Australian local government in the 1970s

Australian local government was the subject of a great deal of debate in the 1970s as attention focused on geographical boundaries, legal and constitutional jurisdiction, and financial imbalance. Little came of moves to reform boundaries or to alter the scope of activities. More success was achieved in applying the principle of fiscal equalisation to local government's parlous financial situation. Stability and resistance to change are however the overwhelming characteristics of Australian local government. The paper surveys the scope and function of local government in the 1970s. The recently developed radical critique of the local state is found to have little relevance to Australian local government because of the small and fragmented scale of local government social policy.     

Path dependence,policy learning and Australian manufacturing since the 1970s

The impending demise of passenger motor vehicle manufacturing in Australia provides a good opportunity to view the trajectory of industry policy since the Whitlam government commenced the process of tariff cuts in 1973. It is argued that industry policy over this period demonstrates the effects of path dependence and a lack of policy learning. In the industry policy context, the path dependence perspective suggests three key factors in explaining policy effects: the importance of initial conditions; the role of cumulative causation in the interaction between policy settings, actors and firms; and the shaping role of networks. While political or electoral factors could, on occasion, generate support for threatened industries, overall, neo-liberal policy ideas guided decision-making. An examination of Australian defence industry, and a comparison of the Australian and New Zealand dairy and milk processing industries reinforces the importance of institutionally shaped path dependency.     

International Human Rights Conventions and Australian Political Debates: Issues Raised by the 'Toonen Case'

In April 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee communicated its view to the Australian Government that Tasmanian anti-gay laws were inconsistent with Australia's international human rights obligations. Issues of Australia's human rights protection, treaty accession and Commonwealth-State relations, each of which have traditionally been characterised by major partisan differences, were brought to the fore of political debate. While the HRC decision at first appeared to give the coalition much scope to advance its arguments, subsequent developments highlighted considerable weaknesses in the rhetorical strategies of conservatives, and the difficulty of using the Tasmanian laws as a federalist cause ce le bre. In the long term, ironically, the coalition may well have weakened the efficacy of sovereignty-based arguments in Australian political debate.     

20世纪70年代尼克松政府的环保政策

20世纪60年代末70年代初,美国环保运动的发展进入了一个新的阶段。环境保护不再是作为经济发展的附属物出现,而是作为一个独立的领域,有了自己的理论和目标。在迅速发展的环保运动推动下,尼克松政府采取了一系列影响巨大的环保措施,确立了日后美国环保运动的发展方向。但是,由于政治、经济、哲学等多方面原因,1970年之后,尼克松政府在环保政策上有所后退。本文力图通过对尼克松政府环保政策兴衰的探讨,揭示当时美国环保运动发展的某些特点及其与政府政策之间的关系。     

Bad Language and BBC Radio Four in the 1960s and 1970s

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a new intensityto complaints from listeners to BBC Radio about the strong languagethey heard on the air. There had long been a public expectationthat the BBC had some form of ‘guardianship’ overthe English language, but there was also now a desire from manyproducers within the BBC to reflect contemporary society moreclosely than it had done in the past, and the use of demoticspeech in dramas and documentaries was one dimension of thischange. Such a desire was part of a broader move towards ‘decensorship’in literature, film, theatre, and popular mores in Britain inthis period. The tension this caused between broadcasters andlisteners was especially acute on Radio Four—the main‘broad brow’ speech network of BBC Radio, and onecharacterized by a fiercely conservative audience. Through previouslyunpublished records of its internal discussions between c.1968and c.1979, this article explores the response of the BBC tolisteners’ complaints and press coverage about swearing.It suggests that BBC Radio reacted strongly to audience concern,but that wider anxiety about the reputation of the BBC as awhole also affected decisions over language. In so doing, itillustrates a previously neglected dimension to the BBC's taskof negotiating a precarious consensus on matters of taste anddecency.     

Neo-Colonialism Reconsidered: A Case Study of East Africa in the 1960s and 1970s

A former major base of British colonialism, East Africa, has served as one of the testing grounds for what has been referred to as neo-colonialism. According to Kwame Nkrumah, neo-colonialism indicates that although ‘in theory’, a colony attains independence, ‘[i]n reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside’ (Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. London: Panaf Books, 2004 [1965]). This article challenges this image of neo-colonialism. Based on British documents of the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of which have become available to the public only in the last decade, and sources in East African libraries, it casts new light on British external relations with East Africa in the heady days of independence. These documents demonstrate that the new states of East Africa enjoyed a substantial degree of autonomy, that Britain's development aid was inconsistent and that Britain's involvement in the affairs of its former colonies was reluctant. These accounts reveal that the impact of British policy on newly independent states was actually limited, and thus the nature of Britain's relationship with its ex-colonies and the discourse of neo-colonialism are debatable.     

论20世纪七八十年代日本的石油危机对策

面对突如其来的石油危机 ,日本首先在对外政策上采取稳住石油供应对策 ,放弃对阿以冲突的“中立”政策 ,采取支持阿拉伯国家的“亲阿拉伯”政策 ,加强同中东产油国关系。随着石油危机的缓解 ,日本又积极开展国际合作 ,与西方石油消费大国共同合作避免石油危机再度袭来。与此同时 ,日本在对内政策上大力开展调整主要产业结构对策 ,放弃以重化学工业为主的产业结构 ,发展低能耗、高科技产业 ,力争从根本上摆脱石油危机的困扰。     

20世纪70年代美国的西藏政策

美国最新解密文件显示,20世纪70年代美国西藏政策发生了新变化:美国中央情报局虽然继续对西藏分裂势力进行援助,但是削减了援助资金的数额,尼克松政府对待达赖"访美"的立场经历了从拒绝到有条件支持的转变;福特政府时期,随着中美高层互访和交流的深入,西藏问题首次公开进入双边会谈议事议程,并就此拉开中美关于西藏问题对话的序幕。与此同时,美国国会也卷入西藏事务,其对西藏事务的干涉主要包括为达赖集团提供经济援助和政治支持,为日后国会以立法的形式干涉西藏事务埋下了伏笔。     

Police and Political Violence in the 1960s and 1970s: Germany and Italy in a Comparative Perspective

Notwithstanding the significant differences between the German and Italian police models (federal and civil vs. centralised and militarised), in both countries the confrontation with the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s had a profound impact on police conceptions and public order strategies. Police forces in some German federal states (West Berlin) followed a hard line until the late 1960s, while in others (Munich, Hamburg) reforms to the Weimar-centred police intervention tactics took place beginning in the early to mid-1960s. In Italy, traditional police conceptions and strategies remained largely unchanged and re-emerged in 1968. Here, a movement from within the police led to the demilitarisation and unionisation of the state police in 1981. In both countries, fighting left-wing terrorism in the 1970s stimulated technical modernisation and enhanced the centralisation of the police. In critical response to police tactics, in the late 1970s Germany police matters were increasingly perceived as a concern not only of the state but of civil society—even if policing remained a highly contested terrain. In Italy, such matters largely remained state concerns in which only politicians and internal security specialists were entitled to intervene.     

The globalisation process and the Eastern bloc countries in the 1970s and 1980s

This article examines the position of the Eastern Bloc countries in the economic globalisation which spread in the last third of the twentieth century. The main emphasis is on the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Therefore two significant dimensions of economic globalisation have been selected: trade and capital-market transactions. The first part of this paper provides an outline of globalisation processes and their causes during the 1970s and 1980s. The second part deals with the role of Eastern bloc countries in globalisation trends, including an examination of the motivations and intentions behind their foreign-trade operations. This becomes the basis to explore the attitude of Eastern bloc countries to the institutions of globalisation (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT], the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and the World Bank). As it turns out, it seems questionable whether the Eastern bloc countries had ever been able actively to determine the conditions of globalisation. They probably only had an influence as their very existence presented a line of demarcation to the global world: because of their own policies and because of the defence reactions of the West.     

"帝国主义"与"封建主义":20世纪30年代知识界关于乡村建设运动的论争

从20世纪30年代初开始,乡村建设运动开始在全国范围内兴起.在民国乡村建设运动进行的同时,一场知识界关于乡建运动的思想论争也随之而来.而且,这场历时持久的论争呈现出主题含混、支题芜杂和论争阵营划分相对不够"清晰"等诸多特征.对乡村建设运动批判最力的是以中国农村经济研究会为主的左派知识分子和具有很强"西化"色彩的陈序经等人.他们的主要批判对象是晏阳初及其领导的"定县实验"和梁漱溟及其"邹平实验".这场论争的焦点是对于"帝国主义"和"封建主义"的认识及态度.但在某些具体问题上,对立的双方亦有不少相近之处,而且被批判一方的内部认识也有很大的差异.     

论20世纪70年代美国国会的改革及其影响

整个20世纪,美国国会一共有2次重大的委员会体制改革。第一次是在1946年,第2次是在70年代。如果说1946年国会的改革标志着现代国会制度的最终确立,那么70年代的变革则是在此基础上试图进一步完善国会制度的一次重大努力。     

KOR and the transformation of polish politics in the 1970s

It has been widely observed that the pattern of dissenting and oppositional activity in Poland had changed considerably by the early 1980s. While in the 1950s and 1960s it was characterised by spontaneity, lack of programme and strategy, the opposite holds true in the 1980s. Till the second half of the 1970s dissent in Poland was spasmodic and short‐lived, intertwined with relatively long periods of social calm and inactivity.

In the mid‐1980s the Poles have become highly politicised people, the previously common political apathy, to a great extent, has disappeared. Clandestine political organisations, inimical towards the communist state, abound. The number of free, uncensored publications can be counted in hundreds if not thousands. In the early 1980s there existed officially in Poland a free trade union which in fact performed some political activity as well. For this and other reasons it was suppressed, however the struggle to restore its official activity continues.

Nothing of that nature has happened in any other communist state. Poland seems to be the odd man out in the communist world. Political crises occur there more often than anywhere else in Eastern Europe. The period of official activity of the trade union Solidarity has usually been called the ‘Polish Revolution’ due to the seriousness of the crisis in that country.

The aim of the paper is to trace the changing pattern of dissent and opposition among the Polish intellectuals exemplified by the activity of the Workers’ Defence Committee KOR. It argues that the Polish intellectuals gathered in KOR influenced in a significant way the Polish crisis of the 1980s. The KOR group considerably contributed to the emergence of Solidarity, it also helped to shape its activity and articulate its demands.