Table of Content

20 May 2025, Volume 45 Issue 3

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A Discussion on "Digital Society and Its Governance in Contemporary China"

Zeqi QIU, Jun LI, Jinglin XIANG, Anning HU

2025, 45(3):  1-53. 

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The Modern Political Crisis in Perspective of Civilizaiton: John Stuart Mill's Discourses on Civilization and the New Science of Politics

Zixing KANG

2025, 45(3):  54-90. 

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Beyond the continental theories of civilization, the English classical political economy tradition fostered another distinctive conception of civilization. John Stuart Mill made a systematic summary of it. Mill's idea of civilization carries a double meaning. In the realm of moral philosophy, civilization is a universal human good that originates in the moral instincts of man and is rooted in the three pillars of wealth, reason, and the capacity for cooperation. In the realm of historical philosophy, civilization progresses through the development of the division of labor, aiming at ultimate well-being. On the road to perfection, civilization can overcome and transcend the flaws of a given stage and arrives at a higher stage, undergoing a historical process of continuous evolution. Social forms and power structures also transform with the advancement of civilization. In the 19th century, the rise of the power of the masses led to a shift toward equality in social structures. At this time, society was in what Mill termed a "transitional state", characterized by a potential crisis of "the régime of public opinion". The progress of civilization brought forth a new spirit of time, and a new world required a new science of politics. In the intellectual map presented in Civilization, Mill's theory of civilization ultimately serves as a guide to the craft of politics. By interpreting "civilization" as a societal progress based on human nature and by portraying European history since antiquity as a history of civilizational evolution, Mill interprets civilization as a foundation akin to natual law for political order. Mill's civilization thought exhibits an introspective and self-critical quality, demonstrating a profound historical consciousness and practical concern. Mill's "new science of politics" also embodies two layers: first, it represents Mill's analysis of the latent worries of modern civilization and his political solutions; second, it signifies a new way of contemplating political affairs and social changes based on the process of civilization.

Dignity of Crown and the Integrity of Society: On the Social Theoretical Basis of British Constitutional Monarchy

Xijin GUO

2025, 45(3):  91-116. 

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Constitutional monarchy is the foundation of the modern British political system, and the political significance of the monarchy cannot be fully explained in the social contract theory.Edmund Burke was the first to reflect on the social contract theory based on natural rights, arguing that British democratic politics stemmed from the constitutional tradition, and the retention of the crown was a continuation of the spirit of the constitution. Stimulated by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, and faced with the tendency towards individualism caused by the theory of natural rights and the social contract theory, British conservatism resorted to historical traditions, and emphasized the role of the constitution in maintaining the integrity of society. Walter Bagehot reintroduced the principle of dignity in the political system, arguing that the Queen was the head of society, and that the principle of society was another foundation independent of the principle of government efficiency. As the representative of society, the Queen highlights the wholeness of society. Upon this foundation, James Frazer established a social theoretical basis for constitutional monarchy. He broke away from the dualistic Christian division of sacred and secular political theory and examined the historical forms of kingship and the relationship between royal and divine authority. He argued that the sanctity of the king came from his social responsibilities, and the king became the head of society by creating a customary and cultural community centered around himself through sacrificial rites. In British history, the constitutional tradition of "the King in the council in the Parliament" is the embodiment of the totality of society centered on the king. However, it was established in an early institutionalized form and became the main content of the British political system. By exploring the social significance of the monarchy in constitutional monarchy and re-emphasizing the integrity of society, conservatives helped to maintain the social order amidst the changes of the times, and reshaped the traditional cultural values, and cultivated the social sentiments of the citizens.

The Eventness of Society: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Durkheim's Ritual Theory

Yangyang YUE

2025, 45(3):  117-151. 

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This article is a reconsideration of phenomenological sociology. Edmund Husserl, in his later genetic phenomenology and studies on intersubjectivity, had already addressed issues relevant to sociology. Therefore, in the view of Alfred Schutz, who was deeply influenced by Husserl, the conception of "phenomenological sociology" is rooted in the intersection of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and Weber's interpretative sociology, that is, using transcendental phenomenology to clarify the legitimacy of interpretative sociological methods. However, "phenomenological sociology," grounded in transcendental phenomenology, simultaneously shares the presupposition about subjectivity of transcendental phenomenology. This presupposition prevents Schutz from accessing the phenomenon of Society as such, and thus, as criticized by Giddens, such a "phenomenological sociology" cannot provide a reasonable explanation of the social world. To address this limitation, this article attempts to utilize the phenomenological resources of Martin Heidegger and of Jean-Luc Marion, building upon the review of Schutz's "phenomenological sociology," to take the discourse on rituals from Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life as a starting point. By analyzing the temporality of rituals, it aims to phenomenologically elucidate the social world as such, that is, to reveal the phenomenality of the phenomenon of Society as eventness. By integrating Durkheim's sociology of religion into phenomenological discussions, this article hopes to offer a new possibility for phenomenological sociology and to provide modest contributions to the issue of intersubjectivity.

County-Level Priority Tasks and Career Advancement Opportunities for Grassroots Officials

Ye QIU

2025, 45(3):  152-179. 

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In a hierarchical organization, promotion incentives represent the core issue of the organization. Unlike the ideal model constructed by the political tournament theory based on the assumption of functional homogeneity, the personnel structure at the county level exhibits distinctive characteristics of functional differentiation and hierarchical segmentation. This results in grassroots officials facing dual predicaments within conventional promotion channels: inequitable distribution of advancement opportunities and systemic delays in career progression. The study reveals that priority tasks serve crucial functions in realigning personnel relationships, shortening principal-agent chains, and showcasing performance achievements, thereby constituting a significant "personnel platform" for officials to access promotion opportunities outside the conventional career pathways. This platform creates a field of opportunity for potential promotion, where actual advancement outcomes depend on three critical factors: outstanding performance in priority task execution, effective construction of trust-based relationships, and strategic alignment with opportune conditions. Consequently, while creating extraordinary career advancement opportunities and speed advantages for certain cadres, this mechanism inherently carries substantial promotion uncertainty. Thus, the "personnel platform" demonstrates a distinctive promotion logic-neither relying solely on performance-based evaluation nor being dominated by informal connections, but rather constituting a hybrid advancement mechanism that strategically amalgamates competence and relational capital. As an integral component of the county-level promotion incentive system, this mechanism simultaneously enhances the inclusiveness of career advancement pathways while optimizing the allocation efficiency of cadre resources.The theoretical contribution of this study lies in its systematic deconstruction of the personnel management function inherent in priority tasks, which elucidates the complex tripartite dynamics between organizational restructuring, relational networks, and individual competence in cadre promotion. This analytical framework significantly advances scholarly understanding of personnel structures and advancement mechanisms within the Chinese county-level governance system.

The Relationship Between Financialization and Internal Income Gap in Non-Financial Enterprises: An Analysis of the Inequality Effects on Social Development

Bin ZHU, Yijun TIAN

2025, 45(3):  180-207. 

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Financial development is not only an important driving force for economic growth, but also a significant force in shaping social structure. In recent years, with the continuous acceleration of financialization in China, financial factors have increasingly permeated multiple aspects of business operations and social governance, triggering a great deal of concern in the academic community about the possible structural consequences of financialization. Combining the perspectives of financial development and power structure, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for analyzing the inequality effects of financial development and proposes three potential inequality effects: maximising the inequality-maintaining effect, effectively expanding inequality effect and effectively reducing inequality effect. Using data from A-share listed companies between 2007 and 2022, this paper examines the impact of financialization of non-financial enterprises on the intra-firm income gap. The study finds that the financialization of non-financial enterprises has significantly widened the income gap between management and ordinary employees. Specifically, financialization has deepened the existing power structure within enterprises. On the one hand, it inhibits the expansion of real business by directing investment to the financial sector, which in turn weakens the bargaining power of employees and their room for pay growth; on the other hand, it prompts enterprises to adopt incentive mechanisms oriented towards maximizing shareholder value, which enhances the management's control and pay bargaining power, and enables it to obtain a larger share of resource allocation. Furthermore, although corporate financialization improves business performance to a certain extent, new profits are mainly distributed centrally to management, with limited benefits shared by ordinary employees. This finding supports the assumption of effectively expanding inequality and reveals the latent distribution risks and social inequality amplification mechanisms of financialization under the current corporate governance structure.

Teacher Attitudes and Peer Effects: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Behavioral Problems among Left-Behind Children

Weidong WANG, Jiatong LI

2025, 45(3):  208-241. 

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While some studies have attributed the behavioral problems of left-behind children in China to vulnerabilities such as parent-child separation and lack of family education, few studies have examined whether "problematised" narratives about left-behind children lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy effect, which exacerbates the behavioral problems of left-behind children. Integrating insights from social classification theory, research on teacher attitudes, and studies of anti-school culture, this study proposes a novel conceptual mechanism at the cultural belief level to explain the behavioral issues of left-behind children. Drawing on data from the second and third waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study employs a series of methods including instrumental variable regression and structural equation modeling to examine this mechanism in causality level. The main findings are as follows: first, teachers tend to hold negative evaluations of left-behind children, which contributes to the emergence of behavioral problems. Second, such negative evaluations make left-behind students more likely to engage in self-defeating resistance and more readily accepted by peer groups that endorse anti-school cultural. Third, teachers' implicit biases and their effects are more pronounced in rural schools. These findings suggest that teachers' differentiated attitudes toward left-behind students play the role of self-fulfilling prophecy. It is worth noting that a major source of the problematizing narratives adopted by teachers lies in the broader public discourse, which tends to frame the issue of left-behind children as a sever social problem affecting China's population quality (or suzhi). The widespread circulation of such narratives in public discourse reinforces a schematic association between left-behind status and behavioral problems in prevealing cultural beliefs. This study underscores the critical role of teachers in the reproduction of educational inequality and provides empirical evidences for the need to resist the problematization of disadvantaged student groups.