Grounds for self-government? Changes in land ownership and democratic participation in Chinese communities

Do variations in land ownership affect people’s democratic participation? Quantitative, cross-country research on this topic suffers from the non-comparability of regulatory systems and cultures, and the use of crude indicators to identify participation. This study attempts to overcome these methodological problems, by employing indicators of procedural and substantive participation in a structured, diachronic comparison of qualitative data from five sites in China – an authoritarian state, which, however, requires residents of urban communities and villages to participate in ‘self-government’. It examines whether and why changing land from collective ownership to state ownership, and residents’ compensated acquisition of cash and secure, fungible assets, strengthens or weakens participation in self-government. In the research sites, collective land ownership is found to stimulate participation in self-government. Transformation of the land to state ownership and people’s acquisition of private property weakens participation. The robust results of the study support the direction of a causal argument that collective land ownership is conducive to democratic participation. These findings imply that scholars and policymakers should consider the potentially adverse political consequences of changing land ownership. A further implication is that, absent substantial political reform, an urbanized China might be less rather than more democratic at the community level.     

新基建机遇下陕西城际铁路发展研究

抢抓新基建机遇,把握国家支持政策,充分认识城际高速铁路对都市圈、城市群发展的重要推动作用,正视陕西目前城际高速铁路发展的短板和问题,加强项目规划引领,加大政策支撑力度,强化建设资金保障,完善循环发展机制,做强做大做优产业平台,构建上下游产业体系,为区域经济社会发展蓄势聚能。     

城镇已婚女性的工作与家庭冲突研究——基于时间利用的分析

利用第三期中国妇女社会地位调查资料,从时间利用的视角分析城镇已婚职业女性的工作与家庭冲突状况发现,婚姻和生育是女性平衡工作与家庭关系面临的巨大挑战,工作时间的刚性减少了女性对家庭的时间投入,城镇已婚在业女性比男性面临更大的工作与家庭冲突,公共服务的供给可在一定程度上缓解这种矛盾和冲突。在政策方面,建议推动用人单位公平对待职业女性,有条件地实行弹性工作制;政府要增加公共服务供给,提高服务水平;同时倡导男女共同承担家庭责任。     

The politics of landscape as ways of life in the ‘divided’ city: reflections from Mostar,Bosnia–Herzegovina

ABSTRACT

‘Divided’ cities – places of extreme exclusion and polarization – are sites where the paradox of both fragmentary and cosmopolitan capacity of the city comes to the fore. This article asks: What practices-in-landscape consolidate, construct and deconstruct the impression of a divided city? Drawing insights from the post-conflict Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main argument I put forward is that urban infrastructures are a crucial medium through which social divisions and cohesions are performed and rearticulated on the ground. The article attends to the everyday of youth in Mostar turning to the politics of landscape as ways of life in the city.     

城管主体的多维构设——寻求组织合理化的部门、层级和内部设置

在当前城管执法所面临的诸多问题中,主体设置问题显得格外重要却又复杂难解,且呈现出鲜明的多维样态:在横向维度上,主要表现为城管主体在地位上是与其他工作部门平行还是属于下设机构,在管理权和执法权的统合上是独立行使还是合署办公,在履行职责的过程中如何与其他部门衔接乃至于协调配合;在纵向维度上,主要表现为城管主体在国务院和省级政府中是否应当设置以及如何设置,在市区街道中层级数量和执法权限等应当如何处理;而在内部设置上,主要表现为城管内部由哪些机构组成,某些机构的职能界限和特性,以及执法队伍的地位、性质和编制方面的问题。对照现有的大城管立法例,探寻组织合理化的部门、层级和内部设置,是最大限度地发挥城管职能的必经环节。     

我国城乡居民消费价格指数差异分析

在刚刚过去的一轮通货膨胀中,农村的CPI涨幅持续高于城市。这种现象的存在不仅给农民带来更重的负担,也会阻碍国民经济的全面协调可持续发展。究其原因,一是根据一价法则,农村市场价格有向城市市场价格加速收敛的需要;二是农村市场自身不完善;三是政府的财政投入政策和宏观调控政策对农村市场不利。面对这种局面,要从财政投入、完善和规范农村市场制度以及调整宏观调控政策等方面入手解决问题。     

Youth Gang Members in Rio de Janeiro: The Face of a ‘Lost Generation’ in an Age of Fear and Mistrust

This article analyses the relationship between stigmatisation, violence and marginality, and its limits to social justice and citizenship. It involves a critical reflection on the way groups living in ‘a social and symbolical shade’ are represented and treated by governments and their institutions, and the way such practices reinforce a cycle of socio‐symbolical marginality and the limits to life in the city. The article will explore the findings of a research within drug gangs in which I have been involved ( Observatório de Favelas, 2006 ; Silva et al., 2009 and, Silva and Urani, 2002 ), and my own research on violence, urban marginality and stigmatisation ( Fernandes, 2009, 2012 ).     

Political Parties and Grassroots Clientelist Strategies in Urban Turkey: One Neighbourhood at a Time

Both principal Turkish political parties make extensive use of patron–client networks, but in very different ways. The CHP relies on competing local brokers and synchronous vote buying. The AKP is at the centre of a network of public and private funding turning social policy to clientelist ends. Socially anchored AKP activists link the party to voters, allowing it to target social assistance for political advantage and take credit for improvement in local conditions. The case presented in this paper provides a natural experiment suggesting that this distinction is an important explanation for the AKP’s electoral success in low-income urban areas.     

Thailand’s urbanized villagers and political polarization

Thailand currently suffers from high levels of political polarization; parties associated with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra have won every election since 2001, based partly on strong support from voters registered in the populous North and Northeast regions. Many of these voters are migrant workers who spend much of their time working in Greater Bangkok, yet remain legal residents of their home provinces. This article argues that Thailand’s political polarization could be reduced if many of these “urbanized villagers” either took up formal residence in the capital city, or were encouraged to share in the creation of new small-scale urban communities in their places of birth.     

From rural rebellions to urban riots: political competition and changing patterns of violent political revolt in Uganda

Violent political revolt has been common in independent Uganda. For a long time, such revolts were exclusively expressed as rural-based rebel groups fighting the government. Since the mid-2000s, however, this seems to have come to an end. Instead, urban riots, very rare in the past, have become much more common. This article analyses these changing patterns of types and location of violent political revolt in Uganda under the National Resistance Movement government. It argues that the earlier prevalence of rural rebellions can be explained by the combination of a coercive and militarised state, and weak and ethnically factionalised political forces who took their violent resistance to rural regional bases. Over time, however, government counter-insurgency became more effective and the conditions for insurgency were undermined by withdrawal of external support. Furthermore, the reintroduction of multi-party politics in 2005 opened up new avenues for political expression. The changes to the political system were, however, more nominal than real in many respects. While the rebel option had become less attractive and feasible, a series of social, economic and political grievances remained which were only partly channelled through party politics. They also found expression through sporadic urban violent revolt.