Confucian China and Jeffersonian America: Beyond Liberal Democracy

This paper begins by reviewing the ancient Chinese worldview, one imbued with cultural particularism wherein the Middle Kingdom identified itself as the centre of the universe. I then distinguish the ways in which historically the Confucian East and Christian West have respectively exerted cultural hegemony. I next analyse China's rebuffing of liberal democracy, and how the CCP's retention of one-party rule has generated concerns about its legitimacy. I conclude by showing that China and America each possess moral traditions – specifically Confucianism and Jeffersonian Deism – that have overlapping outlooks. Both maintain a worldview that disavows extremism. Based on this broader philosophical-religious analysis, I argue that contentions over liberal democracy notwithstanding, China and America share moral ideals vital for confronting some of today's exigencies.     

Madonna and Child of Soweto: Black Life Beyond Apartheid and Democracy

ABSTRACT

South African artist Laurence Vincent Scully’s 1973 painting, Madonna and Child of Soweto, offers an analytical tool for understanding the capacity of public religion to advance black life. The author argues that this image censures apartheid violence against black persons and reimagines a just sociality by displaying sacred, black motherhood and infancy in the figures Mary and Jesus. Their temporality and corporeality, when analyzed with a queer womanist method, gestate sacred public religion that exceeds both the apartheid governance of the past and also the secular, post-apartheid democracy of today.     

The Freedom of Archaeological Research: Archaeological Heritage Protection and Civil Rights in Austria (and Beyond)

Archaeologists like to think that heritage protection laws serve the purpose of protecting all archaeology from damage. Thus, provisions like that of §11 (1) Austrian Denkmalschutzgesetz or Art. 3 i-ii of the Valletta Convention are interpreted as a blanket ban on archaeological fieldwork ‘unauthorized’ by national heritage agencies, and a general prohibition against archaeological field research by non-professionals. The Austrian National Heritage Agency, the Bundesdenkmalamt, interprets the Austrian law in this way. Using the Austrian example as a case study, this paper demonstrates that this interpretation must be wrong, since, if it were true, it would revoke a fundamental civil right enshrined both in the Austrian constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: the unconditional freedom of research, which applies to archaeological field research as to any other kind of academic research, and extends equally to every citizen.     

Online petitions in Australia: Information,opportunity and gender

This article compares offline and online petition signing in Australia, to examine whether online forms of political activity can mobilise citizens who would otherwise not participate. Using data from the 2010 Australian Election Study and a model of civic voluntarism comprising online and offline resources, the article presents several unexpected findings. First, women are significantly more likely than men to sign both written and e-petitions, and this will likely continue with the increasing circulation of e-petitions and corresponding decline in written petitions. Second, Australians from a non-English-speaking background are underrepresented in the signing of written petitions but not of e-petitions. Civic skills gained in the workplace and voluntary organisations positively predict both forms of petition signing, but language, gender and income do not constitute barriers to the signing of e-petitions. This article contributes to emerging evidence the internet can mobilise traditionally underrepresented groups to participate in political activity.

本文对澳大利亚脱线和在线请愿做了比较,以了解在线的政治活动能否动员起本来不参与政治的公民。笔者使用了2010年澳大利亚选举研究的数据以及比较在线与脱线资源的公民志愿行动模型,获得了若干意想不到的发现。首先,比起男子,妇女联署纸本及电子请愿书的可能性会大得多,这种情况会伴随着电子请愿的流行和纸本请愿的式微而继续下去。公民在工作单位以及志愿者组织那里获得的技能有助于他们积极参与两种请愿,而语言、性别、收入也不构成电子请愿的障碍。本文印证了互联网可以动员以往不大被代表的人群参与政治活动的说法。     

American Democracy and Democracy Promotion

As America inaugurates its 43rd president it enters a period of reflection. The danger is that an emphasis on voting procedure will silence a long-standing and ultimately more significant criticism of American democracy and its policy of democracy promotion. The separation of economics from politics and the promotion of so-called 'market democracy' does a disservice to the wider democratic project and is potentially self-defeating. This article reviews three books to argue that America's declining international reputation can be traced to its own democratic shortcomings. It explores the possibility of a popular working-class movement to address these failings and examines the implication this may have on the liberal international order.
Books reviewed:
John B. Judis, Paradox Of American Democracy: Elites, Special Interests And The Betrayal Of Public Trust
Michael Zweig, The working class majority: America's best kept secret
Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers, America's forgotten majority: why the white working class still matters     

Bruce Smith,Edward Shann,W.K. Hancock: The Economic Critique of Democracy in Australia

This paper argues that there were a number of writers in Australia from the late 1880s to the early 1930s who developed what is best described as an economic critique of the workings of democracy. The three writers considered by this paper, Bruce Smith, Edward Shann and W.K. Hancock, all developed critiques of Australian democracy along similar lines. The central feature of their argument was that Australian majoritarian democracy was making poor policy decisions because it attempted to override the laws of economics in the name of the popular will and ethics. They seemed to have believed that this problem would only be resolved once Australia possessed a mature and economically literate population.     

现代化进程中的民主与威权--对巴西1964年军事政变经济根源的个案研究

根据传统的西方现代化理论,欠发达社会的现代化进程中,经济发展与政治民主是同步发展、相互促进的。但20世纪60年代以来非西方国家的政治发展现实对这一观点提出了挑战。在巴西,经济现代化带来了威权主义,而非民主政治。其原因在于巴西的现代化模式进口替代工业化的发展过程中,必然出现通货膨胀和国际收支危机,经济的进一步发展要求首先实行经济紧缩,而经济上的紧缩则要求政治上的权威。巴西1964年的政变虽只是一个个案,但它表明,不能用西方现代化“和谐的”、“直线的”道路来分析第三世界国家的现代化。     

"德先生"和"赛先生"之外的关怀——从"穆姑娘"的提出看新文化运动时期道德革命的走向

Today, Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science are always invoked in the discussion of the May Fourth New Culture Movement. However, Miss Moral, who was also introduced in the later stages of the movement, is much less known. It would clearly be of interest to study the way in which “moral” became a catchword but then faded away and was forgotten. The emphasis on solidarity and patriotism, stimulated by foreign encroachment that had existed since the late Qing Dynasty, began to shift to an ethical revolution centering on individual liberation. However, after the rise of the May Fourth Movement, public attention was attracted by collectivism and nationalism again, while the appeal for individuality and ethical revolution was decayed gradually. The introduction of Miss Moral had a direct relationship with the trend of ethical revolution in the later stages of the New Culture Movement. Translated from Lishi Yanjiu 历史研究 (Historical Research), 2006, (1): 79–95     

Democracy and Disenchantment

The victory of democracy in its ideological battle with communism has coincided with widespread voter disaffection in established democracies and with the rapid emergence of disillusion in recently 'democratised' societies. These developments raise at least two more general problems concerning the democratic dream of a self-governing community. First, there is the problem of democratic deficit: the fact that democratic arrangements are invariably constrained by arrangements of a non-democratic kind. Second, there is the problem of corruption. While such problems arise for any form of politics they have a particular significance for regimes which claim to be democratic. Following the recent victories of democracy in much of the world, it is now more difficult to appeal to the remedy of a more inclusive political system. Those of you who come in with me now will get big pieces of pie. Those who come in with me later will get smaller pieces of pie. Those who dont come in at all will get-Good Government.1 (attributed to Huey Long, Governor of Louisiana)     

Democracy and Technology

Richard P. Hiskes, Democracy, Risk, and Community: Technological Harardr and the Evolution of Liberalism .
Sheila Jasanoff, Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and Technology in America .