Close But Not Close Enough

The authors comment on an earlier aritice in Society by Eugene Goodheart and offer a novel hypothesis about the origins of religion.

新型农村合作医疗中的农民参与——河北省枣强县的实证研究

农民的参与意愿是决定新型农村合作医疗推广工作成败的重要因素之一。那麽,在实践中农民的参与意愿究竟如何,有哪些因素影响着农民的参与意愿呢？本文通过封河北省枣强县大营镇的实地调查发现,定点医院服务质量的好坏、医疗费用报销是否方便、政府在新农合推广中的工作态度和农民的收入状况、受教育程度等对他们参与积极性有着重要的影响。     

网络舆情语境下提升民主党派基层组织参政议政能力的路径思考

当前,网络舆情在给我国民主党派基层组织参政议政带来机遇的同时,其突发性、偏差性、繁杂性等特性对民主党派基层组织的应急能力、政治智慧、实战水平等方面提出了严骏挑战,这就要求各民主党派基层组织应当勇于抓住网络舆情对参政议政带来的良好机遇,努力适应当前网络舆情发展的新形势,积极借助网络平台,时刻关注舆情讯息,充分汲取网络民意,深入开展网络调查与监督,着力提升参政议政能力。     

关于网上价格听证的几点思考

本文在简要回顾国外迅速发展的电子参与实践的基础上,针对我国价格听证的实际,系统地探讨了一种新的公众参与形式——网上价格听证,分析了其功能定位,阐述了其实施要点,研究了网上价格听证在价格听证过程中的作用。     

化解群体性事件的法律思考

近年来,群体性事件日益增多,规模也有扩大趋势,在一定程度上影响了社会稳定。诱发群体性事件的主要因素是,公民认为自己的合法权益受到侵害时缺乏有效的救济渠道。为了维护公民的合法权益,创建一个更加和谐的社会,化解群体性事件应从以下几方面入手：一是扩大公民政治参与,让其充分表达自身的利益诉求;二是政府要依法行政,实现社会公平正义;三是确保司法公正,强化司法权威;四是公民应依法行事,理性对待群体性事件。     

从动员参与到合作治理:社会治理共同体的实现路径

社会治理共同体是新时期我国社会治理的重要主体,也是国家治理和基层治理现代化建设的重要研究对象。基于对S省Z市“民生微实事”项目的案例分析,提出“能力建设-惯习积累-信任强化”的分析框架,揭示了多元主体成长为社会治理共同体的机理,丰富了“主体关系”和“行动方式”的研究视角。研究发现,多元主体基于资源优势互补与主体责任再塑加强了能力建设,能力的提升使其有意愿并且能够建立合作关系;政府通过规则调适以及持续的参与激励来培养多元主体的合作惯习,有助于促进合作行动;共同议题下的利益相容和由参与效能感形成的良性循环会强化信任,进一步增强多元主体间的合作关系和合作行动,进而形成稳定、可持续的合作治理常态,使社会治理共同体得以实现。     

当前中国社会阶层分化对政治发展的推动作用

当前中国社会阶层的构成多元化特征为公民政治参与的扩大准备了重要条件,推动着我国的民主化和法制化进程,并且,中国社会阶层分化的总趋势是有利于政治稳定的。适应中国社会阶层分化的趋势,采取有效措施,方能推进中国政治的发展。     

Revitalizing Local Government Performance Management: Further Dissecting the Role of Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobilization Policy

ABSTRACT

This article examines how socio-economic status and social mobilisation are linked to local government performance management in Nepal. As part of local government reform, Nepal adopted a social mobilisation policy in selected local governments to empower communities for their effective participation. Our results show that socio-economic status and social mobilisation have a significant relationship with performance management. Female literacy, for example, is strongly and significantly associated with performance management, while area has a significant positive relationship but population has only a weak positive relationship. In contrast, poverty has a significant negative correlation. More importantly, mobilisation has a significant, though modest, positive association with performance management particularly in participatory planning and budgeting, fiscal discipline, and administrative management. This indicates that improving the socio-economic status of citizens and their mobilisation for empowered collective action can be one important strategy to improve the performance capacity of local government.     

A critique of bourgeois theories of economic development

Festival expenditures amount to over 15 per cent of a household's annual expenditures in rural India. Yet they have never been studied by economists. This article uses both qualitative and quantitative data from a case study of three South Indian villages to show that festivals are important public goods in the village, but neither a pure entertainment motive nor an altruistic desire to contribute to a public event seems to explain their size. Households which spend money on festivals, everything else held equal, are able, however, to generate tangible rewards - lower prices on food, higher social status and more invitations to meals from other families. This indicates that active participation in festivals generates private economic and social returns which help resolve a potential free-rider problem. The evidence is consistent with the notion that festivals serve as mechanisms by which communities build social networks.     

Recreational Participation Among Ethnic Minorities and Immigrants in Canada and the Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper, we compare the community engagement of minorities as measured by group recreational activity in Canada and the Netherlands—two countries with high immigration intake and high levels of ethnocultural diversity. Using logistic regression, we ask questions concerning the determinants of recreational participation, focussing on the degree to which differences are a product of minority status or of more general socioeconomic status. We also compare rates of participation in the two countries to see if there is an underlying difference, which can be explained by socioeconomic and demographic status. We find that sociodemographic characteristics are generally much stronger predictors of participation than characteristics associated with minority status, regardless of country.