Evaluation in Nonprofit Organizations: An Empirical Analysis

Many factors influence the extent to which nonprofit organizations engage in evaluation. Drawing on organization theory, nonprofit scholarship, and public administration research, we propose a set of hypotheses concerning the interrelationships between organizational characteristics and various aspects of nonprofit evaluation. We test these hypotheses using combined data from an original national survey and IRS Forms 990. Analysis reveals that although higher levels of staff compensation support many aspects of evaluation, higher levels of executive compensation exert negative effects. Additionally, evaluation culture mediates the effects of several variables on evaluation rigor and frequency. Practical implications are discussed for scholars and practitioners.     

Missing the overlap between theory and practice: Patten’s ‘equal recognition’ in the face of the Catalan case

Drawing on the particularities of Catalonia (and related cases), the general point of this contribution is to argue that Patten’s equal recognition theory is modeled upon a too-restricted set of empirical assumptions, a circumstance that might harm its value as a tool for the orientation, evaluation, and reform of public policy. What is absent in Patten’s account – or at least not properly inserted into it – are four built-in modules that we have named ‘history’, ‘democracy’, ‘international relations’, and ‘migration’. When it comes to recognition of minorities, the past matters more often than Patten is willing to accept; democracy can lead to permanent departures from equal recognition on the part of self-governing national minorities; in the recognition game, there are other relevant players than simply states and their minorities; and one of these players, namely immigrant groups, can (albeit involuntarily) distort equal recognition schemes.     

Political mobilization in East Central Europe

This article provides an introduction to the special thematic section on political mobilization in East Central Europe. Based on a brief presentation of the main arguments of the individual articles, the authors discuss the recent political volatility in East Central Europe. They highlight the tension between fierce political rhetoric and populist policies on the one hand, and low levels of voter turnout and overall political participation in the region on the other. The authors argue that recent cases of successful as well as unsuccessful political mobilization in East Central Europe point to structural re-alignments in the region’s political landscape. In particular, the parties that are successful are those that manage to communicate their visions in new ways and whose messages resonate with nested attitudes and preferences of the electorate. These parties typically rally against the so-called establishment and claim for themselves an anti-hegemonic agenda. The introductory essay also asserts that these developments in East Central Europe deserve attention for their potential Europe-wide repercussions – especially the idea of “illiberal democracy,” which combines populist mobilization and autocratic demobilization and finds adherents also in more established European democracies.     

Caveat: addressing public justification as an empirical phenomenon

ABSTRACT

Instead of a conclusion, this special issue ends with a discussion between Liah Greenfeld, on the one hand, and Uriel Abulof and Markus Kornprobst, on the other hand, about the merits of studying public justification and how best to do so. Greenfeld suggests that public justification is predicated on the autonomy of the political sphere, the importance ascribed to public views, and to the prevalence of justification. Seeing public justification as ultimately a cultural phenomenon, this caveat urges scholars to study it in only specific historical contexts, which are, for now, limited to predominantly ‘Western liberal democracies’.     

着力营造回族—穆斯林文化氛围——宁夏发展内陆开放型经济的一个视角

努力营造浓郁的回族—穆斯林文化氛围,是宁夏发展内陆开放型经济,把宁夏打造成中国面向穆斯林国家的经济文化交流中心的基础性工程,对于突出鲜明的回族特色和增强世界穆斯林国家的认同感有重要作用。为此,应当以显性化、普遍化、规模化、日常化为原则,以具有可视性的外在表现形式或载体为着力点,采取有力措施,从建筑风格、服装服饰、饮食居住、艺术文化、节日文化、文字语言等方面努力加强建设。     

中国传统官本位思想生发的文化生态根源

官本位思想是中国传统政治文化和政治实践的集中体现:农耕社会对权威的服从是官本位思想滋生繁衍的社会生活基础;血缘宗法制度和家国一体的社会结构进一步固化了社会尊卑等级关系;以等级特权为核心的官僚体制为官本位思想提供了体制上的安排和制度上的保障;官僚阶层对社会政治、经济资源的垄断和控制,形成了凭借官职等级控制、支配社会资源的利益驱动和价值导向;科举制度把社会各阶层特别是社会精英阶层的价值取向引导到追求功名利禄上来;中国传统文化对礼治的尊崇为官本位思想的发展提供了理论基石。     

编辑在文化建构中的作用

在人类精神文化的构建和发展中,编辑具有独特的文化积累、传播和创造作用。它是大众文化传播体系的缔造者和管理者,是文化编辑物的生产者和历史文化的积累者,是现代文化制造和创新的导向中心。     

当前企业文化建设存在的问题及对策

正确认识企业文化建设存在的问题,采取相应的措施,加强企业文化建设,可凝聚企业员工的思想,激发企业员工的生产积极性和创造性,营造有利于企业经营管理的内部环境和人际关系氛围,促进企业的改革与发展。     

论抗战文化及其对中国社会之影响

抗战文化在中国文化史上有着非常重要的意义:一是坚持以团结抗日,救亡图存的爱国精神作为它的发展主流;二是在它的发展过程中诞生了一部具有划时代意义的纲领性文献——《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话;》三是它对中国社会产生了极大的影响。