On the “Economic Dilemma” within the Performing Arts

This article contributes to our understanding public art at the local level by providing analysis of local government public art programs. A survey was conducted with cities and towns in Arizona that have public art programs. The article begins by defining public art and explaining how government funding for public art began in the United States. Next, it highlights the benefits of public art. Public art program funding sources, budgets, maintenance, personnel, and promotion techniques are discussed for the cities/towns surveyed. Last, recommendations are provided for cities/towns seeking to create or expand their public art programs.     

当前派出所工作现状及改进思路

派出所工作的事前预防性、快速反应性和工作的可移交性要求派出所应当具有足够的警力、装备以及合理的警力分配,以满足维护社会治安的需要。解决警力不足的基本思路是警力配置合理化、机构设置简单化和警务活动科学化;发展警民关系的基本思路是解决群众信访问题,畅通警民沟通渠道;改进工作方式,在日常警务活动中密切警民关系;提高公安民警素质的基本思路是以提高全民素质为依托,以警力充足和待遇优厚为保障。     

基于模糊综合评价法的地方政府依法行政监督实施效果评估

地方政府依法行政监督实施效果评估研究是行政监督领域的一个新的研究视野,它注重对行政监督依法、实施效果等进行定量分析和研究。文章阐述了地方政府依法行政监督实施效果评估指标体系构建的思路、维度设计、指标选取、有效性统计检验、权重确定等过程,分析了模糊综合评价法应用原理和构建步骤,并将其运用于湖南省依法行政监督实施效果评估的实证研究中。     

Rapid Assessment Procedures

SUMMARY

Given the racialization of subjective, material and historical realities in South Africa, psychological training and practice in community raise crucial and often thorny ethical, epistemological and methodological questions. This article appraises the strengths and limitations of using Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAP) (Afonja, 1992) in the field training of postgraduate students in community-counseling psychology. Rooted in an activist participatory action research framework (Lykes, 1997), RAP provide a framework for the collective exploration of locally constructed representations of a community's needs and resources; joining the ‘community’ (negotiating a dialogical form of communication and a respect for the insider-outsider dialectic); working through one's ‘situated otherness’; and deracializing psychological training and practice.     

Dimensions of political conflict and party positions in multi-level democracies: evidence from the Local Manifesto Project

Partisan conflicts have been frequently analysed in comparative political science research. Yet little is known about the dimensions of political conflict at the local level in multi-level democracies. This article contributes to the literature on the estimation and analysis of party positions by first presenting a new dataset of more than 800 local party manifestos in Germany that allows for a systematic analysis of the dimensions of political conflict at the German local level. Secondly, it is demonstrated that (semi-)automatic content analysis of these texts offers a promising approach for gaining new insights into local party positions. Thirdly, the empirical analysis of German local party manifestos shows that partisan conflicts are not only structured along the left–right dimension but also along a dimension which distinguishes between parties addressing ‘local’ and ‘national’ issues to a varying degree in their manifestos, due to the different behaviour of established and populist parties.     

WHAT SHAPES CITIZENS' EVALUATIONS OF THEIR PUBLIC OFFICIALS' ACCOUNTABILITY? EVIDENCE FROM LOCAL ETHIOPIA

In this article, we study which institutional factors shape citizens' views of the local accountability of their public officials. Our departing assumption is that evaluations of local accountability reflect not only citizens' poltical attitudes and beliefs but also whether local institutions contribute to an environment of mutual trust, accountability and ultimately democratic legitimacy. Combining public opinion data from a large‐N citizen survey (N = 10 651) with contextual information for 63 local governments in Ethiopia, we look at access to information, participatory planning and the publicness of basic services as potential predictors of citizens' evaluations of local public officials. Our findings suggest that local context matters. Jurisdictions that provide access to information on political decision making are perceived to have more accountable officials. Moreover, when local governments provide public fora that facilitate citizens' stakes in local planning processes, it positively affects citizens' evaluations of the accountability of their officials. Our study adds to the empirical literatrure by showing that establishing local institutions that can foster citizen–government relations at the local level through inclusive processes is crucial for improving public perceptions of accountability. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Political Advertising in Greek Municipal and Prefecture Elections of 2002

Abstract

Since the restoration of democracy in 1974, Greek politics have undergone a serious transformation, exemplified by the increase in political participation that strongly affected political advertising at the national and local level. The major claim of the paper is that political campaigns in major cities in Greece are “modern” while in the periphery of the country political campaigning is based more upon direct forms of interpersonal relations. Our claim is based upon an examination of the role of political advertising in the major metropolitan city of Thessaloniki (around 1.000.000 inhabitants), and the semi-peripheral city of Kastoria (around 17.000 inhabitants), both situated in Northern Greece. The primary objective of this study is to establish a strong factual foundation that can be used by policy makers, opinion leaders, and citizens in order to understand the role of political advertising in national and municipal elections in Greece.     

Independent Candidacies in Greece

Abstract

This article has as its main purpose to demonstrate that three main factors considered as keys to a successful political campaign remain the same around the globe. These basic factors are: (a) that campaign methods drawn from and designed in the USA can be adapted to needs of campaigns implemented in foreign countries; (b) the importance of polling; and, (c) that successful strategy planning and implementation depends on the candidate's attitude and cooperative spirit. The relevance of these factors is exhibited through a case study, the successful campaign strategy of an independent candidate for the post of the mayor in the city of Serres in Northern Greece during the 2002 Greek municipal elections.     

中国集体合同制度法律建设的思考——从地方立法看发展走向

市场化以来,中国的集体合同制度发展迅速,但法律制度上的缺陷与不足制约着集体合同制度的有效运作与实际作用的发挥.近年来,各省市制定了一批集体合同制度的地方立法,其中不乏创新之举.分析评述各地方立法的新意与特点,可以从中看出集体合同制度法律建设的趋势与走向.     

强县扩权背景下我国基层政府公共服务供给能力研究

近年来,试点实行强县扩权的地方政府在义务教育、医疗卫生、社会保障和公共就业服务等基本公共服务供给方面进行了有益的实践,取得了一定的成效,但在权力扩张的同时,地方政府的治理思路和理论也出现了一些困惑。本文对这些新的情况和问题进行分析,并提出一些解决措施,希望会对进一步提高基层政府的公共服务供给能力有所帮助。