Session 8b: Ethics, Politics, Policy III

2nd Global Conference

Friday 12th March – Sunday 14th March 2010
Salzburg, Austria

Son Preference Culture and Female Children’s Empowerment in China
Wendy Wang
Department of Sociology, California State University, Northridge, USA

A rich sociological literature has documented the near universal linkage between children’s school attainment and their socioeconomic status in a society. Yet, clearly only a small component of the inequality in children’s educational attainment can be explained by parental characteristics. Children sharing similar parental characteristics may experience quite different educational and occupational trajectories. Many researchers have addressed the family structural determinants of educational attainment, particularly sibling size. Such studies provide a fuller account of the intergenerational transmission of inequality in both Western and Asian societies. However, there is a relative scarcity of research on the impact of parental characteristics and parental values in determining children’s status inside the family, and in determining their educational attainment and the subsequent employment opportunities.

Biographical data show that parental “son preference” leads to a lower level of educational attainment among girls. This is especially true for rural female children. Rural parents prefer boys to complete higher level of education, and to have girls complete mostly elementary school education and work as child laborers to support the families. This preference is based on a traditional view in China that states: “the less women learn the better”. Women are mainly housewives and rare children at home. Second, most rural parents prefer to live with their sons during their old age. The sons are the heirs of the families and the daughters are no longer a part of the family once they are married. Third, in rural China, there is no retirement system. Sons’ higher level of education not only provides themselves with opportunities for better-paid jobs, but also provides their parents possibilities of welfare supports. Biographical data explain that women do not have as many educational opportunities as men. The higher employment rate of rural young women than men is mainly at the cost of unequal opportunities in education. Social inequality therefore, is not just caused by traditional ideology, but also caused by poor men who often have no other possession to exploit than their womenfolk.

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China’s Strategies towards Southeast Asia: An Effort to Go through the Black Box of Chinese Decision Making
Jenn-Jaw Soong and Nghia Khac Nguyen
Graduate Institute of Political Economy, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan

This paper in an attempt to analytically explore the nature of Chinese strategies towards Southeast Asia argues that the mainstream International Relation theories, namely realism, liberalism, and constructivism, methodologically attach themselves too rigidly to their own basic assumptions. This leads to the fact that each individual theory in parsimoniously utilizing their analytical tools fails to explain the deep roots of China’s foreign policy and behavior in Southeast Asia. This paper provides an alternative research framework by introducing an eclectic and interdisciplinary view. It is not only an organically complementary combination of the three aforementioned IR theories but also and even more importantly takes into consideration the crucial issue of Chinese culture which influences all Chinese decisions. Chinese cultural values are important in understanding the so-called Chinese style of foreign relations. All interdisciplinary analyses are spatially oriented in the specific contexts of domestic and international settings and they are temporally oriented in the contexts of historical experience thus insuring the dialectical scrutiny of the subject studied. This eclectic approach does not pretend to catch the external effects of Chinese policies as the term “eclecticism” may suggest. Instead, it examines the intentions and motivations of China by analyzing a wide range of its strategies (from political to economic and from diplomatic to military) at different angles and in different layers but with vertical comprehensiveness (from national ideology to policy declaration to policy implementation). In this sense, eclecticism coincides with fundamentalism. This paper reaches the conclusion that Chinese new nationalism is an attempt to regain China’s past glory, greatness, and dignity. This underlies all Chinese strategies. It is the guiding value whether intellectually or sentimentally inspired, whether it appears as an offshoot of Sino-centrism, Confucianism, or legalism, and whether it is presented as liberal, constructivist, or realist. It is ultimately concerned with nationalistic self interests. Understanding China’s real strategic intentions in the region helps not only the small peripheral nations but also major powers to deal with both challenges and the opportunities presented by the next coming super-power.

The End of ‘New Politics’ in Thailand? The Fall of Thaksin Regime and Its Implications for Thai Democracy
Pei-Hsiu Chen and Jenn-Jaw Soong
Graduate Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, National Chi Nan University and Department of Political Science, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

The astonishing coup d’état launched by Thai army on 19 September 2006 which successfully terminated the legitimate civilian government lead by Thaksin Shinawatra marked a remarkable setback for democratization in modern Thailand.

Coups dominated Thai political process for decades before 1991 when the traditional politics of Thailand was entitled as a ‘vicious circle’. Beyond the 1991 coup, Thai politics witnessed a critical transformation from military withdrawal to civilian succession. When Thaksin rose as the strongman in Thai electoral politics and the CEO in Thai booming economy after the Asian financial crisis, Thailand introduced her ‘new politics’ which is also labeled as the ‘Thaksinization’ of Thailand.

Thaksin regime, based on the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT), just won a landslide victory in 2005 general election and proceeded his second term. However, the military suddenly seized the power, abolished the 1997 constitution, dismissed the congress and cancelled the coming general election. These generals did not face any resistance to their illegal, non-democratic measures that apparently jeopardized Thai democracy. The leaders of political parties, the bureaucracy, even the intellectuals are reluctant to defy the coup in words. Why?

This paper aims to explore the essential elements of ‘legitimacy’ in Thai democracy that encourage the military to manoeuver the civilian prime ministers out of office in several decades, especially focus on the context of ‘New Politics,’ the fall of Thaksin regime , as well as its implications for democracy in Thai style.