社区治理：公民社会的微观基础

本文试图通过一种分析视角,在一定程度上显示中国城市基层社区中公民社会的微观基础,以及这种微观基础与“社区共治”及社区“治理结构”之间的微妙联系,同时也提醒读者在深刻揭示这种微妙联系时必须把研究视角聚焦到具体行动空间的权力关系及协调机制。     

当代中国的"市民社会"话语转换及其对法治进程的影响

“市民社会”是东亚政治现代化进程中的舶来品,并成为东亚民主和法治研究的重要话语。我国台湾地区大多以“民间社会”来表达其特有旨趣,而大陆则出现了从“市民社会”向“公民社会”的话语转换,这不仅对我国民主和法治的研究有重要意义,也会对民主法治的现实进程有一定影响,值得关注。     

Impacts of Demographics on Citizen's Access to Information: An Empirical Study of District Dera Ismail Khan, North Western Frontier Province, Pakistan

The impact of demographic dimensions on local government behavior is well identified, analyzed and documented at the global level. Likewise, several studies are available on developing countries, but empirical evidence on the conditions of Pakistan is lacking. This study is an effort to unearth empirical evidence on access to information in the local government system exemplifying data from the district Dera Ismail Khan (DIK), North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). Most global hypotheses for developing countries are accepted in this study but the statistics on local data are far more different in terms of the value and weight of variables, relationships and impacts on the research concepts. The most dominant concept in the impact of access to information on the local government system is "education for all." Mass education is a leading concept in making or breaking the role of people participation in the success or failure of local democracies. Data show that illiteracy is causing many problems, including the mass population's unawareness of their interests and duties at the public level, thereby giving the ruling elite a free hand in exploiting public resources for self-interest, at the cost of the public good.     

Challenges and Dilemmas of Civil Society movements in India

Civil Society spaces provide citizens opportunities to frame their collective identities and interests through the formation of voluntary interest groups and organisations set to specific purposes. In the west, historically these interest groups have contributed to the development of political thought that assisted to forge the economic interests of emerging bourgeoisie. This paper situated in the context of India begins with a thematic perspective and reviews the challenges that emerge as a result of the demands that emerge within the civil society space. The paper considered three broad range organizations for this review such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the river Narmada Campaign); National Alliance for People's Movement (NAPM); and the Self‐Employed Women's Association (SEWA). The authors see civil society as a conciliating place—where individual interests appear to mingle with societal requirements while providing adequate representation to the marginalized groups and expression of concerns around economic and environmental rights.     

公民有序政治参与对服务型政府构建的价值及实现

秩序是政治生活基本的价值,供给秩序是服务型政府的职能定位。服务型政府是公民本位的政府,公民与政府的良性互动是服务型政府建设的基础。但是,惟有有序的公民政治参与才能发挥正向功能,有序的公民政治参与对服务型政府构建具有多层价值。为了充分发挥这种价值和效用,就需要政府、社会组织和公民共同努力推进公民有序政治参与。     

城市新型社区居民自治组织的实证研究

通过对中国城市商品房小区居民管理组织的首次社会学调查，分析新型社区和业主的主要特征、业主对新型社区管理和社区居民自治组织的看法、业主委员会的性质和主要特点以及业主在参与社区公共事务方面的态度和行为，提出应建立符合市场经济原则的新型社区管理体制以及积极支持并培育居民民主自治能力。     

Organizational factors and child participation in decision‐making: differences between two child welfare organizations

Children in residential care tend to be less content with the quality of care arrangements and participation opportunities compared to children in foster care. This study explored possible differences in social workers' views about child participation and service quality. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test if any differences may be explained by collaboration between professionals' and social workers' work engagement. We found that social workers from residential care services seem more prudent in letting children participate in case planning compared to social workers planning for foster care. Social workers' judgements of service quality were also highly affected by their organizational affiliation, but personal factors such as work engagement may also play a part. The differences we found regarding social workers' attitudes towards participation and their rating of service quality are associated with organizational culture. Understanding how organizations shape social workers' decisions to include or exclude children in care planning may help gain a more comprehensive understanding of what is needed to take the participation agenda forward.     

交易成本对非营利组织解释的合理性与局限性：交往成本的提出

交易成本理论有其合理性也有局限性,但是利他主义仍然始终是经济学的一个棘手问题,对于‘社团等非营利组织有那么多的优势可以降低交易成本,但为什么企业不采取这种形式’这样的问题,交易成本不能给出圆满的解释。社会交往行为是有成本的,但这不是交易成本而是交往成本。所以,应当用交往成本对社团等非营利组织与成员之间的交往行动进行解释。     

道德整合:社会公平与社会秩序获得的根本出路

稳定的社会秩序是一个社会健全程度的标志。因此 ,如何获得社会秩序的问题历来受到人们的关注。在所有谋求社会秩序的方式中 ,通过政府而实现的社会公平和正义是最为可靠的。一个社会只有实现了公平和正义 ,才能够消解一切根本性的社会冲突诱因 ,实现稳定的社会秩序供给。但是 ,在现实中 ,腐败问题尤其是政府中存在的一些严重的腐败问题成了当前一切社会冲突的诱因。所以 ,应当从反腐败着手 ,在实现政府道德化的过程中 ,实现整个社会道德水平的全面提升 ,实现社会秩序的道德整合     

Women,Welfare and Civil Society Organizations: Creating an Alternative Women's Welfare Sphere in Israel

This article examines the phenomenon of Israeli civil society organizations (CSOs) providing services to women as part of the creation of an alternative women's welfare sphere in Israel in recent years, and its influence upon the welfare state and women. The creation and the existence of the women's civil society sphere can be seen as part of a move by the Israeli welfare state towards a liberal‐style economic regime. The article examines the services and mode of operation of fourteen organizations offering welfare, health and educational services to women in Israel, using a qualitative research method. The study identifies four traits characterizing these organizations: their loose connections with the welfare state, the use of sectoral and selective criteria determining eligibility for their services, the mirroring of internal dynamics of the community and its response to gender issues, and the CSOs' holistic, sporadic and unprofessional services. The analysis highlights the gender dimensions of civil society organizations, the characteristics of structure and content of the services they offer, and the role and place of civil society organizations operating parallel to the welfare state. It sheds light on the complex nature of this sphere and its services, which contribute to the empowerment and improvement of women's lives but, simultaneously, strengthen and reinforce their exclusion and marginalization.     

Global standards: promise and pitfalls for re‐inscribing social work into civil society1

This article critiques the modernist logical‐positivist ideology that has underscored social work, and interrogates the promise of the development of global standards to re‐inscribe social work into civil society at the global level. The potential pitfalls and dangers of such an initiative are also examined. The development of global standards was born out of an assumption that there is a common core to social work on a global level and on an essential affirmation of humanity and human dignity of all peoples across the world. Global standards might be construed to constitute a hegemonic Western discourse and a denial of context‐specific realities. However, a judicious, sensitive, post‐modernist and critical approach may enhance sensitivity towards difference and a greater appreciation of locally specific realities, within the global sphere.     

社会需求、资源供给、制度变迁与民间组织发展——基于中国省级经验的实证研究

本文从社会需求、供给和制度主义这三种视角解释民间组织发展的差异,在此基础上,提出中国转型时期民间组织发展地区差异的研究假设,并利用2001-2008年省级层次面板数据进行检验。研究表明,三种理论视角都有一定的解释力;但影响社会团体、民办非企业单位和基金会三种不同类型民间组织发展的具体因素各不相同;中国民间组织的发展嵌入于其所处的地方社会情境之中,它不仅反映了地区的社会需求结构和居民资源状况,还受到地区经济制度和社会保障制度变迁进程的影响。     

Collaborative vs. Adversarial Relationship Between the State and Civil Society in Facing Public Disaster The Case of Hong Kong in the SARS Crisis

A study on activities launched by the civil society in dealing with the SARS crisis in Hong Kong identifies that civil society in Hong Kong simultaneously performs the collaborative and adversarial functions, embracing a sensitive balance between trust and risk when entrusting the state to serve the public good. Drawing on the survey analysis, the article argues that the complexity of state and civil society relation has to be understood as dialectics in the “collaboration/adversary” duality. Several hypotheses are generated from the study for further research.     

Effecting change in local government: local authority chief executives as emotional actors

Most change management initiatives fail. Here, we explore data which emerged from a larger research study of local authority chief executives’ subjective experiences of New Labour’s modernisation programme and argue that the route to change so often taken by central government is detrimental to the successful embedding of change within local government because it ignores fundamental human reactions to coercion and control. We demonstrate that the seeds of failure are sown in the processes adopted as much as in the content of any programme of change. A contributory factor to such failures is the apparent reliance on the part of legislators that their policies and procedures will receive a neutral reaction. We show that the reality is that legislation is responded to and enacted by people who react in ways designed to defend their own positions, irrespective of the worth of those positions. Whether seen as actors in the policy implementation process, or as agents of change, chief executives act and react emotionally. This contributes to our theoretical understanding of the policy process and the practical application of change programmes. This article will be of interest to those in central and local government who are promoting or responding to change.     

Financial access and economic participation of youth with disabilities in China: an exploratory study

Financial access is an important indicator of economic participation and is particularly relevant to asset building among vulnerable individuals in transitional stages of their lives. Drawing on data from a survey of disabled youth (ages 16–25) in Beijing, this study examines determinants of the target group's financial access. It focuses on a range of individual, household and institutional factors that affect breadth and depth of financial access. Quantitative results complemented by field interviews demonstrate a gap between financial access breadth, measured by account holding, and access depth, measured by regular banking activity. Although individual characteristics, especially disability types and severity, have significant effects on the chances that a youth holds an account, household and financial institution factors show stronger effects on regular banking activity than do individual variables. Finally, this article discusses the implications of the study for economic participation and financial capability among youth with disabilities in China.     

日本中央政府高级公务员考核研究及其启示

日本中央政府高级公务员考核制度作为其公务员制度的重要组成部分,很大程度上保证了日本公务员队伍的廉洁与高效。本文以日本中央政府高级公务员管理方面的法律法规和制度等为依据,以考核内容、考核主体、考核周期、考核方法和结果应用为框架,梳理了其在高级公务员绩效考核具体做法和晋升考核的内容与程序,并在此基础上提炼出了对我国党政领导干部绩效考核和晋升考核的借鉴与启示。     

Islamisation and activism of a Muslim NGO in Pakistan: Jama'at‐ud‐Da'wa as a case study

This paper locates the study of Jamat‐ud‐Da'wa (JUD) within the context of global political developments. Premised on the nexus between the local and the global developments, it discusses how changes in the domestic or international arena shaped the policies of JUD after 9/11. It argues that, as a successor to the Lashker‐e‐Toiba in Pakistan, the JUD has been active in the social welfare space. It has moved into roles that reside in the domain of the state's responsibility but have passed to the private sector due to the state's failure to meet the needs of its citizens, including the provision of education and relief and rescue efforts after natural disasters. Though not categorically identified as being part of the jihadi agenda, this activism increases the appeal of the JUD among Pakistani citizens, with a possibility of increasing their declared and/or active support for JUD's views on Pakistan's foreign policy.     

Local autonomy,municipal size and local political participation in Europe

Local autonomy in Europe has, on average, increased since 1990 and has decreased (a little) since 2009. The average population size of a European municipality has increased continuously during the last two decades. European countries with larger municipalities do not have more local autonomy. Citizens of large municipalities are less interested in local political matters. Inhabitants of small municipalities tend to be more interested in local political matters when their municipalities have more local autonomy while a similar strong correlation between local autonomy and local political interest cannot be established for larger municipalities. Finally, a discrepancy exists between the stated policy objectives of many European countries that support both decentralization and (more) local political participation on the one hand and actual policy results on the other hand that are not necessarily in line with increasing local autonomy and stimulating local political participation.     

Civil society in Canada: A case study of rural and urban planning contexts

This paper explores the political concept of civil society and its emergence in multi-level rural and urban planning contexts. The first section conceptualizes civil society in the broader context within which it develops and we discuss global civil society to establish the need for a more local and regional focus. We then present considerations for assessing civil society and outline the research approach. The second section presents two case examples: (1) rural civil society in British Columbia, Canada focusing on the socio-political environment that enabled a shift away from conventional top-down, state-led forest management to devolved local control, and; (2) urban civil society in Waterloo Region, Ontario, which illustrates the response of local organizations to the wider socio-economic problems of housing provision in the Region. In both rural and urban contexts, there was longstanding tacit local support for each cause but significant triggers were needed to open policy windows and enable civil society organizations to help shift management ideologies in the forestry and housing sectors. Empowering civil actors through, for example, the devolution of decision making and responsibilities, and the redistribution of resources, helped to foster forms of legitimacy needed for emerging local and regional civil society organizations and networks.     

The democratic challenges and potential of localism: insights from deliberative democracy

This article considers the democratic challenges and potential of localism by drawing on insights from the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. On a conceptual level, the ideas embedded in localism and deliberative democracy share much in common, particularly the democratic goal of engaging citizens in decisions that affect them. Despite such commonalities, however, there has been limited conversation between relevant literatures. The article considers four democratic challenges facing localism and offers a response from a systems perspective of deliberative democracy. It argues that, for localism to realise its democratic potential, new participatory spaces are required and the design of these spaces matters. Beyond structured participatory forums, local democracy also needs an active and vibrant public sphere that promotes multiple forms of democratic expression. This requires taking seriously the democratic contributions of local associations and social movements. Finally, the article argues that, to fulfil its democratic potential, localism needs to encourage greater democratic and political connectivity between participatory forums and the broader public sphere.