy entrepreneurship occurs is a persistent and intriguing question for scholars of public policy and administration and political science. So far, the main interest has been on policy entrepreneurship in developed countries rather than developing countries, which largely remains a black box. Adopting a systematic approach to reviewing the literature, this article aims to fill this void. It investigates when, why, and how policy and institutional reforms in developing countries take place, with special reference to the role of policy entrepreneurs. It reviews selected articles published in the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge Social Science Citation Index database from 1984 to 2018. It aims to show the current state of empirical and theoretical knowledge about policy entrepreneurship in developing countries and persistent knowledge gaps. The present review contributes to the body of knowledge on this topic in three main ways. First, we provide a comprehensive review of policy entrepreneurship in developing countries. Second, we consolidate existing research in the political science, public policy and administration, and politicial economy disciplines. Third, we establish connections between fragmented literatures, identify gaps between different research streams, and suggest promising paths for future research on policy entrepreneurship in developing countries.     

Patrons against clients: Electoral uncertainty and bureaucratic tenure in politicized states

Why would incumbents undertake institutional reforms that constrain their discretion over state resources? Many studies point to electoral competition in response. They argue that incumbents who risk exit from office undertake reform to insure themselves against potentially hostile successors. This paper challenges this line of reasoning, arguing that it confounds two potential implications of electoral competition – potential and certain electoral losses – which yield contrary reform incentives. Certain exits from office may well incentivize reforms as insurance. Where elections are contested, however, incumbents face incentives to resist reforms that constrain discretion over state resources that provide incumbents with electoral advantage. This argument is developed and assessed with an institutional reform the literature has so far neglected: job stability protections (tenure) in politicized bureaucracies. A case analysis of the Dominican Republic and suggestive cross‐country data confirm theoretical predictions: electoral uncertainty dis‐incentivizes tenure reform. Electoral competition may thus be a double‐edged sword for institutional reform.     

Judith Scott’s What is Property?: an inquiry into principles of dependency,propriety, and self-possession of an “outsider” artist

The essay addresses the politics of biography in the interpretation and reception of “outsider artist” Judith Scott’s work. Drawing from feminism, disability studies, and Alexander Kluge and Oskar Negt’s History and Obstinacy (1981) and its political economy of labor power, the essay proposes a new method of analysis which would foreground Scott’s work as a mode of institutional critique. Kluge and Negt ask “Can capital say ‘I’?.” The essay argues that Scott’s work compels a concomitant questioning of this “I” and the very terms of biography, authorship, and ownership that undergird the myths – and the institutions – of the “outsider” and her “art.”