Spring 2001

Mexico's 'Compassionate Conservatism'

David A. Shirk, in Journal of Democracy (Oct. 2000). 1101 15th St.,N.W., Ste. 802, Washington, D.C. 20005. Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox, ended decades of rule the Institutional Revolutionary Party (I'RI) when he took office last December. The country is enter- ing a new era-and many fear that Fox's National Action Party (PAN) is, at bottom, a reactionary party. It isn't, contends political scientist Shirk, a former visiting fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, at the University o...

The Periodical Observer

ly incidental, "for Yongle evidently intended to harness the force (and profits) of seaborne commerce to serve the purposes of imperial hegemony in Southeast Asia."

Needham, a former biochemist who subscribed to an idiosyncratic blend of Marxism and Christianity, was determined, says Finlay, "to present the Ming expeditions as embodying the virtues of China in contrast to the vices of the West." Science and Civilisation in China is an encyclopedic survey of Chinese accomplishments in science and technology. But, "as with the voyages of Zheng He," Finlay says, Needham’s account of those accomplishments "ignores social, political, and economic contexts." Needham’s claims about the impact of Chinese inventions on Europe are also suspect, Finlay thinks. Yet, despite its flaws, he says, the late scholar’s masterwork "remains an extraordinary achievement."

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