Studying civil society across the world: Exploring the Thorny issues of conceptualization and measurement

Abstract

The debate about the usefulness of the civil society concept for social analysis has reached a critical stage and calls for its abandonment are mounting. To prove its relevance for policy, practice and research, better operational concepts and more rigorous empirical research on civil society are required. This article examines the possibilities and pitfalls of cross-national civil society research as a crucial area of empirical civil society studies. It explores the definition, conceptualization, operationalization and measurement of civil society through a critical examination of existing international efforts at comparative civil society analysis. A functional approach to defining civil society and a two-dimensional operational concept of civil society, according to its (1) structural and (2) cultural features, are proposed as suitable tools to study the phenomenon cross-nationally. The article also reviews the Civicus Civil Society Index as an innovative tool to assess the state of civil society and discusses the insights and challenges emerging from its current application in more than 50 countries. The paper concludes that international comparative civil society studies are both possible and necessary, but cautions that more attention needs to be paid to the development of appropriate operational concepts and measurement models.     

Patterns within prejudice: antisemitism in the United States in the 1940s

ABSTRACT

Ziege compares two field studies on ethnocentrism, racism and antisemitism among American workers during the Second World War: ‘Antisemitism among American Labor’ (1945) by the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research (ISR) in exile and Wartime Shipyard (1947) by Katherine Archibald at the University of California at Berkeley. The former was a large-scale team project headed by Friedrich Pollock, Theodor W. Adorno and Paul Massing, who had at their disposal a large number of fieldworkers as well as the support of the trade unions. Archibald worked in complete isolation. Yet, in spite of this and major differences in design and theory, the European Marxists and the American liberal came to similar conclusions: hostility towards Jews at that time had to be analysed in connection with hostility towards other groups (including women, Blacks, labourers from the American South and other ethnic and social minorities) and within the context of the war and the Holocaust. While aware of the innovations achieved in research by means of public opinion polls, both studies were pioneering in their ambition to improve on quantitative research by means of non-quantitative procedures and qualitative-participatory observation. Ziege links these studies to a third study, The Authoritarian Personality (1950), conducted by the ISR, particularly Adorno, which poses the question of how relevant the ISR's critical theory was for the innovations achieved in studies of prejudice, when Archibald's study, which eschewed social theory, arrived at similar conclusions regarding antisemitism.     

陈垣先生学术成就的时代意蕴

考察陈垣先生何以能够取得卓越学术成就的一个新维度,就是深入分析他如何在时代推动下吸收新的智慧,不断开拓奋进。我们从其青年时期如何勤奋学习和矢志追求,从其既善于继承传统,又勇于超越,从其在抗战时期如何提倡并实践“有意义之史学”等方面,都能发掘出丰富的内涵,从而大大推进我们对这位史学大师何以成功地为新历史考证学创辟新境的认识。通过梳理和剖析陈垣先生学术风范的时代蕴涵,我们能够更加清楚地认识其留给后人的宝贵思想遗产——严谨求真精神、开拓创新精神和使命担当精神,从而激励我们奋发努力,不断把学术工作向前推进。     

政治科学预测方法研究——以选举预测为例

预测是人类的基本认知活动。作为社会科学预测性研究的重要领域,选举预测是促进政治学理论和方法创新的动力。选举预测不仅限于民调,科学的选举预测可以划分为四类范式:意见聚合范式;模型范式;混合范式;大数据范式。每类范式包含若干种预测方法,不同预测方法在准确性、超前性、解释力、可重复性、中立性和预测成本等评判标准上各具优势,预测方法的选择是基于预测目标和应用场景的综合权衡。目前,选举预测领域呈现多元化、交叉互补、跨学科的发展趋势;其未来发展方向是“理论驱动”与“数据驱动”相结合、微观预测变量与宏观预测变量相结合、预测与解释相结合,以政治科学为基础,通过跨学科合作和前沿技术手段推进预测范式的创新,并在预测实践中不断更新升级。预测性研究与解释性研究可以构成“双螺旋”的共生互补关系,共同致力于增进人类对复杂政治活动的理解和研判,提升政治学研究的科学水平和政策应用价值。     

论我国行政程序立法价值定位的型构与走向

建构于人的主体论、正当程序论基础上的行政程序立法价值定位,应当兼顾公平与效率、自由与秩序、个人利益与公共利益、行政主体与行政相对方两造的权利与义务等双重价值定位,该种价值定位兼具建构性与指导性。     

哲学本体论探究的根据与现实意义

哲学本体论探究,有着深刻的人性根据、思维根据和现实根据。哲学本体论问题的指向与追求,是哲学思维的一个突出特征,也是哲学对人类的重要社会功能,并具有深刻的现实意义和时代要求。     

Creating Chaos at the Borders

The morbidity and mortality issues likely to arise for geriatric superstars are not unlike those already realized for so-called miracle babies. The therapeutic imperative and other social pressures, the technological imperative, financial interests, and media hyping have driven the overzealous medical-science pursuits of very old individuals and very young fetal infants. This article discusses lessons learned and lessons expected.

近年来总体国家安全观研究述评

总体国家安全观是适应新时代历史方位的新型国家安全观,自提出以来就受到学术界广泛关注。文章从总体国家安全观的内容构成、主要特征以及实践路径三个角度着手,对已有研究成果进行了系统梳理和分析,探索既有研究的特征和优势,同时也指出存在的薄弱环节和不足之处。未来的研究应完整梳理总体国家安全观理论体系、深挖科学内涵,着眼中国特色、细化主要特征、关注制度建构、探索协同实践,从而为国家总体安全工作的进一步发展提供更有力的理论支持。     

On learning terrorism

Abstract

The complex phenomenon of terrorism has been explained in a variety of ways, ranging from the narrowly psychological to the broadly political. Many of these hypotheses appear to have merit, although, standing alone, each tends to be inadequate or incomplete. Focusing on the psychological explanations of root cause, the instant discussion proposes that the hitherto neglected or taken‐for‐granted principles of human learning, particularly those of cognitive‐behavioral conditioning, can provide a useful and significant component to these explanations. The competence and commitment to the ways and means of terror are in large measure produced, intensified, and sustained through learning. Evidence, chiefly from psychological studies, is adduced to support this hypothesis. A few formal, sometimes state‐sponsored training programs based more or less on conditioning are briefly described. Some of the doctrines, particularly those that underpin Middle East terrorism and provide the justification and substantiation of what is taught, are also mentioned. It is suggested that the same procedures by which terrorism is indoctrinated may, in conjunction with other procedures, be employed to prevent and combat it. Although this strategy, in the present uncongenial socio‐cultural and geopolitical environments, will doubtless be difficult if not impossible to implement, it deserves to be explored as another potentially effective tool in the developing armamentarium of counter‐terrorism.