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Governance is essentially a dynamic mechanism to promote collective action for the common good. The Chinese concept of the public/common (gÅnggòng) and its political philosophy of Grand Union governance provide an alternative perspective for understanding such dynamics from the unit of family through institutions to the state-embedded society. Three critical arguments with interconnected elements are analysed: governance as a dynamic mechanism; review of the historical, philosophical and political legacy of Chinese governance; and proposal of a framework for governance of the Grand Union. It concludes that 'Chinese characteristics', such as diverse adaptations, gradual flexibility, experimental pragmatism, and polycentric balance with a strong central state are all deeply rooted in its pre-revolutionary ancien régime. In order to understand these seemingly different institutions and values, we need to revisit their original functionality of governing for the common good., Author(s): Yan Zhang [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.5335.0, 0000000121885934, Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, , 2nd Floor, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, CB3 9DT, Cambridge, UK [...]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the stability and toughness of North Korea's political regime from the perspective of radicalism and gradualism of the market economization. Since it is believed that gradualism keeps the regime stable. I examined the hypothesis that North Korea and Cuba effectively abandoned their socialist planned economy and introduced market economization after witnessing the economic crisis in China and Vietnam during the Cold War. As a result, North Korea and Cuba experienced the economic crisis and gradual economic development after the Cold War. The socialist planned economy remained an ideal in North Korea. Therefore, market economization became gradualism because of its suppression by the ideal in North Korea., Author(s): Satoru Miyamoto [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.443215.5, 0000 0000 9393 8700, Seigakuin University, , 1-1 Tosaki, 3628585, Ageo City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan Introduction The purpose of this paper is [...]

As a vast literature on political disaffection, populism, 'pitchfork politics,' and the emergence of an 'age of anger' testifies, the nature of democratic politics and the socio-political context in which it operates appear to have shifted sharply during the last decade. This is reflected in the rise of challenger parties, the election of unorthodox politicians, and widespread concern regarding the 'crisis,' 'death,' or 'end' of democracy. Existing analyses have, however, understandably adopted a conventional model of party-based representative politics as their main interpretive lens or reference point to make sense of these changes. This article adopts a far bolder position. It suggests that a new form of 'grievance politics' has emerged that constitutes a distinct and novel species of representative democracy. Grievance politics is defined by the fuelling and funneling of negative emotions and various blame-based political strategies which explicitly challenge and confound many of the core principles and values that have traditionally underpinned conventional conceptions of party politics. It is the tension between party politics and grievance politics-and their contemporary co-existence as competing modes of political representation-which this article seeks to underline and through this, to develop a clearer understanding of possible futures for representative democracy., Author(s): Matthew Flinders [sup.1] , Markus Hinterleitner [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.11835.3e, 0000 0004 1936 9262, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, , Sheffield, UK (2) grid.5252.0, 0000 0004 1936 [...]

America is being torn apart. Amid growing strife, many people are experiencing angst concerning the future of this country, a country once renowned for its exuberant spirit of discovery, progress, [...]

Many have attributed the recent unprecedented wave of redistribution in Brazil to national economic and political factors such as the commodities boom, changes in minimum wages or premiums to skilled labor, the rise of the Partido dos Trabalhadores and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and a commodities-driven economic boom. Yet much less attention has been devoted to the study of inequality at the subnational level, where trajectories of inequality across states remain incredibly varied. This article argues that Brazil's most recent democratic transition enhanced political competition in many Brazilian states, which in turn has contributed to the amelioration of inequality. Using an original time-series cross-sectional dataset covering the highly redistributive period of 1998-2015, this article finds that Brazilian states with higher political and party competition have lower levels of inequality than those with less competitive party systems. Muitos atribuiram a onda recente de renda redistribuicao no Brasil por fatores economicos e politicais nacionais como o 'boom de commodities,' cambios no salarios-minimos, premios mais baixos para mao de obra qualificada, e a ascensao do Partido dos Trabalhadores e o Presidente Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Embora, muito menos atencao foi dedicada para a pesquisa de desigualdade no nivel subnacional, onde niveles relativos de desigualdade atraves os estados permanecem incrivelmente variados. Esse artigo faz o argumento que a transicao democratica mais recente no Brasil aumentada competicao em os sistemas de partidos de alguns estados, que por sua vez contribuiu para a melhoria de desigualdade. Utilizando dados do periodo 1998-2015, assim como analise qualitativa um par de estados, Para e Rio Grande do Sul, esse artigo encontra os estados brasileiros com sistemas partidos mais competitivo sao mais provaveis para avancar politicais de sociais e ter niveles mais baixos de desigualdade que outros com sistemas partidos menos competitivos., Despite remaining one of the world's most unequal countries, Brazil has experienced an unprecedented wave of income redistribution in the twenty-first century. Substantial drops in income inequality prompted literature focusing [...]

Populism can be defined and is generally viewed as a regime where the people rule. What distinguishes populism from democracy is a matter of degree: under populism, the people rule [...]

Author(s): Joseph C. Hermanowicz [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 1936 738X, grid.213876.9, Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, , 30602, Athens, GA, USA There will be controversy and dissent [...]

Abstract How have China's princelings benefitted from their family backgrounds in their careers? This study seeks to answer the question and, in so doing, to add to the existing factionalist [...]

Sociology already has a well-developed mission to help rising classes fight inequality. Sociology has an equal duty, and already has the tools, to help the dominant classes become responsible leaders of society as a whole. Following Bourdieu's focus on the composition of capital, we can see that the knowledge-class fraction of the dominant class has the tools to teach the corporate-class fraction of the dominant class - and their children - to become a responsible establishment for the benefit of society as a whole., Author(s): William Weston [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 0394 1316, grid.420676.1, Centre College, , 40422, Danville, KY, USA When we teach students at a selective liberal arts college, we [...]

Daniel Bell's The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy is a significant contribution to contemporary political theory. I am very much in sympathy with his ideal of [...]

It is my great pleasure to discuss Bell's latest book on political meritocracy. The China Model has received responses in both political theory and China studies, but unfortunately many of [...]

The Republic of Cyprus came into existence in 1960 as a Greek-Turkish bi-communal partnership. Intercommunal strife and the ultimate coup against the fist president prompted Turkey's intervention in 1974 which quelled the violence since but partitioned the island. Despite repeated and often encouraging promises, endeavours to reunite the island have so far been in vain. In the context of the accumulative respect for human rights sanctioning secession as the exercise of the right of self-determination, the potential contribution which political dynamism in the Eastern Mediterranean and the discovery of energy reserves in the Levant can make to a future settlement, this article reconciles statehood with the status of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC;) analyses the question of secession as it relates to Northern Cyprus; and discusses the prospect for a federal or a two-state solution. It concludes that exporting Levant energy to Europe via Turkey is economically the most viable option and that a unified Federal Republic of Cyprus, with a constitutional right of secession, or two fully independent states within the supra-national framework of the European Union (EU) are viable alternatives. Keywords: Cyprus, disenfranchisement, energy, geo-politics, self-determination Kibris Cumhuriyeti 1960'da Rum-Tilrk ortakligi olarak Ingiltere, Yunanistan ve Turkiye garantisi altinda kuruldu. Kurulusundan 3 yil sonra baslayan halklar arasi mucadele, 1974'de zamanin cumhurbaskanina karsi darbeye ve can guvenini saglayan ama ayni zamanda adayi bolen Turkiye'nin mudahalesine yol acmis. Bu gune dek sulh korunmus olsa da, umit verici bircok gorusmelere ragmen, bolunen adada federe devlet kurulamamistir. Konu edilen arastirma uluslararasi gelismekte olan insan haklarini, Dogu Akdeniz'de kesfedilen enerji kaynaklarini ve siyasi gelismeleri konu eder ve Kibrisin iki bolumlu federe devlet olanagini veya Kuzey Kibris Turk Cumhuriyeti'nin (KKTC'nin) tanimini inceler. Arastirma Dogu Akdeniz Biladu's-Sam (Levant) bolgesinde kesfedilen enerjinin Karpaz-Turkiye boru hatti uzerinden Avrupaya dagitimi en uygun segenek oldugunu ve Kibris Federe Devletinin kurulusu veya iki ozgur devletli Kibrisin Avrupa Birligi'ne (AB) iye olabilecegini savunur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kibris, temsil-dislanmasi, enerji, kuresel-siyaset, dzgur-ydnetim, Cyprus and Statehood Given that the notion of a Federal Republic of Cyprus has dominated the agenda for more than 40 years and that only Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic [...]

ABSTRACT Debates on the system of government have been on the political agenda in Turkey since the 1960s, gaining momentum in recent years. Disengagement from the parliamentary system began with [...]

ABSTRACT Debate over the government system has occupied Turkey's political and constitutional agenda for many years. Yet the discussions that have taken place have not, until very recently, progressed beyond [...]

ABSTRACT Even though they are not the sole forms of organization in a democratic system, political parties constitute the most effective bodies of people's will. A large volume of empirical [...]

ABSTRACT Countries often debate the issue of constitutional reform. Typically, such debates focus on whether a country should have a presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary system of government. The advantages and [...]

The 2016 GENERAL ELECTION, like those before it, provides an example of how public officials can obscure discourse with five common techniques: utilizing dangling comparatives, using 'average' in a misleading [...]

This article analyzes the reasons ethnic violence erupted in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1960s. Based on semi-structured interviews with civil society workers, local deputies and residents in Northern Ireland that took place during August-September 2014, it argues that in the Northern Ireland case, the cleavage structure and political competition which overlapped with bipolar ethnic divide rendered political parties incapable to appeal to ethnic diversity within Northern Irish society. This article shows that the unionist-nationalist cleavage structure and political competition based on plurality rule brought about ethnic polarization and intensified interethnic tensions by producing governments supported exclusively by Protestants and hindering the incorporation of Catholics into the political system. It also demonstrates that peace negotiations in Northern Ireland were a process of institutional innovation in order to incorporate both communities into the political system. Keywords: Ethnic Conflict, Ethnic Polarization, Cleavage Structure, Peace Negotiations, Northern Ireland Bu calisma 1960'larin sonunda Kuzey Irlanda'da etnik siddetin neden ortaya ciktigini incelemektedir. 2014 Agustos-Eylul aylarinda Kuzey Irlanda'da sivil toplum calisanlari, yerel milletvekilleri ve Kuzey Irlanda sakinleriyle gerceklestirilen ucu acik gorusmelere dayanarak, bu calisma iki kutuplu etnik bolunmeyle ortusen siyasi yapi ve politik rekabet nedeniyle, Kuzey Irlanda'da siyasi partilerin etnik cesitlilige hitap edemedigini one surmektedir. Bu calisma Kuzey Irlanda'da birlik yanlilari ve milliyetciler arasindaki siyasi rekabetin ve cogunluk sistemine dayali secim sisteminin sadece Protestanlar tarafindan desteklenen birlik yanlisi hukumetler yaratarak ve Katolikleri siyasi sisteme dahil etmeyi zorlastirarak etnik polarizasyona yol actigini ve etnik gruplar arasindaki tansiyonu yukselttigini gostermektedir. Bu calisma ayrica Kuzey Irlanda baris muzakerelerinin iki toplulugu da siyasete dahil etmeyi amaclayan bir kurumsal yenilenme sureci oldugunu aciklamaktadir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Etnik Catisma, Etnik Polarizasyon, Siyasi Yapi, Baris Muzakereleri, Kuzey Irlanda, Introduction The rise of paramilitaries at the end of the 1960s and the ensuing thirty years of ethnic violence, widely known as 'Troubles', claimed over 3,700 lives between 1969 and [...]

Most of the few studies and press articles dealing with the U.S. Armenian lobby have tended to insist on this lobby's successes, regarded as impressive and disproportionate. This has generated a few problems in its global understanding, especially with regards to its impact on U.S. foreign policy, and has contributed to shape a generalized perception of a 'small' lobby, capable of considerable influence on U.S. foreign policy. The main goal of this article is to question this common perception in order to propose a more accurate evaluation of this lobby. Mostly thanks to its influence in Congress, it has succeeded in getting positive results, particularly concerning U.S. financial assistance to Armenia. However, it has also experienced some failures, particularly on issues related to Turkey or American energy policy. Keywords Armenian lobby * Ethnic lobbying * American foreign policy * Armenia * Turkey * Armenian National Committee of America * Armenian Assembly of America, Lobbying is an important and historical component of American political life. It finds its origin in the idea that individuals or groups must be able to play a direct role [...]

This article reviews the foreign policy of the Obama administration with a special focus on the Middle East. It shows the gap between the lofty rhetoric of the President, a great orator, and the decisions taken by the Administration. This gap is the inevitable result of the normal play of forces in the decision-making process involving many actors and the interplay of domestic policies and foreign policy. The author argues that if Obama's foreign policy is analyzed in electoral and domestic terms then it is quite wrong to argue, as some have done, that it is dumb. Smart in electoral terms, however, does not necessarily mean smart on the international stage. Keywords Obama * Foreign policy * Middle East * Cairo Speech * Geopolitics * US elections, Political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see. Barack Obama, Jerusalem, March 21, [...]

The December 17thprocess was started allegedly by a political move by the Gulen movement, which, until recently, had been seen as a religious organization. As the government and the parliament-- institutions of democratic representation--countered this move through the use of their constitutional powers, the debate has turned into a totalistic and ontological struggle. However, very few people argue that the problems are actually not independent of the constitutional system of the Turkish Republic, but rather unavoidable consequences of the existing system. If we consider the political steps and strategies pursued by the Gulen movement, we see that we are faced with the most familiar game in Turkish political history, namely the shaping of politics through the use of state institutions., A contemporary observer of the French Revolution in 1789, Selim III, attempted to modernize the Ottoman army and administration by initiating the Nizam-i Cedid (the New Order) program in the [...]

Abstract: Russia has adopted a neo-authoritarian media system that has more in common with similar non-democratic systems around the world than with the Soviet system that once prevailed on the [...]

Ten years after the previous revision in 2003, the Parliament of Romania launches a new process of amending the post-communist Constitution of 1991. The envisaged revision should basically update the Romanian political system according to the first seven years of experience that Romania has as an EU member state. Beyond all political and juridical aspects of the constitutional revision, a number of pressures deriving from economic, social, cultural, religious or ethnic local patterns should also be considered. From myths and cliches to populism(s), specific interests and even European reflections, the equation involves a whole range of formal and informal forces which traditionally shape politics and society. The article looks over the main populist expressions, beliefs and attitudes regarding the revision of the Constitution and explores their possible consequences on the final outcome. At the time of working for this article, in the early spring of 2013 the parliamentary procedures are in progress. The central question around which I build up the entire demarche is whether the populist approaches have a decisive role in the constitutional revision or not. The 'unacceptable comparison' (in Romanian Prime Minister's words) with Hungary's recent experience and its controversial amended Constitution is meant only to emphasize the context of changing the fundamental law during severely unbalanced parliaments while the direction and substance of amendments are indeed considerably different. Keywords: Romania, Hungary, Constitution, revision, Parliament, populism, referendum, Conceptual introduction: From grand 'founding' visions to 'flash-mob' populisms The myths and cliches are inevitable parts of all national political cultures. What we know or think we know about our [...]

This article considers the theory of presidential representation by examining its development from 1800 to 1864. In particular, it returns to the critics of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln and presents new evidence that the concept of presidential representation not only remained contested throughout this period but also grew more entangled with rival claims of representation and alternative arguments for executive power. By exploring the early development of the theory of presidential representation, the article contributes to the ongoing scholarly task of classifying arguments about the foundations of executive power and attempts to link literatures regarding the constitutional and political sources of presidential power., Executive power has the advantage of concentration in a single head in whose choice the whole Nation has a part, making him the focus of public hopes and expectations. --Justice [...]

ENDA When I was a grade-school student in Baltimore, young men with black skin were chased out of white neighborhoods with baseball bats. I went to an elementary school integrated [...]

Mali's coup d'etat in March 2012 and the subsequent occupation of northern Mali by Islamist and separatist rebels took many observers by surprise. How could an erstwhile model of peaceful democratic transition collapse so swiftly? Why did so few ordinary Malians stand up in defence of their 20-year-old democracy? Combining accounts from Malian and foreign journalists with observations made in Bamako leading up to and during the dramatic events of early 2012, this article assesses the failures of Mali's pre-coup political system. A combination of the tenuous rule of law, weak state institutions, and perceptions of systemic corruption deeply eroded Malians' faith in their democracy. The junta that ousted Mali's elected president in March 2012, despite its international isolation, skillfully manipulated public frustrations with the government as well as local symbols and discourses pertaining to heroic leaders to gain support and legitimacy at home. The crisis in Mali was preceded by certain warning signs, some of which might be applied to gauge the health of democratic transitions elsewhere in Africa., 1. Introduction: A surprise collapse Mali is a nation with a proud history, of legendary empires and kings dating back over centuries, of vast quantities of gold and of fabled [...]

The current widespread renewed interest in the development of grand military-political strategies is a function of a rapidly changing global configuration of powers. From the bipolarity of the Cold War, which by its very construction limited either the United States or the Soviet Union from constructing much less implementing a unilateral framework, we have moved to a political and economic environment in which a variety of nations in parts of the world that did not figure into the power equations of the past century, invites such analysis. This article draws attention to factors profoundly limiting a grand strategy at the global level. It further indicates that the source of such push for grand strategy derives from inherited doctrines, largely of 19th European origin, which continue to emphasize absolutist doctrines based on theology, history and ideology. They are increasingly dysfunctional formulas in a relativistic universe of political systems and military technologies. The emergence of economic Diaspora in place of 'three worlds of development' also serves to weaken approaches derived from imperial doctrines and political approaches that are no longer the monopoly of conventional armed forces. The essay concludes with the belief that one older element that continues to display cachet is diplomacy and face to face human initiatives. Bargaining rather than blustering may be the order of the age. In this, it is Metternich rather than Hegel that may prove a better source of negotiating a complex multi-national world order. Keywords International policy * Military strategy * State power * Authoritarianism * Strategic practice * Strategic thinking * Nationalism * Political pragmatism * Political absolutism * Cultural relativism * Normative values, Each of today's large Powers is left grappling with the age old dilemmas of rise and fall, with the shifting pace of productive growth, with technological innovation, with changes in [...]

... my own experience and everyday knowledge illustrate that comfort and ignorance are the biggest flaws of human character. This is a potentially deadly mix. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (2011) (1) [...]

This article takes stock of the current debate on regime complexes. The specific relevance of such complexes for global governance is best grasped if these complexes are understood as systems [...]

ABSTRACT The Freie Wahler (free voters, FW) offer the rare chance to analyze parties in the making. Their long-time anchoring in local elections, centrist, middleclass political orientation, and bifurcated organizational [...]

Dislike among European publics for the Islamic full veil and the desire to ban it are often ascribed to nativist 'Islamophobia.' This article questions that assumption. It argues that, in political terms, the wearing of the burqa and niqab is inconsistent with Western norms of equality, the backbone of the citizenship ideal; and that, in social terms, the full veil erects a partition to interpersonal understanding and reciprocity. While the constitutional duty to protect religious freedom is a good argument in favor of tolerating the full veil, the practice of wearing it is at the edge of solidarity and injurious to the democratic public sphere. Keywords Burqa * Citizenship * Face * Public * Reciprocity * Solidarity * Sympathy, What light can social and political theory throw on opposition to Muslim female full-face covering--wearing of the burqua and niqab--in European societies? Many explain hostility to the full veil as [...]

This article attributes the conception of 'freedom-without-power' which dominates contemporary Western political philosophy to a reification of social agency that mystifies contexts of human capacities and achievements. It suggests that Plato's analogy between the structure of the soul and the polis shows how freedom is a consequence, rather than a condition, of political relations, mediated by inter-subjective contestation. From this basis, the article draws on the work of Raymond Geuss to argue against pre-political ethical frameworks in political philosophy, in favour of a more contextually sensitive, self-critical approach to ethics. Such reciprocal ethical-political integration addresses problems of ideological complicity that may arise if freedom is discretely abstracted from history and power in political philosophy. Finally, the article roughly reconstructs a critical account of African identity from writings of Steven Biko to illuminate symptoms of 'meritocratic apartheid' in South Africa today which Thad Metz's influential pre-political conception of ubuntu obscures, by abstracting the figure of African personhood from politically significant historical conditions. Keywords: freedom, Geuss, meritocracy, power, ubuntu, White society is quite agreed that blacks have to come up ... A lot of them don't see that this entails them coming down. And this is the problem. We [...]

This year, the sixtieth anniversaries of two important trials will take place. The likelihood is that they will be scarcely noticed, although in their day these trials were monumentally important [...]

A specter is haunting the academy--the specter of 'new communism.' A worldview recently the source of immense suffering and misery, and responsible for more deaths than fascism and Nazism, is [...]

The story of the Federal Election of 1928 has been told many times in a general way. But to ascertain what it meant as an expression of national opinions and [...]

Abstract: This article briefly summarizes what the post-Soviet experience teaches us about nationalism, understood here as claims that a population constitutes a people that should have a sovereign state of [...]

This article lays out a methodology for studying the nature of communist legacies and their impact on current political behavior and attitudes. It identifies four possible linkages between the communist past and the present: early socialization, socio-demographic landscapes, and political and economic institutions., Explaining Post-Communist Differences In the world outside of the post-communist countries of Central and .Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, younger, more educated, and more democratically inclined citizens tend [...]

Abstract: To understand the first two decades of post-Soviet politics, it is helpful to think in terms of regime dynamics instead of regime change and to consider the context of [...]

The United States' preeminent position as the leading democracy in the world is threatened today by a breakdown in our politics that can be traced back to the 2000 election [...]

For nearly two months thousands of people gathered at New York City's Zuccotti Park to protest the role of Wall Street in the financial collapse and the increasing inequalities that [...]

Abstract: For many scholars, the current Russian regime is characterized by pragmatism aimed at, first and foremost, the maintenance of political power. But as the country's international status rises and [...]

Abstract: This paper (1) examines the debate over the categorization of the Russian political system as 'semi-presidential' (as many, especially comparativists, argue) or 'super-presidential' (as perhaps the majority of Russian [...]

It is shown how meritocracy in an organization ironically has a bias that favors men over equally performing women in what is called the 'paradox of meritocracy.' This shows the unrecognized risks behind meritocracy in the work place. The possible mechanisms for this paradox are discussed.

Recent theoretical and empirical studies of the social determinants of health inequities have shown that economic deprivation, multiple levels of racism, and neighborhood context limit African American health chances and that African Americans' poor health status is predicated on unequal opportunity to achieve the American Dream. President Obama's election has been touted as a demonstration of American meritocracy--the belief that all may obtain the American Dream--and has instilled hope in African Americans. However, we argue that in the context of racism and other barriers to success, meritocratic ideology may act as a negative health determinant for African Americans. (Am J Public Health. 2010;100:1831-1834. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.186445)

ABSTRACT The recent Bundestag election in Germany warrants consideration for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the results are indicative of several trends developing since [...]