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Democracy, democratic institutions, and socialism
situation,
the international
This hypothesis
departs
environment,
and the making
from the traditional
Sinocentric
of China’s
foreign policy.
view that China
point rather than one actor among many in the international
is the focal
system.
The research method follows the contextual approach to the study of Chinese foreign policy, which requires, among other things, that no event or decision concerning China’s internal situation or foreign policy should be taken in isolation. Two case studies are used with a view to verifying
the hypotheses
and they offer different
applications
of the contextual approach; (1) China’s policy towards the Palestinians, as an Arab national revolutionary movement; and (2) China’s policy towards Egypt, an Arab state. The study concludes that the two hypotheses are valid: that in spite of the superficial tactical changes in China’s policy towards the Arabs in the 197Os, which took place due to linkages with the internal and/or external situation, the Arab world continued to be important to China. If and when China one day assumes the ‘superpower’ status, one has reasons to believe that Arab countries will be valuable in her contention with the other superpowers. MOSTOV, Julie,
Democrty,
Democratic Institutions, and Socialism, New York University,
1985. Democracy can be understood as both a way of rendering authoritative decisions and an endstate or ideal social order. In the first respect, democracy is a process constituting popular sovereignty; in the second, it is a way of life or distribution of social goods answering to egalitarian principles. Democrats often differ in the values they attach to these notions with significant consequences for democratic practice. It is argued that the constitution of democratic outcomes or endstates presupposes the conditions of a democratic democracy,
decision process. For socialist democrats the issue is crucial. Socialism and once said in the same breath by radical thinkers, seem strikingly at odds
today. This antagonism, democracy
it is proposed,
has a theoretical
as an outcome that ignores or rejects
basis in an understanding
a notion of democracy
of
as a decision-
making process. A commitment to particular social outcomes at the expense of conditions for the independence and equality of persons in the process of social choice has discouraged the development of democracy and socialism. This dissertation argues for a process oriented understanding of democracy and socialism. The notion of democracy as a process of social cooperation that promotes the integrity of individuals as rational social actors is contended to be consistent with Marx’s discussion of workers’ struggles for emancipation. On the basis of these theoretical concerns is examined the Yugoslav attempt to develop a democratic alternative to capitalist democracy and Soviet socialism. It is argued that many of the problems they have encountered derive from an outcome oriented approach to democracy.
in their efforts
MYERS, Carolyn Hatch, Sequence in Revolution: A Preliminary Test of Classic and Modem Theory, University of Kansas, 1985. The study of revolution is the study of a process, for revolution involves a sequence of events with both a beginning and an end. While considerable study has been devoted to the end points of that process, relatively Iittle has focused on the process itself. The study of the revolutionary process has largely tended to be an atheoretical identification of similarities between cases (the classic writers, exemplified by Crane Brinton) or a theoretical discussion of the process without empirical testing over a number of cases (the modern writers). This study falls in neither category; instead, it has subjected both
the international
This hypothesis
departs
environment,
and the making
from the traditional
Sinocentric
of China’s
foreign policy.
view that China
point rather than one actor among many in the international
is the focal
system.
The research method follows the contextual approach to the study of Chinese foreign policy, which requires, among other things, that no event or decision concerning China’s internal situation or foreign policy should be taken in isolation. Two case studies are used with a view to verifying
the hypotheses
and they offer different
applications
of the contextual approach; (1) China’s policy towards the Palestinians, as an Arab national revolutionary movement; and (2) China’s policy towards Egypt, an Arab state. The study concludes that the two hypotheses are valid: that in spite of the superficial tactical changes in China’s policy towards the Arabs in the 197Os, which took place due to linkages with the internal and/or external situation, the Arab world continued to be important to China. If and when China one day assumes the ‘superpower’ status, one has reasons to believe that Arab countries will be valuable in her contention with the other superpowers. MOSTOV, Julie,
Democrty,
Democratic Institutions, and Socialism, New York University,
1985. Democracy can be understood as both a way of rendering authoritative decisions and an endstate or ideal social order. In the first respect, democracy is a process constituting popular sovereignty; in the second, it is a way of life or distribution of social goods answering to egalitarian principles. Democrats often differ in the values they attach to these notions with significant consequences for democratic practice. It is argued that the constitution of democratic outcomes or endstates presupposes the conditions of a democratic democracy,
decision process. For socialist democrats the issue is crucial. Socialism and once said in the same breath by radical thinkers, seem strikingly at odds
today. This antagonism, democracy
it is proposed,
has a theoretical
as an outcome that ignores or rejects
basis in an understanding
a notion of democracy
of
as a decision-
making process. A commitment to particular social outcomes at the expense of conditions for the independence and equality of persons in the process of social choice has discouraged the development of democracy and socialism. This dissertation argues for a process oriented understanding of democracy and socialism. The notion of democracy as a process of social cooperation that promotes the integrity of individuals as rational social actors is contended to be consistent with Marx’s discussion of workers’ struggles for emancipation. On the basis of these theoretical concerns is examined the Yugoslav attempt to develop a democratic alternative to capitalist democracy and Soviet socialism. It is argued that many of the problems they have encountered derive from an outcome oriented approach to democracy.
in their efforts
MYERS, Carolyn Hatch, Sequence in Revolution: A Preliminary Test of Classic and Modem Theory, University of Kansas, 1985. The study of revolution is the study of a process, for revolution involves a sequence of events with both a beginning and an end. While considerable study has been devoted to the end points of that process, relatively Iittle has focused on the process itself. The study of the revolutionary process has largely tended to be an atheoretical identification of similarities between cases (the classic writers, exemplified by Crane Brinton) or a theoretical discussion of the process without empirical testing over a number of cases (the modern writers). This study falls in neither category; instead, it has subjected both