我国西部以大开放促大开发的战略构想

我国在西部大开发中,应实施"东合西展、南下北上、扩大开放、促进开发"的战略构想,以大开放促大开发,以同东部和中部地区的经贸合作为重点,全方位、多层次、宽领域地对外开放,以进出口商品结构的调整和优化,带动产业结构的调整和优化,以引进外资和对外投资的扩大,促进重点产业的发展和进出口的扩大,这是实现西部大开发各项战略目标的保证.     

Socio-economic differentiation in the post-communist rural Baltics: the case of three kolkhozes

This paper uses longitudinal quantitative data to examine socio-economic differentiation in the rural Baltic areas after decollectivization. It argues that the rural social structure in the post-Soviet Baltics is best determined by two criteria: source of income (income from farming entrepreneurship or income from salaries) and land holdings. Four rural groups are identified: people getting their main income from farming can be differentiated into large landowners engaged in the commercial production of agricultural goods and people with small or medium-sized farms; and people earning their main income from wages can be separated into people with no farming activities and people who are still keeping small or medium-sized farms. The paper also finds that the importance of farming activities in the countryside decreases while importance of wage income tends to increase.     

结构紧张与网络聚合:网络民粹主义的生成及疏导

脱胎于民粹主义传统、衍生于信息技术勃兴的网络民粹主义,并非是社会事件对网民情绪的随机引爆或利益主体间话语冲突的偶然跃现,而是结构性社会紧张的网络聚合与畸化涌现。在结构紧张视域下,网络民粹主义的生成理路呈现出一种“理性现实需求—非理性网络呈现”的二律背反:政治参与不畅境遇下的网络民粹主义,以网络舆论审判等极端形式发挥代偿性的民主实践效用;利益分配张力格局中的网络民粹主义,在底层符号的建构、弱势语态的倒逼中传递社会公正诉求;文化环境紊乱状态下的网络民粹主义,为抵抗主流文化、生产大众文化而构筑起反权威、反科学的反智惯习;消极心态积淀下的网络民粹主义,凭托于虚拟在场等技术支撑,在对社会焦虑、社会怨恨的释放中异变为暴力的行为展演。面对来势汹涌的网络民粹主义,亟须将其纳入“疏解”与“引导”的国家社会治理框架中,照料其现实性社会需求、引导其科学地传递诉求,以期将深层的结构性张力格局整合为有序、稳定的有机系统。     

转型期农村青年人生价值观的分化与整合

社会转型时期,农村社会发生了翻天覆地的变化,农村青年作为农村中思想解放而有活力的群体,其人生价值观出现了明显的分化。为准确把握农村青年人生价值观的现状及存在问题,笔者于近期开展了相关调查。通过分析农村青年人生价值观的分化现状和深层次原因,提出以社会主义核心价值观为引领,采取系列措施来整合农村青年价值观的建议。     

Differentiation of Morphologically Similar Human Head Hairs from Two Demographically Similar Individuals Using Amino Acid Ratios,

Human hair is frequently encountered as forensic evidence and can contribute valuable information to investigators. Conventional forensic hair analyses include microscopic hair comparison (MHC) and DNA analysis. However, MHC is not supported by statistics and DNA analysis cannot always be performed. Recent studies have demonstrated that evaluation of differences in the hair proteins may offer an alternate method to these analyses. In this study, an evaluation of the amino acids present in hair was investigated as an approach to differentiate morphologically indistinguishable hair samples from two demographically similar individuals. Proteins in the hair were digested using hydrochloric acid, and the resulting amino acids were derivatized with N,O-Bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) for analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Eight derivatized amino acids were detected and quantified relative to an internal standard, L-norvaline, and used to construct twenty-eight amino acid ratios. Hair samples were collected from four areas of the head on various days over the course of one month, and no significant differences in amino acid ratios (p-value > 0.05) were observed among the areas of the head, and the ratios were consistent over the time period of this study. Additionally, fifteen of these amino acid ratios were found to be significantly different between the two individuals when compared using a two-sample t-test (p-value ≤ 0.05). These data indicate that amino acid analysis was able to differentiate two morphologically similar hair samples from different individuals and demonstrates the applicability of this method to distinguish similar hair samples when DNA analysis cannot be performed.     

Re-packaging old policies? ‘Abenomics’ and the lack of an alternative growth model for Japan's political economy

Abstract

‘Abenomics’ has continued to attract the attention of both the national and international media and a broad range of scholars. There are different and contested views of Abenomics and its impact upon the Japanese economy. This article argues that those more Keynesian-style remedies that form part of Abenomics have not been able to address Japan's longer-term problem of weak demand, especially in terms of private consumption. This is in large part due to the liberalising measures that also form part of Abenomics, and which are incompatible with the Keynesian remedies pursued. Whilst Abenomics has the potential (at least in the short-to-medium term) to improve the profitability of Japanese businesses, in the absence of a corresponding move to redistribute corporate wealth to labour, Abenomics also represents a hazard to future economic growth in Japan.     

Political Brand Equity Model: The Integration of Political Brands in Voter Choice

The voters’ choices about political parties have many similarities with how they make their choices about commercial brands. Therefore, political parties are now constantly applying the concept and strategies of brand management to make the political product attractive, appealable, trustable, differentiable, a source of long-term relationships, and a decision-making driver. Furthermore, the political parties have to play an active role in the community's political socialization processes, which rely heavily on branding strategies. Because, the party equity is largely based on the community's social gregariousness that has profound effect on the electorates' propensity to participate in the politics. This study has deeply explored and broadened the concept of party equity analogous to commercial brand equity typology by developing a politics-specific brand equity model. This model demonstrates the integration of political brands in voter choice. Empirically, this model has been validated by collecting 550 valid responses from the constituency of District Gujrat, Pakistan. A careful analysis of these responses through structural equation modeling methodology has revealed that political parties vary according to the outcomes of their role in the political socialization process of the communities, loyalty, and voters’ attitude. Parties that have favorable role in the socialization process have strong party knowledge and thus have high party equity as compared to competing political parties, which have a weak position of party knowledge. Similarly, this study provides the roadmap and guidelines for the political parties to manage their party equity. Similarly, the model would be able to facilitate political parties in comparing different constituencies on the basis of their diversified social dynamics and political knowledge and in the development of a constituency-based manifesto, also termed “localized manifesto,” to further enhance their vote bank.     

Political socialization and democratic beliefs change: a panel study of Chinese students studying in Taiwan

Does the experience of studying in Taiwan significantly enhance the degree to which Chinese students hold democratic beliefs? What are the factors that cause the change? By adopting a political socialization approach, a panel survey with Chinese students enrolled in short-term studies in Taiwan was conducted. The results indicated that 41.44% of the students showed no change in the degree to which they hold democratic beliefs, whereas the degree of democratic beliefs held reduced among 34.23% of the students and increased among 25.33% of the students. The regression model developed for this study can be used to explain 21.60% of the variance in the degree to which the students hold democratic beliefs. Six of the nine hypotheses tested are confirmed.     

Territorial upscaling of local governments: a variable-oriented approach to explaining variance among Western European countries

Local government systems change at varying speeds. While some countries have dramatically reduced the number of local governments during a short period of time, other countries have seen only incremental change or relative inertia. A number of explanations for structural change have been put forward in the comparative local government literature, but these explanations have to a small extent been tested empirically. This article uses statistical indicators to analyse changes in the local government systems in 17 Western European countries between 2004 and 2014. Some often-cited explanations for what drives structural change receive little support. Still, the article demonstrates that changes tend to occur in situations marked by different combinations of decentralisation, urbanisation, fiscal stress and a recent history of territorial upscaling.     

Racial structural solidarity

Abstract

Effective political action against racial injustice requires a conception of solidarity based on the social and material reality of this form of injustice. I develop such a notion of solidarity by extending Iris Young’s notion of ‘gender as seriality’ to race. This notion of solidarity avoids the problems encountered by Shelby’s ‘common oppression view’ and Gooding-Williams’s non-foundational view. On Shelby’s ‘common oppression’ view, solidarity is based solely on the victims’ shared condition of oppression. According to Shelby, all victims of racial oppression can be reasonably expected to endorse a set of principles that will move them to common action. Gooding-Williams sheds doubt on the idea that such shared principles exist and defends instead a view of politics as action-in-concert, marked by reasonable disagreement, and a non-foundational view of solidarity constituted through the controversy of politics rather than given in virtue of pre-political commitments or interests. I argue that the problem with such a notion is that it is unable to link the material and social reality of the unjust structures to the forms of political action that would effectively transform social reality. My notion of ‘structural racial solidarity’ would avoid these problems.