Vietnam’s ‘socialization’ policy and the moral subject in a privatizing economy

Abstract

The Vietnamese term for socialization, xã h?i hóa, is grounded in its history of socialist construction, originally referring to the collectivization of property and resources. Since the country shifted to a market economy, yet remaining under the leadership of the Communist Party, the term has come to imply the individualization of responsibilities and the privatization of public goods. As a policy, however, it continues to evoke the idioms of ‘the whole society’ or ‘all the people’ as the basis of wellbeing and development. This paper examines the practices of socialization as part of broader shifts in welfare provision and local dynamics of exemplarity. I show that socialization concerns not only the mobilization of resources, but also the production of a moral subject that is self-optimized and yet sensitized to helping others, self-governed and yet governable by the party state. In a socialist country that is rapidly marketising, this moral subject plays into governing rationalities that blends new-prudentialist logics with socialist genealogies, privatization with a notion of society within which individual actions can be made morally meaningful. While the tension and contestation induced by people’s greater burdens are immanent, the continued reference to collective idioms appeals to people’s moral sensibilities, and thus makes socialization meaningful to some extent, even as they resent the turn away from broad-based structures of wellbeing.     

Model for Management of Public Funds Transfers in SICONV

This article consolidates the efforts of the Information Systems Research Group for the construction of a reference model for the management of agreements celebrated based on the Brazilian federal government＇s voluntary funds transfers. It presents the Reference Model for covenants＇ processes, which is the product of the third phase of this research project. This model will be used as reference in the fourth phase of this project, when it will be applied to a sample of covenants. Experience gained in this step will allow the consolidation of the Reference Model. An important contribution of this work is to facilitate the understanding of proposals, so processes analyzed can be improved and redesigned. Processes information, from organization to details of each activity, can then be disseminated to all interested parties. Results here presented are not final. They will serve as input to the next stage of the project, which is the Assessment of the Reference Model by selected Stadual and municipal governments. Each entity will contribute with its own perspective to improving the idealized model.     

“诱致性”效应与制度优化——基于豫北L市实施新型农村合作医疗制度的实例

新型农村合作医疗制度自2003年试点以来,农村参合人数稳步增长,参合率不断提高。豫北L市在推进新农合过程中取得了可喜的成绩,呈现出先抑后扬的发展态势。认真分析其变化的特点、原因不难发现,新农合制度作为一项惠农政策,本身具有诱致性特征,其落实成效与制度环境、制度运行、制度对象的实际情况有着极为密切的关系。在新农合广受欢迎的现阶段,制度自身存在的一些深层次问题还有待进一步解决,应推动该制度不断优化和完善。     

继往开来谋新篇——十八大的继承与创新述评

文章充分肯定了十六大以来10年间我们党和国家事业发展所取得的辉煌成就．客观地分析了当下中国存在的自然生态“失衡”和社会政治生态“失衡”两个突出问题,积极评价了党的十八大的理论创新,特别是科学发展观的科学性,高度赞扬了以习近平为总书记的新一届中央领导集体上任一个多月来为实现十八大提出的宏伟目标而展开的一系列卓有成效的实践。     

关于新刑诉法中社会危险性规定的思考

新刑诉法出台后,学界及司法实务界对其展开了热烈讨论.其中对于社会危险性的细化规定被视为尊重和保障人权、降低审前羁押率的重要举措.但是通过考察我国司法实践中逮捕必要性的相关规定,以及结合我国司法工作的实际情况来看,试图仅仅依靠该规定来降低畸高的审前羁押率是不大现实的,还必须建立一系列的工作制度进行配套完善.     

新时期“东突”恐怖活动新动向及对策研究

近年来"东突"恐怖势力深受国际恐怖主义特别是中亚恐怖主义的影响,恐怖犯罪案件呈急剧上升态势。呈现出恐怖犯罪手段多样、残忍,并极力效仿国际恐怖主义,恐怖活动趋向采用"基地"组织的游击化运作方式,选择的作案时间与地点更具有策略性,恐怖分子本土化和组织化程度明显降低等特点。面对宗教极端思想的意识形态化,网络恐怖渗透的加剧和"伊吉拉特"的现实威胁日益加大的"东突"恐怖活动的发展趋势,我们必须树立全新的安全观,科学认识新疆反恐怖斗争的长期性、复杂性及艰巨性,建立健全反恐怖工作协调机制,加强情报信息工作,提高预知预防能力,加大出入境人员的管理力度,强化对可疑人员的甄别、核查力度,健全、完善网络、通讯监管法律体系,加强宗教事务管理,充分认识"伊吉拉特"活动的严重危害,加强意识形态领域的反分裂斗争,清醒认识中国面临的反恐困境。     

新民主主义文化向社会主义文化转变的必然趋势

社会主义革命不但包括政治革命、经济革命,还包括文化革命。社会性质的变革必然导致文化性质的变革。新民主主义文化向社会主义文化转变是社会主义革命的题中应有之义。建立社会主义社会的目标必然要求建立社会主义文化。党领导的人民民主政权的建立为新民主主义文化向社会主义文化转变提供了基本的政治依托。新民主主义文化与社会主义文化的内在逻辑是前者向后者转变的动因。新民主主义文化是社会主义文化发展的必要准备,社会主义文化是新民主主义文化发展的必然趋势。     

Natural resource rents and elite bargains in Africa: Exploring avenues for future research

This article explores the recent debate over the quality of Africa's growth episode of the past decade, specifically insofar as it pertains to the pitfalls of commodity-dependent growth and the hypothesised ‘resource curse’. In addition, the article focuses on why political and economic institutions are important, and why they are indicators for the likely development impacts of Africa's evident mineral and hydrocarbon wealth. Third, it suggests a useful theoretical framework for understanding these indicators, especially with regard to the differing constraints under which foreign investors operate and interact with host countries. Developing on the latter points, the article looks at the nature of Chinese foreign investment in Africa's extractive industries. Finally, the article suggests an agenda for future research that could better inform development policy for the purpose of promoting high-quality growth in Africa.     

Leveraging South–South cooperation for Africa's development

Optimising the development opportunities presented by emerging powers' growing interest in trade, investment and diplomatic engagement in Africa seems a priority for the continent in the context of a changing global system in which power is more diffuse. Taking into account a reconceptualisation of aid effectiveness as development effectiveness, this paper focuses on the manner in which African states understand and approach new opportunities for cooperation with emerging powers, especially China, India and Brazil, including the crucial issue of whether they seek joint development initiatives with both traditional partners and emerging powers. The central argument is that South–South cooperation, which is value-neutral although rhetorically reflecting the principles of solidarity and mutual benefit, must be part of an effective strategy to draw emerging economies into the national or regional development objectives of African states and the continent at large.     

NEPAD and good governance

This paper is an analysis of South Africa's public service improvement strategies since 1994. It first describes the historical factors that underpinned South Africa's service delivery initiatives before 1994. It is argued that the pre-1994 public service sector was racialised and highly politicised, as opposed to being people-centred and service delivery oriented. The transition to democracy in 1994 necessitated a complete revision of South Africa's public administrative system in order to meet the developmental challenges of service delivery needs. However, this transition also coincided with global reform initiatives that were taking place in the public sector, as informed by the new public management (NPM) paradigm with its emphasis on cost effectiveness, accountability and transparency. The primary argument of the paper is that commendable legislative reforms have been enacted in South Africa's public administration system in the post-1994 period, based on the NPM, but the fragility of the state bureaucracy as manifested in the silo approach characterising the South African government operations, as well as capacity limitations, encumbers the success of these reforms. The Community Development Worker (CDW) programme, operating in South Africa's Eastern and Western Cape Provinces, is used as a case study to illustrate this argument. A brief look at India's experience of the NPM also informs the discussion. The significance of the case study lies in the fact that it was conceived in the interest of increased responsiveness and accessibility to government services, a vital pillar of the NPM framework.