Vote In Favour Research Articles

Thoughts on 'Digital Bangladesh' (the Program)

The term Digital was first used by Bangladesh Awami League immediately before 2009 election. By every possibility it was used at that time as a nice-sounding political slogan. At that time winning in election was their prime target and probably the advocates did not get adequate time to formulate its and implications. In the above election Bangladesh Awami League achieved landslide victory. It is true that the voters did not vote them for their declaration for making digital On the other hand, for them it was an election for rejection, rejection for BNP, the corrupt and rotten political party. And they strove for escape from its grip. For achieving this goal the voters were mentally prepared to vote in favour any other party, much worse than Bangladesh Awami League. However, after the grand win, materializing Digital has now become the moral duty of this party. Till now no spokesman of this party has clearly explained what they are really going to do for materializing Digital and that has created some confusion. I have heard some experts to opine on TV talk-show that they do not understand what this term means. Also some endeavoured to cut joke saying that it may be something like electricity, having two important aspects, Off and On. It may be difficult for the lower-calibre people, especially those from non-science background to understand this term. But there should be no difficulty for the enlightened persons to understand the meaning of this term. However, understanding the meaning of the term does not help much to realize how this mission will be materialized in the context of Bangladesh. In this article I shall explain my ideas on this subject. I must mention that these are exclusively my ideas and have absolutely no relation with what Bangladesh Awami League or the government of Bangladesh thinks about their program under the same title.

Thoughts on 'Digital Bangladesh' (Materializing the Program)

Materializing for a poor and developing country like may be quite difficult. The term Digital Bangladesh was first used by Awami League immediately before 2009 election. By every possibility it was used at that time as a nice-sounding political slogan. At that time winning in election was their prime target and probably the advocators did not get adequate time to formulate its and implications. In the above election Awami League achieved landslide victory. It is true that the voters did not vote them for their declaration for making digital On the other hand, for them it was an election for rejection, rejection for BNP, the corrupt and rotten political party. And they strived for escape from its grip. For achieving this goal the voters were mentally prepared to vote in favour any other party, much worse than Awami League. However, after the grand win, materializing Digital Bangladesh has now become the moral duty of this party. Till now no spokesman of this party has clearly explained what they are really going to do for materializing Digital Bangladesh and that has created some confusion. I have heard some experts to opine on TV talk-show that they do not understand what this term means. Also some endeavoured to cut joke saying that it may be something like electricity, having two important aspects, Off and On. It may be difficult for the less calibre persons, specially those from non-science background to understand this term. But there should be no difficulty for the enlightened persons to understand the meaning of this term. However, understanding the meaning of the term does not help much to realize how this mission will be materialized in the context of Bangladesh. In this article I shall explain my ideas on this subject. I must mention that these are exclusively my ideas and have absolutely no relation with what Awami League or the government of thinks about their program under the same title.

A Report from the Field: The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—Implementation and Implications

Over nearly two-and-a-half decades, indigenous peoples and their supporters expended enormous energy on developing a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples that both protects and promotes their individual and collective rights. The debates surrounding the declaration focused on issues ranging from self-determination to the rights of indigenous peoples to practice their cultures and to participate in decision making. The declaration establishes the requirement for fair and adequate compensation for violations of rights and directly addresses the issues of ethnocide and genocide. The United Nations General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on 13 September 2007, with 143 votes in favor, four votes against, and eleven abstentions. Notably, the votes against were cast by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be a complex process, especially given that many indigenous communities today are located in places where states, private companies, and individuals are competing for resources, sometimes with deadly results.

A Multifaceted Sensitivity Analysis of the Slovenian Public Opinion Survey Data

Summary Many models to analyse incomplete data have been developed that allow the missing data to be missing not at random. Awareness has grown that such models are based on unverifiable assumptions, in the sense that they rest on the (incomplete) data only in part, but that inferences nevertheless depend on what the model predicts about the unobserved data, given the observed data. This explains why, nowadays, considerable work is being devoted to assess how sensitive models for incomplete data are to the particular model chosen, a family of models chosen and the effect of (a group of) influential subjects. For each of these categories, several proposals have been formulated, studied theoretically and/or by simulations, and applied to sets of data. It is, however, uncommon to explore various sensitivity analysis avenues simultaneously. We apply a collection of such tools, some after extension, to incomplete counts arising from cross-classified binary data from the so-called Slovenian public opinion survey. Thus for the first time bringing together a variety of sensitivity analysis tools on the same set of data, we can sketch a comprehensive sensitivity analysis picture. We show that missingness at random estimates of the proportion voting in favour of independence are insensitive to the precise choice of missingness at random model and close to the actual plebiscite results, whereas the missingness not at random models that are furthest from the plebiscite results are vulnerable to the influence of outlying cases. Our approach helps to illustrate the value of comprehensive sensitivity analysis. Ideas are formulated on the methodology’s use beyond the data analysis that we consider.

The liberty to organise in Britain

FOCUS □ LABOURLAWREFORMANDTHE ORGANISING AGENDA The liberty to organise in Britain I adopted step the From collective Conservative Government approach restricting 1979-1997 a step labour law by to the Conservative Government adopted a step by step approach to restricting collectivelabour law GARY MORTON isabarrister at7New Square Chambers, London and former union organiser InAct general 1974 (IRA) the election 1971 Conservative was and repealed the Government Industrial bytheincoming Relations lostthe generalelectionand the Industrial Relations Act(IRA) 1971was repealedbytheincoming Labour Government. From 1979-97 the Conservative Government adopteda stepbystep approachto restructuring collectivelabourlaw. Over 18 years the Conservative Government embarked on a permanent revolution publishing sevenGreenPapers,sixWhitePapers,and one Charter; revoking the 1946 House of Commons FairWages Resolution and the 1972 Industrial RelationsCode of Practice;and enactingnine ActsofParliament. Statutory support fora liberty to organise endedin 1980withtherepealofthe statutory recognition procedure in the Employment Protection Act(EPA) 1975and the passingoflegislation making pre-entry and postentry closedshopsunlawful. From1990 onwards(if not earlier)the TUC warmedto the conceptof a policyof phased recognition leading to full recognition which crystallised in the 1995 TUC document Your Voiceat Work'.It proposed threebroad new rights: (i) a universal right to representation and theright ofunionstoorganise andhaveaccessto the workplaceand protection for individuals against victimisation; (ii) consultation rights when 10 percent of theemployeeswere unionmembers ; and (iii) collectivebargaining rights if a majority ina ballot,orsomeother meansofsurveyingopinion , wanted collectivebargaining rights. The right ofrepresentation was confined to a recognised unionifthere was one. By 1997 theTUChadimplicitly acceptedtheConservative Government's restrictions on workers' liberty to associateand liberty to strike butwas in favour ofa limited liberty forworkers to organise. This articledeals withtheNew LabourGovernment andworkers' liberty toorganise. The New Labour period The May 1998 4 Fairnessat Work' WhitePaper containeda proposedright to accompaniment. This alarmedTheFinancial Timeswhichin an editorial dated22May1998saidthat '...anyunion member ... willhavetheright tounionrepresentationduringgrievanceor disciplinary procedures .Thatlast...provides theunionswitha toeholdinanycompany intheland,and theCBI is right ...that... itshouldonlyapplytodisciplinary matters, notrunof themillgrievances. It could prove a powerfulrecruiting sergeantfor the unions...'. Journalist BarrieClements writing in TheIndependent on 11July 1998confirmed that theCBI,themainemployers' organisation, were concernedthatwhereunionswere not recognisedthey couldprevail on their members toregistergrievanceson pay which,withsufficient numbers, couldbecomea collective wage claim. The Government tooktheCBI's concerns into accountin theEmployment Relations Act(ERA) which came into forcein July1999. As the Employment Bill went through Parliament the rightto representation was whittled down by defining a grievanceas a dutyowed by an employer toa worker, e.g.a statutory entitlement to equal pay.Thismeansthatemployees cannot raisea grievance overpayunlessthey havea contractual orstatutory risetosucha payrise.There is a rightto accompaniment by an employed union official, or a certified lay union official employedby thatemployer, whichcame into cameintoforce inSeptember 2000.Compensation for a breachofthis right isup totwoweekswages cappedat£350a weekfrom 1February 2009.This is derisory compensation. Crucially, theright to accompaniment is a union right whichis not dependent on an employer recognising a union. However, since2000theGovernment has introduced Regulations on flexible working and age andinbothcasestheright tobe accompanied has been confined to a fellowworker and thereferencetounionrepresentation omitted. The ERA1999is thethird attempt at statutory recognition. This current versionhas more in commonwiththeIRA 1971thantheEPA 1975 andlikestatutory recognition intheUnited States it incorporates employer freespeech rights (i.e theability ofemployers and their agentssuchas employment 'consultants' the BurkeGroup,to campaignagainstunionrecognition). Legitimate campaigning activity includes threatening toshut thecompanyiftheworkers votein favour. The proceduregivesemployers the right to choose theworkers' union.The levelofsupport forthe workers' choiceis irrelevant iftheemployer has helped to create and recognisea dependent 'union'(i.e News International's recognition of the News InternationalStaff Association). Alternatively, an employercan recognisean unrepresentative independent unionwithno or veryfewmembers inthatcompany. The NationalUnionofJournalists' application forrecognition by theSportsDivisionof Mirror GroupNewspapers Ltdwas rejected as thecompany recognisedan associationwithjust one member. The CACfoundthatoverhalfthejournalists wereintheNUJ. TheNUJ's appealstothe HighCourt and Court ofAppealwererejected. If theCACdeclaresthata unionis recognised then theemployer hastoengageina dialogue with the union througha bargainingprocedure.The employer is notobligedto agreeto changesto termsand conditions of employment (i.e. pay, hoursor holidays). Thereis no recourse to arbitration unliketheEPA1975.Evenwitha legally enforceable contract theobligation ontheemployertonegotiate is purely procedural. TheemployINTERNATIONAL union rights Page 10 Volume 16Issue 2 2009 er'sability to negotiate different terms withindividualsis safeguarded by paragraph18 of the TradeUnionRecognition (Methodof Collective Bargaining) Order 2000.Employers havea statutoryright tocontract withindividual workers tothe detriment ofcollective workers' power. The Government published a consultation paper entitled a 'Reviewof the ERA 1999' in February 2003and proposedthatsection146(3) ofTradeUnionLabourRelations (Consolidation) Act(TULR(C)A...

The Genesis of Turkish Views on Partition and Conciliation

The Genesis of Turkish Views on Partition and Conciliation

Front and Back Covers, Volume 24, Number 2. April 2008

Front cover and back cover caption, volume 24 issue 2Front coverFront cover: Front coverThe front cover of this issue illustrates Peter Loizois' article on the work of filmmaker Robert Gardner. The Hamar woman in the photo bears marks of whipping, a subject which raised the first divisions between Gardner and anthropologists Ivo Strecker and Jean Lydall, as Gardner was inclined to see the practice as a facet of female subordination and male cruelty. The Streckers, after many years of research, took a different view, which can be grasped in Jean Lydall's article ‘Beating around the bush’ (see http://www.uni‐mainz.de/organisationen/SORC/fileadmin/texte/lydall/Beating)Gardner makes clear his feelings in this note, highlighted in his book The impulse to preserve:‘Editing the Rivers of sand imagery made a huge impression on me. I kept being reminded that I especially disliked Hamar man and I don't think I would have felt differently had there been no Women's Movement. I don't see how anyone can escape feeling the same way once they see the film. It was a painful life for both sexes. So why not say so? I don't think anthropology is doing its job by being value free. I do think it should accept responsibility to look for larger truths.’ (Robert Gardner 2006, The impulse to preserve: Reflections of a filmmaker, New York: Other Press, p. 158)Back coverBack cover: UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLESThe back cover illustrates Paul Oldham and Miriam Anne Frank's article in this issue on the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration sets the minimum international standards for the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples' rights.The display boards capture the historic moment on 13 September 2007, when UN member states overwhelmingly supported the adoption of the Declaration at the General Assembly's 61st session. Votes in favour of the Declaration are shown in green (143 + 1 not shown), abstentions in orange (11) and votes against in red (4). With the exception of Montenegro, whose vote in favour did not register on screen, absent or non‐voting states are blank.Such overwhelming support within the General Assembly was by no means guaranteed — it was the outcome of lengthy and delicate behind‐the‐scenes negotiations. Expectations that the Declaration would be adopted in December 2006 were dashed when the African Group of countries blocked it, claiming that, despite 23 years of negotiations, more time was needed for consultation. In the ensuing period, Mexico, Peru and Guatemala, as co‐sponsors of the Declaration, took the lead in negotiating an agreement with the African Group that they would support a Declaration with three main amendments, and would block other amendments or delays put forward by Australia, Canada, the US and New Zealand. The co‐sponsors then sought agreement to this amended Declaration from the Global Indigenous Peoples' Caucus, who engaged in their own worldwide consultation process with indigenous peoples' organizations. The outcome remained uncertain, however, until these giant screens in the UN General Assembly Hall finally flashed green, to spontaneous applause from the delegates and their supporters.Since anthropologists work with indigenous peoples worldwide, this historic vote raises the challenge of how they, individually and as a discipline, position themselves in relation to the new Declaration.

Michel Foucault and liberal intelligence

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Michel Foucault considered this question of government over two years of his lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–8 and 1978–9. He then devoted himself to the history of subjectivation, with The Care of the Self and The Use of Pleasure (1986a Foucault , M. (1986a) The care of the self (R. Hurley, Trans.) . Harmondsworth : Viking . [Google Scholar], 1986b Foucault , M. (1986b) The use of pleasure (R. Hurley, Trans.) Harmondsworth : Viking . [Google Scholar]) which appeared in France in 1984, the year of his death. 2. The field of ‘governmentality studies’ was first launched in Great Britain and the USA with the publication of Burchell, Gordon and Miller (1991 Burchell, G., Gordon, C. and Miller, P. 1991. The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). It was taken up by Mitchell Dean (1999 Dean, M. 1999. Governmentality: Power and rule in modern society, London: Sage. [Google Scholar]). In Germany the development of studies of governmentality was instigated by Thomas Lemke (2000 Lemke, T. 2000. “Gouvernementalität: Neoliberalismus und Selbsttechnologien”. In Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart, Edited by: Bröckling, U., Krasmann, S. and Lemke, T. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. [Google Scholar]). 3. There were some colloquia in France on the subject on the twentieth anniversary of Foucault's death, one at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and the other at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris. The latter resulted in a publication (Meyet, Neves, & Ribemont, 2005 Meyet, S., Neves, M.-C. and Ribemont, T. 2005. Travailler avec Foucault, Paris: L'Harmattan. [Google Scholar]). 4. It recalls the analysis of The Policing of Families (Donzelot, 1979 Donzelot , J. (1979) The policing of families (R. Hurley, Trans.) . London : Hutchinson . [Google Scholar]) published the previous year, in 1977, the fourth chapter of which is entitled, precisely ‘From the government of families to government through the family’ [this does not appear as a chapter heading in the English translation, but see p. 92: GB]. 5. The expression ‘put on the agenda’, so dear to the political class, appeared with English utilitarianism, Foucault explains, when Bentham distinguished between what is to be done (from a liberal point of view), that is to say, the agenda, and what is not to be done, that is to say, the non-agenda. 6. With this odd expression, ‘equal inequality’, Foucault designates the neo-liberals’ idea that we are all exposed to a situation of relative inequality and that this differential does not condemn the market but makes it work … on condition that no-one is lastingly excluded from the game. [I have been unable to find any use by Foucault of the expression ‘equal inequality’ as such, but he attributes to Röpke the statement of ‘inequality’ being ‘the same for all’ (2004b, p. 148) (although Senellart notes that he has not been able to trace this statement in Röpke either). [The index refers to ‘the equality of inequality’, but again this expression does not appear in the text: GB.] 7. The Foucauldian diaspora includes partisans of the Right and Left, including the extreme Left. Do we need to note that the most notorious of the latter, Antonio Negri, appealed for a vote in favour of the proposed European Constitution out of hatred for the national level, which is seen as a brake on awareness of the reality of the ‘empire’, and he has called for the engagement of battles at this supreme level. In this, furthermore, he could give comfort only to the certainties of the partisans of the sovereign nation and of the European social model à la française. 8. This analysis is found in the lecture of 17 January 1979 (Foucault, 2004b Foucault , M. (2004b) Naisssance de la biopolitique: Cours au Collège de France (1978–1979) ( M. Senellart ). Paris : Gallimard/Le Seuil . [Google Scholar], pp. 39ff.). 9. For an analysis of the art of neither too much nor too little in French governmentality, see Donzelot (1994 Donzelot , J. ( 1994 [1984] ) L'Invention du social: Essai sur le déclin des passions politiques . Paris : Le Seuil . [Google Scholar] [1984]). We note, moreover, that this concern for a measure of neither too much nor too little in politics, recently promoted by Tony Blair and the ‘third way’ between the old Left and Thatcherite neo-liberalism, also gets support from a famous sociologist, Anthony Giddens. 10. We need only think of Vaincre la pauvreté dans les pays riche (1974 Stoléru, L. 1974. Vaincre la pauvreté dans les pays riches, Paris: Flammarion. [Google Scholar]) by Lionel Stoléru, enthusiast of American neo-liberal policy, to acknowledge this precedence in the debates regarding exclusion that began at the end of the 1980s.

Banning of Minarets: Addressing the Validity of a Controversial Swiss Popular Initiative

AbstractThe proposal to ban minarets is controversial by its very nature. On the one hand Swiss citizens are sovereign and act as the ultimate supreme authority. By their will they may seek via popular initiative to enact, revoke or alter such, and any, constitutional provision as they see fit. On the other hand there are so-called material bars to Swiss constitutional amendments—such as human rights—arising from the provisions of international law. Not surprisingly, these material bars to absolute sovereignty are fiercely contested because they mean either greater or lesser powers to the citizen and, indirectly, to the political parties. The popular initiative to ban minarets raises not only questions in respect of the relationship between domestic and international law, but also appears to challenge the legal architecture of Switzerland. The initiative may be held invalid by the Swiss General Assembly (henceforth 'General Assembly' or 'Assembly') on the grounds that it breaches the peremptory norms of international law. If this proves to be the case, the Swiss people will not be given the opportunity to vote on it. Arguably, such interference is feasible only if the material bar to initiatives is widened beyond its originally accepted scope. Apparently, the powers of the Swiss Sovereign became thereby unequivocally curbed. The relationship between Swiss domestic law and international law is pivotal also should the General Assembly declare the initiative to be valid. The people would as a consequence of the Assembly's decision possess the right to vote either for or against the initiative. But regardless of the poplar vote's outcome, the second option prima facie implies that the sovereignty of the Swiss citizens has been upheld, and concessions need only to be made by those who are either for or against the proposed ban. Yet in its international context the matter is more complex and more far-reaching than that. The first part of this paper concentrates on the question of whether it is advisable for the General Assembly to compromise the people's sovereignty by widening the original scope of peremptory norms. The second part explores what a popular vote in favour of the ban on minarets could mean in law. In order to raise the awareness of the subject matter beyond its legal dimension, the introduction and conclusion of this paper will shed specific light on the rule of law as a philosophical doctrine.

INFLUENCE, ELECTIONS, AND THE VALUE OF A VOTE IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

This paper investigates the extent to which interest groups use their campaign contributions to affect election outcomes as opposed to influencing candidate policy choices directly. It also reveals how much value interest groups place on gaining one more favorable vote in the House of Representatives. The empirical estimates suggest that gaining influence dominates helping favored candidates win the election as a means to affect defense spending policies. Political action committees differ in interesting ways, however, with the more ideological peace groups placing greater emphasis on changing electoral outcomes than do investor lobbies representing the defense industry.

Legitimating European Union Accession?

There is growing attention to problems of European Union (EU) legitimacy and, in particular, the lack of affective links between the political elites engaged in integration and public opinion. Political parties are in an influential position for helping to solve this problem. With the EU's largest ever enlargement in May 2004, it is important to establish whether these problems are likely to be magnified or not. Although there was a strong vote in favour of EU membership in the referenda of 2003 in post-Communist countries, this constituted more formal than substantial legitimacy for the EU. Taking the case of Latvia, it is already clear that some difficulties evident in the older member states are being repeated, notably with respect to mass opinion and European integration, as illustrated by the referendum of 2003 and European elections of 2004. On the one hand, there is a political elite now versed in EU affairs but, on the other, public opinion remains largely ignorant of what membership entails. In addition, Latvia also reveals a serious public mistrust towards the political elite, which is common in post-Communist countries, and this inhibits parties there from developing an intermediary role over European affairs. It therefore remains to be seen whether positive developments in the future linking benefits from EU membership and the achievement of democratic consolidation move Latvia towards a solution of these problems.

Bargaining one-dimensional social choices

We analyze bargaining over the one-dimension characteristic of a public good among n impatient players when decisions require q favorable votes, q ⩾ 2 . Stationary subgame perfect equilibrium strategies are characterized for all games with deterministic protocol. We provide a monotonicity condition (satisfied by all single-peak, strictly quasi-concave and concave utilities) that assures uniqueness for every q whenever player's utilities are symmetric around the peak. Without symmetry, the monotonicity condition assures uniqueness for qualified majorities, q > n / 2 , provided that agents are sufficiently patient and utilities satisfy an additional regularity condition. Asymptotic uniqueness is assured for qualified majorities by imposing only the monotonicity condition.

Teacher to Teacher: What Advice Would You Give New Teachers about Dealing with School Politics?

A colleague of mine said, Don't ever leave your room as his halfhearted answer to school politics. In lieu of a cloistered life, you must venture forth into the meetings and the hallways and, yes, the teachers lounge. The best way to navigate the voyage to tenure is to think of the journey as a threeyear interview in which you have a seat on the hiring committee. During the first part of an interview, the committee watches and asks questions, so you must know who's on the hiring committee. The office manager, for example, often holds a school together through several principals and may carry a silent vote in favor or not of a teacher's continuing to work in that school; likewise, parents sometimes are surveyed, as they are in my district, about the teacher's communications or may get a silent vote only if complaints make it to the principal's ear without refutation; therefore, know the evaluation system. If you are judged on parent communication, create a listserv or Web site to post classroom assignments and make two phone calls a day-one to the parents of a child who is doing well and one to the parents of a child who is struggling. Also, if a parent calls, emails, or writes to say excellent job, forward that to the principal. If a parent calls and is irritated, bring it to the principal's attention before the parent does. Your story should be the one he or she hears first. Equally important is the second part of the interview, when the interviewee watches and asks questions. Even if you must make a note to stop grading and go socialize for ten minutes, ask colleagues for input on that dry Puritan unit during a planning period. It will not only give you a better lesson but also save you from the same fate as that spider hanging over the fire of an angry God. As you did with those questions you brought to the interview, participate in department discussion but avoid awkward debate. One effective escape from discord is grading, the writing teacher's third arm. Few people will be surprised when you pull it out when the conversation about overpopulation-or, worse, the new principal-gets heated. Most of all, let everyone see how teaching is a passion and a love. You can cry over insecurities and fears to a trusted mentor or friend but not in the teachers

Can the Board of Directors Save Corporate America? Paradoxically, the Answer Appears to be No!

We model a board as a team of insiders and outsiders and ask whether it can perform the monitoring function necessary to maximize shareholder wealth. Faced with a collective decision, each board member can expend costly effort to collect information and then cast a vote in favor or against the decision. We show that even with optimal incentive contracts, boards will make inferior decisions relative to CEOs because of free riding on fellow directors' effort, information and votes. Such free-riding occurs whether the firm's corporate governance mandates that board decisions be made through majority or unanimity rules and balloting is open or secret. While active board monitoring does reduce executive compensation, shareholders are on net better off under an optimally compensated CEO with a rubber stamping board. Paradoxically, our theory suggests that reforms aiming to make boards more independent and more accountable are likely to reduce shareholder wealth.

The New Government and the Spoils System

On 17 May 2006, exactly 10 years after his first appointment as president of the Council of Ministers, Romano Prodi was sworn in at the Quirinale by the new president of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. At 9 PM of the same day, during the first meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prodi appointed the undersecretary to the presidency, ministers without portfolio, and other undersecretaries. He then formally attributed the functions of council vice-president to Massimo D'Alema, president of the Democratici di Sinistra (DS, Left Democrats), and Francesco Rutelli, president of the Margherita (Daisy). The second Prodi government presented itself at the Senate for a confidence vote on Friday, 19 May, obtaining 165 votes in favor and 155 against. On the following Monday, in the Chamber of Deputies, it was approved by 344 votes in favor and 268 against.1 The government team, including the prime minister and his vice-presidents, comprised a total of 102 individuals, a record number in the history of the Italian Republic. This resulted in heated debate and protests conducted in the press and television, which were kept alive for several days, above all by representatives of the opposition. As we will see in the following pages, the formation of the new executive led to a great deal of discussion as regards the unpackaging of ministries, which resulted in an increase in their number, with public opinion inevitably conditioned by fears that this mode of sharing out new posts responded to the mere logic of coalition politics and possibly

Another go at Life: Dili, East Timor

Another Go at Life: Dili, East Timor. Simon Philpott Introduction:1 Dili has been a capital city for two and a half centuries, firstly for the Portuguese colony of Timor, then as a city in an Indonesian province under occupation and today as capital of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste. However, throughout these transformations little has been published on what many have taken to be an unprepossessing small city located at the edge of an unspectacular shoreline. When mentioned at all, Dili is invariably described as a dusty, neglected colonial outpost, a curious relic from a time when Portugal was a major maritime power. In the mid 19th century Alfred Russell Wallace described Dili as a ‘most miserable place.’2 In his 1915 novel Victory Joseph Conrad described the city as that “highly pestilential place,” a description that surfaced again as recently as 2001.3 Although this disdain means Dili and East Timor has rarely been front page news it nonetheless became synonymous with a form of military repression that has a Cold War genealogy.4 This repression manifested itself in ways significant for the debates on urbicide. Richard Falk argues that the particular tragedy of East Timor is that it was caught in the vice of the withering of Portuguese colonialism, on the one hand, and Indonesian expansionism on the other hand.5 That may be so, but what tightened the vice was Cold War politics which saw a US chastened by its experiences in Vietnam align itself with and actively support President (and former General) Suharto of Indonesia who had proven his Cold War bona fides by presiding over the massacre of no less than 500,000 real and imagined communists in the mid-1960s. A decade later, Indonesia faced a unilateral declaration of independence for East Timor made by its most popular political party and de facto government, Fretilin.6 The perception, held by Suharto and his government, that Fretilin was Marxist in orientation and that East Timor might become an Asian Cuba or even encourage restive provinces within Indonesian to bid for their own independence made this a most unwelcome development. With Vietnam a fresh and painful memory, US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told Suharto that they would understand if Indonesia found it necessary to take drastic action over the issue of East Timorese claims of independence.7 Suharto wasted no time and full-scale invasion was launched on December 7th 1975 within hours of Ford and Kissinger concluding their visit to Jakarta, and nine days after Fretilin’s independence move. The invasion and subsequent occupation was to change life for the residents of Dili and East Timor in the most dramatic and horrific ways. This article traces Indonesian policy, as well as the prior Portuguese strategies of urban management of Dili. I also consider UN and Timorese government responses to the crisis provoked by the physical destruction of East Timor and the withdrawal of its skilled labour force when the majority of Indonesians fled the then province after the overwhelming vote in favour of independence in August 1999 that ended twenty five years of occupation. East Timor’s demography necessarily means an examination of the governance of rural areas to ascertain a sense of the modes of violence, repression and control used by the Indonesian authorities in particular. The majority of East Timor’s population then, as now, resides in rugged, remote and often inaccessible rural locales and it is into these areas that Fretilin fighters withdrew after the invasion. Ensconced in East Timor’s mountainous areas and occasionally drawing Indonesian forces into difficult and costly skirmishes despite its own heavy losses in the immediate aftermath of the Indonesian invasion, Fretilin seemingly fulfilled the dictum that guerrillas win the war if they do not lose it.8 One way that Indonesian authorities tried to resolve this problem was by fracturing the networks of support that established rural communities could provide to Fretilin by a wholesale uprooting of the rural population. Such practices had the additional benefit of bringing ordinary East Timorese under more direct control, something that will be discussed in detail below. Of particular interest is...

The media's agenda-setting role in Liberia's 2005 presidential runoff election

“Studying the relationships between news sources, media professionals, the public and government actions within an agenda-setting framework is a demanding task, of course, but one worth pursuing if we are to gain a more complete and holistic understanding of the role of the mass communication in democratic political system” (Weaver, 1987, p. 190). Weaver's argument is examined in the context of the immediate circumstances leading to the historic victory of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president, in the Liberian presidential runoff election in November 2005. It is argued that by framing ‘qualification and experience’ (Sirleaf's strength) over ‘common sense and popularity’ (soccer celebrity George Weah's strength), the media played an important role in influencing the presidential vote in favour of the former. It is argued that the public threats issued by Sirleaf's rival, Weah, “to teach journalists a lesson” if he was to be elected president, proved counterproductive for Weah as it only helped to reinforce the framing of his opponent's strengths and exposing his weakness, eventually tipping the balance against him in the runoff after beating his opponent by a wide margin in the first rounds.

The media's agenda-setting role in Liberia's 2005 presidential runoff election

“Studying the relationships between news sources, media professionals, the public and government actions within an agenda-setting framework is a demanding task, of course, but one worth pursuing if we are to gain a more complete and holistic understanding of the role of the mass communication in democratic political system” (Weaver, 1987, p. 190). Weaver's argument is examined in the context of the immediate circumstances leading to the historic victory of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president, in the Liberian presidential runoff election in November 2005. It is argued that by framing ‘qualification and experience’ (Sirleaf's strength) over ‘common sense and popularity’ (soccer celebrity George Weah's strength), the media played an important role in influencing the presidential vote in favour of the former. It is argued that the public threats issued by Sirleaf's rival, Weah, “to teach journalists a lesson” if he was to be elected president, proved counterproductive for Weah as it only helped to reinforce the framing of his opponent's strengths and exposing his weakness, eventually tipping the balance against him in the runoff after beating his opponent by a wide margin in the first rounds.

Roses for nonsmokers' hearts

For the first two weeks of February shops and the media are full of references to Valentine's Day. Even the British Heart Foundation (BHF) have used the opportunity as part of their recent fundraising campaign for more BHF heart nurses. This year, however, Valentine's Day was marked by the vote in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, which is due to come into effect in England in the summer of 2007. The British Heart Foundation described this decision as ‘the best possible Valentine gift from MPs to bar workers in pubs, bars and private members’ clubs, across England’ (British Heart Foundation, 2006).

Opposition raised to walk-in centres.

The prospect of rolling out NHS walk-in centres across Wales met opposition from emergency nurses last month despite it receiving a unanimous vote in favour at the National Assembly.