The paradox of technical governance: A public opinion survey’s political process and its results

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-139
Author(s):  
Yaping Peng
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Affirmative Answer ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Opinions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Statistical Surveys ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

The logic of technical governance goes as follows: the knowledge of society can be obtained by the state via technology, and thus social problems are identified and solutions are found. Questions have been raised about whether technical governance would ever work. For many the answer is negative and doubtful. However, one defense remains: technical governance fails not because the idea is inherently flawed but because the technology is not good. Would technical governance succeed with better methodology and more technical rigor? In order to challenge this defense, this paper examines the operation of opinion polls—a form of technical governance supported by rigorous quantitative social research methodology—run by a sub-district government in the city ‘S’. In particular, this paper asks whether it is possible for a government-run poll to reflect manipulated public opinion, despite the strictest compliance with quantitative polling methodology. The finding of this paper gives an affirmative answer. It argues that on the surface, polls are statistical surveys, but in actuality they are a political process controlled by the government despite their compliance with all statistical requirements. The power structure of the local government determines the questionnaire items, their multiple-choice answers (the screening, compressing, and quantifying of social scenarios), and the final make-up of the public opinion index. The rigorousness of methodology does not guarantee the authenticity of ‘public opinion’ in final poll figures. More likely, the outcome is controlled by those who organize polls. Hence, quantifiable technical governance presents a contradiction: the state manufactures biased public opinions precisely when it is looking for unbiased public opinions. In the end, the government constructs an image of society that is its own reflection.

scholarly journals Minister-Permanent Secretary Relationships: Lessons from Zimbabwe’s Government of national Unity

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tawanda Zinyama ◽  
Joseph Tinarwo
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Team Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

Public administration is carried out through the public service. Public administration is an instrument of the State which is expected to implement the policy decisions made from the political and legislative processes. The rationale of this article is to assess the working relationships between ministers and permanent secretaries in the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe. The success of the Minister depends to a large degree on the ability and goodwill of a permanent secretary who often has a very different personal or professional background and whom the minster did not appoint. Here lies the vitality of the permanent secretary institution. If a Minister decides to ignore the advice of the permanent secretary, he/she may risk of making serious errors. The permanent secretary is the key link between the democratic process and the public service. This article observed that the mere fact that the permanent secretary carries out the political, economic and social interests and functions of the state from which he/she derives his/her authority and power; and to which he/she is accountable,  no permanent secretary is apolitical and neutral to the ideological predisposition of the elected Ministers. The interaction between the two is a political process. Contemporary administrator requires complex team-work and the synthesis of diverse contributions and view-points.

Environment and Energy: A Public Opinion Survey in Davao City

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
MAIAN J. COZO
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Systematic Sampling ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

For the past decades, environment and its relevant issues are becoming the greatest concern of most countries. Public opinion becomes the interest of most policy makers and sociologist reformist. Improved understanding of public perceptions about global warming and other environmental issues can contribute to informing scientific and policy discussions. The aim of this study is to assess the (1) the extent of concern on the major environmental issues of the city (2) the preference between environmental protection and energy production, and (3) to compare the extent of concern of the public according to their respective district.  A total of 1151 respondents, ages 18 and above was derived using the systematic sampling at 95% confidence interval, and proportionate sampling distribution to ensure representativeness with the population of the city. The results suggest that Dabawenyos are greatly worried about global warming (92%), deforestation and urban flooding (88%), and energy crisis are considered as the most alarming environmental problem in the city. Moreover, they are more favorable to environmentally-friendly solutions in addressing the city’s energy problem, and the government should put greater emphasis on the development of renewable energy (96%). The degree of concerns and emphasis on environmental protection of the community can be directly equated to the traumatic environmental phenomena that had happened in the city.   Keywords: Ecology and Conservation, environmental issues, renewable energy, poll survey, Philippines

scholarly journals Between the countryside and the city: struggles for the right to an eminently peasant education

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Naura Sthocco Silva ◽  
Helder de Moraes Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Rural Education ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Rural Teachers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

From a theoretical and interpretive perspective, the present article aims to discuss the socio-political context of the proposal for training teachers for Rural Education from the pressures of rural movements and the involvement of institutional partnerships. So, how did the socio-political process for the involvement of the state and institutions to promote the training of rural teachers? For this, we seek to present the differences between the educational realities offered in the rural areas and in the city in Brazil; to discuss the emergence of the demand for a specific peasant education as a process of resistance to agribusiness interests in the 20th century; and to present the insertion of the social demands of the rural areas in the guidelines of the state through Pronera and adhesion of the public Universities in the formation of rural teachers. The study is qualitative, explanatory and bibliographic having as the theoretical basis the Rural Education as a space for social struggle. As a result, it became evident that the political and institutional actions aimed at training teachers in the field took place as a product of the pressures of social movements, with due emphasis on the MST, along with the state and public institutions, which met the demands through articulation between Pronera and public universities. From this scenario, from the decade of the 1990s, Licenciatura do Campo courses emerged in response to the demands for teachers of specific training in rural schools, representing the increase in the representativeness of peasant wishes in the midst of debates on educational policies in Brazil. Advances that, due to the actions created during the first term of the Lula government, were established, giving continuity to new offers of vacancies in LeDocs courses in Brazil in the last decade.

The Bazaar, the State, and the Struggle for Public Opinion in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-633
Author(s):  
ALI KARIMI
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Central Place ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Information Conflict ◽  
Source Of Information

AbstractPublic opinion is formed by the information that the public consumes. The state, whether democratic or authoritarian, employs various media of communication to influence people's opinions and behaviours. In the nineteenth century, Afghan rulers would traditionally use force and religion to gain popular support and strengthen their authority. In the second half of the century, they started to use print technology to build their relationships with the public. The state's print, however, had to compete with the institution of the bazaar that had long served as the central place where information circulated in public. This article, drawing mostly on unexamined Afghan sources, offers an account of how the bazaar operated as a source of information and how the Afghan state tried to suppress it. The history of this information conflict uncovers new aspects in the troublesome relationship between the government and the governed in Afghanistan.

Organizarea românilor ardeleni. De la formarea Consiliului Național Român Central (31 octombrie) până la semnarea armistițiului dintre Ungaria și Antantă (13 noiembrie 1918) (O cronologie a Unirii Transilvaniei cu România după presa vremii. IV)

Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Paul Brusanowski
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The State ◽  
National Council ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Press Conference ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
State Secretary ◽  
American State

The night of the Hungarian Aster Revolution (October 30-31) in Budapest brought about the birth of not only the Hungarian National Council, under the leadership of Mihály Károlyi, but also of the Romanian National Council, consequently moved to Arad two days later. On the one hand, the Romanian Central National Council considered itself to be the Romanian counterpart of the Hungarian National Council which had just taken over the governance of Hungary (although, for the time being, the state was still considered to be the Kingdom of Hungary, under the House of Habsburg). As such, the new Romanian Council’s first concern was to put an end to anarchy and reinstate order in the territories inhabited by Romanians. The organization even affirmed its anti-revolutionary and pro-dynastic position, in contrast with its Hungarian counterpart, which was considered to be too much taken over by revolutionary flames. Very soon after this, the Romanian Central National Council was confronted with new geo-political developments in the Eastern European space. On November 5, 1918, during a press conference, the American State Secretary Robert Lansing mentioned the possibility of uniting Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania. Two days later, on the occasion of signing the armistice with Hungary, the French General Franchet d’Espèrey held a speech that had a crushing effect on the Government and the public opinion of Hungary that country, in which he utterly proclaimed the dissolution of Great Hungary.

Justice as a Personal Virtue and Justice as an Institutional Virtue: Mencius’s Confucian Virtue Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-294
Author(s):  
Yong Huang
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Affirmative Answer ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Government

AbstractIt has been widely observed that virtue ethics, regarded as an ethics of the ancient, in contrast to deontology and consequentialism, seen as an ethics of the modern (Larmore 1996: 19–23), is experiencing an impressive revival and is becoming a strong rival to utilitarianism and deontology in the English-speaking world in the last a few decades. Despite this, it has been perceived as having an obvious weakness in comparison with its two major rivals. While both utilitarianism and deontology can at the same time serve as an ethical theory, providing guidance for individual persons and a political philosophy, offering ways to structure social institutions, virtue ethics, as it is concerned with character traits of individual persons, seems to be ill-equipped to be politically useful. In recent years, some attempts have been made to develop the so-called virtue politics, but most of them, including my own (see Huang 2014: Chapter 5), are limited to arguing for the perfectionist view that the state has the obligation to do things to help its members develop their virtues, and so the focus is still on the character traits of individual persons. However important those attempts are, such a notion of virtue politics is clearly too narrow, unless one thinks that the only job the state is supposed to do is to cultivate its people’s virtues. Yet obviously the government has many other jobs to do such as making laws and social policies, many if not most of which are not for the purpose of making people virtuous. The question is then in what sense such laws and social policies are moral in general and just in particular. Utilitarianism and deontology have their ready answers in the light of utility or moral principles respectively. Can virtue ethics provide its own answer? This paper attempts to argue for an affirmative answer to this question from the Confucian point of view, as represented by Mencius. It does so with a focus on the virtue of justice, as it is a central concept in both virtue ethics and political philosophy.

The 1912 Duma Elections: The State, the Opposition and the Clergy

Orthodoxia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
F. A. Gayda
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

This article deals with the political situation around the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Empire in 1912 (4th convocation). The main actors of the campaign were the government, local administration, liberal opposition and the clergy of the Orthodox Russian Church. After the 1905 revolution, the “official Church” found itself in a difficult situation. In particular, anti-Church criticism intensified sharply and was expressed now quite openly, both in the press and from the rostrum of the Duma. A consequence of these circumstances was that in this Duma campaign, for the first time in the history of Russian parliamentarianism, “administrative resources” were widely used. At the same time, the authorities failed to achieve their political objectives. The Russian clergy became actively involved in the election campaign. The government sought to use the conflict between the liberal majority in the third Duma and the clerical hierarchy. Duma members launched an active criticism of the Orthodox clergy, using Grigory Rasputin as an excuse. Even staunch conservatives spoke negatively about Rasputin. According to the results of the election campaign, the opposition was even more active in using the label “Rasputinians” against the Holy Synod and the Russian episcopate. Forty-seven persons of clerical rank were elected to the House — three fewer than in the previous Duma. As a result, the assembly of the clergy elected to the Duma decided not to form its own group, but to spread out among the factions. An active campaign in Parliament and the press not only created a certain public mood, but also provoked a political split and polarization within the clergy. The clergy themselves were generally inclined to blame the state authorities for the public isolation of the Church. The Duma election of 1912 seriously affected the attitude of the opposition and the public toward the bishopric after the February revolution of 1917.

scholarly journals PERANAN NEGARA DAN HUKUM DALAM MEMBERANTAS KEMISKINAN DENGAN MEWUJUDKAN KESEJAHTERAAN UMUM

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Yohanes Suhardin
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
The Public ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legal Product

AbstrakThe role of the state in combating poverty is very strategic. Combatingpoverty means to free citizens who are poor. The strategic role given thenational ideals (read: state) is the creation of public welfare. Therefore,countries in this regard the government as the organizer of the state musthold fast to the national ideals through legal product that is loaded withsocial justice values in order to realize common prosperity. Therefore, thenature of the law is justice, then in the context of the state, the lawestablished for the creation of social justice. Law believed that social justiceas the path to the public welfare so that the Indonesian people in a relativelyshort time to eradicate poverty.

scholarly journals Reforming Energy Subsidy in Kuwait: Maximizing Net Benefits and Equity Complying

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Alolayan ◽  
◽  
F. M. Albarrak ◽  
M. H. Abotalib ◽  
M. A. Alshawaf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Equilibrium Point ◽  
Reading Program ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
The Government ◽  
The State Of Kuwait ◽  
Energy Subsidy

The net benefits and public acceptance for a proposed reform to the current subsidization of energy in the State of Kuwait was investigated in this study. The proposed subsidization suggests that the government pays the consumers the subsidization cost in advance and in exchange for raising the subsidized tariffs to full price. The consumption will likely be reduced by a rate equals the over consumption due to the current subsidized tariffs in relative to the income. The net benefits is expected to be maximized and shifted to a pseudo-equilibrium point where both the governments and the consumers will be better off financially. The public acceptance toward the proposed strategy was examined using 274 voluntarily one-to-one interviews for gasoline and 121 for electricity and water. Also, a utilities meters reading program was conducted on 90 houses out of the 121 interviews for utilities. The interviews for gasoline and utilities indicated 57% and 66% of the respondents see no equity in the current subsidization, 55% and 80% admitted to overuse, and 11% and 21% averages of the over consumptions, and 67% and 66% of the respondents were willing to adopt the new strategy. The consumer is expected to save 912 USD/year from gasoline, and 8,198 USD/year from utilities. The estimated net benefits is 5,841 million USD annually with 62% attributed to utilities benefits and 38% to gasoline benefits.

scholarly journals MEMBANGUN AKUNTABILITAS ORGANISASI BANTUAN HUKUM

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Mosgan Situmorang
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Data ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
State Budget ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Material ◽  
The Government ◽  
Secondary Materials

<p>Dalam Undang-Undang Nomor 16 Tahun 2011 tentang Bantuan Hukum dikatakan bahwa pemberi bantuan hukum adalah lembaga bantuan hukum atau organisasi kemasyarakatan yang memberi layanan bantuan hukum. Jasa hukum yang diberikan kepada penerima bantuan hukum adalah cuma-cuma, dalam ar Ɵ mereka Ɵ dak mendapat upah dari pihak yang dibantunya, namun pemerintah akan memberikan dana bantuan untuk se Ɵ ap kasus yang ditangani yang besarnya disesuaikan dengan jenis kasusnya. Dana bantuan tersebut memang Ɵ dak akan diberikan kepada semua organisasi bantuan hukum, tetapi hanya kepada organisasi bantuan hukum yang sudah memenuhi syarat sesuai dengan Undang-Undang Bantuan Hukum. Karena dana tersebut berasal dari Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Negara, maka tentu saja akuntabilitas organisasi bantuan hukum yang menerima dana tersebut harus dapat dipertanggung jawaban kepada masyarakat. Tulisan ini adalah berupa kajian norma Ɵ f, dengan demikian data yang digunakan adalah data sekunder berupa bahan primer yakni peraturan perundang undangan, utamanya Undang-Undang Nomor 16 Tahun 2011 dan undang- undang lain yang terkait serta bahan sekunder berupa bahan kepustakaan dan data dari internet. Dalam peneli Ɵ an ini disimpulkan bahwa Undang- Undang Bantuan Hukum sudah dapat mengan Ɵ sipasi perlunya akuntabilitas organisasi bantuan hukum tapi masih perlu di Ɵ ngkatkan dengan cara membuat aturan-aturan yang mendukung terciptanya akuntabilitas tersebut terutama peraturan mengenai standar bantuan hukum.</p><p>In Law No. 16 Year 2011 regarding Legal Aid, stated that legal aid provider is a legal aid organiza Ɵ on or community organiza Ɵ ons that provide legal aid services. Legal services provided by the legal aid organiza Ɵ on is free in the sense that they do not get paid from those who helped. However, the government will provide fi nancial assistance for each case handled that amount is in accordance with the type of case. The grant is not given to all legal aid organiza Ɵ ons but only to a legal aid organiza Ɵ on that has been quali fi ed in accordance with the Legal Aid Act. Because these funds come from the state budget of course accountability of legal aid organiza Ɵ ons receiving funds must be able to be an answer to the public. This paper is a norma Ɵ ve review, thus the data used are secondary data from the primary material i.e laws and regula Ɵ ons, especially Law No. 16 of 2011 and other laws related and secondary materials in the form of the literature and data from the internet.This study concluded that the Legal Aid Act was able to an Ɵ cipate the need for accountability of legal aid organiza Ɵ ons but it is need to be improved by making rules that favor the crea Ɵ on of accountability mainly standard rules regarding legal aid.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document