Between Instrumentalism and Moralism: Representation and Practice of the System of “Turning Oneself In” in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region

Modern China ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 585-611
Author(s):  
Zhengyang Jiang

In the historical context of the confrontation between the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region and the Guomindang-controlled areas, the system of “turning oneself in” 自首 greatly impacted the struggle between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party. This system was not only a “soft” means of governance that weakened the enemy without resorting to force, but also a weapon in the struggle to obtain secret information, to divide and rule, and to expand power. As a part of the political system in the border region, the policy of leniency toward offenders was widely used. In actual practice, there were not only special criminal laws for dealing with confessors to specified crimes, but also some unusual forms, such as “public confession declarations” 坦白布告 and even “confession campaigns” 坦白运动. Since the system was applied in an environment of confrontation and struggle, its instrumentalist side became increasingly prominent, while its theoretical moralism side became progressively weaker. On the one hand, this revolutionary change differentiates it from its traditional counterpart rooted in Confucianism as reflected in the practical moralism of traditional Chinese law; on the other hand, the continuity and change of the practice may reveal the historical basis for its growing degeneration.

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Li

This article explores two interrelated aspects of the new dynamics within the CCP leadership – the new elite groups and the new ground rules in Chinese politics. The first shows profound changes in the recruitment of the elite and the second aims to reveal the changing mechanisms of political control and the checks and balances of the Chinese political system. The article argues that the future of the CCP largely depends on two seemingly contradictory needs: how broad-based will the Party's recruitment of its new elites be on the one hand and how effective will the top leadership be in controlling this increasingly diverse political institution on the other. The emerging fifth generation of leaders is likely to find the challenge of producing elite harmony and unity within the Party more difficult than their predecessors. Yet, the diverse demographic and political backgrounds of China's new leaders can also be considered a positive development that may contribute to the Chinese-style inner-Party democracy.


Author(s):  
Ross McKibbin

This book is an examination of Britain as a democratic society; what it means to describe it as such; and how we can attempt such an examination. The book does this via a number of ‘case-studies’ which approach the subject in different ways: J.M. Keynes and his analysis of British social structures; the political career of Harold Nicolson and his understanding of democratic politics; the novels of A.J. Cronin, especially The Citadel, and what they tell us about the definition of democracy in the interwar years. The book also investigates the evolution of the British party political system until the present day and attempts to suggest why it has become so apparently unstable. There are also two chapters on sport as representative of the British social system as a whole as well as the ways in which the British influenced the sporting systems of other countries. The book has a marked comparative theme, including one chapter which compares British and Australian political cultures and which shows British democracy in a somewhat different light from the one usually shone on it. The concluding chapter brings together the overall argument.


Author(s):  
Matthias Albani

The monotheistic confession in Isa 40–48 is best understood against the historical context of Israel’s political and religious crisis situation in the final years of Neo-Babylonian rule. According to Deutero-Isaiah, Yhwh is unique and incomparable because he alone truly predicts the “future” (Isa 41:22–29)—currently the triumph of Cyrus—which will lead to Israel’s liberation from Babylonian captivity (Isa 45). This prediction is directed against the Babylonian deities’ claim to possess the power of destiny and the future, predominantly against Bel-Marduk, to whom both Nabonidus and his opponents appeal in their various political assertions regarding Cyrus. According to the Babylonian conviction, Bel-Marduk has the universal divine power, who, on the one hand, directs the course of the stars and thus determines the astral omens and, on the other hand, directs the course of history (cf. Cyrus Cylinder). As an antithesis, however, Deutero-Isaiah proclaims Yhwh as the sovereign divine creator and leader of the courses of the stars in heaven as well as the course of history on earth (Isa 45:12–13). Moreover, the conflict between Nabonidus and the Marduk priesthood over the question of the highest divine power (Sîn versus Marduk) may have had a kind of “catalytic” function in Deutero-Isaiah’s formulation of the monotheistic confession.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
Simon Morley

I look at the impact of Zen Buddhism on western painters during the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the monochrome in particular, in order to create a historical context for the consideration of transcultural dialogue in relation to contemporary painting. I argue that a consideration of Zen can offer a ‘middle way’ between conceptions of the monochrome (and art in general) often hobbled by models of interpretation that function within a binary opposition between ‘literalist/sensory’ on the one hand, and ‘intellectual/non-sensory’ readings on the other.


1969 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 54-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle Goldman

From its inception until at least the Cultural Revolution, the Communist regime in China has had a twofold aim for its intellectuals: it has sought to indoctrinate them with the exclusive ideologies of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and it has tried to utilize their skills to develop an industrialized and modernized society. The Chinese Communist Party has attempted to implement these two policies by an insistence on the strict orthodoxy of thinking individuals, on the one hand, and by the encouragement of intellectuals to work creatively at their jobs on the other. This contradictory approach has resulted in a policy toward the intellectuals that has been alternatively severe and relaxed. Though the main trend is usually in one direction or the other, there have always been counter-currents present which can be revived when necessary.


2019 ◽  
pp. 12-33
Author(s):  
Heba Raouf Ezzat

A phenomenon of extreme polarization between the Islamist and the secular camps characterizes the intellectual scene regarding social, economic, and political issues in the Arab-Islamic world. This is especially true with respect to women’s issues, which are a very hotly contested terrain. Understanding this reality clearly requires a historic overview to comprehend how this polarization occurred and map the debate between supporters of “modernity and contemporality” (al-hadatha wa-l-mu‘asara) on the one hand, and supporters of “tradition and authenticity” (al-turath wal-asala) on the other. Though this is not at the heart of our research, framing it in its historical context enables us to better understand the roots and origins of the problem, in order to map the debates and foresee future courses more clearly.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-296
Author(s):  
Kholid Mawardi

This study investigated the construction of thoughts by KH. Ahmad Masrur and al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School to accomodate folk art; to reveal the relationship among KH. Ahmad Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School, and folk art communities in Wukirsari village; and to find out the approaches of accommodation implemented in the folk art Village. The findings of this study led to some conclusions. First, on the one hand, Mr. Masrur (an Islamic expert) wanted to send the goodness and the beauty of Islam not only to be achieved by Moslems but also by other religious community. On the other hand, the folk art community wanted to maintain their existence in the diverse society. Therefore, those two intentions are linked to each other in order to accomplish those goals. Second, the relationship among Mr. Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School, and Wukirsari village folk art community; in terms of historical context, it was the repetition of the relationship pattern in the past time that occured during the Islamisation process in Java. It was carried out by placing the locality as the basis of Islam. Mr. Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School put themselves as the exponents of folk art; Mr. Masrur had the role as the patron and the community folk art had the role as the clients, and the overall relationship was accomplished based on mutually beneficial relationship. Third, the forms of accommodation  roposed by Mr. Masrur towards folk art in Wukirsari village were through compromise and tolerance. The form of the compromise was visible through the willingness of both parties to feel and understand the circumstances of one to each other party. As for the form of tolerance, it was implemented by Mr. Masrur and al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School deliberately to avoid various disputes and conflicts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (S24) ◽  
pp. 93-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossana Barragán Romano

AbstractLabour relations in the silver mines of Potosí are almost synonymous with the mita, a system of unfree work that lasted from the end of the sixteenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, behind this continuity there were important changes, but also other forms of work, both free and self-employed. The analysis here is focused on how the “polity” contributed to shape labour relations, especially from the end of the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. This article scrutinizes the labour policies of the Spanish monarchy on the one hand, which favoured certain economic sectors and regions to ensure revenue, and on the other the initiatives both of mine entrepreneurs and workers – unfree, free, and self-employed – who all contributed to changing the system of labour.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-160
Author(s):  
Dean Simpson

This article is a word study that analyses and interprets how Erasmus uses the adjective evangelicus, -a, -um in his New Testament Paraphrases. The development of the idiom ‘gospel-blank’ (evangelicus + noun) is analyzed diachronically; the phrases denoting gospel things are divided into six semantic categories. The study shows, on the one hand, that there is a general consistency in how evangelicus is used, the most common pairings predominating in most Paraphrases on the Epistles and Gospels, while, on the other, there is some broadening and lowering of the nouns with which evangelicus is joined, moving from the Paraphrases on the Epistles to the Gospel Paraphrases. Erasmus’ changing attitude to the project of paraphrasing the New Testament provides biographical and historical context in which to place the study’s findings. The study concludes by highlighting the New Testament Paraphrases as Erasmus’ humanistic response to worsening divisions in the early 1520s.


Author(s):  
Nataliya M. Velikaya ◽  
◽  
Irina S. Shushpanova ◽  
Vladimir A. Afanas’ev ◽  
◽  
...  

The article analyzes the socio-political views of Russian citizens about the future of the Russian state and Russian society. Analyzing the dynamic data series of the monitoring “How do you Live, Russia?” and its last wave of November–December 2020, the authors consider the changes in mass consciousness in terms of assessing the effectiveness of the government’s efforts to ensure the most important rights, freedoms and norms of the social state and the democratic regime, which manifests itself in the attitude to the existing political system and affects the level of trust in the government, where the executive power traditionally leads. Identifying the expectations of Russian citizens about the possible development of the country in the political, economic and cultural spheres, the authors conclude that the level of socio-political optimism allows one to describe the existing political system as fairly stable, on the one hand, with a high level of legitimation, on the other with a high level of alienation of citizens from power


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