Meeting development goals: evidence from the Civil Society Education Fund

In recent years, the Civil Society Education Fund has supported national education civil society coalitions (NECs) in low-income countries so that they put pressure on governments and donors to implement the Education for All agenda and the Millennium Development Goal on education. This article draws on literature on global governance as well as on an extensive evaluation of the CSEF to explore the actual contribution of this initiative to the activity of NECs. The article highlights the achievements and shortcomings of the CSEF and includes a set of practical recommendations on the role of global civil society in international development processes.     

The state of public discourse in Kenya’s post-Moi era: Where are Kenya’s organic intellectuals?

One of the defining moments in Kenya’s political landscape was the defeat of KANU, the party that had been in power since the country’s independence in 1963, by the National Rainbow Coalition, NARC in 2002. The victory was hailed as a new dawn that would entrench good governance, equity, rule of law, and human rights. After all, the victory was a culmination of many years of agitation against KANU dictatorship. Furthermore, NARC was a mass movement with national appeal and led by renowned anti-establishment politicians, civil society, and activist intellectuals and clergy. But, these aspirations would be betrayed by fragmentation of elites in NARC and re-invention of corruption by the same elites. This paper investigates the ramifications of the NARC collapse to the country’s post-Moi democratization process, more so the diminished role of intellectuals in public discourse. The paper demonstrates the urgent need for organic intellectuals and the way forward.     

Power and property: commercialization,enclosures, and the transformation of agrarian relations in Ethiopia

The transnational agrarian social movement Vía Campesina is campaigning to have the United Nations negotiate and implement a Declaration, and eventually an International Convention, on Peasants' Rights. This article analyzes the origins and demands of the campaign and the place of the claimed rights in international law. Peasant organizations hope to follow in the footsteps of indigenous peoples' movements that participated in the negotiations preceding the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The peasants' rights campaign has succeeded in linking its demands to discussions of the right to food in the United Nations, where concern is growing over the approach of the 2015 target for realizing the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the halving of the numbers of people suffering from hunger. The campaign is likely to face stiff resistance from powerful UN member states, but could achieve substantial advances even if the path to a convention is difficult or never completed.     

La sociedad civil de adentro hacia afuera Comunidad,organización y desafío de la influencia política

Having developed conceptually and analytically civil society as a sociological category (based on a conceptual reflection stemming from a theoretical-epistemological dialogue between the collectivist and liberal perspectives), this article accounts for the implications that allow us to understand the potential of civil society in contributing to democratization. Throughout this work the dynamics that characterize the ambiguous relationship between civil society and community –ambiguous in as much communities with exceptionally strong ties between its members can provide both elements for the strengthening of civil society as well as obstacles to its growth– are analyzed. It is argued that the role of communities in relation to civil society in the social construction and civil strengthening of citizenship will depend on several factors, particularly the mechanisms available to build consensus within the community. The threat stemming from neopluralism as a novel discourse of interest intermediation, both for the community and civil society, is explored. In the final section, the implications of this discourse for democracy are discussed.     

Looking beyond the economy: Pussy Riot and the Kremlin's voting coalition

The arrest of the protest punk band Pussy Riot (PR) in March 2012 and the subsequent prosecution of three band members pose a significant puzzle for political science. Although PR's performances presented a coherent alternative to the Putin regime's image of Russian reality, it was unlikely that the discordant music and crude lyrics of their art protest would inspire Russian society to take to the streets. Yet, the regime mounted a very visible prosecution against the three young women. We argue that the trial marked a shift in the Kremlin's strategy to shape state–society relations. In the face of declining economic conditions and social unrest, the PR trial encapsulated the Kremlin's renewed focus on three related mechanisms to insure social support: coercion, alliance building, and symbolic politics. The PR trial afforded the Kremlin an important opportunity to simultaneously redefine its loyal constituency, secure the Church–state relationship, and stigmatize the opposition.     

Like a tree

The contemporary mediascape has been marked by a proliferation of popular TV genres in which the public appear as central protagonists. These genres are part of a broader shift in the relationship between media and audiences which challenges traditional conceptions of public service broadcasting and appear to represent a shift from media as public knowledge to media as constituting a space for diffuse popular engagement. A central feature of this shift has been the growing role of popular forms of expertise on television. This paper maps the main critical debates around participatory television and the role of the expert, from earlier work on talk shows to more recent discussions of reality and makeover TV. It notes a transition within the critical media and cultural studies literature from a focus on public sphere theory and questions of democratization to a growing concern with the role played by popular media culture in supporting new modes of governance based on the expert mediation of normative self-control. In this paper we analyze the role of experts on Oprah Winfrey's popular website Oprah.com, noting both the utility and limitations of a governmental perspective. Extending upon Foucault's notion of the productive nature of liberal subjecthood, the paper suggests the more positive role played by popular expertise in contributing to a media–civic culture articulated to a politics of recognition.     

和谐社会视角下的公安机关网络舆情预警工作研究

舆情预警是公安机关正确决策、化解矛盾、维护稳定的重要前提。改进舆情监测工作,健全网络舆情预警机制,是构建社会主义和谐社会的必然要求。网络舆情预警机制是一个系统工程,公安部门需要做好舆情规划、舆情收集、分析处理、舆情预警四个环节的工作,把网络舆情信息汇集分析作为重点,同时利用先进技术作为保障。对于公安新闻的处理,公安机关可通过互联网平台与网民直接沟通来解决。     

论和谐侦查的语境

和谐侦查是指权力机关在办理案件过程中,依照法律和社会许容度进行的专门调查工作和有关的强制性措施。侦查语境指的是侦查存在和运行的外部环境。和谐侦查的实现应以相关语境为依托,汲取语境的合理内核,相辅相成。其现实语境应涵盖以人为本的政治语境,正义实现的法律语境,探求真实的哲学语境。和谐侦查的构建没有现成的经验可供借鉴,因此,侦查所应有的各项理性规则与程序,侦查所面临的评价标准等等,仍待进一步实践和探索。     

警务合成实战训练理念探析

警务合成实战课的教学训练使体能、武力使用、射击、查缉等专业技能知识融为一体。警务合成技能训练的实用性、重视训练过程和灵活多变性的训练理念方法有助于提高民警的警务实战能力。     

构建和谐社会与环境犯罪之预防

构建社会主义和谐社会是我国社会主义建设理论的又一重大突破,也是我们急需研究的重要课题。社会主义和谐社会的建成,是我国实现富强、民主、文明的社会主义强国的目标,也是社会主义发展的主要标志。自然生态环境是人类生息劳作的地球家园,是构建和谐社会的重要因素,分析环境犯罪的概念状况和新特点,提出预防环境犯罪的对策,对构建和谐社会具有理论和现实意义。