Evolving membership strategies in Australian political parties

Like parties elsewhere, the Australian parties have witnessed a decline in membership activism in recent years and some have suggested that near memberless parties may become the norm. Drawing on elite interviews, party documents and examination of recent organisational reforms, we argue that parties continue to need members and view their involvement as essential to achieving their objectives. In response to declining rates of activism parties have begun to experiment with different forms of membership, such as policy branches, and to expand the traditional notion of membership to include ‘supporters’. We show that membership is a flexible concept that is used by parties to fulfil their institutional functions and electoral objectives, and is defined in unique ways in each sphere of activity. We suggest that accounts of party decline relying on formal membership numbers may be inaccurate.

同其他国家的政党一样,澳大利亚的政党近年来也经历了党员参与的滑坡,以至有人认为无党员政党会成为常态。笔者根据对精英的访谈、政党的文献以及对近年组织改革的考察,指出政党还是要有党员的,党员的参与对于实现政党的目标至关重要。针对参与率走低的情况,一些政党开始尝试不同的参与形式,如政策支部,并延展传统的党员概念,把支持者也包括进来。党员是一个灵活的概念,一些政党用它来实现其体制功能和竞选目的,在每一个活动范围内都有独特的定义。根据正式成员人数统计出来的政党参与走低,是不准确的。     

The political economy of the print media and the decline of corporate investigative journalism in Australia

Newspapers in developed economies are experiencing declining advertising and circulation revenues, closures and cutbacks. Investigative journalism's normative role has been described as scrutinising concentrated power sources in liberal democracies. This article examines investigative reporting by the Australian print media that has exposed corporate wrong-doing from affluent times to the current era of newspapers' financial hardship. Applying two content analyses, the article examines business investigative journalism from selected newspapers and specific categories of the peer-reviewed Walkley Awards. The socialist tradition identifies corporate power above other groups in society, and this article finds in accordance with political-economic theories that mainstream newspapers have become conspicuously absent in their investigative role in detecting and exposing corporate transgressions. I conclude that this failure was most notable prior to and during the Global Financial Crisis, and this has implications for the exercise, and scrutiny, of corporate power in Australia.

发达国家的报纸遭遇了广告和发行的滑坡,还有倒闭和削减。调查性新闻的规范角色被描述为自由民主体制内的监督力量。本文考察了澳大利亚印刷媒体从丰裕时代一直到如今报纸财政艰难岁月,对公司过失所做的调查报道。本文使用了内容分析,从选择的报纸和同行评审的Walkley奖的特定类别对商业调查做了研究。社会主义传统认定公司的权力高于社会其他群体,本文同意政治经济学理论,指出主流报纸在履行揭露公司违法不端的调查职责时,是明显缺席的。笔者的结论是,在全球金融危机之前及之中,这种缺席是再明显不过了。这个结论对于公司力量的运动和监督,或许有参考意义。     

Iraqis exiled in Australia since 2003

This article explores the sociopolitical attitudes and behaviours of a sample group of Iraqi refugees who have been granted protection in Australia since the Iraq War of 2003. It looks at whether individuals in the sample are engaged with the political system in Australia, or are disaffected or alienated by it. The analysis shows that a majority of the sample are apathetic to or alienated by Australia's liberal–democratic political system, the very system that is supposed to be their primary means of inclusion. Such findings suggest that, for this particular sample, the political community and system in Australia lack the reflexivity necessary to recognise new forms of political agency. Instead, it fosters sociopolitical conditions that tend to preclude positive settlement outcomes and the emergence of substantive political membership and representation for these individuals.

本文考察了2003年以来在澳大利亚避难的一组伊拉克人的社会政治态度和行为,看他们是介入还是疏离于澳大利亚的政治制度。本文的分析显示,样本组的大多数人对于澳大利亚的自由民主政治制度是麻木或疏离的。而这个制度号称是接纳这些难民的主要津梁。这说明,对于这个样本来说,澳大利亚的政治共同体和政治制度还缺乏承认新政治主体的反省,容易妨碍积极的定居结果,缺少针对这些个体的实实在在的政治参与和代表性。     

Celebrating the prophet: religious nationalism and the politics of Milad‐un‐Nabi festivals in India

The traditional honoring of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed (Milad‐un‐Nabi) has shifted in numerous Indian cities from private prayer and ritual meals in the home to grand public festivals that bear resemblances to Hindu religious processions. In 2010 in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, large‐scale Milad‐un‐Nabi festivals became implicated in Hindu–Muslim nationalist riots that erupted weeks later at the commencement of a Hindu festival for Hanuman Jayanthi. This paper explores the political production of Muslim ethno‐nationalism and the intra‐community debates over the legitimacy and piety of Milad‐un‐Nabi celebrations. It argues that Milad‐un‐Nabi as a public performance is a (re)invented tradition that is part of the struggle for material, political and symbolic goods of the nation‐state. It is shaped by local party politics and history of anti‐Muslim discrimination. However, as the festivals highlight community divisions and religious ambiguities, they ultimately reveal the fragility of ethnic groups.     

The paradox of contemporary linguistic nationalism: the case of Luxembourg

Through a case study of the mobilisation around the Luxembourgish language in the 1970s and 1980s, this article investigates the paradox of contemporary linguistic nationalism, resulting from a hiatus between the continued influence of the classic nation‐state model and the new constraints linked to a changed socio‐historical context. Based on an analysis of actors' discourses, parliamentary debates and legislative documents, the investigation retraces the social, political and economic dynamics as well as the cognitive mechanisms leading to a change in the social perception of the Luxembourgish language. It shows how the contemporary context implies specific constraints and difficulties for mechanisms of the invention of tradition, but that at the same time the traditional nation‐state model, where one nation equates with one state and one language continues to function as a reference. Through the Luxembourgish case is raised the more general question of the relation between linguistic nationalism, modernity and change in a contemporary context.     

Children's projected political preference: transcending local politics

Traditionally, research on political preference has primarily focused on adults within their local political context. This research attempts to show that the perceived political preference of children is part of their national identity, and encompasses not only local politics but also the global and regional discourse. The present study surveyed 1187 Palestinian adolescents attending school, grades 5–7, in the West Bank to examine whether children's future political party preference is grounded in local/global discourse. The findings revealed a discrepancy between participants' perceptions of the local dominant political party and their projected political party preferences. This research argues that political party preference is facilitated through the transcendence of national identity embedded in children's geopolitical agency. The significance of the findings emphasizes that territorial boundaries are artificial; therefore, children's geopolitical agency is impacted by extraterritorial discourse and is able to transcend the local and regional context into a global politics.     

Female Workers,Political Mobilization,and the Meaning of Revolutionary Citizenship in Beijing, 1948-1950

After entering Beijing in January 1949, the Communist Party immediately sent cadres to local factories in order to mobilize female industrial workers into a women＇s movement and to establish the idea of ＂revolutionary citizenship.＂ The Party wished to nurture this idea in both the local political arena and in women＇s lives inside and outside the factories. This article demonstrates that a host of factors defined revolutionary citizenship, including party directives, choices in revolutionary strategy, cadres＇ interpretations of directives and their own initiatives, and workers＇ reactions to mobilization. It was in this complex mix of mobilization, women＇s strategies to protect and advance their own interests, and the politics of group representation in the revolution, that female workers came to understand the meaning and impact of revolutionary citizenship and the shape of labor-state relations in the emerging socialist China.     

马克思、恩格斯与伦敦世界博览会

1851年的伦敦世界博览会是历史上首次大规模的人类文明交流,引发了无产阶级革命导师的新思考,产生了一些新思想、新观念。马克思、恩格斯以敏锐的眼光看到了伦敦世博会的重要意义、所蕴藏的历史启示以及对人类文明的引领功能。他们坚决反对维利希、金克尔等为代表的极端政治流亡者以革命为儿戏,鼓吹暗杀与暴动。伦敦世博会后,马克思、恩格斯实现了从准备再次发动革命到为未来革命积蓄力量的策略转变。马克思认识到,当资产阶级社会的生产力正在蓬勃发展的时候,谈不到什么真正的革命。新的革命只有在新的危机之后才可能发生。     

日本近世大名家训中的武家政治思想

近世日本是建立在武力统治和身份统治基础上的封建家族国家,虽然其以中国的儒学为统治思想,但是统治阶级始终坚持尚武为立国之本,把尚武习武看成是执政者和有教养者的重要标志,认为在治世能保持尚武精神的武士才是真武士。关于君臣关系,在“家”观念支配下,他们认为君臣关系是建立在同一家族共同体基础上的,家臣与主君同样对家的延续兴亡负有责任。他们的忠君观念具有家族主义和集团主义色彩,具有超越主君个人而把家国作为忠诚对象的特征。近世武士阶级在中国儒学的影响下,能够自觉地从治国安民这一政治角度考虑百姓的生活,并且达到“为国家人民立君”这样的政治高度。     

胡适与蒋廷黻的政治主张之比较

胡适与蒋廷黻都是20世纪较有影响力的中国留美学者,都曾经十分关心现实的政治,也曾不同程度地参与政治活动,虽然同样受过西方教育,他们的政治主张却有很大不同.