读书生活 · READING

《经济学家》2016年最佳图书

参考:《经济学家》年度最佳图书:2011201220132014201520172018

High fliers: Books of the Year 2016

The best books of 2016 are about China, language, microbes, hereditary power, inequality and medieval manuscripts

Politics and current affairs


China’s Future. By David Shambaugh. Polity; 195 pages; $19.95 and £14.99
No country has modernised its economy without also becoming a democracy. A respected American political scientist asks whether China can break the mould.

冯象:《智慧书》修订版缀言

羊年三月,帝京夜霾,见不足者独行于水木清华(参《摩西五经》二版缀言)。寂寥之中,举目四顾,突然红光照面,仿佛来到了荒野深处。眼前一列奇长的阶梯直通云端,有白袍者衔命,上上下下,恰如先知记述的(《以赛亚书》六章):

只见我主高踞宝座之上,袍裾垂下,覆盖宝殿。左右有火焰天尊侍立,各生六翼:一对遮面,一对掩脚,一对飞翔。彼此高呼着:圣哉,圣哉,圣哉,万军之耶和华!大地充盈他的荣耀!

那呼声极大,连门槛的基石也震动了,殿上青烟缭绕。我说:呜呼,我完了!因为我这人嘴唇不洁,在嘴唇不洁之民中居住,竟亲眼见了吾王,万军耶和华!

忽地飞来一个天尊,手持一块红炭,是他拿火钳从祭坛上夹起的。他就用那红炭点我的口,说:看,你嘴唇受过红炭,你的咎责就除了,你的罪愆赦免了!

接着,便听见我主雷霆之音:我可派谁?谁愿为我们前往?我忙回答:我愿意,hineni,请派我去!他说:去吧,告诉那一族人——

你们听是听了,但就是不明白
看也看了,却什么都不见!
——你去使这些人的心肥肿
让他们耳背眼浊;
免得他们眼睛看见
耳朵听到,心里明白
而悔改,而得了医治!

我问:几时为止呢,我主?答:要到城邑废弃,无人入居,房舍空寂,田亩一片荒芜;要到耶和华将人赶去了远疆,山河沦亡。而残留的仅及什一,即便悔改了也要火里走,如笃耨香或橡树伐倒了只剩树桩——那树桩,便是圣洁之子实。

醒来,晨辉满窗,微风中飘荡着少先队队歌。匆匆吃了早点,走到附小门口,一辆辆汽车已经排起长龙,见不足者却没去留意。他低着头,绕开熙熙攘攘的人群,像是在找寻什么。

那天,他在园墙倾圮处看到一截白亮的树桩;坐下,他开始了《智慧书》的修订。

二〇一五年九月于铁盆斋

智慧书》,冯象译注,修订版,北京三联,2016.2。

《经济学家》2015年最佳图书

参考:《经济学家》年度最佳图书:2011201220132014201620172018

Shelf life

The best books this year are about North Korea, Detroit, Nagasaki and being a pilot

Politics and current affairs


Near and Distant Neighbours: A New History of Soviet Intelligence. By Jonathan Haslam. Oxford University Press; 400 pages; £20

A detailed appraisal of how the Soviet Union handled undercover operations from the communist revolution in 1917 until the end of the cold war. The most gripping chapters focus on the chaos that was unleashed by Josef Stalin.

沈明:“路”vs.“网”:全球化与地方化的角力

研究全球化的文献已经汗牛充栋。宽泛地说,全球化与世界历史的近现代化过程大体是同步的。在这个意义上,几百年来,全球化是一个历久弥新的历史进程。尽管每一代人都感觉自己生逢全球化时代最前沿的历史时刻,但事实上,全球化并非一个线性进化过程:在某些非常重要的领域,例如就劳动力的跨国自由流动而言,二十一世纪的全球化程度还不及十九世纪。阻碍或者牵制全球化的因素显然既复杂多样又盘根错节,但其中最直接的原因恐怕就是民族国家的主权及其治理对全球化的敌意了。通俗地讲,在全球化这一宏大的叙事层面上,地球村从来都是处于“无政府”状态的。故而全球化不是也不可能是一个建构出来的社会工程或者乌托邦,而只能是由种种利益驱动的政治经济博弈的动态过程。道理这样讲似乎有些抽象甚至空洞,我们不妨以不久前出版的一本书为例子,由国际贸易这一典型的全球化论题入手,看看从古老遥远的丝绸之路到——比如说——案头昨天报纸上还在热议的“一带一路”、“亚投行”这些上下几千年纵横几万里的“风马牛”,如何被全球化的理论勾连在一起,以及这种整合过程为什么必然充满了羁绊、分歧乃至冲突。

我们要讨论的书是阿努帕姆·钱德(Anupam Chander)的《电子丝绸之路》。钱德教授任教于美国戴维斯加州大学法学院,是一位网络法与国际贸易法专家。他这本书系耶鲁大学出版社2013年出版。书出自知名学术出版社,封底印有哈佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚等精英法学院学者(以及美国参议员、WTO官员)的推荐语,不过其文体定位却难说是严格意义上的学术著作。从全书的结构、行文以及特别是文献引证来看,应该说其性质更接近 journalism。话这样讲,并非基于某种所谓的学术自信或自大贬低洋人同行,因为至少“他们是不大敢一把剪刀、一瓶浆糊闯天下的”(借用冯象老师说法)。其实,指出学术味不够浓这一点,虽然算不得赞许但也并未意在贬低。我们知道,与国际商贸与互联网相关的法律研究多属实践性很强的部门法领域,对于这类论题来说,纯学术的、着力追求理论创新的“阳春白雪”型写作很可能只是富有“波西米亚”意味的自娱自乐。立足于严肃的实证材料的分析和研究——而非花拳绣腿或者屠龙术——应该成为法学研究的主流。这一点对当下中国来说格外值得强调,因为门派/语词之争变换了模样,在法学界代代转世生生不息,甚至可以化神奇为腐朽:教义法学和社科法学的战斗本身其实构成了(或者说延续了)政法法学。钱德教授这本书即便在纯学理层面上缺乏建树,但其务实的方法、扎实的材料、多学科视角及其提出的诸多问题与分析仍然具有重要价值。国际商贸与互联网既是当今世界的重大政治经济学问题,也是重大的法律问题。我相信政治法律经济贸易等诸多相关专业的学者,以及对这些问题感兴趣的普通读者,都能从这本书中汲取有益的信息和洞见。以上简单介绍之余,应该说明,笔者的醉翁之意不在作为部门法的国际贸易法研究,而在提取该书宏旨,在一个较为抽象的层面上,即所谓“理论”层面上,略微探讨一下电子丝绸之路、互联网、世界贸易三者之间的关系,进而尝试初步挖掘这种关系所蕴含的政治经济学含义,特别是全球化和与之相反的力量“地方化”之间的张力与互动。可以说,这是形塑当代国际政治和世界经济的结构性力量和基础性动因之一。

New Book: Richard Posner. By William Domnarski

Richard Posner. By William Domnarski. Oxford University Press 2016. ISBN: 9780199332311; 0199332312.

  • The first biographical treatment of the enormously influential Judge Richard Posner
  • Author has unprecedented access to Posner, as well as a wealth of relevant interview subjects and material
  • Domnarski examines the life experience, personality, academic career, jurisprudence, and professional relationships of his subject with depth and clarity
  • A comprehensive and accessible account of a unique judge who has dominated the way law is understood in contemporary America

Richard PosnerJudge Richard Posner is one of the great legal minds of our age, on par with such generation-defining judges as Holmes, Hand, and Friendly. A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the principal exponent of the enormously influential law and economics movement, he writes provocative books as a public intellectual, receives frequent media attention, and has been at the center of some very high-profile legal spats. He is also a member of an increasingly rare breed-judges who write their own opinions rather than delegating the work to clerks-and therefore we have unusually direct access to the workings of his mind and judicial philosophy.

New Book: Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary. By Richard A. Posner

Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary. By Richard A. Posner. Harvard University Press 2016. ISBN: 9780674286030; 0674286030.

Judges and legal scholars talk past one another, if they have any conversation at all. Academics couch their criticisms of judicial decisions in theoretical terms, which leads many judges—at the risk of intellectual stagnation—to dismiss most academic discourse as opaque and divorced from reality. In Divergent Paths, Richard Posner turns his attention to this widening gap within the legal profession, reflecting on its causes and consequences and asking what can be done to close or at least narrow it.

The shortcomings of academic legal analysis are real, but they cannot disguise the fact that the modern judiciary has several serious deficiencies that academic research and teaching could help to solve or alleviate. In U.S. federal courts, which is the focus of Posner’s analysis of the judicial path, judges confront ever more difficult cases, many involving complex and arcane scientific and technological distinctions, yet continue to be wedded to legal traditions sometimes centuries old. Posner asks how legal education can be made less theory-driven and more compatible with the present and future demands of judging and lawyering.

陈维纲:Confucian Marxism: A Reflection on Religion and Global Justice

Confucian Marxism: A Reflection on Religion and Global JusticeConfucian Marxism: A Reflection on Religion and Global Justice. Brill 2013. ISBN: 9789004228986.

Buttressed by an autocratic system, China’s colossal economic growth over the past decades seems to have had the paradoxical effect of undermining the foundation of Western domination but at the same time invigorating Eurocentricism. In particular, it highlights the current relevance of the central conviction of Weber’s Orient: the absence of civic roots in non-Western societies will create a kind of “uncivic” capitalist system in which one has no choice but to seek to compensate for instabilities through authoritarian institutions. Does this mean that the West may alone afford to harmonize political stability with the universalistic ideal of justice as the basic structure of society? If not, how then is it possible to develop a notion of the primacy of social justice that transcends the limits of liberal democracy? This book aims at addressing these timely questions by drawing on “Confucian Marxism”—a distinctive perspective on civil society.

“That’s capitalism for you.”

The Cambridge History of Capitalism很多人(上至 Bill Gates,下至在下)喜欢阅读《经济学家》杂志,不是没有缘由的。比如这篇针对《剑桥资本主义史》(The Cambridge History of Capitalism)的短评,开头结尾都写得有声有色:

ECONOMICS publishing has recently undergone a great democratisation. High-quality academic writing was once confined to a handful of journals, mostly accessible in academic libraries. The journals still exist, but mostly serve to influence university hiring decisions. Writing has overwhelmingly gone online, where ambitious academics release free working papers, plug them on Twitter, and watch the discussion unfold. Though this democratisation has critics, it has vastly expanded the audience for economics writing.

This, in turn, may prime the market for another throwback: the authoritative collection of essays. For readers whose interest has been piqued online, the anthology provides an appealing way to learn about a range of subjects. “The Cambridge History of Capitalism” is an excellent example of the genre. …

[The Cambridge History of Capitalism is] a thoughtful account of capitalism. Rarely is economic history so accessible. Yet it is unclear who is meant to read it. University libraries will buy a copy, but the material is not especially rigorous by academic standards and is better suited to the ordinary reader. The price, however, is not. At £150, the work may not appeal to the casual economics readers who have benefited most from the online revolution. The publishers will have their reasons: large margins may be earned on limited sales to libraries and rich bankers. There is talk of a paperback version. But the upshot, for the moment at least, is that most readers will turn elsewhere for their economic history. That’s capitalism for you.

Capitalism through the ages: A grand tour

《经济学家》2014年最佳图书

参考:《经济学家》年度最佳图书:2011201220132015201620172018

The best books of 2014 were about the South China Sea, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the publishing of “Ulysses” and capitalism in the 21st century

Politics and current affairs


The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. By Louisa Lim. Oxford University Press; 248 pages; $24.95 and £16.99. Buy from Amazon.com
Twenty-five years after the bloodshed in Beijing, new details keep emerging. This reconstruction, by a correspondent for America’s National Public Radio, is as important for Western readers as it is for the new Chinese generation that has grown up since 1989 and knows little of what happened.


The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech. By Flemming Rose. Cato Institute; 240 pages; $24.95. Buy from Amazon.com
The culture editor of the Danish newspaper that published cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 offers a personal account of the ensuing controversy and what it means for democracy.

New Book: Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United. By Zephyr Teachout

Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens UnitedZephyr Teachout, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United, Harvard University Press 2014. ISBN 9780674050402. 384 pages

When Louis XVI presented Benjamin Franklin with a snuff box encrusted with diamonds and inset with the King’s portrait, the gift troubled Americans: it threatened to “corrupt” Franklin by clouding his judgment or altering his attitude toward the French in subtle psychological ways. This broad understanding of political corruption—rooted in ideals of civic virtue—was a driving force at the Constitutional Convention.

For two centuries the framers’ ideas about corruption flourished in the courts, even in the absence of clear rules governing voters, civil officers, and elected officials. Should a law that was passed by a state legislature be overturned because half of its members were bribed? What kinds of lobbying activity were corrupt, and what kinds were legal? When does an implicit promise count as bribery? In the 1970s the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrow the definition of corruption, and the meaning has since changed dramatically. No case makes that clearer than Citizens United.

In 2010, one of the most consequential Court decisions in American political history gave wealthy corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion treated corruption as nothing more than explicit bribery, a narrow conception later echoed by Chief Justice Roberts in deciding McCutcheon v. FEC in 2014. With unlimited spending transforming American politics for the worse, warns Zephyr Teachout, Citizens United and McCutcheon were not just bad law but bad history. If the American experiment in self-government is to have a future, then we must revive the traditional meaning of corruption and embrace an old ideal.

约翰·萨顿:《垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构》

社会思想译丛 ★ 新书讯

垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构约翰·萨顿(John Sutton):《垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构》(Sunk Costs and Market Structure: Price Competition, Advertising, and the Evolution of Concentration),艾佳慧、贾绅译,北京大学出版社2014年。ISBN: 9787301242353. @豆瓣 @小组

《垄断的秘密:沉没成本与市场结构》一书在近年来支配了产业组织文献的博弈理论模型与传统的结构/产品/绩效范式(由贝恩及其理论继承者发展而成)倡导的实证研究主题之间搭建了一座桥梁。

由于很多理论结果被证明其依赖于很难被测定的市场特征,一些观察者认为博弈论文献不能为构成20世纪50年代以来该主题的跨行业实证研
究提供理论基础。运用当前的博弈理论模型,约翰·萨顿重新检验了传统研究主题。他指出, 尽管许多结果具有“微妙”的性质,但在合理改变
模型设定时,存在一些被证明是相当稳健可靠的理论预测。因此,当我们在范围很大的跨行业间寻找统计规律性时,应当考虑这些结果。

萨顿收集了一个行业研究“矩阵”,包括6个国家(法国、德国、意大利、日本、英国和美国)和食品饮料部门中的20个行业。为解释产业结构的演化,他结合理论、计量证据以及在细节上展示各不相同的结构演化模式以发现在复杂的产业结构演化中博弈论进路的长处和局限。

劳伦斯·鲍姆:《法官的裁判之道:以社会心理学视角探析》

社会思想译丛 ★ 新书讯

法官的裁判之道:以社会心理学视角探析劳伦斯·鲍姆(Lawrence Baum):《法官的裁判之道:以社会心理学视角探析》(Judges and Their Audiences: A Perspective on Judicial Behavior),李国庆译,北京大学出版社2014年。ISBN: 9787301168004. @豆瓣 @小组

内容简介

是什么驱动着法官的决策过程?劳伦斯·鲍姆就这个关键的问题提供了一个新视角,这一视角是基于法官对于获得重要受众的认同的利益(兴趣)。

鲍姆认为,受众对法官的影响是无处不在的。这种影响来自于法官对于获得欢迎和尊重的利益(兴趣),而获取欢迎和尊重对于大多数人来说都是一个核心性的动机。法官关心来自受众的尊重,这是因为他们喜欢尊重本身,而不仅仅是把尊重当成达到别的目的的手段。《法官的裁判之道——以社会心理学视角探析》使用社会心理学的研究成果来论证,受众在相当大程度上塑造了法官们的选择。本书利用了有关司法决策过程的大量学术文献和实证研究证据,分析了几种类型的受众(包括公众、其他政府部门、法院同事、法律职业共同体以及法官在社会上的伙伴)的潜在和实际影响。

在有关司法行为的一些关键问题上,学者们意见不一,而本书提供了一种更深层次的理解,指出了司法行为在某些方面偏离了现存模型的假设,并且证明了这些模型有待进一步改进。

理查德·波斯纳:《资本主义民主的危机》

理查德·波斯纳文集 ★ 新书讯

资本主义民主的危机理查德·波斯纳:《资本主义民主的危机》(The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy),李晟译,北京大学出版社2014年。@豆瓣 @小组

本书是波斯纳关于2008年全球金融危机的第二本著作。作为《资本主义的失败》的后续,《资本主义民主的危机》进一步深入到经济学的理论语境当中,不仅从现实层面对于奥巴马政府的危机应对政策做出了细致分析和犀利批评,还从理论层面讨论了金融危机的形成与发展所带来的启示,在此基础上提出了有建设性的改革措施,建议通过经济、法律、公共政策等多方面手段加强政府的金融监管,并展望了后危机时代的前景。波斯纳指出,金融危机不仅反映了投资者与公众面对泡沫时的盲动,更显示出政府放松监管背景下金融本身的危险性和当下经济学学术发展的误区,以及美国政治结构内在的低效、分裂与冲突,因而不仅是经济危机,更是资本主义民主的危机。

冯象:“鲁迅的梦今天实现了”——读高音《舞台上的新中国》

高音常请我看戏,那是她的专业。舞台上下的活儿,从编剧舞美到念唱做打,她熟极了;好的丑的,谁跟谁学,都能说出个道道。要是写下来,该有多精彩,我想。终于,盼来了这本《舞台上的新中国》。书拿到手,不觉莞尔:封面这幅老版画,几个手捧小红书攥紧拳头唱歌的宣传队员,会不会刺痛一些评论家的心,引发几声哀怨?回她一个字:赞!

多少年了,大学教育甘愿给主流媒体跑龙套,依旧是“伤痕文学”的余绪。且不说文艺的萎靡,连城管打人、法官嫖妓、病人家属杀医生,都稀里糊涂记在早已“拜拜”了的那个“新中国”的账上。是不是教条主义作祟?而教条之培养能如此奏效,背后必有一种高明的政法策略。只是有一点尴尬:新时期的舞台,佳作实在不多,戏剧一如音乐美术,远不及新中国的成就。怪不怪所谓“体制”呢?如果还一味数落前三十年,那是在遮掩之后的什么,在蒙蔽谁的眼睛?

我想,这便是高音此书的一个贡献。她以严谨、平和又富于“同情之理解”的笔触,发掘梳理了诸多被人遗忘的历史细节,仿佛拉开大红帷幕的一角,让我们重温先行者的伟业,吸取牺牲与挫折的教训。合上书,再去剧院,那金碧辉煌里,满眼是重新包装的“旧”——旧故事旧人物旧思想旧风格,旧的雇佣关系的契约之下,艺术理想和专业精神的迷失。两相对照,官学的喋喋说教如过眼烟云。令人深思的,仍是那个老问题:红色何以经典?经典为什么走向了失败?

舞台上的新中国书里讲到解放初的新气象,引光未然一句话作讨论的切入点,我以为颇有见识:“鲁迅活着的时候曾经梦想……无产阶级自己会写文章,出现真正的普罗列塔尼亚的文学,鲁迅的梦今天实现了,工农兵自己写作剧本,已不是什么稀罕的事”(页35)。“稀罕”意谓原先没有,或者即使有,也只是受苦人无力的叹息、零星的抗议。而“鲁迅的梦”成真,乃是把文艺从精英阶级手里解放出来,将作者的才智与思想感情融入大众的革命,故而侧重集体创作。于是戏剧家的成败,往往系于他对集体创作的态度和利用,如老舍、曹禺先生。

Francis Fukuyama: Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.

Francis Fukuyama: Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. ISBN: 0374227357; 9780374227357.

弗朗西斯·福山:《政治秩序与政治衰败:从工业革命到民主全球化》

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of DemocracyThe second volume of the bestselling landmark work on the history of the modern state

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, David Gress called Francis Fukuyama’s Origins of Political Order “magisterial in its learning and admirably immodest in its ambition.” In The New York Times Book Review, Michael Lind described the book as “a major achievement by one of the leading public intellectuals of our time.” And in The Washington Post, Gerard DeGrott exclaimed “this is a book that will be remembered. Bring on volume two.”

Volume two is finally here, completing the most important work of political thought in at least a generation. Taking up the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal, and accountable political institutions, Fukuyama follows the story from the French Revolution to the so-called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of contemporary American politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out. He explores the different legacies of colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and offers a clear-eyed account of why some regions have thrived and developed more quickly than others. And he boldly reckons with the future of democracy in the face of a rising global middle class and entrenched political paralysis in the West.

4 of 18
12345678