Participation,education, and pluralism: towards a new extension ethic

The concern driving current debate on agricultural extension is increasingly that of how to help farmers learn how to deal with the complex world around them responsibly and profitably, in such a way that the extension worker is ancillary. This article seeks to deconstruct and provide a more reasoned assessment of agricultural extension services through a reflection on development paradigms, adult education, individual empowerment, and institutional pluralism. By calling into question the underlying ethical dimensions of agricultural extension, it is possible to develop an alternative paradigm and thereby generate new insights into it. The article concludes that the raison d'être of agricultural extension today must be to create an ethical basis which ensures that extension practices are more inclusive and thus responsive to the needs of farmers and other rural populations, integrating individual expectations into the wider socio-economic, cultural, political, and geographical environment.     

Increasing strategic accountability: a framework for international NGOs

The accountability of international development NGOs (INGOs) has attracted a great deal of interest from academics and development practitioners. INGO accountability falls into two categories: practical accountability (for the use of inputs, the way activities are performed, and outputs) and strategic accountability for INGOs' performance in relation to their mission. This article presents a conceptual framework for exploring INGO accountability. It is based on information collected through a literature review and semi-structured interviews with representatives from 20 UK-based INGOs. The research found that INGOs tend to use a number of quality-assurance mechanisms to achieve ‘practical’ accountability. However, it is suggested that this kind of accountability will not necessarily enable INGOs to achieve their missions to alleviate poverty and eliminate injustice. Furthermore, the predominant use of practical accountability has led to a number of gaps in INGO accountability. It is suggested that, like the term ‘participation’ before it, accountability has been co-opted for its instrumental benefits to INGO project performance and management. It is argued that if INGOs are to achieve their missions, this will require more ‘strategic’ forms of accountability, geared towards fundamentally changing those social, economic, and political structures that promote poverty.     

DOES DISPERSED PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IMPAIR EFFICIENCY? THE CASE OF REFUSE COLLECTION IN NORWAY

Corporate governance theory suggests that companies with dispersed and indirect ownership suffer from agency costs. A worst case is where several political authorities jointly own a company, which allows managers to operate with inferior efficiency. In political economy, the manager is not the major agency problem. Elected politicians may impair efficiency to improve their re‐election prospects. Since politicians have less influence in jointly owned firms, such companies are expected to perform better than those owned by a single public authority. Consistent with corporate governance – but not political economy – the empirical analysis suggests that dispersed municipal ownership impairs cost efficiency. In the Norwegian case of municipal refuse collection presented here, costs of dispersed ownership often outstrip gains from economies of scale. Use of jointly owned companies is not necessarily a proper response to efficiency problems inherent a fragmented local government structure.     

A CROSS‐NATIONAL TEST OF BONGER'S THEORY OF CRIMINALITY AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS*

Using international data for 100 countries, we test two hypotheses derived from Bonger's Marxian theory of crime. The analyses support the hypothesis that the degree of capitalism significantly predicts homicide rates, but they fail to confirm that the de‐moralization of the population (loss of moral feelings for others) mediates the relationship between capitalism and homicide. Although capitalism is not the best predictor among those considered, overall, the results underline the importance of Bonger's ideas because both capitalism and corruption (our indicator of de‐moralization) show reasonably strong relationships with homicide rates and compete with other variables commonly used as predictors of international homicide rates. The results confirm the usefulness of attempting to subject Marxian ideas to positivist, quantitative tests, with an eye to integrating Marxian theories with other mainstream theories, such as institutional anomie theory.     

关于美国变性人歧视问题介绍

变性人在就业、教育、医疗保险等很多领域遭受歧视,本文分析变性人在这些领域遭受的歧视。对于如何解决歧视问题,需要各种政策和措施,尤其需要政府予以立法来保护变性人的权利。     

“三个代表”重要思想是指导我国政党制度进一步完善的总纲

政党制度是我国的一项基本政治制度。不断完善这一制度 ,既意义深远 ,又非常实际、紧迫。“三个代表”重要思想的提出 ,是党几十年实践经验的总结 ,是第三代领导集体一系列理论成果的集中体现 ,更是指导我们进一步完善我国政党制度的总纲。一、不可更易的执政准绳完善的本意是周到、妥当 ,也就是适合。完善政党制度 ,首先需要解决的是政党制度的确立基础和发展依据。各国政党制度尽管千差万别 ,各有特点 ,但其能不能生存和发展 ,都要由能不能与国情适合 ,以及适合的程度如何来决定。所以 ,与国情的适合是政党制度存在的前提和基础 ,也是政党…     

当前宏观经济形势与政策分析

在党的十六大精神和“三个代表”重要思想的指引下,今年上半年我国经济发展虽然受到非典影响,但总体发展仍然呈上升势头。从发展势头可以判断我国经济已逐步摆脱低迷,开始了新一轮的增长。一、十三届四中全会以来我国宏观经济发展的回顾1989年后,为了治理连续五年的通货膨胀,中央在宏观调控上推出双紧方针,即紧缩的财政政策和紧缩的货币政策。通过三年的治理整顿,使通货膨胀得     

解析分立程序中公司高管的责任

盖公司分立,系将被分立公司主要或者全部的营业或资产,移转给承受公司继受,以此作为换取承受公司发行新股之对价,惟当承受公司之股份尚不具备在股票市场流通之客观价值下,对被分立公司股东的权益也将因公司资产的移出而稀释;尤有甚者,公司分立制度的运用,大都是规模庞大的企业,其经公司分立后,自实务运作结果观之,当换股比例不适当时,股东所受的损害更属重大。按是否采用公司分立,公司高管仍握有绝对的主动提案权,相对于公司利害关系人股东,仅居于被动的对公司分立之议案,行使是否同意的权利而已,且即使公司分立必须经由意思决定机关之决议…