Contested visions of American democracy: citizenship, public housing, and the international arena

This essay reexamines the history of public housing and the controversy it generated from the Great Depression to the Cold War. By recasting that history in the global arena, it demonstrates that the debate over public housing versus homeownership was also a debate over the meaning of American citizenship and democracy, pointing up starkly divergent notions about what was and was not American. Through an examination of national conflicts and neglected local struggles, this article further shows that the fight over public housing was far more meaningful and volatile than traditionally assumed. Both critics and advocates of public housing drew from international experiences and imagery in positioning the home as a constitutive feature of citizenship in American democracy. Fears of Bolshevism, fascism, and communism served to internationalize issues of race, space, and housing and together shaped the decision of whether a decent home was an American right or privilege.     

The sources of communitarianism on the American left: Pluralism, republicanism, and participatory democracy

This article considers the nature of communitarian thought in late twentieth century Anglo-American political philosophy. It argues that communitarianism arose out of a critique of modernist theories of justice such as that of John Rawls shared by a group of writers committed to idealist principles that emphasised narrative approaches to the study of political thought, the importance of historical context, and popular participation in political life. It then focuses on one particular American strand of communitarian thought, exemplified by the work of Michael Walzer and Michael Sandel, which draws on a tradition of radical democracy and, in so doing, helps both to create and to transform a new American republicanism. An important connection between Walzer and Sandel is that they share the view that egalitarian politics must draw on shared traditions of social criticism rather than on the abstract individualism that they associate with Rawls. A key difference is that Walzer's vision of American life is pluralist and enthusiastic about difference, whereas Sandel's is republican and concerned above all with fostering civic virtue and identification with the state and political community.     

内战前美国南部白人民主政治的发展与政治权力的归属

美国的政治制度在内战之前的半个多世纪发生了重大变革,其显著标志是废除了选举权和担任官职的财产资格限制,确立了白人男性成人的选举权和担任官职资格,在制度上确立了白人民主制.然而在美国南部蓄奴州,奴隶制的社会整合作用导致政治权力落入奴隶主利益集团的掌控之中.这样,法制上的白人民主制在实际政治世界中就蜕变成了奴隶主统治.在内战前的南部政治世界中,在总体上奴隶主政治人物担当着领导角色,广大非奴隶主大众是奴隶主在政治活动中的附庸.     

沦陷时期太原日本居留民初探

全面抗战前太原只有少数与日军关系比较密切的日本居留民.日军发动全面侵华战争,攻占太原,为日本居留民进入太原打开方便之门.在日伪政府支持下,日本居留民人数迅猛增加.日本居留民在沦陷区具有一定的特权,他们不仅依靠战争,依靠日人的身份,获取战争利益,亦依靠日伪政权,在中国领土构建日式社会秩序,创立日式社会民团,利用中国的资源生产日人的生活物资,构建"国中之国"的殖民体系,以服务于日本的侵华战争,成为日本侵华的重要工具.     

沦陷时期北平日伪的金融体系及掠夺手段

北平沦陷后,伪华北临时政府对北平金融强行“统制”,建立了伪中央银行中国联合准备银行,随后排挤中国法币,发行“联银券”统一华北的货币市场。太平洋战争后,又掠夺滞留在平津租界内中国政府的巨额白银,打击中国本土的民族金融资本,“整顿”北平的金融机构,实行严密的金融垄断。日本统治还通过发行公债、强制储蓄等手段搜刮北平民众的大量资金,以此支付日本侵略战争的军费开支、各种掠夺性经济开发公司的开办费和伪政权的行政开销。为了加快金融资本的运作过程,伪中国联合准备银行还在北平设立了票据交换所。这种统制和掠夺,配舍日本帝国主义的军事侵略和经济渗透,加剧了北平经济殖民地化的过程,给北平人民生活带来了深重的灾难。     

论海南沦陷时期的日本占领政策

在抗战中日军侵占海南岛时期,日本力图将海南岛殖民地化,是其对海南岛占领政策的核心。为此,日本在推进其在海南岛的殖民活动、强化殖民统治机构、控制殖民体制下的文教事业等殖多方面可以说是不遗余力。其对海南岛的领土野心也就昭然若揭。     

Imperialist democracy,ancient Athenians and the US presence in Iraq

This article speculates about possible parallels between the experience of the Athenian empire and the Americans’ rationale for their presence in Iraq. Leaders in both countries sought to make their worlds safe for democracy by military invasion. The Athenian experience is described, drawing on Thucydides and other primary and secondary sources. Then there is a sketch of the scholarly treatment accorded the Athenian empire by writers through to the present day. Finally, allusions to the classical experience by several contemporary writers are examined. These writers articulate a common pessimism about the future prospects for the American presence in Iraq.     

Karl Loewenstein,Max Lerner,and militant democracy: an appeal to ‘strong democracy’

ABSTRACT

In the 1930s Loewenstein responded to the ease with which the Nazi Party rose to power within parliamentary democracy. In America Lerner echoed Loewenstein’s call for a ‘militant democracy’, but identified a different ‘enemy within’ – rogue capitalist interests. Loewenstein’s response to populism was an ‘authoritarian democracy’, whereas Lerner wished to embrace the people in a public engagement. This paper seeks a middle path towards a conception of democracy that avoids the vicissitudes of transient majorities without yielding the ground to either transient or entrenched minorities. In its modern guise of ‘neoliberalism’, corporate capitalism has made inroads into the sensibilities of democrats, and needs to be confronted by a notion of ‘strong democracy’ expressed through the engagement of whole populations.