North American first peoples: slipping up into market citizenship?

This article explores the nature of Aboriginal demands for a citizenship regime grounded in a substantive recognition of cultural difference and inherent rights in Mexico and Canada. It provides an overview of the different evolution of Aboriginal citizenship in each country but focuses on two recent development projects, the Puebla Panama Plan in Mexico and the Mackenzie Valley pipeline in Canada. These cases demonstrate the ways in which neo‐liberal globalism is reshaping the substantive recognition of Aboriginal cultural difference and inherent rights. While contemporary neo‐liberal rhetoric recognizes cultural difference, the models of development employed effectively separate territory from the ideas of self‐government, culture and identity. The article concludes that the neo‐liberal turn in the construction of Aboriginal citizenship undercuts potentially much richer conceptions of Indigenous citizenship offered by the First Peoples of North America.     

Decentralisation of service delivery as adopted by the Central District Council in Botswana

The Central District Council (CDC) in Botswana expanded service delivery to five sub‐districts in January 2000 using a model adapted from the South Somerset District Council, UK. As little data were available on the effectiveness of decentralised service delivery, officials and councillors throughout CDC were interviewed regarding their perception of the process. They not only provided recommendations for enhanced implementation but also identified some of the tensions resulting from it. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palestinian state‐building: police and citizens as test of democracy

This article explores police‐society relations by assessing the impact of current state‐building efforts by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank. The article presents an outline of the emerging civilian policing model and its wider implications for citizens’ rights and the dominant political order. The specific focus of the paper rests on an examination of the potential tensions associated with the perceived need for strong coercive security structures (including the civil police) as part of state‐building efforts and the desire by the population for increased freedom and pluralism. This issue is further complicated by the ambiguous nature of the current experiment in limited autonomy underway in those areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip where Israeli redeployment has taken place.     

The Shi'a of Saudi Arabia: a minority in search of cultural authenticity

This article focuses on the transformation of Saudi Shi'a resistance from one which centred on military confrontation in the 1980s to one which invokes searching for cultural authenticity (al‐asala al‐shi'iyya) in the 1990s. Today the struggle of the Shi'a for equal status among the Sunni majority draws attention to the attempts of Shi'a intellectuals to write their own regional history. Shi'a intellectuals and opposition leaders deconstruct official representations of themselves and provide alternative historical narratives which anchor their community in Saudi history and society, thus dismissing suggestions that they are a non‐indigenous community. This article examines Shi'a historical narratives in an attempt to understand the transformation in their struggle against discrimination in Saudi Arabia.     

预约法律问题探析

预约在我国合同实务中大量存在,但我国民法通则与合同法对于预约均未加以规定,理论上也缺乏深入地研究,以至于实践中极易产生纠纷。本文试图就预约的含义、成立要件、法律效力以及违反预约的法律责任进行一简要分析,以期明晰预约,从而使预约在当事人之间的适用达到公平的法律效果,最大限度地实现当事人的意思自治。     

农民增收质量问题探析

农民增收质量是经济、政治、文化诸因素在农民收入中的凝结,体现了科学发展观的本质要求.研究农民增收质量具有极为重要的理论和实践价值.     

Risk management for targeting customs controls in developing countries: a risky venture for revenue performance?

Customs authorities in developing countries are often reluctant to forget systematic inspections for fear of risking revenue loss. Such physical inspections however, impede rather than facilitate trade. Control selectivity is therefore a key issue in customs administration reform. This paper shows how a sophisticated risk management method can facilitate trade by automatically and rationally selecting transactions, with the end result of actually enhancing revenue performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

爆炸现场电雷管脚线的发现和认定

在爆炸案件现场中,有不少用工业电雷管作为起爆器材的,而现今常用的工业电雷管的脚线是铁质的,其硬度、熔点、延展性在起爆器材各部件中可以说是最大的。另外,由于起爆的需要,总有一部分雷管脚线离爆炸中心较远,因此爆炸后脚线的变形在爆炸装置中往往是最小的,在现场中很容易遗留下来。如何在现场遗留物中发现并认定雷管脚线,对认定爆炸的起爆方式非常重要,进而直接影响着对案件的定性,也影响着案件侦查方向和范围的划定。     

福建省人口老龄化发展趋势及战略对策

人口老龄化是世界人口发展的一种趋势。我国在上世纪七、八十年代推行计划生育政策,导致我国人口老龄化又具有一定的特殊性。本文从福建省老年人口发展的概况、现状入手,对其人口老龄化发展趋势进行分析与探讨,并提出若干建议。