Chinese People's Congresses and Legislative Embeddedness

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEVIN J. O'BRIEN
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Modern China ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Medieval Europe

Evidence from medieval Europe and modern China suggests that cooperation with strong executives plays a larger role in early legislative development than is generally acknowledged: that under conditions of absolutism (or near-absolutism), acceptance and exploitation of subordination may be a means to organizational development. In this article, the author relies primarily on interview data and Chinese field research to show that early legislative development can occur without significantly increasing conflict with established authorities and without winning autonomy. The author further argues that legislative embeddedness, as measured by clarified and expanded jurisdiction and increased capacity, is a product less of conflict than of executive support and attention, and that support and attention in the early stages of organizational development can be understood in terms of a legislature's presence, its reliability and usefulness, and the political standing of its leaders. The article's conclusion offers a new approach to early legislative development that shifts attention from conventional measures of institutionalization and hinges on understanding the process of embeddedness.

Walter Pohl, The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2018, xxiii, 636 pp., 4 maps.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-382
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The West ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Cornell University ◽  
The North ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Nomadic People ◽  
Military Structure

Even though this is not a new publication, Pohl’s study on the Avars deserves particular attention, now in its first English translation. While not identified on the cover page, Pohl’s book was superbly translated into English by Will Sayers, who is briefly mentioned in the preface. Pohl had published his book originally in German in 1988, and it appeared in its third edition in 2015. Only in the last few decades has our awareness and understanding of the Avars grown and changed, particularly because intensive archaeological evidence has vastly changed our concept of that Steppe people who lived in the Carpathian Basin long before the Magyars settled there. Consequently, Pohl has made great efforts to reflect on the new insights and rewrote the respective sections of this book. In short, although here we hold in our hands ‘only’ the English translation of the third edition, The Avars represents, after all, a new approach and a thorough update of the current research on that people that had significant influence on the Byzantines, the Germanic peoples to the west and southwest, and to the north and east. They were the first to introduce into Europe the stirrup, but they left practically no written sources. They were Nomadic people, and yet not simply barbarians, as later chroniclers liked to call them. Hence, Pohl’s study on this early medieval people sheds important light on the political and military structure of early medieval Europe in an area where the Byzantine sphere of interest ended and where the Carolingians endeavored to place their stakes.

Time to break up with the international community? Rhetoric and realities of a political myth in Cambodia

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Katrin Travouillon ◽  
Julie Bernath
Keyword(s):  
Field Research ◽  
International Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Political Myth ◽  
Transnational Cooperation ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
Liberal Peacebuilding

Abstract The international community is as ubiquitous as it is elusive and its universalist pretensions remain unchallenged in political and academic discourse. In response, this article turns to Bottici's work on political myths. Against the notion of myths as falsehoods, we argue that they create their own sphere of shared social and political reality. The analysis centres on the case of Cambodia, a country that served as an experiment of liberal interventionism. It draws on archival and field research on two consecutive international interventions, a review of public statements by international actors, and interviews with Cambodian actors and activist. We argue that to understand the ideas actors use to orient themselves as they press for change, it is necessary to consider how decades of engagement with the myth have shaped the political imaginary. Our empirical analysis points to three different phases in the use of the myth: Its production during UNTAC, the reinforcement of its narratives through subsequent legal, aid and development interventions, and finally its contemporary use in a post-liberal context. We observe that Cambodian actors increasingly engage the myth to question the terms of transnational cooperation for democracy. Our work has implications for assessments of the legacies of liberal peacebuilding.

A Field Study of the Effects of Asynchronous Groupware Support on Process Improvement Groups

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 245-259
Author(s):  
Ned Kock ◽  
Robert Mcqueen
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Process Improvement ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Electronic Messaging ◽  
Process Adoption ◽  
Incremental Process ◽  
Main Change

Process improvement (PI) groups have been among the main change instruments of widely adopted and publicized organizational development approaches such as total quality management and business process re-engineering. Asynchronous groupware tools, such as electronic messaging systems, have found widespread use in organizations yet very little field research exists on how PI groups are affected by such tools. We try to fill this gap with a field study of the effects of asynchronous groupware support on seven PI groups in two New Zealand organizations. Our study indicates that, while not having perceived negative effects on group effectiveness, asynchronous groupware support was perceived as increasing process adoption, hierarchy suppression, departmental heterogeneity and contribution length and decreasing discussion duration, cost and interaction in PI groups. We argue that, based on these findings, the use of asynchronous groupware tools is likely to be beneficial in PI projects, particularly where a large number of PI groups proposing incremental process changes is conducted.

Confucian and Taiping “Heaven”: The Political Implications of Clashing Religious Concepts

1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Levenson
Keyword(s):  
Modern China ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
National Spirit

In “The Suggestiveness of Vestiges: Confucianism and Monarchy at the Last”, I wrote of the draining of the monarchical mystique in modern China. Vestigial monarchism, it seemed to me, was related to an equally vestigial Confucianism — really related, that is, not just parallel in some modern course of corrosion. The relation was the thing, a novel one of untroubled association (in a common, new ideology of “national spirit”), unpromising departure from what seemed, more and more, the devious, uncertain, tense partnership of pre-Western days. The loss of this ambivalence, this Confucian-monarchical attraction-repulsion, comprised the Chinese state's attrition. And if in its time that traditional state was a prodigiously hardy perennial, perhaps its vitality, in a truly Nietzschean sense, was the measure of its tolerance of tensions: their release was the bureaucratic monarchy's death.

The Customer-Quality Link Through a Quantum Quality Approach: The “Indcoserve” Study

2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-236
Author(s):  
Vidya P. Mulky
Keyword(s):  
Marketing Strategy ◽  
Product Quality ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Tea Industry ◽  
The World ◽  
The Nilgiris ◽  
Indian Tea ◽  
Quality Approach

The Indian tea industry is the largest producer of tea in the world and, till recently, also the largest exporter. The political and social conditions in the world have, however, changed while the Indian tea industry has made no change in its product or its marketing strategy. This article on the Nilgiris small gardens cooperative “Indcoserve” deals with the need for a coordinated approach, involving organizational development, product, quality and marketing strategy.

The Social Life of Opium in China, 1483–1999

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangwen Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Modern China ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Opium Trade ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Opium Wars

The history of opium is a major theme in modern Chinese history. Books and academic careers have been devoted to its study. Yet the question that scholars of the opium wars and of modern China have failed to ask is how the demand for opium was generated. My puzzle, during the initial stage of research, was who smoked opium and why. Neither Chinese nor non-Chinese scholars have written much about this, with the exception of Jonathan Spence. Although opium consumption is a well-acknowledged fact, the reasons for its prevalence have never been fully factored into the historiography of the opium wars and of modern China. Michael Greenberg has dwelt on the opium trade, Chang Hsin-pao and Peter Fay on the people and events that made armed conflicts between China and the West unavoidable. John Wong has continued to focus on imperialism, James Polachek on Chinese internal politics while Opium regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839–1952, the latest work, has studied the political systems that controlled opium. But the political history of opium, like the opium trade and the theatre of war, is only part of the story. We need to distinguish them from the wider social and cultural life of opium in China. The vital questions are first, the point at which opium was transformed from a medicine to a luxury item and, secondly, why it became so popular and widespread after people discovered its recreational value. It is these questions that I address. We cannot fully understand the root problem of the opium wars and their role in the emergence of modern China until we can explain who was smoking opium and why they smoked it.

scholarly journals Turkey’s “Zero Problems with the Neighbors” Policy: Was It Realistic?

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Askerov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
National Interests ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Government ◽  
Economic Developments

With the advancement of power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has introduced revolutionary policies in Turkey in various realms, including foreign affairs. The new trend in the foreign policy focused on not having problems with neighbors. This could be possible or nearly possible theoretically but eliminating century-long and deep-rooted conflicts with some of the neighbors would not be easy in practice. The new idealistic/moralistic approach necessitated new ways of policy formulation based on mutual gains and unthinkable concessions on the part of Turkey. Ankara’s new approach had given a special importance to building bridges of trust with the neighbors, which also seemed attractive to the political leaders of the neighboring states. This idealistic/moralistic approach was vulnerable to the dynamic political and economic developments in the region and the world in general. The policy did not have a power of sustainability due to the various old, new, and emerging problems around Turkey and hence, the government had to give it up gradually and take a new course of foreign policy based on realistic approaches to defend its national interests.

scholarly journals Inevitable Third: Ethical and Political Aspects of Interactions with Artificial Agents

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (99) ◽  
pp. 90-107
Author(s):  
D.A. Tomiltseva ◽  
A.S. Zheleznov
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Artificial Agents ◽  
Political Values ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

Artificial agents i.e., man-made technical devices and software that are capable of taking meaningful actions and making independent decisions, permeate almost all spheres of human life today. Being new political actants, they transform the nature of human interactions, which gives rise to the problem of ethical and political regulation of their activities. Therefore, the appearance of such agents triggers a global philosophical reflection that goes beyond technical or practical issues and makes researchers return to the fundamental problems of ethics. The article identifies three main aspects that call for philosophical understanding of the existence of artificial agents. First, artificial agents reveal the true contradiction between declared moral and political values and real social practices. Learning from the data on the assessments and conclusions that have already taken place, artificial agents make decisions that correspond to the prevailing behavioral patterns rather than moral principles of their creators or consumers. Second, the specificity of the creation and functioning of artificial agents brings the problem of responsibility for their actions to the forefront, which, in turn, requires a new approach to the political regulation of the activities of not only developers, customers and users, but also the agents themselves. Third, the current forms of the activity of artificial agents shift the traditional boundaries of the human and raise the question of redefining the humanitarian. Having carefully analyzed the selected aspects, the authors reveal their logic and outline the field for further discussion.

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