Joint (ad)ventures and (in)credible journeys evaluating innovation: asset-based community development in Ethiopia

Acknowledging debates about what constitutes effective and useful evaluation practice, this paper explores the particular challenges of evaluating an innovative approach to community development for multiple stakeholders with different interests and different levels of confidence in particular evaluation methodologies. The innovation – applying an Asset Based approach to Community Development (ABCD) in an Ethiopian context – presents further challenges to evaluation because of its open-ended nature and problems of attribution. On the other hand, the culture of risk-taking encouraged by the supporters of innovation provides the space for genuine lessons to be learnt about failure as well as success.     

论检察权在民事审判监督程序中的归位——基于《民事诉讼法》第209条第一款的反思

新《民事诉讼法》第209条将当事人向人民法院申请再审设定为当事人向检察机关申请监督的前置程序.从理论上讲,检察机关的地位更趋合理.然而,这种程序设计在实践中又有可能对司法公信力带来负面影响.因此,继续研究检察权在民事审判监督程序中的科学配置,找准检察机关在该程序中的合理定位,对于民事诉讼制度和民事检察制度的健康发展都具有重要意义.     

人民调解协议司法确认若干问题评析简

随着近年来非诉讼纠纷解决机制的发展,人民调解协议司法确认制度越来越成为关注的热点.司法确认制度从产生到发展,倡导节约司法资源,发挥调解的功能与价值并力求与非诉讼争端解决机制产生的土壤相契合,逐步显现出其优势及合理性,但它在申请主体、审查标准和制度完善等方面存在的问题也不容忽视.如何使得人民调解制度能够在适宜的范围内发挥作用,实现诉讼与非诉讼争端解决机制的有效衔接,成为司法确认制度发展过程中必须思考的问题.     

中国公共卫生体系与医疗服务体系融合协同机制研究

党的十九届五中全会将"卫生健康体系更加完善"作为"十四五"时期社会经济发展的主要目标,但中国公共卫生体系与医疗服务体系的明显分割状态却成为阻碍这一目标实现的最大障碍,如何在组织机制、权责设计、服务提供、筹资方式、人员流动、信息沟通等方面,设计合理的融合协同机制,改革现有卫生健康体系,满足"十四五"发展目标,是政策制定者...     

From universal system of social policy to particularistic? The case of the Baltic States

This paper compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the paper is to highlight the forces that have influenced social policy transformation from its former highly universal, however authoritarian form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present day Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.It will be demonstrated that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. Rather, social policy should be studied as if embedded in the political, historical and cultural aspects of a given society. The people’s attitude towards distributive justice will be highlighted as being one of the most important factors for either social policy shortcomings or expansion.This paper takes steps to combine quantitative and qualitative data.     

All aboard? Scottish and Welsh multi-level voting; competence,leadership and blame-attribution

ABSTRACT

Scotland and Wales went to the polls on the same day in 2016, the former in a post- independence referendum environment and the latter shortly after receiving further devolved powers. Despite this horizontal simultaneity, the results in these elections displayed considerable diversity. Sub-state elections are often classified as second-order and as such are characterized by lower turnouts, anti-government voting and small party support. However regional elections in the United Kingdom sit uncomfortably in this definition. This article focuses on the experience of Scotland and Wales, exploring regional and national factors that help to explain regional electoral outcomes. It examines valence models, multi-level blame attribution, and relative national and regional party leader support. In a second stage, a multinomial logistic regression is undertaken, finding that the relative importance of regional and national factors differs between the two regions.     

Civil Society and Violence in India's Northeast

The dominant view of India's Northeast highlights violence as a predominant feature and presents civil society as non-existent. Nevertheless, between a militarily-willed state and violent insurgencies lie very many formal associations and informal networks that organize the space for a civil society. The paper attempts to highlight the existence of such relatively lesser-known institutions of civil society in the region. However, there seem to be differences in the very nature of associations of civil society. Homogenous, intra-ethnic networks of civil society in the rural Northeast seem to be more vulnerable to violence and nationalistic fervour. In contrast, formal associations or inter-ethnic informal networks in the urban Northeast seem to handle conflicts and violence better. While the contents herein are expected to inform public discourses on a fragile region, they might also help challenge popular notions about the potential of an existent civil society in similar regions.     

Medico-political metaphors of counter-terrorism: The case of Turkey

ABSTRACT

Medico-political metaphors can be defined as the organic imagining of a society (re)creating a normative distinction between identity and difference and mobilising specific types of political answers in which threats are constructed through organic language. Accordingly, society is made to resemble a body, thus creating a sense of unity, integrity and finitude, while terrorism is made to resemble a “pathology” that “infects”, weakens and ultimately destroys the healthy social body. In this narrative, “terrorists” are rendered as abnormal and external, and thus terrorism is depoliticised. It is fictionalised as a “technical” issue necessitating expert intervention, in a manner resembling the doctor-patient relationship. To date, there has been little research on the interaction between this organic understanding of society and the Turkish experience of counter-terrorism practices. Therefore, taking as its context the Syrian civil war, this article aims to analyse how medico-political metaphors in the counter-terrorism discourse of the Turkish government function as boundary-producing practices. The article critically assesses how medico-political metaphors in terrorism discourse (re)constitute a power relationship through abnormalisation, externalisation and depoliticisation, and thus contribute to Critical Terrorism Studies by highlighting how policy makers use medico-political metaphors to constitute a reality about terrorism in order to mobilise certain political responses.     

中国民法典总则与分则之间的统辖遵从关系

我国即将通过的民法典包括一千二百多个条文,采取总则与分则相区分的立法模式。这种立法模式是立法体系化和科学化的结果,具有既节约立法成本又方便学习贯彻的优势。从民法发展历史来看,我国民法典编纂采取这种体例模式有其必要性和科学性。在总则与分则相区分的体例下,我国民法典总则编集中体现了立法者的指导思想,规定了民法基本原则和一般规则,充分贯彻了民法基本科学原理,对全部分则的规定具有统辖作用。解决民法典庞大的规范和制度群之间的体系逻辑问题,指出总则与分则之间分工合作、统辖遵从的逻辑关系,提出以总则编作为民法典整体的思想基础、规则效力基础、法理解读科学性基础,是理解民法典体系的关键,亦有助于澄清在我国民法典编纂“两步走”规划的特殊背景下,民法典分则一些编章编纂过程中出现的轻视甚至脱离民法典总则编规则的法理混乱。     

Why Civil Society Cannot Battle it All Alone: The Roles of Civil Society Environment,Transparent Laws and Quality of Public Administration in Political Corruption Mitigation

ABSTRACT

Utilizing a large-N data that covers about 20000 observations from about 200 countries from 1789 to 2018 from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project, and anchored on institutionalism as an overarching theory, and the nascent literature on civil-society corruption nexus, the paper looks at the predictive capacity of civil society environment, transparency of laws and predictability of enforcement, and rigorousness and impartiality of public administration in political corruption. Using a four-step hierarchical multiple regression, results show that while civil society and its structure is a significant determinant of the level of political corruption, the introduction of transparency of laws and predictability of enforcement, rigorousness, and impartiality of public administration, and civil society environment in the regression model accounted for additional variance in political corruption. Practical and theoretical implications, particularly on civil society-corruption nexus and the broader corruption-democracy linkage, are discussed.