The Determinants of Collective Coproduction: The Case of Secondary Schools in Russia

ABSTRACT

This research focuses on parents’ participation in their children’s education via self-organizing through non-profit organizations (NPOs). The aim of this article is to uncover the factors which have an impact on Russian parenting organizations participating in collective coproduction in schooling. Quantitative analysis revealed three groups of explanatory variables: a) the “economic” variables, namely GRP per capita and poverty rate; b) a “high status” of a school; and c) variables capturing the “federal district effect” on the probability of collective coproduction. Results of the quantitative analysis highlight the significant discrepancies in regional conditions for emerging NPOs in coproduction in schooling.     

Civil society organizations,Africa’s Great Lakes Region conflict,and attempts at regional peacebuilding

This article advances the conceptualization of ‘regional peacebuilding’ and suggests six essentials for effective regional peacebuilding that when put together present a structured analytical approach. The article rationalizes the need for civil society organizations’ (CSOs) regional peacebuilding in Africa’s Great Lakes Region based on the existing conflicts that are of a regional nature. CSOs’ attempts at regionalizing responses are discussed in the context of their constraints and impediments, including inadequate analysis of regional dimensions of conflict and fragmented action. A comparative analysis of two intergovernmental organizations reveals that CSOs’ responses are further handicapped by regional organizations’ narrow conceptualization of peace and security coupled with the limited space for their participation in shaping the organizations’ agenda. Efforts to address these constraints should be coupled with CSOs’ efforts to innovatively develop invented spaces to collaborate on regional peacebuilding.     

Organizations,Credibility, and the Psychology of Collective Action

Political organizations frequently attempt to recruit sympathetic citizens to support their causes. Doing so requires communicating credibility—that is, persuading potential new supporters that they can actually achieve the goals they set out to achieve. In this article we investigate two of the predominant kinds of information that organizations might use to establish credibility: retrospective information (about past successes) and prospective information (about future plans). Using one field experiment and one survey experiment, we find that retrospective information fails to increase people’s willingness to spend scarce resources supporting political organizations. We find that this occurs because information about past successes suggests that the organization can succeed without any additional help. In contrast, we find that prospective information motivates new participants to become active.     

State control of civil society organizations: the case of Turkey

Over the past few decades there has been a great deal of interest in the academic literature on the relationship between civil society organizations (CSOs) and the state, and the impact of state power on CSOs in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Yet, despite this interest, very few detailed empirical explorations of these issues have been conducted to date. Of the detailed empirical work that does exist, none has focused on state–CSO relations in a democratic context in the MENA. This paper contributes to filling this gap by examining these relations and their implications in the Turkish context. More specifically, this paper explores the democratizing role of independent women’s organizations in Turkey and the ways in which the state has sought to exert power over and control these organizations. The methodology consists of a series of 38 in-depth interviews with both registered and unregistered women’s organizations from across the seven administrative regions of Turkey. The findings show that while CSOs do challenge the state in some regards, the state is by far the more powerful actor and very effective at moderating and de-radicalizing civil society. The state does this by controlling the areas in which CSOs can operate and be effective, and through the use of repressive measures. The results show that thease measures have the effect of tempering the demands of CSOs and reducing their capacity to challenge and counterbalance state power.     

高校基层党组织深化运用监督执纪第一种形态问题研究——基于60所高校专职纪检监察干部的调研

监督执纪“四种形态”是全面从严治党的重要手段,是新形势下党建理论新成果的实践运用,是标本兼治的科学方法。高校基层党组织日常工作中面临的主要是第一种形态的运用问题。通过对60所高校91名纪检监察干部进行调查,发现高校基层党组织在运用第一种形态方面一定程度上存在不想用、不敢用、不会用、不认真用的问题。解决这些问题,重点要以思想自觉和责任自觉提升行动自觉,确保第一种形态运用落地;要以制度建设推进运用常态化,确保第一种形态用得规范得当;要以能力建设推进运用用好用准,确保第一种形态运用质量;要硬化闭环工作机制,确保第一种形态用出实效。     

帮助恐怖活动罪的理解与适用

恐怖活动犯罪具有严重的社会危害性,资助、招募和运送人员的行为为恐怖活动犯罪提供源源不断的动力支持。为有效打击上述行为,《刑法修正案(三)》增设资助恐怖活动罪,《刑法修正案(九)》对其罪状进行了扩充并更名为帮助恐怖活动罪。这就需要通过对帮助恐怖活动罪的立法流变、性质、内容以及法律适用问题进行分析,解决类型化的帮助行为正犯化带来的司法认定困境,为本罪在司法中的适用提供建议。     

Women’s Organizations of Political Parties: Formal Possibilities,Informal Challenges and Discursive Controversies

Feminist research focusing on gender policy successes in the 1990s and 2000s emphasized the strengths of women’s organizations of political parties in advancing key gender equality issues in Finland. However, both the “feminism” and “politics” of political parties’ women’s organizations, hitherto apparent in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, are now deemed outdated, a paradox that is critically explored in this article. The analysis is based on interview data with women and men politicians and party workers and is structured around the key research question: how are the women’s organizations of political parties discursively constructed by the interviewed politicians and party workers and with what effects? These discursive constructions are studied in relation to: (i) the formal institutional position of the women’s organizations of political parties, (ii) informal institutional position vis-à-vis the mother party, and (iii) discursive controversies surrounding their feminism and politics. The discourse analysis reveals the contradictions and challenges faced by women’s political organizations in contemporary politics.