District Magistrates Research Articles

Digital humanitarianism and crisis management: an empirical study of antecedents and consequences

PurposeThis study proposes a digital humanitarianism dynamic capability (DHDC) paradigm that explores the direct effects of DHDC on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the mediating effects of process-oriented dynamic capabilities (PODC) on the relationship between DHDC and DRR.Design/methodology/approachTo validate the proposed model, the authors used an offline survey to gather data from 260 district magistrates in India managing the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsThe results affirm the importance of the DHDC system for DRR. The findings depict that the impact of PODC on DRR in the DHDC system is negligible. This study can help policymakers in planning during emergencies.Research limitations/implicationsTechnological innovation has reshaped the way humanitarian organizations (HOs) respond to humanitarian crises. These organizations are able to provide immediate aid to affected communities through digital humanitarianism (DH), which involves significant innovations to match the specific needs of people in real-time through online platforms. Despite the growing need for DH, there is still limited know-how regarding how to leverage such technological concepts into disaster management. Moreover, the impact of DH on DRR is rarely examined.Originality/valueThe present study examines the impact of the dynamic capabilities of HOs on DRR by applying the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability theory (DCT).

조선초기 호장(戶長)의 향촌 지배와 그 변화

This study reviewed the fundamental change in the local headmen’s (hojang, 戶長) control over rural villages in the early Joseon Dynasty, based on the movements of the local headman class in late Koryo and the government policy towards the headmen. The headmen, who had ruled over rural villages as the leaders of the households in each district as well as the heads of local functionaries (鄕吏) since the early Koryo dynasty, strived to maintain and restore their positions as the ruling class against the government policy, which aimed to exclude the local functionaries from the ruling class in the late Koryo and early Joseon dynasty, largely in two ways. First, the local headmen would bribe for public posts and remain in the local villages with the status of yuhyang pumgwan (留鄕品官). Second, the headmen would retain their position as the leaders of the households but also became ajeon (‘衙前’), that is, the local civil functionaries who work in government offices of each district, so that they could wield influence over the rural communities.BR There was little difference in the local headmen’s rule of the rural communities in the early Joseon dynasty with that in the Koryo dynasty, in that the headmen handled official business by using official seals at each local office (‘邑司’). However, unlike in the early Koryo dynasty when the local (鄕) communities had been accepted or overlooked as being independently ruled by the local headmen who served as local functionaries, the local communities in the early Joseon dynasty were declared to be outer provinces under direct rule of the regional district offices. As a result, the headmen’s rule over the local communities in early Joseon went through a fundamental change, as the headmen had to rely on the authority of the local district magistrates in a large part. This became especially the case in 1445, the 27th year of King Sejong, when the assigned land to the local functionaries and the land for official expenses in each district went through reform; the functionary duty was placed on the local headmen and their material resource for running the local offices were also taken away.BR The local headmen, who were unable to take independent control over local districts as the land, their material resources, and jeong (正) and sa (史), their human resources, were subjected under the control of the regional district offices and became civil functionaries so as to maintain their status, authority and influence. This was a gradual change, as the local headmen’s control over the local communities, which was based on the noninstitutionalized local power and traditional authority, was gradually replaced with the rule of the local district magistrates who represented the institutionalized state authority. This process took place in the context of the local control policy implemented by the central government in the early Joseon dynasty, and signified the centralization of power in the medieval state of Joseon.

Crafting Testimony: The Qing Homicide Reports and Narrative Structure

This essay explores the recurrent and essential literary techniques of district magistrates who prepared homicide reports in Qing dynasty China. The analysis is based on close textual readings of reports in the following categories: fratricide, spousal murder, and murder related to incest or adultery. These homicide reports display a wide range of narrative strategies from embellished testimony to dissonant structure. As representatives of imperial legal justice, magistrates recognized the need to abide by existing imperial laws. I argue that they relied on literary techniques to reflect points of sympathy in their judgments, thereby finding new ways of expressing their opinions without challenging imperial authority. Through these literary techniques, they negotiated tensions, in particular between laws and compassion, present in the practice of composing case reports. These magistrates generated narrative dissonance between reports and proposed punishments; subsequently, the reviewers, understanding the need for the emperor’s final endorsement, were guided to take special circumstances into account and make necessary amendments to sentences even when not mandated by imperial laws.

How can collective action between government sectors to prevent child marriage be operationalized? Evidence from a post-hoc evaluation of an intervention in Jamui, Bihar and Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan in India

BackgroundAlthough the need for multi-faceted and multi-sectoral approaches to address the multidimensional issue of child marriage is well-acknowledged, there is a dearth of documented experience on the process of implementing and managing such programmes.MethodsWHO evaluated a district-level, government-led multi-sectoral intervention to address child marriage in Jamui, Bihar and Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, implemented by MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child (MAMTA). We evaluated the intervention’s design, implementation, monitoring, and outputs and identified key challenges and successes.ResultsThrough actions at the state and district levels, the intervention succeeded in creating a cascade effect to stimulate more concerted action at block and village levels, with tangible intersectoral convergence occurring at the village level. The success factors we identified included an experienced partner NGO that was committed to supporting this effort, context-specific design and implementation, and a flexible and responsive approach. However, despite contributing to informal coordination between various stakeholders, the intervention did not succeed in developing a sustained joint-working mechanism at the district level. Shared ownership for prioritization of child marriage across national- and state-level sectors was not established, due in part to lack of directives transcending ministerial/departmental boundaries. Nevertheless, due to its efforts at the district-level, the intervention was able to enlist leadership from the District Magistrates and Child Marriage Prohibition Officers, in line with their duties outlined in the 2006 Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The challenges we identified included lack of clear directives and institutional support for collaboration, obstacles to monitoring, administrative challenges, differing perspectives on strategy among district leaders, community resistance, and intervention over-commitment.ConclusionsThe findings of this evaluation reveal the potential of multi-sectoral approaches to prevent and respond to child marriage and provide insight into obstacles that affect multi-sectoral coordination. We point to actions that MAMTA could take to strengthen collaboration on this and other initiatives. We also recommend further documentation and evaluation of projects and programmes in this area.

Leadership competencies for effective public administration: a study of Indian Administrative Service officers

ABSTRACTPublic administrative service occupies a strategic position in the public governance system of any nation. Contemporary public administration needs competent public managers who are able to make sense of the ambiguity inherent in the job. This study presents an attempt to identify important competencies needed for public administrators (specifically District Magistrates in India, a peak leadership role in the public service). Based on focused-group discussions and a survey of 218 Indian Administrative Service officers, the study identified eight competencies, namely people first; leading others; integrity; decision-making; planning, coordination and implementation; problem-solving; self-awareness and self-control; and innovative thinking. The eight competencies were further clubbed under four meta-competencies, namely stakeholder analysis and decision-making, managing change and innovation, team building and positive administrator personality. A detailed description of the behaviours included within each competency and meta-competency is provided. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Financial and Logistics Support of Activities of the Magistrate’s Courts in the Tauride Province (60—80-ies of the XIX Century)

The revival of the lay justice in new constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol necessitated the recourse to historical and legal experience of formation and development of the institution of lay judges under the 864 judicial reform, as well as institutional support for their activities. The article discusses the financial and logistics support of the activities of Magistrate's and Assemblies of lay judges in the Tauride Province as a result of the implementation of the provisions of the Judicial Statutes in 60-80-ies of the XIX century. It is found that the lay justice of the province was entirely financially supported by the district municipalities (zemstva) and the expenses for Magistrate's were among the obligatory municipal duties. Based on the analysis of the budget documentation of the expenses and revenues of the district municipalities the author studied the items of financing the activities of the Magistrate's of the Tauride Province, and identifies the role and resources of district municipalities of the Province concerning their salaries. Local institutions were committed to annually provide allocations for salaries of district magistrates, Assemblies of Lay Judges, construction and maintenance costs for the premises where the arrested were held, maintenance of the prisoners. It was revealed that for maintenance of the Magistrate's district municipalities spent on average from RUR 6,000 to 13,200 per year; Assemblies of Lay Judges - from RUR 1,190 up to 8,450 per year; maintenance of the lockup houses and the provision of food for prisoners - from RUR 600 to 3,788 per year. The largest amounts were spent on maintaining the Magistrate's by the District Assembly of Feodosia Municipality (on average RUR 24,300 per year), and the least maintenance obtained the Magistrate's backed by the Evpatorian District Municipality (RUR 7,600 per year). The Crimean District Municipalities spent on average 15, 3% of funds from the expenditure side of the District budget. Among the factors that affected the expenses for the Magistrates' are the following: the number of Magistrate Courts in the District, the number of resident population as payers of District Municipality taxes, agriculture, industry and trade, ensuring appropriate income of District Municipalities. Besides, the author identifies some of the problems of financial provision of lay justice, which had objective reasons. During the study, it was found that the expenses and logistical support for the activities of the Magistrates in the province were directly dependent on sources of income of district budgets, rational distribution of which affected their performance.

Preparing IAS Officer Trainees for the Role of District Magistrate: A Competency-Based Approach

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers occupy a strategic position in Indian public governance system. Government has generally laid a lot of emphasis on the training programmes for IAS officers to ensure that they are equipped with the right set of knowledge, skills and attitude to effectively perform in the varied assignments that they occupy. It is increasingly being recognized that more than knowledge, skill and attitude, proficiency in certain deep seated abilities result in superior and more effective performance of an individual in an organizational setting. These deep seated abilities are commonly termed as competencies. In this paper an exercise has been undertaken to identify the key competencies which are required for effectively performing the role of a District Magistrate (DM). The focus of the two years training programme at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, (LBSNAA) is to equip the officers for the first decade of service during which they are also expected to serve as District Magistrates (DM). It is expected that clarity about the competencies required to become an effective DM will facilitate more efficient human resource management of the cadre of IAS officers including training, placement and performance management. This research paper based on extensive survey methodology is an attempt in that direction.

Civil Servants’ Living Standards in the Grand-Duchy of Baden, 1780–1913

Abstract It is argued that from the early 19th century onwards Civil Servants received a remuneration that ensured a good standard of living and reflected social status. Yet, there are few empirical studies which test this hypothesis. This article attempts to bridge this gap by computing real living standards of district magistrates in Baden during the 19th century using a new consumption basket reflecting the material and social needs of members of the upper class. The empirical analysis shows that district magistrates had a high material living standard, as well as a high position within the income distribution. However, living standards were already high during the 18th century in both absolute and relative terms. Furthermore, absolute and relative living standards decreased from the mid-century onwards, negatively impacting district magistrates’ privileged position within society.

Estrés, ansiedad y depresión en magistrados de Lima, Perú

To measure the general and work related stress, depression and anxiety in Magistrates (Judges and District Attorneys) of Lima Judicial District. We carried out a transversal and descriptive study. A population of 1137 magistrates from the Lima Jurisdictional District of the Judicial System, was randomly sampled by a strata representing every agency of the Judicial System. The final sample included 287 magistrates: 138 District Attorneys and 149 Judges. After informed consent, a questionnaire composed by four previously validated instruments was applied to measure general and work related stress, anxiety and depression. General stress was present in 18.5 % of the participants; work related stress 33.7 %; anxiety 12.5 %, and depression 15 %. All three conditions were present in 6.6 % of the participants and at least one in 25.9 %. General stress was associated to depression (OR: 4.9; IC95 % 1.6-15.1) and anxiety (OR: 8.5; IC95 % 2.5-28.6) by logistic regression. Lima Judicial District's Magistrates present a triad composed by high levels of labor stress, anxiety and depression. A quarter of the participants present at least one of those conditions. In that perspective, it is recommended that intervention and preventive programs address stress, anxiety and depression simultaneously, given their strong association.

The Changes and Meaning of District Magistrates(Sooryongs) System in Early Chosun Dynasty

The Changes and Meaning of District Magistrates(Sooryongs) System in Early Chosun Dynasty

Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791-1849 (review)

Reviewed by: Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791-1849 Paul Romney Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791-1849. David Murray. Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History / University of Toronto Press, 2002. Pp. xii, 281. $55.00 If the title of this book were Colonial Justices, it would focus attention on the book's main actors - the magistrates, or justices of the peace - who were chiefly responsible for the administration of criminal justice at the local level. The subtitle is more specific but would better convey the book's scope and character if prefaced by the words Glimpses of. 'Justice,' 'Morality,' and 'Crime' are the titles of the three parts into which the body of the book is divided. 'Justice' describes the various courts that were held in the district of Niagara and some of the people who acted in them: the magistrates, the district sheriff, the jurors, and the constables. 'Morality' is a hodgepodge. One chapter is devoted to a single moral offence, Sabbath-breaking; the other two deal with lunatics, debtors, and paupers. This is because the district magistrates, besides administering local justice, were in charge of local government and hence of dispensing public charity and disposing of the insane. Lunatics and paupers sometimes landed in the district jail alongside convicts, suspects on remand, and defaulting debtors. 'Crime' commences with a chapter surveying the gamut of local crime, including moral offences other than Sabbath-breaking, and how it was disposed of in the different courts. Another chapter focuses on how battered wives and non-white victims of crime (anachronistically called 'African Canadians') fared in the courts. Finally the book turns to two topics especially pertinent to the Niagara District as the Upper Canadian border region most readily accessible from the United States. One deals with border-related issues such as extradition, banishment, smuggling, and the apprehension of military deserters. The other is largely devoted to the story of Solomon Moseby, the fugitive slave whose attempted extradition in 1837 was thwarted by the concerted action of 'Niagara's African Canadian community,' two of whom were shot to death by the sheriff's men while aiding Moseby's escape. [End Page 544] The book is anecdotal rather than analytical, and the chapter on Moseby is the most satisfying. But the scholarship is problematic: there are too many erroneous premises, non sequiturs, chronological solecisms, and other flaws of intellectual organization. These are especially dense in the section on jurors. Jurors are lumped in with constables in a chapter entitled 'Servants of the Court,' an arrangement that is hard to reconcile with Tocqueville's comment (which the author quotes) on the not very different American system that the jury raised 'the people itself, or at least a class of citizens, to the bench of judicial authority.' Grand jurors and petit jurors for two different courts - quarter sessions and assizes - are discussed higgledy-piggledy. The statement that 'absenteeism was always something of a problem' (56) is backed up by a reference that proves nothing and contradicted a page later by the remark that 'Magistrates did not have to resort to coercion to find jurors until the Rebellion period.' Another statement about the difficulty of finding willing jurors after the Rebellion is supported by reference to letters written a year and a half before the Rebellion. A similar randomness of thought is evident in what is left out. The sheriff is highlighted, but that other important local officer, the clerk of the peace, is ignored. William Hamilton Merritt crops up repeatedly without a single allusion to his main claim to fame: his promotion of the Welland Canal. Politics is especially slighted. Since the administration of justice was a subject of political contention in the Niagara District above all, this leaves the book as a whole very weakly contextualized. Most of the material in the chapter on border issues relates to districts other than Niagara. Many of the hard data in Colonial Justice, and several of the hypotheses and conclusions, are borrowed from secondary sources, which the author cites scrupulously and repeatedly and quotes even to excess. The grand justification for the project is the...

An Ace-in-the-Hole

FEATURED AUTHOR—FICTION An Ace-in-the-Hole James B. Goode SAM WILSON WAS NO ORDINARY MAN in the community of Beartrack. He struck an unusual pose as he drove his metallic green 1951 Dodge along the twisting mountain roads—always dressed in a black suit, always wearing his short-brim, black Stetson hat, and always with an unlit King Edward cigar clenched between his yellowing teeth. He nodded toward everyone he passed, whether he knew them or not. Politics required that he be more safe than sorry. He would throw his right hand up above the metal dashboard in a quick, jerking motion. Those who passed could see his broad, weathered, road map face dominated by a pale, bulbous nose magnified by the split windshield of the Dodge. Today he was headed to the Knob County courthouse to meet with the district magistrates, a once-a-week habit he had fallen into when he first was elected county judge twelve years and three terms ago. He parked the Dodge behind the courthouse in a narrow spot marked with a menacing sign which said in big, bold red letters: "RESERVED FOR THE COUNTYJUDGE: VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT!" He smiled as he read the sign. Baldy, his deputy, had put the sign up after the jailer had allowed the family of a prisoner to park in the Judge's spot. Sam walked up the cut stone steps leading to the side entrance of the courthouse, opened the big mahogany door, walked down the tiled floor and straight into the reception area of his office at the back of the rotunda. Nona, his secretary, sat at the big oak desk blowing on her freshly painted fingernails. She kept on blowing as she greeted Sam. "Good morning, Judge Wilson!" she said. "Franklin Marsh is in your office. One of his dump trucks has broke down, and he wants you to call C. W. in District 5 and see if he can borrow one for the day." She turned the back of her hand an arm's length away from her face and surveyed the bright red polish. "C. W.'s probably already left for the meeting this morning," Sam said. "Call Eldon, C W.'s driver, at the District 5 office and tell him to bring a ten-ton dump truck over to Four-Mile to meet C. W.'s bridge man at Saylor's grocery." Sam shuffled through the mail Nona had placed in the wire basket on the edge of her desk. 6 "Some guy called from District 1 and wanted to be put on the list to get some gravel dumped on his driveway." Nona playfully winked at the judge. "Doggone-it, Nona! What did you tell him? When will these people learn that there is no dad-blamed list. The only dad-blamed list, if there is a dad-blamed list, is in my dad-blamed head!" He slammed his Stetson onto the brass hook on the wall beside his office door and disappeared inside. Nona rolled her eyes to the ceiling. She could hear the low din of Sam's voice as he talked to Franklin Marsh. She couldn't really tell what they were saying, but every so often the words would get louder as one or the other made some exclamation. They hadn't been inside the office long when the phone call came. Nona knocked lightly and stuck her head around the door. "Sam, Slade Pugh's on the phone ... ," she said. She promptly turned and closed the door softly. Sam lifted the black earpiece from the telephone cradle and scooted his chair closer to the desk so he could speak into the mouthpiece mounted on the stand. "Slade Pugh!" He talked loudly into the receiver. "What can I do you for?" He asked. "Sam? Sam ... this is Slade ... they found my mama dead this mornin' ... a lyin' down there in the kitchen of the home place on Watts' Creek. Said she died of a heart attack sometime yesterday." "I swan ... well I swan ..." was all Sam could manage. He took a deep breath and let it out like steam escaping from a pipe. "Fronnie...

Managing the Impossible: How District Managers Are Effective in India

Based on a study of the management requirements and challenges of the position of district magistrates in India. Determines what makes district magistrates effective. The study was based on interviews and workshops involving dozens of district magistrates. Illustrates that even the most impossible and complex management jobs can be done effectively if district magistrates have the skills and experience to carry out some key functions and roles.

Perceptions of the judiciary and intellectual disability

People with intellectual disability are a group who experience negative stereotyping and who often have major skill and reasoning deficits resulting from their disability. These characteristics make them vulnerable when coming into contact with the law, and there is evidence that they are over-represented in the criminal justice system. There are several explanations for this over-representation, with the perceptions and beliefs of criminal justice system personnel likely to be influential. A sample of Supreme Court Judges, District Court Judges and Magistrates was interviewed to examine their perceptions and beliefs in relation to explanations of over-representation, with the interviews followed up by a questionnaire. It was found that the members of the judiciary saw people with intellectual disability as having several characteristics which would disadvantage them when in contact with the law and they were supportive of measures to ameliorate the disadvantage.

The District Magistrate Profession in the Early Republican Period: Occupational Recruitment, Training and Mobility

The subject of magistrates, the local administrative leaders in the hsien, districts, is central to the study of Chinese government and society. The district has always been and still remains the basic administrative unit in China. Magistrates, the ‘offcials close to the people’, in the districts, are the chief administrators, who have always been singly responsible for the direct implementation of governmental policies at the local levels. Although several studies have been published on local administrators of the Ch'ing dynasty and the Communist period, district magistrates of the Republican era have been little studied.

Cultural Fusion: A Case Study of St. Martin Island in the Bay of Bengal

This paper is based on my fieldwork on St. Martin Island in 1962, as a member of an expedition sponsored by the Society of Natural Sciences, East Pakistan. St. Martin is a coral island in the Bay of Bengal, about twenty-five miles southwest of Teknaf, at the southernmost point of the Chittagong district in East Pakistan, and forty miles west of Akyab in Burma. The island's area is nine square miles; it has a population of 927. My research approach was primarily ethnographic. I tried to tap the documentary sources such as collective administrative reports of the District Magistrates on different sections of the district population to the Governor of Bengal and the reports of Subdivisional Officers to the District Collector; and then I correlated my fieldwork findings with them. At the outset I had to learn to understand the island dialect which is a curious mixture of Arakanese (a Burmese dialect) and Chittagonian (a Bengali dialect). I selected five informants on the basis of their individual reputation of being honest, straight-forward persons. I recorded their life histories and then randomly interviewed a cross-section of the island population in order to cross-verify the information provided by the informants. St. Martin Island, first located and named by the Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century, is locally called Jingira. It was settled in 1880 by fourteen families. The men of these families were from the Chittagong hill tracts in the southern part of East Pakistan, while their wives were from the Kachin area of highland Burma. The Gazeteer of the District Magistrates does not say how this came about. Originally, fourteen men from the Chittagong hill tracts banded together and went to highland Burma in search of fortune. They married girls of the Kachin tribe, which was against the Kachin tribal rules. Consequently, the couples were ousted from the Kachin area. Travelling home by boat, they took shelter on an island to escape a bad cyclone. They named the island Jingira, which literally means chained from harm, and liked it so much that they never cared to leave for the mainland.

Societies and Academies

LONDON. Royal Anthropological Institute, April 8.—Sir Everard im Thurn, president, in the chair.—Lieut. E. W. Pearson Chinnery: Reactions of certain New Guinea primitive people to Government control. It is the desire of Australia to put down cannibalism and general savagery and introduce civilisation among people of the Stone age in Papua without injury to them. Cannibalism and savagery are essential parts of the social and religious fabric of an uncivilised community. If they are to be suppressed without injury to the people, alternative practices of equal potency must be substituted to perpetuate material welfare and develop cultural institutions in accordance with the laws of the Government. Since the wild tribes of Papua received their first alien stimuli through the ' magistrates of their districts, progress depends on the ability of these officers to establish a proper relationship of mutual understanding and confidence between Government and subjects. When this is attained the officers, by intensive study of the culture of their people, can acquire a knowledge of the modes of thought that produce customs antagonistic to civilised standards, and safely guide the people through the stages of transition. If a system of training district magistrates in anthropological methods is added to existing methods of administration, Australia should, in the shortest possible time, achieve the credit of having conducted the savage of the Stone age, without injurv to him, to an attainment of the ideals of civilisation.

V. Extracts from the Peking Gazettes

Leaou-tun-hing, inspector-general of Keang-nan province, presents an address to point out the expediency of early inquests in cases of homicide.Amidst the great number and variety of imprisonments on criminal accusations, the most important are those which relate to the privation of life. Entering into a conspiracy to kill; killing with malicious intention; killing in an affray; causing death by driving a person to desperation; and killing by culpable negligence, constitute the real or proper cases. The cases of false imprisonment for homicide are where wounds are inflicted after death, to be made the grounds of a false accusation; and where the body is consumed or made away with for the same purpose. In all cases the most speedy investigation is of great importance, since from the nature of the wounds or hurts much evidence may be gathered with respect to the intention or disposition of the person that inflicted them; and from their old or new appearance, an inference may be drawn regarding the truth or falsehood of the accusation. Whenever the district magistrates met with a case of homicide, did they, in every instance, proceed without delay to the inquest of the body, while the wounds or hurts wrere yet fresh and unchanged, they might with more ease and certainty elicit the truth; at the same time that the guilty persons, being confronted at once with the magistrate before they had time to collect themselves, would be more likely, through fright, to betray their offence. Hence it may be deduced, that early inquests are the best, key to the elucidation of homicides. But the magistrates of districts, bearing on their shoulders the responsibility attached to such cases, appear always desirous to suppress them. As soon as a report or accusation is made, they purposely contrive delays, instead of proceeding immediately in person to the inquest, or they perhaps send a clerk into the town or village to compel the guilty person, by the agency of money, to make it up with the relations of the deceased, where it happens that these are very poor and needy.