Protecting the ageing poor or strengthening the market economy: the case of the Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund

The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) launched by the Hong Kong government seems to be a residual welfare state's strategy to cope with an ageing population and, at the same time, preserve a minimal welfare state and further enhance economic development. The MPF can only provide limited protection for a limited number of employees; many older people still have to depend on financial support from their families or have to work. On the other hand, the MPF immediately boosts the economy by creating more jobs for the financial services sector and by providing more business opportunities for banks and insurance companies. Thus, the MPF has consolidated the foundation of Hong Kong's capitalism by socialising and incorporating the whole working population in the market economy but has provided little protection for their old age.     

雅典贵族与民主政治--雅典民主政坛上的贵族现象探析

雅典贵族主宰民主政坛的现象,有其特定的历史背景:一、雅典贵族与众不同的生存环境和适应环境的能力,使他们不自觉地扮演了民主政治的推动者的角色;二、雅典文化价值体系的贵族性使贵族在社会政治生活中处于众望所归的地位;三、贵族的商业化使他们在经济行为上与工商业者趋于一致,成为他们在政治上充当工商业者的代言人的物质基础。但是,伴随工商业者的阶级意识和权力意识的进一步增强,伯里克利之后平民工商业领袖的崭露头角和公民大会对政治事务的全面控驭,意味着民主政治日益显露其真实的社会基础。因此,贵族领袖现象并不否定民主政治的基础在于工商业这一根本命题。     

论俄罗斯的政治发展——从政治与道德相互关系的角度

俄罗斯是个特殊的社会政治体系,政治上的专制与暴力及其虚无主义的道德说教铸成了典型的俄罗斯式的政治发展模式:普通民众被排除在政治之外,政治发展的主动权完全掌握在精英手中。     

Hong Kong: workfare in the world's freest economy

Chan CK. Hong Kong: workfare in the world's freest economy Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 22–32 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Workfare was introduced in many countries to suppress welfare dependency and reduce social security expenditures. However, workfare was launched in Hong Kong when there was only a relatively small social security budget and its citizens still strongly adhered to the ideologies of self‐reliance. It was found that workfare has performed several functions in Hong Kong. First, by forcing unemployed claimants to give up benefits, Hong Kong has been able to save on social security expenditures. Second, workfare has combined with Hong Kong's semi‐democratic polity so that extremely stigmatising welfare measures have been implemented. Third, it has pushed poor citizens into the labour market without having any protection over wages and working hours. Thus, the combination of workfare and a semi‐democratic polity has successfully suppressed Hong Kong's welfare demands and strengthened its self‐help spirit. As a result, Hong Kong's minimal social security scheme and its low tax policy have been maintained.     

目的论下政治与伦理的统一——亚里士多德的政治伦理观

政治与伦理的关系是历代思想家所关注的理论问题 ,也是当代中国政治生活和伦理生活中的现实问题。亚里士多德把伦理学从属于政治学 ,并从成就最大、最高、最广善业的政治目的出发 ,设计了家庭伦理和公民伦理 ,提出了政治是公共事业、政治制度的价值理念就是公正不偏等思想 ,表现出对政治生活的伦理道德价值上的高度关切     

马克思主义视域中的国家软实力建设及其建构

"软实力"概念一经提出就成为理论界热议的焦点。随着我国综合国力以及国际地位的不断提升,国家软实力建设已经成为当务之急。马克思主义是我国的主流意识形态,不断发展马克思主义对于我国社会主义建设意义重大。阐述马克思主义哲学对我国政治软实力的启示和对我国文化软实力建设的意义。     

Gendered Dimensions of the HIV Pandemic: A Cross‐National Investigation of Women's International Nongovernmental Organizations,Contraceptive Use,and HIV Prevalence in Less‐Developed Nations

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic has a profound impact on women as a result of social and biological vulnerabilities to the infection. In this article, we explore the influence of democracy, women's international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and contraceptive use on female HIV rates, using indirect‐effect modeling techniques to properly test the interrelationships among key variables. Structural equation models reveal that democracy and women's INGOs work to reduce female HIV rates indirectly, by promoting the use of contraceptives among women in less‐developed nations. Despite these promising findings, the analyses also reveal that INGOs are negatively associated with sociohealth dimensions of female empowerment, which thus serves to promote HIV rates. The results suggest that interventions undertaken by INGOs may not be as successful as government programs in addressing inequalities in health and social resources for women in poor nations.     

目的与效用：政体德性的两面——毛泽东民主集中制政体思想新探

民主集中制政体是毛泽东根据新民主主义共和国的国体确定的,其根本任务是建设几个革命阶级联合专政的共和国,实现共和国无支配自由的根本目的。新民主主义共和国的国体反映在民主集中制政体上,形成混合均衡的共和政体,因而共和是民主集中制政体的政治性质、核心理念和实践模式。本文认为,民主集中制是无支配自由与共和模式有机结合的德性实现;而两者的扭曲结合则造成民主集中制政体的蜕变,以致给共和国与人民带来无穷祸害和灾难。     

农村问题研究：后税费时期“农村经营政治”的表现与影响

国家一社会关系视域下的农村基层政治形态在后税费时期出现了新的特点。在基层政权-村干部-村民的权力关系角逐中，干部统制的权威和认受性基础与取消农业税前发生了变化。这种变化是基于新一轮的农村发展政策偏差运行之上，使得“农村经营政治”逐渐凸现，并产生了双重社会后果，其一是农村社区新型贫困，其二是干部权威和认受性受到削弱，对农村社会稳定有很大的侵蚀作用。     

政体理论的回归与超越——建构一种超越“左”右的民主观

政体研究一直推动着政治学的发展,但是流行的政体概念需要清理。有关近代西方政体的争论在很大程度上是围绕亚里士多德命题而展开,在解决统治权后就如何统治问题进行了以代议制为主轴的政体设计。冷战使得政体分类高度意识形态化,西方以突出类的对立的二分法代替亚里士多德的多重分类法,并借用在中世纪就很发达的贵族政制的且被西方现代政制设计师用于排斥民主政治的选举代表制来修正人民主权,建构以选举制为核心的自由民主政体,民主等同于选举即选举式民主。这不符合政治社会结构和政治过程常识。需要引入国家变量以建构一个替代性的民主政体理论。