公民意识对扩大公民有序政治参与的意义——一种非制度条件的分析视角

扩大公民有序政治参与是中国社会主义民主政治发展的重要内容,公民意识的确立对于扩大公民有序政治参与具有极其关键的作用：一是公民意识的确立是政治参与的前提和基础;二是成熟的公民意识是公民政治参与有序进行的保障;三是公民意识的确立有助于从公民责任和公共精神的层面增强公民政治参与的责任感、积极性和主动性;四是普遍的公民意识的确立是政治参与具体制度、程序、渠道建设的重要推动力量和建设力量。     

公民参与:服务型政府的建构路径

服务型政府是"公民本位型"的民主政府。一方面服务基调的奠定为公民参与服务型政府构建提供了理论支撑;另一方面公民参与服务型政府构建也具有提高制度供给能力,推进决策科学化、民主化,推动公共服务民营化的现实价值。为此,要从参与氛围、组织载体、制度渠道、参与形式、公民素质等五方面来强化公民参与能力,推进服务型政府建设。     

网络环境下的公共政策:政治参与的视角

政治参与是确保政策符合民意及政策合法化的根本途径,网络的发展为地方政府制定公共政策拓展了收集民意的渠道,降低了参与主体的参与成本。网络环境对公共政策具有双重效应:一方面扩大了公共政策中的公民参与,推进了公共政策的民主化;另一方面又导致公共政策中的公民有效参与不足,妨碍了公共政策的科学化。     

公民有序政治参与的路径选择

有序政治参与是公民参与政治生活的基本要求,对构建和谐社会具有重要作用.受传统政治文化、渠道、制度以及自我意识的影响,我国政治参与有序性缺失,需要从营造良好的政治文化、拓展政治参与渠道、完善制度设计、培养提高公民政治参与素质等方面努力.     

强化公民意识:促进公民有序政治参与的重要条件

公民普遍具有公民意识是政治文明的要求,是实现有序政治参与的重要条件.公民的权利意识是实现有序政治参与的强大动力;公民的义务意识是提高有序政治参与质量的前提和基础;公民的法律意识是实现有序政治参与的重要保障.     

西北民族地区公民政治参与的特点分析

作为公民试图影响和推动政治系统决策过程的政治参与,它不仅是公民表达各自利益诉求的需要,而且也是政治体制得以有效运作的重要支持条件。西北民族地区由于国土广袤,自然环境恶劣,经济发展落后,民族、宗教问题众多,多元文化冲突等客观环境因素直接影响了这一地区公民政治参与的水平和程度,使其在参与主体、参与形式、参与对象、参与层次、参与途径和方式及参与效能等方面都存在一些特点。这些特点影响了这一地区公民政治参与的有序理性发展,也影响了这一地区政治一体化和民主化的发展。     

协商式民意调查:协商民主的一种制度设计

协商式民意调查是调和政治平等与协商、落实协商民主理念的最基本的一种制度设计.依照严格的程序,协商式民意调查不但有助于民意的探究和改善公共决策的品质,而且通过公开协商的环节,普通公民也会逐渐提升参与公共事务的愿望、养成参与的美德、提高参与的能力和厘清对政策的认识.作为一种有效的公民参与形式,协商式民意调查对中国扩大公共参与、拓宽民意渠道和完善民主决策有着积极的借鉴意义.     

微博:政治参与新路径

目前我国尚未形成成熟的表达渠道,公民参与政治和社会生活的能力也偏低,微博的出现在一定程度上拓宽了我国公民政治参与的渠道,提高了公民参与政治生活和参政议政的积极性。由于微博在我国的发展还不健全,自身存在着不可避免的消极影响,针对我国当前微博政治参与中所存在的问题,提出相应的解决方案并对其进行引导、监督,这对于我国形成公平、有序的政治参与,建设社会主义政治文明具有非常重要的现实意义。     

环境正义的公共政治向度——环境物品分配体系的制度安排

环境物品具有公共物品的属性.环境政策本质上是对环境物品这一公共资源的再次分配.环境利益的不平等分配、环境风险的不公平承受和环境治理责任的不合理负担是主要的环境分配不正义现象,其根源于公民参与不足的政府环境决策体制、效率优先的公共环境政策导向、市场机制为核心的环境资源配置制度和政府责任缺失的环境物品分配结构.只有改变产生环境不正义的政治结构、调整环境资源配置机制、转变政府环境建设决策模式、明确政府在环境物品公平分配方面的政治责任、尊重公民的环境人权和政治参与权、完善公共环境服务体系,才能从根本上消除环境不正义产生的政治根源,实现环境物品的公正分配.     

扩大公民有序政治参与的理论思考

由于当代"代议民主"的困顿,产生了参与民主理论,提供了公民大众民主参与公共事务管理的权利与机会.公民政治参与是中国社会主义民主政治建设的重要内容,扩大公民有序的政治参与,表达了社会对公民主体身份的尊重,有助于优化政府决策、改善官民关系.当前,公民有序政治参与领域不断扩大,形式多样,取得不小成绩,但是也面临多种挑战.应该以科学发展现为指导,加强基层群众自治制度建设,扩大公民对基层政治的有序参与.     

Considering Improvisation: Play,Transitional Space,and Discovery

This article explores the concept of improvisation in the therapeutic setting as a complex construction when elaborated in the idiom of jazz music. A composite clinical case is offered that illustrates an impasse and how improvisational thinking offers a way forward. Improvisation has recently been conceptualized through the metaphor of theater improvisation, dance, and rhythm. The therapeutic hour is considered an improvisational dialogue with the main theme (melody) and counter melodies, and harmonic possibilities that underlie the rhythmic pulse of the hour. Improvisation requires a reflective/interpretive process that draws on patterns, structures, and experiences reformulated in the relational field of the participants. The client initiates the call and response pattern, from which improvisation emerges as a mutual process of discovery. A more relaxed, receptive, and reflective posture extends Winnicott’s 1971 notion of play to integrate classic understanding and relational interaction.     

Objective Tests versus Subjective tests

objective test has only one correct answer, while subjective test has a range of possible answers. Because of this feature, reliability will not be difficult to achieve in the marking of the objective item, while the marking of the subjective items is reliable. On the whole, a good test must contain both subjective and objective test items.     

Comments on the National College English Test

College English Test is an important national test for Chinese college students, this paper introduces the distribution of scores, time of examination, and analyses the four parts in CET ,such as listening comprehension, reading comprehension, integrated testing, and writing based on testing theories.     

Social security reforms in Kenya: Towards a workerist or a citizenship‐based system?

With social security provisions in Kenya remaining under‐reported in the more recent literature, this overview covers recent reforms in key areas of the country's social security system. In the health sector and in old‐age pension provision social security is still mainly workerist (biased toward those in formal employment), and attempts to expand coverage have had limited effect only – cash transfer programmes, for instance, have been expanded but in practice they do not universally cover the entitled categories. Thus, although the Kenyan social security system now has a considerable pro‐poor social assistance component it remains biased toward those in formal employment, to the benefit of the highest income quintile.     

Abstracts of theses: Smith College School for Social Work,July 1954

Abstract

Many clients relate in ways that elicit emotional responses in practitioners and may also feel pressure to intervene when appropriate action is not yet clear. Practitioners must develop sufficient self-awareness so their own reactions do not interfere with the work they do with clients. Educators exhort their students to be self-aware, but locating methods that foster the capacity can be difficult. Infant observation is an elegant training model that helps to develop self-awareness. The method described here makes use of regular observation, supportive small groups, and repeated detailed examination of what is seen in training both generalist and specialized practitioners. It has become a prototype for the observational study of several kinds of specific populations. Because it attends to people in their own environments and demonstrates a flexible, reflective, multi-modal manner of information-gathering, infant observation is particularly useful in the education of social work practitioners.     

India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act: Assessing the quality of access and adequacy of benefits in MGNREGS public works

The extension of social protection to all has become a central policy objective, both nationally and internationally. A considerable number of middle‐ and low‐income countries have undertaken substantial efforts to extend social protection, while the international community reaffirmed its commitment to the extension of social protection through the adoption of the ILO Recommendation concerning National Floors of Social Protection, No. 202 (2012). This article reviews the legal provisions and the implementation of the Indian Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), legislated in 2005, and does so in the light of the more recent provisions of ILO Recommendation No. 202. Since its introduction ten years ago, MGNREGA has provided a source of income to rural workers, increased wage rates, achieved high female participation rates and created durable assets. India's local governance bodies, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), have been empowered and involved in the processes of planning and monitoring. However, despite successes, there have been considerable shortcomings in implementation. This article highlights two central themes: first, the innovative policy framework of the Act, which brings together rights‐based entitlements, demand‐driven employment, and citizen‐centred monitoring. Second, it assesses the accessibility and adequacy of benefits in the implementation of MGNREGA. We conclude that MGNREGA offers potential for South‐South learning, both in terms of policy‐design and implementation.     

From “Either‐Or” to “When and How”: A Context‐Dependent Model of Culture in Action

In this article, I outline a framework for the sociological study of culture that connects three intertwined elements of human culture (cultural motivations, resources, and meanings) and demonstrates the concrete contexts under which each most critically influences actions and their subsequent outcomes. In contrast to models that cast motivations, resources, and meanings as competing explanations of how culture affects action, I argue that these are fundamental constituent elements of culture that are inseparable, interdependent, and simultaneously operative. Which element provides the strongest link to action, and how this link operates, must be understood as a function of the actor's position within wider social contexts. I argue that on average motivations have the most discernable link to action within a social strata, cultural resources provide the strongest link across strata, and meanings have the greatest direct influence when codified and sanctioned. I then offer a reframing and synthesis that reintegrates previously “competing” theories of culture into a more holistic context‐dependent model of culture in action. Finally, I use evidence from prior empirical research, as well as new data from an ongoing ethnographic study of health behaviors among the aged, to show how various elements of culture are concretely linked to action in eight different social contexts. In doing so, I provide a roadmap for the transition out of the “either‐or” logic underlying much of cultural theory and reemphasize the importance of the classical sociological concern for “when” and “how” various aspects of culture influence action and outcomes in concrete social contexts.     

A Man Can be Destroyed but Not Defeated

Santiago,the main hero in the Old Man and the Sea is characterized as someone struggling against defeat. He has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish,the sail of his skiff resembles "the flag of permanent defeat." But the old man refuses defeat at every turn:he resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen to where the biggest fish promise to be. He lands the marlin,tying his record of eighty-seven days after a brutal three-day fight,and he continues to ward off sharks from stealing his prey,even though he knows the battle is useless. He establishes a great hero:a man can be destroyed but not defeated.     

The gender gap in pensions in Latin America

Lower female lifetime labour market participation rates, greater interruptions during their working lives, and wage gaps contribute to create gender gaps in pensions at the time of retirement. The design of social security systems may reinforce or attenuate these gaps. This article provides new evidence on gender gaps in access to pensions and in pension income in four Southern Cone countries in Latin America and analyses their evolution between 2000 and 2013, showing significant improvements in both gaps, with differential patterns by countries. The decrease in the gender gap in pension income has been particularly significant in Argentina and Brazil. In both cases, the largest increases in pension values during the period correspond to the lowest income percentiles, where women are overrepresented. The application of redistributive policies in these countries, aimed at reducing poverty and inequality but not necessarily focused on gender equity, has had positive and probably unintended consequences in terms of reduction in gender gaps in pensions.