Democracy and local political participation in Sumedang,Indonesia

Indonesia is a country that implements a democratic political system. As such, the involvement of society in the political process becomes very important. The purpose of this article is to research the democracy and local political participation in Sumedang. The study uses qualitative methods with primary data obtained from field observations and direct interviews of several informants. Additionally, the researchers use secondary data as a complement to the analysis. The results of this study indicate that the community at the local level truly understands the importance of political participation. However, due to disappointment in government performance, a part of the community has become discouraged from participating in the political process conducted by local governments. Several factors hinder efforts to encourage political participation. These include limited access to political aspirations that are still rare and the process of political education that is still low.     

Participation in welfare legislation—A poverty-aware paradigm

Public participation, responsive regulation, and other policy formulations are intended to draw governments down from their ivory towers and into engagement with the people. However, they paint at best, a hazy picture of who “the people” are. This superficial representation is felt, among other collectives, by people living in poverty, who not only face hunger, often accompanied by poorer health and lower life expectancy, but whose social exclusion typically goes unrecognized by the authorities. The legal framing of poverty—and, as a result, states' policy approaches to its alleviation—focuses on the material core, representing a very thin conceptualization that fails to address the social dimension. Furthermore, practical avenues for incorporating citizens' views into lawmaking—which might enrich understanding—are lacking when it comes to people in poverty. Combined with a blatantly hegemonic stance, the resulting ignorance around poverty and “the poor” generates welfare laws that are woefully out of touch with reality, and legislative thinking that perpetuates, rather than alleviates, poverty. This paper seeks to make a twofold contribution: (i) to demonstrate this situation with a deep empirical inquiry into the legislative process of one legal provision within the Israeli welfare law regime, juxtaposed against qualitative field-research findings and (ii) to introduce the inventive and groundbreaking “poverty-aware” paradigm, constructed in social-work discourse, to illuminate and explain the empirical findings and point to potential procedural–institutional reform, to pave the way for poverty-aware legislation.     

城市社区管理中的居民参与

居民参与在我国城市社区管理中发挥着重要作用,它有助于推动我国的民主化进程,有助于解决政府管理危机,有助于确保公共政策的有效运行。当前,我国城市社区管理中居民参与已经取得了一定的成效,但还存在参与广度与深度有限、参与发展不平衡、参与渠道不畅等问题。完善城市社区管理中的居民参与可以从三方面进行：一是大力培养和增强社区居民的参与意识;二是进一步健全与完善社区居民参与的组织体系;三是在法律中明确社区居民的参与权利与参与程序。     

Law’s not hard; it’s just hard to get into: a study of alternative entry students to law school

Widening access to higher education is a challenge currently under discussion in Australia and the United Kingdom. The increasing number of alternative entry programs offered by universities has made tertiary study, including law study, more accessible. One concern with widening access to legal education is the ability of students entering law school through means other than very high academic scores to undertake a law degree successfully. Students who enter law school are generally referred to as “high achievers”, having qualified through an admission policy based on competitive rankings. The implementation of equitable access programs in some Australian universities has resulted in a number of places being made available to final year high school students who meet the eligibility criteria. Lowering the entry requirements to some courses provides opportunities for students whose circumstances have affected their ability to attain competitive ranking scores. The Principals’ Recommendation Scheme (PRS) is one of these programs. The University of Technology Sydney in New South Wales, Australia commenced the PRS in 2012. UTS:Law was one of the first Faculties to develop a strategy to support these students. The Faculty is committed to resourcing all students in their study and, as a result, is engaged in the ongoing evaluation of the academic and co-curricular programs provided to students. This paper explains the implementation of the PRS and the relevant support infrastructure available to students. It also considers the research into student retention and academic success and makes a preliminary assessment that, to date, the PRS students are succeeding in the transition from secondary education to law school, and that the existing infrastructure is accommodating the needs of these students. The PRS is an alternative entry scheme that provides a model for consideration by other law schools, committed to widening access to legal education.     

完善我国民事检察职能之浅析

随着社会主义市场经济的发展,完善民事检察职能越来越成为一项法治要求.在立足国情、总结经验、依据宪法和法律的基础上建立和完善民事公益诉讼、参与诉讼、抗诉制度具有重大的现实意义.     

政治特性、效率误区与发展空间--非政府组织的现实主义理性审视

非政府组织的乐观主义者在强调该类组织对政府失灵和市场失灵的有益补充时,也或多或少地陷入了两个误区即忽视了其组织具有的政治性特性,并对其组织效率给予了过高的期望.试图从现实主义的视角,来阐述非政府组织作为一种相对独立并拥有一定社会基础的民间组织所具有的政治功能和作用,以及在组织效率方面可能存在的缺失.并认为,非政府组织对双重失灵的补充性,以及其政治特性和效率缺失,共同构成了其组织与政府之间存在的复杂关系,这种复杂关系在相当程度上决定了非政府组织发展空间的限度.     

从白小保校运动看马来西亚华人的政治参与形态

马来西亚华人有着积极的政治参与的传统,近些年来更是利用各种途径来最大限度地表达与维护其利益.2001年来持续四年的白小保校运动主要通过政治选举、政治结社、政治表达、政治接触等方式来维护子女接受母语教育、文化传承的权利.这一典型事例体现了马来西亚华人政治参与的基本模式.     

国家、企业、职工之间关系的社会转向--家族企业职工参与的案例研究

这是一项家族企业职工参与的案例研究.在案例企业,职工参与的内容具有传统阶级矛盾的性质,形式却是从国有企业移植的.这种"非同步"现象,产生的是良性的社会后果.这是国家、企业、职工之间关系的社会转向.对这种现象的描述和解释,以往适用的理论已经不可能适用,而社会功能的理论、资本社会转向的理论却是适用的.     

我国社会保障制度建设与工会参与——访全国总工会保障工作部副部长李志培

社会保障制度建设是一个长期历史任务,不可能一蹴而就.中国是个人口大国,社会结构复杂.因此,要解决这些问题,需要考虑方方面面的情况.《社会保险法》的颁布,确立了我国社会保险制度的框架、方针、目标和任务,标志着社会保险制度建设已从长期改革探索走向了定型、稳定、可持续发展的新阶段,也为解决上述问题指明了方向,提供了法律保障.     

印度尼西亚的多元民主改革及前景

印尼多元民主改革始于宪政改革,并效仿美国一些政治制度,在具体实践中遇到了严峻的挑战。经过10年的改革,印尼基本建立起多元民主体制。印尼的民主改革的前景并非一片坦途,最终还需与民主治理、政府效能结合起来,印尼民主改革才能具有生命力。