scholarly journals OLD SAGE FOR NEW AGE? THE REVIVAL OF RELIGIOUS CONFUCIANISM IN CHINA

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-299
Author(s):  
Chaohua Wang
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Individual Existence

In recent years, Confucianism has been once again identified as the essence of Chinese civilization and a religion that was central to the Chinese people throughout China’s long history. Scholars are appealing to the Communist Party to make Confucianism the State religion (guojiao). What are the political implications of the phenomena? Can these claims stand to intellectual scrutiny? Conducting a brief historical survey of religious Confucianism in Chinese politics, in addition to an analysis of shared principles essential to various Confucianist positions today, this paper argues that religious Confucianism presented by its contemporary promoters is a constructed myth originated mainly from the Qing times (1644- 1911). The supposed Confucian teaching does not carry religious meaningfulness associated to either individual existence or social life in contemporary China. It remains powerful primarily in connection to the State, or a collective nation (Zhonghua), vis-à-vis the world outside ethnic Han communities. Despite this - or precisely because of this - a revived religious Confucianism may have the greatest potential to become a political force in China in our globalizing age, more so than any other major world religions, even if others may have larger Chinese following than Confucianism.

Citizenship For Sale?

2017 ◽  
pp. 788-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayelet Shachar
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

“There are some things that money can’t buy.” Is citizenship among them? This chapter explores this question by highlighting the core legal and ethical puzzles associated with the surge in cash-for-passport programs. The spread of these new programs is one of the most significant developments in citizenship practice in the past few decades. It tests our deepest intuitions about the meaning and attributes of the relationship between the individual and the political community to which she belongs. This chapter identifies the main strategies employed by a growing number of states putting their visas and passports “for sale,” selectively opening their otherwise bolted gates of admission to the high-net-worth individuals of the world. Moving from the positive to the normative, the discussion then elaborates the main arguments in favor of, as well as against, citizenship-for-sale. The discussion draws attention to the distributive and political implications of these developments, both locally and globally, and identifies the deeper forces at work that contribute to the perpetual testing, blurring, and erosion of the state-market boundary regulating access to membership.

Characterizing Legislative Websites

2012 ◽  
pp. 258-274
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazan ◽  
J. Ramon Gil-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cellular Phones ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
New Instruments

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is increasing in legislative bodies around the world. The use of computers, cellular phones, and email by elected leaders has promoted the implementation of new ICTs to support various legislative tasks. Mexico is no exception to this trend, and there are some interesting initiatives at the federal and state levels. Based on the experience of the State of Mexico, this chapter has two main purposes. First, it suggests a methodology to assess a legislative web site and applies it to the case of the legislature of the State of Mexico. Second, it discusses the political implications of a website redesign project and explains why the redesign proposal never became a reality. The experience of assessing this type of website, building new instruments, and developing understanding about the phenomenon could be used as the basis for future research related to e-parliament, e-legislature, or e-democracy more broadly.

“Strange Fire at the Altar of the Lord”: Francis Bacon on Human Nature

2003 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi D. Studer
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
The Political ◽  
Final Cause ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World

Francis Bacon's pronouncement that “Man is the Center of the World,” the final cause of all nature, seems to unleash us from all guidance and restraint, providing no grounds for judging any human action to be better or worse than any other. The political implications of such a position—combined with Bacon's efforts to advance technological power—are enormous. There would be little support for natural rights or any other kind of “right” except what is based on force. This famous promoter of scientific power, however, was neither oblivious to the danger, nor politically irresponsible, in his assessment of man's position in the cosmos, and his counsel seems closer to classical political philosophy than is normally acknowledged. This essay provides an examination of and detailed commentary on Bacon's argument, as presented in “Prometheus, or the State of Man.” It reveals that Bacon expects us to deal with the problem in terms of properly ranking humans themselves, discarding the notion that all humans are equal. In light of such a ranking we may come to recognize natural standards for evaluating humans and their actions.

The Indirectly Political Word of the Church

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. DeJonge
Keyword(s):  
Word Type ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
The State ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
Type 3 ◽  
The Church

This chapter continues the examination of Bonhoeffer’s first phase of resistance through an exposition of “The Church and the Jewish Question,” turning now to the modes of resistance proper to the church’s preaching office. Because such resistance involves the church speaking against the state, it appears to stand in contradiction with Bonhoeffer’s suggestion earlier in the essay that the church should not speak out against the state. This is in fact not a contradiction but rather the coherent expression of the political vision as outlined in the first several chapters of this book, which requires that the church criticize the state under certain circumstances but not others. The specific form of word examined here is the indirectly political word (type 3 resistance) by which the church reminds the messianic state of its mandate to preserve the world with neither “too little” nor “too much” order.

scholarly journals Neoliberalism is not dead – On political implications of Covid-19

2020 ◽  
pp. 030981682098238
Author(s):  
Miloš Šumonja
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
The State ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Hand Grip ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face

The news is old – neoliberalism is dead for good, but this time, even Financial Times knows it. Obituaries claim that it had died from the coronavirus, as the state, not the markets, have had to save both the people and the economy. The argument of the article is that these academic and media interpretations of ‘emergency Keynesianism’ misidentify neoliberalism with its anti-statist rhetoric. For neoliberalism is, and has always been, about ‘the free market and the strong state’. In fact, rather than waning in the face of the coronavirus crisis, neoliberal states around the world are using the ongoing ‘war against the virus’ to strengthen their right-hand grip on the conditions of the working classes.

The ‘revolution’ of 1911 revisited: A review of contemporary studies in China

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Wang Guo
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Political Event ◽  
The 1911 Revolution ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Revolution

Reviewing the last decade of Chinese-language scholarship on the 1911 Revolution, this article suggests that we should view the Revolution in richer ways, rather than simply focusing on the political event on 10 October 1911. By contextualizing the revolution in its world, this article argues that it is necessary to view 1911 in its own terms and in global perspective in order to articulate historical continuities and discontinuities beyond 1911. How did, does, and will the spirit of modern revolution function and reshape the mental landscape in China’s past, present, and future? The revolution is considered here to be not only a transhistorical source of transformation but also part of the restructuring of social life and ideals. Revolution has become the ontological ground of China’s modern society. The meaning of the spirit of revolution lay in providing the Chinese people with a space of hope, where they could transcend current disappointment and discontent, and pursue political, economic, and cultural visions to fundamentally change their world. For individuals, revolution offered a means of meeting personal needs; for the nation, the revolution has meant the unending pursuit of ‘standing up, enriching up, and strengthening up’.

Sennacherib’s Siege of Jerusalem

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMÉLIE KUHRT
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
The Political ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Significant Element ◽  
Siege Of Jerusalem

Fergus Millar has been a pioneer among Graeco-Roman historians in appreciating the huge importance of Near Eastern societies and cultures within the ancient world. A continuous interest within this field has been the evolution of Judah/Judaea, cradle of two of the great world religions. The difficulties inherent in the sources for studying its history have provoked intense debates, which show no sign of abating. When did the Judaean state come definitively into being? What were the forces that shaped the political landscape within which its unique traditions began to crystallise? A significant element in the development of Israelite historiography was Judah's encounter with the Assyrian Empire. This chapter argues that a crucial stage in the emergence of the state of Judah was also closely linked to contact with Assyria. It focuses on a famous episode in Judah's history, which may, when set into the wider historical and archaeological context of Near Eastern history, yield some possible answers.

scholarly journals What Is Spontaneous Order?

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
DANIEL LUBAN
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Order Theory ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Spontaneous Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Internal Logic ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Human Practices ◽  
Individual Actions ◽  
Analytical Weight

Due especially to the work of Friedrich Hayek, “spontaneous order” has become an influential concept in social theory. It seeks to explain how human practices and institutions emerge as unintended consequences of myriad individual actions, and points to the limits of rationalism and conscious design in social life. The political implications of spontaneous order theory explain both the enthusiasm and the skepticism it has elicited, but its basic mechanisms remain elusive and underexamined. This article teases out the internal logic of the concept, arguing that it can be taken to mean several different things. Some are forward-looking (defining it in terms of present-day functioning), whereas others are backward-looking (defining it in terms of historical origins). Yet none of these possibilities prove fully coherent or satisfactory, suggesting that spontaneous order cannot bear the analytical weight that has been placed on it.

The Israeli Coalition System

1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Z. Paltiel
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Stability ◽  
State Of Israel

ANALYSTS OF THE ISRAELI POLITICAL SYSTEM HAVE COMMONLY attributed the stability of the polity to factors closely associated with the role played by the various Israeli parties in the state's economic and social life, and/or to the existence of a dominant, institutionalized state-building party. The consociational approach ought to help to clarify those factors which have maintained the stability of the coalition system which has governed the state of Israel since its establishment in 1948 and whose roots may be traced back as far as 1933 and even earlier.The consociational model and the theory of elite accommodation have been elaborated in an effort to explain the maintenance of continuing political stability in what at first glance would appear to be societies deeply divided along social, economic, ethnic, religious and ideological lines. Political stability in fragmented societies from this standpoint rests on the overarching commitment of the political elites to the preservation and maintenance of the system and their readiness to cooperate to this end.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document