bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Soviet Foreign Policy Factionalism Under Stalin?: A Case Study of the Inevitability of War Controversy
Authors: Marantz Paul
Published: July 2010

There has been a great deal of controversy among Western scholars concerning the direction of Soviet foreign policy in the final years and months of Stalin's rule.1 One of the crucial questions at issue is whether or not there were significant divisions of opinion within the Politburo over foreign policy matters. This article attempts to explore this particular question through an examination of a doctrinal controversy that surfaced during Stalin's last years. In one of his most famous works, Imperialism: The Highest State of Capitalism, Lenin argued that war was an inevitable concomitant of the capitalist system. He contended that the unending struggle for markets meant that periodic wars among the capitalist powers were unavoidable and inevitable.2 Stalin adhered to this view throughout his long reign, and it was not until three years after Stalin's death, in Khruschchev's speech to the Twentieth Party Congress, that it was finally revised. Yet despite Stalin's strict adherence to the Leninist analysis of imperialism, and despite the harsh discipline that characterized his rule, there is evidence that the official interpretation was being publicly questioned even while Stalin was still alive. Given the nature of esoteric communication in the Soviet Union,and the close connection between doctrinal and policy debates, an examination of the controversy concerning the inevitability of war can provide important evidence having a direct bearing upon our understanding of this period.3
The Soviet Perception of American Goals in Vietnam 1966-70
Authors: Papp Daniel S.
Published: July 2010

American objectives in Vietnam have long been a source of considerable confusion to most Americans. Even the publication of the Pentagon Papers did little to clarify American goals in Vietnam. While it was clear that the intent of American involvement was some combination of containment of Communism, defense of an ally, and protection of trading lanes or resource areas,1 many unknowns still existed. What "brand" of Communism was being contained? How reliable was the ally the United States was defending? How important were the trading lanes or resource areas being protected, and were they even being threatened ? These and similar other uncertainties lay at the heart of the answer to the question "What were American goals in Vietnam?" Today, more than two years after the Republic of Vietnam succumbed to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, these uncertainties still exist. However, as is so often the case, a nation's objectives appear much more complicated to intimate observers than to distant observers.2 While Americans debated the objectives of U.S. intervention, American allies and enemies had in many instances already arrived at conclusions about U.S. objectives. This was particularly true of the Soviet Union. To the Soviet leadership, U.S. policy toward Vietnam emanated from the alleged imperialist nature of American society itself. The Soviet perception of American goals in Vietnam was thus relatively stable throughout the height of the American involvement, and American policies toward the Southeast Asian area were continually interpreted in light of a relatively unchanging objective. The "Johnson Doctrine," "Asian Doctrine," and "Nixon Doctrine" were all viewed as different manifestations of American "neo-colonialism." This essay will examine the Soviet perception of American objectives in Vietnam during and immediately after the height of U.S. involvement in Vietnam (1966-70), explore the reasons the Soviet Union adopted the perceptions it did, and examine the effects of those perceptions on Soviet policy.
On Critical Compassion in the Historical Judgment of Stalin
Authors: Alker Hayward R.
Published: July 2010

I write my comments on Von Laue's encomium to Stalin's "Tragic greatness" not as a specialist in Soviet affairs but as someone primarily concerned with humanizing the practice and possibilities of contemporary world politics. In reacting to his essay, first let me applaud Von Laue's effort to convey a "compassionate understanding" of Stalin's evil "greatness." Secondly, I shall comment critically on his standards for judging, or refraining from judging, Stalin's political greatness and moral responsibility. Thirdly, I shall address certain issues which these views raise when reapplied to the contemporary Soviet-American foreign policy context from which they originate.
Historical Trends in Moscow and Leningrad Crime
Authors: Shelley Louise
Published: July 2010

Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev, the major Soviet cities, presently have lower rates of criminality than other urban areas in the USSR,1 thus defying the generally observed correlation between the level of urbanization and the crime rate.2 The Soviet Union has not always been the exception to this internationally observed phenomenon, for in the period directly after the 1917 revolution these three cities had exceedingly high rates of criminality.3 The crime trends of all three major Soviet cities is not coincidental but, as the author shows, this change is a direct result of government policies intended to make these urban areas showcases of the Soviet state. As a result of this governmental decision, population policies have been introduced in the last fifty years of the Soviet period to insure that only the most "desirable individuals" reside in major urban centers. Consequently, the favored cities have experienced a significant decline in criminality, while the regions not favored by government population policies have suffered measurable increases in criminality. This article will focus on the changes that have occurred in the criminality of the major urban centers of the USSR, in particular, Moscow and Leningrad, in the years since the 1917 revolution. The crime trends of Moscow have been documented in a recent Soviet collection (Comparative Criminological Research in Moscow in 1923 and 1968-1969),4 but evidence also exists from other criminological sources to assert that such a dramatic transformation has occurred in the level of crime of all major Soviet cities.
The Soviet-Iranian Gas Agreements: Nexus of Energy Policies, East-West Relations, and Middle East Politics
Authors: Hannigan J.B. , McMillan C.H.
Published: July 2010

The overthrow of the Shah in 1979 brought to a close a period in Soviet-Iranian relations which had seen the rapid development of economic ties between the two countries. These had added an important economic dimension to the Soviet Union's historic, strategic interest in the large, Middle Eastern country located on its southern flank. At the core of the bilateral economic relationship, nurtured over the previous decade and a half, were two long-term agreements forSovietimport of Iranian natural gas in return for material, technical, and financial assistance in the development of Iranian industry, including the energy sector. The purpose of this article is to examine the linkage between the Soviet-Iranian natural gas relationship and broader aspects of Soviet policy. We shall argue that the two agreements engulfed by the Iranian revolution had deep roots in Soviet domestic and foreign policy. They formed an integral part of the Soviet Union's long-term energy strategy, serving important internal and external policy objectives within it. At the same time they functioned as basic elements of Soviet policy in the Middle East (similar agreements had been concluded with neighboring Afghanistan) and were closely linked to energy exports to Western Europe, an increasingly important facet of Soviet relations with the West. Analysis of the Soviet Union's stake in the agreements with Iran sheds light on the significance of their collapse and aids understanding of Soviet policies adopted in response.
Party Membership in Soviet Research Institutes
Authors: Fortescue Stephen
Published: July 2010

The essential purpose of this article is to determine the extent of the CPSU's membership presence in modern Soviet science,1 as part of a larger study of the Party's involvement in science management. Statistics alone cannot determine the state of Party-science relations, but a study of the nature of and changes in Party membership rates and recruitment patterns provide hypotheses to be tested by descriptive analyses of Soviet science politics and policy-making in larger studies. This study begins with a section on the historical development of Party membership among scientists which might seem unconnected with the the rest of the article, but which in fact is of some importance in gaining an understanding of the character of the top scientific leadership of today. Modern Soviet statistics and descriptive data from both Soviet and émigré sources are then used to arrive at measures of Party membership levels in Soviet research institutes among all categories of personnel. A somewhat discriminatory policy in Party recruitment among the intelligentsia in conditions of a rapidly expanding research establishment has produced a rather lower level of Party membership than might have been expected. Nevertheless the Party presence, at all levels, is impressively solid. The concluding section of the article, which examines the incentives and motivations of researchers to join the Party, confirms the enormous significance of even such a limited aspect of the CPSU's involvement in science as simple Party membership.
Soviet Strategy, Opportunities, and Constraints in Southwestern Asia
Authors: Dunn Keith A.
Published: July 2010

The collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan have combined to focus the attention of the United States upon Southwestern Asia. One of the most important current issues in U. S. defense planning is: how can the United States best secure its interests in Southwestern Asia?1 Part of the answer lies in identifying U. S. constraints and then attempting to solve shortfalls in U. S. strategy, forces, and regional relations. Those issues have been examined elsewhere and are not the central focus of this article. Another part of the answer lies in understanding what are Soviet interests, objectives, and major elements of strategy toward the Third World in general and specifically Southwestern Asia. What opportunities and advantages does Moscow have in the region? And, finally, are there political, economic, and military factors which would constrain future Soviet behavior in Southwestern Asia? These are the questions this study will analyze in an attempt to demonstrate that the United States is not competing in Southwestern Asia in a zero-sum game where Moscow holds all the aces.
Limitchiki: On the Legal Status of Migrant Workers in Large Soviet Cities
Authors: Loeber Dietrich Andre
Published: July 2010

The phenomenon of the limitchiki provides support for the proposition that the Soviet system cannot be understood solely on the basis of published sources. More is needed to identify and comprehend the institutions and procedures that operate in the Soviet Union. The word limitchiki, which I first learned about in Moscow in 1982, is frequently used with some degree of emotion-either contempt or sympathy-indicating that the limitchiki have already become a social problem. Indeed, to many Muscovites, it is an issue of considerable concern. In the West, few people are familiar with the term limitchiki. Even several prominent non-Soviet scholars specializing in Soviet affairs admitted to never having heard the word. The only treatment of limitchiki I have come across is by Victor Zaslavsky, a recent emigré from the Soviet Union who offers a short sociological introduction into the subject.5 Limitchiki is a term for migrant workers in large Soviet cities. Derived from the English word "limit," it refers to workers and employees hired from out-of-town areas by enterprises in large cities. Each enterprise is allotted a limited number of workers by the government for each given plan period.
Gorbachev and the Council of Ministers: Leadership Consolidation and Its Policy Implications
Authors: Smith Gordon
Published: July 2010

For the last decade of the Brezhnev regime, Western observers predicted a generational transfer of power to occur in the USSR.1 The Brezhnev generation demonstrated remarkable continuity and stability, resulting in long tenure in office and the aging of those not only in top leadership posts, but throughout the Party and state apparatuses. After Brezhnev's death in November 1982 many observers expected the generational shift to occur at last; however, the short-lived regimes of Iurii Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko precluded extensive personnel changes. With the succession of Mikhail Gorbachev to the post of General Secretary, the long-awaited generational change has at last occurred, perhaps more rapidly than many predicted. The personnel changes that have taken place to date in the Gorbachev reign, especially those within the USSR Council of Ministers, offer a unique opportunity to assess the process of leadership consolidation in the USSR and also provide some insights into Gorbachev's economic reform strategy.
Problems Facing Us Assistance for the Post-Soviet Republics
Authors: Dombrowski Peter
Published: July 2010

Since 1989 American policy-makers have continually affirmed US support for the transition of the former Soviet republics from authoritarian, command economies to democratic, market economies. The United States will continue to aid the transition to protect its own political, economic and security interests. Professor Rex Wade's article offers reasonable advice for American officials faced with the difficult task of assisting this transition. Building upon his analysis, I shall elaborate on several of the most pressing problems facing American officials responsible for administering assistance programs. Three broad problems confront US policy-makers promoting markets and democratic political institutions in the former Soviet republics: 1) inadequate resources; 2) embattled foreign assistance institutions; and 3) the lack of international consensus about the goals and means for influencing the transition. Each of these issues has the potential to weaken American and international efforts to shape post-Communist society. In combination, they threaten the long-term foreign policy objectives of the United States.
Processes of Ethnic Mobilization in the Former Yugoslav Republics Reconsidered
Authors: Marko Joseph
Published: July 2010

The first part of the article presents different and opposing theoretical approaches and discusses their explanatory value for the disintegration of the SRFY and the following wars in the Balkans, such as primordialism vs. constructivism, liberal vs. ethnic nationalism, accommodation vs. integration, neo-realism vs. liberalism in international relations and structure- vs. action-oriented approaches in sociology. In conclusion, it will be argued that these theoretical dichotomies have to be overcome and that there is a need for complementary research strategies in order to not only 'explain', but also to 'understand' the processes of ethnic mobilization as an actor-driven process of political mobilization by 'ethnic' entrepreneurs in order to create a security dilemma for their own goals in the ongoing fight for political power. The second part of the article then develops a framework for comparative empirical studies with reference to structural settings, the situational context and actors and introduces into the following articles by Mujkic and Harzl discussing, for instance, the structural similarities between communism and nationalism and the dysfunctionality of communism and federalism as historic legacies.
Preachers of Hatred and Deformation of History: The Case of Ethno-Mobilization in Kosovo
Authors: Harzl Benedikt
Published: July 2010

This article attempts to explain how the destructive force of deliberate nationalism in the former Yugoslavia helped to politicize conflict along ethnic lines, and how belonging to an ethnic group became socially relevant during the twilight of the Yugoslav Federation through the example of Kosovo. Based on a constructivist approach, the Yugoslav federal system, which intentionally left a vacuum as regards historical reappraisal and thereby contributed to the outbreak of ethnic conflict, will be analyzed. Furthermore, reasons will be discussed as to why this federative system was, in the end, too weak and ill-constructed to positively intervene against violence. Subsequently, the purpose of this article, to define the respective nationalisms of both Serbs and Albanians, will be rounded off with a conclusion and summarizing arguments.
What is in Balkan History? Spaces and Scales in the Tradition of Southeast-European Studies
Authors: Mishkova Diana
Published: July 2010

This article takes a distance from the debate about 'symbolic geographies' and structural definitions of historical spaces as well as from surveying discrete disciplinary traditions or political agendas of regionalist scholarship in and on Southeastern Europe. Its purpose instead has been two-fold. On the one hand, to bring to light a preexistent but largely suppressed and un-reflected tradition of regionalist scholarship with the hope that this could help us fine tune the way we conceptualize, contemplate and evaluate regionalism as politics and transnationalism as a scholarly project. In epistemological terms, on the other hand, it proposes a theoretical perspective to regionalist scholarship involving rigorous engagement with the scales of observation, and scale shifts, in the interpretation of history. The hypothesis the article seeks to test maintains that the national and the (meso)regional perspectives to history chart differentiated 'spaces of experience' — i.e. the same occurrences are reported and judged in a different manner on the different scales — by way of displacing the valency of past processes, events, actors, and institutions and creating divergent temporalities — different national and regional historical times. Different objects (i.e. spaces) of enquiry are therefore coextensive with different temporal layers, each of which demands a different methodological approach. Drawing on texts of regional scholars, in which the historical reality of the Balkans/Southeastern Europe is articulated explicitly or implicitly, the article discusses also the relationship between different spaces and scales at the backdrop of the Braudelian and the microhistorical perspectives.
'Democracy Building' in Serbia: The NGO Effect
Authors: Vetta Théodora
Published: July 2010

This article analyzes the construction of 'civil society' in Serbia as a development project in itself within the wider democracy assistance frame targeting post-communist countries. The goal is to problematize universal templates used for the creation of a politically neutral NGO sector and to document the new social realities created locally by their direct intervention in everyday life. The introduction of the 'NGO model' of civic engagement has created a new space for existing and new local elites to consolidate their position while at the same time it has served as an incubator for political leadership. In parallel, ethnographic data can shed light on the dynamic of multilayer power relations between donors, NGOs, and state institutions competing over a state-building project. Both NGOs and state institutions, far from being passive recipients of developmental aid, deploy their own flexible strategies in order to negotiate and re-appropriate donors' directions of good governance and New Public Governance. At the same time, more sophisticated, bottom-up democratization approaches are contested by local constructions of power and legitimacy, calling thus into question the highly technical and moral character attributed to democracy itself by its promoters.
Peace Education as a Democratizing Process
Authors: Skendaj Elton
Published: July 2010

This article presents a case study of the dynamics of implementing an internationally-funded peace education project at the local level. Drawing on the author's personal experience as Albanian National Coordinator for the Peace and Disarmament Education Program, a project of the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, and the Hague Appeal for Peace, the article evaluates the impact, challenges, and lessons learned at each stage of project design and implementation.
Military Operations in the Balkan Theatre during the 1877-78 War
Authors: Genov Tsenko
Published: July 2010

During the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War, the Balkan (European) theatre of military operations proved to be decisive for the course of events due to both political and strategic reasons. The most important battles and engagements occurred on Bulgaria's territory with the direct assistance of the Bulgarians. The Russo-Turkish War brought about a real turning point in the art of warfare. It brought to the fore the significant role played by sappers' units and strategic encircling movements and did away with blind faith in the omnipotence of armored men-of-war and their bombardment, their place being taken by cutters and torpedo-boats. The use of shrapnel shells and quick-firing rifles likewise affected the development of military art. The infantry definitely won the title of "Queen of combat." The war underlined the importance of medical services and good communications in the rear of the army. It is erroneous to draw comparisons between the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War and the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Neither the terrain, the character of the adversary, nor the methods of waging the war had anything in common. The difficulties that the Russian army surmounted were far greater than those that faced the Prussian army. The insufficient preparation of the regular cavalry (dragoons, lancers and hussars) became apparent in the course of the war. The commanding officers of the detachments preferred to use Cossack cavalrymen who were better able to cope with reconnaissance activities and with military operations. The main shortcoming in the training of the artillery was insufficient coordination between its operations and those of the infantry. The very fate of the campaign depended on the success of the particularly complicated and bold plan to cross the Balkan Mountain Range under winter conditions.
The 1878-79 Kresna-Razlog Uprising
Authors: Doinov D.
Published: July 2010

The Kresna-Razlog Uprising marks the boundary of two epochs in the Bulgarian people's historical development: it completes the Pre-Liberation national and revolutionary struggles, and is the beginning of the efforts, both heroic and tragic of Macedonian and partly of Thracian Bulgarians to abolish the remnants of Ottoman feudalism. Due to the fact that the Uprising was overshadowed by great historical events as the 1876 April Uprising, the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War of Libera-tion, and the 1903 Ilinden-Preobraznenié Uprising, it has not achieved the place it deserves in Bulgarian and foreign historiography. The study by the Bulgarian Patriarch Kiril The Resistance against the Berlin Treaty: The Kresna Uprising (Sofia, 1955) is an exception. However it is not comprehensive, and after its publication new documents, were utilized which further enriched the history of the Uprising.1 All this, plus the centenary celebration of the Uprising present a favorable occasion to sum up the achievements of historical enquiry and to elucidate its causes and scope.
Political and Socio-Economic Repercussions of the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War
Authors: Damianov Simeon
Published: July 2010

The war waged by Russia against the Ottoman Empire in 1877-78, was one of the most important events in the history of Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its significance for Southeastern Europe may be compared to such events of first-rate importance as Germany's and Italy's national unifications in the sixties and the early seventies of the past century. Without any exaggeration it may be stated that diplomatic activities of the large European countries on the eve and in the course of the war were unprecedented in scale. The Great Powers were well aware of the fact that the Eastern Question had reached its decisive phase, that the war inevitably would lead to profound political and economic changes on the Balkan Peninsula, and these changes would affect their age-old interests in the Near East. It is for these reasons that they committed themselves directly to the dramatic duel which began on Bulgarian land after the Russian troops crossed the Danube toward the end of June, 1877. The major political result of the war was Bulgaria's liberation from a five-century long Ottoman rule and the restoration of its national independence. But the war dealt a crushing blow to the decadent Ottoman military-feudal system in all of Southeastern Europe and opened up wide prospects for the progressive development not only of the Bulgarians but also of the other Balkan peoples. An important step was taken along the road for the liquidation of national oppression and for the achievement of a transition from feudalism to capitalism in one of the most beautiful parts of the European continent, whose development had been delayed for ages.
The Bulgarian Medieval State: Seventh To Fourteenth Centuries
Authors: Giuzelev Vassil
Published: July 2010

The Bulgarian State has had an independent historical existence and sovereignty for 552 years, from its foundation on the Balkan Peninsula in 681 to its destruction under the assaults of the Ottoman Turks in 1396. It was this long historical existence that was conducive in the Middle Ages to the formation of a staunch and sturdy Bulgarian ethnical community to be preserved throughout the centuries, irrespective of great historical vicissitudes. The medieval Bulgarian state was a considerable political factor in the history of Europe, and of the Balkan Peninsula in particular. It maintained various relations with neighboring and distant states. While the nature of these relations changed with the various periods, they depended on certain factors that had a marked reflection on Bulgaria's international ties and determined the direction of its development. These factors have had basic importantance: 1) the territorial size and the ethnical and military potential of the Bulgarian state; 2) its public and administrative setup and its institutions; 3) the nature and development of its international relations, and 4) the position and the part played by its ruler in the Medieval European "family of rulers and nations." Each of these factors was a precondition for the evolvement of the others. If these factors are to be reviewed through their effects, a possibility is at hand to reveal the role and importance of the Medieval Bulgarian state on the European continent. So far, historiographic attempts to generalize this problem have been a comprehensive examination of the history of the Bulgarian state at its peak moments.1
'Speaking through the Mask': Israeli Arabs and the Changing Faces of Israeli Citizenship
Authors: Bilsky Leora
Published: July 2010

On May 14, 2006 The Israeli Supereme Court issued its decision in a case known as the 'family unification case' that dealt with the constitutionality of an amendement to the Citizenship and Entry to Israel Law. The temporary amendment prevents Palestinian residents of the occupied territories (of certain age) from entering the territory of Israel and gaining citizenship or residence status through family unification. A divided court upheld the amendment, against a very strong dissent written by former chief Justice Aharon Barak. This article takes to explore the origins of this crisis, by positing the Israeli model of citizenship (Jewish and democratic) against an alternative ideal of 'citizenship as mask', one that was articulated by Hannah Arendt. This ideal positions the citizen between two figures the 'imposter' and the 'refugee'. The article begins with three seemingly marginal criminal prosecutions of imposters, and connects them back to a rich body of literary writings by Arab citizens of Israel who took to challenge the limits of Israeli citizenship through the figure of the Arab who 'passes' as a Jew. With this juxtaposition of literary works with current court decisions the article takes to expose blind spots in Israeli public discourse of citizenship, and to argue that the current citizenship crisis should not be understood as temporary but rather as bringing to the fore contradictions that accompanied Israeli citizenship law from its inception.
Juristocracy vs. Theocracy: Constitutional Courts and the Containment of Sacred Law
Authors: Hirschl Ran
Published: July 2010

One of the fascinating yet seldom explored phenomena in predominantly religious polities in the Middle East and elsewhere is the growing reliance on constitutional courts and their jurisprudential ingenuity to contain the spread of religiosity or advance a pragmatic version of it. In this article, I explore the scope and nature of this phenomenon. I proceed in several main steps. First, I define what may be termed "constitutional theocracy" with its often conflicting legal commitments, political interests, and social realities. Second, I examine the main epistemological, juridical and political reasons why constitutional law and courts are so appealing to secularist, modernist, cosmopolitan, and other non-religious social forces in polities facing deep divisions along secular/religious lines. Third, I look at various modes of interpretive ingenuity drawn upon by constitutional courts in Egypt, Pakistan, Israel, and Turkey in order to contain, limit, and mitigate the resurgence of religiosity in their respective polities. All of these countries have experienced a growth in the influence of religious political movements, with a commensurate increase in the levels of popular support that they receive. Despite the considerable differences in these countries' formal recognition of, and commitment to, religious values, there are, however, some striking parallels in the way that the constitutional courts in these (and in other similarly situated countries) have positioned themselves as important secularizing forces within their respective societies. I conclude by drawing some general lessons concerning the political construction of judicial review and the secularizing role of constitutional courts in an increasingly religious world.
The Muslim-Majority Character of Israeli Constitutional Law
Authors: Hofri-Winogradow Adam
Published: July 2010

This article offers a novel interpretation of Israel's constitutional discourse. It is well-known that despite its Jewish majority, Israel orders marriage and divorce in a manner similar to that prevalent in most Muslim-majority countries: by granting the traditional religious community courts of the various religious groups which make up its population exclusive jurisdiction over community members' matters of marriage and divorce. What is less well known is that Israel's constitutional discourse, too, fits a pattern common in Muslim-majority jurisdictions, in espousing a double commitment to both a religion—in Israel's case, Judaism—and human rights. The Israeli Supreme Court has for decades emphasized Israeli constitutional law's commitment to liberalism and human rights while de-emphasizing its commitment to religion. Consistently with this approach, the Court has considered Israel's marriage regime an anachronistic blot on the law, and has constructed an alternative, civil marriage regime to serve the needs of Israel's secular liberals, whose views the Court often echos. I argue that the Court should strive to render its liberal policy choices more palatable for Israel's conservatives, by presenting them as the results of a harmonization of the religious and human rights pillars of Israel's constitutional discourse, investing in a close analysis of religious texts directed at legitimating those choices, where possible, in religious terms. A recent Israeli case hints in this direction. I conclude by suggesting that Israel's Muslim-majority type marriage regime, updated to include a civil marriage alternative, could be seen as a reflection of its complex constitutional order.
Foundations in China
Authors: Ming Wang , Yushan Xu
Published: July 2010

Foundations are rooted in public interest; they are built from wealth; they are a form of involvement in the public interest for the wealthy; they represent a systemic arrangement in which society may, through organizing, compel the rich to express their concern for society through public-interest donations to the poor; and they are a legal form in which, in the name of the public interest, wealth can be redistributed and perpetuated. After defining foundations, offering a classification, and discussing foundations’ properties, this article endeavors to examine the historical development of foundations in the West and in China, and analyze the unique characteristics of Chinese foundations and their opportunities going forward. It will proceed to analyze the systemic characteristics of foundations’ property rights, introduce the concept of public-interest property rights, discuss foundation governance structures, analyze the basic principles behind foundation legislation, discuss preferential tax policies and innovations in foundation governance, and, finally, raise several policy recommendations for the expansion and strengthening of China’s foundations. This article represents the author’s effort at a general analytic framework for and basic research theory of foundations, based on empirical research, for the reference of his esteemed colleagues.
Thoughts on Comparative Civil Society Evaluation Indices Based on China's Conditions
Authors: Chen Jian
Published: July 2010

Over the past few decades, civil society has witnessed significant global growth. How to establish a measurement system that is able to effectively evaluate the development of civil society is an important question facing scholars from all countries. This paper will first provide an overview of the meaning behind civil society indices and those that exist today and then carry out an indepth comparison of indices, as created by the scholars Lester Salamon and Helmut Anheier. Using this as a foundation, this paper will then incorporate the current state of civil society in China, analyzing the applicability of its current indices and offer some constructive amendment proposals.
Comparison of the Transparency Levels of Donor-Funded Earthquake Relief Organizations
Authors: Zhu He , Tao Chuanjin
Published: July 2010

Through researching and comparing the transparency levels of disaster relief organizations involved in the Wenchuan Earthquake, we discovered that the overall transparency levels of foundations were not very high. Moreover, the levels of transparency we found did not match the results of the A-level evaluations. Conversely, the group of organizations without A-level ratings had a higher transparency level because it included many organizations operating with bottom-up socialized mechanisms. This result means that, from society's perspective, having a small number of large, government-designated, legally registered organizations authorized to accept donations is not the most ideal organizational form.
Wenchuan Earthquake Civic Donation and the Inspiration of Modern Philanthropy within China
Authors: Zheng Yuanchang
Published: July 2010

Civic donation work following the Wenchuan earthquake represents the largest donation initiative and one-time philanthropic undertaking ever in Chinese history. While conducting an in-depth summary of relevant experiences related to this work, it is necessary to provide a careful analysis of the inherent contradictions and questions raised by such a donation initiative. These factors include difficulties and incomplete mechanisms within the donor management system, significant disparities between existing donor policies and their actual operation, and an extremely weak overall sense of philanthropy within modern society as a whole. This is compounded by the absence of a government department in the field of philanthropic work. As such, donors lack the necessary statistical information on which to base their efforts, making compilation of data particularly difficult. These contradictions and issues compel China to accelerate improvements in its philanthropic institutions and mechanisms, such as building statistical information systems, cultivating professionals, establishing grass-roots organizations, and fostering awareness throughout the entire society to improve and hasten the pace of Chinese philanthropic development.
Learning from Self-Organization among Service Volunteers after the Wenchuan Earthquake – The Case of Ad Hoc Volunteer Organization K388
Authors: Jiang Shujie
Published: July 2010

“Self-organization” describes coordinated actions by members of a system through a process of social evolution and without prompting by outside forces that result in action unified in temporal, spatial, or functional terms and also in an orderly, living structure. After the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, some volunteers spontaneously coordinated effective, unified actions. K388 is one such volunteer team. By analyzing K388, this paper looks at how volunteers in the disaster area innovated, self-organized, and formed orderly organizations.
Defining Manipulative Discourse: The Pragmatics of Cognitive Illusions
Authors: Maillat Didier , Oswald Steve
Published: July 2010

Manipulative discourse has attracted a lot of attention in various adjacent domains of linguistic research, notably in rhetoric, argumentation theory, philosophy of language, discourse analysis, pragmatics, among others. We start with a review of the existing definitions provided in these fields and highlight some of the difficulties they encounter. In particular, we argue that there is still a need for an analytic model that makes predictions about manipulative discourse. We propose an alternative account of manipulation couched in the relevance-theoretic framework which treats manipulation as a two-step communicative attempt at misleading the context-selection process when interpreting a target utterance. We argue further that such attempts systematically exploit the inherent weaknesses or flaws of the human cognitive system that are amply discussed in cognitive psychology under the heading of “cognitive illusions”. We claim that such a model correctly captures classical instances of manipulative discourse which fall outside the scope of other accounts.
The Explicit/Implicit Distinction in Pragmatics and the Limits of Explicit Communication
Authors: Carston Robyn
Published: July 2010

This paper has two main parts. The first is a critical survey of ways in which the explicit/implicit distinction has been and is currently construed in linguistic pragmatics, which reaches the conclusion that the distinction is not to be equated with a semantics/pragmatics distinction but rather concerns a division within communicated contents (or speaker meaning). The second part homes in on one particular way of drawing such a pragmatically-based distinction, the explicature/implicature distinction in Relevance Theory. According to this account, processes of pragmatic enrichment play a major role in the recovery of explicit content and only some of these processes are linguistically triggered, others being entirely pragmatically motivated. I conclude with a brief consideration of the language-communication relation and the limits on explicitness.
On Three Theories of Implicature: Default Theory, Relevance Theory and Minimalism
Authors: Borg Emma
Published: July 2010

Grice's distinction between what is said by a sentence and what is implicated by an utterance of it is both extremely familiar and almost universally accepted. However, in recent literature, the precise account he offered of implicature recovery has been questioned and alternative accounts have emerged. In this paper, I examine three such alternative accounts. My main aim is to show that the two most popular accounts in the current literature (the default inference view and the relevance theoretic approach) still face signifi cant problems. I will then conclude by suggesting that an alternative account, emerging from semantic minimalism, is best placed to accommodate Grice's distinction.
Neo-Gricean Pragmatics and the Lexicon
Authors: Huang Yan
Published: July 2010

Interest in the pragmatics of the lexicon is probably as old as that in pragmatics itself, as can be seen in the early work by e.g.the 19 th century British philosophers John Stuart Mill and Augustus De Morgan, and the more recent, seminal work by Grice (1975, 1989) and McCawley (1978). However, a revival of this interest has occurred since the 1990s, and there has since been an acceleration in the development of a separate branch of lexical pragmatics. Currently, lexical pragmatics - the systematic study of aspects of meaning-related properties of lexical items that are dependent on or modifi ed in language in use, i.e.that part of lexical meaning which is parasitic on what is coded but is not part of what is coded (e.g.Huang 1998) – is a hot pursuit within at least three diff erent theoretical frameworks of pragmatics, namely, neo-Gricean pragmatic theory (e.g.Horn 1984, 1989, 2003, 2006a, b, 2007, Huang 1998, 2005, 2008, 2009, Levinson 2000), neo-Gricean oriented bidirectional optimality-theoretic (OT) pragmatics (e.g.Blutner 1998, 2004, forthcoming) and relevance theory (e.g.Carston 1997, Wilson 2003, Wilson and Carston 2007). e aim of this article is to present a neo-Gricean pragmatic analysis of four central topics in lexical pragmatics: lexical narrowing, lexical cloning, lexical blocking, and asymmetry in the lexicalization of certain logical operators.
Towards an Alternative Relevance-Theoretic Approach to Interjections
Authors: Cruz Manuel Padilla
Published: July 2010

The current relevance-theoretic approach to interjections (Wharton 2000, 2001, 2003) analyses these as procedural elements that contribute to the recovery of the higher-level explicatures of utterances. is analysis seems to work satisfactorily for those emotive/expressive interjections accompanying another proposition or appended to another utterance. However, it does not seem to apply to interjections occurring alone, as independent utterances, and to the so-called type of conative/volitive interjections. For this reason, based on previous work on interjections and some relevance-theoretic postulates, this paper seeks to suggest a more general procedural analysis of interjections, according to which the procedures they encode would not lead hearers to construct higher-level explicatures, but to access contextual material that is necessary for the correct interpretation of interjectional utterances. As a result of such procedural meaning, interjections can be used with a rather precise informative intention, can be taken to communicate propositions and result in cognitive effects.
Following the Rules of Discourse
Authors: Peregrin Jaroslav
Published: July 2010

This review article discusses Rebecca Kukla and Mark Lance's (2009) book on normative speech act theory and Joseph Heath's (2008) book on rule following, putting them into the context of the general problem of normativity of human discursive practices (and human practices in general). The upshot of the discussion is that while Heath's book advances our understanding of the normative dimension of human life, prominently including human language, Kukla and Lance's one presents a deeply interesting attempt at a framework for the study of discourse taking normativity of language at face value.
Infant Communication: A Problem for Relevance Theory?
Authors: Pfister Jonas
Published: July 2010

In this article I clarify an argument by Richard Breheny against Relevance Theory based on a problem posed by infant communication. I present Sperber and Wilson's solution and argue that Breheny's objection to it does not hold. I argue that Breheny's alternative notion of communication does not meet the requirement of the overtness of communication. If one drops this requirement, then the way is open for a theoretically simpler notion of communication.
Content Similarity and Communicative Success
Authors: Kjøll Georg
Published: July 2010

In this paper, I discuss the relevance theoretic view of shared content and ask how one can use the theory to understand in what situations communication is successful and when it's not. The paper is meant as a case study in the philosophy of linguistics, in which I aim to draw some conclusions based on a particular debate between two very influential groups of theorists. I look at Cappelen and Lepore's (2007) critique of Sperber and Wilson (1995) and claim that, contrary to standard conceptions in philosophy, it is possible to be a coherent similarity theorist about communicated content, postulating another level of content as the locus of identity. I emphasize the importance of basing a similarity view of communication on a foundation of identity, and argue, against Wedgwood (2007), that it's not possible for relevance theorists to abstract away from this issue.
Multisensory Processing in Review: from Physiology to Behaviour
Authors: Alais David , Newell Fiona , Mamassian Pascal
Published: July 2010

Research in multisensory processes has exploded over the last decade. Tremendous advances have been made in a variety of fields from single-unit neural recordings and functional brain imaging through to behaviour, perception and cognition. These diverse approaches have highlighted how the senses work together to produce a coherent multimodal representation of the external world that enables us to function better by exploiting the redundancies and complementarities provided by multiple sensory modalities. With large numbers of new students and researchers being attracted to multisensory research, and the multi-disciplinary nature of the work, our aim in this review is to provide an overview of multisensory processing that includes all fields in a single review. Our intention is to provide a comprehensive source for those interested in learning about multisensory processes, covering a variety of sensory combinations and methodologies, and tracing the path from single-unit neurophysiology through to perception and cognitive functions such as attention and speech.
Where's the Floor?
Authors:   Jenkin,   Jenkin,   Harris,   Dyde,   Oman
Published: July 2010

Visual and balance cues concerning the relative orientation of ourselves and our environment combine to direct our steps to select a secure footing. How are visual cues used to select the best support surface? Here we show that, when exposed to tilted, rectangular rooms of various aspect ratios, subjects do not necessarily choose the surface with its normal oriented closest to the gravity-defined vertical. Rather their decision is also strongly biased by the visual area subtended by each candidate surface.
On the Perceptual/Motor Dissociation: A Review of Concepts, Theory, Experimental Paradigms and Data Interpretations
Authors: Gorea Andrei , Cardoso-Leite Pedro
Published: July 2010

With its roots in Ungerleider and Mishkin's (1982) uncovering of two distinct — ventral and dorsal — anatomical pathways for the processing of visual information, and boosted by Goodale and Milner's (1992; Milner and Goodale, 1995) behavioral study of patients with lesions of either of these pathways, the perception–action dissociation became a standard reference in the sensorimotor literature. Here we present briefly the anatomical, neuropsychological and, more extensively, the psychophysical evidence favoring such dissociation and pit it against counteracting evidence as well as against potential methodological and conceptual pitfalls. We also discuss classes of models accounting for a number of 'dissociation' results and conclude that the most general and parsimonious one posits the existence of one single processing stream that accumulates information up to a decision criterion modulated by stimulation conditions, response mode (motor vs. verbal/perceptual), task constraints (speeded vs. free time responses) and the nature of the task (detection, discrimination, temporal order judgment, etc.). The reviewed evidence is not meant to refute or validate the hypothesis of a perceptual–motor dissociation. Rather, its main objective is to show that, beyond its self-evidence, such dissociation is difficult if not impossible to test.