Frames We Can Believe In: Official Framing and Ideology in the CCP’s Quest for Legitimacy

In the debate on authoritarian resilience, the importance of persuasion to regime legitimacy has been widely acknowledged, yet a conceptual framework explaining the role of persuasion is still lacking. Against this backdrop, we argue that the framing perspective (Benford and Snow 2000) provides a useful basis for such a framework. Drawing on Beetham’s (1991) model of legitimacy, we contend that the ruling elites in authoritarian regimes propagate official frames in a continuous effort to reproduce the belief of the populace in the elites’ leadership qualities and their determination to serve the common interest. In the empirical part of our paper we look at the case of China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has in recent years reemphasized persuasion as a means of reproducing legitimacy. We then apply our theory in an analysis of the conceptual shifts in the CCP’s frames and ideology, as propagated under its secretary general, Hu Jintao.China, authoritarianism , legitimacy, ideology

Understanding the changing nature of sports organisations in transforming societies

The paper examined the process of changing in three Bulgarian national sport organisations (NSO) in swimming, weightlifting and field hockey, as the country is undergoing fundamental political, economic and social transformations from state socialism (1945-1989) to democratisation (1990-present). Drawing on the contextualist approach to organisational change (Pettigrew, 1985) the study was concerned with understanding long-term processes in their context. Analysed were NSOs’ conceptual orientation, structures, resources, capabilities and outcomes. Changing was unveiled through the interplay between three levels of analysis - wider political and economic, sport sector, and organisation-specific. The history of changing unfolded over a 25 years period and followed three stages of crisis of governability (1980-1989), crisis displacement (1989-1997) and identity search (1998-2004). Changing was determined by tensions generated in the previous socialist sport system, the new forces in the NSOs’ context, and by managers’ interpretation of events, and was a discovery process. The three NSOs followed different change patterns of shrinking, insulation and expansion. Two key reasons were responsible for those differences - the institualisation of the broader political and sport sector contexts, and NSOs’ choice to pursue narrow elitism (specialism) or the broader aims of sports development (generalism). The contextualist approach allowed us to appreciate the historical, contextual and processual nature of changing and to discuss the role of managers and various forces in shaping its course and outcomes

Explaining the success of the world's leading education systems: the case of Singapore

International comparative data on student performance has led McKinsey & Company, among others, to suggest that education systems will inexorably converge in their developmental trajectories with principals and schools enjoying more autonomy. This article challenges these assumptions through referencing Singapore where schools and professionals are still tightly controlled in key resources, curricula and assessment, and where other key factors contribute to its success – thereby evidencing multiple pathways to success

The Implementation Path of Network Ideological and Political Education in the Era of Big Data

With the continuous improvement of the level of information construction, data resources are showing exponential growth, leading us into the era of big data. It provides a platform for ideological education and moral character education for college students on the Internet. Network ideological and political education in the era of big data faces problems such as weak data awareness in schools, lack of data literacy, and lack of unified and effective management of data. It is recommended to use data mining technology to improve the aspects of integrating student behavior data information on each platform, monitoring student behavior data, visualizing student behavior data, and building a big data analysis and early warning management platform for student network behavior, timely monitoring and solving problems, grasping the development trend of network ideological and political education problems in real-time, and improving the level of public opinion guidance

The SO2 Allowance Trading System and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990: Reflections on Twenty Years of Policy Innovation

The introduction of the U.S. SO2 allowance-trading program to address the threat of acid rain as part of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 is a landmark event in the history of environmental regulation. The program was a great success by almost all measures. This paper, which draws upon a research workshop and a policy roundtable held at Harvard in May 2011, investigates critically the design, enactment, implementation, performance, and implications of this path-breaking application of economic thinking to environmental regulation. Ironically, cap and trade seems especially well suited to addressing the problem of climate change, in that emitted greenhouse gases are evenly distributed throughout the world’s atmosphere. Recent hostility toward cap and trade in debates about U.S. climate legislation may reflect the broader political environment of the climate debate more than the substantive merits of market-based regulation.Cap-and-Trade, Market-Based Environmental Policy, Acid Rain, Sulfur Dioxide, Clean Air Act Amendments

Science and Ideology in Economic, Political, and Social Thought

This paper has two sources: One is my own research in three broad areas: business cycles, economic measurement and social choice. In all of these fields I attempted to apply the basic precepts of the scientific method as it is understood in the natural sciences. I found that my effort at using natural science methods in economics was met with little understanding and often considerable hostility. I found economics to be driven less by common sense and empirical evidence, then by various ideologies that exhibited either a political or a methodological bias, or both. This brings me to the second source: Several books have appeared recently that describe in historical terms the ideological forces that have shaped either the direct areas in which I worked, or a broader background. These books taught me that the ideological forces in the social sciences are even stronger than I imagined on the basis of my own experiences. The scientific method is the antipode to ideology. I feel that the scientific work that I have done on specific, long standing and fundamental problems in economics and political science have given me additional insights into the destructive role of ideology beyond the history of thought orientation of the works I will be discussing

THE EXPLORATION AND PRACTICE OF INTEGRATING "FOUR SELF-CONFIDENCES" INTO IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL EDUCATION OF COLLEGE ENGLISH CURRICULUM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19

Patriotic education for college students is an important task in the education of various countries. This study conducted a 16-week patriotic and ideal education for college students in the context of Covid-19 prevention and control, and an exploration of the education model by integrating big data comparison of Chinese and foreign prevention and control in college English courses. Students in the experimental group were introduced to short videos related to Chinese and foreign news reports on the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 in the course, and carried out in-class thoughtful discussions and post-class sharing and discussions; students in the control group maintained their original study and life status. Post-test questionnaires and interviews revealed that most of the students in the experimental group realized that the necessity and success of China's epidemic prevention and control stemmed from the Chinese government's people-oriented approach and the advantages of the Chinese system and Chinese culture, which enhanced their self-confidence and pride in being Chinese and strengthened their "four self-confidences" in socialism with Chinese characteristics. More students combined their career aspirations with the modernization of China, significantly changed their learning attitudes and improved their motivation and academic performance. In contrast, students in the control group had no significant changes in the relevant post-test indicators compared with the pre-test because they maintained their original study and life status.  Article visualizations

The Copying Paradox: Why Converging Policies but Diverging Capacities for Development in Eastern European Innovation Systems?

This paper analyses the development of Eastern European innovation systems since the 1990s by looking together at the theoretical and empirical accounts of two discourses that have had a siginificant impact on the development of innovation systems: innovation policy and public administration and management. We propose a framework for analysing the development of innovation policies distinguishing between two concepts - policy and administrative capacity . that are necessary for innovation policy making and implementation. Using the framework we show how the Eastern European innovation systems have, because of past legacies and international policy transfer, developed a highly specific understanding of innovation policy based on the initial impact of the Washington Consensus policies and later the European Union. We argue that because of the interplay between the principles and policy reccomendations of the two international discourses we can see the emergence of a .copying paradoxÿ in Eastern European innovation systems: that is, despite the perception of policy convergence, we can witness a divergence in the policy from the intended results, and as a result can talk about limited and de-contextualised policy-making capacities.

INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE CRISIS: An Empirical Analysis of Industrial Policies in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. CES Open Forum Series 2018-2019, 2019

This paper gauges the forces and structures that shape economic transformation through an analysis of industrial polices in four European economies since the 2008 crisis: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. We argue that differences across recent European industrial policies respond to variations in national historical and institutional legacies; the characteristics of productive structures and the capabilities of the state. Pathdependency shapes views regarding the acceptable role of the state, although institutional legacies need to be balanced against historical institutional consistency and the intensity of the crisis. The characteristics of industry in terms of size, specialization, and position in the global division of labor affect preferences for framework versus sector-specific policies and the ambitiousness of goals. Finally, the state’s coordination capacity is essential to the design and efficient implementation of interrelated actions across multiple areas whereas financial capacity establishes commitment, signals priorities, and determines the feasibility of forward-looking projects