The Era of Prefectures and Counties: An Inquiry into the Power Structure and State Governance in Ancient Chinese Society

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-87
Author(s):  
Li Ruohui
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Rule By Law ◽  
Hereditary System ◽  
Ritual Propriety ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
State Governance ◽  
New Form

Abstract In spite of all the vicissitudes that Chinese society underwent from the Qin (221-206 bc) to the Qing (ad 1644-1911) dynasties, the system of social government throughout this period as a whole was markedly different from that of Zhou. While the post-Qin dynasties adopted fa or laws to govern the nation, it was li or rituals that dominated in Zhou as a norm of social control. Hence the key to a fruitful inquiry into the administrative evolution of society from Zhou through Qing, a period spanning over two thousand years, lies in the investigation of the political shift from Zhou as a kingdom to Qin as an empire. Since li is a system of ritual propriety representing a consensus of both the upper and lower social strata on the constitution of state power, it is fundamentally different from fa due to its lack of a binding or coercive force. An artificial reorganization of society by a new form of social government called for a new political system known as junxian zhi (郡縣制), a bureaucratic system of centrally appointed local magistrates in “prefectures and counties.” The compulsory force of the law was guaranteed by the national army, and so a system of military officialdom ensured the command and monopoly over the army by the monarch. A fluid bureaucratic system, which enabled the ruling sovereign or monarch to delegate his authority to ministers and local officials, replaced the hereditary system of power by clan lineage. This paper begins with an analysis of the differences between the Confucians’ idea of rule by li and the Legalists’ idea of rule by law, and ends with a discussion on the birth and characteristics of the system of prefectures and commanderies.

Property Rights Reforms and Changing Grassroots Governance in China’s Urban—Rural Peripheries: The Case of Changping District in Beijing

Urban Studies ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lanchih Po
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Board Of Directors ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Collective Property ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
New Form ◽  
Village Government ◽  
The Village

This paper analyses how rural property rights reforms have reshaped grassroots governance in the rapid urbanisation process in China. The management and distribution of the villages’ collective property has become a flashpoint for local conflict when collective farmland is taken for urban uses. Changping, a rural district located on the northern periphery of Beijing, pioneered a property rights reform to convert villages’ collective assets into a new form of shareholding co-operative. Along with the election of a new board of directors that is now in charge of collective property, the reforms are redefining the jurisdiction of the party, the village government and the shareholding co-operative organisation, thus reconfiguring the political and economic power structure at the village level.

From kang (炕) to kongtiao (空调): China’s Twentieth Century Cooling

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-211
Author(s):  
Emily Williams
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political System ◽  
North China ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Air Conditioner ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Economic Data ◽  
Northern Chinese

Abstract This essay suggests an alternative strategy for thinking about changes in Chinese society in recent decades, using not economic data or theories of development, but the metaphor of temperature. It argues that the cultural imperative in China has, in recent decades, switched from that of keeping warm to that of keeping cool. This change is made tangible through two key objects: the kang (炕), the northern Chinese heated bed, and the kongtiao (空调), the air conditioner. The antiquity of the kang is explored as an object that is key to the development of Chinese civilization in the inhospitable northern climes. Moving between physical and metaphorical ideas of heat, the essay argues that throughout much of the twentieth-century, heating remained the main focus. Twentieth-century revolutions and mass campaigns under Mao Zedong were undeniably ‘hot,’ aiming to stoke the fire of revolution and radical social change. Under the reforms following Mao’s death, however, politics ‘cooled off:’ the political system crystalized and the frenzy of mass campaigns cooled down. This was accompanied by social changes, including what can be called the rise of individual cool, defined by ironic detachment, hedonism and narcissism. The new cool society and cool persona find their architectural accompaniment in the kongtiao, the air conditioner, which has become a must for urban living, even in north China. The kongtiao is presented as an ultimately unsocial device, a machine with intensive energy requirements that dumps heat into communal spaces in the effort to preserve individual comfort.

scholarly journals Mental and Practical Roots of the Formation of Democratic Party of Iran and Its Ruling Thought

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Ahmadi
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Election Law ◽  
Direct Extraction ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Political Scene

social groups, new political currents inspired from socialist thoughts entered the political scene of Iran. This current before the formation of second national counsel parliament was active under different groups and categories. The establishment of new political system after the victory of constitutionalists over minor tyranny and conquering Tehran some of the activists of these organizations were persuaded to engage at parliamentary activities. Change of the election law at the threshold of second parliament establishment which abolished the union representativeness principle facilitated the possibility of party activities in parliament therefore by the occurrence of the new conditions the activities of these groups were oriented to direct influence and attendance in the power structure by the party. With this goal in mind, some of the EJTEMAIYUN and a number of active Armenian social democrats of Tabriz with the assistance of Rasulzade, socialist <Hemmat organization>, founded <Democratic Party of Iran>. The present study is an attempt to analyze the bases which lead to the cooperation of these people with various political and organizational origins. The practical actions of the organizers by direct extraction from documents related to Democrat Party and the extraction of the ruling thought from the published texts by this organization constitute the content of the present article.

scholarly journals The British and American characteristics in the political system of Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
Viet Van Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political System ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human History ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Mixed Form ◽  
Western State ◽  
Model Of Management ◽  
Dominant Classes

During the long development of human history, a number of organizational forms for society management have existed. From the view of Marxsim, each kind of socioeconomic formations corresponds to a specified oganizational structure of society management. However, the diversity in political culture has created the dynamic and creativeness of the society’s subjects on finding the method and the way to form a particular model of management. Unlike the Western state capitalism where the organization of the state and the power structure were formulated by social violent revolutions, in Australia, the dominant classes reached an agreement to build a mixed form of British - American State.

scholarly journals Political System of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Its Features & the Upside for Transformation

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-165
Author(s):  
N. M. MAMEDOVA
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Unique System ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Islamic Republic Of Iran ◽  
State Governance ◽  
Mass Protest

About four decades Iran has been under Islamic ruling, a unique  system of state governing combining both secular society rules and  religious principles. While the contradictions between the clergy and  the republicans’ institutions may remain their internal affair, at the  same time they may become evident. The electoral system is one of  the fundamental principles of the state governing in Iran. The  changes in the ratio of Islamic principles and republicans’ rules  (laying behind the political course), depends on the political forces getting the majority in the state governing bodies following the  elections. Often these changes result in the form of mass protest. Notwithstanding the adjustments to the Iran’s state governance have been made, the system fundamentally has been operating within the scope of principles proclaimed by Imam Khomeini. The research  article studies the Iran’s political system distinctions as well as its  evolution triggered by the situation inside the country and the  external factors, that both act in different directions in respect to the modernization processes.

Effect of the political system on perinatal and neonatal care in Berlin between 1950 and 2010

2015 ◽  
Vol 219 (S 01) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Grünwald ◽  
M Beer ◽  
S Mamay ◽  
F Rupp ◽  
J Stupin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Neonatal Care ◽  
The Political

Ein Ende mit Schrecken – Frankreich nach den Wahlen

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (188) ◽  
pp. 495-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Syrovatka
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Deep Crisis

The presidential and parliamentary elections were a political earthquake for the French political system. While the two big parties experienced massive losses of political support, the rise of new political formations took place. Emmanuel Macron is not only the youngest president of the V. Republic so far, he is also the first president not to be supported by either one of the two biggest parties. This article argues that the election results are an expression of a deep crisis of representation in France that is rooted in the economic transformations of the 1970s. The article analyses the political situation after the elections and tries to give an outlook on further political developments in France.

Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminists Tackle Islamic and Jewish Oral Law: Maintenance and Rebellion of Wives

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-63
Author(s):  
Ruth Roded
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Parallel Case ◽  
First Time

Beginning in the early 1970s, Jewish and Muslim feminists, tackled “oral law”—Mishna and Talmud, in Judaism, and the parallel Hadith and Fiqh in Islam, and several analogous methodologies were devised. A parallel case study of maintenance and rebellion of wives —mezonoteha, moredet al ba?ala; nafaqa al-mar?a and nush?z—in classical Jewish and Islamic oral law demonstrates similarities in content and discourse. Differences between the two, however, were found in the application of oral law to daily life, as reflected in “responsa”—piskei halacha and fatwas. In modern times, as the state became more involved in regulating maintenance and disobedience, and Jewish law was backed for the first time in history by a state, state policy and implementation were influenced by the political system and socioeconomic circumstances of the country. Despite their similar origin in oral law, maintenance and rebellion have divergent relevance to modern Jews and Muslims.

PRACTICAL BASE OF FORMULATING RETRAINING PROGRAMS ON ETHNIC MINORITY AFFAIRS KNOWLEDGE FOR CADRES, CIVIL SERVANTS UP TO 2030

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Dung ◽  
Giang Khac Binh
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Political System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
The Political ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past

As developing programs is the core in fostering knowledge on ethnic work for cadres and civil servants under Decision No. 402/QD-TTg dated 14/3/2016 of the Prime Minister, it is urgent to build training program on ethnic minority affairs for 04 target groups in the political system from central to local by 2020 with a vision to 2030. The article highlighted basic issues of practical basis to design training program of ethnic minority affairs in the past years; suggested solutions to build the training programs in integration and globalization period.

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