Public Matters Research Articles

Meio ambiente urbano e questão social: habitação popular em áreas de preservação ambiental

O artigo discute a relação entre cidade e meio ambiente como questão pública, face à multiplicação das ocupações de áreas de preservação ambiental por moradias de baixa renda. Embora o meio ambiente seja parte integrante, e não mero "cenário" da vida social, é recente o reconhecimento da dimensão ecológica da questão urbana. A discussão é feita à luz do caso de uma favela de Fortaleza, localizada em área de preservação permanente. Um projeto da Prefeitura para remover seus moradores para um conjunto nas proximidades atraiu novos ocupantes, cuja retirada imediata da área foi exigida pelo Ministério Público. Face à insuficiência de recursos para garantir habitação aos "invasores", sua remoção engendrou um dilema ético e social, contrapondo o direito à habitação ao direito ao meio ambiente saudável.

Information effects and mass support for EU policy control

Democracy requires an active and informed citizenry. Citizen engagement is all the more critical in complex environments such as the European Union (EU). This article examines how having an informed public matters for support for European-level policy competencies. Is public skepticism of EU authority shaped by a lack of knowledge, or are attitudes about policy jurisdiction in Europe’s multilevel system unbiased by information? Our analysis of collective opinion in 27 issue areas reveals that, in nearly every case, a paucity of knowledge about the EU reduces popular support for European policy control. Further analyses show that possessing knowledge of Europe’s institutions affects support for EU authority in areas involving cross-border political issues. In contrast, we find no consistent biasing effect on opinions about control over economic issues.

A response to Martin on the role of citizens, publics and others in participatory processes

In health policy research, it may be tempting to believe that once a research proposal has been written well enough to obtain peerreview approval, relevant papers will come out of it more or less straightforwardly. Nevertheless, the writing of our article (in this issue) was far from unequivocal. Perhaps like any unplanned yet determined journey, it consisted of a learning process that began with a preliminary yet necessarily ill-informed set of notions about what this unknown territory would be like and a strong desire to get to know it better because it matters. The core idea behind the paper dexploring what citizens “are made of”d came from a mind-bugging observation: the “unbearable lightness” of the citizen construct, which can be found in the rhetoric of most people, not just scholars and practitioners of public involvement (Lehoux, Daudelin, & Abelson, in this issue). Later, through the review process, the paper benefitted greatly from constructive observations and criticisms provided by three reviewers. And this is not simply a polite acknowledgement. Public involvement mattered to all three reviewers as well, otherwise our exchanges would have been less productive and less determined. Likewise, Martin (in this issue) provides in his commentary many engaged and engaging arguments that should appeal to academics and practitioners for whom public involvement matters. We agree with the need for the three key components Martin discusses dpurpose, choice of public to be involved and processd to be articulated as clearly as possible. Perhaps it is worth underscoring that GeNet’s leaders were also aware of this trilogydwhich they articulated according to their own understanding, purposes and practical constraintsd and that their inclusion of citizens was not tokenistic. For several of its members, citizen involvement mattered too. Hence, one may wonder why being aware of the need to define purposes, publics, and processes dwhile being genuinely concerned about public involvementd does not automatically prevent one from falling short in some ways. We found in Martin’s commentary part of the explanation for why this might be the case. We reflect upon three features of the committed posture that condition most public involvement initiatives and that, when acknowledged constructively, may help the field move forward.

Inequality in Latin America and the Quandary of Clientelism

Inequality in Latin America and the Quandary of Clientelism Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz (bio) Building Equality and Opportunity through Social Guarantees: New Approaches to Public Policy and the Realization of Rights. Edited by Estanislao Gacitúa-Marió, Andrew Norton, and Sophia V. Georgieva. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009. Pp. xxvi + 270. $30.00 paper. ISBN: 9780821378830. The Legal Foundations of Inequality: Constitutionalism in the Americas, 1776–1860. By Roberto Gargarella. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. 351. $85.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780521195027. Indelible Inequalities in Latin America: Insights from History, Politics, and Culture. Edited by Paul Gootenberg and Luis Reygadas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. Pp. xvi + 228. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 9780822347347. Declining Inequality in Latin America: A Decade of Progress? Edited by Luis F. López-Calva and Nora Lustig. New York: UN Development Program; Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010. Pp. ix + 253. $34.95 paper. ISBN: 9780815704102. Living Standards in Latin American History: Height, Welfare, and Development, 1750–2000. Edited by Ricardo D. Salvatore, John H. Coatsworth, and Amílcar E. Challú. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Harvard University Press, 2010. Pp. iii + 313. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 9780674055858. Academics and policy makers have come to a strong consensus that deep and persistent inequalities have shaped the past and present of Latin America and [End Page 191] pose a major challenge to social and political improvements in the future. Examining inequality from different angles, the five books under review illustrate that the rising consensus has also advanced more problematic assumptions in regard to both the social and the political behaviors that engender inequality, as well as the policies best suited to promote it. Two of these books—The Legal Foundations of Inequality and Living Standards in Latin American History—are especially productive and innovative, for they provide important insights into patterns of inequality before the mid-twentieth century, a period about which many assumptions are made on the basis of very weak empirical data. Most notable for its broad comparative approach is Roberto Gargarella’s excellent study of evolving tensions between competing political projects in the nineteenth century and their impact on institutional arrangements that would affect inequality in later years. In Gargarella’s compelling narrative, nineteenth-century political alternatives were embodied in three distinct constitutional projects, which he terms radical, conservative, and liberal. Radicals (and their majoritarian or populist project) successfully mobilized people for independence and democratic ideals, advocating unicameralism; a strict division of powers; direct representation; and limits on the power of the executive, clergy, and military. At the other end of the spectrum, conservatives embraced political elitism and moral perfectionism while pushing for a strong executive, a leading role for the military in achieving internal order, and political centralism against federalism. They also promoted electoral colleges, a judiciary, and a senate. Together, these arrangements aimed to protect property rights from “the ‘ambitions’ and ‘excesses’ of the popular assembly” (127). Finally, liberals presented a middle alternative, challenging both tyranny (the rule of one) and anarchy (the rule of many), but emphasizing that “nothing was as dangerous for personal freedom as the coercive powers of the state and its coercive apparatus” (157). According to Gargarella: Liberals developed three basic institutional proposals that would become fundamental to the evolution of modern constitutionalism. First, they defended the need to limit the people’s mass and direct participation in public matters. This was based on the assumption that popular bodies would act merely out of irrationality or self-interest. Second, they proposed to increase the existing distance between the representatives and the people, making the former more “independent” and autonomous in their choices. Third, they established a system of “mutual controls” or “checks and balances,” aimed at preventing the invasion of one branch of power into the affairs of others. (197) The outcome of these positions is that liberals had a very limited commitment to egalitarianism and were particularly reluctant to promote or allow any type of state interventionism. Gargarella explains that liberals “normally demanded respect for individuals’ autonomous will while disregarding what we could call the ‘conditions for adopting autonomous decisions’” (212). Gargarella suggests that although radicals were successful in mobilizing...

Are criminal convictions a public matter? The USA and Spain

A criminal conviction, if widely known, constitutes a life-long stigma that limits the convicted person’s employment and other opportunities. European countries, including Spain, recognizing an individual right of informational privacy and a societal interest in limiting recidivism, sharply restrict the dissemination of individual criminal history information. By contrast, the USA, in accordance with its commitments to judicial transparency, free speech and the individual’s right of self protection, allows (and even promotes) extensive dissemination of individual criminal history information. This article compares the profoundly different policies on providing public access to individual criminal history information in Spain and the USA, illuminating the cultural and legal values behind each country’s policies and the tensions both countries encounter in attempting to reconcile these policies with other socio-political values and goals.

Baring Their Souls in Online Profiles or Not? Religious Self-Disclosure in Social Media

This study measured the prevalence of religious self-disclosure in public MySpace profiles that belonged to a subsample of National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) wave 3 respondents (N = 560). Personal attributes associated with religious identification as well as the overall quantity of religious self-disclosures are examined. A majority (62 percent) of profile owners identified their religious affiliations online, although relatively few profile owners (30 percent) said anything about religion outside the religion-designated field. Most affiliation reports (80 percent) were consistent with the profile owner's reported affiliation on the survey. Religious profile owners disclosed more about religion when they also believed that religion is a public matter or if they evaluated organized religion positively. Evangelical Protestants said more about religion than other respondents. Religiosity, believing that religion is a public matter, and the religiosity of profile owners’ friendship group were all positively associated with religious identification and self-disclosure.

Editorial Overview

Science policy mandates across the industrialized world insinuate more active roles for publics, their earlier participation in policy decisions, and expanded notions of science and technology governance. In response to these policies, engaged scholars in science studies have sought to design and conduct exercises aimed at better attuning science to its public contexts. As demand increases for innovative and potentially democratic forms of public engagement with science and technology, so also do the prospects for insights from science studies to contribute to policy agendas and institutional capabilities. This collection brings together an international set of scholars in science, technology and society who inquire into the meaning, efficacy and responsibility of engaged science studies scholarship as a public matter.

In Memoriam: David Judson Sencer, A Public Health Giant

In Memoriam: David Judson Sencer, A Public Health Giant

The Law and Politics of Embryo Research in America

The moral, legal, and public policy dispute over embryonic stem cell research (and related matters, such as human cloning) is the most prominent issue in American public bioethics of the past decade. The primary moral question raised by the practice of embryonic stem cell research is whether it is defensible to disaggregate (and thus destroy) living human embryos in order to derive pluripotent cells (stem cells) for purposes of basic research that may someday yield regenerative therapies. This essay will explain the legal and political dimensions of the embryonic stem cell debate as it has unfolded at the national level in the United States, contrasting the position and thinking of President Clinton's administration with that of George W Bush. Building upon this, a set of brief reflections is offered on the form and substance of the American federal approach to this public matter and whether it is ultimately sustainable to join the issue in this particular way.

Another Look at the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Experience in Canada

Policy debates about immunization frequently focus on classic trade-offs between individual versus collective well-being. Publicly funded immunization programs are usually justified on the basis of widespread public benefit with minimal individual risk. We discuss the example of the policy process surrounding the adoption of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Canada to consider whether public good arguments continue to dominate immunization policymaking. Specifically, we show how a range of stakeholders framed HPV vaccination as a personal-rather than a public-matter, despite the absence of a controversy over mandatory immunization as was the case in the United States. Our findings suggest an erosion of the persuasiveness of public good arguments around collective immunization programs in the policy discourse.

Probation, PSRs and public protection: Has a ‘critical point’ been reached?

This article asks if the time has come to develop ethical and legal safeguards in respect of probation service interviews with offenders related to public protection matters. Police interviews in England and Wales with suspects have long had protective measures around them and have also in recent years developed a whole range of ethical training and protocols to govern the quality of interviewing and information gathering. The measures are deemed necessary as these stages in criminal justice processes are considered to be ‘critical points’. It is argued here that at a time when probation interview training (at least in the qualifying phase) has decreased, the importance attached to the information gained has increased. As indeterminate sentences for public protection become ever-more popular with sentencers, the importance of probation officer risk assessment has reached new heights; yet offenders have only minimal safeguards in terms of what they say to probation officers in interview.

Views of disability in Portugal: ‘fado’ or citizenship?

Disability research in Portugal is scarce and often lacks the perspective of disabled people. This paper tries to bring insights from leaders of disability associations about the community of disabled people in Portugal, the barriers to their politicization and links with disabled identity. It seems that most disabled people get trapped in a tragic paradigmatic vicious cycle due to a system-induced disempowerment which is sustained by a dominant individual and remediation model that extends to families, society, policies and politicians. The disabled associative movement has been unable to reach the majority of disabled people. Suggestions are thus made in order to transform this social reality by disseminating politically aware alternative disability paradigms and the possibility of a positive disabled identity, as well as by generating societal involvement in disability as a public matter.

KAJIAN KEPEMIMPINAN PEREMPUAN DALAM KELUARGA PERSPEKTIF TAFSIR

This article discusses the debates regarding the interpretation of al-Nisa (4) 34 [Holy Quran] that was advocated by many ulama. There exists a significant difference that indicate a greater role for women. Based on the assumption that the leadership of men over women can be absolute, given (wahby)or by effort (kasby), the final views of leadership entails the consequence that not all men can become leaders for women, even in domestic matters. Nevertheless, these two views are still strongly indicative that men are equals to women in all forms of leadership and does no differentiate between domestic or public matters of leadership.

Democracy and Dissatisfaction

Democracy and Dissatisfaction

The Enforcement System of Intellectual Property Rights in Albania: Aspects of Actual Legislation and Future Perceptions

Although Intellectual Property rights are classified as private rights of the title holders of intellectual and trade creations, the ultimately expansion of their infringements has revealed big concerns not only from the point of view of violating private rights, but also affecting human health, socio-economical developments, technological achievements, public government attitudes etc. It is mainly for such reasons that the global discussions on Intellectual Property are concentrated on enforcement, moreover on the interventions of governments for such issues, converted already from private to public matters. Our legal developments on this field are accomplished beyond the international standards implied by the TRIPS Agreement, because the model used is one of a developed country like the European Community, due to our strong aspirations for becoming one day part of it. In reality for developing countries like Albania the interest is much more on economic growth, decrease of poverty, fights against organized crime and corruption, and enforcement of Intellectual Property by means of government special structures and activities seems to be more a theoretical objective than a practical theme. In this paper it is supported the idea that in the actual circumstances where the legal framework is completed and harmonized, the right holders are far more advantaged by means of various legal tools for protecting their titles. Therefore for the future they can handle the enforcement issues more actively and become more encouraged to execute their rights even in a developing country like Albania.

The Public Health White Paper and Responsibility Deal

Summary This paper summarises and discusses some of the aspects of the Public Health White Paper, Healthy Lives, Healthy People, published for consultation at the end of 2010, and the framework of the Public Health Responsibility Deal, published in March 2011 by the UK government. Healthy Lives, Healthy People emphasises that a one-size-fits-all approach to public health improvement has been shown not to work as challenges vary from one neighbourhood to the next, and a new approach that empowers individuals to make healthy choices and gives communities the tools to address their own needs is required. It highlights the government's intention to shift power and decision making on public health matters to local authorities, with ring fenced budgets. A feature of the document that has proved controversial is the proposal to work collaboratively with business and the voluntary sector to deliver the government's ambition, through the Public Health Responsibility Deal, launched on 15 March, which comprises a series of 5 networks on food, alcohol, physical activity, health at work, and behaviour change, and the associated pledges. The initial pledges for the food network focus on salt and trans fatty acid reduction, and out-of-home calorie labelling of foods.

2010 Local Elections- A Serious Warning to Parliamentary Political Parties

The fundamental principle of the modern local self-government system is the transfer of decision-making on public matters to the lowest possible level, enabling citizens to identify themselves with the local political environment as much as possible. Local government is considered democratic if its performance is decisively and directly or indirectly influenced (through elected representatives that are entrusted with local-level tasks) by the citizens themselves. Local elections are frequently compared to national elections, even though data show that local elections have their own peculiarities that cannot be applied to the national level. This is especially true regarding the dominant role of non-partisan candidates, and the ever decreasing support for political parties. Without the latter, one cannot even imagine the national level of government because they represent the key actors in national democratic political systems. Regarding the degree of trust in political parties at the local level, one can identify a trend indicating that citizens have gained a greater awareness that local-level politics is not related to party adherence, and that individuals’ personalities and their alleged apolitical character is coming increasingly to the fore, which is reflected by a high number of eligible non-partisan candidates. Therefore, one can see in Slovenia that people have become frustrated over the politicisation of local-level politics by expressing an ever-greater desire to support non-partisan candidates for the leaders of their local communities. Thus, they seek the candidates whose performance is not politically marked so that they can more easily identify themselves with them.
 
 Keywords: • local democracy • local elections • parliamentary elections • political parties • non-partisan candidates • Slovenia

AGAINST DEMOCRATIC CONTRACTUALISM

Democratic Rights is a rich, provocative and ambitious book. In it, Corey Brettschneider invites readers to embrace a new conception of democracy—a conception that helps dispel the tension between ...

“World of Uncertainty” Game for Decision-Makers

Decisions on both personal and public matters benefit significantly if uncertainties and risks are handled with more care and accuracy. It is crucial to refine and express degrees of confidence and subjective probabilities of various outcomes. Experience, intuition, and skills help make the most of uncertain information. This paper proposes a concept and design of a computer game which aims to train and enhance some of these skills. It is an online game, which allows players to indicate their subjective uncertainty on a numerical scale and to receive explicit feedback. The accuracy of the player is conditioned and motivated by the incentives based on proper scoring rules. The game aims to train accuracy and better calibration in estimating probabilities and expressing degrees of confidence. The “World of Uncertainty” (n.d.) project researched the learning effect of the game and its impact on players’ attitudes towards uncertainty. The concept of this game can be adopted as part of an advanced and complex game in the future.

Introduction: Friendship and Emotions

1.1 There has been an increase in sociological literature concerned with friendship in modern societies, although it was neglected until recently (Allan 1977, 1986, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2007, 2008, Adams, Allan 1989, Alberoni 1990, Allan 1977, 1997, Bidart 1997, Bosisio 2006 , Di Nicola 2002, 2003, Duck 1991, 1993, Eve 2002, Ghisleni 2006, Ghisleni, Rebughini 2006, Kao, Joyner 2005, Jamieson 1999, 2002, Jamieson et al. 2006, Mancdich 2003, Nedelmann 1991, Oliker 1998, Pahl 2000, 2002, Rebughini 2006, Rebughini et al. 2011, Silver 1989, 1990, Spencer, Pahl 2006, Yager 2004, Walker 1994). Sociologists have neglected friendships in the past because they have been understood as personal choices rather than as allied to the public matters that were the subject of most sociological interrogation (Di Nicola 2002, p. 11). The idea of friendship as an intimate relationship which belongs only to the private sphere of social actors has been rejected in recent years by scholars. One reason for the change was that many social theorists turned their attention to the process of individualization and in particular institutionalized individualism (Beck, BeckGernsheim, 2002, p. xxi), which arguably characterizes contemporary society (Bauman 2003; Giddens 1992). As a result social thinkers began to interrogate the role of friendship in modern life not only in the private but also in the public sphere. Ancient wisdom has its part in this new interrogation. Friendship is not only a ’virtue’, according to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (1983), but a social practice: a social relationship between two individuals who freely choose and mutually trust each other. Trusting a person permits you to rely on him/her in order to receive advice, support, aid, affection but also in order to confide to him/her the ‘backstage’ of one’s self. A friend is a person to whom you can show your dreams, delusions, fears and certainties, strengths and weaknesses (Di Nicola 2002, p. 71). The social norm that regulates friendship is reciprocity. Friendship also has to be understood also as a feeling and emotion which arises between the two persons involved in the relationship (Di Nicola 2002, Alberoni 1999). As is well known emotions and feelings have been strongly marginalized in sociological discourse (Flam 2002).