Strong Factions Research Articles

170 ans de recours aux soins hydrothérapiques : l’apport des thermes de Saujon

On the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the Société Médico-Psychologique, we review the oldest and most consistently used therapy in medicine: hydrotherapy. It has been practiced for therapeutic purposes since Hippocrates, in the 5th century BC, and has been in existence since then. We should point out that William Cullen, in the 18th century, was the inventor of the neologism of neurosis. He was also a great prescriber of hydrotherapy for these pathologies. Later, the interest of balneotherapy was defended in Austria by Winternitz, then in Moravia by Priessnitz, and in Germany by the famous Kraepelin, Alzheimer, Sioli, and Klemperer, all regular advocates of this therapy, notably for agitated and psychotic patients. There was also a strong faction in the United States, with Professors Draper and Baruch, at Columbia University (New York), or in the American West with Winslow as well as the psychiatrists of the Agnews school who were also convinced prescribers. In France, the development of hydrotherapy was ensured by Esquirol (Salpêtrière and Ivry) and Fleury at the Meudon nursing home. The first writings on balneotherapy showed the interest of using this technique as a treatment for psychotic states and states of agitation, in the form of lengthy cold water baths. This was the case until 1950, when thermal medicine was organized around an institutional medicine using hydrotherapy in a structured way and supervised by a medical-psychological support staff. It was at this time that Dubois and Vidart described what would be called “an institutional therapy of the treatment of psychoneurotic states”. The Société Médico-Psychologique regularly reported on this therapy, which was initially devoted to asylums for agitated and psychotic patients. But with the rise of thermal medicine, this approach was developed in France in centers specializing in mental health. It should be noted that the indications have clearly changed and have been modified with an increasing interest in anxiety disorders, overwork and burn-out, and even certain addictions to benzodiazepines. Some evidence has been provided through scientific studies, supervised by academics, which has allowed hydrotherapy to gain a better defined role in the care of the anxious patient. The main pathologies for which it is effective are: anxiety, burn-out, exhaustion, the aftermath of psycho-trauma, and over-medication. Thereafter, thermal medicine developed through studies demonstrating its effectiveness, which allowed for the establishment of the French Association of Research in Thermal Medicine, but also in the form of a pedagogical approach that was developed by the college of teachers of the SFMTh and adopted.in several French universities. The hydrotherapy approach also developed in the Thermal School of Stress (the thermal baths of Saujon, the pre-eminent hydrotherapy center for mental health) and with the development of programs of care for benzodiazepine withdrawal, 50% of which is covered by the National Health Insurance Fund. In this article, we highlight the place of thermal medicine in psychiatry and mental health and its potential for further development and for providing answers for situations of increasing malaise for which there is a strong possibility of recidivism because of the absence of intrinsic psychiatric pathologies at the origin of these states of decompensation.

Do winners spread more words? Factional competition and local media reports on corruption investigation in China

AbstractThis paper explores how factional competition shapes local media's coverage of negative political news. Employing news reports that appeared in Chinese national and local newspapers (2000–2014) coupled with data on the networks of elites, we find that local bureaucrats connected to strong national leaders tend to criticize members of weaker factions in politically damaging news reports. These adverse reports indeed harm the promotion prospects of the province leaders reported on in the articles, weakening the already weak factions and expanding the relative power of the strong factions. Our findings suggest that the loyalty-based competitive behaviors of political elites further tilt an already uneven playing field across political factions and facilitate power concentration in China.

Factions, Local Accountability, and Long-Term Development: Theory and Evidence

We develop a theoretical model of how factional affiliation and local accountability can shape the policy choices of local officials who are concerned about political survivals, and subsequently affect the long-term local development. We provide empirical evidence in support of the theoretical predictions using county-level variations in development performance in Fujian Province in China. When the Communist armies took over Fujian Province from the Nationalist control circa 1949, communist cadres from two different army factions were assigned as county leaders. For decades the Fujian Provincial Standing Committee of the Communist Party was dominated by members from one particular faction, which we refer to as the strong faction. Counties also differed in terms of whether a local guerrilla presence had existed prior to the Communist takeover. We argue that county leaders from the strong faction were less likely to pursue policies friendly to local development because their political survival more heavily relied on their loyalty to the provincial leader than on the grassroots support from local residents. By contrast, the political survival of county leaders from the weak faction largely depended on local grassroots support, which they could best secure if they focused on local development. In addition, a guerrilla presence in a county further improved development performance either by intensifying the local accountability of the county leader, or by better facilitating the provision of local public goods beneficial to development. We find consistent and robust evidence supporting these assumptions. Being affiliated with weak factions and having local accountability are both associated with sizable long-term benefits that are evident in terms of a county’s growth and level of private-sector development, its citizens’ education levels, and their survival rates during the Great Chinese Famine. We also find that being affiliated with the strong faction and adopting pro-local policies are associated with higher likelihood of a local leader’s political survival.

On Political Parties in China and Western Societies

Faction in politics is a long-standing objective phenomenon in human political life. Party has made factions public and legal. Clique is only a kind of small group struggling for private interests. Derived from faction, party is different from faction because party has its own clear objective, well-organized structure and discipline. Without getting rid of minor faction, party has to struggle against factionalism after its coming into being. A proletariat party has also to face the temptation of factionalism and keep politics focused on the benefit of the people in general. The nature of Chinese proletariat party decides there is no space for the development of major factionalism. Chinese culture from ancient times demonstrates that every empire was destroyed from within by factions. In order to create cultural harmony in China and prevent regime destruction, strong factions from within must be avoided. Western political culture analysis shows that an environment developed which was favorable to two and multiple parties. Chinese culture never produced such a condition.Keywords: Party – Faction – Clique – Factionalism – Proletariat – Culture-----Bibliography: Feng, Wang: On Political Parties in China and Western Societies, PCS, 2-2013, pp. 120-132. https://doi.org/10.3224/pcs.v4i2.19800

The End of the CCP's Resilient Authoritarianism? A Tripartite Assessment of Shifting Power in China

AbstractThis essay challenges the widely held view of the CCP's purported “resilient authoritarianism,” which asserts that China's one-party political system is able to enhance the state capacity to govern effectively through institutional adaptations and policy adjustments. An analysis of the recent and still unfolding Bo Xilai crisis reveals the flaws in China's political system, including nepotism and patron–client ties in the selection of leaders, rampant corruption, the growing oligarchic power of state-owned enterprises, elites' contempt for the law and the potential failure to broker deals between competing factions in the Party leadership. The essay argues that the CCP's “authoritarian resilience” is a stagnant system, both conceptually and empirically, because it resists much-needed democratic changes in the country. The problems of the resilient authoritarianism thesis is traceable to the monolithic conceptualizing of China – the failure to appreciate seemingly paradoxical transformative trends in the country, which this essay characterizes as three paralleled developments, namely, 1) weak leaders, strong factions; 2) weak government, strong interest groups; and 3) weak Party, strong country. One should not confuse China's national resilience (in terms of the emerging middle class, new interest group politics, and dynamic society) with the CCP's capacity and legitimacy to rule the country. The essay concludes that if the CCP intends to regain the public's confidence and avoid a bottom-up revolution, it must abandon the notion of “authoritarian resilience” and embrace a systematic democratic transition with bold steps towards intra-Party elections, judicial independence and a gradual opening of the mainstream media.

From Democrazia Cristiana to Forza Italia and the Popolo della Libertà: Partisan change in Italy

The general question underlying this article is how much have parties changed in Italy in the transition from the First to the Second Republic? The disintegration of the Christian Democrats (DC) in the early 1990s created a large opening on the centre-right of the political spectrum, which was promptly occupied by Forza Italia (FI). A totally new party organisationally speaking, FI, with its centralisation, its personalisation and its charismatic leadership, marked a clear break with all that the DC had represented in terms of its unrestricted pluralism based on strong factions. However, the franchise model adopted by Berlusconi's party, characterised by the co-existence of unity of command at the top, and differentiated and quasi-autonomous bodies locally, may facilitate the convergence of the parties representing the various interests and outlooks on the centre-right in the newrassemblementparty that is the PdL. Through the latter, and given the new systemic conditions, Italy may achieve a transformation in the nature of the centre from Christian Democratic to conservative, enabling it to integrate most of the political right as well.

Patients Lose If Psychologists Prescribe

Patients Lose If Psychologists Prescribe

The British Withdrawal from Singapore and Malaysia: Influence of the Labour Party on the Decision

When Labour came to power in October 1964, British defence and foreign policy remained unchanged. However, within three years, Prime Minister Wilson had announced military withdrawal from Singapore. In Defence White Paper of July 1967 this was planned for mid-seventies, but in January 1968 date was moved forward to end of 1971. This was only marginally altered by Conserva tive policy to station some troops in Singapore under Five-Power Defence Arrangement. This decision brought to an end imperial presence in Southeast Asia which had lasted 150 years, representing a major break in defence and foreign policy. The Anglo-Malaysian Defence Agreement was last British commitment to assist automatically another country in its defence. Secretary of State for Defence, Healey, talked of the great est transformation of defence policy in history of Britain' * and Gor don Walker called withdrawal a revolution in Britain's defence posture and an epoch-making and revolutionary decision.1 In discussion about decision-making process of with drawal, too much emphasis seems generally to be laid upon eco nomics.2 The economic situation was alarming indeed; enormous balance of payments deficits which were to a great extent caused by military expenditure overseas, appeared regularly in 1960s. Other factors also influenced decision-making. The international con text, that is, first signs of detente, end of confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia, London's approach and formal application to enter EEC, and so forth, played a role. The press, especially Guardian after mid-1965, and informed opinion ? elitist discus sion among academics, senior civil servants, and officers ? also had a bearing upon this process. In addition there were strong factions in all three parliamentary parties which favoured a military withdrawal from east of Suez.3