政治經濟學 本課程首先是從介紹何謂政治經濟學，並從理論面向解釋政治和經濟不是兩個獨立的學科，政治和經濟應該是結合在一起的。如果把政治和經濟分開並不能有效解釋世界經濟以及政治的變動。由於授課教授的授課大綱己經非常清楚並循序漸進的編排，每一週的課程都是環環相扣的，因此，作為教學助理的我並不需要在找尋其它的補充教材。 我們的討論都是依循課程的大綱進行，並協助同學閱讀和指出文章的重點。在理論的部份，有發展和低度發展理論 ; 自由主義和新自由主義盛行之因素，及其優缺點; 世界政治中的現實主義和新現實主義; 世界經濟中的互賴理論以及複合互賴理論，探討國家間在相互依賴下，”何為國家利益”。 並強調”政治文化“　的重要性，傳統的政治文化注重的是政治面向，主要是受到國家的歷史經驗之影響下建立出來的政治文化，一國基本上只有一種政治文化， 而且是有著一致性的。直到今日，傳統的政治文化依然存在，但得重新定義，稱之為”新政治文化“。新政治文化是以議題為取向，因每一個議題所追求之目標及方法不一，因此產生不同的政治文化。 在這一學期裡，同學還唸了政治經濟學大師Susan Strange 的” 國家權力的消退” 一書，在Susan Strange的書裡提到了很多對國際政治和經濟理論的批判，憂心理論和現實間不該有著巨大的隔閡，並呼籲政治和經濟不能像從前般彼此是獨立不相融的科學。因為政治和經濟不應被分開來看待，經濟的停滯醖釀了政治的摩擦，而政治的衝突加速了經濟的不穩定，二者的互動之關聯性必須用新的理論加以分析和解釋。 在國際政治經濟中不能忽視的另一重大議題，便是國家和社會的關係。特別是中國大陸的國家和社會的關係從改革開放前到改革開放後所帶來的轉變。深入和同學們一起閱讀林德昌教授的專書”廣東與四川省的國有企業的改革: 國家與社會關係的新詮釋” 以及”中國大陸的國有企業的改革: 一個社會的觀點”一文。和同學們討論了1978年前中國大陸國家與社會的關係到1978年改革開放後的轉變，以及又是如何在轉變的，國家和社會關係轉變的過程中所產生的非政府組織又是如何的影響著中國大陸的政府決策。主要是透過理論與時事的討論，修課同學將能對課程進一步的認識，對於理論與實務的結合有相當的幫助。 The Report on the Group Discussion for the Subject: Studies on China’s Economic and Trade System On Tuesday 1st December, I made an announcement that I would like to invite all of the students in the class to attend the group discussion regarding the lessons we learnt from this class. At the beginning, many of them did not understand the reason why they need it. Since most of the students are foreigners and they would be here temporarily, they prefer to skip this discussion. Some of them were exchanged for only one semester so they told me that they would not be available, as they need to travel around Taiwan. Moreover, many of them just followed their friends. If their friends joined, they would join. Some of them asked if it was a compulsory. I replied that the discussion was not compulsory but I encourage everyone to attend. However, many of them prefer to have free time to travel or study on their own. Therefore, very few students were interested about this. However, I tried to talk to them individually and then more students agreed to attend the group discussion. As I told them that it would not take a long time and it was useful for their study. Besides that, it will help them prepare themselves for the coming final exam. Moreover, I offer to discuss with them about how to make their life become easier here as a foreign student. For example, I would suggest them where to get cheaper movie ticket, or provide them more information about the library system and how to use the online library. Also I found out that some of the Taiwanese students did not understand English that’s why they kept quiet. However, later when I use Chinese to inform them about the group discussion, they were very co-operative and agreed to attend the group discussion. Therefore, we made an appointment to meet after the class for the group discussion on Tuesday 15th December. The meeting place is the corner nearby the classroom at 5. 15 pm. On Tuesday 15th December, at 5.15 pm. We went to the corner nearby our classroom together. However, it was very windy and there were quite a lot of people around there at that time. Moreover, the tables were round and can’t be connected to each other conveniently. As a result, we discussed together there for a while, and later we moved to the living room on the fourth floor of the international villa. I offered them two topics. One was ‘How important the farmers are towards the China’s reform before the year 1978 and after the year 1978’ and the second topic was ‘the interaction between the state and the society in China before the year 1978 and after the year 1978.’ The majority of the students prefer the first topic; ‘How important the farmers are towards the China’s reform before the year 1978 and after the year 1978’ so we discuss this topic. Many of the students did not read the books in advance so it made the discussion a little bit slow. Another big challenge was that most of the Taiwanese students did not speak good English and my Chinese was not very good either so it took quite a long time for us to communicate with each other. Fortunately one of the Taiwanese students can speak quite good English so he helped translating for us. In order to make the discussion easier and more efficient for them, I had point out to them that the topic we discussed that day was related to the many chapters in the book. For example: ‘How the Farmers Changed China: Power of the People’ by Kate Xiao Zhou, ‘State and Peasant in Contemporary China: The Political Economy of Village Government, by Jean C. Oi, Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change’ by Susan H. Whiting, ‘Rural China Takes Off: Institutional Foundations of Economic Reform’ by Jean C. Oi, Regional Development in China: States, Globalization, and Inequality’ by Yehua Dennis Wei, and ‘Regional Development in China: States, Globalization, and Inequality’ by Yehua Dennis Wei. Firstly, we discussed what exactly was the commune system. Under the commune system, farmers were given the land in the late 1940s and early 1950s in recognition of their support for the Communist Party. But they never received titles and, by 1958, all their productive property and all the land had been socialized, without any compensation. As a result, the crisis happened to the poor Chinese farmers. The starvation was everywhere. Actually, China’s government was aware of the famine problem and tried to come up with many reforms. Under the commune system, Chinese farmers were fully controlled in every aspect of their lives. The farmers had to work according to the order they received. Nonfarm work of any kind was seriously limited and rural market was greatly restricted. Migration was strictly prohibited. Therefore, the Chinese farmers had no freedom. That was why they tried to break away from the rigidity of the commune system. After Mao's death in 1976, a number of experiments that assigned land to individual households or small groups of households began. Some of those experiments were individual, with cadres being bribed to permit a family to farm a plot of land. The reform of the commune system and their eventual abolition was due to this bottom-up process. Actually the Chinese Communist Party did not support assigning land to households. But, apparently because of the widespread illegal assignment of land to households, a decision was reached in the fall of 1980 to permit the household responsibility system in the poorest 15 to 20 percent of the communes in the country. However, the large gains in output and incomes were so evident that it was impossible to stop the spread of the system to nearly all communes. By the end of 1984 only a few of the 50,000 communes remained; in fact, most had disappeared by the end of 1983. Basically, we found out that it was the farmers that were responsible for the reform process that began in 1978 and the Chinese farmers were the important force that had made the reform heading towards the right direction at the end. Amidst the inefficient system imposed on agriculture and farmers by Mao Tze-tung in 1958, which was to expand food production at a rate greater than the population growth, the Chinese farmers resisted such commune system with the co-operation from the corrupted local officials. Although those Chinese farmers were unorganized, they were successful at the end. I was quite satisfied with the group discussion because at the beginning many of the students tend to lack the interests in this activity. However, they attend and participate in the discussion. Some of them asked me for some guidance to answer the questions for the exam. I suggested them to answer the questions according to the book and the lecture we learnt in the class but of course we must not just copy the words from the book. The answers should come from our own words and we should include our own ideas to our answer too. That was our group discussion all about.