Civil society and democratic progression in postcolonial Nigeria: The role of non-governmental organizations

Abstract

With the ever increasing demands of market forces via globalization on governments, the parallel requests from citizens to fill the gap often left open by states have become just as prevalent in the modern era. Governments have become ill-equipped to handle such citizen demands or simply unwilling, thus civil society agents in the form of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) are attempting to fill those gaps. Ideally, civil society actors like NGOs collectively mobilize and advocate more political openness, in the form of civil liberties and civil rights. However, NGOs can stymie democracy-building as well. Demands for more democratization are increasing precipitously, and seem to be coinciding with the rising tide of globalization, even in nascent democracies such as Nigeria. However, the idealism of the 1990s, that NGOs would be the panacea for democratic limitations, are not revealing themselves as once anticipated for a plethora of reasons. This paper will investigate the impact of NGO efforts and democratization in the face of instability in postcolonial Nigeria.     

农村妇女草根组织的推动手法

建立一个形式上的妇女草根组织容易,要使其能够持续发展下去并保持良好的运作却相当困难,需要花大力气促进组织成员的意识提升与能力增长,才能使之最终走上自我管理、自我发展的道路,通过河南社区教育研究中心多年推动妇女草根组织的经验,总结了农村妇女草根组织发展的多样化推动手法。     

新时期农村基层党组织权威提升与功能实现

农村基层党组织是党在农村全部工作和战斗力的基础,拥有领导核心功能,利益综合、协调与表达功能以及政治录用与政治社会化功能。新时期,农村中出现的各种变化、变革给农村基层党组织带来了挑战。权威的提升有助于促进党组织功能的有效发挥。权威的树立并不意味着权威问题的永久解决,作为党在农村工作的领导核心,村党组织必须关注农村社会各层面的变动,提升其功能发挥的效果,重塑自身的权威。     

浅议民间组织对政府管理的影响

随着我国经济体制转轨、社会转型、民主化进程的加快,作为市民社会核心力量的民间组织也呈现出较快较大的发展趋势,对政府管理产生相应的影响,促使其向着良性的、有利于政治民主化的方向发展。     

依法保障我国社会组织参与社会管理的权力

目前,我国社会组织在社会管理中发挥的作用越来越突出,但是行政化色彩严重、公众信任度不高、监督管理不到位等因素仍然制约着其健康发展。党的十八届四中全会提出"依法治国"的重大决定,而社会组织作为多元社会管理力量中的一股重要力量,也应该依法保障其参与社会管理的权力,探索其发展的法制化路径,比如:进一步简政放权、依法监管、适度问责及法律体系的完善等等,只有依法构建良好的制度环境,才能推动社会组织健康发展,从真正意义上实现依法治国。     

Civil Society Influence on International Organizations: Theorizing the State Channel

Abstract

The literature on transnational civil society tends to treat civil society organizations (CSOs) as independent actors, accomplishing policy change largely through moral force or popular pressure. However, a significant portion of CSO successes in policy advocacy actually utilizes alliances with state actors. To understand the implications of this ‘state channel’ of CSO influence, we develop a new model of CSO use of state influence. We identify four factors that determine whether the state channel is accessible for CSOs to use and is likely to produce more effective CSO influence than direct CSO engagement with the international organization (IO): the porousness of the targeted states and IOs, the availability of contacts, the possibility for alignment of interests, and the relative power of aligned state and IO contacts. We illustrate this theory using four case studies of civil society engagement: two case studies involving the World Bank and two involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Our analysis suggests that the factors determining CSOs' successful use of the state channel currently tend to favour a small number of well-resourced, reformist CSOs from porous and powerful states.     

制度创新与运行机制:非营利组织再造

非营利组织是市场组织、政府组织之外能独立发挥作用的第三种组织,它通过一定形式的制度安排,扮演着不可或缺的社会角色。江山市养蜂产业化协会从蜂农和蜂产品企业需求出发,创造性地设计了互助合作社与产加联合体。通过制度创新,使组织得以再造和机制有效运行,提高蜂产业的竞争力,充分发挥出非营利性组织的积极作用。     

江苏省非公企业纪检监察组织建设调查与思考

非公企业作为社会主义市场经济发展的重要主体,面临着反腐败的严峻问题。江苏省非公企业的纪检监察组织坚持以引导非公企业健康发展,促进非公企业守法经营、诚信经营、廉洁经营为目标,把纪检监察工作与企业生产经营有机结合起来,从而保证党在非公企业组织领域中的政治核心地位。依据企业规模,纪检监察组织建设在形态上主要有单独建制、联合组建和选派纪律监督员三种。正确界定职能是非公企业纪检监察工作健康开展的关键;配备结构合理、精干高效的纪检监察机构和纪检监察工作人员,是开展非公有制经济组织党风廉政建设的基础和依托。要从精准定位、分类指导、制度安排三个方面入手,逐步解决当前非公企业对纪检监察组织建设存在的认知不足、自觉性欠缺、资源供应不足等问题,规范非公企业纪律监督的组织运行,建立健全非公企业纪检监察组织网络,进一步完善非公企业纪检监察工作建设责任制,切实加快江苏省非公企业纪检监察组织建设。     

Within,Above, and Beyond: Churches and Religious Civil Society Activism in South Kivu

In South Kivu in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), various church actors have chosen to involve in advocacy and mobilization through a formalized civil society structure known as La Société Civile (LSC). In this article, we explore the relationship between the churches and civil society in Eastern DRC, paying particular attention to why this cooperation has taken such a formalized expression, the motivations of church actors to become involved in LSC and, finally, how this relationship between different civil society actors has underpinned various peacebuilding efforts at the local, provincial, and national scale.     

Idealist Activism and Meaning Management in Social Movement Organizations

ABSTRACT

Transnational social movement organizations manage meaning and transmit meaning across borders. Organizations in the peace and human rights sector also often deal overtly in the construction, framing, translation, and distribution of meanings. This article describes a hybrid form of idealism that is defined herein as ‘idealist activism’. In describing idealist activism, this article identifies a form of meaning management that emphasizes engagement with humanity both in the service of and in the quest for universal truths and tenets, as opposed to the more widely acknowledged cosmopolitanism emphasis on engagement with universal truths and tenets in the service of humanity. The significance of idealist activism is explained not just in terms of the depth and breadth of its influence, but also with regard to its pertinence as an alternative to both political cosmopolitanism and religious idealism.     

International Organizations ICTs Policies: E‐Democracy and E‐Government for Political Development

New technologies provide new channels of access to political information and participation in decision‐making processes. This assumption is clearly important in the action plans and policies of International Organizations (World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, United Nations), which have assumed a leadership role in the reform of political institutions. Starting from an analysis of the reasons that have brought the state and processes of institution building back into focus, this paper will reconstruct the International Organizations' vision of the transformative potential of new information technologies and their activity in this field. Particular attention will be devoted to e‐democracy and e‐government as policies to build democracy in developing countries.     

公安院校学生非正式组织及其管理研究

在公安院校学生管理中存在的非正式组织的影响和作用是不可小视的。因此,对学生非正式组织进行研究是十分必要的。对学校中存在的非正式组织的成因和特征进行分析,并根据影响程度的不同将其进行分类,将有助于学校管理者采取有效的措施对其进行管理。     

District magnitude and voter turnout a multi-level analysis of self-reported voting in the 32 Dominican Republic districts

Although studies of electoral participation in established democracies are abundant, little attention has been devoted to Latin American democracies and few studies combine individual-level and contextual-level variables. We focus on electoral participation in 32 districts of a Latin American democracy, the Dominican Republic. Our research question is: how to explain the different impact of district magnitude in Latin America? Most importantly, we find that it has a negative effect on electoral participation whereas theories based on established democracies would predict the opposite. We argue that the negative effect is caused by the stronger influence of clientelism in smaller districts, which surfaces at less salient elections. This argument accounts for previously unexplained findings in studies of Latin America.     

Hybrid Polities and Indigenous Pluralities: Advanced Lessons in Statebuilding from Cambodia

Abstract

Statebuilding as a panacea for post-conflict societies is a largely uncriticised notion, like the liberal democracy it articulates. But, according to some, the policy framework of large-scale transitional statebuilding is often inappropriate, in particular where its focus on liberal democratic forms either ignores or tries to overwrite structural determinants shaping particular national behaviours. Democratic assumptions run so deeply that, without necessarily having overt intent, the lack of reflection upon the paradigmatic assumptions of Western models, often results in the denial of legitimate and viable alternatives. A more minimal approach, which could be based upon limited externally-supported electoral support encouraging indigenous organisation, however, offers to reverse the imperious and democracy-orientated trend, and to promote internally legitimate plural-indigenous systems with long-term sustainability.     

Reviewing, Reflecting and Constructing Research on Grassroots Social Organizations in Rural China

The purpose of this paper is to review previous studies on grassroots social organizations （GSOs） in rural China and provide a new framework for future research. This article uses the method of comparative analysis to review relevant research from the perspective of different disciplines and different theories, and adopts the method of inductive reasoning to analyze and draw conclusions. Previous researches can be divided into four categories according to their disciplines, and there are three theories frequently used to explain the development of rural GSOs in China. Obviously, plenty of valuable researches have been done, but examining a certain kind of GSOs in a single discipline and analyzing the cause of the development of GSOs with an isolated theory are two issues impeding further study on rural GSOs in China. By integrating three theories, a new and comprehensive research framework of ＂interest-identity-institution＂ is presented for future research on all kinds of GSOs. To improve and enrich this frame, a lot of empirical and specific researches need to be done in the future.     

政社关系的理顺与法治化塑造——社会组织参与社区治理的空间与进路

在城市社区治理中,政府与社会组织间失衡错位的关系是社区治理困境产生的根源。因此,理顺政府与社会组织间的关系是破解社区治理困境的重点,而法治正是理顺这一关系的重要工具。法治规则能明确地限定政府与社会组织间的互动路径,并控制政府与社会组织关系的基本走向。政府与社会组织间存在的指导、帮助与支持关系,分别对应了政府的监管、兜底与培育责任,并限定了政府介入社区治理的基本界限。在这样的关系之下,社会组织参与社区治理的可为空间广阔。与此同时,还可以通过法律赋权进一步拓展社会组织的可为空间。     

Electoral engineering in Chile: the electoral system and limited democracy

On the eve of Chile's transition from military to elected government, the outgoing regime enacted an electoral engineering project intended to conserve the constitutional order it encoded in 1980. An analysis of 1989 and 1993 general elections shows that the way votes are translated into seats favors, as intended, the second largest electoral block, the Chilean Right. This bias, along with the number of appointed senators and the special majorities required for constitutional amendments, gives the Right a minority veto power on any reform initiative. Moreover, the electoral system produces incentives for parties, candidates and voters that enhances this balance of power. The role that the electoral system plays in Chile therefore consolidates a limited form of democracy, rather than a liberal one.     

基层法院“立案难”：一个法律样本的解读

基层人民法院作为我国审判机关的前沿,是司法体系的基础,担负着全国法院80%以上的一审案件的审理任务,在和谐社会构建上起着重要的减震器作用。立案程序则是社会纠纷进入基层人民法院的必经门槛,大量的社会纠纷通过人民法院的立案程序进入人民法院的审理视野,所以解决法院立案难问题的关键在基层法院。在当前司法地方化,缺乏公信力的背景下,基层法院立案难问题更加突出,其中既有司法考核、司法腐败等人为的因素,更有立案制度、监督制度、纠纷机制等制度因素。本文通过一个法律样本的解读,分析具体的司法场景下法院的选择,立案如何成为基层人民法院的一个难题,又应当如何解决。从而推进相关机制改革,完善立案制度,切实维护当事人的诉权。     

城乡公平贸易视角下的民间社会服务组织研究——以广州市A社工机构为例

以广州市A社会工作发展中心为个案,通过参与观察,以城乡公平贸易为切入点,系统描述了该民间社会服务组织城乡公平贸易的发展模式与现状,深入了解社区经济、城乡公平贸易的发展理念和发展模式,进而挖掘城乡公平贸易模式对社会发展和社会工作的价值与意义,为社会工作本土化找寻新方向。