Shaking off the neoliberal shackles: “democratic emergence” and the negotiation of democratic knowledge in the Middle East North Africa context

ABSTRACT

There is a general assumption in democracy promotion that liberal democracy is the panacea that will solve all political and economic problems faced by developing countries. Using the concept of “good society” as analytical prism, the analysis shows that while there is a rhetorical agreement as to what the “good society” entails, democracy promotion practices fail to allow for recipients’ inclusion in the negotiation and delivery of the “good society”. Contrasting US and Tunisian discourses on the “good society”, the article argues that democracy promotion practices are underpinned by neoliberal parameters borne out from a reliance on the transition paradigm, which in turn leave little room to democracy promotion recipients to formulate knowledge claims supporting the emergence of alternative conceptions of the “good society”. In contrast, the article opens up a reflective pathway to a negotiated democratic knowledge, which would reside in a paradigmatic change that consists in the abandonment of the transition paradigm in favour of a “democratic emergence” paradigm.     

振兴东北的逻辑起点——区域制度创新

新制度经济学认为,造成区域经济发展差异的主要因素是制度,制度创新决定技术创新。东北的落后表现在经济上,反映在制度上。在振兴东北的思路上应当具有系统性与逻辑性。振兴东北的最大障碍是人与制度的关系,从社会层面来看是文化上的落后,缺乏创新精神;从社会管理层面来看是政府示范引导不力,自身改革滞后。更新社会观念,加快政府改革是摆脱制度束缚,振兴东北的逻辑起点。     

“天花板现象“与女性领导胜任力的保障、培育与开发

女性参与和组织公共事务管理活动,是妇女参与的最高形式,在当今世界被视为提高妇女地位的重要方面,也是衡量一个国家社会发展和文明进步的标志之一。但是,我国女性在职务晋升中还存在着只能担任低层职务,或者做到一定职位后便再难晋升的"玻璃天花板"现象。本文分析了这一现象的表现、形成根源,并提出了通过提高女性领导胜任力克服"玻璃天花板"现象的对策措施。     

论市场规则建设中政府的作用

市场规则是一个由众多内容构成的整体,能否将市场规则建立起来,直接关系到经济发展的速缓成败。发展中国家要摆脱贫穷落后的面貌,推动经济迅速发展,必须从自身实际出发,采取有意识地建立市场规则的措施,在这一过程中,政府必须发挥重大的关键性的作用。政府可通过立法手段、行政手段和司法手段来推动市场规则建设,促进经济发展。     

关于公安院校搞好警衔晋升培训教育的思考

警衔晋升培训教育是公安培训教育的重要组成部分、是我国警衔制度的重要内容、是提高人民警察政治思想素质及业务素质的有效途径。随着知识经济时代的来临,培训教育显示比正规学历教育需求广、规模大、结构复杂的特点,因此必须靠不断的实践积累经验,以专业化的理论为指导,以认真、负责和开拓的精神,全力搞好警衔培训晋升教育,才能为我国警衔．制度的法制化做出积极贡献。     

贵州对外招商引资宣传策划及组织实施研究

贵州作为内陆欠发达地区,在开发开放中要进一步加大对外宣传,努力改善软环境,树立新形象,全面推进贵州经济社会发展进程。     

Negotiating normative premises in democracy promotion: Venezuela and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

ABSTRACT

This article analyses negotiations on democracy promotion by looking at the case of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It argues that Venezuela contested the concept of representative democracy during the Charter negotiations, advancing the notion of “participatory and protagonist democracy” and that, even if it was unsuccessful in its demands, the country contributed to deepening the debate on the concept of democracy, on which there is far from worldwide consensus. The article suggests that the main drivers of the negotiation process and the final agreement were domestic political changes in Venezuela, specific features of the negotiations, and the structural position of Venezuela in the field of democracy promotion in the global and regional contexts, which were, at the time, favourable to a compromising attitude to conclusion of the Charter, even if not to the concept of democracy.     

论和谐视阈中行政法的品格

和谐社会是我们时代的主旋律,促进或实现和谐是行政法学研究与行政法制实践的重要目标.和谐社会时代的到来意味着行政法精神、价值趋向、基本功能及其内在机理必将发生某种程度的转变,这些转变需要引起行政法学界的关注和探讨.     

创新与我国的大学生创业促进

创新是时代的命题,大学生创业是一种积极的就业措施,创新会给大学生创业带来良好机遇。大学毕业生是高等教育的"产品",促进大学生创业要进行高等教育"供给侧改革",实行适应市场的高等教育运行机制,扩大国家和社会对人力资本的投资,基于市场需求定位进行人才的培养。促进大学生创业有内外部两方面的措施:内部措施即提升大学毕业生的创业综合素质,包括专业知识技能、广博知识才学、优秀创业素质、创业实操技能和市场经济观念等;外部措施有发挥创业指导服务机构的作用,提升大学生创业教育的实效,拓宽大学生创业资金的来源,推进大学生创业立项审核制和招标制,持续帮助已立项的大学生创业项目等。     

Playing the regional card: why and how authoritarian gravity centres exploit regional organisations

The evidence of regional authoritarian clustering across different world regions goes together with the finding that after the end of the bipolar world regional patterns of interaction became more important. Especially in the 2000s a process of revitalisation of regional organisations and even the creation of new regional organisations took place. Interestingly, these newly founded organisations consist predominantly of authoritarian regimes. Due to the emergence and resilience of authoritarianism in the world, the question arises: To what extent do regional organisations (ROs) play a role in this phenomenon? We argue that authoritarian protagonists which we call authoritarian gravity centres (AGCs) constitute a force of attraction for countries in geopolitical proximity – and use ROs as a transmission belt and a learning room for disseminating autocratic elements. In a cross-regional comparison, based on extensive field work, we provide empirical analysis on two AGCs (Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) within their respective ROs Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP) and tackle the questions of why and how autocracies decide to move forward multilaterally within the RO.