Turkey – from tutelary to delegative democracy

Guillermo O’Donnell’s influential work ‘Delegative Democracy’ set the discourse on a peculiar type of democracy. Lying between representative democracy and authoritarianism, the uniqueness of delegative democracy lies in its features, including an absence of horizontal accountability, strong centralised rule, individual leadership with unchecked powers, a cult figure embodying the nation and clientelist practices. While delegative democracies seem to arise out of presidential systems, Turkey, though a parliamentary system, has also displayed the distinctive features of delegative democracies. This paper identifies three characteristics of delegative democracy, which are responsible for the lack of democratic consolidation, if not the erosion of democracy itself: anti-institutionalism, an anti-political agenda and clientelism. Arguing that delegative democracy is the best concept with which to examine contemporary Turkey, the paper lays out how, post-2011, Turkey has demonstrated the three elements of delegative democracy. The final section discusses the implications of the Turkish case for scrutinising the very possibility of delegative democracy in parliamentary regimes.     

The politics of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: government action and public response

A decade ago it seemed likely that African governments would be destabilised by the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This article tests some of the presumptions in such forecasting with an examination of the South African case. It begins with an assessment of the effects on the public health system of the South African government’s efforts to cope with the illness. Efforts to implement universal treatment of people who are HIV-positive appear to have strengthened government, while the costs have been affordable. The efforts have extended the embrace of the public health system and prompted the engagement of civil society in policy formation and implementation. Survey evidence suggests that the government has gained public approval and that its health service delivery has become more socially accountable. Civil protest to engender political reforms in the treatment of AIDS patients has enhanced the role of constitutional checks on executive authority.     

Fair Trade and justice: a comment on Walton and Deneulin

In this article we first point out that the different conceptualisations of Fair Trade, which are sometimes analytically contradictory, actually form a coordinated set. Understanding the Fair Trade project is impossible without taking these interlinked conceptualisations into consideration. Second, this set basically forms a mechanism of structural, institutional and moral reforms that guide actions. In this way Fair Trade sets out to produce less injustice than is usually the case with the structures and institutions that govern conventional trade. Nevertheless, it does not try to define what a just society is or even to perfectly define ‘fair trade’. This implies the adoption of a comparative justice angle. It is precisely by linking comparative individual situations with the structures that produce these situations that relative justice can find its strength and purpose.     

Perception of the relations between former colonial powers and developing countries

People register and process stimuli every day, creating an image of space–time reality involving multifaceted relations between various states. The authors have created a database consisting of articles from the periodical Le Monde diplomatique from 1954 to 2009. This paper focuses on investigating how strong relations are between former colonial powers and developing countries. The authors present an index showing the frequency of coincidence of opinion-shaping content in articles about one of the selected world powers and a developing country; they next establish a quantitative reference to dependency and world-systems theories.     

The Young-Girl in Theory

This essay situates Tiqqun's Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl within a long history of leftist art and theory that uses the figure of the girl to respond to, reflect on, and even to attempt to subvert the various subjective crises of late capitalism. At the same time, and reading Tiqqun against the grain, it asks whether the Young-Girl might be of any use for thinking through the new questions about subjectivity and representation that neoliberalism has presented for feminism.     

都市生态治理中党政干部领导力探讨

推进都市生态治理是促进区域经济社会协调可持续发展的应有之义.本文以A省S市都市生态治理中党政干部领导力为基点,阐释了S市党政干部在生态治理中发挥的核心作用,同时也发现其中面临领导动力弱化、领导效益损耗、领导协同失效、领导制度选择性执行等困局.因此,应从增强都市生态治理中党政干部领导自洽力、提升领导转换力、激活领导制度力...     

强化哲学社会科学的宣传功能:理论主题与实践进路

新时代强化哲学社会科学宣传功能的重性与价值正日益凸显.时代所需、历史使命澄明的是强化哲学社会科学宣传功能需面对的理论主题,而实践进路是对强化哲学社会科学宣传功能从理论到实践的辩证发展与创新的不断探索,这成为我们思考这一论题的三重向度.哲学社会科学有两项主使命,一是学术研究和学科建构,二是理论传播和宣传教育.哲学社会科学...     

秘密侦查性质的多维解读

传统上我国学术界普遍从手段或措施的角度对秘密侦查予以认识。这种认识缺陷导致人们对秘密侦查“神秘化”,秘密侦查法治化状况极差。从诉讼法理上而言,秘密侦查的性质应为一种侦查行为和诉讼行为,它具有自身的特征,与强制侦查行为和技术侦查行为有一定的区别。     

清代搜查制度初探

在源远流长的中华法制文明的历史上,尽管有着重实体轻程序的传统,但随着历史的发展,法制文明的进步,传统法上的搜查制度也在实践中不断地完善。清代法制是中国封建法制的高峰,相应的,清代法律中的搜查制度也比较完善。它对搜查的主体、搜查的对象、搜查的执行方式、搜查主体的责任等方面都有比较详细的规定,并且体现出有效保障原则、遵循令状原则、合理根据原则、针对性的搜查原则以及鲜明的国家利益至上的法律思想与人本主义的法律思想。     

公安工作中社会主义法治理念的践行

社会主义法治理念具有丰富的内涵。公安工作践行社会主义法治理念是构建社会主义和谐社会的必然要求,是确保公安工作社会主义政治方向的客观需要,也是建设高素质公安队伍的客观需要。当前,在公安工作中应进一步增强党性观念、大局观念,牢固树立严格、文明、公正、效能、公开的执法思想,切实提高法律素养,自觉接受法律监督,从而践行社会主义法治理念的基本要求。