Norberto Bobbio,liberal socialism and the problem of language

Norberto Bobbio's theory of procedural democracy grows out of his refusal of totalising knowledge in favour of a belief that the ‘sparrow's’ view is preferable to that of the ‘eagle’. Only in this way is irreducible human difference protested. History is reduced by Bobbio from both its liberal and its marxist presumptions about its total sense to a realm of partial empirical proof for assertions about the good. It cannot be understood as more than a contested area of facts whose overall laws and telos cannot be known. The good can only be agreed upon in a debate. Thus he sees politics as a place where all voices must be heard and consensus arrived at on contingent and limited goods. Thus practically politics becomes today the practice of more representative democracy in more places. The condition for such a practice is a liberal socialist regime of rights. His valuable theory of procedural democracy as the defender of difference in society finds its limits in an undeveloped theory of communication across difference. What is a common acceptable, undistorted language for the debate?     

MEDIATION IN THE FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA

The chief justice of the Australian Family Court discusses the use of mediation in the Family Court of Australia. He traces the legislative origin and the basic purposes of the service. Of particular interest is the differentiation between mediation, conciliation, and the court process. The limitations are also discussed, especially the use of mediation in domestic violence situations.     

Are there “women’s crops”? A new tool for gender and agriculture

A “Gender Control Tool” was developed to measure women’s control over decision-making for agricultural production, sales, and use of income. The tool was tested for groundnuts in Eastern Province, Zambia, where mechanisation has increased male participation in groundnut shelling, and for goats in Gwanda district, Zimbabwe, where the introduction of auctions has increased investment and sales. A mixed methods approach was used, that involved focus group discussions (FGDs) and a quantitative household survey. This article compares the results obtained from these two methods and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the tool in understanding how commercialisation affects women’s control.     

Explaining institutional amnesia in government

This article explains why different government agencies experience variations in organizational memory loss. It first explains institutional amnesia theoretically by expanding the formal‐institutional view of organizational memory to include agential and structural‐contextual properties, revealing a broader range of novel explanations for amnesia. Institutional amnesia is then explained empirically through an international analysis of memory loss in four Westminster systems (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom). This analysis, which principally relies on 100 interviews with ministers, policy officials, and public‐sector leaders across the four countries, leads to the introduction of four explanations for amnesia, relating to: organizational churn, absorptive capacity, strategic‐instrumental decision making, and historical storytelling.