The National Air and Space Museum,Washington, D.C.

Abstract

Space technology is not only one of the major subjects of this spacious and gracious new Museum on Washington's Mall, it also contributed greatly to its record construction programme and it opening ceremony. Above all its designers hope that 85 complex audio-visual exhibits will perform faultlessly thanks to MACS, the Museum Automatic Control System. This central computer control unit, complete with its space-age back-up system, constantly monitors the performance of all moving exhibits, whether puppets, films or slides. Any fault is detected instantly and thus can be repaired quickly.     

President Clinton and the Republican Congress, 1995-2000: Political and Policy Dimensions of Veto Politics in Divided Government

This article melds alternative theoretical perspectives on veto threats to explain President Clinton's influence over legislative outcomes in the 104th-106th Congresses (1995-2000). Formal models of executive-legislative relations–in particular the "coordination model"–yield an incomplete understanding of veto politics and executivelegislative conflict from 1995-2000. Explaining Clinton's success through veto politics requires a recognition of the unique context of legislative conflict from 1995-96. Presidential- congressional relations in the 104th Congress turned on "blame-game" politics that Clinton manipulated to his advantage. Clinton's second term heralded a return to "normal politics" during which the Republican majority's response to his veto threats coincided better with the basic tenets of the coordination model. Quantitative analysis of Clinton's public threats and secondary analysis of bill histories are brought to bear to test the theoretical framework.     

Douglas Alexander Allan,C.B.E., LL.D., D.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.S.G.S., F.R.S.E., F.H.W.C., F.M.A.

The function and expansion of skiing in Scotland are discussed in relation to the changing climatic conditions of the last few decades.     

茶馆、戏园与通俗教育——晚清民国时期成都的娱乐与休闲政治

晚清民国时期的茶馆戏园,作为公共空间为大众提供娱乐,从中除了可以了解人们在茶馆戏园的日常生活外,还可以看到改良精英和地方政府竭力改革戏曲作为控制大众娱乐的一部分,把他们的政治灌输在表演的节目之中,把他们所认为的"新的"、"进步的"情节加入到传统戏曲中,以"教育"民众.精英和国家对茶馆戏园的改良和控制揭示了大众文化与精英文化之间、地方文化的独特性与国家文化的同一模式之间的斗争.在国家权力及其文化霸权之下,大众娱乐不可避免地被改变了.但国家要达到控制的目的远非轻而易举,从晚清改革到国民政府的崩溃,成都地方文化和习惯堡垒顽固地坚守着它们的防线,充分显示了近代中国文化变化与持续性同时并存这样一个重要的历史现象.     

Police and Politics in Aesthetics-Based Urban Governance: Redevelopment and Grassroots Struggles in Enninglu,Guangzhou, China

Rancière's theorisation of police, politics, and aesthetics offers an illustrative framework to understand urban (re)developments. While extant works have examined separately the art of governing through aesthetics and the political subjectivities of those having no part in the frame of visibility and intelligibility, this study argues that hegemonic aesthetic regime and bottom-up aesthetic practices can be mutually constitutive and reside in relationships of co-existence and mutual negotiation. Drawing on over a decade's investigation in Enninglu, a neighbourhood district in Guangzhou that underwent several rounds of political struggles related to redevelopment and conservation, we reveal how local residents negotiated aesthetic norms enacted by the state. Particular attention is paid to the interactions between the aesthetic regime imposed by the state and grassroots people reclaiming their own aesthetic sensibilities, culminating in a contingent, inconclusive, and “impure” space of politics. Both political subjectivities and aesthetic norms are redefined ongoingly in this process.