Participation In Public Affairs Research Articles

Community Governance in Age-Friendly Community Regeneration—A Case Study on Installing Elevators in Old Residential Buildings

The rise in aging world populations poses enormous concerns, among which is the critical topic of how to promote active aging by improving the health and well-being of the elderly. Accordingly, installing elevators in old residential buildings has become a main issue in age-friendly community regeneration to make it easier for the elderly to go outside. There is limited evidence on stakeholder involvement in age-friendly community regeneration. Some studies have overlooked the fact that fostering age-friendly communities in developing countries requires innovative governance for inclusive physical and social features despite the low awareness of citizen engagement. With reference to community governance as a structure and process, a theoretical framework is proposed to understand the practice of elevator installation in age-friendly community regeneration in Guangzhou, China. This study adopted the questionnaire survey method and collected 455 valid samples (150 valid samples with installed elevators; 305 valid samples did not install elevators). The findings led to the following conclusions: (1) shared common interests lead to effective community governance and smooth elevator installation; (2) some communities failed to install elevators due to opposition from people whose interests were hindered; and (3) it is important to set up self-governing organizations and find key people in community governance for interest-based negotiation. This paper’s contribution is that it makes up for the deficiency in the previous research that has neglected the elderly’s participation in public affairs via age-friendly community regeneration. Finally, this study suggests further research on the dynamic processes of different types of age-friendly community regeneration affairs.

Rural Land Consolidation and Social Consciousness Change: A Case Study of a Land Consolidation Program in Rural Chongqing, China

With the changing relationship between urban and rural areas in China, the rural areas are experiencing rapid social transformation. To ensure successful implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, land consolidation has become a major measure of rural economic reform. Existing research focuses on quantitative studies exploring the relationship between land consolidation and rural economic development, but there is a lack of studies on the relationship between land consolidation and social change. In this study, we utilized Rocha’s conceptual framework for community empowerment and selected Jin’an Village as our study area, using semi-structured interviews and semi-participatory observation to obtain original materials, with the aim of providing a detailed description of the specific practice of land consolidation and analyzing the impact of land consolidation on the transformation of rural social consciousness. The study found that the participatory practices of Chinese rural villagers in the land consolidation process are consistent with the development process of community empowerment. Rural land consolidation involves villagers in the land consolidation process, which can effectively stimulate villagers’ participation in public affairs. Concurrently, the interaction between villagers and outside investors disrupts the conventional socialization model in rural areas and motivates villagers to act in accordance with contractual agreements. The conclusion is that land consolidation in rural areas can enhance the political democracy and legal consciousness of local villagers, which can lead to a change in local social consciousness. Our findings also emphasize the crucial necessity of providing rural villagers with improved accessibility to professional services and information, coupled with the continued promotion of land consolidation to advance modernization in these areas.

An Empirical Test of the Influence of Rural Leadership on the Willingness to Participate in Public Affairs from the Perspective of Leadership Identification

The participation of villagers in rural public affairs is vital for the sustainable development of rural communities and the improvement of villagers’ quality of life. Various factors, including individual characteristics, village environment, social forces, and national policies, influence villagers’ willingness to participate. However, empirical research on the determinants of villagers’ participation in public affairs often overlooks the role of grassroots leadership. To address this gap, this study proposes a theoretical model examining the relationship between transformational leadership and villagers’ willingness to participate in public affairs. Using a sample of 438 villagers from Jiangsu Province in eastern China, structural equation modeling and regression are employed to analyze the data. The findings indicate that moral modeling, leadership charm, and personalized care directly impact villagers’ willingness to participate in public affairs or indirectly influence it through leadership identification, which acts as a mediator. Furthermore, shared vision enhances the positive relationship between leadership identification and villagers’ awareness of public affairs participation. These findings provide valuable insights for village cadres seeking to promote active participation in public affairs among villagers. Specifically, gaining recognition through virtuous conduct, capabilities, and strong cadre–villager relationships serves as a foundation for influencing villagers’ willingness to participate in public affairs, while shared vision plays a strategic role in mobilizing villagers based on their identification with leaders.

昭通市易地扶贫搬迁安置区社区治理与社区居民参与研究

This study aims to explain the participation behavior of community residents in community public affairs in resettlement areas, and to assist in grassroots community governance and rural revitalization practices in China. Taking the resettlement community in Jing’an District, Zhaotong City as a typical case of a “stranger society” community, the necessary data for the study was obtained through questionnaire survey and quantitative analysis was conducted. The research finds that marriage status, registered residence and residence time have a significant impact on community residents’ participation in public affairs, followed by education background, political outlook, housing type and occupation; Community residents are more willing to participate in community public affairs on the subjective level, but the participation rate is relatively low on the practical level; The closer the relationship between the actual interests of the residents and the community they belong to, the more the community affairs are related to the interests of the residents, the more the residents pay attention to them, and the higher the willingness and degree of participation will be. The research results contribute to enhancing the social governance of local governments in resettlement communities, and promote the effective connection between targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Jürgen Habermas and the Public Intellectual in Modern Democratic Life

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Jürgen Habermas and the Public Intellectual in Modern Democratic Life

Will Social Network Relationship Significantly Enhance Farmers’ Participation in the Supply of Small Water-Saving Irrigation and Water Conservancy Facilities in China?

The supply level of irrigation and water conservancy is related to the utilization efficiency of water resources, the production level of farmers, and the supply quality of agricultural products, especially relating to national food security and stability. Based on 1169 pieces of data collected from field surveys in three provinces of China in 2019, an evaluation system of social network relationships was constructed from five aspects: network scale, network tightness, trust and commitment, social atmosphere and sense of belonging, and social participation. These five aspects are the channels for farmers to obtain information. A binary logistic model was used to analyze the impact of the social network relationships on farmers’ participation in small water-saving irrigation and water conservancy facilities supply, and the key factors affecting farmers’ behavior were selected. The purpose of this study is to further improve the evaluation system of social network relationships and the study of the effect of social network relationships on farmers’ water-saving behaviors, enrich relevant theories and provide a feasible path for the implementation of water-saving irrigation from the macro initiative level. The results show that higher network closeness and policy satisfaction, water management experience, agricultural insurance, strong family decision-making power, etc., will reduce the likelihood of farmers participating in the supply of small water-saving irrigation and water conservancy facilities; increasing network compactness will increase the possibility of farmers’ participation in the supply; trust and commitment, social ethos and sense of belonging, social participation, and other factors have no significant influence on farmer participation behavior. It can be seen that network tightness and network scale play an important role in the behavior of farmers’ participation in public affairs. In conclusion, social network relationships will affect farmers’ participation in the supply of irrigation and water conservancy facilities, but different dimensions have different influences on it.

Research on public policy of the customs administration in scientific works

The article analyzes the public policy, in particular the public policy of the customs administration, in scientific works. Public policy provides for a government plan and guiding strategy for solving a social problem, intervention, service delivery, and public works, as well as the limits of citizens’ responsibility to the state on specific issues. The public policy of the customs administration covers various sectors of national and international engagement. The article suggests taking more active care of the public, which makes it possible to really move from manageability to governance as a model of public administration, which involves citizens in making public decisions that are less hierarchical than in the Weber model, more transparent, and the citizen’s duty is to participate in public debates through exercises of public reasonableness. This requires critical thinking, culture, balance, and constant participation in public affairs and public policy. It is important to perceive participation as a political action and as a right, where the former implies recognizing it as a set of actions aimed at influencing the political process through voting, discussion, debate, even social protest, and the exercise of permanent civil control over the authorities. Therefore, the analysis of the impact of ideas on public policy is hindered by problems that arise due to inaccuracies in determining what ideas are, where they come from, when and how they change, and how to study them. By this time, ideologue scientists have provided us with classifications of different types of ideas (different levels of generality, from specific political programs to comprehensive cultures), as well as different ways of thinking about ideas (from positivist to constructivist approaches, emphasizing ideas as causes or constitutive elements of public policy). The use of this concept in various sub-disciplines resulted in its expansion to cover a range of phenomena and concepts, making it almost impossible to understand what is ideological and what is not. The above definitions are far from an exhaustive list, but they are more than enough to determine some of the main characteristics. In such circumstances, customs administrations as services that carry out and regulate international trade and the movement of goods face increasingly important and complex tasks. At the same time, customs administrations are expected to promote the development of international trade.

Knowledge, activism and institutions for Africa’s transformation: Key strands in Takyiwaa Manuh’s feminist scholarship

This essay examines ways in which selected texts in Takyiwaa Manuh’s scholarship treat the themes of knowledge, power and institutions with a focus on their role in Africa’s transformation. The range of Manuh’s scholarship covered includes her earlier work on how the political power of the Convention People’s Party was used to advance Ghanaian women’s participation in public affairs and African Unity; her later work on universities as institutions of knowledge production, addressing their relations with the wider society and the project of change and social transformation; as well as her work on women’s empowerment in Ghana. The main argument of this essay is that Manuh’s feminist work foregrounds the role of knowledge and action in the pursuit of social change, with institutions providing formalised conditions of possibility for the coalescence of knowledge and action in practice. Moreover, whilst Manuh’s scholarship is grounded in the realities of Ghanaian women’s lives, her work transcends a single national context in its relevance for Gender and Women’s Studies and for African Studies. As evident in her involvement in continental and transcontinental research networks, Manuh’s scholarship invites us to reflect on the politics of place and context in knowledge production for the African continent and beyond.

Impact of the participation of rural households in the appraisal on poor households' identification.

Developing countries have common goals of poverty eradication and improving people’s livelihoods. As the largest developing country, China has made remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation during the 30 years of reform. Although a targeted poverty alleviation mechanism was established by the Chinese government in 2013, the identification of poor households has been an arduous journey. Based on a total of 688 samples of grassroots officials and 2,621 rural households from 69 village-level divisions in 9 provinces in China, this study conducted cross-validation on the impact of the participation of rural households in the identifying poor households that required government assistance. This was from the perspectives of grassroots officials and rural households. It was investigated whether this participation led to an anomaly between the identification of poor households and the actual situation. Empirical results show that the participation of rural households in appraisals significantly increases the probability of identifying a non-poor household as a poor household (first error) and decreases the probability of failing to identify a poor household as a poor household (second error). As the impact of the first error is greater than that of the second error, the participation of rural households in appraisals has the overall effect of increasing the incorrect registrations of poor households. These results are still valid after addressing the self-selection problem. For other developing countries to successfully apply effort into poverty alleviation, in addition to focusing on increasing farmers’ participation in public affairs, they should prevent any bias that may be caused by farmers’ participation in public affairs; strengthen publicity and guidance; focus on the nurture of officials; perfect top-level design; and set clearer targets for poverty alleviation policies.

DOES PANDEMIC DECLINED OR MAINTAINED DEMOCRACY?

This paper investigates two sides effects of COVID-19 pandemic on democracy in Indonesia. Majority articles on democracy and pandemic argue that COVID-19 pandemic has declined democracy in many countries, including Indonesia. This article, on the one hand agrees with the dominant argument, but on the other hand argues that the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to maintain democracy. This paper bases democracy on Beetham's notion whose defined democracy as popular control over public affairs with the principles of equality and participation. In order to examine relationship between democracy and pandemic, we use three issues as case studies: the Minerba Bill, the Omnibus Law and data transparency issues. This paper uses qualitative methods and data obtained by literature study regarding civil society’s participation and control in public affairs during the last a year. Two main findings of this paper show that the pandemic has accelerated democratic decline trough two directions, they are from above and from below. Decline from above due to restrictions of freedom of speech and civil participation in public affairs. At the same time, decline from below occurred due to people cleavage in public health issues. In addition, disinformation spread by buzzer which redistributed by other people has been made this situation worse. Otherwise, pandemic also maintained democracy through strengthening civil society's networks and participation marked by strengthening digital activism network toward country’s policy and data transparency. It may be concluded that civil society play a crucial role in maintaining global democracy, especially during the pandemic.

European principles of participatory democracy and their implementation in Ukraine

This article examines the issue of introducing at the European level the principles governing citizens' participation in public affairs and public decision-making, primarily at the local level. The main acts of the European Union are considered, by which these principles are implemented for the citizens of the Union, and which are aimed at enhancing the participation of citizens in solving pressing issues of society. A brief analysis of the state of similar legislation in Ukraine is carried out and an assessment of its effectiveness is given.

ЗАПОЗИЧЕННЯ ДОСВІДУ МІЖНАРОДНОГО НОРМАТИВНО- ПРАВОВОГО РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ВІДНОСИН ГРОМАДСЬКОГО КОНТРОЛЮ ЗА ДІЯЛЬНІСТЮ СУБ’ЄКТІВ ПУБЛІЧНОЇ АДМІНІСТРАЦІЇ

The article examines the state of normative and legal consolidation of certain rights of public representatives of our country to participate in the management of state affairs, in particular, the right of public control over the activities of public administration. That is, the legislative possibilities of individual private individuals and/or public associations regarding the inspection or monitoring of the activities of public administration subjects, which ensure the public interest, have been analyzed. In the context of ensuring the achievement of the research goal, the author considered in the article international normative legal acts, which contain the main principles of regulating relations to ensure public interest and the authority of the public to interact with state authorities. In particular, the author drew attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Social Charter, the Convention on Access to Information, public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice on issues , relating to the environment (Aarhus Convention), Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the participation of citizens in local public life, etc. The analysis of the researched international normative legal acts formed the grounds for ascertaining the fact of extreme importance for the development of relations of control public activity in Ukraine of the normative and legal consolidation of conditions for the activity of public associations according to international models. It is proposed to support the adoption (with author's additions) by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the Draft Law of Ukraine "On Public Control" as a special legislative act in the sphere of regulation of legal relations of public control over the activities of public administration. It is proposed to supplement the Draft Law of Ukraine "On Public Control" with international legal norms regarding: guaranteeing citizens the right of access to clear, comprehensive information about various matters concerning their local communities; the right to speak about the most important decisions affecting their future; promoting a culture of democratic participation in public affairs; to encourage citizens to take responsibility for their own public activities.

Od tradičných k inovatívnym formám participácie: fenoménu slacktivizmu

The long-term interest of the most modern democratic political systems is based on finding ways to support the increase in citizen participation in public affairs. It is related to the crisis of representative democracy which manifests itself besides others by apathy toward various political activities. Innovative forms of participation represent one of the tools to mitigate the crisis and support a part of the population's interest in public affairs. The result of the research is the finding that online activism had an impact on the Slovak parliamentary election 2020 in terms of political awareness and in addition to traditional media, online campaigns had a significant mobilizing influence on voter turnout. The negative aspect of online participation remains the slacktivism phenomenon which does not influence the changes in society.

YOUTH ENGAGEMENT IN PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING. CASE STUDY OF KUTNÁ HORA (2019-2020)

Participatory budgeting (PB) allows citizens to be a part of the decision-making processes on public money expenditure. It increases citizens ‘participation in public affairs, strengthens deliberation and engagement. Active participation can strengthen the role of the citizen, and in addition it can create a common knowledgebase of collective issues and help to prevent and solve power centralisation, leading to a democratic and equal society. In the academic literature, PB is often referred to as “traveling policy innovation”, and since the original case in Porto Alegre, it has taken a path that originated in values such as reduction of corruption and empowerment of marginalized groups. Nevertheless, there is currently a lively academic discussion about PB it lacks a connection of its impacts on youth segment in general. The aim of this case study of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic, where the youth segment was included into the process. In this case not only students at high schools but also primary schools’ students with organizational help of student’s councils were participating in the budget allocation decision process and such contributed to the innovative and inclusive local government. Paper gives an overview of PB process creation and its structure in Kutná Hora that led to youth engagement on local level (local PB).

RAZVOJ LOKALNE SAMOUPRAVE U SRBIJI

Local self government, as a phenomenon, was established before the emergence of a modern state. Its role and significance has remained unsurpassed in nowadays world generally, and especially in modern states. The position that self-government has today is derived from the functions that this institution has in a modern state system. Namely, local self-government represents the basis of the state system in a narrower functional sense because it performs tasks that are important for the local community. However, it has a broader political and organizational significance, because, without that level of state organization, it would be almost impossible to reach numerous democratic achievements such as: citizen participation in public affairs, sharing power, decentralization (i.e. devolution of power), the exercise of certain rights and freedom, activities of civil society, etc. The importance of local self-government in Serbia is reflected in its historical role, inherited from tradition, which has outgrown and taken on a certain state-building, institutional and national character. It should also be emphasized that Serbian historiography, as well as other social sciences, to which this topic is related, has not paid enough attention to local self-government as a phenomenon in the context of its significance for the modern Serbian state and society as a whole. Therefore, it would be extremely important to look at this topic in a multidisciplinary manner and to offer scientific answers and facts about the historical, legal, political, and sociological role of local self-government. This work will try to synthesize its historical, political, institutional and national significance, by analyzing the emergence of self-government, that is, its development, which makes it one of the pillars of the Serbian state.

Transparency for Participation through the Communication Approach

Transparency is a communicative process whose aim is to provide citizens with information that will promote their participation in public affairs. However, its application is often reduced to a legally stipulated administrative act. In contrast, this article sets out the principles, attributes and evidence of transparency from a communication perspective, taking into consideration that transparency is treated as a process through which recipients obtain, understand and use information. This study focuses on the transparency of local town councils, although most of the concepts could be applied at other levels of public administration. To establish this framework, the legislation and application of transparency in three countries (Spain, Ecuador and Colombia) was studied using the Infoparticipa method designed with a communication approach in mind. A comparative study was then carried out using methods designed in other disciplines. Through this approach, the benefits of transparency were categorized to define six principles—disclosure, strengthening, visibility, comprehensibility, dissemination and humanism—and eight attributes of transparent information: veracity, timeliness, accessibility, usability, intelligibility, universality, pluralism and plurality. For each attribute, the evidence of its application was determined. This framework clarifies the perspective of transparency for participation from a communication approach.

Analyzing the relationship between barriers to women's political participation and relevant laws In the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Women's political rights and how they participate in the public sphere in contemporary Iran are always challenging, given the frameworks derived from the religion, tradition, culture and custom that govern society. From this perspective, the explanation of the main question of this article is due to the lack and capacity of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the presence of women in politics. The structure of the research is based on telling the history of women's participation and presence in the public arena from the constitutional era until now, the position of women's political rights in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, women's performance and presence in the public forces of Iran (by the country's basic institutions). Has been. Also in the field of theoretical framework, in addition to the subject laws, some views opposing women's participation in public affairs have been raised and criticized. In this process, the research method is descriptive-analytical; The purpose of this article, in addition to recognizing the capacities of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is to examine the challenges and shortcomings in the theoretical and practical field. Also, in this regard, relying on the high power of the epistemological frameworks of Islamic laws and considering the conditions of the present era, practical and appropriate contexts and solutions to address this issue in the field of politics and legislation are examined.

La consulta popular en México. Una propuesta para el fortalecimiento de su diseño institucional a partir de experiencias normativas latinoamericanas

El diseño institucional de consulta popular que prima en México representa un considerable avance normativo en la materia. Sin embargo, la complejidad de requisitos, la restricción en las materias de consulta y el interés del poder legislativo por privilegiar la decisión política sobre la petición de consulta dificultan su operacionalización y restringen la participación de la ciudadanía en los asuntos públicos del país, puesto que la única vía para que esta se dé continúa siendo el ejercicio del voto para efectos de la democracia representativa. En ese sentido, esta contribución académica analiza el diseño institucional mexicano de la consulta popular a fin de identificar aquellos aspectos que dificultan su ejercicio. Para ello, se parte de la revisión de la concepción del fenómeno de consulta popular y de las experiencias normativas que países latinoamericanos como Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú han configurado para regular este mecanismo de participación ciudadana. Ello permitirá aportar elementos que contribuyan al fortalecimiento de la consulta popular como mecanismo de democracia directa en México.

ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES TO THE ESSENCE OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY OF STUDENT YOUTH

Based on the identification of the main approaches to understanding the content of personality activity in general, the article highlights the main scientific approaches to interpreting of the essence of social activity of the individual: activity, acmeological, systemic, subjective, axiological, genetic modeling. It is determined that the most appropriate is the author’s proposed subject-activity approach to the interpretation of the essence of social activity of student youth. We consider the subjectivity of the individual as an important prerequisite and, at the same time, the result of social activity of students, which is realized through an active and responsible attitude to themselves, to various objects, to another person, to educational and future professional activities. At the heart of the activity of the independent subject of life we see: readiness and ability to realize their interests and the interests of society; constant and strong desire to influence social processes and real participation in public affairs; the desire to strengthen and improve the existing social order, based on the assimilation of social values and the realization of their goals, taking into account the interests of society. According to the subject-activity approach, social activity of the individual is considered by us as a personal formation of prosocial orientation, internally determined by individual needs, values, volitional characteristics and characteristics of person, and outwardly manifested in the transformation of society and personality, that is in social activity.

Public governance and transformation Ukrainian model of civil society

The task of the reformers of the modern administrative system of Ukraine is to search for the optimal, harmonious balance of state participation in public affairs, with the creation of a set of mechanisms for interaction between the government and society that would not hinder, but contribute to the development of civil society. Such conditions should help the modern model to gradually transform into the Ukrainian model.The purpose of the article is to analyze the processes of development of civil society in Ukraine, formulate proposals and recommendations of theoretical and practical significance regarding its transformation into a Ukrainian model in the public administration system.It is proposed: to transform the existing “catching up” model into the Ukrainian model of civil society, going through three stages: I – identification of the consequences of the post-Soviet past; II – overcoming problematic phenomena, according to the proposed directions; III - according to the developed system of indicators (indicators), control the update process. A harmonious balance of the participation of state institutions in the affairs of society will protect civil society from unnecessary impact, but will create conditions for its development. The model focuses on the citizen (free individual), from whom the entire system of public administration is built; relations between civil society and power are based on the principles of individualism, not collectivism. The author summarizes: the formation of the Ukrainian model of civil society should take place taking into account the cultural-historical, national-ethnic and socio-economic characteristics of Ukraine's development. The focus of this model is the citizen, from whom the entire system of public administration is built. The model provides for a developed system of democratic institutions; legal protection of citizens; competition of institutions, structures, social groups of the population, etc.; recognition and provision of a wide range of human rights and freedoms; free formation of public opinion, pluralism; high level of civic culture and education of the population; diversified economy; specific and determining weight in the middle class society (40–70%); a developed system of self-government (thanks to the introduction of multi-level management) the predominance of social policy in the activities of the state (focusing efforts on increasing economic efficiency and general welfare).