Catalysts for Cooperation: Non-Governmental Organizations in Santo Domingo

Abstract

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in development work have aimed traditionally to carry out infrastructure or human development in developing areas, but they have increasingly pursued the development of civic life as a pathway to democracy. Drawing on case studies from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, this article points to ways in which NGOs can help to foster cooperation among other key sectors in civil society, namely grass-roots organizations (GROs) in poor neighbourhoods. Such cooperation cultivates solidarity among the marginalized and allows GROs working together to make demands on the political system and to enhance democracy in less developed countries. The maintenance of grass-roots autonomy is a key to success in fostering cooperation, along with a clear understanding by NGOs of the local context.     

非政府组织的政府化及对组织绩效的影响

在我国"强政府、弱社会"的状况下,非政府组织都或多或少地带有政府的特征,这种现象可称为非政府组织的政府化。通过对哈尔滨市的社团组织进行的随机抽样调查表明,社团组织的政府化程度较强且组织绩效普遍低下。对社团组织的政府化程度和组织绩效分别进行因子分析,析出了政府化程度的政府参与因子、基本要素的政府支持因子、经费支持与政府依赖因子,组织绩效的凝聚力因子、计划与执行力因子和组织活力因子。分析表明,政府化程度与组织绩效的各因子之间存在着复杂的关系:政府的参与有助于提高组织的计划与执行能力却消减了组织活力;政府对社团组织基本要素的支持有利于提高组织的凝聚力和活力;政府对社团组织的经费支持和由此导致的对政府的依赖能够提高组织的计划与执行能力,但却降低了组织活力。聚类分析的结果表明:城市社团中存在着管理型、职能型、自立型和名义型四种类型的社团。     

Leader Influence and Reputation Formation in World Politics

The study of reputation is one of the foundational topics of modern international relations. However, fundamental questions remain, including the question of to whom reputations adhere: states, leaders, or both? We offer a theory of influence‐specific reputations (ISR) that unifies competing accounts of reputation formation. We theorize that reputations will adhere more to actors who are more influential in the relevant decision‐making process. We employ two survey experiments, one abstract and one richly detailed involving a U.S.‐Iran conflict, to evaluate ISR. We find evidence of large country‐specific reputations and moderately sized leader‐specific reputations. Consistent with the theory of influence‐specific reputations, leader‐specific reputations are more important when leaders are more influential.     

Russian Politics in Transition: Political Parties and Organizations in Russia and the Murmansk Region

In this article the development of new political organizations in Russia is discussed. The authors acknowledge the fact that the new parties and organizations are still weak and not well organized. bur they nevertheless play a significant role in the preservation of democracy in Russia. Several stages in the party creation process can be discerned. Before the 1991 attempted coup d'état the Communist Party of the Soviet Union still played a dominant role, while a number of smaller political organizations emerged. After the dissolution of the CPSU. the centre groupings dominated the political scene. Gradually. the level of political polarization increased. as evidenced by the 1993 elections which spelled victory for the post-communists and ultra-nationalists. Using sartori's definitions, the authors analyse the party and organizations with the help of a left-right continuum, which portrays some differences in Russian politics without covering all cleavages. The important regional differences in party formation are illustrated with empirical data from the Murmansk region. During the Gorbachev period a number of informal organizations emerged which gradually developed into parties critical of the CPSU. Initially, social democratic organizations were strong on the Kola Peninsula, but they declined in importance due to internal disagreement. In the 1993 elections, the largest parties in this region were the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and the market-oriented Russia's Choice. In Russia as a whole, the post-election period manifested itself in increasing political polarization and successive retreat from the marker-reform policies. Clearly, the road to a well-functioning system of parties in Russia is still a long one.     

Coordination between government and voluntary organizations (NGOs) in Thailand's rural development

This paper investigates the coordination between government organizations and nongovernmental, voluntary organizations in Thailand. The contributions, the nature and the cooperation mechanisms of development NGOs are considered on the basis of field data collected from local government and NGO officers working in rural development. Based on theoretical considerations, an overview of coordination is developed within the framework of development in the country. The problems of coordination boil down to a fundamental mistrust of the NGOs’ style of operation in spite of the personal relationships that are often the only basis for coordination attempts. While decentralization efforts will improve the situation, a more direct policy, as well as plan formulation and implementation management efforts, will be needed to arrive at a mutually reinforced effort in rural development.     

Globalization and the Strengthening of Democracy in the Developing World

Scholars and policy makers have long assumed that trade and financial liberalization encourages developing countries to become more democratic; yet no one has developed formal hypotheses about the causal relationship between globalization and democracy. This article shows that these two trends are indeed related, but not necessarily in the direct manner that has commonly been postulated. Combining theories of embedded liberalism and conflict-based theories of democracy, the model presented here depicts the process that affects decisions to strengthen democracy as trade and capital flows increase. I argue that increasing exposure to international export and financial markets leads to improvements in democracy if safety nets are used simultaneously as a strategy for providing stability and building political support. Empirical evidence is provided by econometric analysis covering 59 developing countries for the time period 1972–97.     

International Opinion and World Politics: the Case of the INF Treaty

The INF Treaty, a turning-point in the nuclear arms race, was preceded by massive protests against nuclear armaments around the world, thus providing a test of the old belief that world opinion is crucial for peace and security. At issue is whether the treaty came about because of, regardless of or in spite of this international opinion. Three propositions about the relationship between international opinion-formation and foreign policymaking are thus outlined in the paper and are then applied to the INF case. It appears that anti-nuclear opinion was effective in part and counter-productive in part. A salient feature of the INF process was its unpredictability, which suggests several reasons why international opinion-formation is apt to lead to unexpected results.     

台湾政党政治的发展历程及其时代特征

本文从政党政治的一般概念出发，分析了台湾政党政治所经历的三个发展阶段及其在不同阶段所具有的特征。文章认为，自台湾政党轮替以来，岛内多党纷争的局面正在随着政党之间的重新整合而结束，一个以蓝绿两大政党联盟为特征的“两党制”政党政治已经开始。但与此同时，台湾政党政治中的非理性因素依然严重，族群矛盾、“台独”意识形态、肢体冲突等现象依然存在，构成台湾政党政治未来良性发展的严重障碍。     

Project identification,formulation and start-up by voluntary organizations (NGOs) in Thailand's rural development

This paper presents an overview of issues in NGO project identification, formulation and start-up in the context of rural development in Thailand. It identifies the types of projects, the methods used to identify them, the initial activities in projects, the problems faced in project formulation and the influence of various factors on the process, e.g. government regulations and the NGO staff in the organization. There is limited pressure on NGOs from the government even though recent regulations may lead to more control of their activities. The importance of leadership training in the initial stages of a project is emphasized. In particular, when comparing small with larger NGOs, the technical inputs in project identification and formulation seem to be a constraint for small NGOs. Usually project identification methodology consists of following up on existing projects. In larger NGOs more bureaucratic or formalized methods are used and the ideology of the organization is more important.     

Progressive Politics in a Changing World: Challenging the Fallacies of Blue Labour

In Britain and across Europe, the social alliances that sustained progressive politics for a century are disintegrating. The financial crisis of 2007–8 showed that Labour and its ‘third way’ European followers had got the economics of modern capitalism wrong. With the mainstream left compromised, it has been the nationalist right that has benefitted, re-defining politics around issues of nation, culture and identity. What is surprising is the number of influential voices across the centre and left of politics who have accepted much of this far-right analysis and adopted its language and terminology. These trends, especially post-Brexit, have crystallised in the UK around the label of ‘Blue Labour’. This article examines the fallacies and flaws of the Blue Labour tendency in four key areas—class, economy, family and race—and suggests alternative ways forward, which seek to forge rather than disrupt alliances between the working class and new social movements.     

Protecting Sovereignty,Protecting the Planet: State Delegation to International Organizations and Private Actors in Environmental Politics

As global interdependence grows, states often use international organizations to achieve both domestic and foreign policy goals. One way states respond to demands for cooperation is to delegate to international organizations and private actors. In this article, we use new data spanning a century of international environmental law to understand when and why states delegate to international organizations to manage environmental problems. We find that delegation is a persistent phenomenon that facilitates the implementation of states' preferences. However, they make this decision with care: States tend to delegate functions with lower sovereignty costs, such as implementation and monitoring, but rarely delegate rule making and enforcement. We also find that heterogeneous preferences among states increases the likelihood of delegation. Overall, our results suggest that states seek to delegate out of a motivation both to reduce transaction costs and to establish credible commitments.     

世博会期间大学思想政治工作的机遇和挑战

百年世博会为大学生思想政治工作带来了新的机遇。原因在于世博精神与大学精神具有内在的一致性。同时,世博会也是对大学生进行思想政治工作教育的生动课堂。世博期间广大大学生志愿者和志愿者背后的志愿者通过参与世博、服务世博、奉献世博,使他们的爱国热情得到升华,服务社会的意愿得到践行。     

Why Aren't We Laughing?: Grammatical Investigations in World Politics

This paper argues that the later Wittgenstein's notion of the autonomy of grammar opens up critical space for thinking about world politics. The claim that philosophy should be a 'grammatical investigation' involves considering how particular pictures, as representations of reality, hold us captive. Although the 'deep disquietudes' that are expressed in world politics may have similarities with the depth of a grammatical joke, I will look at a few reasons why we aren't laughing.