Financial management conservatism under constraints: tax and expenditure limits and local deficit financing during the Great Recession

This paper investigates the relationship between tax and expenditure limits (TELs) and local government deficit financing decisions following the recent recession. Cities under the resource constraints are hypothesised to practise conservatism in financial management decisions and thus less likely to deficit finance during difficult times. Using data from 2005 to 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports of the 50 largest US cities, this paper finds that cities subject to a binding TEL are more likely to control expenditure growth from pre-crisis years to years following the recession; these cities are also less likely to increase deficit financing following the recession, as indicated by a relative increase in their net assets. Although continuous deficit erodes fiscal sustainability and is an undesirable management practice, deficit financing during recessions may be needed for smoothing expenditure and sustaining service provision. The management conservatism associated with the fiscal rules may contribute to the cyclicality of local spending.     

Enoch Powell and the Conservative Party: Reflections on an Ambiguous Legacy

This article examines Enoch Powell's ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in relation to the Conservative party. Powell's speech created an additional challenge to a Conservative party already weakened by the loss of the 1964 and 1966 elections and by the failure of the newly elected leader, Edward Heath, to impress his authority decisively on the party. Powell had some parliamentary support but his real following was concentrated in the Conservative grass roots. Powell lost the support of the liberal‐minded Shadow Cabinet; but after 1968 the Conservatives nevertheless moved to the right on the issue, especially after Mrs. Thatcher became leader in 1975. His speech has cast a long shadow as the party has sought to modernise in more recent times and to appeal to a more racially diverse electorate.     

Rising Damp in the Suburbs. Or ‘Whatever Happened to the Villa Tory?’

The suburban areas that were initially stereotyped in the late nineteenth century as ‘Villa Tory’ strongholds and exemplified by Hackney and Islington had, by the 1980s, become ‘bedsitter’ areas dominated by the political left. An examination of the evolution of electoral behaviour in these areas shows that conservatism did indeed dominate the villa suburbs, and that although there were previous intimations of decline, it was not until 1945 that Labour broke the Conservatives’ grip. The causes of this are identified as an outward movement of the population to interwar suburbia, the breaking up of villas into flats, and Labour's increasing appeal to middle class electors. In this category of seats, Labour has outperformed the party's national achievement consistently since 1955; the party's exceptional results here in the 2017 election are, therefore, a new peak on a long‐term trend rather than a breakthrough.     

20世纪80年代以来西方社会政治思潮与我国师范教育政策问题的思考

在介绍20世纪80年代以来西方新自由主义和新保守主义思潮基础上,联系我国师范教育实际,探讨了我国师范教育政策之走向问题。     

Big Societies,Little Platoons and the Problems with Pluralism

Conservative talk of a ‘big society’ is one more mutation of the unstable family of pluralism. It is a large family, with both benign and progressive left wing members and rogue right wing black sheep. The progressive contribution has been substantial, but pluralism is not a homogeneous ideology or set of policies, and the single word conceals stresses and irreconcilable oppositions in theory and practice. An examination of this variety gives clues to the latest contributions, and to some of the more regressive uses to which pluralism can be put. The left needs both to insist on its own major contribution to progressive pluralism, and to beware of wolves in pluralist clothing.     

A conservative convergence? The differences and similarities of the conservative right in the Czech Republic and Poland

This paper compares and contrasts the conservative right in both the Czech Republic and Poland in its historical and contemporary contexts. It argues that the conservative right is strong in both these countries and that they share many similar political features. However, there are also numerous differences between the conservative right in these nations. The reasons for these dissimilarities can be found in the relative historical social-economic development of the Czech Republic compared with Poland. Related to this is the fact that Czech society is a largely secular one, while the Catholic Church retains a strong social position in Poland. However, the paper also argues that it is possible to observe a convergence between the secular and religious forms of conservatism existent in the Czech Republic and Poland and that this is most evident at the level of European Union politics.     

A question of values: Conservatives and the culture of poverty

Every society has within it some individuals and groups who are successful and some who are less successful. Explanations for these differences range from the political to the economic and from the cultural to the religious. For American conservatives, the differences in individual levels of achievement can be explained primarily in cultural terms. The conservative mythology argues that there are clearly superior and clearly inferior cultural values and that good values produce successful individuals. This article deals with the fundamentally tautological nature of this argument: Why is so-and-so successful? Because he or she has better values. How do we know he or she has better values? Because he or she is successful. After elaborating this intellectual problem, an empirical test is made of the existence of different values among America's social groups. Using census data and national survey data, the personal goals and attitudes of various societal groups and their relative economic accomplishments are presented and compared. This analysis demonstrates that few of the culture-based differences which are asserted by conservatives can be validated empirically.     

中国法律早期现代化的保守性价值评析

对如何评价中国晚清修律中保守性价值问题进行讨论。对晚清时期中国社会的法律价值重新评价,与西方国家法律现代化进行比较,考虑近代中国国家和民族的政治功利性,考虑民族心理,考虑当时的历史背景、学术水准以及东方国家现代化的共同规律,认为中国早期法律现代化中包含某些保守性价值是具有历史合理性的存在。     

The Geopolitical Imaginary of the Brazilian Ultra-Right

The strengthening of the ultra-right in the Brazilian political scenario has a certain geopolitical imagination as one of its centres. Its main authors, on the one hand, consider Latin America as something to be avoided, and, on the other hand, value the affinities between Brazil and the United States due to the idea of a mutual belonging to a Christian West. The present article explains the most current assumptions and arguments of this discourse after 2016, based on an analysis of the geopolitical imaginary of the Brazilian ultra-right. The text reconstructs three political languages of the field – the reactionary, the ultraliberal, and the authoritarian conservative, based on the analysis of four intellectual protagonists: Olavo de Carvalho, Ernesto Araújo, Paulo Guedes, and Eduardo Villas Bôas. Finally, we raise some hypotheses about the reasons for the longevity of some fundamental traits of this geopolitical imaginary in the Brazilian scenario.