Aviation security and terrorism

Abstract

The author asserts that a sophisticated sabotage threat to U.S. international civil aviation has been well known to the U.S. government and air carriers since the early 1980s. He believes that both the U.S. government and air carriers have failed to do enough to counter this sabotage threat. He cites the findings of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (May 1990), and the enactment of the Aviation Security Improvement Act (Nov. 1990) to support his beliefs. The author concludes by providing a recipe for corrective action.     

Toward a measurement tool for the monitoring of media diversity and pluralism in South Africa: A public-centred approach

Abstract

This article responds to recent debates within South African media politics regarding the diversity and transformation of the print sector in the country, by suggesting a necessary refocus of previously used methods of measuring media diversity and proposing a more audience-centred approach. This audience-centred method is discussed with regard to meeting the demands of the normative understanding of media diversity, where the media are viewed as central to an individual's formulation of opinions and ideas, thus rendering the media – and particularly the news media – vital in fostering an enabled and informed citizenry. The argument proposes a bottom-up instead of a top-down methodology for measuring media diversity, by placing the primary focus on the public as the starting point, rather than the end point of the analysis, and validating this position through the normative view of the media's role in assisting citizens to formulate personal views. The article concludes by listing four key areas in which current debates on media diversity in South Africa should be realigned and refocused, including at a parliamentary level.     

Universities and the teaching of forensic sciences to lawyers—a note *

This article presents the findings of the survey conducted among business and accountancy students of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore, on the teaching of business law. The article is organised in three main sections. Section 1 formulates the framework for the research by outlining the three basic approaches adopted across many jurisdictions for the legal education of business students—the traditionalist ("black‐letter law"), the environmentalist and mixed approaches. Section 2 briefly describes the survey questions drawn up in the light of four principal objectives that, according to legal educators, the teaching of business law should achieve. Section 3 presents and examines the findings. The article concludes that law teaching at the Nanyang Business School conforms to the traditional approach. The author accordingly makes recommendations for the transformation of current teaching and assessment medthods: an injection of a great deal of “environmental” content and context‐based education; more use of actual and current cases, practical examples and a link to the business environment.     

公共行政研究方法及其走向评析

纵观百年公共行政发展过程的方法论,个人主义的理性思雏与经验的实用分析方法是其显著特征。本文认为,公共行政的研究方法,在保持现有研究方法的基础上,应引入哲学的形而上的反思与批判的研究方法,以提高公共行政方法研究的层面与视角;引入理性与非理性相统一的研究方法．以克服单一的理性思维与正向思维的研究方式与方法;引入伦理的研究方法,在尊重科学性的基础上,打破行政的以个体为核心价值理念的结构,调整好个人与个人、个人与组织、政府与社会的关系,建立良性的社会导向机制。     

Making a difference: On the constraints of consensus building and the relevance of deliberation in stakeholder dialogues

This article illuminates the contribution of stakeholder dialogues to environmental policy making. It makes a distinction between stakeholder dialogues as consensus building and stakeholder dialogues as deliberation. Although consensus building seems to be the dominant approach in participatory environmental policy making, this article questions the merits of consensus building and it uses the experience of the Dutch stakeholder dialogue project Climate OptiOns for the Long term (COOL) to explore, in a deliberative design, the shortcomings of a consensus-building approach and how they are possibly dealt with. The article presents the results of two deliberative methods that have been used in the COOL project – the repertory grid analysis and the dialectical approach – to demonstrate how a deliberative design can help policy makers to critically assess arguments in favor of and against a broad range of policy options, and deal with stakeholder conflict in an early phase of the policy process.     

Ordering Disorder – On the Perplexities of the Partnership Literature

The literature on public‐private partnerships (PPP) has proliferated in recent years. However, confusion about the actual meaning of PPP still abounds. As a consequence, contradicting findings and statements about PPP flourish in the literature. This article reviews the literature, and argues that there are different streams of PPP research which operate with qualitatively different notions of the PPP concept. Accordingly the literature is divided into four different PPP ‘approaches’. By doing so the article offers some clarification concerning an increasingly complex concept. The article concludes that an authoritative definition of PPP – one that can encompass all the different variations of the concept currently in use – is not logically possible.     

第四代管理中的质量管理

当今企业在激烈的市场竞争中,共同面临的一个问题是,如何更快、更好地发展（即不断追求卓越）。第四代管理为解决这一问题提供了思路,其核心要素有：质量、科学的方法和所有人的团队。本文重点讨论第一个要素一质量。首先介绍了第四代管理中关于质量管理的基本思想：质量是管理的第一要素;解决工作中的问题关键在于改进系统。介绍了第四代管理对顾客的理解,特别介绍了“顾客对质量的定义”的四个方面的内容。最后讨论了第四代管理的质量战略——以顾客为焦点。     

维护国家安全与社会稳定的理论逻辑、历史演变与实践路径

正确认识国家安全与社会稳定的逻辑关系与体系结构,是新时代推进国家安全体系和能力现代化,开展国家安全工作的重要思想基础。西方政治思想中“社会产生国家”与“国家决定社会”两种较为主流的理论观点,都明确了国家对社会秩序和个人权利的保障作用。马克思主义则从社会决定国家出发,强调国家维护安全的外部职能与社会管理的内部职能,确立了维护国家安全与社会稳定的理论分析框架。总体国家安全观提出“统筹外部安全和内部安全”,是对马克思主义的创新性发展,维护国家安全与社会稳定呈现嵌入性、同构性与层次性的特征。新中国成立以后巩固新生社会主义政权是维护国家安全的首要任务;改革开放后突出强调社会稳定,维护国家安全为创造稳定的社会环境服务;中共十八大之后,中国坚持以总体国家安全观为指导,统筹发展与安全,建设更高水平的平安中国,维护国家安全和社会稳定。新时代国家安全工作应当遵循国家安全中央事权与社会稳定地方事权的治理事权逻辑,市民社会与政治国家二分治理结构下国家、政府、社会治理层级逻辑,法治国家、法治政府、法治社会的法治逻辑,国家安全风险与社会稳定风险的风险治理逻辑,以更好维护国家安全与社会稳定。     

农村公共政策供给:时代特征、逻辑进路与批判性建构

农村公共政策供给呈现出典型的功能双重性、价值多重性和技术非均衡性时代特征并呈现出体系化趋向。民生政治、制度创新、解构并重构固化的社会结构,是农村公共政策供给的价值导向、技术导向和目标导向,三者共同构成了农村公共政策供给的逻辑进路。体制性传递与“泛政策化”、选择性供给与失真性执行、政策供给与制度创新的弱耦合性,是当前农村公共政策供给面临的现实挑战。农村公共政策供给带来的政策泡沫和信任危机降低了农民的政治效能感,引发潜在的政治认同危机;涉农政策“打架”现象根源于农村公共政策供给机制失调,导致制度性成本增加;制度创新热衷于制造概念并引致制度空转现象背离农村公共政策供给的逻辑要求。推动农村公共政策供给侧改革,健全完善农村公共政策社会监督体系,优化农村公共政策内部考核评估体系,是新时代优化农村公共政策供给的基本策略。     

建立中国先例制度的意义与路径:兼答《“判例法”质疑》——一个比较法的视角

先例制度就是保证审判机关和检察机关依法独立公正地行使审判权和检察权的重要制度。它是指一种在法院判决基础上形成的、具有一定法律效力和内部联系的非正式意义上的法律渊源体系。在本文中 ,笔者对于先例制度的必要性、功能、性质以及在中国的特殊重要性等进行了论述。对于建立司法先例制度的法律体制与人力资源、先例制度本身等方面存在的困难以及相应的解决方法提出了自己的观点 ,同时对相关论文所提出的一些问题进行了回应。