Sep 2006, Volume 1 Issue 3

    

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• An inquiry into the causes for the multiple goals of the United States Antitrust Law from a historical perspective

  Han Tie

  2006, 1(3): 329-356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0009-x

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  It is not the case as Robert Bork claims that the U. S. antitrust law had only one goal maximization of consumer welfare of efficiency at the very beginning and should have been kept that way for its later development. Partly because of the fighting among different interest groups as well as spokesmen of different regions at the 51st Congress, the Sherman Antitrust Act came out as a legislation with multiple goals, which were also taking shape under the influence of the Republican idea of balance of power, the liberal belief in property rights, the freedom of contract of classic economics, and the price theory of neoclassic economics. In more than a hundred years after that, the U.S. antitrust law has shifted the center of its goals as a result of the change of regulatory regimes with different emphases such as market function, economic stabilization, social concern, and economic efficiency during different periods. From a historical perspective, it is beyond dispute that the U.S. antitrust law has had multiple goals instead of only one.
• Several issues influencing the course of German history

  Wu Youfa

  2006, 1(3): 357-374. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0010-4

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  The course of German history is very sinuous. German nationalism, the imbalance of the political and economic development generated by the influence of the historical and cultural traditions, the might of the Junker feudal aristocracy, the weakness of the bourgeoisie, the postwar reeducation of democratization imposed by the western allied powers on Germany, the developed education and technology, etc. are all important factors that influenced Germany s history.
• On official corruption in the Yuan dynasty

  Li Zhi′ an

  2006, 1(3): 375-403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0011-3

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  The vicious cycle of official corruption got worse unprecedentedly in the Yuan dynasty (ca.1279 1368). Corrupt officials at all levels from the local to the central governments were extremely shameless and greedy.  Even many court ministers got involved in the vicious cycle of corruption. The top officialdom was polluted and degenerated badly because the Mongolian nobles made their Sauqat  (taking gifts) tradition and the Semu, both official and merchant groups, took bribes as a way to amass wealth. Although the Mongol Yuan rulers did make a set of anti-corruption policies such as detailed rules of censorship and inspection relating to corruption crimes, these didn t work well. Of all the reasons of the Yuan official corruption, the old Mongolian steppe traditions play the most important role, which formed the context for the low salary, improper selection and poor quality of the officials and of bending the law wrongly to pardon official misconduct.
• On the correlation between the formation of the “Maowusu Desert” and land use in Liuhu sub-prefecture in the Tang dynasty

  Ai Chong

  2006, 1(3): 404-426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0012-2

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  The historical changes of the Maowusu Desert  can be divided into three phases: the late Tang dynasty phase, the Song-Yuan-Ming dynasty phase, and the late Ming dynasty to the present phase. Different parts of the desert were formed in different times, with the northwestern part being the earliest to form. As all evidence shows, the Maowusu Desert in its early stage is believed to have taken shape largely around the ancient site of the You state during the years of Tianbao in the Tang dynasty, which is nowadays the eastern half of the Etuoke banner and Prior-Etuoke banner. The formation of the initial Maowusu Desert is not attributed to the so-called over-cultivation from farming but to the long-time exceedingly quartered husbandry starting from the 4th year of the Zhenguan to the years of Tianbao in the Tang dynasty, which resulted in the destruction of the ecology of the natural grassland.
• Behind the form: A historical analysis of the agriculture encouragement system in the Song dynasty

  Bao Weimin, Wu Zhengqiang

  2006, 1(3): 427-448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0013-1

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  Using the political culture analysis method, this paper discusses the origin, contents and functions of the agriculture encouragement system of the Song dynasty, which originated from the pre-Qin period (221 207 BC). The main content of this system in its early stage is that in the early Spring days, the king symbolically ploughed a piece of land near the suburbs of his capital in order to send to his subjects a clear message of the importance he attached to agriculture. It was expected that peasants would be encouraged by his majesty's guidance, and thus agricultural production of the countryside would be promoted. With the rationalization of the political system since the Qin period, agricultural encouragement gradually became a routine work of the Chinese governments at different levels. Under the Northern Song dynasty (960 1127), agricultural encouragement envoy  was added to the official rank of heads of counties and prefectures. They each were required to take the responsibility of persuading peasants in their jurisdiction to work harder in the field. The actual work as an agricultural encouragement envoy  in the Song dynasty was to go to the countryside to reward peasants with food and wine in early February, and to write an essay to express his encouragement, and to distribute it to the peasants. Formalistic as it is, the agricultural encouragement system is a typical manifestation of the traditional Chinese political culture. As one of its social impacts on the Song society, it helped the spread of advanced agricultural technology with its institutional basis.
• Conflict and mutual support between local consciousness and national consciousness disturbance on Chuanxing suoji in 1936

  Wang Dongjie

  2006, 1(3): 449-475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0014-0

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  From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican period, there was a transition on the understanding of the relationship between China as a state and its localities. Local and national consciousness generally supported each other but were in conflict at times. In this essay the author intends to explore the reasons and influences of the Sichuan people s criticism of the Chuanxing suoji (Rambling Notes on Sichuan) letter written by Chen Hengzhe, and analyze the interplay between local and national consciousness in the early days when the Nanjing government controlled Sichuan. The uproar caused by the article also showed the gap between mainstream intellectuals and peripheral intellectuals.
• The preliminary transition of the grass-roots government functions in the border areas jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong during the first half of the twentieth century

  Wen Rui

  2006, 1(3): 476-501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11462-006-0015-z

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  During the first half of the twentieth century, the social administrative functions of the grass-roots governments in the border areas Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces showed apparent differences from the traditional government. There appeared a gradual transitional tendency to the modern society in aspects such as the specialization of administrative bodies, the communalization, corporation and trade orientation of the mass organizations, and the social control as well as attaching importance to conducting, serving and constructing the social communal facilities in the social economic context. Consequently, the transformation should be regarded as one of the stages in the progress of the social transition since the Late Qing dynasty.