WHAT SHAPES CITIZENS' EVALUATIONS OF THEIR PUBLIC OFFICIALS' ACCOUNTABILITY? EVIDENCE FROM LOCAL ETHIOPIA

In this article, we study which institutional factors shape citizens' views of the local accountability of their public officials. Our departing assumption is that evaluations of local accountability reflect not only citizens' poltical attitudes and beliefs but also whether local institutions contribute to an environment of mutual trust, accountability and ultimately democratic legitimacy. Combining public opinion data from a large‐N citizen survey (N = 10 651) with contextual information for 63 local governments in Ethiopia, we look at access to information, participatory planning and the publicness of basic services as potential predictors of citizens' evaluations of local public officials. Our findings suggest that local context matters. Jurisdictions that provide access to information on political decision making are perceived to have more accountable officials. Moreover, when local governments provide public fora that facilitate citizens' stakes in local planning processes, it positively affects citizens' evaluations of the accountability of their officials. Our study adds to the empirical literatrure by showing that establishing local institutions that can foster citizen–government relations at the local level through inclusive processes is crucial for improving public perceptions of accountability. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

走下去,听意见,办实事,作宣传

人民是历史发展的动力,是实践认识的主体,是国家的主人,而我们是人民的公仆. 我们目前存在一些困难,必须依靠群众的支持,才能解决问题.所以,应该走下去,听意见,办实事,作宣传. 走下去.就是各级机关干部要深入基层,深入实际,深入群众.到工厂、农村、学校,街道去接触群众. 听意见.先当群众的学生,要诚心诚意,而不是虚情假意,要认认真真而不是大大咧咧地听意见,包括批评意见和建议.我们要承认自己是仆人,仆人有什么理     

家事,国事,天下事

在隆重庆祝中华人民共和国五十周年华诞的日子里,抚今追昔,心潮起伏。我夫人是共和国的同龄人,适逢祖国五十年诞辰,我对她说:“你真有福气,全国各族人民在欢度国庆的同时,也给你们这些共和国的同龄人过了生日。我看今年你的生日蛋糕上可以写上普国同庆了。”我夫人说:“既然你自我感觉良好,那你的生日蛋糕就该写上普天同庆”,因为我是联合国的同龄人……1985年第四十届联大开幕,当我步入联合国总部大会厅,看到里根总统、撒切尔     

Justice,Charity, and Disaster Relief: What,If Anything,Is Owed to Haiti,Japan, and New Zealand?

Whenever fellow humans suffer due to natural catastrophes, we have a duty to help them. This duty is not only acknowledged in moral theory but also expressed in ordinary people's reactions to phenomena such as tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Despite being widely acknowledged, this duty is also widely disputed: some believe it is a matter of justice, others a matter of charity. Although central to debates in international political theory, the distinction between justice and charity is hardly ever systematically drawn. To fill this gap in the literature, I consider three accounts of this distinction— the “agent‐based,” the “recipient‐based,” and the “mixed” view—and argue that they are all unsatisfactory. I then offer a fourth alternative, the “autonomy” view, which successfully overcomes the difficulties affecting its rivals. I conclude by considering the implications of this view for the moral grounds of disaster relief in earthquake‐stricken Haiti, New Zealand, and Japan.     

学习毛泽东,也要学习,学习,再学习

毛泽东关于统筹兼顾的思想、关于阶级阶层的分析方法、关于“主要从思想上建设党”的指导原则,在新的历史条件下不仅对我们今天的实践有着直接的指导作用,而且对我们分析研究问题具有方法论上的指导意义。因此,学习毛泽东,也要这习,学习,再学习。     

Politische Theorie und Ideengeschichte, Politisches System der Bundesrepublik, Politische Soziologie, Vergleichende Politikforschung, Europäische Union, Internationale Politik, Historische Politikforschung

Inhaltsübersicht   (RezensentInnen in Klammern) Literaturbericht    J?rg Faust / Stefan Leiderer: Zur Effektivit?t und politischen ?konomie der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit Politische Theorie und Ideengeschichte    Bluhm, Harald, und Jürgen Gebhardt: Politische Ideengeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert. Konzepte und Kritik (Philipp H?lzing) • Dryzek, John S., Bonnie Honig und Anne Phillips (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory (Johannes Schmidt) • Ke?ler, Mario: Ossip K. Flechtheim. Politischer Wissenschaftler und Zukunftsdenker (1909–1998) (Wilhelm Bleek) • Priester, Karin: Populismus. Historische und aktuelle Erscheinungsformen (Florian Hartleb) • S?llner, Alfons: Fluchtpunkte. Studien zur politischen Ideengeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts (Michael Becker) • Williams, Bernard: In the Beginning Was the Deed. Realism and Moralism in Political Argument (Carsten Quesel) • Doppelrezension: Henning, Christoph: Philosophie nach Marx. 100 Jahre Marxrezeption und die normative Sozialphilosophie der Gegenwart in der Kritik; Henning, Christoph (Hg.): Marxglossar (Felix Heidenreich) • Doppelrezension: Mouffe, Chantal: über das Politische. Wider die kosmopolitische Illusion; Nonhoff, Martin: Politischer Diskurs und Hegemonie. Das Projekt "Soziale Marktwirtschaft" (André Brodocz) Politisches System der Bundesrepublik    Van Ooyen, Robert Chr., und Martin H. M?llers (Hg.): Das Bundesverfassungsgericht im politischen System (Hubert Woltering) Politische Soziologie    Dolata, Ulrich, und Raymund Werle (Hg.): Gesellschaft und die Macht der Technik. Sozio?konomischer und institutioneller Wandel durch Technisierung (Georg Simonis) Vergleichende Politikforschung    Castles, Francis G. (ed.): The Disappearing State? Retrenchment realities in an age of globalization (Marius R. Busemeyer) • Clasen, Jochen, und Nico A. Siegel (eds.): Investigating Welfare State Change: The 'Dependent Variable Problem' in Comparative Analysis (Marius R. Busemeyer) Europ?ische Union    Huget, Holger: Demokratisierung der EU. Normative Demokratietheorie und Governance-Praxis im europ?ischen Mehrebenensystem (Andreas Wimmel) Internationale Politik    Eder, Franz, Gerhard Mangott und Martin Senn (eds.): Transatlantic Discord. Combating Terrorism and Proliferation, Preventing Crises (Alexander Siedschlag) • Marx, Johannes: Vielfalt oder Einheit der Theorien in den Internationalen Beziehungen. Eine systematische Rekonstruktion, Integration und Bewertung (Ralf J. Leiteritz) • Schmidt, Siegmar, Gunter Hellmann und Reinhard Wolf (Hg.): Handbuch zur Deutschen Au?enpolitik (Helga Haftendorn) • Wolter, Detlev: A United Nations for the 21st Century: From Reaction to Prevention. Towards an Effective and Efficient International Regime for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding (Andreas Heinemann-Grüder) • Young, Brigitte (Hg.): Die Politische ?konomie des Dienstleistungsabkommens (GATS). Gender in EU und China (Eva Hartmann) Historische Politikforschung    Kaelble, Hartmut: Sozialgeschichte Europas 1945 bis zur Gegenwart (Siegfried Weichlein) • Doppelrezension: Andres, Jan: "Auf Poesie ist die Sicherheit der Throne gegründet". Huldigungsrituale und Gelegenheitslyrik im 19. Jahrhundert; Schwengelbeck, Matthias: Die Politik des Zeremoniells. Huldigungsfeiern im langen 19. Jahrhundert (Rainer Schmidt)     

Introduction to “charting,tracking, and mapping: new technologies,labor, and surveillance”

Advances in information technologies over the last two decades have offered the promise of revolutionizing workplaces and other settings by expanding the capabilities of individuals working in various professions. Enabled by high-speed computing systems and marked by an intensification of command and control properties, new technologies have expanded, and in some cases intentionally surpassed, the scope of the senses. Technologies such as drones, surveillance cameras, and airport and border security systems promise the seemingly infinite catchment and infinitesimal account of human actions, while computer processing software provides real-time data on large-scale transactional processes occurring in monetary systems and security markets. Charting, tracking, and mapping functions open up new vistas for quantifying social behaviors and detecting misbehaviors, creating new frontiers for criminal justice, the military, and economic activity. The papers in this special issue reveal the processes guiding the rapid transformation and flexible adaptation of institutional structures, economic and financial systems, and threat surveillance and military/police mobilization in the near future.     

Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft in Deutschland — Themen, Konjunkturen, Tendenzen, internationale Einordnung

The sub-discipline of Comparative Politics is characterized by a specific subject-matter, the systematic analysis of political systems and their sub-systems, and the application of specific comparative methods. This overview, therefore, deals with both new developments in comparative methodology and their epistemological foundations and recent substantive concerns and developments. Thereby, the strong linkages within the European and international context are also taken into account. It becomes apparent that increasing international tendencies of “globalization” and the internal dynamics of political systems interact in ways which lead to a blurring of the sub-disciplines of Comparative Politics and International Relations. These tendencies are, so far, not adequately dealt with, neither theoretically nor methodologically. On the whole, this review of German Comparative Politics as a very active and, by now, quantitatively dominating sub-discipline concludes with a moderately positive assessment. In this respect, some personal views of the author, who has been involved in these developments for more than forty years now, are probably inevitable.     

Who’s Sorry Now? Government Apologies,Truth Commissions,and Indigenous Self-Determination in Australia,Canada, Guatemala,and Peru

Official apologies and truth commissions are increasingly utilized as mechanisms to address human rights abuses. Both are intended to transform inter-group relations by marking an end point to a history of wrongdoing and providing the means for political and social relations to move beyond that history. However, state-dominated reconciliation mechanisms are inherently problematic for indigenous communities. In this paper, we examine the use of apologies, and truth and reconciliation commissions in four countries with significant indigenous populations: Canada, Australia, Peru, and Guatemala. In each case, the reconciliation mechanism differentiated the goal of reconciliation from an indigenous self-determination agenda. The resulting state-centered strategies ultimately failed to hold states fully accountable for past wrongs and, because of this, failed to transform inter-group relations.