Modernization discourse with Chinese characteristics

Despite sustained criticism of Western modernization theory since the 1970s, several distinct groups of theorists have sought to renovate it. Further, some of the strongest evidence of the theory's continued vitality comes from discussions of China, the fastest developing contemporary society. A close reading of a diverse group of texts reveals that a lively, creative, and global Chinese modernization discourse has emerged in recent decades. That discourse draws heavily on classical modernization theorists like Max Weber, acknowledges the successors and critics, and often integrates these Western theories with Chinese social and philosophical traditions. This essay maps the Chinese modernization discourse, highlights its relationships with other modernization discourses, and situates it within historical and theoretical contexts.     

Applying behavioural science to the annual electoral canvass in England: Evidence from a large-scale randomised controlled trial

Local authorities in Great Britain are required to ensure that their electoral registers are as accurate and complete as possible. To this end, Household Enquiry Forms (HEFs) are mailed to all properties annually to collect updated details from residents, and any eligible unregistered residents will subsequently be invited to register to vote. Unfortunately, HEF nonresponse is pervasive and costly. Using insights from behavioural science, we modified letters and envelopes posted to households as part of the annual canvass, and evaluated their effects using a randomised controlled trial across two local authorities in England (N=226,528 properties). We find that modified materials – particularly redesigned envelopes – significantly increase initial response rates and savings. However, we find no effects on voter registration. While certain behavioural interventions can improve the efficiency of the annual canvass, other approaches or interventions may be needed to increase voter registration rates and update voter information.     

马克斯·韦伯的法理型统治学说探析

在《经济与社会》一书中马克斯·韦伯阐述了理想类型的体系,其中有关统治的类型情况则集中地表。达了马克斯·韦伯关于统治类型的学说,魅力型统治、传统型统治、法理型统治是合法性统治的三种类型。探析马克斯·韦伯关于法理型统治及其基本条件的学说和观点,对推进社会主义法治国家的构建具有重要的意义。     

Cross-Currents: Elizabeth von Arnim,Max Beerbohm and George Bernard Shaw

Abstract

When Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel Introduction to Sally appeared in 1926, the critical response was divided. Dame Ethel Smyth may have told von Arnim the book was her ‘masterpiece’ but some were less convinced; the reviewer in Punch, for instance, considered it ‘a coarse-grained fantasy’. By situating Introduction to Sally in a wider literary context that includes Max Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson (1911 Beerbohm, Max (1964a), ‘To Reggie Turner, 3 November 1911’, in Rupert Hart-Davis (ed.), Letters to Reggie Turner, London: Davis, p. 126. [Google Scholar]) and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (1914 Shaw, George Bernard (1914), ‘Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts’, Everybody’s Magazine, Vol xxxi, (5). [Google Scholar]), this article explores the personal connections between these three authors and the thematic cross-currents in these texts. Is von Arnim’s novel really as ‘coarse’ and ‘vulgar’ as some earlier critics suggest? Or is it a novel that successfully mixes the plausible with the artificial, the comic and the socially catastrophic, in ways that, more than a decade later, resonate with the work of her friends to highlight several continuing preoccupations?     

The Ethical Irrationality of the World: Weber and Hindu Ethics

Abstract

This paper argues that Weber ought to be read as a comparative ethicist who brings his German intellectual inheritance, especially Schopenauer and Nietzsche, to a dialogue with ethical traditions in India and China. It shows that Weber not only had a supple understanding of the tensions within Hindu ethics, his own account of value often closely corresponds to Hindu axiology and was enriched by an encounter with it.     

中国古代官僚制审视——兼与现代官僚制的比较

马克斯·韦伯提出的理性官僚制理论适应并促进了资本主义的工业文明,在很长的历史时期,官僚制组织成为西方社会的基本组织形态。中国在秦朝时期就建立了中央集权制的封建国家,其行政组织体系具有自己独特的组织规则和运作过程,具备现代官僚制组织的某些特征。但是,中国传统官僚制度是建立在以家长制形式组织起来的家族制度基础之上的,与马克斯.韦伯所倡导的现代理性官僚制存在着根本的区别。对二者的差异进行分析和比较,有助于加深对现代官僚制的理解,从而为现阶段我国行政管理体制改革提供借鉴和启示。     

现代社会的法律自治——韦伯论现代法律的自治性

韦伯的社会学是作为包括法律科学在内的整个社会科学的基础而出现的,为我们理解法律现象提供了一个基于社会理论的＂外在视角＂。以韦伯的法律社会学为基础考察法律自治性的社会理论依据,可以为我们理解包括法律自治在内的现代法律现象提供一把钥匙。     

重温形式理性法律的特质——韦伯视野及当代价值

韦伯认为直至现代资本主义阶段,形式合理性法律开始形成并成为最具合理性的法律形态。韦伯视野中的形式理性法律具有权威性、确定性、平等性、自治性、专业性、合法性等特质。总结、重温和厉行这些形式理性法律特质,对于我国当下经济建设和法治建设都具有重要的启发价值。     

社会科学是否遗忘了“正当”问题——评列奥·斯特劳斯的《自然权利与历史》

德国历史主义主导的社会科学,遗忘了对"正当"问题的思考,因而对当代社会的虚无主义与道德沦丧负有不可推卸的责任,这是列奥.斯特劳斯批判社会科学的基本立场。这篇文章试图检讨这种批判的得失,并认为社会科学,就其本义而言,恰恰是通过"倒置"自然法学说的推理逻辑,为个人的自我治理与社会秩序的建设提供知性的支持。社会科学是作为科学,而不是作为意识形态的道德褒贬,来承当"应然"与"实然"之间的中间桥梁的任务。     

The Will to Consume: Schopenhauer and Consumer Society

Consumer society has negated Freud's thesis presented in Civilization and its Discontents. The hindrance of desire affirmation is no longer the foundation of discontent. The inverse is now true. A seemingly limitless number of desires have been manufactured and administered with a solitary route to their affirmation via consumption. Because of this, consumer society's members find themselves in a lifeworld of aimless striving, dissatisfaction, disappointment and boredom. I demonstrate that the attempt to flee the sufferings of estranged labour through consumption has pushed consumer society into a new web of suffering brought on by a continual development of manufactured desires, creating a minor yet perpetual pain that is best understood in the light of a sociologized and historicized Schopenhauerian philosophy.