Social policy 2000: affirmative action

Empirical research, summarized here, clearly establishes that racial and ethnic minorities continue to experience substantial discrimination in employment. However, this discrimination is often subtle and unconscious. Because discriminatory practices are so intertwined with apparently-neutral employment practices, affirmative action remains an important means of combating them. Properly designed, affirmative action can benefit employers and non-protected employees as well as the minorities directly covered.     

The changing nature of urban affirmative action programs: the search for race-neutral alternatives

In January, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court cast in doubt the legality of minority set-aside programs. The Court required government set-aside programs to meet a “strict-scrutiny” standard of review and required cities to first explore race-neutral means for increasing minority firm participation prior to utilizing any type of rigid quota system. This paper examines how four cities have reacted quite differently, with some cities continuing old practices, and others developing a mixture of new policies and implementation structures. It is argued that the Supreme Court's decision will have only a minor impact on minority contracting programs, with cities seeking to combine affirmative action contracting programs with those that stress economic development.     

Ideological and analytical foundations of mine action: human rights and community impact

This article suggests that the ideological and analytical foundations and steering mechanisms of mine action are at present less than adequate, resulting in failure to optimise impact and efficiency. The article will provide a review of the current drifting ideological basis of mine action and will present the argument for the incorporation and adoption of a rights-based approach. It will also discuss the urgent and continuing need to prioritise mine action through an increased level of community participation and more rigorous impact measurement, while highlighting the limitations of using socioeconomic analysis as the basis for operations and decision making.     

Global and Local Health Governance: Civil society,human rights and hiv/aids

From the outset in the mid-1980s the international response to hiv/aids has been characterised by an emphasis on the human rights aspects of the pandemic, and on recognition of the pivotal role of civil society actors (csos). But how the rights-based conception of hiv/aids and the international legitimation of csos play out at the local level depends not only on the vertical coordination between global and local levels but also on government–cso relations and the understanding of the pandemic in individual countries. South Africa and Cambodia provide comparative examples of ‘glocalised’ responses to hiv/aids. Both countries were among the hardest hit in their respective regions. But, while the South African government was slow to acknowledge the severity of epidemic, the Cambodian leadership quickly initiated a comprehensive response to it. The two cases illustrate how opportunity structures at the international and national levels created different local responses to hiv/aids, with significant consequences for the epidemic over time.     

Capitalism and Civil Society Revisited or: Conceptualizing a Civil,Sustainable and Solidary Economy

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society - After a brief reconstruction of the discourse on civil society, the notion that civil society and the economy are two separate spheres is...     

Individual rights and collective rights: Labor's predicament in China

Despite the government's active legislation to protect workers, labor rights still remain widely ignored and poorly enforced in China. Structural constrains, such as the state's development strategy biased on efficiency over equity, tight labor markets, and the lack of an effective safety net, cannot fully explain why Chinese workers have had so little impact on the environment in which they work and the violations of their rights often occur. Using Marshall's theory of citizenship rights, this article explores the structure of China's labor rights for an explanation. It argues that while Chinese labor legislation stipulates workers' individual rights regarding contracts, wages, working conditions, pensions, and so on, it fails to provide them with collective rights, namely the rights to organize, to strike, and to bargain collectively in a meaningful sense. The lack of collective rights is one of the major factors that render workers' individual rights vulnerable, hollow, unenforceable, or often disregarded. Labor legislation that enables workers to act collectively is crucial for safeguarding their individual rights.     

Framing the Ghanaian LGBT rights debate: competing decolonisation and human rights frames

This paper investigates how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movements in Ghana, both anti and pro, framed the debate that captured media attention in 2006 and 2011. Decolonisation and human rights frames were appropriated, challenged, and dominated by opponents of LGBT rights, making it difficult for LGBT activists to use them. The opponents' corruption frame overpowered the LGBT activists' preservation frame. When LGBT activists used a human rights frame (comparing sexual minorities to racial minorities and to persons with disabilities), the countermovement appropriated it in a way that excluded same-sex relations by comparing sexual minorities to “deviants”, persons with mental illnesses, and animals. The interaction between the decolonisation and human rights frames was also problematic: the corruption frame not only rendered the LGBT activists' preservation frame nearly useless, but it also made their use of the human rights frame appear to be cultural imperialism and problematised the help they received from international LGBT organisations.     

Hope and disappointment in politics

Disappointment is a familiar experience of political life and often blame for perceived political failure is rightly attributed to the failures of our politicians or the political system. The aim of this paper, however, is to argue that disappointment is an inevitable feature of politics because of limitations and constraints that are intrinsic to the political sphere. With this in mind the paper explores some of the ways in which political conflict unavoidably generates disappointment, how it shapes the specific manner in which its corollary of hope and the discourse of hope operates in the political sphere, and how disappointment relates to questions of political unity. Appreciating the inevitability of disappointment should both help overcome some of the prevalent illusions regarding political possibility, as well as calm our discontent with politics by adapting our expectations and assessment of political life accordingly.     

美俄关系难以“柳暗花明”

俄美关系是当今世界最引人注目的大国关系之一。奥巴马当选总统后，频频释放出改善美俄关系的“积极”信号，俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫也表示要在考虑互相利益的基础上同美国进行建设性的对话，俄美关系出现回暖的趋势，作为影响世界稳定的重要因素的俄美关系是否会有实质性的改变，值得关注。     

The New Egypt: Don't Give Up Hope

The revolutions of the Arab Spring are twisting and turning on a troubled course. After an uprising overthrew Mubarak last year, elections were held in June in which the Muslim Brotherhood dominated—only to have the military once again assert its authority over any new parliament and constitution. What is at stake is whether Egypt will remain a secular state like Turkey, or take on a moretheocratic bent if ruled by Islamists. In this section, the Arab world's only Nobel laureate in science offers his views about Egypt's future. The Turkish president argues for a secularism that tolerates all religions in Egypt. The CIA's former top analyst on the Muslim world questions whether Islamist parties can deliver once in power instead of opposition.     

The Civil Service Under Stress: The Fall in Civil Service Power and Authority

The failures of governments of both parties in the 1970s had prepared for radical changes in the nature of government under Margaret Thatcher. Among them were that ministers resumed greater power over their civil servants. While various aspects of the relationship between ministers and officials changed and despite the introduction of special advisers, close partnership — the Haldane relationship — was largely retained between them until the end of the 1980s. In the 1990s ministers began to operate less closely with the civil service, largely because they found they had less time for departmental work under the Major and the first Blair administrations. Many of the skills for which civil servants had been trained became less in demand because of the ending of the Cabinet style of government, the reduced importance of ministers appearing before parliament and the greater involvement of spin doctors and media handlers in preparing public documents. However, new skills were required: more rapid accessing of information and more skill in implementation and responsibility for it. The Wilson reforms of 1999 were in large part aimed to remedy these shortcomings. There remains a question whether enough of the Haldane relationship survives for government not to be driven towards greater definition of the rules in which civil servants operate.     

Anguish and despair in adolescents with eating disorders--helping to manage suicidal ideation and impulses

Adolescents struggling against anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa often experience self-punishing thoughts and behaviors, including self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation and attempts. These arise out of the profound anguish and despair frequently experienced by these young people. This paper outlines four particularly salient clinical themes underlying this despair that have significant implications for treatment. A practice perspective is discussed which emphasizes empathic listening and the development of a strong therapeutic alliance with the adolescent. Treatment recommendations draw from narrative theory and practice, and from feminist perspectives. The paper also draws on cognitive therapy and on recent developments in the areas of spirituality and motivational enhancement. Involving the distressed adolescent's family is also addressed.     

Symposium Introduction: Competency and Higher Civil Servants

‘Competency’ is a word that seems to have crept into the language of public administration and policy relatively recently, although largely under the radar of academic scholarship in Europe. This article introduces a symposium of papers that address key questions about competency management: how and why has it become popular and what are the implications of the spread of ‘competency’ approaches? As the introductory paper, it outlines the intellectual background to competency approaches and outlines three interpretations of their development. One interpretation sees them as a passing fad; a ‘difference’ interpretation sees them as a common label for widely varying patterns and practices; and a ‘sameness’ interpretation treats competency management as a symptom of broader politico‐administrative developments.     

Measuring Hope: A Quantitative Approach with Validation in Rural Myanmar

Development economists are increasingly considering the role of hope in behaviours relating to investment, production, and consumption decisions of the poor. Although several studies have examined how the concepts of hope and aspirations may fit into economic theories, empirical studies have yet to validate a reliable measurement of hope. We adapt a quantitative approach to measure hope in the context of rural Myanmar. We present three tests of measurement validity. This study finds that hope measurements are correlated with covariates in a way supported by theory, are distinct from other psychological concepts, and are positively correlated with welfare perceptions.