Civil society,the state,and the limits to global civil society

Just as domestic civil society is widely regarded as serving the greater common good of a national democratic political community, global civil society is also promoted as a vehicle through which a host of humanity's ills may be remedied. This article argues that the pinning of such high hopes on global civil society is mistaken, for its proponents have failed to recognise that global civil society is insufficiently analogous to domestic civil society for it to be a similarly positive force. At the national level, civil society functions in a balanced interdependence with the state. At the global level there is no equivalent of the state to provide the necessary scrutiny and regulation that at the national level prevents constituents of domestic civil society from committing injustices.     

Central Asia and Xinjiang,China: Emerging energy,economic and ethnic relations

On an energy‐equivalent basis Central Asia is predominantly a gas producing region, with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan contributing substantially to the regional total. Kazakhstan is the primary oil producer in the region. Xinjiang, one of the poorest areas of China, is noted for its vast oil, gas and coal resources, though still largely undeveloped. As a means of facilitating economic development and prosperity in Central Asia and nearby Xinjiang, officials are promoting trade and investment among the countries in the region. This paper examines emerging economic relations within Central Asia and Xinjiang, with a focus on the lucrative oil and gas sectors. Importantly, the cooperation is being influenced by centuries‐old cultural and ethnic ties.     

Explaining South Africa's Bill of Rights: an interpretive approach

Ideational approaches to politics are frequently criticised for indeterminacy. In comparative constitutional politics, critics have alleged that the ‘human rights revolution’ cannot explain why bills of rights were adopted in different places and different times. Ideational scholars have not responded convincingly. Focusing on the famous South African case study, and drawing on theories of belief formation and legitimation in interpretive political science, this paper argues that new beliefs can be explained by historically specifiable dilemmas. It uses process-tracing to show how scholars have mistakenly assumed that key players in the post-apartheid transition only adopted beliefs in rights in order to rationalise interests.     

Cyber Bullying and Physical Bullying in Adolescent Suicide: The Role of Violent Behavior and Substance Use

The impact of bullying in all forms on the mental health and safety of adolescents is of particular interest, especially in the wake of new methods of bullying that victimize youths through technology. The current study examined the relationship between victimization from both physical and cyber bullying and adolescent suicidal behavior. Violent behavior, substance use, and unsafe sexual behavior were tested as mediators between two forms of bullying, cyber and physical, and suicidal behavior. Data were taken from a large risk-behavior screening study with a sample of 4,693 public high school students (mean age = 16.11, 47 % female). The study’s findings showed that both physical bullying and cyber bullying associated with substance use, violent behavior, unsafe sexual behavior, and suicidal behavior. Substance use, violent behavior, and unsafe sexual behavior also all associated with suicidal behavior. Substance use and violent behavior partially mediated the relationship between both forms of bullying and suicidal behavior. The comparable amount of variance in suicidal behavior accounted for by both cyber bullying and physical bullying underscores the important of further cyber bullying research. The direct association of each risk behavior with suicidal behavior also underscores the importance of reducing risk behaviors. Moreover, the role of violence and substance use as mediating behaviors offers an explanation of how risk behaviors can increase an adolescent’s likelihood of suicidal behavior through habituation to physical pain and psychological anxiety.     

Freedom of information versus the National Security Council: Obscuring the focus of the “sole‐function” test

After years of litigation in the federal court system, investigator Scott Armstrong lost in his attempt to gain access to documents held by the National Security Council, which successfully argued that it was not an “agency” required by the Freedom of In formation Act to produce records. The effect of such a finding is profound, as “nonagencies” are not only categorically exempt from all FOIA requirements but also freed from obligations by other statutory demands for accountability. This article uses the NSC litigation to demonstrate how the test to determine whether an entity should be classified as an agency, commonly referred to as the “sole‐function” test, has been altered in fundamental ways by recent court opinions. This changing focus makes it easier for many other entities, particularly those in the Executive Office of the President where many of the most important domestic and international decisions are made, to avoid agency status and escape the obligations imposed by Congress regarding disclosure, keeping and disposal of records.     

THE WINDS OF CHANGE IN ADOPTIONS LAWS:Should Adoptees Have Access to Adoption Records?

The author focuses on the issues involving the unsealing of adoption records—allowing adoptees to discover who their birth parents are. He first examines the history of adoption and the development of adoption laws in the United States and then discusses currently enacted adoption statutes. Next, the author considers the benefits and disadvantages of unsealing adoption records to the birth parents, the adoptee, and the adoptive parents. He suggest a model law and offers an analysis of its advantages and problems. Through this proposal, the author hopes to assuage many of the problems existing in adoption laws now.     

East Asians’ Social Heterogeneity: Differences in Norms among Chinese,Japanese, and Korean Negotiators

East Asian cultures are widely held to be fairly homogeneous in that they highly value harmonious social relationships. We propose, however, that the focus (dyadic versus group) and the nature (emotional versus instrumental) of social relations vary among the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures in ways that have important implications for the negotiation tactics typically employed by managers from these three cultures. Our data are from a web survey administered to three hundred eighty‐eight managers from China, Japan, and South Korea. In this article, we discuss how the differences in the focus and the nature of business relationships in China, Japan, and Korea are manifested in the different norms for negotiation tactics endorsed by managers from these three countries.     

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND THE ADMINISTRATOR

Abstract: It is important to distinguish between the possible and the probable when speculating about developments in technology. It is difficult to foresee the uses which will be made of an invention, and often they are not the uses first proposed. With new technological developments almost anything is technically possible, although practical development of a possibility can be slower and more difficult than expected. Moreover, successful technical development does not guarantee acceptance by the public. Technology impinges on public administration in three ways. It is a tool, it creates new tasks, and new technology can change the expectations within society of the role and function of government and hence the role of public administration. Examples of the use of technology as a tool in public administration are evident in the areas of travel, telecommunications and data processing. Changes in technology create new administrative tasks related to increased public awareness of the dangers of many forms of technology, leading, for example, to consideration of problems of pollution, personal privacy and computer-related crime. New expectations created by the increased information available through technological advances in communication will prompt increasing calls for open planning and public participation in decision making which will in turn lead to increased visibility of administrators and a greater measure of real accountability.