The Critical Nature of Dialectics

Withregardtothecriticalnatureofdia1ectics,Marxsaidthat,includedwithintheaffirmativeunderstandingofexistingthings,isarecognitionoftheirnegation,thatis,anunderstandingoftheinevitabilityoftheirdyingout.Thisisbecauseeveryestablishedsocialformisregardedasbeinginastateofcontinuousmovementandthereforetransientinnature,andisunderstoodfromitsmomentaryexistence.1Thefundamentalreasonwhydialecticscanincorporatetheconceptofnegationwithinitstheoreticalframeworkisthatthecriticalnatureofdialecticsisacriticism…     

The End of the Welfare State?

This paper critically examines claims of a new consensus on welfare and the end of the welfare state. We first review the concept of welfare consensus, concentrating on the idea of welfare pluralism, in particular the relatively neglected distinction between national minimum (base) and extension ladder (superstructure). We then examine these concepts in the 1990s under Conservative and New Labour governments. Important changes to welfare pluralism are noted. There have been changes in the character of means-tests, with the national minimum replaced by a series of residual minima, which represent fundamental changes to structural incentives governing the social division of welfare and work. The line between state and non-state provision has been blurred and there have been moves to achieve universalism in the private sector. It is possible to tentatively classify Labour's principles and fledgling policies into three categories: essential continuity with the Conservatives, reversing Conservative policies and extending Conservative policies. However, it is difficult to detect the degree of consensus because a new flexible language is beginning to pervade social policy, with the result that the welfare state is being redefined, notably in areas of full employment, citizenship and conditionality. It is possible to detect, in our terms, moves towards turning Beveridge inside out and from the Marshall towards the Beveridge welfare state. It is clear that the welfare state is being redefined, but reports of its death have been much exaggerated.     

The “Question of the Ethnic Russians” in the Context of Ethnic Relations in the Russian Federation

The author examines the current and likely future position of the Russian ethnic group within Russia's systems of interethnic and ethnofederal relations. He also examines the meaning of the term nationalism as used in Russian politics and warns about the danger of growing imbalances in state regulation of federal and ethnic relations. He proposes a new federalism that would eliminate asymmetries in relations between ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups inhabiting the Russian Federation.     

The Academic History of Literature and Art as a “ Disease of Interpretation”: On the Paradoxical Nature of Interdisciplinary Boundaries

This article represents an academic response to Professor Zhang Jiang’s article “On Imposed Interpretation” published in Russian in the journal October (no. 1, 2015). It argues that the problems observed by Zhang arise from the reality of Western literary criticism over the past decades, and are associated with the contention between philosophy and philology that had its orgins in the West’s Platonic heritage. In outlining the complex symbiotic relationship between the two disciplines in Western literary history, this article finds that two theoretical motive forces catalyzed the process: the “philologization of philosophy” and the “philosophization of philology.” The writer argues that based on a full understanding of the paradoxical relationship between philosophy and philology, which are distinct from and yet attracted to each other, contemporary literary criticism can adopt the principles of “practical conservatism” and “cutting back of methodologies” as a means of healing the ever worsening “disease of intepreretation” in literary history.     

Confluence: The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhône

Jeremy Goldberg, Women, Work, and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy. Women in Work and Yorkshire c. 1300–1520 (1992), xiii + 406 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £45.00).

David Shaw, The Creation of a Community. The City of Wells in the Middle Ages (1993), xiii + 334 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £40.00).

Joan Larsen Klein (ed.), Daughters, Wives and Widows. Writings by Men about Women and Marriage in England, 1500–1640 (1992), xviii + 329 (University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, $37.50, paperback $14.95).

Linda Pollock, With Faith and Physic. The Life of a Tudor Gentlewoman, Lady Grace Mildmay, 1552–1620 (1993), viii + 179 (Collins &; Brown, £25.00).

Lawrence Stone, Broken Lives: Separation and Divorce in England, 1660–1857 (1993), xviii + 355 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, £16.95).

G. J. Barker‐Benfield, The Culture of Sensibility: Sex and Society in Eighteenth‐Century Britain (1992), xxxiv + 520 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, £39.95).

Lynn Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (1992), xvi + 213 (Routledge, £19.99).

Anne Hardy, The Epidemic Streets. Infectious Diseases and the Rise of Preventative Medicine, 1856–1900 (1993), xiii + 325 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £40.00).

Robert Fox and Anna Guagnini (eds), Education, Technology and Industrial Performance in Europe, 1850–1939 (1993), xi + 302 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £35.00).

Thomas Childers and Jane Caplan (eds), Re‐evaluating the Third Reich (1993), xvi + 270 (Holmes &; Meier, New York and London, £35.00, paperback £13.95).

J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning (eds), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (1993), viii + 294 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £35.00, paperback     

The Explanatory Power of Choice Bracketing: A Commentary on Read et al., “Choice Bracketing”

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty -     

The Capacity of a State to Institu-tionalize Social Movements De-pends on the Relations betweenthe State and Society

Studies on social movement and theoryof revolution are of utmost importance topresent-day China. Generally speaking, in faceof a movement challenging the local or cen-tral government, countries of different typeshave different capacities to bear the bruntand take measures to deal with the situation.In the same country, the reaction from theparticipants in the movement to the measuresthe state takes to deal with the movementalso varies with their organizational ability andtheir understanding of…     

The Market Economy and State Regulation

Themarketeconomyhasthreebasicfunctions;rationalallocation,stimulatingsocio-economicandtechnicalprogress,andguaranteeingefficientdistributionaccordingtomarketindicators.Inanationaleconomywithasocialdivisionoflaborandinwhichtheeconomyitselfindependentlydisperseseconomicadvantages,themarketeconomybecomesthefundamentaleconomicregulatorymechanism.However,themarketeconomy,asameansofallocatingresourcesandregulatingandcontrollingtheeconomy,canneverautomaticallyoronitsownfulfilltheentireoperationalaims…     

Does Seniority Matter? The Conditional Influence of State Methods of Judicial Retention*

Objective. Capitalizing on attention directed to judicial agreement and the associated consequences of judicial elections, this article conducts an examination of the effects of seniority and state methods of judicial retention on decisions by state supreme court justices to dissent. Methods. Using data drawn from the State Supreme Court Data Archive, this research analyzes decisions by individual justices to dissent in 33,582 tort cases from 1995 to 1998. GEE logistic analysis with cases as the clustering unit is the estimation procedure. Results. While the seniority of justices is positively connected to dissent, the findings illustrate that seniority's effect is nuanced and conditioned by a state's method of judicial retention. The impact of a justice's seniority relative to his or her colleagues is most powerful in appointive courts where justices serve without fear of electoral retaliation. Alternatively, within elective courts, justices respond to elections by pursuing a consensual approach regardless of their seniority. Conclusion. The dissent characteristics of justices in state supreme courts are intricately tied to the length of careers and the methods by which states keep justices in office.     

The “Congressionalization” of state legislative races

This paper examines the phenomenon of the “Congressionalization” of state legislative races. That is, as state legislative campaigns become more expensive, use more mass media, polling, and professional political consulting, these races are looking more and more like Congressional campaigns. Although others have pointed toward a “Congressionalization” trend, there is little concrete support to prove such a trend. We provide a detailed case study of the characteristics of state legislative races in a single state in the mid-1990s. We find that although there is indeed support for the view that these races are looking more and more Congressional-like, state legislative races are still distinctive in a number of important ways.     

The State and Farmers: Definition of Roles and Functions in the Supply of Public Goods

One of the major contradictions con- fronting Chinese rural areas today is the con- stant increase in farmers' individual needs and the equally rapid growth in their public needs on the one hand, and on the other the double shortage of private and public goods. As a low-income group, individual farmers bear too much of the burden of supplying public goods and have to put their limited funds into the production of public goods. As a result, not only have they not solved the problem of shortage of public goods,     

The valuation “by-tranche” of composite investment instruments

The return on composite investment instruments takes the form of weighted-average, derived from two economic indicators or more. Three experiments illustrate that prospective investors tend to valuate composites “by-tranche”, consistently violating the premise of reduction. Valuation-by-tranche shows for uncertain and risky composites and reflects in allocation problems and binary choice. The willingness to invest still strongly increases when one tranche hedges against the other, suggesting that reduced-form considerations may interfere with the inclination to value by part. A hybrid model where investors weight the values of tranches, but also respond to the reduced-form, approximates the data most accurately.     

“Civilization” and “State”: An Etymological Perspective

在西欧文字词源学的角度上,找不到将“文明”与“国家”被一些学者那样区别 来看的理由,更找不到将“文明”区别为“文化”与“社会”两大部分的根据。“文 明”就是“国家”,本义就是“国家”。将“文明”区别为“文化”与“社会”两大部 分,正如将“文明”与“国家”解读为两个完全不同的概念,来解决文明起源问题, 同样没有根据。因此,研究文明起源的重点只有一个,那就是社会及其管理结构的变 化,也就是生活在一定地域范围之内的人与人之间的社会关系的变化。 关键词:文明 国家 文化 社会

There is no evidence in the etymology of Western European languages to support the distinction between “civilization” and “state” stressed by some scholars, nor any to support the division of “civilization” into a dichotomy of “culture” and “society.” The original meaning of “civilization” is “state.” In discussing the origin of civilization, it is groundless to divide “civilization” into “culture” and “society,” or to interpret “civilization” and “state” as two different concepts. Given such considerations, there can only be one focus in studies of the origin of civilization, namely, changes in society and its management structure, or in other words, the changing social relations among people who live within a given territory.     

Neo‐liberalism by Decay? The Evolution of the Czech Welfare State

In this article we analyse the evolution of the Czech welfare state and we examine the factors explaining its path. We show that although the Czech welfare regime exhibits a 'mixed profile' that includes conservative and universalist elements, it is increasingly moving in a more liberal, residualist direction – not because of conscious steps but rather through decay. Governments have often zig-zagged in their policies and resorted to symbolic reforms at times rather than implementing ideologically based, consistent policies. We argue that historical and sociological institutionalism combined with a social-capital approach can explain this decay better than the more common arguments about economic pressures combined with ideological hegemony or the protest-avoidance strategy. In particular, the social capital approach adds to our institutional framework by explaining why cutbacks in welfare programmes have not met much opposition, even though public opinion surveys consistently show support for more generous welfare policies, and why policies have deviated so much from political rhetoric.     

On the Nature of the American Plantation Slave Economy─An Interpretation of Marx''''s“Grafting”Theory

Foralongtime,worksproducedbothinChinaandabroadhaveoftenlumpedtogethertheplantationsinthesouthernUnitedStatesandtheslavesystem.Atthesametime,theyhavetreatedmodernandancientformsofslaveryasthesamething,whichhasresultedinerroneousviewsonthenatureoftheAinericanplantationslaveeconomy.Morethanahundredyearsago,Marxstudiedthisissueindepthandexpoundedmanybrillianttheoreticalopinions.1InhisclassicalworkTheTheoryofSurPlusValue,MarxexplicitlypointedoutthatintheAInericanplantationslaveeconomythere"exi…     

The Genesis of “The Meaning of the Classics”:On the Objectives and Methods of Jingxue Hermeneutics

In terms of the construction of meaning, what jingxue(study of the classics) deals with is precisely the hermeneutics of the Confucian classics. Jingxue hermeneutics is fundamentally practical statecraft; therefore, its specific objectives do not point to an objective existence unrelated to human beings, but to yi(meaning) or yili(principles), otherwise known as jingyi(meaning of the classics) or dayi(profound significance). “The meaning of the classics” is the product of interpretation. In jing...     

No Justice! Black Protests? No Peace: The Racial Nature of Threat Evaluations of Nonviolent #BlackLivesMatter Protests

Objective : Nonviolent protests have been at the center of minority interest advocacy for nearly a century, as marginalized communities air their grievances in search for substantive policy change. While groups organize and demonstrate in a peaceful manner, there is no guarantee that onlookers will perceive them as such. We find it necessary to explore what factors shape perceptions of social movement protests and how the racial composition of a demonstration can elicit dramatically different responses from onlookers. Methods : To examine the impact of racial identity on protest evaluations, we conduct a survey experiment on a total of 921 respondents. We simulate a media report concerning a Black Lives Matter protest to determine how subtle changes in the racial composition of the demonstration elicit varying perceptions of a potential for violence. Results : We find that protests that comprise all‐Black participants are perceived to have a higher probability to end in violence than more diverse demonstrations. These findings come despite an assurance that the protest in question was peaceful. Consistent with minority threat theory, these perceptions are largely driven by the sentiments of white respondents. Conclusion : We argue that ill‐conceived threat perceptions, rooted in the racial composition of Black Lives Matter protests, complicate the mission of those charged with making visible the plight of Black Americans. Even when Black protesters adhere to the “rules” of non‐violent protest, there is no guarantee that the biases of onlookers will not drown out their efforts. These findings have wide reaching implications on the exercise of First Amendment right to protest, the role of the media in reporting on protests, and the expectations of government interactions with protesters.     

The Stratification of Migrant Farmers in “Henan Village”

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