Democracy and human development: recent legislation in India

Human Development (HD) requires that development must accompany fundamental human concerns that make life worth living. It is surprising that despite being a democracy, India performs poorly on HD. In this backdrop, four pieces of legislation of different orientations have been passed since 1998–99: ‘Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana’, the ‘Right to Information’, the ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’ and the ‘Right to Education’. Where successful, they have empowered the beneficiaries. Though not expressed as such, nor exclusively directed to this end, these pieces of legislation are bound together with democracy's demand for HD: they are influenced externally by various aspects of globalisation; internally, development is continuously interrogated by democracy, competitive politics and social activism.     

在“思辨”与自然的现实观照之间——关于“自然辩证法”的思考

黑格尔辩证法"否定"与其神秘形式存在着对立,其内在革命性同样被恩格斯"否定性"的汲取,恩格斯自然辩证法延展了黑格尔的逻辑与历史研究方法,更从思辨走向了历史现实,从而奠定与确立人在"辩证法"与"自然"中的地位,确立了自然辩证体系存在的意义,使得自然辩证法也成为"人"的哲学而非"精神"哲学的一部分,作为实践、开放的哲学体系,自然辩证法的理论生命力存在于恩格斯对黑格尔哲学汲取的思辨内核中,更存在于对自然的现实观照之中。     

Estimation of the parameter of a dynamically selected population for two subclasses of the exponential family

We introduce the problem of estimation of the parameters of a dynamically selected population in an infinite sequence of random variables and provide its application in the statistical inference based on record values from a non stationary scheme. We develop unbiased estimation of the parameters of the dynamically selected population and evaluate the risk of the estimators. We provide comparisons with natural estimators and obtain asymptotic results. Finally, we illustrate the applicability of the results using real data.     

Sociology and the European Court of Human Rights

This article offers a sociological analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Adopting a sociological jurisprudence approach, the article aims to demonstrate the unique and valuable contribution that sociology can make to understanding key aspects of international human rights law. Whilst the article seeks to develop an agenda for critical sociological research on human rights law, it also aims to persuade those charged with the supervision of human rights of the value of sociological analysis. To achieve this, the article focuses on three separate but inter‐related aspects of ECtHR jurisprudence: first, it considers the ECtHR's approach to consensus in its adjudication of human rights complaints; second, it examines the social control implications of the ECtHR's decisions and judgments; and third, it assesses how conceptualizations of social identity are often foundational to the ECtHR's reasoning.     

Impact of Gender Binarism on Hijras’ Life Course and Their Access to Fundamental Human Rights in Pakistan

This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on gender nonconformity aspects of heteronormativity by examining its impact on the life course of hijras and their access to fundamental human rights in Pakistan. Drawing on 50 semistructured interviews conducted in two sites, the findings suggest that the participants’ lived experiences associated with gender nonconformity significantly influenced the direction of their life course and their ability to have access to human rights. These experiences spanned from childhood to elderhood across a wide range of settings, such as family, school, guru dera (residence headed by a hijra guru), workplace, and interactions with authorities. The participants’ human rights were not recognized, resulting in abuse, social stigma, discrimination against them, and their exclusion from mainstream society. Finally, implications are drawn for public policy and future research on third gender concerns in Pakistan and elsewhere.     

科学霸权主义与人的困境

在西方现代化进程中，科学极大地解放了人的智力和体力，为人的自由发展提供了条件。然而，当科学的权威急剧膨胀变异成科学霸权主义，科学成为奴役人的工具时，却造成了人的困境。我国正处于现代化建设的进程中，需要吸收和借鉴西方科学发展进程中的经验和教训，发展一种厚道的、有机的科学具有重要的现实意义。     

The Food Crisis and its Impacts on Poverty in Senegal and Mali: Crossed Destinies

This article uses two CGE macro‐micro models to analyse the distributional impact of the food crisis and policy responses in two neighbouring African countries, both of which are strongly dependent on agriculture. The approach captures structural differences at both the macro and micro level for household income and expenditure structures, and the results reveal differences for poverty impact at the national and sub‐group levels, as well as for inequality and pro‐poor analysis. The importance of country‐specific analysis and the risk of extrapolating conclusions from one country to another are also highlighted.     

Neo‐liberalism by Decay? The Evolution of the Czech Welfare State

In this article we analyse the evolution of the Czech welfare state and we examine the factors explaining its path. We show that although the Czech welfare regime exhibits a 'mixed profile' that includes conservative and universalist elements, it is increasingly moving in a more liberal, residualist direction – not because of conscious steps but rather through decay. Governments have often zig-zagged in their policies and resorted to symbolic reforms at times rather than implementing ideologically based, consistent policies. We argue that historical and sociological institutionalism combined with a social-capital approach can explain this decay better than the more common arguments about economic pressures combined with ideological hegemony or the protest-avoidance strategy. In particular, the social capital approach adds to our institutional framework by explaining why cutbacks in welfare programmes have not met much opposition, even though public opinion surveys consistently show support for more generous welfare policies, and why policies have deviated so much from political rhetoric.     

论消费在国际传媒生产总过程中的地位

在国际传媒生产贸易中，传媒产品消费的本质就是价值认可式的精神性消费，在自愿获得消费物的消费中，得到精神与心灵上的满足，实现对一国传媒产品的最优化接受。由此本质出发，总结了消费的六种类型，在分析梳理其逻辑关系的基础上，论证了消费在国际传媒生产总过程中的主导地位。