A sign of the times? Weak and strong polarization in the U.S. Congress, 1973–2016

Claims that the United States Congress is (becoming more) polarized are widespread, but what is polarization? In this paper, I draw on notions of intergroup relations to distinguish two forms. Weak polarization occurs when relations between the polarized groups are merely absent, while strong polarization occurs when the relations between the polarized groups are negative. I apply the Stochastic Degree Sequence Model to data on bill co-sponsorship in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, from 1973 (93rd session) to 2016 (114th session) to infer a series of signed networks of political relationships among legislators, which I then use to answer two research questions. First, can the widely reported finding of increasing weak polarization in the U.S. Congress be replicated when using a statistical model to make inferences about when positive political relations exist? Second, is the (increasing) polarization observed in the U.S. Congress only weak polarization, or is it strong polarization? I find that both chambers exhibit both weak and strong polarization, that both forms are increasing, and that they are structured by political party affiliation. However, I also find these trends are unrelated to which party holds the majority in a chamber.     

论青年政治的三种模式及其发展走向

作为群体政治的一个视角，青年政治是群体政治中一种典型的表现形式，它蕴含着极大的政治势能和政治意蕴。青年与政治的关系，在不同的时代和不同的政治环境下具有不同的表现，主要有接班人政治、代际政治和反叛政治等基本模式。然而，从现代政治发展的方向来说，青年与政治发展之间的关系应该是一种以接班人政治为基础，以公民政治为发展方向，充分考虑代际政治的发展规律、最大限度地避免反叛政治出现的一种模式。     

改革、市场经济与村庄政治——基于一个浙江村庄政治的三十年变迁

这是一篇基于一个个案研究而企图探讨改革开放以来中国乡村政治的变迁的论文.通过个案,要讨论的是这样一些问题:从20世纪70年代末实施改革开放以来,中国的村庄政治尤其是村庄权力结构及运作经历了怎样的变化?这些变化到底意味着什么?由此,在某种程度上揭示出中国农村的政治运行逻辑.基本的发现是:七一村(个案村)的权力结构存在一个核心权力层,但已经出现多样性的格局,是一个多样性的一元结构,有变的一面,也有不变的一面;通过研究发现七一村的村庄政治属于发展型的权威主义,并且有着"父爱主义"的色彩;无论从规章制度文本、会议制度还是决策机制,七一村权力运作的规范性程度有了很大的提升,形成了"能人政治"、精英治理.这将是中国经济相对发达村庄的一个长期的模式.七一村虽然只是一个普普通通的村庄,但20世纪中国的大变迁却使小小的村庄伴随着我们这个国家经历了此前未曾经历的变化.通过七一村的个案研究可为中国农村内部秩序重建提供学理的根据与对策建议.     

Foucault's Inheritance/Inheriting Foucault

This paper outlines a set of considerations on the politics of reading by suggesting a concept of inheritance to think about the reception of Michel Foucault in organization studies. On the one hand we consider what Foucault inherited from others, the interpretations and decisions he made in relation to an earlier tradition, while on the other hand we consider how Foucault s work has been inherited as it has moved into organization studies. We read Foucault with the assistance of concepts of reading and inheritance that we, in turn, have appropriated from Jacques Derrida, which offer potential ways of considering relations between writers and the way that inheritances are instituted in practices of reading. This involves insisting on the necessity of engaging with a number of complexities, contradictions and double-binds in the texts of Foucault (and others).     

The original bailout of US corporations: The public relations bailout

More than a trillion of taxpayer dollars are currently being used to bail out the US banking, mortgage and car industries. This invokes an interesting connection to public relations the last time drastic US government involvement with corporations was contemplated. This pre-First World War crisis of the free enterprise system involved a deficit not of money but of favourable public opinion. The requirement was for vast amounts of public opinion and public policy work by a reported at least 1200 – what were at that time called – press agents. This was the period when public relations emerged as a fundamental plank of US and ultimately of global culture. The thesis of this article is that many aspects of the world we live in cannot be properly understood without a better analysis of the first bailout of US corporations—the public relations bailout.     

学术与政治之间：比较教育学的双重变奏

比较教育学从诞生之日起就面临着学术与政治的双重变奏。19世纪上半叶，由于政治的需要与比较教育界的共同努力使比较教育学得到了迅速发展；19世纪后半期，比较教育学面临外忧内困的局面，既受到了政府和公众的质疑又遭遇学科身份危机；如今在全球化的背景下，比较教育学必须给自己合理地定位，从而既能在服务于国家教育发展中获得前进的动力和存在的理由，又能在学科发展中获得新的生长点。     

SPEAKING OF BODIES,PLEASURES, AND PARADISE LOST: EROTIC AGENCY AND SITUATIONIST ETHNOGRAPHY

This ethnographic account of a love story of two elite-level bodybuilders addresses the ways in which broad cultural histories are relevant to understanding contemporarily situated problematics of sex and sexual identity. Specifically I argue that strategically placed historical and cross-cultural studies are useful in understanding in this context how: (1) subjects are configured as gendered, sexed, and sexually-oriented; (2) subjects make love; and (3) attempts to remake love outside the episteme of sexuality are confined. The love story, configured as a ‘paradise lost’ narrative, provides evidence suggesting that the occularcentric and muscularcentric practices of bodybuilding within this specific setting combined to offer the featured couple the material grounds upon which to venture temporarily beyond the pleasures circumscribed by the historical shift in subjectivity associated with Modernity. I conclude the piece by looking to the 1960's European revolutionary aesthetic movement of the Situationists to suggest how a ‘situationist ethnography’ might be used to create conditions of possibility for progressive work in the area of sexuality.     

Book Reviews

Indonesia: the making of a culture. James J. Fox (ed.). 286pp, maps, figures, tables, bibliographies. (Vol. 1 in Indonesia: Australian Perspectives. James J. Fox, Ross Garnaut, Peter McCawley, J.A.C. Mackie (eds).) Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. 1980. $10.

Mekeo: inequality and ambivalence in a village society. Epeli Hau’ofa. x, 3 39pp., maps, figures, tables, plates, appendices, glossary, bibliography, index. Canberra: Australian National University Press. 1981. $19.50.

Tribal communities in rural areas. Elspeth Young, xxiii, 230pp., maps, figures, tables, bibliography. (The Aboriginal Component in the Australian Economy, no. 1.) Canberra: Development Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. 1981. $9.

Women in India and Nepal. Michael Allen and S.N. Mukerjee (eds). xiii, 286pp., figures, bibliographies, index. Canberra: The Australian National University (Monographs on South Asia no. 8). 1982. $10.     

Bulgarian and Polish Women in the Public Sphere

The aim of this article is to describe and compare the situation of women in two countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Its focus is to account for the participation of women in the public sphere. The justification for choosing Bulgaria and Poland lies in the argument that although a more or less uniform regime of state socialism provides the background of a shared past, many other factors affect the assessment of women's current situation. First the historical and cultural contexts are described. Then the current situation of women is compared to that of men, yet paying attention to the differences that exist within the groups of women. Next the analyses of participation of women in formal politics on both the national and local levels as well as in women's NGOs are presented. The outcomes of public opinion polls concerning the "women's problem' in Bulgaria and Poland are compared. I argue that despite the generally more advantageous situation in Poland women in both countries experience comparable problems, though for dissimilar structural reasons.     

Risks and Responsibilities: Creating Dialogical Spaces in Northern Ireland

The idea that open dialogue is the key to transformative politics sounds straightforward. However, in a polity such as Northern Ireland where deep discord has intricate roots, an openness to difference is complex. I argue that dialogical spaces are created when people are prepared to engage in a risk-taking that conjoins self-disclosure with the vulnerability of being truly open to others; and are willing to bear the responsibility of mutually speaking with and listening to the plural other. First, I explain the relationship between identity, difference and political participation of women in Northern Ireland, examining alliance politics and solidarity. I offer suggestions for how difference, multiplicity and justice can be accommodated. Second, I extend beyond the specific context of Northern Ireland to evaluate the ability of feminist theories of deliberative democracy to facilitate dialogue across difference. I examine the importance of normative notions of deliberation, communication, narrative and competing needs. Third, I extrapolate from these theories the idea that the dynamic between listening and speaking creates a space to include diversity and commonality.