One Step Forward or One Step Back? Explaining the Performance Paradox in the Civil Service of Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Asif M Asif M Shahan
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Rules ◽  
The People ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
Bureaucratic Responsiveness ◽  
One Step

In Bangladesh, two contrasting scenarios regarding the responsiveness of the bureaucrats working at the field level are present. Whereas some bureaucrats reach out to the people and respond to their demands, others remain unresponsive and unapproachable. So, why do the bureaucrats working at the grassroots, while performing under the same rules, same institutional context and reality, perform in two different ways while interacting with citizens? How can these two contradictory sets of understanding regarding bureaucratic responsiveness coexist in Bangladesh? This article attempts to unpack this puzzle by relying on a slightly modified version of historical institutionalism. Building on Bell’s model of ‘agent-centric institutional change’ and by using a modified version of Mahoney & Thelen’s framework of institutional change, it argues that dialectical interaction between agents (bureaucrats) and institutions (i.e., rules- both formal and informal, norms that affect the behavior of the agents) within the broader political setting can best explain the variation in behavioral pattern of the bureaucrats. The political context allows agents to exercise discretion in a specific manner in executing their roles and functions while being constrained by institutional rules and norms. The dialectical interaction between structure (political context), agent, and institution determines the current administrative reality, which has allowed the contradiction to emerge and sustain.

Medicine Murder in Basutoland: Colonial Rule and Moral Crisis

Africa ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-78
Author(s):  
Colin Murray ◽  
Peter Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
The People ◽  
Moral Crisis

AbstractThis article analyses an acute moral crisis in the colonial administration of Basutoland in the late 1940s. It was provoked by a contagious rash of what became known as ‘medicine murders’, apparently perpetrated by senior chiefs. Two particular murders of this kind are examined in detail, as a result of which, in 1949, two very senior chiefs and some of their followers were hanged. This harshly dramatic episode brought into stark question the meaning of generations of the ‘civilising mission’, the fitness of the chiefs as leaders of the people, the moral integrity of the Basotho nation and the legitimacy both of colonial rule in general and of certain specific practices of the police. The political context of the murders is outlined, and the judicial process is dissected with special reference to the question of the validity of accomplice evidence.

scholarly journals One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Retrogression of Governance Reform and Anti-corruption Measure in Indonesia 1999–2001

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Vishnu Juwono
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Order ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Governance Reform ◽  
The People ◽  
One Step ◽  
First Time ◽  
Governance Reforms

There were high hopes that Gus Dur, after being appointed by the People Consultative Assembly (MPR) in 1999, would bring significant governance reform and more progressive anti-corruption measures for the first time because two top leaders (Gus Dur and Megawati) were from the opposition in the New Order era. This paper attempts to evaluate the governance reform and anti-corruption measures in 1999–2001. This paper argues that there was a valuable opportunity to push for further governance reforms and a bolder anti-corruption drive, as there was a legitimate political top leadership stemming from the free-and-fair election in 1999 embodied in the appointment of Gus Dur and Megawati Soekarnoputri as president and vice president, respectively, by the Consultative People Assembly (MPR). However, the political bickering and blatant competition over state resources for the election campaign in 2004 underlying Indonesia’s former government led to a setback in several governance reform areas, including judicial reform.

scholarly journals Biopolitical Foundation of The Theory of M.M. Bakhtin's Carnival

2021 ◽  
Vol V (2) ◽  
pp. 98-122
Author(s):  
German Koraev
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Cultural Consciousness ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Interpretation

Bakhtin is an ambiguous thinker, who manifests himself as well in the political interpretation of his ideas. The political context of Bakhtin's thought is mostly considered based on the work “Rabelais and His World”. The article aims to identify the meaning structures of Bakhtin's work on Rabelais, which determine the political interpretation of his concept. The highlighted meaning structures are interconnected. They represent a series of Bakhtin's theses on the classificatory character of the division of cultural consciousness, on the decline of the laughter principle, etc. These theses form a coherent narrative that can be interpreted in completely different ways. Bakhtin's concept may be presented by interpreters in liberal or leftist way, as well as deeply conservative. These interpretations are based on different understandings of the status of carnivalization, which is essentially identical to the phenomenon of transgression. Accordingly, the second aim of the article is to show how Bakhtin understood transgression. To contextualize Bakhtin's concept of carnivalization, some of his points, which are similar to the ones made by the theorists of the ambivalent sacred (J. Bataille and R. Caillois) are considered. But a fact remains that requires explanation: Bakhtin's thought does not fit well into the framework of one or another political interpretation. As an explanation, a hypothesis of the biopolitical basis of Bakhtin's concept is put forward. The Agamben's figure of naked life constituted by sovereign power is contrasted with the Bakhtin's figure of material-bodily bottom, as the idea of the collective immortality of the people.

The assumption of intellectual-moral superiority

2018 ◽  
pp. 199-231
Author(s):  
Cristina E. Parau
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Network Community ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The People ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
Moral Superiority ◽  
Constitutional Meaning

This chapter evidences that the Network Community assume judges (viz., themselves) to be morally superior to all other actors in a political context because of their sole reliance on intellect. The political ramifications of this assumption are analysed: the practically limitless power to expand the scope of legal texts through ‘activist’ interpretation (the ‘living constitution’); the power to superintend democracy; the power to silence all other voices asserting constitutional meaning, even the people themselves. The end goal is the power to reconstruct society in the Network Community’s own image, according to its presumptively superior norms and values. It is inferred that the hegemonic power of the intellectual-moral superiority assumption constitutes a (possibly the) major cause of judicial power over the nation-states of Europe, and the normative basis of the judicialization of politics.

On the Will of the People: Notes on the Political “Theory” of Populism

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
National People ◽  
The Will

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.

Leisurely Islam

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Deeb ◽  
Mona Harb
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
Political Economic

South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, this book provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? This book highlights tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The book elucidates the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examines leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, the book offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today.

Considerações sobre motivação e produtividade: estudo de caso em uma delegacia da polícia civil em Minas Gerais

Revista Foco ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Rafaella Cristina Campos ◽  
Natália Fernandes Fonseca ◽  
Odemir Vieira Baeta
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Intangible Assets ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Minas Gerais ◽  
Clear Correlation ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Institutional Rules ◽  
Fixed Grid ◽  
Depth Interviews

O objetivo é averiguar a correlação dos fatores motivacionais e produtivos no contexto institucional da Polícia Civil. O estudo de caso foi conduzido por entrevistas em profundidade com um Delegado de Polícia, um Investigador de Polícia, e um Escrivão de Polícia. A análise de conteúdo foi utilizada. Conclui-se que há evidente correlação entre o desenvolvimento de artefatos motivacionais, sejam eles de ordem ambiental ou individual, com a produtividade na instituição da Polícia Civil. Destaca-se também, que apesar do controle e avaliação dos índices de produtividade serem predominantemente burocráticos, institucionalizados e legitimados, a ligação que se estabelece com a manifestação dos artefatos motivacionais é subjetiva, relacional e intangível nas normas institucionais. Destaca-se este evento neste artigo, porque como foi visto anteriormente, tanto a natureza do trabalho, quanto o ambiente da Polícia Civil, estão em total desencontro ao desenvolvimento de produtividade e motivação no sentido clássico destas vertentes. The aims is to determine the correlation of the motivational and productive factors in the institutional context of the Civil Police. The case study was conducted by in-depth interviews with a Chief of Police, Police Investigator, and Actuary Police. The content analysis was used for fixed grid. It is concluded that there is clear correlation between the development of motivational artifacts, whether environmental or individual order, with productivity in the civil police institution. Also noteworthy is that despite the control and evaluation of productivity indexes were predominantly bureaucratic, institutionalized and legitimized, the connection that is established with the manifestation of motivational artifacts is subjective, relational and intangible assets in the institutional rules. It highlights this event in this article, because as discussed above, both the nature of the work, as the environment of the Civil Police, are in complete disagreement with the development of productivity and motivation in the classical sense of the aforementioned areas.

PERAN ULAMA SELAKU PEWARIS NABI DALAM KONTESTASI PEMILU-PILPRES TAHUN 2019 DI INDONESIA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
abdul muiz amir
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
The People ◽  
Religious Issue ◽  
The Face ◽  
Religion And State

This study aims to find a power relation as a discourse played by the clerics as the Prophet's heir in the contestation of political event in the (the elections) of 2019 in Indonesia. The method used is qualitative based on the critical teory paradigm. Data gathered through literary studies were later analyzed based on Michel Foucault's genealogy-structuralism based on historical archival data. The findings show that, (1) The involvement of scholars in the Pemilu-Pilpres 2019 was triggered by a religious issue that has been through online social media against the anti-Islamic political system, pro communism and liberalism. Consequently create two strongholds from the scholars, namely the pro stronghold of the issue pioneered by the GNPF-Ulama, and the fortress that dismissed the issue as part of the political intrigue pioneered by Ormas NU; (2) genealogically the role of scholars from time to time underwent transformation. At first the Ulama played his role as well as Umara, then shifted also agent of control to bring the dynamization between the issue of religion and state, to transform into motivator and mediator in the face of various issues Practical politic event, especially at Pemilu-Pilpres 2019. Discussion of the role of Ulama in the end resulted in a reduction of the role of Ulama as the heir of the prophet, from the agent Uswatun Hasanah and Rahmatan lil-' ālamīn as a people, now shifted into an agent that can trigger the division of the people.

The pragmatics of absurdity

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-137
Author(s):  
O. I. Kiyanskaya ◽  
D. M. Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
The Press

The analysis is focused on the pragmatics of V. Lenin’s articles ‘Party Organization and Party Literature’ [‘Partiynaya organizatsia i partiynaya literatura’] (1905) and ‘How to Ensure Success of the Constituent Assembly (on freedom of the press)’ [‘Kak obespechit uspekh Uchreditelnogo sobraniya (o svobode pechati)’] (1917). Foreign and Russian scholars alike considered the two works as components of the concept of Socialist state literature and journalism, conceived before the Soviet era. Based on examination of the political context, this work proves that Lenin was driven to write the articles by his fight for leadership in RSDRP. In 1905, Lenin obtained control over Novaya Zhizn, the newspaper under M. Gorky’s editorship, and insisted that opponents had to follow his censorship guidelines: the press had to become a propaganda tool rather than a source of income. Twelve years on, Lenin’s principles still reigned. 

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