Good government, democratisation and traditional African political philosophy: the example of the Kanyok of the Congo

1998 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Yoder
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Environments ◽  
Good Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
State Of Affairs

Over the last several decades, officials in both the public and private sectors have applied economic, military, cultural, academic and diplomatic tools to promote the spread of democratic pluralism in African and elsewhere. With the fall of Africa's most resilient tyrant, Mobutu Sese Seko, there is hope that even one of Africa's most troubled systems may be transformed into a state that reflects the will of the people and promotes the common good. Sober observers, however, remain pessimistic. Laurent Kabila's spotted record on human rights, his stubborn intolerance of political opposition, the challenging global economic and political environments, and the long history of bad government in Mobutu's Zaïre are obvious reasons for concern. Furthermore, the example of most other African states is not encouraging. With the exception of countries such as South Africa and Botswana, even the most tenuous democratic progress in Africa is often slowed, blocked or reversed.Generally, blame for this state of affairs has been levelled against the African political elite, the burden of colonialism, or international political and economic pressures. Specifically, for the Congo, Mobutu's kleptocracy, Belgium's paternalism, America's backing of a friendly dictator and the World Bank's support for ill-advised ‘development’ schemes all have been criticised. While such reproaches may be well deserved, this article argues that it is important to ask if the persistent failure of democracy in the Congo as well as in other African states is also related to African political culture.

Privatization—Chipping Away at Government

2020 ◽  
pp. 106-128
Author(s):  
Donald Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

This chapter focuses on the right wing's astonishingly successful efforts to privatize public goods and services. Privatization has been one of the highest priorities of the right wing for many years, and the chapter shows how it threatens both labor and democracy. Intentionally blurring the lines between public and private institutions, private companies and market forces undermine the common good. This chapter documents the history of privatization in the United States, from President Reagan's early efforts to Clinton and Gore's belief in private markets. Showing how privatization undermines democratic government, the chapter describes complex contracts that are difficult to understand, poorly negotiated “public–private partnership” deals, and contracts that provide incentives to deny public services. With huge amounts of money at stake, privateers are increasingly weighing in on policy debates—not based on the public interest but rather in pursuit of avenues that increase their revenues, profits, and market share. Privatization not only destroys union jobs but also aims to cripple union political involvement so that the corporate agenda can spread unfettered. Nevertheless, community-based battles against privatization have succeeded in many localities, demonstrating the power of fighting back to defend public services, public jobs, and democratic processes.

scholarly journals Revolutionary Socialist Internationalism: Rank-and-File Reaction in the USPD

1977 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
International Meeting ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Historical Accounts

Historical accounts of the First, Second and Third Internationals, i.e., those organizations that attempted to realize some sort of supranational working-class solidarity, have traditionally been presented in terms of congresses, programs and personalities. Invariably scholars have focused on the public and private debates at this or that international meeting and/or how Marx, Engels, Lenin or some other leading figure influenced or reacted to some specific development. In short, the history of the International has been looked at almost exclusively from the “top down”. There is not anything wrong with this approach per se, but it might be of some value to consider, occasionally at least, the people whom the various Internationals were supposed to be serving, in other words to examine the International not only from the “top down” but also from the “bottom up”.

The Ottoman Archives as a Source for the History of the Arab Lands

1951 ◽  
Vol 83 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Public And Private ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Archive Material

One of the classical difficulties of the student of the history of the Islamic Middle East, as contrasted with his colleagues in the European field, is the lack of archive material. While the western medievalist, for example, has at his disposal a mass of records, central and local, public and private, political, administrative, judicial, and ecclesiastical, the orientalist has to rely for the most part on literary and archæological sources. In many fields of history his findings are in consequence often vague and general; they are in the main limited to the public and external life of the communities and individuals he studies. Only the events and personalities important enough to achieve literary mention are known to him, and then only through the reflecting medium of literary sources. Even the great figures, with few exceptions, remain dim and formalized outlines, while for the life of the people he has to rely mainly on occasional hints and scraps of evidence. Large numbers of individual documents survive in isolation—some in the form of inscriptions, others quoted in the texts of the chronicles; but only for one period after the rise of Islam is any important body of original documents available—and the light they have shed on the period from which they derive has deepened the surrounding darkness. The Egyptian papyri of the early Islamic period have imposed a rewriting of much of the history of the early Caliphate, as recorded by the chroniclers and jurists. Yet even the papyri are not archives in the true sense of the word.

What Can Economists Contribute to the Common Good Tradition?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Yuengert
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Common Pool Resources ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Provision ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Insight Into

Although most economists are skeptical of or puzzled by the Catholic concept of the common good, a rejection of the economic approach as inimical to the common good would be hasty and counterproductive. Economic analysis can enrich the common good tradition in four ways. First, economics embodies a deep respect for economic agency and for the effects of policy and institutions on individual agents. Second, economics offers a rich literature on the nature of unplanned order and how it might be shaped by policy. Third, economics offers insight into the public and private provision of various kinds of goods (private, public, common pool resources). Fourth, recent work on the development and logic of institutions and norms emphasizes sustainability rooted in the good of the individual.

scholarly journals SPATIAL DATA: FROM CARTOGRAPHY TO GEODATABASE

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo FALCHI
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Significant Acceleration ◽  
Management And Development ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Essential Knowledge

The final goal of this paper was to fix a brief summary on the status of geographic information in Italy due to the technological steps and national regulations. The acquisition, processing and sharing of spatial data has experienced a significant acceleration thanks to the development of computer technology and the acknowledgment of the need for standardization and homogenization of information held by pub­lic authorities and individuals. The spatial data represents the essential knowledge in the management and development of a territory both in terms of planning for safety and environmental prevention. In Italy there is an enormous heritage of spatial information which is historically affected by a problem of consistency and uniformity, in order to make it often contradictory in its use by the public decision-maker and private par­ties. The recent history of geographic information is characterized by a significant effort aimed at optimiz­ing this decisive technical and cultural heritage allowing the use of it to all citizens in a logic of sharing and re-use and may finally represent a common good available to all.

The Vaccine Revolt of 1904, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique Cukierman
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Smallpox Vaccine ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Black Poor

A review of the literature on the Vaccine Revolt shows that it continues to be treated in an overly simplistic manner as a “structure” subjected to some form of regulation, from which its dynamics can be explained and its “root causes” identified. It is possible to forge a new, more cautious historiographical path, seeking to view this “structure” as a rhizome, as a loosely connected ensemble that exists under unstable circumstances whose precarious (dis)order cannot be grasped in its complexity by a reductionist analysis. Another historiographical approach that can shed new light on the popular revolt of 1904 situates it in the context of its links to the history of the smallpox vaccine and its diffusion. Viewing the episode as equally relevant to the history of science and technology, this article proposes to “vaccinate the Vaccine Revolt”—that is, to reintroduce the smallpox vaccine as a protagonist in the events—highlighting the need to treat the revolt as a chapter of a sociotechnical history; after all, what could be more sociotechnical than a technoscientific artifact that gave its name to a popular revolt? This is a history of scientists convinced of the superiority of their technical knowledge and of their right to exercise their power for the good of the public, who would be obliged to comply; most of all, it is a history without the problematic distinctions between content and context, between rationality and irrationality, between science and society. It is also a history of the popular mobilization on the streets of downtown Rio de Janeiro, exemplified by the vigorous resistance mounted in the working-class neighborhood of Saúde under the command of the Black man known as Prata Preta, which serves as a counterpoint to top-down historical narratives more concerned with the comings and goings of White political elites and coup-plotting, positivist-inspired generals, marked by the symptomatic exclusion of Black and working-class actors. It also serves to emphasize the symptomatic absence of the voice of Prata Preta, who was imprisoned and summarily banished without any due process. The fact that he was silenced has made it easier to construct allegories about “the people,” portraying them as heroic opponents of elite oppression or the exact opposite: an antiheroic, dangerous, and disposable rabble. Among the entourage of characters who have been silenced, one should also note the absence of women’s voices; although vaccine opponents rallied around the claim that they were defending against the “violation” of women’s bodies, nothing was heard from women’s mouths. Finally, revisiting the history of the Vaccine Revolt offers another opportunity to unmask the project of an authoritarian political, military, and scientific elite, with a particular focus on Oswaldo Cruz, one of Brazil’s greatest champions of science. In the name of science and public health, that elite envisioned a modern Brazil, while remaining ignorant of the daily nightmare lived by the vast majority of the Black, poor, and marginalized population.

National Foresight in Korea: History of Futures Studies and Foresight in Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-244
Author(s):  
Kyungmoo Heo ◽  
Yongseok Seo
Keyword(s):  
National Development ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of

Public interests in coming futures of Korea continue to be increasing. Fears on uncertainties and pending challenges as well as demands on a new but Korea-own development model trigger a quantitative increase of futures research and relevant organizations in both public and private. The objective of this paper is to review history of futures studies and national development plan and strategy linked with foresight along with its challenges and recommendations. This paper identifies drawbacks and limits of Korea foresight such as misapplication of foresight as a strategic planning tool for modernization and economic development and its heavy reliance on government-led mid- and long-term planning. As a recommendation, an implementation of participatory and community-based foresight is introduced as a foundation for futures studies in Korea. A newly established research institute, the National Assembly Futures Institute, has to be an institutional passage to deliver opinions of the public, a capacity-building platform to increase the citizen’s futures literacy, and a cooperative venue for facilitating a participation and dialogue between politicians, government officials, and researchers.

scholarly journals Traces of French Culture in Palanga: The Historical Context of Palanga Botanical Park, Personalities, and Memory

Lituanistica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julija Paškevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Public ◽  
Seaside Resort ◽  
French Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

The article focuses on the origins of French culture in Palanga, a Lithuanian seaside resort, that go back to the years of the rule of the Tyszkiewicz family. The emphasis is put on Palanga Botanical Park (created before the end of the nineteenth century) as the most significant trace of French culture present in the resort and the seaside region until now. The specific symbols in the park created according to the will of the Counts Tyszkiewicz reflect the actualities of French culture. The importance of this space in the city is revealed, and Édouard François André’s principles of park creation are discussed in a new context. They are related to the dialogue that has been established between the residents of Palanga, the park, its creator, and his granddaughter Florence André since the first years of the independence of Lithuania. In order to give a meaning to Édouard André’s creation and to the relationship between the two countries, the correspondence between the great-granddaughter of the famous French landscape designer and the former director of the park, Antanas Sebeckas, is disclosed. It reflects the endeavour of these two personalities and its value for the international relations in representing French culture to the public. Florence André’s letters to the author of this article are also an important resource as she explains the reasons why the park plays an essential role in Palanga. It is shown how certain personal life events (Florence André’s wedding ceremony in Palanga, the park created by her great-grandfather) have become an inclusive part of the history of the town and represent intercultural relations and exchanges. The article is also based on some memories and narratives of the members of the local community in which the park features as a symbol and tradition of the city.

scholarly journals Doing Public Theology in African Christianity: A Reflection on Communiques by Churches in Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 190-200
Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
The Public ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Public Concerns

Faith in public life can be associated with Christianity in Ghana from the days of the early Western missionaries. Christian faith perspectives on matters of public concerns however, assumed a wider scope with the practice of regular issuance of communiques to governments and the people of Ghana by the churches. Christian ministry is expected to be holistic. A holistic approach in Christian ministry is considered to lead to the holistic development of the nation for the common good and the glory of God. Church leaders subsequently, bring their faith perspectives to matters of public concerns as a ministerial mandate to be in pilgrimage with the people. The study is a reflection on how the churches’ communiques are done and the factors that make the communiques theological in the public space. It further seeks to identify the contribution of the construction of communiques to public theology in Christianity in Ghana. The study as qualitative, examines both available primary and secondary sources. Copies of communiques of some selected churches, ecumenical bodies and joint communiques by ecumenical bodies are examined to appreciate insights of communiques by the churches. The study seeks to make a contribution to the theological construction of public theologies in Ghana and African Christianity. KEYWORDS: Public Theology, African Christianity, Communique, Common Good

Library Resources and Services in Tamilnadu State Central Library (Connemara Public Library)

2015 ◽  
pp. 286-310
Author(s):  
K. S. ABU
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Book Selection ◽  
Subject Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reference Services ◽  
The People ◽  
Library Resources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Library Selection

It is a known fact that Chennai city has a well-defined place when talking about landmark buildings, which have gone down the annals of history- Connemara library, certainly a pride of Madras is not only heaven for book lovers and research Scholars, the building by its sheer architectural beauty and marvel acquires a special significance as part of the history of Madras City. Public library is largely regarded as the People's University. It has tremendous developments in India from the early period to till date at various stages. Most of the Indian states now have free public library services to develop the people of India at different levels, which can be stated as below briefly. Majority of the users prefer to search documents directly from the stack room. The main purpose of visiting the library by the users is to prepare for completive examinations and some other purposes are to study in the library and to update their subject knowledge. The general book services provided by the library are highly useful. The Reference services provided by the library are highly useful. The users are satisfied with the information provided in the library. All the services available on the library except latest collections are found to be at satisfactory level. Nearly 7.5 lakhs of collection of books are available in the library. Selection of books is done by book selection committee. Nearly four hundred books are issued daily to the public The uses can retain the book for a maximum of 14 days. The users can renew the books for another three times either through phone or in person. A minimum amount of Rupees two per week is charged as overdue charge.

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