中文BBS论坛中涉日议题的网络民族主义呈现

互联网BBS论坛为民族主义问题的开放讨论提供了全新而自由的平台。基于特殊事件的民族主义分析框架,是否适用于网络常态舆论中与民族国家相关问题的探讨,是一个值得检验的命题。本研究发现,网络常态舆论中的涉日议题在不同论坛具有不同类型偏好;涉日议题并非均为负面话题,也不能普遍性地引发具有民族主义倾向的讨论;该类议题所触发语言暴力的程度低于其他常规性议题;不同论坛间用户在部分议题类别上呈现出较为明显的态度差异。     

新时期我国公民教育的内容体系和实施途径

我国的公民教育在内容构建上可以按照公民意识——公民知识——公民能力的逻辑顺序来设计。本文从横向和纵向两个维度探讨了公民教育的实施途径。横向分为学校教育系统和非学校教育系统两个方面;纵向强调整体规划、分段实施、有效衔接的过程。     

The Varieties of Civic Experience

Scholars, including Robert Putnam and Theda Skocpol, in documenting declining civic participation in the US over the past 50 years, have arrived at a view of civic or political engagement that is too narrow. They disparage activity that is insufficiently oriented to the public good, transitory, individualistic, and lacking in risk or sacrifice. Their view is misleading. Activities that seem privatistic, transitory, individualistic, or low-cost may have far-reaching civic benefits.     

显微日本近代公民教育的形成

日本社会于近代自上而下发生了质变,朝资本主义方向全面西化,其公民教育方面也不例外。从分析日本公民教育的历史背景、展开历程以及存在的问题,来深入了解日本的公民教育发展状况。     

Creating Civic Bureaucrats

ABSTRACT

Kirlin (1996a; 1996b) argued that big questions of public management should be placed within a democratic framework emphasizing government's role in creating “civic infrastructure.” For this study, those who build civic infrastructure are called “civic bureaucrats,” and new measures (Civic Bureaucrat Scale and subscales:civic skills, faith in the public, deliberative democracy value, civic motivation, and political system value) are used to examine which factors are associated with encouraging public servants, such as U.S. city planners, to pursue democratic processes. These measures are different from those that examine public service or public participation, and are more focused on finding public servants guided by democratic values. Variables that might influence civic bureaucrats are individual, job, work, and community characteristics. Regression results found Civic Bureaucrat levels associated with gender (being a woman), dedication to civic duty, citizens bashing government, cities’ civic capital levels, and non-competitive elections. Notably, Civic Bureaucrat levels go up when elections are less competitive, suggesting civic bureaucrats picking up the slack when democratic institutions falter. Understanding such factors sheds light on what boosts and saps the civic energies of public servants.     

Civic Involvement and Modernization

Abstract

This paper investigates how broad processes of modernization affect individuals' relations to the civil sphere. It first introduces a model of civic involvement as a system of expectations between participants and associations. Next, the issue of change is explored. It is argued that recent social transformations, such as individualization, globalization and technology changes, undermine classic notions of civil society participation. Old types of involvement vanish, while new ones emerge. We investigate in more detail how macro-changes affect three core models of civic involvement: as a member, a volunteer and a citizen. Each model holds particular relations between adherents and associations. The conventional understanding of each model is examined in the light of ongoing processes of dis- and re-embedment of civic involvement. The paper is based on secondary analyses of literature concerned with the issue of change within the civic field. The findings can be summarized in four points. First, we observe a shift from face-to-face interaction in long-lasting civic groups towards mediated interaction within networks in flux. Falling rates of participation seem to be followed by new types outside traditional measures of civic engagement. Secondly, individuals seem to move from value-based to consumer-based relations within the civic sphere. Associations, on her hand, increasingly present her activities as ‘products’. This means that civic engagement, more often than before, is mediated in ways usually associated with the for-profit market. Thirdly, civic engagement is shifting from diffuse horizontal involvement to centrally coordinated activities. ‘Amateurism’ gradually becomes replaced by professional standards, administered by staff-led bodies, in close connection with central authorities. As a fourth conclusion, we observe a shift from an engagement mediated by associations to a direct involvement, or engagement mediated by structures that usually are not defined as civic ones.     

Nonprofits and Civic Engagement

There are approximately 800,000 501(c)(3) nonprofits large enough to register with the federal government. Add churches, foundations, and nonprofits too small to register, and the number is far higher than that. The potential for nonprofits to engage their clients and members in community affairs and public policy making is, in theory, enormous. Yet, perversely, nonprofits are regulated by the federal government in such a way that discourages the involvement of their followers in the public policymaking process. This is a problem, not simply because we social scientists believe civic engagement is a good thing, but because these regulatory standards sharply skew public participation. Although middle- and upper-class individuals have many organizations that engage and mobilize them, nonprofits usually are the only organizations that work on behalf of the poor, those without health insurance, immigrants, the disabled, and most other marginalized constituencies. Put bluntly, federal law works against the participation of the most disadvantaged in society.     

In Pursuit of Civic Participation: The Early Experiences of the Northern Ireland Civic Forum, 2000–2002

Northern Ireland's Civic Forum is a key civic participation mechanism agreed as part of the Belfast Agreement and established under the Northern Ireland Act 1998. It brings together representatives from various sectors to act as a 'consultative forum' on 'social, economic, and cultural issues'. This article argues that 'civic society' has to be understood as a 'transactional reality' in the Foucauldian sense, such that the task of the Civic Forum – to allow the participation of 'civic society'– entails the continual construction of its own boundaries and remit. These are contested, not only outside the forum where political considerations have made it somewhat controversial, but also within. It is argued here that this is necessarily so, given the need for the forum to carve out a position between its constitutive outsides. Of particular concern has been the meaning of 'consultative', as competing understandings of this key term position the forum differently with respect both to the legislative Northern Ireland Assembly and to Northern Irish society as a whole. Additionally, the ethical imperative to give voice to wider society is examined, as it influences the way members of the forum articulate their role. Finally, I discuss the forum's sense of its unique identity – as given by its opportunity to enact an inclusive and diverse political space. The argument draws throughout on a qualitative sociological study that employed observation of the forum's plenary sessions over an eighteen-month period (2000–2002) and semi-structured interviews with selected members.     

Civic Duty and Voter Turnout

We argue that two different sets of considerations shape the decision to vote or abstain in an election–ethical and non-ethical. First the citizen may vote out of a sense of duty. Failing that, she may vote because she has strong preferences about the outcome of the election. Abstention occurs when neither duty nor a sufficiently strong preference is present. The implication is that while duty and preference each have strong positive effects on turnout, they also have a negative interaction effect, since the impact of preference is much weaker among those with a sense of duty. We present a wide array of empirical evidence that systematically supports our claim that the turnout decision is importantly shaped by this causal heterogeneity. Thus a turnout model misses something fundamental if it does not take into account the effect of civic duty.

     

网络公共论坛:虚拟空间中的协商民主实践

从逻辑关联看,网络公共论坛与协商民主具有内有内在契合性,它堪称虚拟空间中的协商民主实践.网络公共论坛努力地实践着协商民主的核心理念,它有利于拓展公共参与的空间,扩展公共参与,为公共参与清除时空和代表性等障碍,还有利于打破权威垄断,更能实现参与平等,推动政府官员与公民之间的直接对话.当然,网络公共论坛也是一把"双刃剑",其消极作用也不可忽视.推动网络公共空间中的协商民主茁壮成长、走向成熟是一个相当复杂的系统工程.四个重点问题需要注意:推动互联网建设和网络知识普及;加强网络民主政治的制度建设;构筑社区网络公共论坛;培育参与型政治文化.     

Political Disagreement and Socratic Civic Competence

Contemporary democratic theories that draw on Socrates for inspiration have addressed his method of investigation too narrowly because there has been insufficient attention to the need for authority, which Socrates also identifies. Because his appeals to authority initially appear antidemocratic, we cannot overlook this aspect of his thought. I describe a virtue, civic competence, which is the excellence of citizens who critically engage with the norms of the community, but who also recognise that authority is politically necessary. Deliberation requires elenctic-like scrutiny, but also a willingness to accept some arguments as authoritative. My overarching claim is that failure to exhibit such character traits can appear in more than one form, a point neglected in recent literature, and that not all such forms are antidemocratic. Civic competence is susceptible to corruptions that may never result in citizenship that is simply undemocratic. I define two corruptions of civic competence: 'disagonism' and 'eristicism'. The former treats disagreement as signalling either confusion or wickedness and deliberation as a process of clarifying and tidying discourse. The latter treats disagreement as ineliminable and deliberation as gaming with words in order to defeat an opponent in argument.