SECULAR QUESTS,NATIONAL OTHERS: REVISITING BANGLADESH’S CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES

How do we understand the 15^th amendment of the Bangladeshi Constitution that restored the principle of secularism and simultaneously (re)inscribed certain populations as outside the cultural nation? I approach this question through a close reading of the Constituent Assembly debates of 1972. The precarious state of minorities, I contend, is not a symptom of an incomplete or failed secularism but a feature of the violence inherent to the nation-state form. The Bangladeshi example suggests not only that minority is a profoundly unstable category but that some minorities are visibly critical to national self-fashioning while others must be invisibilized as national others.     

The Law of Assembly in China

This paper is a comparative study of the law of assembly between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) vs. the Republic of China (ROC). The comparison is achieved by looking at how these two Chinese societies structure police powers during assembly, procession, and demonstration; textually and contextually. Particularly, it investigates into how the forces of history, constitution and politics converge to define and shape the law of assembly. This comparative project is conducted with a view to understand the relative development in police powers in the two Chinese societies, once linked by history and culture and now divided by geography and ideology. In a still larger context, this research rides the tide of comparative policing in exposing and explicating how police in two closed societies, ROC (Confucianism) and PRC (Socialism), come to terms with social protests and political challenges; more broadly how to balance the forces of reform and control with the use of law.

An Unravelling Development Strategy? Garment Assembly in the Caribbean Basin after the Multifibre Arrangement

The purpose of this article is to assess the likely impact of the ending of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) on garment assembly in the Caribbean Basin. Over the last fifteen years or so garment assembly has come to represent one of the region's few economic ‘success stories’ and has accordingly helped to offset the loss of export revenue from traditional commodities such as coffee and sugar. With the ending of the MFA on 1 January 2005, however, the long‐term viability of this trade has been thrown into doubt. This article thus seeks to assess the prospects for continued garment assembly in the Caribbean Basin against the backdrop of these developments.     

Taking the bait: Maoists and the democratic lure in Nepal

After leading a tumultuous revolutionary people's war for a decade, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has slithered into a peace process and is being egged on to put the revolution to the vote. Maoists themselves are sending mixed signals about whether or not they are going to take the democratic bait to save the “beautiful” democratic, peace process from the “beastly” people's war, urban insurrection and revolution. My contention is that unless the lie of the liberal political process is identified in its most democratic, free and fair forms and not just in its secret, conspiratorial underside, the Maoists might be lured into an unbalanced democratic game. The article argues that the Maoists were not just pushed into this political process by force of circumstance, as the best possible option, “given the international and national situation,” but it seems to follow from their flawed understanding that the present political process constitutes a progressive phase in the path to a New Democratic society. The Maoists are, of course, not abandoning the revolution as such but they are possibly metamorphosing from revolution-embodied to speaking in the name of the revolution – perhaps with the added risk of transforming the revolution itself to just a name.     

Freedom in the German School System

This article describes `freedom' as a constitutional category in the German School Law. If the responsibility for schooling by the German Federal Constitution is given to the ``Bundesländer' a common frame is set by the Basic Rights of the German Federal Constitution; this constitutional frame limits the rights of the ``Bundesländer' in supervising, organising, planning and managing the schools. Basic rights of a single pupil in a school are limited by the same rights of other pupils; this is done by following the ``principle of practical concordance' and thus the freedom of the single pupil always becomes a relative one; how this principle works in a concrete conflict will be shown in this article by describing single cases. Parental Rights are also guaranteed by the German Federal Constitution in direction of the state-runned schools. The rights of the parents are equal to the state rights; so a solution of a conflict has to be found between these two actors. Rights of teachers in Germany are limited by their special status as civil servants. And if the pedagogical freedom of teachers is recognised by the school acts this does not describe a real kind of freedom for the single teacher.     

Promises of an impossible compromise: conceded constitutions in Europe, 1814–1906

The enactment of a constitution through the method of ‘concession’, as it was used in Europe between the Napoleonic wars and World War I, indicates that a hitherto absolute ruler understood the need for a higher level of institutionalization and collective exercise of state power, but mistrusted institutionalized and collective processes, which would define the level needed. In other word, a ‘concession’ comprehended an imminent contradiction. Drafting an enduring constitution is a complex and difficult task, which requires consensus- building on a wide scale through collective procedures. However, a ruler who ‘concedes’ implicitly denies any kind of collective constitution-making, which could get out of the ruler’s control. Instead rulers preferred a non-inclusive approach, using court advisors and/or ministers appointed by the ruler, to draft the constitutional text. The European experience analyzed in this article shows that popular involvement through representative procedures (such as the election of a constituent assembly) in the making of a constitution can improve its chances for endurance through time and create a political environment more favourable for the constitution to achieve normative quality, instead of remaining essentially a false promise.     

探讨快速反应的产品需求链管理的方法

文中就市场需求的变化引出加强产品需求链的管理,提出了建立一条快速反应的产品需求供应链的多种方法,具有很强的现实意义。     

Namibia's national assembly and presidential elections 2009: Did democracy win?

National Assembly and presidential elections were held in Namibia on 27 and 28 November 2009. The former liberation movement South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) once again secured an overwhelming majority of votes, which consolidated its de facto one-party rule. But the build up to these elections, the contestation by a newly established party and the disputed election results indicated a growing polarisation and a totalitarian tendency, which dents the positive image hitherto associated with Namibian democracy. This election analysis summarises features before, during and after the elections and puts the voting results into a party political context.     

Maximising Direct Democracy – by Popular Assemblies or by Ballot Votes?

Abstract: According to a widespread but empirically hitherto untested perception, assembly democracy is the ideal‐typical form for direct democracy. This paper examines whether this perception coincides with empirical evidence by systematically comparing the actual extent of citizens’ direct‐democratic involvement in assembly democracies and in ballot‐box democracies. A longitudinal and cross‐sectional analysis of new data on the Swiss cantons reveals strikingly clear patterns: cantons with popular assemblies provide citizens with more and more easily accessible direct‐democratic rights, and they hold popular votes more frequently. On the other hand, cantons with ballot‐box voting are more successful in involving the citizens in direct‐democratic decision‐making with respect to turnout rates.     

论集会自由

集会自由作为人的一项基本权利,是言论自由的延伸,但是作为政治权利的集会自由权的行使,必然会涉及到个人权利的行使和公共利益的保护冲突问题,即集会自由的界碑。本文从集会自由和公共权力的相互关系,探讨了如何规制集会自由权,并分析了我国的集会自由的不足。