“乡村政治研究”何以成为可能——当政治学“遭遇”乡村问题及之后

＂乡村政治研究＂发端于政治学与乡村问题的不期然＂遭遇＂,同时成长、演化于改革开放三十年尤其是1990年代以来的中国特定社会、政治时空场域中,并在时局变迁中走向日益紧密的互构与融合,最终成为一块可供学者在其中施展拳脚的研究领域。对中国政治学而言,这一＂相遇＂并＂联姻＂的过程,充满着从＂高昂＂到＂沉潜＂的震荡甚至创伤,经历了艰难曲折的转型,也收获了未曾预料的成果。通过这段政治学与乡村问题之间互动的学术发生、发展之历史的考察,可使我们对中国政治学及中国社会科学的特定生长逻辑有更深入的理解和认识,从而为探寻中国社会科学的中国社会之＂根＂提供些许线索。     

构建少数民族地区社会稳定长效机制的战略意义

构建少数民族地区社会稳定长效机制,是根据少数民族地区社会关系发展规律和维稳工作规律,探索维护少数民族地区社会稳定长期效应的工作机理及其制度体系的一项重要工作。对保持少数民族地区长治久安、民族团结、经济发展与社会和谐具有重要意义。     

历史与逻辑统一的法理叙事——评《西方法理思想的逻辑演变》

万斌和陈柳裕的著作《西方法理思想的逻辑演变》采用了历史与逻辑相统一的方法研究西方法理学。在该著作中,作者提出从主观主义和客观主义的视角理解西方法理学的历史发展,回答了西方法理学中法律的"规律"、"意志"和"功能"等问题,并且对20世纪西方法理学的多元化发展趋势进行评述。总之,该著作将西方法理思想在一个全新的理论框架下予以整合,为读者提供了一幅西方法理思想演进的历史图景。     

论军事行政问责法律制度

依法对军队中失职的行政人员进行问责,是提高军事行政管理水平,增强部队战斗力的重要保证。然而现行军事行政问责法律制度却存在相关法律规定分散,制度设计陈旧,执行力度较弱等诸多问题。于是,对其进行进一步的研究具有十分重要的理论和现实意义。现从军事行政问责法律制度的历史及现状出发;进而针对存在的问题提出相关完善建议,以求对我军的法治化建设有所裨益;     

External Intervention in Ethnic Conflict

Recently, ethnicity has received greater attention from international conflict scholars. This study explores a new aspect of how ethnic composition of states and the power of ethnic kin affect external state interventions in ethnic conflicts. Here it is hypothesized that states with dominant ethnic groups but still-significant ethnic minorities are expected to be more prone to intervention in ethnic conflict than states without one of these two characteristics. A new measure is proposed to capture such variation in ethnic composition more precisely. Looking at large-N panel data, it is found that ethnically fractionalized states with dominant ethnic groups are indeed the most likely to intervene in ethnic conflicts. Additionally, the power of the embattled ethnic kin minority, as determined by its settlement patterns in the host state, also increases the likelihood of intervention. Traditional variables like proximity and capability retain statistical significance. However, ethnic variables have the strongest effects on interventions in ethnic conflict.     

Mentally ill offenders eligible for diversion at local court in New South Wales (NSW), Australia: factors associated with initially successful diversion

Diversion away from the criminal justice system and into mental health treatment services is a key strategy for addressing the well-established burden of mental illness suffered by those presenting to court. While mental health courts, court liaison and court diversion services have been developed in many jurisdictions internationally, there is limited research evidence to support their effectiveness in identifying those with mental health need and achieving successful diversion. The Statewide Community and Court Liaison Service in New South Wales, Australia, identifies mentally ill offenders likely to meet legal eligibility criteria for diversion at the busiest local courts across the state. Utilising data collected by mental health clinicians working in the service, 8317 individuals were identified as being eligible for court diversion on at least one occasion during the study period (1 July 2008 and the 30 June 2015) and 57.3% were subsequently diverted by Magistrates. Successful diversion at this first step was associated with being female, older, of non-Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background, and having a serious mental illness, replicated when stratified by sex and by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background. There may be barriers to mental health diversion at court for individuals with particular socio-demographic characteristics which future service developments may need to take into account.     

Disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice: today’s,and yesterdays,problems

Disproportionate minority contact (DMC) has been a perplexing problem for the juvenile justice system, and recognized as a national priority since the 1980s. The over-representation of minority youthful offenders throughout juvenile court processing, from arrests to dispositions, has not changed even though significant federal and state efforts have been employed. This paper reviews these racial and ethnic disparity problems, and investigates the history of the juvenile justice system and courts, from the eighteenth century to today’s reformation movement, identifying that DMC is not a recent phenomenon. The history of slavery and the Jim Crow Era greatly impacted the establishment of the juvenile courts and child-centered justice efforts, finding disparities at all historical markers where records are available. When reviewing DMC as we know it today through this context, an argument can be made that limited progress has been made over the past 200 years.     

The differential demand for indirect rule: evidence from the North Caucasus

Indirect rule is one of the means that central authorities have long employed in hopes of defusing communal conflict and civil war in multicultural societies. Yet very little is known about the appeal of indirect rule among the ruled themselves. Why do people in some places demand more indirect rule and local autonomy, whereas others seem content to be governed directly by rulers of an alien culture? This is a crucial question with important implications for determining the form of governance that is most likely to provide social order in culturally heterogeneous societies. Although much attention has been given to consider the relative costs and benefits of direct versus indirect rule for the central authorities, the other side of the coin – namely, the variable demand for indirect rule among the members of distinctive cultural groups – has hardly been examined with systematic empirical data. This paper presents a theory of the differential demand for indirect rule and offers an initial test of its principal empirical implications using original micro-level data from the North Caucasus region of Russia. The theory's core claim is that the middle class should express the greatest demand for indirect rule, while both the upper and lower classes should prefer more direct rule. The theory therefore predicts that there will be an inverse parabolic relationship between the demand for indirect rule and economic class. The findings are largely consistent with these theoretical expectations.     

The case of the ‘other India’ and Indian ir scholarship

ir scholarship in India has focused on the borders, territory and sovereignty of the Indian state, overlooking the rich complexity of interior border formation between colonial and independent India. The paper argues that the study of the princely states under the British paramountcy (1858–1947), neglected so far, is valuable to ir scholarship on three grounds. First, in mapping colonial India’s engagement with the outside world, the focus has been solely on British India. The princes were equally participative and perceptive of the outside world. Second, the princely states represent yet another challenge to the Westphalian notion of sovereignty, demonstrating the limited capacity of European categories to understand the ‘non-West’. Third, incorporating the paramountcy system in the genealogy of sovereignty of the Indian subcontinent offers a fresh account of border construction inside the state.