Community Participation in Spatial Planning: Exploring Relationships between Professional and Lay Stakeholders

The literature that explores relationships between lay and professional stakeholders in community participation generally suggests that professionals perceive five main difficulties in working with lay people: it is unnecessary within democracies; lay people lack expertise; they are not representative; there is commonly a lack of trust, and decision-making is made more complex. In respect of spatial planning in South West England, from survey evidence these difficulties are not so apparent except in respect of complex decision-making. It is likely that the variation between the literature and the survey is influenced by the longer heritage of community participation in the spatial planning process in England, than in most other local authority services.     

Citizens’ Initiatives: How Local Governments Fill their Facilitative Role

In the context of drastic cutbacks many Dutch municipalities consider citizens’ initiatives (CIs) as an attractive alternative for municipal policies aimed at improving the livability and safety in neighbourhoods, simultaneously building responsible citizenship. In this paper we combine different theoretical perspectives to analyse the institutional settings in which CIs are being realised, and how municipalities try to facilitate such initiatives. Municipalities can do this by either trying to structure the relevant networks or by various forms of process management. This analysis sheds light on how municipalities use a variety of instruments to mobilise citizens to participate in CIs. In using such instruments they can influence various factors (like motivations, personal resources, social capital and expected responsiveness; cf. Lowndes et al.’s CLEAR model) that increase the likelihood of civic engagement.     

法治中国与公民培育

现代法治之成功依赖公民之政治成熟,而适格公民之造就亦是法治之结果。中国法治进程中出现的一些问题与公民直接相关,例如公民普遍违法,公民对违法行为普遍保持沉默,公民对立法与法律实施影响较弱等等。而法治中国之推进离不开适格公民之参与。因此,亟需对公民进行培育,具体方案包括两个方面内容：一是在中小学阶段加强公民教育以提升其素质,二是有序扩大公民政治参与以提高公民政治实践能力。     

网络环境中公民参与的时代价值及路径选择

以互联网为核心的信息网络技术革命更加凸显了公民参与的时代价值,同时也给公民参与带来了许多困境。全面分析网络环境中公民参与的尴尬局面,寻求摆脱这些困境的路径选择,对于引导中国公民理性地进行参与活动,促进中国公民参与的有序化发展具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

Citizen Participation Models in the Local Government

This research pretends to propose and test a new explanatory model relating to citizen participation, which will help us to implement participatory public policies in the local government scheme, comparing with the models of citizen participation derivatives of structural theories and choice theories. The author refers to the case of Spain and he tests five hypotheses derived from these theories, using structural equations. This study used an open and cross-sectional design. He uses ＂Citizenship, Participation and Democracy Survey＂ from Sociological Research Center of Spain. The model proposed in this study has taken into account both structural variables from the macro context of participation （political opportunity structure） and individual variables （individual resources）, thus considering that the most recent literature on citizen participation tells us that it is necessary to overcome the reductionist perspectives limited to individual factors. Based on the above, we saw the importance of structural variables and individual variables for the participation of people. In line with that, we find that a citizen is involved in participatory policy when they have individual resources such as education, interest in politics, non-political disaffection, civic social norms, personal effectiveness, and community pride. Another find from this research, according to the empirical results, is that structural variables are predictive of citizen participation： resources, mobilization, membership of deprived group, economic deprivation, interpersonal trust, membership of associations, ties to the local community, and membership of an informal network.     

和谐社会的宪政学解读——关于不断提高我党构建社会主义和谐社会能力的几点思考

中国市民社会发育发展与政治国家的关系决定了和谐社会状态的实现必然地要表现出与西方社会不同的发展路径。市民社会的和谐与政治国家的互动及政治国家的理性运作是社会和谐状态实现的重要前提条件;西方社会中的政治国家是从市民社会中分离出来的,与之不同的是,中国市民社会与政治国家之间的关系却表现为市民社会从政治国家中分离出来;中国封建社会至今的国家高度中央集权、市民社会发育不成熟的客观历史,决定了中国和谐社会的建构进路必然地不同于西方社会,和谐社会的建构进路必然地要表现为伴随着法治国家建设进程的不断深化,采取由执政党政策指导的国家引导型,主要靠政府自律实现社会和谐的实际进路。     

Revitalizing Local Government Performance Management: Further Dissecting the Role of Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobilization Policy

ABSTRACT

This article examines how socio-economic status and social mobilisation are linked to local government performance management in Nepal. As part of local government reform, Nepal adopted a social mobilisation policy in selected local governments to empower communities for their effective participation. Our results show that socio-economic status and social mobilisation have a significant relationship with performance management. Female literacy, for example, is strongly and significantly associated with performance management, while area has a significant positive relationship but population has only a weak positive relationship. In contrast, poverty has a significant negative correlation. More importantly, mobilisation has a significant, though modest, positive association with performance management particularly in participatory planning and budgeting, fiscal discipline, and administrative management. This indicates that improving the socio-economic status of citizens and their mobilisation for empowered collective action can be one important strategy to improve the performance capacity of local government.     

Political engagement and participation of Thai citizens: the rural–urban disparity

The nature of citizen participation and engagement in public life in Thailand has changed dramatically over the last decade. This article focuses on explaining the changing pictures of political engagement – political interest, knowledge, and efficacy – among rural and urban Thai citizens since the House of Representatives election in 2001. The major attempt made in this article also to explain how these changes affect patterns of political activism (i.e. in voting, political contacting, and protesting activities), particularly between the rural and urban Thai voters. Relying on three latest survey data taken from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, the article suggests that the factors facilitating greater political participation are relatively different between rural and urban residents, and such differences cannot simply be explained as a result of a deeper engagement in the patron–client relationship of the rural than of the urban. Indeed, those differentiations depend on several factors and vary according to different kinds of political activity.     

One for me and one for you? The spillover effect of heads of lists on the presence and success of candidates of immigrant origin

As gatekeepers to elected office, party selectors are often held responsible for the political under-representation of social groups, including immigrant-origin citizens. This article investigates how the socio-demographic characteristics (immigrant background and gender) of heads of list affect the presence and success of immigrant-origin candidates. Heads of lists constitute a unique group, as they simultaneously act as selectors and role models for aspirants and voters. We rely on an original dataset based on the 2018 local elections in Flanders (Belgium) (N = 31,173 candidates on 1309 lists). To our knowledge, it is the first time such a big endeavour is undertaken. The results show that whereas having an immigrant-origin head of list has a positive effect on both the presence and success of other immigrant-origin candidates, having a female head of list does not. We find a spillover effect within one under-represented group, but not between under-represented groups.     

当代中国老年人法律地位论

《宪法》、《老年法》及多种相关法律法规,充分肯定了以老年人合法权益为核心的老年人法律地位。应充分保障老年人法律地位。目前,社会上时隐时现的所谓老年人"累赘"、"包袱"论、"离退休人员是靠在职人员养活"论等言论有损老年人法律地位,不符合事实与情理。