OF FIRE AND REJUVENATION: IN SEARCH OF THE ‘POST-’ IN ‘POST- APARTHEID’

ABSTRACT

In the novels, Scatter the ashes and go (Ravan 2002) and Rumours (Jacana Media 2013), Mongane Wally Serote depicts post-apartheid through a leitmotif central to which the soldier of the African National Congress military wing, ‘Umkhonto We Sizwe’ (MK), is ostensibly caught in an interrupted odyssey. In Scatter the Ashes and go, this soldier has returned from exile in various Southern African countries to a South Africa that is on the threshold of the post-apartheid era. By contrast, in Rumours, the soldier, having arrived from exile in 1990, then goes away to Mali in search of a solution for his post-traumatic stress disorder. The article imputes these disruptions on to the failure to ‘properly’ mourn the victims of apartheid's extra-judicial killing squads, and goes on to note that, as a result of Serote's attention to the subsequent angst, post-apartheid appears as a continuum of trauma. The discussion then proceeds to posit that the resolutions to these diversions are hinted at in these novels’ elaborate motifs of fire, and proposes that the depictions of this pattern recall how Batswana suture the spiritual, psychological and social fractures consequent upon death – especially the death that occurs unnaturally, and upon the breadwinner's return home from a long absence. The bulk of the exploration pays attention to the nuances of this symbol of fire, recognising it as an integral component of a social rite populated by a dynamic interplay between poetry and music.     

职工代表大会制度产生和发展的历史条件与特点

职工代表大会是中国共产党创立和发展的具有中国特色的企业民主管理的基本形式,其发展动力、 参与领域以及职权,在不同历史时期表现出不同的特点。在革命时期,激发工人生产积极性是其主要发展动力; 在建设时期,社会主义意识形态和政治民主的要求成为主要发展动力;改革开放以来,维护职工合法权益日益 成为占主导地位的发展动力。职工代表大会参与的领域及其职权也在历史发展过程中日趋明确和理性,即在生 产经营事务上享有审议建议权,在事关工人切身利益的重要事项上享有审议通过权,此外还享有对企业领导的 评议监督权,以及对职工董事和职工监事的选举权。这种职权特点既遵从了资本增殖的理性要求,也关照了企 业中职工的各种合理诉求。     

省级人大常委会参与合宪性审查的空间和机制

省级人大常委会参与合宪性审查,对推进我国合宪性审查工作体系化具有重要作用.自地方扩容立法以来,地方立法主体“数量多、能力低”的现状、地方立法的本土化趋向和宪法变迁共同增加了地方规范性文件的违反宪性风险.而现有的规范性文件备案审查制度因其固有体系缺陷,不足以促进合宪性审查的有效实现.在实定法层面,《宪法》《立法法》等相关...     

国民政府十年(1939-1949)基层民意机关建设数量分析

1939年,为摆脱内忧外患的困境,国民政府重拾地方自治,推行新县制.在县及县级以下设立基层民意机关,然而,从1942、1944、1947年三个典型时间阶段看,稍能体现民主性质、国民政府又三令五申、倾力打造的基层民意机关并没有如期建立,这就使民主政治丧失了基本的组织基础.因此,所谓地方自治只能是无法实现的虚幻梦想了.     

认真贯彻落实党的十七届四中全会精神 不断深化干部人事制度改革

党的十七届四中全会《决定》提出了深化干部人事制度改革的重要任务。深化干部人事制度改革是深入贯彻落实科学发展观、服务经济文化强省建设的迫切需要,是建设中国特色干部管理制度、努力营造选贤任能浓厚氛围的迫切需要,是匡正选人用人风气、提高选人用人公信度和群众满意度的迫切需要。必须牢牢把握中央在深化干部人事制度改革上提出的新要求新举措,坚持德才兼备、以德为先的用人标准,把干部的德放在首要位置;坚持民主、公开、竞争、择优,完善干部选拔任用机制;坚持完善从基层一线培养选拔干部制度,促进形成重视基层的用人导向;坚持严格要求和关心爱护相结合,健全干部管理机制。     

Counting citizens: the transfer and translation of census categories from the international statistical congresses to the principality of Bulgaria (1872–1888)

This paper examines the nineteenth-century census as an early information technology and a medium for the transnational exchange of ideas in the nineteenth century. In particular, it considers how the ideas discussed by the International Statistical Congresses were directly applied in the newly established kingdom of Bulgaria in the first censuses from 1881 to 1888. It then examines how the legacy of Ottoman rule and the categories of the nineteenth-century Ottoman censuses unconsciously influenced the first census of Bulgaria, despite the desire of the new rulers to mark a significant break with the past. It also demonstrates how the nationalist feeling in the multi-ethnic former territory of the Ottoman Empire influenced the seemingly neutral categories of the first census. These categories then began to produce an implicit representation of the ideal Bulgarian citizen and so started the process of exclusion of the Turkish-speaking or Muslim population from full membership of the new body politic.     

The Polarization of American Environmental Policy: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Senate and House Votes, 1971–2013

The partisan polarization of environmental policy is an important development in American politics, but it remains unclear how much such polarization reflects voter preferences, as opposed to disagreements between partisan elites. We conduct a regression discontinuity analysis of all major environmental and energy votes in the Senate and the House, 1971–2013. In total, we have 368,974 individual roll call votes by senators and House Representatives. The causal effect of electing a Democrat instead of a Republican in close elections on pro‐environmental voting is large: when a Democrat wins, pro‐environmental voting increases by over 40 percentage points. Because of the quasi‐experimental research design, this difference cannot be attributed to the median voter's preferences. Next, we test hypotheses concerning possible explanations for the elite partisan conflict. The Democrat–Republican gap is the widest when fossil fuel interests make contributions exclusively to Republicans and when state‐level public opinion is polarized.     

突出主题把握实质深入学习贯彻党的十七大精神

深入学习贯彻十七大精神是我们当前和今后一个时期的首要政治任务。我们必须充分认识党的十七大的重大意义,迅速掀起学习贯彻十七大精神的热潮。我们要全面准确地领会十七大的精神实质,深刻领会十七大的主题和十七大提出的重大理论观点、重大战略思想、重大战略目标、重大战略部署与重大方针政策。学习十七大精神要注意做到五个把握:一要学习全文,系统把握;二要正确理解,准确把握;三要全面领会,重点把握;四要深入研讨,精深把握;五要突出主题,科学把握。同时,要充分发挥党校的作用,扎扎实实做好十七大精神的学习、宣传和贯彻落实。     

新时期我国政府机构采用大部门体制的必要性探析

大部门体制的构想为我国今后的机构改革指明了方向,是我国未来政府机构设置形式的必要选择。当前需要依照大部门体制的思路制定政府机构改革总体方案,同时要完善相关的配套政策和设施,以确保大部门体制改革思路在我国未来的政府机构改革中能够发挥其应有的价值。     

六大理论新意 彰显时代特色——学习十七大新党章有感

党的十七大通过的《中国共产党章程（修正案）》,体现了党的十六大以来党的理论创新和实践发展的成果,体现了十七大报告确立的重大理论观点、重大战略思想、重大工作布署,对坚持和改善党的领导、加强和改进党的建设提出了明确要求,既保持了《中国共产党章程》的稳定性和连续性,又实现了与时俱进的先进性。