Rational Choice Theory and the Evaluation of Public Policy

The dominance of rational choice-inspired models of policy development, implementation, and evaluation has grown dramatically over the years as a challenge to traditional, pluralist politics. In this article, we analyze the theoretical foundations of the rational choice perspective and its criticism of pluralist politics. We explore the values inherent in the rational choice perspective and suggest that they feed into growing public cynicism about government and lead to a conservative policy agenda of less government. We then develop an unusual argument that the very tools of rational choice analysis and its values actually produce far more government involvement than expected. by examining school voucher programs. We conclude by making a case for pluralist politics as a more appropriate means for addressing the concerns of classical liberals and others about excessive government intrusion.     

Faith,Pluralism, and Public Engagement

Abstract

This essay is Miroslav Volf’s reply to the respondents to his book A Public Faith (2011). In the process of engaging his his respondents, the author articulates the main thesis and thrust of the book as well as the motivation behind writing it.     

The Rational Choice Paradigm and the Allocation of Agricultural Development Resources

Despite its analytic deficiencies and the doctrinaire purposes it has been made to serve, the rational choice approach to political analysis can have considerable explanatory value. Three examples are given of the utility of the sub-field of rent-seeking analysis in illuminating how public resources for agricultural development are allocated in developing countries: rural-urban relations, resource allocation among agricultural services, and irrigation policy.     

The Common Good,Pluralism and the Small Church

Abstract

This paper discusses the understanding of “Common Good” that has been used by the Church of England, especially over the last five years. It suggests that its implicit universalism and identification of Christian morality with the ethical norms for the nation is premised on an understanding of the role of the Church which is no longer realistic. After a brief discussion of the latest statistics for church attendance and a comparison with other national churches in Northern Europe, I suggest that the Church of England is a “small church” and even that Christians constitute a religious minority. This means that the pursuit of the “Common Good” as defined by the church may simply be a piece of nostalgic longing for the time of the “big church.” The recent exclusions for the churches on same-sex marriage legislation indicate that the gap between most of the churches and the wider society. Rather than defining the common good, I suggest that in a pluralist society the churches which recognize their limited role will need to build alliances and common causes with other groups, both religious and secular.     

Religious Pluralism

Abstract

This essay aims to lay out standards, personal and communal, for openness about religious diversity, without declining into a patronizing or trivializing relativism and without succumbing to the kindred weakness of skepticism. It is not inconsistent, I argue, to hold fast to one's religious convictions and practices while respecting and learning from other religious (and non-religious) traditions. Critical appropriation is the key here. For states and communities as well, openness and indeed support are warranted. But here too critical scrutiny is called for. Social harmony does not require unanimity or consensus, nor does diversity entail incommensurability, let alone inevitable tragedy. Sharp divisions between faith and practice are often artificial and unnecessary for a wholesome pluralism. The bien pensant reduction of all religious commitments to an imagined common core is unhelpful and often rightfully unwelcome. But equally unhelpful is the romantic if admiring stereotyping of the exotic. What's recommended here, societally, is the even-handed fostering of religious traditions (based on voluntary affiliation and support), on the grounds that, like education and the arts, religious communities promote human flourishing. But the same reasoning cautions against support for those religious trends that thwart or stymie human well-being. Societies do not require the level of coherence that individuals may pursue. But neither can they afford, for their own sake and that of their members, to ignore dangerous and destructive claims upon the human spirit.     

Secularization,Legal Pluralism,and the Question of Relationship-Recognition Regimes

Abstract

In this article I contend that the re-emergence of religion in Western liberal states is a feature of a much broader phenomenon, namely, the re-establishment of legal pluralism whereby various social actors claim to be the legitimate producers of their own law. To prove this, I first offer an account of secularization as the successful attempt of modern states to dismantle a legal-pluralist system. Based on this, I argue that the reviviscence of religions is the reviviscence of their practical side: religious practices tend to be perceived by religious group members as providing guidance for conduct, one that challenges the rules of the state legal order and its monistic structure. Finally, by exploring the issue of same-sex union recognition, I defend the claim that, in a truly post-secular society, the state should allow a multiplicity of relationship-recognition models that reflect and meet different interests and needs.     

Berlinian Pluralism and Abrahamic Monotheism

This article examines the longstanding suspicion that value-pluralism is intrinsically incompatible with monotheistic commitment, an objection that threatens to undermine the resurgence of pluralist ideas in different denominational strands of contemporary Christian political theology. Since value-pluralism is often taken to be closely wedded to the logic of political liberalism, the charge of incompatibility carries a special force. For, taken together, the two claims imply that monotheistic commitment sits uneasily alongside political liberalism. Having set out the version of value-pluralism expounded in the thought of its most influential contemporary advocate, the article raises three objections to the doctrine. It then examines ways to refine it before concluding that there is no reason to suppose that, so refined, it is intrinsically incompatible with monotheistic commitment.     

Green Allies: Speculative Realism,Evangelical Christianity,and Political Pluralism

This essay addresses the question of how to build political coalitions to address global warming. For speculative realists such as Levi Bryant, responding to climate change demands materialist ontologies that recognize the efficacy of things themselves, e.g. fossil fuels. And yet, I argue, Bryant does not sufficiently address the political assignment of building political coalitions with people who endorse different ontologies. To illuminate this possibility, I show how the American evangelical David Gushee arrives at similar conclusions by a different route. The essay encourages speculative realists to fold modesty into their political thinking for the sake of building coalitions with theists about matters of common concern.     

Nation,Nationality, Nationalism and Civil Society

Abstract. This article vindicates the phenomenon of the nation and argues that civil society could not exist without it. The nation, although related to nationalism, is by no means identical with it. Extreme forms of nationalism are generally speaking iniquitous and in many cases severely damaging to the societies in which they occur. The same stricture does not apply to the nation.     

Barack Obama's Political Theology: Pluralism,Deliberative Democracy,and the Christian Faith

Abstract

Obama won the 2008 election precisely because he crafted a political theology that enabled him to create a truly progressive Democratic Party religious and racial-ethnic minority platform that welcomed pro-choice and pro-life social-justice leaning Catholics and Evangelicals into a new coalition. His political theology was directly influenced by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright and the black church civil rights tradition, white liberal Protestantism, his mother Ann Dunham's skepticism and free spirit, and Evangelical and Catholic leaders, advisors and opponents. Obama's best and most comprehensive statement on his political theology is his chapter on "Faith" in his New York Times No.1 best-selling autobiography The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006). Obama contends that religiously motivated people must learn the art of compromise, proportion, and how to find shared values. They must translate their religious concerns and vision for America into universal rather than religion-specific values, which must be subject to debate, amenable to reason, and applicable to people of all lifestyles and faiths or no faith at all. They should also be willing to sublimate their ultimate theological and religious convictions for the common collective good. Secular people likewise must adopt a similar approach towards religious people and activists.     

民族教育与民族地区开发

民族地区是我国经济发展一体化进程中的有机组成部分,只有民族地区经济发展了,我国经济才能真正实现腾飞。本针对民族地区人口素质的实际情况,阐释了民族教育对经济发展的作用及加强民族教育的一些建议。     

Electoral Pluralism,Social Division and the 2016 Parliamentary Elections in Jordan

Representing one of the most stable regimes in the Middle East, Jordan has been undergoing a process of political liberalization since 1989. Due to the so‐called East Bank‐West Bank cleavage that followed by the influx of Palestinian migrants to Jordan, the country has also come to epitomize a divided society. Within this context, this paper aims to analyze the ongoing prospects for democratization in Jordan through an examination of four persistent debates shaping its electoral pluralism: those over social/identity division, electoral law as a regime‐survival mechanism, the role of the Ikhwan and the IAF's electoral boycotts, and electoral apathy. Finally, the impact of the Arab upheavals/revolts on restructuring the process of political reform — as well as opposition in the kingdom in the post‐2011 era — will be explored with reference to the changing dynamics of Islamist opposition.     

OK!魅力土族(组诗)

异彩纷呈的晋京亮相 2005年7月29日,由中央电视台“魅力12”栏目录制的《魅力土族》,在著名主持人董卿主持下,异彩纷呈地向全国观众亮相.并由《中国土族》总编解生才作为节目点评专家,依照节目安排的土族＂婚礼、服饰、刺绣、面食＂四大块,一一点评,准确生动,赢得好评.