Violence,fear, and development in Latin America: a critical overview

This introduction presents the core concepts that shape this special issue on the impact of violence and the processes of development in Central and South America. The understanding of development is considered in terms broader than the economic context alone, in order to assess wider social and political aspects. With a similarly expansive scope, forms of violence are addressed that range from direct physical harm and bodily attack to the often more subtle aggression of racialised abuse or the pressures on community-centred production from dominant market forces. In these contexts, violence, economic initiatives, and political allegiances form unintended and often dangerous networks of consequence for development matters. All the articles in this volume exemplify further the spatial environments of violence and diverse ‘landscapes of fear’ that shape our existence and help to define our actions, territories, and understanding of what happens around us.     

Globalisation

The term ‘globalisation’ is widely used to describe a variety of economic, cultural, social, and political changes that have shaped the world over the past 50-odd years. Because it is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, globalisation has been credited with a wide range of powers and effects. Its proponents claim that it is both ‘natural’ and an inevitable outcome of technological progress, and creates positive economic and political convergences. Critics argue that globalisation is hegemonic and antagonistic to local and national economies. This article argues that globalisation is a form of capitalist expansion that entails the integration of local and national economies into a global, unregulated market economy. Although economic in its structure, globalisation is equally a political phenomenon, shaped by negotiations and interactions between institutions of transnational capital, nation states, and international institutions. Its main driving forces are institutions of global capitalism – especially transnational corporations – but it also needs the firm hand of states to create enabling environments for it to take root. Globalisation is always accompanied by liberal democracy, which facilitates the establishment of a neo-liberal state and policies that permit globalisation to flourish. The article discusses the relationship between globalisation and development and points out that some of the most common assumptions promoted by its proponents are contradictory to the reality of globalisation; and that globalisation is resisted by more than half of the globe's population because it is not capable of delivering on its promises of economic well being and progress for all.     

Citizenship: a perverse confluence

This article discusses the different meanings that citizenship has assumed in Latin America in the past few decades. Its main argument is that, in the perverse confluence between neo-liberal and democratic participatory projects, the common reference to citizenship, used by different political actors, projects an apparent homogeneity, obscuring differences and diluting the conflict between those projects.     

From the right to development to the rights-based approach: how ‘human rights’ entered development

This article offers an intellectual genealogy of how the concept of human rights has entered the development discourse—from the formulation of a ‘right to development’ to the rhetorical incorporation of rights within prevailing discourse, to the articulation of a ‘rights-based approach’ to development. It concludes with some propositions about the important role that a focus on rights might play in the practice of international development.     

关于“民政”问题的理论探微

什么是民政,民政有没有理论,如果民政有理论,同哪些学科、理论关系最为密切,民政工作是不是只是国家、政府民政职能部门的事等等,对于这些问题目前学界似乎还没有引起足够的重视,展开认真的研究,给出具有共识性的回答。本文拟从民政与人政、民政与政府、民政与民本、民政与民权、民政与民生以及民政生态等角度,对民政问题的相关内容做些理论上的探微。本文认为民政有理论,而且民政理论应当先行于民政实践,政治学应当关注和加强民政问题的理论研究;认为从特定意义上说,民政亦即人政,民政不仅以"民"而且以"人"为中心或核心,民政应以人为本,民政工作不仅仅是国家、政府民政职能部门的事,整个国家和政府的机构设置都是为着民政的,并以民政为核心,只是分工不同罢了;认为以人为本的民政理论与实践工作有着广阔的前景。     

实践中的证据法——中国证据法实施情况调查研究

证据制度是本次中国司法文明指数体系的一个重要一级指标,我们选取了四项二级指标进行了评估,通过问卷调查和数据分析,并结合中国证据法治指数问卷调查的数据,可以得出以下结论:当事人证据权利缺乏有效保障,侦查人员的证据意识有所增强,非法证据排除规则有待落实,以及司法证明过程缺乏合理规范。     

论“不当出生”案件侵害的权利——试分析《侵权责任法》第六条之适用

在两起案件基本相同的"不当出生"案件中,判决结果迥异。经对两案评析认为,"不当出生"案件侵害了产妇的"生育自主权",该权利为"人格权",适用《侵权责任法》第六条,医疗机构应承担损害赔偿责任。     

新时期知识产权保护面临的挑战与对策

以《与贸易有关的知识产权协议》（TRIPS）为中心的知识产权国际保护制度建立以来,国际贸易自由化遭遇知识产权保护制度的挑战。为有效防止知识产权保护制度成为新的贸易壁垒,抑制科技创新与发展,进而成为发达国家掠夺发展中国家的工具,我国应在充分研究TRIPS协议的基础上积极回应,使知识产权保护制度切实为我所用,在国际贸易自由化的大趋势下发挥其应有的效用。     

论社会主义和谐社会构建中的民族平等权

源于民族的自然属性的民族平等权是民族群体的基本人权。现代和谐社会亦为法治社会,体现民族精神和社会正义理念民族平等权的落实意味着社会主义法治理念中的公平正义的实现。同时,在构建以法治为主要特征的社会主义和谐社会的过程中,应当以契合中国当下社会具体国情的方式,从宪政体制、执法观念和司法举措等几个方面进一步落实民族平等权。     

Decentralisation,socio-territoriality and the exercise of indigenous self-governance in Bolivia

This article analyses the ‘indigenous autonomy’ being constructed in two dozen Bolivian municipalities and territories, in accordance with the 2009 Constitution. It finds that Bolivia’s 1994 decentralisation reforms, which created the country’s system of municipalities, are central to understanding the contemporary implementation of indigenous autonomy. Some indigenous people view as favourable the representative and material gains achieved by municipalisation, which helps explain why more majority-indigenous communities have not yet chosen the new option of indigenous autonomy. However, the new legal framework also limits indigenous self-governance, because territorial delimitations of the country’s municipalities are generally inconsistent with indigenous peoples’ ancestral territories. The new institutions of self-governance are legally obligated to include discrete legislative, executive and administrative functions, reflecting not indigenous norms but a municipal structure of liberal design. This study illustrates the way that indigenous self-determination may encounter obstacles where indigenous territorial jurisdictions must coincide with contemporary boundaries of colonial origins, rather than with pre-colonial territories.