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.     

西方新自由主义福利思想述评

新自由主义继承和延续了古典自由主义的政治和经济思想内核,同时在批判凯恩斯主义的基础上阐述了自己的福利思想。新自由主义者以政治自由和经济自由为基本出发点,对集权主义和国家干预的制度模式进行批判,反对福利国家的福利制度。20世纪80年代后新自由主义的福利思想渐渐在一些西方国家成为主流思想,以新自由主义福利思想为指导的社会福利政策改革开始实施。     

国际公共教育的发展历程:一个经济学的视角

本研究从几个世纪以来在西方主要发达国家中占主流地位的经济学理论——古典经济学派、凯恩斯主义以及新自由主义、新凯恩斯主义——的变化为契入点,来探究主流经济学理论下国家职能的不断变化对公共教育发展与改革所产生的巨大作用。     

论哈耶克的新自由主义经济学思想

当前,起源于西方发达国家的新自由主义经济学思想,已经渗透到了发展中国家的各个层面,对发展中国家的经济社会政策产生了不可估量的影响。哈耶克作为当今世界新自由主义的旗手和标杆人物,对新自由主义经济学思想的影响力是巨大的,因此,我们在吸收或借鉴新自由主义经济学思想精华的同时,仍要时时不忘其理论缺陷与实践危害。     

‘Between Two Evils,I Refuse To Choose The Lesser’

For French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the issue of the agency of intellectuals was paramount. Bourdieu maintained that intellectuals have a fearsome form of social responsibility. Having witnessed the ‘institutional misuse of authority’ common among academics, the ‘canonized stupidity’ that was part and parcel of the educational system, the faddishness of intellectual trends and the ‘cult of “transgression”‘ that underwrote this faddishness, Bourdieu crafted an alternative position and practice that were to bear fruit in the context of the fight against neo-liberalism during the last two decades of the twentieth century. This essay provides an examination of Bourdieu's theory of the gap between theory and practice, how intellectuals shape and are influenced by this gap and what can and should be done to challenge it.     

Between Decentralized Planning and Neo-liberalism: Challenges for the Survival of the Indigenous People of Kerala, India

This paper examines the experiences of decentralization under successive political regimes in Kerala in the context of neo‐liberal policies, with reference to the impact on the lives of adivasi (indigenous) communities. The Communist Party‐led government had been implementing a home‐grown programme of decentralized planning since 1996 until it lost power to the Congress Party‐led conservative coalition in 2001. In the context of the accelerated structural adjustment and liberalization of the national government, the new government amended its predecessor's programme with a reduced role for the state bureaucratic and political actors in mobilizing people for planning and implementing projects at the local level. Based on a comparative analysis, the authors argue that the new programme has so far not been successful as regards enabling marginalized groups such as the indigenous communities to resist exclusion and move out of their states of deprivation. The study also shows that the withdrawal of the state from the social and economic sectors has adversely affected these groups.     

西方新自由主义思潮在大学生中的传播

近年来,新自由主义思潮成为影响当代中国最为主要的西方社会思潮。基于问卷调查的方式,本文考察了新自由主义思潮在厦门大学学生中传播的现状,通过对调查结果的分析,找出新自由主义对青年大学生的影响和引发的主要问题。接着,分析新自由主义思潮的本质,以引导青年大学生更清楚地认识新自由主义;最后,为有效消除新自由主义对青年大学生的不良影响,针对相关问题提出具体的对策和建议。     

经济伦理研究有待澄清的三个问题——反思新自由主义经济思潮影响下的经济伦理研究

2008年爆发于华尔街的全球性的金融危机,宣告了新自由主义经济学神话的破灭,也使得以新自由主义经济学为背景的西方经济伦理学处在了十分尴尬的境地.中国学界在反思新自由主义经济思想的同时,也需要反思原有的经济伦理研究,需要从新自由主义经济思潮束缚下解放出来,以实现新的突破.     

The Changed Welfare Paradigm: The Individualization of The Social

The first part of this paper offers a cumulative review of the changes in global objectives and operating principles and their global consequences, characteristic of the shift from the ideal type of the modern welfare state to the neo-liberal or post-modern paradigm. The paper then spells out some of the implications of this shift for social security in the "transition countries" of Central and Eastern Europe. The tendencies (from marketization to the spread of means-testing) are similar to those in the West; but they are much more marked and there is much less political and popular resistance to these changes. One of the crucial ingredients of the shift is the undermining of the age-old solidarity between generations, a trend also strongly recommended by the supranational agencies. The "catch", or the "paradox of democracy" is that, for all the lack of resistance, people do not seem to approve of the rapid withdrawal of the state and the loss of their existential securities.     

新自由主义的通货膨胀理论及其政策启示

新自由主义是20世纪后半期西方发达国家的主流学派乃至主流意识形态,是隐藏在经济全球化发展背后的主要理论支撑。新自由主义的通货膨胀理论是其重要的理论构成之一。我国的经济运行当前面临较大的通胀压力,应借鉴新自由主义通货膨胀理论的合理部分,控制货币发行,坚持预算平衡,增加有效供给,改革外汇管理,以更好地应对通货膨胀。