Analysis on the major obstacles of public participation in public policy-making

Participation in public policy-making is one of the important approaches for citizens to affect public policy, and also the guarantee of the scientific and democratic paths of the public policy. To enhance the cognitive level and ability of the citizen who participate in public policy-making, ensure the institutionalization and procedures of the public policy-making, make the information about the public policy-making open and transparent, this paper points out the main obstacles of citizens＇ participation in public policy-making mostly at present and enhance the quality of public policy.     

Social development,community development and participation

Unlike social development, community development could not be achieved without participation. Participation is participating in decision making, to choose a community project, plan it, implement it, manage it, monitor it and control it. People can make a contribution to the planning process at the implementation stage, only if they are presented with a well articulated and feasible framework of approaches, objectives, alternative, etc. The paper focuses on the definition of social development, community development and participation in order to elaborate them. Main question of this article is： Participation is a vehicle to achieve development that community members can be involved directly in development process. This is theoretical research that method of data collection is document method.     

Antecedents and consequences of interpersonal trust： An empirical study

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of empowerment, participation and feedback as antecedents of interpersonal trust and organizational commitment and productivity as consequences of interpersonal trust. This study also attempts to find the influence of empowerment, participation and feedback on positive organizational outcomes such as organizational commitment and productivity. A quantitative research design was employed. Data were collected through survey instrument from 186 participants comprising professional, administrative and support staff working in one municipality of Istanbul （Turkey） government. The research results indicate that interpersonal trust is vital to positive organizational outcomes such as organizational commitment and productivity and to enhance the interpersonal trust and positive organizational outcomes, which are characterized by empowerment, participation and feedback are very important.     

The archive and community system for preserving traditional culture in rural areas

Rural areas in Japan are facing many problems such as aging, depopulation. Japanese traditional cultures in rural areas will be lost because of their flame keeper shortages. Rural residents and researchers take the problem seriously and are trying to archive all of them. In this study, we focused on their archiving activities and designed the web-based digital archiving system, which encourage the process of creating the virtual community that enhances the discussion and communication based on the traditional cultures. Furthermore, we researched the effects on rural community formation by their activities in rural area. In conclusion, we understood the trigger to lead rural areas to revitalize through the archiving activity.     

Africanization： The dilemma to Africanize or to globalize a curriculum

Africanization is generally seen as a renewed focus on Africa-reclaiming what has been taken from Africa--and the emergence of a new sense of pride. With regard to the local curriculum, there is a renewed focus on indigenous knowledge and an African community competing in a global society. In this article the author will reflect on a literature search on Africanization by firstly attempting to create an awareness of the topic by local problems, for example an Africanized curriculum and study material specifically designed for the higher education student in South Africa （who might be in rural or urban） or in the rest of Africa, or even a local student who has migrated to another part of the globe; secondly, looking at relevancy problems that arise when designing local study material on a global platform; thirdly, suggesting ways to design an Africanized environment that not only reflects the underpinning of an African philosophy, but also takes cognizance of the global curriculum. Therefore, an attempt to create an awareness in all communities worldwide of the need is involved in their own curricula by not only looking at problems such as language, culture and values, but also starting at the very beginning, namely with the philosophy behind the design of such a curriculum.     

Is it really performance that is measured？ A reflection of the South African Government＇s performance management system

The institutionalisation of performance management in the South African public service is a post-1994 intervention necessitated by the need to counteract the legacy of poor performance in public service institutions. Performance management as an integrated system is not a standalone intervention, but has direct links with other organisational processes. At both the micro- and macro-levels, PMS （performance management system） recognises institutional performance relationships between individuals＇, teams＇ and departments＇ performance contributions for attaining government performance targets. These institutional performance relationships in the South African public service have attracted excessive attention, whilst their performance impact in communities has been overlooked. In addition, the interdependence between the dichotomies of PMS： institutional performance relationships and performance impact have also been overlooked. In the South African context, this condition creates a disparity in terms of which government employees are rewarded for outstanding performance, whilst targeted beneficiaries express dissatisfaction, often with violent protests, over government＇s performance in the delivery of basic services. The protestors cite poor service delivery in prioritised key performance areas of the South African Government. The granting of performance rewards to government employees is an expression of performance excellence, which should translate into quality service delivery. Such delivery should not only meet the levels of service delivery expectations of targeted communities, but should also result in their total satisfaction. The article is founded on the basis that any disparity between targeted beneficiaries＇ service expectations and level of satisfaction can be linked directly to government progress in PMS implementation.     

Biomarket for transforming agriculture to drive Asian economic boom

Asian countries have historically faced challenges of higher population growth and a traditional economy largely based on primary production. Even with good potential for agriculture in terms of available area, basic infrastructure and social skills, plant diseases, poor yielding crop varieties, irregular rainfall and other environmental factors keep the produce much lower. The paper suggests the concept of biomarket as a combination of biotechnology and economy. Notwithstanding public apprehensions, biotechnology promises environment and infection resistant crop varieties, higher yield, improved taste, texture and nutrition of foods, independence from fertilizers and pesticides. However, there is time lag between the research and implementation not to mention the increasing costs involved. A biomarket then would start with a consortium of scientists from member countries pooling research tracks and knowledge of otherwise locally available/developed biotechnologies and making them easily available to all members. Exim policies, IPRs and transparent works would have to be modeled to the opening and sharing of research and its use in the fields and homes. Technology transfer, industry-academic partnership, identification and marketing of bioproducts, international centres, and utilization of indigenous technologies in modern way would streamline the operation of biomarket across Asia. Biomarket will be more evolved than the conventional markets by including knowledge based economy. Social awareness of various biotechnologies and demonstration of success in implementing them locally would engage people＇s life styles. This will ensure wider sociological impact with a purpose of economic progress. Biomarket will finally aim for Asia to emerge as a world power bloc.     

The matrix of complex negotiations case study： Negotiating with the Chinese at a time of crisis

This paper seeks to outline the profile of the Chinese negotiators in light of the negotiations that took place during the month of October 2008 between a major Brazilian importer of manufactured goods, which the authors will call ＂Brazilian company＂ and six Chinese companies from the cities of Guangzhou, Pinghu and Hangzhou. The authors will provide succinct examples of stages in the negotiation process and seek to link them to the ten elements of the matrix of complex negotiations, namely： context, interests, options, power, cognition, relationship, concessions, compliance, criteria and time; There are four steps involved in the process： preparation, value creation, value division and execution.     

From local to global： Can local journalism be a new approach to environmental awareness？

Turkey＇s media agenda mostly consists of European relations, the Middle East question and Iraq. The rest of this agenda is predominantly economic news. Because of its geographical location, it is difficult for environmental problems to be perceived as leading problems and find places in Turkey＇s national newspapers. The importance of the local media arises in creating awareness about the environmental issues and forming public opinion in order to find solutions. Due to the immediacy component of news, creating public opinion about the environment through local as opposed to national media is considered to be a more effective method. It is purpose of researcher to determine whether this which is seen to be effective theoretically will also have the same effect in practice. In this research, content analysis will be applied to three local newspapers in Turkey. It has seen that the local media reports environmental news, its source are government and city hall. It has given information to form awareness to the environmental issues.     

IAS/IFRS and insurance： A gradual shifting from insurance to finance

Financial year 2005 marks the gradual introduction of the international accounting standard （IAS） as part of a broad project promoted by the EU to achieve consistency and comparability and, consequently, greater transparency in corporate accounts, with benefits for the users and institutions who make use of, or exercise control over them. The present paper will not address all the related complex profiles （e.g., actuarial methodologies, financial evaluation models, cash-flows scenarios generation techniques）. Actual aim is to bring evidence for the gradual shifting of perspective promoted by the financial community as far as the insurance companies are concerned： Once considered as unknown ＂black-boxes＂ because of their peculiarities, western countries＇ most authoritative agencies and largest private investors felt for a long time uneasy to manage insurance companies＇ disclosures. More recently, since the industry has been absorbed in the world-wide trend toward global conglomerate encompassing banking, finance and insurance, western regulators have undertaken a sound effort to move insurance disclosures from a technical to a financial view, boosting a dramatic homologation to other financial institutions （Cesarini ＆ Varaldo, 1992; Forestieri ＆ Moro, 1993; Locatelli, et al., 1999）. The trade-off, the authors intend to show, is now between more transparent outlook and an insider＇s knowledge of an industry whose peculiarities are inescapable.     

The understanding of the laws and bylaws and the methodology for drafting in the socialist regime

The methodology for drafting is one of the most important concepts in drafting of a policy paper and translating this policy into legislation. Regarding this, it is necessary to know how the legislative drafting developed in the past during the socialist regime, and how it has changed with time after the beginning of the democratic processes of the country. Due to the correct methodology of drafting, we enable a good correct legislation as an important element of good governance, where the concept of law lays on its foundations and the democratic system is the major goal.     

Reform process in Bulgaria： Challenges and perspectives after joining EU

The paper＇s objective is to analyze and outline the key challenges and perspectives in achieving a modern type of governance and a well functioning and transparent administrative system, capable to apply the best European practices and policies. The study summarizes the main results, achievements and shortcomings of the reform process and reveals that the progress has been slower and more limited than expected despite all efforts of the government. The conclusion made is that Bulgaria needs to not only substantially enhance its administrative and judicial capacity, but also drastically intensify its reforms to improve the management of EU funds and achieve concrete results in the fight against corruption. All this requires strong political will and determination.     

Electronic government interoperability framework in Greece： Project management approach and lessons learned in public administration

The implementation of e-government is a burgeoning phenomenon across the globe. However, a review of the IS literature reveals the inability of public administration organizations to complete information technology projects successfully. Unless governments learn to manage the government transformation projects, these e-dreams will turn into global nightmares. The shortage of studies on e-government implementation presents a knowledge gap that needs to be plugged. This paper describes and analyzes the implementation and the project management approach of the electronic government interoperability framework （EGIF） in Greece. Our intent is to present an application of a goal-driven project management methodology named EGTPM （electronic government transformation project management） in order to use it as a methodological reference when navigating in the open sea of information technology project implementations in the area of public administration. The successful implementation of the specific project indicates that the application of EGTPM approach could provide a solution to achieve government transformation objectives more effectively and efficiently.     

Empirical study on the influence of organizational learning and capability on technological mnovanon

Based upon the generalization of those theories in organizational learning, organizational capability and technological innovation, the essay discusses the influence of organizational learning and capability in technological innovation, and presents its relevant hypotheses. On analyzing the effective sample data from 682 enterprises of different industries across 10 provinces and cities in China, the empirical results reveal that external learning is in favor of enterprises to cultivate dynamic capability but to disfavor in improving the existing operational capability, internal learning benefits enterprises to improve the existing operational capability but to disbenefit in cultivating dynamic capability, dynamic capability has a positive impact on operational capability, dynamic capability has significantly positive correlation with product innovation and process innovation, while operational capability has only evidently positive correlation with product innovation.     

Definition of national minorities in international law

During historic development, that the stress put in international law on protection of national minorities was strengthened or weakened depends upon a momentary interest of states. In （general） international law up to now, the term of ＂national minority＂ has not been legally defined. It has been done only for Europe. A group can be classed as a national minority if it is numerically smaller than the rest population of the state. It is not in a dominant position, its culture, language, religion, race, etc. are distinct from that of the rest population, its members have a will to preserve their specificity, its members are citizens of the state where they have the status of a minority and as a specific condition frequently added, and at the same time such a minority should have a long-term presence on the territory where it has lived.     

Recent problems of the historic centres in Spain

In the last thirty years, historic centres that were considered as impoverished urban structures that ought to be replaced are now viewed as crucial enclaves of urban identity that ought to be protected. The singularity of the old city increases its importance in our global world. The value of the city as a living cultural legacy, with all its embedded symbolism, is thus recognised. We can find some problems within these spaces, as for example, depopulation and dwelling price increase with their consequences： degradation in some parts and revaluation in others, especially in those with progressive increase in the service economy.     

Anonymous electronic identity in cross-border and cross-sector environment

The paper deals with identity management in cross-border and cross-sector communication in e-government. The new ALUCID （automatic, liberal and user-centric electronic identity） technology based on new principles of anonymous and automatic identity enables markedly different and simpler identity management with strong authentication support. This paper aims to compare ALUCID with PKI （public key infrastructure, a well-known identity management technology used in cross-border and cross-sector environment of e-government） from user＇s and government＇s point of view. It focuses on organizational aspects of eID issuing and verification, various interoperability issues, language issues, legislative framework variety, cultural differences and privacy protection issues related to identity use and management. The specific features of the ALUCID technology which was designed to support the specific needs of e-government in a cross-border and cross-sector environment are also described herein.     

The extension method to calculate the error of industrial structure

The industrial structure shows the service efficiency of economic resources and the rationality of its development. It has been one of the important works for governments to calculate the error of industrial structure and adjust it. The dependent function is the core of extension set, which shows the extent of objective property, and explains the easiness to be variated quantitatively or qualitatively. By using the dependent degree, the error of industrial structure shows not only the magnitude but also the easiness to correct it, then the decision-makers can discriminate the difficulty of industrial adjustment and select the emphasis, and the orientation of adjustment may be clearer and the operation may be more maneuverable. The paper analyzes the orientation to adjust the industrial structure and proposes some simple suggestions by using the calculation results.     

Globalized economies or globalized bodies？ The economical and cultural factors of obesity in China

This paper is a review of the literature that examines obesity in China. Multiple factors that contribute to this phenomenon are investigated, such as globalization, urbanization and cultural changes. Most of the researches reviewed in this paper concern urban, coastal populations of China. Obesity is defined differently for Asian populations; thus, diagnosis has been underestimated in the past. As China＇s economy develops, the country may now be gaining western problems, such as obesity. Obesity is related to economical causes as China participates in international business and trade. Furthermore, the role of the globalized food industry is reviewed. More western food companies and restaurants have infiltrated Chinese cities, causing mass changes in the traditional Chinese diet. Likewise, employment is a significant factor examined since more occupations in Chinese cities have transitioned to the service sector. Cultural attitudes differ from those of the West in which the Chinese view heavier bodies as healthier than thinner figures. Interventions that have been attempted are reviewed.     

Japan＇s ＂unsettling＂ past： Article 11 of San Francisco Peace Treaty and its ramlncatlons

Article 11 of the Treaty of Peace with Japan （San Francisco Peace Treaty） has become a rallying point for some activists and historians in their endeavor to have Japan recognize its ＂war responsibility＂ and redress its ＂unsettled past＂. The provision stipulates Japan＇s acceptance of the ＂judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and of other Allied War Crimes Courts both within and outside Japan＂. The wording of this provision, which is ambiguous enough to leave a room for its re-interpretation later, was a result of a compromise among the World War lI Allies. Yet, neither archival investigation of the article＇s drafting process nor a survey of the opinions of U.S. legal experts in the public international did not prove the validity of the revisionist thesis. Nevertheless, the treaties Japan signed with its former colony （Korea） and belligerent （China） left the settlement of war-related issues obscure, creating a leeway for initiating later controversies. The end of the Cold War heralded the re-evaluation of World War I1 settlements. The subsequently created agitated environment surrounding the historical discussion of Japan＇s so-called ＂unsettled＂ past has been ＂unsettling＂ enough to prevent the Japanese leaders from establishing a uniform interpretation of Article l l, and has added impetus to the movements pressuring Japan to recognize its ＂war responsibility＂. Although interested parties have so far cited Article 11 mainly to demand ＂inaction＂ from Japan, such as to discourage Japanese political leaders from visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, there is a growing indication that some may well utilize it to demand Japan＇s ＂action＂--to pay indemnities to the victims of Japan＇s alleged atrocities through various forms of redress movements.