The Use of the Group and Group Work Techniques in Resolving Interethnic Conflict

This article explores the area of interethnic conflict and, based on a case study involving a dialogue group of American Arabs and Jews, proposes a conflict resolution model that, combined with group process and group techniques, might be used to reduce tension and promote understanding among other ethnic groups in conflict. The model was successfully used in Los Angeles to engage the disputants in social action during a five year period and shows promise of being employed in a new form of "intergroup work."     

Russia and the United States at the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century [I]

Soviet-American rivalry has determined the character of world politics for four and a half decades. It was the central axis around which the system of international relations turned. The global conflict between the two "superpowers" from 1945 to 1990 was based on the ideological incompatibility between the USSR and the United States—the mutual negation, so to speak, of two economic and political systems.     

"Political Islam" and Western Society

The term "political Islam" sounds strange to people who are not familiar with Muhammad's teaching: how can a religion be political? To a Muslim—for whom religion is inseparable from politics, the state, and from all spheres of a person's life—this formula seems equally strange, but for a different reason entirely. After all, in Islam there is no division into secular power and spiritual power; in fact, the Church as an institution does not even exist. The Christian formula "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" [Matthew 22:21] is unacceptable to Islam; and the Muslim rulers, beginning with the caliphs, have embodied both spiritual and secular power at the same time. From a Muslim standpoint, Islam's political influence is a natural phenomenon.     

对孔子德治思想的再认识

针对奴隶制向封建制转型时期充满纷乱、冲突的社会现实,孔子提出"为政以德"的政治主张,认为政治必须建立在对人民进行道德教育和感化的基础上,同时特别强调德治的关键在于当政者的道德操持.孔子的德治思想饱含人道主义、民本政治因素,不仅对推动我国古代政治经济文化的发展进步起了主导作用,而且其合理内核部分对加强我国当前党风廉政建设、提高全民族道德素质、维护我国社会稳定仍具有较大的文化支持意义.     

Partisanship,continuity, and change: Politics in Finnish unemployment benefit reforms 1985–2016

The apparent decline of partisan effects on social policies since the 1980s has encouraged the development of theories that challenge the traditional partisan politics theory. Although the new politics approach pointed to institutional path-dependence and to the unpopularity of radical retrenchment, recent research has highlighted shifts in electoral landscapes, differences in party systems and institutional contexts, and changing party-voter linkages. This in-depth case study contributes to debates on partisan effects by focusing on Finland, whose dualistic unemployment benefit system and institutional and political conditions provide an interesting case to analyse changing partisan effects. The aim is to explain, through qualitative policy analysis, why government partisanship has not had a significant effect on unemployment benefit levels since 1985. The explanations are different for earnings-related and flat-rate benefits. For the former, retrenchment efforts have seen a distinct partisan divide, but trade unions have thwarted most cutbacks; thus, although partisanship has not mattered much for policy outcomes, power resources have remained important as inhibitor of cuts. For the latter, parties that in the late 1980s still had differing priorities have since converged on policies emphasizing activation and work incentives. Universal flat-rate benefits have lacked political support and have been left to stagnate. The study suggests that one single theory is not sufficient to explain developments even in one single welfare policy—there are too many aspects to cover—not to speak of the entire welfare state consisting of an array of different schemes.     

论政治冲突

政治冲突是重要的政治现象 ,也是政治学的基础范畴。在政治冲突发展的历史与逻辑相一致的理论框架下 ,政治冲突表现为政治分歧、政治不合作、政治对立、政治竞争。政治冲突的类型有 :政治机构冲突、政治领导集团内部冲突、政党冲突、利益集团冲突、公民冲突、政治权力冲突、政治参与冲突、政治发展冲突。     

Four Problems of the SCO in Connection with Its Enlargement

One of the main issues facing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is its enlargement. Traditionally, this issue has been viewed in terms of practical policy. The longer this dispute over enlargement drags on, however, the greater the depth it acquires. The enlargement debate reflects the unique political culture of the SCO. Another issue well-known from other organizations also arises—“different levels” in the admission of new participants. But the question of the organization’s future is emerging in discussions of enlargement as the main matter in dispute: is it to be a global future (as Russia is more inclined to see it) or a regional future (as China is more inclined to see it)? Thus, the SCO faces one of the most important conflicts of today’s world—that between globalization and regionalization. While debates about these trends and the relationship between them continue in the political, economic, and social sciences, the SCO has to make a practical choice in favor of one of the trends or find a way to combine them in determining its work priorities. The authors reformulate the issue of enlargement as a problem of finding a balance between globalizing and regionalizing trends in the SCO strategy. At the practical level this will make it possible to reconcile the basic interests of Russia and China in Eurasia.     

文明冲突论与先进文化建设

文明冲突论昭示了当代世界发生的文化冲突无不直接或间接体现出国家或民族经济政治利益的主导性。文化冲突的实质是文化的民族性冲突和文化的时代性冲突。文化冲突是文化发展的重要动力,因此,我们必须高度重视“文明的冲突”的深远影响,努力实现中国传统文化的现代化,努力实现中国当代文化的世界化。     

Perceptions of power and the management of environmental conflict: Forest politics in British Columbia

Political actors' perceptions of the contexts in which they act influence their strategies and behavior. A key element of political contexts is the configuration of power with respect to a conflict. We interviewed 28 individuals involved in British Columbia forest politics to determine their perceptions of the configuration of power, the nature of their political behavior, their dispositions with respect to institutionalized conflict resolution processes, and their policy goals. Our analysis generated two sets of conclusions. First, the B.C. government's efforts to address forest conflict will be hindered by the inconsistency between the conflict management strategy they have chosen and the mental models of politics held by key political actors. Second, the subjective realities of political actors can be used to explain variation in political behavior.     

Arab-Jewish Bilingual Coeducation in Israel: A Long-Term Approach to Intergroup Conflict Resolution

This article offers insights into a new educational adventure in Israel that attempts to overcome interethnic conflict through bilingual coeducation. These insights were gathered during a two-year research project in which the authors followed the activities of two recently established Arab-Jewish bilingual schools. Their analysis is based primarily on qualitative data of educational and sociocultural processes involved in the functioning and development of the schools as they relate to four major areas: language, cultural and religious identity, national identity, and social interactions. The study showed the potential benefits of one type of intergroup contact, namely, bilingual long-term coeducation, but also shed light on the complexity and the difficulties facing all of the parties involved in such an adventurous enterprise.     

博弈·平衡·控制——中国传统法和谐价值解读

对于中国传统法的和谐价值的认识,可以将博弈、平衡、控制三个层面作为解读新法。博弈是传统法所面对的各种矛盾与冲突,这是传统法具有和谐价值的成因;平衡是传统法在博弈中解决矛盾与冲突的手段,这是传统法和谐价值的实际样态;控制是传统法所追求的目标价值,是经过博弈、平衡后的一种政治期许的实际效果。立足当今和谐社会与法治建设,以扬弃的态度解读传统法,这是传统法和谐价值的现代意义所在。     

Causes of the Growing Instability in Kabardino-Balkaria and Ways of Overcoming It

Well-known political analyst Sergey Markedonov describes recent violence in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, the region's former "sleeping beauty"—quiet, with ethnic and religious rivalries relatively under control. Since the underlying causes of instability are diverse and dangerously synergistic, Markedonov describes, within limited choices, ways that dissatisfactions can be managed using "smart force," before they become still worse.     

A theory of “popular political legitimation”: A dual-process model approach to legitimation and political socialization

How do everyday people—or actors who do not occupy positions of political authority—legitimate political systems? Responding to this question, I use work from sociology, political science, and cognitive science to build a theory of “Popular Political Legitimation” (PPL)—defined as everyday people's legitimation of a political system. To answer how PPL happens, we must answer two sub-questions that address legitimacy as a normative phenomenon: 1) What are the processes of socialization through which individuals learn the norms, widely held beliefs, and values that legitimate a political system? 2) How do individuals subsequently use these norms, widely held beliefs, and/or values in their own legitimations of a political system? Thus, we see that a model of socialization is central to understanding how PPL happens. I proceed in four steps. First, I review the literature on political legitimation. Next, I review the literature on political socialization. Third, to address gaps in the two aforementioned literatures concerning a model of socialization that explains legitimation, I turn to neuroscience (for reviews see Greene, 2017; Cushman, 2020) and psychology to review models of socialization and rationalization. Finally, I synthesize these literatures to develop a theory of political socialization and how it generates PPL.     

Social Work Practice in Conflict-Ridden Areas: Cultural Sensitivity Is Not Enough

This paper tries to raise awareness of the distortions thatviolent political conflict may introduce into social work practicewith members of the rival community, and proposes training guidelinesfor social workers to help reduce those distortions. The understandingof the impact of political conflict on practice is based onthe Israeli–Palestinian experience. The suggestions regardingwhat social workers should be aware of when practising in situationsof political conflict, however, and the training guidelinesthat are offered can apply to practice in other conflict-riddenareas worldwide.     

Separation of powers and the Ecuadorian Supreme Court: exploring presidential–judicial conflict in a post-transition democracy

In 2005 ongoing political conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government in Ecuador culminated in a struggle over the judiciary. These events resulted in the dismissal, re-constitution, and dismissal again of the Ecuadorian high court (the Corte Suprema de Justicia) and the impeachment of the president. This paper uses the political crisis surrounding the dismissal of the Ecuadorian Supreme Court of Justice to examine the broader phenomenon of executive branch attacks on the judiciary in South American and Africa. We make three general observations: (1) the longevity of the judiciary alone (time without attack) does not guarantee a sufficiently deep reservoir of diffuse support to protect it from successful efforts at structural change or dissolution, (2) despite previous evidence that multilateral constitutional processes result in increased court independence (Dargent, 2009), we conclude that multi-party institutional arrangements are more vulnerable to the types of crisis that cause them to seek to use courts and their legitimacy to achieve political goals thereby limiting previous gains in independence, and (3) a court's institutional legitimacy is enhanced when it survives political threats from other branches of government. The crisis in Ecuador is used to demonstrate the challenges facing newer democracies with continuing multilateral conflict as well as the utility of thinking about how, why and when political institutions attack high courts and how the judiciary and citizens respond.     

Partners,Institutions and International Currencies: The International Political Foundations for the Rise of the Renminbi

The use of an international currency is not just a natural market phenomenon; it relies heavily on international political foundations. The historical lessons of the four major international currencies—the pound, dollar, euro and yen—show that a strong partner network and a favorable international institutional environment are the two major political foundations for the formation of a stable international currency. The rise of the renminbi, as a late starter looking to become a major international currency, depends not only on the requisite economic conditions but on governmental diplomacy aimed at attracting more monetary cooperation partners and creating international institutions that support its worldwide use. This strategy reinforces the political foundations for the rise of the renminbi. Building a network of partners supporting the renminbi as an international currency and creating a system of international monetary institutions are the real tests of the issuing country’s political leadership. This political leadership capacity has three dimensions: public trust founded on reputation building; a centripetal force driven by provision of benefits; and coercive force applied through sanctions. Comparatively speaking, the renminbi is still in the early stage of its ascent, so the development of its political infrastructure should concentrate mainly on gaining public trust through reputation-building and employing centripetal force involving provision of benefits.     

Testing mobilization views of the relationship between international interdependence and political conflict in developing countries

This research examines mobilization conceptions of how international interdependence affects political conflict in developing societies. Two views are investigated. The factoral approach treats conflict as a product of the abundance or scarcity of specific factors of production, while the sectoral approach regards the competitiveness and export performance of a nation’s industries as the key to conflict. A sector’s size and strength also are viewed as important variables. A cross-national design is used to determine how a nation’s levels of manufacturing imports and direct foreign investments interact with factoral and sectoral variables to affect political conflict. The results suggest a consistent positive association between protest and the interaction between labor abundance and interdependence. Capital abundance was unrelated to conflict, and competitiveness, export performance, sectoral size, and sectoral strength all were positively related to protest.     

Public perceptions and preferences concerning Pacific salmon recovery: an Oregon “voluntary and grassroots” perspective

This research examines mobilization conceptions of how international interdependence affects political conflict in developing societies. Two views are investigated. The factoral approach treats conflict as a product of the abundance or scarcity of specific factors of production, while the sectoral approach regards the competitiveness and export performance of a nation’s industries as the key to conflict. A sector’s size and strength are also viewed as important variables. A cross-national design is used to determine how a nation’s levels of manufacturing imports and direct foreign investments interact with factoral and sectoral variables to affect political conflict. The results suggest a consistent positive association between protest and the interaction between labor abundance and interdependence. Capital abundance was unrelated to conflict, and competitiveness, export performance, sectoral size, and sectoral strength all were positively related to protest.