Municipal Democratisation in Rural Latin America: Methodological Insights from Ecuador

As municipal governments in Latin America acquire greater responsibility for public goods and services and the promotion of economic and social development, and play a greater role in local citizenship, questions about the quality of municipal democracy also need to be taken much more seriously. This article proposes a 'relative power approach' that examines the distribution of social power at the microregional level and its impact on municipal governance as the starting point for the analysis of municipal democratisation in Latin America. The approach lays particular emphasis on historical changes in the distribution of local productive assets, the political organisation of local social actors, coalitions between and divisions within local social sectors and the ways in which local power relations are shaped by global and national forces. The article then explores the practical application of the relative power approach to three municipalities in rural Ecuador.     

Pretend It Doesn'T Work: The ‘Anti-Social’ Bias In The Maryland Scientific Methods Scale

The social constructs and methodological principles embodied in the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale (SMS), comprising part of the Campbell Collaboration in Crime and Justice assessment protocol, induce a series of biases in the evaluation of evidence of crime prevention policy interventions that focus on collective social phenomena, such as communities. Applying these principles leads to negative conclusions about effectiveness; yet their inherent ‘anti-social’ bias may induce Type II error with regard to the desirability of ‘social’ interventions to reduce crime. Policy-making is poorly served as a result. This point is illustrated, first, through a scrutiny of the social constructs used, including those that typify treatments, institutional settings and units of analysis. These are seen as being constructed in a way that is congenial to the underlying methodological issue of ‘control’ but that constitute nevertheless a distorted definition of the governance issues involved in crime reduction in community settings. A model more appropriate for evaluating voluntaristic action in civil society is needed. Second, it is suggested that this methodological bias arises particularly in policy interventions and change programmes that address issues concerning the ‘collective efficacy’ of local communities in reducing crime. An empirical exemplification of these arguments is presented with reference to a completed evaluation research study (Foster and Hope, 1993).     

从股东绝对主权主义到相对主权主义公司治理的困境及出路

从股东绝对主权主义到相对主权主义是公司作为一种资本制度的必然选择,股东大会权力的缩小,董事会权力的扩大,发挥经营者在业务经营管理领域的专长,是实现公司灵活、高效经营,增强公司活力的客观需要.然而,股东主权相对主义却遇到了新的困境:法律上的董事会中心主义在公司权力实际运作中,配置给了大股东或经营者,而应享有主权的广大股东和利益相关者均无法对实际控制公司的大股东和经营者实施有效的监督.完善公司治理的必由之路是建立有效的约束机制.     

法律中的可辩驳推理

法律中的可辩驳推理是法律方法研究中的一个新课题。可辩驳推理作为一种独立的推理模式而在各个领域发生影响主要有以下三种理论的支持:其一,哲学的“语用学转向”;其二,人工智能研究的深入;其三,单一性法律推理向非单一性法律推理的转向。法律中的可辩驳推理可以分为三个维度:推定的可辩驳性;过程的可辩驳性和理论的可辩驳性。可辩驳推理对法律方法、法律论证与民主法治等重大的法律理论问题都产生了深远的影响。     

十六大对党的执政理论的创新

执政党的创新,首先是理论创新;理论创新,首要的是执政理论的创新,因为它是执政党的立党之本,执政之基。     

From Form to Function to Sustainable Solutions? Reforming Public Sectors in Low Income Countries: New Approaches and Available Evidence of “What Works”

The article reviews the evidence about success of public sector reforms in low and middle income countries, external support for such reforms, and recent ideas of how such support could be better designed and implemented. Enthusiasm for supporting public sector reforms has decreased over the past decade, and available data suggest that there has been little overall improvement. However, it also indicates that a small number of countries have significantly strengthened their public sectors over the past 10 to 20 years. The article then reviews five new approaches that have been proposed for better supporting public sector reforms. It looks at how they diagnose what has not worked and the implications of what should be carried out differently. Furthermore, it explores to what extent the available evidence of overall stagnation as well as of success cases fits with these proposed alternatives, to gauge to what extent they are likely to make a difference. The final section sets out the implications. Development agencies should seek to deliberately test a combination of the proposed alternative approaches, particularly in more difficult contexts, taking political feasibility as a basis and adding other elements. The urgency to make progress remains high. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Not Centralisation but Decentralised Integration through Australia's National Mental Health Policy

This article challenges dominant perceptions of Commonwealth centralisation in Australia's federal system. While recognising the Commonwealth has entered a range of policy fields not anticipated by federal founders, it argues this does not equate to a generalised unidirectional and hierarchical orchestration of state/territory functions. The crucial case of mental health policy is presented as an alternative scenario in Australia's federal experience. Theoretically key challenges from the multi‐level governance literature are proffered against the centralisation thesis. These include queries about the origins of Commonwealth directives and assumptions of zero‐sum notions of state/territory autonomy. Brief empirical analysis highlights the role of the Commonwealth as a conduit of horizontal and vertical flows of knowledge through the national mental health policy agenda. Given disconnect and diversity between national ambitions and their realisation at state/territory level, it is argued better proceduralisation through bottom‐up peer dialogue and feedback present alternative routes towards decentralised integration.     

Providing an Integrated Response to Family Violence: Governance Attributes of Local Networks in Victoria

The establishment of integrated responses to family violence represents a significant implementation challenge for locally‐based networks. This research reports on the experiences of integrated family violence committees in Victoria, and the features of their governance associated with perceived effectiveness in committee functioning. There were consistent regional differences in the perceived effectiveness of committees. The main challenge for effective service integration was establishing and maintaining effective partnerships. There were substantial differences in the capacities of the committees to meet the challenges of integration, and the research points to the need for a stronger guidance and support role by central agencies.     

Fostering Dialogue or Monologue? Estonian Party Websites During the 2009 European Parliament Elections

This paper presents data from the analyses of political party web pages during the 2009 European Parliament elections in Estonia. It examines the presence and absence of web 2.0 features on the sites and aims to find out whether interactivity-based applications are used by parties to increase participation and to foster deliberative politics. Estonia as a small ex-Soviet country has emerged after the Soviet Union collapse as one of the most advanced e-societies in the world. Therefore, Estonia is chosen as a case study to explore whether and how decision makers use web 2.0 elements for fostering Habermasian dialogue between the citizens and the power holders in the society where technical obstacles for deliberative politics do not exist any longer. The results show that the Estonian parties still focus on the one-sided or top-down model of communication, based on web 1.0 features, even though all conditions for deliberation from the technical and infrastructural side in Estonia are fulfilled. The paper concludes with a discussion on the possible reasons parties might not be interested in using web 2.0 elements in their web campaign and how it might be linked to the conditions where citizens’ participation and interest in politics is low. There is also emphasis on the need for further systematic comparative research in order to draw conclusions on the changes in the online campaigning and political communication process in the era of cyber-democracy.