Continuity despite change: Kenya's new constitution and executive power

What explains the continuation of strong executive power despite the introduction of new formal constraints on presidents? This article focuses on the elites working within the state agencies that execute presidential power, who benefit materially from their authority and have incentives to defy formal constraints placed on their own power. To evaluate this claim, I examine Kenya's 2010 constitution, which intended to reduce the power of Kenya's “imperial presidency” through formal constraints on the executive. As implementation has progressed, however, the executive bureaucracy – the Provincial Administration (PA) – has not changed in size, structure, or function, contrary to the explicit goals of the constitution's drafters. Using original interview and archival evidence, I find that the persistence of this agency – and by extension strong executive power – is due to PA administrators’ attempts to protect their material interests. This article shows that formal rule change may be insufficient to spur democratization in the face of entrenched authoritarian bureaucracies with strong incentives to maintain their pre-existing interests.     

Agreement and Disagreement in Group Deliberation: Effects on Deliberation Satisfaction,Future Engagement,and Decision Legitimacy

While research on democratic deliberation has burgeoned, little systematic work has been done on the effects of the communication content of deliberations. We examine how expressions of agreement and disagreement during online deliberation affect participants' evaluations of their experience, including satisfaction, reevaluation of opinions, and expected future participation. The effects of these evaluations on perceived legitimacy and opinion ambivalence also are considered. Several alternative hypotheses are entertained, including avoidance, in which high disagreement reduces evaluations; reevaluation, in which high disagreement enhances evaluations; sociability, in which high agreement enhances evaluations; balance, which suggests that a balance of agreement and disagreement would enhance evaluations; and disequilibrium, which indicates that high agreement and low disagreement and the reverse yield good evaluations. The hypotheses are tested with survey data and a discussion content analysis of a representative sample of 179 individuals who participated in a deliberation experiment. Findings indicate that deliberation evaluations are important for decision legitimacy and ambivalence. Also, the sociability hypothesis is strongly confirmed for satisfaction. The disequilibrium hypothesis is confirmed for future engagement. The avoidance hypothesis is not supported, contesting the prevalent view that people seek to avoid political disagreements.     

论食品安全国际法律规制中的软法

食品安全国际法律规制中的软法主要表现为跨政府治理网络中的国际软法和有关国际组织制定的国际软法。前者是指不同国家的食品安全政府职能部门之间以双边备忘录等形式达成的非条约性协议。后者是指专业性国际组织、区域性国际组织和国际非政府组织制定的与食品安全相关的指导建议、行动计划、原则宣言和标准等国际文件。这些没有法律约束力但具有实际效力的国际软法在食品安全国际法律规制中发挥着独特的补充和辅助功能,理应引起我们的关注。     

软法与行政自制的控权机制探讨

以硬法与外部控制为代表的硬性控权管理机制主要通过法律规范和外部主体对行政权进行强制性控制;而以软法与行政自制为代表的软性控权管理机制则强调行政伦理和行政主体的主观能动性,从而对行政权进行更具柔性和灵活性的控制。尽管软法与行政自制能够有效弥补硬法与外部控制的不足,但二者相互结合、相互促进,才能达到最为理想的控权效果。     

论政治认同与中国共产党的"软权力"建设

政治认同是政治主体对政治体系的自觉接受和服从,是对政治统治客观事实的价值判断。执政党要维持国家的长治久安,保持自己统治的合法性,就必须获得公民的政治认同。而执政党若要获得公民的政治认同,不仅要有坚实的硬权力作基础,更要有强大的软权力作支撑。然而,目前,各种原因削弱了中国共产党的软权力,造成社会公众政治认同的下降。这种现象如果任其发展,将严重影响党执政地位的巩固和执政使命的实现。因而,中国共产党必须从意识形态、政治社会制度、执政方式等方面加强软权力建设,以提高公众的政治认同,巩固执政地位,实现执政使命,保持整个国家的繁荣与稳定。     

The Role of Postmortem Computed Tomography in the Evaluation of Strangulation Deaths

We explored the value of postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) to augment autopsy in evaluating strangulation fatalities. A literature search identified 16 studies describing autopsy findings in 576 deaths and two studies describing autopsy and PMCT findings in six deaths. Similar cases were identified from our institution, yielding 130 deaths with autopsy findings and 14 deaths with both autopsy and PMCT findings. The presence of laryngohyoid fracture and soft tissue hemorrhage was compared from autopsy and autopsy+PMCT cases. The detection rates of fractures in autopsy and autopsy+PMCT cases were not significantly different. PMCT identified all fractures observed at autopsy and five fractures not identified. While PMCT may not detect soft tissue injuries in decomposed remains or subtle internal hemorrhages in neck injury, it is equally able to detect bony injuries as autopsy and might surpass autopsy in detecting subtle fractures. We conclude PMCT is useful to supplement autopsy in strangulation cases.     

Reforming the World Health Organization: what influence do the BRICS wield?

The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently undergoing fundamental reform that is intended to impact its programmes and priority setting and its financial and governing structures. Within the reform debates, new relations of powers are emerging among traditional donors and emerging economies such as the ‘BRICS’: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. These five emerging economies have formally committed ‘to strengthen and legitimise the WHO as the coordinating authority in global health’ through the principle of multilateralism. In this paper, the results of a qualitative study – based on 21 key informant interviews – that seeks to better understand BRICS’ engagement in this organisation and the extent to which their action enables these countries to influence the reform process were presented. The results show that individual BRICS countries found natural pairings with each other on both particular elements of the reform, notably governance and WHO financing, and specific health issues. While numerous examples of individual BRICS countries seeking to raise the profile of specific health issues were found, some evidence of a coordinated effort to influence reform as a bloc was also found. Although this was largely limited to rhetorical announcements of support in formal Declarations and Communiqués, it nevertheless articulates a vision of the WHO as an organisation with a broad mandate delivered with sufficient, predictable funding.     

构建社会主义和谐社会必须加强软实力建设

构建社会主义和谐社会既要有强大的硬实力,也要有雄厚的软实力,"软硬失衡"必然会造成社会的不和谐。加强软实力建设,必须在弘扬中国先进文化中聚合软实力提升的动力源,在加强党的执政能力建设中铸就软实力提升的核心力。     

Improving soft skills and communication in response to youth unemployment

Several studies have been conducted into the high rates of graduate youth unemployment in South Africa. Results from these investigations have isolated some determinants which can be categorised under three broad headings – government, business practices and graduate attributes. the article focuses on graduates’ attributes that negatively impact on their employability. One attribute that was identified was their soft skills, particularly, their communication ability or their levels of pragmatic language usage. Pragmatic competence is an ability which is not always consequential to ordinary language development; there needs to be explicit instruction for such development. This is a reflective article with the objective of examining the nature of communication in the workplace and what strategies can enhance graduates’ communication ability, and in turn improve their employability. this article concludes that enhancing graduates’ communication skills should be a cooperative venture involving all the stakeholders in education – students, parents, higher education institutions, business and government.