Rethinking Democratic Procedures: Democracy and Deliberative Experiences in Turkey's LA21 Process

This paper attempts to describe the conditions necessary for the furthering of democracy in Turkey by focusing on a certain conception of democratic legitimacy that goes beyond formal arrangements. It argues that the effective participation of citizens in democratic procedures is necessary for the consolidation of democracy in public life. To defend this argument, the theoretical background developed in deliberative models of democracy is followed. The quality of 'talk', as a constitutive feature of democracy, is explored by following the critical perspectives in deliberative theory that focus on the discursive mechanisms of exclusion and on power relations intrinsic to deliberative procedures. For this purpose, the deliberative processes in a series of 'working group meetings', carried out as a part of the Local Agenda 21 project, are analysed. The democratic capacity of deliberative experiences and public dialogue is analysed by examining the inclusion/exclusion of opposing ideas, different identities and discourse styles during these working groups meetings.     

中国共产党党建思想发展研究

建党90年来,党的历代领导核心都对党的建设进行了艰辛的探索,并形成宝贵的党建思想。这些思想既一脉相承又各有侧重,毛泽东在全面推进基础上突出思想建党,邓小平在解放思想基础上突出制度建党,江泽民在与时俱进基础上突出执政建党,胡锦涛在科学发展基础上强调学习建党,结合时代发展总结历代领导核心的党建重点思想对于总结党建规律具有极其重要的理论意义和现实意义。     

猪PD-1分子及其配体的实时荧光定量RT-PCR检测方法的建立

根据猪程序性死亡因子PD-I及其配体PD-LI和PD-L2的基因序列,分别设计了特异性引物和TaqMan探针,以10倍系列稀释的重组质粒pMD-PD-1、pMD-PD-L1和pMD-PD-L2为标准品,对实时荧光定量PCR的条件进行优化,以建立定量检测这3个基因的方法.结果表明,建立的方法在1×10~2～1×10~8copies/μL模板范围内具有良好的线性关系(r~2>0.99),扩增效率均高于96%,可检测至少100 copies的阳性标准品.利用该方法对猪外周血单核细胞中这3个基因的表达情况进行了检测,结果也表明该方法具有良好的敏感性、特异性和重复性,可应用于临床样品的检测.     

Killings in Context: an Analysis of the News Framing of Femicide

While attacks against members of the LGBT community are increasingly covered as hate crimes and are widely viewed as a form of repression, attacks on women are almost never covered as violations of human rights. We propose that until violence against women is recognized as a form of repression and a threat to the physical security of women, we cannot expect much to be done to prevent it. We posit that policies aimed at preventing violence against women are unlikely to come about unless this abstract concept is connected, through a connection frame, to concrete crimes against women. We conducted a framing analysis of news coverage of all confirmed femicides in Massachusetts in 2013 and find that while journalists have the potential to draw these connection frames, they seldom put these killings in the context of violations of women’s rights.     

Impermanent Apologies: on the Dynamics of Timing and Public Knowledge in Political Apology

Political apologies are commonly imagined as gestures of finality and closure: capstone moments that summate public knowledge. One manifestation of these assumptions is the position that apologies should be timed to come only after appropriate investigation into the wrongdoing has been completed. This article takes a different view, for two reasons. First, even apologies that seem based on robust knowledge can come to seem incomplete or inadequate in the light of subsequent learning and knowledge. Second, because apologies are complexly embedded in longer-term processes of activism and response, they can contribute to their own unravelling by encouraging further consideration and inquiry. We develop these arguments by considering two Canadian cases that illustrate these dynamics: apologies that addressed, respectively, the wartime internment of Japanese Canadians and the policy of forcing Indigenous children to attend residential schools.     

Factors influencing rubber marketing by smallholder farmers in Thailand

This article assesses the factors determining the type of rubber product that farmers are willing to sell and the factors influencing their marketing channel choice in Thailand. Primary data were collected through questionnaire administration from 280 rubber farmers in two southern provinces. The results of the logit regression model revealed that membership of farmers’ organisation, access to knowledge and information, and total area of immature rubber positively influenced the sale of fresh latex. Membership of farmer organisations and accessibility to market infrastructure also significantly positively influenced the sale of fresh latex to farmer groups. The implications for rubber marketing are presented.     

A Divided Nation? The 2014 Belgian Federal Elections

The critical 2010 federal elections left the Flemish nationalists (N-VA) the dominant political party in the north and the francophone Socialists (PS) in the south of the country, unable to find common ground on the issue of devolution. It took no fewer than 541 days – a world record – to form a government rallying Christian Democrats (CD&V and cdH), Liberals (Open VLD and MR), and Socialists (sp.a and PS). The 2014 federal elections marked a change in tone, being fought on socio-economic terms, but confirmed the stalemate nonetheless. The N-VA made further inroads, winning 29.8 per cent of the vote in the Dutch-speaking community. The governing parties held firm, however; the PS in particular remained the largest political formation in the south, winning 31.0 per cent of the vote in the French-speaking community. Moreover, on 25 May 2014 federal elections, regional elections in Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels (and the German-speaking community), and European elections were held simultaneously, further raising the stakes in the complex, interconnected, government formation.     

Transnational police building: critical lessons from Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands

In this paper we begin by defining and examining the concept of police building. Its historical precedents and contemporary forms are briefly reviewed, showing a variety of motives and agendas for this kind of institution building. We argue that police building has been a relatively neglected dimension of nation- and state-building exercises, despite its importance to functions of pacification and restoration of law and order. The emerging literature on international police reform and capacity building tends to adopt a narrow institutionalist and universalistic approach that does not take sufficient account of the politics of police building. This politics is multilayered and varies from the formal to the informal. Using two case studies focusing on events in 2006 in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands, the reasons for the fragility of many current police-building projects are considered. In both cases, we argue, police capacity builders paid insufficient attention to the political architecture and milieu of public safety.