Weber Was Right: Death,Taxes, Working Capital,and the Excessive Propensity for Accumulation

It turns out that Max Weber was on to something when he suggested that it was not natural or automatic that wealthy individuals invest their capital rather than keep it or spend it on themselves. Patterns of economic growth and capital investment in the United States over the last century indicate that in general some inducement or pressure is necessary to convince those who control money to risk it rather than hoard it.     

略论近代美国新教传教士在华的教育活动

美国新教传教士在中国的教育活动以建立的教会学校最为典型,它是中国近代历史上的特殊的文化现象,对促进中国高等教育现代化以及中西文化交流起着重要的作用。文章对教会学校的三个发展阶段进行了论述,并对这一现象进行了评价。     

对韦伯命题的一种探析——影响东西方经济管理的不同方式

“韦伯命题”作为探讨新教伦理与资本主义发展的关系问题的焦点被广泛关注着。但是以往人们在研究新教伦理与资本主义发展的这个问题时,却总是片面地看待它。他们过分突出了宗教文化的因素而忽略了其他的方面。考察了韦伯命题的产生和发展以及形成韦伯命题热的过程。     

"扩张主义"与"孤立主义"的新教文化解读

孤立主义(Isolationism)和扩张主义(Expansionism)是美国历史上具有重大意义却又貌似迥异的两项重要外交政策:从表面上看,两者所奉行的对外政策是自相矛盾的;从更深层次上看,两者都是美国人所持有的“美国在国际事务中具有特殊的使命感”(Missionary Impulses)的反映。本文从新教文化的角度来分析“孤立主义”与“扩张主义”的相互关系,以揭示这对外交政策的内在联系与作用。     

市场经济伦理精神探析--韦伯新教伦理研究的时代解读

韦伯新教伦理揭橥市场经济应有与其相适应的社会伦理精神,这种社会伦理精神一方面为市场经济本身的合理性作价值辩护,另一方面,为市场经济健康运行提供社会伦理的人文资源支持.     

加尔文的新教伦理及其启蒙意义

继路德之后,加尔文进一步发展了新教伦理。他主张:个人的命运为上帝所预定,人能以信仰直面上帝;上帝召唤着个人成就其世俗事业,个人尽其天职归根结底是为了荣耀上帝,但它又是以服务于人性最深层的需要为中介的;惟有个人结伴共创神圣共同体,方可完成这样的服务。加尔文正是以他的新教伦理传达了宗教改革运动的启蒙精神及其重大历史意义。     

Beyond Continuity? Understanding Change in the UK Welfare State since 2010

One approach to identifying policy change stresses policy instruments, settings and policy paradigms, while another also considers the process and culmination of various shifts and consequent outcomes. This article illustrates the debate through an examination of how far developments in social security policy between the 1997–2010 New Labour and 2010–15 Coalition Governments in the UK constituted real policy shifts. It shows that, despite continuities in instruments and approach, there have been substantial changes in the impact of welfare state policies related to short‐term benefits, employment and housing. The article identifies new policy directions leading to a different kind of welfare state, concerned less with living standards and equality and more with individual responsibility and paid work. It suggests that this has been achieved without the need for radical changes in instruments and their settings.     

西医与近代中朝基督教的初传

新教传教士初到中朝时,都采用了医学传教的间接传教方法。由于他们入国的方式和行为不同,中朝两国统治者分别实行了禁、驰的政策,基督教迫于清廷的严禁和防范而借助本国武力和不平等条约的保护,为日后华人诟病;而在朝鲜宽容的环境下,基督教很好地融合到了朝鲜民族的历史命运中,获得了快速的发展。     

Getting back in the DeLorean: modernization vs. anti-modernization in contemporary British politics

ABSTRACT

This article highlights a growing clash between mainstream modernizing and populist anti-modernizing forces in the UK. Whilst scholarship on UK party politics has, for the past three decades, focussed on processes of party modernization, little attention has been paid to the countervailing processes of resistance towards modernization. This contrasts with comparative studies, which show that throughout much of Europe modernization processes have worked to produce populist backlashes from anti-modernizing forces seeking to reassert various types of traditional values and practices. Drawing on the comparative literature on modernization, our argument here is that a similar populist backlash against modernization is occurring across the political spectrum in the UK and has been a factor in: the rise of nationalism associated with UKIP and the SNP; the 2016 BREXIT vote and the efforts of both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative PM Theresa May to distance their parties from the legacies of their modernizing predecessors. Empirically, we show how this increasingly prevalent line of conflict is playing out in the UK, whilst theoretically we argue that a discourse theoretical approach can provide significant advantages over existing approaches for understanding the dynamic interplay between modernizing and anti-modernizing discourses.     

The Paradox of Protestantism and Women in Elected Office in the United States

ABSTRACT

In cross-national studies, scholars have found that wealthy countries and those with a Protestant tradition are more likely to have higher levels of women in elected office. Even though the United States should then be high in this domain, it lags behind many similarly situated countries. We posit that one reason for this paradox is that Protestantism in the United States is far more socially conservative than is typical in other Protestant countries. To test our argument, we use state-level data on the proportion of women in elected office from 2002 to 2004 and survey data on church membership. We find a negative relationship between the percentage of Protestants belonging to churches associated with the National Association of Evangelicals, a lobbying group representing socially conservative Protestant denominations, and the proportion of women in elected office.