Relative Income and Female Autonomy

This study attempts to explore how relative income contributes to the autonomy of women at both personal and household levels. The potential problem of endogeneity, or reverse causality, in examining the link between female autonomy and relative income is addressed using the Instrumental Variable (IV) estimation approach. The years of education of a woman and her husband are used as instruments for the woman's relative income. Along with the use of exogenous variables as instruments, the heteroskedasticity present in the data is also exploited to form instruments for the relative income of women. The results of this study suggest that relative income unambiguously improves autonomy of women in household decision making but its beneficial effect on autonomy in personal decision making was not found to hold true in all the model specifications (with alternative identification schemes) as employed in this study.     

官治与自治之问：清末州县劝学所述评

内容提要 在清末的兴学热潮中,州县出现了一个新机构——劝学所。劝学所总董和劝学员由本地人担任,办学经费主要是自筹,职权上包揽地方一切办学事务,具有很强的自治特点。但是,由于当时地方自治并未成立,劝学所更多的是秉承提学使指令,并在地方官的监督下开展工作,所以只是一个半官治半自治的机构。随着劝学所的出现,州县社会中出现了一个劝学绅董群体,他们的权力直接来源于官府的札委,职责范围涉及官办学务和自治学务两个方面。虽然他们并没有被纳入正式官员的行列,但却具有正式权力,成为半官半绅、亦官亦绅的双面人物。劝学所的这一特点充分反映了清末地方机构改革中新旧交替的内在矛盾和基本特征。     

近代日本的地方自治和村落共同体

近代日本地方自治的成立,传统的“自治因素”——村落共同体的存在是不可忽视的原因之一。但是这一同近代地方自治相矛盾的事物,并没有因完成其使命而退出历史舞台,而是仍然对近代日本的地方自治起到补充的作用。这种现象的出现反映了战前日本近代化的急速性和偏向性。由此也看到,日本传统的村落文化也是日本文化的重要内容之一。     

The State of Autonomy

In this article it is argued that between 1870 and 1910 the Swedish social liberal state used economic grants as a political tool in order to govern parts of the sector of social movements. State grants given to non-formal education, folk high schools, organizations that held lectures for the working class, and organizations that set up libraries are the point of departure for the analysis. The specific governing measure consisted of making the sector flourish in a ‘state of autonomy’, a state in which their conduct was influenced by the need to fulfil certain demands in order to receive funding. The requirements included, for instance, that the organizations were governed by a specific form, that they were in liaison with the local government, and that they did not wander outside the ideological demarcations set up by the government. In conclusion, the article shows how the state tried to govern the conduct of non-formal education.     

Materiality and Autonomy in the Pocumtuck Homeland

The Indigenous people of New England’s middle Connecticut River Valley are often imagined as having been subservient to powerful tribal nations elsewhere. Yet, archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence suggests Pocumtuck independence and autonomy in relations with neighboring Native groups and with Dutch, English, and French colonizers during the seventeenth century. We employ a decolonizing framework, drawing on H.M. Wobst’s critique of the preoccupation with dominance and geopolitical “centers” to analyze this evidence. By framing artifacts, colonial texts, and cultural interactions as both past and present “material interventions,” we can generate better understandings of Pocumtuck political autonomy, agency and identity.     

Oliver O'Donovan's Critique of Autonomy

Abstract

More than any other contemporary theologian, Oliver O'Donovan has revived political theology as a field of enquiry. Yet O'Donovan has been consistent in his critique of the modern idea of autonomy, judging it to be at odds with the more communitarian idea of covenanted community found in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He contrasts this modern idea, and its political implications, with the older biblical idea, also adding some basic points from Aristotle's idea of the polis. But unlike many contemporary communitarians, O'Donovan is also able to incorporate the idea of human rights into his political theology. He sees this supposedly modern idea having fuller precedence in the biblical idea of mishpat ("justice"), which he takes to be God's primordial claim on His covenanted community, a claim that sufficiently grounds both individual rights and communal rights and which enables them to function together. However, O'Donovan draws the line when it comes to the modern social contract theory, arguing that it is at odds with biblical teaching that the primary responsibility of rulers is to divine law. While agreeing with O'Donovan's rejection of autonomy and his acceptance of human rights, this paper argues against O'Donovan's theological rejection of social contract theory. Instead, it argues that a social contract is consistent with the doctrine of the covenant; indeed that the very possibility of the social contract is best explained by the doctrine of the covenant, and that this acceptance of the social contract serves the best political interests of covenanted communities (like the Jewish People and the Christian Church) in an otherwise secular world.     

清末两级地方自治中的官治与自治模式

清末地方自治包括府厅州县和城镇乡地方自治两个层级,并建构了两个层级不同的官治与自治模式,即在城镇乡一级实行"以自治辅助官治",而府厅州县则实行"自治与官治合并"之制度。两种模式都借鉴了日本自治制度,但都有所不同。就清末城镇乡地方自治的运行来看,由于地方自治章程赋予官府监督自治之权,也由于自治团体为谋求地方利益,常常也会与官府对立,所以,官治与自治常常处于矛盾冲突之中。     

The Autonomy Argument for Liberal Nationalism

Abstract. The article examines a recent normative argument for ‘liberal nationalism’ that can be found in the work of a range of influential contemporary writers. That argument seeks to defend the view that the state has a responsibility to preserve and promote national cultures. It does so by arguing that the liberal ideal of an autonomous individual chooser presupposes a rich and healthy national culture which provides, and gives meaning to, the options which an individual faces. The claim of the present article is that the liberal nationalist argument is much less successful than these writers would like to think. Although the argument may be valid in certain restricted contexts, the article shows that it runs into severe difficulties for a wide range of central cases that nationalists have traditionally been concerned with.     

Bridewealth1 and the Autonomy of Women in Melanesia

Considering bridewealth in Melanesia from the angle of women's autonomy, in this introduction we review and analyse the various elements of this marriage practice that reveal its place in the symbolic, social and economic worlds of women. With an accent on social transformation, we discuss women's autonomy and agency in relation to the constraints that bridewealth puts on their lives, and on how they engage with it. Knowing what bridewealth is, and how the rules of reciprocity that it indexes obligate married women, the focus is on women's ability to act within these constraints or to redefine their contours, particularly with regards to economic and reproductive agency. The article, which serves also as the introduction for the special issue on bridewealth in the journal Oceania, discusses themes analysed in the collection, such as the moral prospects of bridewealth today, its relation to ‘capital’ in twenty-first century Oceania, the triad value/valuables/valuers, and the empowerment of women. It concludes with thoughts on gender inequality.     

日本地方自治的表里

本文从团体自治与居民自治两个方面对日本地方自治的现状进行了考察,发现了其地方自治现状与自治理念之间存在着很大的落差,并对产生落差的主要原因进行了简要分析。     

改革十年：庞贝管理自治权的兴衰（上）

1997年9月,一项特别法案赋予庞贝考古遗址新的身份——从意大利文化部的地方直属管理局改制为一个自治管理局.2008年7月,意大利总理宣布庞贝进入为期一年的紧急状态,并委任一名特别专员以应对“该考古遗址的严峻局势”.本文旨在回顾庞贝在这十年间的转型,考察其重大机构改革,并分析其间的工作以及人力和资金管理的演变.本文除关注专业问题之外,还着重研究文化机构问责制的作用,以及意大利公共行政管理体系的特征,并对公共机构转型是否存在全球统一的路径提出质疑.     

Punctuated Equilibrium and Bureaucratic Autonomy in American City Governments

Several recent applications of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) have yielded compelling findings linking institutional design and change distributions, yet, much more work needs to be done to understand institutional arrangements that make punctuated processes more or less likely. In responding to the recent call for more research on unraveling particular mechanisms through which bureaucracy moderates the odds of policy punctuations, this research explores the potential of bureaucratic expertise and professionalism in fostering rational decision making, and thus the stability in change dynamics. One important feature of urban government receives close attention: the position by professionalized, trained bureaucrats in municipalities (city manager and chief administrative officer) and the effects of their discretion on altering municipal budgetary change distributions. Analysis of a novel dataset of fiscal policy changes, charter and census information of city governments in the State of Michigan, 2005–11, suggests city governments, on average, produce change patterns that conform to the expectations of PET; more importantly, it reveals that heightened levels of managerial discretion can have a significant implication for helping cities experience less abrupt, punctuated budget changes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for PET, policy change dynamics, and the design of city-governing institutions.     

近代早期法国的乡村共同体与村民自治

作为一个自治性质的政治单位,乡村共同体以习惯法为基础,通过村民会议及其代表自主地管理共同体的公共事务。受近代早期法国社会经济形势和王权扩张的影响,这一自治组织发生了变化。村民"委员会"取代中世纪带有"直接民主"性质的村民会议,成为共同体的主要决议机构。代表共同体居民利益,管理乡村事务的村官则日益成为中央政府的代表,乡村共同体最终被转化为正式的基层行政单位。     

美国与中国关税自主

美国对华关系在南京国民政府成立初期(1927—1928)经历了一个重要发展时期。虽然当时美国认为中国没有代表全民的“中央政府”,但美国公使馆依然驻在北京,施肇基作为北京政府驻美公使继续驻在华盛顿。由于美国在华利益主要集中在长江以南,美国又承认南京政府是政治实体。     

近代浙江省地方自治制度与实践

清末民初,浙江省推行地方自治的广度几乎遍及各州县乡镇.虽然各地自治风潮涌动、军阀肆意扼杀,地方自治的精神却已影响和改变着基层社会.南京国民政府时期,地方自治走向由国民党政府引导推行的道路,在制度上和实践中都有了较大的发展.但此间鉴于抗日战争和内战的爆发,国民党加强保甲制度,日渐控制和干预地方自治.浙江省地方自治在短暂发展之后,愈益背离其本质.     

改革十年：庞贝管理自治权的兴衰（下）

1997年9月,一项特别法案赋予庞贝考古遗址新的身份——从意大利文化部的地方直属管理局改制为一个自治管理局.2008年7月,意大利总理宣布庞贝进入为期一年的紧急状态,并委任一名特别专员以应对“该考古遗址的严峻局势”.本文旨在回顾庞贝在这十年间的转型,考察其重大机构改革,并分析其间的工作以及人力和资金管理的演变.本文除关注专业问题之外,还着重研究文化机构问责制的作用,以及意大利公共行政管理体系的特征,并对公共机构转型是否存在全球统一的路径提出质疑.