An analysis of budget compliance measurement in South African local government best‐practice financial management technical assistance programs, 2001—2003

South Africa's local government financial management best‐practice technical assistance program (known as MFMTAP) was to reform municipal financial management; achieve credible, realistic budgets and prevent financial failure. We consider whether a budget compliance procedure, developed by National Treasury (NT) to measure funding requirements compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) focusing on ‘realistic’ revenue budgeting, improves our understanding of technical assistance effectiveness. We assess a metropolitan municipality's compliance before, during and after advisory assistance. The compliance procedure was robust. Potential exists for wider application to assess best‐practice technical assistance (BPTA) program financial reform effectiveness. The findings from this single, important sample suggest that MFMA funding requirements are not being sustained 4 years after MFMTAP commencement, attributable to either BPTA performance or termination effects. We conclude that MFMA financial performance can be assessed by the procedure, from analysis of the metropolitan municipality performance assisted by a BPTA advisor for approximately 3 years. The analysis raises questions about BPTA program reform sustainability, but we add the caveat that conclusions cannot be drawn from a single sample metropolitan municipality, but a larger sample need be used for further methodology development to confirm its efficacy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

英语文化渗透式教学的实践与探讨

语言与文化具有紧密的联系。英语教学不应以通过考试为目的,而应注重提高实际生活中运用语言能力和交际能力。本文强调教学过程中应加强文化的渗透,利用多种渠道使学生了解中西文化的差异,并对英语教学中应注意的问题进行分析和探讨。     

高校学生党员先进性教育途径的探索

作者针对学生党员的思想状况进行了系统分析,针对学生党员思想问题的多样化与复杂性,试图探索高等院校加强和改进学生党员先进性教育的途径,使得高校学生党员先进性得到充分展示,进而使之成为高等院校思想政治工作得一面旗帜。同时,促进思想政治教育工作切实有效的开展。     

城市积水考问政府公共服务能力

城市积水处理是城市基础设施建设的一部分,也是政府公共服务的一部分,更是对政府提供公共服务的能力和水平的考问和检验,面对严竣的积水现状,我国政府唯有强化公共服务能力,完善公共服务体系,才是治理之道。     

浅谈体育游戏在中学体育与健康课教学中的运用

体育游戏对于促进学生智力的发展,促进学生身体的生长发育,培养运动兴趣具有重要意义,对于提高中学体育与健康课的教学质量,顺利完成教学任务,具有积极的作用,体育游戏是进行中学体育与健康课教学的手段之一,是体育与健康课教育的重要方法。根据游戏的特点和价值,结合中学教材内容,正确科学选择游戏并合理组织实施,既能充分调动学生的情趣,又能很好地辅助教学任务的完成。     

论村民委员会作为乡村社会维权性组织的可能与路径

“三农”问题的实质是农民权益问题,作为村民自治组织的村民委员会应成为维护乡村社会权益的组织依托;当前在我国乡村治理的实践中,乡村自治性组织的维权性功能存在着缺位、错位和异化的现象,这是由诸多原因造成的;在社会主义新农村建设中应着力构建以保障农民权益为根本的乡村治理新机制,推进乡村自治组织的社会性复归;通过政治环境的发展、制度机制的重构、文化观念的培育,挖掘和塑造村民自治性组织作为村民群众维权性组织的组织资源和实践能力。     

Getting to Peace? Negotiating with the LRA in Northern Uganda

Getting to peace is not a straightforward process. In Uganda, internal conflict has raged for more than 20 years between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army. The construction of a comprehensive negotiated settlement is at the mercy of conflicting ideologies and influences at the international, national and grassroots levels. This paper examines the Juba peace talks, the major actors in the negotiation process, and tension between prosecution and amnesty.

Why Do States Commission the Truth? Political Considerations in the Establishment of African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Although the use of truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) has grown considerably over the last 3 decades, there is still much that we do not know concerning the choice and the structuring of TRCs. While the literature has focused primarily on the effects of TRCs, we examine the domestic and the international factors influencing the choice of a commission in sub-Saharan Africa from 1974 to 2003 using pooled cross-sectional time series. We find that states which adopted a TRC prior to South Africa were generally repressive centralized regimes which used the truth commission as political cover. However, since South Africa’s TRC, democratizing states have been more likely to adopt a truth commission as a form of transitional justice.

Five Challenges to Legalizing Economic and Social Rights

In recent years, dozens of human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) across the globe have begun to advocate for economic and social rights, which represents a significant expansion of the human rights movement. This article investigates a central strategy that NGOs have pursued to realize these rights: legalization. Legalization involves specifying rights as valid legal rules and enforcing them through judicial or quasi-judicial processes. After documenting some of the progress made toward legalization, the article analyzes five unique challenges involved in legalizing economic and social rights. It is important to identify these challenges because they must be overcome if the human rights movement wishes to refute the notion that economic and social rights are inherently non-justiciable (and therefore, to some, invalid as rights). These challenges also point to the possibility that legalization is not the only, or even the best, strategic pathway to realize economic and social rights effectively.

从冲突走向合作:政府与民众的利益关系解析——以浙江省青田县滩坑移民为例

政府与民众的关系是政治领域的永恒主题。多少王朝的兴替,多少政权的更迭,都与此相关,都由此决定。本文试从利益的视角,民众的心态与诉求,政府的行事与作为,解析市场经济条件下政府与民众的关系,如何从冲突走向合作。