Bangladesh Politics: Confrontation,Monopoly and Crisis in Governance

Despite the restoration of parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh since 1991, political governance of the country is still mired by innumerable ills. It broadly features a wide array of confrontation, competition, monopolization of state institutions and resources by the party in power. This trend of politics has tremendously weakened the formal accountability mechanisms and put governance in crisis. This article depicts the nature of confrontational politics in Bangladesh, its causes and impacts on governance with supportive evidence from both primary and secondary sources. As case examples, it shows how bureaucracy and local government institutions are grossly politicized as a result of confrontational politics and their impact on governance.     

The Politics of Local Policy-Making in Urban Bangladesh: The Case of Rajshahi City Corporation

Some of the contemporary writings provide a different outlook in adopting institutional analysis by claiming that society-rooted politics is foremost in shaping the third world's political institutions. This paper, drawing on an empirical study, puts special emphasis on understanding the nature of society rooted politics in designing the local government system in Bangladesh and how it has shaped local policy-making. By focusing on the policy-making of a municipal corporation, this paper identifies the actors and factors and their roles in the urban local governance process in Bangladesh.     

Measuring Governance in Urban Innovation

Abstract

The international political science literature is ambiguous on the point if the involvement of a plurality of external actors (citizens, economic and social groups, NGOs and CSOs, Universities and experts, different public authorities at the same or at different territorial level, etc.) in governance processes is an end in itself (because it increases democracy) or it is useful in order to achieve better results in the production of public goods.

This article espouses the latter hypothesis and tries to understand if a governance perspective brings about a higher level of innovation in metropolitan areas. In order to test this hypothesis, two metrics are designed: ? In measuring innovation, the ideas are that there are four dimensions in urban innovation (agenda innovation, process innovation, product innovation and innovative communication) and that a metropolitan city has to score high in most of them in order to be considered really innovative.

? As far as governance is concerned, the analytical proposal is that the ideal governance network is at the same time complex (bringing together actors from different territorial levels and from different societal and institutional domains), dense (favouring direct interaction between the actors) and ‘focused’ (showing one or few actors able to act as focal points of the network).

Drawing from a research done in four Italian cities (Turin, Milan, Florence and Naples) through the reconstruction of 120 urban innovation processes, the article illustrates the analytical steps taken and the conclusions that can be reached.     

The OECD and “The Rest”: Analyzing the Limits of Policy Transfer

Abstract

Prompted by the rise of the emerging economies and the growing importance of the G20, the OECD has formally announced its intention of establishing itself as a key actor in global policy coordination. As part of this ambition, it has embarked on cultivating closer relations with five G20 countries it designated as key partners through the so-called “Enhanced Engagement” programme: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. This article mobilizes concepts from the policy transfer literature to explain why the OECD’s attempts to increasingly involve all five countries in its policy have fallen short of its original ambitions, and also why the transfer of its policy work has been uneven across policy and country issue.     

Internet of things – Need for a new legal environment?

The Internet of Things as an emerging global, Internet-based information service architecture facilitating the exchange of goods in global supply chain networks is developing on the technical basis of the present Domain Name System; drivers are private actors. Learning from the experiences with the “traditional” Internet governance it is important to tackle the relevant issues of a regulatory framework from the beginning; in particular, the implementation of an independently managed decentralized multiple-root system and the establishment of basic governance principles (such as transparency and accountability, legitimacy of institutional bodies, inclusion of civil society) are to be envisaged.     

Relativierung des Rechts durch Digitalisierung

Das Recht ist in modernen Gesellschaften ein wichtiges Steuerungsmittel. Schon bisher ist es allerdings nicht das einzige Instrument gewesen, um gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen und individuelles Verhalten zu beeinflussen. Es gab und gibt Bereiche, die sich selbst organisieren und in denen staatliches Recht aus unterschiedlichen Gründen nicht das entscheidende Steuerungsmittel ist. Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie sich die zunehmende Digitalisierung der modernen Gesellschaften auf die Steuerungsfähigkeit des Rechts auswirkt. Er kommt dabei zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Bedeutung des Rechts in der digitalisierten und hoch fragmentierten Welt abnimmt. Das Recht muss sich deshalb Verbündete in anderen Bereichen der Gesellschaft suchen, um weiterhin Steuerungsfunktionen für die Gesellschaft wahrnehmen zu können. Der Beitrag skizziert, wer als Verbündeter des Rechts in Frage kommt und wie die notwendigen transrechtlichen Kooperationen aussehen könnten.     

行政立法中的最好行政

在现代社会,行政除扮演“传送带”角色外,还承担起积极的形成功能。因此,现代行政法在守望司法审查面向的传统控权理念的同时,还应当加强对行政实体问题的关注。对涉及大量管制事项的行政立法而言,这就需要在“最好行政”的指针下,选择恰当的管制方式,并经由整体制度的设计,实现管制目标,促进公共福祉。     

公司秘书与公司治理

公司秘书是公司经营过程中不可缺少的高级管理人员。公司秘书不仅是公司治理的守门人 ,而且在公司与其成员之间 ,公司内部各组织机构之间的关系协调中发挥着桥梁作用。我国公司中的秘书仍然囿于传统的观念 ,其地位和职责远未法律化 ,抑制了其在公司治理中应有的作用。因此 ,需要从立法的高度对公司秘书进行角色定位 ,使其成为公司的法定机关     

司法调解与治理变革--以陕甘宁边区基层司法档案为中心的考察

司法调解是多元化纠纷解决机制的重要组成部分之一,而以陕甘宁边区为代表的革命根据地调解制度,则是当代中国司法调解的主要渊源。革命根据地的调解,不止是一项司法制度或者新型司法制度中的一个环节,它实质上更是一种治理模式,辅助革命政策的推行。通过荣誉、身份等象征资本重塑调解人,不断将革命伦理、法制融入新型调解规则体系之中,中国共产党借助司法调解,较好地实现了革命根据地社会治理模式的变革,有效消解了革命法制与社会旧俗之间的紧张关系,增进了普通民众对共产党政权的认同度。革命时期的调解尽管存在制度缺漏、行政导向等缺陷,但它对社会文化、习俗的娴熟运用,对社会组织、地方权威人物的组织吸纳,以及注重消弭社会冲突、维护邻里和睦的价值取向,实际上是中国共产党领导的治理变革在法治中的生动体现,也成为当下司法与社会治理可资取鉴的历史资源。     

文化引领城市公共空间治理研究北大核心SSCI

当今世界文化传播呈现多元化特征。在多元文化的冲击下,保持一个城市公共空间的自有文化,在城市治理体系中充分发挥文化治理的作用,将文化的思维贯穿于公共空间治理政策的方方面面,用文化促进城市发展转型中经济、生态、科学技术、人文历史等多方面资源的整合,在城市公共空间的文化治理中形成“区域—城市—城区—社区”四个层面之间的整体与局部的协调,最终通过治理的顶层设计,对城市自身文化的挖掘、引导、运用和创新,促进城市完善自身核心定位,从而打造具有竞争力的城市形象,优化城市居住环境,提升市民归属感和幸福感,是文化引领我国城市公共空间治理的有效路径。