国家·公民·权利--泰国曲乡地方自治实践的民族志讨论

人类学的特长在于通过对异文化的参与观察和民族志的书写来达成对本土社会的批评.对泰国乡村进行田野调查而形成的民族志资料,展示了当地人如何围绕乡行政机构事务,在参与竞争、管理、监督和对实践的反思中转变为具备知识和公共理性的公民.可藉此反思我国在推行"村民自治"方面的不足.泰国的经验表明,要真正实现地方自治,国家在制度上保障自治机构的自主发展权具有首要意义,同时还必须重视主体的因素,包括在地方的公共生活中为村民创造表现的机会,培养大多数村民的参政意识,教授他们行使公民权利的正确方法,从而在地方自治中实现国家与地方以及国家与公民之间的良性互动.     

泰国北部的云南穆斯林--秦和人

“秦和人”一词 ,是泰语对历史上形成并生活在泰国北部清迈、清莱一带祖籍云南的回汉两族侨胞的统称 ,19世纪后 ,被当时旅居东南亚地区的西方殖民官员、探险家和传教士按泰语北部方言拼写成Cin -Ho/Chin -Ho ,或简称为Ho/Haw/Hor,大量进入其日记、札记、信函和旅行报告中。但由于云南回族马帮商人前往泰北的时间最早 ,商贸活动最频繁 ,移居时间最早 ,所占人数最多 ,因此西方文献和今天泰语中惯称的所谓“秦和人” ,又主要专指云南籍回族穆斯林。清迈府县城乡共有 9个秦和穆斯林区 ,阿拉伯语和汉语是他们的主要语言 ,清迈府城的王和街浓缩了云南籍的秦和人移居泰国北部的历史 ,现已成为以云南籍回族穆斯林为主的秦和人在今日泰国社会存在的一种文化象征。     

From Politics to Economics at the Thai–Cambodian Border: Plus Ça Change...

This paper looks at border relations between Thais and Cambodians over the last thirty years, in the context of the developing Thai polity and economy. It considers the salience of both ethnicity and nationality in shaping Thai interactions with Khmers. It suggests that as the threat of violent regional conflict diminished, the shared border came to represent important economic opportunities for both Thais and Cambodians. However, rhetorics of national interest and regional development notwithstanding, the beneficiaries of this transnational trade are neither nation nor state, but specific interest groups working through the structures of government and military on both sides of the border.     

泰国与越南在湄公河地区的合作与竞争

20世纪90年代以来,湄公河地区的经济合作取得了巨大进展.其中,泰国与越南表现突出.泰国和越南在充分利用GMS经济合作机制的同时,试图建立起以本国为中心的合作机制,以扩大其在区域经济合作中的影响力.泰国和越南在湄公河地区的合作或竞争,将决定该地区经济合作的未来.     

泰国政党模式的变迁与民主巩固

西方学者在界定民主巩固内涵时主要存在3种路径:政治制度路径、民主文化路径和多元综合路径。政治制度路径的理论家强调政党的作用,民主文化路径的理论家强调公民社会的作用,而多元综合路径则试图在两者之间折衷。1997年泰国宪法及之后的泰爱泰党的兴起为泰国第二波民主化之后的民主巩固创造了条件。然而,泰爱泰党并没有专心于群众型政党的建设,而跨越式地去学习全方位政党、卡特尔政党和商业公司型政党的经验和特征。这一学习模式在促使泰爱泰党迅速崛起的同时,也埋下之后在喧嚣中退场的隐患。泰爱泰党的政党学习实践反映出后发国家的一种学习困境,也揭示了政党模式的次序变迁与民主巩固之间的密切关联。     

Illiberal Democrats versus Undemocratic Liberals: The Struggle Over the Future of Thailand's Fragile Democracy

Abstract

This article examines the inter-related factors that underpin the fragility of Thailand's democracy. Uneven economic development, the high levels of income inequality, and unequal access to power and resources are significant drivers of Thailand's ongoing political conflict. Social divides across classes and regions, and populist exploitation of the rural poor's sense of alienation from the traditional ruling elites, provide a volatile backdrop to national politics. In addition, Thailand's unstable political history and the weakness of liberal institutions present risks to its democracy. The army, the revered monarch and the judiciary comprise elites whose periodic interventions in politics and reservations about electoral democracy further render the Thai polity fragile. Thailand's political situation represents a ‘slow-burning’ crisis of democracy: a long-term historical confrontation developing slowly, with the fundamental issues unresolved. It is undergoing a period of social turmoil fuelled by a power struggle between competing material interests and by an ideational contest to determine the country's constitutive political rules. This can be conceptualised as a struggle for control of Thailand's future between a heterogeneous populist-capitalist movement of illiberal democracy and conservative forces of undemocratic liberalism.     

Crisis in the Philippines Left: Implications for the Asia Pacific

The struggles of poor communities to negotiate development processes have been documented increasingly in recent years. However, recognition of the agency of the poor should not preclude attention to patterns of oppression that may be intensifying in the face of top-down development processes imposed by increasingly well co-ordinated elites. Examination of patterns of violence in border areas across the Greater Mekong Sub-region suggests that integration facilitates the collusion of state actors in the dispossession of the poor in a manner that is deleterious to ethnic minorities, internal migrants and other vulnerable populations. National political processes are not offering mechanisms by which such populations can seek to contest this trend.     

Singapore Inc. Goes Shopping Abroad: Profits and Pitfalls

Efficient state-led, market-driven intervention has been the hallmark of Singapore's success story but the exportability of state credibility, systemic efficiencies and local advantages into alien contexts is a matter of academic and political controversy. This article scrutinises Singapore's experience with outward investment in order to objectively examine the role of Temasek and of the government-linked corporations (GLCs). It uses the case of Temasek's investment in Thailand to reflect upon the economic and political impacts of the GLCs' global quest. It shows that resistance to Singaporean acquisitions reflects a combination of factors, including a general turn towards “economic nationalism,” attempts by other governments to replicate the city-state's state-led modernisation, and Temasek's and GLCs' underestimation of the risks that are germane to their international strategy.     

Authoritarianism and UMNO's factional conflicts

Abstract

Do democratic political regimes facilitate more robust environmental and natural resource regulatory policies? Yes, in many cases. Using detailed cases of natural resource policy making in Thailand, however, we find that neither political parties nor civil society nor state institutions do well in representing diffuse interests, mediating among conflicting ones or defining compromises and securing their acceptance by most key players. Gains in environmental or natural resource policy making have not been dramatically more likely under democratic regimes than under “liberal authoritarian” ones with broad freedoms of speech and association. We argue that Thailand's democratic political system features weak linkages between groups in society and political parties, lacks alternative encompassing or brokering institutions in civil society, and that these features account for a tendency for political democracy to fail to deliver on its policy potential in Thailand.     

泰国高层对南海争端的看法

泰国本身并非南海主权申索国,但试图在南海问题上扮演协调者的角色。泰国官方对南海争端给予极高的关注度。本文试从泰国主流媒体近两年所刊载的泰国官方对南海争端的表态,尤其是总理和各部首脑的发言,对泰国政府在南海争端中的基本立场进行分析解读。